How Can Ecommerce Merchants Deal With Lumber Shortage in 2021?
We have witnessed a significant increase in lumber price, up to 288% according to Random Lengths. The highest price of lumber over the last 13 years is the result of the serious lumber shortage in 2021. There is no single reason for this problem. Various issues have negative impacts on lumber markets, and eCommerce merchants also suffer from this hardship. Our article today will provide the reason behind the lumber shortage, how it affects our eCommerce business and how to overcome it. How To Tackle Lumber Shortage 2021? Why Is There A Lumber Shortage 2021? While other kinds of shortages are the results of the relation of supply and demand, lumber shortage is caused by many reasons. Firstly, the widespread deforestation which has caused severe climate change makes the quality and quantities of lumber decrease steeply. Therefore, a little lumber is able for the manufacturers to make use of, leading to the low supply. Secondly, the Covid-19 has limited and prevented the operation of a lot of factories, all the activities have been procrastinated. Also, the factory cut down on their labor so there are not enough laborers to take part in the lumber-making process, reducing the output quantity. Thirdly, in the pandemic context, people tend to stay at home and want to upgrade their houses by buying house accessories, constructing more rooms, etc. That leads to the high demand for lumber, which is the essential material for construction. Last but not least, the large scope of social distancing has reduced logistics productivity. The wholesalers, distributors, suppliers can not contact each other to supply goods and do commercial activities. Then, the eCommerce merchants can not sell anymore and need to wait for a long time for refilling stocks. How Does Lumber Shortage Impact Your Business? First and always, the 2021 lumber shortage will make your eCommerce business lose a lot of revenue. Although so many customers want to buy, you can not meet their demand as the warehouses are empty. Secondly, lumber is a popular input for many other products such as toys, furniture, home accessories, and so on. The lumber deficit can lead to other products shortage. Imagine that a lot of your stocks are unavailable and you don’t know when they are refilled, it is really terrible! What are the solutions? Backorder The best way to gain revenue when you are dealing with the lumber shortage is using backorder. A fabulous solution for your Bigcommerce stores is Backorder. With the pre-setting of Backorder, your products will automatically turn into backorder status when they are out of stock. The customers totally can click on it, put it in their online shopping cart, receive confirmation emails, and wait for the delivery. Try the app out: Allow customers to purchase even when you have 0 inventory. This approach gives the buyers certainty that they have already possessed the items anyway and reduces the probability that they come to other stores and buy goods. Demand Forecasting To avoid unexpected situations, it would be better for you to prepare for them. To minimize the 2021 lumber shortage, you need to predict the upcoming demand and trends to forecast the extent of lumber needs. There are several ways to tackle. You can use the clues from the previous quarter selling data, customer behaviors history to estimate how many people may need lumber in the future. Also, you can use some analytics software to help you with this task. Moreover, there are annual hot sale seasons when the demand for lumber could increase such as New Year, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc., starting to prepare stocks for a long time before those seasons come will help you have enough products to sell. Conclusion The lumber shortage is one of the most serious problems for eCommerce merchants to deal with in 2021. We hope you can take advantage of our recommendations to rescue your eCommerce from this crisis, stay productive and gain profits.
Tricks And Treats For A “Scary” Good Ecommerce Halloween
People tend to celebrate a bigger and more fantastic Halloween over the years. The increase of this habit has boosted the demand for Halloween shopping on eCommerce platforms. To gain more profits in this hot season, the eCommerce business needs to find ways to attract customers and sell more “scary” goods. We will take you through some approaches and witness a successful eCommerce Halloween season. What Do You Need For A “Horrified” Ecommerce Halloween? Diversify Product Lines First and foremost, the demand for “scary” goods will increase dramatically in the Halloween festival. To sell more products and gain massive revenues, you must diversify your product line. A wide range of Halloween costumes or Halloween house decorations will attract a lot of buyers. Moreover, a tip for the eCommerce sellers is trying to sell unique, ridiculous, and strange items. Those kinds of products will feasibly meet customers’ expectations as they can bring the buyers the most fabulous Halloween experience. If you feel difficult in choosing the “scary” products to store and sell, using backorders will be the best solution. You can use the Backorder app on the Bigcommerce platform to allow customers to order items even though they are not in your warehouses. Create Halloween Atmosphere Creating a Halloween atmosphere will enhance customers’ buying experience in this season. Also, it is a form of marketing that grabs people’s attention at a glance. You can design the Halloween themes, background, or send Happy Halloween emails. To make the atmosphere more lively, you can use automation applications like Atom8 to automatically change the theme every 2 hours. Moreover, content marketing should not be ignored. Some informative content related to Halloween may make customers excited and have more trust in your stores. Launch Halloween Marketing Campaign We have mentioned Happy Halloween emails above and we also have other forms of marketing campaigns that contribute to your Halloween selling successes. A personalized email marketing about Halloween and related product recommendations will help you introduce your new lines of products to customers and increase sales. Moreover, some minigames or giveaways on websites or fanpage in the Halloween concept with special gifts can make your marketing campaign more widespread. Discounts And Promotions Some people still hesitate to buy Halloween products as they don’t want to spend money on one-used items for playing. To alleviate their hesitation and boost sales, it would be better to establish some discount and promotion programs. Besides the discount, you can give the buyers some gifts, vouchers, and member cards of which value depending on the amount of their spending. This approach can stimulate their buying and make them buy more products in your eCommerce stores. Moreover, you may need to cooperate with other partners such as restaurants, hotels, etc., to have some vouchers related to Halloween foods or Halloween playgrounds. Your customers will be interested in those vouchers. Also, they will purchase your products without any reluctance. If you are a Bigcommerce merchant, Atom8 can be a great option as it can help you to automatically apply discounts to current prices and manage your eCommerce store better in this busy season. You can discover Atom8 here: The app can boost up your profit and save effort due to intelligent automation functions. Conclusion In short, Halloween is a valuable sale season that helps you gain more revenues, profits, and even your companies’ reputation. Carefully preparing for it will make your sales seasons obtain over-expected achievements!
