An interview with Glenn Burton, Director, International Sales and e-Commerce, neatfreak Group.

KNSD: What are the most noticeable trends in e-commerce purchases over the past year?

GB: The constant you can always count on with e-commerce is change – where and when customers are shopping, how they’re paying and how they tell us about their purchase is ever-changing.

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The elephant in the room has always been: who pays for freight and how is that factored into the product costing and profit margin model? There continues to be a shift for bigger brick and mortar retailers to use their store inventory as omni-channel inventory. Retailers have discovered their customers really like the “click and pick” option. When customers buy online and then pick up in store, they will add to their purchase and increase the checkout cart value. However, customers are savvy and they want to pay the same price online as in-store. This puts pressure on the retailer, especially when they offer free shipping. This has led many retailers to put minimum checkout value thresholds in order to qualify for free shipping.

I am seeing more innovative tools and creative approaches by retailers to solve this conundrum. Bundling has become a very effective tool. Why offer only single items to sell when you can offer your customer a natural bundle of products? Additional online tools that help with add-on sales are not only becoming the norm, they are becoming very creative. This is especially exciting since the playing field for content interaction is taking place on an ever-decreasing space: your mobile device. Leading retailers know these tools help drive the order value up and thus create a desirable shipping-cost-to-order-value ratio.

KNSD: How has this trend changed selling home organization products online?

GB: I think home organization products have traditionally had some challenges selling online. High cube with low retail are two factors that challenge the profitability of selling items like hampers, bins, baskets and low priced household products. Neatfreak has taken some of these online challenges and created some fantastic solutions. We have turned some of our best selling baskets and hampers into “knock-down” versions. These products are now ideally suited for the omni-channel environment, especially from the shipping cost perspective.

We have also addressed the packaging issue on our products. We know a single product is going to be handled multiple times and in various conditions in omni-channel processing. The package has to protect the product and it has to withstand the rigors of shipping and handling. This is the part that is unique to brands like neatfreak. We want our products to have the “wow” factor when the customer opens their just-delivered courier package. We avoid the “lunch bag letdown” of opening a package only to find the item purchased is wrapped in a yellowed brown box or flimsy poly bag. We support the connection our retail partners have with their customers by using the best packaging and branding experience – one that customers love telling us about online.

KNSD: How does neatfreak support the online experience?

GB: People are using mobile devices more often to buy. They depend on product reviews and social media to confirm their purchase decisions. They want see how-to-assemble videos, aspirational images and creative product descriptions.

Neatfreak saw these trends developing, and in turn, is continuing modifying our digital assets. We are challenged to connect our on-package marketing with online digital packaging and then infuse both of these with social network conversations. When a brand can create conversation and loyalty with its customers/followers, you have something very special.

For more information, email info@neatfreak.com.