It’s no surprise by now. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on e-commerce — from how, where, and when consumers are choosing to shop online. In order to better understand these shifts in buyer behavior, we conducted a recent survey of over 2,000 global consumers. We gained some interesting insight, specifically on how these changes have and will continue to affect small-and-medium-sized businesses.

From this data, we have extracted the top four ways SMBs can prepare for a groundbreaking holiday season.

1. Start Your Holiday Prep Now!

Honestly, it’s never too early to start preparations for the holiday season. It’s the biggest sales season for most businesses, both large and small. But particularly for SMBs, the holiday season can often make or break your business. As early as possible, we recommend analyzing your sales data, site analytics, and auditing customer feedback from your past holiday seasons to determine trends, forecast future sales, and know how to best prep your business for the new year. This process will reveal new opportunities for your business from new sales channels to new tools and software you may need to make operations more efficient.

Here’s a quick look into what we recommend you start planning, and when:

• August – refresh your website and promotional content
• September – perform system updates & upgrades
• October – test out an order, return to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience
• November – communicate shipping deadlines as soon as possible

Get the full month-by-month SMB holiday prep checklist.

2. Encourage More Customer Reviews

Did you know the majority of global consumers are more likely to consult online reviews for lesser-known small, local, and independent brands as opposed to big-box retailers. This means that reviews are one of the most important sales enablement strategies you can have for your small business.

Here are a few ways you can help encourage more customer reviews:

• Request product reviews after purchase
• Send automated or one-off email newsletters
• Include a “leave a review” link at the bottom of emails, receipts, blogs, and social

3. Enhance Your Post-Purchase Experiences

The customer experience never ends after their order is placed. In fact, the opportunity for you to make a lasting impression on how they see, review, and recommend your brand has just begun. By refining your post-purchase processes (think: tracking, returns, remarketing campaigns) you elevate their experience and as a result, encourage brand loyalty. Loyalty = more reviews = more sales

Start by walking through your customer’s experience after checkout. Do they get an email or text confirming their purchase? What about a follow-up email with tracking information that features your branding? Have you ever considered setting up a re-marketing campaign that emails recent customers related products or incentive discounts? Keeping your brand top of mind is key to creating a seamless post-purchase experience.

Another thing to evaluate is your returns policy. Our research shows that 52% of U.S. consumers say offering free returns is the #2 way a retailer can persuade them to complete the purchase. While not every SMB can afford free returns, having a clearly communicated and convenient option for returns can go a long way!

Learn how ShippingEasy’s Customer Marketing add-on can build repeat business and better relationships.

62% of consumers are willing to accept longer shipping times in order to support a small or local business

— ShippingEasy (@ShippingEasy) November 22, 2021

4. Embrace the Social Commerce Movement

Social commerce didn’t find its beginnings during COVID-19, but it certainly gained significant traction. We’ve all been there! Sitting at home during lockdown, scrolling Instagram when we come across a product we can’t live without. Whether you’re actually selling on Instagram Shop or simply promoting your products through a branded social page, creating exposure outside of your website or marketplace listings can make a significant impact on your business growth.

Our research shows that 54% of U.S. consumers discovered a new small, local, or independent e-commerce retailer via social media in the last year. And, even more surprisingly, 75% of those individuals made a purchase from that experience. Just imagine the returns you could see off of one viral post!

Want to learn more about how to set your SMB up for success this holiday season?

Download The Ultimate SMB Checklist for exclusive data on the shift in how consumer’s buyer behavior as a result of the pandemic, an actionable (and printable!) holiday prep checklist, and insight from leading industry experts.

The post 4 Ways SMBs Can Prepare for a Groundbreaking Holiday Season appeared first on ShippingEasy.

One of the most time-consuming and tedious parts of e-commerce is your shipping process. Some of the many steps involved are:

• Organizing orders from your selling channels
• Picking and packing orders
• Determining the cheapest way to ship
• Printing labels
• Scheduling pickups or taking the time to drop off packages
• Sending tracking information to customers

When you’re doing all of this yourself or with a small team, it can become overwhelming as orders begin to pile up. Particularly now, as more and more people head online to purchase just about anything, you need to streamline and cut steps from your shipping process.

Ditch Manual Processes

Automation is key when it comes to streamlining your fulfillment process. One way to set up automation is with sets of if/then rules that trigger when certain parameters are met. Automation can also be built into certain software solutions, such as ShippingEasy.

What this means for your shipping fulfillment is fewer decisions made each time an order comes in. If you’re doing the same task every time an order comes in that fits a set of conditions, why continually have to make that decision? Let’s look at a couple of examples where automation can make your shipping fulfillment much easier.

Flat Rate Options

All of the major carriers offer flat rate shipping options: UPS has Simple Rate, FedEx has One Rate, and USPS offers Flat Rate and Regional Rate options.

There are instances where each of these has a benefit over another shipping option. As a busy merchant trying to grow your business, you don’t have time to make that situational comparison every time you go to ship an order, right? This is where automation rules can really streamline your shipping fulfillment processes.

There are many factors that can go into this: product weight, whether the product will fit in the predetermined box sizes of USPS and FedEx or if you need to use your own box, the distance the package will be traveling, etc.

Want the most complete breakdown of flat-rate shipping options across all major carriers? Download our free guide!

Packages Under One Pound

For any packages weighing 15.999 oz. or less, you simply cannot find a cheaper quality option than USPS First Class Package service. You can use your own packaging, your package will typically arrive within a few days, and the cost savings can be massive.

