Archive for category E-Commerce
The importance of social media to any e-commerce business
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Facebook, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on August 27th, 2010
We have all seen the explosion of corporations creating online communities, but let us take a look at how easy it can be to connect with your e-commerce customers and how important social media is to your customers.
First, we have to ask the question, how do you take the seemingly limitless social media conversations and turn them into actionable insights? Also, how can you understand what is being said and the context of those conversations?
Social media in any context offers incredibly good (and free) feedback on a variety of goods and services. Online Retailers need to use this information to their advantage. Using it to your advantage means using both the good and bad comments. Here are some practical tips we can take a look at. Most importantly, keep the conversation going and make sure your social media content is relevant and current. Do remember that the end goal is product sales and customer connections. Also, rekindle the passion for your brand consistently using social media methods. For example, if you a leading e-commerce website and you are involved in a social media forum, why not hold weekly or bi-weekly chat sessions about the experiences with ordering product via your site? You will get invaluable responses from doing something like this.
It is also very important to constantly think about the audience you are trying to go after, consider your age demographics, race, and gender as well. Who are the most likely people to purchase your products and who do you want to expand to? These are key points to remember when considering your marketplace.
It is really no surprise that online e-commerce businesses were one of the first groups to use social media to make their brand more social. They enabled customers to find out what their peers were thinking and provided valuable insight that could be viewed in “real time”.
Building a truly interactive social media community within an e-commerce platform is important as it creates a more efficient retail environment where customer opinions, relevant content and product information are freely distributed. It is only then that “social commerce” can happen.
To accomplish this, retailers must be able to integrate social media elements, such as social networking features and user generated platforms directly into their commerce environments.
As a result of this, online retailers can create and own a unique social experience that would encompass the entire customer lifecycle. Customers can than enjoy a more integrated shopping experience and retailers will see an increase in unique visitors to their online store that are “predisposed” to their marketing messages. This will streamline marketing efforts and lead to increased profits and decreased costs.
Social media allows empowering customers by enabling them to establish user profiles that pull in data and relationships to online stores. At this point customers can interact and provide you (the online retailer) invaluable customer feedback, and bring in potential new customers.
By building and maintaining vibrant communities that address the passion of the retailer’s core audience, and then spreading that passion to the larger social web, retailers will attract loyal and engaged customers, and will achieve better business results.
Social media is absolutely crucial to an online retailer’s success today. Social media allows you to engage a customer, get new business, and most importantly elicit invaluable customer feedback that will turn into increased sales.
Online sales on the up
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Thoughts & Opinions on August 20th, 2010
Internet sales grew in July at their fastest pace since before the recession, as wet weather encouraged home shopping, a survey suggests.
Online sales grew by 18% in the month compared with a year earlier, the biggest jump since 2007, IMRG said.
UK shoppers spent £5bn online in July, more than in any other month this year, it added.
Figures published on Thursday showed total UK retail sales rising much faster than expected in July.
Sales volumes jumped 1.1% compared with June, the Office for National Statistics said, with almost all non-food sectors showing strong growth.
World Cup dip
The average UK shopper spent £81 online in July, with promotions and discounts also boosting spending.
Travel sales rose by a third compared with a year earlier, as people looked to escape the rain and head for sunnier climes, said IMRG, the industry body for global internet retailing.
This more than offset a fall in alcohol sales, caused perhaps by England’s disappointing performance in the football World Cup, the group said.
“Although online retail sales survived the recession more convincingly than High Street sales, the last two years or so have no doubt been shaky at times,” said Chris Webster, head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini, which publishes the online sales index with IMRG.
“It is really encouraging to see growth levels returning to those seen pre-2007 and before consumer confidence was knocked by the financial crisis and the recession.”
The IMRG Capgemini Index tracks online sales at more than 100 retailers across the UK.
Social Commerce- how to gauge the effectiveness of user-generated content
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, E-Commerce, Online Marketing, Social Commerce on July 20th, 2010
Here are two ways we recommend organizations measure real success.
Do Before-and-After Comparisons
It’s possible to compare key metrics – such as average order value, sales conversion, and traffic to the product page, among others – before and after user-generated content is added to the site. The key is to look at the same (or very similar) products at specific points in time over a broad period and avoid any external factors (such as promotions).
