ReplyManager

How a message management tool can help you scale support

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 14:18:00 +0000

Why choose a message management tool?

No matter what size your business is, managing customer support can be tricky. If you’re selling on multiple marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and your own webstore, it can be difficult to manage support while growing your business at the same time.

An eCommerce message management tool allows you to centralize all your customer support queries in one place, cutting down your average support time so you can focus on business growth.

You have the ability to track a customer’s history, giving you a full view of customer support so you can respond to queries quickly and effectively.

Customer support and business growth

As an online seller on multiple channels, you’ll receive a high number of product-related customer queries. As your business grows, the influx of queries will increase, putting you under further pressure to maintain a high level of customer support.

The more sales you get, the harder it becomes to keep your customers satisfied. If you begin to overlook certain areas of support then you will lose out on sales opportunities which will affect your long-term business growth. This is where a message management solution comes in - it can help you scale efficient support as you continue to grow.

Everything in one place

By centralizing all your channels in one dashboard, a message solution allows you and your customer support team to manage more queries efficiently. When a customer emails you with a product query you have a full support picture - agents have full access to order history and customer details so that they can respond quickly and intelligently.

Choosing an eCommerce tool for you

How do you choose the tool that’s right for your business? There are plenty of email management solutions available (Front, Inbox, etc), but these are not designed specifically for sellers. ReplyManager was built by eCommerce experts - for eCommerce businesses.

ReplyManager is integrated with Amazon and eBay as well as essential inventory management solutions ChannelAdvisor and Linnworks, to ensure that your workflow is always smooth and seamless. Bring your sales, orders and support into one dashboard to give you and your team the full support picture.

Stay within SLAs

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are especially important in the eCommerce industry. In order to provide a positive customer experience, marketplaces like Amazon and eBay require sellers to respond to their customers within 24 hours. If sellers fail to comply to these rules then their seller metrics will be affected.

A tool like ReplyManager organizes your tickets in order of SLA deadlines, putting your most urgent queries to the top of the list so that you avoid any SLA breaches.

Save valuable time

ReplyManager also offers time-saving features, like Templates and SmartTags that can cut your average response times in half.

Templates allow you to create automated responses for your most common queries, so you can respond to these queries in just three clicks, speeding up your average support interaction.

SmartTags help to personalize messages by automatically pulling in a customer’s details, including the name, company address, order details and more, by simply using a hash tag.

Start responding faster today

Give your customer support team the tools they need to be support heroes! Sign up for a free trial of ReplyManager.

How eBay CEO Devin Wenig plans to rediscover the 'eBay way'

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:12:00 +0000

The eBay OPEN Seller Celebration 2016 was held at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada last week. In an article for Tamebay, ReplyManager CEO, Victor Corcoran outlines the main takeaways from an inspiring presentation by eBay’s CEO Devin Wenig. The future seems bright for eBay sellers, as Victor describes Devin’s report on market trends and eBay’s plans to accelerate and disrupt global commerce.

Read the full article on Tamebay.

What is a Great Customer Support Template Worth?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:12:00 +0000

Online sellers are constantly battling with the need to speed up response times and delight their customers.

When it comes to customer support, response templates are one of the easiest ways to speed up response times, resolve issues quickly and make customers happy. Each and every email interaction holds great value to every business. Each email is received by an individual who has a whole network of potential customers with whom they can share their experience of your company.

One single interaction is likely to form a customer’s opinion of a company and how they speak about you afterwards.

The result could go one of two ways:

With a great experience, they could be a loyal customer for life
Experience a negative interaction and they share their story with a wide network of potential customers

The Value of a Great Customer Response

Crafting an effective template is worth the effort and here’s why:

Cut response times by over 50%
Customers who received great customer support will spend a further 20-40% with your company
Negative reviews are shared twice as many times as positive reviews.

What Customers Expect

Speed
Personalization

The Customer Need for Speed

Online sellers need to respond faster to grow their business.
The faster the response time, the better the customer feedback.

With new social platforms and live chat, there are multiple points of contact that are raising customers’ expectations for speedier responses.

We recently researched customer response rates and found that 74 percent of customers expect a response in under one hour through social support. This expectancy is now spreading to other points of contact where the rate of response is expected to catch up - over email and marketplace channels.

Our insights show that automating support responses with templates, can speed up response times by over 50 percent, when the business uses a minimum of five templates.

Personalization - Make the customer feel special

Customers expect eCommerce businesses to recognize them as an individual and treat them with respect. There has been a significant shift in the last few years towards creating personalized experiences for customers. The trend for personalization has evolved so much so that customers will no longer respond or react to a generic email that has not acknowledged them.

Not every online business has adopted an approach yet, but this can be achieved by simply acknowledging the customer name and having knowledge of their details.

Endless Benefits to Great Customer Support

The short-term benefit of Personalization is that transaction rates increase six times with personalized emails.
The long-term benefit is the customer loyalty that springs from having a great experience.

A personalized experience will make your customer feel happy, or even loved, according to a study by trendwatching.com. When receiving a great support experience, it was found that it triggered the same cerebral reaction as feeling loved for 53 percent of the participants.

