Weekend reading: 24th June

As midsummer passed this week, it reminded us that we’re already more than halfway through the year, and so the countdown to that lucrative quarter four is under way. While we’re all keen to make the most of the Great British Summer – especially once the restrictions are lifted – we’ve all got to keep looking forward, to continue building on our success. With that in mind, we’ve been hard at work this week bringing more suppliers to Avasam, to help you make the most of the rest of the year too.

This week on the reads we’re talking about changes to Wish fees, looking at making sales on WhatsApp, wondering if video calls to brands is the future of customer service, considering the complexities of product recommendations and sharing how to take advantage of TikTok advertising #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt.

The latest from us

If you’ve been with us, or followed us for a while, it will come as no surprise that we know the power of a great partnership, and that marketplaces are intrinsic to the success of any eCommerce business. We discussed these strategies in a guest post with our partners OnBuy recently – and you can read the full post here.

We brought even more great new homeware products to the catalogue for you to source this week, including a great new range of rugs and home textiles from supplier GB010089, while GB010082 has a fantastic range of stylish decorative items for throughout the home, including storage solutions, ornaments, and wall décor. These types of products are in high demand across all sales channels, so log in to start sourcing.

We posted on our blog this week about the importance of a great returns strategy, since many retailers have struggled to minimise the impact that DropShipping returns have had on their profits in the past. With our automated returns process, you can request refunds and returns, see the status of the request, and escalate the issue to us should it be necessary. If you’ve held off on making sales using DropShipping because of returns, now is the time to get going – particularly with all the brilliant new products we have brought on board lately.

The weekend reads

Our partnership with Wish is going from strength to strength, with many of you taking advantage of the 10% fee reduction for the first three months on the platform. This week, they announced that there will be dramatic changes to the fee structure from 19th July, with lower fees for Wish Express orders – which with Avasam suppliers, is much easier to do. Find out more about the changes to the fee structures in this post, including a video about selling on Wish.

Been thinking about how you can make the most of your WhatsApp contacts to make additional sales? So have Facebook (who own WhatsApp, in case you missed that). This week, Mark Zuckerberg announced thee massive eCommerce updates – Shops on WhatsApp and Marketplace, Shops Ads, and Instagram Visual Search. Find out more about what is coming, including technology like AR dynamic ads, here.

Providing excellent customer service is always high on the agenda for retailers, but Marks and Spencer have kicked it up a level by offering customer consultations with their staff via a pre-bookable video call. The service was greatly in demand, with 500 appointments booked, and more than 9000 calls taken in the three month trial – and they’re not the only retailer on the case with this. Superdrug is currently trialling the ‘Superdrug Store Insider’ in four stores, and if that trial is successful, they’ll be rolling it out across all their stores.

Have you thought about how product recommendations are presented to your customers recently? It isn’t as straightforward as one size fits all, and simply linking related products. For more discussion about how you can make product recommendations more suited to your customers, click here.

Are you taking advantage of what advertising on TikTok has to offer, or wondering even how to get started? Here’s a great discussion of how to present your brand on TikTok, and the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt that you can start to build views with.

Dates for your diary

Last call for registration for Ecom World – the event takes place next week, between 28th and 29th June. There are incredible speakers and brands to be in attendance, including Amazon, Google, Shopify and more. You can register for attendance here.

The second part of the Digital Transformation Strategy 2021 event takes place on 30th of June. They’ll be discussing digital brand realities, technology and eCommerce innovation, as well how to personalise the customer experience. You don’t need to have attended the first part of the event, so it is well worth signing up – which you can do here.

eBay Open Online takes place between 3rd and 5th August. The agenda is yet to be released, but we’re certain there will be some incredible guidance, whether you’re new to selling on eBay, or you’ve sold on there for years. Read more about the event here, and sign up here.