'Net Features : shipping

Ecommerce Shipping Simplified with 3dCart/Endicia App

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:47:00 GMT

In the world of e-commerce, shipping is one of those essential elements to Web success. The more seamless you make order management and delivery for online shoppers, as well as for you as an Internet retailer, the better off everyone will be. Fortunately, there is no shortage of opportunities at the ready.

Case in point, ecommerce software provider 3dcart has announced an integration with postage technology solution Endicia, which empowers 3dcart's 16,000 customers to print USPS labels with prepaid postage directly from the administrative interface. Merchants will be able to customize logos, text, images and other brand elements using the solution.

“With the addition of Endicia Label Server integration, 3dcart gains a competitive advantage by being the only ecommerce solution to allow online retailers to print USPS, UPS, FEDEX and TNT shipping labels directly from the admin interface,” said 3dcart CTO Jimmy Rodriguez. “Shipping can be one of the most difficult tasks in ecommerce, especially for small stores with small staffs. Over the last few years, we’ve worked to take the heavy-lifting out of the process—and the Endicia integration is a huge step in the right direction.”

The Endicia Label Server app will cost $15.95/mo but 3dcart is offering a 60-day free trial for existing and new 3dcart merchants.

Optimized Product Pages to Check Out

Allison Howen — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:55:00 GMT

Product pages are like treasure chests for serious online shoppers.

These data-rich Web pages contain valuable information consumers need to make purchasing decisions, such as images, pricing, descriptions and reviews. Even so, not all product pages are built with the consumer in mind. In fact, often times the most important product information is either missing or too difficult to find, which results in high abandonment rates and user frustration.

Companies with optimized product pages, however, experience favorable conversion metrics and better engagement from their site visitors. This includes increased time-on-site and interaction with product reviews. Learn from the best by checking out product page examples from some of the Net's top retailers, as featured in Website Magazine’s Web 100.

Nordstrom

Product Page Takeaway: Innovative Images

An online shopper’s first impression of an item is the product images. These are what entice the consumer to learn more about a product, so they can make an informed purchasing decision. In order to leave a good first impression, merchants should include alternate views of their products as well as zooming functionality, just as Nordstrom’s does on its product pages. These features allow consumers to view the details of an item without having to go to a brick-and-mortar location.

Wal-Mart

Product Page Takeaway: Robust Reviews

Product reviews are one of the most influential aspects of an e-commerce website, because these unfiltered opinions provide online shoppers with social evidence as to how a product works. Although Wal-Mart’s product pages follow many best practices (having multiple product views, detailed descriptions and site-to-store pickup options), the company really excels with its product review offerings, which includes key statistics and a filtering option.

Victoria’s Secret

Product Page Takeaways: Suggested Products, Sizing Tool

Suggested products are beneficial for both consumers and merchants. This handy element of a product page helps consumers find items that they weren’t originally searching for, as well as helps merchants increase their average order value. While Victoria’s Secret does a good job at suggesting items to its visitors who are browsing product pages, the retailer also deters returns with its “Size and Fit” link, which appears next to every relevant product. By clicking on this link, visitors can use the chart to determine the correct clothing sizes for their body.

Toys "R" Us

Product Page Takeaway: Up-Front Shipping Information

Shipping rates and times can greatly influence purchasing decisions, so why not be up front with this information? Often times, consumers have to wait until the checkout page to find out how much shipping will be or how long it will take. However, Toys "R" Us offers this information directly on its product pages. In fact, on this retailer’s product pages, consumers can see how much money needs to be spent in order to receive free shipping, if the product is available to be shipped internationally, how long it will take for the product to leave the warehouse and if store shipping options are available.

Ulta

Product Page Takeaway: Detailed Descriptions

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but is it worth its retail price? For online shoppers, the answer to this question is sometimes unknown because a product image doesn’t always provide the details one needs in order to make a purchasing decision. This makes description information useful. Ulta, for example, provides detailed explanations for all of its products, which also includes specifications and access to an ingredient list.

Stellar Shipping Solidifies Customers

Allison Howen — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:58:00 GMT

Although not always top of mind, logistics are among the most important aspects of e-commerce – especially during the holiday season.

In fact, a recent Voxware study reveals that late or inaccurate deliveries drastically impact consumers’ future decisions to shop with a retailer, with 29 percent of the study’s respondents stating that they will abandon shopping with a retailer if they receive an incorrect delivery. Furthermore, the study found that 68 percent of respondents say their expectations for correct and on-time delivery is higher during the holiday season.

