Ecommerce sales in the United Kingdom are expected to rise 13.3% this year to US$34 billion according to a recent article in Internet Retailer magazine (click here).
This is great news for US and European online retailers and Webgistix customers who are already selling or hoping to sell into the UK market. After Canada, the United Kingdom has generally been the next step for American companies expanding internationally due language and cultural ties. The UK is also a proven gateway to serve customers in mainland Europe.
Webgistix has been serving the UK market from Belfast for the past five years. Our expansion roadmap includes opening a new facility near London.
Customers will store inventory in a local warehouse where orders will be shipped within 24 hours guaranteeing rapid delivery and providing for a simplified return process. Our new UK facility will be linked directly into SmartFill so our customers will be able to see inventory and order information, for all US and UK warehouse locations, through their SmartFill interface in real time, globally. European expansion will allow Webgistix’s US and European customers to greatly improve delivery times and while decreaing shipping costs.
We are excited that the UK market is growing rapidly and that we will soon be delivering expanded services to help our customers better serve this rapidly growing market.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Successful eCommerce Begins With Planning
During a recent business trip to an Asian country where internet penetration is rising rapidly, I spoke to a number of established retailers that are feeling the heat of a global recession and are seeking the revenue growth they cannot get from their traditional brick and mortar storefronts, from online sources. Others I spoke to were people that had chosen to or were forced to leave their jobs and were starting e-commerce businesses in the hope of pursuing a dream.
While many were focused on Webgistx’s value proposition, others wanted to know which e-commerce platform or shopping cart solution I would recommend for their maiden e-commerce venture! There are so many out there, it's confusing, etc.
Well, it IS confusing. But one of the reasons it's confusing is because many maiden e-commerce ventures may be putting the shopping cart before the horse! The truth is that many companies look for an e-commerce solution before planning the kind of business they are going to run and how they are going to run it! Their quest for the right software solution or order fulfillment partner is frustrating and painful and they risk picking the wrong solution.
Here are ten signs that you've put the shopping cart before the horse. If any or many of these describe you, don't even think about the shopping cart yet.
1. You haven't decided what you'll be selling in your online store. Your product portfolio, how frequently it will change, and how complex your products are to sell is critically important and needs to be decided first. Yes, all of that stuff really matters.
2. You've decided what to sell, but you have not looked closely at what at your competitors are doing or done a full competitive analysis.
3. You aren't absolutely sure as to why someone would buy from you vs. a competitor. Let's face it. Just about everything is being sold online already. Chances are a more established player is already a jump or two ahead of you. What will make your e-commerce site a more attractive option to customers? Most people greatly underestimate competitive pressure.
4. Speaking of customers, you don't have a clear picture of your target customer or a plan and budget for attracting the right visitors to your site. Don't think that the search engines will just find you. It takes money and work to get qualified traffic to a website.
5. You're not sure how you'll get the photos and product descriptions for the products you'll be selling, or who will be doing the ongoing merchandising and updates. Doing this part well can mean the difference between a professional site and one that looks and reads like an afterthought? If you're planning on carrying a wide assortment of products, don't underestimate the workload here or the tools you'll need to handle it efficiently.
6. You don't know how you'll handle customer service inquiries, who will take the calls and answer emails or how you'll keep track of them. Many early stage e-commerce efforts overlook the need for human contact with web orders. It happens, so figure out how you will make it easy for customers to contact you and what you will need in terms of resources and infrastructure to deal with it.
7. You're up in the air about whether you're going to fulfill orders yourself or outsource the function. If this is you, you may want to skip ahead to point #10 below and let that start your decision making process. Think about the volume you'll be doing and what you need to be able to manage, process, and fulfill orders, both at the start and as your business grows.
8. You haven't thought through your polices and cost structure regarding shipping and returns. This is a highly competitive and rapidly evolving area of e-commerce. Flat rate shipping, expedited options, pre-paid returns, shipping promotions, the list of options and logistical issues is significant.
