Shipping has always been a major concern for many eCommerce business owners, as mistakes in the process directly affects the bottom line of the business. The customer may be very happy with your website’s performance. However, not being able to ship their orders, accurately, can ruin the overall customer experience. An excellent customer experience is not only about delivering orders in time, but also, depends on well overall quality and experience. Below in this article, we will discuss only about those effective tips and tricks that can help you ensure a smooth shipping process for your eCommerce business Here we go: 1. Check product before packing With multiple orders to process, there are more chances of them getting goofed. So, make sure the correct products are procured and packed. Because, packing and delivering a wrong product to the customer will simply annoy them, who in turn, may spread a bad word-of-mouth about your brand. And, not to forget, those customers will never return to your site. What can you do? An inventory management system in place will ensure you can always allocate the correct product with order, which can then be packed and shipped to your customers. Another advantage of such software, it will keep inventory levels in sync across all your selling channels whenever you make sale. 2. Automate print, and labeling Incorrect shipping labels leads to an incorrect delivery, which in turn, can results to waste of time, effort and cost. This is considered to be one of the costliest shipping mistake, yet, many retailers overlook the importance of a printing labels. Ensure you pay close attention to every label that is printed and attached to the correct product, every time. What can you do? Adopting an order management software solution will help you automate your packing and shipping labels. Bringing all orders at one place, such system will allow you create and print multiple shipping labels in a click , which eliminates the risk of manual error and time waste. 3. Choose an competitive shipping solution Shipping companies differ from the each other in their pricing and quality of service, hence, many retailers find it difficult to settle with the best one. Moreover, sticking to a single shipping service can be risky, as it can lead to more costs and delays in order fulfillment. However, having an easy access to multiple shipping options, can help you choose the best ones as per the product dimensions and delivery requirement requested by your customers. What can you do? Implementing a shipping management system will help you always ship orders using the most effective and reasonable shipping services having centers across the globe. Instead of spending hours and still be confused about your choice, why not adopt such system that is already well-integrated with leading carriers that can help you connect and fulfill your customers orders effectively. 4. Have a real-time system to track shipment Last, but not the least- not keeping your customer’s in loop can frustrate them, and in case of delay in delivery they will never shop from you. Ensure your shipping service allows you real-time shipping updates, which in turn, can then provide it to your customers. Also, if there is any delay-informing your customers is way better than just keeping them in the dark. What can you do? Automating your order fulfillment service you can gain access with leading shipping solution like AfterShip that will allow you shipping updated in real-time. This way, you can take instant decisions and overcome the biggest mistake of not fulfilling your customer's order in time. Wrapping up It is difficult to eliminate shipping errors, however, practicing the above steps can surely help you lessen them down :)
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Ecommerce has proven be an effective source for many people who have always dreamt to have a business of their own. However, being one-of-the fastest growing industry- it becomes very difficult for many to cope up with their daily business activities. Of course, technology has made tasks easier, yet many are seen outsourcing their front-end and back-end business tasks to ensure they have more time to focus on high level business tasks. The most commonly Ecommerce services that are outsourced, includes:
Ecommerce business owners who have already outsourced their services, are no doubt enjoying it’s benefits, however, they also aware of the challenges. If you are one of them who is thinking to outsource major Ecommerce services, then below are it’s drawbacks that you need know before making a final decision. 1. Miscommunication and delays The company that you plan to outsource your Ecommerce services may be located in a different city, town, or even, country. This limits your control, and chances of errors and miscommunication arises. For instance, by outsourcing your order fulfillment process, you’ll have notify the service provider with order details, whenever a sale hits your store. And, the common mode of communication is either through phone, email, or chat. In such cases, there might chances when your order details or information does not reach the service provider in time, or is incomplete. This will automatically lead to delays, and takes time to overcome the problem. 2. Lack of monitoring Another drawback, is not being able to keep a proper track on your service provider. And, it becomes way difficult to get them back on the right part. For instance, if one you have to make some immediate changes in your marketing campaigns that you have outsourced, there are more chances- that the service provider does not receive or access the information in time. This will then lead to wastage of time and results are not up to your expectations. 