Top Tip

If you are planning to manufacture your product and hope to scale your business up quickly then look at ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), sooner rather than later. A successful ERP system will allow you to bring together aspects such as manufacturing, sales, marketing, etc into a seamless process. Alternatively if you are already running an ERP system and looking to sell online, you must review your system to see if it will be able to cope with the changes to your sales / marketing process. An increase in the sales of a certain product could mean that the manufacturing lead time is affected.

Research suggests consumers prefer to start their online shopping experience with search engines and social media sites rather than going directly to the site of an established retailer. Businesses that analyse the trends associated and utilize this knowledge in their marketing campaigns will have a huge advantage over those who don’t.

Google…

Services such as ‘Google trends’ and Google’s ‘Insights for search’ are designed to help advertisers and marketers gain a better understanding for consumer search behaviour, ultimately to identify new growth markets and modify their campaigns accordingly, for example, their Google ad words. By viewing the past months search trends, it is easier to predict what is likely sell in the following months. It is most likely that the most popular searches will correlate with the level of economic activity in the particular industries. This means you can launch promotions and personalize advertisements when you know certain products are selling well.

Google Trends provides daily and weekly reports on the volume of searches related to various industries providing details of geographic location and category. Google’s ‘Insights for search’ is similar to Google trends but with some added features; users can specify what category their search term falls under, generate a heat map displaying where search queries are coming from and compare trends by specific time ranges.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=handmade%20jewellery&cmpt=q

Twitter…

Twitter is another method of tapping into what the world is thinking as consumers are now revealing more and more information about themselves online. Whilst individual tweets can seem insignificant, taking them as a whole can provide insight into consumer behaviour and public sentiment. Knowing your customers, allows businesses to adapt their marketing and even shape public opinion to benefit themselves.

Businesses are realising that building relationships and brand loyalty is much more efficient than pushing products on customers through advertising. Speaking authoritatively about your field will influence potential consumers; content is now more effective than blatant advertising. Consumers are now relying on social media websites as much as company websites for product information so businesses that utilize this and interact with their customers have the opportunity to promote their products.

Also, twitter search provides an up to date, real time insight into what consumers are saying about any particular product around the world. This has already become a research tool for any business involved in consumer trends.

Facebook…

Facebook employs behavioural advertising whereby adverts placed on individuals profile pages are highly targeted. Users have no problem sharing information such as date of birth, relationship status, political and religious beliefs and hobbies and advertisers use this to their advantage. They can effectively advertise only to their target demographic.

Facebook even offers real time reporting for advertisers on the effectiveness of their ad giving feedback on the amount of impressions and clicks.

Whilst some consumers feel uncomfortable with the thought of being tracked online, others admit they prefer relevant advertising as they are no longer bombarded with many different adverts. Advertisers have now realized that it is much more efficient to have their ads seen by a small amount of people who are likely to make a purchase rather than to thousands of people who will not give it a second glance.

Following usability guidelines for your eCommerce site are obviously important. Design aspects of your website such as quick downloading, easy navigation and interaction with no ambiguity trigger sales, however selling to foreign markets requires extra consideration. An eCommerce site that only focuses on their target audience in one country cannot exploit the internet’s global reach and many eCommerce sites are losing much overseas business due to the usability of their site to international customers. Foreign consumers may have heard about your site and are able to find it easily but any marketing employed by your business will be wasted if they cannot connect with the content on your site, preferring instead to use a local site. Research has suggested that internet users are four times more likely to purchase from a website that communicates in their own language and over 50% of web users speak a native language other than English so connecting to these non English speaking countries will potentially double your audience and hopefully double your sales!

Localisation refers to designing your website in a way that can be adapted for and is appropriate to international customers. Taking into account language and cultural differences will allow you to communicate with more customers worldwide and increase sales. Applications can be localised to different levels depending on the user group or culture you expect to use your site. You may wish to keep the content of your site the same but translate local measures such as currency or time or you may decide to translate the product text and terminology to suit the appropriate country. Some eCommerce sites even go as far to change colours, images and symbols to suit the target culture as customers perceptions of service quality differ from country to country. For example, The colour red means error, stop or warning in western culture however this isn’t the case for Asian countries. In pursuing a global market, businesses should be sensitive to elements such as this. If you understand their local cultures, how they use technology and their expectations you will most likely be successful in selling to them.

Even simple differences between variants of English can make or break a sale. For example, British English and American English obviously differ with British using shopping basket and Americans preferring shopping cart and spelling variations such as colour and color. Customers who recognize that the site is based abroad will become less trusting of it, hence less likely to purchase from it. This isn’t a case of automatic translation but researching your target markets expectations and customs.

When did you last check your eCommerce site for these issues? Can you get more sales from applying simple changes?

For most eCommerce sites, the biggest loss of revenue is at the checkout due to shopping cart abandonment. Around 60% of shopping baskets are abandoned before customers have completed their purchase meaning businesses are losing thousands of potential sales. Reasons for basket abandonment can be; high delivery costs, checkout problems, lengthy registrations, fear about the security of their personal information or that the shopper is merely browsing or comparison shopping.

