Everpeaks

Attention!
We have been made aware of an ongoing scam that uses Everpeaks’ name. Scammers are publishing social media posts and contacting potential victims through Telegram or Whatsapp claiming to be from Everpeaks and offering jobs, services or products. These are all fraudulent. Please do not respond to them.

If you have any questions about Everpeaks' products or services, please contact us directly on any of our official channels.

We appreciate your help in spreading the word about this scam. Together, we can protect our community from fraud.

Here are some additional tips to help you avoid scams:
1) Never give out your personal information, such as your NRIC number, bank or credit card number, to someone you don't know.
2) Be suspicious of any offer that seems too good to be true.
3) If you're not sure if an email, message or phone call is legitimate, contact the company directly using a phone number or email address that you know is legitimate.

By following these tips, you can help protect yourself from scams.

Ever heard of the term MOQ? What does it actually mean?

MOQ is the acronym for Minimum Order Quantity. It refers to the minimum quantity of items that a customer must order for their order to be fulfilled, or the minimum number of units a supplier is willing to produce at one time for a shipment.

Why is MOQ important?
1) MOQ allows a business to avoid low-value orders and regain their inventory carrying cost.
2) A supplier can set its own MOQs to match what is worth their production run (be it time-wise or cost-wise).
3) MOQ is also important to the supplier as they are guaranteed compensation for the number of units they are able to produce within their production run.

Have you found the right supplier for your product MOQ?

What is Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)?

First, let’s understand what consumer goods actually mean. Consumer goods are products purchased by consumers for consumption. There are three different types of consumer goods: DURABLE (has a lifespan more than three years), NON-DURABLE (has a lifespan not more than three years), and SERVICES. FMCG falls under non-durable goods.

Now, what is FMCG?
Fast-Moving Consumer Goods or also known as packaged goods are products that are relatively quick to sell at a low cost. The goods have a short shelf-life due to high consumer demand as well as the fact that they are highly perishable.

Types of FMCG
The most common types of FMCG you can easily find in the market include processed foods, prepared meals, beverages, baked goods, fresh & frozen foods, dry goods, medicines, cleaning products, cosmetics and toiletries, as well as some office supplies.

Hope you learned something new today! Stay tuned for more insights from us.

Backhaul in Freight Shipping and Its Importances

What is Backhaul?
Backhauling or sometimes referred to as backloading is the return trip made by transport vehicles that deliver goods from their destination to their original point of departure. Instead of running on empty miles upon their return back to base, goods are carried back by the trucks to not waste fuel, time, and money. Some companies even fill their trucks with goods belonging to their competitors for the purpose of revenue-generating miles that could benefit their business.

Example: Nestle and United Biscuits joined forces despite their healthy rivalry as the latter was delivering into one area and coming back empty, while Nestle had the opposite run. Thus, in 2008, the two companies decided to carry each other’s loads after making their own deliveries. (source: IEMA)

Why Do Companies Practice Backhauling?
Backhauling benefits the business in many ways such as by increasing driver and vehicle productivity as well as eliminating additional trips to transport goods. Plus, by backhauling, the carbon footprint of the business can be minimized and it serves as a significant effort to go green(er).

Have you set up your own affiliate program?

Affiliate Marketing and Its Benefits

Affiliate marketing refers to an advertising method whereby the affiliate earns a commission for marketing a company’s products or services. The affiliates will market the products on their website/blog/app/social media and commissions will be paid to them for every sale made. The generated sales are tracked via affiliate links that they are provided with.

What good does Affiliate Marketing bring?
1. Cost-Effective - Anyone can join your affiliate program freely and there will be no product inventory to invest in.
2. Reduce Ticket Counts - Your affiliate partners will be the ones who directly handle the queries and issues faced by customers.
3. Brand Recognition & Awareness: Your affiliate partners will receive recognition by promoting branded products on their site while your brand gets to build brand awareness around the targeted audience from your affiliates’ sites.

What is an Inbound Link?

An Inbound Link or Backlink occurs when other websites (e.g. web page, web directory, etc.) link back to your site. The links that your blog earns are known as ‘inbound links.’ You can also see it as a reference or citation. Having more sites linking to your page is a good indicator that the quality of your content is authoritative and can be referenced.

