Is your brand ready for direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales? Many brands are considering this step, but they often do not fully understand what the impact on the organisation will be. This article will show you at a glance what will change in terms of marketing and sales, customer service, logistics and finance!
#1 Marketing and Sales
Marketing and sales must work well together to maintain customer relationships and ensure their quality. This also includes managing the seller's account. Listing the products, developing and managing content, a good pricing strategy with the ads and product promotions all contribute to boosting sales of the products in the marketplace.
Data is an important concept for the marketing and sales department when we talk about marketplaces. Sales data should always be analysed in order to respond to changes in figures. Based on data, next steps can be taken to continuously improve the process and boost sales.
Practical example:
Amazon data showed that the conversion rate of a sports article was low. After analysing his sales account, we found that the content was not complete and specific enough. It had to be optimised. It turned out that the product image only showed one item, while it was sold as a pair. By only changing the product image where the product was shown as a pair, the conversion percentage increased tenfold. The difference can be in the details. Make sure you always analyse, optimise and adjust.
#2 Customer service
Then there is customer service. How this is organised has everything to do with the questions mentioned above. Handling customer questions, damage claims, complaints, receiving and following up customer reviews and handling returns. Customer service is an important part of selling on a marketplace. This department has the first and often also the last contact with the customer.
This contact makes or breaks the relationship with the customer. Handling all matters related to this will build a certain image of your brand or product with the customer: the image. Do you build a good image or reputation with your customer? If so, they are likely to make repeat purchases and vice versa. After price and delivery time, the customer rating is an important metric for the buying block.
#3 Logistics
For the logistics department, the question often arises as to what changes should be made? Can we only send pallets or can we do it per order and per post? What overhead costs are involved? How do we deal with product returns? As we all know, you can choose to ship the products yourself or have the marketplace do it for you. This decision has an impact on the logistics process. Let's take Bol.com as an example. If you are going to deliver products, there is a second question. Will the products be delivered per box or pallet? If so, you need to take into account the conditions imposed by the marketplace. Within these conditions, you need to find the right quantity of products based on how much stock you can send, how many fit in a box and how many boxes on a pallet. This requires good coordination with your logistics department in order to find the most efficient solution. Furthermore, with Logistics via Bol.com you outsource the processing, packaging and shipping of your orders to Bol.com, including the administration that comes with it. This gives you as an entrepreneur and your customers many advantages.
Your customers receive their order within one day and they also receive it in a Bol.com package. This creates trust and that is good for your company's image. If unfortunately something goes wrong with the order or if the customer wants to return the product? Bol.com will also take care of this for you.
Your products will also be marked as Select articles. As a company, you give your customers the option of faster and more comprehensive delivery options. For example, your customers can choose when and where they want their order delivered. Customers who want to use Select pay a fixed amount per year to Bol.com and you reach these customers by using Logistics via Bol.com (LvB). There are many other benefits besides these.
#4 Financials
The financial department is also an important player in the whole process of selling on a marketplace. The entire payment traffic in the marketplace must be regulated. How are sales booked in the existing ERP system? Are they separate order lines for each order or are you going to write off the whole thing? It is also very likely that a customer will want to receive a VAT invoice, and this also needs to be facilitated. It is striking that many companies still do this all manually and that it requires a lot of people. By (daring to) invest, you can make long-term profits and fewer people are needed. This saves time and money.
Of course, it can happen that products are returned. How do you arrange this financially? For example, does the customer want to receive a different product or does he want his money back? If so, within what time frame can the customer expect his money back? And what about shipping costs? Does the customer pay these or do you, as an entrepreneur, take care of the shipping costs?
The costs for shipping through, for example, Bol.com with the Logistics via Bol.com (LvB) service are variable. There are some services you receive for the rate you pay and there are also some things you have to arrange and pay for yourself. If you use LvB you will send all your products to the Bol.com warehouse yourself. Other costs that might come along with this are stickers on your products, the retrieval or destruction of unsold stock or costs such as VAT, commissions and surcharges.
VAT, advertising costs and product storage costs are all things that need to be taken into account when selling on a marketplace.
Quite a mouthful, but it is essential that you have all these components well organised within your company. Does your brand or wholesaler get stuck at any of these steps in the process? Do you no longer know what the next step is or do you simply not know where to start? We will be happy to look at which steps you need to take to continue growing.