9. You don't know who will be designing or developing your website, and/or you're not certain about all of the content and features your site will need. While you're at it, think about how frequently you plan to make cosmetic and technical changes to your site and how those will get done.
10. Saving the most important for last: You don't have a plan for how much business you will do, thus you don't know how much you can afford to spend on your e-commerce site. The key here is to start with a plan. Even if the plan is wrong, you'll be better off than if you had no plan at all. Start with the fundamental metrics: How much traffic will come to your site? How many of those visitors will place an order? How much money will those visitors spend and how many units will they buy? This should be the basis for answering many of the questions above (like whether or not it will be feasible to handle fulfillment yourself, or what kind of budget you need to attract the right number of visitors to your site).
You'll probably find that working through these issues will cause your thinking to change regarding what you need in an e-commerce solution and who you need to help you along the way. Chances are, you'll need more than just a shopping cart behind the horse.
While many were focused on Webgistx’s value proposition, others wanted to know which e-commerce platform or shopping cart solution I would recommend for their maiden e-commerce venture! There are so many out there, it's confusing, etc.
Well, it IS confusing. But one of the reasons it's confusing is because many maiden e-commerce ventures may be putting the shopping cart before the horse! The truth is that many companies look for an e-commerce solution before planning the kind of business they are going to run and how they are going to run it! Their quest for the right software solution or order fulfillment partner is frustrating and painful and they risk picking the wrong solution.
Here are ten signs that you've put the shopping cart before the horse. If any or many of these describe you, don't even think about the shopping cart yet.
1. You haven't decided what you'll be selling in your online store. Your product portfolio, how frequently it will change, and how complex your products are to sell is critically important and needs to be decided first. Yes, all of that stuff really matters.
2. You've decided what to sell, but you have not looked closely at what at your competitors are doing or done a full competitive analysis.
3. You aren't absolutely sure as to why someone would buy from you vs. a competitor. Let's face it. Just about everything is being sold online already. Chances are a more established player is already a jump or two ahead of you. What will make your e-commerce site a more attractive option to customers? Most people greatly underestimate competitive pressure.
4. Speaking of customers, you don't have a clear picture of your target customer or a plan and budget for attracting the right visitors to your site. Don't think that the search engines will just find you. It takes money and work to get qualified traffic to a website.
5. You're not sure how you'll get the photos and product descriptions for the products you'll be selling, or who will be doing the ongoing merchandising and updates. Doing this part well can mean the difference between a professional site and one that looks and reads like an afterthought? If you're planning on carrying a wide assortment of products, don't underestimate the workload here or the tools you'll need to handle it efficiently.
6. You don't know how you'll handle customer service inquiries, who will take the calls and answer emails or how you'll keep track of them. Many early stage e-commerce efforts overlook the need for human contact with web orders. It happens, so figure out how you will make it easy for customers to contact you and what you will need in terms of resources and infrastructure to deal with it.
7. You're up in the air about whether you're going to fulfill orders yourself or outsource the function. If this is you, you may want to skip ahead to point #10 below and let that start your decision making process. Think about the volume you'll be doing and what you need to be able to manage, process, and fulfill orders, both at the start and as your business grows.
8. You haven't thought through your polices and cost structure regarding shipping and returns. This is a highly competitive and rapidly evolving area of e-commerce. Flat rate shipping, expedited options, pre-paid returns, shipping promotions, the list of options and logistical issues is significant.
9. You don't know who will be designing or developing your website, and/or you're not certain about all of the content and features your site will need. While you're at it, think about how frequently you plan to make cosmetic and technical changes to your site and how those will get done.
10. Saving the most important for last: You don't have a plan for how much business you will do, thus you don't know how much you can afford to spend on your e-commerce site. The key here is to start with a plan. Even if the plan is wrong, you'll be better off than if you had no plan at all. Start with the fundamental metrics: How much traffic will come to your site? How many of those visitors will place an order? How much money will those visitors spend and how many units will they buy? This should be the basis for answering many of the questions above (like whether or not it will be feasible to handle fulfillment yourself, or what kind of budget you need to attract the right number of visitors to your site).