Why is it Important?
Inbound link is an essential factor in boosting your SEO ranking, as the more inbound links you earn, the higher you rank in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Besides, you will reap the benefits of reaching a wider/new audience thanks to the sites that link to your blog content.

Have you earned any inbound links before?

Why ‘Search Retargeting’ Should be Your Next Go-to Marketing Strategy

Search retargeting refers to a method used in order to create a custom audience based on their keyword search behavior. You can also view it as a brand awareness strategy to get impressions and new potential customers to visit your site.

How does it work?
All you need to do is create a list of keywords (both broad and specific keywords) which are relevant to your product/business. These keywords should be set up with your search engine ads in order to retarget users who have searched for the specific keywords that have been listed in order for your ads to be displayed to them. That’s why sometimes when you search for a specific type of shoe, for instance, later on, your social media will be flooded with ads related to shoes. Search retargeting makes it happen.

Key Takeaway: Search retargeting is the way to go if you plan to increase your brand awareness and convert more targeted consumers. Hope you learn something new today!

Sell Better on Amazon With These Useful Tips!

Are you a new Amazon seller? Trying to find some ways to sell better on the platform? Fret not, here are a few simple methods you can apply in order to gain more sales in the near future:

1. Adopt a Professional Customer Service - Respond to customers in a timely manner, especially to negative reviews. Have good return policies and ensure fast shipping for every order.
2. Craft Stories with Your Product Descriptions - Focus on the benefits instead of the features of each product. And make sure to clarify how the product is able to improve your customers’ lives.
3. Optimize Backend Search Terms - Include the most important keywords for your product and avoid fillers such as ‘by’ or ‘for’, and even commas, in order to include more words against the character limit.

Have more tips to sell better on Amazon? We’d love to hear from you!

Finding The Right Warehouse Location: What to Consider?

Being an integral aspect of your supply chain, your warehouse should be located in the best area possible. If you’re selling cross-border for instance, it‘s best that your warehouse is built closer to the borders to ease the transportation of your shipments. A strategic location like this might also give you the opportunity to serve as a distribution hub. Other than that, consider the main transportation you are using to transport the goods. Say, if you export cargo via air, you want to be in the closest proximity to the airport. If you’re exporting the goods via ship, you’ll want to build your warehouse near ports. Another aspect to consider is the workforce, whether the location of the warehouse can be accessible to your employees via good transport links or not.

Know any other aspects to consider for a good warehouse location? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

A Piece of Advice on Cross-Border Commerce Marketing Strategy

“I recommend that you take the time to develop a strategy for cross-border selling. You should identify and leverage the right channels and tap into the right foreign markets to promote your products. Analyze: Which of your products are in demand in foreign markets? Which ecommerce platforms do people shop from in your target country? Who are your competitors there? Will you be able to ship to those countries? All of these will help you understand and plan a robust marketing strategy.” - Shane Barker, Brand and Influencer Consultant on taking cross-border commerce to new heights.

Key Takeaway: Planning everything. Your target market, your logistics, your product suitability, your marketing, etc. Selling in unfamiliar territory is a challenge, and you can take on that challenge if you have a plan.

What is Warehouse Order Picking?

Warehouse order picking refers to the process of picking specific items from a fulfillment center to satisfy customers’ orders. This step is crucial in order to improve order accuracy and increase buyer satisfaction. Some of the most common picking strategies are:

1. Discrete Picking - Picking one order at a time each time an order is placed.
2. Batch Picking - Picking a cluster of identical orders with the same SKUs.
3. Zone Picking - Also known as ‘pick and pass’, it is used for multi-item orders. Pickers are assigned a specific zone each and only to pick SKUs from that zone of the warehouse.
4. Wave Picking - Picking one SKU at a time but picking is scheduled at specific times of the day.

Have you opted for a warehouse picking system for your brand?

Order-to-Cash (O2C). What is it?

Order-to-Cash or O2C refers to a set of business processes involved when turning an order into cash/profit. It begins as soon as an order is placed by a customer. This how an O2C cycle looks like:

1. A customer order is received and recorded by the order management system.
2. A payment gateway will capture the customer’s credit card information and once it is approved, the order will be confirmed.
3. The order will be prepared and scheduled accordingly.
4. An invoice is generated for the customer.
5. Outstanding invoices are flagged and viewed by the accounts receivable.
6. The payment is paid by the customer and it will be recorded in a general ledger.
7. The whole O2C process is reported in order to monitor performance data.

