Ecommerce Blogging – A Business Tool

Posted on July 14, 2009 by admin

Blogging is very important to ecommerce businesses. It’s one of the easiest ways to update the websites content, and it also demonstrates expertise about the offered products. Blogging can complement online shops products and offer a reason for people to return to them. The return on the blogging investment is quite high in terms of content, SEO, trust and reputation.

Consider blogging because:

Blogging Builds Trust
Ecommerce sites often focus on attracting visitors for the immediate sale, but sometimes potential customers want to learn more about a business and products before they’re ready to make a purchase. With a traditional store, consumers know where to go if they have questions. It’s more difficult to find the same level of trust with an online store. Providing valuable information to potential customers builds trust based on long-term considerations.

Show Off Expertise
Consumers usually purchase from companies that have expertise with their products and in their industry. A blog is an opportunity to demonstrate this expertise, to share insider tips and to discuss issues of interest with your customers and provide them with valuable insights and information.

Easy SEO
Search engines like sites that constantly update their content. Blogging is an easy way to update website content, while providing something of value to potential customers at the same time. Also, including top industry keywords will help build valuable links to the Ecommerce site’s content.

Blog Comments & Feedback
Blogging gives online retailers the opportunity to have a conversation with and get feedback from customers and others in the industry. Not every blog will get comments & feedback right away but after blogging for a while, there should be an audience to tap into from time to time with short, one-question surveys. Additionally a focused, well-written blog can get readers hooked on the blog and promote repeat visits to the website or garner subscriptions via RSS feeds and email newsletters.

Ecommerce Site’s Personality
Many ecommerce sites have a personality that is associated with the company. Since people are more willing to purchase from another person it’s recommended to include some information about the personalities ‘behind the scenes’ of the ecommerce site.

Blog Themes
A blog’s theme should be consistent with a company’s focus, yet universal enough that the blog is not solely about things the company sells. A blog that only exists to link to its corporate site will not be trusted. A site selling cameras, for instance, should go beyond making the blog a secondary camera sales tool and get involved with photography as an art and business. It’s secondary to cameras, but it is directly related to the interests of potential customers.

Start Blogging
Most blogs are created using free or low-cost online sites such as Blogger from Google, WordPress, and Typepad . These services are simple to use and configure and it’s possible to have a blog up and running in less than an hour. With a bit of extra work, the blog can become part of the ecommerce site, adding value to the content and SEO.

Nevertheless, ecommerce retailers should be aware that setting it up and linking it to the website is the easy part. Keeping the blog updated, active and topical is the hard part. Ideally, the blog should be updated once a week. The more relevant content and posts are the more value the blog with have as a resource for new customers.

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Back to School Shopping Will Benefit E-tailers

Posted on July 6, 2009 by admin

While students enjoy their summer, parents get ready for one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year, the Back to School shopping season beginning next month.  Every year between the months of July and September families spend hundreds of dollars on everything from apparel to electronics which accounts for the second largest amount of shopping dollars spent during the year, the first being the winter Holiday season.  The retail industry is now preparing for what could be a test of consumer demand and could also determine whether the economy has recovered since the recession.

Shopping Figures

1.    It is estimated that around 45% of families will spend close to $250 per child.
2.    The majority of this shopping season will be done in July & August.
3.    Over 38% of dollars spent will be during this time.
4.    Approximately 25% of consumers will spend more this year than the previous year.
5.    In 2008, The U.S. spent $54 billion on back to school shopping .

Google Insights for Search: Back to school shopping trends

backtoschool

The above graph represents that the month of August is the peak for back to school on an annual basis which is predicted for the upcoming shopping season in 2009.

When back to school shoppers start looking to their lists for supplies they’ll also be looking for great deals.  Like most consumers, the majority of them begin their search online.  There has been a definite rise in the percentage of people shopping online in the last two years.   An analysis of online shopping trends predicts that retail e-commerce sales will increase around 4% from last year.  Those looking for deals on apparel and electronics should find them on Bing shopping, Google Advertisements and Twitter search when looking for the latest products and deals.  This has been a great boost for online retailers.  Since the recession, price conscious consumers have also found price comparison websites to be very beneficial and due to this response they will likely see a rise in use.

For e-tailers to capitalize on the upcoming shopping season advertising will be the most important factor.  Search engine marketing and keywords will play a large role in reaching consumers. Using seasonal keywords in addition to product specific keywords will be beneficial.  Creating package deals for multiple related items associated with school shopping would also drive consumers.  Researching new and popular items of the season will be an advantage when attracting online shoppers.