Let’s say you’re shipping a 7 oz. package to Zone 3

• FedEx Ground: $8.58 (not including fees and $4 residential surcharge)
• UPS Ground: $8.65 (not including fees and surcharges)
• USPS Priority Mail: $7.46 (USPS Commercial Rates)
• USPS First-Class Package: $3.49 (USPS Commercial Rates)

On a single package, you’re looking at a minimum of $4 savings in this instance. Over a month’s worth of shipments, that adds up quickly. Even using small flat rate options for the carriers above doesn’t come close to the cost savings of USPS First-Class Package Service.

Automation can be triggered when you have weights associated with your products. A shipping solution can trigger First-Class Package Service as the shipping method any time an order weight comes in under one pound. ShippingEasy takes it one step further and does this automatically with our feature called InstantRate. No need to even set up the rule manually!

Approach Multichannel and Multicarrier The Right Way

To run a successful e-commerce business, you need to diversify if you want to expand your reach, increase sales, and broaden your customer base, and that means placing a focus on multichannel marketplaces.

Shifting to a multichannel marketing approach is key because consumers today are engaged across multiple marketplaces. A majority of online customers start their product research on search engines or marketplaces—for example, over 63% of all product searches start on Amazon.

Having a brand presence across multiple marketplaces increases the likelihood of potential buyers for your product but it also requires additional work, resources, and investment. Managing data across multiple marketplaces can be complex and challenging.

Specialized software systems that assist with inventory management, order management, and product listing management can help businesses overcome the challenges of managing their e-commerce orders across multichannel marketplaces.

Need more information on how to become an effective multichannel seller? Check out our blog, Tools for Multichannel Sellers.

Don’t Be Afraid to Seek Assistance

Shipping doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact here at ShippingEasy we want to make sure that your shipping and fulfillment processes are well, easy. Not only do we offer award-winning customer support for all merchants, but help is always free.

Besides ShippingEasy support, there’s a number of other resources available to you. Reddit communities and Quora are a few of our favorite online community forums. Both of these online communities provide valuable resources on anything and everything you have questions on, including shipping!

Reddit Communities

Reddit is a large community made up of thousands of smaller communities. These are sub-communities within Reddit known as “subreddits”, created and moderated by users like you, dedicated each to certain topics or ideas.

Once you’re comfortable navigating Reddit, take some time to remove subreddits from your home feed that you’re not interested in, and follow others that you are. There are communities for almost everything under the sun! Try r/shipping, r/ecommerce, and r/smallbusiness.

Quora

Like Reddit, Quora is a place to share knowledge and better understand the world. It’s easy and free to sign up. If you have a question or want to browse conversations, all you have to do is search for it. Here are some helpful topics to browse e-commerce, shipping, and USPS.

ShippingEasy Knowledge Base

At ShippingEasy, our solution works right out of the box. We also understand that questions come up – and we have an answer for all of them! Our support is delivered in a variety of ways, including articles, personalized training, and live support. We back our application with online tools and a team of solution-focused support representatives.

Our award-winning customer support includes live chat, email, and US-based phone support for all merchants. Unlike other platforms, help is free and you’ll always get a real, live human.

Whether it is your first day at ShippingEasy or years down the road, there are many ways ShippingEasy can help:

• Online Support
• Live Support
• Community Forums
  We encourage everyone – especially our Starter subscribers – to post their support inquiries there, so other users can share their experience and tips. Our Customer Success team monitors our community forums and if direct assistance is required, we will escalate to our team. Learn how to participate.
• Help Center
  In the lower right corner of the app, click the (?) Help Center tab to access our Quick Start Checklists and Frequently Asked Questions, brimming with expert articles.
• Getting Started Guides
  Our Getting Started Guides can help get you started with Shipping and Customer Marketing, as well as learn how to use our advanced features.

The post How to Cut Steps From Your Shipping Process appeared first on ShippingEasy.

We’ve partnered up with our family of brands to create The Ultimate Ecommerce Upgrade! The grand prize includes everything you need to make the holiday ordering season a breeze for your ecommerce business — from the best-in-class hardware to a free year subscription to our top-shelf Shipping Easy Premium plan.

The full prize list includes:

• ShippingEasy Premium plan FREE for 1 year
• $250 USPS Postage Credit
• iPad Pro (256GB) with an Apple Care warranty for 2 years 
• Zebra GK420D Thermal Printer and 4 Label Rolls
• Wireless Shipping Scale (with capacity up to 400lbs.)
• Symbol LS2208 USB Barcode Scanner
• USB-C to USB Converter 
• Hand Truck Dolly (with capacity up to 300lbs.)
• Tape Gun & Water-Activated Tape Dispenser
• Branded Tape, Stickers & Tissue Paper from Noissue

That’s a value of $5,000!

Enter the Ultimate Ecommerce Upgrade from Monday, October 5 through Friday, October 30th.

All you have to do to enter is go to the Ultimate Ecommerce Upgrade Sweepstakes landing page and fill out the quick form. Keep in mind that you must have an active ShippingEasy account or sign up for a free trial to be entered for a chance to win the Sweepstakes. It’s time to get that #UltimateEcommerceUpgrade!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Purchasing does not improve your chances of winning. This promotion is not open to the general public. The Ultimate Ecommerce Upgrade Sweepstakes is open to ecommerce businesses that are located in the 50 U.S. or D.C. and Canada (excluding Quebec), entrant must be 18+. Void in Quebec, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, outside the U.S. and where prohibited by law. Sweepstakes begins at 12:00:01 AM ET on 10/5/20 and ends at 11:59:59 PM ET on 10/30/20. Click here for entry details and Official Rules. Sponsor: Auctane, 3800 N. Lamar Blvd #220, Austin, TX 78756.

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