Here’s an example of a before-and-after test of reviews on a classic kitchen mixer that sees predictable sales throughout the year. Key metrics would be captured for a full year before reviews were launched. Once reviews were launched, the metrics would be compared quarterly, with a full comparative analysis done at specific points in time one year after launch.
As a best practice, compare metrics using “percent of change” rather than a simple difference, so you can compare the performance of different products to one another and make additional observations. For example, using percent of change, you may see a correlation between the number of reviews and overall conversion. Every marketer should know the percent change formula, but for the sake of convenience, here it is: % of change = [(new value - old value)/old value]*100.
To check the accuracy with this method, you can compare that mixer’s results with a mixer in the same category that doesn’t have reviews for the same period, or you can compare it to other products in the same category. And compare it further to products in similar categories and the site overall. With a few comparison points, assuming you have a large lift for the mixer, you can confidently support the results.
There’s always the question of external factors in a before-and-after analysis, but if the results are substantial, this method can work well on a product-by-product basis on established products that have sold consistently over time. It’s important to take seasonality and other factors into account, too. For example, recent nationwide economic factors played a role in many sales downturns.
Run an A/B Test
While an A/B test can take time and effort to plan, it’s one of the most accurate ways to measure success, when done correctly. A/B testing takes two otherwise identical groups and makes one change to one group. That group, version “A,” becomes the test group, and version “B,” the group without the change, becomes the control group. You then measure the performance of these two groups, and determine what impact the variable made on the results.
For example, if you wanted to test the success of an e-mail campaign, you could do so with A/B testing. You would first split your receipt list into two groups. The control group (Group A) receives a standard e-mail, and the test group (Group B) receives the same e-mail, but with the addition of review content. You then measure key performance metrics, which, in this case, might include response rate, click-through rate, and conversion. We have seen lifts in revenue per e-mail as much as 50 percent with this method. We’ve also seen online retailers do A/B split tests on their websites and show lifts from 10 percent to 50 percent.
Since the only difference between Group A and B is the inclusion of user-generated content, any difference in the performance metrics can be attributed to the presence of that content.
When used correctly, it is powerful, but, if done incorrectly, it can provide misleading results. To run a successful A/B test, take time to plan ahead, base your sample size and time frame to gather enough data to show clear, realistic results, and make sure to just test one variable at a time, so you can confirm that results are based on that one variable.
Other Key Points to Remember
Look for at least a three-month test window to help make sure your results are sound. While some specific campaigns may take less time to gauge results, three months is usually a good rule of thumb.
It’s also important to make sure you have the right Web analytics tags and data capture methods in place. For a holistic view of how user-generated content is working for you, tag all interactions your site visitors have with this content – including online and offline encounters. And align your tagging methods with your business’ overall success metrics.
Final parting thought: If a data point doesn’t matter to the bottom line, think about why you’re really measuring it.
Social Location Marketing: How can it benefit in B2B?
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Online Marketing, Social Commerce, Social Media on July 12th, 2010
As with so many channels within social media, social location marketing, the process of utilizing Social Location Sharing platforms such as Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown and others as a marketing channel, seems most difficult for the B2B sector. Meanwhile, the opportunities for the B2C space seem almost endless, especially for those with physical locations.
However, for the B2B space it is a much tougher proposition. After all, many B2B organizations do not have locations that are open to the public. A financial services firm is unlikely to be interested in rewarding a visitor for becoming mayor of their offices. They might, however, want to be a part of the location revolution and include it in their marketing mix, but how?
The challenge here is to resist the “buzz” and understand the “why”. Why would this be an appropriate marketing channel for a lender, software company or office supply company? All too often, organizations feel that they should be “doing” something in social media and every time some new platform comes along they feel the pressure to add that to their mix. While understandable, it is also very unrealistic. Not all businesses are suited to all forms of marketing, and especially not all forms of social media.
The most common point of entry at present for B2B organizations is through events. These give them a temporary physical location that can be “checked into” and that they can build a reward system around. However, given the short term nature of events, they have to be well thought through and ensure that the data captured around the rewards and check-ins are maximized in a way that benefits the organization.