Here are 10 tips to reduce shopping basket abandonment rates and INCREASE SALES on your eCommerce site…

1.       Keep the checkout process short and simple and don’t ask for any information that isn’t necessary. It may seem like the perfect opportunity to gather information about your customers, however lengthy registrations can put customers off and cause them to abandon their baskets.

2.       Make all additional costs i.e. delivery charges clear from the beginning of the checkout process so there are no shocks about seeing the total of the basket suddenly increase due to shipping costs right before the customer is about to make their payment.

3.       Give full contact information during the checkout process to reassure customers you are a real company and reduce their anxieties about purchasing online.

4.       Inform customers about the policies you have in place either on the checkout page itself or via a link available on it. These may include security, privacy, delivery, return and customer service policies. It is often a good idea to place links to these policies in relevant places, for example, delivery and return policies next to the shipping costs and your security policy next to the checkout button.

5.       Include a progress indicator showing steps of checkout so the customer knows steps they have already completed and those left to complete. Also give the customer the option to go back a step if they need to review or amend what they have done. It is a good idea to limit the checkout process to two or three steps.

6.       Provide links back to items selected in the shopping basket so customers can double check they have selected the items they wanted.

7.       Using pictures of products inside the shopping basket has been known to reduce abandonment rates by 10%. Again this is to ensure the customer knows they have selected the item they planned to purchase.

8.       Make editing the shopping cart easy. It should be simple to change products, change quantities, add and delete items. If customers become confused or frustrated about doing this they will abandon their shopping cart without making a purchase.

9.       Show stock availability for each item on product page so that customers don’t have to reach the checkout before realising the product that they wanted is out of stock or backordered.

10.       Offer the option of saving the shopping basket. Comparison shoppers often add items to their shopping baskets without any intention to make a purchase at that time. Give them an option to save their basket for later purchase. Also, this is another reason to show stock availability on the product page; if there is limited stock left for the item they are looking at, it may encourage them to make a purchase there and then.

There has been a huge increase in companies opting to use voucher codes on affiliate’s websites in the hope that these will be turned into sales. Consumers are always looking for savings on the internet and so offering voucher codes has become an effective marketing strategy for merchants.  A voucher can often turn a consumer from window shopper to an actual customer. In return, the affiliate receives some sort of commission, usually in the form of a percentage of the total product sale amount or a fixed amount per product sold. We plan to use voucher code websites as part of our marketing plan for Eliot Turner.

I have identified the top 10 UK voucher websites:

• www.myvouchercodes.co.uk
• www.vouchercodes.com
• www.freeinuk.co.uk
• www.latestdiscountvouchers.co.uk
• http://www.vouchers.co.uk/
• www.hotukdeals.com
• www.everydaysale.co.uk
• www.promotionalcodes.org.uk
• www.discount-voucher.co.uk
• www.spendlessonline.co.uk/voucher

And a few international sites:

• www.couponcodes4u.com USA
• www.vouchermate.co.nz NZ
• www.buckscoop.com.au AUS

All sites are essentially the same, offering similar discounts. www.myvouchercodes.co.uk claim to be the UK’s  No.1 discount code website offering deals from 1000’s of stores, hence likely to have the most hits and obviously the international sites are seen by a wider audience. We will take this into consideration when choosing which voucher code sites to use as affiliates.

Often businesses are reluctant to run email marketing campaigns due to fear of being seen as spammers however it is one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective forms of marketing providing timely results…if done correctly. It is important to get the most out of your email marketing campaign as an email that isn’t well planned, interesting and relevant will have little effect.

Email marketing is especially important for eCommerce sites as a link to their site is available at the click of a button and particularly effective if your email marketing is permission based. This way, those receiving your emails are expecting them and most likely to hear your message; hence a higher conversion rate. Although emails seem impersonal they can often be the best method to gain customer loyalty with their less intrusive nature.
All emails have three important elements; the sender’s details, the subject line and the message body and getting the most out of these are key.

The Introduction…

The name or address of the sender more often than not determines whether a recipient will open the email and so the conversion rate can rely on this. The most important rule is to keep it simple in the least amount of characters. Many businesses have found a personal touch of a real person’s name rather than a company name can be effective. However, as spammers have also adopted this strategy, it can backfire unless the recipient recognises the sender’s name. Also, in terms of the email address, people are more likely to trust one ending in your company name rather than from a mail service.

The message subject, again, should be short and simple with the message you want to send out in as few words as possible. The most important information should be included in the first 20 characters, for example ‘Special offer’ and the whole subject should not exceed 50 characters. If there’s any ambiguity with your message it is less likely to be opened.

