Sensible(ish)

• A customer has 7 days starting the day after the product was delivered to inform you that they wish to return the item.  After this they must return the item within a reasonable period (i.e. unspecified).
• Refunds should include the postage the customer paid
• Items which have been returned or assembled and unassembled should be accepted in return

Daft

Sending items by courier is essential for online retailers, but companies with low volumes cannot access good prices.  Aggregators are one way to get better prices.  I caught up with Angela Thompson, Managing Director of collectmyparcel.com to find out more.

Who are you!

Put simply collectmyparcel.com is an internet-based parcel booking service. Customers can book collections fromUK addresses and send to just about anywhere in the world. We act as a middleman between the customer and the big name couriers such as Parcelforce, City Link, Yodel and DHL. We can also help customers with larger postings using our Palletways services.

Customers can use our website to get instant quotes from a range of couriers then book a collection. It’s quick, easy to use and saves money and time because there’s no need to shop around.

Please explain how your service works

The service is Internet based, so to book a collection or obtain a quote customers need to visit www.collectmyparcel.com.

The home page features a “quick quote” service.

By entering collection and delivery postcodes along with parcel dimensions, customers can view the prices on offer from our courier partners. This makes it easy to choose the most appropriate price and delivery specification before booking a collection.

Once the collection has been booked the customer receives a dedicated CMP reference number for online tracking and support. Then all they need to do is pack their parcel and wait for their chosen courier driver to collect. We do the rest.

How does your service benefit customers?

Customers often ask about the benefits of booking through a middleman rather than going direct. One of the main advantages is they usually get a cheaper price. That’s because we arrange collections on behalf of thousands of people and pass some of our bulk-buying discounts back to our customers.

A further advantage is the quote and book service. This feature enables customers to get quotes from our courier providers in seconds and then see which is cheapest. It’s a simple way to get the best price for your parcel, and given the current economic situation this is attractive for customers.

What’s more there’s no need to have a contract or account with us. The posting habits of our customers vary significantly. Some customers post on an ad hoc basis while others post daily. The middleman service works for both.

How do you differ from other aggregators like Interparcel?

Most aggregators save their customers money so I believe the feature that differentiates us the most is our customer service.

Most of the time a parcel gets collected, sorted, transported and delivered on time and with no problems. But there are occasions where a hiccup in the system occurs and either a collection doesn’t happen or a parcel arrives late, damaged or not at all. Many customers complain about the hassle and time it takes to resolve this with the courier. But if you book through us we’ll handle it on your behalf. We offer an on-line chat facility and aim to respond to support requests in minutes during office hours. Customers have told us that they value our after sales service and this is independently verified by http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.collectmyparcel.com.

For volume sellers do you offer discounts?

We tell customers we offer cheap parcel delivery; so in addition to the savings we offer compared with booking direct there are some additional incentives.

When a customer opens a free collectmyparcel.com account they automatically qualify for an additional 5% discount on all international postings. What’s more there’s an incentive for customers who post regularly. The Top-Up Account rewards them with a £5 credit each time a customer credits £100.

If a customer knows they’ll be sending at least 10 parcels a day, if they contact us we can often offer a further incentive.

How do you manage customers looking to send multiple parcels?  Can volume sellers upload their parcels via a data feed or CSV file?

Customers posting in bulk or arranging to send multiple parcels to different delivery and collection addresses want to spend as little time as possible. The CSV bulk shipping upload tool simplifies the process and enables collections to be booked in seconds. Customers can upload the spreadsheet-based tool, input their details and confirm their shopping cart before paying.

In addition, if customers choose to post with City Link they can take advantage of special consignment rates. This price is automatically calculated and displayed during the quote and book process.

What are your plans for the future?

We’re always looking to enhance and extend the services available to customers. In fact just recently City Link Sameday services were added to our portfolio. Our focus is to offer customers the best choice. Coming soon are new services and options from Palletways and City Link. In addition we’re excited about eBay integration, which will be available in the New Year.

Constant mild state of agitation with everything

Entrepreneurs are by their very nature people who like to get things done and challenge the status quo.  I find it very difficult to cope with people who are doing a crap job (i.e. not getting thing done) or talking rubbish.  I think that Mat’s example of the checkout girl is a good one, if you are running your own business you care deeply about everything being done right this striving for a perfect unobtainable world, causes constant agitation.

