Forrester Research just posted a couple updated research reports that give the size of the e-commerce market for the U.S.A. and for Western Europe. TechCrunch actually posted more data and a couple graphs about it that you can’t find at Forrester .
Some of the more interesting thoughts by Forrester for the U.S. Market (Estimates exclude online sales of autos, travel, and prescription drugs):
Shipwire is a proud member of The Small Business Web, a consortium of like minded companies with software and solutions that are easy to use, small business focused and help businesses grow and “bloom”.
We also like to have a good time. If you are going to South-By-South-West (SBSW) come to our happy hour celebration/networking event cleverly named…”SXSBW” (“South-By-Small-Business-Web”). In is on Saturday March 13th from 4-7pm in Austin at PureVolume House, go here from the invite and RSVP.
It’s going to be a great event, with special music guest and it will be an amazing opportunity to network, learn and grow your business…or at least have a few beers with some fun people.
See you in Austin!!!
More info about the Small Business Web and how it can help your business:
Shipwire would like to welcome CoreCommerce into our integrated product family. CoreCommerce is a robust e-commerce shopping cart with lots of bells and whistles and a very easy to navigate look and feel that is built by SumEffect, Inc. Practicalecommerce.com listed them as a “cart-of-the-week” a few months ago and you can see that very favorable write-up here.
Please check out our new partner and if you are a CoreCommerce user we recommend testing this integration. With Shipwire you can get access to a global warehouse network that is completely integrated with your CoreCommerce software.
For complete instructions on corecommerce shipping product order fulfillment
Marketing in Canada can sometimes be a challenge. You are likely already usingmarketplaces like Amazon and eBay or product and search locations like Google Adwords, Yahoo, Bing and Business.com. What are some other options? Here are a few thoughts, please comment with your own.
1) 411.ca http://www.411.ca
According to their marketing “411.ca, Canada’s local search engine, is an online directory service that combines rich content gathered from numerous sources (including directly from companies themselves) with ultra-targeted search tools to help companies tell customers what makes them stand out from their competitors… Every month 411.ca helps more than 2 million unique visitors quickly and easily find listings for businesses across town, across the province or across Canada.” Think “giant phone book”.
Shipwire has always prided ourselves on transparent warehouse and shipping pricing. From our first day of operation we have always offered pricing on our website that anybody can see, this has actually prompted other providers to do the same thing. We have also allowed a free trial where anybody can check our shipping rates for any type of shipment, we are still the only ones in the industry offering that.
In an effort to continue to offer transparency on our services and to help our customers with end-of-month or end-of-quarter accounting we now provide detailed monthly billing invoices for all our merchants that you can get for any month that you used Shipwire. This was something that was asked for by a couple of our merchants so please continue to keep the great ideas coming in…we are listening.
Shipwire is proud to be an integral part of one of America’s Most Promising Startups, Keetsa. Profitable in just 3 months, Keetsa uses Shipwire for all their fulfillment and warehousing needs, which helps to not only keep their costs low but also reduce their shipping carbon footprint.
With just one Shipwire account you can eliminate the need to have your own delivery trucks or warehouses. I think I just heard a big sigh of relief somewhere. If that sounds too good to be true, then read Keetsa Uses Shipwire – Keeps Both Prices and Carbon Footprint Low. Keetsa calls Shipwire “a perfect fit.” “We chose the Shipwire warehouse and order fulfillment service for its flexibility. It gave us storage and delivery features that we needed at a price we appreciated.”
Being green and making a profit doesn’t have to be hard either. We’ve blogged about how Shipwire and Keetsa make such a fantastic pair in a previous blog – read Keetsa grows green with Shipwire, where we show you how we helped Keetsa grow by a whopping 200%… in a recession no less. Was that a victory cry I just heard?
You can start a free trial immediately and see if your company will be the next we blog about making a 200% profit – simply begin your free trial here.
Some of you may be asking, exactly what are the benefits of drop shipping and/or outsourced order fulfillment? And which one is better to use? The answer to that question has a lot to do with whether you prefer or need to hold merchandise in stock or if you prefer not to sit on inventory.
If you prefer to hold inventory then “Order Fulfillment” would work well for you. “Order fulfillment is the process by which a retailer or manufacturer picks, packs and ships an order to an end buyer.” So this means that your order fulfillment can be done directly by you via your garage or warehouse or better yet through a third party by leveraging outsourced order fulfillment (like Shipwire) that can perform all your storage and fulfillment needs with just one simple and easy to use account. Shipwire offers a Free Trial if you want to test outsourced order fulfillment.
If you do not want to invest up front in holding inventory in your garage or warehouse then “drop shipping” could be your better option. “Drop Shipping is a type of fulfillment, whereby the retailer does not hold any merchandise in stock.” Merchants using “drop =shipping” typically send orders directly to their manufacturers/suppliers who then ship to the buyer. “In other words, the supplier/manufacture is trying to make it easier on the retailer by allowing the retailer to sell the product without investing in inventory.”
If you are interested in knowing more about Drop Shipping versus Order Fulfillment read this article by Skip McGrath.
If you are a product manufacturer or supplier who wants to know how to offer your retailers drop shipping please check out this article by Nate Gilmore on Practicalecommerce.com called “Manufacturer and Supplier Drop Ship Demystified”.
Resources to help you grow your global e-commerce business.