Temando raises $50 Million Investment from Neopost S.A.

We at Temando have some exciting news to share with you. Today we announced we have raised a $50 Million Series B investment from Neopost S.A. We will use the funds to invest in further product development and leverage Neopost’s global reach to expand into new markets.

Neopost is a world leader in the field of Mail Solutions, and is also a major player in the fields of Communication and Shipping Solutions with a strategic focus on developing innovative technologies for the global parcel market.

Our Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Carl Hartmann said “As an Australian Technology Company we are proud of our heritage and wouldn’t be here today without the support of our ecosystem – retailers, agencies, carriers and technology partners who have believed in our vision from the start and continue to inspire our product development into the future”.

Carl further stated that: “Neopost’s strategic stake in Temando will provide the momentum necessary to create the most advanced fulfillment platform in the market. Our mutual technologies will enable retailers to deliver flexible, world class experiences for their customers.”

We are looking forward to a very exciting 2015!

Click here for more details on this announcement.

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How to offer Free Shipping even if you can't afford to.

Free shipping will increase your conversions.

Free shipping will erode your margin.

These are both widely accepted facts. Additional shipping costs is frequently brought up as one of the main reasons for cart abandonment and a free shipping option can go a long way to closing those sales. That’s all well and good for larger businesses with the scale and budget to offer universal free shipping but for many businesses the cost is prohibitive. That doesn't mean that you should forget about free shipping, though. With 93% of online shoppers willing to take action in order to qualify for free shipping you just need to be creative in the ways that you offer it (UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper 2014).

Here are 4 ways you can embrace free fulfillment without burning a hole in your pocket:

1. Have a free shipping threshold.

This is a tried and tested method of offering free shipping. Not only are you able to guarantee an amount of revenue before you pay for free shipping, you're also able to increase your Average Order Value (AOV) and sell additional items per order. 58% of online shoppers surveyed have added additional items to an order to qualify for free shipping (UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper 2014).

2. Use Free Shipping as a Loyalty or Conversion tool

Instead of offering free shipping to everyone, offer it as a special deal to certain shoppers. For example, entice shoppers to sign up for your newsletter or loyalty club with a free shipping offer. You’ll close the sale and also be able to grow the customer through your email campaigns.

Similarly, you could use Free Shipping as a perk for customers when you send them cart reminder emails, letting them know that if they complete their purchase you’ll ship it for free. Both of these strategies allow you to benefit from free shipping by offering it to price sensitive shoppers without offering it to every single customer.

3. Offer very basic free shipping

A really great way to look to include free shipping in your fulfillment mix is to offer your most basic service for free and then charge extra for other services if the customer wants more. For example, a brand that has a retail footprint could offer collect-from-store for free and charge customers for all shipping levels. If you don’t have the luxury of stores then you could offer a slower, economy service for free as well as an express option (or two) for an additional charge. Not only does this approach allow you make the most of offering free services, it also allows you to offer your customers a better shipping experience by allowing them to choose how they would like to receive their packages.

4. Offer free returns

If you still feel that you can’t afford or don’t want to offer free shipping then you might want to think about free returns. All too often, retailers will offer free shipping and then charge the customer if they need to return an item that is faulty or doesn't fit. If anything this should be the other way around - charge them for the initial purchase and then if somethings not quite right, offer to fix it for free (providing the return meets your RMA criteria). Offering a free, straightforward returns process will help build shoppers’ trust in your brand and help you to convert more sales in the long-term.

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Creating Intelligent Shipping Experiences for You and Your Customers

Juggling the expectations of modern customers with the technology you have at your disposal can be tricky. Underpromise on your service and clients will be hesitant to buy from you, over promise and they will feel let down if you can’t follow through. It’s a tightrope act and the best way to manage it is to think about it purely from a customer standpoint first - what do they value above all else? And, once you know what they want - how can you streamline this process and squeeze out as many efficiencies as possible?  More on this in our next post. 

In the mean-time here’s 5 smart automation rules that could transform the way you ship.

Offer free shipping for orders over a certain value

Free shipping is a proven weapon in the battle to increase conversions in the shopping cart.  Offering free shipping after the customer has reached a specific cart value helps to increase your average order value (AOV). In fact, 58% of shoppers have added more items to a cart to qualify for free shipping (UPS, 2014). The threshold that you set should be reasonable but will depend largely on the type of goods you’re selling and your margin.

Offering free shipping can also allow you to use a less premium delivery service with customers far more willing to wait additional days if they haven’t paid for the shipment.

