Author Archives: Donna Kutter

Outsourcing Different fulfillment services? Which one suits your needs?

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warehouse fulfillment operationsECommerce Fulfillment Services

As technology evolves and more customers buy online, e-commerce businesses have grown substantially in the last few years. Even though, in many cases, there is no physical location for these businesses, there still has to be a place with an integrated process in place to process and fulfill the orders on time, ship them, deliver them, keep track of the inventory, etc. Fulfillment services are increasing in demand because this can sometimes represent a lot of human resources and capital investment, plus it can be very time consuming for ecommerce business owners. Many ecommerce businesses choose to outsource the fulfillment part of their businesses.

A big component of any e-commerce fulfillment project is to have visibility of your inventory levels. The reality of today’s world is that access to information is instant. You want to rely on a company that can provide all the information you need related to your products within seconds. At Dare Marketing, we make it easy for you to monitor your inventory levels and order status online through our web portal. Seeing your stock levels and service details from anywhere you’re connected is possible.

Even if you don’t have built-in e-commerce order taking on your website, Dare will set up a custom fulfillment service for you with order-taking pages, plus, store your product, ship and bill your customers. Dare Marketing is a one-stop-shop solution. (Please note: that this option requires a minimum of 75 fulfillment orders per month).

What method do we use to track inventory you ask? All the inventory that we have in our warehouse is tracked by bar code to ensure a high degree of pick/pack accuracy which translates into accurate inventory balances for you. This system also allows you to create reports so you can analyze your numbers in real time.

How it works (Order Fulfillment Order-Taking and Order-Entry Options):

  • Integrate with your existing website, Dare will design and set up a new secure e-commerce site which supports your corporate website look and feel.
  • Secure access to Dare’s Online Order Desk to enter your orders.

Order fulfillment

Whether you’re trying to outsource your entire fulfillment process or just have a need for specific order fulfillment, a Fulfillment House can help. Many companies are set up to fulfill their regular products from their own warehouses and distribution centers. However, when a seasonal promotion comes up, a special marketing promotion, or a new product that doesn’t fit with their distribution system comes up, it’s like throwing a wrench in their system. This is a great opportunity to outsource order fulfillment of a particular product, brand or category of products.

Many companies follow the 80/20 rule where their internal distribution and order fulfillment systems are designed to handle 80% of their SKU’s but the 20% of difficult or un-similar products are outsourced. This can be a cost saving opportunity because a shipper’s large scale fulfillment systems can be designed for volume fulfillment of their most shipped products while the 20% with special requirements can be outsources without impacting the efficient fulfillment of the other 80%.

Dare offers order fulfillment and pick/pack services that usually ship within 24 hours. You can access order fulfillment progress (24/7/365) and complete order details at any time through secure access to Dare’s own online order desk. Dare Marketing is a great solution for seasonal, promotional or difficult fulfillment products that don’t fit well with your existing distribution and fulfillment system.

Order Fulfillment for Marketing Support Materials

Fulfilling marketing support materials or promotional products can be a time-consuming and a challenging task. Outsourcing this task and setting up online ordering allows you to meet the demand for products, point-of-sale (POS) materials or literature from external customers and internal sales channels efficiently, and in a timely manner.

At Dare you can manage warehousing with web-based order fulfillment and get any associated financial transactions as required, all in one place by taking advantage of:

  • Anytime access to orders and inventory status via web portal to Dare’s Online Order Desk
  • 24 hour turn-around on order fulfillment
  • Pick and pack services
  • Ability to rate shop multiple carriers for savings on shipping
  • Web portal order entry and order processing
  • Kitting services
  • Online retail e-commerce operations support
  • Secure and climate-controlled warehouse ensures your printed goods are stored in optimum conditions to prevent deterioration.

