Google got in a heap of trouble last year when it launched its Buzz social-networking product, prepopulating it with personal information from users’ Gmail accounts without consent. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a settlement that could become the new privacy standard for the Web.
According to a recent ComputerWorld article, the settlement “requires Google to get ‘express affirmative consent’ from its users for ‘any new or additional sharing’ of personal information with third parties if the new sharing is a change in Google's practices.” It also requires Google to implement a comprehensive privacy program and independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.
What the Google Settlement Could Mean for B2C E-Commerce
Consumer e-commerce sites share some customer information in order to create targeted, personalized experiences for their audiences. In many cases, this can be as benign as a ZIP code so advertisements display merchandise locally available to customers.
Since the proposed settlement includes any customer information -- not just personally identifiable -- functional changes in why an Internet company shares ZIP codes and other data points could potentially require a user’s permission.
According to FTC attorneys, the part of the settlement the FTC would like to extend to be an industry norm is the requirement for a comprehensive privacy policy.
If your e-commerce company has a strong, comprehensive privacy policy that outlines the ways in which your company uses and shares personal information, then additional customer opt-ins should not be a problem. Even if you change vendors, as long as the type of information you use and the reason you use it stays the same, you would not need to notify customers. What you wouldn’t be able to do is retroactively change your privacy policy without users’ knowledge.
Additionally, if you have a global audience -- or hope to one day -- EU data privacy laws require you to disclose what data you keep on your site visitors and how you use it. And you have to give consumers a chance to object to the use of their information. So buttoning up your privacy policy makes good business sense in our global economy.
So what do you think: Is being more transparent with users about how e-commerce sites use their information an industry norm that’s been a long time coming, or has Google’s missteps ruined it for the rest of us?
I just read a great article on our friends at CSN Stores and their plans to continue to dominate the home goods segment of B2C e-commerce.
While they aspire to be the Amazon of home, co-founder Niraj Shah is 'careful to point out the differences between the companies—a key one being CSN’s focus on home products and its “specialized supply chain” for items like furniture. By shipping directly from manufacturers, CSN has managed to offer a large selection without having to stock its own warehouses (at least up to now).'
From our perspective as fellow big-ticket retailers, CSN is doing a few more things right that should help them leapfrog over Amazon in this space.
First, CSN recognizes that buying items for your home, especially large pieces of furniture, can be quite different then buying a book. So in additional to providing more detailed product information, they have customer support available via chat and phone to assist potential customers .
Second, they also know that because they aren't always putting a package into the hands of UPS but rather with various freight companies, their centralized support is there during and after the delivery process to make sure every customer is happy.
We welcome companies like CSN Stores that continue to help break down the ecommerce barriers and show that there's more than one way to become one of the world's biggest retailers.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
There have been numerous terms coined over the years to describe different consumer segments: Brand Aspirationals, Power Shoppers, Savvy Spenders -- the list goes on. Today, we’d like to introduce you to the latest consumer segment: XTreme Shoppers, as coined by GfK Custom Research.
Who Are These XTreme Shoppers?
To start, XTreme Shoppers are motivated, aggressive and passionate. They can be found across all U.S. geographic regions and income levels. They use multiple resources and go to almost any length to seek out the best possible value. They value such factors as enjoyment, usefulness, simplicity and assurance.
What we found most interesting is that GfK’s research shows that XTreme Shoppers derive more emotional satisfaction from shopping online than in-store, indicating that your B2C e-commerce experience should be a priority if these are the consumers you're looking to attract. When comparing the two channels, more respondents considered online to be inviting (81% vs. 71% for in-store), uplifting (84% vs. 71%), customized (73% vs. 51%), energizing (74% vs. 48%) and calming (80% vs. 53%).
These shoppers consider themselves "in control" of retailers. They want you to be as passionate about them as they are about your brand. Or they will shop elsewhere.
Catering to XTreme Shoppers
Some retailers are excelling at addressing the needs of these multichannel, highly motivated consumers. Williams-Sonoma, for example, maintains consistency across all channels and experiences. Whether attending an in-store cooking demonstration or browsing the retailer's online library of recipes, shoppers feel like they are being treated to something special when they interact with the brand. The same could be said for Apple, which offers consistent and enjoyable experiences both in-store and digitally.
