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Our Head Techie's On The Radio!

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Breaking news! Our Head Of Production, Tom Walder, is going to feature on tonight's radio programme with Tony Livesy on BBC Radio 5 for a discussion about international e-commerce - and we're very excited!

Tune in at 11:45pm to hear Tom share his widsom with tonight's host, Adil Ray (who's filling in for Tony). Go get 'em, Tom!

Update: Here's a recording of the interview!

Tom Walder from Docnet on BBC Five Live 30th March 2011 by docnet

Convert Browsers into Buyers with Our 7 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Online Store!

Posted by Stephanie Fenton

Register Now For Our Complimentary Webinar!

In today’s crowded marketplace it’s essential for you to differentiate yourself from your competitors. What better time than the turn of the year to ensure you are doing just that. Here at Docnet we’ve been taking a look back at 2010 to see what has been successful and what has not. We’ve summarised the most important lessons we’ve learnt and come up with 7 resolutions that if implemented we believe will optimise your online store and get next year’s sales off to a kick start.

Join our complimentary webinar at 10am on November 30th and learn how to implement our 7 simple strategies which will make your site as user-friendly and easy to navigate as possible. The webinar is due to last for half an hour and will include a question and answer session at the end. Within this webinar we will be covering-

• What visitors should see when they land on your homepage and why

• How to use your product pages to entice browsers and reduce returns

• How to inspire visitors with the same level of personality and customer service as you would in-store

• Tips on getting your delivery offer right

• Creating a hassle-free checkout that will reduce abandonment

• How to ensure you aren’t missing out on valuable sales coming through mobile devices

• How to build up a loyal customer base

We hope you can make it!

Space is limited

Reserve your complimentary seat now at GoToWebinar.

The Dressing Room Launches New E-commerce Web Site

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The Dressing Room has re-launched its unique range of designer womenswear brands online with the arrival of a new and improved e-commerce web site, supported by Docnet’s SprintEcommerce system.

Founded in 2005 by fashion expert and buyer, Deryane Tadd, the store quickly garnered praise and attention from all the right places, winning a Drapers Award for Best New Business in 2006, and another Drapers Award in 2009 for Best Independent Womenswear retailer, marking the continual expansion of this up and coming boutique located in St. Albans. Now with its new web site, The Dressing Room aims to offer 5 star boutique services to its Internet customers as well.

Docnet are thrilled to have The Dressing Room aboard and with SprintEcommerce supporting their online adventures, we look forward to seeing even more awards coming through the door.

www.the-dressingroom.com

Google Local Business Listings: A How To Guide

Posted by Gareth Cutter

By now you’ll have noticed that any location-based search query brings up Google Maps listings with the top seven to eight businesses listed at the top of the results page.

This is prime search engine real estate and a huge search engine optimisation win for any businesses offering localised and specialised services. If you’re an independent store, then you need to be featured here.

That's why we’ve put together this short ‘How To...’ guide to help you get to the top quickly.

1. Claim your unverified listing! – If you haven’t set up a listing of your own, chances are Google will have already put one there. You can claim your listing and have complete control of it by signing in with a Googlemail account and adding and amending your details; you’ll then be asked to verify your identity by taking a PIN number via automated phone call to your main phone or a postcard delivered to your business address (this option can take between 2-4 weeks).

2. Information overload – Google loves to serve up relevant and informative search results and the more information you give (category, company description, opening hours, photos etc), the more valuable Google will think your listing is, pushing it up the rankings.

3. Choose your categories wisely – you’re only given room for 5 options, so make them count. Do some keyword research to find out what customers are searching for and put these as your categories. This will help you appear for more searches.

4. Get customers to review you – just like in its natural search results, Google is looking for other people to corroborate what you’re saying, so listings with reviews tend to be favoured. It’s not necessarily about quantity though – quality reviews made over time are likelier to be seen as more trustworthy than a sudden flood of 20 five star ratings (you’ve been warned)!

Bing! Local Listings and Yahoo Local Business offer similar services, and there are also larger review sites like Qype.com worth checking out.

Increasing the visibility of your business in all of these channels is an important cross to tick on your SEO and online marketing checklist, so do it today while it’s on your mind!

Is Your Email Marketing Socially ‘Inept’?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

A recent study has reportedly shown that ‘offering at least three social options leads to 55% higher click-through rates’ in your email marketing.

It sounds great on the face of it: include a simple button that links to people’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media accounts and watch your email campaign spread across the Internet like wildfire.

The B2B and B2C marketers that aren’t doing this are clearly missing a trick!

Except, we’re not sure it’s that simple. Can you really just paste a couple of buttons on your email footer and call it a job done? You’ve got to ask yourself why the recipient of your email will consider it worthwhile forwarding to get the kind of click-through’s mentioned above.

The Email Marketing Popularity Contest

I hate to sound cynical but in reality, there are really only two reasons why people forward email marketing to their networks. They are:

• It earns them kudos from their contacts
• They get some material benefit from doing so

Your email will need to satisfy one or both of these criteria to stand a realistic chance of gaining wider exposure.

How To Win Friends And Get Them To Forward Your Email

Social media buttons are not a magic solution to your CTR woes; they are simply a way of leveraging the assets your email already has.

If you’re experiencing low levels on engagement with your existing mailing list, start thinking about the following:

• Are you being ambitious enough with your creative / content? Emails that try something new or pull off the old tricks especially well are likelier to be forwarded
• Does your email provide an undeniable benefit? Opinion-rich coverage on how the most recent budget announcement affects your mailing list will be very link-worthy right now
• Are you giving recipients an incentive to forward your emails? Prizes and promotions can drive a huge response if you’re prepared to be generous and reward those who share content

I’ll explore more ways of making your emails shareworthy in future blog posts. In the meantime, send us any examples of great shareworthy emails you’ve seen lately by filing out our contact form or following the Docnet Twitter account.

