what small e-shop do when owner go for holidays?

[popo00]

hi,

just wonder how is that work.

do you shut down or extend delivery times?

 

[Optegris]

All depends on how long you are going away for and what your delivery terms are really...

 

[Samhodge]

You could ask a family member or close friend to manage orders while you're away.

I would strongly advise against having to temporarily 'close' the site, you would be losing revenue and potentially losing repeat customers.

 

[imageonline]

I booked a holiday at what I knew to be a quieter time, had no choice but to close as plans went astray. Had a big closed sign on the front with a new orders posting day, put the same on checkout. Only 1 person emailed to ask where their order was and we were also surprised how many orders came in 2 days before re-opening. We were extra busy the following week, so did not do too much harm. I would not leave it again without someone to see to orders, my nerves couldn't stand it.

 

[Jonathan Bird]

Its a hard one this...really effects ebay users to because of damned feedback systems!

 

[cosmetics4less]

We carry on as usual. We put a notice up on the website saying we are a away and the date we will be back, saying please order as usual and we will post as soon as we can on our return.

This seems to work fine, orders still come in and only 1-2 people complain about the wait.

 

[in2play]

We've done it two ways, one was to get a friend to do it for us - worked well except the wrapping wasn't great. You also need to make sure the stock is accessible and logically stored, not in a dark loft in identical boxes....

The other way was we put a notice up on the website and it didn't slow down the number of orders. We also temporarily closed our busiest sales channel for a couple of days - we went at the start of the week, closing the channel, then opened it on the Friday, sold lots over the weekend, got back from holiday in time to post on the Tuesday. Caused no complaints and we still exceeded the despatch requirements of that sales channel.

Now we've got a High street shop, we'll either go in our quiet period or we'll get in some friends who've offered.

 

[SamStones]

I put a notice up saying that I'm away and will post when I get back, or depending on the channel will put delayed delivery on of 7 days, then 6 , then 5 etc etc as the end of my holiday approaches.

 

[SillyJokes]

what holidays?

When we started we didn't have any, or separate. now we have staff we still don't feel comfortable leaving the country so holiday in the UK

 

[SIX1]

Have any of you considered looked into outsourcing the storage, pick pack etc to a fulfilment warehouse?

It allows everything to run completely in your absence and is generally cheaper than doing it yourself too due to the postage discounts.

James

(I'm not mentioning this to get more business - though it'd be nice! - but because a lot of small companies don't even consider doing it, assuming it's too expensive and not for small sellers, when in fact small companies possibly have the most to benefit).

 

[lemonhemispheres]

we've done it both ways: first time had family members to do the picking and packing for us but this took up a lot of time prior to the holiday in getting them used to the codes and the stock and packing methods etc. They did a ood job but the second time we just put up a clear notice about the dates we were away and the expected next delivery date and we also said we would be checking emails if there were any questions. I didn't get any emails about where the items were and all seemed to flow well. We did the same on the ebay shop as well. I know people want their goods within a couple of days nowadays but we used to have a system where sometimes you'd have to wait 14-21 days for goods to arrive. I know that isn;t acceptable most of the time but it was encouraging to see that people were prepared to wait a couple of weeks, they just needed to know this in advance so they weren't disappointed.
I wouldn't mind doing the same again, but I'm also intrigued about order fulfilment houses so might check them out.

 

[SIX1]

It seems quite a regular comment that people leave a notice on their site saying "All orders will be despatched after XXth of month" (especially on eBay, where people forget to take them down on their return!).

While people still order and are willing to wait, I'd be intersted to know how much business is lost in that period. For instance, are sales 50% or normal, 40%?

From a personal point of view, most things I order online I generally want either tomorrow or ASAP. It's rare I'm willing to wait if someone else has the product available.

Is anyone willing to share any numbers? (even as % to hide turnover)

 

[ecommerce84]

Back in 2004, I went to the USA for 5 weeks and my sister ran my website for me. She was 14 at the time. She went to school, came home, printed the orders, e-mailed customers, telephoned customers and packed the orders, my mum then took them to the post office the following morning. She also had to order stock every week.

I was able to access a computer every other day or so in the US so could answer any hard queries.

Considering I was having as many as 30 orders on some days, she did an absolutely fantastic job. I took a few days before I went to show her how to do everything and let her man the fort for the couple of days before I went so we could check she was ok with everything.

She actually enjoyed it, and although it was only 5 weeks, she learnt a lot about business - a quick response to an e-mail leads to a sale or re assures a customer and she was thrilled to receive e-mails from customers thanking her for prompt service and found it hilarious that people would send things to the 'Returns Department' when it was just a 14 year old girl in a bedroom.

And before anyone asks - I didn't pay her (i felt I was pushing on illegal due to her age and didn't want any tax implications, or child labour!), but bought her back a really nice present which she appreciated.

To answer the OP, I would entrust a family member again as long as they are happy to do it. The other thing I have done is arrange with my supplier to do a temporary drop shipping service. Was ok for a couple of weeks, but I still had to answer e-mails which annoyed my girlfriend somewhat as I couldn't truly 'holiday'. That is, of course, one of the downsides of being self employed - holidays are hard to come by.