http://www.practicalecommerce.com/topic/14/Inventory--Shipping/ Ecommerce articles about inventory management, ecommerce order fulfillment and product shipping considerations. en-us Copyright 2007 Confluence Publishing Mon, 05 May 2008 12:57:58 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/rss/ Practical Ecommerce v2.0.1 Ecommerce kmurdock@practicalecommerce.com bgetting@practicalecommerce.com 60 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/728/Conversion-Proflowerscom-Ranks-High/ When Nielsen Online releases its list of highest converting ecommerce websites, Proflowers.com is frequently in the top ten. The latest numbers has it at a stunning 15 percent conversion rate. I'm always open to learn from the best, and while I'm not going to do a page-by-page review of Proflowers.com's site, I thought it would be interesting to review some of the overall concepts that I think make it one of the most successful conversion sites on the web. 1. Do one thing, and do it well. Even though you can purchase cookies, chocolate-covered strawberries and other gourmet gifts via the site, Proflowers.com is primarily focused on flowers. Within flowers it has a great selection of products, with many options to satisfy different visitor types. 2. Landing pages are clear, compelling, and attractive. You experience a sense of having landed in the right place when you visit ProFlowers.com. It's just what you'd expect, with a clear visual indication of the nature of the... Mon, 05 May 2008 12:57:58 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/728/Conversion-Proflowerscom-Ranks-High/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/722/Effective-Tools-to-Detect-Stolen-Credit-Cards-Part-1-Of-3/ There are hundreds of branded tools that ecommerce merchants can turn to for help in catching fraudulent credit card orders. Some tools are free, and some come bundled or offered as additional features in payment processing systems like Authorize.net and Google Checkout. Others can be subscribed to, purchased as software or outsourced. As yet there doesn't appear to be any all-in-one solution, although some come close. Many online merchants are already on board with fraud detection technology. The average merchant uses 4.4 fraud detection tools according to the 2008 "Online Fraud Report" from CyberSource, a major electronic payment and risk management solution provider. The trick is to wade through all of the tools to determine which ones are best for your type of sales, your type of data storage and your type of customer. These articles should give you a sense of where to start or what you might be missing. Online merchants are one step ahead of the game if they can catch... Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:05:04 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/722/Effective-Tools-to-Detect-Stolen-Credit-Cards-Part-1-Of-3/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/693/Exporting-Your-Products-First-Learn-The-Terminology/ To sell products overseas, you will need to learn the international buying and selling terminology, also referred to as "Incoterms 2000" (or, International Commercial Terms). These were first developed in 1936 by the International Chamber of Commerce , which adopted 13 Incoterms to make it easier for international traders to understand one another's responsibilities when conducting a buy-sell transaction. The following are the 13 Incoterms. 1. "EXW" - Ex Works (Named Place) - Seller delivers when he or she places the goods at the disposal of buyer at seller's premises or another named place (i.e. work, factory, warehouse). 2. "FCA" - Free Carrier (Named Place) - Seller delivers when he or she delivers the goods, cleared for export, to the carrier nominated by buyer at the named place. 3. "FAS" - Free Alongside Ship (Named Port of Shipment) - Seller delivers when the goods are placed alongside the vessel at the named port of shipment. 4. "FOB" - Free On Board (Named Port of... Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:47:01 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/693/Exporting-Your-Products-First-Learn-The-Terminology/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/651/Getting-Started-In-Exporting/ Exporting can be a lucrative component of an online business. But many small business owners shy away from it simply because they have limited knowledge of the process. For these owners, there are two good places to begin. The first is creating an international section on your website detailing your terms and conditions, including a currency conversion calculator. The second is conducting research on international markets. Create An International Web Section It is important to communicate interest to your prospective international customers. You can do this by creating a page on your website detailing your export terms and conditions. This section would also detail who you are prepared to conduct business with, such as end-user consumers and/or volume buyers such as distributors and importers. (It may or may not be economical to initially ship low volume items directly to international end-user consumers for a number of reasons, including the amount of paperwork that is... Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:02:54 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/651/Getting-Started-In-Exporting/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/525/The-Ins-And-Outs-Of-Importing/ Importing can provide your ebusiness with cutting-edge products at rock-bottom prices. But it's a complicated process, and not one you want to go through alone. "Customs brokers and freight forwarders are your gateway into the world of international trade," explained Customhouse Broker Don Hoffman of Everyonlineshoestore.com. "For commercial shipments, you're legally required to utilize the services of a licensed broker. They're the experts in getting the documentation and duty payments through customs." Getting good help Since most freight forwarders employ brokers to handle customs issues, it's a good start to contact a forwarder as soon as you make the decision to import products to the United States. You can find a forwarder in the yellow pages or via search engines, but doing so is like playing the lottery — you have no idea what you'll get. The real problem is sorting through third-party operators who pose as forwarders; they are really nothing more than middlemen,... Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:48:52 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/525/The-Ins-And-Outs-Of-Importing/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/497/Is-Your-Website-Ready-For-The-Holiday-Shopping-Season/ Anyone’s who has talked with me for any given amount of time will tell you I’m adamant about testing sites for security and navigation. Summer is the perfect time to plot out upcoming holiday season sales campaigns, and it’s also the time to make sure things are running smoothly. With an ever-growing number of people shopping online, comes a vast amount of new online stores, some of which will likely be competitors. It pays to be more than just the guy who offers a better deal. You’ve got to be better overall, right down to design elements, customer guidance and tools that give online shoppers a sense of security. Here are my top 10 things to look for when determining if your store will be ready for the biggest holiday shopping season ever: 1. SSL – Make sure it’s working and that no errors are present. Fix all errors as they are found. A dedicated SSL certificate lends more credibility to your business. 2. Navigation – Customers need to be able to browse the... Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:45:12 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/497/Is-Your-Website-Ready-For-The-Holiday-Shopping-Season/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/449/Shipping-Charges-Compromises-Required/ You would think online stores would have found it easier by now to calculate and charge accurate shipping fees, let alone set up uninterrupted checkout processes that flow smoothly. Yet I see more and more questions and requests for customizations and fixes than ever before. What makes the calculation of accurate rates so complicated? And why do most online stores lose sales because of shipping costs, terms and practices? In the world of business, we constantly demand (not merely request) more automation and power. Our computers become outdated more quickly than a loaf of bread goes stale. Today's standard "dos" will be tomorrow's "procedures we are inclined to rethink," and like Veruca Salt (the infamous brat at Willy Wonka's factory), we'll never have enough. I see the same trends when it comes to outlining and implementing strategies for shipping. The fact is, most small businesses spend more time than they can afford looking for that elusive,... Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:07:39 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/449/Shipping-Charges-Compromises-Required/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/445/Digital-Assets-What-Are-They-And-How-Are-They-Sold/ Digital assets, often called digital content, are products that can be consumed via an electronic handheld device or used online. The forms digital assets take vary greatly. Digital content might be auditory, such as a song (Apple's iTunes) or ring tone for your cell phone; it can include media like streaming video, movies or online TV (MobiTV or Joost). Then there are entertainment options like online video games played via broadband-enabled gaming consoles (Nintendo, PlayStation 3, XBOX 360) and sites that allow the creation of digital content like karaoke (Ksolo.com). Finally, digital assets can be streaming downloads of any type: video on demand, software, e-books and more. Although the list is wide-reaching, it's still just a sample of ever-growing possibilities. The opportunity to sell digital assets has never been more exciting than right now. The compelling question is how exactly can an entrepreneur monetize his/her digital assets? A few basic guidelines... Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:35:51 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/445/Digital-Assets-What-Are-They-And-How-Are-They-Sold/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/430/The-Basics-of-Importing-Products-From-Overseas/ Everyone knows there are great deals to be found overseas — items that can be picked up for a fraction of the cost. But what most people don’t realize is that almost everything they’re buying domestically was already imported. They’re just paying a mark-up cost to the middleman who did the actual importing for them. For those new in business, there’s nothing wrong with that. But for the established businessperson, importing directly can save a lot of money. Three Things to Consider When Importing: 1. Your wholesale cost isn’t what you pay for an item. Your wholesale cost is the cumulative total for getting that item to your house, ready to be shipped to your customers. You may be paying 50 cents a vase, but after you pay a Customs broker, import duties, various fees, freight, consolidation, and insurance expenses, your actual cost of goods may be $2.25 each. 2. You’ll have to allow significant lead time when placing an overseas order. It can sometimes take two or... Sun, 04 Mar 2007 22:04:42 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/430/The-Basics-of-Importing-Products-From-Overseas/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/425/How-To-Find-Products-To-Sell-For-Your-Online-Operation/ If you want to know how to succeed at something, it's a good idea to talk to someone who already has. Renowned eBay powerseller Skip McGrath offers some helpful insights on how you can find product sources for your online business. Once you've determined what you're selling, where do you go to get the goods? Sourcing with a Pro According to McGrath, one of the best sources for products is local distributors because they're easy to find. Go to Liquidation.com and you can search by type. Just enter the word "wholesale" and your ZIP code and you'll get a list of manufacturers and wholesalers within 100 miles of that ZIP code. And under the company name, you'll see the kind of products it carries. For traditional wholesale suppliers, like gift and merchandise manufacturers and overstock distributors, McGrath recommends several online sources: * Liquidxs.com helps you find surplus branded merchandise and collectibles. * Liquidation.com sells goods by the... Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:05:43 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/425/How-To-Find-Products-To-Sell-For-Your-Online-Operation/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/403/Dont-Let-Selling-Internationally-Scare-You/ Matt Alper launched Copshoes.com three years ago from his living room in San Antonio, Texas. His idea was to sell specialized shoes and boots to police, firemen and security personnel. Now, three years later, he’s moved into his own warehouse, he has 11 employees and 10 percent of his total sales come from outside of the U.S. “We’ve learned many lessons about selling internationally,” said Alper. “The two primary issues are credit-card fraud and shipping. Any U.S.-based ecommerce business that sells internationally deals with them. It’s not just us.”Credit Card Pro Offers Fraud Prevention Steps John Waldron is co-owner of e-onlinedata, inc., a credit-card merchant-account provider. e-onlinedata assists thousands of ecommerce merchants with domestic and overseas credit-card transactions, and he offers the following advice for merchants who wish accept credit-card payments from international customers. 1. Ask customer for fax verification. For suspect orders or... Wed, 31 Jan 2007 08:49:51 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/403/Dont-Let-Selling-Internationally-Scare-You/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/354/Customer-Experience-Matters/ After more than a decade of ecommerce activity and an arsenal of new technology at our disposal, it's still the basics that most sites haven't mastered. Problems in the checkout process and having products that are too hard to find remain among the top issues that irritate customers and fuel shopping cart abandonment rates. There are various studies (and opinions) on whether shopping cart abandonment is as high as 75 percent, as the Shop.org study indicates. However, every ecommerce owner who studies his analytics reports knows his site has many more visitors than he has people who make a purchase. In addition, ecommerce owners can see a multitude of products sitting in baskets that didn't make it through the checkout process. All of that leaves ecommerce owners wondering why the customer left his site, and did he leave unhappy? Ed Dawidowicz, senior consulting director for Creative Good (Creativegood.com), one of the country's leading firms specializing in improving... Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:01 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/354/Customer-Experience-Matters/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/283/Product-Sourcing-Six-Questions/ If you’ve got a question about your ebusiness, someone else has probably already asked it. Matt Hedges, customer support manager of www.worldwidebrands.com, answers the six most common productsourcing questions he gets from customers wanting to start an online endeavor: 1. Will suppliers care if I’m a new online retailer working from home? Generally no. Says Hedges, “They want to get their product out to consumers as much as possible, so they’re looking to open new accounts.” 