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Fish. Chocolate. Cheese. Cookies. Steak.

These are all delicious, edible items that can be purchased online. However, shipping perishables can pose a real challenge to etailers.

There are several features and policies to combat the challenge of shipping perishable items. Other features help customers understand these processes and requirements.

SHIPPING AND HANDLING

The way items are packaged and the time they spend en route determine their condition when they arrive.

Packaging

Pam Macharola of BlairCandy.com sells and ships many treats with melt-potential — chocolate, gummies, taffy, mints, gum and more.

“We’ve tried everything! Right now we use a gel ice pack that was designed so it doesn’t sweat next to the item. These only last 48 hours max,” she said. “We are about to offer dry ice, so now we are going to have two options.”

CountryCupboardCookie.com’s Judy Wittig packages baked goods direct from the oven to
ensure freshness.

“Our cookies and brownies are baked from scratch without preservatives. We spend a lot of effort so that the packages arrive as fresh and delicious as possible,” she said. “Cookies are baked, packaged in heat sealed bags within an hour or two, gift-boxed and shipped that
same day.”

Andrew Dimino runs five websites based
out of Nevada, four of them food related. The most affected by the elements is LowCarbChocolates.com.

“We go out of our way to say in big, bold letters in multiple places, that chocolate will melt in certain areas (of the country),” said Dimino. “We tell our customers that we have been in business nine years and we know that chocolate melts in the summer.”

The warehouse at LowCarbChocolates.com dons a big map of the United States, where Dimino’s staff displays where the weather is hot.

“We look at routes the different products will take. As the temperatures change, we determine what states need ice packs. In the December Holiday Rush for example, we know that we still need ice packs to Florida and Arizona, but nowhere else in the country. As the year goes on, we change the maps,” he said.

Shipping Limitations

Timing also determines how items will arrive. Most etailers avoid shipping perishable goods for Saturday deliveries.

“We avoid shipping over the weekend unless the gift will arrive on Monday, also within 2-3 business days,” said Wittig.

BlairCandy.com uses a similar method. “We ship on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for most areas. We spend a lot of time in the hot months looking at the area it’s going to and what they ordered,” said Macharola.

Many etailers require next day air during hot months for certain items. Management tools like Shipping Manager by Solid Cactus (http://www.solidcactus.com/shipping-manager.html) creates item level rules for cases like this, which would restrict shipping methods. This prevents the customer from selecting an unsafe method in case the etailer does not catch it.

Dimino also requires overnight or second day air delivery on perishable items going to hot climates.

“We would love our product to arrive in perfect condition, but it is impossible unless its expedited,” he said.

Restricting Items in Warm Weather

Sometimes it just boils down to making certain items unavailable at certain times of the year.

“During the summer months we have a
few items that we do not ship, like our
Belgian chocolate fudge and butter cream frosted brownies,” said Judy Wittig of CountryCupboardCookie.com.

BlairCandy.com makes certain products temporarily unavailable for ordering, but on the item page notates that the item is in stock, but they will not ship.

Dimino’s flagship site, CarbSmart.com has another weather limitation, this time in the cold weather. His popular DaVinci sugar-free syrups come in glass bottles that burst when they get too cold.

“The first few years, every winter we knew that we would lose 24-36 bottles. For the first six years of business it was an acceptable loss. Two years ago, we had 120 bottles break; that’s why we changed our policy to not ship in winter,” he said, adding that each fall he has a sale prompting customers to stock up.

INFORMING THE CONSUMER

Informing customers of potential shipping issues is a must. Wittig explains that etailers who stand by their policies shouldn’t have a problem.

“We are honest with our customers. Once they understand the reason for the sometime restrictive shipping policies, they are appreciative of our attention to the freshness of their gift,” she said.

Shipping Policy Page

All e-commerce sites should have a shipping policy page prominently linked from the header and/or footer. Moving seasonal restrictions to the top of the page will ensure they are not overlooked.

FoilWrappedChocolates.com has an entire section on “hot weather shipping.” It includes a link to the Weather Channel’s website to tell customers the temperature along the delivery route.

Shipping Policy Pop-up

The item page can also feature a Shipping Policy Pop-up, for shipping policies on a particular item.