On opening…

Once the email has been opened, the message body needs to be concise and to the point encouraging people that they need what you’re offering. The opening body text should grab the reader’s attention as soon as possible. A personal touch with words such as ‘you’ and ‘your’ can be useful. The end body text should include a strong call to action with reminders of aspects such as money back guarantees to remove any worries the potential customer may have.
You are legally required to have an ‘unsubscribe’ option within the email that gives the recipient the opportunity to opt out of your newsletter.

Cowell’s Garden Centre have an effective email marketing campaign and this is due to the fact that their emails are short, simple and to the point.

In the ‘From’ field they have their company name ‘Cowell’s Garden Centre’ stated clearly and their email address ending in their company name. The Subject field simply states the purpose of the email in 28 characters; ‘Special Offers from Cowell’s’ leaving no room for ambiguity which is all that is needed at this point.

The message body contains very few words with the email predominantly made up of images. For a company such as a garden centre, images are key as the strength of the image will determine whether the product is purchased. The text they do have states exactly what the offer is without any unnecessary words. The email refers to the recipient as ‘valued customer’ and states ‘We thought you might like to know about the latest offers at Cowell’s’. This makes the customer feel special and that they are receiving special offers for being a subscriber. The ‘you’ also adds a personal touch. They have two links to online vouchers on their website and their company information; email address, telephone number and URL are displayed clearly at the bottom of the email hence plenty of opportunity to visit their website.

It is useful to run email campaigns directed to specific people, for example a certain gender or those situated in a particular geographical position. At Eliot Turner we are currently building an email database and plan to collect information about our customers enabling us to tailor an email towards a specific demographic if we wish.

You need to decide how often you will be sending out emails as running multi-email campaigns can double your conversion rate however sending too many can annoy customers and have an adverse effect. There are no particular rules about how many emails to send are appropriate and the amount will depend on the type of business you run. You will gain more of an idea through trial and error and the tendencies you discover about your customers.

It is useful to keep a record of the number of responses you receive and the type of customer they are from, essentially finding the customers which are most responsive to your email campaign. If your response rates are low, then it is a good idea to rethink your email marketing campaign.

Competitor analysis involves learning more about the businesses that function around the same target demographic as you enabling you to assess their strengths and weaknesses whilst identifying opportunities and threats to your own business.

Often businesses become obsessed with competitor analysis whilst others can ignore what their competitors are doing completely. A healthy medium would be to track competition, react to changes but focus on your own plans.  After identifying the main competition in the market, it is useful to recognize the threats they pose, their company objectives and strategies and their weaknesses, this can only add to the strength of your own business.

It is useful to create a competitor profile for each of your competitors as it enables you to gather all relevant information in one place allowing you to formulate an effective strategy to implement, monitor and adjust where needed. Competitor profiles include their background, financials, products, marketing, facilities, personnel and corporate and marketing strategies. Knowing your competition’s planned strategies allows you to plan a response through your own strategy whilst at the same time revealing strategic weaknesses.

We have identified accessorize as the main market leader for this type of jewellery, however there are many that sell handmade jewellery offering similar products to Eliot Turner that are certainly market competition.

Here are the ones I have identified as the biggest competition:

The Spotty Dog Shop

Lisa's Handmade Jewellery

FarFallina

Purple Label

Pia Jewellery

Silver Wire Designs

We plan to create competitor profiles for our competition; however, we do not want to concentrate too much on what our competition is doing instead focusing our time and energy on our own plans.

On Monday 29th June, Justin and I spoke at the SuperMondays event held at Newcastle University about the eCommerce experiment to a crowd of approximately 40 people. Thanks to Ross Cooney for inviting us to take part.

In it to win it? Everyone has heard it one hundred plus times, however over the next two years as reported by the Daily Telegraph online sales are set to double. Even if we take into account that Paypal reported a £8.3bn drop in spending by the end of 2011, online sales are still expected to rise to £21.3bn. The £21.3bn figure is covering all of online sales from various market places but it is still a very large number.

Online retailing is very real, this is shown by the failed retailer “Woolworths” now opening an online store. Granted Woolworths will never be the same, but they are moving online to get a piece of the £21.3bn pie.

According to the news piece on the Daily Telegraph website UK retailers are enjoying the boom in online retailing even though their bricks and mortar stores are feeling the pain.

There are a lot of gaps on the high street at the moment with NOW CLOSED boards all over, but the surge in online retailing could see a lot more retailers using the web.

So we’re aiming to have a big lump of that £21.3bn consumer spend in 2011.

I believe that any business with clear goals which everyone in the organisation is working to will always succeed. We sat down as a team to discuss the goals for Eliot Turner for the coming year.

We decided to set 5 realistic goals which are:

1.      Achieve a turnover of £100,000 in the first year of trading
2.      Develop 1000 unique daily  visitors to the website by the end of the first year
3.      Primarily use social networking to build the business
4.      Build a brand which can be trusted on both a national and international market place
5.      Diversify into two other market areas by the end of year one. Initial ideas have been handbags, hats, beauty products and designer clothes

Looking beyond this it is worth to mention that one of our long term goals is to create a £1 million turnover by the end of year three.