Just a little over a year ago, brick-and-mortar stores dominated retail in the United States. According to Digital Commerce 360, in 2019, more than 80% of shopping was done in-store, with eCommerce accounting for only 16% of purchases. Today, thanks to advances in technology and a sea change in shopping behavior brought on by COVID-19, e-tailers have enjoyed a massive shift in online purchases. Now, everything you could ever want is a few taps away from being at your front door. Retailers and businesses alike have found great success in embracing the pandemic-accelerated shift towards an online marketplace, growing eCommerce…
Cenports: Highlights from a Wild Year – and What’s Coming Next
At Cenports, we entered 2020 hoping to grow our business and prove our concept of blending technology, fulfillment, and partnership expertise to enable retail entrepreneurs around the world to achieve scale and success. Just like everyone else, we had no idea what was actually about to happen: a global pandemic that changed the retail landscape forever. —– Before I dive into our 2020 highlights and what’s on the horizon for 2021, I’d like to give a heartfelt thanks to our partners (both suppliers and retailers) and to the hard-working (and fast-growing) team driving our achievements. Our team hustled and pivoted…
Cenports Vendor Managers: Your Secret Weapon for Sales
Let’s say you’re a global manufacturer with your products being offered for sale on some of the biggest online platforms in the U.S. – think Wayfair, Lowe’s, Overstock, Walmart, Amazon, and more. Now let’s say that your products aren’t selling very well; you only get a trickle of order per day. Your products are sitting in some warehouse in the U.S., collecting dust and fees. You can’t get a rep on the phone from your retail partners because they’re busy dealing with bigger customers. — If this sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. We’ve had lots of customers come…
What 2020’s Q4 buying behavior will tell us about the future of eCommerce
It might be easy to think that 2020 won’t serve as much of a yardstick for anything and that any “benchmarks’ that usually come out of the wealth of Q4 data should be discarded. And it’s true that COVID-19 and the changes in behavior it has forced won’t be completely replicated in future years. — That said, there are some patterns we should keep a close eye on as Q4 unfolds. Here are some metrics to watch – and what they’ll mean for the eCommerce industry going forward. Traffic by month One of the ways Q4 buying behavior is shifting…
7 Key Takeaways from Wayfair, Payoneer, and AndMakers on Achieving eCommerce Scale
On Oct. 20, AndMakers co-founder Lily Chan joined Wayfair’s Michael Zhang and Payoneer’s T. J. Hyland for a free webinar on helping eCommerce brands launch on Wayfair. Attendees got a ton of insights on how to break into the U.S. market, grow sales, cut down on returns, and more. Here are our top 7 takeaways from the event: COVID-19 is accelerating eCommerce growth. Michael estimates that COVID-19 has accelerated the eCommerce growth curve by five years, with reports showing that eCommerce has made huge gains in its share of the retail market. He also forecasts that many new online customers…
Products aren’t selling? Talk to your Customer Service team
Let’s say you’ve built what you think are the world’s best bunk beds: they look great, their price point is competitive, their manufacturing is built to last decades. You have great images on all of your online listings and tons of good data: height, length, weight, material, assembly instructions, etc.. You’re even able to offer two-day shipping to most places thanks to a great logistics team. Yet your bunk beds aren’t selling. Why? One huddle with your Customer Service team – or, better yet, a system to gather and process real-time feedback from their customer interactions – might tell you…
Logistics Solutions for eCommerce: The 3 Most Important Words
If you’re an eCommerce company researching logistics solutions, you’re halfway to putting more time and resources back into the hands of the folks who can grow your catalog sales. Now you have to find the right partner. … When I talk to manufacturers and retailers in the market for a logistics partner, I hear about the challenges they’ve had: tons of returns, issues solving shipping problems, customer dissatisfaction, and a LOT of time spent on order management. And I can tell you that overcoming those challenges with your 3PL (third-party logistics) partner comes down to three words: … Let me…