Just a quick summary of some of the great Apple iPad information I've come across
Live blog from the launch event
3 minute video from PC Advisor
TechRadar's first impressions
PC Pro editor Tim Danton's view
Why Apple's iPad chip is a big deal from TechRadar
Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor at The Telegraph pulls together expert views
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Thursday, 21 January 2010
VeryGoodService.com
VeryGoodService.com is a site dedicated to showcasing only companies that have been awarded for offering good service. It's a simple idea and like most simple ideas works really well. Needless to say you'll find MoreFrom.co.uk on there after our recent best online retailer win.
The site is still at an early stage but you'll already find lots of award winning companies and websites divided up into categories. There's shopping, finance, going out, travel, media, communicate, your home and the fantastically named yummy mummy.
Pay them a visit at www.verygoodservice.com sign up for their newsletter and be sure to follow them on Twitter.
Free Shipping - 5 good reasons NOT to offer free delivery
So I've covered 5 good reason to offer free delivery in my last post, might be best to read that one first if you haven't already. Our trial still indicates free delivery is working for MoreComputers.com, but I'm conscious it might not be the case for every online store.
Here's my 5 reasons it might NOT be right for you:
1. Free must mean free - you may not be able to do that
Internet shoppers are on the whole a savvy bunch. Whilst I believe they'll check out an offer with free delivery first, they will still visit other sites and go through the order process to check the final price. If you've simply included the delivery cost in your price and that makes you the same as the other site, you'll lose the sale. Why? Because the shopper is on your competitors site and it's easier to click their buy button than go back to you.
2. You need a mix of delivery options
One of the key reasons free delivery works for us is we are able to offer Next day delivery, within 2 days delivery and our free option is within 5 days. Our customers have different delivery needs so there's a mix of delivery selected. If we only had the free delivery option it would not be sustainable. The mix of options means on average we are losing less overall.
3. You need a mix of products
You may offer a mix of delivery options but if you only sell one product or one type of product it may not work. If that product is something the majority of people are prepared to wait a week for, nearly everyone will choose free delivery.
4. You need a mix of customers
I believe our trial is working because we have a wide mix of customers. The IT managers and trade dealers who buy from us often need something next day to solve a particular problem. On the other hand we have consumers who do not need a product quickly and are available to accept a delivery at anytime. These seem happy accept the inconvienence of not knowing when their purchase will arrive. If you only sell to customers who are flexible when it comes to deliveries, they'll all opt for free shipping.
5. You've worked out you can offer free delivery - but only with a catch
This is a personal thing more than anything but I don't like 'Free Delivery*' it's that dreaded asterisk that immediately says there's a catch. Even before you've read what the catch is you feel cheated and start to distrust anything the company says. There are many tactics being used, most common is 'free delivery when you spend over £X' It's worth considering especially if you have a shop that sells things customers will always need and will be happy to add to their basket to reach the minimum order value. But do it without the asterisk. I would avoid *only on selected items *to a local store *only when you buy an over priced accessory *on items under a certain size/weight.
I hope these free delivery posts have been useful, be sure and follow me on Twitter for more online retail insight.
Here's my 5 reasons it might NOT be right for you:
1. Free must mean free - you may not be able to do that
Internet shoppers are on the whole a savvy bunch. Whilst I believe they'll check out an offer with free delivery first, they will still visit other sites and go through the order process to check the final price. If you've simply included the delivery cost in your price and that makes you the same as the other site, you'll lose the sale. Why? Because the shopper is on your competitors site and it's easier to click their buy button than go back to you.
2. You need a mix of delivery options
One of the key reasons free delivery works for us is we are able to offer Next day delivery, within 2 days delivery and our free option is within 5 days. Our customers have different delivery needs so there's a mix of delivery selected. If we only had the free delivery option it would not be sustainable. The mix of options means on average we are losing less overall.
3. You need a mix of products
You may offer a mix of delivery options but if you only sell one product or one type of product it may not work. If that product is something the majority of people are prepared to wait a week for, nearly everyone will choose free delivery.
4. You need a mix of customers
I believe our trial is working because we have a wide mix of customers. The IT managers and trade dealers who buy from us often need something next day to solve a particular problem. On the other hand we have consumers who do not need a product quickly and are available to accept a delivery at anytime. These seem happy accept the inconvienence of not knowing when their purchase will arrive. If you only sell to customers who are flexible when it comes to deliveries, they'll all opt for free shipping.
5. You've worked out you can offer free delivery - but only with a catch
This is a personal thing more than anything but I don't like 'Free Delivery*' it's that dreaded asterisk that immediately says there's a catch. Even before you've read what the catch is you feel cheated and start to distrust anything the company says. There are many tactics being used, most common is 'free delivery when you spend over £X' It's worth considering especially if you have a shop that sells things customers will always need and will be happy to add to their basket to reach the minimum order value. But do it without the asterisk. I would avoid *only on selected items *to a local store *only when you buy an over priced accessory *on items under a certain size/weight.
I hope these free delivery posts have been useful, be sure and follow me on Twitter for more online retail insight.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Free Shipping - 5 good reasons to offer free delivery
MoreComputers.com is a successful, award winning online retailer. I've recently been trialing 'free delivery on everything' and monitoring the sales results closely. This blog post outlines the good reasons to offer free delivery based on my real experience as a major retailer. I intend to do a post on what I see as the reasons not to offer free delivery next.
