Here at Blueport, we’ve been passing around last week’s StorefrontBackTalk blog post “Should CIOs Now Surrender to Marketing?,” and it has sparked some discourse between our own marketing and technology functions. As Director of Integration, do I think CIOs should surrender to marketing? They already have!
Some don’t know it yet and some have walled themselves up in time capsules, and for both those groups, the battle has passed them by. Those CIOs who don’t know it yet lead organizations that just can’t seem to make up lost ground chasing the most profitable new technologies. Those who have walled themselves off behind pretexts of the need for conformity and centralized control have done nothing but stifle and stratify the process of business evolution critical to ongoing competitiveness. IT organizations that encourage and support peer business unit management of specialized, cost effective, outsourced applications have won the day.
When CIOs Let Go, Bigger Opportunities Result
By foregoing complete control of all that has become the technology function, the CIO also realizes benefits and reveals opportunities. No IT organization has excess resources to spend making specialized applications that compete with today’s best-in-class cloud and SaaS solutions. Spinning off responsibility for tools that cater to subject area expertise allows CIOs to focus resources against core projects where their resources thrive as opposed to working a potentially complicated solution in an unfamiliar discipline.
A Real-Life E-Commerce Example
The real opportunities result when, through a collaborative approach to enabling specialized applications, a vision develops of the next generation corporate infrastructure, an infrastructure that enables and supports snap-in specialized solutions and opens the door to the same type of quick, cost-effective solutions for all business units. Collaboration between the company’s business functions leading to a common enabling infrastructure gives the CIO the benefit of steering decisions on critical issues central to modern IT, such as compliance and security. Finally, the specialized applications researched and implemented by business units act like a research and development IT skunk works, exposing the organization to the newest technologies and solution patterns.
A real world example of this is your typical big-ticket retail e-commerce website. Assuming the CIO chooses to develop the e-commerce solution in house, the company first needs to decide on a technology for catalog, order tunnel, fulfillment, and reporting. Then the CIO must hire a development team or train existing staff. While the staff is either hiring or training, none of them are advancing the IT organization’s other core solutions. And, as the new e-commerce team is building the website against the initial technology chosen, they are already falling behind technically. When the in-house solution finally launches, it is already underwhelming to consumers and, more often than not, the effort needs to be set aside immediately to resume work against the ever-present backlog of requests for changes to core business solutions.
All the while, the CIO could have used one of the SaaS solutions that are evolving quickly and constantly setting new user experience paradigms.
Alternately, if the CIO chooses to embrace an SaaS e-commerce solution advanced by the marketing team, the CIO’s team would have input on integration and security, as well as an easy case with management for building enhancements to core infrastructure and systems. The enhancements to the core infrastructure, quickened and focused by working against the new SaaS e-commerce solution, open the door to additional SaaS or cloud solutions as well as new technology core solutions by the in-house team. And don’t forget the finished product: SaaS solutions evolve very quickly and constantly set new user experience paradigms – customers love the new website. The next SaaS integration is very cost-effective, and the CIO is the hero. Best of all, nothing of true importance was actually surrendered to marketing.
Next week: Marketing responds!
Related posts:
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Retail CIOs Should Champion Collaboration Across Departments
Friday, February 3, 2012 by
Scott Williams
Rethink Shopping Cart Abandonment on Your E-Commerce Site
Friday, December 16, 2011 by
Betsy Miller
Cart abandoners are not the enemies of your online retail business, skewing your site metrics. In fact, they could be your best prospects.
So says research conducted by ClickZ’s Charles Nicholls to be compiled in an e-book this month. His analysis of the behavior of more than 600,000 online users and 250,000 e-commerce transactions show that shopping cart abandonment is now a natural part of the buying process. The key for e-commerce merchants is to recognize cart abandonment as such and then to create marketing programs to capitalize on the different situations in which customers abandon their carts.
Nicholls split customers who abandon their carts into three segments: one-time abandoners, serial abandoners and recent goal abandoners. Serial abandoners appear to be the sweet spot for conversions.
Serial Shopping Cart Abandoners
Serial shopping cart abandoners put items in their carts and then abandon their purchases multiple times within a one-month timeframe. Forty-eight percent of these customers will convert after being remarketed to – that’s more than twice the rate at which one-time abandoners who are remarketed to convert. An average of 18 percent of one-time abandoners will pull the trigger on purchasing after being remarketed to.
Recent goal abandoners are e-commerce customers who have already completed purchases with your website but then come back to your site and abandon their carts. These customers, who have already bought from your e-commerce website, are the most likely to abandon their carts again, but they are also the most likely to make another purchase from you.
How E-Commerce Retailers Can Capitalize on Shopping Cart Abandoners
E-commerce merchants need to recognize shopping cart abandonment as a natural step in the buying process and create plans that offer specific messaging and service to cart abandoners. Here at Blueport, we have helped many of our clients find success by creating marketing programs like these:
Remarketing Emails
Your e-commerce retail business should have an email plan in place to reach out to customers who abandon their shopping carts. The messaging can be fairly specific since you know a lot about these customers, including the specific items and categories they are shopping for.
And don’t forget to reach out to those who have bought from your website. Follow up with additional offers and related products based on their purchases. If you win a customer over with one purchase, you could have a customer for life.
Remarketing Advertising
Similar to an email strategy, you can use display advertising to remarket to your customers once they have left your site. While there is debate about how Big Brother remarketing and retargeting ads can feel to consumers, when implemented correctly, they can lead to increased conversions.
Related Posts:
So says research conducted by ClickZ’s Charles Nicholls to be compiled in an e-book this month. His analysis of the behavior of more than 600,000 online users and 250,000 e-commerce transactions show that shopping cart abandonment is now a natural part of the buying process. The key for e-commerce merchants is to recognize cart abandonment as such and then to create marketing programs to capitalize on the different situations in which customers abandon their carts.
