Outsourcing Your Ecommerce Order Fulfillment

Outsourcing Your Ecommerce Order Fulfillment

When your eCommerce business grows to the point where you can no longer package and ship the orders yourself, it's time to begin outsourcing your order fulfillment. Although all order fulfillment centers offer the same basic services, their individual methods and costs will help you choose one over the other. When selecting an order fulfillment service, keep the following in mind:
Location
Order fulfillment warehouses are located all over the country. It's more important to select a warehouse that is close in proximity to your customers than to select one that is close to your business. For example, if your warehouse is located in California, and most of your customers are located on the East coast, your shipping rates will be higher than if you had a warehouse located in Kansas. Fulfillment centers located in the middle of the country will be able to ship to both the east and west coast for similar prices.
Size
Fulfillment warehouses range from small business with just a few employees to large companies such as UPS. Select a fulfillment service that can meet your daily order fulfillment needs. Do you have consistent orders each day or do your orders spike? If you have orders that spike, be sure to choose a fulfillment center that can handle the extra workload and still ship the orders within the agreed timeline.
Shipping Options
Most fulfillment centers offer a variety of shipping options. Make sure the fulfillment service you select offers all of the shipping options you currently offer your customers and the shipping options that you may want to offer in the future.
Turn-around Time
Each fulfillment warehouse has it's own policy regarding order processing. For example some fulfillment centers will ship all orders that arrive before 1pm on the same business day. If you miss the 1pm deadline, the order is shipped the next business day. This could impact your customers if a next-day order is placed after 1pm. In this case, next day shipping turns out to be two-day shipping.
Order Entry
Order entry methods can be very important when considering a fulfillment service. The most common methods include:

• Forwarding individual order invoices to the warehouse
• Entering each order on the fulfillment center's web-based system
• Emailing an Excel spreadsheet with all order once a day

Each method has a different affect on your business. For example, you may save money by manually entering orders into a web-based application, but it can be tedious if your business grows to the point where you have more orders than you have time to enter. You may pay a higher price to automatically email each individual invoice to the warehouse, but it may be worth the extra costs to have orders may be shipped as they arrive. Same day shipping could give you the edge over your competitor. On the other hand, if you have a high volume of orders, you won't want to individually enter each order into a web-based system and may not want to pay the extra charge of having individual orders emailed to the warehouse. If you don't mind shipping the next business day, you can send an Excel spreadsheet containing all of your orders once a day. Choose a warehouse that offers an order entry method that meets your business needs and fits your budget.
Communication
Communication is an important part of every business. There will be times when you need to contact the fulfillment center to modify a customer's address or cancel an order. Select a fulfillment center that is available via phone and email. You should not have to wait more than a few hours for a return email or call from the fulfillment center.
Error Rate
Mistakes will happen. Some customers will receive the wrong items or the items will be shipped to the billing address rather than the shipping address. When interviewing potential fulfillment centers, ask about their error rate and their process for remedying the situation. For example, do they issue UPS call tags to pick up the incorrect item and pay to ship a replacement item? Will they ship the replacement item at a faster rate to compensate the customer?
Costs
Each fulfillment center operates under a different payment schedule. Some use sliding scales and require contracts while others charge per order or per item with no contracts. You will also be charged a base fee to store your inventory at the warehouse and an additional fee per pallet or per item. Be sure you have a clear understanding of the fulfillment center's costs and any contracts.
When choosing a fulfillment center, create a checklist of the features you would like. Interview a member of the warehouse staff, as well as, their references to make sure the warehouse will meet the needs of your growing eCommerce business. When you outsource order fulfillment, the time that you normally spend packaging orders, managing inventory, and dealing with returns, can now be focused on growing your business. Use this time to expand your product line, enhance your online image, promote your business or expand into new markets.
Buy Sell Websites 2004. Danna Henderson. All Rights Reserved.
About The Author
Danna Henderson started ZIP Baby in order to provide parents with comprehensive breastfeeding information and a large selection of parenting products. For more information visit Breastmilk Banks.