“For a retailer to be successful, it is absolutely essential to get the right product to the right customer in a timely manner – delays and inaccuracies will have a disastrous impact on customer satisfaction, brand image, and bottom lines,” said Keith Phillips, President and CEO, Voxware. “With this survey, we wanted to better understand consumer expectations for correct and on-time deliveries. The results prove that with just one error or delay, many consumers will abandon shopping with that retailer not only online, but in-store as well. Efficiency and accuracy are more critical than ever as consumer expectations rise in parallel with their increase in online shopping.”

It is also important to note that the 43 percent of the survey respondents expect retailers who use standard shipping to deliver packages within 3-4 days, while 40 percent expect their packages to arrive in 5-6 days. And retailers who repeatedly don’t meet these expectations will undoubtedly lose customers, because 55 percent of respondents claim that they will abandon shopping with a retailer altogether after receiving a late delivery two to three times.

However, late deliveries are better than incorrect deliveries, because the study shows that 59 percent of respondents won’t shop with a retailer if they receive two to three incorrect deliveries. And with 30 percent of respondents stating that they intend to have more or significantly more holiday gifts delivered directly to them this year compared to last holiday season, it is more important than ever for merchants to ensure that their deliveries are efficient and correct.

“As the popularity of online shopping has exploded, retailers have not given enough attention to optimizing their supply chain for multi-channel distribution,” said Phillips. “Many still have an out-dated distribution center infrastructure in place and as a result, order fulfillment is often suboptimal. Most inefficiencies and errors occur in the distribution center at the moment of order selection, which has the largest impact on ensuring timely, accurate customer fulfillment. This is why voice technology can bring tremendous benefits to a retail organization. Because voice software lets retail warehouse workers remain hands-free, they can move more quickly, process more orders, and easily scale to address seasonal demands.”

The True Cost of High Shipping

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:40:00 GMT

The upcoming online shopping season promises to be one of the biggest and best yet for Internet retailers. But that doesn’t mean all merchants will have a happy holiday. So what’s the biggest barrier for your digital presence?

According to a new study of 1,200 shoppers from credit card comparison website CreditDonkey, 34 percent of respondents said that high shipping costs prevent them from buying more on the Web. The survey also revealed some other important findings worthy of note, including:

- 33 percent view the inability to touch a product as a deterrent to buying a product online (To combat this, readers may want to explore one of the many emerging product showcase platforms.)

- 15 percent said waiting for merchandise prevents them from doing more online shopping

- 9 percent said they are afraid products will not match their description (another reason why focusing on creating compelling product descriptions matter)

As to why consumers shop online, 52 percent said convenience, while 28 percent indicated price and 13 percent listed product selection.

Simplifying the Shipping Process for E-Commerce Merchants

Michael Garrity — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:25:00 GMT

E-commerce software solution Miva Merchant has recently updated its core software product in a move that will greatly improve the functionality of its products for current and new customers, alike.

The most important aspect of these upgrades were enacted to simplify and improving shipping process for small and medium-sized businesses, including helping them create shipping labels and calculate costs.

Perhaps the most interest enhancement in the fifth generation of the software is a deep integration with DYMO Endicia, which offers mailing and shipping services, Miva Merchant store owners can now to create USPS-approved shipping labels and tracking information from the convenience of the platform.

The update also includes a module to let users calculate real-time FedEx shipping rates for both international and domestic orders. It also offers the self-explanatory Void Shipping Labels functionality, the ability to cancel RMA orders on a product-by-product basis and a new entities module to help users figure out which variable to use on a page to display a specific product.

Update 5 is automatically available to current Miva Merchant customers from the Admin panel of their Miva Merchant stores.

Webgility Ups its Shipping Game

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:10:00 GMT

Webgility, which provides Quickbooks integrations for merchants, announced it is now part of the UPS Ready Program – completing the certification for its product eCommerceConnector (eCC). Merchants are continually looking for ways to make the shipping process more efficient (and less expensive) but there seems to be little in the way of development for the most part from the platform side.

Webgility previously supported UPS WorldShip, an application for PC’s that gave merchants the ability to access UPS services and generate UPS shipping labels. There were some limitations however, so as a certified UPS Ready software, eCC can integrate directly with UPS web services and provide shopping services directly from eCC.

"Our previous integration with UPS was dependent on the WorldShip software and the XML interface was limited. With UPS Direct, we can now provide a seamless integrated shipping experience for our customers and the feedback since launch has been tremendous. We're also able to provide multi-package, bulk shipping, tracking and address validation features which are essential for increasing fulfillment efficiency and reducing shipping errors," says Parag Mamnani, Founder and CEO of Webgility.

eCC enables eCommerce merchants to automate order fulfillment, inventory management and accounting process. The QuickBooks Gold certified software integrates with QuickBooks and QuickBooks Point of Sales, online shopping cart and marketplace platforms including BigCommerce, Magento, Pinnacle Cart, Amazon, and eBay to name a few, as well as payment processors like Authorize.net, PayPal, and QuickBooks Merchant Service) and major shipping processors (UPS, UPS WorldShip, etc.).