2. How can I convey to a supplier that I’m a serious professional, not a fly-by-night home business? Before you call or email questions to a supplier, read its website. More often than not the answers are right in front of you. Taking up their time with questions you could have easily found an answer to yourself reflects poorly on you. If you email or call a supplier — get to the point! Real wholesale suppliers are very busy people. They want to help their retailers but they... Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/283/Product-Sourcing-Six-Questions/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/267/What-Should-I-Sell-Online/ Everyone who starts an ebiz faces the question: What do I sell? And most everyone seems to make two classic mistakes in the beginning: They try to sell what everyone else is selling ? DVDs, electronics and designer clothing. The problem they encounter is that the market is already saturated with these products and the suppliers typically do not work in small quantity. To make any profit at all, they'd have to buy huge quantities. try to sell what they know and love. Unfortunately, unless there is a significant demand for what they know and love, they are going to be stuck with a lot of product they can appreciate but can't move. What's an IDEA HOTSPOT? Lisa Suttora of www.whatdoisell.com coined the term "idea hotspot" to refer to anything, any place or person that "provide[s] you with an unending source of new product ideas, of market trends, of developing niches and product line education?It is a fertile ground for product ideas." These hotspots keep you in touch with... Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/267/What-Should-I-Sell-Online/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/265/The-Price-is-Right/ Avoiding Common Mistakes A trap many eBiz owners fall into is trying to set their prices by simply adding a percentage or flat amount to an item's cost– they buy a watch for $20, slap another $20 on the price tag, and pass it along to their customers. The problem with this type of pricing is that your costs aren't fixed. For example, your costs for buying and reselling 100 blow-dryers will differ substantially from your costs for buying and reselling 10,000 of the exact same blow-dryer. Another problem with this kind of pricing is that your customers may be willing to pay more. Say you added $20 to the cost of your watch and it sold well. But it may have sold just as well if you added $40 and your profits would have greatly increased. Seven-Step Pricing Strategy Marlene Johnson of PricingPsychology.com recommends a seven-step approach to pricing your products: Look at your competitors' prices and get a range. According to Johnson, "Your consumer has in their mind... Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:48:56 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/265/The-Price-is-Right/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/255/Product-Sourcing-The-Skinny-on-Government-Auctions/ Are government auctions really a good source for purchasing products for resale? The answer to that is they can be, but you have to know what you are doing. Where do government auctions get their products? Government auctions can be held online, live ‘in-person’ or sealedbid. They acquire their products from two main sources: Goods they seized due to criminal activities or delinquent taxes.Goods an agency of the government has but no longer needs. According to Ian Aronovich, president and CEO of www.GovernmentAuctions.org®, the reason that the auctions can provide such great deals is that “the government either attained [the items] for free or cheap and because the government does not have a traditional profit like a corporation does.” They’ll sell to the highest bidder even if they’re getting less than market value. Product Sourcing Tip 1: Research before you bid If you source products through government auctions to resell online make sure you know... Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/255/Product-Sourcing-The-Skinny-on-Government-Auctions/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/260/Quick-Query-Bill-Van-Wyck/ What is RedRoller.com? What Travelocity does for travel, RedRoller does for shipping packages. The site is built to look and feel like an etravel site. Shipping for small businesses is a day-to-day occurrence. The typical ecommerce business spends close to $1,000 per month and ships 120-150 packages every month. RedRoller is designed specifically for them. RedRoller takes the shipping options available to small businesses and puts them on one easy-to-understand screen allowing the small businesses owner to make better business decisions. How can it help smaller ecommerce sites? The small company doesn't have available to them the tools that a large company has such as a multicarrier computerized shipping system. If you had such a system, you'd save 25 percent to 50 percent on your shipping by understanding your shipping service options, but they are very expensive to purchase and expensive to maintain. RedRoller provides that service to small businesses at no charge... Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/260/Quick-Query-Bill-Van-Wyck/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/206/Whats-Selling-Whats-Hot-and-How-to-Find-It/ Are you searching for the next trendy gadget to sell at your online store? Many people are looking to catch lightning in a bottle, but locating trends in the marketplace requires thought, research and analysis. Find Clues to New Trends There are resources for online entrepreneurs who are searching for products to sell, but the next big thing might be right under your nose according to Lisa Suttora, founder and CEO of WhatDoISell.com™ and co-author of What to Sell On eBay and Where to Get It. “To find clues to new trends, you need to get out in the world and begin looking and listening in order to learn what people are thinking and doing,” Suttora said. “It’s a process of gathering clues to new niches and putting together pieces of the puzzle. It’s about connecting the dots to things. You start seeing opportunities everywhere. Turn On Your Radar In her book as well as during free, online eBay forums and at workshops, Suttora counsels business owners to... Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/206/Whats-Selling-Whats-Hot-and-How-to-Find-It/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/208/Product-Sourcing-What-Not-to-Do/ One thing an entrepreneur shouldn’t do is search online for “wholesale supplier” or “drop ship” when trying to locate a wholesale partner. This is according to Chris Malta, founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. “You can look online all you want to,” said Malta, “but you won’t find quality suppliers under those search terms.” He notes there are two main reasons why the search engines are not a good place to look for real wholesalers. Search Engines Flooded With Misleading Marketing First, thousands of unscrupulous agents, middlemen and companies are so eager to get the attention of an etailer that they have flooded the search engines with misleading marketing. “When you use those keywords on the search engines, you’re going to get thousands of links that will take you straight to the middlemen. These people spend so much effort flooding the search engines with their ads that a real wholesaler hardly stands a chance of being noticed through... Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/208/Product-Sourcing-What-Not-to-Do/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/209/Drop-Shipping-Pros-and-Cons/ Drop shipping remains a hot topic among etailers but, even though it has many benefits, it isn’t the best option for every business. A drop shipper is a product supplier who is willing to ship individual orders. Usually when products are purchased for resale, you have to buy them in bulk quantities, have them shipped to you and then ship them out to your customer. Drop shippers are the exception because they don’t have minimum purchase requirements and will ship the item directly to your customer when you place an order. For a new business without much operating capital, partnering with a drop-shipping supplier can provide a multitude of products to sell without having to actually inventory those items. “Using a drop shipping model is an excellent idea if you don’t have a lot of capital to start with,” writes Jeremy Hanks, Nichole Haims and Brandon Williams in Drop Shipping for Dummies. “Because you don’t need to carry any inventory and never make an actual... Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/209/Drop-Shipping-Pros-and-Cons/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/205/Sourcing-Options-for-eCommerce-Firms/ Finding products to sell remains one of the hottest topics for online entrepreneurs, and it’s the top question eBay Radio gets from its listeners, according to Chris Malta, Product Sourcing Editor for The eBay Radio Show and Founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. (WBI). Malta defines product sourcing as simply finding and qualifying wholesale suppliers who are willing to work with small Internet businesses. Many people start a business around a hobby like quilting, antiques, rare books, collecting memorabilia, etc., and then try to diversify their site’s offerings with additional products. Others decide they want to be an online retailer and look for quality products and the trendiest items to sell. Four Ways to Locate Products There are four key alternatives an etailer can take to locate products to sell online: Take the “shoe-leather” tour. Attend trade shows and industry markets and order in bulk or light bulk. Purchase lists of wholesale... Wed, 31 May 2006 01:18:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/205/Sourcing-Options-for-eCommerce-Firms/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/203/Payment-Options-and-Simple-Checkout/ A truly successful and customer service friendly ecommerce shop will have an intuitive and welldesigned checkout system. The more difficult it is to purchase something from you, the less likely a customer