Intranet Portals ? Personalisation and Customisation

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Intranet Portals ? Personalisation and Customisation

The key difference between an (old-fashioned) Intranet and a Portal
What typifies a modern intranet portal is that there is a standardised user interface ("UI") with a built in system for user authentication. In other words, the user signs in to the portal rather than simply accessing it. This brings us to the key difference; an intranet portal knows who you are, whilst with an old-fashioned intranet, the user is anonymous.
If the user authentication is properly linked to your employee data, then the portal will know things like (a) what grade the person is, (b) which department they work in, (c) what location they work at and (d) what job they do.
If the portal authentication is also liked to a metadirectory (along with the authentication for all the other systems the user needs to use in their job) then the portal will additionally know (e) which applications the user needs to do their job and (f) the rights the user has (from their security profile) to access different application functionality.
Finally, if an infocube-based web statistics package has been installed, the portal will know (a) which areas of the portal are accessed by the user and (b) the frequency and depth of that access.
The opportunity to personalise the portal experience
Clearly, given the knowledge above, it is possible to personalise the UI for each individual user. For example, if the user works in the sales function, then the homepage that greets them upon logon could be the Sales team homepage. If they work in Leeds, the facilities link on their homepage could be to maps, traffic, fire orders, etc. about the Leeds office (rather than anywhere else). If their specific job is as a field sales manager, then field sales performance graphs and management dashboard could be displayed on the homepage.
If the user is of a grade that places them on the company insider dealing list, then additional (price sensitive) real-time data might be displayed on the screen (which other users would not see). If statistics tell us that they are not reading important communications, then messages could be served to them that draw their attention to what they are missing. Finally, if they use functionality from three different (legacy) systems to do their job, then these could be brought together and surfaced via a portlet application on the portal page.
The prize is clearly a smoother and more integrated user experience, with key information "pushed" at the user in a way they can't ignore and always no more than a single click away.
The depressing truth about personalisation today
Many portal vendors have undertaken research with their existing customer base to explore (a) how many customers have made extensive use of personalisation and (b) how many surface key business applications via their portal. The results do not make encouraging reading (with less than 20% achieving much beyond what Plumtree call "the empty portal").
This prompts an obvious question. If the benefits to the user of personalisation are so obvious, why have companies not taken advantage of them? In fact, based on my experience, there are multiple reasons not to personalise, which I group into "bad" and "good" reasons.
Bad reasons not to personalise
There are a number of typical failings that tend to stem from a lack of courage, poor understanding or personal prejudice:
1) Failure to link through to employee data and/or a metadirectory
This can be due to a number of factors, including (a) the costs of software seen as too expensive, (b) a perception that implementation will be too difficult or prone to failure, (c) a lack of confidence in the quality of employee data and (d) realising too late that this work is important and having failed therefore to include in project scope or business case costs
2) Failure of vision and/or lack of confidence in personalisation benefits
Typical problems include (a) a lack of experience of using portals and thus a lack of awareness of the possibilities, (b) a nostalgia for the old-fashioned style of intranet navigation, (c) an unhealthy focus on the intranet simply as a communication channel, rather than as a business tool and ? perhaps most interestingly - (d) a perception that personalisation is synonymous with (or otherwise encourages) individuals failing to observe and comply with single, enterprise-wide processes and policy.
Good reasons not to personalise
There are actually several valid objections to personalisation, which you would ignore at your peril. The two most notable are:
3) The whole is more than the sum of the parts
Many portal projects are built on the concepts of (a) increased knowledge sharing between teams, (b) better awareness of the "big picture" of what is happening in the company and (c) a sense of belonging to a single, enterprise-wide community. By personalising teams and individuals into "ghettos" where they only see information and applications directly relevant to them, the opportunity is lost to have them explore the intranet presence of other colleagues.
4) Log-in as a barrier to user adoption
A (valid) concern that requiring people to log-in each time they access the portal will act as a deterrent to them doing so, thereby reducing the portal benefits through a reduction in intranet usage. This has lead to some customers disabling the log-in feature! Of course, such problems can be overcome through the implementation of a single sign-on application, where rights to access the portal (without a separate log-on procedure) are granted when the user logs onto the network. However, companies often fail to plan or budget for such changes.
So is personalisation the right thing to do? If so, how can I make it happen?
On balance, of course, the benefits of personalisation, for most organisations, far outweigh the risks and costs. After all, why buy a Ferrari, then only use it to do the school run? If you were never going to use the portal for these advanced functions, why did you buy one? It would have been much cheaper to invest in your traditional intranet!
If you are looking to make it happen, however, you must recognise the organisational, financial and technical challenges inherent in the work. Firstly, you should ensure that your business case contains the full costs of integrating the portal with employee data and metadirectory capabilities. Ideally, you should also extend this to a single-sign-on solution if you can afford it. Secondly, you should showcase to sponsors what personalisation looks like, so that they can improve their understanding of the opportunity. Finally, you should not underestimate the technical grunt work involved in cleaning up your employee data and systems rights.
Do not neglect customisation
I define customisation as the ability for users to customise their own portal settings and appearance (as distinct from how I am defining personalisation, where the portal provisions information and applications authomatically, based on the user's profile). By letting users "do it themselves" you allow for the possibility that they may wish to share knowledge and collaborate with people outside their immediate role. You can also learn (by observing their behaviour in customisation) where you could improve upon your personalisation.
Some final thoughts
Personlisation should be a key element of your early visioning work with sponsors and drive costs and benefits in your business case. If you find at that stage that the return on investment (ROI) is not there, then you should perhaps question whether a portal investment is really for you! A mini is adequate, after all, for the school run!
About the author:
David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.

