The post Christmas period is the busiest time of the year for sales returns. The usability, simplicity, and efficiency of your returns process is all part of your customer service. Pure-play online retailers and Multi-channel retailers both have different challenges. Are [...]]]> “No problem,” said the shopkeeper. “If they don’t like it, just return it.”

The post Christmas period is the busiest time of the year for sales returns. The usability, simplicity, and efficiency of your returns process is all part of your customer service. Pure-play online retailers and Multi-channel retailers both have different challenges. Are you prepared? How will you manage the process? How will you minimise the revenue fallout by cross selling and up selling? How will you maintain a high level of customer satisfaction?

There are plenty of reasons why it’s vital to have a crystal-clear returns policy. It helps to streamline your business practices, which can reduce costs and limit loss of revenue, sure, but perhaps more importantly, it can be a simple, cost-effective PR tool.

For many shoppers, the decision to purchase a sight unseen product online is contingent upon there being an easy to understand returns policy, so in this way, it not only helps to bring in new customers, but is also a cost-effective way of maintaining customer loyalty.

There are three main returns policies to consider. The first, and least appealing to most online shoppers, is a no-returns policy. This ‘as is’ approach to selling is by no means uncommon, and might even have the appearance of saving you money, but in the long term implementing this policy might have serious fallout when it comes to building customer trust and loyalty. However, if this is the path you choose, make sure this is clearly stated in an obvious location. For example, during the check out stage of purchasing, it’s a good idea to have a returns policy agreement section with the customer, which has all of the details of your policy and a box they check to agree.

The second type of policy offers either exchange-only or store-credit only returns of goods, rather than a full refund. This can create potential to cross-sell and even up-sell, and your business can benefit from having a returns strategy that includes an easy to find reference to other products that are similar to those purchased. Large online retailers commonly use this type of cross referencing system to inform customers of products that other shoppers have purchased, as well as a list of similar products to those they have already purchased.

This policy also has its benefits for a business that receives the majority of its revenue from credit cards. That merchant fee you pay for the original transaction will not be refunded to you when you refund to the customer, and this can add up over time. This, of course, you will have to weigh up against the cost of losing customer loyalty, as some customers will prefer to shop with those who have a full refund policy.

As the name suggests, full refund policies offer customers a full refund on defective goods, and in many cases, on goods that are the wrong size, wrong colour, or just not what they expected. There are a couple of points to consider with this policy. For example, have you made it clear to your customers that certain items must be still in the original packaging? Are perishable goods returnable? The key is to plan ahead by writing up your policy and making it easy for your online customers to access and understand.

The cost of returning the goods is one of the most important points to consider. In some cases, it might be worth paying for the return postage, and is a great tactic if large-ticket items such as jewellery need to be tracked. For most businesses, though, the sheer cost of this is prohibitive. This is also where the difference in being a pure play or multi-channel online trader reveals different challenges.

Pure-play online retailers, because they deal with just the one delivery and return channel, can more effectively streamline processes and calculate the costs of return postage or freight. However, multi-channel online retailers will find it more difficult to predict such costs, as their sales may be returned through either the delivery channel, or in-store over the counter. In the case of many multi-channel online retailers, the cost of returning items still lies with the customer. If this is the policy you choose, make sure your customers are aware of it before they buy.

Whichever returns policy option you choose, it’s time now to write it up and place it in an easy to find location on your site. Not only does a clear policy help to increase your revenue by encouraging trust in your business, it can also reduce return disputes, which, in the post-Christmas season, can play a vital role in streamlining your returns processes, cross-selling to other products, and most importantly, maintaining customer satisfaction.

The short answer is simple…..Not a chance!

The big guy delivers gifts to every child……. around the world…. in just one night!

And he gives them exactly what they want!

Now that…..dear retailer…..is customer service! But let’s face it, he’d be nothing without you, the retailer. After all, it’s the retailers who are the [...]]]>

The short answer is simple…..Not a chance!

The big guy delivers gifts to every child……. around the world…. in just one night!

And he gives them exactly what they want!

Now that…..dear retailer…..is customer service! But let’s face it, he’d be nothing without you, the retailer. After all, it’s the retailers who are the unsung heroes of “getting the gifts under the tree on time”.

We may not all be able to keep up with Santa……but there are a few things we can do now that will make sure we minimise our Christmas advertising budget, capitalise on every visit to our website during Christmas, AND keep our customers happy.

While many of us eagerly anticipate the upswing in sales that Christmas will bring……how many can say they are truly prepared.

For example……what will happen when your current website hosting arrangements are faced with traffic equivalent to two or three times the volume you have today?

