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With news that Google began testing same day delivery services with a major retail player - Target - many retailers are wondering if this is the new mobile commerce. Should you be thinking about same day delivery in your business plan?
First, lets consider the reasons some consumers might choose to visit a store instead of order online:
Delayed Gratification
If there's an item you need today, a trip to the store is inevitable. At the moment, this is the fastest way to get a product in your hands.
Save on Shipping
Though many retailers offer free shipping at a certain order value threshold, if you're just shopping for a single item, shipping costs are often prohibitive.
Tactile Research
Many consumers still like to try things on, hold the product, or read the labels before purchasing.
Remember when Amazon Prime was introduced? Analysts and the general public were skeptical that people would be willing to pay the convenience fee upfront for a year's worth of two day delivery. We all know what happened next. Amazon Prime is a runaway success. Those same shoppers, used to paying a little extra for convenience, will be the shoppers that make same day shipping a success.
Many skeptics will point to the failure of dot-com services like Webvan as a reason same day delivery won't take off. But truthfully, the world is in a different place now than it was then. We're more connected, and we expect instant reactions and gratification. We're also addicted to being the first to discover - and broadcast our use of - the next big thing.
The reality is that if Google and Amazon are doing it, you can be certain that the major players in the retail space will follow shortly after. Retailers with large distribution channels or retail locations already in place will benefit the most, since they already have the infrastructure needed to make it a success. The costs of that infrastructure will be prohibitive to smaller businesses, but we predict there will be a rise in niche fulfullment providers that work with several retailers at once to provide those services.
Would you consider using same day delivery? We're interested to hear what dollar amount would be ideal to get you to use the service, so tell us in the comments below!
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Over the past few years, the opportunity and scope of optimizing for search on the web has increased dramatically. While there is no silver bullet to achieving higher rankings, the way that you manage your site, your content, and your inbound links can all make an impact on your results and, ultimately, how easy or hard it is for shoppers to find you!
Join our ecommerce expert, Will Devlin, on Thursday, March 21st at 2:00 PM EST as he walks you through the three pillars of search: content, architecture, and inbound links and gives tips and lessons learned on how to achieve better search rankings for your business.
Register here.
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Are you capitalizing on an audience of 25 million that spends nearly double the average shopper?
Ecommerce consultancy firm RichRelevance recently released a study that tracked 700 million shopping sessions originating from social networks. In this study, they found that an online shopper originating from Pinterest spent an average of $170, while shoppers originating from Facebook and Twitter spent $95 and $70. With a predominately young, female user base with disposable income, the site has quickly become a way of window shopping via your iPad.
In short, if you're not actively creating a presence for your ecommerce company on Pinterest, you're leaving a lucrative opportunity untouched.
But how do you keep up with another social network when your marketing dollars (and time) are stretched thin?
It's Not All About Your Products
With its clean, ad-free interface, Pinterest is the prime place to share imagery that fits the mission of your brand. Consider sharing styled images where the product is not the main focus, but clicking on the image leads the user to the products in the photo. We've found that photos of this nature are highly successful in click throughs compared to their plain product shot counterparts.
It's Called "Social" Networking For A Reason
Like any social network, it's important to engage with your followers. Pinterest provides an excellent opportunity to run creative marketing campaigns. Examples include sharing images from bloggers that feature your products, reposting Instagram photos that are tagged with your brand, and even creating contest boards that allow your followers to repin an image for a chance to win a product.
It's All About Timing
Unlike many social networks that have peak traffic periods, studies show that traffic consistently peaks on Pinterest in the late evenings - around 7:00 PM EST and continues until around Midnight PST. Users cite Pinterest as a way to relax, as they mindlessly browse content. Concentrating your Pinterest activity during work hours puts it at the bottom of their feeds. But using a service like Pingraphy lets you schedule your pins to appear at the right time for optimum exposure.
Have you seen your traffic from Pinterest increase? What strategies are you using to drive engagement? We want to hear your thoughts in the comments!
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Already known for their industry-leading approach to innovation, as evidenced by their recent recognition by the Annaheim Group as the most innovative company in the worldwide dental division for the eighth year in a row, 3M ESPE is also blazing trails in online business-to-business (B2B) commerce. 3M ESPE was recently interviewed at the Chicago midwinter dental conference. In the interview, 3M ESPE speaks to new Buy It Now functionality that creates a consumer-like online shopping experience for their dental product buyers. Buyers can now add products to a cart directly from the 3M ESPE website, without disrupting their existing relationships with their distributor of choice - a great example of enriching and enhancing the business buyer's online commerce experience. Kudos to ShopVisible client, 3M ESPE, true leading edge innovators.
To watch the interview and learn more, click here.
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Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs) bring customers who are ready to buy to your commerce site. While these shopping engines are a great tool for retailers, it's critical to understand how to use each CSE for maximum effectiveness.