3. Lack of attention Lastly, it is not only you who has outsourced your Ecommerce tasks with the provider, they will working on multiple projects with different priorities for each. There are chances, when your tasks may not be given the same priority, resulting to low performance for your Ecommerce business. For instance, you have outsourced your customer support service, and every company subscribed with the provider will have a large customer base to handle. In such situations, many Ecommerce providers will either find it difficult to cope up with each of your customer’s query, or may delay in offering a solution. And, bad customer service directly impacts the bottom line of any business, leading to an unsuccessful one. Conclusion The major benefit of this practice, it can save you from the hassle of performing major Ecommerce tasks. On the flipside, the above cons may end up eating your capital! So, consider the above points if you whenever you think of hiring an Ecommerce service for your brand. All the best :) How does it feel when you receive appreciation in front of your friends and family? Great, isn’t it? Word-of-mouth marketing(WOMM)is a similar approach in the world of online selling. As mentioned by Forbes in one of their article, a study stated that “64% of marketing executives indicated that they believe word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. However, only 6% say they have mastered it.” Why should retailers care about word-of-mouth marketing campaign? Spending hundreds and thousands of dollars in your marketing campaigns may not bring you positive results, all time. And, unsuccessful marketing campaigns can eat your capital, badly! Word-of-mouth marketing is helping many retailers to increase visibility and brand value with no much investment, and most of the times for free. WOMM- refers to any statement that customers shares over the web(including websites, IM’s, social media) about a brand, product,or even company. But, how can you do so? Tips that can help you run a successful word-of-mouth marketing campaign 1. Encourage An awesome customer service can encourage your customers to bring out those positive feedback about your products or brand. However, it takes a lot to be convinced to spare time and write something. Therefore, the foremost thing you need to think of ways that can help you encourage more and more customers to offer reviews about their wonderful shopping experiences. So, what can you do? Start targeting those customers who have been loyal with your brand, request them to utilize some time and share the experience they had with your brand. A customer management system in place, will make it easy for you to create customer segmentation and identify the most loyal customers. An effective way is to offer promotional discounts, in return of their reviews. This way, your loyal customers will feel more encouraged and come up with some great word-of-mouth for your brand and products. 2. Engage Modern customers are more influenced by opinions shared by people who has already had an experience with a brand. And, positive word-of-mouth will help you attract new client base for your retail store. Therefore, you need to get those direct voice of your customers, that offers a sense of engagement for better results. So, what can you do? An ideal way, you can upfrontly offer an easy-to-understand survey link, that can help you get the most and come up with some really good word-of-mouth for your brand and products. Ensure your survey should be short to encourage your customers complete the whole thing with utmost interest. 3. Empower Lastly, you need to ensure that the word-of-mouth is very influencing to get shared within leading networking sites and can create a conversation around. This will make it easy to increase visibility and churn more and sales orders for your retail business. So, what can you do? Connecting with influencers of the same field and requesting them to click a picture with your product and sharing them over leading social media sites, will automatically generate interest of relevant audience and increase sales for your brand. Another cost-effective, method is to encourage your customers to come up with a picture using your product in unique ways, so as, to divert audience’s interest and encourage them to take action on-the-go. Godspeed! The idea of pop-up ads has been creating a buzz since quite a long now. However, many business owners are still reluctant to adopt this selling technique, as they fear, it would break up customers navigation flow. On the flipside, they don’t realize they are losing a huge amount of money on the table. With the advancement of cloud based technology, today, there are many ways of targeting customers in the manner they would not mind. Infusing pop-ups in their browsing experience can help you get one more chances of making them stay back on your site and take actions. Coming up with an effective pop-up ad strategy for your ecommerce website will help you make the most in holiday season 2015, which is around the corner. Let’s take a look at some very good pop-up examples that will automatically encourage you to adapt this effective marketing strategy and increase sales for your store . 1. Avoid shopping cart abandonment A first quarter report by Statista 2015 shows 77.5% of online retail orders were abandoned instead of purchasing. And, coping up with shopping cart abandon rates has always been a major challenge for retailers. Pop-up ads will force your customers to give a second thought before they leave back items in their basket, without making the purchase. Example 2. Up-selling Allowing your customers a thrill between their browsing experience will automatically encourage them stick to your site and take actions immediately. Offering pop ups ads that are of their benefits will help you get another chance of influencing their minds, who in turn, will take actions on-the-go. Example 3. Special offer notification Shoppers who land on your website will often have a product in mind that they would like to get information on or make purchases. Targeting such customers with special offers(current or upcoming ones) will create an interest in their mind, who in turn, will increase the order value by shopping more and more from your site. Example 4. Customer/Feedback In order to offer your customers what they like, you first need to know what they want. The best way is to gain direct voice of the customer. Having an ability to gain feedback, will allow you create sales opportunities by offering customers a shopping experience they like. Encouraging feedback pop-ups for your website will help you gain better insights and you can offer service as per your customer’s expectations, always. Example 5. Site abundance Regardless to the reason your customer decides to leave your site, you can attempt a one last try to avoid them from doing so. Offering valuable timely pop-ups will help you secure last-minute purchase decision. Example To sum up The dark side of pop-ups, is it can be annoying. However, offering pop-ups that can benefit customers will not only increase sales for your ecommerce business, but also, convert many of them into loyal customers for your brand. |
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