You'll find lots of free shipping articles online from research companies and marketing 'experts', but I hope this will give you an insight into a genuine use of free delivery. From this and my next post I hope you will be able to decide if free delivery is the right thing for your business. At the end of the day it will hurt your profit if it's not.
Here's a bit of information on our trial to put things into context. We sell thousands of different products and make thousands of sales. We added the words 'Free delivery on everything' next to the prices on our site. Then 'free delivery within 5 days' was added as an option in the basket along side 'next day at £9.95+vat' and '2 days at £4.95+vat'. We told our existing customers about the new delivery option by email. We added free delivery to our price comparison data.
So I think it's fair to say we haven't really used free delivery to drive new customers to our site as yet, we wanted to see the effect it had on conversion based on our existing traffic levels.
So here's my 5 good reasons to offer free delivery
1. It removes a sales barrier.
I'm convinced of this. Before starting our trial I'd read 43% of online shoppers said they abandon a purchase because the delivery charges were too high. So far in our trial I'd say we've seen a marked increase in sales from the same amount of visitors.
2. Customers want it.
There certainly seems to be a whole set of customers who think free delivery is the most important deal clincher. It's always a talking point. I spoke to an affluent businessman recently who spent £1500 on a new laptop - he couldn't tell me anything about it other than he got free delivery. I've also worked in a company that had a 'we don't pay for delivery' policy. It was supposed to make you haggle over the delivery cost, but it made people pick a supplier with free delivery.
3. You win more new customers.
When we removed our delivery charge we immediately notice more lower value items being bought. Whilst we obviously don't make much profit on sales like these, I see it as a cost effective way to win new customers. They experience buying from More and with their permission I can send details of new offers and remind them of our existence. Over time we may build a relationship and they may purchase again and even go on to recommend us. Looking at our data I can see we're getting more consumers shopping with us, probably because they're not as dependent on receiving their orders next day like some business customers.
4. You will retain your customers.
Customers remember free delivery and I'd like to think it helps us to stay on their shopping list. I often hear 'I shop there because it's free delivery'. In my research I read in a ComScore study 72% of those surveyed said if an online retailer stopped offering free shipping, they would leave them and do business with one of their competitors. It seems like a loaded question to me but I believe free delivery combined with a previous good shopping experience will cut down the amount of shopping around our customers do.
5. Not all customers will select free delivery
This is something we are monitoring very closely. So far it looks like the percentage of free delivery compared to paid is sustainable. Probably down to the nature of what we sell, but our next day and 2 day delivery options are still being used significantly. It looks like our business and IT professional customers require next day deliveries and are happy to pay for that service.
Follow me on Twitter to make sure you get my reasons not to offer free delivery.
Please leave a comment about your free delivery experiences.
You'll find lots of free shipping articles online from research companies and marketing 'experts', but I hope this will give you an insight into a genuine use of free delivery. From this and my next post I hope you will be able to decide if free delivery is the right thing for your business. At the end of the day it will hurt your profit if it's not.
Here's a bit of information on our trial to put things into context. We sell thousands of different products and make thousands of sales. We added the words 'Free delivery on everything' next to the prices on our site. Then 'free delivery within 5 days' was added as an option in the basket along side 'next day at £9.95+vat' and '2 days at £4.95+vat'. We told our existing customers about the new delivery option by email. We added free delivery to our price comparison data.
So I think it's fair to say we haven't really used free delivery to drive new customers to our site as yet, we wanted to see the effect it had on conversion based on our existing traffic levels.
So here's my 5 good reasons to offer free delivery
1. It removes a sales barrier.
I'm convinced of this. Before starting our trial I'd read 43% of online shoppers said they abandon a purchase because the delivery charges were too high. So far in our trial I'd say we've seen a marked increase in sales from the same amount of visitors.
2. Customers want it.
There certainly seems to be a whole set of customers who think free delivery is the most important deal clincher. It's always a talking point. I spoke to an affluent businessman recently who spent £1500 on a new laptop - he couldn't tell me anything about it other than he got free delivery. I've also worked in a company that had a 'we don't pay for delivery' policy. It was supposed to make you haggle over the delivery cost, but it made people pick a supplier with free delivery.
3. You win more new customers.
When we removed our delivery charge we immediately notice more lower value items being bought. Whilst we obviously don't make much profit on sales like these, I see it as a cost effective way to win new customers. They experience buying from More and with their permission I can send details of new offers and remind them of our existence. Over time we may build a relationship and they may purchase again and even go on to recommend us. Looking at our data I can see we're getting more consumers shopping with us, probably because they're not as dependent on receiving their orders next day like some business customers.
4. You will retain your customers.
Customers remember free delivery and I'd like to think it helps us to stay on their shopping list. I often hear 'I shop there because it's free delivery'. In my research I read in a ComScore study 72% of those surveyed said if an online retailer stopped offering free shipping, they would leave them and do business with one of their competitors. It seems like a loaded question to me but I believe free delivery combined with a previous good shopping experience will cut down the amount of shopping around our customers do.
5. Not all customers will select free delivery
This is something we are monitoring very closely. So far it looks like the percentage of free delivery compared to paid is sustainable. Probably down to the nature of what we sell, but our next day and 2 day delivery options are still being used significantly. It looks like our business and IT professional customers require next day deliveries and are happy to pay for that service.
Follow me on Twitter to make sure you get my reasons not to offer free delivery.
Please leave a comment about your free delivery experiences.
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