This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for October, 2007
Royal Mail Industrial Action and eBay Misery…
Here we go again….but lets not cry over lost packages this time. With the unions threatening strikes all the way up to Christmas, lets see who ELSE we can ship with from and within the UK!
http://www.payperparcel.co.uk/ (an eBay compatible application and prices from £6.19 UK Mainland with collection)
On eBay themselves: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Payperdrop from £6.99
Parcel2go is the cheapest at £5.99
Most of these companies used DHL and Fedex as account holders so they get the bulk discounts for you.
Going direct with courier companies costs more:
City Link could post my parcel to the Queen for £9
ParcelForce is not affected by the strike. If I want to send the Queen a Parcel it would cost £14.99
International deliveries though sky rocket from £20 to Europe and a whopping £40 to the USA.
I would reconsider your trade outside Europe for the Christmas period as I do feel we might be in for a rough ride with Royal Mail.
Avoid Fraud on Ebay
Reading this post: 15 Ways to Avoid Fraud on eBay and some of the points I had not come across before as an eBayer:
10 Check your PayPal Account for Payments
Once you get a payment for a sale through PayPal, you will get an email telling you that the payment has gone through to your account. Fraudsters can send out fake emails telling you that you have been paid in the hope that you will send the goods without checking. Always check your PayPal account to make sure the funds have arrived before sending out the goods.
Well I never. The cheeky things! I am really bad at reading my paypal or ebay emails and just always check my accounts as standard.
and
11 Second Chance Offer Fraud
Second Chance Offer emails are sent, via eBay, by sellers to unsuccessful bidders if they have additional items to sell or the winner fails to pay. Always check that it has come from a seller you have been dealing with for something you have previously bid on. Fraudsters use bogus Second Chance Offer to get people to send payments to them as opposed to the legitimate seller for items that do not exist, or as a way to get hold of personal data. If in doubt, view your emails in My eBay.
Wonders never cease, but surely eBay could guard against this.
My main worry is that children bid and buy also on eBay.
My 12 year old niece buys Sylvanian Family items on eBay and once a seller asked for her card details in an email as he ‘didn’t accept paypal’. She gave him her children’s bank account card number (which is in no way a debit or credit card, cash only) and managed to charge £90 to it. The bank acted quickly and she got an letter off the site which has processed the payment. The site was VERY unsuitable for children (and a large proportion of Adults) but also a reputable company in its field and refunded the money almost straight away.
This is a totally new criminal target, the teenage or child eBayer. My sister had to force the information out of my niece that she had sent her card details in an email, she only caught her when she was walking back from the computer room with her cash card.
If your child lost £90 because they ‘did something wrong’ which involved a transaction on eBay, would they tell you? Would that exclusive yu-gi-oh golden dragon force card (the Japanese version) be worth the risk to them? Are they really aware of the nasty individuals out there? Not at 12. Children have different priorities so can criminal ‘toy’ sellers be targeting the kids?
Many children in the UK use their parents eBay accounts to bid and buy and the criminals know this.
We envision to enthusiastically facilitate error-free paradigms…Writing web copy!
1690 days
‘We envision to enthusiastically facilitate error-free paradigms while continuing to authoritatively revolutionize economically sound opportunities to meet our customer’s needs’
This snippet of text was generated by the Mission Statement Generator from the Dilbert comic strip website, but this kind of web copy rings close to the truth for some organisations.
When you are writing content in blogs and also for websites you need to consider your target audience and speak to them in their language. Avoid hype that sounds like advertising jargon. They are already AT your site, so give them an excuse to stay. Organise the content and structure your writing for easy readability.
Always proofreed…. This is my biggest sin. All posts on this blog are edited around 3 times once posted!
A useful post when you are thinking about your web content is Web Writing for Many Interest Levels
Green and Ethical E-commerce – Honesty and Responsibilty
1691 days
Customers are being more socially responsible with their buying and value companies that have the same thinking. Customers can be selective with their choice of e-commerce offerings as the internet fosters a socially responsible consumer base.
Non Ethical practises include selling non medical miracle cures like weight loss pills and hair loss creams that have no real research to back up claims, sites that are built to deceive customers with false promises, sites that sell conflict items (such as gold and diamonds from Africa) or items associated animal testing. These at all costs should be avoided.
But how can you be green on the hyperweb?
-Increase your product range to provide environmentally friendly and fair trade products
-Reduce excess packaging and marketing materials, can it be recyclable?
-Allow customers to reserve on-line and pick up in store
-Off set your carbon footprint by recycling and re-using within your company. Take part in local and national environmental improvements where you can.
-Publish your environmental policy and encourage your customers to re-use packaging and recycle
-Send email invoices to reduce paper use
-Use electronic means of keeping customer information and office memo’s, again keep aper use to a minimum and reduce waste. -Recycle all waste paper.
You don’t have to spend a huge amount of money within a company to be green. For example, as a small e-commerce store owner. I re-use all bulk hair packaging, use a single blue plastic mailing bag and also re-cycle paper and plastic where I can as part of a routine. Small steps can help an e-commerce company be that little bit greener, and help build customer loyalty.
E-commerce and its multi-channel adventures!
1691 days
‘Multi- channel’ has become a bit of a ‘Web 2.0 buzz word, but it has become one of the most expansive sectors in e-commerce. ‘Multi Channel’ (we shall call it MC 2.0 for comedic slogan purposes only) can involve a retail organisation having several touch points for interactions with customers and also several competitive routes to market. Large traditional ‘Bricks and Mortar’ (apologies for my over use of apostrophes this evening) companies have expanded to incorporate several channel for example Next Retail
Next have:
- Walk in Stores
- Paper mailing catalogue (which is also present in the store to showcase the full range of products)
- Online Shop
- Call centre operations
- Affiliations with comparison shopping engines, pay per click advertising, shopping directories as well as other new media advertising.
To complete the set they should think about marketplaces such as eBay. They may be satisfied with their end of season re-sellers already on eBay.
In response to this expanse in retail channels, companies specialising in total retail solutions (such as Channeladvisor,Marketworks, Venda and Truition) have spawned from the far corners of the earth. These systems incorporate as many product to consumer channels from one platform as possible, providing a custom branded system. These systems are also available (and mostly piloted by) the smaller virtual retailer. Many of these smaller retailing business have taken such a slice from the high street that the larger players had to respond to the drop in sales.
Going MC 2.0 is about opening up your offerings to different markets as well as your products being available across all channels.
Retailers should be looking to synchronise the service level across all channels. All channels should be fully integrated with existing systems and correctly aligned across:
- Price (even though some companies have set up separate branded channels to be more competitive on-line without being detrimental to their high street trade)
- Promotions
- Gift Vouchers (should be able to be used off-line and on-line)
- Terms and Conditions
- Order process and Returns
A customer likes a single experience across the various channels.
One department should administer all channels to the consumer, as a customer does not like to be passed from pillar to post with their queries about a product or order.
And this is the end for ‘E-commerce and its MC 2.0 adventures’ for now!
