Are Students your target audience?  Want to appeal to their better interests without stereotyping?  Emma Champion of Do Your Own PR has some hints, tips and ideas to get you started...

Emma Champion is the assistant to PR coach Paula Gardner and her business Do Your Own PR. http://www.doyourownpr.com shows business owners and entrepreneurs how to do their own PR through online courses and coaching. Do Your Own PR also has a club for entrepreneurs which delivers requests for case studies, products and prizes straight to your inbox. For more information visit http://www.doyourownpr.com/products/divine_pub.asp

Many businesses offer more literature than any other type of product, and for these businesses holding large amounts of literature it is costly to store this inventory. For many businesses, it is much less expensive to use a literature fulfilment company to handle this end of business. Not only do literature fulfilment companies offer your business the chance to save on inventory storage, but the headache of returns and shipping. Most literature fulfilment companies will find the least expensive delivery carriers for your products to be shipped with, but they also take care of all returns and exchanges.

These two actions alone take up an average of 23% of a business’ time when it comes to peak seasons. This is time that could be better used dealing with the sales and marketing end of your business.

Instead of holding your own inventory and dealing with the overhead for this requirement, simply using a literature fulfilment company will help to alleviate the troubles associated with inventory and your company no longer has to deal with any of these problems. The product your customers purchase can be handled through a fulfilment company’s automatic online service or you can place the order on their behalf. This allows your customers faster delivery times because most literature fulfilment businesses will offer 24 hour turnaround service and shipping. Your business not only gets less work due to using this business, but also gains a reputation for fast delivery and great products.

Many fulfilment companies will offer monthly or annual packages for your literature fulfilment needs. When deciding on your literature fulfilment company, ask about a dedicated account manager for your business and what systems will be used for your fulfilment.

Many online business or e-commerce stores offer order and payments electronically, and this leads to high bills from credit card processing companies.
Order and credit card processing companies are available that do not charge the high rates per use that credit card companies will ask of your company. Many order and payment processing companies will allow you a specific number of transactions monthly prior to charging an additional fee. However, there are others that do charge by the amount of the transaction and not the number of transactions. Regardless the size of your business, if you offer an online store for customers to purchase from, order and payment processing is imperative for your business.

Customer Service, customisation, authorisations and many other options are available as well. Most order and payment processing companies will accept AMEX, Visa, JCB, Maestro, MasterCard as means of payment. Another option for customisation includes many different ways to integrate the payment system on your e-commerce site including form, direct integration and server.
Most order and payment processing companies will allow you account management that includes monitoring fraud, managing transactions, managing users, reconciling payments, transaction reports, audits and voids, even refunds if you so choose. Many offer multiple currencies to be accepted for those who live in different countries, and most offer PCI DSS level one compliancy which is the payment card industry security standards council. All data collection and transactions are completely secure with a reliable infrastructure to help with keeping your business’ payment options available and resilient.

There are so many companies that use fulfilment companies to complete orders, that pick and pack are no longer services needed in house. However, there are many fulfilment businesses that offer pick and pack services for your business if you allow them to take on all of your fulfilment needs.

Many fulfilment companies require you to use their pick and pack services, as they will not allow any of your employees to work in their facility. Other time is it not feasible for your employees to be present as the company may be out of your general area. In these cases, simply using the pick and pack services of your fulfilment company is the best option to ensure fast and secure delivery of your products to your customers.

Pick and pack can be described as part of the management process of fulfilment and distribution of your goods to customers. Pick and pack services for your business could range in cost, depending on the number of products you sell monthly or annually. Others will charge based on whether or not you use their recommended shipper or not. Overall, the costs associated with pick and pack are large for a small business, as tending to the inventory as well as the costs associated with direct labour and supervision as well as the facility are all incurred directly. When using a pick and pack service, you are paying for a complete order fulfilment with a company and this releases your business from liability. If the product shipped is incorrect, the customer then returns it to the facility that shipped it to them and they deal with the returns or exchanges. Pick and pack companies commonly offer a 24 hour turnaround on returns or exchanges, which also bodes well for any business that uses them. Not only does that business gain a reputation for having fast shipping, but great customer service as well.

The average savings for a company using pick and pack services is up to about 20% since there are no charges for facilities, overstock, stocking and personnel.