Posts tagged Consultancy

Different types of E-commerce Shopper

1678 days
by in Consultancy, E-Business, eBay, Google, Internet Marketing, Paypal, Search Engine Optimisation, Shopping Comparison, Social Shopping, Web Mastering

Not all online shoppers are created alike. They all have different goals and strategies for their online shopping which relate to different needs. When developing an online service or e-commerce store you need to try and cater for as many of these types of shopper as possible. You can use basic ‘shopper models’ to organize the products and information on your site.

You could find at least 6 different types of online shopper within your own set of friends and family. A small sized start-up online business may not be able to afford professional customer modelling, but these techniques are still important, even to the smaller player.

New to the Net:

These buyers are still getting used to the internet and the idea of e-commerce. They use the web for research purchases and start will smaller value items in safer environments. A common start off point for these shoppers is eBay, where all the sellers are rated and they can proceed with caution. At this early stage this shopper can either become addicted to the life of e-commerce or be put off by a bad or fraudulent purchase.

This buyer needs a simple interface, and a way to verify the e-commerce site. Make sure you have clear precise pictures, a simple stream line jargon free checkout and display your returns policy clearly outlining your responsibility as an online retailer. You can invest in an eBay type feedback system such as FeeFo.com which is an independent customer feedback system and also feature customer testimonials. Make sure you use well known and simple payment processing for example Paypal, Lloyds Cardnet or HSBC.

Bargain Hunters

These shoppers rely heavily on marketplaces such as eBay and shopping comparison engines. They have no real brand loyalty and are just shopping for the lowest price. You need to convince these shoppers they are getting the best deal. Make sure you products are included in shopping comparison engines and have an RRP shown so they can see the great deal they are getting. Within this group you have the impulsive bargain hunter who wants to purchase now and a competitive bargain hunter willing to bid against other shoppers for the deal. EBay is a bargain hunter’s paradise; you can almost use eBay to cater primarily for these customers, letting them battle it out for bargains and also have fixed price items for your impulsive bargain hunters.

Precise Shoppers

These shoppers have a surgical approach to online shopping. They know exactly what they want and will research until they find the best fit to their criteria. These shoppers are hard to please as it is luck of the draw that you have the product they need. You need to make sure part numbers and the true name of your product is present in the product title to allow precise optimization. Product configuration tools like the ‘Build your Porsche’ cater for these types of shopper and are great for a multitude of shopper types.
These shoppers need customer opinions to make sure the product will fit it intended purpose and also great customer support so they can seek verification for the seller about the item.

Hobby Shoppers

Shopping for these buyers is a past time. I fall straight into this category myself. It’s an addiction and I almost need to find something to buy online if I have a penny to spare. I often have to quell the urge. These shoppers purchase frequently and enthusiastically. These are the most adventurous shoppers and you need to grab their attentions by offering engaging tools to view the merchandise as well as product recommendations and incorporating social media into their purchase. These shoppers love community applications such as forums, bulletin boards and social shopping sites.

Direct Shoppers

These shoppers buy out of necessity. They do not shop around or waste time. They want the information now and to find the product within the 3 click recommended navigation. Excellent navigation and product organization is needed to cater for these shoppers. These shoppers need all the information at their finger tips in close proximity to the items, as well as quick access to customer support. Live chat appeals to these kind of shoppers, as they want answers quickly. These shoppers respond well to expert and customers opinions and testimonials.

Nervous Shoppers

My mother very much falls in this category, afraid to ‘put her credit card’ online or that she will be subject to fraud. Identity theft has risen to 1 in 4 in the UK so this is a valid concern. These shoppers start off by only using the internet to research products they mainly buy offline. To make these customers feel secure you need to clearly state your security /privacy policies and use a SSL certificate at checkout. These shoppers watch out for the little padlock at the bottom of the browser so make sure you have no non-secure items on your secure pages. Non-secure Google analytics tracking code is famous for this, they have a https version. You need to state that their information is secure and not sold or distributed. These customers also need customer support, with most of these shoppers wanting to hear from a human before they make their purchase. You need to make sure you include a phone number contact for these shoppers, and also an option that they can pay over the phone for their purchase. You might find these shoppers are only leads for your bricks and mortar or catalogue operations. These are still valid customers as most types of customers have a little bit of the nervous shopper in them.

You can not please or cater for every shopper that will land on your e-commerce site, but you do need to consider the information you need to give your customers and the shopping experience as a whole. Always consider your product type and match it with your typical customer profile. These are generalisations on shoppers, but as with the colour symbolism and psychology, every product type attracts a different set of customer profiles! You can even go as far as moulding your search engine optimisation to match what each shopper type is looking for. Intelligent search engines will deliver your products and message directly to these shopper types, Google personalised search will make this easier for you.

E-commerce and its multi-channel adventures!

