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By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO of ShipHero
Ecommerce websites are constantly shifting to keep up with buyer expectations. With competition from gigantic online stores such as Amazon, keeping up with ecommerce giants can be tricky. Luckily, there are a few key ecommerce trends that online retailers can look to in order to keep up with the wants of online shoppers.
With the rise of the ecommerce industry, more customers than ever are making purchases online. While brick-and-mortar retailers aren’t dead yet, many of them are seeing their customers flock to online stores. With a rise in ecommerce sales comes ecommerce trends.
Here are the 15 trends to keep in mind to help grow your ecommerce business.
Top ecommerce stores are implementing AI and automation to help boost their ad campaigns and messaging across marketing initiatives and social media platforms. Through machine learning and artificial intelligence technology, companies have been able to make hyper-personalized advertising allowing for tailored messaging to customers. Specialized messages can include content specifically targeted at the user's interests or product recommendations that fit their previous browsing history.
On top of being able to personalize messaging to specific users, AI can track the performance of these campaigns and let marketing leads know how each initiative is performing. By carefully examining you and your competitor's marketing success, automation can pick out trends from the complex and time-consuming data, something hard for a human to discover manually.
While AI is helping us customize our marketing experience for customers, we have to tailor the process from start to finish. For example, when searching through an online marketplace, users are more likely to purchase items they are interested in if they find them through sidebar suggestions based on their browsing habits throughout your site. Personalized product recommendations can help prevent cart abandoners and can help you sell more inventory too!
Retail giants like Amazon have used their significant logistics network to ensure that 2-day shipping has become the new normal. Longer shipping times, though sometimes tolerated, are not going to be seen as the usual farther into the future. Finding shipping and logistics solutions to keep up with this 2-day expectation is difficult, but it is, unfortunately, a strong trend that will separate some sellers from their competitors. For ecommerce merchants that want to leverage 2-day shipping, consider working with a 3PL.
Big ecommerce sites have made it possible for 1-day and same-day shipping, especially during the boom in online shopping during COVID-19. Customers can easily have food, snacks, household goods, or other products delivered to their homes overnight or even on the same day.
While many smaller companies have trouble keeping up with this high bar, many people have found the convenience of it even better than visiting a brick-and-mortar store to grab an item.
Chatbots, often powered by automation, can help guide customers through their shopping experience. By answering frequently asked questions or directing the customer to their desired page, chatbots can help users through any confusion or concerns without taxing your customer support staff. The answers are instant, customizable depending on your preference, and work on multiple devices.
Headless commerce, where the frontend and backend of your website are separated, can help you drive innovation on your site. The flexibility of being able to customize, brand, and play with your customer-facing front end while not harming the utilities within your backend lets companies make more considerable changes without stress or danger.
Separating your front and backend also helps improve customer experience by enhancing the website functionality and speed.
Subscriptions create a commitment, whether with SaaS in b2b, or monthly product boxes in b2c. Subscription models keep customers interested in your products and brand.
Even when your subscriptions aren't your main product line, they can help buyers get connected and familiar with your messaging and quality, making them more likely to open their wallets when looking at your other product lines. Subscriptions are also a regular reminder that your business exists, keeping you at the forefront of a customer's mind.
With millennials taking up much of the ecommerce buying power, it is crucial to tap into things that often sway them. A Nielsen report has shown that 73% of millennials would pay more for sustainable products. Some examples of industries that benefit from this trend include upcycled products, consignment, and local p2p transactions. Tapping into these markets will require new initiatives and green product lines to appeal to these wants.
Mobile devices have become more and more prominently used when shopping online, so much so that Insider Intelligence stated that mobile commerce would reach $488.0 billion (44% of ecommerce) by 2024. One-click shopping and easily accessible social commerce ads on apps have driven mobile shopping. In order to tap into the mCommerce market, it will be essential to make sure your website has mobile-friendly shopping or a mobile app.
The oldest of the Gen Z era are now in their early 20s, meaning they are quickly becoming more common customers within the ecommerce world. For a generation that has always known the conveniences of ecommerce and online ordering, a smooth customer experience will be vital. Gen Z is more partial to social commerce, meaning Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram are key places to garner their interest.
Influencers have grown in popularity within marketing, especially when selling products through social media sites. Having a trusted celebrity or influencer tout your product can immediately get thousands of eyes on your business and markets much more directly to a group of consumers than SEO or content marketing.
Both TikTok and Instagram are rising as major sales channels, especially with Gen Z starting to become a larger and larger part of the ecommerce market. Pew Research Center saw that 48% of United States adults between 18-29 years old use TikTok, a number that falls dramatically to 20% in the 30-49 age range. When marketing to younger consumers, both TikTok and Instagram will be a vital piece of the puzzle.
With Instagram and TikTok investing significantly in commerce capabilities, ordering directly from these apps is going to become much easier.
Score saw that 55% of those who do online shopping prefer to buy from stores with a physical location rather than an online-only shop. Being able to do returns, try on clothes in the store, or see products in person is still valuable to consumers. You shouldn't overlook the advantages of a brick-and-mortar location, especially in specific sectors such as apparel.
Buy Now Pay Later has become a wildly popular payment method for consumers. Services like Affirm, Sezzle, and Klarna make it easy for customers to make purchases on installment payments. Shopify has implemented the option natively with Shop Pay.
Apple Pay is launching a similar service. Having these installment-like payment options helps those without credit cards finance payments and creates accessibility for many shoppers. Having flexibility in payment systems also means that customers can make big-ticket item purchases that they may not have entertained otherwise.
Many platforms such as Shopify have made the checkout experience extremely smooth. Ensuring an easy and painless checkout can prevent cart abandonment and improve the crucial last parts of the customer experience. Poor checkout experiences are also more common on mobile devices, so make sure this process is simple across all of your platforms!
Are you worried about keeping up with these ecommerce trends? ShipHero can help. Our software connects with your warehouse, outsourced shipping processes, and 3PLs to help you deliver your ecommerce. We help you elevate your experience through:
ShipHero offers standard, expedited, and overnight shipping so that you can keep up with top ecommerce retailers like Amazon and Walmart. We facilitate fast shipping without the hassle and frustration. ShipHero has no hidden fees, and we help you find the cheapest overnight options to save money.
Our software can help you handle your order fulfillment through a nationwide network of warehouses. By creating distributing processes throughout these warehouses, delivery delays are minimized, and orders arrive at your customers quicker. Multi-channel fulfillment allows us to offer overnight and 2-day shipping without the worry.
Returns happen. When managed correctly, they can help you grow your sales and create repeat customers. Through built-in self-service options for your customers and easy label printing through connected shipping accounts, returns become simple for customers.
Keeping up with ecommerce trends is crucial to staying on top of the competition. From AI and chatbots to a heavier social commerce presence, adapting to the new normals can help you stay relevant and bring in new audiences. To give yourself an edge, implement technology and software such as ShipHero to help facilitate faster shipping and smoother fulfillment processes.
Schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about our WMS software built for ecommerce brands & 3PLs looking to run their best warehouse and how ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
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By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO at ShipHeroWhile seeing into the future of your supply chain may be impossible, predicting what may happen can be estimated by looking at the past. When a company wants to know how their finances, supply chain, and marketing may perform in the future, they often examine how things went in previous years.Historical business data can help you successfully estimate things like seasonal trends and product success. One of the processes for looking at this data in the supply chain world is called demand forecasting.
Demand forecasting is the practice of looking at a company's historical data for things such as finances, marketing, and supply to understand likely future trends. Demand forecasting methods end up within one of three categories, either qualitative forecasting, time-series analysis, or casual models. Forecasting can include looking at different lengths of time, using statistical methods, or looking at external influences on your future business.
Businesses use forecasting in many ways to help gain an advantage over the competition. From inventory and supply chain management to cash flow and spend, there are many areas where you can use demand forecasting within your planning.
When preparing your budget, demand forecasting helps you get a glimpse into your company's needs during an upcoming season or year. By knowing positive (and negative) trends, your business is better able to reduce risk and plan through data-backed decision-making. Whether it be inventory needs, staffing, or cash flow, you will be able to estimate your budget more accurately when forecasting.For example, in the ecommerce industry, the holiday shopping season is one of the busiest times of the year. Ecommerce merchants use past holiday shopping data to forecast how much inventory they’ll need for the holiday season.
One area that demand forecasting is extremely useful for is production management. Through analysis of your past seasonal demand, your company can better prepare for needed production before running out. Ramping up production only when needed means customers get items when they want them, and you don't have to put in guesswork and waste money by overproducing.
Warehouse stock needs can be hard to predict, which is why demand forecasting for inventory can help identify your future needs. Looking at inventory needs of the past and rising or falling demand trends, you can better gauge how much stock you will need throughout the year. Like production, having enough to continue providing services and goods is necessary, while having too much inventory can cost you unnecessary storage fees.
External and internal forecasting are two of the many ways to garner insight into the market and potential areas of business growth. Looking at the competition and trends in the historical market, you can better price your items advantageously in relation to rising and falling trends.
There are different types of demand forecasting methods, all using unique forecasting techniques and statistical methods to examine potential future demand. Understanding which demand forecasting you should use is vital to gauge possible trends and future customer demand accurately.
Passive forecasting is the most straightforward when looking for a basic, non-nuanced prediction. In this type of forecasting, you look at historical data from your sales in the past to estimate future sales. Unfortunately, this model doesn't take into account variables, such as retailers that will have seasonal fluctuations. Passive forecasting models often can only be accurately used for analytics with businesses that are highly steady in sales and have robust historical sales data.
The active demand model is most commonly used for businesses that are either very new or have aggressive growth within their marketing campaigns. Because your company may not have the past sales data to have accurate demand forecasts, active forecasting often looks at other resources such as market research, economic data, and supply chain management data.
In the short-term forecast method, insights such as seasonal demand, cyclical patterns, and other similar anomalies are included in the trend projection, making this a great way to examine your inventory management and supply chain. You can also use short-term forecasts to think about new products and their performance. The time span that the short-term method looks at is from three to 12 months.
Compared to short-term projections, long-term forecasting looks quite a bit further out from one to four years into the future. Rather than thinking about recent data sets and sales trends, future projections look at long-term demand, potential business decisions, business growth planning, and marketing planning.
When examining your company’s goals, sometimes you will want to look at how outside forces may affect your forecast accuracy and sales channels. Whether you look at competitor and market trends or other outside factors, external macro forecasting can help you look at some complex factors that may affect your goals. Using external forecasting is excellent if you have concerns about your supply chain, are thinking about expansion, or are concerned about risk mitigation.
If you are looking to create accurate forecasts on your internal operations, such as your sales, a specific product, or a manufacturing division, internal business forecasting is ideal. Internal forecasting is excellent if you need an expert opinion on how things such as your warehouse distribution, purchases, cash flow, or profit margins are trending.
Examining your current trends and predicting future possibilities makes demand forecasting important for any company. Even just using the most straightforward methods can help a company of any size gain insight into how to follow their goals and which goals to set.
Using methods such as short-term forecasting, you can closely examine seasonal trends around your products. By predicting and understanding your customer demand spikes, you can better know how to handle your supply chain and inventory needs. Knowing your seasonal trends can also reveal markets and niches you have yet to tap into during your slower months.
Examining your past cash flow and comparing it to future predictions can help you better understand where your cash flow is going and how much you will have to invest in the future. Having a better understanding of your potential financial health in the future can help you make crucial decisions and goals.
Looking at demand trends, especially seasonal spikes, can help you better plan your supply chain needs. Rather than running out of inventory during your peak seasons, you can invest in more from your suppliers before these higher-demand periods. Knowing when your lulls are in demand for certain products, you can better plan your marketing strategy and only stock as much inventory as is needed during these periods.
External macro forecasting gives you an in-depth look at how outside factors can influence your product performance, sales, marketing, and supply chain. As you understand how different risks may harm your suppliers, products, or business, you can appropriately prepare for changes in external markets to better protect your company. Looking at outside influences can also help your company become more flexible and robust to react to these changes and take advantage of them quicker.
Predictions are a great way to gather data about potential future trends for your company. From threats that you need to prepare for to new markets you should break into, forecasts can help your company make big moves for the future. Whether changing your marketing strategies or reinforcing your supply chain, different forecasts will help you make decisions across your business to bring future success.
ShipHero makes demand forecasting simple, helping you easily gain insight into fulfillment operations, products, shipments, and returns. Our data reporting helps you see everything going on in your warehouse operations to help you make educated and data-backed decisions.We facilitate day-to-day actionable reporting to help keep your team organized while streamlining the process, actionable shipping reporting, and individual team member stats. ShipHero tracks:
Demand forecasting and data analysis help your company make big decisions to give you an edge over the competition. From inventory analysis to marketing initiatives, your company will be able to reduce risks for new endeavors and make profitable decisions. Programs like ShipHero can help.Schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about our WMS software built for ecommerce brands & 3PLs looking to run their best warehouse and how ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting TodayAaron Rubin, Founder & CEOShipHeroAbout the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.Follow Aaron on Twitter&LinkedIn.
By: Maggie M. Barnett, Esq., COO at ShipHeroInvolved procurement strategies are complex and too often ignored by top-level executives. Supplier relationship management (SRM), for example, is a powerful tool that businesses can use to help evaluate vendors and streamline processes to help create a more efficient and beneficial relationship.A study by PwC showed that of companies that implemented SRM strategies, 50% mentioned more efficient processes as a significant benefit of the strategy, and over 40% cited inventory reduction, better customer satisfaction, and more sustainable processes and products.One of the main concepts of SRM is to create better relationships with suppliers to enhance your workflow and working relationships. Rather than just working independently from your supplier entirely, you create a closer relationship that leads to improved reliability, trust, and efficiency. By developing these partnerships, you gain a competitive edge and create a more positive working environment for both parties.
Supplier relationship management is the process of examining all suppliers’ performances and measurables to see how well they match your company's goals while also coordinating strategies with these vendors to improve workflows and collaboration. Through professionally developed partnerships with your suppliers, innovation will flourish, and cooperative, streamlined processes will save time and money for both companies.
