With exactly two months to go until December 24th, for online merchants, it’s showtime!

And even if you’ve been meticulously planning for the holiday selling season, there are so many details involved, it’s easy to inadvertently make common mistakes that can derail your holiday sales.

Don’t let these 7 mistakes be the Grinch that steals your holiday sales and profits…

7 Mistakes That Can Derail Your Online Holiday Sales

Mistake #1. Discounting too deep, too early and for too long. While media reports of holiday shoppers clamoring for deep discounts and word of Wal-Mart’s new holiday price guarantee could rattle even the most stalwart independent online merchant; discounting too deep, too early and for too long will kill your profit margins.

Sure you may sell more, but you will make less at the end of the season.

Which means you have to compete for those holiday sales on something else…

• Selection
• Delivery
• Customer Service
• Quality
• Integrity

Keep in mind that the #1 thing online shoppers want during the holiday season is selection and confidence that their product will arrive on time.

And they are willing to pay more for it.

Not all buyers shop on price. In fact in the wake of Wal-Mart’s recent announcement, there has been a huge backlash from customers citing all the reasons they won’t shop at Wal-Mart despite their low-price guarantee.

Higher income customers especially, will pay a premium to get a unique gift, the latest gadget and superior quality and service.  So don’t shortchange yourself or your business.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t run any promotions or offer free shipping promotions during the holidays.

Just know that trying to compete on price with a big-box retailer during the holidays is a recipe for dismal holiday profits.

Mistake #2. Running a 2 month long holiday ‘promotion’. A good retail promotion is a time limited discount on a particular product or group of products.

While you might think you’re doing your customers a favor and driving sales by offering 30%  off on your entire store until Christmas, it actually works against  you. There’s a whole psychology around retail pricing and promotions.

A short, time-limited promotion will drive more sales, than long promotions without a deadline. Promotions based around a current event like Cyber Monday also help customers focus and execute on their buying decisions.

Mistake #3. Not creating holiday gift lists. The holidays are overwhelming for your customers. With a list of gifts to buy and thousands of online options, they often don’t know where to start.

Short on ideas and short on time, they need your help to find the most gift-worthy items in your store.

By creating a holiday gift list of the best holiday items in your store, you not only provide a service to your customers, but you also have the opportunity to drive them to your higher quality, higher margin products.

Here are a few gift list examples:

• 10 Hot New Cooking Gadgets for the Gourmet Chef On Your List
• Our 15 Best Selling Gifts for Dads Who Don’t Wear Ties
• 12 Gemstone Bracelets That Say “I Love You” in Color!
  
• 8 Creative Toys for Kids Under 8

Place your gift list prominently on your website, blog and if possible, your marketplace store. Post your gift lists on Facebook, Tweet them out.

A good holiday gift list can easily go viral driving floods of new traffic to your store.

Mistake #4. Ignoring marketplace incentives. If you sell in a marketplace like eBay or Amazon, be sure to get up to date on the holiday sales incentives being offered to sellers. Amazon’s 3rd party sellers can get in front of Amazon’s best Prime customers by fulfilling their inventory through Amazon FBA.This is especially important if you want to sell in the lucrative toy category. On November 15th, restrictions in the toy category go into place, but you can work around them if you fulfill your products through Amazon FBA

eBay has come out with a variety of incentives this year that they say will boost sellers visibility in search.

Mistake #5. Skimping on customer service. There’s no faster way to lose a holiday sale than not responding quickly to a customer inquiry. Shoppers have one thing on their mind this time of year – to get that gift and get it now!

Website owners can use a tool like Olark for Live Chat to provide real-time interaction with their customers. Amazon sellers who sell through FBA will have Amazon customer support doing their holiday customer service for them. And eBay sellers can add common questions asked by buyers to the Auto Answers system, although if possible, having a dedicated person monitoring My eBay during the busy selling season will allow you to assist the customer in finding the perfect gift.

Mistake #6. Not speaking the language of the holidays. If Grandma Mae comes to your fly fishing store looking for the perfect rod and reel for Grandpa Joe, she wants to see some evidence that you are participating in the holidays.

Messaging about holiday deliver, special holiday items, gift-wrapping for Grandpa Joe’s new tackle box (maybe an upsell to the rod and reel) should all be prominently displayed on the home page of your website.

Holiday shoppers who come to an online store where it’s ‘business as usual’ are not as likely to stay engaged with your site as those with clear holiday messaging (and holiday gift lists). You can get great holiday graphics done for $5 at Fiverr (learn how to use Fiverr here.) or for a very reasonable price on ODesk or Guru.com

Mistake #7. Closing up shop too early. Last year only 12.4% of shoppers had completely finished their holiday shopping ten days before Christmas. You need to be prepared to sell and ship right up through December 23rd. 13% of holiday shoppers start their holiday shopping the week of Christmas. 

