When your e-commerce business makes a sale, the last thing you want is to have to deal with a return. You’ll lose the sale and incur additional costs. To accommodate a return, the product must reverses its way through your supply chain. All activity associated with accepting the return of
In the standard retail market, arguably the single, biggest difference between buying from a business and buying from an individual is that you have a much higher degree of legal protection in the former situation. Goods sold by companies have to be “fit for purpose” whereas goods sold by private
Although flyers are a communication tool that exist for some time, even today they are still being successful thanks to their ease of use and the advantages and benefits they offer to a company. Successful flyers only need one thing to work: an attractive design. When it comes to publicizing
When your e-commerce business makes a sale, the last thing you want is to have to deal with a return. You’ll lose the sale and incur additional costs. To accommodate a return, the product must reverses its way through your supply chain. All activity associated with accepting the return of a product is known as reverse logistics. The assoicated costs are always higher than just the price of shipping. According to Supply Chain Dive, reverse logistics cost companies upwards of $260 billion annually. Here are five hidden costs in the reverse logistics process many e-tailers overlook. Labor Costs in Return Process Labor is one of the most commonly overlooked because it’s felt indirectly. When a product comes back, employees need to receive, inspect and possibly restock the item—depending upon its condition. This usually involves multiple workers across various departments. Time that could be spent growing the business is consumed handling returned product. Reselling Returned Products at a Discounted Price Product condition can play a huge factor in determining price. In some cases you’ll have to resell at a discount or discard it all together. On top of losing the profit from the original sale and incurring the cost of labor to get the product back into your inventory, selling the product for a discount or discarding it all together adds even more salt into the wound. Returned Product Can Lead to Inventory Mismanagement Product returns can throw a monkeywrench into your inventory tracking process. Resources are redirected toward returned product, which takes away from the inventory control operating procedures. E-retailers have the option to outsource their inventory management to a third-party logistics company (3PL), but others who chose to handle inventory in-house could benefit from a cloud e-commerce platform. Cloud-based platforms can help with inventory management because of their speed, security and scalability. Offering Free Return Shipping A growing trend in return processes for e-commerce companies is free return shipping. This usually has a positive impact on how the customers perceive an organization because it shows them that the company is taking care of the extra expense instead of putting it on the customer. Around 49 percent of online retailers offer the service While this goes a long way toward engendering customer satisfaction, it’s detrimental to the bottom line. On average, about 30 percent of e-commerce orders are returned, so these costs add up very quickly. Customer Frustration Can Lead to Higher Customer Churn While positive return experience can drive loyalty, a bad one is likely to lead a customer to shop your competitors. Per the Narvar Consumer Report, customers who return product are likely to be the best customers. Eighty-two percent of customers who previously returned products were repeat shoppers, and 95 percent of customers satisfied with the returns process said they’d purchase from the retailer again. A key report takeaway — high value customers are also the most likely to utilize the returns process. E-retailers need to implement or update their reverse logistics strategy in order to become as efficient with their returned product as possible. E-commerce companies who do not pay attention to this process could be losing upwards of 10-20 percent of their profits, and possibly, a devoted chunk of their customer base. Running an e-commerce store demands attention from every angle, but by focusing on these five hidden costs in the reverse logistics process you’ll recover more of your margins and better satisfy the needs of your customers.
