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Showing posts from 2014

Crossborder e-commerce reports

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Usually I publish the "cross border e-commerce" reports, I run into at the internet at either my  twitter  account or my  slideshare  account. But sometimes it is convenient to have a summary of direct downloads. So, some direct downloads, just because it is almost Christmas :) Forrester released a report (paid by metapack) about the relation between delivery options and e-commerce success in France, UK and Germany. A download via my dropbox here . I discovered that Pitney Bowes often has interesting reports and white papers. This one is a document that helps US retailers to reach consumers around the globe. But it is not only interesting for US retailers. For everybody who wants to understand customer and e-commerce differences around the world this is a useful document. It gives differences per country in purchase behavior and other localisation considerations. A direct download via my dropbox here Shop the world from DHL is a great 339 (! th

Book review: The Amazon Way

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I am reading the book " The Amazon Way , 14 leadership principles behind the wolrd's most disruptive company". I am not going to write down all 14 principles, just buy the book if you are interested in that. The book is well written and you can read it in a few hours. I just shortly summarize a few phrases from the book, that I find interesting.  Reading the book is a bit ambivalent, while when I was visiting Amazon in Germany, earlier this year, I did not recognize the open and innovative culture, the book describes.  However, the book is a motivator for anybody who is creative, customer centric and e-commerce and trend driven.  Long before the the complete vision of Amazon was ready, these two principles is where it all started from. When a company makes a customer unhappy, she won't tell a friend, or two, or three....she will tell many, many more and The beste customer service is "no" customer service, because the beste experience

16 ways to prevent returns for ecommerce company's

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16 ways to prevent parcel returns in ecommerce Parcel returns. Every e-commerce company has to deal with returns. In Europe customers have the right to withdraw an order up to 14 days after the parcel arrived at the customer. Returns cost a lot of money for e-tailers.  Below you find 16 ways to reduce your return percentage. Make use of "product" reviews and user generated content (UGC). Experiences and pictures/video's from others will help meeting expectations from your customers and will reduce returns. Use High Resolution product images. If you have a "living" product (f.e. plants) be clear about the product that people receive and how it looks like when it is mature. This can be done by images but in the case of plants with "time lapse" video's.  It depends at your competition and long term strategy, but you can charge (shipment costs) for returning ordered goods. Especially for Europe, mention this in your terms and co

Book review: Webs of influence, the psychology of online persuasion

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I decided to travel to Berlin today. Something different for a change. So now I am in an Eurocity train from Hilversum to Berlin. Time to read a book again. This time “ webs of influence, the psychology of online persuasion ”. An interesting book also in relation to cross border e-commerce because cultural differences in persuasion are described. The book "webs of influence, the psychology of online persuasion" travels with me today. There is no “silver bullet” for persuasion. Everybody is different, but the book gives nice case study’s and with some creativity of yourself, you can think of some very interesting tests and possibilities to change your website and marketing. The book has (very convenient) after every chapter a “ make this work for you” section. Perfect for a quick reference. Well as the book teaches me, blue is the colour that is most preferred by people, regardless of gender and culture. The blue colour is prefered by almost everybody So probabl

Model / Template EU wide withdrawal form | Consumer Rights Directive

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The new EU wide consumer law, the so called,  consumer rights directive in Europe, that will be into force in most countries as from the 13th of june, requires that websites offer a EU wide withdrawal form . Customers are not obliged to use it, but you have to offer it at your website. Since I could not find an easy working template for this EU wide withdrawal form, I created an interactive PDF file with the minimum required information. Download the latest ADOBE reader to make the interactive template work. Download the interactive withdrawal form PDF template here Upload your company logo (in PDF) (I am sorry, I could not get it programmed to upload JPEG's) Translate the texts in the PDF (you can start typing over the existing text) or if needed empty just give a space. Save the file using the "save as" button in the top left corner For those who can't work with the (beautifully programmed) interactive PDF, the microsoft word template is available he

The Age of the Customer

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The age of the customer has began! A nice painting for at your office. The age of the customer will transform marketing and business. Remind yourself of that every day with this painting.

Book Review: Global Marketing and Advertising - understanding cultural paradoxes-

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I was at holiday, a few weeks ago. Traveling to Hong Kong, mainland China, Cambodia and Thailand. Time to read a few books. One of the books I read was " Global Marketing and Advertising " from Marieke de Mooij. A very interesting book about cultural differences in advertising and marketing. The book is not an "online" book, it focuses at marketing and advertising in general, many offline marketing cases are described as well. The book consists of many in depth research of cultural aspects. I recognize a lot of cultural aspects described in the book from traveling, now it is related to advertising. I will not do a complete review of the book this time. I will highlight a few interesting parts of the book instead. Just go and by the book. You won't regret. Global Marketing and Advertising from Marieke de Mooij, very intresting book, I read at a recent holiday as you can see...the book traveled with me across many cultures...:) There may be global product