|
The 7 Cardinal Sins of eCommerce
By Frank Fiore
A few weeks ago I wrote about the 7 Cardinal Sins of eCommerce. All you sinners out there have – I hope – since repented so, this week I’ll reveal the 7 Cardinal Virtues of eCommerce. Or to quote Abe Lincoln, “ Vices and Virtues: Can't have one without the other!” As for the current ‘dot-bombs’, they didn’t adhere to an older Greek proverb that went “First secure an independent income, then practice virtue.”
At any rate, besides being the first names of many a modest Christian girl, the virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Temperance and Prudence – when properly adhered to – can buttress your eBusiness through these turbulent times and help it excel in the better eCommerce world to come.
So here they are and how to practice them in your day to day eBusiness.
Faith – Believe in Yourself
Though not of the business persuasion, Socrates knew something of the virtues of eCommerce when he said “Know thyself”. If you don’t know who your company is and what it offers, your customers won’t either.
You have to make it clear – crystal clear – what you are selling and how you differ from your competition. Take the time to sit down and figure out what makes your business unique and ask yourself these questions.
What kind of business are you in? There are just three ways to money on the Net. Sell products or services, sell information or subscriptions to information, and sell advertising. Decide which of these is your primary revenue generator.
Does your business sell on price, selection, or service? If it’s price, how are you going to be the low price leader in your market or product or service niche? If it’s selection, do you have a specialty boutique selling products that is difficult to find anywhere else? If you sell on service what kind of value are you adding to your products or services that differentiates you from your competition?
Once you have the answers to these questions you will ‘know thyself’ and then forge a Unique Selling Position – one that offers your target customers what they are looking for.
Hope - Never Give Up
Banner ads are returning a paltry return on the investment dollar. Click throughs are down to less than half of a percent, sending millions of emails to a list purchased on CDs not only results in a minuscule response rates but angers the very people whose business you’re hoping to acquire.
But all is not lost.
For additional business, I suggest you market to a database of people who are already sold on your company and its products or service – your current customers. You do maintain a house list of current customer, don’t you/ and you do stay in contact with them on a periodic basis through some form of electronic communication like a email newsletter? If you don’t, you are missing out on a well of sales that is just waiting to be tapped.
Direct Marketing teaches that a person that has just purchased from a company is more likely to purchase again – and soon – than the new prospects you’re pitching to. That means your house list of customers should be the first place you look to obtain additional revenue. This is where effectively using email marketing comes into play. Using the unique communications technology of the Net provides an excellent opportunity for you to educate consumers who already know about your business and products about other products you have and which ones they might be interested in.
The true potential of email marketing lies in targeting specific products and services to your existing customer base and this means you have to have the means of profiling and segmenting your customer base. To do that, you have to know who they are, what the bought, and what they may be interested in buying in the future. And this is not an easy task because most people are not willing to give up such personal information without something in return.
What we’re talking about here is Permission Marketing – asking for information and the permission to market to someone. So do exactly that. Ask your customer base for the information you need to successfully market your products and services to them – and be prepared to give them something in return which leads us to the next virtue of eCommerce – Charity.
Charity – Give, then Take
In the pursuit of the Force, Yoda told Luke Skywalker, “Give, then take”. The Yoda Principle – or Charity – can be an effective strategy in eCommerce when used correctly. By Charity I don’t mean giving away the store or providing free services that you can’t afford. It can be something as simple as a loss leader – well known in the real world of commerce.
I’m reminded of the company that sold printers at cost. They received plenty of orders, of course, but how did they make money? They knew that every printer needed a cable and odds were good that the customer who bought a new printer would need a cable to go with it. And they were right. They sold cables at three and four times what others were selling printer cables at. The competition even helped – though inadvertently. Most printer merchants wouldn’t sell a cable without a printer or if they did, they would charge they same as the low cost printer company.
Or how about this charitable strategy - give product away for free!
No. I’m not a sandwich short of a full picnic. This strategy can work if you have sell a certain types of products – one’s that have a service connected with it. An example of this type of strategy is <a href=http://www.emware.com>emWare</a>, a company that has created a lawn sprinkler system connected to the Net. The sprinkler itself is merely a platform for a range of upgraded services that can be integrated into the product. For a service fee, the sprinkler can be programmed to automatically contact the National Weather Service’s Web site to check weather conditions and forecasts, and then turn the spray on and off accordingly. The sprinkler company makes money on the subscription services, not the product. In a way, the Gillette Razor Company used a similar idea many years ago when it gave away the razor and made its money selling the blades.
Let’s face it. The word free is music to a consumer’s ear. If they can get something in return, many consumers would be willing to provide their personal likes and dislikes to a company. So what are the most popular freebies that consumers respond to on the Net? Free Shipping, limited time discounts, free gift with purchase, free coupons, free sweepstakes, and finally free gift wrapping. Try these out on your current customers. They are effective tools for persuading them to provide the personal information you need to successfully market and sell to them.