If you’re wondering why O2C is important it’s because it gives you an insight into your order process and from there, you’ll be able to track order accuracy and on-time shipments of the purchased item, besides keeping your customers in the loop of their orders.

A Piece of Advice on Warehouse Management and Procrastination

“Sometimes when you receive major shipments from suppliers, it’s easy to give it the ol’, ‘Eh. Let’s just take care of this later.’ Put an end to the procrastination and take the time to break down the boxes, shove them in the recycling bin, un-package your products and stock them accordingly.” - Breena Fain, Founder of Gather, on ways to optimize your warehouse management system.

Key Takeaway: Never put off your shipments. It’s best that you schedule them on your working calendar accordingly for each day/week. Not stocking your products on time can result in bad lead time, and subsequently a disappointed customer and future loss in revenue.

Inventory Management 101: Optimizing Your Cycle Count

Cycle count refers to the act of counting small subsets of your inventory each day with the intention to complete counting the entire inventory over a period of time. It is also used as a method of check and balance to ensure that the physical inventory counts match the inventory records.

Why is it important?

Cycle counts help in maintaining accurate inventory figures throughout the year, aside from helping you identify any discrepancies that may occur during any auditing process. More effective order fulfilment rates can also be achieved via consistent and thorough cycle counts.

Cross-Border Commerce: Why Setting Up a Local Returns Option is a Smart Move

Handling product returns is challenging especially when you are selling across borders. A report by IPC Cross-Border Ecommerce Shopper Survey in 2020 showed that more than 8% of customers returned their cross-border purchases. Metapack’s Guide to Returns also claimed that 50% of shoppers abandoned their purchases due to limited returns channels.

How to Tackle This Issue?

It is advisable to set up your own local returns option either by partnering with a local courier collection/logistics center. This will ease customers' overall returns process and attract more potential cross-border customers to shop with your brand! It also establishes a level of trust between your customers and your brand.

Have you set up a local returns center for your brand?

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? What is a USP?

A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a “special” perceived benefit of your product/service/brand which differentiates it from others, and your USP is what motivates potential customers to proceed with a purchase from your brand. A compelling USP should be the big idea that positions your brand to what your customers care about and what your competitors do not offer. Here are some examples of USPs from our brand:

Everpeaks Consulting Sdn Bhd:
1) Duty-free warehousing - pay duties only when a sale is made.
2) Integration of logistics + ecommerce into a single platform.
3) Instant market access to SEA region.

Have you found your brand USP?

Looking to expand and optimize your business in the realm of ecommerce? Look no further, because Everpeaks has the solutions to your problems.

One of the biggest ordeals that ecommerce business owners go through is the operational issues stretched across different channels and teams. This includes nightmares such as inadequate warehouse management, confusing delivery systems, or poor customer fulfillment among the many issues faced within ecommerce, not to mention the niche problems specific to your business.

Here is where our Operational Ecommerce Support comes in, where we help you enhance and fine-tune your operations across all your preferred channels. We provide comprehensive solutions, from your store and warehouse management to customer service, and more, while catering to your business's specific needs.

Want us to help you along your ecommerce journey? Visit us at our website.

www.everpeaks.com

Ever heard of an ecommerce framework? It refers to the type of software you are using to build your ecommerce store. It essentially offers an environment for designing and building ecommerce applications quickly. Ecommerce frameworks are generally flexible, having the capabilities to adapt to your business and its specific requirements.

Due to the vast nature of ecommerce and the constant growth associated with it, businesses require a platform that can ease their management of this fact. Through ecommerce frameworks, it lightens the load of establishing an ecommerce business and allows managing them with the highest level of growth. Though it sounds complicated, some frameworks are actually quite simple in practice.

There are frameworks that act as do-it-yourself platforms. This is where business owners do not require programming, designing skills, or prior experience when working with the framework. Most of these frameworks entail drag-and-drop, fill forms, and click on buttons based functions, which make it easier to build website functions and applications that you want with practice and exploration, including your digital storefront, product information manager (PIM), order management system, shopping cart, and payment processing.

Though, this is just the surface of what an ecommerce framework is. Stay tuned for the different types of frameworks and their structures!