Nicholls split customers who abandon their carts into three segments: one-time abandoners, serial abandoners and recent goal abandoners. Serial abandoners appear to be the sweet spot for conversions.
Serial Shopping Cart Abandoners
Serial shopping cart abandoners put items in their carts and then abandon their purchases multiple times within a one-month timeframe. Forty-eight percent of these customers will convert after being remarketed to – that’s more than twice the rate at which one-time abandoners who are remarketed to convert. An average of 18 percent of one-time abandoners will pull the trigger on purchasing after being remarketed to.
Recent goal abandoners are e-commerce customers who have already completed purchases with your website but then come back to your site and abandon their carts. These customers, who have already bought from your e-commerce website, are the most likely to abandon their carts again, but they are also the most likely to make another purchase from you.
How E-Commerce Retailers Can Capitalize on Shopping Cart Abandoners
E-commerce merchants need to recognize shopping cart abandonment as a natural step in the buying process and create plans that offer specific messaging and service to cart abandoners. Here at Blueport, we have helped many of our clients find success by creating marketing programs like these:
Remarketing Emails
Your e-commerce retail business should have an email plan in place to reach out to customers who abandon their shopping carts. The messaging can be fairly specific since you know a lot about these customers, including the specific items and categories they are shopping for.
And don’t forget to reach out to those who have bought from your website. Follow up with additional offers and related products based on their purchases. If you win a customer over with one purchase, you could have a customer for life.
Remarketing Advertising
Similar to an email strategy, you can use display advertising to remarket to your customers once they have left your site. While there is debate about how Big Brother remarketing and retargeting ads can feel to consumers, when implemented correctly, they can lead to increased conversions.
Related Posts:
- New Insights on How Consumers Research Products and Shop Online
- Engaging Site Visitors Through Email
- Online Research Is Critical for Big-Ticket Purchases
- Will You Make Back Your Online Advertising Spend in Store Sales? Yes!
E-Commerce Shopping Sites vs. Social Sites
Friday, November 4, 2011 by
Betsy Miller
Last month, Performics, a global marketing performance company, conducted its Social Shopping Study, which examined how 1,000 people interact with social, shopping and deal websites. The study had some interesting findings:
Related posts:
- Men are more likely to visit company/brand/product pages on social sites as part of their purchase decision-making process.
- Women are more likely to interact with a company/brand/product page after purchasing.
- When examining a range of shopping activities (including finding specials and deals, product reviews, product information, product comparisons), consumers choose e-commerce shopping sites as their go-to destination.
- Only 46% of those who responded will look to social networking sites while in a store on a website, but 55% will go to a shopping site in that instance.
- When consumers do consult social networks for advice before making a purchase, 60% wait no more than 10 minutes.
Related posts:
- New Insights on How Consumers Research Products and Shop Online
- Get Your E-Commerce Site Ready for Daily Deals
- Can Groupon Work for Big-Ticket Items?
- 5 Ways for Online Retailers to Be a Little Fab
- Could Branded Social Games Increase Your E-Commerce Conversions?
SEO Won’t Go Away for E-Commerce, But It Will Evolve
Friday, September 23, 2011 by
Betsy Miller
The title of a recent E-Commerce Times article, “The Coming Irrelevance of SEO,” did its job and got me to click through. (Of course, I found it by searching Google.) The piece says that online retailers should begin preparing for the future and focus less on search engine optimization for driving sales and instead should harness the power of marketplaces. “Thanks to improvements in trust and safety, as well as predictability enhancements that brands like Amazon and eBay have brought to the space, consumers simply aren't turning to Google to purchase products,” writes the author Brian Horakh, who is also the founder of Zoovy, which is an integrated marketplace e-commerce solution, not that he’s biased. It’s unclear how this is an either/or scenario -- you can have a marketplace presence and promote your goods through SEO.
Not to hold onto the past, or even the present, I believe that SEO will continue to be a valuable tool for e-commerce websites. Purchasing is just the last step in the process. When customers research items, search engines are a premier starting point. We also don’t know what leads to that final visit where the purchase was made. Was the click from a friend’s review the first visit or the ninth? Perhaps the review helped close the sale, but the initial visit to the company’s e-commerce site may have come from a pay-per-click ad or from a link in organic search.
Good SEO Is Good Content
What even Internet experts tend to forget is that good SEO does not have to be a daunting task. Think about your business and your audience. What does your target audience want that you can provide? If you provide quality content that consumers want, then the SEO part falls into place. Sure, you can mix things up a bit and use different phrases to say the same thing, but that is also considered to be good writing. For example, if you are writing about a sofa, you might also refer to it as a couch or seating -- that reads better than using “couch” over and over again, and it’s good SEO.
Creating good content will also help you as social networks grow. Consumers want to share good content -- they’ll link to it from Facebook posts or reference it in their own blogs. And appropriately tagging user-generated content on your e-commerce sites, like reviews, for example, will help users and search engines find them.
Link farms and black hat tricks gave SEO a bad name earlier this year. But as the Google algorithm continues to evolve, so will SEO practices. And as long as you are focused on your audience, your e-commerce site will benefit.
Related posts:
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Not to hold onto the past, or even the present, I believe that SEO will continue to be a valuable tool for e-commerce websites. Purchasing is just the last step in the process. When customers research items, search engines are a premier starting point. We also don’t know what leads to that final visit where the purchase was made. Was the click from a friend’s review the first visit or the ninth? Perhaps the review helped close the sale, but the initial visit to the company’s e-commerce site may have come from a pay-per-click ad or from a link in organic search.