Vital Statistics: E-commerce Abandonment and How To Stop It

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Some interesting figures on web site and checkout abandonment have surfaced recently, which we thought worth sharing with you

• Of all online shoppers, approximately 88% claim to have abandoned a basket before (44% of whom cited high delivery costs as the cause, followed by not being ready to buy (41%) and wanting to price check (25%))
• 79% of shoppers surveyed would be less likely to make another purchase from a slow web site (half of them thought as little as two seconds was pushing it)

Clearly, online shoppers’ expectations have risen, and retailers need to be prepared to make bigger leaps over the bar in order to win those sales.

Some quick takeaways:

Do not conceal delivery charges - it’s better to be upfront and transparent than wait until the last second before springing postage & packaging on customers. Instead, try offering a range of delivery options (or even in-store collection) and show you have a flexible customer-orientated attitude towards delivery.

Speed limits are for cars, not web sites - when was the last time you sat in the hot seat and took your web site for a spin? If you don’t know how quickly your web site is loading, you’ve no idea how many potential repeat customers it is driving away. If your site pages take more than two seconds to load on a decent broadband connection, get help quick!

We’ll keep an eye out for even more vital statistics. If you find any others you’d like to share with us and other blog readers, please contact us.

Excellent Product Photography Tips for Your E-commerce Site

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Forget ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’; a picture could be worth one thousand pounds if you’re retailing online.

All too often we see perfectly good e-commerce sites undermined by poor stock photography, and given that the customer’s online retail experience is ‘look but don’t touch’, customers are going to need a very good look before they put their hands in their pockets.

That’s why we’ve put together this short list of do’s and don’ts: product photography tips that will help you to choose a style that encourages people to buy.

• DO use a neutral background – a simple white or grey background, matt or shaded, is all you need to display your product tastefully; other colours could be distracting.
• DON'T be ‘arty’ – now’s not the time to show off your Photoshop skills, customers just want to see the product in all its fine detail, not on top of a mountain or on a surfboard, so...
• DO offer multiple perspectives and zooms – this will help shoppers check the finer details and ensure they are fully satisfied with the product before they order.
• DON'T use low resolution photographs – low resolution photographs have trouble with zooming, becoming grainy and blurred, which obviously reflects very poorly on your brand; use a DSLR camera to get the most detailed pixels for your product photography.
• DO use natural lighting – represent the item’s true colour by emulating ‘sunlight on a cloudy day’ conditions (these avoid creating harsh shadows or bleaching the colours) or you can expect people to start returning orders, dissatisfied that you set their expectations incorrectly.

High-quality photography is no longer a bonus of a good web site: it is a requirement for reputable, trust-inspiring and respected e-commerce operations. Follow the above guidelines to ensure your products are displayed in their best light and tempt shoppers to dive in with the credit card.

When Customers Check-In (But Never Check-Out)

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Why would a customer put an item they had no intention of buying in a basket? Or think of it this way: why would you put an item you had no intention of buying in a basket?

One possibility might be: you’re walking toward the checkout of a supermarket, you take a look in your trolley and think, ‘No – actually, I don’t need this super-size box of cornflakes’ so, a little awkwardly, you set it down on the shelf of washing up liquids and continue on your way.

This scenario aside, it’s a bit far fetched to assume customers are putting items in the virtual basket on your e-commerce site just for the thrill of it. They were obviously interested in the item – once – but something made them walk away.

We looked at how to reduce checkout abandonment levels in our most recent email campaign (to receive regular updates on e-commerce, you should join our mailing list - it’s free and you can unsubscribe any time) but here are a few additional points that we couldn’t quite fit in that you should consider:

• Are shoppers doing a price comparison on your site? – They may be trying to get the full picture of what it will cost to buy from you, and if your delivery charges aren’t visible until the last moment, putting something in the basket is the only way for them to find out.
• Or maybe they just object to your hidden delivery charges? – Having full costs and terms & conditions available on the site ensures everyone enters the checkout fully informed – one less reason to turn around and hit the ‘back’ button!
• Perhaps your checkout is just one long headache? – If your delivery and payment capture forms don't have valid ‘error trapping’ and are wiped clean whenever information is entered incorrectly, your checkout is probably very, very frustrating for customers – time to fix it!

High volumes of visitor traffic don't mean anything if you haven’t got a strong conversion rate to match. If people are checking in but are never ‘checking out’ of your e-commerce site, perhaps it’s time to start asking yourself, ‘Why?’

Docnet’s E-commerce Manifesto

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The UK election is on everyone’s minds and lips but let’s not forget about the world of e-commerce. While the parties have all busy making policies for how they want to run the country, we’ve been making policies on how we want e-commerce web sites to be run.

The Docnet E-commerce Manifesto

Transactional e-commerce web sites will:

• 1: Be easy to navigate – with a simple navigational structure, all sections of the web site sign-posted clearly for visitors and a dynamic search function to help them find things faster

• 2: Be updated regularly – with content-rich blog posts, brand descriptions, new products, customer reviews; anything that shows search engines they should index the site more often

• 3: Have clear contact details – for telephone and live chat, as well as email and postal addresses so shoppers can have their queries answered before they make a purchase

• 4: Have short checkouts – so when shoppers have made their selection they can complete their purchase quickly; we musn't frustrate them at this crucial stage!

• 5: Have a regular email newsletter – filled with relevant offers and news so the site remains ‘front of mind’ for new and existing customers

• 6: Make a promise that stands out – a guarantee that gives visitors an extra reason to shop the site and not the competition; how can you add value to the experience?

