Online Archives - RetailCare

Is your eCommerce Online Store ready for the Black Friday rush ?

So here it is again, boy did it come up fast …24th of November is the online sensation Black Friday Sale. This has been a huge online sale opportunity in the US which has a huge Australian following not only to American based labels but to Australian company’s and it is increasing each year. The trend of online special days like Singles Day ($23.5 billion in 24hours) and Click Frenzy are directly increasing Australian based online eCommerce website sales. So the big question is ………

Are you ready ?
Is your Online Store ready?

Here are a few tips from all the RetailCare years of experiencing the Black Friday horror stories which we always hear after the event !

New Pre/During/Post Banners
Have you got your images ready for the sale with loud sale discount offers. On the day they need to change to keep the customer excited. Post is just important for over the weekend you may get trailing sales to lead you into Cyber Monday … another great day ….

Customers ?

Do they know about the sale, have you been clear to them what the sale is …what the discount is. Coupon codes would make them feel very special ! Most of the sales will come from your regular customers who have been waiting for this day ! Clean up the database , and send out an EDM to them ASAP !

Black Friday is not one day ….. there is the pre and post…so ensure to hit hard with EDMS during this period … you can automate these before hand so there is less stress for you.

Technology…. is it ready ?

Your online business (website) is sitting on a server somewhere in the cloud, is this server ready ? have you rebooted it? It would be a good idea to contact your web hosting company and ask them what they have done to prepare for the extra traffic of this huge online sale day. If you manage your own server please ensure to reboot it and make sure it is all working. Test the payment gateways so there are no errors.

If you are in the middle of any upgrades or projects for development of your site please put these on hold until the sale is over as you don’t want “beta” or test version of software running that could fail

Your Site goes down ?

Whats your plan? DO you have a redirected landing page with contact details or an error page explaining what to do? Maybe add in a box where people can be contacted once the site is up. Please ask your provider if techs will be available to fix any issues to get your site live again !

Have you updated these for the sale ? your exchanges and returns policy may be different during this time and you don’t want any confusions for customers.

Real World Preparation

This is the most forgotten part of the preparation process for online sales in business. Your inventory, is it up to date and do you have enough in the warehouse to ship out ? Your customers wont want to wait !

If you have retail Stores please ensure your staff know about the sale and they can redirect customers to online to get the discounts … or as some retail outlets they run an in store special so you don’t lose your potential sale .. maybe some window marketing could be helpful

Head office will need phones and email monitored to handle customer enquires if you want to increase your conversions. Chat-bots and plugins can help with this !

Social Media

The beast of social media is bigger than BenHur ! Ensure your online campaign is all ready to go…Facebook allows you schedule your posts for the 4 day experience.

SO after reading this your probably wondering where to start …..

1. Call an internal meeting and see where everybody can help and make an action plan to get onto some of the above

2. Call your IT provider,hosting company, digital/SEO/Social Media agency and ask them lots of questions to ensure they are ready !

Is it too late ……. never !

2016 Back Friday/Cyber Monday Results

Global $8 Billion in sales online – an increase of 18% on earlier years
Portsmans offered 30% , Freedom 30% off , Country Road had 25% off
Australians spent $18.1 billion online from Nov 2014->Nov 2015

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RetailCare is the best business partner that a retailer could have, offering everything from simple Point of Sale (POS) solutions, to complex, fully integrated systems for multi-store chains, at very competitive prices and with customer service the main focus. After-sales support is available 7 days a week to cover all retail hours. We are the Retailers & hospitality Tech & Digital Agency Partner

RetailCare specialises in personalised, comprehensive consulting & training services on retail operations such as stocktaking, reporting, rostering, developing first-class customer service, sophisticated system security.

We have now been doing digital related services for retailers for years helping them open stores online. We are not about websites we are all about online stores and all the issues that surround this space. We have helped many retailers get a presence and aided in the streamline of the integrations of systems to help run their business. Digital services such as website design, domain names & social networking are areas we work in.

Specialities: Retailing, POS, Online Stores, API development, APP Development, EFTPOS, Training , Retail Customer service and retail training, Project management Consulting.

Call (03) 95149699

email blackfriday@retailcare.com.au

Corporate head office in Melbourne 14/209 Toorak Road South Yarra 3141 – please pop in for a chat and coffee.

