Jake Rheude

Keeping Buyers Happy: Year-Long Lessons from the Holiday Shopping Season

(This is a guest post from our friend Jake Rheude over at Red Stag Fulfillment.)

With Black Friday over, you’re probably sighing a happy sigh of relief and enjoying the nice push of new business your way. That’s thanks to 65% of Americans spending an average of $420 over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Black Friday alone felt a 16.9% growth compared to the year before to reach $5.03 billion in online sales alone.

It sounds like great news, but there are plenty of lessons in there for us all to find once the madness of the holidays takes a pause.

The biggest and most prominent takeaway is that in-store stoppers on Black Friday were down 4% compared to the year before. Fewer people were making it through the brick-and-mortar doors, while more were opting for digital doors.

The same data from the Wall Street Journal and RetailNext found that middle-class consumers were sticking to their phones and PCs, while the luxury and bargain-hunting ends of the spectrum were willing to brave the store.

Now that we’ve got a little bit of insight into the current state of affairs, it’s time to tackle the bigger picture. Here’s how you get them to come back in January, February, and all the other months to follow before next year’s big spending season. (more…)

Game of Orders: A Song of Drop-Shipping and Ecommerce Fulfillment

We’ve written a lot about eCommerce fulfillment and drop-shipping best practices. Now, our friends at Red Stag Fulfillment are chiming in on what the differences are between the two because they often get confused. Here’s what they have to say…

You know that, to succeed, your business needs to provide an amazing shopping experience, products, and delivery. You’ve mastered the art of the online sale and chosen awesome goods to share with the world, but the shipping side of things gets a little tricky.

There are a lot of shipping options you can use, but which one is the best for your business? (more…)