Category: CA Fulfillment Services

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QR Codes: The Future of Marketing

What to Know About QR Codes

Make room for the next big thing — QR codes. What’s a QR code? It’s essentially a wacky looking, matrix barcode users scan with a camera-enabled smart phone. Scanning the QR code connects the user to a mobile-optimized web page, video or photographs or activates functions such as email, SMS and IM. The free QR codes are simple to produce, distribute and display.

QR codes, also known as Quick Response codes, were invented in 1994 by a Toyota subsidiary, Denson-Wave. QR codes are well known in Japan and South Korea. Recently, QR codes have created a buzz among US marketing specialists. In the US, well known companies such as Macy’s, Best Buy and Post Cereals use them to enhance their marketing campaigns.

The Nielsen Company forecasts, by the end of 2011, more than half of all US citizens will own a phone capable of scanning QR codes. The user just needs to add a phone app. QR codes are appearing in major print publications, on buildings and storefronts.  In the US, the demystification of QR codes has a ways to go but it won’t be too long before they’re immediately recognized, understood and scanned by US consumers of all ages, shapes and sizes.

Ways Your Business can Take Advantage of QR Codes

Savvy marketers use QR codes to drive customers to a specific web page. Simply placing a QR code in a print add is not enough. Grab the consumers’ attention with an enticing call-to-action statement placed next to the QR code. For example “scan for a great offer” or “scan to enter to win a prize.”  Don’t harm your brand with a disappointing offer or prize. If you do it right they’ll eagerly come back to your website. Something to think about: Why should the audience take the time to scan my code?

Americans like freebies. Entice consumers to complete your mobile-friendly survey with giveaways. What’s the objective? With their permission, gather their email addresses for additional marketing messages. Surveys can lead to sales.

  • Provide additional company and product information with Quick Response codes on product packages and literature.
  • Use QR codes in print ads to bring traffic to focused information on your website.
  • QR codes linked to videos can help bring your products to life.
  • It’s not common, but some companies design a QR code to automatically dial a predetermined telephone number. Before using this bold marketing technique, think about this: From the consumers’ perspective, what’s in it for me?
  • Linking a QR code to a desirable coupon entices users to scan the code. The coupon is automatically saved on the users’ mobile phone, providing the user an easy way to keep the coupon. They can also provide a copy to friends, aka other consumers.
  • Quick Response codes properly placed in retail stores make it easy for customers to sign up and become part of the store’s social community.
  • You can provide access to user manuals in an array of languages through a QR code link.

Where to Place QR Codes

QR codes can be printed on almost anything. Marketers incorporate QR codes with billboard ads, posters, in-store displays, business cards, contests, print ads, direct mail campaigns, coupons, email marketing etc.

For major events, put your QR codes on all your promotional material such as stickers, flyers, press kits, merchandise tags etc. Use a plug-and-play CMS to update the landing page throughout an event.

Create your own QR codes for free at websites such as at Kaywa.com and rasoftwarefactory.com. Learn how to make attention grabbing, attractive QR codes.

Analytics

Set up your QR code and the associated mobile webpage with analytics. Now you’ll be able to follow and optimize your campaign. You’ll learn how many scans a Quick Response code gained and how long the average user spends at your website. You can measure how advertisements containing QR codes are driving your sales.

Expand Your Social Media Audience

Design a QR code to connect directly to your company’s Twitter stream or Facebook page – it provides users the opportunity to “follow” or “like” your company.

Near Field Communication (NFC)

NFC is a wireless communication technology which lets devices exchange data over distances of about ten centimeters. Google uses a mobile payment system, relying on NFC. Google stated they’re “exploring new ways to enable customers to quickly and easily find information about local businesses from their mobile phones”. Some experts in the field suggest Google will someday push businesses to use NFC for some of their communications.

For now, the QR code is the hot marketing tool. When used effectively, QR codes gain the attention of customers and produce sales. They also help your company maintain a modern image.

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Could the Price Changes for FEDEX and UPS Drive More Customers to the USPS?

California and Massachusetts Fulfillment Services

For several years, the United States Post Office (USPS) has struggled to remain a viable mailing and shipping option. Email and the Internet have steadily eroded first-class mail, its most profitable segment, while FedEx and UPS have cornered the package delivery business. Ironically, a significant portion of the shipping done through the USPS comes from its two private sector rivals.

FedEx and UPS both move a significant portion of their ground shipping business through the USPS. UPS won’t reveal actual numbers, but the post office delivers approximately 2.2 million packages per day for FedEx, which accounts for 30 percent of its total ground business. The good news is that the USPS desperately needs this increased volume. The bad news is that it’s taking its toll on an antiquated, overtaxed system.