You'll probably find that working through these issues will cause your thinking to change regarding what you need in an e-commerce solution and who you need to help you along the way. Chances are, you'll need more than just a shopping cart behind the horse.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Early e-commerce Ventures and Their Limitations
Last week, I started off by describing how e-commerce removes many of the headaches that physical stores have. Yet despite the opportunities offered, it is important to remember that early e-commerce ventures did not have many of these luxuries that we take for granted today. The industry has transformed itself dramatically in the last 15 years.
The earliest e-commerce ventures are now also the most famous – at least those that still exist. Although the World Wide Web was introduced in 1990, it was not until 1995 that two of the best known sites today were launched: Amazon.com and Craigslist. EBay followed a year later.
All three of these early e-commerce sites represent very different types of online commerce. Amazon.com follows a more traditional store format, with set prices and one major seller (although Amazon Marketplace allows small time sellers to advertise their offerings on Amazon’s product pages). EBay provides regulation and a meeting space for buyers and sellers to come together, with most sales taking place in the auction format. Craigslist is the least involved, offering little more than a community message board where people can buy or sell directly from one another.
If you shopped online in the early days of e-commerce, you know that the experience was very different from what you experience today. E-commerce websites were much more limited in what they could do in graphics and appearance as well as in coding and programming. Fewer sellers offered conveniences such as the ability to place and order instantly with their credit card, or buyer accounts that stored payment settings and purchase history. SSL encryption was introduced in 1999, enabling some online stores to offer secure transactions, but the technology was not as common – or as expected – as it is today.
In general, it was very difficult to engage in e-commerce in the early days as there simply weren’t many options available and the process was difficult. Fortunately that has changed. There has been an explosion of digital services companies that have lowered the barrier an increased the ease to enter and operate an e-commerce store and organizations like Webgistix have played an important role streamlining the physical back end processes. I will write more about in my next post.
The earliest e-commerce ventures are now also the most famous – at least those that still exist. Although the World Wide Web was introduced in 1990, it was not until 1995 that two of the best known sites today were launched: Amazon.com and Craigslist. EBay followed a year later.
All three of these early e-commerce sites represent very different types of online commerce. Amazon.com follows a more traditional store format, with set prices and one major seller (although Amazon Marketplace allows small time sellers to advertise their offerings on Amazon’s product pages). EBay provides regulation and a meeting space for buyers and sellers to come together, with most sales taking place in the auction format. Craigslist is the least involved, offering little more than a community message board where people can buy or sell directly from one another.
If you shopped online in the early days of e-commerce, you know that the experience was very different from what you experience today. E-commerce websites were much more limited in what they could do in graphics and appearance as well as in coding and programming. Fewer sellers offered conveniences such as the ability to place and order instantly with their credit card, or buyer accounts that stored payment settings and purchase history. SSL encryption was introduced in 1999, enabling some online stores to offer secure transactions, but the technology was not as common – or as expected – as it is today.
In general, it was very difficult to engage in e-commerce in the early days as there simply weren’t many options available and the process was difficult. Fortunately that has changed. There has been an explosion of digital services companies that have lowered the barrier an increased the ease to enter and operate an e-commerce store and organizations like Webgistix have played an important role streamlining the physical back end processes. I will write more about in my next post.
The Promise of E-Commerce: More Than A Decade of Transition
According to research by VeriSign, e-commerce was born on August 11, 1994, when a CD by Sting was sold by NetMarket. Now, almost exactly 15 years later, let’s take a look back at where the industry came from and where it may be going to. The reality is that today, online stores have come a long ways from the mid-nineties, when major companies such as Amazon and eBay entered the playing field.
In the early 1990s, opening a store meant renting commercial space, buying merchandise and business equipment (such as shopping carts and cash registers), paying employees to keep the store open during business hours, and buying a service that enabled customers to pay via a credit card.