will try. Here are some tips to ensure you’re running a customer-servicefriendly checkout system. Payment Options: Be sure to accept as many different payment methods as possible. Many shops I have seen only accept Paypal or MasterCard and Visa. This is probably because merchants don’t like to deal with the fees that other credit cards charge. There are many payment gateways out there, however. With a decent merchant agreement, you can obtain decent credit card fees, and offer all four major cards. Furthermore, American Express is an especially important credit card to accept. Yes, it can cost you a bit more but it’s well worth it. Why? Almost all business and corporate cards are AMEX, and if you don’t accept them than you may be losing sales from businesses. Easy Flow:... Mon, 01 May 2006 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/203/Payment-Options-and-Simple-Checkout/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/165/Respond-to-Your-Customer--Now/ One of the most frequent complaints from ecommerce customers is the inability to receive timely answers from a website. I’m always shocked at the number of websites that provide only a “contact us” form, with no phone number or other contact information. In my view, those sites deserve to go out of business. Recently, an ecommerce shopper told me the following story. “My son needed new basketball shoes, and we went online to find them. We had questions regarding the type of shoe he wanted, and the first site we went to had no phone number or immediate method to get a quick answer. I had a very short time in which to purchase the shoes and, finding no method to immediately contact the ecommerce store personnel, we simply clicked off that site and chose another one that was more accommodating.” Hmmm. As ecommerce merchants, we should strive to provide a method to immediately respond to customers’ questions, complaints and otherwise give them comfort that we are real... Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/165/Respond-to-Your-Customer--Now/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/137/Fulfillment-Companies-Offer-Benefits/ Imagine having a state-of-the-art fulfillment department. This fulfillment department would have the most upto- date order management software, computer hardware and warehousing functions. The employees of the fulfillment department would be experienced and professionally trained. Shipments out of the fulfillment department would be expertly packaged, boxed and labeled, all to your specifications. Fulfillment and shipping errors would virtually never happen. And the freight cost would be 35% less than your competitors. “Most of our ecommerce customers are shocked at how little third-party fulfillment services cost,” says Brad Felker, President of MDS Fulfillment in Milwaukee. “This is especially true when they compare it against what they already spend to warehouse, package and ship their products. We operate transparently and the purchasers of our customer’s products never know a fulfillment center was involved.” Eliminates Investment in Software and... Wed, 01 Feb 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/137/Fulfillment-Companies-Offer-Benefits/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/145/Minimize-Customer-Complaints/ Customer complaints are a fact of life for all business owners, and the topic of dealing with them is always important. Understanding how to respond to a customer complaint will improve your customer service, as well as encourage repeat business. According to a Technical Assistance Research Program, Inc. study, only 50% of customers will contact you directly if they have a complaint about your product or service. Out of that 50%, most of these folks (90%) will take their business somewhere else in the future, and you will never know why. Furthermore, these unsatisfied customers will tell an average of seven to nine people about their experience. Here’s one way you can reach out to these anonymous customers and turn an unhappy customer into a loyal one; and at the same time obtain valuable feedback: STEP ONE: Create a simple form on your site specifically for customer feedback. Be sure to keep it short but ask the customer about their buying experience, customer service, and... Wed, 01 Feb 2006 12:00:00 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/145/Minimize-Customer-Complaints/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/105/The-Shipping-News-Plenty-of-Carriers-for-eCommerce-Companies/ Talk about your needle in a haystack. When you ship one package through the Fedex system it becomes one of more than six million that the company formerly known as Federal Express moves about the globe every day. If you shipped it on UPS it would be one of 14 million handled by the company now known mostly as “Brown.” Over at the U.S. Post Office, now marketed as USPS, it would be one of about 6.5 million priority and parcel post packages handled daily. Of course, there are other shippers, who handle smaller numbers, people like the newly aggressive DHL, which recently acquired Airborne Express, as well as Purolator and BAX. All of these shippers are doing quite