Manage your carrier selection based on where your customer is

No one size fits all, and using multiple carriers for you shipping can provide you with flexibility, efficiency and cost-savings. Automate your carrier selection for certain areas as a way of consistently managing your options. This might involve having two shipping zones - one metro zone in the city you are sending form with a low cost carrier that offers a fast ETA for local deliveries and one delivery zone for the rest of the country serviced by a reliable nationwide carrier. You can obviously build on this as well by offering different metro carriers and different regional carriers as required. Trialling out different zones and carriers allows you to find the optimal mix of cost and service level for your customers.

Restrict products to certain zones

There are lots of reasons why you might need to restrict sending certain products to specific areas. You may have a licensing agreement in place that allows you to distribute only in certain areas or there may be legal restrictions on certain products in some areas. Having a rule in place that automatically disallows shipments in these circumstances protects your business from accidentally breaching these restrictions. Even better, if you can provide your customer with reasons for the restriction it allows you to explain the situation, prevent a frustrating experience and hopefully retain the customer for future purchases.

Automate carrier selection by SKU type

If you stock a wide range of options it can be uneconomical or even impossible to use a single carrier. Those who can facilitate small parcels and satchels will often be poorly equipped or will simply turn-down requests for larger shipments. The same is true of specialist bulk carriers not moving smaller goods. Even if you do find a carrier able to do it all they will likely be a more expensive option or less reliable. By automating your carrier selection based on the products a customer is buying you can make sure that you’re getting a capable carrier for every order while saving your fulfillment team precious time.

Have more than one place to send from? Use them!

Shipping from more than one physical location has been gaining popularity, especially among retailers with a large network of stores. It allows you to justify holding more stock in stores and therefore reduce the amount of centralized distribution warehouse space your business requires. It is also an excellent way to minimize your shipping costs as you will be able to ship from the nearest location with stock. As a simplified example; if you had a store in each state you could make each state a zone with the primary shipping origin set as the relevant store.

Some of our enterprise customers have taken this kind of automation to the next level, using inventory information from their stores to help automate where a shipment will be sent from. If the closest store is out of a certain product, the next closest store with stock will be sent the order to fulfill it. Now that is an optimized shipping process!

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Last-minute December Tips

We've made it to December and 2015 is just around the corner. However it’s not over yet and for some of you the next month is going to be the busiest of the year. For that reason, we've put together this last-minute post with some things to keep in mind over the next month.

Communicate

Email, social media, website banners. However you speak to your customers, you need to make sure you’re doing it clearly throughout December. If you’re expecting that it may take more time for your team to get orders out the door then let them know. As long as they're expecting a delay you shouldn't have a problem. It also pays to be clear with communicating final order dates before Christmas. If you haven’t already seen it, acquaint yourself with our Carrier Cut-off Calendar now, work out your dates and make sure your customers are aware of their order deadlines.

Remain calm

The carrier network reaches full capacity for a large part of December. With retailers shipping more than usual and people sending gifts to families and friends, you can expect that orders may take a bit more time to be collected and delivered. To make sure your orders get to your customer as soon as possible focus on making sure that your internal process is running as smoothly as possible so you aren't losing days by missing your collection time. Possible carrier delays are another point that you should be communicated to your customers to promote a little bit of patience with deliveries.

Know who to call

You’re spoiled for choice when it comes to getting in touch with us this year. Our support team will be available from 8am to 8pm (AEST) every day in December excluding weekends and public holidays. Here’s how you can get in touch with them:

Live Chat – perfect for quick tracking requests or for getting support while you’re trying to multi-task. Our Live Chat option will be visible within support hours.
Support Form – Fill out our support form with all relevant details and we’ll contact you.
Email – Describe your query and include any details of your request to support@temando.com
Phone – Our number for support calls is 1300 66 88 58. Please note our opening hours above. We apologise in advance for any potentially long wait times in December.

It doesn't end in December

Post-Christmas is when the fun really begins. You’ll have Boxing Day, January and Back-to-School sales. While the December rush is going to be taking up a lot of your time and attention for now, don’t forget about what comes next. As well as the various website assets and messaging you’ll need to change out, make sure you have enough boxes and satchels to see you into the New Year. If you do need to order more satchels, you can do so by filling out the form here.

We hope you enjoy a successful end to 2014 and look forward to working together again in 2015. 

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Find your winning combination

When it comes to piecing together the pieces of an eCommerce ecosystem you’re spoilt for choice. Often, decisions can be made based upon the vertical you operate in or the size of your business. Far more important though is the way in which your technology partners influence your brand experience. Whether it be the eCommerce platform, marketing automation or a delivery management platform, each will affect your customers experience with your brand. With so many partners to choose from, how do you cut through the noise and make the right choice for your business?