Offer express shipping and handling. And prominently post these options on the home page of your website or in  your eBay listings. A graphic with your delivery options works best.

And remember… the holiday sales don’t end on December 23rd.

One of the most popular up and coming activities on December 24th and 25th is… you guessed it! Shopping online!

-Lisa

Running an ecommerce business costs money.

Whether it’s buying a new computer with faster processing capabilities, sourcing new inventory so you can sell more and make more, updating your workspace to make it more efficient or, bringing in project based help to get your holiday inventory listed…

It takes money to grow.

Unfortunately for small (and especially home-based, online businesses) the availability of growth-captial is in short supply. Especially from traditional sources such as banks and credit cards.

Enter Kabbage, an Atlanta based company with one goal – “Funding for your online business.”

Kabbage provides short-term loans to online sellers using credentials that other lenders don’t/won’t. They use marketplace and PayPal data from your online business to process your request for capital. An analysis that includes things like transaction volume and consistency, customer feedback/reviews, your product line and more.

Understanding the World of Online Sellers

What sets Kabbage apart from a traditional lender is that they understand the world of online sales, whereas many traditional banks do not.  In fact, traditional lending institutions can be downright leery of lending money to a home-based online sellers – even those with a proven track record.

Kabbage also understands that many online sellers only need a short-term loan to help them get to the next level.

It may only take $1000 to attend a trade show or $3000 to source new inventory once you’re there, but not having access to that $4000 means the difference between your ability to grow your business or staying stuck until you can earn enough money to fund your tradeshow trip or buy new inventory.

Kabbage Founder and CEO Rob Frohwein says:

“Thousands of online merchants have obtained working capital and grown their businesses since our push into the market in April 2011. Although small business fuels the majority of growth in the U.S., it is extremely difficult and time consuming for these businesses to apply for and actually receive financing from a traditional bank. Kabbage fills this need by providing money to these businesses in a quick, easy and painless way, helping them to further grow their businesses and boost the economy.”

Online sellers can apply and be approved for a short-term advance, also known as “Kabbage Kash” in minutes. Once approved, you can use your cash advance line if/when you need it.

It’s free to apply and be approved. Once you use your cash advance, you have six months to repay it. Cash advance rates are determined by your credit history and store performance, as well as the length of time you keep the cash advance. If you pay it back earlier than 6 months, you’ll pay less.

Kabbage has a patented technology that enables them to evaluate seller’s businesses and credit history. Currently Kabbage supports eBay sellers, Amazon sellers and Yahoo store owners.

This week Kabbage announced that they’ve just received $17 million in funding which will allow them to add funding support for merchants who sell on Facebook, Etsy, Sears and Shopify.

Your Ability to Source Quality Inventory Increases Your Sales

I first met the folks from Kabbage this spring and recently caught up with them again here in Seattle at the Amazon Seller’s Conference in July.

At that time, I sat down with Russell Walraven to talk more about the company’s goals to help online sellers grow. Fresh off the announcement that Kabbage would now be supporting Amazon sellers, Russell said that the response to Kabbage cash advances was overwhelmingly positive.  Seller after seller stopped by the booth to tell the Kabbage group that the #1 thing they need is cash to buy more inventory. With Amazon sales skyrocketing off into the stratosphere, lack of product to sell was the only thing holding back Amazon sellers from selling more.

Interestingly, Amazon category managers at the conference told me the same thing. “We need more product. Amazon’s growth is only limited by product selection. And we’re looking to 3rd party merchants to fill that need.”

Kabbage provides a win-win situation for online sellers ready to expand.

Many of my clients and students have already applied for and used Kabbage as a source of funding for their business.  They’ve raved about the simplicity of applying and the fact that Kabbage speaks in “plain english” as just two of the reasons they feel that the folks at Kabbage understand their needs as online sellers.

You can learn more about Kabbage and see if you qualify for an advance in seconds.

-Lisa

Whether you’ve overbought on inventory, sourced the wrong products or have merchandise on hand with little shelf-life left  in it, “stale inventory” is a common (and normal) challenge  for online merchants.

But no matter what you sell or where you sell it, holding on to stale inventory is a costly business practice.

In fact, in the last 60 days Amazon has implemented two new policies on stale inventory:

• Sellers will pay a new annual Long-Term Storage Fee of $45 per cubic foot for any units of inventory that have been stored in an Amazon fulfillment center for one year or longer.

