Will Free Shipping Work for Your Online Business? Here’s How to Tell

This article is part of an on-going series of blog posts under the Guide to Providing Excellent Customer Experience to E-commerce Customers, to help you with your business, brought to you by My Business Venture.

My Business Venture Complaints Guide Talks Free Shipping Feasibility

 

Free shipping has become the norm for online businesses these days. If you don’t offer it, you better be sure your products aren’t offered anywhere else with free shipping, because if they are, you risk losing your customers and getting swallowed by the competition whole. On the other hand, offering free shipping can bring in more customers, true, but it can also decimate your profit margins if you don’t manage it effectively.

When it comes to free shipping, a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t exist. What works for one seller may not work for another. In some cases, it may even be completely unreasonable. My Business Venture (MBV) discusses a few key points that you should know if you are considering free shipping for your online business.

How to tell if offering free shipping works for you

There are three crucial areas that you need to look at before you make the free shipping plunge. First, you need to know your shipping costs. Shippers often charge by weight and category, so you must identify if your product will be expensive to ship. You must then decide if you can absorb the shipping cost to the retail price or not. Remember that you can—and should—negotiate for the lowest price possible with your products.

Manage My Business Venture Complaints by Interacting With Them 24/7

 This article is part of an on-going series of blog posts under the Guide to Providing Excellent Customer Experience to E-commerce Customers, to help you with your business, brought to you by My Business Venture.

 

How Can I Manage My Business Venture Complaints? Make It Easier For Them To Reach You!

 

Today’s buyers are increasingly aware of how far their voice can reach online, especially when it comes to businesses. From a short tweet to a lengthy blog post, these can reach thousands of people in a surprisingly short amount of time.

What does this mean for your business? It’s easier now for a disgruntled customer to post something negative about your products or services, and easier still for their negative review to dissuade other potential customers from going to you.

Right now, you might be wondering, “how can I manage my business venture complaints and negative reviews?” Owning up to your mistake is only the first part: now, you’ll need to make it easier for your disgruntled customers to reach you. This is possible by offering a multi-channel customer service.

8 Noteworthy Reasons to Give Your Business the Mobile Treatment Today

Not on mobile yet? Don’t see its importance? Let me show you why you should consider taking your business to the mobile realm, and why by not doing so, your competitors may end up way ahead of you.

The need to go mobile

The business landscape is an ever-changing environment. In order to thrive, businesses must learn to adapt with the changing times. With technologies developing exponentially over the past few years, mobile has become the primary tool for success for many businesses. True, mobile apps used to be restricted to big name companies such as MTV, Golden State Warriors, and BMW, but the keyword here is ‘used to be.’ Today, even small to medium businesses can take advantage of the mobile trend.

Work apps, workout apps, learning tools, financing, and social media—if you can transform it into digital platform, you’ll find an app for it somewhere. Businesses across all industries are harnessing mobile tech, using it to craft new and innovative ways to engage with customers, generating and nurturing leads, cut overhead costs and more. Convinced yet? Then consider these reasons why you should introduce your businesses to the mobile realm as soon as possible.

’Tis The Season To Make More Sales: How Can You Gain Higher Conversion Rates This Holiday Season?

The holidays are upon us once again, and everyone will be flocking to shopping malls and find meaningful gifts for their loved ones. Yet this will also mean overcrowded car parks, jam-packed aisles, and endless checkout lines, not to mention braving through heavy traffic and carrying bulky boxes and bags through multiple stores. That’s why, for most people, the happiest time of the year is also the most stressful time for shopping.

This is where your ecommerce shop steps in. Online shopping offers a great alternative for shoppers who can’t stand the long lines and huge crowds in shopping malls. They just simply need to browse through your site at the comfort of their own home and receive their purchases at a particular date.

It’s a win-win situation for both consumers and business owners: your customers can do their Christmas shopping without the usual stress and hassle. In turn, the holidays give you the perfect opportunity to generate more sales.

What Is the Value of Live Customer Support to My Business Venture?

This article is part of an on-going series of blog posts under the Guide to Providing Excellent Customer Experience to E-commerce Customers, to help you with your business, brought to you by My Business Venture.

Over time, every e-commerce business is bound to receive a complaint from a dissatisfied customer. As such, it is important for e-commerce business owners to have a great customer support program in place. In particular, you’ll want to have a live customer service representative manning the customer complaint hotline.

Many of the most common customer complaints e-commerce businesses receive are related to customer service. One such complaint has to do with how automated customer support services make customers feel as if they’re stuck in a phone maze or jumping through a lot of hoops. To avoid this, why not have a live representative take their calls immediately?

7 Important Lessons I Learned from My Business Venture Adventures

Creating a profitable e-commerce business may seem simple on paper, but in reality, the road to success is paved with a lot of challenges. You will likely fail a lot before you get your operations moving fluidly, along with your cash flow.

In a 2014 article, Fortune identified the top 20 reasons why startups fail. While many of these reasons stem from external uncontrollable forces such as lack of market need, getting outcompeted, and mis-timed release of products, much of it falls on an owner’s ability to run his business. From ensuring that you have enough startup cash to choosing the right team, much of your business’s success rests on your shoulders.

There are so many lessons to learn from starting a business, with each helping build a blueprint of what you should and should not do. I made a list of some of the most important lessons I have learned so far, which have had a great impact on my ability to help other e-businesses to attain their goals with My Business Venture.

How Do I Manage Complaints About My Business Venture to Maintain an A+ BBB Rating?

This article is part of an on-going series of blog posts under the Guide to Providing Excellent Customer Experience to E-commerce Customers, to help you with your business, brought to you by My Business Venture.

Most business owners, and even consumers, consider the Better Business Bureau as the largest and most respected independent business review organization in the US. Getting an A+ rating from them is often enough assurance for customers that a particular business is reliable and trustworthy.

How Businesses Get an A+ Rating

The BBB itself outlined several factors that they consider when giving a rating to a particular business. Other than the type of business and the length of time it has been operating, the BBB also considers the business’ complaint history with the BBB and its transparency when it comes to their practices.

CEO Thomas Stridiron Names the Top 10 Reasons E-Commerce Ventures Fail

These days, practically anyone can start an e-commerce website with a little business savvy and a few online tools. Keeping the business afloat and profitable, however, is a whole other matter. According to Forbes, e-commerce companies have a 90-percent failure rate. Before you get yours up and running, it can help to see why so many online startups fail to soar after getting off the ground. Here are the top 10 reasons why e-commerce businesses fail:

1. Lack of Market Need for the Product

Beats by Dr. Dre costs less than $10 to make, yet sell for about $200 to $700. The substantial markup is not what’s surprising though—the biggest surprise is how the product has managed to lord over the headphones market. According to INC.com, Beats controls around 70 percent of the headphones market.

The Top 10 E-commerce Complaints

Any business, especially businesses that take part in e-commerce, should create an environment that fosters great customer service. Unfortunately, there are times when miscommunication or misplaced expectations can result in dissatisfied customers and lead to your business receiving complaints.

Online reviews and complaints are a common thing nowadays thanks to the emergence of review sites such as Yelp. Unfortunately, online reviews and complaints do not fade away even after issues have been resolved. At some point, your e-commerce business may experience something similar. Even if complaints may seem unfair, it is our responsibility as business owners to provide exceptional customer service and take any complaints seriously.

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