Two key things about terms like ‘paperless’ and cloud’ are that:
It’s not about the lack of paper or the servers being ‘in the cloud’ — they’re just features;
It’s about efficiencies, data flows and knowledge sharing — they’re the benefits.
The terms ‘paperless’ and ‘cloud’ are both quite abstract, so let’s look at some concrete examples of things that are evidence that your business practices might still be stuck in the last century…
7 Signs of Inefficient Business Systems
1. Manual data entry: Data should flow into your business from sources such as:
Your website
Online forms (such as ‘contact us’, questionnaires, applications forms)
Data feeds from banks and other suppliers
You and your team should not be doing manual data entry. You can design your marketing and sales processes so that your prospects and customers or clients happily do that data entry for you.
2. Re-keying of data: This is where you already have the data—such as the customer’s or client’s name and contact details—but the data is in some apps and not others. Your data should flow seamlessly between your different apps including your:
Website platform
Email marketing system
Bookkeeping and accounting system
CRM
eCommerce system
Point-of-sale system
Inventory system
Marketing automation platform
Proposal system
Workflow system
Typing of data is for trained monkeys.
3. On-site data backups: Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers will do more frequent, more reliable and more secure data backups than your business will ever do. Storing your data locally on your own servers and desktop computers is risky. Floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, theft. They happen.
4. Onboarding new staff is extremely time consuming: If you need to show new team members how to do everything through one-to-one training, and you find yourself re-explaining processes and procedures, chances are (1) you don’t have a company wiki, and (2) you don’t use videos and screencasts to train your staff. Wikis are easy to create—try Google Sites, it’s free—and videos and screencasts are easily recorded using apps such as Snagit and Screencast-O-Matic.
5. Manual invoicing: When people buy from you, the invoicing process should be 100% automated in terms of creating it, PDF’ing it, emailing it to the client and storing it in your digital filing system. Depending on your accounting and eCommerce system—for example we use Xero and Infusionsoft—there are various ways to achieve this automation.
6. Manual chasing of debtors: Best practice for collecting payments is to let people know when their payment is due and when it is just overdue. These timely reminders can be automated via email, SMS and voicemail messages. Apps like Chaser, InvoiceSherpa, EzyCollect and Debtor Daddy make this automation possible.
7. Cash flow is managed based on bank balances: Simply looking at your bank statement every now and then is not cash flow management, yet sadly this is how many small business operators assess their cash position. Cash flow needs to be managed on a predictive basis, taking into account known future inflows and known future outflows, such as payroll, rent, supplier payments and (often large and lumpy) tax and compliance-related payments. Thankfully there are now apps that make it much easier to pull in the data you need to effectively manage your cash flow and be able to predict—and then head off—any potential cash flow crunches in the coming months.
So, be on the lookout for any typing monkeys, okay?
As I listened to this sad, but all too familiar tale, I couldn’t stop wondering how many businesses get themselves into this position where they have to go to the bank, and for the bank to then tell them what they need to do to bail them out and avoid closing their doors for good.
Seriously? The bank!?
People are out there running relatively successful businesses, but are letting the bank tell them what they need to do? I’m speculating, but this sounds to me like a business that isn’t on top of its numbers, or is possibly outsourcing the numbers for a retrospective glance every so often when the tax or annual accounts are due.
The truth is, I used to be that guy. I used to hand our accountant a few boxes of receipts at the end of every year and quickly skim over, confounded at the reports that came back, feeling like it had no bearing on the business or the money that was in the bank.
The trouble with this way of doing business is the nagging feeling of not really being in control; the fear of losing a key customer, or contract. A great period of sales followed by a higher than usual tax bill, or simply costs increasing and profits getting squeezed -all of these things can and do trip businesses up.
Something changed
A book that had a huge impact on me at the time was titled The E-Myth. It stands for the entrepreneurial myth — and the premise is that most entrepreneurs start a business but end up essentially creating a job for themselves.
The key is to realise that you have to work on the business systems if you ever want the business to really grow up and stand on its own feet. I was ready. I didn’t want to work so hard that I felt that if I took a holiday the business would collapse.
There were many things that needed attention — but for me that started with getting my head around the numbers.