Co packing

By outsourcing your co-packing needs you save time and money and can focus your efforts to other tasks. We customize our services to your needs and will be handled by our professional assembling team. We specialize in doing custom sales packages and marketing kits, so whether you need help with your hand assembled packages seasonal promotions or need customized kits by territory, language and destination we can help.
If your product is seasonal, we understand how busy it is at times so we can always accommodate to your schedule and delivery time frames.

At Dare Marketing we have over 20 years experience in servicing our clients relating all their fulfillment needs so we understand the expectations of our clients. We ship to the U.S. and throughout Canada. Our goal is to be a single source supplier for all your marketing fulfillment needs. So if you have more than 75 fulfillment orders per month, then we are here to provide solutions and make your projects go smoothly and stress free.

DIRECT MAIL PRODUCT SAMPLING, AN OPTION WORTH CONSIDERING

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Who doesn’t like getting samples of new products on the mail? There are many people that sign up and offer to try new products for companies and these then use their testimonials to make important business decisions regarding the product.   Even if you are not one of these people, most of us at least read the information that comes along with a sample and the majority will try it. When we get a free sample of a product in the mail that we have never used or use a different brand, we are more willing to give it a try, especially if we don’t have to pay for it.  Direct Mail Product Sampling is a great marketing tool!

Did you know that 73% of consumers said they were likely to buy a product after trying it (Source:  Sampling Effectiveness Advisors)? Only 25% said the same thing about seeing a television commercial.

It is a fairly inexpensive way to have people try your product and potentially a very profitable one, when it comes to people willing to switch to your brand.

Producing the samples might be the biggest challenge but if you can make it work, it might be very profitable for your company.  Having people try samples through direct mail is definitely the way to go if you are launching or re-launching a product.  Here are some good reasons why sampling is a great option:

  1. Make the consumer’s choice easier– One of the main reasons why you should try sampling through direct mail is to make life easier for the consumer by letting them sample a product for free.  The likelihood of them spending money on your product is way higher once they have tried it vs. not trying it at all. One of the most challenging issues that any marketer faces is having consumers willing to try their new products.  It is not easy to convince people to try a new product, especially if they have been loyal to a certain brand.
  2. Brand loyalty– if a consumer already uses one or some of your products, it is more likely that he or she is open to try some of your new ones. Brand-cross promotion is hugely benefited by product sampling and allows your consumers to get familiar with your products.
  3. You plant the seed– once people have tried your product and liked it, chances are they will add it to their shopping list and grab it next time they are at the store. You got them thinking!
  4. People will start talking about your product– By sampling new products and allowing people to make their own mind about the sampling product an effect starts taking place. They start talking about the new product with their family and friends so they are more likely to buy it as well. As well,  there is the web and social media, where the information spreads very quickly. These two play a big role in sampling. When you can get a consumer to not only try your product, but share that experience with as many people as possible through social media, you’re amplifying that product experience that much more.

To make sampling even more effective you can attach a coupon so people are more eager to go and get the products once they try it.

Sampling might open up new alternatives for you before advertising through more costly mediums. It is hard in the beginning of the life cycle of any new product to grow in huge proportions but if you have the right strategy in place your chances of having a successful launch might be bigger.

Direct Mailing Services are tried and true method to prospect for new clients, nurture web leads or maintain a strong relationship with current clients.  Direct mail services, when implemented properly are a low cost and effective method that provides a positive return on investment.  Plus, direct mail stands out!  Especially in today’s fast-paced world.

At Dare Marketing we specialize in direct mail marketing and we are “your go to experts” for any direct mail needs.  Not only does Dare Marketing have modern sorting and printing equipment, but combine this with their years of experience and expertise and you’ll have a winning combination for your next direct mail campaign.  Dare Marketing has been able to show their clients positive ROI, even in the age of digital media.

Complete Direct Mailing Services that Dare Marketing offers:

  • Modern, automated equipment for high efficiency folding, collation and insertion.
  • On-demand, personalized addressing using laser or inkjet technology.
  • Preferred postal rates for direct mail campaigns, to destinations in USA and Canada.
  • Telemarketing for direct mail list cleaning.
  • List rental, list sourcing, merge and purge.
  • Full pick/pack/ship services for your sample promotions!