• 7: Fill visitors with trust – with the most common Trust Marks displayed in key locations to show transactions are safe, backing up the impression with a site design that says ‘professional company’

• 8: Avoid using too much flash – as far as search engines are concerned, it’s all style and no substance, meaning no SEO; they’re also a nightmare for people to use on their mobiles

• 9: Use lots of great photography – a picture is worth a thousand words (well, maybe not for search engines unless you use alt text – but to human visitors, they are)

• 10: Avoid copying the most popular site – it won’t win you any fans; it will make you an imitator, not a leader; and who’s to say their way is the best and only way of doing things? We’ll help you find another way

We hope these policies resonate with your situation and experience when making a decision over which e-commerce agency you choose to do business with.

Vote Docnet!

SEO: Page-Load Now Included As Google Ranking Factor

Posted by Gareth Cutter

We've written about this subject before, toward the end of last year, but now it's official: Google is using page-load time as a search ranking factor.

In short, web sites that are faster to load will be favoured in search engine results pages over their slower competitors, posing a new challenge for on-page search engine optimisation. In its mission to provide useful results to search queries, Google reasons that 'faster sites create happy users and we've seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there', hence their decision (to read the post in full, click here).

This doesn't mean faster web sites are on a fast-track to position one in the search engine results pages. The web site's overall relevance to the original search query will still be deciding factor 'numero uno'. But if you are tied neck-and-neck with a competitor, loading speed could be the factor that helps you steal a higher position.

Having your web site reviewed and managed by a search engine optimisation expert could reveal inefficiencies in your web site's structure that are preventing your site from loading in adequate time. So if you're unaware of what these factors are and want to move up a gear or two, make sure you contact us today.

In the competitive world of SEO, small changes can make a crucial difference.

Trust Us – Trustmarks Alone Aren’t Enough To Increase Sales

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The hurdle that many retailers face to growing their sales online is proving to visitors that their e-commerce sites are 100% secure. Though the Internet has matured greatly in the past few years, visitors are still wary of the security risks it can pose. Take a look at your site and ask yourself: what visible factors clearly distinguish your site from an illegitimate one?

Trustmarks on the homepage and checkout process are the most commonly recommended methods of increasing confidence in your site. But these can be expensive to acquire, go unnoticed or misunderstood by visitors, and actually put some visitors off if used too liberally (putting them in mind of risks they might not have considered).

There are three subtler ways of increasing visitor confidence and conversion rates on your site that can complement the trustmark, if not replace it entirely:

Clean web site design You wouldn't drive a car that looks like it’s about to fall to pieces on the motorway, and neither would you trust your card details with a site that doesn’t take care of page formatting or broken links. Give your site a thorough once-over for any easily-fixed errors before acquiring trustmarks – otherwise, you’re wasting your time, money and effort.

Strong product photography A picture is the next best thing visitors are going to get to actually holding your products in their hands, so invest in high-quality images with zoom capabilities, as well as demonstration videos and 3D imaging if appropriate. If your products and logos are pixellated, how are visitors to trust that you’re selling quality, authentic products?

Contact details & FAQs at the checkout stage The web is a largely anonymous place, which is fine if you're on a web forum - but an online store needs to have clear and accurate contact details for visitors. Knowing there’s a real human on the other end of the telephone / chat facility is one of the biggest factors in improving visitor confidence.

(This has the additional benefit of helping visitors rectify any problems that occur at the checkout process with a member of your team. But of course, you'd rather not lean too heavily on this).

Trust is always worth winning: it leads to loyalty, and loyalty leads to repeat sales and word-of-mouth recommendations. Without covering these three bases, you will find it difficult to win trust, so don’t rely on trustmarks on their own – ensure you’ve set out the most confidence-inspiring stall on the web to grow your sales online today.

Why Online Retailers Do Like Mondays

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Monday mornings might be a drag for much of the UK’s population but new research from Retail Decisions (ReD) will probably have online retailers leaping out of their beds with excitement.

On average, Monday’s were the busiest shopping day for online retailers with Monday 7th December being the single busiest day (up by 16% on the same day in 2008 at an estimated £534 million). Monday 28th December was also the first post-Christmas day to make it into the top grossing days in the UK.

Overall, retail sales in the UK grew to £49.8 billion in 2009, up 21% on the previous year. While the state of affairs on the high street might have been gloomy in 2009 (to the extent that Retail Week have even launched a new Manifesto for the High Street in advance of the looming elections), online retail has been going from strength to strength.

Retail Decisions commented that due to consumer’s price sensitivity, many shoppers were spending their weekends browsing the high street and waiting until Monday to find a cheaper bargain online. This emphasises the importance for online retailers of having web sites that are easy to use, optimised for search engines and integrated with multiple channels to stand the best chance of capitalising on shopper intent.

THE Five Tests To Help Increase Online Revenue In 2010

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Welcome back to the Docnet blog: we hope you’ve had an enjoyable Christmas break and New Year, and are ready to kick-start the new decade with some online marketing best practice and innovation tips for your web site.

To help get your momentum up, we’ve picked five simple tests to help make your web site more profitable in 2010, based on trends we’ve observed moving forward into the new year. Whether you want to do this yourself or get some outside help (get in contact with us and we can help ensure you do them right), the fact remains: online retail is evolving, and e-commerce web sites can’t afford to be left behind the curve.

1. Make customer registration on your web site optional.

While no self-respecting marketer would go out of the way to not add a customer’s details to a database, the sale is, ultimately, more important. Barriers to the sale might be reluctance to give up these personal details, or not enough time to register. Remove these barriers: provide an incentive to encourage as many visitors to register as possible, but allow them that choice.

