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Brought to you by the team at Neto, this blog is designed to provide valuable insight into the Australian E-commerce industry with tips and hints, latest news and information to help grow your online business.

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Australian E-commerce Blog

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Logistics: Dropshipping, 3PL & DIY

If you are selling physical products you will need to warehouse, and eventually ship your products to your customers. Alternatively, you can have suppliers or manufacturers fulfil orders on your behalf (drop shipping) or utilize the services of a third party logistics provider (3PL). Drop shipping Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the supplier or manufacturer for fulfilment. Neto makes drop shipping easy by supporting multiple drop ship suppliers per order, automatically splitting orders for multiple drop ship suppliers and delivering drop ship orders by email, FTP or a web service. Drop ship suppliers can also login to your Neto supplier portal to process orders on your behalf. Benefits of Drop Shipping Low setup... continue reading

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How should I charge for shipping?

There is no doubting the fact that shipping costs are an important factor in any consumer’s purchase decision making process. Therefore you should think carefully about how, and how much to charge for shipping. Below are some of the most popular ways to charge for shipping Free Shipping Add the cost of shipping into your selling price - this is becoming a popular option, embraced by some of Australia’s largest online retailers. Consumers love free shipping. Free Over “x” Amount Charge a flat rate or tiered price for shipping up to a certain order value after which shipping is free. This method can increase average order value and drive up sales. Cubic / Weight Based Shipping Shipping costs are calculated on the cubic or weight of the order and the destination post code. The larger the order, the more expensive the shipping will be using this method.&... continue reading

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Online Merchant Facilities

Even if you already have a merchant facility for EFTPOS and credit card transactions, you will need a separate one for processing online transactions. An online merchant facility usually attracts higher fees than an EFTPOS facility as the risk of “card not present” transactions is higher for the issuing bank. Applying For a Merchant Facility When you apply for a merchant facility with your bank or financial institution you may be asked to complete a Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) as well as provide proof that your service providers are PCI compliant. In such cases you can request a copy of Neto's Attestation of Compliance and latest PCI compliant scan reports from its authorised scanning vendor, Comodo. In addition to these documents you will also need to complete a PCI Compliance Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) of your own. SAQ A is the correct SAQ for Neto mer... continue reading

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Promoting Your New Website

There are a number of ways to promote your e-commerce website both on and offline. Online marketing is usually more cost effective and returns better conversion rates than traditional offline marketing for an e-commerce business. Conversion rates are an important factor when it comes to measuring the success of your online marketing campaigns. By utilizing tools such as Google Analytics (GA) and specifically its e-commerce reporting option you can effectively monitor the success of your online marketing campaigns and their conversion rates. Your conversion rate is typically calculated by taking your total number of sales, and dividing it by the number of visitors to your website in any given period. For example if 1,000 visitors generate 10 sales your conversion rate is 1%. Conversion rates differ greatly between websites. Most experts will tell you that an ideal e-commerce conversio... continue reading

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What is an affiliate network? How can it help my business?

Affiliates networks, like CSEs, are traffic drivers. Each network typically consists of thousands of affiliate websites and businesses ready and willing to market your website to their user base. Unlike CSEs though, you typically only pay the network once they deliver a sale (flat fee or % per sale). As such there is no upfront risk involved in affiliate marketing. Like CSEs, affiliate networks enable online retailers to quickly gain greater reach and market exposure. The entire process is managed by the affiliate network and is fully transparent through the ability to track the origin of each affiliate generated sale. Australian Affiliate Networks Neto works closely with and recommends the following affiliate networks. You can generate data feeds for all of these networks directly from your Neto administration control panel: Clixgalore ... continue reading

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What are comparison shopping engines?

Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs), unlike marketplaces, are traffic drivers. They are portals that allow online shoppers to compare products side-by-side from multiple online retailers. You typically pay CSEs for each lead they deliver to your website. CSEs enable online retailers to quickly gain greater reach and product exposure. Many CSEs also allow retailers to include their logo in their listings which leads to increased brand awareness. CSEs are typically high traffic sites, frequented by consumers who are at the end of the buying cycle, looking for the best deal on a product they want to buy. Consumers are presented with most of the information they need to make a purchase decision on the Comparison Shopping Website, meaning the traffic from such sites is highly targeted, producing better than average conversion rates. Australian Comparison Shopping Websites Neto works closely with and r... continue reading

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Differentiating Yourself within Online Marketplaces

There is no doubt that an online offering should be part of every retailer’s strategic plan. However, gone are the days when someone can just create an online website and become successful. The online space is fast becoming very sophisticated, but there are still many operators not doing online well. The biggest thing to remember with online is that many of the fundamentals of traditional retailing still exist. Successful online retailers are offering ‘the full package’. They are providing systems along the way that make transacting online easy for the online user and that give the user confidence about every step of the transaction. A picture is worth a thousand words Well photographed products and accurate item descriptions are a must for marketplace sellers. Not only will this reduce the number of pre-sale enquiries you receive, but it will also increase customer satisfaction as expecta... continue reading

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Leveraging Online Marketplaces

An online marketplace is an e-commerce website where the products for sale are provided by multiple third parties and the transactions are facilitated by the marketplace operator. Popular online marketplaces include in Australia include eBay, Trading Post Online and Quick Sales. Online retailers can leverage online marketplaces to increase sales, increase brand awareness and acquire new customers. Why should retailers consider selling through online marketplaces? Online marketplaces can be a cost effective avenue for doing business for both traditional and online retailers. For traditional retailers, marketplaces offer a low cost of entry into the online space, allowing them to test a market’s response to their offering with limited risk or capital investment. Marketplaces such as eBay also offer mass market exposure for a relatively low cost and measurable ROI, allowing smaller players to compete on the same playin... continue reading

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Am I a Spammer?

Email marketing refers to: Direct emails designed to acquire new customers or persuade existing customers to purchase from you again Direct emails designed to encourage customer loyalty and enhance the customer relationship Placing your marketing messages or advertisements in emails sent by other people (i.e. 3 rd party email marketing services) Neto’s email marketing software encompasses the creation, sending and delivery of your email campaigns to your customers and includes powerful features such as: Automated list management Email templates Powerful reporting Multivariate testing And more…. Email marketing is popular because it is one of the cheapest and most effective forms of online marketing. Having said this it is important that you understand the rules and regulations that surround email... continue reading

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Why Does Neto Recommend Google Apps For Your Business?

If you are planning on having Neto host your domain name you will need to setup email prior to going live with Neto. Neto does not manage email on behalf of its clients. Instead, clients must utilise a 3 rd party email service provider such as Google Apps. Why Does Neto Recommend Google Apps For Your Business? Google Apps offers simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools for any size business – all hosted by Google to streamline setup, minimize maintenance, and reduce IT costs. As with other business email services, your email addresses will be linked to your domain (eg: ryan@mydomain.com ) when using Google Apps. How to Create Your Free Google Apps Account Go to: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html Sign up for the Google Apps service and se... continue reading

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What is SEM? Tips and hints for success on Google...

Search engine marketing (SEM) promotes websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs), through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. Google Adwords is the world’s largest and most popular SEM platform allowing businesses to target specific key words or key phrases on Google’s network of websites and services. Other SEM platforms include Yahoo Paid Search and Microsoft Ad Network. Steps to a Successful Google Adwords Campaign: (The below tips can be applied to other SEM platforms too). Research your target audience. Build an initial list of important keywords and key phrases that represent your most important products and product categories. Check the popularity of your keywords with tools such as Yahoo Keyword Selector, Google Keyword Selector, Google Trends and Keyword Discovery. These tools will te... continue reading

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Securing You Website

Neto goes to great lengths to secure its servers; this includes daily 3 rd party network scans, the installation of intrusion prevention software, redundant firewalls and strict security policies. In addition to the security we employ, it is important that you also take measures to secure your website and your customers. If you accept credit cards on your website you must have a valid SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate issued in your business name installed at all times. This will help to protect your customers when transacting on your website. All modern browsers display a websites security status within the browser toolbar. Users now expect to see a lock icon or green bar when shopping on e-commerce websites. A valid SSL certificate will ensure this is the case. SSL provides a mechanism to verify the identity of website, and to encrypt the messages sent between the website and client. At Neto w... continue reading

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