Fostering improved relationships with your vendors not only can give you a competitive advantage but can prove to have significant cost savings for your company. By examining your supply chain and the suppliers within it, you can create better SRM strategies that will protect and advance your business through a handful of advantages.
Supplier management helps you carefully examine if your vendors are meeting procurement expectations. Upon looking at supplier data and KPIs, you may find that they are not meeting all initial goals. Taking a close look at these insights can help you find the best-performing suppliers that you should foster more intimate relationships with and those that may not be a good fit.
Strong relationships with your suppliers are essential for collaboration and mutual growth. Looking at the current supplier strategies in place and finding ways to innovate your process with your distributor can help both businesses flourish. By finding areas where your KPIs aren't quite hitting the mark, you can work together to improve and monitor those metrics.
The resources required to set up new relationships and contracts with suppliers can be costly and complex. Through supply chain management, you can foster relationships with strategic suppliers to create long-term, mutually beneficial relationships that save both parties money.
Growing more high-quality partnerships with suppliers means that operations between companies become more streamlined and efficient. Through long-term relationships, your teams learn workflow tactics and new approaches to the procurement process that saves time while still ensuring quality production.
As buyers work more closely with their suppliers and grow a positive relationship, disputes, and hostile negotiations become much less common. A happy working relationship is worth a lot to both companies, enough so that it can create stable pricing agreements as your company commits to continue bringing business to vendors without volatility.
Through the process of SRM, you start examining supplier segmentation within your supply base to analyze better your interactions with individual vendors and those supplier capabilities. Within your supplier management process, you will see which suppliers you can consolidate down to and which may be less ideal import sources.
Working closely with your manufacturers can help prevent issues if supply chain disruption events occur. With strong relationships and long-term protective strategies, you can ensure that you have a stocked inventory and your suppliers are prepared as best as possible for unexpected events.
Improving supplier relationships doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some ways you can improve relationships with suppliers.
By examining value mapping such as vendor risk and revenue growth potential, you find truly what a supplier's contribution will be to your supply chain. You protect your company when you look at the actual value of a supplier beyond just the product price the company hides behind.
To ensure SRM best practices across the company, getting buy-in from stakeholders and top-tier executives is essential. Like with customer relationship management (CRM), business leaders can easily undermine the entire process without a total company commitment.
When looking at your SRM strategy, make sure you are critically examining cost savings and cost modeling. Through value mapping and supplier analysis, you can find ways to optimize your company's spending better, ultimately improving its bottom line.
Suppliers can be a considerable risk for a company if you don't do the proper research into their previous work and expertise. Ask for references, and examine their financial performance, especially in comparison to competitors and their pricing. A wholesaler with the lowest price may seem attractive, but paying a bit more for more reliable service is a big deal for the strength of your supply chain.
Proving the ROI of SRM processes can get buy-in from the C-suite and stakeholders. Through case studies, value mapping, and risk assessment, demonstrate and continue to back the positive ROI that these processes can bring to your company.
SRM software helps communications with vendors and helps streamline and add visibility to crucial processes like invoicing, payments, approvals, and collaboration. By empowering your team with technology and software, you can take a lot of the risk out of these processes and ensure that supplier processes run smoothly and on schedule as much as possible while being transparent and gathering vital data.
Just like you want your goods or services on time, suppliers rely on being paid promptly. If something goes wrong and payment will be late, communicate directly and openly with the supplier as soon as you know of the issue.
Keeping all of your supplier data tracked accurately can be overwhelming, which is where a SIM system comes in handy. All of the information you may need about a supplier, such as contact details or transaction data, is stored and managed within your SIM system. Creating an accessible and visible way to collect this data makes SRM easier and more effective overall.
Not sure if your current suppliers are meeting their requirements? Here are some ways you can evaluate their performance.
Continuously evaluate missed deliverables and incomplete orders. Make sure that products or services received are of the quality expected on a continuous basis. Ensuring SLAs are met is crucial to supplier performance.
Supplier scorecards can be favorable for both the vendor and your evaluation methods. By setting transparent goals for your suppliers, you both will know what you are working towards and the pain points of the process.
When deciding how you will benchmark your suppliers, consider what your goals are from your supplier scorecard or other value strategies. Having measurables to look at for suppliers won't always give a complete picture but can help point out prominent trends, strengths, and weaknesses in your supplier process.
You and your supplier's needs and capabilities will most likely change over time. Rather than be resistant to change, review and update your contracts with your suppliers as situations shift for either party. Instead of keeping unhealthy expectations, morph these agreements to best fit needs across the board.
Supplier relationship management is crucial for a company looking to improve its bottom line and develop its procurement process. Creating solid and long-term relationships with valuable, low-risk suppliers can create a stable and reliable supply chain that will continue to fuel your company for years to come. Developing these partnerships can not only protect your company from future supply chain disruption but from having to create new, costly contracts with potentially high-risk suppliers.If you’re new to ShipHero Fulfillment, please schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about how we can help you get your orders picked, packed, and delivered with our fulfillment service. No setup fees - simply pay as you go. ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting TodayMaggie M. Barnett, Esq., COOShipHeroAbout the author: Maggie M. Barnett, Esq., is the COO of ShipHero. She is responsible for planning and executing the overall operational, legal, managerial and administrative procedures, reporting structures and operational controls of the organization. Barnett’s greatest strengths are leadership, risk mitigation, change management and a passion for business transformation. She is known for her expertise in delivering operational excellence and an ability to provide guidance and mitigating risk. Her leadership of ShipHero is grounded in a servant mentality, always doing the right thing for our stakeholders. Her passion for ShipHero comes from the ability to drive operational excellence throughout the organization impacting the lives of our employees, customers, and partners.Follow Maggie on Twitter&LinkedIn.
By: Maggie M. Barnett, Esq., COO at ShipHeroShortages and bottlenecks have battered global supply chains throughout 2020 and 2021. The COVID-19 outbreak and other unexpected events caused critical suppliers worldwide to suddenly have short supplies, leaving companies reaching for alternate sources of supply that often had dramatic price increases. It has become more evident than ever that companies, manufacturers, and retailers need to build resilience against the uncertainty of the supply chain and the events that can upend it.To better prepare for supply chain challenges, company leaders and supply chain managers need to develop a plan for how to avoid supply constraints. Flexibility also needs to be considered so that when emergencies do happen, the company can adapt to unexpected changes, whether short-term or long-term. One of the first steps to creating resilience against shortages and other supply chain issues is understanding what causes these disruptions.
Supply chain disruption is when a crisis or unexpected change causes problems with the normal flow of goods between entities all along the supply chain. The coronavirus outbreak is an excellent example of a crisis that caused supply chain disruption, such as when personal protective equipment became inaccessible for many hospitals in North America. Other examples of changes that can cause supply chain disruption include dramatic changes in consumer demand, tariffs, or natural disasters such as earthquakes.
2021 has been a large scale example of how supply chain disruption can upend entire industries. Among a handful of other complexities such as the Suez Canal blockage, COVID-19 caused immense constraints on raw material supplies, semiconductors, and other commodities. Understanding today's issues and their effects helps us to have better visibility of future supply chain disruptions.