2. Access your web site via a Smartphone

A relatively simple test, but one that will give you a great perspective on how people view your site (literally)! Is yours designed with Smartphones in mind? This is particularly important if you’re selling music, DVD, books, games or events tickets, as more and more Android, Blackberry and iPhone users are purchasing these items via their handsets. If your site doesn’t display and function correctly on these handsets, you can guarantee you are losing out on sales.

3. Invite customer reviews

If you’re still reluctant to let the ‘unedited voice of the public’ on to your web site, it’s time to re-evaluate you attitude. So long as you do everything you can to provide an efficient service and stock high-quality products (which we’re confident you are doing anyway!), customer reviews are nothing to fear. They can go so far as to help improve your search engine optimisation and lend trust to your site, encouraging more sales – and who wouldn’t want that?

4. Cultivate a social media presence

While some marketers are still unsure exactly how to calculate the return on investment of having Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts, you only need to look at these real-life business Twitter success stories to see what benefits it can bring. To nab a phrase from the Lottery, ‘you have to be in it to win it.’

5. Invite feedback on individual pages

If you have a large web site, it’s going to be tough to keep tabs on all the various links and features you have running smoothly. Why not invite your customers to give feedback: not just on your entire site, but individual pages as well, both positive and negative? There are now services that allow site visitors to report feedback directly, whether it’s pointing out an error in the copy, reporting a link that’s not working or just complementing you on the good work. This can give visitors the positive impression of contributing to the site, and help keep your caretaking responsibilities under control.

For more advice on how to kick-start your online marketing and e-commerce in 2010, why not get in touch with us for a 5 minute chat? Call 0845 521 0444 or fill in our simple contact form today.

Three Christmas Stocking-Filler Ideas For Your E-commerce Site

Posted by Gareth Cutter

If the high-street retailers have any advantage over online stores, it’s the atmosphere. But what's to stop online stores from recreating a bit of the Christmas spirit?

Atmosphere can easily sway a shoppers’ mood, making them feel more or less inclined to spend their money. Its effects are more keenly felt at Christmas than at any other time of year: bright shop displays awash in tinsel, baubles and fairy lights; festive staff. E-commerce sites can feel fairly drab by comparison if they don’t adapt to the season.

But then, e-commerce sites can conjure all the festive spirit of Christmas minus the biggest shopper-bugbear of them all: crowds. Invite your customers to a HTML winter wonderland in the comfort of their own home through the use of these simple but effective touches:

• Christmas E-cards

Thanks to email & social media, your Christmas cards could be sent and shared far and wide this winter if you send them by email (which is environmentally friendly too)! Send yours to new and existing customers, and invite them to send some of their own emails branded with your message to friends and family. Tap into the spirit of family and sharing, and your e-cards will spread awareness and a little Christmas cheer as they go.

• Festive Discount Codes

Another gem to send by email, style your discount codes as gifts underneath a Christmas tree to reward loyal customers and / or encourage them to spend more online. Offering a similar incentive to new sign-ups will land you with an extra gift in the New Year – a mailing list fit to bursting with new customers to market to.

• Christmas Decorations

Simple changes to the design of your site at Christmas will trigger a noticeable change in mood in visitors, especially frequent shoppers, as they are reminded that Christmas eve is drawing ever nearer. Make sure your content and copy reflects the change in season as well to take full advantage.

So take these three stocking fillers this Christmas, keep them in mind for the next year and if you’d like to speak to us about having a more profitable year online in 2010, contact us online!

Photo credit: Lights Out Photos via Flickr

eBay Predicts Increase In Online Shopping Over Christmas

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The Internet auction site eBay is predicting a strong Christmas for online retailers, based on a recent survey.

The advertising arm of eBay has found that 85% of shoppers intend to maintain or increase their online shopping in the run up to Christmas, despite of the current postal strikes and prevailing world economy. Entertainment, clothes, shoes & accessories, and home electronics are areas expected to benefit the most from the increase spend, with 'value for money' being cited as a key factor.

The survey also found that trust is still the biggest deciding factor in consumers' online shopping habits. More than three quarters (78%) would refuse to buy from a web site that doesn't generate significant trust. Therefore, if online retailers want to be part of this predicted increase in online spending ahead of Christmas, it is important that they ensure:

• Consistent branding between online and offline retail locations
• Secure payment and verification systems are put in place, with logos displayed clearly
• Acceptable guarantees covering delivery and returns are also made prominent

These are just a few of the steps online retailers can take towards ensuring the web drives high volumes of sales over the Christmas period. By putting these foundations in place, browsers are more likely to spread the goodwill to your online cash register than those of your competitors.

Photo credit: Muffet via Flickr

Could Car-Parking Tax Drive More Shoppers Online?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Sometime next year, shoppers on their way home from their local shopping-centre or retail park might notice a general increase in their shopping bill; maybe even an extra charge on their receipt marked ‘Direct car park charge’. This will have come as a result of plans from local authorities to charge supermarkets, department shops and shopping centres £600 per parking space in a bid to encourage more people to walk or take public transport – if they go ahead.

This charge would apply to leisure, retail and office spaces, and has sparked a debate between politicians, pundits and members of the general public over the merits of this tax, some going as far as to label it a ‘stealth-tax’ on retailers.

We wonder about the potential effect on online retail figures if these changes are put in place: if retailers decide to absorb this cost at the expense of their profit margins, we wouldn’t anticipate much change, but if the charges were to be passed on to customers by retailers (as one large supermarket chain reportedly intends to do), would they vote with their feet?