well, thank you, due in part to the $170-plus billion dollar Internet ecommerce industry that has emerged like a Phoenix from the ashes of the Dot-Com crash in the late 1990s. And while your single package may be the proverbial needle in a haystack, it is nonetheless quite findable and it is a formidable force. A... Thu, 01 Dec 2005 12:00:00 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/105/The-Shipping-News-Plenty-of-Carriers-for-eCommerce-Companies/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/106/International-Shipments-Worth-the-Effort/ One of the greatest attractions of an online business is the vast number of customers that the Internet allows a retailer to reach. Web surfers from all over the world can navigate beyond the boundaries and borders that exist in the physical world to find the products and services that they are looking for. While this presents an incredible opportunity for retailers, international shipping can be confusing and intimidating due to many regulations and restrictions imposed by countries and the shipping carriers themselves. However, by understanding these requirements, you can master the challenges of shipping across borders, and effectively expand your sales horizons. Import Restrictions by Receiving Countries The first challenge to shipping internationally is the restrictions that may be in place for the country that you want to send to. Each country has different restrictions with regard to what products are allowed into the country and which are not. For example, France will... Thu, 01 Dec 2005 12:00:00 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/106/International-Shipments-Worth-the-Effort/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/86/Customer-Service-Focus---October-2005/ Your goal as an e-tailer should be to amaze customers with an unusually high level of service. Consider these customer service tips to improve your ecommerce business. More Than One Method of Communication. Make sure your site offers more than one method of communication. Most sites have only a form that can be filled out on their Contact page. But, this is really not enough for today’s standards. Try a Portable Email Device. Many small business owners don’t have the means to check email constantly throughout the day due to a full-time “bread n’ butter” job. Today’s portable technology is solving that problem. There are many inexpensive email-capable devices on the market such as PDA’s and BlackBerrys. List Your Phone Number. Having a phone number on your site is a simple way of building instant credibility, and offering good customer service. A toll free number is even better. For example, you can get a toll free number for as little as... Sat, 01 Oct 2005 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/86/Customer-Service-Focus---October-2005/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/65/A-Primer-in-Shipping-Calculations/ Set aside all the cool features you’d love your MIVA Merchant store to have, and those you aren’t sure how to accomplish. The most difficult yet necessary task is tackling the proper means of calculating shipping. It sounds so simple – after all, we can hit UPS.com, USPS.com, FedEx.com and other carrier sites, enter package details and get current rates. The Poor Man’s Method Many users configure MIVA Merchant’s built-in shipping methods, which are fine if you offer flat-rate or standard tier-level shipping, or don’t mind losing a little here and gaining a little there. Unfortunately, many want to make sure they never lose ship costs on a sale, inflating them to the point where sales are lost. Research shows that one of the top reasons shoppers abandon carts is because of shipping costs (some studies show it’s the No. 1 reason). Inflating carrier rates is a good way to lose business. The downside to relying solely on the included shipping modules is that... Mon, 01 Aug 2005 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/65/A-Primer-in-Shipping-Calculations/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/49/Overseas-Customers-Just-Clicks-Away/ Your web store is a few clicks away, regardless of where those clicks geographically occur. Clearly, international sales can help you increase your online sales, and many internet merchants are taking advantage of them. But there are several challenges that are associated with selling products and services to foreign customers over the Internet. An April 2005 survey conducted by Internet Retailer indicated that in the United States 71 percent of ecommerce websites sell outside the country, with 36 percent of them reporting that more than 10 percent of their sales come from abroad. Canada and the UK rank as the top foreign markets for America-based web stores. In the same survey, the stores that do not process international orders pointed to the difficulty and cost of shipping as the main reason for doing so. The second biggest concern was fraud. Let’s look at these and other challenges associated with selling abroad. SHIPPING Assume that you are selling products that... Fri, 01 Jul 2005 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/49/Overseas-Customers-Just-Clicks-Away/