COVID-19 had dramatic effects on global companies. The beginning of the pandemic saw consumers panic-buying in bulk. Inventory levels couldn't keep up with the sudden increase in demand for essential products such as toilet paper, food, PPE, and water. Large-scale workforce safety measures inevitably increased lead times, and outbreaks of the virus slowed companies even further.
The Suez Canal sees around 13% of the volume of global trade, as it is a gateway for expedited transportation between the Atlantic Ocean and the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. The nearest alternative route is navigating around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, eight or more days of extra travel. On March 23rd, a huge container ship called The Ever Given got lodged diagonally in the canal due to high-speed winds and was stuck there for six days.Over 350 ships were stuck finding alternate routes or waiting during the Suez Canal blockage, leading to a ripple effect throughout the supply chain. Inventory shortages, loss of perishable goods, and a domino effect of delays caused a supply management nightmare. The waves from this event continued to be felt months after the event as warehouses and shipping companies got set significantly behind.
Auto dealerships are facing shortages as they try to replenish their inventory from the pandemic. Simultaneously, car sales are up 48% over their lowest point in the pandemic. Retailers' inventory to sales ratio is only 1.07, and inventories for retailers have shrunk 5% YoY. Due to tight capacity across the global supply chain and high demand, companies have had to extend lead times for inventory planning. Not helping the matter is the shortage of semiconductors that is affecting car production levels.
Lead retailers such as Walmart have also had to lengthen lead times as the inventory to sales ratio dropped to 1.23 in March 2021, according to the Census Bureau, the lowest ever recorded.
The pandemic impacted all supply chain members and their ties simultaneously in a way we have never seen before. Border closures, supply market lockdowns, labor shortages, and shipment interruptions caused problems across all supply tiers. At the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020, 94% of Fortune 1000 companies already saw supply chain disruptions.Many factors caused a critical shortage of hospital PPE, including the fact that at the time, more than 70% of respiratory protection supplies used in the United States were made in China. Manufacturers pivoted to help production, but demand worldwide was extreme. The US government stepped in to help, though federal policy like tariffs also added further disruption. Simultaneously, the general public was panic-buying resources such as PPE, grocery items, sanitizing agents, and household items like toilet paper. The reliance on just-in-time ordering and instant warehousing meant that average consumers could not reliably purchase essential items.
There are dozens of reasons why a supply chain can be disrupted. Here are some of the most common reasons.
COVID-19 is a prime example of pandemic-related supply chain disruption. These large-scale events can cause a ripple effect in the global supply chain that is extremely hard to recover from due to the worldwide impact.
Hurricanes, fires, and floods all can cause supply chain disruption. Hurricane Katrina is a great case study, where large-scale power outages and the inability to use transportation routes caused significant supply issues.
Around the same time as the Suez Canal incident, a COVID-19 outbreak shut down one of China's busiest ports, the Yantian Port. Incidents like the canal blockage and the temporary shutdown at Yantian can disrupt entire supply chains for months.
Recalls of incorrectly made or unsafe products can sometimes be isolated incidents but also can cause much larger ripples. For example, if a large supplier recalls a part used by many manufacturers, it could cause a delay across many parts of the sector.
In May, a cyberattack caused the Colonial Pipeline to shut down its network. The pipeline sources close to half of the East Coast's fuel, about 2.5 million barrels per day of gas. Cyberattacks are growing more common, and many crucial parts of the supply chain are incredibly vulnerable to these threats.
Tariffs and trade wars can cause significant issues for manufacturers and suppliers. We have seen this with the US trade with China throughout 2021 and continuing shortages because of these policies.
If necessary materials are affected by supply chain disruption, you need to have an alternate action plan. Whether having backup suppliers, an emergency budget, or a stockpile of these essential items, you will already be more resilient by coming up with a strategy.
Stockpiling essential items for your company can help you prepare for any situation. Order ahead a handful of months so that your business will have plenty of time to enact its supply chain emergency plan before running out.
By looking at where your risk is within your supply chain, you can help your supply chain leaders know where they need to create more flexibility. By predicting potential pain points before they become problems, you can encourage trade agility and find alternatives.
If your leading suppliers suddenly lost the capability to get you your goods, what would you do? Identifying backup suppliers for all of your goods and services categories can help provide resilience against issues in the future.
When picking suppliers, try to pick those in different locations that ship to you through various avenues. When you diversify your supply base, you ensure that while one supplier may be unable to get to you, the others should still be functional.
Collaborating with a supply chain logistics expert can help you find alternatives in case of an emergency. Professional logistics leaders also can help you find ways to make your supply chain more robust and resilient. 3PL can also help you grow your company's ability to have flexibility in times when some areas or resources may be unavailable.
Technology is adapting to help try to prevent these widespread supply chain issues in the future. Implementing some of these AI-driven risk evaluation tools can provide ways to predict and combat cyber threats. Automation and AI often have a better ability to find potential shortages before most suppliers even know they exist.
Clearly explain to your customer base what is happening within the industry and what steps you are taking to resolve the issue. By keeping an open line of honest communication, they will be more accepting and understanding of your predicament.
Decide which parts of the supply chain are the most vital to getting your product out. Once you have identified the most critical components of your supply chain, find alternative suppliers for those items as soon as possible.
Calculate how much inventory you have left and how long it will last you. Evaluating where you are at with your stock will help you figure out the urgency with which you need a new supply line.
If customer behavior is causing part of your disruption, start assessing buyer behavior. By seeing how your customer base is purchasing, you can better react to their needs and shift in needed areas.
In the case of an event like COVID-19 or a natural disaster, consider the safety of your suppliers and employees. Ensuring the safety of all involved people and parties should be paramount. Consider staggered shifts, remote work, and alternative schedules to guarantee a safe working environment as much as possible.
Not every item you are receiving during a supply chain disruption is as crucial as the others. Just as you identified things that are the most essential to your company's function, also provide slowdown and flexibilities with those that are not. Communicating this information to your suppliers can help you get what you need more readily and not clog them up with less important items.
Adjust your overhead so you can cover and financial impact or issues with your cash flow. Determine what areas will suffer the most, and find ways to cover these losses in a way that is as financially healthy as possible.
Supply chain disruption is inevitable to some degree. The best thing your company can do is encourage visibility and resilience to ensure that if something does happen, you can combat it in a way that is healthy financially and for your workforce. Preparation and plans in case of emergency go a long way in protecting your company from disruption and can buy you precious time to implement alternatives and backup plans.Examine your supply chain, and consider ways that it may be affected in the future, and how you can create robust practices that will help soften the blow of any issues.If you’re new to ShipHero Fulfillment, please schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about how we can help you get your orders picked, packed, and delivered with our fulfillment service. No setup fees - simply pay as you go. ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting TodayMaggie M. Barnett, Esq., COOShipHeroAbout the author: Maggie M. Barnett, Esq., is the COO of ShipHero. She is responsible for planning and executing the overall operational, legal, managerial and administrative procedures, reporting structures and operational controls of the organization. Barnett’s greatest strengths are leadership, risk mitigation, change management and a passion for business transformation. She is known for her expertise in delivering operational excellence and an ability to provide guidance and mitigating risk. Her leadership of ShipHero is grounded in a servant mentality, always doing the right thing for our stakeholders. Her passion for ShipHero comes from the ability to drive operational excellence throughout the organization impacting the lives of our employees, customers, and partners.Follow Maggie on Twitter&LinkedIn.