Good SEO Is Good Content
What even Internet experts tend to forget is that good SEO does not have to be a daunting task. Think about your business and your audience. What does your target audience want that you can provide? If you provide quality content that consumers want, then the SEO part falls into place. Sure, you can mix things up a bit and use different phrases to say the same thing, but that is also considered to be good writing. For example, if you are writing about a sofa, you might also refer to it as a couch or seating -- that reads better than using “couch” over and over again, and it’s good SEO.
Creating good content will also help you as social networks grow. Consumers want to share good content -- they’ll link to it from Facebook posts or reference it in their own blogs. And appropriately tagging user-generated content on your e-commerce sites, like reviews, for example, will help users and search engines find them.
Link farms and black hat tricks gave SEO a bad name earlier this year. But as the Google algorithm continues to evolve, so will SEO practices. And as long as you are focused on your audience, your e-commerce site will benefit.
Related posts:
- J.C. Penney and Google: A Cautionary Tale of E-Commerce and SEO
- 3 Reasons Why Quality Content Could Be Your Key to E-Commerce Success
- 4 Tips to Boost E-Commerce Site Traffic from Rapper Lil B
- New Insights on How Consumers Research Products and Shop Online
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Square Register Lets Retailers Play with the iPad, Too
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 by
Morgan Woodruff
Yesterday, TechCrunch reported on the new Square Register, a replacement for cash registers that not only lets retailers accept credit card payments via iPads, but also allows the stores to communicate with customers more efficiently.
After a retailer processes a customer’s payment via Square Register, the retailer can invite the customer to download the Square Card Case, allowing the merchant to engage with customers in entirely new ways. Customers can add your “card” to this virtual wallet and access your location and contact information, their purchase history and receipts, a live menu of your daily offering and customized offers from you. Customers will also be able to use the Square Card Case to make purchases from your store within two physical blocks of the location. The customer can show up at the store, give the name to the cashier and then be charged on the back-end Square Register for the goods. It practically takes the whole payment process out of your relationship with customers.
Is iPad the Perfect Multichannel Retail Tool?
While we will certainly keep an eye on this application and how it works in real retail, we just need to say how amazed we are with the multifaceted iPad as a catalyst for retail both for merchants and consumers. The iPad is not only a tool for customers looking for great images of product and an ability to buy, share information on the fly and get feedback from their friends on all types of purchases from lunch to gadgets to big-ticket items and everything in between. It is also a tool for selling. Retailers can use iPads to show additional retail to customers, as a mobile option for checking retail and now as a replacement for cash registers and POS terminals with extraordinary customer engagement opportunities.
What can’t the iPad do? Or, more importantly, as a retailer, what else would you like the iPad to be able to do for your business?
Related posts:
After a retailer processes a customer’s payment via Square Register, the retailer can invite the customer to download the Square Card Case, allowing the merchant to engage with customers in entirely new ways. Customers can add your “card” to this virtual wallet and access your location and contact information, their purchase history and receipts, a live menu of your daily offering and customized offers from you. Customers will also be able to use the Square Card Case to make purchases from your store within two physical blocks of the location. The customer can show up at the store, give the name to the cashier and then be charged on the back-end Square Register for the goods. It practically takes the whole payment process out of your relationship with customers.
Is iPad the Perfect Multichannel Retail Tool?
While we will certainly keep an eye on this application and how it works in real retail, we just need to say how amazed we are with the multifaceted iPad as a catalyst for retail both for merchants and consumers. The iPad is not only a tool for customers looking for great images of product and an ability to buy, share information on the fly and get feedback from their friends on all types of purchases from lunch to gadgets to big-ticket items and everything in between. It is also a tool for selling. Retailers can use iPads to show additional retail to customers, as a mobile option for checking retail and now as a replacement for cash registers and POS terminals with extraordinary customer engagement opportunities.
What can’t the iPad do? Or, more importantly, as a retailer, what else would you like the iPad to be able to do for your business?
Related posts:
- "T-Commerce" Reinvented as iPads Reshape Mulitchannel Retail
- Forrester's Brian Walker Outlines the Fundamental Shifts Taking Place in E-Commerce Technology
- Arhaus Furniture's Custom iPad App Aims to Drive Cross Channel Sales
- A Big Screen for Big-Ticket: In Defense of the iPad
3 Reasons Why Quality Content Could Be Your Key to E-Commerce Success
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 by
Betsy Miller
Back in the early days of the web, when many of us pioneered this business, there was the notion of sticky content. Sticky content was all about putting content on your website to encourage visitors to linger and come back to your site. This was back when business plans were thin, eyeballs were all the rage and no one talked about conversions. But then the dotcom bubble burst, and content creation was deemed an unnecessary task as website teams trimmed down and struggled to keep their Internet businesses afloat.
Fast-forward to now: Content has made a comeback. Google, blogs and social sharing have made offering unique, quality content in some form to your customers a must for any website and a competitive advantage for e-commerce sites. Here are 3 of the top reasons why.
#1 Your Customers
Remember: E-commerce site content takes the place of welcoming sales associates at a brick-and-mortar store. From calls to action to your About Us page, what is the impression you want to make? Also, e-commerce retailers ask their customers to buy items with limited senses. Well-crafted product descriptions can fill the void for customers who wonder what an item really feels like in person. Buying guides and other advice can lead customers through the process of purchasing online and specifically via your website.
Tip: As an e-commerce website, you are a content publisher. Define your target audience and who you are as a retailer. Be sure your content’s voice and tone live up to and reinforce the promises you want to make. Style guides are not just for logos and fonts.