Contracted shipping, by these two mammoth shippers, to the USPS falls under the umbrella of the post office’s Parcel Select service, which is designed to accommodate extraordinary high volume resources. Parcel Select accounts for about one-third of the USPS’s annual package-delivery volume, with a staggering 500 percent growth between 2009 and 2013 for a current total of 1.29 billion packages. Projections call for a healthy 12 percent growth next year.

Parcel Select, started in 2008, is incorporated in the less expensive two- to seven-day services of FedEx (Smartpost) and UPS (Surepost). These two companies move the packages across the bulk of the distance then sort them by ZIP code and take them to the local post office for final delivery. This final leg of the process is the most costly because it involves multiple stops to deliver single packages at each and FedEx and UPS are glad to do the handoff as a cost saving action.

The huge volume of business and dire financial straits of the USPS have many people wondering if the post office is undercutting itself by not charging enough for Parcel Select. UPS is even questioning whether or not the USPS is unfairly cross-subsidizing other services to keep prices down.

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe dismisses criticism of the Parcel Select pricing, saying that the delivery stops are being made anyway so there’s no appreciable increase in labor or costs. He has also stated that the USPS’s goal is to more than double its package delivery business in the next few years, seeing that as the area with the most potential for growth.

However, the post office is already starting to show signs that it may not be well-equipped to handle this surge. The agency was formed in 1775 as a way to handle correspondence during the Revolutionary War and has remained first and foremost a service to handle letters. When it comes to package delivery, the USPS is light years behind UPS and FedEx in terms of sophisticated technology, continuing to do many functions manually.Our new warehouse location.

In addition, almost three-quarters of the post office’s vehicles are more than 20 years old. Donahoe has plans to invest $10 billion in much-needed improvements over the next four years, but given the depleted coffers it’s a bit murky as to where this money will come from. The Postal Service exhausted its $15 billion credit limit with the Treasury Department back in 2012, so Donahoe is hoping for help from a proposed Congressional bill that would allow some flexibility in finances.

The USPS is at a serious crossroads with its Parcel Select service. If it misjudges its ability to effectively handle the business, it will create a domino effect putting all its other functions in jeopardy. Additionally, with the pending rate calculation changes scheduled to go into effect at UPS and FEDEX the United States Postal Service’s shipping options for businesses are looking like a deal, but can the USPS step up to take on the increase load?

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Taking Care of Business While You’re On Vacation – Cool Things to Check Out

Tech Tips for Vacation from Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics

Like it or not, your work may be going with you on summer vacation this year.

Don’t get us wrong – a little R&R is vital to your physical and mental well-being. If you can completely detach yourself from the office or the warehouse and enjoy your time off, more power to you.

But by the same token, you’re not going to relax very easily if you spend your vacation time fretting over missing vital messages or constantly phoning in to stay apprised of new order-fulfillment opportunities.

Aware of this conundrum, technology providers have graciously stepped up to create devices, data plans, programs and apps that help you manage your business and your email from wherever you are. They go a step beyond texting and Skype to deliver some rather cool options.

Summer business tips for keeping up while chilling out

Whether you’re hitting the road or hanging out at home, you can enjoy some time away from the workplace without worrying about falling behind. You may find the answer in free apps, or opt to pay a monthly surcharge or subscription rate – but you may discover that the investment pays off in peace of mind.

The Choices Are All Yours

Single-number convenience
If you’re the kind of manager who gets tons of voicemails, there’s no need to subject your fellow vacationers to the sound of a fulfillment or shipping challenge being addressed. Free – at least until the end of 2012 – Google Voice is an app that delivers phone and texting from the same number and, even cooler, voicemail transcription. This means Google Voice lets you download your voicemail and read it like email. The app also boasts of “cheap international calls” outside North America.

Computer access programs
Stuck on the tarmac? Ditch the Skymall magazine and catch up with the folks back home. GoToMyPC is a screen-sharing subscription program that uses the Internet to connect your mobile device (laptop, netbook, tablet or smartphone) to the computer back home. Available in different pricing tiers for individual and multiple users, this program enables full access to the “host” computer, from email to documents to downloads – you can even transfer files between devices. Just remember to keep your work computer running and connected online before you leave, and GoToMyPC will do the rest.

Windows Live Mesh does GoToMyPC one better – it’s free. This app also recreates the host-computer experience, though you do need to have Windows Vista or Windows 7 or above. You’ll also need Internet Explorer downloaded on your computer to make it work – remember that if you’re tied to Firefox or some other browser.

Personal WiFi
The days of ducking into a McDonald’s or parking behind a Panera Bread to score some need-it-now WiFi are over. Now you can tote your personal WiFi hotspot in your pocket with a data-plan-enabled mobile phone. A variety of hardware and software options – at varying price points – can attach your phone to your laptop or tablet and enjoy Internet access anywhere. Just remember to carry a charger with you – WiFi functions are notorious battery-suckers on phones.