In the subtle words of The New York Times headline, “Chaos Strikes Global Shipping”. What does it mean by that exactly?
Swing by your local department store, grocery store or electronics store, and you're bound to notice empty shelves. Previously, people blamed COVID-19 panic buyers for emptying store shelves because they stripped stores clean of essentials like toilet paper and water bottles. However, the current empty shelf crisis comes from suppliers that can’t keep up with demand due to lower production, shipping delays and labor shortages.
As a result, consumers are seeing widespread shortages of goods, from shoes to cars and everything in between. In this post, we'll take a closer look at the empty shelf crisis, the industries that are impacted the most and what the future may hold for the shipping industry.
There are many empty Walmart shelves in 2022 because of the Omicron variant, winter storms and supply chain problems. Here's a quick dive into each of those reasons:
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 was discovered in November 2021 and caused a new American COVID wave in early 2022. Many Walmart stores temporarily closed for deep cleaning due to rising cases, which meant people had fewer stores to shop at – ultimately resulting in empty shelves across many locations.
Mid-January 2022 saw a winter storm plague much of the Southern, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. Heavy snowfall and blocked roads caused food shortages in affected areas, resulting in low stocks almost everywhere.
Unfortunately, some lingering supply chain issues in 2021 carried over to 2022. Many stores have resorted to importing extra grocery items on chartered cargo ships to ease these shortages.
The empty shelf crisis is largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic destabilizing the entire shipping industry. There’s some irony to this shipping crisis because, while consumer demand and spending increased, suppliers couldn’t keep shelves stocked to capitalize on these opportunities.
While the pandemic majorly contributed to shipping delays, other immediate factors have also directly impacted the industry:
Recent shortages of shipping containers have driven up the cost of goods delivered from China. CNBC reports that this caused shipping costs to rise by 300%, and logistics companies are struggling to keep up with shifting demands.
For example, the Apple iPhone was generally shipped by air, but the container shortage forced suppliers to ship these products via sea containers. Multiplied across industries, the shift to ocean freight congested sea routes, and the issues in the Suez Canal certainly exacerbated things.
During the pandemic, the number of dockworkers and truck drivers decreased, causing massive delays in shipping and delivery. As a result, the gig economy stepped in, providing temporary and part-time gig workers for warehouse and fulfillment center work.
One of the more talked-about shortages is the microchip shortage, which limited the manufacture of new cars and many electronic devices. Other product and material shortages due to the pandemic, such as a recent deficit of aluminum, have impacted the domestic transport of canned food and soft drinks.
The Suez Canal blockage is a symptom of the industry's problems as a whole. According to Bloomberg, the lack of available workers caused many loading docks to become overwhelmed, resulting in massive shipping delays.
These shipping delays are wreaking havoc within the retail industry, affecting the ability of domestic shippers and 3PLs to fulfill their eCommerce orders. Many American companies are paying up to ten times the usual price of shipping products across the ocean.
The following industries have seen the most impact:
While this doesn't impact your local shelves per se, the automotive industry is being hit hard by a lack of available materials – most specifically the microchips used to control the fuel injection system, cruise control and other electronic systems aboard today's automobiles. As a result, car dealers have struggled to maintain inventory, and consumers are seeing the price of used cars increase.
The chip shortage also impacted electronics companies, including Sony, Apple and Microsoft. A recent fire at a Japanese plant has only exacerbated this chip shortage, meaning we may see a deficit in electronic merchandise for the foreseeable future.
Additionally, a lack of reliable containers has prevented popular electronics companies from reliably shipping products such as laptops, flat-screen TVs and even cell phones.
Since Americans couldn't go on vacation during the lockdown, they typically sank their money into fancy new entertainment systems. The industry did its best to keep up, but, ultimately, the laws of supply and demand collided at the port.
Both Steve Madden and Crocs have expressed concern about the supply chain bottlenecks happening because of the global shipping crisis. Nike usually paid $2,000 to ship a 40-foot container of sneakers. Now, shipping this same container costs $15,000 to $20,000.
The pandemic has affected aluminum manufacturers, preventing them from producing familiar brands of canned fruit and soft drinks. With transportation and logistics problems also slowing domestic shipping down, many grocery stores may not stock popular canned goods for the foreseeable future.
Naturally, the pandemic had us all reaching for the hand sanitizer. While the shipping issue doesn't directly impact these products, it could still be a while before the cleaning industry recovers from the demands it experienced during the height of the pandemic.
Many online are panicking about the Great Ammo Shortage of 2021. Plus, America hasn't been uniformly affected by the current shipping crisis, so what’s absent from the shelf of your local supermarket may vary on a weekly basis.
Meanwhile, Amazon sellers are experiencing more profits than ever before, as more people turn to online shopping during times of store shortages. If you’re selling online, don’t forget to stock up on shipping supplies so you can fulfill your orders.
Industry leaders are uncertain as to when the shipping crisis will be resolved. Some problems, like the microchip shortage, are simply a matter of production, but the availability of shipping containers and reliable shipping companies may take a bit longer to sort itself out. So, what can you expect while suppliers are scrambling to meet demand?
Unfortunately, consumers can expect to pay more for the products they've come to rely on. Automobiles, electronics and particular brands of shoes may be harder to come by, and when you do, you may find yourself paying a higher sticker price.
For retailers, this highlights the need for a reputable logistics company. Because shortages can play havoc with your inventory, you need 3PL software to assist in warehousing and inventory services to stay on top of product levels, re-ordering schedules and more.
The right company can ensure that you keep your word to your valued customers, providing order fulfillment during a time of increased economic instability.
Many retailers are giving careful consideration to how to handle the 2021 holiday rush. The time to build inventory is now, so you can be fully prepared when the season comes. The retail ecosystem is bound to look different, but if companies are diligent, they can ride out this storm and come out stronger than ever.
Supply chain resilience is your ability to continue normal business activities even when your order fulfillment and supply chain are disrupted unexpectedly. With a resilient supply chain, you can weather the storm of low stock and shipping delays without too many hitches.
Work with 3PL providers to improve your supply chain resilience. For instance, Amazon FBA users often work with ShipHero for FBM to keep products in stock and offer diverse order fulfillment options.
Check out our previous blog for best practices on building your resilient supply chain.
Suppliers have had issues both producing and transporting goods over the past year and events like the Suez Canal blockage have only added to the "chaos." Consumers should expect shortages of automobiles, canned produce, cleaning supplies, shoes and more. In these uncertain times, having a robust and resilient logistics and fulfillment network is vital to keep your consumers' trust.
That's why ShipHero provides retail brands and 3PLs with powerful capabilities to handle their shipping needs and build a resilient supply chain.
Due to global events like the ongoing pandemic and reduced production capacity, essential items like groceries and feminine hygiene products are predicted to be in short supply during 2022. You can also expect shortages in aluminum and advanced microchips, which means high electronic prices, as we’ve seen with the recent PlayStation 5 price hikes in certain markets.
Shipping delays and low industry productivity cause empty shelves. However, factors like inclement weather and the COVID pandemic can worsen these shortages.
