Holiday 2011 Trends: Are you Ready for Free Shipping Day?

This holiday season consumers are expected to shop earlier, spend less and do their homework to find the best deals and most value for their money. New ecommerce holiday research from SymphonyIRI Group predicts that 74 percent of consumers will be spending less than $800 in total on the holidays and 73 percent will begin shopping before December first.  Online, one of the biggest holiday shopping trends is to offer free shipping for the holidays. The National Retail Federation (NRF) recently reported that free shipping offers were one  of consumers' favorite holiday promotions, and this year we should expect t to see more than ninety-two percent (nine in 10) of online retailers  planning to jump on the free shipping bandwagon. For consumers, free shipping deals allow them to research online to find the best price and keep that purchase price low because, as we all know, the cost of shipping inflates a consumer’s overall purchase cost. Free Shipping Day: A Trendy Online Shopping Event One of the biggest events based on the holiday shopping trend of boosting sales by offering free shipping is Free Shipping Day. It’s a one day online event where participating merchants offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. Kendal Perez, a representative of Free Shipping Day said that the goal behind Free Shipping Day when it was started four years ago (by Founder Luke Knowles) was to extend the holiday shopping period for both consumers and merchants-- “People are hesitant to order online in mid-December because they worry the item will not arrive in time for Christmas. Free Shipping Day is a method to make that happen for shoppers and retailers,” Perez explained. The fourth annual Free Shipping Day is scheduled for December 16, 2011, and the online event has already attracted more than 750 registered merchants who will offer free shipping for the 24-hour period with delivery by December 24th. Perez said in its first year, Free Shipping Day attracted a little more than 200 merchants, but more than 2,000 merchants are expected to participate this year. Designed for Merchants of All Sizes What’s nice about it, from a retailer’s perspective is that small businesses and large businesses can participate and for this one day it evens the playing field -- smaller online merchants are promoted right beside the big retailers for 24-hours. This year the Free Shipping day program has been expanded to also include eBay Store owners, Etsy artisans and Bonanza sellers. These online sellers will be featured with big brands like Target and Nordstrom. In an email conversation with Ecommerce-Guide.com, Director of Happiness & Co Founder of Bonanza.com, Mark Dorsey, said the free shipping promo day was brought to its attention by one of the Bonanza community members as an opportunity for all Bonanza sellers to have another outlet of promotion.  "We then contacted Freeshippingday.com to add Bonanza as one of their marketplace choices. They agreed to add Bonanza if we could sign up at least 50 of our sellers," said Dorsey. It took less than 24 hours for Bonanza to achieve that goal, and now it is listed as a category on Freeshippingday.com. Small Business Merchant Tips for Free Shipping Day Participation If you decide to join the program, you simply need to locate the ‘Merchant Sign-Up’ link on the Free Shipping Day website. You’ll need to provide your business details in the online form provided, and choose a product category to be listed in (note that eBay, Etsy and Bonanza are listed as a category if you sell on one of those sites). Participation in the program is free for merchants. Outside of completing the merchant form on the site, you’ll also need to evaluate the program and your business to determine if you can offer free shipping and be profitable on December 16. Some businesses will opt to set a minimum order value for free shipping, and this is fine to do with the Free Shipping Day promotion. “For consumers, free shipping with no minimum is the preferred offer, but some retailers -- big and small -- will offer free shipping on orders over $50 or $75. So there are options to consider when retailers are evaluating if this is something they can afford to do,” said Perez. Before signing on, small businesses will also want to have a good idea that staff can handle the influx of traffic on Free Shipping Day, and that you have both inventory and in-house resources to package items and get them out to meet the Christmas Eve delivery guarantee. Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.

7 Tips to Manage Customer Service on Facebook

Facebook can be a valuable customer service tool, and today customers are more likely to write on your Facebook Wall than pick up the phone or send you an email. When starting out on Facebook, small business ecommerce site owners can usually handle up to several thousand fans on their own with “manual” moderation and commenting.  As your Facebook customer base grows, however, you might need to upgrade to a customer service app to help you stay on top of things. The following Facebook customer service tips and tools can help you to provide top-notch customer service through this communication channel. Tip #1: Respond to All Messages Quickly Customers expect the response time on social networking sites to be much shorter compared to using email, Web forms or phone to contact a business.  To meet customer’s expectation you have to put the time in and monitor your Facebook Page for new comments and be prepared to respond quickly to all discussions and comments. Tip #2: Respond to All Messages Individually An auto-responder to let customers know you have received their email is fine, but on Facebook and other social sites you’ll have to move beyond automating the communication process and respond to customers on an individual basis with an individual message. A standard cut-and-paste response on Facebook will not be of value to a customer looking to connect with you. Tip #3: Solve the Problem Without Redirecting Customers know how to find your website so don’t redirect them to your site to find an answer to a question they ask on Facebook; always respond to the customer service message in the same channel the customer used to connect with you.  In a case where the customer has a specific order question, respond on Facebook to the question by explaining the action you’ll take, but invite the customer to join you in live chat, phone or email so they can provide the personal information (e.g. order number) that will be required for resolution. Tip #4: Engage in Conversations with Consumers Customers don’t join you on Facebook just to ask questions; they will also engage in general discussions with you and other people who use your Facebook Business Page.  Always participate in general conversations -- not just the order and support-related ones. You should also take part in the conversations your customers have with each other. Tip #6: Be Interesting It’s not hard to be interesting. Post videos, photos and messages that would be of interest to your Facebook customers. You can discuss general topics that are related to your product and brand or talk about special holiday and promotions. Tip #6: Ask Questions; Observe the Answer and Respond Asking customers questions on Facebook is a good way to increase user comments and participation, but this is also an excellent opportunity for you to observe the answers to better your business and brand. If customers respond and voice an opinion to your question, respond to keep the conversation going. Tip #7: Use a Customer Service App for High Volume As more customers seek you out on Facebook, you may find it difficult to respond to all comments quickly, and you might also start missing comments as they roll off the Wall on a busy Facebook Business Page. When your Facebook Page gets too busy for manual moderation, then it might be the right time to invest and have a custom Facebook application developed to help you with Facebook customer service. If a custom app isn’t an option for you (e.g. a small ecommerce business without in-house IT), then you can look at the following third-party applications with small business subscription services and plans to help you manage your Facebook customer service. 1. Assistly lets you control and monitor customer conversations by pulling all customer service conversations -- from email, phone, Facebook and Twitter -- into one place. 2. Get Satisfaction offers a starter package for small businesses that provides moderation tools and customer feedback widgets to help you build your Facebook customer community. 3. UserEcho is a feedback widget that lets you to collect customer responses and ideas. You can respond to your customer feedback, engage in conversation with customers, broadcast and organize the conversations. UserEcho integrates with Facebook and Twitter. More Facebook Small Business Ecommerce Tips Looking to get a better handle on integrating Facebook into your small business ecommerce marketing plan? Try these Facebook tips and guides for small business ecommerce sites: 5 Facebook Apps for Small Business Ecommerce Sites 5 Great Facebook Shopping Cart Apps Juice up Your Facebook Page with Shopping Tabs How to Add Facebook Like to Your Ecommerce Site How to Customize a Business Facebook Page with Apps  Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.