If your spouse and kids are similarly tied to the Internet, you can keep everyone happy on vacation using portable devices. Verizon’s Mobile Hotspot connects up to five phones, tablets, game systems, laptops and other devices simultaneously, while Droid Razr Maxx is a tiny powerhouse that fuels up to seven devices and frees you from the slow access and annoying service charges of hotel and airport WiFi.

Email folders
You use email folders at home; now you can use them anywhere. Creating email folders on your smartphone or tablet takes little time and goes a long way toward helping you organize your communications while away from the workplace. Most plans work with the most popular mail servers, like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Microsoft Exchange. If you have the iPhone 4, Siri will even transcribe and send your email for you.

It’s Your Time

You earned your summer vacation – make it a meaningful one. With robust technology at the ready, you can keep up at your convenience, return to the warehouse rested, ready – and without millions of emails and voicemails waiting to bury you.

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When Does it Make Sense for a Business to Use a Fulfillment House? What Companies Need to Know

How to Motivate Your Sales Staff

Most ecommerce companies are surprised by how little third-party fulfillment costs, particularly when compared to how much they already spend to warehouse, package, and ship products. Outsourcing order fulfillment is cost effective and allows you to switch variable costs to fixed costs. Gene Kent, CEO of Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics said, “Many times companies are surprised at the overall cost savings our services have supplied when they review their bottom line after the first six months. As we have heavily invested in technology, both in order processing and bar coding in our warehouse, we are able to process orders faster and cheaper than you can typically do yourself.”

When you compare the total cost of order fulfillment, i.e. maintaining a warehouse, lease payments, staff, benefits, unemployment taxes, insurance etc., to an order fulfillment provider’s fixed cost model, you quickly realize that making the switch saves money. Your business can save from 20 to 50 percent on current order fulfillment expenses.

Minimizing Errors Saves Money

If you’re experiencing even slight errors in the order fulfillment process you might be losing a significant amount of repeat business. Order errors inspire new customers and dedicated customers to buy products from other companies, especially in highly competitive niches. A high quality order fulfillment company satisfies customers which lead to repeat business. “Our warehouse bar coding system eliminates problems. When customer merchandise is received in our warehouse it is immediately bar coded and entered into inventory. Hand held scanners are used by our packers and your inventory is tracked all the way to order shipping. We are using one of the most technologically advanced order and inventory management systems allowing business owners to review stock and order statuses of items on our system 24/7 from anywhere in the world just by using the Internet.” said Gene Kent.

Looking to Expand Your Reach?

Fulfillment houses are ideal for companies seeking to sell products overseas because they have the expertise to ensure your products arrive on time and safely. If you’re seeking to expand your company’s customer base by providing customers more alternatives for ordering products and paying, don’t increase your overhead, outsource the fulfillment process.

Wholesale Orders or Business to Business Orders

As your company expands, a fulfillment company can handle your wholesale or B2B orders. Wholesale orders from large retail chains, catalogs and other mass merchants have different demands than business-to-consumer orders. The penalty for noncompliance with an order from a chain of retail stores for even something trivial can be costly.

Fulfillment houses routinely work with wholesale orders and can develop order processing checklists for your account to assure that your orders are completed based on the requirements of the wholesaler saving you costly chargebacks.

Huge, Sudden Increase in Orders

If you’re considering adding new distribution channels or initiating major new promotions, be prepared for potentially thousands of new orders overnight. A huge increase in orders may overwhelm your back-end system; delaying shipments which leads to unhappy customers. An experienced fulfillment company knows how to properly take care of a large increase in orders. A fulfillment house allows you to ramp up very quickly without increasing your overhead.

If your company has a difficult time maintaining a balance between inventory supply and demand, a knowledgeable order fulfillment company can make a huge difference.

Foreign Companies Selling in the U.S.

Businesses based outside of the United States, partnering with a fulfillment service save time and money because they don’t need a warehouse, office and a staff in the United States; they can focus on obtaining new customers.

The Real Advantages of Partnering with a Fulfillment Service:

  • They know how to handle opportunities and problems which may occur as your business expands.
  • Only pay for fulfillment services when you generate sales.
  • Reduce fixed cost overhead.
  • No need to obtain a larger facility to store products when the business expands.
  • Bulk shipping rates available to fulfillment companies; high shipping cost can break deals with clients.
  • They buy shipping materials in bulk at better rates.
  • An active fulfillment company stays current with the latest software and order processing technology.
  • If your business experiences low volume and high volume days, fulfillment firms eliminate the employee cost associated with the fluctuation.
  • You refine and improve your backdoor operations.

Many nationally known companies reap the benefits of partnering with a third party fulfillment center. Small, medium and large businesses can do the same. With 25 years as a fulfillment service provider, Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics understands your culture, brand, and products from a depth of real world experience.

Isn’t it time to find out how you can save time and money on order processing while you work on expanding your market and sales?