Inevitably, this starts with a spreadsheet. And, in my opinion, the simplest way to do this is what ever way makes sense to you. The key is to make a start!
It can seem so intimidating, and feel like an impossible task. But once you’re started, it really shouldn’t be too bad. I’ve written another post on this here.
5 steps to automate your businesses finances
Find an online bookkeeping and accounting system that works.
Not having your numbers up to date is not only putting your business at risk — it’s holding you back from making the calculated decisions that could really help the business grow…
I’ve heard business owners making excuses for the past few years: “I really do want to switch to online accounting — but I just don’t have the time” or “My accountant or bookkeeper really likes Sage…” Not having your numbers up to date is not only putting your business at risk, it’s holding you back from making the calculated decisions that could really help the business grow.
New Year
With 2017 just starting, this is perfect time to spend a bit of time looking at the past, and then looking forwards. To do this might take a bit of work. If your accountant or bookkeeper isn’t interested in moving your systems in this direction — maybe it’s time for a change.
It is well-documented that a sure fire way to reduce profit margins and cause stress to the company is to have excess raw material sitting, needing to be stored and not being turned into product which can be sold to the customer. Not only does this scenario not make business-sense, but from a more practical point of view, it clutters up the workspace or warehouse creating clumsy operational processes which further increases production times and decreases actual product being made and sold. This way of manufacturing is stressful for employees, which adds to dissatisfaction. At least there is a solution. Effective inventory management can benefit your business in the following ways:
Reduced warehousing costs
Having a well-organized warehouse where everything has a place and is in its place is sensible and very beneficial for business running costs. Organization makes it easy to ascertain when raw materials need to be ordered or more product needs to be manufactured and ordering or manufacturing ‘just-in-time’ means that less is stored. This results in a reduction of storage and insurance costs and a reduction in risk should something adverse happen to the stock.
Reduced labor costs
Managing inventory costs money – unfortunately this is a given. However, having an automated system such as Unleashed will inevitably reduce labor costs as no one is required to manually enter data, routinely shift product to ascertain what is available, and to constantly count product and then make decisions about when and how much to re-order. The system takes out the guesswork and allows for time that would be spent on managing inventory to be spent on making key business decisions or actually manufacturing product.
Increased performance from better lead times, shipping times and informed buying
Having a grip on inventory equates to being able to better forecast production demands which in turn allows for more accurate ordering and taking advantage of financial incentives from increased lead-times to the company’s suppliers. This also means that raw materials won’t to be shipped urgently from a lack of forward planning thereby reducing expedited shipping costs.
Customer satisfaction and reputation
Customer satisfaction and endorsement is one of the end goals of a manufacturer and is guaranteed when product is always available (or an accurate forecast is), and the company always supplies when they say they will. Achieving these things is certainly a lot easier when inventory is under control from effective management. Good inventory control means avoiding having to inform a customer that a product is not available, or worse yet, breaking a promise to a customer from ignorance of what is actually in the warehouse. It is both price and reputation that will keep a customer coming back and resulting in sales – and both of these components need to be taken seriously.
There are so many benefits, both tangible and intangible, of having accurate inventory control and it is in the best interests of the company to explore these further and consider the introduction of inventory management to the manufacturing process.
But what exactly does omnichannel retail mean? Let’s roll with this working definition: omnichannel retail unifies all available shopping channels (in-store, online, mobile, social media, etc.) in a way that provides customers with smooth, integrated experiences.
It’s that last part that’s the key, since seamless shopping experiences are one of the main things customers want from retail in the modern age. Today’s shoppers don’t differentiate between channels; rather, they switch fluidly from one to the other as if they’re one and the same, and they fully expect each retailer they patronize to successfully accommodate that practice. If a particular retailer doesn’t have an effective omnichannel strategy in place — or if the one a retailer does have is insufficient and disrupts the process in any way — customers are likely to avoid that retailer altogether.
Now that we’ve outlined the importance of a thoughtful and robust omnichannel strategy, it’s time to take a look at the list of actionable steps we’ve put together to help you upgrade your business’s game plan — and to increase revenue in the process. Learn more below.
1) Start selling on more channels.
Brick and mortar shops were once the foundation of retail, but ecommerce stores have largely replaced them as the primary sales channel in today’s digital age. Put another way: you don’t have to have a physical location. But you do have to have an online store.
