North West Online Retailers MEETUP!

On 13 March, a nice clear evening in Manchester, 3P Logistics hosted a meetup event for e-tailers from the North West. With tables ladened with food and beer, the event was kick started with a mingling session among online retailers - great opportunity to talk to like minded people who all have great passion for selling online. It was then followed by three presentations by Carlos (shaping cloud), Ian (3P Logistics) and Artem (Linnworks), who share insiders tips and information regarding cloud technology, outsourcing and multichannel selling. 

3P Logistics would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the great crowd last night, along with the excellent guest speakers. Everyone's enthusiasm helped make our time together both productive and fun! 

We would be hosting another meetup soon so keep your eyes peeled! Why not bring your friends along, have a beer and a laugh, and learn more about e-commerce? Join us here:
http://www.meetup.com/NORTH-WEST-ONLINE-RETAILERS-MEET-UP-GROUP/

How to REALLY annoy your (online) customers.

Remember when I was still in university, we have to vote for 'the most annoying online retailer ever' in our first digital marketing lecture. I am not going to disclose which company got the title, but that webpage hit the following criteria to successfully annoy us:


1. Unrelated Ads and pop ups. 

Yes, we are interested in your products when we visit your website, but no, we are not interested in someone else's products, especially when they are completely irrelevant to what you are selling. These adverts can interrupt customers' experience and can create a negative attitude towards the advert, as well as to your website, aka your brand.

Pop up questionnaire or email sign-up box are also quite popular and they can annoy users when they come up in the wrong time. Often they pop up before people have the opportunity to start reading the page. Consider putting these at the side or at the end of the article to minimize interruption.


2. Many Many clicks
You can blame it to the society but people are becoming less patient now. When they want some information they want them quick. No one likes being dragged around, making circles. Extra click is a big no no. If you want to lead people to watch some clips or images, allow them to view them alongside the information that they are looking for. Clear and easy navigation is the key so that users can find whatever they want efficiently. Look at Amazon, they have everything so well sorted, and they even have one click purchase to make life easier.






3. Play music/ video automatically
I guess that is why the mute button is on so many keyboards nowadays. People like to have things under control and when there is some music popping up unexpectedly they tend to mute the page or even close the browser. Especially when they are in public place and some music start playing in a coffee shop/ on the train. If they want to listen to music I am sure they would have their own playlist. You can still put video and music on your website but make sure they only play upon clicking.

North West Online Retailers Meetup 13 March

If you`re keen to stay attuned to the latest developments for all things online then our meet up group is for you. City Centre Manchester on Wednesday 13^th March will be the location for our next meet up event which promises to be an eventful evening.  We have three industry speakers and a great chance to mingle with fellow online sellers in a relaxed and informal gathering - who knows we may even throw in a beer and bite to eat!

With Linnworks, Shaping Cloud and 3P Logistics already registered to speak on the night it promises to be an enlightening evening.

l for one will be looking out for any top tips on all things multi-channel, cloud technology and order fulfilment.

View our meet our group today and get yourself along to future events. http://www.meetup.com/NORTH-WEST-ONLINE-RETAILERS-MEET-UP-GROUP/

3P Logistics Partner with Linnworks

Linnworks is an order management software and stock control system that integrates the entire multi-channel sales process. The software handles everything from order fulfilment to shipping, stock control and inventory management, and integrates with eBay, Amazon, Play.com, Pixmania, Magento and all major website carts.

The growing trend of online retailers branching out into multi-channel selling continues at a considerable pace. In order to maximise multi-channel & cross-channel opportunities, both order fulfilment and stock control are of paramount importance.

John Scully - Business Development Manager at 3PL adds:

“3P Logistics and Linnworks are a natural fit”

“Together we provide the ideal combination for any online retailer seeking to expand its market place and grow its business. The partnership has already seen us subscribe over 20 of our online clients to the Linnworks platform and they are now reaping the benefits of automation and increased sales.   The process of outsourcing your order fulfilment and expanding your selling channels is simple and has never been more affordable”.

For more information visit www.3p-logistics.co.uk

For more information visit www.linnworks.com

Anchor Pricing - does it still work?

Today I was looking at business strategies and the term 'anchor pricing' came up. People said this is the key to develop a successful pricing strategies. Econsultancy interprets this term as 'to establishing a price point that your customers then use as a reference point for all future purchases' - sounds complicated to me. Although I am not a retailer, my curiosity urged me to look into this. 



Basically, when you are presented with an offer, the key element in the decision to accept or reject is whether you think it is a fair deal or not. Usually people would have a 'pre-set' price for a product or service in their head, and they will use this price to judge relative value. For example you know you would not pay £10 for an orange. right? Applying this to sale items. Do you notice that the original price is always listed along the sale price? This can give customers a reference point to 'anchor' onto, so they feel like they are saving money when they buy the items at sale prices. 

