November 2009

We want to know what you want to know! Email education@doba.com with your suggestions of what you want to see in future issues of the Doba eNewsletter.

	Featured Article: 2009 Holiday Retail Season - Ready Or Not, Here They Come! The 2009 Holiday Retail Season is here, are you ready for it?
	*How Do You* Doba?:** Enter and Win a Camcorder! Tell us how you Doba, and win a Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camcorder. Entries must be submitted by 11/30/2009
	Marketplace Spotlight: The Ugly Side of Retail - Returns Jeff Knight, Doba's Vice President of Marketplace, discusses the online retail marketplace.
	Member Q&A: More on Doba's Watch List Feature Kay Russon, Doba's Support Team Lead and technical liaison, reviews the changes made to Doba's Watch List feature, and how to use it effectively. Do you have a question you want answered? Email education@doba.com.
	Supplier Information: New Suppliers and Products from the Doba Product Catalog Expand your niche with new products and suppliers added to the Doba Product Catalog.

Featured Article: 2009 Holiday Retail Season - Ready Or Not, Here They Come!

We are about two weeks away from the busiest shopping days of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. However, shoppers are not waiting for those days to officially kick-off the holiday shopping season. Even a struggling economy isn't keeping the busiest retail season of the year from starting ahead of schedule. Forrester research reports online retail sales to be around $44.7 billion during November and December of 2009. This is an 8% increase over 2008. What a great opportunity for

As an online retailer, how prepared for this opportunity are you? Here are some articles that suggest excellent fundamentals that will help you prepare for and get through the most exciting time of the year.

Be sure to read this month's Marketplace Spotlight: The Ugly Side of Retail - Returns, for more information that will help the your business handle the possible "after-the-sale" situations.

**How Do You Doba?**

Tell us how you use Doba to help run your online business and you could win a Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camcorder. We are rewarding the most creative, inspiring and effective users of Doba in our *How Do You Doba* contest. Entries must be submitted by 11/30/2009, so there is still plenty of time to participate.

Complete the survey to enter. Good luck!

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Marketplace Spotlight: The Ugly Side of Retail - Returns

By Jeff Knight, Vice President of Marketplace - Doba

No retail strategy is complete without considering and implementing a customer service and return policy. Different retailers take very different approaches and the successful retailers often incorporate their policies into their identity. Nordstrom’s is famous for their extremely liberal return policy while a big box retailer such as Best Buy have a very restrictive policies in place. More important then the policy itself is the transparency and communication of your return restrictions and service options to the consumer. As my group manages the fulfillment and product returns between suppliers and Doba retailers; I see the process first hand and the effect that a retailer’s policy (or lack of) has on their business, and their likelihood of success/failure.

First, there are a lot of different aspects that you need consider when creating and implementing your return policy. For many retailers, the best place to start with creating a return policy is to look at your own expectations as a consumer and choose merchandise, suppliers and marketplaces that match up with your own personal philosophy. Others should take a more pragmatic approach. The category (electronics versus clothing), the marketplace (your website versus eBay/Amazon) and your product pricing strategy all affect the policy in different ways. Without a doubt, Nordstrom’s liberal policy is the product of the consumer expectation of a category (clothing has high returns due to sizing, taste, seasonality, etc), and their pricing strategy – while they have semiannual sales, Nordstrom carries brands and clothing that caters to a demographic more tolerant of more expensive, higher margin items. However, this strategy does not come without consequences. Nordstrom will struggle with attracting a larger demographic and since they maintain a large physical footprint and carry a larger breath of products within their category – it is very hard for them to compete on products that are more price sensitive. Simply the products they do sell must carry the financial weight of all the non-sellers and returns.

Most problems arise, however, in the communication of your policies. A lot of retailers, especially starting out, make the mistake of having a reactive not a proactive approach in dealing with returns. What I mean is this – instead of researching the policies of competitors, pricing their items to carry the financial burden of a bad sale, understanding the particulars of the products they are selling, and carefully examining the policies of their suppliers; they wait until a customer is trying to return a item before they become aware of their philosophy. Coupled with that, is the tendency and need for small retailers to depend on marketplaces like eBay and Amazon that give the consumer a lot of power to influence return policies through feedback mechanisms. Simply, a lot of new retailers have a tendency to compete on price while not clarifying with the consumer – prior to the sale – the reasons they will take a return. As in previous articles, I am going to repeat that competing solely on price is not, in my humble opinion, the best strategy. However, if you are going to adopt this philosophy – you must take measures to understand the goods you sell and account for the risks.

As a general rule, approximately 10% of goods are returned. This, of course, depends on the category, item, etc. I have always found a good strategy is to set a low and high threshold that you can absorb. If you take 10% returns, it will hurt but not ruin your business. On the other side, if you keep returns to 5%, then you can adjust your pricing, keep the extra as margin, loosen up your policy, etc – whatever fits best with your particular business. On top of internal thresholds, you should maintain ‘report cards’ on your supply base and hold them to the same standards. To help Doba retailers understand the supplier policies and performance; we show ‘report card’ data on every product to help you make these decisions. The data provides a benchmark for you set your minimal expectations. The data is the very same Doba uses and holds suppliers accountable to internally. Doba and you should hold suppliers to realistic standards and for quality aspects that are within their control.

Retailers also need to be realistic, look for ‘red flags’ and hold their consumers to reasonable purchasing behaviors also. For example, if you sell jeans and a customer orders the same pair in three different sequential sizes – you can be safe to assume that unless the customer was a triplet (with one slightly larger and one slightly smaller sibling and they are starting a band) – the customer will ask for a return of at least 2 of the 3 pairs. If the suppliers ships the three pairs in a timely fashion and the jeans arrive as the supplier described them - the return acceptance or refusal is a retailer issue not a supplier issue. As retailers get larger, they undoubtedly will push and squeeze suppliers to take more of this burden – but understand at a cost, the supplier has accounted for the big box retailer’s behavior before the return occurs.