-About ShipHero:
We make it simple for you to deliver your eCommerce. Our software helps you run your warehouse, and our outsourced shipping solutions eliminate the hassle of getting your products to your customers. With over 5,000 brands and 3PLs relying on us daily, we’re here to help with all your logistics needs.
Despite China’s developing economy and huge population, their market is notoriously difficult for foreign businesses to survive, particularly those with a physical presence. Popular companies like Walmart, Home Depot, and Mattel have tried and failed to create a steady business in China, due to conflicts with the government, failing to understand their customers, or just bad luck.
This is actually pretty common across the board. In fact, 48% of foreign businesses fail in China within their first two years, according to the 2013 Australia-China Business Week conference.
China is a bureaucratic one-party state, which means that the lines separating private and public enterprises are very blurry. For this reason, the government tends to own and heavily support Chinese companies, which is one of the reasons why most foreign businesses fail so quickly. They have to jump through bureaucratic hoops, jockey against local competition for market share, and often compete directly with the Chinese government itself.
Despite the fact that e-commerce is estimated to be a $250 billion market for U.S firms in China, in an unexpected twist, smaller DTC companies have had more success in the Chinese market, compared to the likes of major retail brands such as Walmart.
To capture their fair share, international and local companies across industries are partnering up with Chinese e-commerce platforms like JD and TaoBao to create deals that allow the e-commerce platforms to sell their products directly to Chinese consumers. Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) companies are then contracted to help e-commerce companies keep up with their delivery or logistics.
The products are also usually held in Chinese warehouses, waiting for distribution or last-mile delivery from gig workers or delivery companies. In China, order fulfillment must be flexible to keep their customers satisfied. When a customer purchases the product, they only have to use one account due to the e-market's level of integration, and they typically receive it within just a few hours or days.
With 800 million residents in China using internet services, China is the most connected country in the world. As a result, these users are finding the adaptability and accessibility of DTC businesses to be particularly alluring. These businesses, unlike foreign ones, can distribute their products at a moment's notice using local resources and marketplaces, which makes them difficult competition for foreign businesses.
Millions of users visit e-commerce sites like Tmall, JD, and TaoBao to do their daily shopping. It’s become a staple of their everyday life. By leveraging these companies' existing logistics networks, foreign competitors are better equipped make use of China's regional infrastructure.
More and more companies prefer to let local Chinese companies sell their products, rather than investing in the treacherous retail markets. If the customer wants to avoid especially crowded commercial districts, online markets are their best alternative. Most e-commerce companies are using customer behavior data to enhance website layout, presentation, and product lines to make their business more appealing to their customers.
E-commerce is the future of shopping in China, and many other countries as well. In 2019, e-commerce sales in China were estimated to be 36.6% of total sales, which is a huge jump from 12.4% in 2014. By 2023, e-commerce is expected to make up over half of all sales, at 64%.
There still exists a rather large demand for foreign products in China, given their elevated status symbol and expectation of high-quality. However, finding these products can be difficult for Chinese consumers because of the consistent failure of foreign businesses to establish their presence in the Chinese market. Using e-commerce and online shopping, customers can get connected to products they want, which is a win-win for the DTC company, the e-commerce site, and the customer.
Read on to learn some important tips from the most successful DTC brands about what makes their businesses so successful.
Don’t be afraid to use third-party platforms as opposed to your own. Customers in China prefer shopping through platforms like WeChat and Tmall. There is a surprising amount of freedom for brands to make their own space on these platforms.
When asked by Adweek, Allbirds International president Erick Haskell said “It’s not like being on other third-party platforms where it’s hard to control brand presence and pricing. We can run our own retail, have our own ecommerce site [on Tmall].” His statement reflects how, despite popular western perception, Chinese platforms allow plenty of freedom for brands to experiment and express themselves.
Chinese consumers are 10 to 15 years younger than consumers for the same brands in the west. This has a pronounced effect on not just marketing, but how brands present and behave themselves in general. Christina Fontana, the Head of Fashion and Luxury for Tmall, said this about how Chinese customers differ from westerners, “Consumers are very young and demanding. They want to know about brands and their craft. It’s important to tell that story.”
In general, brands will go to great lengths to demonstrate the quality of their products by including extra information about their manufacturing process, materials, location, and work conditions.
Chinese consumers can be very vocal about their purchases. In fact, Fontana says that 80% of all customers on the Tmall platform leave feedback. Feedback has become so vital that the platform now includes a feature that lets brands directly take the feedback they receive and use it in their product development.
The takeaway from all of this is that customers want to be engaged directly with the brand from which they are buying. They want to know that they have a voice in how the product is shaped.
E-commerce brands that want to grow their global empire should find alternate routes in difficult markets like China. With their accessibility, adaptability, and huge inventory of in-demand products, it’s easy to see why more and more brands want to establish an online presence overseas. The question now becomes, will your brand be next to join the success of these DTC businesses?
Fleets of cargo planes grow larger, drones soaring the skies replace bike carriers on the ground, and delivery trucks weave through city streets in hectic routes. Why? All for the sake of convenience and speed of delivery for your e-commerce goods.
Recent estimates indicate that e-commerce sales will rise to $5.4 trillion by 2022. At first glance, the carbon-intensive shipping and delivery associated with e-commerce, especially expedited shipping and last mile delivery methods, may seem to contrast our collective value of environmental sustainability. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
In this post, we’ll explore how shipping companies are pursuing new strategies for carbon-neutral shipping and explore what that may mean for the future.
In recent years, terms like “carbon-neutral” and “carbon footprint” have become part of our common vocabulary. But what do they mean? What is carbon-neutral shipping, and why do you need it?
“Carbon” is shorthand for the greenhouse gases associated with climate change; namely, carbon dioxide and methane. A company’s “carbon footprint” refers to the amount of greenhouse gases it puts into the atmosphere. Recent green initiatives have prompted many corporations to reduce their carbon footprint by mitigating their emissions.
Carbon-neutral shipping is an essential strategy for reducing a company’s carbon footprint. On one hand, it’s impossible to eliminate all carbon emissions from the shipping process. But companies can pursue carbon neutrality through various methods.
Carbon-neutral policies protect the environment, but they also offer some immediate, practical benefits to companies who pursue an eco-friendly business strategy. First, many customers prefer to rely on a company that embraces sustainable business practices. That is especially true of millennials and young adults. By some estimates, 87% of customers prefer a company with sustainable business practices.
Additionally, the same sustainable practices that reduce your carbon footprint also work to eliminate waste. So while carbon neutrality may seem like a heavy commitment, it can ultimately help you cut costs while maintaining an eco-conscious customer base.
Currently, it’s simply not feasible to completely eliminate all greenhouse gases that your shipping method produces. But that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless. There are several steps that you can take toward carbon neutrality.
Step 1: Determine Your Emissions
First, you need to determine the impact your company is already having on the environment. The Carbon Fund provides a helpful Business Emissions Calculator that you can use to determine your company’s carbon footprint. You can also break down your carbon footprint by category, which may help you pinpoint the impact your shipping process has on your company as a whole.
