Introduction
There are several main subject areas in the report and this first article deals with the section Money
The main theme of this particular section of the report was a clear statement, so clear in fact it was repeated on 2 major pages of the report
“Strategies to cut costs during inflation also raise customer loyalty”
Commerce Trends 2023 - pg9 & pg23
Also the trend in the industry is one of reducing expenses due to lack of spending power
“As brands and buyers continue to see their spending power decrease in light of inflation, both are finding ways to reduce expenses”
Commerce Trends 2023 - pg9
Alvio by its very nature empowers businesses to do exactly this.
So with the scene set let's dive into the extracts from the report and how Alvio can help you and your business
Combat Rising Cost Of Logistics
“Global trade hit a record high of $28.5 trillion in 2021, an increase of about 13% from before the pandemic. But commerce growth slowed in 2022. And as the war in Ukraine contributed to surging oil and gasoline prices, the cost and time associated with transporting small packages went up and not just in the region.”
Commerce Trends 2023 - pg9
Moving data is cheaper than moving products
Adopting Alvio’s mantra of moving data not products drastically reduces the overall cost of getting a product to a consumer.
Rather than pick packing your product in bulk and shipping from your warehouse to a retailer's warehouse and then onto the consumer
Keep the stock in your warehouse or 3PL and pick pack once and send directly to the consumer serving the retailer's order for them.
Create Efficiencies Of Scale in Logistics
Centralising distribution will further drive down the cost for the delivery by using the scale of the number of orders that you ship to negotiate better rates with logistics companies or take advantage of rates offered by 3PLs that already have this scale
8-10% of the price a consumer pays for a product is directly attributable to logistics, reducing steps in this process puts that margin back in the hands of the brand.
Work with best of class logistics Partners
Alvio is partnering with Huboo who are a global eCommerce fulfilment partner that combines great people, smart technology, and industry expertise to enable all businesses to grow.
Their unique hub model enables eCommerce brands to boost efficiency and lower costs with scalable, precise order fulfilment.
"For the independent retailer who manages their own order picking, packing, and shipping, the average cost per order in the UK stands at £3. Given that this expense grows when dealing with international trade, it's clear how fulfilment can diminish an online retailer's profitability.
To mitigate these financial burdens and liberate themselves from the time-intensive tasks associated with prompt and precise fulfilment, eCommerce businesses should seek the assistance of technology-driven fulfilment specialists. Not only to reduce these financial costs, but also to free themselves from the time-consuming activities that come with ensuring fulfilment is undertaken quickly and accurately."
Freddie Titcombe - Enterprise Sales Manager
Further Reading:
Reduce the logistics cost of high value or bulky products
Combat Reduced Budgets, Traffic, ABV & Deliver More Value
“Economic slowdown pushes brands to tighten budgets and deliver more value”
Commerce Trends 2023 - pg23
“According to a survey of global Shopify Plus merchants, 35% have seen shrinking average cart sizes, and 50% are seeing less site traffic and lower conversion rates.”
Commerce Trends 2023 - pg25
Tighter Marketing Budgets
From Data across our network in 2022 for those brands building retailer networks on Alvio we delivered a staggering ROI of 1060% that's 5 x that of PPC.
Partnering with the right business puts your products where your customer is already shopping without any additional spend.
For retailers expanding their product range at zero cost, this allows them to increase their ROAS on existing activity.
1160% ROI That’s 5x more effective than PPC
Increase ABV for Retailers
With the ability for retailers to add additional products lines to there store we have seen in the data from our platform that at key times retailers can increase there ABV by 25% with products that are from brands on the Alvio Platform that they wouldn't normally have carried due risk and costs associated with stocking new product lines.
Deliver More Value
Brands and retailers through Alvio’s integration with the Prove Anything platform allows for more value to be attached to products they sell.
A classic example of this is the work we are doing with legendary DJ Micky Finn and his newly launched merchandise store djmickyfinn.com. Every piece of merchandise from the store is issued with its own digital certificate of authenticity which includes an exclusive track that can be played and downloaded.