Finally, it is important to briefly address issues that are more specific to Doba retailers. While drop-shipping lowers your up front costs and reduces your risk of non-saleable inventory – it also means that the retailer must sell the item based off the information the supplier provides. While the information the supplier provides should be the base, retailers do themselves a disservice if all they can communicate about an item is in the brief description. If you don’t any more of the particular details or specifications; you can always add examples and information on the brand. Another possible direction is to just simply explain that this is all you know about the item and the price reflects that the lack of information but your return policy guarantees against mistakes in the description. Every situation is different but being transparent with the consumer is the key. Lastly, when you consider the cost of returns – do not overlook shipping. One of the largest shortcomings of eCommerce is the cost associated with shipping. Shipping is a fixed cost that is absorbed by the supplier, retailer, or consumer in every return. It is not margin nor lost time, but a payment to a carrier that must be paid regardless of the return reasons (with the exception of carrier related damage). Be mindful of the cost of the goods themselves versus the costs of shipping. In many cases, the retailer will be better off to ask for forgiveness of the consumer, let them keep the return and give them a refund instead of eating three shipping charges on a replacement. Again, this is a retailer policy issue and only you can create the strategy that will work best for your retail operation.

In the end, your support and return policies should communicate clearly to the consumer what they can expect in purchasing from you. It is important to take control and own your customer’s experience proactively and understand that your decisions need to be acceptable to your business independent of the shortcomings of suppliers, marketplaces or overly demanding consumers.

About the Author:

As the Vice President of Marketplace, Jeff Knight is responsible for all aspects of the merchandising strategy, supplier acquisition, and vertical category management and fulfillment operations of Doba's marketplace. Prior to Doba, Jeff was Director of Merchandising for Overstock.com where he developed the growth and management of the Computer and Home Office category. Jeff's background includes merchandising and technology leadership roles at DealDeal.com and BCI International. He earned Bachelor and Masters of Arts degrees in Communication from the University of Wyoming.

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Member Q&A: More on Doba's Watch List Feature

By Kay Russon, Technical Liaison and Support Team Lead - Doba

Last month I discussed the new changes made to Doba's Watch List feature. We have received excellent feedback concerning some confusion associated with the Watch Lists still. Specifically how to use the pop-up window when trying to add products to a Watch List or a push request. We see a lot of Watch List’s created with no products in them and a lot of push requests that gets created but nothing gets pushed to eBay. So, as a follow-up to last month's Member Q&A, let's tackle them one at a time.

Adding Products To A Watch List

First, select the item or items you wish to add to your Watch List. If you are looking at the product details, just click "Watch" in the green bar. If you are looking at a catalog page with many products on it, select all those you wish to add by checking the box in the lower right of each product, and then click "Watch" in the green bar.

This will bring up the pop-up window. On the left side it tells you how may products you are adding. On the right side, it will list your existing Watch Lists. If there are none listed, you will have to create a new Watch List. Click "Create New Watch List". It will ask you to type in a name for this watch list. It is usually best to type in the name of the items you are adding. For example, if you are going to add a number of different kitchen appliances, then name the watch list Kitchen Appliances. Then you can add multiple products to the same list. When you have named the watch list, then click "Add to Watch List". The item will then be added to the named Watch List. You may then either close the window or click View Watch List to see the one you just created.

If there are already a list of Watch Lists that have been created, you may select the one you wish to add the current items to by clicking on the Watch List name. This will highlight the select watch list in blue, then add the products to the selected Watch List.

Adding Products To A Push Request

When you are pushing item to eBay using the Push to Market tool, the process is almost identical other than the names of the tabs. When you click the green "Push" tab from the product details page, it will bring up a pop-up window that looks almost the same. The left side will show how many items you are adding and the right side will list the push requests that you have already created. As mentioned before, if none are listed, you will have to create a new push request.

You may add to an existing request or create a new on with the name of your choice. Add the item to the selected request by clicking "Add to Push". You may then close the pop-up window or view the push request.

Deleting A Watch List Or Push Request

After a time, you may wish to delete products from within a Watch List or a push request. To do so, open the desired list and select those products you wish to remove by checking the boxes on the left and then click "Remove". This will remove the items from the list.

You may delete and entire Watch List or push request by clicking the gray tab at the top for either Watch Lists or Push to Marketplace, and then select one or more of the categories you had named by checking the box at the left and then click delete.
Note: Once deleted, they cannot be recovered.

Knowing and understanding how to use Doba's Watch List resource, will help you organize and manage products within the Doba product catalog, and assist you in pushing products into the eBay marketplace quickly. If you have any questions regarding the Watch List or any other of Doba's resources, contact support@doba.com for assistance.

About the Author:

Kay “Papa” Russon is an eBay Certified Consultant, Customer Service Team Lead, and technical liaison for Doba. His knowledge, experience, and expertise assist retailers daily in running a successful online business. Before Doba, Kay was a team leader, supervisor, trainer and manager for World Support, Digital Equipment Corp., Digital Remote, SBC, AT&T, Macromedia, Sun Microsystems, and Motorola and served in the Army National Guard.

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Supplier Information: New Suppliers and Products from the Doba Product Catalog

Starting an online business is relatively easy. Making it a success takes hard work and the right mix of products. To help you achieve your business-related goals, we recently added new wholesale suppliers and manufacturer to the Doba Catalog:

Supplier Huebnerite - Looking to spice up your game room? Check out Huebnerite's game tables as well as other household products!