eCommerce Case Study

So Here's the Scoop...

This customer owns four pawn shops in Idaho. They were previously posting products to eBay manually, and decided to integrate e-foro, PawnMaster’s eCommerce module, in order to make posting more efficient, and their reporting capabilities more robust.

Challenges
  • Listing products to eCommerce channels was a slow and cumbersome process.
  • Reporting was not integrated with their accounting system, so fees such as PayPal fees, shipping charges, eBay fees, etc. had to be recorded manually.
Execution

They began the implementation in July of 2015. The pawn shop decided to assign one person in the shop to be responsible for all eBay postings. This person used the Aged Inventory Report in PawnMaster to identify which items to list online for sale. The Aged Inventory Report will give you a list of all unsold items that have been available for sale for a given amount of time.

Objectives
  • The company needed to find an effective way to turn their aged inventory, that wasn’t selling in their retail operation.
  • They also wanted expand their eCommerce operation, but didn’t have the resources to do so.
Results
  • This customer made a total of 73 additional online eCommerce sales their first month.
  • Their online sales for one of their four operations totaled $11,594.07 for the month.
  • After the cost of goods and services, this customer made $4,268.25 in profit.
  • Most of these customers are now listed in the system for future campaigns such as marketing text messaging blasts.
  • eBay sales volume dramatically increased as a result of being able to input multiple sales with the click of a button.
  • eBay also helped them tap into mobile commerce.
  • They are now able to reach customers across the country, rather than just those within driving distance to their store.
Here’s what this Customer has to Say

“It’s a great system for reporting the numbers and it keeps track of everything. Prior to using e-foro, we were using Auctiva for eBay listing. Now we can track what sells and what doesn’t. Beforehand, we had a bunch of terrible paperwork we had to keep track of every time we sold something and now it’s just a report in our system so it’s really nice to have that tracking ability. Since we started e-foro, we’ve been able to increase our postings quite a bit. We’ve seen an increase in sales because we’ve been posting a lot more. It’s been really helpful, you guys have been great and we definitely see the benefit of it. It’s been such a great advertising tool.”

Why Should You Post Your Inventory to eCommerce Sites?

  • Consumers are buying online. Online holiday sales jumped 13.9% in 2014, when compared with online sales from 2013. 43% of online buyers begin pre-purchase research in a retail store, on a website or in a catalog.
  • Holiday spending in the United States this year is projected to be $885.7 billion.
  • eCommerce alone is expected to reach $79.40 billion in 2015.
  • By December 10, the average holiday shopper has completed 53% of their holiday shopping.
  • 59% of retailers start their holiday promotions by September.
  • 41% of those surveyed in the US said Black Friday was their most profitable business day last year.
  • 36% said it was Cyber Monday.
  • 14% said it was Free Shipping Day.
  • Retail spending is expected to jump 5.7% this year, as a result of some factors of the economy, such as lower gas prices, decreased unemployment rates and rising wages.
  • This is the fastest rate of growth since 2011.
  • People are thriftier than ever before. They are comparing prices and making more educated purchases. This also makes people more open to buying refurbished or second-hand items.
  • 26% of eCommerce sales came from mobile devices last year between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. This is a 20% increase over 2013.
  • Click here to get a checklist for the holidays.

Sources: www.fortune.com www.compass.ups.com www.competitivefutures.com www.nrf.com www.emarketer.com

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