The takeaway: Gone are the days when price, quality and quantity are the only true purchase drivers. Is your retail brand meeting the XTreme Shopper's needs, or are you struggling with e-commerce barriers that prevent this cross-channel synchronization? We’d love to hear from you about what you are doing to attract and please these passionate shoppers.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
There were several great articles published this week on the impact the iPad will have on retail and, eventually, workplace computing. One that I particularly enjoyed was focused on the device’s impact on female shopping behavior. In her AdAge piece titled “How the iPad is Reshaping E-commerce,” Engauge CMO Patti Ziegler draws on her own experience as an iPad-loving mom. She quickly points the growing cohort of iPad owners – wealthy, tech savvy and increasingly female – a group that is quickly becoming a powerful driver of B2C e-commerce sales.
Ziegler uses the term “t-commerce” which was coined by Forrester in a January 2011 report to describe shopping on a tablet device. About a decade ago, Forrester coined the term “t-commerce” to mean e-commerce undertaken using digital television. We think tablet commerce will have a much larger impact on retailers. Here’s why you should be paying attention, and marketing to, this group of women leading the t-commerce charge:
Within four months of launch, the female-to-male ratio of iPad users shifted from 1:2 to 2:3
iPad owners are typically affluent and more likely to be spending money online
Women control between 70-85% of household spending in the US
Tablet sales are forecast to nearly quadruple from 2010 to 2015
Many retailers report that over 50% of their mobile traffic is already coming from tablet devices
What is your organization doing to rise to this new multichannel challenge? Are you creating shopper experiences that extend across mobile phones, computers, in-store kiosks and tablets – including the iPad? We're interested in hearing your big-ticket retail t-commerce plans and success stories.
According to the State of Retailing Online 2010 report from Forrester and Shop.org, the next big frontier for e-commerce lies in international expansion. The annual report was unveiled this year at the 2010 Shop.org Annual Summit in Dallas, Texas, and it provides insight into where B2C e-commerce retailers are in terms of their capability to expand globally.
According to the report, nearly 73% of the 87 online retailers surveyed are already sending merchandise abroad from their home country's distribution center, with an additional 17% having an established foreign warehouse in place. Retailers who ship abroad see about 5% of their revenue generated from foreign orders.
However the big hurdle still remains in establishing and testing e-commerce logistics or e-commerce payment solutions to service these international customers. For example, when it comes to processing international returns, 37% of retailers currently require customers who want to return an item use a returns center in the retailer's country of origin, while 12% have an international returns center located in their own country to handle foreign returns.
Beyond just international e-commerce expansion, the report also offered a picture of some of the gains online retailers are beginning to see resulting from online retail site improvements, especially as the industry gears up for the critical holiday shopping period: 54% of online retailers say they've increased conversion rates over 2009 levels, 27% have seen gains in units per transaction, 47% say the value of average orders has gone up, and 31% say they've seen a decline in shopping cart abandonment rates, a key measure of customer satisfaction.
I’d love to hear whether these gains are in line with what you are seeing across your e-commerce sites?
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
We’re thrilled to share with you the new site for RoomStore, a long-time customer and one of the largest furniture retailers in the country with more than $325 million a year in sales. We launched the first RoomStore site more than five years ago and, since then, we’ve continued to evaluate and make changes to the site on a regular basis.
But with this major re-launch, we have leveraged our unique B2B e-commerce solutions to improve the online customer experience to drive cross-channel sales. Among the new features:
Precision Localization: The site automatically adjusts based on a user’s location, dynamically providing inventory, pricing, promotions, delivery details and more create a seamless cross-channel shopping experience.
Live Chat/Click-to-Call: Shoppers can now choose how they want to communicate with customer service representatives -- via online chat or phone. Dynamic icons reflect real-time availability of customer service reps including when they’re able to chat, connect via phone or request a call-back.
Collaboration Bar: Social media and other enhancements are available via a single tool on product pages, giving customers the additional resources they need for big-ticket purchases, like sharing an item with a friend, live chat or printing a store-ready page.