#2 Your Brand
The content you publish on your e-commerce site is an extension of your business. It allows you to give your company a voice and to set yourself up as an advocate, trendsetter, thought leader, or whatever best sets your specific e-commerce business apart. And thanks to social sites, if the web content you create is engaging, sharing it is easier than ever. Good, interesting content can spread like wildfire – are you creating any? If you deliver content that is truly helpful and unique, your customers will blog about it, share it on Facebook, Tweet it and more. Quality content allows others to be your brand ambassadors.
Tip: You can start getting the word out yourself! Share your site’s content via a corporate blog, Twitter account, StumbleUpon, etc.
#3 Search Engine Optimization
Anyone who knows their SEO stuff will tell you: When it comes to search engine optimization, nothing beats fresh, original content. While link baiting and creating directory pages on your own site will help with your organic search rankings, it should supplement your real content offering. Just look at how well blog posts rank on Google. By nature, well-written content is full of keywords, whether on a product page or in an article related to the types of product you sell online. A fresh content offering gives spiders something new to crawl, and nothing beats a quality offering to encourage people to read and link to what you’ve written. And with Google Panda, being sure your product descriptions are truly unique will only benefit your e-commerce store.
Tip: A corporate blog is a great way for an e-commerce site to get into the content arena. You don’t have to worry about integrating a content management system into your platform, and you can use a blog to introduce new products, offer tips and share relevant news about your online retail business.
Related posts:
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Fast-forward to now: Content has made a comeback. Google, blogs and social sharing have made offering unique, quality content in some form to your customers a must for any website and a competitive advantage for e-commerce sites. Here are 3 of the top reasons why.
#1 Your Customers
Remember: E-commerce site content takes the place of welcoming sales associates at a brick-and-mortar store. From calls to action to your About Us page, what is the impression you want to make? Also, e-commerce retailers ask their customers to buy items with limited senses. Well-crafted product descriptions can fill the void for customers who wonder what an item really feels like in person. Buying guides and other advice can lead customers through the process of purchasing online and specifically via your website.
Tip: As an e-commerce website, you are a content publisher. Define your target audience and who you are as a retailer. Be sure your content’s voice and tone live up to and reinforce the promises you want to make. Style guides are not just for logos and fonts.
#2 Your Brand
The content you publish on your e-commerce site is an extension of your business. It allows you to give your company a voice and to set yourself up as an advocate, trendsetter, thought leader, or whatever best sets your specific e-commerce business apart. And thanks to social sites, if the web content you create is engaging, sharing it is easier than ever. Good, interesting content can spread like wildfire – are you creating any? If you deliver content that is truly helpful and unique, your customers will blog about it, share it on Facebook, Tweet it and more. Quality content allows others to be your brand ambassadors.
Tip: You can start getting the word out yourself! Share your site’s content via a corporate blog, Twitter account, StumbleUpon, etc.
#3 Search Engine Optimization
Anyone who knows their SEO stuff will tell you: When it comes to search engine optimization, nothing beats fresh, original content. While link baiting and creating directory pages on your own site will help with your organic search rankings, it should supplement your real content offering. Just look at how well blog posts rank on Google. By nature, well-written content is full of keywords, whether on a product page or in an article related to the types of product you sell online. A fresh content offering gives spiders something new to crawl, and nothing beats a quality offering to encourage people to read and link to what you’ve written. And with Google Panda, being sure your product descriptions are truly unique will only benefit your e-commerce store.
Tip: A corporate blog is a great way for an e-commerce site to get into the content arena. You don’t have to worry about integrating a content management system into your platform, and you can use a blog to introduce new products, offer tips and share relevant news about your online retail business.
Related posts:
- J.C. Penney and Google: A Cautionary Tale of Ecommerce and SEO
- Best Buy Brings Online Content to Brick-and-Mortar Stores
- The Power of Online Product Videos
- Content Tips for Big-Ticket Email Marketing, Part 1
- Content Tips for Big-Ticket Email Marketing, Part 2
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Is CSN Stores the Amazon of Home?
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 by
Morgan Woodruff
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
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
How Does Your Ecommerce Shopping Software Manage Stock-Outs?
Thursday, April 14, 2011 by
Morgan Woodruff
New research from Oregon State University finds that, in addition to lost revenue, online stock-outs can also cause long-term brand damage due to customer dissatisfaction, a decrease in return visits and negative word-of-mouth.
Consumers' negative reactions were all linked to how B2C ecommerce websites manage stock-outs. Online retailers that do not notify customers until checkout that an item is out of stock are rated significantly worse than stores that let their customers know about avaialbility earlier in the shopping process.
Blueport's B2C Ecommerce Solution for Managing Stock Online
We designed Blueport Commerce's ecommerce shopping software to help big-ticket retailers mitigate this negative reaction to stock-outs. We integrate directly into a store’s inventory system and display updated, real-time product availability information. And we've designed our clients' websites to display important availability information for the consumer right on the product page based on stock, incoming purchase orders or inter-store transfers. Consumers know the local in-store availability and delivery dates before they add an item to their shopping carts.
Customer satisfaction can make or break your business. You need to leverage the right ecommerce CRM software to help keep your customers on your website -- after all, your competitors are only a click away.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Consumers' negative reactions were all linked to how B2C ecommerce websites manage stock-outs. Online retailers that do not notify customers until checkout that an item is out of stock are rated significantly worse than stores that let their customers know about avaialbility earlier in the shopping process.
Blueport's B2C Ecommerce Solution for Managing Stock Online
We designed Blueport Commerce's ecommerce shopping software to help big-ticket retailers mitigate this negative reaction to stock-outs. We integrate directly into a store’s inventory system and display updated, real-time product availability information. And we've designed our clients' websites to display important availability information for the consumer right on the product page based on stock, incoming purchase orders or inter-store transfers. Consumers know the local in-store availability and delivery dates before they add an item to their shopping carts.