If you are thinking of sampling through direct mail fulfillment, please contact us at (905)569-6445.

What are the advantages of having a rebate management company handle your rebate process?

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While many companies recognize the benefits of a rebate program to boost sales, many struggle with the clerical and logistical tasks of implementing a rebate program. This is where a rebate management company can help.

What is a rebate?

A rebate is an amount paid by way of reduction, return, or refund on what has already been paid or contributed. A rebate always takes place after the purchase. It’s a type of sales promotion that marketers use primarily as incentives or supplements to product sales.

So what exactly can a rebate management company do for you?

There is nothing better than having an experienced, accurate and hands on agency when it comes to managing and handling your rebate programs. An expert rebate management company will handle all the details of rebate management program efficiently, including the collection and reporting of customer data, and, typically at a lower cost that you can do it yourself. Here are the advantages of choosing a rebate management company to manage your rebate campaigns:

  • Verified rebate coupons and/or orders as necessary to control costs
  • Efficiently deliver your rebate, electronically or physically
  • Store, warehouse and ship your rebate offer, if it is a physical and not an electronic rebate
  • Manage all the details from data entry to answering customer questions about your rebate
  • Provide market and customer data reports, delivered on your desired schedule
  • Offer the freedom of choice of paper-based or web-based paperless rebate management systems to make monitoring your program easy and efficient.

Why should you consider running a rebate campaign?

Rebates, gifts with purchase and mail in offers are proven strategies for driving sales.
Your objective as a marketer is to encourage the consumer to pick your product over that of a competitor at the point-of-sale (POS) and basically there are two basic strategies to achieve this. You can develop a complex program involving manufacturing, packaging, shipping and special displays or, you can use the straight forward rebate which is relatively simple to implement. The main goal in the issuance of consumer rebates is to generate a higher level of consumer loyalty while increasing sales. According to Info-Now, citing research conducted by Market Growth Resources, only between 5 and 10 percent of consumers redeem rebates. This could certainly be an explanation why offering a perk of this kind remains a popular businesses’ strategy to not only raise awareness. Taking this into account, you can deduce that you can increase your sales by offering a rebate while, the rebate redemption rate is typically low, so the costs of a rebate promotion are typically low in relation to the sales generated.  This is a win/win for the marketer because the get the boost in sales a rebate offer generates, with low redemption, thus keep the costs of program low.

If you need expert help at designing or fulfillment of a rebate program, Dare Marketing is here to help you. You’ll have nothing to worry about when relying on us to manage your rebate programs. You can rest assure that we will do a thorough check of each rebate and quantify and qualify the rebates so you can measure results. Contact us today to request a quote or if you have any questions at 905-569-6445.

Customer service is the key to success for online ecommerce shops

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How many of us have had a bad experience with a company, restaurant or store and that one time has been enough to never come back?  It’s just human nature that once we’ve had a bad experience, it’s pretty unlikely that we will ever return.  For most people, if they are paying for a product or service, they want to not only see the value of what they are acquiring but also expect a level of customer service to come with it.

Many companies spend a fair amount of resources in trying to get more customers but they never step back to rethink how they can retain customers and avoid losing existing customers. (It’s far easier to retain and grow existing customers than it is to find new ones!)

Here are some interesting stats on customer service:

  • According to a survey done by American Express, 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience.
  • 95% of people who have a bad experience do not complain.
  • News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience. It’s estimated that 13% tell up to 20 other people, while a satisfied customer tells only five other people.
  • It can cost at least five times more to land new customers than retain existing ones
  • It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience (Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner)

What you can do for your ecommerce shop to make sure customers are happy

  1. Ask them! It’s not hard to send an automated email after order completion to ask them what they thought of the experience.
  2. Make sure your site has plenty of areas to ask questions and provide feedback.
  3. Check other online review places like Google+, Facebook, Yelp, etc. For reviews, make sure any negative feedback is addressed.  TIP:  Don’t argue negative reviews online.  Simply apologize and offer a solution to the problem.  This shows you’re proactive and that you take complaints seriously.
  4. See what positive and negative reviews your competitors have online and try to make sure you take this into account in your website user experience.
  5. Fulfillment is key! After a person places an order the expect to get the right products they ordered promptly.  Make sure you’re fulfillment house is doing its job.

