9 AskBiz guides on ecommerce operations, covering Weekly Reporting, Amazon Sales, Weekly Operations and related operating decisions for SME founders.
Amazon FBA sellers pay monthly storage fees (standard: $0.87/cubic foot; peak Oct-Dec: $2.40/cubic foot). Slow-moving inventory that's been in FBA for 365+ days triggers a long-term storage fee of $6.90/cubic foot per month. AskBiz weekly FBA health check identifies at-risk inventory before the fees hit.
6 min readAn Amazon seller makes $100 sales on a product. Costs: $30 COGS, $15 Amazon FBA fee, $20 advertising spend. True profit: $35 (35%). But if the seller doesn't connect ACOS data to COGS, they think profit is 70% (100 - 30 COGS). They underestimate marketing cost. AskBiz syncs Amazon ad spend + Seller Central fees to show real profitability.
5 min readeCommerce sellers on multiple channels (Shopify, Amazon, eBay) often oversell. Customer orders SKU-123 on Shopify while it's out of stock on Amazon. Both orders are fulfilled... but you only have 1 unit left. AskBiz syncs inventory across channels to prevent overselling and stranded inventory.
5 min readA business processing £15,000/week through PayPal at 3.4% fees pays £510/week in processing costs — £26,520/year. Most businesses know PayPal charges fees; they just don't track whether the rate is what was agreed, or whether certain transaction types (international, currency conversion) are triggering higher rates.
6 min readYou have 10 units of a product. You list all 10 on eBay and all 10 on Shopify simultaneously. eBay sells 8. Shopify sells 5. You've "sold" 13 units from 10 in stock. Five customers get cancellation emails. Your eBay seller rating drops. Shopify shows negative inventory. AskBiz prevents this by syncing available inventory across all channels in real time.
7 min readYou sell a product for $25 (COGS $10, margin $15). You ship it for $8 (using negotiated FedEx rate). Real profit: $7 (28%). But customer expects free shipping. You either absorb $8 (profit becomes -$1) or raise price to $33 (customers balk at "expensive"). AskBiz shows which shipping method is most profitable.
5 min readeBay suppresses listings when seller metrics drop below "top rated" thresholds. Most sellers discover this after 3-4 weeks of declining sales — not when it happens. AskBiz tracks weekly eBay performance metrics (conversion rate, sales velocity, late shipping %) so you can intervene before eBay penalises your visibility.
7 min readOnline fashion return rates average 25-35%. Every return costs: original shipping, return shipping, restocking labour, possible markdown on returned item. A £50 item with 30% return rate effectively has a real average revenue of £35 per unit sold — before COGS. AskBiz shows the true per-unit economics after returns.
7 min readWooCommerce shows 100 orders last week. Google Analytics shows 5,000 visitors. Conversion rate: 2%. But: 2,000 visitors from email (60 orders = 3% conversion). 2,000 visitors from ads (20 orders = 1% conversion). 1,000 visitors from organic (20 orders = 2% conversion). Email performs 3x better than ads, but you'd optimize ads if you only saw blended 2%.
5 min read