In the past, this type of event marketing might have been as simple as a fishbowl draw, where attendees dropped their business card into a bowl and got the opportunity to win a prize (iPad anyone?). Now the same type of draw can be operated with broader messaging behind it. By creating a “game” that has people checking in and adding a specific comment to be qualified to enter, an organization can leverage attendees’ sharing habits to promote their company message, and all without additional cost.
Another method of entering any of these spaces, and Social Location Sharing/marketing in particular, is to expand the vision. By altering the point of entry to the process, many B2B organizations can find opportunities that they would have otherwise overlooked. For example, an office supply company might not have an offering directly to the end users of Social Location Sharing tools, but their customers might.
Obviously, this is only the briefest of overviews of how the B2B space can leverage social location marketing, but the opportunities are definitely there, and for those willing to make a few leaps, so are the rewards.
Apple’s iAds set to herald a new dawn
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Facebook, M-Commerce, Social Commerce, Social Media, Thoughts & Opinions, Traditional Marketing on July 5th, 2010
Last week, it was announced that the 5 billionth person in the world now has a mobile phone. Not only is this a staggering number in itself, but I think it has great implications for future advertising budgets.
Traditional advertising is not going to go away any time soon. TV viewing is rising in some segments of society, and its ability to engage is unparalleled. But mobile advertising, although multinationals have dipped their toe in the water, innovations such as Apple’s iAds, is set to herald a new era.
Companies such as Sears and Nissan, have already committed to spending $60m this year in Apple’s iAds. Adverts released by Apple have video and interactive components, which it hopes will combine the emotional punch of television commercials with the engagement of the best internet pitches.
Mobile devices now vastly outnumber fixed-line broadband connections. Mobile ad spending is forecast by PwC to more than triple from $2.2bn last year to $7.7bn in 2014, 0r 7.4% of total online marketing.
Consumers’ increasing appetite for mobile applications is driving online retailers to speed up their mobile marketing initiatives. Most retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy. One in five boasts having a fully-implemented mobile strategy in place already.
It’s imperative for online retailers to stay on top of what their customers want and these days it’s all about the mobile phone. Mobile commerce has tremendous potential and will no doubt grow to become a significant part of overall sales volume in years to come. whether to increase customer satisfaction, grow their brand or drive traffic and sales, online retailers are in this game to stay.
Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations.
Have you bought anything from your mobile device yet? How would you feel about mobile advertising? Intrusive or useful.
Some tips on social media best practice for business.
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, E-Commerce, Facebook, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on June 24th, 2010
Social networks and blogs are changing how consumers find places and services, how and where they share their experiences, and eventually, where they will spend their time and money.
Without an understanding of, and participation in, social networks, you can miss shaping and contributing to the decision-making process of those who define the success of your business.
While social media cheat-sheets and short cuts are available almost everywhere you look, the truth is that we have some work ahead of us. To help, I’ve assembled a list of five best practices to help you build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web right now.
1. Dedicate the time
Because time is a big concern, think about social media as an opportunity cost. Will your investment in identifying and connecting with prospects, customers, and influencers outperform your other activities? The answer is yes for most businesses, so carve out time for strategic experimentation. In short, you get out of it, what you invest.
2. Conquer your fears
Many business owners believe that social media gives people a chance to criticize their business. That’s true, but avoiding social media doesn’t mean that their opinions will never see the light of day.
Your brand is at the mercy of those who take to social media to share their experiences, so you might as well take an active role to contributes to the stature and perception of your brand. You might even learn how to improve your product and service in the process.
3. Listen and research to learn and contribute
Social networking is far more effective when you realize that creating profiles and updating social networks aren’t arbitrary. There’s an art and science to all of this, and the process begins with listening and research.
Step one: create a list of keywords that represent your market and then use the search box in each social network to see what people are saying about you. As you examine the results, you’ll identify the people who are leading conversations and the dialogue that invites and inspires participation. If local business is paramount to success, use services such as Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn. Also monitor location-based networks such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt.