The only way to obtain this track is by purchasing merchandise from the store, adding a lot more value to the purchase for the consumer at very little cost.
This functionality turns any product purchased into a digital twin that can be used as a key to all sorts of additional benefits for the consumer
For an example of what the certificates look like and the functionality it provides ( note the track obviously is simply an example ) click here
Further Reading:
Increase Product Ranges Risk Free
Generate New Income Streams
“Adapting to economic uncertainty is the only sure strategy Brands are responding with strategic pricing, timely discounts, new income streams, and cutting overhead costs”
Commerce Trends 2023 - p24
New Income Streams
Each Alvio partnership increases order volume by 2% per month
Alvio’s entire purpose allows brands to open up new income streams through collaboration and through its approach, frees both brands and retailers to develop partnerships that they may not considered previously by lowering risk on both sides.
To aid with this we don't just supply the technology we also bring added value by:
- Actively Promote new partners on our network through social media, email and our website
- Actively identify and introduce them to other members of the platform that we see as a good fit
Cutting Overheads Of Business Development
Many businesses on the Alvio platform, certainly in 2023, have stretched business development budgets and resources, so to address this we provide value where we can by:
- Providing free sector analysis to identify possible partnerships across the ecommerce space, not just those currently on our platform, with a wealth of useful data on each target
- Increase efficiency through custom automated partnership onboarding processes for new businesses wanting to partner with our clients so their business development teams only receive high quality partners that fit their profile
We call this AlvioEngage
Further Reading:
Expand Market Reach Without Market Places
Increase Product Adoptions By Retailers
Reduce Inefficiencies
“Brands are also using the economic downturn as an opportunity to trim inefficiencies and processes that don’t serve their brand mission.
Set-it-and-forget-it workflows based on relevant triggers, conditions, and actions simplify processes, reduce the risk of human error, and free up resources.”
Simplify Product Data Distribution To Retailers
Even If you're not using Alvio to import and export orders from your retailers you can adopt Alvio into your business to drive efficiencies in getting product data to your retailers.
Through our years of experience working with companies that operate a B2B model one of the key areas that is fraught with human error and ties up large amount of resources is getting the product data to your retailers so, we created a specific partnership model for this use case so that even if you’re not driving sales directly through Alvio you can still use our platform to build a product data distribution network.
Simply connect your existing ecommerce store to the Alvio platform and connect to your retailers with a data partnership. This allows you to share product information with each retailer through Alvio and they can import directly into their store.
No duplication of effort, No more CSV's, PDF's, Spreadsheets or multiple data sources for you or your clients
- Retailers Get Products Live Quicker
- More Control of Data & Less Effort
- Reduced Errors & Increased Quality
- Faster Product Launches & Updates
- Easily Supply Extended Product Information
Further Reading: Simplify Product Data Distribution To Retailers
Simplify & Automate Processes On Our Platform
Alvio was designed from the very start to offer a simple No Code solution and ensure that all of the complex interactions and processes happen in background.
Everything from connecting to your partners to managing products and configuring commercials for a relationship are kept to what you need and nothing that you don't need.
Some highlights of the platform:
AlvioConnectSimple, secure, permission based cross platform connections with your partners that take less than 5 minutes to set up with No Code.
Standardised CommercercialsConfigure your standard commercials including products, pricing, shipping, inventory and invoicing and have these settings automatically applied to any new partnerships you create but still allowing you to amend if and when it's needed
Order Sync Native to you Platform and ProcessesAll orders are delivered to your backend just as if a customer had placed it on your store with all the information you need and none that you don't with added context for any customer service and account purposes
Automated InvoicingThrough our up coming partnership with Sufio we are enabling brands on Shopify working with retailers on our platform to automatically invoice and receive payment for orders that they are shipping directly to the customer.
Further Reading:
Simplify Shopify Multisite Setups
Sign Off
We hope that this, the first in a series of articles, has both been informative and useful and if you would like to discuss any of these topics with us we would welcome the discussion and please reach out to us through our website or through our social presence on LinkedIn.
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