Customer service not only means providing the client with solutions, peace of mind and different alternatives to address their concerns, but it also means to help them in meeting their goals and objectives. It means working with them within their means, such as budget constraints, guide lines, deadlines, etc. When a service or product provider understands that the customer’s needs are important and makes sure that those needs and concerns are addressed, then they can increase customer service satisfaction.

I found this line and loved it:

Any business with customers is in the “people” business.

Customer service in our eyes is about building relationships and letting our customers know that we care about them. We are always here to assist them.

At Dare Marketing, we strive to offer and provide the best customer service. We take pride in taking care of our customers and provide valuable Marketing services. Our customers know that they can rely on our expertise for all their marketing services. We maintain an open communication with our customers and always look to resolve their concerns in a favorable way.

We understand that happy customers are returned customers and acknowledge that they will likely recommend us to their friends and family. Referrals are always appreciated.

Thank you to all our customers for believing in us in these over 20 years in business.  We value and appreciate immensely each one of you!

Consider a Multi-Marketing Strategy

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Marketing strategy, as with many other practices have evolved with time and technology. The options that individuals and companies now have to promote and advertise their products or services has diversified and provide a number of mediums to reach your intended target.

Multi marketing allows you to diversify and broaden your reach.  It also gets your message noticed. Using just one medium is not nearly as powerful, or as effective as creating a campaign spread across many types of ads.

Traditional marketing channels:

Direct mail

Direct Mail refers to communications sent to potential customers via the postal service or other delivery services. Direct mail is sent to customers based on different criteria such as age, income, location, profession, buying pattern, etc. Direct mail includes advertising circulars, postcards, flyers, catalogs, and other unsolicited merchandising invitations delivered by mail to homes and businesses. Like many other marketing strategies, direct mail may not work well with all audiences or in every industry, and it usually performs best when you execute it with supporting campaigns, such as emails, phone calls or online marketing tactics. If you are unable to measure the results of your direct mail campaigns, you may be throwing money away on ineffective marketing strategies for your business.

Dare Marketing offers Direct Mail Services

Dare Marketing offers variable data printing for addressing thousands of envelopes or postcards

Couponing

Couponing is used in print and digital media and is meant to create a response from the reader. Manufacturers and retailers are now making coupons available online than can be downloaded or printed and used at the time of purchase. These coupons can be available on company websites or social media sties or be sent to their distribution’s list through email.

Dare Marketing can help you with rebate management and fulfillment

Telemarketing

We are all familiar with marketers contacting customers by phone.  It is believed that the main benefit to businesses is increased lead generation, which helps businesses increase sales volume and customer base.

Radio and TV advertising

These mediums can deliver massive audiences to the advertiser. These sophisticated channels allow you to offer unique creative ads and engage and connect with the feelings and emotions of your audience. However costs can be high and most small businesses do not have the budget for TV or radio advertising.

If you’re selling a product on TV or Radio Dare Marketing can help you with Fulifillment

Print advertising

Advertisements created by copywriters that appear in print format in newspapers, magazines, etc. Magazine and newspaper ads often include a direct response call-to-action, such as a toll-free number, a coupon redeemable, etc. Many people believe that print advertising is not relevant anymore as more people are moving from the traditional way of reading a printed newspaper or magazine, to online.

Out-of-home

Out-of-home direct marketing refers to a wide array of media designed to reach the consumer outside the home, including billboards, transit, bus shelters, bus benches, aerials, airports, in-flight, in-store, movies, college campus/high schools, hotels, shopping malls, sport facilities, stadiums, taxis—that contain a call-to-action for the customer to respond.

