Always remember,  it could be worse.....

A few minutes a day is all it will take.  Yet most of us will use the excuse that we just don’t have any more time to cram into our daily schedules or we have other pressing issues that need our “immediate” attention.  The problem is that we have made every issue a pressing issue and of the utmost important that as a result, we spend too much time working in our business instead of on our business. The downside to the instant flow of information in the business world we now live and work in have giving us the perception that the busier we are the more effective and successful our business will become.

When is the last time you silenced your phone, closed your email, sat with a pen and paper (or Word doc if you so choose) and really thought about your business.  What is going well and what needs improvement?  Where do you want your business to be in the next 3-5 years?   It can be a daunting task to say the least if you are trying to cram all of your thinking and planning into one brainstorming session.  Instead, why not try the following exercise: Take 10 uninterrupted minutes (no email, phone) every day to focus on your present and future business by doing one or more of the following exercises:

1.  Analyze your web site to see if there are any areas that can be altered to be more attractive to both your potential customers and search engines.
2.  Focus on your social media presence by sending out one quality Tweet, Facebook post or YouTube video each and every day. The goal is to use the social media platform to expand your brand.
3.  Research your competitors to find out how they are attracting and keeping their customers. What is their go to market strategy?
4.  Spend the time reading an industry specific article or book to gain further insight on your industry.  Even if you are not the industry leader, the goal is to be a resource for your customers to turn to.
5.  Focus on personal development by reading an article or book on leadership, sales or marketing.

The reality is there will always be more work that needs to be done, issues that come up and the pressure to squeeze more activities into the work day. We often fool ourselves by letting every issue, task, and deadline blow up and become a “hair on fire” crisis. We need to always remember, our goal each and every day is to work on our business and not just in our business. 

The next generation for the ever growing ecommerce business for many retailers is Mobile Business.  This is a dynamic segment as it allows companies to expand their brand and build customer loyalty by allowing their consumers to take them wherever they go. There is no better time for companies to launch a Mobile Business segment as the numbers of consumer Smart Phones are rapidly increasing.  In fact, we are at a place in the US where the number of cell phones is outnumbering the US population.  Just like when companies starting doing business online, there of course will be the naysayers who can’t believe consumers would buy certain products from their Smartphone, iPod, iPad or other device.  If there is ever a company that is use to these naysayers it would most likely be an online Jewelry company. Some old school consumers may have a hard time believing a person could buy a piece of Jewelry off the internet while not have the privilege of touching or holding it in an actual Jewelry store.  One such company has not only helped disintegrate those fears but has taking buying Jewelry to the next level through their Mobile Applications.  Click on the link below to find out more:

http://www.bluenile.com/mobile_applications.jsp

As the U.S. economy continues to remain soft, many companies have turned their focus on expanding globally. This is primarily due to the fact that off shore business is an untapped market for many companies.  According to Forester Research, 25% of U.S. web traffic comes from international shoppers, but the actual orders from these shoppers are only 4% of total U.S. web sales. Global expansion can often be a complex and challenging project for companies, which is why they focus on solidifying their domestic business first before they look to expand overseas.   Here are four key areas to think about as you focus on expanding globally and improving the off shore shopping experience for your customers:

Fully-landed cost for shoppers- This allows the off shore shopper to see the “total” cost—including retail price of the product, customs duties, local taxes and transportation charges—prior to submitting the order. It ensures a better customer experience and increases customer loyalty.

Purchasing in the consumers’ own currency- This also ensures a better customer experience as the company instead of the end consumer assumes the risk of currency exchange and the fraud risk.

Export and Import Regulatory Compliance- One of the complexities of Global business is dealing with Customs Compliance and all the rules and regulations that exist. The regulations change depending on what country you are exporting to as well as the type of products you are exporting. Companies normally outsource compliance to a 3rd party company or slowly build their own compliance department.

Global Returns Management- Something to think about is how you will handle return as it can be very costly when you return products back into the U.S? Again, there are some rules and regulations enforced by customs depending on the country and product being returned.

We’re all looking for the competitive edge. That little nugget of information that could help you secure an appointment with the decision maker or possibly even win the prospects trust, and then their business.  The issue is not the lack of information available today; in fact the opposite is true. There is so much available at our fingertips at an instant that it can sometimes be overwhelming and can make it difficult to swim through the sea of web sites, newsletters, books and magazines.  At the same time our daily to-do lists and schedules have only increased which makes it difficult to squeeze in this additional task which we know is vitally important to our success, but often gets placed on the back burner due to other pressing needs.