Join us on Friday, February 15th at 2:00 EST for a complimentary 30 minute webinar. Our ecommerce expert, Will Devlin, will walk you through the do's and don'ts when implementing Comparison Shopping Engines and how to make them pay dividends for your business.
Register here for this free webinar.
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It's no secret that smartphone use is on the rise. And with it, comes the rise of mobile commerce. In fact, industry research firm Forrester predicts that by 2016, mobile commerce will grow to a total revenue of $31 Billion.
So how do you take advantage of this growing commerce category? Using ShopVisible clients, we examined transactions across our platform to provide you with industry benchmark data, as well as tips and tricks on how to make mobile a success story for your company.
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We've all shopped online. We decide that we want to browse for the perfect North Face sweatshirt for a friend's birthday and so we either go to our favorite retailer's website or we simply Google "North Face sweatshirts." Either way, we eventually end up on a page full of sweatshirts that we have to sort through. Now, at this juncture, we either choose to open up several tabs to browse the options, navigate back-and-forth between product detail pages and product listings, or use the quick view functionality if it's available.
Quick view is a simple way for shoppers to view detailed information about products and add them to their carts without ever having to navigate to each individual product page. Sounds great, right? Quick view can be a fantastic tool to improve the overall user experience of an ecommerce site, but only if it's done right. Here are the pros and cons of quick view:
Pros
- Quick view enables quicker navigation between products
- Quick view pages that incorporate pertinent product information perform well in terms of clicks
- Reduces page load time
- Helps get the shopper to checkout faster
Cons
- If quick view lacks pertinent product info, shoppers may dislike it and forgo it altogether
- Often, quick view only appears upon hover over the product and shoppers don't know it's available
In order to maximize your site's quick view effectiveness, the quick view option should be visible on product listing pages, not just upon product hover. The quick view window should always include:
- Product and brand names
- Original price as well as any reduced pricing, highlighted in a noticeable color
- Product information including materials, style, size and colors
- Product image with ability to zoom and rotate
- Size and quantity selection options
- Star rating for the product
- 'Add to Cart' button
- Link to full product information page
Incorporating these quick view best practices into your ecommerce site wil help you usee greater use of the quick view functionality, and more importantly, get your customers to checkout faster.
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Since online marketplaces have been around for a long time, many e-tailers assume that getting up and running on marketplaces is simple – a “just turn it on!” approach. However, getting your products on marketplaces in an effective way takes time and forethought to make it a worth-while investment. Next Friday, Ecommerce expert Will Devlin will walk you through the do's and don’t's when getting into marketplaces and how you can make them pay dividends for your business.
Don’t miss this quick, 30 minute webinar packed with key insights for your business – Register Today!
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According to Forrester Research, 74% of retailers had mobile strategies in place in 2010 and that grew to 91% by mid-2011. In addition, 56% of online shoppers who own a mobile device say that they use it to research or buy products.(1) Implementing mobile commerce is no longer an add-on, it's a must-have component to any successful commerce strategy. That means that the question is no longer "when" to go mobile, but "how?" Here's what you should consider:
What will your customers actually use?
If your customers are choosing between your app and "Words With Friends," will they keep yours on their screen? Are your important enough to your customers for them to search and download your app proactively? Apps can provide rich, interactive user experiences that leverage the device, but only if the consumer downloads your app.
How often does the experience need to be updated?
Does the experience need to be interactive? Utilize geo-location capabilities? Available when not connected to wi-fi? How long will the content of the application last before you need to provide an update for download? With a mobile site, content can be continually updated and improved.
What is your budget?
Native applications are becoming more costly to develop because of the proliferation of mobile devices in the marketplace. Make sure you have the resources to provide a rich, interactive experience where your customer interacts with you most.
In short, the answer to the mobile web versus mobile app question is: it depends. However, retailers that ignore mobile-optimized sites do so at their own peril. Even those with strong app engagement rates will have customers in the marketplace that simply search for their site via Google. Once they arrive, they're expecting a useable web experience and if they don't get it, they'll abandon and move on to a competitor. Therefore, it's critical to serve up easy-to-use mobile experiences, whether that be through a mobile site or responsive design, and that you keep up with customer preferences, wishlists and items in cart across devices.
1 Mulpuru, S. (2012). Trends 2012: US Retail eBusiness. Retrieved from Forrester Research.
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According to Forrester Research, B2B commerce is well positioned to reach $559 billion in US sales by the end of 2013. This presents a tremendous growth opportunity for companies that adapt to the unique needs and challenges of B2B buyers.
Commerce expert and ShopVisible CEO, Sean Cook, will share more about this opportunity in this Thursday's webinar, "B2B Commerce on the Move: How It's Changing How Businesses Buy and Sell." You will learn 4 key ways that it's changing how companies buy and sell online, and key predictions for the future of B2B commerce.
Join Sean & ShopVisible for this 30 minute webinar on Thursday, December 13th, 12:00 PM EST. Register today.
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