Different view of time to ‘the employed’

I can’t cope with long meeting these days.  In running my business there are lots of things which only I can do and if I waste time, they just won’t happen.  When I was employed, time was not nearly such a precious commodity.

Obsessive behaviour

Martin Sorrell has said something to the effect of  ’starting a business is the closest that a man can get to having a baby’.  I’m not sure that my children would really apprecate the analogy, but I do get his point.  Running your own business requires a huge degree of dedication and tenacity which does tend to get in the way of normal life.  I haven’t had many holidays in the last 5 years for example.

You can make more money doing just about anything else

Most of my friend are now earning sums of money I can only dream of and take on no, or very low risk in their careers.  Entrepreneurs on the whole are not in it for the money.  This is one of the problems with the high pay in areas such as the financial services, it pays so well that it sucks the desire out of people to do something different.

• Get to market quickly
• Low start up costs
• Learn quickly from (the inevitable) mistakes

Dreams can be a burden

Burden of Dreams covers the filming of one of Herzog’s most famous films, Fizcarraldo.  The film was created under enormously difficult circumstances, many of which were of the director’s own making.  In this clip, Herzog talks about why he cannot give up this project, no matter what happens.

I understand what Herzog is saying here.  To give up on a vision which is intertwined with the kind of person you want to be seems like an impossible step.  I cannot imagine giving up my business and going back to a proper job.

We all share dreams, but we do not all articulate them

We all have dreams, but Herzog reminds us that some people are better at realising them than others, be that starting our own company or dragging full sized paddle steamer over a hill deep in the rain forest.

I frequently meet people who want to start their own companies but don’t do this for reasons such as loss of income or lack of inspiration.  We share the same dream, but find it difficult to make the first step.  Perhaps the reason is they are too good at their current job.  As J K Rowling suggests, failure can be a great inspiration to do other things.

While a good deal of shopping is occurring online these days, there is a decreased need to carry around cash. Every physical retailer must offer an opportunity for people to use their debit and credit cards or else run the risk of losing business. Just like people don’t want to pick up a bulky, ink-ridden, hard to manage newspaper, they also don’t want to handle cash in most circumstances. Just like customer service, news gathering, and shopping have all gathered online, money will also soon be completely virtual.

Credit and debit cards are not the only ways people will be able to pay for things virtually. Instead of dealing with banks for online money storage, PayPal wants to set up their own checking account system called PayPal Access which will remember financial data across any e-commerce website equipped with the technology. PayPal also wants to issue their own credit cards and swiping terminals for people to use while they are in off line retail environments.

Google also wants to get in on the transaction game, just like they want to get their hands on everything else in the tech world. Near Field Communication technology will allow Google to create a program called Google Wallet which will store all of your credit and debit data into a smartphone so you can easily scan it while checking out at the grocery store, mall, or gas station.

Everyone is starting to realize the importance of accepting mobile payments. The Square company is becoming so popular with mobile vendors, hot-dog stands, and food trucks that they are beginning to offer their iPhone and Android credit card swiping devices at Wal-Mart. What was once thought of as an exclusive payment system for elite tech nerds is now available at the most equalizing retail environment in America.

Even with the fees being imposed for debit card usage by Bank of America, people are not going to stop using cards to make payments. They may switch to smaller banks, credit unions, or other alternative electronic payments in order to make transactions. There is a good chance that we may be lining our bird cages with $20 dollar bills at some point in the future.

How to develop an iPhone app on a budget for Mashable

Is Twitter any good for retailers – for econsultancy

I’m going to blogging more soon, promise

We all know that picking up, or delivering larger items on eBay can be a pain.  Shiply is a service which aims to make this process painless.  I caught with with Robert Matthams the CEO.

Shiply has been likened to eBay but moving stuff.  Everyday people list items they need to move on the site for free, and then get bids from over 16,000 transport companies who are already making similar journeys.  The end result is fewer empty lorries and more happy customers saving up to 75% on their deliveries.

We’ve also found there is a lot of interest from eBay users, with around 40% of all deliveries being eBay items, typically “local collect” goods.

Yes, Shiply now attracts a new quote request every 40 seconds on the site.