• Limits on the amount of inventory that  Amazon sellers can store in Fulfillment by Amazon Warehouses. Amazon has said
• they want to “ensure that customers are able to get the products they are most interested in.

Stale is merchandise that sits in your store or on your website for months on end with no sales.  (Or just an occasional sale here and there.)

It’s toxic to your profits. And can take a toll on you psychologically. No one likes to look at inventory day-after-day that isn’t selling.

Potential Sales Don’t Equal Profits

Too often people will look at stale inventory and think “Well, I paid $25 for this shirt, so it’s worth at least $25 in potential income.”  But that’s only true if the item sells.  (And in a reasonable time.) If a product sits on your shelf and doesn’t sell, you’re losing money on your investment.

And remember, every time you pay an insertion fee to list a product on a site like eBay for example, your cost of goods for that product increases and  your profit margin on the product decreases.

Additionally, every  item sitting on the shelf that’s not selling could be replaced with a product that is selling.  (And this also applies to unique one-of-a-kind items that have been sitting in your store for years.)

Home based businesses often hang on to inventory far too long due to low storage costs.

But as the saying goes “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

In order to run a profitable ecommerce business, you must keep your inventory lean and clean.

In today’s blog post, I’ll show you how to get rid of  stale inventory quickly and put some extra ka-ching in your pockets!

7 Surefire Ways to Turn Stale Inventory Into Cash

Look objectively at your inventory. The first step in turning dead inventory into cash starts with recognizing that your inventory is stale and it must go.  This is often the hardest step for people. Be realistic about market value.

You should be turning (selling) items in your inventory every 90-120 days. Even one-of-a-kind collectibles need to turn frequently. If an item is sitting there with few views and no sales, you need to take action on it and get it to move!

Re-photograph your item. Retaking a photograph of your item is often all it takes for new buyers to take a fresh look. Your photos should have a clean white (or appropriately colored) background and the item should fill up 85% of the frame. Blurry, murky, poorly lit photos will hurt the sales of your items.  Studies show that items with high-quality photos increase sales by 20% or more.

Re-keyword product title and description. 86% of all online sales begin with a buyer search. If you’re not using the keywords in your product title and description that buyers are searching for on Amazon, eBay or Google, your items won’t be found. If you sell on eBay, the Terapeak Research tool will tell you exactly what keywords buyers are using to find your products. The Google Keyword Tool will show you what keywords and keyword phrases people are using to search for your products on Google.

Feature like items together and run a promotional event. Don’t run generic 20% off sale.  Select a specific line of products and run a sale on the entire group.  20% off all prom wear. 15% off all our summer sandals. Save 40% on our complete line of Back-to-School Backpacks. By grouping items together you can make a splash with your marketing and grab the attention of those specific buyers interested in the products you have on sale.

Give your event a name “Save 30% on our Red, White & Blue Fireworks Sale!”  (perfect for a 4th of July promotion).

Sales on grouped products are more likely to generate buzz as well. Excited customers are more likely to email, Tweet & Facebook “Hey, did you know that Sam’s School Supplies is having a 40% off sale on all their backpacks.”

Slash prices and take the loss now rather than later. Don’t be afraid to slash prices (and lose money or break even) when you have to. While you can start your sale with a smaller discount of 10% – 20%, if that doesn’t get the sales of dead inventory going, it’s time to do some serious price slashing.

Again, this is where many merchants hesitate, trying to recoup their initial inventory investment or at least break even. But here’s the reality. Every day that product sits on your shelves unsold, you are losing money.

Bundle slow sellers with a hot seller. If you have a hot selling line with a couple of product dogs, take those non-selling products and bundle them with the hot sellers. If you’re candle holders sell well but your candles aren’t moving. Bundle a candle or two with each holder, raise the price of your set slightly and watch those items sell!

Cosmetic companies do this all the time. They’ll put together a promo kit and throw in a few items that aren’t selling or are discontinued. People will but the set because there is one item they want in there.  The rest they give away (or often sell on eBay).

You can also do this in reverse and bundle a hot seller with some duds. If you sell a group of products that isn’t moving, add one hot item to it and watch the set sell.

Sell it in a “Lot”. An inventory Lot is a large grouping of like inventory bundled and sold together.  Do a search on eBay for a product and append the keyword “Lot”.  You’ll find thousands of inventory lots being sold in every category.  Many brick and mortar stores shop eBay for Lots of inventory to sell locally.

One client of mine who participates in an annual sidewalk sale here in Seattle, always checks eBay first to buy supplemental inventory in bulk.  Online sellers search eBay for inventory Lots, breaking them apart and reselling them as individual items (this is known as arbitrage sourcing).

Grouping your inventory in a Lot and selling it all at once allows you to get your money out fast and not deal with an ongoing markdown process.

