Online shopping sales are predicted to increase through 2020 and beyond. Meeting the demands and challenges of eCommerce, retailers will shoulder greater obligation for the quality of streamlining supply chain, working with factories overseas and reducing cost.
How to Work with Factories Overseas:
Working with overseas factories can be challenging. then it is imperative to do your due diligence, be detailed and concise, get everything in writing and make sure you understand the manufacturer’s timeline as well as their price points up front. As a small business, you must be able to scale and simplify the back end of your logistics. The pitfalls many find themselves in is not having a strict return policy, not knowing their product and market or the logistics involved. Here are some useful tips in going global in the most efficient way:
Establish Strict Return Policy
- Make sure to include correct pricing, this can make or break your business.
- The customer must be responsible for the shipping cost.
- Make sure things get clear through customs.
- Have a set time for returns, 14 days is more than enough time
- Make sure tracking is available.
Know Your Product and Your Market
- Understand your product better than anyone else.
- Have a clear understanding of your market- who are your target markets
- Must have clear and concise information and language for the perspective country -this can be customized especially those that are not English speaking countries
- Have the right APIs and Plugins for price conversions
- Make sure the duties and taxes are cleared at customs
- Protect your business from unforeseen liabilities
- Managing the Backend of Logistics:
- Make sure ‘signature required’ available
How to Reduce Costs:
Shipping proves to be a challenge for e-commerce. In the online world, everyone wants extremely fast service. If your customer’s order is delayed it can become quite upsetting for them. The last thing you need is bad reviews and a tarnished repetition. What do you do? Find a way to handle shipping well.
E-commerce is costly so make sure you hire smarter people than you. Research shows that return cost is estimated over 650 million per year.
Customers will judge you based on your return policy. It is advisable to offer clear and concise return policy. Offer free return policy. How to reduce this number is to combat the problem. Customers change their minds quite frequently.
To avoid an influx of returns:
- Buy in larger quantities in order to get a better price point from manufacturers
- Make sure your product is featured well on your page
- Regarding delivery, be personable with your customer it is said to reduce returns, build a connection with your customer.
- Simplify payment processing
- Keeping cost low only prove profitable for you and your buyers.
- Consider offering your customer a flat rate. Check with your local post office for flat rate shipping.
- Offer your customers free shipping, you can increase the purchase threshold
- Offer pickups save o shipping cost and expense
- First class mail for items under 13 oz, this is much cheaper than priority mail
With advanced technology and eager buyers having apps at their fingertips, online shopping is positioned quite firmly in the marketplace. It is the way of the future and online retailers are positioning themselves to keep up with the times by meeting growing consumer demands.
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