In order to increase revenue and maximize success, you want to make it as easy as possible for potential customers to find you — which means you want to have a sales presence in as many channels as you can. So, of course, an easy way to upgrade your business’s omnichannel situation is to expand your sales channels.
If you’re a brick and mortar retailer without an ecommerce site, you’re losing out on business. But you’re in luck: setting up an online store and syncing it with your physical location is easy. Don’t believe us? Try Vend Ecommerce.
If you already have an ecommerce outlet going, look to some of the up-and-coming sales mediums to round out your omnichannel strategy. Make sure your web store is optimized for mobile (nothing irritates a customer faster than not being able to shop easily on his or her phone), and do some research into selling on social.
Ideally, customers would be able to buy your products via every major retail and social channel: online, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and in-store.
Take Rebecca Minkoff, for example. By recognizing that today’s shoppers want their journey to seamlessly span all possible channels, the fashion retailer has crafted an omnichannel strategy geared specifically toward its ideal customer — pairing a thoughtful in-store experience with tech and multichannel retail. Check out the video below to see how it all works, and use it as inspiration for developing the best omnichannel strategy for your business.
2) Make your channels work together.
It’s not enough simply to have a presence on all the sales channels we mentioned above. Each of your channels must work together, functioning as parts of a wider ecosystem.
This means you need to have a comprehensive solution for the problems this presents. Among them? Inventory control, channel management, and returns — three things that are particularly important in creating a seamless omnichannel experience.
But how exactly do you get all your channels to work together? How do you find a solution? For starters, get yourself a centralized retail management system if you don’t already have one.
By implementing one system to take care of every part of your operations, you’re simplifying and enhancing your business at the same time. Point of sale systems like Vend handle all those complex behind-the-scenes necessities, such as aggregating inventory in your store or across multiple locations to ensure you never have too much or too little of any product.
Let’s look at Vend customer TopShelf Style. Owner Christina Ruiz says Vend Ecommerce has allowed her to become a “true omnichannel retailer,” enabling her to sell across multiple platforms: in-store, online, and even in her mobile fashion truck! Here’s Vend and TopShelf in action:
When your sales channels act as intuitive components of a larger organization, both you and your customers win. Shoppers experience an easier, more fluid buying journey, and you don’t have to worry about manually reconciling numbers or inventory at the end of the day.
But imagine the potential headaches if you operate multiple channels independently rather than collectively. For example: you might sell out of a certain item without that being reflected on those channels, risking disappointing or even angering a shopper attempting to purchase that item. That negative experience can, of course, lead to poor reviews and word-of-mouth, as well as loss of future business.
But luckily, there’s an easy way to avoid these pitfalls. Do some research to figure out which centralized point of sale system or retail management system might work best for the ins and outs of your business, and make the switch. It’s an investment that’ll quickly prove its worth.
3) Play to the strengths of your various sales channels.
An effective omnichannel strategy doesn’t stop when you’ve expanded your sales reach and synced each outlet. It involves playing to the strengths of each channel and knowing both how shoppers use them and what they want from them.
The good news is that it’s pretty easy to do this effectively. The first step? Thinking critically about how you use these different channels. What do you want when you log in to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, or Twitter? Use that personal insight to develop a channel-specific content and omnichannel strategy.
Of all the potential social media sales channels, Facebook gives you the most space to impart information. But as we all know, “the shorter the better” is the name of today’s game — so you can write a bit more, but it’s best to keep it short. Facebook provides an ideal platform to summarize relevant content and then link to it, like activewear brand Girlfriend Collective does.
Instagram, of course, is predominantly visual. This is where you curate a brand image and feature compelling photos of your products or services. If a picture showcases one of your products, always include a link to it on your website or information on how to purchase it. For some serious Instagram retail inspiration, wander over to Wildfox.
And Twitter? Due to its 140-character limit, you’re fundamentally restricted in how much you can write. Because of that, it’s necessary to be strategic. Twitter’s a great place to showcase your brand voice — lighthearted, humorous, progressive, serious — while pushing to content, advertising a promotion, or simply trying to increase sales. Shoppers peruse brands’ Twitter accounts knowing they’ll likely be sent to a website via links, so take advantage of that. Use your tweets to send shoppers exactly where you want them to go. Check out ASOS’s feed for a crash course.
