Recent Articles
Holiday Season Best Practices: Order Promotion Pitfalls Many Retailers Face
Executing World-Class Order Promotions Is Key to a Successful Holiday Among the thorniest challenges retailers face during the holiday period is creating and executing successful promotions that motivate customers and drive business. Don’t let these common order management pitfalls sabotage your success. Best practices department: order promotion division. When planning your marketing strategy for Black Friday, Thanksgiving, and the entire holiday period, the first step is defining the promos you will offer your eCommerce consumers to drive more business. Step Two is setting up and testing the promotions you have planned. In the weeks ahead of launch each promo must be vetted to be sure it works as designed, won’t overwhelm your systems with volume, and is easy to handle. Warning, Pitfalls Ahead! Here are some common pitfalls that prevent retailers from setting up and executing holiday promotions efficiently: Limited range of promo types Ideally, you have access to a wide range of promotion types and your shopping cart technology supports the promos you need (e.g. free shipping, buy one get one, buy one get a different one, percent off
Millennials drive booming online sales growth for Health & Beauty eTailers
You could chalk this up to yet another example of how Millennials like myself are challenging and often confounding traditional retailers and online merchants (and ourselves), but there is a lot more to consider here. I was reading a terrific story on Digital Commerce 360 that got me to thinking about this issue and how it presents opportunities for Health & Beauty eTailers. Some things really stood out. “A new report from Internet Retailer shows that millennials’ growing distaste for store shopping," Digital Commerce 360 reported, "as well as retailers’ creative efforts to making shopping fun and engaging, are driving a big shift in health and beauty purchases to the web.” According to Health & Beauty Online, U.S. consumers are rapidly shifting what and where they spend on health and beauty products. They spent roughly $12.11 billion on health and beauty items via the web last year--nearly double waht they spent five years earlier, according to Internet retailer's just-released report. “As that shift intensifies, there’s real potential to make some serious money. The margins on health and beauty items are
The Holidays are Fast Approaching, and the Freestyle Solutions Team is Here to Help
Now that we have put away the shorts and sandals and started thinking about that first pumpkin spiced latte of the season, it's time to prepare for every eTailer’s favorite time of the year, the Holiday sales season. In the build up to the Holiday season we have time to consider how to best prepare for the welcome increase in sales. You may have a wave of new employees joining you, an influx of exciting promotions may be ready to launch, or you might have missed a few things to check up on to make sure you’re ready for the holiday season. Don’t worry we have you covered! Join us, the Freestyle Solution team as we discuss the best practices to get you ready for the holiday season. We have scheduled a multi-part Webinar series which will cover the following topics: Order Promotions Order Entry Order Processing Shipping Inventory Management Returns And much more! You don’t want to miss any part of this informative series designed to get your team primed for the holiday season. Our experts will provide
Online Holiday Sales Expected to Increase as Much as 21%
According to a story published by Digital Commerce 360, online holiday sales in 2017 could grow as much as 21% and may reach $114 Billion. Promotions are expected to play a heavy role this season and there will be challenges for every eTailer to keep their brand fresh and unique in order to maximize sales. For more information you can view the story here. We like growth just as much as anyone but opportunity can also bring challenges. Having the strategy, tools and process in place to manage explosive growth is something we discuss on a regular basis with our customers and partners as they gear up for the holidays. If you have some thoughts or concerns you would like to share about your ability to meet the demands of this holiday season please feel free to contact us.
Message to Our Customers Who Were Affected By Hurricane Harvey
On behalf of the team at Freestyle Solutions, We offer our hearts and support to the communities and customers affected by Hurricane Harvey. To our customers in the areas affected, we would like to extend our support to your M.O.M. operations. Please let us know, if you need assistance in preparing your operations with back-up and storage of data during these difficult times, or if you may need our help to reestablish business operations at a later date. Feel free to contact Freestyle Solutions Support at: Phone: 973-237-0300 Email: MOMSupport@freestylesolutions.com
Automate Your Shipping Refunds
Did you know that more than $2 billion dollars of shipping refunds go unclaimed annually? Shipping costs are typically the 3rd largest line item on the P&L behind merchandise and labor cost. For most e-commerce merchants, 10% of their sales are spent on costs related to shipping. Given the number of dollars spent by your business to ship products to your customers, monitoring your shipments, and invoices is important to your bottom line. With this being said, shipping managers typically have one objective...to fulfill orders and quickly. Because of this, they have little time to assume responsibility for additional workload. How do they meet the ever present deadlines to ship orders plus review previous shipments to ensure that they were delivered, much less arrive on time? There is a business solution for the commonly faced pressures faced by shipping managers to fulfill orders as well as meet customer expectations. If your business ships with FedEx or UPS, consider taking advantage of a refunds and invoice auditing company allowing your business to focus on shipping orders, not claiming due refunds and credits. Select