Sources
1.    Kristina Knight (Big Report) “Study: Back to School Could Help Etailers”
a.    Study by Burst Media
2.    Jessica Wohl (Reuters) “Back to School Shopping to Test Retail Resilience”

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Tech Savvy Moms Online

Posted on June 30, 2009 by admin

As eMarketer reported earlier in the month mothers are one of larger user groups online and are among the most internet savvy.  In the US alone approximately 34 million moms are online per month, as reported by eMarketer, and they are influencing those purchase decisions.

So how can ecommerce sites understand how to gear their offerings towards mothers who not only by for themselves, but also their children.

Before making a purchasing decision moms will use general websites, referrals from friends and family, search engines and mobile web browsing as the top four resources for product information. Your product has to be where the consumer is searching.

moms-chart-one

Tips for targeting tech savvy mothers:

1.    Ecommerce sites should be offering all available information per product and where the consumer can find additional information, possibly third party information, on lines of products you carry.
2.    Utilize search engine marketing with an emphasis on the shopper. You can create specific campaigns just targeting women between the ages of 24 to 35 for example.
3.    Once a purchase is complete get the consumer to fill out a review of the product a few weeks later or their experience shopping on your site.

So what sites need to pay attention to the increasing role of tech savvy mothers online? The top three categories for which moms research are clothing, food/cooking and baby/parenting, however the next three categories are banking services, electronics and travel. Gearing websites and advertisements towards mothers within these categories will require companies to make sure the site is user friendly towards various potential shoppers.

moms-chart-21

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Sign Up Form Optimization

Posted on May 12, 2009 by admin

Sign up forms are one of the key performance indicators (KPI) for ecommerce sites to take into consideration. The longer your online registration form is, the lower your completion rate. By only asking for highly relevant information you can decrease abandonment rates and increase total purchase on products the consumer has already indicated they are interested in purchasing.

Correct Sign Up Form:

  1. Repeat Password Field – don’t let customers get frustrated when they cannot log in because the password they thought they used to sign up is incorrect.
  2. Email Subscription Option – keep the default unchecked and allow the user to opt in. Provide the user with the choice so they don’t take it out on your company when they receive unwanted email and information.
  3. Required Address
  4. Confirm Email Address – easy to mistype an email address. Incorrect email addresses will then lead to login problems and you won’t be able to send the confirmation email.

Benefits of Sign Up Forms:

Outline for the consumer the purpose and benefits of the online registration process. If the consumer clearly understands that the information being collected will benefit them in the short and long run they will be more enticed to continue with the process.

It would be wise to include a few if not all of the benefits before the form appears.

Benefits:

  1. Faster check out
  2. Save multiple shipping locations
  3. Save multiple billing options
  4. Exclusive offers
  5. Order tracking
  6. Order history
  7. Faster customer service
  8. Loyalty and reward point balances
  9. Incentives for referring friends
  10. Access across partner stores

Reason to not ask for too much information:

Consumers are always reluctant to give out more detail than absolutely required, which is fair enough. We already provide data to an abundance of services and each time we make a purchase we hand over our credit card.

In order to get the consumer to complete our forms we must first understand where the consumer is coming from so we can relate back to the process. The amount of information consumers provide will directly correlate with how much they trust our company to use this information. They will provide the information if they know we require it and if there is a direct benefit to them.

Forms should also be short and simple as to not confuse the consumer on what is being filled out and why.

To get it right try to think from the user’s prospective and always test. Whatever is humanly possible to remove from the form should be.

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What Attracts Customers to Buy?

Posted on May 12, 2009 by admin

A recent NRF and Shop.org study indicates that price is the number one factor to persuade consumers to shop at your online retail store. Price was designated by 67% of women and 58% of men all over the age of 18. After the actual price of the product the 2nd leading factor was shipping costs with assortment of merchandise in 4th.

Online retailers, according to the report, are encouraged to present a well rounded collection of items to help steer off competition. Retail websites with fewer products will lose market share and will not be able to maintain a steady stream of consumers required for long term growth. Assortment becomes even more important for consumers in the upper income bracket, who will hopefully spend more as well, where assortment and quality of merchandise is ranked higher.

While the results are not out of the ordinary an important issue to take from the report is that online retailers should maintain a steady value based pricing structure. Fluctuations in pricing should be kept to a minimum so consumers know your pricing points are fair, within market value and sales will occur at scheduled intervals.

How to achieve consumer growth and retention:

  1. Maintain a value based pricing structure.
  2. Stock quality brands and products.
  3. Maintain an assortment of merchandise, a thorough catalog of products.
  4. Compete on pricing (different to number 1).
  5. Offer discounted or free shipping where possible.
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