25 Worst Passwords

this is the list of 25 worst passwords for 2016:

123456
password
12345
12345678
football
qwerty
1234567890
1234567
princess
1234
login
welcome
solo
abc123
admin
121212
flower
passw0rd
dragon
sunshine
master
hottie
loveme
zaq1zaq1
password1

Consumer online conversion trends

• 78% of consumers are more likely to be a repeat customer if the retailer provides targeted, personalised offers
• 82% of online shoppers would complete the purchase if they could return the item to a store or have free return shipping
• 65% of shoppers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by marketplace reviews or posts.

Retailers to make donations through online purchases !

Living with her parents in Maroubra, Ms Thomas studies graphic design five days a week, leaving her no time for a job and forcing her to cut into her savings until she completes her study later this year.

As for many Australian millennials, Ms Thomas’s circumstances leave her with little spare change to donate to charities each year.

For Bella Thomas, 19, studying full-time and no regular income means donating regularly to charities is "not realistic". — For Bella Thomas, 19, studying full-time and no regular income means donating regularly to charities is “not realistic”. Photo: Jessica Hromas

“It is not realistic. Because I am not working it is quite hard to give out money, even though I feel guilty,” she said. “I would definitely like to be giving more.”

Ms Thomas’s predicament is not unique, prompting one Australian social enterprise to find a way to help consumers “give free money to charity”.

Folo is a web browser toolbar extension that automatically generates free donations from purchases made online, paid for by the retailer.

A consumer using Folo selects a chosen charity or cause area, after which the toolbar will appear alongside any online retailer that is registered on the platform, stating how much of every purchase will be donated to their chosen charity.

"The [charity sector] is finding it difficult to raise funds in the current economic climate, and this might reduce ... — “The [charity sector] is finding it difficult to raise funds in the current economic climate, and this might reduce their fundraising costs”, says Professor Sandra van der Laan. Photo: Geoff Jones

“Just 500 people using Folo will generate $15,000-$30,000 a year in donations. One million users could generate $30 million-$60 million,” Folo spokeswoman Jaimee Abict said.

After discovering the app, Ms Thomas said its simplicity was what made it appealing.

World Vision Australia CEO Tim Costello says the Folo model has huge potential for the charity sector. Photo: Josh Robenstone

“The money is coming out from what you are already happy to spend, so there are no extra costs. This will definitely appeal to other young people.”

Folo has secured more than 700 retailers on its platform, including The Iconic, Woolworths, Expedia, David Jones, Dan Murphy’s and Sephora. Among the registered retailers, the average donation offered is between 3 and 5 per cent of purchase costs, although some offer contributions of up to 10 per cent.

Interestingly, the platform also allows consumers to keep the percentage returned by the retailer if they so choose, to allocate to their “own personal cause”.

The latest Australian Charities Report by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission showed that charities received about $6.8 billion from donations and bequests in 2014.

More recently, the National Australia Bank Charitable Giving Index found overall giving to charity in Australia grew 6.5 per cent in the year to February 2016, with the average donation size across all charities growing by $12 to $348 per donor.

The Index found that the average annual donation size increased in all states except Western Australia and all age groups except 15-24-year-olds.

Ms Abict said slow donations growth among young people, or “generation slacktivist”, proves the potential for platforms such as Folo.

“Even if you’re a uni student who doesn’t have a lot of disposable income, you can be regularly donating to a charity just by buying your textbooks online.”

Professor of accounting at the University of Sydney Business School Sandra van der Laan, said the model presented positive opportunities for the charity sector.

“The [sector] is finding it difficult to raise funds in the current economic climate, and this might reduce their fundraising costs.

“It is way of making it easy for someone to be able to donate and still buy whatever they want,” she said, adding that the model could also present potential risks.”When you donate to a charity as an individual you get a tax deduction, the question is, where are those tax deductions going?” she said.

“Normally if you donated $5 to the Red Cross, you as an individual would get a tax deduction. So would you not be better off as a consumer donating separately and claiming back the tax deduction on your donation?”

Ms Abict said any donation payment made to Folo was considered a marketing expense for the retailer, “meaning it is entirely tax deductible for them as an expense”. Folo then makes a pooled tax deductible donation to each registered charity once a year.

Professor van der Laan said the charities that stand to benefit most from the platform were likely to be bigger, well-known charities.World Vision Australia is already on board with the concept.

“It’s great to see social enterprises like Folo leading the way in cause-related marketing, giving people the ability to raise funds for their chosen cause through everyday purchases,” World Vision Australia’s chief executive Tim Costello said.

Source

http://www.theage.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/folo-the-browser-extension-that-lets-consumers-donate-to-charity-at-no-cost-20160713-gq4y1h.html