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

This merely reinforced my feeling that Amazon is getting too powerful and this is not altogether healthy.  As an online retailer that depends on Amazon for a large proportion of his business, this might seem a bit ungrateful but the concentration of power in one retailer I think is bad for everyone in the long run.

Amazon doesn’t care

Our Amazon.fr account accounted for 10% of our sales and it was turned off, just like that.  The fact that we give Amazon as a whole about £50,000 in fees per year has no bearing on our case and I have been unable to contact anyone who might be able to help.  I know that this an individual case, but overall the experience of selling on Amazon is one dealing with a totally faceless organisation.  With Amazon, it is a case of playing by their rather strict rules or not at all.  They are the Apple of the online retailing world.

Amazon makes retailers pay through the nose

At 15%, Amazon is by far the most expensive marketplace.  For comparison eBay and Play.com work out at about 8%.  You could argue that we don’t have to sell on Amazon, but as Amazon grows its market share it is becoming an increasingly important sales channel for small businesses.  Most small online retailers have I talked to report that Amazon is their least favourite channel, but it is where the sales are.

Amazon has all the data

Amazon’s marketplace was a fantastic idea for Amazon and I suspect has been responsible to a large part of its phenomenal performance of late (I’m too busy shifting baby stuff to look at company reports).  Not only do they expand their catalogue making them a one stop shop for just about everything, but they can use other people’s inventory to discover new stock to buy.

For example, I used to sell the  Safety 1st Swivel Bath Seat for 11.99 by the pallet load on Amazon.  The bottom fell out the market one day when Amazon started selling it at £8.99.  I’d found Amazon a great new product to sell.

Amazon controls the customers

Amazon’s marketplace rules forbid sellers from doing the following:

• Emailing the customer directly (all messages go through Amazon)
• Emailing any sort of link to the customer
• Sending any sort of packing slip which identifies the seller’s website etc

The seller is basically not allowed to develop any sort of direct contact with the customer.

One day we may regret what we have lost…

I can’t blame Amazon for what they do.  That is creative capitalism for you and they are very good at it.  As an organisation they have been very proactive as getting businesses to sell on their marketplace and they control it very tightly.  It is convenient for consumers and offers a good level of service.  However, in letting Amazon get too much market share we will lose some things we may come to miss:

• Businesses as curator.  Offline media retailers do provide a selection of products which they think worthy of attention, saving the customer time and effort.  You can argue about the necessity of these service and whether they are being replaced by social media, but there is something nice about being about to go into a shop and talk to experts.  (My hero) Pete Townsend makes a similar point in his Peel Lecture recently when he referred to iTunes as a digital vampire.  iTunes charges a huge commission and provides little support to up and coming musicians.
• Shops a showrooms.  We’ve all looked at products in the shops and then bought them online.  It is a bit of a tragedy of the commons, we are using a resource without paying for it and one day it won’t be there for us.  We might miss it.  Amazon has been hastening the decline of the offline shop by actively encouraging shoppers to use its app in store to comparison shop

* for those people who care, the ODR is the % of customers who have left negative feedback + customers who have started an A-Z claim

This is no less true in the world of online retail. Recently, I spoke with a colleague who is starting an online sports apparel business. His business plans to manufacture clothing items and then sell them through retail outlets and online. During our conversation, he spoke about some of the issues specific to online retail that he has experienced in the early going. I asked him, based on those issues, to provide a few pieces of advice for online retailers out there. Here’s what he said:

Incentivize Manufacturers

When trying to find a manufacturer for his product my colleague found that there are numerous factories looking for business but only a few capable of producing a high-quality product according to specifications. This number only decreased further when the factory was told that the startup was primarily focused on online retail. As a small company with no physical presence, my colleague’s business had little leverage when dealing with unmotivated factories. His solution? Pay for the prototype and communicate in person, if possible. Promise business if very certain specifications are met.

Geography Matters

An online retailer has the ability to easily sell products across the country and around the world. But this is not to say that geographic considerations are unimportant during the startup phase. Rather, while it does not matter your location from a consumer standpoint, you are best suited to base your operations in a place where shipping is easier and less costly, and where relevant industries or sources of financing are nearby. My colleague decided to establish his business in an East Coast city but soon afterwards decided that a Midwestern location would have been more ideal.