Finally, you can move your inventory to a different marketplace.

If it didn’t sell on your website, move it to eBay for liquidation. If it didn’t sell on eBay, you can try moving it to another marketplace. But be careful with this! Don’t keep moving inventory around the marketplaces to avoid dealing with the problem.

Remember, cash flow is the key to health for an online business. Stale inventory will stop the cash from flowing. So focus not on how much you spent for it originally, but on how good it will feel to have cash in your bank account from the sale of those items!

-Lisa

Are you ready for the new eBay Fees on Shipping coming July 6th? Get help preparing and avoid ‘fee increase shock’ on your August invoice!

News out today that L.L. Bean and Zappos are leading a new “free shipping revolution”…

Steve Fuller, the chief marketing officer at L.L. Bean, said his company came to the decision after examining “research after research after research” showing shoppers prefer to not pay for shipping.

Last week, eBay announced an increased push to drive sellers to offer Free Shipping on everything.  “Buyers have told us they want free shipping.”

Here we go again. Of course consumers are going to say they prefer free shipping. Haven’t we all wished at some point that we could get something for nothing?

But the reality of “free shipping”  is this – There is NO such thing as FREE Shipping.

USPS, FEDEx & UPS still have  rate charts last I checked.  They are not offering free shipping.

The Realities of “Free Shipping”

1. There is no such thing as “Free Shipping” UNLESS the company is truly paying the cost of shipping out of their pocket.

2. UPS/USPS/FEDEX do not ship for free.  There is a cost, a very expensive cost, to ship goods from point A (online merchant) to point B (consumer).

3. Unless the merchant is paying for shipping COMPLETELY out of pocket (which will soon drive them out of business) they are raising the price of the item to cover their shipping costs.  Are we as consumers that gullible to believe that companies are “gifting” us with free shipping?

4. In some cases a company will subsidize free shipping with some other source of revenue .  Amazon charges for their Prime Program.

5. Big companies like Amazon or Zappos get deeply discounted shipping rates from the carriers. Smaller merchants do not enjoy those rates. Big companies are better positioned to offer Free Shipping and mark up their products with a smaller increase.

6. Smaller online merchants don’t get the big shipping discounts and “free shipping” often takes a bigger bite out of their bottom line.  While this model does work for some of their products, it does not work as a model across the board. If small merchants are forced to offer free shipping as part of this “free-shipping revolution” they will end up working on thinner margins to remain competitive.

Mr. and Ms. Consumer… Is this really what we want to  happen to our small independent online retailers?

Excessive Shipping Charges are Wrong

I wholeheartedly agree that companies who charge excessive shipping are wrong.

But the flip side of this is that more and more American consumers want to get something for nothing.

We want great selection AND dedicated customer service AND we want the best price AND we want free shipping AND we wanted delivered now.

Ok – Economics 101 broken down in plain English.  Stuff costs money. You need to make money in order to have something to spend.

If one group of people is getting stuff for free that they should be paying for, then somewhere, another group of people are not getting paid what they should be.

Small business is the fiber of this economy.  We need to look at this picture holistically for the sake of our economy.

And I blame BOTH the consumer and the big online retailers for perpetuating this “free shipping” myth.

Stores want to make sales. Consumers want to save money. Fair enough.  But within reason.

But this ”me, me, me” “How can I get everything for dirt cheap at all costs?’ is driving our country and our economy into the ground.   Do you really need 43 pairs of shoes from Zappos, just because they offer low prices and free shipping?”

Now I suppose some of you are thinking “Well, Lisa have you ever taken advantage of a free shipping offer?  Yes, I have.  But it is not the driving factor in my decision to buy online. And no, I don’t have a boatload of money stashed somewhere to fund copious amounts of online shopping. 

In fact, I’m one of those people who, when shopping at a local store and receiving great help from a salesperson with my potential purchase will buy from that store.  If they’ve provided a service to me, I won’t steal their service and go online to get it cheaper and save a few bucks.

It’s not that I’m rich. It’s that I’m not short sighted. Because I know that my local enconomy needs that local store.  And if they are providing value, I want to support them.  Even if it means that I pay a little more out of my pocket.

Which brings me back to the free shipping revolution.

Let’s get back to the model of “a product sold and delivered at a fair price”.

Yes people’s budgets are squeezed.  But the answer is not in driving American owned online businesses out of business, by demanding an ecommerce model that is not sustainable for millions of sellers. How does that benefit us as consumers in the long run?

From the early days of mail order catalogs, Free Shipping was designed to be used as a PROMOTION not as a standard price model.