4. Establish an attractive and expansive presence
Your presence online is far more valuable than you may realize. While you may think that you should focus on your website, your social-media presence also represents you and what you offer. The ability to showcase your products and services to attract customers and spark conversation is arguably greater on social networking sites than your own website. In any case, connecting the dots between social networks, websites, and the real world is now as important as the service and products that you offer.
5. Use engagement as the new customer service and marketing
It’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you that counts. Customer service and engagement overall is a new and genuine form of unmarketing. Customers, prospects, and influencers are already engaging with others to contribute, learn, and discover.
They are forming and sharing opinions and making decisions based on the information they find online—with or without you. You should use engagement as a fast, free, and powerful way to reach and serve customers.
This is your time to engage! Doing so will earn you permanent residence in the hearts and minds of the people who make up your markets. This will expand market opportunities, build brand awareness, stimulate demand, and engender loyalty and advocacy.
How to keep selling online through the economic downturn
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, E-Commerce, Facebook, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on June 23rd, 2010
After years of growth rates of in the double digits, e-commerce sales are projected to increase at a single-digit pace from now until 2012. There are two forces acting toward this trend: the economic downturn has added additional downward pressure on short-term sales, and according to some sources, the population of Internet buyers is approaching saturation. The global economic downturn undercut consumer retail spending in most channels, except the U.S. online channels, which analysts forecast to reach $229.1 billion in 2013, or 8 percent of total U.S. retail sales.
Some executives are more optimistic. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, has said on several occasions that e-commerce will account for up to 15 percent by 2016. The major catalyst for e-commerce growth in the short term seems to be in stimulating existing online shoppers to continue to buy and to shift a greater percentage of their total purchases to the web.
To do this, companies will employee online marketing initiatives but also stress the convenience, broader selection, and ostensible cost savings associated with buying online. In the longer term, teenagers already spending online will acquire more purchasing power and independence and will invigorate the online channel.
More than half of online retailers believe that the outlook for the retail industry as a whole is gloomy and that retail sales will continue to slow in the coming 12 months. But 8o percent of online retailers said that they believe that the Web channel is better suited than other channels to withstand an extended economic downturn. (But more than half also think that multi-channel retailers are better suited to weather the economic turbulence than single-channel retailers).
E-commerce retailers report that their conversion rates continue to range from 3% to 3.5% as they have for years, which is another indication that the Web has not been as adversely impacted as other channels.
Going forward, online retailers will continue investing heavily in interactive marketing, a significant expenditure for e-commerce groups. In this vein, companies will experiment with social commerce initiatives, even though questions still remain for social marketing ROI, such as blogs and social networks.
Acquiring new customers is still the number one goal of online marketing efforts. While other retail channels struggle to innovate and perform, e-commerce managers have a unique opportunity to drive more sales and to test different tactics that resonate with consumers. Even more so now than in fatter times, retailers must strictly segment their customer groups and create messaging that speaks directly and powerfully to these groups.
Social networks need users’ trust before they part with cash
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Facebook, Social Commerce, Social Media, Thoughts & Opinions on June 22nd, 2010
Facebook’s plan to introduce a currency called Facebook Credits will encourage people to spend on social networks but is a long way from becoming an activitymost people are comfortable with.
In February, Facebook announced in a blog post the beta test of Facebook Credits – a virtual currency that it aims to roll out across all applications, and which it hopes will increase the amount users spend on virtual goods. Only a few developers have so far been allowed access to the service to integrate it into their applications, but Facebook is slowly increasing the number of developers in the testing phase.
If an online currency makes people more interested in spending online, then this will only be good news for brands starting to look into social commerce. In the US, Disney has been the first brand to allow people to transact directly from Facebook by creating an app that lets them buy tickets to see Toy Story 3 at the cinema. In the UK, no brands have yet created an app where you can buy directly from Facebook, but the likes of easyJet and Dell are looking into ways to socialise their ecommerce experience.
Similarly, media owners looking at the possibility of micropayments could look to social networks and create apps in which people can access content using their Facebook Credits.
The majority of people are now comfortable shopping online, but the bad press about social networks and issues of privacy will prove hugely detrimental when inviting people to part with credit card or PayPal details.