Here are some web sites I have found to be very valuable in gaining the business intelligence or competitive edge that we are all looking for:

http://www.zibb.com/   The Global business search engine- you can search by industry or specific company and includes the latest business to business news.

http://seekingalpha.com/  Although this is an investor site, it allows you to read companies earnings transcripts which often contain very valuable information as to their corporate objectives and new initiatives.

http://multichannelmerchant.com/  Provides targeted compelling content for multichannel merchants. Provides valuable information on latest happening is the catalog, ecommerce, BTB, Retail and Social Media channels.

http://socialmention.com/  A great search engine for social media content.  Give you the ability to find out if the person or company you are interested in is active in the social media environment.

http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en  You can set up emails alerts where you will receive emails anytime the company or person you are following is mentioned in the media or has a press release.

http://www.linkedin.com  This is much more than just a business connecting site.  This site gives you the ability to follow a company which will give you company updates as well as tell you when there are changes with personnel.  Linkedin is also a very valuable tool in obtaining information about the person you are trying to get a meeting with. It will not only tell who they are connected to but where they use to work which can be just the edge you are looking for.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list but hopefully you will find one or more of these useful in gaining the competitive edge you are looking for.

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.  The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have; the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. A company like Apple and even people like the Wright Brothers and Martin Luther King are great examples of this. Check out this great video that challenges you to ask yourself “What’s your why?”

As a parent it seems I am constantly saying to my kids something to the extent that “it’s not the words that you are using but rather how you are saying them that’s wrong.”  It would be wrong to assume this only pertains to personal relationships with family and friends.  Unfortunately, the business world is not immune to this issue. We often mistakenly believe that it is our words that really influence others, whether positively or negatively.  In the business world so much time is spent focusing on making sure we use the right words to our customers, employees or co-workers that we end up focusing on only 7% of our total influence.  Think about how much time the average person puts into crafting the right speech or sales pitch. This 7% is part of what is known as “The 7%-38% -55% Rule of Influence.”  In other words the influence we have on others can be broken in the following manner:
·  7% of our influence comes from the words we share
·  38% from our tonal quality while saying it
·  55% by what our body is doing while were saying it
As you can see we are missing the mark by spending so much time and energy crafting what we want to say which only makes up a small amount of the overall influence we have on others.  By focusing on the 7% or the words we say, we are truly missing out on the opportunity to really influence others. 

Influence is about getting others to either do something we want them to do or not do something they want to do. Obviously, influence plays a large role in the sales arena and is quite visible in the normal interaction between a seller and a buyer. However, it’s not something that should only be left up to those who interact with customers on a regular basis.  It is also evident in daily interactions that managers have with their employees and in interactions that employees have with one another.   By looking further at “The 7%-38%-55% Rule of Influence” we also see that perception is a large part of influence.  How do others perceive you?  You may be surprised not only with how the tone of what you say is perceived but the perception that your body language gives off.    It is very naïve to think that others can’t tell from our actions and mannerisms how we really feel. Your words might be saying one thing but your tone and body language might be very well telling a very different story.

The next time you are in the position to influence someone, try focusing on the 93% and you might be surprised at the difference in how you are perceived!

Today I present to you a great whitepaper on E-Commerce Shipping created by ShipRush. ShipRush is an award-winning, free, shipping soft-ware published by Z-Firm LLC. ShipRush integrates with e-commerce marketplaces and shopping carts to eliminate copy/paste and simplify shipping.  Enjoy!

When selling online, the cost of shipping is a key factor. On one hand, it is important that buyers pay an amount that covers your shipping costs. On the other hand, you don’t want to lose buyers who “abandon” their cart when they see the price of shipping. So, how do you walk that fine line?

Let’s review the two sides of shipping for e-commerce sellers: 

Pre-Sale: This starts in the cart and continues all the way up to the moment the buyer presses the final “purchase” button to complete the sale. Your cart needs to figure out how much to charge the buyer for shipping. 

Post-Sale: The buyer has checked out. Now you are going to handle the actual act (and cost) of the shipment.

In this article, we talk about the pre-sale side of shipping.

Here are some pre-sale shipping options to consider:

·         Flat-rate shipping
·         Indexed shipping
·         “Free” shipping
·         Calculated shipping

Flat-rate shipping is easy. You set a rate and that is it. Say you sell a pretty uniform item, like sweat-shirts. You could have a basic shipping charge of $8, and that is that. It might be $8 per shirt, or it might be $8 per order.

Another method that can be used is to index the shipping cost to the order amount. For example, charge $10 shipping for the first $100 purchased; $18 for the next $100 purchased, etc. But, this option only works if your items are relatively uniform. If you sell items of different sizes and weights, this option probably isn’t the best alter-native as the shipping cost for a 2-pound item is very different from that of a 25-pound item.

