Frequently Asked Questions

Yes!  We can help you set up international payments, currency and shipping so that you are able to trade with both efficiency and ease across different borders.

We can also advise and configure duty, taxes and customs charges for customers and your business to ensure that costs are clear from the outset and that there are no unexpected charges.  This comprehensive service also support UK businesses dealing with the post-Brexit changes post 1 July 2021

As of 1 July 2021, items exported to the EU will attract VAT (there a a few exceptions). This means that all goods sent directly from GB to consumers in the EU via online marketplaces will be subject to the local rate of VAT in the customer’s country.

We can help set your business up with an IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) account and HS (Harmonisation codes) details to help you ship internationally as either a DDP or DDU provider.

Whilst shipping can be challenging, especially when you have a number of different rates and requirements, we can take care of every aspect of this for you.

Whether it be setting free shipping over a price or weight threshold, excluding certain items from international shipping or offering local collection within a specified distance, we can configure your store to your exact requirements.

In eCommerce terms, fulfilment is all about picking a product from your warehouse shelf, mailing it out to your customer and them receiving it at the end of the process.  There are a number of applications which can help make this one of the most efficient processes within your business and we help companies identify and implement suitable systems that all talk to each other.

Not only does this make your back-office operation much easier to manage, it also improves the customer experience, allowing them to confidently track their package from the moment of dispatch to when they take receipt of it.

Whilst we don’t proclaim to be the next Amazon, what we are experts at is connecting multiple online shops to your store.  This enables you to operate as a marketplace, where you market and promote your listings, but leave the fulfilment and product management to your suppliers (typically referred to as a drop shipping model).  Our project with KHOEO is a perfect example of where we have successfully integrated over 50 brands into one shop, with fulfilment managed by each brand partner.

Each project that we work on for clients is designed to allow a seamless connection to social media channels, thus facilitating direct product marketing and alternative platform sales.  VUMO helps build these connections and ensure that each system continually talks to each other whilst synchronise data on an almost real-time basis.

Absolutely.  For businesses looking to grow their wholesale and trade business online, we provide systems that display specific and customised pricing for different trade customers depending on their status.

Furthermore, where it helps streamline current operations, we can link retail and trade sites together to allow inventory, product data and orders to sync between each system, therefore saving you time and money by being able to manage everything from one platform.

Being able to promote your range via digital channels is a huge step to becoming a successful online store and we can integrate your platforms with all major digital platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Taboola, Google Merchant Center etc).

Our connections ensure that your data is continually updated and campaign management is a piece of cake.

Definitely.  One of the aspects of VUMO that we really think makes a difference is that because we’re eCommerce specialists, we able to help businesses manage the whole operational process, not just the more glamorous front end.

If you are looking for accurate reporting and manual task automation directly into your software, we can facilitate direct links into platforms such as XERO, QuickBooks & FreshBooks.

No only does this take away a huge element of human error and save you considerable time, it also makes for a very happy accounting team.

Yes.  We recognise that visitors to your site may not just be located in one country, and therefore we can offer the ability to view prices and checkout in local currencies.

We’ve all visited websites where we’ve seen a feature or application that does a great job and wondered ‘how can I get that on my own website’?

Well, the good news is that we do that all the time. Sometimes through our own investigations, sometimes by stumbling across an existing feature and developing it into something much more substantial.  The most important aspects of any feature that we add to a site are:

• The compatibility with other applications and features
• The ability of a feature to adapt and evolve at the same pace as technology and consumer habits
• The cost vs. benefit ratio

We never look at these in isolation and therefore, if you have a specific feature which you want to include, let us know and we’ll help build it in.

Yes.  Communication is a huge part of the consumer journey online and we advocate offering as many ways for customers to contact you as feasible.  Online chat features are very popular, particularly when a ‘warm prospect’ is on your site and wants a little extra information about a product or range before committing to buy.

To help such features fit around you business operation, we can configure online chat applications to operate differently according to the time of day and provide automated responses, or third party assistance outside of your traditional operating hours.  For those who want to be able to provide help on the move, we can also integrate mobile applications to help you communicate with your customers wherever you are, day or night.

Absolutely.

We most certainly can, in fact, it’s one of the areas where we have extensive experience and provide additional support to clients so that they can optimise their email marketing.  As Klaviyo Partners, we have a strong relationship with one of the leading e-Commerce focused email marketing providers and can help you create engaging, high converting campaigns that are linked directly through to your store.

For WordPress hosting, we use one of the world most trusted and reliable providers, SiteGround.

We provide a full setup and configuration service, together with a number of different support packages depending on how ‘hands-on’ you wish to be when it comes to site management and updates.

Absolutely.  We offer a comprehensive and wide-ranging service that covers everything from domain name purchases right through to domain pointing and email configuration.

If you have an existing website domain that you wish to point to a new website, we can take care of that and ensure that your customers are not adversely affected by any changes.