• It costs money to get in the car and drive to the mall and buy a pair of shoes.
• It costs money for an online retailer to ship a pair of shoes.
• Gas is expensive.
• It costs more money to fill your tank.
• Carriers are charging retailer fuel surcharges.
• Shipping is NOT free

Ecommerce is one of the strongest growth industries in our country.  Let’s not ruin the model because we want something for free that is not free.

I’m all for free shipping promotions. They are a great way to excite your customers, give them something special and generate more sales.

But when Free Shipping (which BTW is the #1 preferred online PROMOTION) becomes the norm, then what do etailers offer as a promotion?

With the free shipping promotion gone and stores already running sales to attract more buyers… what more is there to offer as a buying incentive?  There is no MARGIN left to offer incentives.

And ultimately, I think what consumers really want at the end of the day is a fair price for a good product delivered for a reasonable amount.

-Lisa

With a still shaky economy, gas prices soaring, shipping carrier increases, fuel surcharges and sales growth that trails the growth of ecommerce and competitor Amazon, eBay has picked an interesting time to implement fee changes that will potentially amount to an overall increase for millions of  sellers.

And while some early media reports proclaimed a fee decrease, industry insiders that understand how the numbers work provide a clearly more accurate picture.

At the root of the potential fee increase is eBay’s decision to charge Final Value Fees on the total amount of the sale, which includes charges to the customer for shipping.

Yes, eBay is now charging fees on what is categorized by your bookkeeper as a business expense. (The IRS doesn’t tax businesses on expenses.)

You can read the full announcement here.  At the core of the issue is this:

Sellers subscribed to a Store: To reward free and low-cost shipping, Final value Fee rates will be reduced and applied to the total amount of sale—including shipping—starting July 6.

Here’s how it breaks out:

eBay starts by reducing Final Value Fee rates.  Sounds good right?

For example, currently if you are a store owner and sell a lamp for $25 and it costs you $25 to ship the lamp, you pay 12% of the final sale price.

12% of $25 =$3.00

In July that fee drops to 11%.

But here’s the hitch. The fee now applies to your item price plus shipping costs.

Under the new rate, which takes effect in July, you’ll be charged 11% on the item price $25 + shipping $25 = $50.  Your new  fees?  $5.50    A fee increase of 83%.

Now let’s say all along that you’ve been charging $50 for that lamp and offering FREE shipping. In this scenario, you’d see a fee decrease of .50 ₵

But here’s the “X” factor in all this.  If the marketplace is used to seeing this lamp priced at $25 + $25 shipping.

It is highly unlikely that you or anyone in your category has been selling that same lamp at $50 + free shipping.

In the case of these gorgeous, heavy, one-of-kind lamps, the seller must take extreme care to make sure these make it to the buyer in one piece.

Granted, with a lighter weight item, you will not see this variance.

If a seller has been selling a  lightweight bracelet for $21 + Free Shipping, they are already paying a Final Value Fee on the total order price.

Sellers who have been incorporating their shipping into their product price and offering Free Shipping will generally see a fee decrease with the lowered Final Value Fees.

However, in the above scenario a seller has determined that they can afford to incorporate Free Shipping and add the cost into the price of the product because it works for their business model.

Under the new policies, sellers have no choice. Whether it works for your model or not, you’ll be paying FVF on the total amount of sale.

Additionally if you’re a Top Rated Seller, the 20% TRS discount is no longer worth quite as much.  Even though fees are being charged on the total amount of sale, TRS discounts only apply to the price of the item.

The rules change for non-store subscribers and auction format listings… more about that in my next post.

The Bottom Line for Your Business

The bottom line is that this is not a fee decrease across the board.  In fact it’s not even a fee decrease on a per seller basis.

Every seller can potentially see fees go up on some of the products they sell and down on other products. It all depends on the product and how you list it.

So it’s very important to take some time and look at your most common pricing/shipping scenarios. You won’t be able to look at every product, but if you start with your most popular items, it’s a start.

Revisit your product line, your pricing strategies and your fees as you continue to list this month.  A daunting prospect for already busy sellers.

You may be wonder why eBay would make  such a change? Especially during a time when margins are more squeezed than ever, especially for small sellers.

eBay has stated that “buyers have told us they love free shipping”.  Of course they do! Buyers would love free products too if it were an option.

But free shipping was never meant to be the norm. It was meant to be used for special promotions.If you give your kid a birthday cake every single day of the year, it ceases to be special. It becomes ordinary. Expected.   The same holds true for free shipping.

… In fact there is no such thing as free shipping.  There is a hard cost to shipping.  And either the merchant or the buyer pays that cost.  (Last I heard FedEx wasn’t shipping products for free.)

