The holiday season is about to hit high gear. For many brands, this means a major increase in sales that can make or break their fiscal year. And for forward-thinking brands, Q4 is also a great time to proactively build sales for the next year with a few simple packaging and fulfillment strategies. How, you ask? Let’s jump in. Easy brand-building: label your packages! Smart brands should consider packaging as great real estate to promote themselves. Include your logo prominently on all packaging: box, wrap, bags, etc. It’s essentially free marketing for people who have already shown willingness to purchase…
Ocean Freight Crisis: Supply Chain Experiences Unforeseen Ripple Effects of Covid-19
Since the start of the pandemic, eCommerce has rapidly been adopted by shoppers across the globe. With such a high volume of sales now occurring online, the demand for products from overseas has increased, putting a massive strain on the ocean freight industry. This has led to delays and a major increase in costs for containers, with some parts of the country’s coastlines paying almost 500% more per container than they were a year ago. As of August 2021, ocean freight lines, especially those in Oakland, CA, and Long Beach, CA, have come to a near halt. Until recently, the…
Breaking into U.S. eCommerce in 2021: How Should You Handle Fulfillment?
If you’re an international vendor looking to sell in the U.S., one of the hurdles you’ll have to solve is getting your products into the hands of your U.S. customers. Building your own fulfillment solution, with warehouse and personnel investments, can be costly, and if you have multiple stores on different platforms, it can become difficult to keep track of all your orders. In this post, we’ll break down three factors of great logistics: shipping & fulfillment; warehousing; and channel integration. Let’s get started. Shipping & Fulfillment You’ve decided on which retailer(s) you want to partner with. What are your…
5 Ways to Make Your Products Stand Out (feat. David Denenberg)
AndMakers Chief Revenue Officer Lily Chan recently spoke with David Denenberg, eCommerce exec and former Merchandising VP of Bed Bath and Beyond, on how you can effectively earn great visibility for your products. Check out this video interview or read on for major takeaways from Lily and David’s interview. Buy Keywords Do some research and see what keywords the top-selling products in your category are advertising on, then look at add modifiers relevant to your product. This goes for any platform with the keyword-based option (Google Shopping, Amazon, etc.). There’s no need to make more work for yourself when someone…
AndMakers: Highlights from a Wild Year – and What’s Coming Next
At AndMakers, we entered 2020 hoping to grow our business and prove our concept of blending technology, fulfillment, and partnership expertise to enable retail entrepreneurs around the world to achieve scale and success. Just like everyone else, we had no idea what was actually about to happen: a global pandemic that changed the retail landscape forever. —- Before I dive into our 2020 highlights and what’s on the horizon for 2021, I’d like to give a heartfelt thanks to our partners (both suppliers and retailers) and to the hard-working (and fast-growing) team driving our achievements. Our team hustled and pivoted…
Want to Sell on Wayfair? You Don’t Need a Connection – but It Helps
When I talk to suppliers in the home and outdoor markets, one of the first questions I get is “Can you get my products on Wayfair?” The answer is a little complicated, but maybe not why you’d expect. — First, if you haven’t heard of Wayfair, or haven’t checked in lately on how that company is doing, let’s just say that COVID-19 and the way it has accelerated eCommerce adoption has helped lead to absolutely massive growth for the platform. Wayfair’s Q2 2020 report showed revenue up 84% year over year to a total of $4.3 billion, and Q3 2020…
7 Key Takeaways from Wayfair, Payoneer, and AndMakers on Achieving eCommerce Scale
On Oct. 20, AndMakers co-founder Lily Chan joined Wayfair’s Michael Zhang and Payoneer’s T. J. Hyland for a free webinar on helping eCommerce brands launch on Wayfair. Attendees got a ton of insights on how to break into the U.S. market, grow sales, cut down on returns, and more. Here are our top 7 takeaways from the event: COVID-19 is accelerating eCommerce growth. Michael estimates that COVID-19 has accelerated the eCommerce growth curve by five years, with reports showing that eCommerce has made huge gains in its share of the retail market. He also forecasts that many new online customers…