The bottom line
Developing a comprehensive, effective omnichannel strategy takes time and effort, but it’s absolutely essential to surviving and thriving in today’s ultra-competitive retail world. Will you be implementing these three steps to upgrade your game plan? Do you have other suggestions for creating an excellent omnichannel strategy? Let us know in the comments!
The top 7 reasons your customers don’t pay on time
Lack of cash – “I couldn’t afford to pay” (44%)
The invoice due date was not aligned with the day I usually pay my bills (36%)
Lack of time – “I was too busy” (34%)
The invoice had no payment instructions (32%)
The invoice was sent to the wrong person or email address (26%)
The invoice items or amount were incorrect (25%)
I lost the invoice (19%)
The key is to have a few lines of defence. This ensures that the correct actions happen at each stage to increase the likelihood of payment.
First line of defence: Gentle reminders
Our data shows that up to 60% of invoices will be paid earlier if you send email reminders. In fact, our users tell us that our invoice reminders are brilliant for getting feedback, such as:
“I’ve not received the invoice, please resend”
“The invoice is incorrect, please amend as follows ”
“The invoice has no payment instructions, please advise”
“I’d lost this invoice, thanks for resending”
“Can you please send the invoice to accounts@company.com instead?”
“Thanks; I’ll pay this on the 20th”
As you can see, by using email reminders you can resolve 70% of the late payment reasons listed above. For the rest it’s going to require persistence and likely a phone call or letter to obtain payment.
Second line of defence: Firmer emails + phone calls
Once an invoice has crossed the first line of defence with no result then a firmer email or phone call is usually required. Some receivables specialists recommend a phone call every time if the initial gentle reminders have not had a response because clearly there’s an issue.
In our survey to 150 businesses however, 88% of respondents said that email was the preferred communication method. Plus, email has the added advantage of an audit trail if legal action is required further down the track. You might also consider having email reminders sent by another party so the situation looks more serious to your customer.
In many countries you’re well within your rights to send emails threatening legal action and the on-charging of collection costs (depending on your terms and conditions) and many of our users take this approach. The key is to have a process for further follow up and follow through to take the actions you threatened – being all bark and no bite sends the wrong message for future payments.
But herein lies the challenge. In a survey we ran back in 2015, “failing to enforce payment terms” was the number one excuse accountants cited as the reason their clients weren’t being paid. They said that many businesses were just too busy or disorganised to consistently follow up late payers, so they got into trouble.
Fortunately software like Debtor Daddy makes consistent follow up of late payers easy. [Stay tuned for some exciting updates designed to make follow-up beyond the gentle reminders a whole lot easier!]
Third line of defence: Send a demand letter
A demand letter is the perfect next line of defence for invoices that have still not been paid. You’ve sent your friendly and firm reminders so it’s time to give your customer one last chance before taking legal action.
A demand letter must include the details of the overdue account, your contact details and a copy of the original invoice(s). There are a number of online services for creating demand letters, but here’s a demand letter generator we created which has secured payment for a number of Debtor Daddy users.
Following a demand letter sent on your company letterhead, your next step is your local small claims court or, if the invoice is large enough, find a lawyer who will send a letter on their letterhead (they will usually do this for less than $50).
Are there holes in your defence?
After reading the above you should be able to identify if there are any gaps in your late payment defence systems. The questions to ask are:
Are reminders automatically sent when invoices fall overdue?
What happens once reminders have been sent? Who gets notified?
Is there an audit trail of all communications sent?
Do your terms and conditions allow for the on-charging of legal costs?
Under what conditions is it appropriate to send a demand letter? Who will send it?
Are you following through on your threats to take legal action or charge interest?
Who’s ultimately responsible for receivables follow-up in your organisation?
After identifying the gaps, create a plan for resolving them and feel free to reach out to us if you need any help.
