ThePlanetMom.com

Finally! We're on Facebook!

If you're on Facebook, check out our just-posted PlanetMomTshirts.com page.  Become a fan, and we'll let you know about new lines, sales and appearances first!

Have you considered Facebookto promote your small business?

We're testing some ads on Facebook and have been encouraged by the response.  Reasonably priced, and if you understand your customers' interests, it can be a very efficient ad buy.  Good luck!

Our first foray into GIVEAWAYS

During Summer 2007, we decided to try a giveaway. 

For the uninitiated, an online giveaway includes a review of your business on another Web site.  Readers are then invited to submit their entry, usually via an email or post to that site's administrator, to win a free goodie.  In our case, a Planet Mom Tshirt of their choice.

In my former life in marketing, I knew that sweepstakes generate a ton of interest, but often doesn't translate to sales.  By law, no purchase is necessary to enter a sweepstakes.  But we decided to give it a go anyway, via Shannon of Rocks in my Dryer.

I had stumbled across Shannon online because she was the mastermind behind Works For Me Wednesdays and already had an impressive fan base.  At Shannon's suggestion, entrants had to post their favorite line from our offerings, resulting in visitors EXPLORING OUR SITE, then offering valuable feedback.

Here's the original post.  Followed by 260 comments!  All those moms weighing in on their favorite Planet Mom lines - we were floored.  And thrilled.

After awarding the winner a World's Best Mom when my kids are in school tee, we looked at our numbers:  Our daily traffic increased by 300% - and, more impressively, on an August weekday!  And our August 2007 vs. August 2006 sales?  DOUBLED.

Since then, we've offered giveaways on a handful of other sites, always trying to reach a different audience.  Others that brought us traffic and sales included An Island Life and Baristanet.  Plus, each of these sites still send us readers.

Good luck promoting your business through online giveaways and let us know how you fare!

You Go Girls!

Elise and I spent a good part of yesterday brainstorming another line - it will debut next week - and a new line is always preceded by an Internet stroll.  Visiting parenting sites and blogs usually, but also checking out who's gone all ambitious and up and started an online business.

Who would have thought that three years into Web retailing, we're considered vets, but we are, and that's fine by us.  Don't be calling us old in real life, but thrilled to have a thriving online business this long, especially given the economy.

So yesterday, after scanning some message boards, I came across a site that was started by friends who had met in college, like us, and decided to do apparel, too.  Baby Fish Mouth's offerings are inspired, and, as a devoted Spinal Tap fan, I'm partial to this.

Mostly, I'm giving huge props to their packaging.  Lavish.  We know what goes into an effort like that and we applaud them.  Gift wrapping is time consuming and low margin, but it sure makes your stuff look pretty.

No one has ever called me shy, so I sent off an email to founders Danielle and Cindy and wished them luck.  The more who make it, the better for all of us.

Why we ship via the Post Office

When we launched PlanetMomTshirts.com, we did so using Yahoo Merchant Services which includes a UPS interface.  Meaning, it was very easy to set up UPS as our only shipping option in our checkout section.  Plus, UPS provides free shipping materials and with a click of the mouse, we could print out addressed and bar coded mailing labels.

However, we quickly realized that the ease of using UPS came at a cost. 

Specifically, shipping an order cost our customer, on average, over $10 and their order took up to a week to deliver.  On our end,  mailing our orders was either inconvenient (had to be dropped at a local UPS store, and only when they were open) or expensive (UPS would pick up from us, but charged us to do so).

In 2006, With Valentine's Day approaching - one of our busiest holidays - we knew we had to give customers another option.  And quickly.  We decided on the United States Post Office (USPS).  I won't say it was easy to change over, but it's one of the smartest business decisions we've ever made.

CHEAPER TO MAIL
UPS was charging our customers over $10 for shipping.  USPS Priority Mail charged $4.55 to ship the same order.  Two years later, this Priority Mail rate has only increased to $4.75.

FASTER DELIVERY
UPS Ground could take anywhere from 3 - 7 days to deliver.  USPS Priority Mail typically takes 2 - 3 days.

TRACKING PACKAGES
When we first signed on with USPS, Priority Mail shipped with a delivery confirmation code so you could only confirm delivery - not in-transit status.  Frustrating if we wanted to track a package.  However, recently, USPS has updated their service to provide in-transit status.

The best reason to ship via USPS:  occasionally, a customer will contact us and say they haven't received their package.  If USPS tracking reports the package has been delivered, we usually follow up with a phone call to the customer's Post Office to speak with their mail carrier.  Often the mail carrier will tell us that the package was dropped on a side porch or may be in the back of a mailbox.  I'm happy to report that our "lost" packages are always found and our customers are delighted with this level of customer service.  We were never able to speak to UPS drivers.