And if they are set-up to handle the increased traffic…….will your back-end cope?

How many orders do you currently pack on your busiest day?

How will you deal with picking, packing and dispatching three times that amount?

And how will you maintain your current level of service to meet your customers expectations?

There’s also the matter of advertising budget. How do you determine the email marketing and pay per click advertising spend required to deliver just the right amount of traffic required, to provide you with the maximum number of orders you are capable of fulfilling, whilst minimising the ad spend waste?

The good news is that you can know the answers to all these questions with some forward planning.

Let’s start with how you can improve your hosting arrangements to improve your sites performance and page load times. Page load times are a key factor in improving conversion rate. That’s why companies like Amazon and Walmart spend so much time shaving fractions of seconds off their page load times. In context, page load times = front line service. The faster the load time, the better the service, the greater the customer confidence, the higher their propensity to spend.

We have one client who halved their page load time and increased their conversion rate by nearly one full percent. Most retailers I speak to start with a conversion rate of between 1.5% and 2%. Imagine increasing that figure by one percent? Effectively increasing your revenue by 50% or more!

Page load times are critical, and the more traffic your site has, the slower the page load times become. Slow page times equal dumped orders and decreased conversion rates. It’s exactly the same as queuing in a retail store, the longer you have to wait for service in the queue, the more likely you are to dump your purchases on the nearest shelf and head out the door to find a retailer who really wants the sale, and is prepared to give you great customer service to get it.

To find out more about how to supercharge your page load times for Christmas, click here.

Christmas 2011 was a busy time for online retailers. Many were caught out with parked orders and backlogs that left egg on their face and a diminished level of customer service that shattered their brand value and integrity with their customer.

This Christmas, sales to Australian online retailers are predicted to soar by as much as *22%, and the consumers demand, for their orders to be delivered by Christmas, will be greater than ever before. How often have you heard “I can get it from London in 2 days, why does to take a week to get the same thing from Sydney?”

This year, if you are not meeting your customer’s expectation, someone else will. And that someone will more than likely be an overseas retailer. Because Australian consumers are hungry to buy online, those overseas retailers want a piece of our market. And they want it so bad they’ll do (actually “do”) just about anything to get it!

Here’s the key things you need to do to get your website ready for the Christmas trade;

1. Understand your maximum capacity to fulfill orders. Know how many you can fulfill in a day and make plans to increase that number to meet demand?
2. Tailor your online marketing spend for Christmas to meet your maximum order fulfillment capacity?
3. Spend some time to work out if you website hosting arrangements will meet the estimated increase in traffic that your expecting at Christmas.
4. Make plans today toengage a hosting solution that will deliver maximum “up-time”, and minimize your website’s page load times, in order to maximize conversions on your website?

Christmas 2012 is all set to be a bumper trading period for the Australian online retailers who are ready to milk it, rather than just get through it.

Now is the time to prepare, steady your nerve, hold your line, and manage your online business through the busiest time of the year to come out the other side with maximum sales and your reputation intact.

Ultimately the fat man in the red suit’s reputation to deliver is only as good as the part we all play in getting the pressies under the tree on time.

If we can deliver, I’ll bet he’ll be back in our store next year buying up big again!

Ref: *NAB’s Online Retail Sales Index reports a 22 per cent lift in online sales

“I feel the need, the need for speed,” said Pete Mitchell to Nick Bradshaw in the classic 1986 film Top Gun. Little did “Maverick” and “Goose” know that 26 years later nearly every Retail Ecommerce Manager would be saying that very same thing to their IT Manager in the lead up to the most important [...]]]>

“I feel the need, the need for speed,” said Pete Mitchell to Nick Bradshaw in the classic 1986 film Top Gun. Little did “Maverick” and “Goose” know that 26 years later nearly every Retail Ecommerce Manager would be saying that very same thing to their IT Manager in the lead up to the most important trading time of the year for every retailer on the planet!

Speaking plainly, site speed equals high conversion rates, which in turn equals dollars in the bank.  Outside of planning a suite of Christmas campaigns, that are seamlessly executed across the range of digital marketing channels, the next topic on the Christmas planning agenda has to be: how is the website going to maintain high-speed performance during a period of intense load both from browsing and purchasing customers?

This Christmas Cracker usually finds itself on the desk of an already busy IT Manager who is busy trying to get agreement with “the business” on a lock-down of system changes during peak trading times to ensure stability, squeeze some additional capacity from an already overloaded IT infrastructure to bolster retail store performance and populate a Xmas rota to ensure that the department had adequate cover during the holiday season.