 “Free” shipping is the most basic form of flat-rate shipping. With “free” shipping, you, the seller, builds the shipping cost into the item cost. This lets you advertise “free shipping” on your web store and in the checkout flow, but – as you and everyone else knows – nothing is really free! The shipping cost has been built in elsewhere.

Some e-commerce merchants offer a hybrid approach and offer flat rate shipping up to a cer-tain dollar value and free shipping for orders over that dollar value.

Calculated shipping requires more work. To estimate shipping cost accurately the e-commerce system needs to “do the math” to figure out the shipping cost. This means it needs item weights and dimensions so that it can calculate shipping using the FedEx® rate calculation application programming interface (API).

This works great for single items, but can get quite complex for multi-item purchases. For ex-ample, one sweatshirt or three sweatshirts might all fit into the same box, only changing the weight a little. But, if the order is for laser printers, it will be one printer per box, no matter how many are ordered.

While calculated shipping makes sense to the seller, the downside is that it may be less appealing to savvy web buyers who want a low shipping cost and want to know what the ship-ping cost will be before they start the checkout process. Calculated shipping also requires the e-commerce system to “know” a lot about the items being purchased before it can perform the calculation.

Armed with an understanding of pre-sale ship-ping, you’re ready to pack and ship. Stay tuned for Part 2: post-sale shipping!

More consumers today are finding it easier and easier to shop online, thus bypassing the traditional brick-and-mortar stores.  Ecommerce is a great revenue stream for companies and gives companies the ability to enter and play in the social media arena as well. At the same time ecommerce can create a different set of challenges to companies as well. The task of comparison shopping is now much easier for your customers who no longer have to drive all over town to compare your price against your competitor’s price.  Price has been and will continue to be at the top or at least near the top of buying motives for online shoppers. However, companies cannot be fooled into thinking that price is the only concern for the consumer.  Consumers today have three main concerns outside of price when buying online:
1.       Shipping Cost
2.       Delivery Time
3.       Return Policy

How you handle these three buyer concerns can and most likely will be the difference as to whether customers purchase from your site or your competitors.  Now let’s dive a little deeper into these three concerns.

Shipping Cost- Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company did a study on how shipping costs affect consumer buying decisions.  They found that 61% of the people they surveyed would buy online more often from retailers that offered Free Shipping.  More and more companies are capitalizing on this and either creating or expanding their Free Shipping program.  Consumers are smart enough to understand that nothing is necessarily free and when companies offer Free Shipping, they may already be factoring it into the price of the product.  Additionally, companies that have successful Free Shipping programs often utilize lower-cost shipping options available to ensure they are using the most economical option available.  Transportation and Supply Chain companies can often provide some assistance with benchmarking what other companies are doing. 
Are you utilizing Free Shipping to drive top line revenue?
How often do you review your shipping program?

Delivery Time- A second question consumers buying online often have is how soon will my shipment arrive? There is often great anticipation for the order to arrive and having an accurate delivery window is a great way to satisfy your customers and ensure they become repeat customers. Studies show that consumers do prefer faster shipping but at the point that shipping cost more, their priorities may change. Amazon Prime is a great success story in terms of offering a transit speed upgrade program. It is a shipping program that Amazon.com launched that gives their customer’s unlimited fast shipping for an annual fee. Amazon has noticed that the growth as a result of this program was not in attracting more consumers to the site but getting them to come more often to purchase. Their Sr. VP and CFO Thomas Szkutak said“We're seeing customers do a lot more cross shopping than they have previously.”
Do you provide your customers with an accurate expected delivery window? How often do you review this?
Do you give your customers options to upgrade to a faster delivery?

Return Policy- A no-hassle returns process is critical for both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In addition there is a strong relationship between return policies and customer purchasing behavior.  When consumers first started shopping online, returns was a very big concern.  Many people did not feel comfortable buying someone without first having touched it.  Although companies have come a long way since then, companies often struggle to provide just the right return policy that is not to stringent to prevent customers from buying from them while at the same time not motivating their customers to return their products.  A fairly recent survey found that 69% of consumers would not likely shop again with an online retailer if the returns process was inconvenient.  Returns can also be a big headache for a company as well as there is money tied up not only in the inventory but in the labor to handle the returns as well.  The more automated and easier you make the return process the more satisfaction your customers will enjoy and will get you a better chance to turn them into a repeat customer.
How convenient is your Return Policy?
How often do you review your Return Policy?