Many online businesses try to choose between mailing and shipping. The truth is that the choice is unnecessary. Going exclusively with one or the other can hurt our client's bottom lines. Mailing and shipping complement each other.
A study showed that 83% of eCommerce shoppers consider regular communication with sellers essential. A majority of buyers (53%) won't hit the "Buy" button if they don't know when their packages will arrive. They want regular updates. To maintain your customer base, you have to make sure that they get them.
Determining the best shipping options
Before you dive into selecting a carrier, whether the U.S. Post office (USPS) or a shipper such as UPS or FedEx, it's crucial for you to know the size and weight of the parcel you will be sending. Both will determine the price you pay to get your packages to your consumer. The recent addition of zone pricing by the USPS adds another complication.
Faulty cost calculations can lead to impatient, disgruntled customers and lost future sales. You need to get them right the first time. FedEx and UPS make their rate information available. Studying and understanding the rules is a must to ensure finding the lowest price.
Tracking your data will keep your business moving in the right direction. You can gather information from past shipping invoices and shipping histories, including customer addresses. Trends drawn from all of those sources will help you determine how shipping is affecting your profits and growth.
Looking up pricing and delivery options across carriers takes minutes or hours that you may not be able to spare. A third-party shipping solution can combine the information you need into one convenient interface. The right carrier will be at your fingertips.
Regardless of the weather, road conditions or unexpected events, your packages need to arrive on time. Staying connected with multiple carriers allows you to minimize the effects of possible service disruptions. Having a platform that leverages access to all your options will help you meet whatever challenges arise.
When they send it back
What lands in your customers' mailboxes or on their porches may not match what they had in mind when they put their selections in their carts. Returns are inevitable, but a streamlined return process can keep a customer on your rolls.
By providing return labels and status updates, you can make the return process as painless as possible. Your customers will gain the confidence to try again, and their next purchases can ensure loyalty to your brand.
Don't let typos take a toll
Everyone makes mistakes, and in eCommerce, typos can be costly. When a shipper enters an incorrect address, a carrier may attempt to correct it - for a sizable fee. In 2019, UPS charged $16.40 per package! An added cost like that can wipe out your profit and then some.
You can prevent these losses by using shipping software that provides address verification. Your bottom line will be healthier and your customers happier.
Learn more about your shipping options
Acutrack offers its clients economical shipping options and dependable service. Contact Acutrack to explore how experienced, responsive fulfillment can help your business thrive.
ClickFunnels is a powerful third-party online platform that lets users create a website scientifically designed to drive sales, regardless of the industry. Invented by sales and internet expert Russell Brunson, ClickFunnels functions equally well with physical and digital businesses. By creating what is known as a sales funnel, potential customers are ushered through a strategically selected series of pages that guide them to purchase.
ClickFunnels explained
Sales funnels are designed to take a large number of prospects and progressively turn them into leads and eventually customers. Each step in the process introduces messaging that is increasingly more targeted. And rather than ignoring those who did not purchase, sales funnels continue to reach out to leads and prospects for future potential sales. ClickFunnels takes these attributes and bundles them with email marketing, a/b testing, conversion monitoring, and subscription offers.
ClickFunnels also gives users the power to maintain full control of their eCommerce activity. All pages including one-time-offers (OTOs), sales, down sell and order confirmation can be customized to maintain consistency with the user's brand. Customers start at the landing page, then proceed to the funnel and finally the purchase page in a process that seems completely organic and natural to the buyer.
Integration with all of the various programs and applications that work with ClickFunnels is accomplished through the use of webhooks. A webhook is a method of communicating with other programs that are event-driven. This means that the webhook will not communicate until a specific event occurs. Because of this, certain programs may not receive real-time updates on shipment and logistics information.
Acutrack can Handle ClickFunnels and Your Fulfillment
By working in conjunction with Acutrack, ClickFunnels' fulfillment and logistics services are simplified and enhanced substantially. Acutrack integrates directly with and actually does a better job of managing these processes than ClickFunnels itself! By combining these two powerful programs, the user ends up with a highly efficient eCommerce platform.
Acutrack helps you:
- Manage your inventory
- Process and ship your orders quickly and accurately
- Update the shipping and tracking information
- Notify clients on shipping status instantly through email
Export ClickFunnels data using the AppTrend tool
This is the most painless way to transfer all your orders from ClickFunnels to the Shopify shopping cart. Now, you have a powerful ClickFunnels tool to sell products and create new sales funnels as needed while letting Shopify handle the customer organization and shipping. You now have virtually limitless choices when it comes to working with third-party providers. Since Shopify is integrated with hundreds of organizations, your business and shipping will be unrestricted.
Say goodbye to barriers! You can effectively and efficiently utilize ClickFunnels' "one-click-upsells" bundle products or Shopify backend orders to manage inventory, fulfillment or tangible giveaways for effective lead generation. Your ClickFunnels orders will appear in Shopify as if the order originated from Shopify itself. Your customers will have a seamless experience and your logistics specialists will receive the information they need to deliver the order on time with no worries.
Our focus
Acutrack is an eCommerce fulfillment company that is driven by technology but focused on their customers. Since 1992, we have evolved along with the available technology to make production and logistics easier to manage. Today we provide full automation of the entire fulfillment process with complete documentation of every step. Our focus is to give entrepreneurs and business owners a fulfillment solution that lets them focus on what they do best.
The art of lead generation is very important to the success of your book, but you probably know that already. The key is to generate the best possible leads that will turn into reliable customers. Unfortunately, the lead generation process often gets pushed to the side while we tend to other tasks and requirements.