Needless to say, without an accurate prediction of site traffic and predicted transactions and in fact, even with an accurate prediction of site traffic and transactions, finding the budget and resources to implement the IT infrastructure (servers and network bandwidth) required to cope with peak load is very difficult.

The upshot being that during the Christmas season some online shoppers will be presented with slow and very slow websites that are struggling to keep up with the pace of the voracious demand from the Australian multi-channel retail consumer!

So, what to do?

To ensure that your online customers don’t lose  “that lovin’ feelin” during the Festive Season the answer can be found in a new and highly effective solution: FEO – Front End Optimisation.  FEO is a combination of Content Distribution Networking and Website Acceleration (through software optimisation) that can significantly improve the performance of page rendering on your website, reduce load from your servers to ensure that transactions are handled faster and create a buffer so that spikes in high traffic volumes go un-noticed by your customers!

This combination of content distribution and site acceleration can be implemented within 36 hrs, require 5 minutes involvement from your IT Department, is contract free, pay-as-you-go and has a money back guarantee!

So, in order to have a website that really is Top Gun this Christmas, call 07 3112 5272 Or emailspeed@hitworks.com.au and we’ll keep you out of the Danger Zone!

Three examples really stand out. Robins Kitchen, K-mart and Cotton On. And the standard of packaging I received from all three were vastly different.

With so much [...]]]> In the last two weeks I’ve been reviewing the packaging of orders sent from online retailers in Australia. And let’s just say it’s been a mixed (shopping) bag.

Three examples really stand out. Robins Kitchen, K-mart and Cotton On. And the standard of packaging I received from all three were vastly different.

With so much focus on online shopping and the influx of International retailers targeting Australian online shopping dollars, you would expect local retailers, especially the big ones to be trying to get it right.

The first package to arrive was from Kmart. We got the kids toy shopping for Christmas out of the way early and spent up big on a large order. I’m happy to say that the approx. 20 odd toys arrived 2 days later, extremely neatly packed in a large branded box that really did make it feel like Christmas. No bells and whistles, just a well-packed, clean box, with an invoice and con note stuck neatly square on the box rather than just slapped on any old how. All in all, a positive “packaging” experience.

Next, were Robins Kitchen, and a new pizza stone and pizza cutter. I have to say that the Brisbane based retailer did a fantastic job of “dishing up” their order ensuring it arrived within 2 days. Both products were neatly placed in a box that had been cut down to size and packed out to ensure nothing moved in transit. To top it off my invoice had been placed in a bright red (company colours) envelope on the top of my order. It was a nice touch and one I consciously noted when I opened the box. It made me feel confident that I had made the right decision to buy from Robins Kitchen online.

And the last package to arrive was from Cotton On. One of Australia’s most prominent fashion retailers, who have recently made the jump to selling online. I figured that, since it was starting to heat up, some new shorts were in order. My order was simple, 2 pairs of shorts, same style, same size, just different colours.

Simple right?…………

8 days later a beaten up plain white satchel was shoved under my front gate. To be honest, when I saw it lying there, I had no idea what it could be as so much time had elapsed that I had forgotten I even placed the order. I did get a little spring in my step though when I read the con note on the package and saw the name Cotton on. You beauty….new shorts for the week-end. I have to say that my enthusiasm was short-lived. When I sliced open the satchel and reached inside I found my shorts screwed up in a ball in the bottom of the bag. My invoice was also just chucked in and looked like someone in their warehouse had been practicing origami with it. The whole experience was deflating. Something that should have conjured thoughts of the beach on the week-end, simply left me thinking, who the hell at Cotton On thinks that it’s OK to send parcels out like this.

The one thing that I had purchased that was just for me was the one thing that didn’t impress me on any level. Not to mention one of the products was faulty, but that’s a topic for another article.

If you are selling products online my advice is simple. Buy something from your online store. Do it anonymously so you don’t get any special treatment, and when the package arrives make an honest assessment of your satisfaction levels. If you’re not completely chuffed, it’s time to review your packaging. It may just be the one thing that gives you a competitive advantage over other retailers who are targeting your loyal customers.

Because when we fork out good money for anything, we all care what it looks like.

Most businesses [...]]]> Technology has pervaded our lives faster than we thought in the last decade or so. With wireless connectivity getting faster, mobile phones getting smarter and most of the networking happening online, the norms of shopping are undergoing a rapid change. And this rapid change has resulted in a disconnect between businesses and consumers.