“Our newly designed website by Solid Cactus offers a shipping policy pop-up page with rates, policies and options. This is a great feature as it keeps the customer from leaving the page, utilizing the pop-up,” said Wittig.

BlairCandy.com goes a step further with a pop-in.

“The customer cannot get past the pop-in and check-out without acknowledging they read the message and clicking through. We can say ‘We warned you ahead of time,’” Macharola explained.

BlairCandy.com also has a shipping graphic on their homepage linking them to a page with the seasonal and weather-related shipping issues.

LowCarbChocolates.com also has a required acknowledgement.

“During check-out, customers have to check a box that says they understand the shipping policy. We have to do that,” Dimino explains. “We had the policy four years, only had the check-box this year.”

Use of Customer Service Department

FoilWrappedChocolates.com invites customers to call their customer service line when choosing shipping based on geography and temperature. Having a customer service line in the header is especially important when there could be an influx of incoming calls.

This time of year, Macharola reports that about 50% of the customer service calls at Blair Candy are for one question: “Will this melt?”

SALES AND PROMOTIONS

As an internal way to manage the melting issue, LowCarbChocolates.com has a few annual promotions aimed at pushing to sell the chocolates before the weather gets too hot.

“We have a big sale in the spring, before summer comes. We say, ‘Load up now, here’s a big discount, order everything you need for summer now,” said Dimino. “After summer we have another sale as a welcome back, that summer’s over.”

When it’s all said and done, mistakes still can happen when shipping chocolate. Perhaps Dimino says it best:

“It’ll still taste great, just won’t be in the same shape,” he joked.

REMEMBER CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

Even though the holidays happen in traditionally cold weather throughout most of the United States, shipping gift baskets to places that are warm and sunny year-round can still pose a problem. Dimino says paying attention to the weather on the holiday gift delivery route is still important.

“Even though chocolate will be less likely to melt in the winter in some cases we still have to require second day or overnight; winter in Miami is still warm,” said Dimino.

So, you’ve worked hard. You’ve put in the time and effort and now your online business is running smoothly, orders are steady and sales are up. But you are tired. You’ve been burning candles at both ends for two years straight without a break. The 80 hour weeks have finally caught up with you and you’ve got a chance to take a 7-night Caribbean cruise. You know you need this break, but what are you going to do with your online store in the meantime?

Planning the Great Escape

It’s happened to all of us at some point in our online careers and we have all survived a week away from home base. But first, you have to get to the point where you believe you can survive leaving your business with “others.” Before you escape, do some business planning so that you’ll be comfortable with someone else minding the store while you’re embedded in the conga line on the Lido deck.

Haste Makes Waste

Shutting down your online store while you’re away isn’t an option, so now your priority has to be to find someone who can keep the orders coming in and going out. You have two basic choices and each comes with positives and negatives. A plan may seem obvious; this is the moment when many small business owners will decide to hire their first employee. Not so fast! You don’t want the tail wagging the dog here. Hiring staff changes your business forever. This is an important change and for many businesses an inevitable one, but it is not a change you make in a rush or because you’re forced to make it. Any new hire is going to need training and you have to learn to trust that person. After all, your business will be in their hands while you’re away. If you’re not ready to become an “employer” just yet, you’re left with Plan B, also known as “friends and family.”

I am not a big fan of hiring friends or family members, but in a crunch they may be your best resource. Just make sure that whomever you select is capable of the basics—taking some phone calls, answering e-mail and getting orders out the door. Other business functions should be able to wait for your return.

Keep It Simple

Here is a checklist of tasks your temporary assistant should be able to handle:

• Pulling orders off your website and entering them into your order management system

• Answering the phone during your normal business hours

• Providing customers with product information

• Entering phone orders and processing credit cards

• Picking, packing and shipping product from your warehouse

• Answering customer e-mail

• Handling returns and exchanges

Now here’s a checklist of things you should do to make your assistant’s job easier:

• Show them how to use your voice mail and telephone system

• Write explicit instructions on how to do things (pull orders, charge cards, ship a package, etc.)

