Fulfillment may look mostly similar between B2B and B2C ecommerce purchases, but certain considerations come into play, especially if you want to increase efficiency and revenue for your ecommerce business.... View Article
Don’t let your online store be a “one hit wonder.” Follow these tips to keep holiday shoppers coming back for more in the New Year.... View Article
When talking about the future of ecommerce, same-day or on-demand delivery is usually at the forefront of the discussion. And thanks to increasing logistical efficiency, technological advances, and efforts from major companies like Amazon and Google – same-day shipping may not be too far from becoming standard. Unfortunately, the fundamentals of same-day shipping are still incredibly challenging today. [more] Without a faster way of getting packages from point A to point B, same-day delivery takes vast amounts of inventory to be feasible. Essentially, an ecommerce company needs to have inventory already in the area if it wants to offer same-day…... View Article
In an ecommerce sale, your interaction with a customer doesn’t end with the checkout. It ends after they satisfactorily accept their shipment. For ecommerce merchants who sell large and/or heavy products, the final leg of the product’s journey to the customer can be very costly – especially if the item is returned. Follow these pre-delivery tips to ensure customer delivery-satisfaction for large products. [more] Communicate product dimensions early and clearly If a customer can’t accommodate your delivery, they’re likely to send it back or otherwise refuse it. Be upfront with the product’s dimensions and the dimensions of the delivery. Work…... View Article
The main advantage that brick-and-mortar stores have over ecommerce is that the customer receives their purchase immediately – there’s no waiting on shipping. This may soon be a thing of the past. New ways of thinking about logistics, technological advances (i.e. drones), and efforts from startups (e.g. Instacart or Postmates) and major companies (e.g. Amazon) alike could someday soon normalize next-day or same-day delivery. [more] If you’re considering a leap to the cutting edge logistics of same-day delivery, you may want to hold your horses. Sure, delivery speed can be a great way to differentiate your ecommerce site from competitors.…... View Article
For all the advancements the Internet has made over the years, is appears some ecommerce stores are lagging behind. According to a survey of 2,000 consumers and 60 retailers conducted by OrderDynamics and Opinion Matters, most online retailers are disconnected from the shipping feature consumers want and expect. [more] Some insights from the survey include: 54% of shoppers want a specific delivery date at checkout (only 15% of retailers provide it) 61% of retailers have next-day shipping options (but only 10% of consumers were willing to pay for them. It’s no wonder why free shipping can increase sales) 45% of…... View Article
More ecommerce retailers are launching try-before-you-buy programs that work like no-hassle, free of charge returns. When implemented correctly, try-before-you-buy programs have many benefits. They close the gap between ecommerce and brick-and-mortar retail by removing shipping costs and the risk that comes with buying an item sight unseen over the Internet. In other words, they make for a very attractive incentive to shop at your site. However, they are also a source of some extreme challenges in terms of logistics and fulfillment. Is your business able to address the challenges of such a program? In this post, we’ll look at some…... View Article
Amazon.com filed a patent late last year for a “Method and system for anticipatory package shipping.” In short, the company plans to develop a system that ships items to customers before they have actually ordered them. [more] The system is intended to work by first doing a deep analysis of customers. Amazon plans to look at things such as Browsing behavior Purchase history Survey data Wish lists Returned purchases Etc. With these user statistics, Amazon hopes to predict what items users will likely buy in the near future. From there, Amazon has a number of shipping options that can go…... View Article
While maintaining an ecommerce business, there are so many elements that must work together for everything to run smoothly. Of course, product fulfillment is a major part of that. Fulfillment services get your products to your customers and helps ensure their satisfaction. Here are three tips to help improve your product fulfillment and ecommerce business. [more] Be where your customers are: Shipping rates from major carriers can be safely expected to increase almost every year. The closer your goods are to your customers, the lower your shipping costs will be – allowing you to pass the savings on to them.…... View Article
By now, you’ve probably heard about Amazon’s theoretical drone delivery system – Prime Air. Amazon is projecting that the delivery system will be ready sometime in 2015 – and they seem to be placing the onus of that projection on the FAA. While it’s true that the FAA will need to lay out some rules before commercial drones become widespread, they are not the only ones who have a lot of planning to do. Amazon’s idea of a drone delivery system still has a lot of kinks to work out, and they might need to collaborate with more than the…... View Article