The cost to shoppers would have to be quite significant in order to trigger an accelerated growth in online retail (which is trending upwards in general). Perhaps more people will be motivated by research published earlier this year that suggests online retail is a more environmentally-friendly alternative to high-street retail, as we reported in an earlier blog post:

“The research focused on the “last mile” of delivery for small goods such as CDs, cameras, books and other items for around the home. It found that 181g CO2 was produced by a typical van-based home delivery, compared to 4,274g CO2 for travel to and from the shops by car. Meanwhile, an average bus trip by a shopper produced a 1,265g carbon footprint. In short, if a customer travels by car and buys fewer than 24 small, non-food items per trip, or fewer than 7 items when travelling by bus, home delivery is more environmentally-friendly.”

At present this situation is merely hypothetical, but The Daily Telegraph reports that Exeter City Council is one of several local authorities backing the tax. Under its plans, retailers would be taxed less if they could prove they had sourced “at least 30% of goods from within 30 miles” of the town.

Whether for or against the environmental motives that have inspired these plans, it’s likely that shoppers, in being taxed to drive to the shops, might be driven online instead, where the hassle of fighting for a parking space is (thankfully) non-existent.

Photo credit: PhotoDu.de via Flickr

Niche Retailers Succeed Online Through ‘Common Lack of Fear’

Posted by Gareth Cutter

This week, a feature on Retail Week web site caught our attention, called ‘The sky’s the limit: Tomorrow’s retail stars’. In it, ten of the most promising small businesses in the UK share their stories of success – as well as the occasional mistake – when building up their businesses in the shadow of a recession. What we found remarkable was how much they had in common.

In addition to all being small businesses catering for defined niches, most have put a large emphasis on the web as a sales channel, investing heavily in e-commerce and online marketing. This has allowed them to:

• Create rock solid brands that stand out from the larger chains, without the need for the same expenditure
• Respond quickly to changing market demands
• Slash overheads by omitting the up-keep of brick and mortar stores
• Expand their customer reach, which would have been severely limited if they opted solely to trade on the high-street

Because many entrepreneurial start-ups lack the ‘bottomless pockets’ of their larger competitors, they have opted for e-commerce and online marketing to attract customers and build their brand themselves, even when others thought it couldn’t be done. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter and other elements of social media all allow brands to spread word of mouth and reach prospects faster, all for the cost of an Internet connection.

That’s not to say the venture into e-commerce was plain sailing for all the retailers; some lessons to take away from others’ mistakes include:

• Build your online presence alongside your catalogue at the same time, as one without the other is like a car without wheels
• Ensure you’ve chosen an e-commerce provider who can check your site for technical errors, or you might find yourself without a checkout on your opening day!

Small entrepreneurs carve loyal and successful niches for themselves through their unique offerings and harnessing the power of word of mouth; if these examples are anything to go by, the process is made that much faster when you embrace e-commerce and online marketing.

Are you a niche retailer? If so, why not visit our e-commerce solutions section for more ideas? You may just find yourself featured in a future article about the UKs most promising small businesses if you do.

Get Bigger Windows for Your Online Window-Shoppers

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The best e-commerce sites make it easy for visitors to find what they want. They can search by brand, model, format, or by keyword and it brings up the items they’re interested in. But what about the visitors who don't know what they want?

They might have an idea e.g. a cheap gift for a teenage boy between £10-£25, but won't be sure what fits the bill exactly. Or they may have turned up on your site just to have a browse, with a vague idea of something they might like – if the price is right. You can help lead these kinds of visitors to their desired items and a potential purchase by offering them advanced search options; something beyond the usual categorisations.

These advanced categories will differ from site to site depending on what it is you sell. Using fashion retail as an example, help visitors sort items based on taste: 'smart/casual' or 'colour/pattern', or specific occasions like cocktail party, nightclub, dinner-date etc. You could let browsers use these fields in different combinations, so they can see if you have any red cocktail dresses for under £200.

We recommend surveying your visitor base to find out if this is something they want or need first. It won’t be for every company, but if you want to capture some of your idle browsers and add value to your site, consider introducing this advanced search option to your e-commerce site, and start polishing those windows!

EC Law Creates E-commerce Confusion for Luxury Brands

Posted by Gareth Cutter

A new draft of e-commerce laws in Europe could spark a wave of litigation warns a prominent lobbyist, with particular consequences reserved for auction sites such as eBay and luxury brands.

The new EC law is designed to grant brand owners greater control over who sells their items over the Internet within Europe, and in what quantity, in the hope that it will redress the bias currently in online retailers’ favour.

However, Jaques Lafitte, founder of Brussels lobby firm Avisa yesterday pointed out that certain rules are still not clear, in particular: "What if eBay opened a shop on the Champs Elysee in Paris; could it then sell as much luxury branded goods as it liked via the internet?"

In the new draft of the law, it states that asking distributors to limit the proportion of overall sales made over the Internet is against the law, but a footnote to the regulation states makers of luxury goods are allowed to request, “the buyer (retailer) sells at least a certain absolute amount (in value or volume) of the products offline to ensure an efficient operation of its brick and mortar shop".

Until this contradiction is unravelled, it is likely that confusion around the law will only spread and lead to strained relationships between suppliers and retailers. A public consultation on the law will run until September 28th 2009, at which point a resolution to the conflict is hoped to be reached.

Live Chat With Your Customers For Improved Customer Service

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Sometimes transactions go wrong or visitors have trouble finding what they're looking for. It's in these instances that you need a reliable customer service channel in place, or else risk losing potential sales. Which of the following customer service channels do you offer on your online store?

• Telephone support
• Email
• Live Chat

Our next question would be, which of these channels do you think is the most effective?

Most if not all web sites offer some sort of free phone number for support enquiries, but research from senior Gartner analyst, Tim Smith suggests that live chat could significantly improve the efficiency and resolution rates of incoming support enquiries.

Smith conducted several mystery shopper test on six leading online retailers stores, making one purchase off each site to ensure it was a valid purchasing scenario, but using all three support channels for typical enquiries (special offers, unable to locate an item etc) to bring the sale to a conclusion.