Step 2: Re-evaluate Your Packaging
Shipping supplies are essential for protecting e-commerce products during transport. But some of these products do little more than make waste. Did you know that between 1950 and 2015, less than 10% of the world’s plastic was recycled? The rest still clogs our landfills.
Consider investing in recyclable and biodegradable materials, such as the following:
These materials may be an initial financial investment for a shipping company or 3PL, but over time may prove to be more cost-effective than the products you’re currently using.
Step 3: Redesign Shipping Routes
Many logistics companies can help you analyze your shipping routes and find ways to optimize your efficiency. You may even be able to consolidate your shipping needs with third-party LTL carriers.
Step 4: Purchase Carbon Offsets
A carbon offset is any financial contribution to environmental projects and funds. These “carbon credits” can be used to offset the impact of your shipping process. However, this practice is often criticized as merely a financial escape hatch for a company that doesn’t want to make other changes toward sustainability.
Many e-commerce companies and 3PLs already advertise carbon-neutral shipping and delivery, but several notable shipping companies are committed to reducing emissions and pursuing sustainable shipping models.
When you use UPS, you have the option of purchasing carbon offsets to mitigate the environmental impact of the emissions used during the transport. The carbon-neutral option used by UPS is verified by SGS, an inspection, and a verification company, offering one of the most reliable systems for carbon offsets.
FedEx is making a host of changes in the hopes of becoming fully carbon-neutral by 2040. Currently, the company offers carbon-neutral shipping envelopes, and their plans involve electric vehicles, energy-efficient aircraft, and other innovations to achieve sustainability.
ShipHero understands the fast-paced needs of the shipping industry, which is why we provide two-day ground shipping supported by advanced logistics tools powered by AI. Rather than rely on centralized hubs, ShipHero brings products directly to customers’ doorsteps in a shipping method known as distributed fulfillment, which is a proven strategy for minimizing emissions and reducing costs.
Moving forward, we can expect several innovations in emerging technology to lead the way in the first half of the 21st century.
Electric vehicles have already become standard fixtures on America’s highways, and we can imagine that soon these cars will be utilized as an efficient means of shipping. That will drastically reduce, if not eliminate, the carbon released into the atmosphere from combustion engines.
Logistics software will soon govern every company’s delivery route, providing real-time optimization based on traffic patterns, weather conditions, and other considerations relevant to the delivery route.
While many innovations will focus on the trucks and routes themselves, there will be an increased emphasis on the carbon emissions and environmental impact of warehousing facilities. We might even expect federal regulations to stipulate the kinds of packaging and waste produced by shipping facilities, prompting managers and others to pursue sustainable practices at every level of the shipping process.
These innovations may seem like significant investments, but these carbon-neutral strategies are essential for maintaining our environment for future generations. By embracing change today, we leave our children a brighter tomorrow. Cue the American flag… and scene.
The era of ecommerce runs on data. On a daily basis, terabytes upon terabytes of information are collected and analyzed. Although these data stores hold the key to ecommerce success with valuable insight for those that can find them, there is no way that the average person can break down and understand all that sales and order fulfillment data in a reasonable amount of time. That is where Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come into play.
KPIs allow you to organize your company’s data and set specific and actionable goals against them. From social media to shipping logistics, you can use this information to track marketing trends, warehouse inventory, and customer service interactions. By breaking your KPIs down into categories as seen in this article, you can get a better idea of which tools might help you take the next step with your business.
Here are some of the KPIs that are worth exploring for ecommerce businesses:
If you want to track your ecommerce sales effectively, these are some of the most helpful KPIs.
When it comes to managing your marketing output, you need to know how many consumers interact with your advertising material. These conversations give you a better idea of how well your marketing campaigns are performing and which ones may need a little bit of improvement.
The cost of goods sold lets you know how much your business spent manufacturing the products or services you’ve released into the world. These KPIs are ideal for revenue calculations and can help you to identify places in which to cut your production costs, should the need arise.
Repeat customers are the lifeblood of a business. Lifetime value KPIs help you track how many times particular customers return to your business and how much they’ve spent. These customers tend to cost you less to acquire, as they already have some awareness of your brand.
Instead of identifying how much repeat consumers have spent at your storefront, these KPIs will instead calculate the average amount that a generic consumer may spend on your ecommerce platform.
Wooing consumers isn’t cheap. If you want to get a better idea of how much you’re spending to win sales from your consumers, though, this KPI can run the calculations for you. That way, you can have a better idea about which advertising campaigns are pulling their weight and which ones you may need to adjust.
Want to understand the impact of your marketing? Take a look at these KPIs.
A site traffic KPI lets you know how many people come to your platform, along with what their demographics are, whether they made any purchases, and which platforms they found your ecommerce website on.
Your advertising ROI is one of the factors that influences your success. A return on ad spend KPI lets you know how your consumer revenue compares to the amount of money you spent on a particular advertising campaign. These ratios will give you a better idea about which campaigns are performing well and which may need to be fine tuned.
Bounce rate KPIs let you know how a consumer interacts with your website and what ratio of visitors are leaving your site right away. These KPIs are ideal for identifying bot behavior, too, if you think a competitor may be spamming your site.
If you run a consistent email marketing campaign, it’s important to know just how well your campaigns are doing. Newsletter subscription KPIs keep track of new and retained newsletter subscriptions, ensuring that you have a better idea of who you’re talking to when you send out your newsletter each week.
Social media is the lifeblood of the digital business. Engagement KPIs let you know who is interacting with your content online, either via comments, shares, or likes. These KPIs also let you keep track of which platforms you perform well on and how far your content has been shared by unaffiliated consumers.
Want to know how your customers feel about your products and service? Take a look at these customer service KPIs for ecommerce.
Like ROI, customer satisfaction score is an important variable that can impact your company’s success. Your KPIs generate this score based on the answers consumers provide on post-purchase or post-experience surveys.
While it isn’t always easy to get consumers to participate in these surveys, the ones that do can still provide you with valuable information about your company’s success. You can compare your existing KPI scores against the national average to determine what you could be doing more effectively.
Want to keep track of the amount of time it takes your HR team to respond to a customer’s concerns? First response time KPIs track just that. With this data at hand, you can improve your HR guidelines, specifying faster response times to cultivate improved relationships with your customers.
In a similar vein, there are KPIs available that let you know how long it takes your HR team to address and resolve a consumer’s product-related concerns.
A customer has made a purchase. Now what? Take a look at these KPIs for shipping and logistics.
No one likes to receive an order that isn’t theirs. This KPI lets you know how many packages you’ve shipped that have successfully arrived at the appropriate destination. If the order fulfillment values start to dip, then you’ll need to consider the influence it can have on customer opinions about your business.
Order accuracy data will also let you know whether your 3PL delivery line needs to be improved. If you’re sitting on an unusually low percentage of accurate orders, then there may be line errors at your warehouse that you need to address.
Whether you have invested in warehousing solutions or store your own inventory, you need to know where your inventory levels stand on a day-to-day basis. Rely on inventory level KPIs to replenish your stock when necessary and to calculate your business’s average supply-to-demand ratio.
If you’re manufacturing products several months in advance, you need to know how much of your inventory goes out per month on average. Order volume KPIs calculate your sales by day, month, or quarter, depending on your needs. You can use year-out estimates to track the ebb and flow of your sales and to pre-produce inventory for each month.
