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JEREMY ’S JOURNA L Business blogging by publisher Jeremy Corner of Blue Eyed Sun.
Creating
Desert Tracks
Jeremy Corner, owner of greeting card publisher Blue Eyed Sun, discusses ecommerce for retailers. At Spring Fair I chaired a roundtable discussion with card and gift retailers on the challenges and successes of selling online. It was a fascinating chat with an exciting mix of discovery, reassurance, learning, contribution, growth and connection. Here are the highlights:
How To Reach The Market Retailers often ask me about setting up websites for their business. I’m a great believer in the power of websites to leverage your marketing efforts. All businesses need a website to anchor their online activities, especially for social media and blogging. For example, the easiest way to find a company’s social media details is to go to their web’s homepage. If you don’t have one then you’re make it difficult for people to find you, talk about you and spread the word about you. A simple website with nice photos of your store and all your contact and social media details is cheap and easy to set up. I recommend installing Wordpress on your web domain as a simple solution that you can tweak yourself. This also allows you to add a blog like the one I have. Ecommerce is different matter. We use Magento software to sell online. The good news is it’s a free and open source. The bad news is that designing and building a website that you can sell well from is a costly and time consuming business. It’s like having another shop. Even after you’ve created your amazing website you still have the problem 58
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
of getting people to it. I often remind retailers that creating an ecommerce site is like building a beautiful retail store in the middle of the desert with no roads in or out. The truth is that the war for online retailing has been won by Amazon, whose websites have over 183 million customers visiting them each month. They are so big and powerful now that it’s very difficult to compete with their SEO (search engine optimisation) budgets that ensure its listings are at the top of Google. Thanks to Amazon we all expect goods delivered within a day and with free delivery. This is tough to compete with. Whenever a retailer asks me about selling online I recommend that they start by selling on marketplaces like Amazon or Ebay. You can also sell using posts on your shop’s Facebook page. When you sell through Amazon you can fulfil orders yourself or use a service they offer
Above: 'Creating an ecommerce site is like building a beautiful retail store in the middle of the desert with no roads in or out'. Below: Amazon provide a free next day delivery service that other retailers find it hard to compete with.
called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) where the company holds the stock and ships from its super efficient warehouses. The advantage is you outsource this to experts. The disadvantage is that you have to tie-up the cash elsewhere rather than on stock in store. A brief caveat: Selling through online marketplaces is not a panacea for your business. As Bill Gates pointed out in his 1999 book Business at the Speed of Thought: “Now that customers can deal directly with manufacturers, there is little value in simply transferring goods.” Middlemen must add value. You must know what is special and significant about what you do as a retailer. Good service is now standard online so don’t kid yourself that this will be enough. How do you add value in the supply chain? It might be through your buying selection or your ability to drive footfall. Think carefully on it and be prepared to work hard on adding value.