Direct selling

Direct selling is the sale of products by face-to-face contact with the customer, either by having salespeople approach potential customers in person or in-store demos, or through indirect means such as house parties.

 

Non- traditional marketing channels:

Online Marketing- desktop and laptops are devices that most individuals still use on a daily basis, however, mobile devices have increased in market share for the last number of years. Online marketing is something that marketers can’t ignore anymore and it is progressing at a fast rate. Today smart phones are at the center of new mobile marketing trends, delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. It also allows you to broad your reach because you can target any country or region in the world.

If you’re selling goods online, Dare Marketing can help you with ecommerce fulfillment.

Social media marketing

You can create ads in social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. to communicate directly with customers by creating content to which customers can respond.

Internet marketing

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is regarded as an effective method of increasing your website’s presence in organic searches for creating potential customers. You can also display ads based on related searches.

Email marketing

Sending newsletters or marketing messages through email is one of the most inexpensive and widely used direct-marketing methods. It’s fairly easy to design, set up and it can be sent any time. The other advantage is that you can get accurate measure responses at real time.

Mobile marketing

Types of mobile marketing messages include: SMS (short message service)—marketing communications are sent in the form of text messages, also known as texting. MMS (multi-media message service)—marketing communications are sent in the form of media messages.

How Dare Marketing Can Help You.

With over 20 years in business, Dare Marketing offers solutions that will provide measurable results. Whether you need help with your direct mail campaign, telemarketing support or online marketing, we have the resources and experience that you need. Contact us today:

How to Measure Your Direct Mail Campaign

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Direct mail is one of the most traditional marketing mediums to advertise your company, service or product. In order to know if a direct mail campaign is successful there should be some statistical measures in place before starting so that you know if it’s successful.

You need to understand the efficiency and effectiveness of your direct mail campaign for mainly 2 reasons:

  1. Measure results and understand (ROI) return on investment.
  2. Evaluate if it makes sense for your business to continue doing these kinds of marketing campaigns in the future.

You can measure the success of your direct sales campaign by looking at the following factors:

Response

Determine the response rate, which is the number of sales made or leads generated compared to how many mailing pieces you sent out.

Response Rate = LEADS(Sales) / #mailing pieces sent

If you do not know how many people reacted to your campaign you will not know how effective your direct sales campaign was. You need to understand how many sales or leads were generated by the campaign.   It’s all about tracking! There are different ways to do this:

  • Add a promo code to the mailer; you will then know how many people responded to your mailing by the promo code.
  • You can direct people to an online form. People who fill out the form can be tracked as responders.
  • You can set up a special phone number. Those who call that number are responders.
  • You can add a coupon. Those who use the coupon are responders.

Incremental Sales

You can measure whether your campaign was successful by:

  • Did your sales increase during the time that the campaign was running? You can analyze and project your sales for a certain period of time based on historic data and determine what your projected sales would be with and without running the direct sales campaign.
  • Make sure that you give enough time for the results of a direct mail campaign to show before doing any incremental volume analysis. Usually, you can still see results of a campaign, two to three weeks after it is executed.
  • Another way to measure the results is to compare the projected sales for a given time period with the actual sales or leads after a direct advertising campaign. Compile the total sales during the campaign’s life cycle and subtract that base volume that you calculated from the historical sales data to determine incremental volume, or sales that your direct mail campaign most likely generated.

 

Incremental Volume = Actual Sales during promo period – Projected Sales during promo period

Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on Investment (ROI) is typically one of the most important measures of your direct mail marketing campaign.  To calculate this measure you need to gather data on two main components

  1. The total cost of the campaign including design, mailing materials, postage, etc. This is your investment.
  2. The total revenue (incremental) generated by your campaign. This is your return.