Expand Your Local Business Through the Internet

Expand Your Local Business Through the Internet

To obtain more local customers for your business, consider expanding your local business through the Internet. Here are some ways of doing so.
1. Online Directories
Even without a website, you can get listed in online directories. Many times these listings are free.
For example, if you operated a restaurant, your being listed in local Internet directories could result in local residents and visitors to the area finding your restaurant.
2. E-mail Newsletter
You could also collect e-mail addresses from existing customers and regularly e-mail them about special events, menu additions, and other promotions. This would keep your restaurant visible in their minds and could result in repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals.
For more information about newsletters, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/newsletters.html
3. Your Own Website
If you have your own website, the opportunities for promoting your business increase. A restaurant could give information about hours, prices, nutritional information, specials, awards, news releases, contests, employment opportunities, and so on.
4. Search Engines
Submit your website to search engines for increased exposure. Some search engines have listings by regional category so that local customers can find you easily.
5. Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
Advertise in pay-per-click (PPC) search engines that use geographical targeting. That way, you are paying mainly for responses from people local to your area.
6. Internet Auctions
Use eBay or other Internet Auctions to reach out to local customers. On eBay, you can mention an item location which will help local people to find you. Not only can you earn some additional income from Internet auctions, but you may gain additional local clients.
For more information about online auctions, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/auctions.html
By applying these suggestions, you, too, can expand your local business through the Internet.
RESOURCE BOX:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/ has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.
For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

