www.WOW.com's

According to Juipter Research online sales are expected to jump 20% from this time last year. Very exciting! A big part of this has to do with e-retailers getting with the program and realizing that shipping rates are traditionally one of the biggest reasons people don't shop online.

So what do you see now...Free Shipping everywhere! It's most definitely the hottest promotion around. The bad news is that with consumers being emotionally trained to expect a free shipment it's lost it's novel appeal. Therefore, unless you have some impossible to find product you'll have to humble yourself and do a free shipping promo if you want to stay competitive.

Since you'll basically have to do this for your customers....I'll share a few tips you may want to use to make it easier on your profit margin.....

Qualify your shipping- Don't get too tricky with this one. Set a feasible minimum purchase to prevent losing money on small shipments.


Try Easy to Digest Discounts--A dollar doesn't sound like much but if you ship a lot of product it could make up for some of your costs. Some customers are just looking for an easy fee instead of a sliding scale where it's as if the more they buy the more they're punished with higher shipping charges. Keep it sweet, simple and flat. $1 shipping, $3 shipping or even $5 works...


Shop Around for Shipping Options--Don't just assume your current shipping provider has the best rates...rates change and depending on the volume and weight of the product you ship you could be up for some great discounts. So shop around....

Online sales are on the move...don't forget to also research what your competitors are doing so you can be sure to get your piece of the action...

October is the New December.....Happy Holidays!

My sister calls me yesterday. "What day are you coming home for Christmas?" I grab my calendar..."I'm sorry I thought it was October..I hadn't really thought about it yet."

Although premature to me, her question reminded me how soon people begin buzzing around getting prepared for the holidays...including holiday shopping, the single biggest sales opportunity of the year.

While I haven't even put my Halloween pumpkin out, according to advertising.com this year most people will begin shopping for the holidays in 2007 earlier than they did in 2006. Over 50% of shoppers have already begun their holiday shopping within the month of October.

Keep in mind we're talking about when people BEGIN shopping and evaluating, the data suggests the majority of these people still wait until November and December to actually complete their purchases. So as an online contemporary retailer there is still a pinch of time to prepare if you haven't already.

Here are a few ways to capitalize on the early bird phenomenon.....

--Make sure your website has a "drop ship," function. This is the ability for one person to buy and send to another....possibly multiple others.

--Have attractive gift packaging and show it. When sending gifts most people are understandably concerned about presentation. Make sure you take a picture of your gift wrapping options and post it on your website.

--Begin pushing giftable product. Although people still shop for themselves during the holidays...a good majority of people will also be on the lookout for gifts. Therefore you may want to highlight easy pickings like accessories, men's product (if you are mainly a women's retailer), one size items and hard goods.

--Start programing your site for holiday promotions. Some of the most successful promos include free shipping, free returns and free gift wrapping.

The key is really to plan ahead and keep your marketing momentum up throughout the season.

Because even though, Christmas comes on the same date every year...some people still prefer to procrastinate. So you may want to implement some last minute holiday promo surprises for people like me...people like that I mean;)

Be sure to check the survey out for yourself at http://www.advertising.com/data/research/62/2007_holiday_survey.pdf.

Happy Holidays!

Boutiques...Put your .com to work

9 times outta 10 in most large companies the .com is the highest producing store. Um hummm... For example Gap.com produces more than any individual store does on its own, even the huge flagships. This is the absolute norm for most retailers.

Therefore it can be the absolute norm for your boutique. With very little over head your online component can be the proverbial cash cow driving your business.

I have to be honest with you...developing a profitable online store is a lot of work..it's time consuming and its tedious. Did I mention it was tedious...and it's really not as simple as it seems. The good news is that at the end of the day it's worth every additional penny and ounce of effort and will pay for itself many times over.

Here is my 2cents on setting up your boutique .com....

1. Do It Right- If you feel like you have to go cheap and cheesy to get online---just wait. A great Ecommece site doesn't have to be crazy expensive but it absolutely must be Attractive and Fully Functional.

2. Be Prepared- A successful Ecommerce site is trusted...meaning it's not down or--- so out of stock that it might as well be down. Keep fresh products and give people a constant reason to come and to come back.

3. Market....Market....Market- The cool thing about marketing on the web is that there are so many options to drive traffic to your site. Email advertising has the highest return on investment of any other vehicle. The cheapest and most effective...now that's just fabulous.


In closing...at some point or the other if you want to grow your business you have to stop playing and get with the program. Selling online is it. PERIOD.

If you need help there are books, websites and consultants like myself that can help you out. But whatever you need to do make it happen....Make it Happen!