In the standard retail market, arguably the single, biggest difference between buying from a business and buying from an individual is that you have a much higher degree of legal protection in the former situation. Goods sold by companies have to be “fit for purpose” whereas goods sold by private sellers only have to be “as described”. The residential property market, however, is a bit of an exception to his rule of thumb. Even private sellers are legally obligated to disclose any facts about their property which might negatively impact the sale and buyers can take legal action against them if the seller misrepresents the property. The same holds true of the new-build property market, in theory, in practice the situation can be a little more complicated. New-build and the dangers of having to use your imagination When you buy an existing house, it is standard practice to visit the property yourself in order to assess it firsthand. Astute sellers will, of course, do everything they can to make their home look as attractive as possible, but they can only work within the constraints of what the building actually allows, which provides a built-in safeguard against active misrepresentation. When you buy a new-build property investment in the UK, however, the situation can be rather different, especially if you buy it before it is even completed, in which case you have to rely on visual and textual descriptions of very fundamental characteristics such as dimensions and the nature of fixtures and fittings. Even if you buy a new-build after completion, you may not be in a great position to appreciate its real-world characteristics. If it has been staged as a show-home then there is a distinct possibility the furniture may have been scaled-down in size to make rooms seem bigger than they are and if it’s an empty shell then, again, the openness of the space may trick your mind into thinking that it is bigger than the written dimensions suggest. You may also be under pressure to use companies recommended by the developer for financing and/or conveyancing. For the sake of clarity, there are many good reasons why developers may wish you to do this and most revolve around the fact that, while you are only buying one property, they may well be selling many properties and it is therefore easier and more efficient for them to deal with one company so that, for example, they only have to answer any given question once. At the same time, however, it has to be said that this situation can lead to buyers not fully understanding the terms of the legally-binding agreement they are signing and then later discovering nasty surprises in the terms of their leasehold. Resolving complaints about new-build property can be a complex process Generally speaking, any complaints about a new-build property should be addressed to the developer in first instance, but if the developer fails to offer an acceptable resolution, buyers may be left struggling to decide how to proceed or, indeed, if it is emotionally and financially worthwhile for them to proceed. Although the UK has two property-related redress services (the Property Ombudsman and the Property Redress Scheme) neither of these has the authority to address complaints against the developers of new-build properties. This means that buyers of new-build homes have no recourse to an independent, free-to-use ombudsman services, even though such services have proved very successful in other areas (such as finance and energy). The Property Ombudsman has therefore called for the government to address this situation and to bring new-build homes under the remit of a competent ombudsman service.
Although flyers are a communication tool that exist for some time, even today they are still being successful thanks to their ease of use and the advantages and benefits they offer to a company. Successful flyers only need one thing to work: an attractive design. When it comes to publicizing your business or building project, you have to use advertising methods to reach a wider audience. Flyers are a great and relatively cheap tool. Creating an attractive flyer is not always easy, but luckily there are a number of keys you can take into account to make a successful design. A design that, with a single glance, shows the user what you want to transmit. And wakes the curiosity of the client, who then wants to learn more about your company or project. Communicate one message on the flyer Before you start to design your flyer it is important to have a clear idea of the message you want to communicate. Do you want to invite people to the opening of a new building? Do you want them to come to the presentation of a new building project? Or do you have another special occasion you would like to invite them to? Make sure the purpose of your flyer is directly clear and you have a simple message to communicate. The same as when writing or reading a headline for the newspaper, basic questions should be directly answered like, what, why and when. This way, when your audience takes one glance at the flyer, they know directly what you have to offer. How to design an attractive flyer When you start with the design for the flyer you should first choose the measures of it. It doesn´t matter if you want a horizontal or vertical design, just look at what fits your needs. Since hopefully a lot of people will see your flyer, it´s important to choose the right size that suits your message and company. Once you know what shape your flyer will get and you have your message clear, you can start with the design. Don´t overload the flyer with too much information, so the main message isn´t clear any more. The title, in combination with the photo or image you are going to use, can be considered the protagonist in your creation. The title needs to be an attractive phase and the image should be of enough quality that is stays sharp after printing. The colours you use can be seen as a binding method to create a perfect harmony on the flyer between all the elements. And of course, don´t forget to put the specific date on the flyer so people know when the event is happening. Also contact details are essential for people who would like to receive more information. Spend some time on a great design for the flyer and it will tip the balance in your favour in your marketing campaign to communicate your message in an attractive way to a wide target group!
