An important point here is to Listen To Your Customers – so as a result I spent a number of hours putting together a Product Catalogue, nothing too fancy but a Product Catalogue nonetheless.  Feedback has been tremendous and I also experienced a spike in my sales.  Customers are able to view the Catalogue online and click on a product and link direct to that product at my website.  The biggest advantage is that customers can view the Product Catalogue very quickly and easily without having to spend the time navigating through the website looking for a particular product.

So if you are considering whether or not to produce an online Product Catalogue my suggestion is to spend the time putting one together and reap the benefits.

Regards
Damien Clarke

1. You have sufficient stock levels to sell, and
2. You have enough lead time for your promotional efforts.

Let’s talk about stock levels.  You will be missing out on sales if you don’t have stock to sell – simple as that!  In today’s economic climate, alot of businesses are ordering stock under the ‘just in time’ system, meaning that they are not carrying large stock amounts on hand, but rather ordering when they need the items.  This ordering system works quite well, Provided Your Supplier Has the Stock!!  What I have found recently is that some suppliers are not carrying high stock levels either and alot of products are on backorder – Not Good for Business!  As I have said before – ‘Your Customer is Only One Click Away from Leaving Your Site – Don’t Give Them That Reason.

Knowing when your peak sales periods are will give you the time to pre-order your products and remove the risk of not having any stock on hand.

With stock in hand, you can now work towards your promotional campaign.  This is a good time to move some ‘old’ stock and promote new stock coming in.

Getting to know when your peak sales periods are will position your business to better serve your customers and build on your relationship towards repeat business.

Regards
Damien Clarke

One of the challenges you encounter when relying on a dropship wholesale supplier is the dreaded ‘Out of Stock’ email reply.  Now this poses a number of problems for you such as potentially having to refund your customer, inconveniences your customer and you, long delay for stock to arrive, may give a bad impression of your company and so on.

Something that has helped me enormously is receiving a regularly updated spreadsheet of stock levels from my dropshippers.  Now this isn’t something you might want to do on day one with trying to build a relationship with your dropshippers, however, it is something to surely ask them about.

There is nothing worse for a customer to conduct all their research and then make the decision to purchase only to be advised that the product is ‘out of stock.’

Receiving updated stock level reports can also work extremely well for you. For example, say your dropshipper may be carrying alot of stock of a particular product and consequently you could negotiate with them on a better purchase price and then undertake a promotion on that product.  Secondly, being aware that certain products are currently out of stock can prevent any problems with customers ordering these products.  You can either temporarily remove the product from your site until stock levels are replenished or make a note on your product line of ‘Currently out of stock, due (and then a date).

As you know your customer is only one click away from your competitors – don’t give them a reason to click and leave.

Regards
Damien Clarke

Whether you like it or not you will get customers asking questions. 

You might have thought that the process of having an online business goes something like this:
1. Customer orders online
2. Payment is successful
3. You email your dropshipper with the product and delivery details
4. Pay your Dropshipper
5. Pocket the profit

This is how it works in its most simplistic format, but in the real world this is not the case all the time.

About 80% of my sales do work like that and the process does run very smooth indeed. However, 20% of my sales are made with numerous phone calls and subsequent emails with customers asking questions about the product they are looking to buy.  This can be time consuming and frustrating, particularly when they don’t end up buying!

Now, initially I did find this annoying, however, throughout customer questions and finding the answers comes more knowledge you are gaining about your products. You can use this information to improve the quality of your website by providing answers to these questions.

In today’s competitive ecommerce businesses, your visitor is only one click away from leaving and buying a product elsewhere.  Don’t give them this reason.

Additionally, I have found that as my Page Rank has improved, so has the number of enquiries I receive. Now alot of these enquiries don’t result in any sales, as when I follow them up via email they don’t reply.  We call these people ‘tyre kickers.’  Not ready to buy but just looking and doing their research.  However, you never know when one of these could potentially turn into a major customer OR refer someone to you. So treat them all with the respect they deserve!

So it is inevitable that you are going to receive Customer Questions.  Look forward to these as an opportunity to learn more about your products.

All success comes to those who dare to begin…

Regards
Damien Clarke

That is how easy it can be!

I recently sold over $3,000 worth of gear to an ex-pat Australian working in Yemen, Middle East.  And while I don’t usually export items, this was made so much easier as he was wanting the gear shipped to Sydney and he was going to arrange his own transportation to Yemen.

All the gear arrived in Yemen, however, one of the items (an activity used for teambuilding) when first used broke, so naturally my customer was none too happy, as this piece of equipment was being used in a large scale training program the following week.

Without hesitation, I offered to send him a replacement kit by international courier that would ensure delivery on time for their training – which it did!

Now this action of customer service prompted my customer to email me saying, “In my 22 years working in various industry’s I have never experienced customer service to level which you provide.  You can expect more orders from us.”

You never know what potential your customers have in terms of purchases from you – so you give them no reason to leave!  If people don’t receive good customer service they will leave – it’s that simple!

If you have an e-commerce business, you surely know that a competitor is only one click away – don’t give your customers a reason to make that click.

Regards
Damien Clarke

If you are like me, over the course of a year you come across some great business articles, books, magazines, emails, videos that you put aside and think, ‘Great info I’ll keep that for another day.’ 

 Well, I make a point to take just one day out a year to go through and re-read all that good stuff I came across that preceding year and that day is Easter Monday.  By then, I’m all chocolated out, so I find easter Monday a great day to re-charge my batteries, read all that material I have put aside and go over my action plan for the year.

This technique was suggested by Brian Tracy at a seminar I attended a few years ago and I have implemented ever since.

Regards
Damien

Customers are impatient these days and seem to want things ‘yesterday.’  If there is going to be a delay with shipment – they will go somewhere else, it’s that simple!  If you can provide overnight delivery you will blow your customers away.  There is nothing worse than ordering online and then having to wait a number of days for its delivery.

In Australia, I use Australia Post for my smaller shipments and for larger and heavier parcels I use a company called Air Road Direct  Both services have been fantastic for me over the last 4 years with only a couple of minor incidents occuring with both service providers.

Happy selling!

Regards
Damien Clarke

I firmly believe your point of difference should be in your Customer Service. We live in a society whereby good customer service is sometimes hard to come by – but it doesn’t have to be that way!

Customer Service should be in the culture of your business.  Whether it is just you and a couple of employees you need to instill a superb customer service culture – you can’t afford not to!

I have developed a Customer Service Standard as follows:

Care for your customer
Understand your customers’ needs
Sell yourself to your customer
Time manage your customer
Open and honest communication with your customer
Manage the interaction with your customer
Empathise with your customer
Reiterate back to the customer what you are going to do

Share your experience with your customer
Encourage your customer to contact you
Revisit past customers
Verify what your customer actually wants
Initiate the conversation with your customer
Communicate professionally with your customer
Enjoy the opportunity to help your customer

If you and your staff follow these Customer Service tips you will see a remarkable improvement in the way your customers see you and your business.

Regards
Damien Clarke