Is there something interesting about ecommerce frameworks that we should know? Share with us below!

www.everpeaks.com

“One of the most important tasks as a leader in a startup is to pick the right metric to track. This is often referred to as the ‘compass metric’ because it will be your compass for growth. It’s important to note that ‘compass metrics’ will likely change over the lifetime of a business.” - Tobi Lutke, founder, and CEO of Shopify.

Key Takeaway: Choose a metric for your business to focus on. Track the growth of your business and evaluate its performance using that metric. It sets a basis for you and your team to work on, and if you can see positive change in your business, that means you are focused on the right thing at the moment.

Thank you Trinity42 - Formerly Known As PanPages Trinity for having us! Education and knowledge sharing is key to developing a competitive edge in the saturated Post-pandemic market. We are glad to share our piece on Amazon and Ebay with Penang!

Here are the 3 most common approaches to ecommerce logistics:

In-House Fulfillment and Self-Delivery - By managing logistics in-house, the company has complete control of their logistic functions. Managers can ensure that every order is filled efficiently and appropriately. Self-delivery also helps your business to provide optimal customer service by handling the training and procedures related. Though, this option requires the hiring of a dedicated team to manage all logistics related tasks. It usually is a good choice for new businesses in their initial stages of operations or businesses working at high capacity, handling large volumes of inventory and orders.

3PL Outsourcing - 3PL or third-party logistics is done by outsourcing your logistics to a dedicated logistics company. This approach cures all the ailments related to logistics, with the 3PL company taking care of all essential and stressful steps in logistics, such as planning delivery routes. Many of the packages offered are customizable and able to scale according to your business, however this option can often be expensive and might not be the best for businesses with smaller budgets.

Dropshipping - This approach is more than just logistics, as it is also a business model. How it works is, when a customer purchases an item, your business facilitates the process of purchasing the specified product from a third party and shipping it to the customer, thereby completely eliminating the need for large scale warehousing and reduces shipping costs. Though, many liabilities come along with this, as your business has little to no control over order fulfillment or shipping. Additionally, mistakes made by the third party will be on your shoulders as well, as it will reflect back on your brand.

Did any of these approaches resonate with your business? Let us know!

If you are someone with experience in digital marketing or ecommerce in general, you have probably heard what backlinks are. Backlinks are hyperlinks belonging to a page on one website, present on another website. If someone links to your site, then you have a backlink from them. If you link to another website, then they have a backlink from you. How does this affect your sales on Amazon?

Provides Competitive Advantage - Generating backlinks for Amazon products and pages is critically underused by the majority of Amazon sellers. For perspective, only the top 1% of Amazon sellers are practicing the effective use of backlinks. That gives them significant positive results because it creates more conversions and funneling for their audience.

Increased Traffic - Quality backlinks to your Amazon product pages contribute to improving click through rate, visibility, and conversions by sending traffic directly to your product page, equaling improved SEO and increased traffic, leading to more sales down the road.

Higher Amazon Rankings - A big factor in creating backlinks from external sources to your Amazon page is that it sends a huge boost to your Amazon Rankings due to Amazon’s A9 algorithm while also giving you higher organic rankings because of it. This powerful combination will definitely enhance your presence on Amazon.

However, not all backlinks are created equal. Some are more effective than others, and that is an important point to remember. For example, high quality backlinks need to be from a webpage that is relevant to your product, and that page needs to have a good flow of traffic. Otherwise, the effectiveness will obviously be less.

Know more about backlinking to Amazon? Share with us in the comments!

www.everpeaks.com

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” - Jeff Bezos, founder of ecommerce giant, Amazon.

Key Takeaway: Building a brand and gaining reputation are parallel to each other. By proving what one can deliver, execute and manage well, the brand is enhanced along with it. It’s not easy, but focusing on the company’s capabilities and improving on strengths is one of the best ways to pave the way to great branding.

Here are the types of ecommerce hosting, and the benefits and challenges they bring:

SaaS Hosting - Software-as-a-service, or SaaS, is a type of cloud-based hosting or hosting through a network of connected servers. The software used is accessible anywhere with an internet connection. The IT issues associated with self-hosting is non-existent because your host manages everything from maintenance to security of the site. No download needed, but usually a fixed monthly fee is present in exchange for the software access.

