'Net Features : ability commerce

Smart Strategies to Win Over Fickle Mobile Shoppers

Administrator — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:15:00 GMT

Over time, retailers have successfully made the transition from sole brick-and-mortar selling to multi-channel merchandising featuring e-commerce as a major channel. Today, tackling mobile commerce has displaced e-commerce as merchants’ toughest challenge; shoppers are more impatient than ever.

According to recent reports, average consumer page views per retail site visit are down to 6.6, compared to 8.3 pages last March. In fact, the average time spent on these sites is also at an all-time low, a phenomenon likely caused by the increasingly competitive mobile commerce market. In order to adapt to this instant-gratification craving audience, e-retailers must adjust their mobile strategies to establish a competitive advantage. By adopting several simple strategies, companies can better position themselves to seize those coveted smartphone and tablet-shoppers.

The saying “a picture’s worth 1,000 words” has never been more applicable in e-commerce than now; when users skim the Web on their ultrabooks, tablets and smartphones, a certain aesthetic presentation is expected.

However, using large images on the mobile site can slow page loading, so make sure you aren’t layering too much data into your pictures. Keep files small and resolution high. Clean product visuals are even more necessary to keep and convert mobile buyers on your site. And though images might catch a consumer’s eye first, what they are actually looking for is likely in the copy. When users scan mobile screens, elaborate fonts and obscured buttons complicate the process. Using unadorned sans-serif font allows users to scan pages quickly, often without having to resize in order to find the information they’re looking for.

This highlights another new demand of digital shoppers: if they have to hunt for the details or products on your site, they’ll go elsewhere for a speedier experience. According to a survey conducted by Google, 78 percent of users want to be able to find what they’re looking for on a mobile site in one to two clicks. To meet this standard, get into the user’s mind and outline a specific architecture for your mobile site: ask yourself why customers are visiting the site and where they might want to go.

Making important or popular site features easily accessible on the homepage will ease the mobile browsing experience. Your landing page should have all of the information customers look for first. Offering too many subcategories and additional tabs clog the page, but the navigation buttons you do include must be readable and easy to click.

Information like store location and hours, social media accounts and sales should be clear on the homepage. Remember that smartphones and tablets, with their limited screen sizes, can only display so much information effectively, so less is still more.

If users want to search for something more specific, such as a product or service, finding what they need shouldn’t be a struggle. Design a high-functioning, concise search tool and make your mobile search function as advanced as your websites’, complete with auto-fill, filters and categories.

Attracting users to your mobile site is a portion of the battle, but the end goal is building an experience that pushes consumers to the final step: checking out. Purchasing should be painless; contain abandoned cart syndrome by updating your checkout process with shopper-friendly features. For example, make shopping carts easily accessible and develop checkout forms with short fields that require minimal scrolling.

Though consumers may have time to register full information using lap or desktops, it is cumbersome for mobile users to create a full account on-the-go. Allow them to register as guests and offer progress indicators so consumers know where they are in the buying process. Implement specific conversion tools such as cookies, Google or other alternative account sign-in options, and PayPal to unify and further streamline the process.

Finally, customers need a reason to visit your site over competitors’. Mobile-exclusive promotions are the perfect way to draw audiences to your page without fail. Make sure to broadcast these specials through channels you know mobile users engage regularly, namely email and social media.

Today’s new mobile commerce platform offers its share of challenges for online retailers, but with renewed and updated strategies to cater to finicky audiences, merchants can retain satisfied customers and develop lasting relationships with new ones.

About the Author: Diane Buzzeo is the founder and CEO of Ability Commerce. After spending two decades in retail and retail marketing, Buzzeo saw the need to create a company dedicated to creating software solutions for ecommerce retailers and founded Ability Commerce in 1999. Ability Commerce is a leading provider of ecommerce software, offering customizable, turn-key solutions for online retailers including website infrastructure, CMS, customer analytics and multichannel integration.

Merchant’s Marketing Guide to Christmas in July

Allison Howen — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:30:00 GMT

Typically, the month of July makes people think of sunshine, pools and fireworks. However, for e-commerce merchants, this warm summer month should bring one thing to mind – the holidays.

Although still six months away, the countdown has already begun for the year’s busiest shopping season. This means that merchants need to start their preparations now, in order to stay ahead of their competition and avoid the stress of last minute planning.

So even though it’s not time to dust off the ornaments and drink hot chocolate yet, it is time to think about holiday marketing strategies. Here are five tips to help merchants start preparing for Christmas in July:

Promotions

In 2011, more than half of online retailers started their holiday promotions by Halloween, and that trend is expected to grow during the 2012 season. So when should you start planning? According to Diane Buzzeo, CEO of Ability Commerce, August is a good time to start planning holiday email campaigns, promotional campaigns and sales. However, this doesn’t mean that merchants should start promoting Christmas in October.

“You could certainly be doing winter promotions without necessarily having Christmas graphics, because it does turn a lot of people off,” says Buzzeo.

Another tip is to make sure site promotions can be seen on multiple pages. This is because many consumers don’t visit a merchant’s homepage when they are using search to find products. For example, if a consumer searches for the word “shoes” on Google, the search results may take them to the shoe page of a merchant’s website rather then the merchant's homepage. So by not carrying a promotion, such as free shipping, throughout an entire website, merchants may actually be doing themselves a disservice.

Keywords

Keywords are not only important for PPC campaigns. In fact, merchants should use keywords as a recurring theme for all aspects of their brand and website. For example, using words such as “New Arrivals” as a category header on a website is a bad idea, because consumers will rarely (if ever) search for the phrase “new arrivals” when they are surfing the Web with intent to purchase.

This is another reason why merchants should start thinking about what their holiday theme will be, so that specific keywords can strategically be placed throughout promotions, advertisements, emails, and even in some cases, throughout the website itself.

Email

Although merchants may not be aware of the holiday season’s hot products yet, it doesn’t mean that they can’t start planning their email marketing strategy.

“You’re going to change your product selection, but you’re not going to change the fact that you’re going to be sending an email out,” says Buzzeo.

This means that merchants should be checking the calendar to see when the best time is to send out email promotions, such as a message on the eve before Black Friday that includes information on mega deals, or a reminder for the last day to purchase products in order to receive shipments before the holidays.

Social Media

From running location-based deals to incentivizing social purchases – it is clear that the marketing opportunities from social media are vast. And while it probably isn’t the first time that merchants are leveraging social networks for promotions during the holidays, there is a fairly new social network that is perfect for “wishlist” season – yes, we are talking about you, Pinterest.

“Pinterest is a really great way to have wishlists,” says Buzzeo. “It’s also a great way to see what people are pinning to determine what you should make your promotions out of.”

Additionally, many companies and social networks are providing merchants with new social tools, such as Facebook Offers, which can be leveraged in order to obtain and retain a strong social presence throughout the holiday season.

Mobile

Maintaining a mobile optimized site is a must for merchants, and this is especially important for the holidays. Since more and more consumers are leveraging their mobile devices to discover products and brick-and-mortar locations while on the go, having a mobile-optimized site puts merchants a step ahead of their competition.

However, being optimized for mobile doesn’t mean just creating a website that can be accessed on mobile devices. It also means having a mobile site that is fully functional on mobile devices – meaning that consumers are able to see promotions, view products and even make purchases from the palms of their hands. Furthermore, merchants should also test their promotional emails on mobile devices, especially since many consumers open their emails while on the move.