How to Exceed Customer Expectations

Respond quickly
Personalize the response
Show gratitude for the customer’s query or feedback
Arm your agents with customer interaction and order history
If you are unable to help with the query, assign an agent who has the required skills
Whatever you do, don’t ignore your customer.

Speed Up Personalized Experiences with ReplyManager

We have learned some valuable insights from our customers on how we can help online sellers run marketplace support more efficiently.

We are currently migrating ReplyManager customers over to our new look ReplyManager, which includes new and improved features like Templates and SmartTags, among many others that will dramatically speed up response times.

With ReplyManager SmartTags, you can automate personalized details like order numbers and addresses. These tags can also be used in the message subject field for an even more personalized interaction. Automating templates that include all the helpful details a customer might need, like expected delivery time and confirmation of the delivery address, will help to exceed your customer’s expectations.

The components of an effective response are outlined in the template below. We have made five pre-defined templates available for use in the new ReplyManager message dashboard.
The example incorporates SmartTags to automatically create a personalized experience and I will highlight the other elements that define a successful response template.

1. Using SmartTags to personalize the email. It’s really important to respond with the customer’s name and your own name. With these tags, you can also automate details like order numbers and addresses.

2. Apologize. If you are wrong, admit it, don’t be afraid to apologize. The customer will identify with you as a human being and will be more understanding of a mistake - it will also show them that you care about resolving their problem.

3. Explain the order status. If you don’t know, be honest and reassure them that you are looking into it and will revert with details as soon as possible.

4. Showing that this problem is a rare occurrence reassures your customer. Demonstrate confidence in your service and this will inspire confidence in you.

5. A key factor in your communications, is to advise your customer of possible solutions to the problem. Be transparent and give them visibility on the next steps to a resolution.

6. Make the customer a part of the solution. Involve them in the elimination process. This will give them an element of control over the problem.

7. ‘With your help’ transfers the power to the customer. Giving them status is particularly effective when you want a person to change their attitude towards something.

Write it once so that you don’t have to write it a thousand times

When crafting your response template, it is extremely important to spend time considering all the necessary components for the response. Remember the difference between an email response and a template response - with an email, the agent is present in the interaction and can make judgements on the clarity of language and format in the response. With a template, this will be automatically sent out to the customer, so it is extremely important that all components of a successful email have been considered when creating the template.

Although it may seem like a huge effort to craft the perfect template, think about it in the long term - write it once so that you don’t have to write it a thousand times.

In the coming months, ReplyManager customers will be invited to migrate to the new interface with fantastic new features.
We hope that our new look ReplyManager will exceed your expectations.

If you have any questions about these updates, please get in touch with us at support@replymanager.com.

ReplyManager Launches Innovative New Features

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 May 2016 10:56:00 +0000

Over the past few months, we have learned some essential insights from our customers into how we can help you run your marketplace support operations more efficiently.

We’ve put these insights into practice. Introducing the new ReplyManager - stacked with innovative new features and a fresh streamlined user interface.

Learn about ReplyManager’s exciting new features below.

Message Dashboard

With ReplyManager’s new Message Dashboard, you’re about to win back a whole lot of time. We have simplified the communication processes for eCommerce businesses by removing the barriers of multiple logins for multi-channel marketplaces and have replaced the difficulty with one simple login solution - ReplyManager.

While you can admire the workings of the new Message Dashboard here, in the meantime, let us introduce you to the organizational gems that make ReplyManager so effective.

Folders, Labels and Rules

We have created a set of tools that will streamline your operations and help you to win the loyalty of a happy customer base. Folders, Labels and Rules filters, sort and organize your incoming messages in a meaningful way.

With Rules, you can create rules based on conditions that you have set using ticket query types. There is no limit to the number of combinations you can use when configuring conditions. Once your rule is set, tickets will be automatically filtered by type and assigned to the relevant folder and agent(s). Now, you can receive and respond quickly to customer messages, from all of your marketplaces.

Discover how folders, labels and rules can improve your efficiency.

Templates and SmartTags

ReplyManager’s new tools allow you to create a personalized experience for your customers without overwhelming your support agents with customer-dedicated emails.

Templates can be set up to make responses more efficient and to help fulfill SLA guidelines by pre-populating information for common replies that you send. Templates can be customized by channel and a message can be quickly drafted or set to auto-respond using ReplyManager conditions that make responses appear more human.

Within the Message Template screen, enter information for Usage Conditions, Autoresponder Options, Recurring date & time constraints, one-off date and time constraints, and more.

ReplyManager’s SmartTags allow you to automatically input data from your customer query, such as name and order ID, to create a personalized response at a much faster rate.

You will quickly start to notice the benefits of sending high quality personalized responses.

Learn how to create your custom Templates and SmartTags.

Deeper Amazon and eBay Integration

The great news is that you will never again need to login to multiple marketplace channels to handle a customer query! ReplyManager’s Message Dashboard is fully integrated with Amazon and eBay, giving you direct access to extensive customer and order details from within a single intuitive interface.

Learn how to integrate Amazon and eBay accounts.