ROI = (Return – Investment) / Investment

Other

There are other marketing tools used to measure the success of a direct mail campaign.

 

Control Group

You can use a control group which is defined as the group in an experiment or study that does not receive treatment by the researchers and is then used as a benchmark to measure how the other tested subjects do. Break your direct mail list into one small group (control group) and a larger test group. Ensure that both groups are demographically similar for more accurate results. You can also send your direct mail piece to the test group, but do not send or any other marketing materials to the control group.  The difference between the two groups can be attributed to the direct mail campaign.

Geographic

You can also use geographic offer codes to determine who responded to your campaign, and who made purchases. Measuring geographic location can help you identify hot spots and niches that you should target when developing your next campaign. It’s well-known that marketing to loyal customers achieves a much higher rate of response than marketing to new prospects.

Cost Per

“Cost per” Analysis (Cost per response, cost per qualified response, and cost per order) is measuring the cost per response.  It helps take into account the different costs of two direct mail campaigns.  Also a cost per response analysis is useful when comparing a direct mail campaign with an advertising campaign or other marketing activity.

Customer Acquisition Cost

This provides a summary of all your costs that lead up to acquiring a new customer.  It may include the direct mail campaign, the fulfillment and all the follow-up (including both telephone and in-person sales time).

Revenue per Order

This provides a snapshot of how much money your campaign produced on a per-order basis. (This may not apply to a lead generation campaign.) This is important when compared to your customer Acquisition Cost.

 

RPO = Total Incremental Revenue / # Incremental Orders

 

 

 

If you need help with your direct mail marketing needs, why not source it out the experts. Dare Marketing has the resources and experience to make your direct mail campaign efficient and effective.

Contact us today:

http://www.daremarketing.com/index.php/direct-mailing-services/direct-mail-services/

Shopping Cart Integration with Your Fulfillment House

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The whole point of ecommerce is make transactions and information flow seamlessly.  Look for shopping cart integration from your fulfillment house to complete your ecommerce fulfillment needs.

What is Shopping Cart Integration?

So you’ve built an ecommerce website and are getting some orders.  You’re finding filling the orders; and packing and shipping are becoming a full time job.  You don’t seem to have enough time to work on marketing and growing your business.  This is the time when most ecommerce retailers decide it’s time to outsource order fulfillment.  One of the key considerations for outsourcing to a fulfillment house is the requirement to integrate with your cart.

It doesn’t matter what software platform you are on, Woo commerce, Big Commerce, Volusion, etc.  You need to get the information from your ecommerce platform to your fulfillment house and back from your fulfillment house into your ecommerce platform.  This is where integration between the two of you comes in.

Typical Shopping Cart Integration

Typical shopping cart integration is:

  • Sending orders to your fulfillment house
  • Receiving stock status back from fulfillment house
  • Receiving order status back from fulfillment house
  • Receiving shipping status back from fulfillment house

These integrations are important because they allow you to easily provide this information to your customers in real time.  Plus, they remove manual data entry, saving time while reducing a source of data entry errors.

Benefits of Integration

Integration has many benefits for both the ecommerce retailer and the fulfillment house including:

  • Faster information updates
  • Reduced costs (data entry)
  • Reduced errors (data entry)
  • Better information for clients including order status and shipment status

Dare Marketing Has Integration Solutions for You

Here at Dare Marketing we’ve completed many successful integrations with the most popular ecommerce platforms including Woo Commerce, Big Commerce, Volusion and Magento.  Some of the features that Dare Marketing offers are:

  • Live orders placed online are uploaded to our WMS
  • Order statues updated, once shipped marked as Shipped and tracking numbers updated
  • Inventory can be linked between the two programs so they show their inventory or so clients do not sell more inventory than they have on hand
  • Ability to make filters to receive orders such as just North America
  • Manage and link shipping methods so the import into the WMS for the correct shipping method the customer paid for.

If you’d like more information or proposal for fulfillment with shopping cart integration, please contact us.

