delivery Archives

Top of the Shop: SEO, CRM, OMG!

Ecommerce merchants have been absolutely spoiled for choice since Canadian shop-builder Shopify began revolutionizing independent online sales. Their “shop in a can” approach for the not-so-tech-savvy seller has proved remarkably successful, but the amount of help can be almost overwhelming. The gargantuan Shopify app catalogue can sometimes feel like asking for a coffee and being offered 400 choices differing mostly in shades of brown.

At the end of the day however, Shopify is a community of sellers and experts who know the difference a shade of grey can make to the success of an online shop. How intrusive is an app to the flow of your platform? How much added friction is too much before you lose a buyer with all your bells and whistles? Are you trading cash for flash?

As we launch eRated on Shopify, we wanted to offer our two cents on five cool apps that offer support in five key areas every Shopify shop-owner needs to be conscious of: Shipping, SEO, CRM, social media and marketing. Many shop-owners don’t have 24/7 availability, but these apps make it look as though you never sleep.

For Shipping, get heavy using Shippo

They’re integrated with eighteen different carriers from FedEx in North America to Parcelforce in Europe, which is a phenomenal selection menu ensuring you get the best price every time you ship. Whilst being integrated with Canada Post, they don’t appear to offer through Royal Mail just yet - which we’re sure must be keeping Her Majesty up at night. With one click you can also sort your labels. At the lower end you can pay as you ship and for high volume shops they offer rev-share opportunities.

Get on Top with SEO Meta Manager

Most potential buyers are not searching for your shop on Shopify, they probably don’t even know what Shopify is. Odds are their first stop (and last stop) is Google, which is why search engine optimization is so important - get on the top of search results and you’re already halfway there to getting a sale. SEO Meta Manager has almost 400 Shopify reviews and is operating in over 4000 shops. They are cheap (only $50 one-time fee) and they work, tailoring your product labels and descriptions to generate more visitors (and more sales) to your shop.

Get to know your buyers with Nimble

Competitively priced at $15.00 per month, Nimble is one of the most trusted CRM tools available on Shopify. Nurturing customers is even more important online than it is for brick and mortar store as shoppers are fickle with so many options available. With an easy to use platform, Nimble lets you source new customers through social media, compiles calendars, email conversations and social signals ideal for SMEs.

Let Fiverr Fire up your Photos

You can take the time to learn photoshop and its many incarnations, or you can post your photos to Fiverr and let the creatives do the rest. Our friends at Fiverr are one of the world’s favourite freelancer hubs and for just a few dollars you can amp up your photos in your Shopify store with a little help from your Fiverr friends. Many shop-owners will list sharp, crisp product photos as literally the most important feature of their platform and what generates conversions more than anything else. Particularly for early shop-owners juggling so many new products, outsourcing to Fiverr freelancers is a great way to get ahead.

Social in one Place thanks to Sumall

This New York-based company is making a splash in ecommerce for independent shops and SMEs. Sumall manages data, especially social data, all in one place. Along with their sleek dashboard, they also provide excellent weekly metrics and analytics reports so you can stop fumbling around in the dark. They find out what email subject lines convert best, timing, hashtag performance, ideal post length and help you find the places with the most interested readers (and turn them into customers).

eRated is launching in Shopify and we’re offering 20% discounts and free trials for helping us to spread the word!

Announcing eRated Profile Pages: The HootSuite for eCommerce

Unless you’ve been an online seller for a long time and have gotten to know the players, experts and gurus, you probably don’t know how well you’re selling compared with others selling similar products or services. What’s even less likely is that you know how well competitors are doing in other marketplaces. One thing’s for sure, you’re looking to become a better seller, but you’ve read all the top ten lists and don’t know where to go. That’s why eRated has created Profile Pages.

eRated’s Profile Pages are the world’s first multi-platform channel providing sellers a comprehensive dashboard to track performance. What does performance mean? The Profile pages let you view your rolling reviews from all of your platforms together. Spot a problem or bad review - innoculate immediately and get your reputation back to where you want it. Track your reputation across time and across platforms - where are selling best and where do you need to improve?

eRated Profile Pages are the Hootsuite for online sellers.

eRated’s Profile Pages make it easier to manage your reputation. How are you perceived across multiple platforms and in ecommerce generally? eRated is the first company to aggregate all your behavioural and social data to give you your eWorth. This is important because it demonstrates your capacity - and how much more room you have to grow.

The Profile Pages aren’t just a calculator or schedule to keep track of things - the Profile Pages improve your reputation. You can contact your clients and friends to request vouches and recommendations regarding your sales history, reliability and even your friendliness and demeanor. In a social world, people want to buy from friendly sellers.

You can connect all your online identities, from your social media accounts to your marketplace profiles. Best of all, you can search for other sellers! Visit other profiles to start building valuable networks and communities, and of course to keep track of your competition.

As always, you can export your reputation data to all of our partner marketplaces. Improve your sales in eBay by aggregating your reputation data in one place through the eRated widget. It’s also easy for online sellers to use eRated to carry their reputation to their own storefront. Keep track of your sales in your shop, as well as in your shop identities elsewhere. Get the most out of your reputation.

eRated profile pages are fun, easy and convenient. As hundreds more shops and marketplaces pop up online, eRated makes it easy for sellers to keep track, improve and reduce stress.

Parcel Bright: A Cheaper, Brighter Future for Parcel Delivery

Anxiety is a painful reality for many SME owners today. Making sure staff are content and properly compensated. Proving your worth to investors. Managing the inevitable snags in operation. But nothing keeps business owners up at night more than making sure clients receive their product on time and in shape. ParcelBright is the UK’s newest solution for individual online sellers and small businesses looking to get their package out on time so sellers can rest easy.

Far from one size fits all, ParcelBright tailors its pricing to you. It’s pretty simple, the more you ship, the more you save. But that’s not all, with many different packages to choose from, ParcelBright will help you find the cheapest way to ship no matter how big or small you are. This is a principle eRated values as well. With time and the right support sellers will increase sales volume. In fact, that’s part of the business model. Helping our sellers grow their bottom line helps us grow ours as well. It’s truly a case of one tide raising all boats.

ParcelBright was founded late in 2013. While the business is just one year old, they are already on track to send 500,000 parcels this year, and have attracted a series of investors who have pledged $1,000,000 to help ParcelBright to continue to support small to medium sized online sellers.

Based in London, ParcelBright has one of the most enviable customer service response times in the industry at 60% response within one hour, and most others soon after. That’s better than most corporations with massive customer support teams. Great customer support, reliability and unbeatable pricing means repeat customers have become loyal mainstays. Clients can trust ParcelBright to get the job done and, if it’s one thing we know at eRated, it’s the importance of trust.

eRated is thrilled to be partnering with ParcelBright because, at the end of the day, we have the same mission: Helping sellers satisfy buyers and scale up. Like eRated, ParcelBright’s door is always open, whether you’re a small scale seller with only a handful of deliveries a week or a High Street chain distributing thousands of packages on a regular basis, they are a solution for all sizes.

Good things may coming small packages, but ParcelBright’s tailor-made solutions make sure good things come in all packages.

To start delivering with ParcelBright, check them out at parcelbright.com