Shoppable Images: Interactive information tags are displayed on room settings, allowing shoppers to get information on the items in the room and add them directly to their shopping carts from the image. This feature allows customers to be as few clicks from purchasing the items they want as possible.
That is just a taste of what the new RoomStore.com offers. To learn about all of the innovative features, check out the press release.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
I am intrigued by Alibaba's purchase of Vendio, expanding the Chinese company's SMB B2C internet retail strategy - what a mouthful! This marks the third time in little more than a month that a company has announced an allocation of $100 million fund to invest in U.S. ecommerce-related businesses. The Vendio investment represents a key market for a Alibaba - Vendio has over 80,000 small buiness users on line with its U.S.-based ecommerce platform.
Whenever I speak with a big-ticket B2C retailer about expanding their store online, a recurrent question inevitably arises: "Why not handle e-commerce development in-house?"
Many of these retailers have been considering the online marketplace for some time and are wondering how they can participate without overburdening their current staff and technology. Their big-ticket businesses are complex and a standard platform won't accomodate them, and the addition burden of taking on B2C e-commerce development in-house is a daunting and resource-intensive task that many retailers just can't handle. In developing their multi-channel strategy, using a hosted ecommerce software solution starts to look like the best option.
At Blueport Commerce we have one focus — helping customers exactly like these retailers. We focus on what makes their business unique, so they can focus on what matters most — growing their new ecommerce online store.
Whether they have products that are unbranded, have a higher price point or are highly customizable, Blueport Commerce helps retailers connect with buyers worldwide. Complex delivery requirements a problem? We can help and ensure that a retailer's customers receive the white glove treatment they deserve, and more importantly, expect.
We match e-commerce development and services to address every retailer's unique business needs, not squeeze them into a commodity-focused, inflexible platform that doesn't address the intricacies of their business.
At Blueport Commerce, we're a turnkey solution specialized for big ticket that ensures the transition to e-commerce is easy, worry-free and profitable. By combining the industry's most advanced technology platform for localized, big-ticket retail, dedicated integration services and personalized B2C e-commerece development, Blueport Commerce can port every retailer's unique business to a ready and willing online marketplace
If you're running a B2B ecommerce site, you should think about localizing your content. Why? Because just like consumers shopping for clothing or home goods online, your business customer expects the content and promotions displayed online to be consistent with the brick and mortar store near where they are located.
Running this kind of multi channel business is becoming more and more crucial to ecommerce success. The ability to understand and accommodate the complexities of each business and deliver a localized solution that meets a retailer’s needs is at the core of a successful B2B ecommerce solution.
For B2B ecommerce solution providers, the impact of localization likely means displaying local sales contacts, showing local inventory levels, delivery times, availability and pricing based on the customer's location.
Not just for B2C anymore, localization is an important point for B2B ecommerce that should not be overlooked.
We were recently in the final year of a five-year contract with one of our existing e-commerce clients. We assumed that (like any company that's smart about its technology), they were in discussions with other major vendors in the multichannel retail software space - Oracle, Escalate, GSI Commerce, ATG and the like. But at Blueport we knew the client had one overarching need: to simply find the best B2C ecommerce platform for large order value (AoV) purchases. That's what we call Big Ticket retail - and it's our sweet spot. How does the story end? Yes, they re-upped the contract: http://www.blueport.com/news-events/.
We earned their renewal because we are confident that our e-commerce solution is the only one that meets the needs of big-ticket multichannel retailers. Blueport Commerce has the technology, knowledge and expertise to capture the strategic opportunity for your business online.
We know the complexities of big-ticket retail and we have the answers to make it work for you. We know how this transformation impacts each aspect of your business and we'll guide your team through the process step by step.
The number of B2C e-commerce applications starting to play in the big ticket retail category continues to grow. But, since your goods are larger dollar value purchases, they are typically more complex to move around the country and generally don't fit in the standard e-commerce package or platform built for commodity items. The Blueport Commerce solution was built for retailers like you, and that's why it works.
We've made other folks lives easy — let us do the same for you.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
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