Reports dashboard

Improve your performance by having clear visibility on the behaviours and interactions between customers and team members. The graphical data contained within the new Reports dashboard will help you to make informed decisions on your customer processes, identify areas of success and areas primed for improvement. Track activity across multiple marketplaces and ensure that you are compliant with service level agreements (SLAs). Be informed of how you can best align your resources to nurture a mutually beneficial relationship with your customers.

Discover how ReplyManager Reports dashboard works.

ReplyManager’s new features will help you reap the rewards of high quality marketplace customer support. With more time on your hands to focus on growing your business and winning the loyalty of a happy customer base, you can drive your sales to the next level. Review ReplyManager user guides. Got any questions about ReplyManager features? We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have. Get in touch with us at support@xsellco.com.

What is Amazon Seller-Fulfilled Prime?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 15:45:00 +0000

Amazon Prime, the membership scheme with perks that include free two-day shipping, is now open to sellers who do their own fulfilment.

Are you a self-fulfilled seller? Learn about the benefits of reaching Amazon’s premium customer base - Prime members.

Seller-Fulfilled Prime

Having access to Prime customers increases sales. A staggering 70% of upper income US households are Prime Members (Business Insider). Prime members are loyal, deep-pocketed and spend more than non-Prime customers.

According to RBC Capital:

73% of Prime shoppers buy 2-3 times a month.
49% of Prime members spend more than $800 per annum.
Prime adoption grew to 40% of Amazon’s US customers in 2015 .

For sellers, Prime increases the discoverability of products. Strict barriers to entry mean less competition for Prime sellers. Having the Prime ‘badge’ beside a product promotes buyer confidence and increases the chance of winning the Buy Box. Customers will choose products with free shipping options over those without it.

Seller-Fulfilled Prime allows Amazon to give Prime members more choice by adding items that aren’t stored in its own warehouses. For sellers, having access to millions of high spending, loyal Amazon customers is a huge bonus - but there’s a catch. In return, Amazon wants more control over which courier service you use.

The Logistics Game

Amazon Logistics is now the mandatory carrier for Seller-Fulfilled Prime for most postal destinations in the UK. In Germany, courier firm DPD must be used when available. Amazon Logistics is a courier service that collects directly from retailers rather that Amazon fulfilment centres.

The changes will be most keenly felt by couriers, shipping companies and the like. Initially, self-fulfilled sellers could choose any courier service from Amazon’s list of preferred shippers. Now, Amazon is establishing control over the end-to-end purchasing process by making Amazon Logistics the mandatory choice where available.

For some merchants, Amazon’s extensive logistics network and competitive rates will be a benefit. For others, especially larger retailers, it could mean significant investment in warehousing and inventory systems to integrate with Amazon Logistics.

Is this an opportunity to sell more, or a risk handing over logistics to Amazon? Find out more in our Guide to Seller-Fulfilled Prime.

How to Sell on Instagram

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:22:00 +0000

Instagram is one of the most popular social networking apps on the planet.

With over 400 million users, the photo-sharing app is a prime location for getting your brand and products in front of millions of eyeballs.

But how can you turn Instagram activity into sales?

ECommercebytes lists four ways online businesses make Instagram pay:

Use apps that integrate webstore customer data with social media
Partner with other businesses on Instagram
Recruit social influencers
Get your happy customers sharing

Read the full article on eCommercebytes.com to learn how you can sell on Instagram.

8 Things You Should Know Before Choosing an Amazon Repricer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 12:58:00 +0000

On Amazon, price is fluid - one price does not fit all situations.

This is why many Amazon sellers use repricers. Managing the price of an inventory of products is simply not scalable.

But before you start visiting repricer websites, there are eight things you should know about the types of repricers available and what you can expect, before signing up.

1. Reprice in Real Time

Repricing lets you react quicker when a competitor changes their price or runs out of stock. If you’re going to invest in a repricer, make sure it offers real time repricing. Many repricers have delays of up to an hour before a product reacts and reprices. This is a long time in eCommerce – the opportunity may have already passed you by. Real time repricing means you take instant advantage of price changes and always stay one step ahead of your competitors.

2. Win the Buy Box more often

This the main benefit of a repricer. As much as 80% of all Amazon sales go through the Buy Box. Mobile shoppers, who are a fast-growing population, are even more influenced by the Buy Box because fewer alternative sellers are displayed there.

By repricing based on rules against your competitors, you are guaranteed to win more Buy Box.

3. Less Work, More Sales

Rest assured that your repricer is doing the work so you don’t have to constantly monitor your competitors. Automatically adjusting your prices, within the range you define, gives you the best possible chance to sell every time.

4. You Set the Rules

While price is a crucial factor, Amazon use a sophisticated algorithm to award the Buy Box. Other measures like feedback score, seller rating, customer support response times, delivery times and stock levels are also taken into account. A solid repricing strategy should react to a range of competitive scenarios. Setting your own rules with a rules-based repricer allows you to do that and compete in a super-granular way you control.

5. Make More Profit

In some cases, higher price products can win the Buy box over cheaper ones, like when you have a better feedback score than your rival. The software should reprice up and down depending on the situation. You should be able to tweak your strategy to achieve the highest price and still win the all important Buy Box.

