4 easy ecommerce solutions for small businesses

Small ecommerce companies face a plethora of challenges.
Stock control, accounting, HR, fulfilment, the list is endless.
Juggling profitability vs growth.
ROI KPIs, SEO, PPC, CRO – there’s always some new ecommerce acronym to be scared of.
You started your online business to follow your passion and all of a sudden you’ve got a logistical nightmare on your hands. Running a successful ecommerce business is not for the faint-hearted.
We understand, and we want to help ease your managerial burden so you can focus on the parts of your business you do best.

The best payment gateway comparisons and resources to help you choose the right solution

Choosing an ecommerce payment gateway is one of the most important decisions you can make for your online store operations.
The cheapest option is not always the best.
You have a complex decision ahead of you.
There’s a bunch of factors you need to consider.
And the stakes are high enough to warrant some detailed analysis and intensive research. The security implications of managing customer payments are significant.
You have a serious task on your hands.

The best shipping plugins for WooCommerce in Australia all in one place

There are over 49, 000 free plugins on wordpress.org.
That’s a lot of options at your fingertips.
Choosing the right shipping plugin for your online business is stressful.
If it’s not the right one, you’ve wasted valuable time and money.
And making the right choice from hundreds of different options makes choosing what to have for breakfast seem so simple. The stakes are somewhat higher too…
With this in mind, we’re going to run through the features of three amazing WooCommerce plugins.

The postage secrets of Australia’s biggest online retailers

Find out how Australia’s largest online retailers handle postage and shipping, and what you can learn from them.
Every ecommerce entrepreneur who has dipped their toe into the world of postage and shipping knows that it’s a complicated business.
Deciding on how you charge for postage, where you deliver, how you provide postage quotes to customers, and how you handle returns are all make-or-break propositions for your ecommerce business.
So what’s an online retailer to do?

5 ways to save money on international shipping

Keep your online customers happy with fast, efficient international shipping that doesn’t bust the budget.

Smart e-commerce retailers know how to save on international shipping. Cutting down your freight costs will help you compete against local players that charge lower delivery fees, and ensure your customers are getting the best deal possible on international shipping.
Follow these five tips to reduce your international shipping costs:

1. Use a freight aggregator
While it’s tempting to offer your customers flat-rate international shipping,

International shipping policy examples: How the big brands do it

Hungry for international e-commerce success? Find out how three of Australia’s biggest online retailers do it.

When putting together your international shipping policy, it helps to see what works for other successful e-commerce brands that have successfully built a global presence off the back of efficient international shipping procedures.
Here’s how three big Australian online retailers set out their international shipping policies:
Bonds
Leading Australian fashion retailer Bonds is known around the world and ships to a wide range of countries.

What do customers want: fast or free delivery?

Australians can be a demanding bunch – especially when it comes to online shopping.
According to research by Lithium Technologies, customer expectations are rising sharply in Australia as we embrace the conveniences of the ecommerce revolution.
The study revealed that Australians are among the most demanding and impatient internet shoppers in the world – 72 per cent of us expect a same-day response to online enquiries compared to 66 per cent of Americans.
That adds up to a potential nightmare for ecommerce businesses that must run the gauntlet of balancing rising customer expectations against real-world limitations.

6 free online tools to improve your international shipping

Use these six free online tools to make managing your international shipping easier than ever.

Thanks to a suite of free online tools and resources, managing your international shipping is easier than ever. Use these online calculators to make sure you’re set up for success:

Duty calculator
Each country you ship products to applies different duties and taxes that you may be required to pay. Use this duty calculator to assess country-specific duties that you’ll need to build into your international shipping costs.

E-commerce lessons from the big five: shipping and returns

Transparency in your postage and returns policy is the key to managing customer expectations and avoiding disappointment and disputes.
However, knowing where to display your postage and returns policies on your website, how to navigate to them, which content to cover and how to format it can cause enough confusion for you to toss it all in the too-hard basket.
Here, we take a look at how the big boys do it, and what you can learn from them.

Checklist: How to start shipping overseas

Ready to take your e-commerce business global? Follow this seven-step checklist to start shipping overseas…

Setting up your international shipping policies and processes can seem overwhelming, but it all comes down to investing some time in research before launching into new overseas markets.
While it’s vital to understand your new international markets, you’ll also need to do a cost analysis for each target destination to ensure country-specific duties, taxes and shipping costs don’t price you out of the market.