Firstly, we will turn the general conception of not to over order on its head. There are some benefits to being overstocked (not that you should aim for this necessarily). Always having enough stock on-hand means you won’t have to tell customers their order cannot be fulfilled or that they have to wait. Being able to fulfill customer orders with a 100% success rate does wonders for the reputation of the company, even if the bottom line is affected. Additionally, there can be monetary savings from ordering in bulk or taking advantage of sales even if the ordering is premature for your requirements. It is important however to balance the effect of these practices with what is known as ‘carrying costs’ or the costs associated with having excess stock which is not being sold. At the end of the day, the bottom line is being influenced and the shareholder demands and individual needs of the company need to be addressed.
If you do find the company in a situation where you’re overstocked with goods that need to be sold as quickly as possible, then there are things you can do to ensure this happens. In reality, these can create business opportunities where there perhaps were not any previously – think creatively!
Re-think and Re-do
If there are items in your store that are not selling, think about how you can re-do everything. That is, think about how they are marketed and where they are physically located – can people see them? Are they eye catching?. Basically, look for opportunities to refresh the same products so that they appear new and exciting. It is very tempting to simply panic and head straight for discounting, however why not try and see if you can give things a new lease of life first.
Discounting
Discounting is the number one way companies deal with being overstocked and it certainly works. Your bottom line may be a concern with this method, however consider the extra clientele you might acquire through special sales or discounts, particularly if what you are selling provides better savings than your competitors. It is important however to consider when and how you discount. Sales need to be expertly timed to have maximum impact and of course the amount of discount to apply needs to be balanced with the savings to the customer, getting rid of stock as well as ensuring the company is not in jeopardy.
Bundling
Package deals or bundling is a good method of getting product out the door. If heavy discounts will be difficult for the company to bear then bundling can be an excellent option as you are simply selling a bundle of products for slightly less than you could buy each of them separately. This still represents savings to the customer, it moves product at a faster rate and it allows the company to get back more revenue for the product.
Psychology
When it comes to marketing and selling, a lot comes down to your customer and pure psychology. It has been found that simply placing excess stock or last season’s items on clearance can almost desensitize the customer so that it no longer has the same impact with the same number of sales. Therefore, things such a big events to promote items or even placing short timeframes on sales such as flash sales or ‘one-day-only’ sales can have a huge effect on the customer, more so than just having a clearance rack they can peruse at their leisure. If this whole area seems rather unclear, simply put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Have a look around big brand stores and observe what they do and how that makes you feel or if it makes you want to pull out your wallet. If you are always considering your customer as well as the company and the bottom line, then you are sure to find a solution that works.
A ‘Financial Roadmap’ will help improve profit and cash flow, by ensuring funds will be available to spend on developing new products and services, marketing, sales, operations, customer service and human resources. Critically, to grow a business you must have funds available at the right time.
The easiest way to develop a financial roadmap is to have a Budget and a Cash Flow Forecast. Here’s the difference between the two:
A Budget is a financial plan – what you are going to sell – what it is going to cost and what overheads you are likely to incur. It also includes finance costs such as interest. The budget sets out how much profit or loss the business is planning to make, usually on a monthly basis.
A Cash Flow Forecast is a plan of when the cash will flow into and out of the business. It’s important to have both, because a budget may show that you’re going to make profit, but customers take time to pay and suppliers require payment, often before customers have paid you. It’s vital to plot this all out in black and white, so that you can see where the ‘peaks and troughs’ are likely to occur and plan how you’re going to manage them.
Budgeting
A budget may be required by lenders and only done for that purpose, but do a budget for yourself. As a business owner, it provides you with a fantastic financial roadmap to help clarify what everyone needs to work towards.
People often say “I can’t do a budget because I don’t know exactly how much I’m going to sell”. This is a reasonable enough statement, but shouldn’t put you off developing a budget with best estimates.
The best way to start a budget is to work out your ‘break-even point’. Break-even point helps you to work out how much you need to sell to make neither a profit nor a loss i.e. a zero result. Obviously this isn’t what you’re in business for, but it will give you targets to work towards and to avoid losses. To work out your ‘break-even point’, begin with your overheads i.e. the fixed expenses you incur whether you sell anything or not, such as rent, permanent staff wages, equipment leases etc.
You then need to know what your gross margin is on sales. Gross margin is the percentage you make on sales after direct costs of your product or service, such as cost of the actual product or labour and materials on jobs. For example if you know that products or jobs cost you 40% (on average) of your sale price, that means you’ve got a 60% gross margin left to cover your fixed expenses. If your yearly fixed expenses are $600,000 you will need to sell $1,000,000 to breakeven.