Miva Merchant Now UPS Ready

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:41:00 GMT

Right in time for the holiday shopping - and shipping - season, ecommerce software provider Miva Merchant has become a UPS Ready® Provider through an integration with UPS services. UPS’s services and functionalities are now included in the Miva Merchant 5.5 PR8 Update 4 Release.

“Being a UPS Ready partner is very important to us, because approximately two-thirds of our customers use UPS and this update will make their lives much easier,” says Miva Merchant President and COO, Rick Wilson.

The integration of UPS services is designed to improve the process of picking, packing and shipping for Miva Merchant e-commerce store owners.

Miva merchant users will have access to rate information for UPS domestic and international shipments, UPS label generation from the administration area, ability to customize shipping rules (based on order totals, quantities, weights and geographical restrictions), and more including support for dimensional shipping requirements, and fallback shipping controls.

UPS and AliExpress - E-Commerce Shipping

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:20:00 GMT

Last week the formal launch of AliExpress, the wholesale marketplace arm of Alibaba, caught our attention and we hope it caught yours too, as it is a pretty big deal in the realm of e-commerce.

Today, UPS has announced it has formed an alliance with Alibaba. AliExpress users will be able to manage their shipping and tracking processes online through UPS shopping technology which has been integrated into the AliExpress platform. Sellers will have the ability to print UPS shopping labels and request pick-up for the packages from within the website.

“Our partnership with UPS is crucial to the success of AliExpress, as one of our main goals is to make international trade for our buyers and sellers, including the shipping of their products, as easy, safe and convenient as possible,” said David Wei, CEO of Alibaba.com. “UPS’s shipping technology, ease of use and trusted premium global services will help us fulfill this goal.”

Top 10 Reasons Consumers Will Shop Online

Mike Phillips — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:26:00 GMT

In a recent Shop.org eHoliday '09 survey, consumers were asked to give their top 10 reasons they would shop online this holiday season rather than head to brick-and-mortar stores. Many of the responses are expected, but a few stand out as good opportunities - and potential pitfalls - for online retailers. First, have a look at the top 10:

24-hour shopping convenience
Ability to compare prices
Free shipping offers
Convenience
Not wanting to fight crowds
Ease of finding wanted items
Variety
E-mail promotions
Not having to pay sales tax
Wanting to avoid checkout line

Reasons like convenience, price comparisons and not wanting to fight crowds are expected. A little unexpected is #8, e-mail promotions. This is a great opportunity for online retailers to grow their e-mail subscriber list for this holiday season and beyond. Of course, only those e-mail campaigns that provide real value to the consumer will be successful - be it e-mailed coupons, discount codes or special (and meaningful) product announcements.

Free shipping is high on the list, at #3. This is unsurprising and, for online retailers, almost expected at this point. However, when asked about return shipping, more than half of respondents stated that free shipping for returns is "very important" to them. This is an area where merchants can offer value over their competitors. According to Shop.org, Davis Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh believe that offering free return shipping "removes many of the fears, uncertainties and doubts of online shopping."

Finally, note #6 from the survey - ease of finding wanted items - bears watching. Make sure your site's search function is easy to locate and functions properly. Consumers expect online shopping to be fast and accurate when they are searching for what they want. Make it cumbersome and they will find another website to shop.

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In-Store Pickup All the Rage

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:08:00 GMT

While I would argue that it might just be the coolest name in Ecommerce, it is also an interesting solution available to ecommerce/brick-and-mortar merchants. Shopatron announced the laucn of Confident Order Exchange (Coex) Freedom, a service which enables manufacturers and retailers to accept orders online and provide standard shipment, express shipment or pickup at a local retailer. Coex Freedom also enables ship-to-store capabilities and local installation services. Retailers participate in Coex Freedom as order fulfillment partners for manufacturers.

“It’s becoming increasingly evident that online shoppers desire the freedom to receive their goods as they see fit,” said Ed Stevens, founder and CEO of Shopatron. “Coex Freedom gives manufacturers and retailers the ability to offer customers choice and convenience. With options including direct shipment to the buyer’s home, shipment to someone else or buying online and returning in-store, consumers can shop in ways that fit their lifestyle.”

A recent Harris Interactive Study found growing interest in using in-store pickup services as the holiday shopping season nears.

32 percent of online shoppers have picked up orders in store and of those, almost 70 percent cite no shipping fees as the primary reason for doing so.
73 percent of those who have not used in-store pickup expressed interest in participating if given the option. Among all U.S. adults, 48 percent are at least somewhat likely to consider it for holiday purchases.
Of the shoppers who have already picked up online orders, 80 percent are considering doing it again during the 2008 holidays.