How Best ECAs Can Use a Dropshipper for Their Products

The first question that comes to my mind here is, why use dropshipper in a business like SFI/TripleClicks? I do understand through Wikipedia that “Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As in retail businesses, the majority of retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price but some retailers earn an agreed percentage of the sales in commission, paid by the wholesaler to the retailer.”

Arising from the above, I sincerely believe that you will have to study SFI and TripleClicks rules very well to find out if dropshipping is allowed in the business. I do know that the rules of engagement in SFI do not include third parties which clearly dropshipping involves. The business of SFI is between SFI and all its affiliates and the affiliates among themselves. Third parties which dropshipping involves do not come in. I therefore do not see how best you can use a dropshipper for your ECA products within SFI/TripleClicks rules.

 

How to Determine if Your Auto-Responder is Working

Simple, just test it from time to time that is all. What should ideally worry you is not whether it works but whether it works as expected. Once you set up an auto-responder properly, it will respond to messages but if you do not program it very well, it will respond unsatisfactorily to messages.

In that case, it is not the fault of the auto-responder but that of the person who programmed the messages in the responder. An auto-responder by design will respond to inquiries put before it if it has the answers. It does not manufacture messages. Instead, it gives out only the messages it was programmed to give out. What matters most therefore is to ensure that the pre-programmed messages are adequate and concise enough to meet the expectations of the marketer. All these can be found out from regular testing and reprogramming until it responds perfectly.