Our latest whitepaper aims to help you with just that. Created in collaboration with Magento and Bronto Software, Building an eCommerce ecosystem for Success runs through the considerations you need to make to select the right ecosystem to support, not hinder, your growth.

Download your copy now

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A Kink in the Chain

In the bold new world of retail, surprisingly few retailers are closing the loop on the multi-channel consumer. Recent supply chain research published by Telstra has reported on the huge gaps between what customers want and what they are being given by retailers. Telstra’s paper shines a light on the current state of the industry in Australia but also highlights a massive opportunity for those retailers looking to cut through and differentiate themselves in a commoditised world.

What do modern consumers want?

In a word: Choice.

One of the biggest draw cards of online shopping is that it’s available anywhere at any time. This seamless experience is how consumers expect their delivery to be as well. These options can be as simple as enabling Authority to Leave (ATL) on deliveries and offering both standard and express services; or could involve more customised options such as allowing delivery to parcel lockers.

If customers are increasingly using mobiles to make purchases on the go how can we assume that they will always be home to accept a delivery? In the same way that retailers have adopted responsive design within websites, they now need to factor increasingly mobile customers into their fulfilment process and offer delivery options accordingly.

Why it matters

Retailers no longer compete with the companies directly around them, they’re competing with businesses all around the world. Customers have access to more choice for their purchases than ever before which makes holding onto customers extremely important. The average cost of retaining an existing customer is approximately 5 times less than capturing a new one. However, you won’t have much chance of keeping your customers if they have a poor experience.

Telstra’s research shows that 50% of Australian online shoppers have had a problem with delivery and our own data shows that of customers who have a poor delivery experience, i.e the carrier didn’t deliver on time, 79% will not return to that merchant within the following 6 months. With a whole world of retailers competing for your customers, it’s more important than ever to provide them with a hassle free shipping experience.

Catching up with Consumers

By sticking to the status quo there are no winners. Our current, rigid processes penalises customers for not conforming to them, resulting in more work for delivery drivers and costing retailers in both redelivery fees and lost customers. The logistics industry is by no means straightforward and requires an industry lead ecosystem approach to solving these challenges.

To craft shipping experiences that truly surprise and delight customers would be almost impossible for most retailers to achieve alone. Just as they might engage with marketing agencies and external advisors to craft their brand and products, they must also forge relationships with technology partners and logistics providers that will allow them to meet the ever-changing service requirements of their customers.

For more insights into changing customer expectations around delivery, read Telstra’s Personal Supply Chain White Paper which includes a contribution from our CEO Carl Hartmann. 

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Don't be a Grinch. Here's your 4-step plan to a smooth December.

Isn’t December a joyous time of year? Family, friends and a little bit of time off is just around the corner. For retailers the holiday season isn’t about relaxing though, it’s the busiest time of year and can be ruthless for those who aren’t prepared. Here’s 4 simple things you can do now to make sure that December is a success.

Order your satchels

As we get closer and closer to the silly season carriers are going to get inundated with requests for satchels as merchants run low. Get prepared for your pre-Christmas volumes early and have enough satchels to see you through until the new year. Temando customers can do this by filling out our satchel order form. We really recommend getting on top of this in November as during December carriers will have longer wait times and less satchels to give.

Know your cut-off dates

Millions and millions of parcels travel through carrier networks every December and each one operates at slightly different speeds and frequencies. We’ve rung around and received cut-off dates from every carrier, however we recommend using caution with these and being proactive with your customers about getting in early. Check out our cut-off calendar and keep these dates in mind when you’re sending out communications to your customers.

Stay on top of your orders

If you’re expecting more orders than usual in December then it’s important that you don’t let things get out of hand. As always you should be planning to send orders on a daily basis and not allow a backlog to develop. If you use one or two carriers regularly, we highly recommend setting up a permanent pickup to ensure the driver will collect from you every day. Drop our support team a line if you have any questions about permanent pick up or read more here.

Know what to do when things go wrong

Mike Tyson once said “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth”.

At some stage in December things might go wrong, and it just might feel like a punch in the mouth. The secret is knowing who to turn to. Our support team will be working through December up until 8pm (AEST) on December 24^th and will continue to be available on all non-public holidays thereafter. For a better guide of what details they’ll need when you call, please see our Holidays Essentials post.

To contact our support team you can fill out our supportform, email our team, call them on 1300 66 88 58 or use our live chat function available in the ‘chat now’ tab on the right of this page.

Here’s to a busy and successful December! Remember to start preparing now if you haven’t already and if you need anything fulfilment-related our team is more than happy to help.

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