Shop Talk

How Internet Marketing Can Work With Multi-Channel Marketing

Online marketing needs to be coordinated and consistent with all multi-channel marketing communication.
To compete in today’s marketplace, marketing professionals need a solution that allows them to react to changing market conditions cost effectively: coordinated marketing communication at a lower cost.
Multi-channel marketing provides unique opportunities to tailor content for specific target audiences and to measure the effectiveness of their marketing strategy and the ability to continually improve their messages in all channels by providing measurement tools that indicate the effectiveness of their messages and approach.
Internet marketing is no longer a “new media”. It is an expected form of communication with high demands from organizations, marketers, and consumers. The variety of uses and increasingly multimedia nature of the Internet means that marketing managers need to carefully select the ways that they use the Internet to market their organization, products, and services.
Internet marketing shares tasks, priorities, and messages with traditional marketing channels. Where it varies is in its ability to reach widely diverse target audiences and in the ways these messages can be conveyed. (Source: David Schwartz)

USAA Analyzes Their Multichannel Interactions

Consumers know you no matter how you contact them; you need to know them in return. Test and target content across technologies to optimize your business’s results.
For instance, USAA adopted a multichannel analytics strategy to track customers’ financial and insurance needs throughout the span of their lives–from weddings and first homes to schooling children and, ultimately, retirement. The company found that many customers applying for a product were using multiple channels, yet USAA was not sure which channel was actually driving the interaction and, ultimately, conversion. Using an integrated multichannel-marketing solution, the USAA team configured an integrated analytical schema to incorporate Web and phone data to analyze multichannel interactions. The resultant insights allowed them to optimize their customer-process flow to help consumers more efficiently complete business transactions using their preferred channel for interaction. Allen Crane, executive director of research and analytics for USAA, sums up the issue: “Share results, and give credit often. Multichannel marketing is as much an organizational journey as it is a data- and technology-driven endeavor.” (Source: Anoop Sahgal)

Do You Know How Valuable Your Shipping Data Really Is?

How do you know if a carrier has given you a good deal or a bad deal? Most shippers assume that the base rates of parcel carriers are the same, and that a 40% discount from one carrier is obviously better than a 35% discount from another carrier. Question to ask yourself: What if the carriers who offer the 40% discount have a base rate that is 15% higher than its competitor? There is flaw in this logic.
To determine your shipping data our experts at Adeptiv Solutions recommends using a pivot table in Microsoft Excel. The raw data is easy to request from the carriers, you can often access it online. You can get a three-month history of your billings at the shipment level with the level of service purchased, the weight you were billed for and the zone the shipment was rated for from FedEx. Using the pivot tool you can can immediately take thousands of records and have in your hands a profile of your actual business. Using a pivot table removes the guesswork out of your calculations so you can see the degree of discounting you should be enjoying from your carrier. Our team at Adeptiv Solutions works with our clients to ensure they are paying fair prices for shipping and distribution. If 80% of your shipments are less than 10 lbs., then having a discount on packages 25lbs or more is not to your organization’s best interest.
One more bit of advice from our team at Adeptiv Solutions is to use a “rating tool” to profile your business and rate it against the carrier’s rate from last year compared to the carrier rate from this year. This tool lets you see how that carrier’s annual increase has impacted your actual book of business. Again this is another opportunity for Adeptiv Solutions to assist your organization in saving money.

J.C. Penney Makes New Plans for Its Supply Chain Operations

Over the next 2 years J.C. Penney will be undergoing a restructuring process where the company will move from 18 supply chain locations down to 13, this involves expanding 7 facilities and closing 5. J.C. Penney will have different operations housed in same buildings to achieve the enhanced flexibility. Their logistics hubs will be unaffected as these serve as the entry points for direct-imported goods and other inbound shipments. J.C. Penney is making major changes to its call center operations as well. Back on April 2nd of this year the company closed its Grand Rapids, MI call center that employed roughly 370 people. On June 2nd another call center in Albuquerque, NM closed with the same number of employees. JC Penney also plans to close 6 other department stores throughout the U.S. This year and next JC Penney will also be closing several catalogue outlets now that they are no longer mailing specialty catalogs. Company spokespeople say the company is focusing growing their most profitable stores and their online business.
Condensing operations such as call centers can be a very profitable move for companies. After these cost saving measures are complete this year JC Penney expects to save $25 million to $35 million in 2012. Many of our clients have experienced greater profits from outsourcing. We find many of our clients saying that outsourcing has allowed them to focus on the manufacturing of their products as opposed to investing in space and talent for call center operations, warehousing and fulfillment.

When Customers Expect FREE Shipping, What is a Cataloguer and E-Tailer To Do?

With the increasing cost of fuel and surcharges/residential add-on fees from UPS and FedEx, many merchants are forced to artificially inflate product costs. This inflation allows merchants to continue offering “free shipping” as many consumers expect. In essence, shipping is turning into a “loss leader” for many merchants.
Residential deliveries have doubled from 20% of the overall parcel market to 40% in less than a decade. Shipping to residences vs. businesses poses several challenges, namely that delivering packages to a residence is more costly than delivering to a business address. Driver and fuel costs are higher outside of high-density commercial routes. Other challenges include the fact that parcel carriers are not required to obtain a signature for residential deliveries. Package tracking is also somewhat limited. Calls to customer service from concerning customers inquiring “where’s my package” is also an expense for many merchants.
There are now several delivery options outside of the private parcel carriers that residential shippers can opt. The USPS has worked hard to improve delivery transit, reliability and tracking systems. In a recent study by MultiChannel Merchant, 59% of shippers view the USPS as a competitive alternative to UPS and FedEx.
Parcel consolidators are another option for shipping. Consolidators market their services as providing delivery times at or near first-class mail parcel service standards but at lower prices. Shipping visibility and less handling and damage are other benefits to using a parcel consolidator. According to the USPS, the major ground consolidators are FedEx SmartPost, UPS Mail Innovations, Streamlite, Blue Package Delivery, Newgistics, DHL Global Mail, Fairrington Transportation, Kaleidoscope Services, OSM Worldwide, ParcelPool and SP Express.
One more option outside of the private parcel carriers are regional carriers. Merchants pay rates as much as 40% less than national carriers. Many merchants have had success in using the following regional carriers including: Eastern Connection, Lone Star Overnight, OnTrac, Spee-Dee Delivery, US Cargo. Many shippers will tout the cost savings, consistent service performance and innovations that will make it easier to ship with regionals.
If your company is experiencing inflated cost when shipping to residents you may want to consider calling Adeptiv Solutions for a consultation and analysis in how your organization can reduce its residential shipping costs.