Top tips for a successful peak

Ricky Jones, GS1 uK

26/10/17

© GS1 2017

Who is GS1?

2

2

Serving over

two millioncompanies

2,500 peoplehelping us to achieve our vision

Across

150countries

Over

20sectors

112Member

Organisations

More than

6 billion barcodes read allover the planet

every day

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Turning your product into a tradable item

GS1 barcodes identify a product so it can be sold anywhere!

• Barcodes carry a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) that identifies a product

• Global standard means every product in the world can be identified by a unique number

• As a brand owner it’s your responsibility to properly identify your product so it can be sold

A GTIN is like a passport number for your product – it

allows it to be sent all over the world to be bought and

sold.

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Three trends from last year…

1. Discounts

81%of UK shoppers plan to go bargain hunting on black

Friday

49%of black Friday purchases

motivated by price

74%of those buying discounted product not willing to pay

full price

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Three trends from last year…

2. Mobile

68%of traffic to ecommerce sites came from mobile

51%of

transactions across the

black Friday long weekend

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Three trends from last year

3. Even longer

• ‘Peak week’ Mon 20 Nov – Mon 27 Nov.

• 43 of UK top 75 retailers had launched or were actively promoting black Friday

by 14th November

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Top tips…

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Mobile

Have you correctly identified your product?

• Have you got the right number of digits? UPC codes or GTIN-12s should have 12 digits, and EAN

numbers or GTIN-13s should have 13 digits – GS1 UK members will usually be using 13-digit GTINs

• Have you added any letters or other characters? GTINs only use numbers

• Have you entered the number in the right order? The last digit of a GTIN is a check digit – it

ensures you’ve entered the rest of the digits in the right order

• Each variation of your product requires its own GTIN – so if your product comes in a range of sizes

or colours, each colour will require a GTIN in every size. Check out our quick-fire guide for more

information

• Have you used an incorrect GTIN? Most major brands will create GTINs for their products – this

number is their ‘product passport’ to the world. If you want to sell any of the following brands’

products you’ll need to make sure you’re using the original GTIN they’ve assigned to their product

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Mobile

Have you filled in all of your product details correctly?

• Is it correctly categorised?

• Have you filled in your item specifics?

• Browse your own store as a shopper would

• Don’t use too specific values

- Amazon

• Use maps to relate ‘Crimson’ to ‘Red’

- eBay

• Item specific as generic ‘Red’ then use

an exact colour item specific for ‘Crimson’

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Mobile

Have you filled in your mobile item description summaries?

• The mobile summary codes are HTML and must be added in the HTML tab or HTML view of the description editor.

• 800 Character limit including spaces!

• If you wish to control exactly what your item description summary contains then use the new HTML tag format:

• <div vocab=‘http://schema.org/’typeof=‘Product’><span property=‘description’>[your description summary goes here]</span></div>

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Mobile

How do your pictures look on a mobile?

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Discounts

Know your limits

• Savvy shoppers are already researching what they’re going to buy – so will

know a good deal when they see one

• Make sure you’re still profitable when offering discounted products

• Remember to include all the costs of sale

• Don’t get dragged into a price war you can’t afford…

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Discounts

Reward your loyal customers

• Who do I mean:

- Previous customers

- Social followers

- Your email marketing lists

• Amazon

- Voucher codes

- SC > Inventory > Manage Promotions

- Single use or group

- £X off or X%

• eBay

- Codeless coupons

- Promotions manager

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Discounts

Free delivery

• Free trumps fast and convenient!

• Increases conversion

• Improves search ranking

- Fast & Free – 3 days or less

• Display it clearly and prominently

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Discounts

Bundle and save…

Create a new product listing with a hamper (multiple) products together

Buy one get one freePair accessories or supporting products

Bundle listing (eBay only)• Bundled Items section

of Add item specifics

• http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/bundle.html

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Discounts

Order size promotions or step up discounts..

• £X off when you spend £Y

• A% off when you spend £B

• Increase your average basket values

• eBay only

- Predominantly displayed on item, basket and check out pages

- Creates an offer page with all items included within the offer

Watch eBay Growth Webinar: Promotional

Tools: Part 1

(1 hour)

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Discounts

Timebound…

• Communicate this clearly

• Creates urgency to buy now!

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Longer

Winter is coming…

• Make sure you are prepared

• Be ready to go live before 13 November

- Yes – that’s only 2 and a bit weeks away!

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Longer

Manage your inventory

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Longer

Remember the last minute shoppers

• Spikes are driven by delivery

dates!

- Standard Mon 18th Dec

- 2-Day Wed 20th Dec

- 1-Day Thu 21st Dec

- Next day Fri 2nd Dec

• Communicate them clearly on

your websites!

© GS1 2017

For more information

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Visit our Peak planning guides!

https://www.gs1uk.org/our-industries/retail/selling-on-marketplaces/get-ready-

for-peak

Contact me:

Ricky.jones@gs1uk.org

@ecommercericky