Fulfillment Services 101: What You Expect from Your Fulfillment House

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Selecting a fulfillment house for your business can be a daunting task.  You need to pick Fulfillment Company that provides a wide variety of services to meet your current and future needs.  Here’s checklist of different services offered by fulfillment houses.

Storage and Warehousing

Most fulfillment companies offer this as their most basic service.  Storage services usually have an “in/out” or “handling fee” plus a monthly storage fee.  This is usually calculated by item, box or skid, whichever is most convenient for the size and scope of your products.

Pick & Pack

Pick and Pack are pretty standard services offered by most 3PL warehouses or fulfillment houses.  Pick and Pack generally entails the fulfillment house picking an order from your stock and packing it and readying it for shipment.  This is typically charged for by the item/case/box picked.

Shipping Services

Not all 3PL Warehouses will also provide shipping services in conjunction with warehousing and pick/pack.  However, most fulfillment service providers do also provide services to arrange for shipping on your behalf.  Fulfillment houses usually have preferred rates from shipping companies due to volume and can arrange for your shipment under their rate schedules, saving you money.

Order Tracking

If you’re just using a “general warehouse” for fulfilling orders, you probably won’t find this service offered.  However, most warehouses that specialize in fulfillment services generally offer this.  This is great for you or your customers to be able to log on to the internet and track the status of orders.  This is a great customer service feature for your customers.

Drop Shipping Services

If you ship internationally, it can get expensive with customs processing fees.  Many fulfillment services offer drop shipping for international orders.  For example, if you sent 10 packages to the US from Canada, you could experience 10 brokerage fee charges from your customs broker.  Plus, crossing the border can add extra days to your shipping time.  With a drop shipping service, your fulfillment house combines all 10 orders into a single shipment and sends it to the US Postal service where they are sent out individually.   This saves you on brokerage and also cuts transit time.  If may also save you on lower US postal rates.

Kitting Services

Let’s say you sell shirts and ties, and you offer a “shirt and tie package”, where the customer gets a discount on purchasing a specific shirt and tie as a package.  Your fulfillment house could pre-package shirts and ties together as kits.  This generally lowers the fulfilment costs, allowing you to offer a discount, while increasing your revenue because more items will be sold.  If this service could be of use to you, make sure you ask your fulfillment house about it.

Rebate Management

You may want to offer your clients a special rebate.  Perhaps you offer clients $10 rebate if two are purchased, or you may offer a “free calculator with purchase”.  Fulfillment houses that also offer rebate management can collect the rebate information for you, process eligible rebates and also send out the rebate cheques, making it a turn-key operation for you.  Ask your fulfillment house about rebate management.

Reverse Logistics

Many people forget about returns.  Some of your orders may get returned due to being defective, or perhaps the customer ordered the wrong product, or if you have a lax return policy, maybe your client just doesn’t want the product anymore.  Returning a product to stock is different than picking and packing it.  The product must be inspected and determined if it can be returned to stock or it needs to be scrapped.  Not all fulfillment service providers will offer this service, so be sure to check.

Marketing Campaigns, Literature Fulfillment, etc.

You may have a need to send direct mail campaigns to your clients.  Having your fulfillment services provider do this for you is ideal.  They already have the data you need to target a marketing campaign, plus their familiar with your products.

Dare Marketing is a Great Choice

Here at Dare Marketing we’re experts in product and literature fulfillment, plus we can help you with any marketing mailing campaign.  If you’d like a full service Fulfillment house, contact us for a review and free estimate for your required fulfillment services.