Of the investigation, Smith said: "Each method of communication—telephony, e-mail and live chat tended to gravitate toward the most logical application, which is live chat. For online shopping the logical progression is to view the retailer’s products in your browser and stay within the browser to use live chat for immediate contact."

While telephone and email both have their advantages (telephony’s real-time human interaction; email’s record of correspondence) they also have significant drawbacks. Phone calls can sometimes require browsers to leave the page they are stuck on or even the computer itself, while email, for all its positives, doesn't provide much of an immediate response.

Live chat doesn't win by default however: it is both immediate, has an element of human interaction and enables visitors to stay in front of their computer. To maximise the effectiveness of live chat on your site, make sure you do the following:

• Place the chat box in a prominent position; too many retailers bury them away at the foot of the page or deep within the site; the checkout is a key area for placement
• Include a 'chat not available' logo if there is no one manning the chat box; it's very frustrating for a customer to try this channel and get no response
• Measure the volume of support enquiries you get and allocate staff accordingly, as chat box queues are similarly frustrating

While live chat might be the most suitable channel for resolving technical difficulties and search problem, email and telephony still have a vital part to play in the customer service experience. Look into integrating all three channels within your contact centres so staff can work flexibly and meet demand in whatever direction it comes from.

Persuading Site Visitors to Buy Through Personas

Posted by Gareth Cutter

As a general rule, visitors to your web site are unpredictable: they might abandon a shopping cart right before they get to the checkout; change the nature of their search queries, or arrive and leave at unexpected points. The phrase “herding a flock of cats” comes to mind. How can you get these visitors to do what you want them to i.e. buy?

Although visitor behaviour on the whole is unpredictable, certain patterns can emerge when you monitor it, which will help you to identify a number of customer personas. These personas can give you the key to creating persuasive messaging on your web site.

For instance, knowing that there is a segment of web traffic arriving at your web site because of an online magazine feature about your products will help you map the path they should be taking from arrival to checkout along these lines:

Online Article - - > Search Engine - - > Landing Page - - > Shopping Basket - - > Checkout - - > Sale Conversion

Using this model, relevant links and calls to action should be placed strategically throughout the site to nudge visitors from one stage to the next. The landing page should make mention of the article (‘As featured in...’); the shopping basket icon should be placed prominently on the landing page with more emphatic calls-to-action (‘Buy Today: Save 20% On Shipping’) and the shopping basket should also be optimised for convenience.

Learning about who your customers are and where they're coming from requires time for research and planning, but will help you write copy that speaks directly to their needs e.g. security, quality, fashion etc. making you more likely to persuade them to buy.

If you’re wondering what makes this effort worthwhile, consider the financial returns of getting just 5% more of visitors to make a purchase. Targeting and designing your site towards customers in this way can lead to significant increase in sales volume. The long-term benefits of knowing who your customers are and how they are navigating your site will help you design and run a much more profitable e-commerce venture.

Photo credit: The Jimmer at Flickr

Is E-commerce Growth About to Reach a Plateau?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

It seemed unlikely at the beginning of the century but online retail has proved itself to be the more resilient sales channel compared to the high-street, continuing to grow even through the recession. On the 9th anniversary of the IMRG Capgemini Index’s inception, e-commerce had expanded by 5000% to a value of £200bn since the year 2000; to put this in perspective, high street retail grew by just 21% over the same period.

Of course, e-commerce is a new channel and rapid growth is to be expected when measured next to established brick and mortar shops. However, the fact e-commerce seems to have been relatively unaffected by the economic slowdown suggests that the past nine years have been more than just a youthful phrase of rapid growth. As Tina Spooner, Director of Information at IMRG says, “E-retail has not only become a channel of retail choice for consumers, but a way of life for many.”

However, we’ve also mentioned in previous posts that there is still a great deal of work to be done in convincing some members of the public that it’s safe to make purchases online: 20 million people to be more specific. This throws some interesting light on comments made by Mike Petevinos, Head of Consulting for Retail at Capgemini UK:

“Shoppers are spending an average of £10 more online per visit compared to a year ago...it is, however, clear that the online market is maturing, with seasonal fluctuations becoming more noticeable in certain sectors as they are no longer obscured by the 50% plus year on year growth rates of the past.”

Although e-commerce’s exceptional growth will have to reach a plateau eventually, we don’t think the market has quite matured yet, especially when there’s a whole third of the population that still haven’t made a purchase online (baring in mind this figure is just for within domestic borders).

E-commerce merchants should be taking steps to ensure that they remove as many barriers to purchase as possible; to take a look at their website with a user’s perspective and ask themselves whether it might be putting prospects off. It could be worth another extra £10 per visit if they do.

Who’s Afraid Of Your E-commerce Site?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

From the evidence on offer, you'd think the answer would be no-one. This April, E-commerce and online retail boasted a 12.5% increase in non-food sales over the same period last year, with DIY, outdoor furniture and toys, sandals and summer clothes selling the best. These items are also shifting well in stores, according to Sharon Hardiman, head of non-store retailing at the British Retail Consortium, but clearly not as well as online.

If growth rates were to continue at their current pace, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest e-commerce sites could soon be matching (and perhaps beating) their brick and mortar counterparts in like-for-like sales in the not too distant future.

However, a third of UK consumers are still ‘too scared to shop online'.

The findings come from a recent survey by the Office of Fair Trading and discovered fraud and identity theft are consumers’ prime concerns. A lack of trust in business websites was cited as another barrier, one that is an e-commerce site owner’s responsibility to overcome.