Most businesses treat e-mail, social media, stores, catalogs and other sales channel as separate. But there are enough results to prove that consumers are increasingly adopting a cross-channel shopping strategy to buy products and services. Contrary to popular thinking, cross channel is very different from multi-channel. If latter was the case, then the disconnect between various sales channel wouldn’t have been a concern. Multi-channel is shopping across different channels; cross-channel is jumping from one channel to other to make a single purchase.

If you are selling products and services in the wirelessly connected world of today, here are 10 things you need to know about cross channel consumers in order to survive.

1. 1. More people are using two or more channels to research and buy products- According to a recent survey done by ATG, reputed research firm, more than 70% of the people said they use more than one channel to research and buy products or services online. Only 20% people said they use a single sales channel to make a purchase. Out of the 70%, most of the respondents said they start off with the web or a mobile platform and end up at  store or call up a customer care executive
2. 2. Lack of information prompts them to switch channels- When asked for the reasons for switching from online to offline, most of the respondents said that they couldn’t find relevant information for the product or service online. 36% of the respondents also said that they like to get a feel of a product before buying it online while another 19% said they found the process of buying online complicated. There are enough clues out there to offer a better experience to the consumers.
3. 3. More than 40% of young consumers accessed product information through mobile- Although mobile commerce is at a very nascent stage, more than 40% people in the age group of 18-34 years said they used their mobile to access research about a product or a service. Although only 17% used mobile to make a purchase, that number is set to grow fast with the increasing pervasion of smartphones.
4. 4. Catalogs are less effective but still relevant- Not many people base their buying decisions on what they see in a catalog. Although more than 75% consumers still use catalogs to know about products or services, more than half of them aren’t inclined to buy based on what they see in a catalog. Most consumers visit a brick and mortar store after seeing a catalog to compare products and get detailed information from a sales representative. For brands, it may be a good idea to cut down on printing of brochures or have specialized brochures meant to target very niche audience.
5. 5. Social Media is here to stay- When the respondents were asked about their buying habits and how they used social media, a predictable yet interesting trend emerged. More than 40% people in the age group of 18-32 said they used social media in one way or the other while buying. This could be in the form of asking for feedback from friends online, getting directly in touch with a company executive or giving feedback on a product or service. The lesson- businesses need to stay vigilant in the social media world and respond promptly to consumer queries. A seamless integration of social media data and sales data through various channels is paramount to effectively track conversions through social media.
6. 6. Emails are in no way down and out- This is the most interesting aspect of the research. Most businesses have written off directing e-mail marketing. They best use it to bombard consumers with newsletters or a one-way dialogue. However, according to the research, more than 50% respondents said they are influenced by e-mail. Most people said that if they received a promotional offer in their inbox, they would go and check other products and services offered by the brand. For businesses, they key here is a two-way dialogue. Don’t look at e-mails as just a single point of contact. Establish a dialogue with them through email which ends up with a sale on some other channel.
7. 7. Cross channel consumers hate monologues- Today’s consumers expect text messages, e-mail messages and updates on Twitter and Facebook as a two-way dialogue. Most businesses are failing to do that. For example, mobile companies often send out automated messages which tell us about insufficient balance and the need to recharge. But there’s nothing more to it. It is left upon us to look for a better plan or to recharge. Businesses could look at ways to establish a two-way dialogue through the same text message. An opportunity to chat with a customer care executive through text about various plans available and an option to upgrade is just one of the many ways. Utilize the cross-channel behavior of consumers in the best way you can.
8. 8. Consumers are looking to co-create- Social media has given unlimited amount of power to the consumers. They want to use this power to engage with the brand and to co-create. A common example of co-creation is deciding the flavor or a new product a food brand is going to launch. In the old days, television was the only channel to run the campaign. But cross channel promotions throw up a lot of interesting possibilities. The campaign could be integrated with Facebook and Twitter, with the best recipe winning 15 seconds of fame at an offline store. Integrating various channels is the name of the game.
9. 9. Consumers are looking for a seamless experience- Consumers are looking for the ability to shop across any sales channel without going back to a previous one. A great example of this is Facebook. Facebook allows you to receive updates on your mobile and chat through mobile itself, without the need to log on to the website. Most online businesses fail to do that. They consider their website as the only source of sales and everything else as a medium of promotion.

10. A large portion of consumers jumped channels to buy the product or service immediately- In the survey, more than 20% respondents said that they jumped channels because they wanted the product or service immediately. That’s a vital clue on how to give a sticky experience to consumers across all the channels.

Everything that has online access today can be used a sales channel, and that by no means puts the offline stores out of the question. Delivering interactive dialogues and giving consumers the ability to engage with the brand across different channels are the basic rules of the game. The brads which master those rules the fastest will be the winners.