1695 days
by in Consultancy, E-Business, Internet Marketing

‘Multi- channel’ has become a bit of a ‘Web 2.0 buzz word, but it has become one of the most expansive sectors in e-commerce. ‘Multi Channel’ (we shall call it MC 2.0 for comedic slogan purposes only) can involve a retail organisation having several touch points for interactions with customers and also several competitive routes to market. Large traditional ‘Bricks and Mortar’ (apologies for my over use of apostrophes this evening) companies have expanded to incorporate several channel for example Next Retail

Next have:

  • Walk in Stores
  • Paper mailing catalogue (which is also present in the store to showcase the full range of products)
  • Online Shop
  • Call centre operations
  • Affiliations with comparison shopping engines, pay per click advertising, shopping directories as well as other new media advertising.

To complete the set they should think about marketplaces such as eBay. They may be satisfied with their end of season re-sellers already on eBay.

In response to this expanse in retail channels, companies specialising in total retail solutions (such as Channeladvisor,Marketworks, Venda and Truition) have spawned from the far corners of the earth. These systems incorporate as many product to consumer channels from one platform as possible, providing a custom branded system. These systems are also available (and mostly piloted by) the smaller virtual retailer. Many of these smaller retailing business have taken such a slice from the high street that the larger players had to respond to the drop in sales.

Going MC 2.0 is about opening up your offerings to different markets as well as your products being available across all channels.

Retailers should be looking to synchronise the service level across all channels. All channels should be fully integrated with existing systems and correctly aligned across:

  • Price (even though some companies have set up separate branded channels to be more competitive on-line without being detrimental to their high street trade)
  • Promotions
  • Gift Vouchers (should be able to be used off-line and on-line)
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Order process and Returns

A customer likes a single experience across the various channels.

One department should administer all channels to the consumer, as a customer does not like to be passed from pillar to post with their queries about a product or order.

And this is the end for ‘E-commerce and its MC 2.0 adventures’ for now!

How E-business can be used for competitive advantage

1702 days
by in Consultancy, E-Business

There are many opportunities within business to move products and services on line. The internet gives you a better reach, both nationally and internationally at a low cost compared to bricks and mortar. The internet has a richness about it. You find more detailed information on products and prices from many companies and you need your business to show up against your competitors. You might have the better product at cheaper price, but without the knowledge your customers will continue to buy elsewhere.

Moving a service or product on line enables interactivity and customisation to engage your customers, as we know very well the impact of social media on today’s adult population, with the myspace and facebook generation.

Affiliation should not be shunned by an e-business. An organisation with rich links to other compatible companies or organisations will be able to gain a larger reach and influence.

Encouraging your customers to use on line services will reduce costs while providing a new, convenient channel for purchase and customer service. On line your customers are only a mouse click away from your competitors so you need to make sure you build last relationships with your customers. This statement can be a generalisation in some cases as customers or suppliers will generally lock themselves in after learning to use a system or website as the switching costs can be high.

Take the Marketworks and ChannelAdvisor example. Both are on line auction and e-commerce management systems. Marketworks has the poorer product, which was less reliable but high end retailers were locked in because of the cost of switching from one system to another.

This is now however not a problem for Marketworks Customers wishing to switch!

There are some limitations to your e-business and problems will arise. For example in customer service, emails need to go directly to the person concerned within your business and not just ignored. This can damage a companies reputation as your customers will share their experiences on-line in forums and message boards.

Your services are limited by bandwidth, the amount of information that can be presented to the customer at any one time. A website can become unreliable at peak traffic times, and after certain events such as the Olympics and the World Cup if you products are relevant. Your information has to be accurate and reliable, constantly updated to meet the customer needs and changes within the marketplace. No e-business can rest on its laurels.

Security and protection of customer data is an on going problem which you will have to keep on top of.

Go Cubecart Go – E-commerce Software ROI

1712 days
by in Consultancy, Google, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Web Mastering

Well on Tuesday evening I completed my new CubeCart 4 store, and by Thursday evening it had made back its purchase price. I doubt there are many systems that I could say it takes less that three days to see return on investment. This includes the price of the security certificate too.

A small targeted adwords campaign (costing me £3 in clicks) made sure that I drove a bit of traffic to my new URLs ( ALL the site URLs have been changed to text URLs. I am still fearful of this as SEO efforts will be temporarily effected by this change)

Support was lightning fast. Being in customer support for the last 2 years, its nice to remember what it is like to be the other side of the fold.

I also created a new google sitemap pronto and changed all the links to individual products in the blog associated with the site. Its only a hobby site targeted at a niche market, but I feel absolved for investing the money into the site this week.

New Technologies and Virtual services – Virtual Personal Assistant

1721 days
by in Consultancy, Web Mastering

My cousin has been a PA to the stars in Dubai…..well to managers at Hewlett Packard and Dell for the past 13 years, but has now decided to come back to the UK in the Spring. The cats have their passports so it is a serious move. Jane is going to set up a ‘Virtual PA’ business which I have already purchased the domain and set up an email address for her.

I will be very much involved in the set up of her website and helping her deliver her services with the new technologies out there. E-commerce is not just about products, its about virtual services also.

The website will be http://www.virtuassist.co.uk

I have decided to charge to cover costs on this project, as it is going to involve a lot of training also. I don’t think £20 a month for web mastering, setting up the site, marketing, script and email maintenance is asking a lot!

« Previous
Next »
Go to Top