If you wish to migrate your existing site to our servers, please get in touch and we’ll be able to provide further details.  Our aim is to make any migration as smooth as possible and take the ‘grunt work’ off your plate.

Security is paramount when it comes to hosting a website and we take this super seriously.  VUMO hosting is provided through SiteGround and we use them because they are exceptionally competent when it comes to security.

Follow this link to read more about how SiteGround protects websites.

Gosh, not at all!

In fact, we provide hosting on super quick servers and can optimise your site to reduce browser load times, even when users are accessing your site via a weak broadband or 3G connection.

cPanel is jut a fancy abbreviation for Control Panel, and you’ll find that all good hosting providers include this within their service, although some are easier to use than others.

Hosting your site through us means that you’ll have 24/7 access to your site’s cPanel, meaning that you can access your back-end settings (inc phpMyAdmin) at a time that is convenient to you.

However, if just the thought of logging into your hosting cPanel fills you with dread, we can take care of all hosting matters for you, and you’ll never have any restless nights.

Speed is a pretty darn important feature when it comes to a good website, so we always delve into each aspect to make as many time-savings as we can.  And this includes our hosting too.  Using SiteGround’s Google Cloud servers, we’re able to provided distributed storage running on SSD disks for optimal speed and reduced redundancy.

In short, we’d love to make that happen for you!

Getting to the top spot on Google relies on a multitude of different elements coming together in your favour, and we can help get those elements aligned to work more effectively for you.

But we’re honest in what we do and that means it can take time.  Good SEO is not designed to work instantly but instead over weeks and months.  And we also have to be realistic when it comes to the keywords and phrases which a site ranks for.  If you are hoping to rank at the top of Google for a highly competitive keyword phrase (e.g., cheap flight to America), then you’re going to have your work cut out if you are are a brand new site, as there are some seriously big players after the number one spot.

However, if you need instantaneous results (which can be particularly effective for flash campaigns), then we help facilitate this by using Google Ads (previously known as AdWords) and supporting PPC (pay per click) campaigns.

There are a huge number of factors that sit within Google’s search algorithm, but in essence, your site is ranked based on the following:

• Domain authority (the higher, the better)
• Keyword relevance
• On-page content
• Technical configuration
• Site speed and cross-device rendering

Whilst domain authority will take time to build, other aspects such as technical configurations and on-page content can be improved remarkably quickly.

Google Analytics is a free tool provided by Google that allows site owners to better understand how visitors are using their website, and understand who those visitors are.  It is an incredibly powerful tool once it is correctly set up on your site.

We integrate Google Analytics to all the websites which we build and site owners are able to drill down into the metrics from day one.

Whilst Google Analytics provides a great insight into your website users, it doesn’t provide information on your search positioning, and that of your competitors.

We can help bridge this gap and provide a raft of data using additional software that helps measure your own performance and progress, as well as that of your competitors, too.

Yes.  We provide a comprehensive review of your existing site, identify the areas that require attention and jump in and start optimising. This can include:

• XML sitemaps
• Site architecture
• URL structure
• Structured data
• Thin content
• Duplicate content
• Href language
• Canonical tags
• 404 pages
• 301 redirects

Of course!  We are always happy to help support new businesses with one-off projects or specific requests.  Further details can be found on our VUMO Service Support page.

We offer 2 service support packages as well as a ‘pay as you go’ programme for bespoke tasks or one-off support.  Full details can be found on the VUMO Service Support page.

Yes.  We can help you set up email accounts which you will be able to access via your preferred email service provider (e.g., Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail etc.)

Absolutely.  This is one of our key areas of support and we include it in all our new website builds.  If you are currently struggling to establish a connection, or you have concerns about the quality of your data import, we are able to help get this running smoothly.  Full details can be found on the VUMO Service Support page.

We concur, it is a tricky system to navigate at times and there are plenty of hoops to jump through.  Having tackled some unusual installations and corrected legacy platform setups, we’re on hand to ensure that you have an easy to manage integration with access for both your team and trusted partners.

It’s happened to all of us and there are ways that we can help get you back in.  Please call our technical support directly on +44 7990 521719 for immediate support.

We offer a variety of payment options.  These include:

• Standard payment terms
• Staged / delayed payment terms
• Investment / fully funded by us

If you have a complex set of requirements, please do feel free to chat them through with us in advance.  We’ll always give you an honest answer and will most likely be able to turn your ideas into reality.

All work is designed and built to the highest specifications and we’ll not hand over a website until you are entirely satisfied.  If something that we built breaks, we’ll always jump in and fix it for you.  Where additional, ongoing support is required, we offer a range of comprehensive support packages that will keep your eCommerce operation running smoothly.

Well, there have been a few but most notably was integrating a number of EU brands into a single marketplace with API connections sending and receiving real-time orders and inventory data.  With each brand requiring its own shipping and terms, we customised the site to accommodate individual requirements and ensured that the correct orders went to the right vendors.

It was incredibly uplifting seeing the end result and the client was over the moon that we’d been able to integrate everything in their initial design brief.