6. Bulk Upload Your Products

Anything that saves time and gets the job done the most efficient way is a winner. Regardless of the size of your inventory, the ability to upload multiple SKUs is invaluable, you should also have the capacity to deselect individual items with a single click if required.

7. Control Your Net Margin

A common problem for sellers is knowing their true net margin after all selling costs are taken into account. Sales charges, listings fees, VAT, shipping costs, the list goes on – final sale price doesn’t always reflect your true margin. Advanced repricers allow you to input your selling costs and specify your desired margin in advance, ensuring you profit from each and every sale and can predict your margins.

8. Algorithmic or Rules-Based Repricing

The two most common types are rules-based repricers and algorithmic repricers. With rules-based repricers, you set the rules for how you compete. With algorithmic repricers, you let the repricing software wholly compete on your behalf. Which system you prefer is entirely your choice.

Choosing the right Amazon repricing software is a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Don’t be fooled by the ‘set it and forget it’ approach that some companies take. A repricer should remove the hassle of manually repricing inventory and give you peace of mind that your pricing is always competitive.

A repricer should give you the flexibility to stay in control. Want to see a real time repricer in action?

Try XSellco Price Manager on a Free 14-day trial.

What Sellers Can Get Out of eBay Promoted Listings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 11:16:00 +0000

If you hadn't heard, eBay launched a new product advertising service called Promoted Listings.

Having seen the success of Amazon Sponsored Products, launching a platform to allow sellers to get their products in front of more customers was a no-brainer.

But what value should you expect to get from Promoted Listings?

Read five ways you can benefit below.

1. More Sales

Promoted listings is a new way to increase a product’s visibility to more buyers and create more sales. Higher demand items listed by multiple sellers with better selling prospects can be promoted to more potential buyers. Sales made with promoted listings should also favourably impact your ‘best match’ listings by driving more traffic to them. It’s less effective for unique items like antiques and collectibles, where best match search terms are very specific, and there’s far less competition.

2. No Gain, No Pain

You specify a rate for each promoted item, ranging from 1% to 20% of final sale price. The specified percentage of the final sale price, plus selling and listing fees goes to eBay. You’re only charged when a customer clicks on your promoted ad and goes on to purchase the item within 30 days. The amount you pay is based on the rate you’d set at the time the buyer first clicked your ad. If the item is returned or the buyer doesn’t pay, you’re eligible for free ad credits. If the item doesn’t sell, you don’t pay.

3. Start Promoting Quickly

The price, image and product description for your advert are pulled from your original eBay listing. It’s simple to promote multiple listings with bulk uploads. Stop or start your ads whenever you want.

4. Target Accurately

The factors that dictate where and when an ad is seen are ad rate, listing quality and relevancy. The more you invest in an ad the more visible it is. Competing on popular, high value items in uber competitive categories means bidding more. If you sell products that are seasonal, event-based, or likely to sell on public holidays, give them more exposure with campaigns that you set up in advance.

5. Learn more about your customers

Detailed performance data is readily available to optimise your campaign strategies. Your seller dashboard contains: The number of impressions your promoted ads have generated Clicks from potential buyers on your ads The total number of promoted ads that led to a sale The ad rate for every item and fee you’ll be charged Total items sold and amount earned.

So, now that you know some of the benefits, are you going to give eBay Promoted Listings a go?

So You've Cracked Amazon. What's Next?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Diversifying into multiple marketplaces is key to success in online selling.

If you have all your eggs in the Amazon or eBay basket, you might want to consider selling on new platforms. But where and why?

Read about Rakuten, Yahoo! Commerce Central, Shop.com and more in ReplyManager co-founder Jodi Gaines Pereira's latest contribution to Tamebay.

Read the full article on Tamebay.

The Art of Asking for and Getting Feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 17:11:00 +0000

Over the past few months, I’ve been collecting feedback request emails and gathering stories from colleagues and friends on their purchase experiences from eBay and Amazon.

In that time, I’ve discovered three things.

Very few feedback requests were sent
The messages were poorly written
Requests were too frequently sent from the same seller.

In my guest contribution to Tamebay, I discuss the two W's and one H that form the art of asking for feedback: Who, When and How.

Learn more about asking for feedback in my latest Tamebay article.

Jodi Gaines Pereira is the co-founder of ReplyManager. In 2015, ReplyManager was sold to XSellco Limited, a leading provider of software solutions for online sellers, including feedback solicitation tool High5. As a thought leader and speaker on customer service, online reputation and digital marketing, Jodi is a frequent contributor to online publications, a sought-after webinar host and aspiring musician.

Turning eBay Browsers in to eBay Buyers [Webinar]

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 14:46:00 +0000

Everyone who sells on eBay knows the true meaning of the word competition.

Unlike most other marketplaces, eBay empowers sellers to promote their products by using their own listings, as well as manage their own shopfronts. But this means your own listing standards must be high to compete with the best on eBay.

To help sellers get the most out of eBay, I’ll be hosting a webinar on ‘Turning eBay Browsers into eBay Buyers‘ on Thursday 4 February at 1pm EST.

