Ecommerce Trends for 2010

Despite the worldwide recession, ecommerce continues to build sales momentum thanks to merchant initiatives, growth in the mobility sector and more sophisticated back-end systems, according to a new report entitled 10 Ecommerce Trends for 2010 that we released this week. The report says that online shopping is moving from a transaction mentality to one that also embodies discovery, entertainment and social bonding experiences.

Five of the report’s key ecommerce trends for 2010 include:

A Smarter Mobility:
Smartphone growth with its wider screens and compelling applications will continue to accelerate in 2010. Just as ecommerce sites have contributed to sales in physical stores, we will see more aggressive pushes by mobile applications to drive ecommerce sales. One emerging way will be through Augmented Reality (AR), where information is overlaid on images or video.

Fulfillment Rules:
More retailers will consider regional fulfillment centers because of the volatility of fuel costs and marketplace demand for accelerated delivery times. To minimize inventory, drop shipping from manufacturers will gain traction. Reverse logistics will also be a point of emphasis as recapturing the value of goods not only fits into heightened environmental concerns, but for businesses represents an opportunity to reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction and increase marketing opportunities by offering refurbished products.

Customer Service is Everywhere:
As consumers utilize an increasing number of communication channels – from texting to responding to YouTube videos, their expectations to access information, express themselves, and receive feedback in an immediate time frame, poses a complex challenge that e-retailers are beginning to take very seriously. As a result, Call Centers are being replaced with Customer Experience Centers that deliver consistent superior touchpoints with consumers over a wide spectrum of communication channels.

Being Relevant is Virally Important:
Whether they like it or not, e-retailers are expected and valued as more than suppliers of goods and services. Accordingly, they must proactively take on personalities that their market segments feel comfortable with. This relevancy requires e-retailers actively listen, converse and engage in a variety of areas such as online destinations and social responsibility forums,

Business Intelligence Meets Business Process:
While companies retain a wealth of data, they often lack the capture tools, analytical processes and personnel bandwidth to turn this information into actionable activities. In 2010, there will be a greater commitment to unleash the intelligence residing in data banks to create sophisticated marketing and sales business processes that provide competitive advantages.

Elise Chow, President and Chief Executive Officer of FFP Global in commenting on the report said: “Traditional analysis has suggested that the growth of ecommerce represents a powerful shift to the consumer, because comparative information is readily available at their disposal. However, FFP Global believes that e-retailers are being infused with considerable clout as well through extensive data capture capabilities, influential interactive mediums such as Facebook and Twitter along with the availability of robust outsourced backend services.”

To receive the report 10 Ecommerce Trends for 2010, contact Joe Sarno (508)475-0932 or via email at jsarno@ffpglobal.com

Product Fulfillment Services

Although we are still facing some challenging economic times, the worst seems over. We are seeing encouraging signs that companies are getting back into the decision making mode. For an outsourcing company such as FFP Global this is good news. Our product fulfillment services business is especially active.

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Portuguese Speaking Call Center Agents

As a Bilingual Call Center we have agents who speak many different languages and dialects. One such ethnic group we serve is the Portuguese population. They are are the fourth largest ethnic group in the State of Hawaii, fifth largest group in Rhode Island and the eighth largest group in Massachusetts. Portuguese Speaking Call Center Information

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Warehouse Management System Upgrade

We released a new version of our FullVantage™ Warehouse Management System. Read the press release. FFP Global’s FullVantage™ Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a full featured, highly integrated and open standards platform that can be utilized by multi-channel companies whether they employ FFP Global’s physical fulfillment centers and or their own warehouses around the world. FullVantage™ optimizes fulfillment operations and displays real time information flows on a 24/7 basis.

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Ecommerce Sales 2nd Quarter 2009

The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce said that retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2009, adjusted for seasonal variation, but not for price changes, was $32.4 billion, an increase of 2.2 percent (±1.2%) from the first quarter of 2009. This flat growth is most likely reflective of the high unemployment rate.

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Broadband Growth – Ecommerce Impact

Broadband use in two groups showed signficant growth over the past year:

Senior citizens: Broadband usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May, 2008 to 30% in April, 2009.

Two groups of low-income Americans saw strong broadband growth from 2008 to 2009. Respondents living in households whose annual household income is $20,000 or less, saw broadband adoption grow from 25% in 2008 to 35% in 2009. Respondents living in households whose annual incomes are between $20,000 and $30,000 annually experienced a growth in broadband penetration from 42% to 53%.

It’s going to be interesting to see the impact these trends have on ecommerce.

Twitter Changes Landscapes

Great article in today’s New York Times reviewing Twitter’s growing importance of a real time news source with its non stop flow of information feeds. Twitter has even been used to organize protests in Iran.
read article

New Friends

We been selected to develop a suite of e-commerce solutions for My Storytime Friends®, an integrated toy-and-storybook product line targeted at the 3 – 8 age group. My Storytime Friends® is the brainchild of managing partner Bruce deMustchine and the first offering from the newly formed de Sales Group LLC, which was established by Bill York, former President of the Vermont Teddy Bear company, and Danny Dimont, the former Senior Vice President of Applause Plush.

FFP Global will develop and manage integrated order capture, order management and order fulfillment platforms along with building Web 2.0 applications for My Storytime Friends®. In addition, FFP Global will host reseller and customer portals. FFP Global will handle product fulfillment from our Westborough, Massachusetts Fulfillment Center and provide customer service support at our Fairhaven, Massachusetts Contact Center.

The My Storytime Friends® product line centers on an interactive stuffed toy and storybook kit featuring a 13-inch plush animal that also appears as the main character in the accompanying 32-page, illustrated hardcover book. The books are written by veteran children’s author Andrew Wolfendon, winner of numerous awards for excellence in educational writing for children.

Call Center Outsourcing: A Strategic Connection

The benefit most often cited about outsourcing call center services is that it enables companies to better focus on their core competencies. However, FFP Global believes this is a very incomplete, if not flawed assessment as it suggests that customer interactions do not have strategic implications. Today, a customer interaction in all its forms, whether an inbound phone call, web chat or email exchange, can have a profound multiplier effect and bottom line impact when these experiences good or bad instantly traverse online media and social networking spaces and pick up a life of their own.

Thinking BPO Strategically

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), in which firms turn over  back-office functions and customer-facing (order processing, customer support) activities to outside vendors has been traditionally promoted as a way for companies to rid themselves of high volume transactions,  thus allowing them to focus on their core competencies.

At FFP Global we are seeing an interesting evolution with BPO. Because of the depth and unpredictability of the economic crisis, companies are making far reaching cuts in personnel, infrastructure, programs and capital expenditures. However, as company resources are eliminated, the ability for executives to understand transformative options can become significantly hindered.

Over the last few months, more and more FFP Global clients are relying on us to review business processes in a strategic framework context.  There’s a realization that core competencies can evaporate if they don’t have a push/pull relationship with business processes.  We believe that tremendous strategic value can be found in the elements and details of business processes, so FFP Global welcomes this development.