Customer satisfaction can make or break your business. You need to leverage the right ecommerce CRM software to help keep your customers on your website -- after all, your competitors are only a click away.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Marketing to the Smarter Consumer
Friday, March 11, 2011 by
Betsy Miller
This week I read about an interesting report from IBM, titled “Capitalizing on the Smarter Consumer.” It contains the results of the company's recent survey of 30,000 consumers about how they shop and why. This is the latest report to underscore just how much technology is driving e-commerce growth and affecting consumers' shopping habits. According to IBM, consumers are more comfortable than ever using the Internet, mobile technologies, in-store tools and other innovations to research and buy products.
Most interesting was IBM’s identification of the “instrumental customer”: a consumer who uses two or more technologies to shop. According to IBM, this constitutes a growing number of shoppers, with 49 percent of survey respondents falling into this category (up 36 percent from last year).
Other findings of note:
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Most interesting was IBM’s identification of the “instrumental customer”: a consumer who uses two or more technologies to shop. According to IBM, this constitutes a growing number of shoppers, with 49 percent of survey respondents falling into this category (up 36 percent from last year).
Other findings of note:
- 75 percent of consumers would shop on a retailer's e-commerce store
- 39 percent would use in-store kiosks, a 10 percent increase over last year
- 25 percent want to shop via the mobile channel, up from 13 percent
- 78 to 84 percent of consumers now rely on their social networks when researching new products
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Multichannel Retailers Continue to Battle Fraud
Monday, January 31, 2011 by
Morgan Woodruff
One of the ongoing concerns of multichannel retailers remains fraud and customer theft. A new report from CyberSource showed that fraud rates for online retailers in the United States and Canada remained steady at 0.9% in 2010 for the second year in a row.
The good news is that retailers are continuing to get a better grasp on how best to mitigate fraud resulting from their ecommerce site, even during high volume periods like this past holiday shopping season.
CyberSource estimates that online fraud cost retailers an estimated $2.7 billion in 2010, down from $3.3 billion in 2009. This is due to retailers becoming more aggressive about rejecting suspicious orders. According to CyberSource, North American online retailers rejected 2.7% of orders in 2010, up from 2.4% in 2009.
While the threat of fraud will obviously never go away, retailers should continue to invest in solutions to help them manage the risk. At Blueport Commerce, we have developed extensive fraud intercept solutions embedded into our platform. A collaborated effort of our technology and staff monitor each order that comes in through our clients’ ecommerce stores, intercepting fraudulent orders before they are even processed.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
The good news is that retailers are continuing to get a better grasp on how best to mitigate fraud resulting from their ecommerce site, even during high volume periods like this past holiday shopping season.
CyberSource estimates that online fraud cost retailers an estimated $2.7 billion in 2010, down from $3.3 billion in 2009. This is due to retailers becoming more aggressive about rejecting suspicious orders. According to CyberSource, North American online retailers rejected 2.7% of orders in 2010, up from 2.4% in 2009.
While the threat of fraud will obviously never go away, retailers should continue to invest in solutions to help them manage the risk. At Blueport Commerce, we have developed extensive fraud intercept solutions embedded into our platform. A collaborated effort of our technology and staff monitor each order that comes in through our clients’ ecommerce stores, intercepting fraudulent orders before they are even processed.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Engaging Customers at Every Purchase Touchpoint
Thursday, January 13, 2011 by
Betsy Miller
A newly released report from eMarketer highlights the seismic shift that is occurring in how consumers shop, and consequently, how multi channel retailers need to market to them.
Digital media, technology and content have dramatically altered the multichannel retail shopping experience. eMarketer outlines how retailers can use technologies to target consumers during their three shopping phases: pre-shop, in-store and post-shop.
Pre-shop: Make the shopping experience as easy and convenient as possible for consumers, by equipping them with a variety of digital shopping tools to help them save money, grant them access to deals or provide the product information they are looking for quickly. At the heart of this is your ecommerce store, which should give customers everything they need at their fingertips and a foundation for their purchase path.
In-store: eMarketer highlights several technologies that retailers can incorporate into their stores, such as self-checkouts or kiosks, but they emphasize the most notable of these is mobile. In addition to store staff, location-based check-ins and in-store mobile tools and apps such as price comparisons will offer retailers an additional opportunity to engage and interact with their customers in the final moments before they make their purchase decision.
Post-shop: Once a customer has made their purchase, retailers should look for creative ways to encourage customers to share their stories via social media or other online communities.
As eMarketer notes, more touchpoints for consumers along their purchase path mean more opportunities for retailers to get creative in how they engage with them. Start by thinking holistically about the customer purchase path and how your various retail marketing initiatives impact their decision process every step of the way.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Digital media, technology and content have dramatically altered the multichannel retail shopping experience. eMarketer outlines how retailers can use technologies to target consumers during their three shopping phases: pre-shop, in-store and post-shop.
Pre-shop: Make the shopping experience as easy and convenient as possible for consumers, by equipping them with a variety of digital shopping tools to help them save money, grant them access to deals or provide the product information they are looking for quickly. At the heart of this is your ecommerce store, which should give customers everything they need at their fingertips and a foundation for their purchase path.
In-store: eMarketer highlights several technologies that retailers can incorporate into their stores, such as self-checkouts or kiosks, but they emphasize the most notable of these is mobile. In addition to store staff, location-based check-ins and in-store mobile tools and apps such as price comparisons will offer retailers an additional opportunity to engage and interact with their customers in the final moments before they make their purchase decision.
Post-shop: Once a customer has made their purchase, retailers should look for creative ways to encourage customers to share their stories via social media or other online communities.