Why Ecommerce is Not Ready for My Daughter or Me

Why Ecommerce is Not Ready for My Daughter or Me

As the mother of a teenage clothing fanatic I'm often at my local mall. It occurred to me that the shopping experience for my daughter is attractive to her not because she wants to spend my money, but because the experience of buying itself is so rich to the senses.
For example, when we enter her favorite stores the first thing that hits me is the music. If it's her kind of music, we're in the right place for her. If the signs near the front of the store have sale prices and notices about markdowns, we're in the right place for me. Immediately there are two user needs met. Mother's and daughter's.
Next, for me, is how products are displayed. I look for orderliness and logical groupings such as jeans in one place, the teeny tiny things she calls shirts in another place, "hoodies" in every possible color in another section. I also look for clean dressing rooms and clues as to how many items she can load up on before she meets their limit. Meanwhile, she's looking at colors, sizes, textures, and styles. She glides along in her beat up sneakers touching the items as she passes by. Her hands drift along piles of sweaters as if walking through a field of daisies. A certain texture will stop her dead in her tracks and I'll get that "Mom, look!" expression from her.
It strikes me that some of the stores she insists we stop into don't offer much for me to do or look at. The décor is dark, black, and limited to a few racks mixed with hanging things on the walls separated by posters of half naked teenagers standing next to cars they can't possibly afford to buy. Clothing prices are hidden inside sleeves. Sale signs are taboo. But the music is hip, the salespersons are scary-looking and the smell of leather mixed with hair gel is making my wallet itch. Their website, I bet, has but one click-path designed for teens and their parents must be blindfolded so as not to read the content before handing over their credit card.
Finally in a store where I feel welcome, my daughter is admiring the merchandise and starting to find what she likes in her size. I'm avoiding the mirrors and marveling at the sales personnel with their size 3 bodies, smudged eyeliner and 35 bracelets on each wrist. For my daughter, who looks just like them, this is confirmation she's in the right store. I, on the other hand, will stop holding in my stomach when we get back out to the parking lot, or when we grab our lattés in Starbucks on the first floor.
While other mothers and myself are holding piles of clothes in our arms, or running back and forth to get something in different sizes, my mind drifts to all the ecommerce websites I find in search engines, but don't purchase from. For starters, most of them think I'm going to read 35 links in their navigation, plus their ads, before deciding which is the right path to follow. Some of them will tell me about one sale, but if I want to know more, I have to figure out where they stuck that stuff. There's nothing I can physically touch and the images are usually tiny. Sure, I can click to enlarge but how many times have I done that only to find a bigger view of the same boring, unattractive picture?
Most shopping carts don't give me shipping dates or availability information as I make my selections. (Just recently I ordered something, only to hear from the merchant via email that their software wasn't working and the color and size wasn't recorded, so they had to contact me for that information.)
We assume ecommerce have functional websites. We assume incorrectly. We assume they built them for many types of customers, but again, we've assumed wrong. We assume that the top 20 sites in search engine results are the best of the best based on our search keywords. That, I'm afraid, is the saddest shock of all. Top rank doesn't equal the best online experience once you click into that website.
That part of usability wasn't tested for you by the search engine or directory. That's not their job.
My daughter looks good in everything. So did I when I was a teenager. If I still had that body I could order from any lingerie site on the Internet and feel quite sure I'd look as fantastic and sexy as their starving models do. But, I never buy sexy lingerie on the Internet because quite frankly, they're not selling it to me. One look at their models, their poses, their ages and their airbrushed faces tells me their target market is men who dream of making their women look like that too, if they just buy that lacey thing for them.
Fortunately I have a levelheaded daughter who loves to hunt for bargains. The last time we shopped at the Mall together was because I wanted to get her a gift for making the Distinguished Honor Roll that marking period in school. She found something at her favorite teen store for under $20. We splurged at Starbucks on our favorite chocolate coffee fixes, which was the logical choice after doing so well at the clothing store.
Online, after a sale, I'd be alone staring at my monitor at a "Thank you screen" and likely not directed to go anywhere interesting next. This is another common ecommerce practice; dumping the customer off after the last screen of a shopping cart. Instead, they should try suggesting a related site (via paid sponsored link?) or a reminder to bookmark the site for later shopping or better yet, how about a quick "Did you find what you were looking for?" survey. One quick question, one button click is all it takes to say "We hoped you like your shopping experience but if not, please tell us how to make it better."
This is what the cute pierced nose sales clerk said to us when I handed her the $20 for my daughter's new shirt. I gratefully accepted the receipt from the nail polished hand attached to the 18 year old face with a pimple on the forehead, multi-colored hair and glittered eye shadow. You just can't get mimic that kind of user experience on the Internet yet.
Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of http://www.UsabilityEffect.com, http://www.Cre8pc.com & http://www.Cre8asiteForums.com. Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers Post Free Classifieds insight into web site development.
Buy Sell Websites 2004

Old Habits Die Hard in the Third Age Years

Old Habits Die Hard in the Third Age Years

I spent a lifetime in retailing and I'm still at it in retirement; albeit virtually.
You know how it goes.
You put up a web page and throw in some stock.
Your page begets another and another and another until one day you're looking at a site that's got more stock than Bloomingdales.
But you can't stop?
The old sourcing skills are making a comeback, sharpening their talons, and coaxing you to duck and dive, bob and weave to find still more stock at even better prices.
So you build another virtual retail store and then another and another and another until you're looking at an empire.
Then you diversify.
If you are upmarket, you go downmarket.
Why not?
There no shareholders breathing down your neck or smart ass vice presidents demanding that you pull in the reins.
And so you build a bargain basement store and another and another until you're looking at Wal-Mart.
Expending your energy in this way is fun; it's therapeutic, and if you go about matters in the right way, it doesn't cost a thin dime apart from hosting fees ? and it can be hugely profitable.
In between times you are still knocking out the odd bestseller just to keep your hand in.
But even now you can't stop.
You dig deep into the inner recesses of the psyche and draw down expertise that has been rusting away for eons in the vaults of the supraconscious.
Ideas leap out at you from nowhere; you create courses on creative writing, starting a business, offline marketing, online marketing, maximising on retirement, and what have you.
So you build more websites and more websites and more websites and now you are busier than ever you were when you thought you were working.
So how am I doing with all these third age activities?
I'm not hurting.
Most mornings my inbox is crammed with cute little messages like 'Invoice from Clickbank' and 'You have money at PayPal' and so forth.
But don't take my word for it.
Visit one of my stores and judge for yourself.
You'll find an address in the resource box?
Jim Green is a retiree, entrepreneur, and published author with a string of bestselling hard copy titles to his bow including his latest 'Your Retirement Masterplan' ISBN 1857039874. You'll get a taste of what he gets up to at this