Self-Hosting - Self-hosting gives you complete control over your servers and data. Though, it requires space and funding for your own servers, and significant ex*****on knowledge, which may not be viable for most online businesses. The initial costs and potential issues are high, but allows for flexibility and complete control over your website and its hosting functions.

IaaS Hosting - Infrastructure-as-a-service, or IaaS, is a cloud-based computing option that often uses a pay-as-you-use structure. It is more reliable than self-hosting because the infrastructure is handled by the provider. You manage the runtime, applications operating systems, middleware and data while the provider takes care of the servers, virtualization and networking. This is the most flexible model but due to the payment structure, you might be surprised with the costs.

PaaS Hosting - Platform-as-a-service or PaaS, on the other hand, also delivers software and hardware tools over the internet, but users need to log into a specific platform to build applications. You retain complete control over the applications, while the provider manages storage, servers and networking, similar to IaaS hosting, but you develop the applications, with reduced complexities.

Which of these is best suited for your business? Let us know in the comments.

Here are 4 ways to make your brand stand out on eBay!:

eBay Store - The eBay Store allows you to access marketing and merchandising tools, allowing you to differentiate your products from competitors. An easy way to enhance your brand is by personalizing your eBay profile and seller ID using the tools, with a look and feel that is consistent with with your brand. Besides that, the benefits of the eBay Store include lower selling fees, higher visibility in search results, eBay-branded shipping supplies discounts, and control over your own branded or unbranded store pages.

Promoted Listings - Promoted Listings on eBay allows your products to get noticed by more people. It helps reach more customers and increase traffic by improving the placement of your business in the eBay search result. Additionally, you only pay for the service when a product is sold, and can enjoy beneficial features such as tracking tools to optimize campaigns and increase sales.

eBay Guaranteed Delivery - EBay Guaranteed Delivery (eGD) offers customers guaranteed rapid delivery times without impacting participating sellers. Though, to qualify for eGD, sellers must offer same-day or one-day handling, must complete a minimum of 100 transactions per year and have a late-shipment rate of less than 5%. Participating sellers are required to provide accurate handling times and upload on-time tracking information for their buyers.

Global Shipping Program - EBay’s Global Shipping Program or GSP allows for worry free logistics in global shipping, as when the item is purchased internationally, all you need to do is send the parcel to eBay’s global shipping center in Kentucky and eBay handles the rest. The clear end-to-end tracking details, and no surprise delivery fees makes this a favorite for customers who regularly buy products from overseas, which is an opportunity for you to familiarize with international markets as well.

www.everpeaks.com

“The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.” - Seth Godin, Business Week and New York Times bestselling author, American Marketing Association's Marketing Hall of Famer.

Key Takeaway: The initial focus of a customer will predominantly be the pricing of a product. Crafting a story around the product, bringing meaning and added value to it, while generating attachments between the customer and the brand, allows the Customer Focus to shift to the appeal of the product and other factors, rather than the price point alone.

Here are some tips that would surely help your export ecommerce business grow:

Website Optimization - Picture your website like a shop window. Customers will peer in to look at what’s inside including the layout, design, and feel of the store. These factors will influence the purchasing decision that the customers make, and is the same for your website. Convey your brand’s story, and localize the content as much as you can through the design of your website to personalize your brand and appeal to diverse audiences.

SEO Mastery - The SEO strategy is a vital part in achieving a successful website localization. Translating your content into other languages will be a big boost in SEO, because it is seen as unique content by search engines. However, keep in mind that your content is directed to a new target audience, and is not a matter of direct translation.

Social Media Strategy - Develop a robust social media strategy that engages with your followers through avenues such as interactive marketing campaigns, so that you can build trust and rapport, while also maintaining a strong brand identity. Alongside this, find out the advantages for different social media platforms according to the product, content and locales, such as the strong presence of WeChat in China, to better deliver messages and imprint a strong brand image.

Enhanced Email Marketing - Email has a more personal feel compared to social media. Email marketing is also one of the most efficient ways to procure repeat business through email chains, product recommendations, and the likes. Take advantage of this by personalizing your interactions with customers based on different segments and markets to create a bond between the customer and your brand. It can also increase your brand reputation by encouraging customers to leave reviews.