So, should you keep your business on eBay? Only if it can be profitable there.

And as with any business, the purpose is to turn a profit. If the model is no longer profitable, reassessing and reinventing your business is the only way to continue to thrive.

-Lisa

We’re less than a day away from one of the biggest shopping days of the year!  Cyber Monday.

The “official” kick-off to the online holiday selling season.

Millions of motivated shoppers will hit the web on Monday, 11/29 to do some heavy duty shopping.

Early projections for Cyber Monday sales are up 30% over last year!

Soooo, the question is… are YOU ready for Cyber Monday sales?

To make sure you don’t miss a beat this week, I’ve put together a last minute Cyber Monday Eve checklist for you!

Cyber Monday Checklist for Online Merchants

Clean up your website homepage or your eBay listings. Remove all traces of Thanksgiving imagery and messaging.  For more tips on adding holiday messaging and imagery, check out my recent blog post on 7 Late to the Game Holiday Sales Savers.

Send out a Cyber Monday email promotion. 9 out of 10 retailers plan to send out Cyber Monday promotions. Will your customers be bombarded with emails for companies eager to sell their wares? Yes! Which is why it’s important to do emails right…  ( see next tip)

Make your Cyber Monday email subject lines specific. Many merchants will send an email titled “Cyber Monday Deals! Save 25%” – and while that may work for Walmart, it won’t work for smaller merchants competing for Cyber Monday eyeballs with the big guys.

If your best-selling items are kids’ rain boots, promote these in the subject of your email. For example: “Cyber Monday Deal: Save 25% on all Colorcraft Rainboots”.

Track sales trends in your niche. Are you staying on top of the sales trends in your niche? During the holidays, things change quickly as deman increase and supplies dwindle! Use trend sites like Google Insights, Twitter Search and eBay Pulse to track searches and demand for holiday products.

Offer shipping promotions. But keep in mind it’s important to put quantifiers on your promotions! “Free shipping on all orders over $50.” “Free Shipping on all orders placed before December 5th.” will get you better results than a generic free shipping promotion.

Display contact information prominently. Shoppers stress is escalating and people won’t take the time to look for your contact information if it’s not displayed prominently. For website owners, this means the upper, right-hand corner of your website. For eBay sellers, this means the upper right quadrant of your listing.

Replenish your inventory. As you sell out of inventory, restock your homepage and your eBay listings with more styles, sizes, colors, etc. Whatever it takes to fill out your store. Even if you’ve run out of your best holiday inventory already, keep in mind that 52% of holiday shoppers will be buying something for themselves this year!. A pair of plain brown boots may not bedazzle a gift recipient on Christmas morning, but they may be exactly what your customer needs to replace their worn out pair before winter kicks in.

Check these items off your list and enjoy the process of fulfilling those incoming orders!

-Lisa

With the Thanksgiving holiday in sight, and Christmas just over a month away, your holiday sales should be in full swing.

But for those who are late to the game, or need an extra boost to amp up the numbers, these 7 late-to-the-game strategies will stoke the fire in your holiday sales…

Speak Holiday.Go right now and look at your web pages, you eBay listings, your online store. How many places do you see holiday imagery, holiday messaging, holiday gift suggestions? If the answer is none or few then your products are not showing up for the party everyone else wants to be a part of.

You have to give your customers visual clues that you’re dialed-in to the holidays. Your store must be part of the fun and festivities. Even the smallest online sellers can add a few holiday graphics and use messaging on their their website to speak the language of holiday sales.

Run Different Holiday Promotions Each Week. If you want to capture the attention of holiday buyers this year, you must run new promotions on a weekly basis. While this year’s shoppers aren’t suffering from frugal fatigue, consumers are looking for a sale.

Unlike last year, they’re not hoping to find everything marked down to 50% off, but they are looking for somewhat of a “feel-good holiday special” so they walk away from the purchase feeling like they got something extra.

Sell Communication & Service. Prominent service messaging must be a part of your holiday game plan. Whether it’s strategically placed graphics on your site or you hop in front of a video camera, one of the key things shoppers should see when they come to your site is a message from you with a commitment to:

• Same day shipping
• Providing tracking numbers
• Customer service (how will they contact you if they have a question)
• Optional gift wrapping services

Free Shipping. If you’re late to the holiday selling game, one of the fastest ways to amp up your sales is by offering Free Shipping. Again this year, Free Shipping is the #1 thing that holiday shoppers are looking for.

Bundle it Spectacular. If your holiday sales haven’t yet made a blip on the radar, it’s time to pull out the big guns and get really creative with your product offerings. A necklace and matching bracelet sold separately becomes a spectacular gift set.  Pair a warm fuzzy bathrobe with matching slippers and create a special Christmas morning promotion around it.

