Author Archive
28% of shoppers cited low perceived security
Use a service such as McAfee Secure with PCI scan to give confidence and increase conversion.
23% avoid shopping online due to shipping costs
Lower or eliminate shipping costs or load them into the product costs to maintain margin
20% cited in adequate return policy
Easy to find and simple return policy including sending return shipping label with all orders
20% were concerned with the quality and availability of customer service
Provide online chat and clearly list you 8xx customer support number, which will also increase conversion %.
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Manufacturers these days are thinking about how they can go direct to consumer online while still remaining loyal to their tried-and-true channels. Some are actually selling direct to consumer and fulfilling in different manners (e.g. from a warehouse, dealer/distributor networks, and in-store pick up.)
Since researching and finding product information is the #1 goal of visitors, it’s to your advantage to update your content and functionality available on your ecommerce platform. Manufacturers should have comprehensive and SEO-friendly product descriptions with images, videos, and specification documents to ensure the user experience is not disorganized and busy.
They can also take advantage of social media integration, customer reviews, comparison tools, advance sorting features, custom configurators, and strong site search function — all features available on Magento Enterprise, and all features that are becoming necessary to maintaining conversion rates as other sites get more and more robust.
When the manufacturer does not sell direct to consumer online, a well-designed (and functional) dealer and store locator is essential to driving sales to the channel. We also suggest using peer-to-peer inventory status, so customers know exactly where they can buy the item they are researching (e.g. online partners, in-store, distributors, dealers). Keeping that path to purchase easy and efficient will have an enormous impact on site usability. To see this in action, check out prAna, a site Gorilla recently built, where we implemented P2P inventory look-up to maintain channel harmony.
Link to:
www.prana.com
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There’s an old saying that it’s five times more expensive to acquire new customers vs. keeping your current base. Companies spend a lot of money on acquiring new clients, but often don’t measure the lifetime value of these acquired customers. However, according to Forrester Research, 47% of web retailers showed an increase in repeat customers in 2010, and repeat customers account for 37% of all mid-market retailers’ revenue stream.
So it’s no surprise that many retailers have turned to building sites with better branding and user experience to boost repeat purchases.
Magento is a platform that can help support these retention efforts with its current functionality. The platform has the ability to recognize specific customer groups and automatically provide offers and personalized recommendations to them, increasing conversion and AOV. You can also create customized landing pages that only these specific customer groups would have access to, adding incentive to return. Several clients are also experimenting with private sales and reward points for their regulars to come back and help drive margins. And all these efforts will help you lower marketing costs since they’re baked right into your Magento platform.
As a retailer, sure, you’re going to get caught up in acquiring new customers at the expense of the loyal ones. Just remember Magento offers fully customizable ways for you to hold onto the folks you’ve already got.
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Forrester has put together a simple matrix to help ecommerce professionals decide what channels you should provide as outlined below.
All these technologies can be implemented on the Magento platform as well as the higher cost ECP’s. Another technology that is garnering a lot of momentum is video chat to help increase conversions on high ticket or complex items. We are implementing this for two clients that will be live this spring. Looking forward to its affect on conversion as well AOV.
Characteristics of Customer Service Interactions Based on Complexity and Corresponding Technologies
Low complexity
• Low value
• High volume
• Repeatable
• Single-source answer
o Self-service
o FAQ’s
o Site search
o Virtual Agent
Medium complexity
• Medium value
• Circumstance related
• Multiple sources required to answer
o Virtual agent
o Email
o Click-to-call
o Reactive or proactive chat
o Community Forums
High complexity
• High value
• Complex issues
• Multiple sources required to answer
• Significant customer info required
• High-value customer segment
• High technical complexity
o Click-to-call
o Reactive or proactive chat
o Co-Browse
o Telephone
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Forrester is estimating online sales growth will increase by 16% year over year vs. 1.5-2% growth estimates for in store. Affluent consumers will drive a larger portion of this growth. Online retailers are planning aggressive promotions throughout the holiday season and especially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 34% offering deep discounts at peak times.
Consumers continue to shift their spend to the online channel. In 2009, 30% of consumers’ wallet was spent online with 37% expected in 2010 per the North American Technographics Retail Online Survey.
Online retailers continue to see the shift online with a robust rebound; 70% reporting gross online sales increased YOY in Q2, and 80% reported increases in 3Q per a Shop.org/Forrester survey.
Other stats from Forrester:
12% growth in new US online buyers
Average Spend of $338 in 2010 vs. $303 in 2009.
87% of US online buyers with household income over 100k will spend more online in 2010 vs 2009
16% will use mobile devices to compare online and in store pricing
31% of US online consumers will only buy online if offered free shipping.
How to Prepare as a Retailer
Ensure your site is redundant and has the ability to scale for the spike in traffic on Friday and Monday.
Free Shipping
Benchmark vs competition and ramp up promotions if behind
Ratings and Reviews
Targeted marketing
Measure mobile traffic
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