Justice – The Golden Rule
Think like your customers. If you have a problem with an order and want it resolved, you’d want to be treated fairly – and so would your customers. So what do you do when a customer wants to return a product – for any reason? Take it back - with a smile.
First, don’t bury your warrantees, guarantees or return polices somewhere on your site. Make it clearly and easily accessible for view at any time during the shopping process. If the problem is on your end like shipping the wrong product, or if the product arrived damaged or doesn’t work, pay the shipping back to you. If the customer changed their mind or just doesn’t like the product he purchased, the have them pay for shipping back. And though restocking fees are necessary on some items, don’t make them exorbitant.
Temperance – Moderation In All Things
You’re in the business of selling to consumers – not to entertain them. When designing your web site and the services you offer, keep in mind the KISS principal – Keep It Simple Stupid. Customers come to your site to shop. Let them. And let them do it as easy as possible. Don’t place anything in their way to prevent it.
Can your customer go from product page to check out in 3-4 clicks? A shopper should go from a search page or product category page, to a list of products page, to a product description page, to the shopping cart in no more than 4 clicks. The same goes for the checkout process. It should take no more than 4 pages of information to fill out to complete the sale. Amazon’s idea of a1-click purchase is an excellent example of a quick and easy check out process.
And don’t forget the FAQs. The FAQ page on your site should be an easy to read, summary of what a shopper needs to know in order to buy from you. All in one place, an FAQ should describe at the very least your shipping costs, return policies, how to contact your customer service department, any standing promotions or discount programs you have. Though you may have this information on other pages of your site, it’s still a good idea to have the most important pieces all in one place on a FAQs page.
Also, stay light on the graphics. Look at some of the most successful sites on the Net today. Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, all are simple sites with few graphics on their web pages. Use thumbnails for product pictures that can be clicked on to see a large view. Using thumbnails will allow product pages to load quicker. Finally, stay away from multimedia presentations like Flash if they add little to the product or service description. They interfere with and slow down the shopping process.
Prudence – Safety First
As important as easy and quick shopping is safe shopping. Safety comes in two flavors – credit card security and personal privacy.
Remember when the Web promised to level the playing field of commerce? Anyone could set up an eCommerce site that for practical purposes looked as credible as a big eTailer. That’s the beauty of the Net. But when it comes to concerns about credit card security and personal privacy, consumers want to know how secure their private information is, how it’s being used and if their credit card is at risk when punched into an order form and sent flying through cyberspace.
There is a certain amount of trust that must be established between you and your shoppers. They have to trust that you have taken the best measures possible to protect your credit card and personal information. Even if you do, you still need to inform your shoppers that you are doing it. People are concerned that their personal information – even their identity – has been compromised on the Net. You have to make it very clear that your site is safe to use credit card on, and the personal information collected in the course of the order is protected.
Telling your visitors and customers how you will use their personal information that you gather on your site goes a long way in building this trust. You should have a Privacy Policy page on your site that is accessible from the footer of every page on your site.
Here some pointers to keep in mind.
First, inform the visitor that you are collecting information. If you think your company is not collecting information from visitors to your site—think again. You are. Most Web sites maintain logs that contain some amount of information on every visitor to the site. If you maintain a site log, you’re collecting information. Your privacy policy should disclose the collection and use of this site log data. Also, companies make routine disclosures of personal data to their lawyers, auditors, computer service companies, and sometimes under subpoena. None of these disclosures are terribly bothersome, but they should be mentioned in the privacy statement.
Second, if you’re planning on using a customer’s data for marketing purposes, give them the choice to participate or not. Do not automatically subscribe a visitor to your newsletter or send them email promotions without asking permission first. Have them choose to opt-in to any ongoing communications with your company. This means keeping the “Would you like further information from our company?” box unchecked and have the customer or visitor manually check the box himself. Then give them the option to easily opt-out later.
Third, state that any and all information you keep on your customers is kept secure and that no other party has access to it. If you’re keeping personal credit histories and credit card numbers on file, how are those numbers being protected from hackers?
Finally, make sure regular folks can read your privacy policy. Leave out the legalese and tell it in straight, easy to understand language. Remember to be clear and concise and state everything you will and will not do. If you don’t have a Privacy Policy page, the Direct Marketing Association will <a href= http://www.the-dma.org/library/privacy/creating.shtml>create</a> one for you.
Fortitude – Stay Alert, Stay Brave
The Internet is like the ocean – never turn your back on it!
Developments on the Net happen fast and furious. Your eBusiness had to be forever alert to new technologies, new applications, and new eCommerce strategies. The brick and mortar world learned that lesson when they were blind-sided early on by the dot-coms. The dot-coms learned that lesson when they become too comfortable too fast.
Stay up to date by subscribing to discussion lists that march your eBusiness and its marketplace. Search the <a href=http://groups.google.com>newsgroup postings</a> for comments about or company, product or service. And read what customers and shoppers are saying about you on sites like <a href=http://www.epinions.com>ePinions</a>.
Finally, I’ll close as I started. Believe in yourself and your business - or as they said in the 1960s, “Keep the baby, Faith!”
|