Offer Holiday Gift Suggestions. Holiday shoppers aren’t looking for the “same ‘ole, same ‘ole” when it comes to purchasing holiday gifts. They LOVE creative ideas and unique gifts. Just because the media doesn’t recognize your product line as a “holiday item” doesn’t mean you can’t!

Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission to present your products as a holiday gift. Be bold and step out and make gift suggestions!

Get in Front of the Video Camera. If there is one thing that etailers can do this year to get found in search without the use of costly PPC campaigns and lengthy traffic driving strategies, it’s to get in front of the video camera. There is not a person reading this blog post who sales can’t benefit by doing a video review of a product you sell.

Whether it increases conversion on your site or eBay listing or helps you make it to page one on Google, video product reviews are all the rage this year. And don’t think you have to have a Hollywood stage production video to make it useful.  REAL sells. Take a look at this video review of a popular Nikon camera lens. A little humor, being real, to the point and educational. 11,000+ people have viewed it so far.  (BTW, I came across it in Google search while shopping for, you guessed it! Nikon cameras.)

Even if you’re sales aren’t yet where you’d like them to be this holiday season, you’ve got 30+ more days to keep focused on selling more. Never give up! Keep doing the right things up until the very last holiday minute and you’ll start to see the results of your efforts!

How about you? What are your plans for increasing your sales over the next 30 days?

-Lisa

Source: Google Retail Trends

With 4 months to go before Christmas, almost half of online shoppers have already started shopping.

According to Google Retail Trends, at this time last year, 44% had already started their holiday shopping, 36% had already made holiday purchases online.

How are your holiday sales this month?

Whether you personally agree with “early Christmas syndrome” or not , if you sell something online you have to accept the fact that people are shopping earlier and earlier each year.

Part of this is out of necessity. With less credit to cover holiday purchases, consumers are forced to shop earlier and spread out their expenditures.

It also makes sense from a time and stress management standpoint. Who wants to be under massive pressure in the 6 weeks leading up to Christmas, hard pressed to find that perfect gift that’s out of stock, pay extra for expedited shipping or end up paying more for a gift they really didn’t want?

Probably not even the 14% of holiday shoppers who wait until December 20th to start their holiday shopping!

The bottom line? If you want to be in the game this holiday season, you need to start now to prepare your store for holiday sales.

5 Ways to Prepare Now and Increase Your Holiday Sales

Showcase new merchandise. What’s new and exciting in your inventory? Put it front and center! If you wait until November, you’re losing two months of income opportunity.

Make holiday gift recommendations. Every website should have a “Top List” of recommended gifts. “Top 10 Gifts for Dad”, “50 Gifts Under $50″ Pull this right from your inventory!

Holiday content. Write articles and create videos that are holiday themed and watch visitors to your store or website increase like crazy!

Offer pre-holiday promotions. Not only will your customers be excited about getting a good deal, they’ll feel smart and savvy for shopping early. That good feeling with be associated with your store.

Step up your marketing. You can have the best inventory in the world, but you won’t make many sales if no one knows your online store exists? How are you marketing? What is your plan? How will you get in front of your target customers this holiday season?  If the answer to that is “I don’t know.” grab a your laptop and head to the beach to put that holiday marketing plan in place now!

Profits come to business owners who are prepared. You still have time to make a big difference in the amount of money you make this holiday season!

-Lisa Suttora

For online sellers looking for a way to expand their business, it often means looking no further than the lucrative global ecommerce market.

Spurred on by double-digit growth in 2010, international commerce is entering an explosive growth phase -  one that will continue this year and for several years to come.

International sales represent a huge opportunity for merchants of all sizes and in all niche markets.

Consider this… while 73% of people in North America have Internet access and rank online shopping as their favorite activity behind email, only 50% of people in Europe 17% in Asia currently access the Internet. 

And as with their American counterparts, international Internet users like to shop online.

According to Reuters, online sales are expected to increase as much as 40% annually in Japan.

But while there’s a lot of money to be made in global ecommerce, it can also represent a significant challenge for online sellers.

Shipping costs, lack of international tracking, customs and duty fees, long shipping times and post shipment customer services issues have caused many online sellers to limit or exclude international sales.

That being said, ignoring this mammoth customer base can have a dramatically negative effect on your bottom line.

Additionally U.S. markets saturated with products and sellers in certain categories, often remain wide open for those merchants who are willing to ship worldwide.

Without a global presence, your business is not fully online.