 

 

 

6 Predictions for the Future of eCommerce

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The retail industry has been drastically transformed in the last few years to incorporate the new technologies of electronic commerce in the social, mobile and at the user experience level. The new challenge that marketing and sales managers face is to detect digital trends to stay ahead of competition while boosting sales and providing customers with the best shopping experiences. While there are a lot of factors that will define the future of electronic commerce, here are 6 trends that one must not fail to consider to have a successful eCommerce business:

1. Presence on mobile devices

The adoption of mobile devices around the world continues to grow. In the coming years; that means that more people will access the Internet from other than a desktop. Therefore, the growth of commerce, or m-commerce (mobile commerce) will increase exponentially in the coming years; it’s even expected that it will be higher than sales done through desktop computers. It is for this reason that any person or company who decides to sell their products or services online should focus much of its efforts on having an e-commerce site available on all types of devices. Similarly, the shopping experience must be excellent on all available platforms. Just as the introduction of smartphones and tablets is changing the consumption behavior of users, the new wave of portable devices will have the same effect. Creativity to implement sales strategies in the new pieces of hardware, such as lenses, smart watches and bracelets, will be crucial for companies wishing to beat the competition.

2. Personalized shopping experience

In order to provide an adequate experience for each person, the most important thing is to know what their preferences are. This is more difficult when there is no direct interaction with the customer. The owner of the online store cannot ignore if the user who is on the other side of the screen is male or female, or whether it’s a teenager or elderly person. Site owners must be aware of who the user is, their specific needs and wants and be able to serve up content that is specifically targeted to them. The only way to know the customer better is through information. With social media data now available and people sharing all kind of personal information online, gathering data is getting easier. Therefore, companies must integrate social media information and tailor their “marketing efforts” to their target market in a more precise way than before.

3. The importance of offline sales

Many people believe that the growth of electronic commerce will put an end to physical stores. This is not entirely true. While digital stores offer many advantages over physical stores; one of the most important is the convenience of not having to travel to a shopping center or facility to purchase a product. In most cases this is very convenient, but it is important to remember that many people still enjoy the “physical shopping” experience and enjoy trying or testing the product before buying it as well as look for that personalized help from another human being. That will not disappear, only the purchase dynamics will change. The online experience can be used as a determinant factor to make a purchase (for example sending an email announcing their biggest sale of the year and offering a coupon with extra discounts) or as a post-buy experience, for example after a purchase in the physical store to offer a coupon redeemable online store. The relationship between online and offline channels is very important and will certainly be in the future. Experts predict that future stores will operate more like exhibition spaces, better known as showrooms, where customers can try out products in person, experiment and carry out subsequent purchase online and receive it at your door.

4. Service and social networks

Some people think that price is the most important thing, others consider that promotion is the key, but in the end, the secret for creating brand loyalty and increasing sales continues to be the quality of service. It doesn’t matter if the company sells groceries or technology. Great service drives brand loyalty. Social networking has gained strength in recent years. The amount of information shared on Facebook and Twitter is vast and traveling at high speed, and is growing astronomically. Both positive and negative reviews spread exponentially. Therefore, it is important to have a strong presence in social networks, as well as to promote products and to meet difficult situations and provide excellent customer service.

5. The challenge of SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO for short) is one of the largest sources of traffic for online stores. Constantly, Google updates its search algorithm in order to show the most relevant content for your users. The same way that Marketing techniques evolve, SEO tactics do too. To be competitive in e-commerce, it is important to have attractive and quality content that helps the company stay current in the results of Google. Keywords are no longer enough. Efforts should focus on developing useful content and tailored to the target market. For example, creating blogs, videos and other media that are focused on a lifestyle, and encourage people to share and make them relevant.

6. Fulfillment Services

As ecommerce grows, fulfillment will play a bigger role in who wins customers. Getting a client to buy on line is a huge challenge, but ultimately, you have to deliver. If you can’t pick/pack/ship an order accurately, quickly and at a competitive price, you’ll lose customers in the long-run.
Here at Dare Marketing, we know eCommerce fulfillment and can help you fulfill your orders quickly, accurately and at a competitive price. We have delivery networks across Canada and the United States for small package fulfillment. Ask us about our Ship to USA Consolidation program. We consolidate orders to the USA and deliver them to U.S. Postal Service, allowing you to save on customs while taking advantage of low USPS rates.