The U.S. and global economy entered a recession in 2008, you are probably already feeling the impact or have concerns about its scope.  Costs are up and consumer spending is down.  Many online merchants and their manufacturers and distributors are growing concerned about 2009 sales.

Online sales to see growth during recession

Reports on the e-commerce market by Forrester Research and others indicates that e-commerce is one of the very few markets with growth expectations in 2009 and beyond.  (Forester Research, Feb. 2008, The Outlook for U.S. E-commerce 2008 and beyond).  Forrester is projecting e-commerce revenue will grow from $204B to $335B by 2012.  Forrester believes online sales will continue to grow through the recession due to accelerating shifts in consumer buyer patterns.  For example, buyers are shopping online to lines and malls, shopping for online sale promotions and liquidations and online buyers having deeper wallets.

How to grow in 2009 and beat the recession

Manufactures, distributors and online retailers need to take steps early in 2009 to see growth during the 2009 recession year.

Things you should do now and how Shipwire can help you do them.

• Leverage Technology
• Reduce Costs
• Enter New & International Markets
• Supercharge Distribution

Please read on to learn how Shipwire helps you take advantage of the items above and can help you reach your sales goals in 2009.

Shipwire Free Trial

The old axium “Work Smart – Not Hard”, may be applicable to some jobs; however, if you are starting a company you need to “Work Smart and work hard”.  To grow a successful online retail business you must be focused on sales, marketing and distribution during the best economies.  In this new economy, you must double your attention to sales channel success as you can’t invest in sales channels that don’t show immediate return on investment.

Shipwire is your secret weapon

Shipwire allows you to quickly eliminate the hassles of inventory storage and shipping so that you can focus on growing your business.  Spend less time in the warehouse and more time selling products.

• How Shipwire works
• Case Studies and press articles about merchants using Shipwire to grow
• Pricing
• Sign up for a free trial

Shipwire offers the industry’s leading warehousing and order fulfillment solution.  Your free trial gives you access to the Store-Sell-Ship™ platform.  Be able to immediately store inventory in a global warehouse network, connect your warehouse with leading shopping carts, payment systems and drop ship distribution networks.  Pay only when actually store or ship product with Shipwire.

Read on to learn more about how Shipwire technology can help businesses of all sizes rise above the current global recession and grow:

• Reduce costs on inventory storage and shipping
• Grow into new markets in the U.S., Canada and Europe
• Supercharge your distribution supply chain
• Success based e-commerce, only pay for what you use.

Keeping an eye on your COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and reducing your businesses operating costs is critical in today’s environment.  This can take many forms depending on whether your looking at marketing/advertising, inventory carrying costs, IT, supply chain costs, warehouse storage and/or shipping to buyers.

If what you are spending a dollar ($) on is not bringing in business or the most efficient use of that dollar you need to look at how to spend smarter.  The most obvious example is advertising. if you’re advertising on offline magazine and newspaper ads and can’t tell whether buyers are visiting your site or buying your products based on that advertisement, it is probably time to reexamine whether Pay-Per-Click advertising is a better fit because it is tracked and audited.

Reduce your supply chain IT, warehousing and shipping costs

Like advertising, you can turn your supply chain IT, warehousing and shipping spend into a cost that is variable on your business success.  This will help protect you in the event of reduced sales or a seasonal lulls in sales.

The traditional model for warehousing and supply chain involves an excessive amount of “Sunk Costs”.  These are costs that you have to spend regardless of how much you sell, examples include warehouse space, warehouse management software, security, pallet jacks or a forklift, insurance and to some extent warehouse staff.

Shipwire eliminates these costs.  Shipwire provides storage on demand – you pay only for what you use and the effective rate is much lower than the traditional warehouse.  Read the INC.com article about how Keetsa, Inc used Shipwire to save 35% over a traditional warehouse.