Bongo International Helps Sellers Create Hassle-Free International Sales

Fortunately, doing business in the global marketplace is now much easier thanks to an innovative service from Bongo International. I first learned about Bongo in April 2010 at the Ecommerce Summit in Las Vegas.  It was there that I met Greg Sack President of Sales at Bongo.  After talking with Greg at length and viewing a demo of the product,  I was impressed by the features and benefits of their service, as well as the user friendly integration for sellers.

Bongo International is a mail forwarding and parcel forwarding service that ships products from the U.S. to 174 countries worldwide.

But Bongo is much more than your old school run of the mill parcel forwarding service.

Bongo is truly a full service international liason between you and your global customers.

In fact, Bongo has developed an entire process designed to provide the solutions that resolve the everyday challenges faced by merchants who sell to international customers.

From international tracking numbers to payment fraud checks, package consolidation services that alleviate high shipping costs to the ability for your customer to calculate shipping, duties and taxes before checkout – Bongo International has looked at every problem with shipping worldwide and solved it.

Best of all, this service is free for online sellers and gives you the opportunity to increase your sales, while decreasing your costs as well as those of your customer’s.

Bongo Benefits for Your Business

In addition to the benefits listed above, one of the best features that Bongo offers is the ability for your customers to remain on  your site during checkout, thereby significantly reducing the potential of shopping cart abandonment.

• Because Bongo becomes a seamless part of your checkout process, it adds to increased international customer confidence.

• The consumer pays a small fee, either one-time or subscription (if they are frequent shoppers) for the convenience of using Bongo’s service.  Bongo customers can save up to 83% in shipping costs compared to other shipping carriers, making it an attractive option for international shoppers.

• The Bongo application works on eBay, ecommerce websites and with most major shopping carts; as well as Amazon, Buy.com and 1ShoppingCart.com. You can see some of the additional Bongo partners here.

• Bongo International has also recently partnered with ChannelAdvisor to provide integrated international shipping solution for ChannelAdvisor customers.

Listen to My Interview with Greg Sack and Learn How to Increase Your International Sales and Take the Pain Out of Shipping

In my interview with Greg, we walk through the international sales process step-by-step, as well as how Bongo easily integrates into almost any ecommerce scenario.

We also brainstormed an innovative way that international sellers can use Bongo’s services to work with U.S. wholesale suppliers and ship worldwide from the U.S., opening up a whole new business model for sellers outside the U.S.

The thing I like best about using Bongo’s service is it enables busy online sellers to stop wasting precious time dealing with the mundane tasks of international shipping and start focusing on making more international sales.

Which is exactly what you should be doing as the CEO of your online business.

Listen to my interview with Greg Sacks directly below. Learn step-by-step how to integrate Bongo into your business and get tips and strategies on how to sell successfully internationally.

Lisa Suttora Interviews Greg Sacks of Bongo International

(Click the + sign below to listen.)

Download

Then tell me below what your international selling strategy is.

-Lisa

Ready to make some money this holiday season? Then grab a glass of lemonade and sit down to read this post. Because what you’re about to read will be key to your holiday income success.

Starting on July 5th, with the kick-off of the back-to-school shopping season, the countdown begins to 2010 holiday sales. There are  almost 9 weeks from July 1st to September 1st, when 38% of online shoppers will begin their holiday shopping.

If you wait until Fall to starting thinking about and preparing for the holidays, you’ll find yourself in catch up mode from September to December, and as a result leave a lot of holiday money on the table.

Preparing begins with the actions you take in July.

Every year at this time, I begin helping people prepare for holiday sales.

Unfortunately not enough people take action early on. And there’s nothing worse than rounding the holiday bend in November and watching sadly as your holiday sales slip by.

Don’t let this happen to you! The time is now…

To get you started, I’ve listed some of the holiday prep steps you’ll take this year:

• Creating a holiday inventory list
• Choosing your affiliate products & signing up for the programs
• Creating a holiday marketing plan
• Ordering last-minute inventory
• Organizing your physical products
• Snapping up packaging supplies on the cheap
• Creating holiday advertising graphics
• Planning your website and blog “seasonal decor”
• Creating holiday gift sets
• Setting up your holiday blog/ sales pages if you are an affiliate marketer
• Setting up your email marketing campaign
• Bringing in seasonal help

Now if the thought of putting together a plan for the holiday selling season feels overwhelming to you and you’re wondering how you’re going to find time to add yet another thing to your already overloaded schedule, there’s relief in site.

With 15 holiday selling seasons under my belt (whew!)  – 7 offline & 8 online!  I have the planning and action steps for holiday income success down to a science. Stay tuned, for the upcoming announcement about this year’s Holiday Selling Guide.

If you want to be the first in line to plan your holiday sales, enter your name and email address below for early bird notification:

-Lisa