Parcel Monkey Blog

As the 25th edition of the Sunday Times Rich List is released, there are some interesting trends, new entries and young millionaires to note this year. Unfortunately most of us will not appear in the list and will need to continue with our day jobs!

One young millionaire, who should be very proud of her success, is Adel. No stranger to number one hit records, Adel featured at the top of the Richest Young Musicians list with a reported £30 million fortune. Her album 21 is said to be responsible for a 50% increase in her fortune since 2012 and we imagine that online sales have contributed significantly to this figure.

The Rich List had a number of sub-lists which helped to highlight success in particular industries, but we were surprised that internet and e-commerce businesses were not highlighted in this way.

BBC News has previously collated a list of the top 26 richest internet entrepreneurs using information from Forbes ranking. The internet has created some of the youngest billionaires in the quickest timescales.

Top of the most recent list were the co-founders of Google – Larry Page at age 37 and a year younger 36 year old Sergey Brin.  They were students studying for their PHD’s when starting work on Google, becoming paper billionaires within five years. The youngest person on the list and probably no surprise to us all is Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg.

The power of the internet really cannot be underestimated and businesses are realising every day the true potential of the online market.

Published figures from Realtime statistics show that worldwide there are 2,311,121,100 internet users, which is an incredible figure for any business to market to.

Businesses struggling to manage parcel, storage, postage and distribution are being offered a more effective solution through a new e-commerce Cloud Fulfilment Service recently launched by online parcel delivery company, Parcel Monkey.

Geared towards companies struggling to store and distribute a growing volume of products sold through their own websites or online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon, Parcel Monkey’s new Cloud Fulfilment Service allows businesses to book their products into warehousing and distribution.

The new service also offers stock management expertise, order management systems, picking technology and an advanced global network of distribution partners used by some of the world’s biggest brands.

For those concerned about cost, there are pay-as-you-go user fees which are based on the volume of goods stored and distributed, providing a scalable, flexible solution to help manage costs alongside peaks and troughs in the sales cycle.

Parcel Monkey anticipates that its larger clients, which make up 80% of its current volumes will migrate to the fulfilment service, which is expected to handle approximately 100,000 parcels in the first year.

Groovycart, which provides hosted e-commerce online shops for individuals and small businesses has confirmed that it will be using the new fulfillment service and is encouraging other business and individuals that it works with to do the same – which is an incredible coup for the service.

Whilst set-up for many businesses is not an issue, growing popularity of sites and products can lead to the need to distribute items to a wide-spread or international audience, which can quickly become a time-consuming and costly process.

Professional warehousing and distribution is often a key step to enable further growth of online businesses.

Cloud Fulfilment offers a flexible, efficient and easy to manage solution which can be used by any level of business, but can prove particularly ideal for start-ups, as there is often a need to balance limited budgets and resources carefully, whilst still ensuring that customers get the very best service.

Success in m-commerce markets is beginning to set many businesses apart from its competitors.

The most recent business to be enjoying a massive boost in m-commerce is retailer, Asda; the company confirms that its shopping mums have embraced its new app technology.

Over the Christmas period, Asda confirmed that 25% of its online orders were made on either mobiles or tablets. This figure has since climbed to 30% and the retailer expects the figure to reach 50% by the end of the year – providing a significant edge on competitors.

Asda found that its app was a hit with customers, particularly mums, 50% of whom own smartphones.

So exactly what does the app do? It allows the shopper to build their basket over the week, meaning that many mums can fit in the shopping, whilst doing other activity and are no longer restricted to having to go into stores.

Asda launched the app 18 months ago and have had two million downloads to date. The retailer’s Click & Collect service is also available via mobile devices.

The popularity of the app demonstrates that customers are willing to purchase across multiple channels, if provided with the opportunity – with many attracted to the ease and convenience this brings to their lives.

Have you ever wondered how many Easter eggs are sold in the UK each year?

Well, why not read some of our incredible Easter egg facts that we’ve put together for you to find out.

A whopping 90 million chocolate eggs are sold in the UK each year.

Each child in the UK receives an average 8.8 Easter eggs each year.

Sales at Easter time make up 10% of UK chocolate spending for the whole year.

The UK’s first chocolate egg was produced in 1873 by Fry’s of Bristol.

The world’s most popular egg-shaped chocolate is Cadbury’s Creme Egg. Workers at the Cadbury factory in Birmingham produce 1.5 million of these gooey treats every day!

For anyone who hasn’t got their eggs yet, here are a few online sites which we’d love to receive eggs from:

Hotel Chocolat – http://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/shop/easter-eggs?gclid=CLv-2_q_k7YCFXDKtAodF3QAJg

Fortnum and Mason – http://www.fortnumandmason.com/p-7616-pink-marc-de-champagne-truffle-egg.aspx?source=ls&siteID=TnL5HPStwNw-vQZEq4V0EO3_S1VYb_wh4Q&affiliateid=10052

Chococo – http://www.chococo.co.uk/products/detail.php?prodid=577