Example Calculation:
Monthly Fixed Expenses = $50,000
Cost of Goods percentage = 40%
Gross margin = 60%
Formula = Monthly Fixed Expenses / Gross Profit Margin
= 50,000 divided by 60% = $83,333.33
$83,333.33 is the monthly breakeven sales figure in this example.
Once you know your ‘breakeven’ sales figure, you can use this as a basis for your budget, by entering the monthly figures into Float and play around with increasing and decreasing the monthly sales, to see what would be the impact of changes.
You could also work it backwards to calculate what profit you desire and therefore what you need to sell to achieve the result, or if you can find ways to reduce your direct costs, how much impact that could have on your profit.
Cash Flow Forecast
The Cash Flow Forecast is similar to the budget, but looks at the situation from a cash perspective, rather than a profit one. The cash flow also includes items such as tax, repayment of loans and dividends, which aren’t included in the Budget. By doing this forecast, you can see what will be your closing bank balance for each month and where you might experience ‘peaks and troughs’.
Once you know the amount of the ‘peaks and troughs’ you can play around with the numbers to work out how to retain a positive bank balance, when you may need funds to cover a shortfall or when you will have a surplus of cash to invest in the business.
One of the challenges to maintaining a cash flow forecast is that you need to start with an accurate opening balance, which is something of a moving target because of the transactions that constantly occur in your business. Having fixed an opening balance you then plot in monthly what income you expect to receive, based on when and how much customers pay, against what you expect to pay out, based on fixed monthly expenses and amounts owed to suppliers.
The great thing about Float is that it dynamically updates your starting balance based on the transactions that have been logged in your accounting package. Float then uses what actually happened to automatically adjust your forecast to work out your future cash position on any given day in future.
So to summarise, both budgeting and forecasting are vital for business success and will help you to sleep easier at night. One helps you remain profitable; the other helps your business always have the right amount of cash on hand.
CFO On Call is a team of Virtual CFOs who can help you set up your Budget and Cashflow right at the beginning. This ensures you’re making decisions based on accurate information and avoiding losses and ‘cash squeeze’.
Online shopping is connecting retailers with more customers than ever before. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to expand the reach of your fashion brand, opening up a new market without having to pay for additional retail leases or shop assistants. And with the right setup, you can go from local to global overnight.
Even if you want to keep your focus on your bricks-and-mortar store, ecommerce is a great way to do it. Why? Because visiting online stores has become an important part of the modern shopper’s buying process, with 33% of customers regularly checking prices on their phones before or during store visits. That means someone in your competitor’s shop could be looking up your prices right now—if you have an online store.
If you’re in the 50% that hasn’t yet set up your online store, now’s the time. Here’s our easy approach to opening your first online fashion shop.
1. Choose a platform for your online shop
Getting this step right will make the rest of your online shop set-up much easier. There really is no universal best platform—you’re aiming to find the one that best suits your needs. Think about which features are essential for your business, which are nice to have, and which are an unnecessary expense. Consider:
Do you have the expertise to host your site and manage bandwidth, storage, security and backups, or do you want your hosting managed for you?
How much control do you need over design elements and navigation? Do you want your team to style it from the ground up, or just choose from preset themes?
Do you need your online shop to integrate with any systems you’re currently using, like a certain payment gateway, accounting package, or inventory management system?
As your business grows, will your shop make it easy for you to sell more clothes online, or will it become difficult and expensive?
Is training included as part of the package? How about phone or email support?
Once you’ve selected a platform, it’s best to test it thoroughly. Neto offers managed solutions with training and support, add-on integrations, and ready-to-use themes to help every shop owner take their store online, no matter how tech-savvy you are. We also offer a no-obligation free trial, so you can be confident in your choice.
2. Design your customer experience
This is where the fun starts! Your online store will be the first impression of your brand for many visitors. They’re more likely to become customers if you give them a great experience, so your design needs to help them find what they’re looking for.
You’ll want a responsive design that looks good and loads quickly on all devices. Keep it clean and clutter-free with high-quality, professional photos, easy-to-read fonts and plenty of white space. Group your apparel into categories that will make sense to your customers, by type of garment (pants, skirts), dress code (corporate, sports), or even a special theme (summer nights, snow holiday). And don’t forget to test out your shop on a mobile phone, because 70% of online transactions occur on a mobile device.
