Four Strategies for E-commerce Success

Allison Howen — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

Maintaining a successful e-commerce site is a vital part of a thriving retail business model these days. However, with the ever-changing technologies available on the Web, deciding on an e-commerce strategy can be difficult.

Brian Horakh, the founder and CEO of e-commerce software provider Zoovy, has identified the following four strategies as paramount for midsize retailers who want to increase sales, enhance customer relations and build a more profitable business.

Shipping Promotions

According to a Comscore report from May 2011, 61 percent of consumers will abandon a purchase if free shipping isn’t offered. This is why it’s important for retailers to provide the best shipping rates possible, as well as work with vendors for incentives. Additionally, providing an effective return management system can improve customer satisfaction and retention, reduce costs, increase operational efficiency, maximize the value of goods sold and minimize the impact of returns on profits.

"Return management can make or break midsize retailers who are trying to grow their business," says Horakh. "Yet many retailers have not seriously evaluated their return policies and processes. With product returns costing U.S. retailers nearly $14 billion per year, it's imperative to have a clear returns plan in place as part of an overall shipping strategy."

Multiple Storefront Expansion

By expanding to multiple storefronts, retailers can increase their business by tailoring different sites to different consumers. It is imperative to determine the best set up for multiple storefronts by considering SEO, navigation, usability and shopping carts. Storefronts may have entirely separate products, brands, customer databases, checkout, payment methods and shipping options. However, one back-end system should handle the logistics of each site in order for more efficient management.

Competitive Repricing Options

In order to stay competitive, retailers should have the ability to reprice items by using an automated tool. This will allow retailers to alter the price of an item in a marketplace without guesswork, integration hassles or manual data import/export, as well as provide retailers with an advantage and an increase in sales velocity.

Valuable Reporting

By having an effective reporting tool, important information is readily available to merchants and guesswork is taken out. A good reporting tool should be comprised of four components: dashboards that show performance trends, statistics and graphs; reports that provide summarized lines of a period of time; structured raw data that provides the ability to remove verifiable and actionable data; and business intelligence, which provides data about relationships and trends. An effective reporting tool will help retailers get the most out of their data and allow more intelligent business decisions to be made.

"Many retailers confuse Google Analytics with business intelligence," says Horakh. "While Google Analytics provides reports with some data, it does not provide the ability for retailers to interrogate that data. True business intelligence provides a mechanism for retails to develop consistent, data-based business decisions with operational capabilities so they can quickly take action, thus eliminating wasted spending and ultimately increasing sales."

Business Strategy: Playing the Recession Card

Administrator — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:30:00 GMT

From where I sit, the economy is chugging along nicely. Business owners are investing time and money in their websites even in the face of mass media's assault on the everyman (or woman) with what I call "woe is me" recession talk. Whether you believe a recession is here (or coming) or not, it's important to leverage the current economic environment. How do you do that? Play the recession card in your copywriting.

Schooner Tuna - The Tuna With a Heart

Do you remember the 1980's movie "Mr. Mom?" Toward the end, Mr. Schooner from Schooner Tuna (a take-off of Charlie Tuna) is shooting a commercial. He rambles on about lowering the cost of tuna temporarily. I remember hearing, “These are trying times," “We’re all in this together," and “Schooner Tuna, a tuna with a heart.” See where I'm going with this? Converting users is not always about the feature list or the support guarantees - it's about understanding the situation of the user. In "trying times" it's important to express that you "feel" your users woes and are doing something about it.

As fear takes over desire as the dominant emotion that drives people to take action, it's in your best interest to empathize with users and play the recession card by working in a few Mr. Schooner phrases. Better yet, find some ways to calm those fears. Perhaps you could cut the cost of an extended warranty. Or offer longer customer support hours. If you can, maybe drop the shipping fees a bit.

Finally, try rebates - they push customers to purchase and often times go unredeemed. The increase of sales combined with unused rebates could boost your bottom line while quelling customer fears about spending money in a sagging economy.

'Net Features : business strategy

Four Strategies for E-commerce Success

Business Strategy: Playing the Recession Card