10 Reasons To Survey Your Visitors, Subscribers And Customers

10 Reasons To Survey Your Visitors, Subscribers And Customers

1. To find out what type of content visitors want to see on your web site. This should increase repeat visits to your site.
2. To find out how to improve existing products or services. This will attract new customers.
3. To find out which products or services your customers would like to see you sell in the future. This will increase your back end product sales.
4. To find out how to improve your customer service. This will cut down on customer complaints.
5. To find out how to improve your sales letters or ads. This will increase your sales, traffic or ezine subscribers.
6. To find out what kind of articles or interviews they want to see in your e-zine. This will increase your e-zine's readership.
7. To find out how to design your web site to fit your visitors needs and wants. This will increase the time your visitors spend on your web site.
8. To find out what kind of non-related products or services your customers would buy. This will help your business easily move into a different market.
9. To find out how to better price your products. This will help you sell your products or services at at a price that will pull the most orders.
10. To find out where your potential customers spend their time while online.. This will inform you where to market and promote your products.
============================================
Lewis Leake helps people work from home. His website at GrowNetProfits.com contains tools, resources, articles, newsletters, product reviews and traffic builders to help you make money from your home based business. Click here to get additional information about Surveying Your Customers and Subscribers.

Internet and Computer Systems in the FOREX Business

Internet and Computer Systems in the FOREX Business

With every passing year the interest in electronic trading is bigger, more especially trading shares and currency through Internet. A new profession came forward ? this of the currency dealer. The appearance of this profession was caused by the full force of development of Internet, which enabled the exchange business to be carried over at home or at the office. The electronic platforms offered by banks and investment brokers enables all of us to go in the sea of the financial markets and to start living a difference and unknown by this moment way of life.
The development of the computer technologies, the program security and the telecommunications, as the same as the grown experience, raises the qualification level of the brokers. It it's turn this raises the belief of the brokers in their own abilities to benefit and to lower the risk while operating. That's why the higher level of the trading qualification leads to a higher level of trade amount.
The introducing of automated dealing systems at the eighties, as the same as co-coordinating systems in the beginning of the internet trading at the end of the nineties, entirely changes the standard methods of currency trading. The dealing systems are online computer systems which integrate the banks in a united net while the co-coordinating systems become electronic brokers. The dealing systems are more reliable and much more effective which enables the dealers to realize a bigger number of concurrent transactions. Moreover, they are safer as far as the dealers can observe the executors of the transactions. Thanks to their reliability, speed and safety, the dealing systems are playing cardinal role in the expansion of the currency business.
The using of computers is taking a substantial role at many stages in the realizing of the currency business. In addition to the dealing systems the co-coordinating systems connect together the dealers all over the world in this way building up an electronic brokers market. The new office systems are ensuring a full account report, filling vouchers, keeping secretary work, procedures of lowering the risk and they account the expense for their acquisition. The present-day program products afford an opportunity to be generated all types of graphics, adding theoretically well-grounded technical indicators and favour the dealer for lon lasting using with comparatively low expense.
The using of Internet makes the financial information about the currency markets, currency indexes and prognoses about the rate of exchange, easy accessible all over the world. Now there are many websites with financial information. A big role in the currency trading has the rate exchange. The speed of the electronic post makes it possible getting these prognoses in a moment. If you take out a subscription to such a service, you can get prognoses of rate-exchange by electronic post every day. Such a service you can find at the following address:
http://www.iforex.org
Eric Cooper is moderator of Internet Forex Club which provide to it's members useful forex forecasting and trade recommendation service. You can join the site at the following URL: http://www.iforex.org