Every effort must be made to instil confidence in the consumer when they first visit your site if you are to increase sales to their full potential. This includes (but is by no means limited to):

• Investing in professional HTML design and maintenance - if you want people to trust you with their money, you have to show you are a professional in every area of your business: that means no broken links, clip-art, jingles or anything else that sniffs of ‘amateur’
• Updating your website regularly - static websites are dead in the water; if your inventory or news page hasn’t been updated in over a month, what’s to stop a visitor thinking your business could be about to fold and their money will be lost in your bankruptcy black hole?
• Creating a secure checkout facility - and posting security icons to inspire extra confidence; explaining what security procedures your transactions go through can go a long way to allaying customers’ fears about fraud
• Explaining how you use customer data – lay out your terms and conditions clearly, provide consumers with the option to opt-out of sharing data with third parties and do everything you can to protect your customer e.g. if you never ask for credit card details in an email, tell them

Gareth Thomas, minister for consumer affairs has stated that he will be “setting out proposals in (his) forthcoming consumer white paper to better protect people from fraudsters and increase their consumer knowledge when shopping online.”

You should be doing your part too, because the benefits are there for you and your customers: create a secure, reassuring and easy-to-use website and there’s no reason why you won’t soon be generating the sales of a multiple store outfit without the costs to match. Use the tips above to get you started.

Second Life for High Street Brands On-line

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Second Life for High Street Brands Online - 1st April 2009

The news that old high street stalwarts Woolworths are looking to re-launch their brand as an Internet presence comes at a time when e-commerce looks incredibly healthy in relation to its brick and mortar counterparts. Figures from IMRG show that online sales increased by 12% year on year in February, while figures for the high street remain depressed.

Zavvi, another casualty of the shrinking economy are also looking to start afresh as an Internet retailer with a product range expanded to include perfume, underwear and other lifestyle goods in addition to CDs, DVDs, games and electrical goods.

The significant savings brought about through online retails’ reduced overheads could see other failing businesses brought back from the brink of administration and re-launched as Internet only operations. However, embracing e-commerce as a sales platform alone won’t solve the problems that may have led businesses to go under in the first place: it simply gives them a second chance.

With this in mind, Woolworths, Zavvi and others like them will have to look closely at the functionality of their sites to make sure that they are easy to navigate, and interactive and secure enough to compete with the established names in e-commerce. This will be integral to re-instilling confidence in consumers about these fallen giants.

They will also have to think carefully about how they intend to promote themselves online. Woolworths have already been taking advantage of social media to help refocus on what their most loyal customers expect to see from the re-launch, with a blog, Twitter feed and Facebook page for feedback. In order to gain credibility as an Internet retailer, Zavvi and others will be expected to do likewise; we’ll be monitoring the success of these re-launches as they develop.

5 Tips to Get Your Ecommerce Site to the Top

Posted by Gareth Cutter

With on-line retail predicted to expand by 6% and reach an estimated value of £56bn by 2014, ecommerce site owners will be considering how to maximise the amount of traffic their websites receive. Research from Forrester indicates that the amount of Britons using the Internet for retail will reach 37m by 2014. With the increase in on-line spending expected to come at the expense of the high street, there is going to be a lot more competition for this search traffic in future.

Ecommerce site owners should be using search engine optimisation (SEO) to compete because when done correctly, it makes sites more visible in natural search engine listings, creates site traffic and helps save cash that might otherwise be spent on pay-per-click campaigns.

The basic concept of SEO involves making your site as direct a match as possible for generic search queries - 'home lighting' for example - through strategic use of keyphrases and links, both on and off your website (we recommend using Google Adwords as it is a useful and free tool for getting keyword suggestions based on what the most popular search queries have been recently).

Tick off the following check-list to ensure you are receiving a strong volume of traffic for your keyword choices (remember, if your site has multiple products, multiple keyphrases to match are recommended):

• Does the keyword feature in the page title and web URL?
• Is the most important, keyword rich content at the top of the page?
• Are you keeping a blog that's hosted on a different domain? Update it with vauable, keyword rich content about your industry and provide links back to your main ecommerce site to help increase traffic and page rankings
• Are you using SEO on the blog for your keywords as well? Google places more value on links from sites it deems are 'relevant'
• Is the linking structure in your site simple or does it have many sub-menus and 'layers'? Remember that search engine spiders do not always search very 'deep' into a site, meaning they can miss important, keyword rich pages if they are buried under several menus

SEO is not limited to larger companies - SMEs can use their small size to make decisions and amendments to their sites faster to match popular search trends. It's also a very detailed subject and the check-lists at the top are just the start of what you could be doing to ensure your ecommerce site is fully optimised. Stay posted for future tips on how to improve your site's search engine listing popularity.

More Ecommerce Sites Getting Web 2.0 Make-Overs: Is Yours?

Posted by Gareth Cutter

When was the last time you updated your ecommerce site? There's a one in two chance that it was in the last year, as recent statistics from the Internet Retailers' monthly survey show that 49.9% of merchants rolled out a new site design within the last twelve months. More specifically:

• 26.6% re-launched their site within the last 6 months
• 13.3% re-launched their site in the last 90 days

As Web 2.0 technologies become increasingly popular, ecommerce site owners have been looking at their websites with a fresh perspective on what it means to engage customers and are now overhauling their sites to deliver increased functionality, personalisation and new media content.

Of particular concern to respondents was search engine optimisation (SEO), looking to improve content and other on-page HTML factors to help their sites appear higher in search engines' natural listings. The aim is to increase the amount of traffic to the site and the volume of on-line sales as a result.

If you are among the reported 72.9% of ecommerce merchants reportedly thinking about SEO, bear in mind that there's plenty of 'off-page' work you can do to improve your site's rankings. Get quality inbound links from relevant sites by providing informative content and exclusive offers to blogs, fan sites, forums and other specialist sites related to what you sell. Get in touch with web masters / blog owners directly with a personal email and request a link in exchange for the content you've provided. And don't forget to request 'link text' that matches the keywords and phrases you want to appear highest in Google for.

