Weeknotes #8

Roger on 30/09/2016

What happened this week…

  • Went to the Commerce Futures event about marketplaces and found out what other retailers think of Amazon.
  • Went to Ecommerce Expo and chatted to people from FreshDesk, Amazon Payments, and Amazon Sponsored Products.
  • Invited candidates for interview as the new Ecommerce Executive.
  • Battled with Amazon in our on-going attempts to get our Seller Account verified.
  • Sent pre-orders of Heartfelt to Gardners for fulfilment (well, I didn’t but people more awesome than me did).
  • Asked Waterstones for a refund for my pre-order of Heartfelt with them but apparently they are really busy.
  • Had September’s Monthly Management meeting to talk about what to do with the Ecommerce Working Group.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

  • Preparing for the Quarterly Performance and Review meeting.
  • Having the Quarterly Performance and Review meeting.
  • Thinking about how we transition project work into everyday business as usual.
  • Preparing for the Trustpilot trial of reviews for the Online Shop.
  • Reviewing the logistics process mapping that we’ve done so far.
  • Meeting with the Senior Marketing Manager to talk about how we can develop a marketing plan for Ecommerce.
  • Discussing process mapping requirements for Ecommerce within RMSP.
  • Interviewing for the new Ecommerce Executive.
  • (And, hopefully selling Heartfelt on Amazon).

Interesting stat of the week…

  • September has been the highest month for donations this year. We’ve had 103 donations totally £987, over double the monthly average.

In the not too distant future….

  • Maybe a test Customer Contact platform for dealing with customer emails and calls and internal requests.

At Ecommerce Expo 16

Roger on 28/09/2016

I went to Ecommerce Expo 16, and although I only had a short amount of time to watch a couple of presentations and talk to a few companies about their services, I got a lot out of going.

I got stats:

  • The average adult uses 2.3 devices a day; tablets and mobiles in the morning, desktops during the day, and mobiles in the evening.
  • 87% of customers in the UK shop online.
  • 50% of customers won’t go back to a retailer if they have a poor fulfilment experience.

I got insights:

  • Customers have unlimited choice. They can get pretty much whatever they want and in lots of different ways.
  • Customers have accepted that change, retailers must too. The question is, how do we do it?
  • Ecommerce must be effortless and it must reward the customer. (I thought the idea that ecommerce needs to reward the customer is really interesting, and right, the more extra benefits and value (not just monetary) a customer gets the more likely they are

I got to meet:

  • Freshdesk, to talk about customer contact and how we can improve our customer services. (And I got a keyring).
  • Amazon Payments, to talk about using Amazon as a payment option.
  • Amazon Sponsored Products, to talk about pushing Heartfelt

Commerce Futures Marketplaces event

Roger on 27/09/2016

I went the a Commerce Futures event about Marketplace selling which included speakers from Boden, Dune, Baker Ross, and Style.com.

Commerce Futures Marketplaces event

Here are some of the things I learned about selling on Marketplaces:

  • Lots of ecommerce people don’t like Amazon
  • Companies like Dr. Marten, Brompton and Selfridges won’t sell on Amazon because they lose brand control
  • Companies that do sell on Amazon see it as adding incremental sales to their main business
  • Companies like Dune use Amazon to clear last season’s stock
  • Logistics infrastructure is the main challenge for companies selling on Amazon
  • Ensure availability of stock is another big challenge
  • Customers have greater trust for marketplaces than individual brands
  • Brands need to be where consumers expect to see them
  • Amazon UK may introduce Tracked Delivery Service as mandatory for marketplace sellers
  • Amazon has very strict thresholds for dealing with order issues and these put your account in jeopardy
  • Global marketplaces will own 40% of Ecommerce by 2020

My fortune 

Roger on 24/09/2016

My talents are going to be recognised and suitably rewarded, apparently.
My talents are going to be recognised and suitably rewarded, apparently. 

Weeknotes #7

Roger on 23/09/2016

What happened this week…

  • Launched Heartfelt, along with international shipping.
  • Reviewed CV’s submitted for the Ecommerce Executive role.
  • Sent Heartfelt and Christmas Card marketing emails.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

  • Going to a Commerce Futures Conference on Marketplaces.
  • Discussing the SEO strategy for Reviews.
  • Going to Ecommerce Expo.
  • Getting a refund from Waterstones for my pre-order of Heartfelt.
  • The Ecommerce Monthly Management Meeting.

Interesting stat of the week…

  • We sold 67 copies of Heartfelt so far, the first order was placed less than 2 and ½ hours of launch, and we have orders from countries including Australia, US, New Zealand, Finland.

In the not too distant future….

  • An Ecommerce Executive to help with the Online Shop.

ATBA-UK Team Meeting

Roger on 18/09/2016

We had a really good (and long) team meeting to talk about how things have gone over the past year and plan for next year.

Review of 2016

Instructor training has gone well this year, better than expected in fact. Without any real push it has provided enough income to keep the ATBA-UK afloat regardless of any other income. It’s also shown where the target market is so it’s definitely something I’d like to expand on next year.

UK Championship 16 went really well too. Having just one comp was a risk and very much a test of how the community would respond. We didn’t do a great deal of development/improvement work for it so that it would be a blank sheet of paper test, and we’ve done a lot of issue tracking and feedback surveys so that we know what to work on improving for next year.

Planning for 2017

We started planning for the UK Championship 2017, deciding what to spend money on, which priorities to focus on, and who is going to do what. This is just the start but it’s an important part of making the UKC17 as good as it can be.

We also talked about the history of the ATBA-UK and some of the controversy, mistakes made, lessons learned, and how it is that we are where we are today. It made me think that maybe I should try writing it all down.

Weeknotes #6

Roger on 16/09/2016

What happened this week…

  • Wrote a presentation for the Heads of Fundraising about why and how we should work more together.
  • Started planning the rollout of Trustpilot reviews for Online Shop customers.
  • Customer Segment Analysis.
  • Designed the first Christmas cards marketing email.
  • The job advert for an Ecommerce Executive went live.
  • Met with the Corporate Team to talk about marketing Christmas cards.
  • Experimented with Slack and Google Calendar integrations to build a marketing plan workflow.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

  • Launching Heartfelt for pre-order.
  • Not presenting to the Heads of Fundraising (the meeting was cancelled).
  • More customer segmentation work.
  • Sending our first Christmas cards marketing email.
  • Reviewing logistics process mapping.
  • Talking about selling Blood Pressure Monitors.
  • Preparing for the next Ecommerce Monthly Management Meeting.

Interesting stat of the week…

  • A year ago the largest age group of customers was 45 – 54 at 27%, but now the largest age group is 35 – 44 at 33%, so we’re getting younger customers.

In the not too distant future….

  • Interviewing for the Ecommerce Executive role.