I’ll focus primarily on how to identify potentially profitable products to sell as well as talking about the best tools to help plan your product lines. Register for 'Turning eBay Browsers into eBay Buyers' Webinar.

For this webinar I’ll will be teaming up with eBay expert Sam Dey of Deytips, who will provide insights on how to optimise your eBay shop window to increase conversions. Deytips is an eCommerce and digital marketing blog that help entrepreneurs better market their products and services online.

Sam will also explain how to create eBay listings that rank higher in search results, as well as how to attract more clicks on your eBay listings. Whether you’re an eBay newbie or old school veteran, there’ll be nuggets of information for everyone in this webinar. We will also answer any questions you have at the end of the webinar. Hope to see you there!

Josie Grant is Head of Partnerships at XSellco and an eCommerce expert. Having also previously worked as Head of Customer Success, Josie provides multichannel sellers with practical tips for selling online.

ReplyManager launches eBay Order Search feature

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 09:32:00 +0000

We are delighted to announce the launch of a new feature - eBay Order Search.

eBay Order Search allows ReplyManager customers to search eBay orders related to a Buyer ID or email address without having to leave ReplyManager. This new feature is designed to save online sellers time, offering deeper integration and support for eBay queries.

Key benefits include:

Search by email and eBay user ID
View order data including name, address, payment, shipping and tracking information
Search across all integrated eBay accounts

“eBay Order Search offers ReplyManager customers a simple, but powerful integration that will increase response times when buyers ask order specific questions, like whether a package was shipped, the tracking number and much more,” says XSellco CEO Victor Corcoran. “It is our goal to build scalable, powerful customer support tools for online sellers. Giving ReplyManager users instant access to essential customer data through eBay Order Search is another step towards that goal”.

Learn more about how eBay Order Search works.

How to Minimize Negative Feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:48:00 +0000

Negative feedback is a harsh reality of trading online. It’s almost impossible to please customers all of the time. Sooner or later somebody will leave neutral or negative feedback, whether it’s justified or not.

However, there are steps all online retailers can implement quickly and easily to reduce the likelihood of this happening, as well as solutions to handle negative feedback when it does crop up.

In my upcoming webinar on 'How to Proactively Minimize Negative Feedback', I'll be discussing how you can turn feedback into sales through smart feedback management, shipping, listings and customer service strategies.

The webinar took place on Wednesday 20 January at 1pm EST.

Watch the webinar on YouTube and learn how to improve your seller rating.

Why a Customer Retention Plan is vital to reducing returns

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 16:11:00 +0000

I did most of my holiday shopping on Amazon this year. But out of the 20 holiday purchases I made, only one seller sent a follow-up email. Just one!

I couldn’t help but think that sellers were missing out on a big opportunity to connect with customers in a positive way and perhaps reduce their return burden by implementing a simple customer retention plan with follow-up emails.

In my latest contribution to Tamebay, I explain the value a customer retention plan has for sellers in reducing returns.

I cover some of the important aspects of customer retention and returns, like avoiding marketplace penalties, pro-actively seeking feedback and the value of automated follow-up emails.

Jodi Gaines Pereira is the co-founder of ReplyManager. In 2015, ReplyManager was sold to XSellco Limited, a leading provider of software solutions for online sellers, including feedback solicitation tool High5. As a thought leader and speaker on customer service, online reputation and digital marketing, Jodi is a frequent contributor to online publications, a sought-after webinar host and aspiring musician.

The Importance of Measuring Mobile Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 14:45:00 +0000

According to Forrester, the average smartphone user looks at their device up to 200 times a day, totaling over two hours screen time daily. With smartphone usage growing exponentially, that is a massive audience. In the evolving digital marketplace, sellers need to learn how to quantify all of that data in order to craft a mobile marketing strategy.

A mobile moment can last seconds, and each second is significant to the marketing mix. In essence, smartphone users are looking for immediacy once their attention is engaged. These moments need to be seamless and relevant to their real-time needs. The need for specialized mobile marketing tools that can gather data and engage the consumer in real-time is becoming a necessity for those who want to compete in the digital marketplace. When evaluating mobile automation tools, sellers should look for a few things:

Data. The ability to gather CRM, mobile application analytics, and real-time information.
Identify. The ability to quantify the data to assemble the audience and find key mobile moments.
Engagement. Customized content created for a specific audience.
Delivery. Engagement via chosen channels.
Measure. Analytics that allow performance measurement.

Take some time to check out Forrester's mobile engagement guide “Vendor Landscape: Mobile Engagement Automation Solutions.” It’s an independent analysis of the “over 30 million mobile moments” that happen daily in the US by Forrester Research. It's a great introduction to this quickly evolving digital landscape.

Barbara Anderson

Marketing Coordinator

Get Ready for Shipping Rate Hikes US Sellers!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 02:45:00 +0000

Etail sellers in the US get ready. USPS has recently announced that effective on January 17, 2016, shipping service rates will see increases in several areas. Make sure to review rate increases to ensure your business will remain profitable as these increases may very well affect a seller’s ability to offer free shipping.