As eMarketer notes, more touchpoints for consumers along their purchase path mean more opportunities for retailers to get creative in how they engage with them. Start by thinking holistically about the customer purchase path and how your various retail marketing initiatives impact their decision process every step of the way.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Locating the Store Locator
Friday, January 7, 2011 by
Betsy Miller
If you are a multichannel retailer, chances are your website has a store locator. But, according to a new report from Tempkin Group, online store locators are missing a key part of the shopping experience. The report, issued in December, evaluated five retailers – The Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Walgreens and Walmart, as well as five banks. Companies were rated across six criteria: start, locate, interact, complete, end and brand coherence.
Tempkin Group found that most of the sites' store locators were mediocre because they had poorly organized results pages, lacked important information and made it hard to find the store locator on the homepage.
While store locators are often a ‘checklist’ feature, is critical to get it right, or you risk losing traffic (and therefore sales) to your competitors. There is no reason that the store locator should become one of your ecommerce challenges. Based on the Tempkin Group’s criteria, as well as our own experience with big-ticket retailers who rely heavily on cross channel commerce, we put together the following tips to ensure your store locator makes the grade:
1. Ensure your store locator is easy to…well, locate! The store locator should always be easy to find - not only on the homepage, but within search results and product pages.
2. Include all the information needed to find the store, not just the address. Include local store hours, a phone number, a map and directions.
3. Keep everything “above the fold.” Maps should never push important information to the bottom of the page. Be sure to test your page within multiple browsers and on different size screens to ensure pertinent information is always above the fold.
4. Offer local inventory checks so a consumer can check whether a product is in stock before making a trip to the store. If a product is not in stock, suggest the next closest store where the product can be found and/or offer to have the product shipped to the customer's home or closer store location.
5. Enable the shopper to text, email or click on a printer-friendly version of the store info and/or directions.
6. Finally, for mobile retail sites and applications, create a GPS-enabled store locator function to make it as easy as possible for the on-the-go shopper to find your store.
As Tempkin advises, think the entire customer process through when designing your store locator.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Tempkin Group found that most of the sites' store locators were mediocre because they had poorly organized results pages, lacked important information and made it hard to find the store locator on the homepage.
While store locators are often a ‘checklist’ feature, is critical to get it right, or you risk losing traffic (and therefore sales) to your competitors. There is no reason that the store locator should become one of your ecommerce challenges. Based on the Tempkin Group’s criteria, as well as our own experience with big-ticket retailers who rely heavily on cross channel commerce, we put together the following tips to ensure your store locator makes the grade:
1. Ensure your store locator is easy to…well, locate! The store locator should always be easy to find - not only on the homepage, but within search results and product pages.
2. Include all the information needed to find the store, not just the address. Include local store hours, a phone number, a map and directions.
3. Keep everything “above the fold.” Maps should never push important information to the bottom of the page. Be sure to test your page within multiple browsers and on different size screens to ensure pertinent information is always above the fold.
4. Offer local inventory checks so a consumer can check whether a product is in stock before making a trip to the store. If a product is not in stock, suggest the next closest store where the product can be found and/or offer to have the product shipped to the customer's home or closer store location.
5. Enable the shopper to text, email or click on a printer-friendly version of the store info and/or directions.
6. Finally, for mobile retail sites and applications, create a GPS-enabled store locator function to make it as easy as possible for the on-the-go shopper to find your store.
As Tempkin advises, think the entire customer process through when designing your store locator.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
A Fluid Online Shopping Experience Trumps Deals and Offers
Friday, December 10, 2010 by
Carl Prindle
This past Cyber Monday saw online retailers bring in a record breaking $1 billion in sales (comScore). But according to a new Google Commerce poll, while deals and promotions certainly lure in customers, what really keeps them coming back is a superior online retail shopping experience that makes product search fast and easy.
A few key findings from Google’s poll:
- 77% of those surveyed used search within an e-commerce store to find products.
- Responders were most impressed by ecommerce retailers who had great deals (22%) and a fast and easy shopping experience (14%).
- Shoppers cited a difficulty finding items (11%) more frequently than shipping problems (10%) or a lack of good deals (8%).
Though not specific to big ticket purchases, the Google poll underlies a fundamental principle of the way we approach ecommerce development at Blueport Commerce: a retailer’s online store should, above all else, provide a customer with the product information they are looking for quickly and easily. This is especially imperative for big-ticket categories, where the research process is longer and a customer likely spends more time on your site searching for different product options and comparing product specs, then they would for, say, a book or DVD. At Blueport, we focus on creating a site exerience that gets people to the products they want to look at immediately, without having to wade through layers of navigation.
If a customer shopping your bricks and mortar store became frustrated looking for a particular item, your sales staff would surely be able to promptly help him/her and answer any questions. Many retailers now offer live chat with retail staff to bring this in-store experience online, but customers are still often navigating alone, and thus need the product discovery process to be simple and fluid.
Whether you are launching a new site or revisiting your existing ecommerce storefront, always remember to take a step back and think about the customer research/shopping process. How easy is it to find a particular item? Can your customer sort their search based on different requirements? Are you categorizing products they way you think about them, or reponsding to how your customer thinks? Does your product catalog help the customer visualize how that item would fit in their home? Is it easy for your customer to instantly reach sales staff if they have a question?
Cover these basics and not only will your customers shop your e-commerce store on Cyber Monday, but they will keep coming back year round as well.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
A few key findings from Google’s poll:
- 77% of those surveyed used search within an e-commerce store to find products.
- Responders were most impressed by ecommerce retailers who had great deals (22%) and a fast and easy shopping experience (14%).
- Shoppers cited a difficulty finding items (11%) more frequently than shipping problems (10%) or a lack of good deals (8%).