With the collection and tracking of the above KPIs, you’ll keep your finger on the pulse of the health and success of your ecommerce business. From marketing KPIs that gauge the success of your advertising efforts, to shipping and logistics KPIs that illustrate how efficiently you get products to customers, an effective KPI reporting strategy gives your company’s decision-makers all the information they need to make informed choices.
Summer is a great time for margaritas and digital marketing. By focusing on the digital platforms that people visit most frequently in the warm months, your ecommerce business should be marketing the summer vibe with sizzling deals and scorching offers. Sunny weather makes people happier in general, so ecommerce business owners, especially in the dropshipping domain, need to be on the ball when it comes to customer experience. If you are not up-to-date on the latest trends in customer experience, your competitors will be.
With ecommerce margins already stretched thin for small to medium sized businesses, it is vital to capitalize on the latest tech and tools to win and retain customers. Especially during summer months, because customers spend less time looking at their devices as they do in the cold depths of winter.
It’s necessary to put in some extra work to grab the already limited attention span of your audience. Once you have it, how do you convert the sale? This article details the main customer experience trends in ecommerce going into the summer of 2021.
The latest ecomerce trends for improved customer experience are the following:
The commonality found here are summer-savvy, ‘on-the-go’ styles of consuming information. From looking at a shopping app on the beach or checking email by the pool, your company should intelligently spend resources where people are looking.
When people are on holiday, camping, or out sunbathing beside a swimming pool (must be nice), the summer months tend to be downtime for PC usage, and uptime for mobile devices, smartphones, and tablets.
Increased mobile usage also draws more people to social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, which creates added opportunity for ecommerce merchants to sell or advertise on those platforms and makes it easier to reach your target audience. Depending on the age demographic of your products or services, create optimized ads and campaigns to suit summer buying behaviors.
Also, don’t be afraid to churn some marketing budget on running promotional campaigns geared specifically for the summer months. You can run these in isolation or try some re-targeted ads to your email database subscribers. Hitting people with the same message on multiple platforms is a proven approach to generating more attention and conversions.
If you run a new company or are launching a new product, people usually require more convincing to buy, compared to a big brand or known entity. With ecommerce specifically, customers need to trust in what they’re buying to be convinced to open their wallets. The younger the potential customer, the more important it is to find a way to show them your product in all its glory.
Enter: Influencers. Showing people how things work is even more effective when the person doing the demonstration is someone they know.
Some surveys show that influencers or bloggers promoting your product can increase sales by upwards of 30%. This doesn’t mean you have to spend tens of thousands to enlist a d-list celebrity on Cameo. In fact, many survey respondents indicated that they respect and associate with micro-influencers more than celebrities that are just in it for the paycheck.
Beyond their effectiveness, another advantage of micro-influencers is that they are a lot more cost-effective than traditional online advertising channels. Some influencers will even agree to be paid in different ways than just cash, like free or discounted product.
Try negotiating with these influencers to give them product samples in return for promoting your products. Also, you could consider an ambassadorship, offering a percentage of sales instead of a flat fee agreement.
Summer is not the time to overlook your hard-earned database of email subscribers. In fact, it’s the ideal time to catch people checking emails on the go, during an idle moment in an airport, ferry, or at their hotel.
While social media may create a buzz of activity and noise, it doesn’t come anywhere near email marketing regarding conversion rates. Email marketing is one of the best-performing of all digital channels in terms of creating conversions. More than 65% of users polled indicated they had purchased the back of an email campaign. That rate is more than double that of the combined social media platforms.
Email marketing is highly targeted since it enables you to send specific messages to people that have already expressed an interest in your products. Utilize a basic CRM and email marketing tool to track what your subscribers are interested in. You can update their preferences and send them only the most relevant products.
Ensure your email marketing campaigns show a clear ‘call-to-action’ button at the end. Summer sales, discount codes, and personalized recommendations are particularly effective. You can also use email marketing to clear overstocked products or discontinued seasonal lines.
Voice search accounts for around 50% of searches, by some reports. This varies by country, but there is no denying voice search is a growing trend.
Virtual assistant devices are present in an increasing number of homes. This creates a new opportunity for ecommerce retailers: Voice search optimization. Voice search does not directly compare to search engines optimization (SEO) and must have specific content.
Ensure that your website, and especially your product listings, are optimized for voice search. Voice search responds more to search phrases than it does to traditional keywords, so you should customize searches based on answers to questions.
Successful ecommerce retailers need to be leaders in customer experience along the shoppers’ journey. Creating a smoother customer experience means making it easier for people to buy from you wherever possible.
Position your products where people will see them during the summer months, mainly mobile devices, smartphones, and social media. When you’ve piqued their interest, ensure that the buying or decision-making experience is a smooth one. From showing color options to tech specs, your potential customers should locate and see more information quickly.
Always protect the goods! 1 in 100 packages shipped annually by UPS or FedEx are reported as lost or damaged. Considering together the two carriers ship almost 8 billion packages per year, that’s almost 8 million packages on the receiving end of some extra tough love.
In general, the main risks that cause damage to goods are:
Depending on the fragility of your goods, you should first evaluate what is required for full protection. Take into account the type of box material, packaging materials (e.g., styrofoam aka ‘packing peanuts’), etc., and compare that to the cost of repair/refund for a damaged item. Note that while you can save some money using cheaper alternatives for packing, you may pay more in the long run if items are frequently damaged on their way to customers.
Whether it’s thrown around in transit, dropped down chutes and conveyors, or subject to the harsh elements, retailers must consider these packing tips to avoid the headaches of customer refunds and returns caused by lost or damaged goods.
Fragile products must not have room to shift around during transportation. To prevent fragile products from breaking, we recommend one of the following:
Consider the following packaging materials for impact protection:
Heavy products could deform or collapse weak boxes when stacked. That’s why it’s important to know a box’s ECT (Edge Crush Test) rating, which is the amount of weight that can be stacked on a box wall before it deforms and collapses. When shipping small and medium sized products, single-walled boxes provide enough support. As for larger, heavier products, only use double- or triple-walled corrugated boxes depending on the fragility and value of your items.
For liquids, perfumes, aerosols, especially those that come in easily breakable containers, most carriers advise that they are shipped separately when possible, using padded poly bags or jiffy envelopes.
Before handing off any package to a carrier, we recommend taking a picture of the package contents and condition. That way, you have proof in case a carrier tries to shift blame to your warehouse processes.That’s why ShipHero created a feature that allows warehouses and fulfillment centers to seamlessly take snapshots of packages before completing the packing and shipping. Simply set up a camera and scan a barcode, and the image is automatically uploaded to the order. It fits right inoto your pick and pack processes and gives you the liability protection you need.
Depending on the item value and size, create a playbook for your warehouse workers and pick-and-packers so they can use the correct packaging every time. This ensures that products aren’t damaged in transit and also saves you money from over-packing.
By following these 5 tips, you’ll effectively reduce the likelihood of your goods getting damaged in transit from your fulfillment center or warehouse. This will not only help your bottom line, but will also avoid complications from returned products. Goods, protected.
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