Eliminate sunk costs and recession proof your business

Critical to surviving in this economy is ejecting sunk costs from your business.  In the Keetsa case study above you learned that riding your business of the anchor that a warehouse can be will actually free your business to be more nimble and efficient.

With Shipwire you pay only for the storage you actually use and the orders you actually fulfill.  Eliminate or turn the following suck costs into variable costs based on actual sales.

• Warehouse lease (Eliminated.  Only pay per foot for actual used space)
• Warehouse insurance (Eliminated.  Included at no extra cost)
• Warehouse security (Eliminated.  Included at no extra cost)
• Warehouse IT (Eliminated.  Included at no extra cost)
• Warehouse employees (Eliminated.  Replaced with per order shipping cost)
• Warehouse infrastructure (Eliminated)
• Shipping Packaging (Eliminated.  Included.)
• Customer Support (Reduced through automation)
• Per order shipping cost (Reduced, see below)

Outsourcing your fulfillment and position your business to thrive in the new global economy.

Reduce shipping costs

Apart from getting great carrier shipping rates, Shipwire can help you greatly reduce your actual per order shipping costs.  We do this by offering you geographically diverse warehouses around the world to store and ship product – you store inventory closer to buyers allowing you to get product into their hands faster and for less money.

To see this in action look at our Shipping Savings Calculator.  Just click on “Calculate Savings” on the Shipwire pricing page.

When you move product in bulk (large quantity versus individual parcel), you get the greatest economies of scale and the lowest cost. When product inventory is moved in bulk from consolidation points (manufacturer and freight forwarding short-term storage), to distribution points (warehouses) it can be moved very cost effectively on a per-item basis. The most expensive part of retail fulfillment is the last leg of the products journey – from your warehouse to the end-buyer – that is typically a parcel shipment with a major carrier rather than freight.

Let’s look at a very simple example, a 10-lb. parcel shipment from a New York City warehouse to a residence in Los Angeles. If your warehouse is in New York, your cost for a normal ground shipment to the residence in LA would be approximately $12.66 (ground, with residence fee and fuel surcharges). If you need to get it there via next-day air it would be approximately $81.00. If you put some of your inventory in a warehouse in Los Angeles, your cost for that same package would be $8.39 (ground, with residence fee and fuel surcharges). If you had to get the product to the customer the next day, it would be the same $8.39 fee.

Carrier pricing is a factor of distance and speed. If you strategically place inventory in multiple locations, you can increase your service delivery speed and reduce costs. Granted, in this example we saved a little over $4.00. However, if you’re doing 100 shipments a week you would be saving over $1,500 monthly just on shipping. You just saved roughly one-third of your shipping costs while increasing your service levels.

Reduce shipping costs by strategically place inventory closer to the end-buyer, and always shorten the last leg of the parcel delivery by the carriers.  Shipwire allows you to do this.

For an online retailer with an existing product catalog, to enter a new market is to:

• Attract buyers
• Close orders
• Cost effectively send product
• Respond to support
• Handle returns

Attracting buyers and closing orders is what online retailers do exceedingly well.  That said, many merchants are only efficient at the physical delivery and support aspect of their business in a very small geographic area where they have a warehouse footprint.

Shipwire allows a retailer to quickly enter markets in the U.S., Canada and Europe and cost effectively ship product, automate customer communication on ship status and handle returns.  We offer warehouses in Los Angeles, Reno, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the U.K. so that merchants can get inventory closer to buyers and ship orders via low cost parcel carriers.

Enter new markets with Shipwire

• U.S., Canada and Europe
• Store product locally
• No more international parcel shipments
• Handle returns locally, no more expensive international returns
• Reduced shipping costs
• Reduced parcel delivery times

Shipwire helps growing retailers grow in more ways.  To learn more about how we can help supercharge your store front or distributor plese continue to read this tutorial and offer.

In addition to entering new geographic markets, Shipwire can help you grow your sales and distribution channels.

Automate your shopping cart

Don’t waste money on custom engineering integrations.  Shipwire connects with the most common shopping carts available.  See our list of compatible shopping carts.