FREE SHIPPING MATERIALS & FREE PICK-UP
USPS also provides a variety of free shipping materials.  And after generating mailing labels via their online system - Click n Ship - the orders can be picked up by a mail carrier.  Or many Post Office lobbies are now open 24/7 and orders can be dropped in drop boxes.

As a small business, we are always looking for ways to provide excellent customer service and make our operations more efficient.  Shipping via USPS has helped us meet both these goals.

How do I launch my own e-business?

When Elise and I first launched Planet Mom in April 2005, we did not have plans to sell via a Web site.  First we needed to make sure our idea - shirts embroidered with irreverent, mom-centric phrases - would sell at all.  So we embroidered test tees - Trophy Wife, I need a playdate, Chicken Nuggets or Pizza? - and wore them around our communities.  While grocery shopping.  On soccer sidelines.  To cocktail parties.  The response was overwhelming:  we sold 150 shirts in a month's time thanks to word of mouth and decided to take our business online.  Neither of us had any e-commerce experience.  Where to start?

When in doubt, consult a mom.

The savviest computer person I knew was a mom in town who had recently created a Web site for our school's Silent Auction.  So I asked what she would recommend:  Start from scratch with a Web designer?  Or was there a site template we could buy and customize?  She recommended Yahoo Small Business.  Within a few weeks, PlanetMomTshirts.com was live, just in time for our feature on the View, when Star Jones wore our Trophy Wife t-shirt.

Three years later, we're still Yahoo merchants. 

Here's how it works:  For a set-up fee plus monthly and transaction fees, Yahoo provides a design template.  As the merchant, you load images and text.  You can customize the look of your site (for example, where you want the navigation bar to reside, how big your pictures appear on the homepage, etc.).  Yahoo provides the interface to process credit card payments and ship via UPS (although we use USPS - that's another post!).  Further, we have access to email accounts and technical support.  We also purchased our domain name via Yahoo.

No service is perfect, but we have been pleased with our Yahoo experience and would definitely recommend to first time e-retailers.  Just yesterday, we had an order from New Zealand.  How else can you sell to customers around the world? 

If we can do it, so can you.  Good luck, have fun, get started!

Disney does it right

I just got back from five days in Disney World with my family.   Let me say outright, I am not a big fan of theme parks, crowds and standing in line.   I don't go on rides (severe motion sickness), so basically I held my kids' places in line while reading three books in five days.  Having said that, there's something very impressive about the world of Disney--  and it is a WORLD, or at least a city.  They seem to own everything around for miles and miles.  And, while there is that Stepford community feeling to the place, they've got customer service down to a tee.  Everybody's friendly, willing to help in a crisis (like when my husband left his wallet in "Hollywood Studios" and didn't realize until the park had closed and we were back at our hotel), and no matter where you turn, there's a Disney employee ready to answer your question (ie, "How do we get out of here?!?!")

Customer service is the cornerstone of any successful business, and Disney realizes this.  So do we, and we work hard to let our customers know that we'll go the extra mile for them.   For example, come Mother's Day, we'll be inundated with orders from thoughtful husbands who want to get a "Trophy Wife" or "Voted Best Mom by (kids' names)" tee for their wives.  Every year, we get a large number of husbands who order a size Small for their wives.  While we make it clear on our Web site that the American Apparel shirts that we sell run on the small side, we see an inordinate number of Small tees (fits sizes 0-2) being ordered by men.  Not wanting their wives to be disappointed on that holiest of holidays, we'll contact the customer and make sure they're aware of how the sizing works.  More often than not, they'll decide to order a Medium instead and express their sincere thanks to us for taking the time to contact them.

Here's another way we help out our customers.   Occasionally, we'll hear from a customer who says they haven't received their order.  We'll know, through Delivery Confirmation with the USPS, that the package was indeed delivered and exactly when that was.  Our next step will be to call the customer's local post office and ask to speak with their mail carrier.  We'll ask where the package was left, if not in the mailbox.  Then, we'll call the customer and be able to tell them, "Your mail carrier says he left your package on the side porch yesterday morning."  People are amazed and grateful that we've gone to such lengths to help them out.  And, those are among the people who come back to our site and order again or share our Web address with their friends.

Because "Planet Mom" is our own business--our baby, if you will-- we want our customers to feel great about our products.  We want them to know how much we appreciate their business, and there's nothing like great customer service to communicate that idea to them.  The phrase, "The customer is always right" goes back a hundred years, but it still holds true today, but I might add "and always comes first" to that adage.  Good customer service fosters good feelings and inevitably results in more business.