Though not specific to big ticket purchases, the Google poll underlies a fundamental principle of the way we approach ecommerce development at Blueport Commerce: a retailer’s online store should, above all else, provide a customer with the product information they are looking for quickly and easily. This is especially imperative for big-ticket categories, where the research process is longer and a customer likely spends more time on your site searching for different product options and comparing product specs, then they would for, say, a book or DVD. At Blueport, we focus on creating a site exerience that gets people to the products they want to look at immediately, without having to wade through layers of navigation.
If a customer shopping your bricks and mortar store became frustrated looking for a particular item, your sales staff would surely be able to promptly help him/her and answer any questions. Many retailers now offer live chat with retail staff to bring this in-store experience online, but customers are still often navigating alone, and thus need the product discovery process to be simple and fluid.
Whether you are launching a new site or revisiting your existing ecommerce storefront, always remember to take a step back and think about the customer research/shopping process. How easy is it to find a particular item? Can your customer sort their search based on different requirements? Are you categorizing products they way you think about them, or reponsding to how your customer thinks? Does your product catalog help the customer visualize how that item would fit in their home? Is it easy for your customer to instantly reach sales staff if they have a question?
Cover these basics and not only will your customers shop your e-commerce store on Cyber Monday, but they will keep coming back year round as well.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Google Shopping Goes Local
Friday, November 19, 2010 by
Carl Prindle
This week Google launched several new features to Google Shopping, most notably localized product search – which we first discussed here back in March.
Google users will now see two new links accompanying product search results, including the location of local retail stores and an indication if a product is in stock, in limited quantities or out of stock in their area. A click on an individual product will also return a list of nearby stores that carry that product with an embedded Google Map for obtaining directions.
70 large retailers are on board for the initial launch, including Macy's, Pottery Barn, and Best Buy. Google has also struck deals with retail industry software giants JDA, Epicor, and Oracle to integrate the Google Shopping upload process into the inventory management systems of those retailers.
Google understands that most consumers (especially those looking to make big ticket purchases that require consideration and research) go online to compare specs, prices and features before heading to their local store for in-person research and to buy. This local, cross-channel, big ticket experience is, without question, the next wave of online commerce.
But, say you’re a big ticket retailer not named Pottery Barn.
You probably aren’t running your inventory on Oracle or JDA. Most likely, you probably haven’t been able to make local inventory information available on your own website, much less Google’s. So how can you take advantage of this explosive trend?
This is where we come in. Blueport has been building localized e-commerce systems for big-ticket retailers for over a decade. Leveraging our localized platform, your Blueport website perfectly reflects your local store offerings, regardless of what systems you are running in your stores.
With that infrastructure in place, it’s simple to take advantage of the latest in localized online advertising – like Google’s new local product search. Better yet, when consumers come to your Blueport site, you’ll have enabled the type of seamless, local, cross-channel shopping experience that makes Google Local a powerful idea.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Google users will now see two new links accompanying product search results, including the location of local retail stores and an indication if a product is in stock, in limited quantities or out of stock in their area. A click on an individual product will also return a list of nearby stores that carry that product with an embedded Google Map for obtaining directions.
70 large retailers are on board for the initial launch, including Macy's, Pottery Barn, and Best Buy. Google has also struck deals with retail industry software giants JDA, Epicor, and Oracle to integrate the Google Shopping upload process into the inventory management systems of those retailers.
Google understands that most consumers (especially those looking to make big ticket purchases that require consideration and research) go online to compare specs, prices and features before heading to their local store for in-person research and to buy. This local, cross-channel, big ticket experience is, without question, the next wave of online commerce.
But, say you’re a big ticket retailer not named Pottery Barn.
You probably aren’t running your inventory on Oracle or JDA. Most likely, you probably haven’t been able to make local inventory information available on your own website, much less Google’s. So how can you take advantage of this explosive trend?
This is where we come in. Blueport has been building localized e-commerce systems for big-ticket retailers for over a decade. Leveraging our localized platform, your Blueport website perfectly reflects your local store offerings, regardless of what systems you are running in your stores.
With that infrastructure in place, it’s simple to take advantage of the latest in localized online advertising – like Google’s new local product search. Better yet, when consumers come to your Blueport site, you’ll have enabled the type of seamless, local, cross-channel shopping experience that makes Google Local a powerful idea.
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
The Power of Online Product Videos
Friday, November 5, 2010 by
Betsy Miller
The November issue of Internet Retailer has a terrific article about the benefits of online video at not only telling a better story about your products, but boosting conversion rates and natural search engine results as well. There is no doubt online video is booming. According to the piece, people watch 2 billion videos each day on YouTube, and 35% of the e-retailers in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide include online video in their e-commerce stores.
What's the Key to an Effective Online Video Strategy?
Unsurprisingly, an effective online video strategy starts with creating compelling content that your customers actually want to watch, and continue watching. This could be anything from behind-the-scenes footage of product development, a visual explanation of your product or even interviews with product designers or staff.
Understanding the technology required to deploy and maintain video is the next step. Quick and seamless streaming of video is essential. Slow loading videos quickly lose their appeal and lead to frustrated and dissatisfied customers.
Finally, by refining video content, retailers can quickly boost natural search engine results. Internet Retailer notes that search engines give more weight to pages with video, because they see video as an indicator of website quality. Forrester Research estimates a company is 50 times more likely to show up on the first page of search engine results if a page has video that is embedded in a search engine-friendly way.
I think online videos can prove to be an especially powerful force in the big-ticket category, where the product decision process is longer and more in-depth. When merchandising these products in your ecommerce catalogs, being able to offer your customer as much information as possible to help them feel comfortable with their purchase is essential. For example, a quick product video (similar to the ones you may see when purchasing a pair of shoes on Zappos.com) can very quickly achieve a level of comfort for the customer that no amount of written product descriptions or images could to help drive a sale. Conversely, a behind-the-scenes look at how a sofa was made can help to create a deeper relationship with that customer, promoting brand loyalty.