With Neto, you can choose from free, editable, and fully-responsive web store themes or customise every aspect of your website and shopping cart with full access to your store’s HTML, CSS, and JS. Need more help? We even offer bespoke design services.
3. Build your product listings
Each product listing is an opportunity to entice your customers to make a purchase. Start with product headline that tells your customers what they’re looking at in a glance: it’s not just a “dress” but a “slinky ankle-length evening dress”. You’ll want to make the most of the search features in your platform, which might mean adding tags like “evening wear” and “strapless”, and allowing customers to filter by size, colour, or style on the category page.
Give customers a three-dimensional understanding of your clothing, shoes or accessories by using photos that show them in a variety of angles both on-display and in-use. Draw attention to the most important information (designers, features, materials) in a few bullet points or a short description, and then write a more detailed explanation that will answer all your customers’ questions before they need to ask. Does the garment fit true to size? Is it machine washable? Where was it made?
Include links to the relevant sizing guides, shipping rates, refund policies and FAQ pages to encourage customers to complete their purchases online. Customer reviews can draw more visitors to your site, establish loyalty and trust, and even answer customer questions for you. And if your platform includes inventory management, like Neto, showing how much stock you have available can become a powerful call to action for the hesitant customer.
4. Select your shipping options
Customers want their orders delivered as soon and as cheaply as possible, and with the Australian population spread over such a vast distance, it’s important for online store owners to consider the timing and cost of your shipping options. Research how easy it is for you to send an order and how your costs will vary with destination and package size or weight. If you’re looking at gobal operations, you may choose different carriers for different regions. And don’t forget click-and-collect, a cheap and speedy option for clients to pick up their orders from your physical shop front as soon as they’re ready.
Neto offers click-and-collect, and also integrates with a variety of popular Australian and New Zealand shipping carriers, including Australia Post eParcel, CourierPost (NZ), Startrack, Couriers Please, Toll Priority, Fastway Couriers and Sendle, taking the hassle out of your order fulfilment.
5. Set up several payment options
There wouldn’t be much point to opening up an online store if you couldn’t get paid. Most online shoppers prefer to pay by credit card, so you’ll need a payment gateway to process your customer’s credit or debit cards and securely transfer financial information to complete the transaction. These providers all have different setup, service and per-transaction charges, so read the fine-print before you choose one.
Third-party processors can be quicker and cheaper (or free) to set up but often charge retailers a higher fee per transaction. You might be willing to take on this cost for the benefit of offering your customers another payment option that they’re already familiar with.
This is an optional step, and one that varies from platform to platform, but it will really help you get the most out of your online store. Neto integrates with a wide variety of add-ons to help you with automation tasks, such as
Emailing individual customers to offer discounts on items in their wishlists or abandoned shopping carts—over half of all online shoppers take up these offers
Tracking visitor clicks and running analytics to understand your customers, what brings them to your site, and what they’re searching for
Social media monitoring to post to channels automatically and track interactions
Targeting specific customers and demographics through email list segmentation
A/B testing variations of your home page, product listings and custom landing pages to see how you can increase conversion.
Start here
If you follow the six steps we’ve listed above, your online fashion store should be up and selling in no time. Are you ready to kickstart your year? Start your Neto free trial today.
Back in 2015, when Map My Plan commissioned a report on the state of financial wellbeing in Australia, it found personal finance issues topped the list of leading causes of stress.
Just last year, PwC’s 2016 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that financial stress was affecting 52% of employees. Alarmingly, they also called out Millennials as being in worse shape financially than their older counterparts.
Big problem for Millennials
According to the report, 64% of Millennials are stressed about their finances. Almost half of them (46%) find it difficult to meet their household expenses on time each month. And 37% say that issues with the personal finances are a distraction at work.
And, in yet another study, according to AMP’s 2016 Financial Wellness report, one in four Australian workers are experiencing financial stress. Though personal financial stress isn’t something they leave at home.
Big workplace issue
Their research shows that financially stressed employees lose on average 6.9 hours of productive time per week. Plus, they take off about four days a year because of this stress. AMP estimates the cost to employers is in the order of $47 billion per annum in lost revenue.