Anchor pricing does not apply solely to sale items. According to Neuromarketing, the key is to implant the numbers into customers' mind through any media, and this can impact the price they are willing to pay for various items. This works particularly well for unfamiliar products. You can display numbers on posters, or on other products. Believe it or not, it can still have an impact on their 'anchored price'!

The problem is, this may not work as well today since more and more customers are visiting the internet to compare prices before they make a purchase. Hence customers tend to have an idea of the 'real price' already before encountering your products/ services. I am not saying anchor pricing will never work again, but the key is to have accurate pricing data before you set your price. According to Econsultancy, 'your data source is the actual key to enable the development of an effective pricing strategy'.

From another point of view - why not set your own anchor price? Redefine your products and your services can weaken the tie to anchor pricing set by other retailers. Neuromarketing used Starbucks as an example. It has different ambience, food, display, and even coffee names (instead of small medium large, it even uses tall grande venti!) etc., to distinguish themselves from their competitors. This way they can set their own coffee price without a strong association with their competitors. 

F-commerce, Yay or Nay?

No one can deny the power of Facebook. Being one of the most visited site with an active user base of 1.06 billion, Facebook store should have great potential for ecommerce practices. According to Deloitte, Facebook economy could worth £13 billion at the moment, and this figure will continue to rise in the future. This hype has even generated the term 'f-commerce'.

However, brands like Gap and Nordstrom have all closed down their Facebook stores after giving it a go. So why is this happening? 

Main reason: sales volume is low on Facebook. According to Practical ecommerce - for a lot of merchants, percentage of sales on Facebook is still in the single digits. The general public have already associated Facebook with social networking. People go on Facebook to party (social) instead of shopping. This belief puts a lot of businesses off. According to search engine watch, 'the use of Facebook as a direct sales channel reached its peak in Q2 2010, with just over 10 percent of marketers reportedly using F-commerce at that time. It steadily declined until another brief peak in Q2 2011; now, just over 5 percent of Facebook opportunities relate to commerce'. With so little businesses participating in such 'shopping mall', people will be even more reluctant to use this function. 

In my opinion, all businesses should have their own Facebook page since it is capable of driving brand awareness and site traffic. It is an excellent platform to engage with your customers, which is vital to maintain your business' social credentials. Moreover, Facebook has a wealth of data of users' likes and interests, which is a bonus compare to other sales or marketing channels. The store function is great for promotions, giveaways or flash sales (quoted from Julia Priddle, Channel Advisor), and should be integrated with your other sales channel seamlessly as part of a marketing mix. Treat it like a place for 'window shopping' and customer services. Afterall, Facebook is still a social networking site - instead of building social features on your own website, why not encourage transactions through engagement on Facebook?

6 Twitter best practices for eTailers

1. Specific Marketing Goals - it can be increase sales, establish the identity of industry expert, or for customer services. Some company dedicates their account for specific use and is shown on their username, such as Ford uses @FordCustService. Once you have a goal you know what you should tweet about and what your tone of voice should be like. 

2. Hastags - try to put in 1-2 hashtags per tweet. When people search for the #keywords, they can see your post on the search result. This is very important because those people who search for those keywords must be sharing common interest with you. I always conduct some searches and compare keywords before I use the #, just to check their popularity. To save space, integrate the # into the sentence. For example I would say 'calling all #ecommerce enthusiasts'.

3. Grow your following - I guess everyone likes followers. One of the best ways to get followers is to follow others first. Mention them and retweet their contents etc., Of course I am not asking you to follow everyone, but choose active suppliers, potential customers, employees or industry experts, etc. 

4. Twitter schedule - Schedule is a must for almost everything, including Twitter. Management applications like HootSuite or Buffer allows you to set schedules for posting. The first thing I do every morning is to set up tweets for every hour or so. This can make my account active throughout a day and I do not have to keep reminding myself to go on Twitter when I am working on other stuff. According to Practical Ecommerce 'Such tweets can include helpful tips, observations about your industry, product recommendations, inspirational quotes, and links to relevant resources. The key is that they add value to your followers.' Make sure your tweets is not all about yourself (business news, promotions, etc), unless you are celebrities I guess... 

5. Monitor relevant keywords - You should have a set of keywords that you always use, or that you are interested in. Spend some time everyday to research on them, respond and retweet what other people say. Tips from practical ecommerce: 'If you share links on Twitter and use the URL shortener bit.ly, you can copy the link into your browser and add a "+" at the end to see how many people clicked on it and the types of conversations it generated'. 

6. Tools - Tools allow you to engage via Twitter more easily and you can add other social network accounts and synchronize them as well. The best feature is the analytics which allows you to keep track of what you are doing and compare your performance level every month. For me the data gives me incentives to work hard and improve. It puts a smile on my face when I see the follower graph curving upwards.

Have a look at this link, it gives you more details on this topic:
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3921-Twitter-for-Ecommerce-Merchants