Priority Mail Express - Commercial Plus: 48.2%
Priority Mail - Commercial Plus: 13.3%
Parcel Select - Lightweight: 23.5%
First-Class Package Service: 12.8%
Standard Post (Retail Ground): 10%

USPS isn’t the only shipper raising rates. As of December 28th this year, UPS is raising rates by an average of 4.9% for Ground services, and 5.2% for Air. FedEx’s rate hikes will be effective as of January 4, 2016; average of 4.9%, increase across the board.

Take a look at eCommerceBytes’ recent article “Sellers Say USPS Rate Hike Threatens Their Business Model”. It shares important information, advice, as well as some reader concerns about this significant ecommerce logistics issue.

Barbara Anderson

Marketing Coordinator

Holiday Out of Office Auto-responder

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 16:27:00 +0000

We know many of our customers are planning to work very hard during the upcoming holidays. However, if your are planning to be closed, be sure to create "holiday specific" auto-responders to keep your customers in the loop.

The following examples detail rules for setting auto-responders during the Christmas holiday. These can easily be used in conjunction with any current auto-responders already configured whether on a rule or on a folder. Just be sure to change the rank so the Holiday Rule overwrites the previous auto-responder as ReplyManager will only send one auto-response.

** Update for 2015.

Things to Remember

Rank your holiday responders high, to have them be the first rule evaluated, and process rule "After Spam filter"
Update your rule to be “Active” prior to the holiday
Create your specific details for day and time
Update your rule to "NO" (not be active) after the holiday. ReplyManager lets you save this rule to update and use again without having to delete it
Be sure to use "noreply@ for the "From" address. Sending an auto response to Spam email can create much unwanted emails back into the system
Be sure to have a folder set up to move the email when the rule is matched

**Important Note for eBay and Amazon:
For eBay API emails, remember that the eBay system messages and notifications rule along with the duplicate eBay emails rule needs to be set at a higher ranking than the auto-responder rule. Those particular emails need to be filtered first since ReplyManager cannot return a message to an eBay system message. Be sure to send an auto-response to only those specific messages from customers. The same holds for Amazon email, place the auto-responder rule ranking just below the system notifications rule.

These rules will automatically stop sending based on the dates you select. Be sure to customize the dates based on your holiday hours. You can use the same concept for New Year's or any holiday during the year.

eBay Christmas Out of Office Auto-Responder
Go to Maintenance > Rules. Add New Rule.

Amazon Christmas Out of Office Auto-Responder
Go to Maintenance > Rules. Add New Rule.

Your Website Christmas Out of Office Auto-Responder
Go to Maintenance > Rules. Add New Rule.

Related articles:
Automatically Answer Weekend & After Hours Email

by Dale Gaines
Customer Care

eTail Online Fraud Prevention

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 14:45:00 +0000

The profile of the average criminal committing fraud in the U.S. is quite specific. SiftScience ran a year-long study and found the average fraudster says they are an 87-year-old male from Alaska, and purchases something with a value less than $20. Most fraudulent transactions happen at 3 AM and are shipped to the east coast of the US. Orders going to Miami-Dade county in Florida have the highest likelihood of being fraudulent orders.

While the description sounds random, this data is actually quite useful. There are organizations studying the ever increasing incidents of online fraud, and they are coming up with incredibly useful information that can help online sellers better identify the likelihood that a transaction is fraudulent. Unless an eTailer is large enough to invest capital in employing their own digital fraud prevention staff, using a service is the best solution to make sure that customers, as well as sellers, are protected. Etail sellers need to weigh the benefits of each fraud prevention service carefully. The following are three key points to compare:

Hands-on involvement: How hands on do you want to be? Is a customized solution necessary? Is automation available?

Platform compatibility: Ensure the service selected functions in each platform that you do business.

Support: Excellent customer service is essential. Make sure that there is someone available to get to know your business. A direct relationship helps the service provider get to know your business and anticipate its needs.

An important thing to remember is to ensure the security and fraud prevention service does not make your checkout process overly tedious. Long, complicated checkout processes increase the likelihood for cart abandonment. Take a look at InternetRetailer’s article “The front lines on online fraud in the U.S.”. It’s a comprehensive look at the state of online fraud in the US.

Sources:

Barbara Anderson

Marketing Coordinator

3 Tips to Combat Ad Blockage for Mobile Commerce

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:45:00 +0000

The numbers say it all. 79% of internet users own a smartphone. Demandware says smartphones are responsible for 94% of the increase in digital commerce traffic, 74% increase in basket creation, and 47% increase in order growth. Mobile commerce is driving a significant amount of ecommerce boost.

Now for the challenge: ad blocking usage is also increasing. The GlobalWebIndex reported that by the end of Q2 2015, 25% of internet users will employ ad-blocking software. The best way for etail sellers to combat ad blocking is by creating value for the consumer with ad formatting. Here are three easy ways sellers can increase conversion rates:

Non-Disruptive: Use ad formatting that does not interfere with screen load time and data usage. Also, keep in mind the smartphone screen size in mind when designing ads. No one likes to have their browsing disrupted by an obnoxiously large ad that is not “thumb friendly”.

