Recent Articles
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
Why Omnichannel is Critical for Retailers: Customer Interaction Optimization
Part 3 in a 3 Part Series | Part 1, Part 2 Freestyle Solutions partnered with the e-tailing group to do independent research to understand how mid-market retailers are addressing omnichannel in terms of process and technology. Rather than surmise what the experience would be like, we developed a hands-on mystery shopping research study where visits to 25 retailers would reveal the hard results. Our methodology involved a pre-store setup that considered two types of shopping experiences: buy online pickup in-store and place an order for return at a retail location. Customer Interaction Optimization In our study, we found that the retail associates universally processed returns via the POS and only in one instance was a second associate required to complete the transaction, so this process was smooth. However, retailers regularly miss an opportunity to turn returns into revenue. As retail employee attrition is all too frequent, technology rather than training should be available for consultative selling opportunities to impact the top line. While it is difficult to replace the experience of a stellar sales associate, retailers need systems to
Why Omnichannel is Critical for Retailers: Inventory Transparency
Part 1 in a 3 Part Series | Part 2, Part 3 Freestyle Solutions partnered with the e-tailing group to do independent research to understand how mid-market retailers are addressing omnichannel from a tactical execution standpoint in terms of both process and technology. Rather than surmise what the experience would be like, we developed a hands-on mystery shopping research study where visits to 25 retailers would reveal the hard results. Our methodology involved a pre-store setup that considered two types of shopping experiences: 1) buy online pickup in-store (BOPIS) and 2) place an order online and return it at a retail location. Inventory Transparency For retailers, inventory rightsizing and turnover are two of the most important key performance indicators measuring the health of their stores. This is in direct conflict with customers who are no longer patient and want the products to be at the store when they arrive. With less than half of retailers allowing for this expected access, coupled with the convenience of BOPIS, an inventory foundation is fundamental to success. There is work to be done where
Why Omnichannel is Critical for Retailers: Information Accessibility
Part 2 in a 3 Part Series | Part 1, Part 3 Freestyle Solutions partnered with the e-tailing group to conduct independent research to understand how mid-market retailers have adopted omnichannel from an execution standpoint in terms of process and technology. Rather than surmise what the experience would be like, the e-tailing group developed a hands-on mystery shopping research study where visits to 25 retailers would reveal the hard results. Our methodology involved a pre-store setup that considered two types of shopping experiences: buy online pickup in-store and place an order for return at a retail location. Information Accessibility Shoppers come to the store for many reasons and customer information access is at the core of a convenient shopping experience. Today, securing this information is not a smooth process. The dependency on the customer to provide an order receipt, given antiquated systems, is simply not shopper friendly. Every retailer must be able to access an order based on a multitude of search criteria. After 20 years of ecommerce, consumers are at the point where they feel this issue should have been resolved. During