Clearly, financial stress is a big workplace issue. And it’s something that all employers need to tackle. As an employer, you’re the source of your employees’ wealth, so it makes sense to provide tools and services to help them manage it.
Not only is it the right thing to do, but as an employer, you’ll reap the rewards. As Ken E Allison, Partner & National Practice Leader at PwC says in their report:
“It is important for employers to show that they care about employee financial well-being as this will likely impact retention, recruitment and productivity, particularly for Millennials and Gen X. With retirement savings worryingly low, now is the time for employers to put effective financial wellness programs into place that focus holistically on the financial well-being of employees and drive behavioural change.”
So, it’s important that you focus on helping your employees get on a much firmer financial footing by giving them access financial tools and education. Whether your focus on budgeting, debt management, financial planning or saving for life stages, it’s a must have part of any employee benefits program in 2017.
Financial wellbeing, as a benefit, reduces personal financial distress, enhances employee wellbeing, and leads to happier, healthier staff. You’ll also benefit from less personally stressed more engaged employees.
Vend has always been about giving the little guys the tools the big guys have, so we found a natural ally in Lyndsay and her initiative. We sat down with the woman behind the idea to get some insights into this grassroots movement; read our interview below.
Where did your inspiration come from for SaveTheHighStreet.org? What drove you to create this campaign?
It was my mom who always made a point to shop local. As I grew up, we saw many small independent shops close, and it was always sad. She used to say it was the end of an era. I’ve always shopped local as much as I can. For the past eight years, I’ve also been working with independent retailers; I can really understand the struggle to set up, succeed, and grow as a local shopkeeper.
Earlier in 2016, I met Alex Schlagman — the founder of PocketHighStreet, a tech platform that helps local shops get discovered and promoted across a network of online publishers. He had loads of insight and close relationships with shopkeepers across London.
I was also spending time talking to shops I knew and to other contacts, and between us, we brought together an initial group representative of the industry. The founding partnerships started to form, with lots of other shops and players from across the industry joining the movement as well.
What’s your ultimate goal? What can we expect to see from you in the coming months? Where do you see SaveTheHighStreet.org in the next few years?
The goal is a stronger high street with more businesses thriving and more diverse shopping — a place where people can go to enjoy their communities. I like to see entrepreneurs living their dreams. It makes people happy, and it’s even better seeing a shop on top of its game: better-connected, skilled-up, and digitally enabled.
It would be great to see all shopkeepers in touch and really leveraging the power of the group. I don’t think many shopkeepers understand the power and influence that come with being part of a group that size. We aim to help over 100,000 shops in 2017.
We want to help challenge the biggest issues shopkeepers face — from gaps in digital capabilities to rates and rents — and to help them find a voice.
What’s the response been like over the last few months?
Throughout the launch period, hundreds of local shops registered every week. We were flooded with enquiries and messages of support from business associations, solution providers, media, and lots of local people who just wanted to help.
We’ve opened a Retailer Advisory Board to independent retailers nationwide, and lots of shops are keen to benefit from having more of a voice and more insight into our plans and optional publicity.
Why is it so important to “save the high street”?
So important on so many levels!
A world without diverse and thriving high streets is not one I want to live in — and I’m certainly not alone. There are so many dreams, livelihoods, and micro-economies at stake.
Things have never changed as much or as fast as they do today. If our local shopkeepers don’t capitalize on the best skills, tools, and opportunities of the increasingly omnichannel world, they could be further and more deeply disrupted than ever. We need to work to close the gap that’s dividing us.
What is the “connected digital high street”? Tell us about the “blueprint” you’ve created.
Within each pillar, there are loads of opportunities and challenges. We created the Retailer Advisory Board specifically to address this and to create recommendations for successful modern retailing by the retailer for the retailer.
We’re identifying, testing, and sharing with others the things that are working well for actual retailers doing business today.
We share this framework for successful modern retailing for free with all SaveTheHighStreet.org members.
How can those interested get involved in the campaign?
You can also join the Retailer Advisory Board by filling in this questionnaire. Retailer Advisory Board members get extra publicity opportunities, early insight into the programs we’re running through 2017, and the option to get much more involved.