• Write a FAQ—a list of frequently asked questions that customers may ask during a call or e-mail

• Leave a list of usernames and passwords for your website and order management system

• List emergency contact numbers in case they have to reach you

We all need a break every now and then; it refreshes us and inspires us to think up the next big venture that will allow (dare we dream?)—2 weeks vacation next year! And after all, isn’t that the real point of working? To live? E-commerce never stops and neither should your business. By choosing the right person to run things while you’re away, you can relax and enjoy the fruits of your labors knowing your “baby” is in capable hands.

In any industry, it is crucial to keep up with the latest trends, buzz and how successful companies are, well, successful. In the
ever-changing landscape of
e-commerce, it’s even more
important to stay current.

There are many ways
to gain more knowledge:

• E-commerce Magazines & Ezines

• Marketing Research Reports & Whitepapers

• Conferences & Summits

• Forums & Communities

• Trade Publications based on your specific area

We recommend tapping the following resources to stay schooled in e-commerce.

Internet Retailer

The Internet Retailer show in Chicago in June is king at educating those in E-commerce about industry trends. Their monthly, glossy print magazine is free and all content is available online as well. IR also offers various newsletters that blast out daily, usually a grouping for top stories based on a certain theme, such as SEO or news from IR500 etailers.

In addition to daily updates and a monthly print magazine, IR also publishes the annual Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide– the 2008 copy was just released last month. This report highlights the Top 500 E-commerce sites and provides a detailed analysis of average order size, search engine rankings and conversion rates. There is a reason these 500 sites are raking in the most dough from online shoppers. Learn from them. The IR Top 500 Guide is $65.

The 2009 IR show will be in Boston, so mark your calendars.

Website Magazine

Website Magazine is a free print and web magazine aimed at helping people run successful online businesses, increasing traffic and in general keeping people updated on the latest industry trends. The magazine is divided into basic areas and offers forums, a daily blog and an archive of past articles.

E-commerce Times

The E-commerce Times network of news sites keeps readers informed on the latest news in E-commerce and technology. Updated daily, it offers news on big players in the industry, as well as e-commerce trends. Its main page offers the headlines on its sister newsletters, too. E-commerce Times also features various white papers that pertain to e-commerce, as well as an archive of past news stories. The online resource also can be delivered via e-mail. Visit ecommercetimes.com to read up.

Search Marketing Standard Magazine

Searchmarketingstandard.com focuses solely on online marketing and in fact, is the leading publication in search marketing. Search Marketing Standard, which also has a print version, has a very clean and well-organized website with resources divided into a dozen important categories.

Marketing Sherpa -

Have you ever heard of Marketing Sherpa? If you haven’t, you are missing out on one of the best e-commerce resources available. Marketing Sherpa provides numerous research and reports for a variety of industries, but pertaining to e-commerce, they really excel. Its annual report, The E-commerce Benchmark Guide is considered by many to be the e-commerce bible. If your developer has never heard of Marketing Sherpa, run away.

In the 2007 report, there is data from over 1900 e-commerce sites, survey results from over 2400 online shoppers, heat map studies which show how the eye looks at a website and in the mix of lots of content, there are hundreds of charts and graphs. This guide shows why people buy online and most importantly, why they don’t buy online. No etailer should be without this annual guide. For that data contained in Marketing Sherpa’s report, the $279 investment pays for itself.

Industry Events

E-commerce folks can really rack up the flyer miles by attending the many events happening each year. Solid Cactus just spent most of June at these shows, including IR and Ebay Live.

Remember to look outside e-commerce for conferences. Many shows are specific to your vertical industry you sell, for example, pets, gifts or electronics. Attending an annual pet product show can show you what others in your vertical are doing.

Forums

Reaching out to your peers in the industry is a great way to keep up with trends. There are dozens of forums out there and our favorite, the forum at ebizInsider.com has been getting quite a bit of buzz lately.

What Are You Reading?

Share your ideas and suggestions at the Ebiz Insider Forums.

Serious e-commerce begins with the holidays and getting ready for the holidays begins now. You know what’s at stake. Verisign reported 2007 internet holiday sales were up 25% over 2006. This year your holiday season is even more important. Still ahead are more increases at the gas pump which will ripple through the economy like a cold shiver. So, plenty of shoppers are looking to the internet instead of heading for the malls. How do you get this crucial market shopping with you?

