AboutJim Novo Expertise Questions about using customer data to inmprove online profitability, particularly in retailing. Topics include profiling customers using weblogs, figuring out which ads generate the highest value customers, how to reduce the numnber of 1x buyers, how to generate higher sales from current customers, customer analysis, ROI calculation, reducing discounts while increasing resaponse rates. Do you collect customer data (purchases, page views, surveys) and not really use it for anything? Want to find out how? Just ask.
Experience
Past/Present clients Cellular One, MBNA, SteelTorch Software, Retek Direct, CBS Sportsline, Kobie Marketing, Aerial, Tupperware, Barnes and Noble, Comcast Corporation, Home Shopping Network
Question I recently ordered medication shipped from Germany. There are blogs saying what a nightmare USPS International Sorting Center is. Is this center where customs enters the picture? Is this center a deep hole where packages disappear for months?
Answer International postal system package shipping is not as reliable as shipping through private carriers like UPS on a "percentage of packages lost" basis. The reliability of the international postal system greatly depends on the ship class used. For example "overnight" shipping is highly reliable. If you want or need something delivered "for sure", you will have to pay up for the higher shipping costs.
I'm not aware of the German center being any less reliable than any others. Remember, you rarely see the millions of people who reliably receive packages through the international postal system post great kudos for it; it's the unfortunate people whose packages get lost that are likely to complain.
Using the lower class levels to ship packages can result in transit times of 3 - 4 weeks or more.