And that's a huge mistake.
Even if you have the best ideas or book topics, it won't matter. If you don't have leads, your sales will tank because nobody knows the book exists.
Give Them Something of Value
One great way to generate leads is the classic marketing tactic of using giveaway books. This allows your potential customers to get a taste of your work while making it easy for them to return and make a purchase if they like what they read. In this digital age, giveaways are lead magnets that work on multiple levels. For starters, they:
- Make readers aware of your body of work
- Function on the proven psychological principle of reciprocity - people have an urge to pay when you give them something for free
- It gives you access to their all-important contact details
Credibility through problem-solving
Now that you know how to get eyes on your book, you will need to make sure you can keep those eyes on it. New writers often encounter difficulties in getting people to take them seriously, facing questions like:
- Why should I listen to you?
- What makes you an expert on this topic?
- What are your credentials?
A fantastic way of proving your credibility as an author and keeping people interested is through solving problems. Books that solve practical problems sell on both emotion and utility. Nearly any topic can be written about from the problem-solving viewpoint. If you're writing a DIY book, you offer readers ways to accomplish tasks on their own. If you're writing a self-help or advice book, you're teaching people how to grow. If your book is on business management, your information will help individuals manage their company better or increase sales.
With this in mind, the giveaway book should also solve a specific problem that is closely related to the one your other book solves. Following the DIY example, assume that your book is about the actions required to flip a house. Studies show that the kitchen is the most popular room to renovate. With this in mind, you create a free ebook: Luxury Kitchens for the Solo Flipper. The book offers step-by-step instructions on replacing the flooring, upgrading ovens, installing countertops and the like. A giveaway book on a similar topic will ensure that your intended market will be the ones interested.
It is critical that the giveaway book functions as a standalone work. Trying to trap people by only offering the first few steps and making them buy the full book to learn the rest of the process often ends badly. Many times, the reader will end up resenting you or feeling taken advantage of. The reader of this book should find it so useful and be so grateful that they'll be desperate to get your other book.
The old advice of "give a little to get a little" works wonders in lead generation. Try using a giveaway and keep track of your traffic and sales numbers. There will be a measurable difference.
In this age of e-commerce, fulfillment technology plays a huge role in supplying merchandise to both businesses and consumers. For fulfillment centers, technology is essential to every function, from the receipt of an order to its final delivery to the purchaser. It plays an equally important role in serving vendors to keep customers satisfied and loyal to their brand. That a provider utilizes the best technology available is critical for providing top-notch service.
Warehouse Management Systems
A warehouse management system (WMS) is the heart of the technology that makes a fulfillment center function. WMSs integrate software and physical processes to control every aspect of operations, ensuring efficient workflow. These systems encompass inventory management, picking, and auditing. A successful WMS is vital to handling high volumes of merchandise.
A WMS provides center management with visibility into inventory at any given place and time, allowing continuous monitoring and quality control of operations. A fulfillment center's WMS enables it to be both more flexible and responsive. The WMS also decreases errors and improves service.
Integrating with other platforms
While a WMS will improve functioning within a center, it is equally essential for a center to reach out to e-commerce platforms seamlessly. Acutrack integrates with almost any shopping cart a consumer might choose, as well as all major e-commerce platforms, enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) and customer management relationship (CRM) programs. The company also works with Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Jett, and all major online marketplaces.
Customers want to know
Technology that provides transparency is central in fulfillment transactions. It permits clients to view their inventory and determine their order and shipping status online, ensuring increased confidence in the progress of their sales.
Electronic data exchange (EDI)
For a fulfillment center to function effectively, it is essential that data are transferred faultlessly between organizations. Because EDI accomplishes this process, the retail world has adopted EDI for transacting purchase orders and shipment related notifications.
Businesses employing EDI reduce costs and errors and increase their processing speeds. At Acutrack, EDI is indispensable for handling business to business (B2B) transactions.
Acutrack leads the way
Since its founding in 1992, Acutrack has adopted cutting edge technologies to serve our clients. Contact us to find out how our advancements make fulfillment work for you and your customers.
Acutrack has found it imperative to ensure that its customers be seen in a positive light. We employ our technology-driven fulfillment to elevate both your brand and the experience of your customers with accurate and efficient service.
Getting it right
You only get one chance to make a first impression, and you need it to win the approval of your purchasers. Sub-par third-party logistics companies (3PLs) can alienate consumers from your brand and your business. Errors in fulfilling your orders can result in your goods becoming damaged. Mislabeled goods can arrive at the wrong destination, or they become lost during the shipping process. Less than appealing packaging can discourage reorders. Consumers that experience the results of any of these failings are unlikely to order again or refer their friends to your products. They may even post a bad review, discouraging possible future business.
A meeting of the minds
You want a fulfillment company that can think the way you do. If you offer a unique product, your fulfillment partner should understand how to package and ship it in a manner that will earn the appreciation of your customer base. A fulfillment company that shares your values and vision as to how your product should be handled and how best to serve your market is essential.
Experience counts
Shipping involves many different elements, from choosing the right packaging and transportation partners to obtaining the lowest rates by capitalizing on zone pricing. Your customers will receive your merchandise both more rapidly and more economically when you work with the professionals at Acutrack who understand every aspect of the process.
Working hand in hand
Acutrack believes in active partnerships. We bring a consultative approach to our business to build long-term relationships with our clients through the twin driving forces of technology and creativity. We are dedicated to open and honest communication to promote an ethical environment of trust and respect.
Contact us to discover a superior level of fulfillment service for you and your customers.