The following guidelines will help you maximize sales.

Get Inside Your Shopper’s Head

Millions of people are just like me. We know the internet is fast, so we procrastinate and shop late.

How can we market
to this type of consumer?

• Hit the pain. Remind them why they’re online. Display a graphic on your homepage that says:

“Avoid the lines and shop with us online! Check out our money-saving holiday specials…”

• List your offers. Make sure your deals connect with your customers.

• Sell their wallets. Consumers don’t want to pay for gas or shipping costs. Whenever possible, offer free shipping.

• Reassure them. Guarantee delivery if offers are made before a certain date. Guarantee delivery with express delivery options.

• Offer Services. Offer free gift wrapping and cards with a personalized message. This saves last minute shoppers some time and is nearly universally embraced by—men.

• Match prices. If there’s a better bargain, match it.

• Use flash. Flash increases consumer confidence and draws attention through movement. Flash allows you to fit more into a small area without crowding.

Merchandise

Start tracking products and trends now. Find out what the big guys in your industry are doing. Feature the hot items prominently on the homepage. Showcase deals in a holiday-themed section.

• Sell suggestively. Feature gifts for Mom, Dad, Him, Her, etc.

Market!

All roads involve search engines.

• Pay-per-click remains the best way to get people from the search engines to your store. You can control when your ads are displayed, what is displayed and where the visitor lands when clicking the ad.

• Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE’s) such as Google Products (formerly Froogle), Nextag, Shopping.com, etc. are increasingly popular. Feed management tools get your products in the engines and provide ROI analytics at a product level. One example is FeedPerfect by Solid Cactus.

• Affiliate programs are typically pay-for-performance; you only pay if they deliver. Arm these programs with holiday graphics and banners showcasing your specials.

• The best customer is a regular customer. Personalize a special coupon code for “preferred customers.” Giving your regulars an exclusive deal goes a long way.

When mass e-mailing, make sure you have the following:

• E-mail programs maximize delivery. Exact Target, Got Campaigner Pro, etc. block spam. Companies trust the e-mail coming from them and more e-mail will reach your intended recipients.

• Use well-designed HTML e-mail, but don’t make it a mirror image of your homepage.

• Personalize. Start the e-mail with “Dear <first name>, as a valued customer of <your store name>…” then go into your offers, showcased items, gift suggestions, etc.

• Call to action. A sign saying “start shopping” or “don’t wait another minute—click here” often work.

• Be consistent. Touch the pain of shopping offline, tell people why they should shop with you, create urgency and have a call to action. Put this message on every page (remember, more people land on the inner pages than the homepage.)

Be Creative on a Shoestring

• Hold a contest. Have visitors submit names, e-mail and mailing addresses for a chance to win a product (make it valuable!) delivered to them, gift-wrapped, before the holidays.

• Use the list that you just created for holiday shoppers. E-mail everyone if they “Shop now for the holidays—Guaranteed delivery if the order is received by 12/xx Midnight.” Show case your offers and don’t forget the call to action.

Inspire Customer Confidence

Offers and pricing won’t matter if people don’t trust you. Dispel their fears up front.

• Identity theft. Install a “click here”
link to explain your site’s security. Yahoo! Store owners should explain why its encryption is important to consumers. Carry your site design and branding through the shopping cart and carry your security messages through checkout.

• Fly-by-night operations. Your “about us” page should eliminate these concerns by including your mission statement, how long you’ve been in business, your location, your customer service goals, a picture of your building and the people who work there. Let customers see who you are.

• State your policies. Shopping cart abandonment often results from the charges at checkout. Explain shipping and tax charges. Explain your exchange and return policies.

• Bad customer service. Make toll-free numbers and contact information prominent on every page of the site and have enough people on those phones. Some online shoppers still need to place orders by phone. Make sure they can.

• Testimonials. A customer’s words speak loudly—showcase glowing reviews on every page.

• Product reviews. Big guys like Amazon are using product reviews for a reason. Amazon praising a product they’re selling won’t be nearly as convincing as a customer saying the same thing.

