Weekend reading: 18 June

We’ve had a busy week this week, but it has felt exciting – although ‘freedom day’ has been pushed back by the UK government this week, it feels like there is promise of better times in the air, especially since we enjoyed such lovely weather for most of the week.

This week on the reads, we’re talking about Amazon Prime Day, revealing the products that will be in high demand over the summer, wondering whether the future of retail is off-site, and sharing how to reply to hundreds of customer messages each month in an hour a day.

The latest from us

We’ve brought four incredible new suppliers on board this week, with a huge number of new products for you to add to your inventory. If you haven’t added new lines for your customers in a while, then now is a great time to do so and increase your sales. A quick preview of the new items you can source:

This week Avasam CEO Tejas Dave published an article on Forbes, discussing social commerce and how it can benefit businesses. We think social commerce is going to be massive for retailers, so if you haven’t started to harness eCommerce functionality on your social media as yet, then this article is a great place to start. You can read it here.

We were busy producing new content elsewhere for you this week too. There’s new blog posts about consumer psychology and systems that you need in your eCommerce business, and a new video on our YouTube channel. If you’re about to start selling on Wish because you’ve taken up our offer of reduced fees for three months, or you’re building your BigCommerce store because you’ve got our free trial, head to our YouTube channel for videos to help get you get going.

The weekend reads

Amazon Prime Day is fast approaching, being held on 21st and 22nd of June. It is a massive day for retailers, with predictions that sales will create a massive $11 billion, with even small retailers seeing a 14% increase in revenue last year. Getting your deals set up, and ensuring that you have enough stock (and backup inventory from DropShipping suppliers that you can access through Avasam) should be your priority this weekend if you haven’t done so already.

Halfords boss Graham Stapleton believes that with international holidays still looking unlikely through the summer and into autumn, customers will continue to make the most of staycations. We think that’s a pretty accurate prediction – we have been taking days out and weekends camping! With that in mind, adding items for home and garden, and outdoor leisure to your inventory is a wise move. Check out the ‘summer’ category on the Avasam catalogue to source these types of products for your business.

As restrictions slowly lift and we get back to ‘normal’ life, many of us ready to get out of our leisurewear and to start dressing up again. We mentioned the phenomenon of ‘revenge shopping’ that Anna Wintour predicted a few weeks ago, and the products that customers want are changing. Dresses are back in a big way, while sales of lipstick are up by more than 80%, in preparation for masks coming off. Think about what your target customer is likely to want to buy, to get those products into your inventory to maximise sales.

Is the future of selling off-site? Well, we mentioned the social commerce article Tejas published on Forbes earlier, and this post takes the consideration that eCommerce is changing even further. We think it is pretty unlikely that many retailers will ditch their own website as a sales channel for a long time yet, but with a look at brand strategies, lessons from China and post-purchase actions, there’s some serious food for thought.

Replying to customers can take up a huge amount of time, but when business is busy, you need to be able to get those responses out as efficiently as possible. Find out in this post how a retailer replies to more than 600 messages every month in less than an hour a day.

Dates for your diary

If you’re considering new options for your payments, or are looking to minimise friction in the customer experience then you won’t want to miss the short New Ways To Pay event on June 22nd. It is just 40 minutes, starting at 3.30, so you won’t miss too much Amazon Prime Day excitement. You can sign up for the event here.

The second part of the Digital Transformation Strategy 2021 event takes place on 30th of June, with speakers from Asda, Sofology and Hotter, talking about digital brand realities, technology and eCommerce innovation, and personalising the customer experience. Even if you missed the first part of the event, it is well worth signing up. You can do that, and find out more here.

eBay sellers won’t want to miss eBay Open Online, taking place during 3rd to the 5th of August. Find out more about the event here, and sign up for your spot here.