We do now have some competition in the UK, as we had expected when we launched.  Yes, our core market is large, bulky and heavy items or the “big and ugly” as it’s known in the industry.  These types of “difficult” items have historically always been expensive to move, but with Shiply, we’ve made the possibility of moving these larger items easier, cheaper and greener.  People are moving everything from small pieces of furniture, to cars, house removals and even super yachts!  To date, over 250,000 items have been listed to move.

Obviously we will continue to expand on our success here in the UK, but we also have other territories which we are entering into.  Shiply Germany for example launched last year and our Italian, French, Spanish & Dutch sites have now also gone live.

http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/73.03.GreatIdea

“Many entrepreneurs feel that they cannot start a business without a great idea. They believe it will be impossible to succeed without a completely new concept, as the market will already be cornered by established businesses. Only by venturing into uncharted territory can they achieve their dreams. This is the fallacy of the great idea”

Happy reading!

I recently caught up with the CEO of Shoply, Liad Shababo.  Shoply is an innovative ecommerce platform aimed at getting people selling online in the simpliest way.  Well Amen to that.

Please tell us a bit about Shoply.  What’s it all about?

Shoply is all about making it free, quick and easy for everybody to open their own shop and start selling online.  Our goal is to democratise ecommerce by tearing down the financial, skills and psychological barriers to selling online.

Shoply comprises 2 main components, the first being simple and empowering software which allows you to open your own shop in a matter of minutes. The second is a centralised marketplace which aggregates products across all our sellers and syndicates them in a global marketplace driving traffic for our sellers and making search and discovery for buyers quick and efficient.

eBay charges a sales commission so do you.  For an entry level seller these are similar (approx 8% for ebay vs 6% for shoply).  Why should a seller use you and not eBay, given that eBay has millions of members worldwide.

Unlike ebay, Shoply provides sellers a full rich shop which they have complete control over. Sellers can customise the look and feel, they can integrate it with their existing website or blog as well as with Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms. Shoply allows sellers to sell physical good and digital goods as well as services. For individuals and small businesses looking to sell online whilst maintaining their own identity, complete control of their buyers experience and within their existing online presence (be it their blog or Facebook page etc) – eBay just isn’t an option.

What is the target market for your service?  As Shoply does not allow any customisation of the shopfront other than a logo, won’t this put off all but entry level sellers?

We’re looking to help the millions of individuals and small businesses who want to open a shop but lack the skills, finances and confidence to do so. Whilst we’d love to work with power sellers and larger businesses, our offering is targeted to the lower end of the market, people looking for a quick and easy solution to their problem of how to open a shop online.

In regards themes, Shoply will shortly release multiple themes as well as a complete theming API allowing sellers to customise the look and feel of their shop to their heart’s content. Shoply already allows sellers to integrate their Shoply with their blog, website and even Facebook page.  We believe we stand alone in terms of customisation and integration options we provide our sellers with.

You talk about how you drive traffic to your customer’s stores, presumably via the marketplace.  What do you actively do to drive traffic?  What kind of traffic can sellers expect for your sales commission?

We generate traffic for our sellers in multiple ways we also provide them with powerful marketing tools which allows them to drive traffic themselves. Whether through our syndicated marketplace, directory, Facebook integration, SEO, embeddable widgets or forthcoming affiliate scheme we are constantly striving to drive traffic to our sellers.

Do you find that social media is a big driver of sales for your customers.  In my experience it is very difficult to generate sales through sites like Facebook and Twitter

Social commerce continues to go from strength to strength and I think the trend will continue in the future. A lot of our sellers already have existing presences on Facebook and Twitter. We help them leverage their existing contact base to drive sales. A fan of your Facebook page or a Twitter follower is likely to browse and perhaps purchase from your shop if they know about it. At the moment we are working on building awareness of our sellers shops through their existing networks. As we scale we’ll commence driving new sales from social media sites.

What are your plans for the future.  Will you be integrating with other platforms e.g. eBay, Amazon?

We would like to integrate with many other platforms but our core focus is on keeping is simple and easy for sellers to open and run their own shops.

We’re not prepared to add features or functionality which come at the expense of our core customer experience.  Our vision for Shoply is to be a software provider and sales generator for sellers and marketplace maker and curator for buyers.  We believe that everyone can benefit from Shoply as a buyer, seller or both. Ubiquitous social platforms have arisen for blogging, friends, business relationships, micro-blogging, location etc – we feel social commerce has been left out. We’re looking to change that and become the ubiquitous social consumer selling platform.