Prepare the Team

Higher volumes require more people. Most merchants increase customer service and fulfillment staff 25% during the holidays.

• Get your people now so you won’t have to scramble when you need them. A $50 employee bonus for hooking a friend up with a job is a good incentive.

• Train them well. They should know your shipping and tax policies, your values for customer service and answer product questions. Make sure they have cheat sheets for gift ideas, can handle price matching and know your promotions. Sales through in-bound calls will mirror the knowledge of your customer service staff.

Live chat can cut down on customer service calls and allow reps to handle multiple customers with simultaneous chats.

Get Started Now!

Prepare your website, offers, marketing strategy and customer service now for fewer headaches, unexpected problems and potential disappointments.

Green is a popular color these days. “Going green” is a hot marketing gimmick. Individuals and businesses have made some strides to stop contributing to the environmental mess (that we have all helped to create.) Even though global warming and pollution are worldwide problems, the solution starts with each of us - at home and in the office.

Being an environmentally friendly business is
cost effective. Businesses can cut waste and
costs simultaneously.

Saving money and the Earth:

• Go paperless. Trade paper documents for digital documents. Stop paying for paper, toner and printer servicing. Trading paper mailings for e-mail reduces postage costs. Consider replacing paper catalogs with PDF files. If you send catalogs or print mailings, providing an easy way to opt-out will prevent unwanted waste for your customers and unnecessary costs for you.

• Turn off the power at the end of the work day. Have employees turn off monitors and computers when they leave.

• Strive for a smaller carbon footprint for travel to and from work. Encouraging employees to carpool or ride bikes into work can blunt rising gas prices.

• Reduce breakroom/kitchen waste. Remove disposable products and ask employees to bring their own coffee mugs to work.

• Buy bulk supplies to reduce numbers of individually wrapped products.

The Earth loves efficiency:

• Switching to Energy Star certified appliances allow you to use less energy; additional settings may also help draw minimal power during off hours.

• Motion and/or time sensitive lighting and temperature controls can cut energy use during off hours. Sadly, buying advanced fixtures costs more than having employees simply flip some switches when they leave, but it reduces human error.

• Tankless water heaters reduce the energy required to keep water hot.

• Radiant floor heating reduces extra energy used to heat outside air which may leak into ducts. Water and electric cables are also able to hold more heat than air, making them more efficient heat producers.

• Recycling wasted heat from data centers, waste water, etc., can save real money. Data centers often require energy to cool, while offices in cooler climates (or winter months) are expensive to heat. Filtering cold outside air to cool the data center can reduce your total energy use. Displacing and circulating wasted heat (energy) given off by servers can offset energy use. Routing waste water pipes to preheat water before it reaches the water heater offers additional savings.

Switching to sustainable sources:

• Find a renewable energy supplier that can directly feed your organization or purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) to reduce your carbon footprint. To find renewable energy sources and RECs see http://www.green-e.org/base/re_products?cust=b

• Buying recycled office supplies means less total landfill waste. Although biodegradable hardware (computer parts, phones, printers, etc) are not really available at this point, you can at least use a buying preference that tends toward companies that use less toxic chemicals in the production of their equipment.

• Check options for supplying your own solar/wind/geothermal energy on-site. For many organizations, on-site power options are not realistic. You’ll save money and external energy consumption and you may even be able to sell excess energy back to the grid.

Running a web-based company obviously requires electricity, not to mention any waste or CO2 produced during packaging and shipping. Here are ways to help offset usage:

• Reuse. Print on both sides of office paper, write on both sides of scratch paper, use refillable pens and pencils.

• RECYCLE. If you are not producing much waste, you may reduce costs by taking bags to your local recycling center. If you are lucky (or convincing), you may even be able to negotiate for cheaper residential pick-up.

• Buy carbon offsets. Carbon offsets exchange your inability to solve the problem locally with a global solution. One versatile non-profit offset provider is http://www.carbonfund.org. I found a comparison of several providers here: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm

Every positive change helps. Please remember this when you stock your supply shelves, pay your energy bill, remodel a building or finish a bottle of water. Remember each time you leave a room, flipping that switch helps us all.

By Jacob Swartwood
jacobs@ebizinsider.com