Personalization: Create ads that are more relevant to the interests of the user with content based on data collected from search and transaction history. According to MarketingCharts, consumers engage more with personalized ads.

Social: If a business is not on social, it is truly missing out. Social media allows advertisers to better target ads to users that are more likely to be interested in the message. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have easy to use audience building tools that help make the process much less time consuming.

Hubspot reports that there has been an increase of 267% in ad blocking use since 2013. It is highly likely that the numbers will continue to go up. Unless an enterprise has the money to pay the ad blockers to “whitelist” them and allow content to be shown, ads will have to be created thoughtfully in order to attempt to get around ad blockers, but try to stem the tide of the increasing numbers of ad blocker users.

Sources:

Barbara Anderson

Marketing Coordinator

Using Instagram to Drive Online Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 14:45:00 +0000

Do you know where your potential customers are online? The answer is: everywhere. Most of you reading this article are in the business of selling. A big part of selling is attracting potential buyers and increasing brand awareness. Social media makes it easier than ever before for sellers to target their message to the audiences with the potential to increase revenue.

Instagram users can quickly search for what they are interested in using tags and a “quick look” feature to verify relevance. And Instagram is using that data to aid advertisers. The platform has followed in Facebook’s footsteps with enrichment of their ad formatting and targeting options, offering photo, video, and carousel ads.

Instagram advertising can help marketers with:

Website: Direct traffic to key locations on your website.

App Installs: Drive application installations.

Video: Tell visually rich stories. Instagram advertising increases the length of video from their standard 15 seconds to 30 seconds.

Awareness: Increase brand recognition. There were 400 million active users on Instagram this September.

All it takes is a glance at the right image to increase traffic to your online store. A picture is worth a thousand words! Take a look at the article “How to Run Instagram Ads. They are Finally Here for All to Enjoy” by Yinc Marketing. It’s has an easy to follow set of step-by-step instructions on using Instagram’s new advertising tools.

Sources:

Barbara Anderson

Marketing Coordinator

Amazon Sales On the Rise Going Into Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 15:15:00 +0000

ChannelAdvisor recently published an article highlighting Amazon’s amazing 3rd Quarter results. The platform experienced its second straight quarter of growth, actually exceeding their $24.9 Billion forecast of expected revenue at $25.4 Billion. Much of that growth is due to their robust 3rd party seller market.

According to ChannelAdvisor, the 3rd party market grew 20% faster than Amazon. Some great numbers to note include:

Active Users: The number of users has grown by 14% since Q2- up from 285 million to 294 million.

% Items Sold: 46% of the items sold on the platform were from 3rd party sellers.

Category Growth: Electronics and General Merchandise sales grew 35%, taking 79% of revenue in the US market and 70% in the international market.

Amazon attributes much of their growth to the Prime Day promotion they ran in July. With the coming Holiday promotions, it is likely that the company will see another record breaking quarter. Amazon’s 3rd party sellers are in a great place going into the 2015 Holiday selling season. ChannelAdvisor predicts that Amazon may see a $75 Billion 4th quarter.

Take a look at ChannelAdvisor’s article “Kerchow! Amazon’s Q3 Results Setup for Strong Holiday 15- Seller Oriented Deep Dive”. It shares some great numbers and insights on the health of Amazon’s marketplace. We certainly hope that the trend continues!

Sources:

ChannelAdvisor: KERCHOW! Amazon’s Q3 Results Setup for Strong Holiday 15 – Seller oriented deep dive

BusinessInsider: Amazon shares go wild after earnings beat

Barbara Anderson
Marketing Coordinator

3 Tips to Generate More Revenue from Adwords Holiday Campaigns

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:45:00 +0000

The seasons are changing and we are heading into the holiday shopping season, are you ready for the busiest time of year? Finch knows that this time of the year companies are putting final touches to their marketing plans for Q4. You are making your list and checking it twice in order to beat out your competition and gaining more sales from your marketing efforts. We want to help you make sure what you have in place is what will make 2015 a year to remember.

Here are a few suggestions that will help jumpstart your AdWords campaign generate more revenue this holiday season.

Keyword Coverage

If you look at your keyword bank, it should represent your market opportunity. This should show you what revenue you might be leaving on the table for your competitors. The more complete your keyword bank, the less likely you are losing sales to the competition.

There are two ways to ensure you are having complete coverage on the products and services you are offering: 1) connecting to your product catalog and 2) inserting search terms that have had conversions. These two ways will minimize the risk it takes to increase your keyword coverage in a short amount of time.

Google Shopping Campaigns

Google is continuing to update and change their shopping ads. While the change doesn’t make the experience for the end users different, it does give different tools to the advertisers to drive performance using data. You need to make sure your campaigns are utilizing the changes that have been made in Google Shopping campaigns and that you are taking advantage of them.

Bidding for Profit, Not Clicks

Most companies that are advertising online have different revenue and profit for each product they are selling. Each keyword contributes to this revenue and profit differently. When you look at your online advertising account in terms of profit, you will start to see how you can generate more profit depending on which keywords are bringing in the traffic to your website. You must utilize the profit data for individual keywords and set your bids to maximize your profit. Do not be the company that simply sets bids based on the average generated by a larger group of keywords.