Get Your Site Up

Even if you haven’t yet launched a product and are still negotiating with manufacturers or with supplies, it is essential to have a website up and running in the early going. You’re an online retailer, after all, and even if there’s no product there should still be a site available for anyone who is interested. My colleague noted that he received much greater interest from investors once his business’ website was running and fully functional. Getting your website up quickly can also make it easier to jump-start SEO practices and online marketing campaigns.

Hopefully these tips can help any startups out there navigate the tricky early stages of business. While starting a new business can always make for a stressful period of time, the opportunity also offers countless possibilities for creating and spurring future growth. If handled correctly, the stumbling blocks of today may translate into the rewards of the future.

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.

UK vs. European interns

We have had UK interns and we have had interns from the EU.  Sorry, fellow countrymen, but give me one of our continental brothers or sisters any day, they are much more committed.  I think it is for the following reasons:

• Many business students in Europe have to do one or more internships in order to pass their degree.  If they don’t finish the internship, they won’t pass
• As they are travelling abroad, they can’t just give up and go home easily.  There is more buy in.
• If you are a foreign student there are other factors involved in doing an internship other than work experience e.g. learning a language and experiencing a new culture

Length of internship

3 months is really the minimum term for a internship.  Not only does the intern have to settle in, but it is much more difficult to sort out accommodation for shorter periods.

How to find interns

There are two ways to find interns, directly and through an agency.

Directly

It is perfectly possible to find interns directly and we have had the most success from the following services

• www.globalplacement.com.  To advertise on this site costs 350 Euros a year or there abouts.  Generates lots of enquiries
• www.studentjob.co.uk.  Mainly UK applicants but some international
• Club Teli.  Mainly French applicants
• www.letudiant.fr/

Though some agencies charge an arm and a leg to find you an intern, many will find them for free and charge the student.  We don’t pay agencies.  The agencies we have used with success are:

• www.cei-frenchcentre.com
• www.praktikum-in-london.de
• www.king-stagelondon.com
• www.okay-uk.co.uk
• www.internshipinlondon.com

Other agencies include:

• www.twinuk.com
• www.eaglewep.co.uk

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.

Following the events in Europe recently, where the leaders have failed spectacularly to manage their finances, I remembered the great man’s advice on generosity and meanness.  From Chapter XVI: Liberality and Parsimony:

And there is nothing wastes so rapidly as generosity , for even whilst you exercise it you lose the power to do so, and so become either poor or despised, or else, in avoiding poverty, rapacious and hated. And a prince should guard himself, above all things, against being despised and hated; and generosity leads you to both. Therefore it is wiser to have a reputation for meanness which brings reproach without hatred, than to be compelled through seeking a reputation for generosity to incur a name for rapacity which begets reproach with hatred.

Basically, being lavish is great to begin with but eventually the money will run out and the Prince will have to heavily tax his people to pay for the running of the state.  They won’t thank you and will forget any past generosity.  Pretty obvious really but then this simple advice seem to have been lost on the political elite of Europe.

Increase sales without reducing prices

Increasing our international exposure has allowed us to sell more of our current inventory without dropping prices.  The set up cost have also been pretty minimal with the only a few template tweaks required.  Our lovely European interns have helped with the translation.

Easy to set up

Using a product like eSellerPro, the setup of additional marketplaces is pretty trivial, if a bit fiddly on eBay.  For example, eBay categories are different on different countries and so we had to build a lookup table.

…But

Delivery causes multiple headaches

The biggest problem we have had with international sales is with delivery.  Firstly, customers either don’t realise that items are being delivered from abroad or have unrealistic expectations about delivery times.  Secondly, international deliveries seem to be delayed and go missing more often.  It does not really help that our eCommerce platform, eSellerpro only supports that standard character set (WHY OH WHY OH WHY?)

Feedback problems

Anecdotally, it would seem that European buyers are generally less likely to leave feedback, and more likely to leave bad feedback if they feel something went wrong.  Most of the feedback was due to perceived late delivery of items.  Things reached a bit of a crunch point the other day and we had to engage in some rather undignified pleeding to get some feedback removed so as to avoid being kicked off Amazon.fr

Translation requirements

As would be expected, we now get many more queries in European languages.  Google translate is surprisingly useful for deciphering these and we also make us of boiler plate customer service replied using Zendesk.  About 50% of our questions are along the lines of ‘where is my item?‘.