Automate your business order fulfillment.  Each time an order closes out of your shopping cart, Shipwire will be notified.  We will pick, pack and ship your order.  Once shipped you can have us notify your buyer that it shipped and what the shipping tracking number is as well as sync new inventory counts with your shopping cart.

Marketplaces

When you sell online you have to put products where buyers are.  Shipwire can get you access to:

• eBay
• Amazon Seller Central Fulfillment
• Paypal
• Google
• More added all the time

Drop Ship/Direct Ship

Are you ready to have thousands of retail merchant sell your products?  You provide a wholesale price and an MSRP, online retailers will market and sell your products.  When sold, Shipwire will pick, pack and ship your orders.

With Doba and Shipwire you get a network of web retailers to sell your products.   Learn how to enable drop ship for your business.

Shipwire offers you a special offer to help beat the recession.

• Get 50 orders fulfilled as part of our free trial
• Get a free sales consultation
• Get started with no cost

Free Trial Includes

The Shipwire order fulfillment Free Trial will allow you to fully trial the Store-Sell-Ship™ platform with no risk or hassles. Benefits include:

• 100% free. No credit card needed – only a valid email address.
• Completely connect Shipwire with your Web site or Web store. Shipwire Compatible Ecommerce Tools.
• End-to-end test any Shipwire warehouse (Los Angeles, Reno, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver or UK)
• Store and ship up to 6 products (paying only Shipping charges)
• Upgrade at anytime to one of our standard plans that start at $30/month for all warehouses.
• Get consulting and configuration assistance from Shipwire staff.
• Qualify for valuable Shipwire promotions

Sign Up for a Shipwire Free Trial Today

With Shipwire there are never any commitments, pay for what you use and you can cancel anytime.

Get a Free Consultation

Shipwire is committed to being your partner and helping you succeed. To prove it, we are willing to work with you to ensure that your business will be best served by working with Shipwire.

The purpose of this consultation is to:

• Answer any questions you may have about order fulfillment.
• Identify which products you can outsource fulfillment for.
• Understand how you want to grow your business.
• Better understand your supply chain, freight and logistics needs.
• Determine if Shipwire is the best fit for your business today.

To qualify for a free 30 minute consultation please sign-up for our free trial. You will get an e-mail from one of our team after you register. If it gets lost to a spam filter, please feel free to contact us to schedule your consultation.

Sign Up for a Shipwire Free Trial Today

Get 50 Order Fulfilled At No Cost

Shipwire would like to offer you a special promotion – Free Order Fulfillment.

Here is how it works:

• Sign up for a Shipwire Account (or upgrade from a free trial) after August 8th, 2008.
• Tell Shipwire that you want this promotion by submitting a support case through your account. (Please note that we will validate your qualification for the promotion via e-mail).
• Send us your inventory and start integrating your orders.
• We’ll process the first 50 orders from any warehouse in our network at no cost (you pay only Shipping). Yes, you read that right – Get 50 orders fulfilled by Shipwire out of any warehouse for Free.
• You have 30 days from when your inventory arrives at the warehouse (receiving date) to use your 50 free orders.
• This promotion is valid for orders shipping from all Shipwire warehouses.
• Other disclaimers below (Lawyers make us have them)

Contact a Shipwire Sales Representative to have your account credited. Make sure you tell them you are ready for “Step 5 of Holiday Success”.

Disclaimers: Each order includes 1 standard item pick or 1 Lick ‘n Stick™. Multi-item orders billed normally. Shipwire reserves the right to cancel or suspend this promotion at any time. Shipwire reserves the right to disqualify any merchant at its sole discretion. In no event will this promotion change or alter the Shipwire terms of services which all users are required to enter into to use Shipwire services. Promotion value will not exceed $100 in Shipwire services. Existing Shipwire merchants and users do not qualify for this promotion; this promotion is intended for new subscribers only.