Take a look into your AdWords campaigns and see if you have implemented these factors to make your Q4 unforgettable. Finch manages AdWords campaigns for advertisers with the purpose of growing revenues and optimizing for profit in a SaaS+ model. SaaS+ combines the effectiveness of our software with the experience of our team to deliver predictable, scalable and time-efficient results from your Google AdWords budgets. Contact Finch for a deep analysis on your AdWords. Happy Holidays!

Bjorn Espenes, Co-Founder, CEO of Finch

Finch.com

ReplyManager: Visual Cues to Help Keep You Organized

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 14:45:00 +0000

Keeping communications organized is a vital tool in any business. Many are plagued with gargantuan inboxes that seem to have no rhyme or reason as to what type of messages should be addressed first without opening each individual message. It can be a frustrating task. To help, ReplyManager has message preview capabilities, as well as a system of categories and customizable references that help sellers keep everything organized.

Our message hover feature helps sellers save a lot of time. As the feature is built into the system, there is no setup necessary to use it. Simply hover the cursor over a message ID in the message folder, and a short preview opens in a bubble.

Categories are automatically applied when messages come in to ReplyManager. If you want Dave to deal with all shipping inquiries, you can configure ReplyManager to tag those specific messages with “Dave” or “Shipping” as they arrive. When your staff opens a folder, they will be able to see category tags under the Category column.

It’s easy to set up categories. To automatically assign responsibility of messages, go to Maintenance > Categories to create a new category with each user's name or category. Click on the “Add New Category” button on the top right of the screen. Type the name of the category, and select the color to make the category more visually apparent in the folder screen. Make sure to update the appropriate Rule (in Maintenance > Rules) to assign the correct category to incoming messages. Categories can also be added manually within messages by simply opening a message, and selecting the Category drop down menu.

References are another tool that require no set up. They are located just to the right of the Category column in the folder. To add a reference, simply open a message, and type into the reference box under the mail ID number, and click update. You can also add references in bulk in the Folder view by selecting multiple messages and adding a reference for all.

Barbara Anderson
Marketing Coordinator

2015 UK and US Holiday Shipping Deadlines

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 14:45:00 +0000

It’s that time of year! The holiday season makes or breaks the entire year for many etail sellers. Quick, on time deliveries are no longer optional, but absolutely necessary in order to thrive. The big three U.S. shippers recently released their shipping deadlines for delivery by December 25th. Be sure to mark these dates for domestic services on your dashboard calendars, sellers!

USPS

December 15: Standard post

December 19: First Class Mail

December 21: Priority Mail

December 23: Priority Mail Express

UPS

December 18: 3 day select

December 22: 2nd Day Air

December 23: Next Day Air

FedEx

December 14: SmartPost

December 16: Home Delivery, Ground

December 21: Express Saver

December 22: 2Day, 2Day AM

December 23: First Overnight, Priority Overnight, Standard Overnight

December 25: SameDay

For sellers across the pond, RoyalMail recommends the following ship by dates for service within the UK:

UK Non-Contract

December 19: 2nd Class and Signed For 2nd Class

December 21: 1st Class and Signed For 1st Class

December 23: Special Delivery Guaranteed

UK Business Contract

December 17: Economy- Business Mail, and Advertising Mail

December 19: 2nd Class- Business Mail, Advertising Mail, Publishing Mail, and Royal Mail 48

December 21: Tracked 48, Tracked 48 Returns 48, 24 with/without sorting options. 1st Class- Business Mail, Advertising Mail, Publishing Mail

December 22: Tracked 24, Tracked Returns 24, and Publishing Mail Premium (posted by 1:00 PM)

December 23: Special Delivery Guaranteed

Barbara Anderson

Marketing Coordinator

Sources:

USPS- Postal Service Releases 2015 Holiday Shipping Deadlines

UPS- Year End Holiday Schedule
Federal Express- Holiday Shipping 2015 Last Days to Ship
Royal Mail- Latest Recommended Posting Dates for Christmas 2015

Cyber Monday. Are you ready?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:45:00 +0000

Cyber Monday is fast approaching. 2014 saw over $2 billion dollars on this single day. Hopefully everyone has completed their etail homework and has a plan in place to make the most out of this busy sales day. RJMetrics reports that the holiday shopping season can result in 30% of a seller’s entire year. The holidays can literally make or break a business.

Start the holiday shopping season off with a bang! To optimize total holiday sales, etail sellers should create and follow an actionable strategy. Here are two easy ways to improve Cyber Monday performance:

Threshold-based shipping promotions. Encourage customers to increase the total amount of their purchases by giving them the incentive of free shipping.

Doorbusters. Use the scarcity of popular stock items to increase sales intensity. If you have limited availability of popular items, use “flash sales” to create to increase traffic on your site. While not every customer will snap up that particular item, they may see something else to purchase.

Check out ChannelAdvisors brief, Five Lessons From Five Cyber Mondays. It offers some great advice on driving sales on what is traditionally the busiest online shopping day of the year. Make the most of this 2015 Cyber Monday!

Barbara Anderson

Marketing Coordinator