Launching an online store today means pretty much the same thing, although the virtual storefront has changed the nature of these steps and combined several into one. Online store software single handedly eliminates the need for a well-located commercial real estate (now simply a URL), 99 percent of business equipment, cashiers and a separate credit card service. Online stores are far less capital intensive than traditional retail and have the potential for wider reach.
The truth is that e-commerce didn’t develop into this miracle over night. It took years of visionary programmers and enterprising entrepreneurs to bring us the world of online shopping that we know today. Over the next few weeks, I want to share some of the lessons we can learn from this evolution and the opportunities that exist as we look forward.
In the early 1990s, opening a store meant renting commercial space, buying merchandise and business equipment (such as shopping carts and cash registers), paying employees to keep the store open during business hours, and buying a service that enabled customers to pay via a credit card.
Launching an online store today means pretty much the same thing, although the virtual storefront has changed the nature of these steps and combined several into one. Online store software single handedly eliminates the need for a well-located commercial real estate (now simply a URL), 99 percent of business equipment, cashiers and a separate credit card service. Online stores are far less capital intensive than traditional retail and have the potential for wider reach.
The truth is that e-commerce didn’t develop into this miracle over night. It took years of visionary programmers and enterprising entrepreneurs to bring us the world of online shopping that we know today. Over the next few weeks, I want to share some of the lessons we can learn from this evolution and the opportunities that exist as we look forward.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Great Business Systems Beat Lipstick Every Time
When you are outsourcing your order fulfillment you are buying systems. These systems will affect the success or failure of your company. Make sure you buy a great fulfillment system.
When I look at many of the offerings out there, the infamous “lipstick on a pig” cliché comes to mind. Specifically, there are numerous old-school warehousing companies that are now trying to pass themselves off as e-commerce fulfillment providers. In reality, they're just putting a software layer on top of antiquated warehousing systems. It's a slow, inefficient way to fill orders, and it's prone to the same human errors that have plagued warehouse operations forever.
Then there is the other extreme, which is represented by one Silicon Valley software startup. This company has focused all its effort on software development and doesn’t even own or operate any warehousing systems. In other words, it's selling fulfillment services without controlling any of the actual fulfillment process. The firm is outsourcing its outsourcing!
From the first day of operation back in 2000, Webgistix’s online and offline systems were designed and built for the real-time world of the Internet. The front end of our system, SmartFill, is fully integrated with our internal warehousing and shipping software systems all of which are accessible in a secure Cloud and are fully integrated with our physical warehousing, customer service, and administrative operations. This makes for a very powerful order fulfillment system that we believe gives our customers a true competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Because we built the system for the Web from day one, we can operate the company in real time on a global basis and scale it with relative ease. More importantly for our customers, they get a seamless real-time order fulfillment solution. Because we have an integrated Web based system, we can confidently guarantee every order will ship with 100% accuracy within 24 hours. Smooth and seamless order fulfillment is the result of powerful well designed systems.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
May We Live in Interesting Times
At Webgistix, we have a front row seat to observe and assist hundreds of e-commerce companies meet the global challenges of selling physical products online. I am continually amazed at the creativity, ingenuity and vigor our customers used to overcome these challenges. I am also amazed at the breadth, depth and uniqueness of products they are selling online.
The sheer volume and variety of the global marketplace becomes clear to me through the eyes of the hundreds of online retailers who have built successful businesses. Our position in the e-commerce value chain gives us a unique perspective on global issues affecting the industry. I hope to use this blog to share my thoughts and insights on this and other topics of interest.
E-commerce is growing and changing rapidly. This is truly a very exciting and interesting time to be involved in global commerce. Welcome to the journey.
The sheer volume and variety of the global marketplace becomes clear to me through the eyes of the hundreds of online retailers who have built successful businesses. Our position in the e-commerce value chain gives us a unique perspective on global issues affecting the industry. I hope to use this blog to share my thoughts and insights on this and other topics of interest.
E-commerce is growing and changing rapidly. This is truly a very exciting and interesting time to be involved in global commerce. Welcome to the journey.
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