For the other 50% of the survey (those who haven't rolled out any changes to their site in the last year) it's not a case of 'keeping up with the Jones'': on-line shoppers now expect easy navigation, site search and checkout services. If your ecommerce site doesn't meet these standards, it's at a serious disadvantage to competiting sites. Review your ecommerce site, test it thoroughly to see if you can unearth any bugs when it comes to navigation or the sales processes and draw up a plan for improvements. That way, when on-line shoppers arrive at your website and want to make a purchase, they're able to do so flawlessly, encouraging repeat visits, word of mouth recommendations, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.

Customer Reviews Important for Ecommerce Sites

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The internet has opened a lot of doors for consumers, giving them access to a range of retailers they would not have been able to reach physically in the past. It has also given them the opportunity to investigate unfamiliar products and services from the comfort of their own home, comparing retailer prices and testimonials to make an informed judgement before visiting stores or making purchases using the ecommerce sites.

A recent Nielson survey has shown that 63% of respondents thought the inclusion of customer reviews on ecommerce sites was the most important factor behind their purchasing decisions. This is likely to be because feedback from other consumers is seen as trustworthy; after all, it comes from a similar perspective to their own: 'what is this product / service doing for me, the customer?' The more feedback there is, the more objectively shoppers can view it. Interestingly, only 3% of respondents considered a review coming from someone they knew as being as important in their decision making – maybe because they view it as having too much bias.

So it's not necessarily who is making the judgement, but how many. Although on-line retailers might find the prospect of opening up their website to public feedback (both positive and negative) a little daunting, some well placed positive feedback at the bottom of a product page could be what swings the consumer's buying decision in your favour. After all, opinions will spread by word of mouth and across the internet, with or without your help – better to have the positive reviews on your site where they can convince shoppers to make a purchase.

Reduce Basket Abandonment On Your Ecommerce Site

Posted by Gareth Cutter

Your efforts to provide an enjoyable, problem-free transactional experience for your on-line customers could all be going to waste, a recent study has shown, if you aren't backing it up with an adequate call centre support team in case things do go wrong.

It's reported that 41% of all on-line adults who've ever tried to make an on-line purchase have encountered a problem at some point along the checkout that's stopped them from completing the transaction. There are only two things that consumers can do in this case: walk away from the sale, or turn to the call centre.

You should have a working telephone number and the opening hours of your contact centre marked clearly somewhere on the checkout and the on-line shop's landing page for your customers to turn to in case of difficulty. By the same token, you should make sure that your call centre staff are well versed on the ins-and-outs of the ecommerce site, particularly the areas in which consumers are likely to have problems.

If you don't think you have enough resources to retrain your contact centre agents, and you don't have an IT department they can transfer the call to, you can still help reduce the burden on your support line and the frustration of your customers by uploading an FAQ and troubleshooter page. That way, the most common transational failures can be resolved by the consumers themselves. If it means fewer abandoned baskets, it'll be worth the extra effort.

New Ecommerce Growth Indicator Launched

Posted by Gareth Cutter

The increasing importance of on-line retail's contribution to the economy is becoming harder to ignore. Last month, fashion retailers As Seen On Screen (or ASOS as they're more commonly known) reported a 104% increase in half-year sales. This was followed swiftly by Dominoes Pizza who reported £83.3 million in sales in the thirteen weeks leading up to the 28th September, with an 84% growth in their on-line business.

Cost-conscious e-tailers such as these are bucking the trend of reduced consumer spending and increasing the popularity of the internet as a sales channel. In recognition of that fact, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG have announced a new indicator for non-store sales is to be launched.

This demonstrates a significant change in the way on-line retail is regarded by the retail sector. In the past, sales generated through on-line channels have been lumped together with general sales. This has made it harder for analysts to get an accurate picture of ecommerce's contributions to the economy as whole (recent estimates have it somewhere in the region of 10% of all non-food sales turnover).

The indicator's first findings are due to be published on the 11th November 2008 and will show how much on-line, mail-order and telephone sales of non-food products have grown in the period between October 2007 and 2008. But here at SprintEcommerce we're looking forwards, not backwards. For us, it will be particularly interesting to see what the indicator shows in the wake of the Christmas rush, and whether or not 2009 will herald an even more impressive growth in sales for other e-tailers the likes of ASOS and Dominoes.

A 'Hop, Skip And A Jump' Away From Great Ecommerce

Posted by Gareth Cutter

A recent survey by IBM into shopper purchasing habits has shown consumers are making greater use of the range of shopping channels available to them, leading to a phenomenon known as 'channel-hopping'.

75% of the consumers questioned in the survey stated they prefer to use the internet to research their purchases beforehand. This 'before sale' behaviour presents e-tailers with new problems and opportunities to address: the opportunity to poach customers away from their rivals, and the problem of stopping the same thing from happening to them.

The importance of getting your ecommerce solution right the first time can't be overstated: consumers are more likely to switch retailers in the process of channel-hopping than at any other time. One of the best things you can do is to ensure your sales checkout is completely hassle-free, so the customers you do entice towards a sale don't abandon it half-way through.

On the subject of hassle-free checkouts, an interesting discussion has been unfolding on Webmaster World about the various dos and don'ts of setting up an ecommerce channel. Recurring complaints revolve around checkouts being too crammed with visuals and copy; customers having to re-enter all their data if they miss out an information field and a general lack of understanding about what to do in the case of a credit card decline.

Take a good, long look at your own checkout: would you be happy to wait in line to make a purchase here, or would you channel-hop to someone else's queue? If your site suffers from any of the things mentioned above, you're probably losing valuable customers.