For it to be worthwhile for brands to invest in social commerce on third-party sites, enough users need to be happy to part with their cash in social networks. Sites such as Facebook have a lot of work to do in gaining users’ trust before social commerce comes even close to being mass-market.
Social Commerce..it’s the future. Try it!
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Facebook, Online Marketing, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on June 18th, 2010
Social networking has been growing exponentially and throughout that speedy process newer and newer platforms have been evolving and making a name for themselves in small niches. Marketers have realized there is money in this evolution and they are targeting it more than ever. As eCommerce merchants we need to embrace the growing change and the need to be “informed” and target our audience through the free spaces that exist like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The only investment needed is time and resources as you continue to grow.
Social Commerce is defined as the relationship and fusion of eCommerce and social media together to help buyers and sellers make better purchasing decisions online. This combination is the next generation of interaction between buyers and sellers.
Take a look at these studies and see for yourself what respondents had to say. And then ask yourself if you feel the same way.
According to Bazaarvoice:
“81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site; 74 percent of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their decision. 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know…
Friends still play an important role in influencing consumers; 83 percent of online shoppers said they are interested in sharing information about their purchases with people they know, while 74 percent are influenced by the opinions of others in their decision to buy the product in the first place…
Users put great trust in their social networks…respondents said they considered information shared on their networks when making a decision…
Facebook, blogs, Twitter and customer reviews are considered the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products online…
Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touch points when it comes to influencing purchases …Consumers trust friends above experts when it comes to product recommendation”
Users are finding the value in sharing online. They feel safer and they can trust that their friends can help them make better buying decisions. Helping a friend and/or follower make a purchase online is one of the best ways to build advocacy online and throughout your social networks. Try sharing one of your listings with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers and watch the interactions that happen. People are interested in what you are buying and selling and if they need it they are going to feel more comfortable buying it from you. What’s even more powerful is sharing a purchase you made with friends, pointing them in the right direction for the next purchase they may make online.
People love to share themselves and share their experiences with those who care to listen. It is human nature. In the eCommerce space buyers want to feel comfortable buying from sellers and sellers want to feel confident that they are targeting qualified buyers who want what they have to sell. Being uncomfortable has been one of the most important inhibitors that have existed over the last 10 years in the e-commerce space.
Your Homework for the Weekend: Ask a friend online or follower for some advice on a purchase or a product and see how they respond. Check and see who else responds too.
7 things your Brand should be doing today.
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Facebook, M-Commerce, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Web Design on June 17th, 2010
I have been listening to a few great webinars recently. And with some help from an impressive digital retail agency by the name of Fluid, and from Paul Marsden, I have done my best to summarise some of the key points. So here goes; how to deploy an effective social commerce makeover for your brand:
1. Start selling on Social Platforms – Open a Facebook store and simply experiment. It’s fast, inexpensive and simple to implement. It should not only drive your online sales; but will doubtless increase your Facebook followers too.
2. Add Mobile into the social mix – Allow users to share content to mobile via SMS. This is one of the fastest areas of growth in the market. If you implement a share by SMS icon to your site, your sales will jump.
3. Implement Facebook Social Plugins – start by adding the Like button to product pages on your e-commerce site. By doing this, you get your product onto Facebook walls – where click through rates are a fantastic 6.5%. This drives traffic to your e-commerce site. The Like button is the new mini review. See Tripadvisor.
4. Cross-sell/Up-sell with personal recommendations – 90% of people trust recommendations from people they know vs. 70% who trust anonymous reviews, and 67% of people spend more online after recommendations from friends. Therefore make allowing people to make personal recommendation on your site a priority! See Levi’s.
5. Integrate chat on your e-commerce site – so friends can shop together and discuss products. Luggage brand JanSport saw a 59% increase in product views and a 147% increase in time on site after integrating a Chat feature on its site.
6. Make your website your social flagship – social features are not just for social media platforms. You should use them on your website, by adding social media conversation feeds to your site, whilst exporting your content to social media platforms. Give your customers a multitude of reasons to keep coming back!
7. Bring the in-store experience online to social media platforms – to make all your channels social. Such examples could be live webcasts of in-store events.
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