I’m curious to hear what role online videos are or will be playing in your Internet retail strategy?
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
What's the Key to an Effective Online Video Strategy?
Unsurprisingly, an effective online video strategy starts with creating compelling content that your customers actually want to watch, and continue watching. This could be anything from behind-the-scenes footage of product development, a visual explanation of your product or even interviews with product designers or staff.
Understanding the technology required to deploy and maintain video is the next step. Quick and seamless streaming of video is essential. Slow loading videos quickly lose their appeal and lead to frustrated and dissatisfied customers.
Finally, by refining video content, retailers can quickly boost natural search engine results. Internet Retailer notes that search engines give more weight to pages with video, because they see video as an indicator of website quality. Forrester Research estimates a company is 50 times more likely to show up on the first page of search engine results if a page has video that is embedded in a search engine-friendly way.
I think online videos can prove to be an especially powerful force in the big-ticket category, where the product decision process is longer and more in-depth. When merchandising these products in your ecommerce catalogs, being able to offer your customer as much information as possible to help them feel comfortable with their purchase is essential. For example, a quick product video (similar to the ones you may see when purchasing a pair of shoes on Zappos.com) can very quickly achieve a level of comfort for the customer that no amount of written product descriptions or images could to help drive a sale. Conversely, a behind-the-scenes look at how a sofa was made can help to create a deeper relationship with that customer, promoting brand loyalty.
I’m curious to hear what role online videos are or will be playing in your Internet retail strategy?
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Ecommerce and the Dangers of Downtime -- Especially with Holidays Approaching
Monday, October 4, 2010 by
Morgan Woodruff
Downtime is never good for a website, and for an online retailer it's seriously detrimental. Time is money, and your customers depend on being able to access your site whenever might be convenient for them.
And with the holidays approaching, the impact of downtime dramatically increases. One large warehouse retailer recently experienced three hours of downtime during a Labor Day sale.
So what can you do to prevent a disaster on one of your busiest days?
Talk to your hosted ecommerce software provider now. Do not wait until there is an issue to see how they respond. Your hosted ecommerce software provider should have a contingency plan should anything go wrong. Become familiar with how it would work, who you would need to contact and what the escalation process would be.
Blueport Commerce's hosted ecommerce software solution ensures uptime even during the busiest shopping seasons. We provide around-the-clock support, giving peace of mind to our retailers and their IT staff, and letting them focus on their sales, not damage control.
The Next Frontier for E-Commerce
Friday, October 1, 2010 by
Morgan Woodruff
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
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
Arhaus Furniture's Custom iPad App Aims to Drive Cross Channel Sales
Thursday, August 19, 2010 by
Morgan Woodruff
Arhaus Furniture, a high-end furniture multi channel retailer with stores in 13 states in addition to a print catalog and an e-commerce site at Arhaus.com, will soon arm their entire delivery team with an iPad application aimed at not only enhancing the product delivery experience, but also driving repeat and incremental purchases from their customer base.
The application is designed primarily for customer use: customers will be handed the iPad at the start of the delivery, which will include a welcome and thank you message from the retailer, will be able to look at different furniture setup options and even browse the entire Arhaus ecommerce catalog. Customers will also sign off on deliveries using their fingers on the touch screen and will also be able to fill out a post delivery survey on site.
While the iPad application will certainly result in efficiencies in the retailer’s fulfillment and delivery systems, what is interesting here is how the company is adding another level to their customer service experience through a true cross channel retail strategy. For example, while a customer is having a sofa delivered that they purchased at their local store, they will be able to browse the Arhaus.com ecommerce catalog through the iPad app for the matching chair they recall seeing during their shopping trip.
No doubt that we will continue to see more and more retailers integrate these type of mobile and tablet products into their multi channel strategy to enhance their customers' retail shopping experience, be it in-store or on the go. And as retail channels become increasingly blurred and intertwined, the importance of having consistent content and product information for your customer no matter where they are shopping will be imperative and essential to driving sales.
How are your stores or franchises integrating technologies such as the iPad into their sales or customer service process?
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
The application is designed primarily for customer use: customers will be handed the iPad at the start of the delivery, which will include a welcome and thank you message from the retailer, will be able to look at different furniture setup options and even browse the entire Arhaus ecommerce catalog. Customers will also sign off on deliveries using their fingers on the touch screen and will also be able to fill out a post delivery survey on site.
While the iPad application will certainly result in efficiencies in the retailer’s fulfillment and delivery systems, what is interesting here is how the company is adding another level to their customer service experience through a true cross channel retail strategy. For example, while a customer is having a sofa delivered that they purchased at their local store, they will be able to browse the Arhaus.com ecommerce catalog through the iPad app for the matching chair they recall seeing during their shopping trip.
No doubt that we will continue to see more and more retailers integrate these type of mobile and tablet products into their multi channel strategy to enhance their customers' retail shopping experience, be it in-store or on the go. And as retail channels become increasingly blurred and intertwined, the importance of having consistent content and product information for your customer no matter where they are shopping will be imperative and essential to driving sales.
How are your stores or franchises integrating technologies such as the iPad into their sales or customer service process?
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
Offering Your Customers Multiple Ecommerce Payment Solutions
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by
Morgan Woodruff
Offering your online customers flexible payment options is a no brainer. This final step in the ecommerce transaction process is critical for the customer who may very quickly abandon their cart if they cannot pay how they want to, or if checkout is not seamless and easy.
Be it credit/debit cards, PayPal, gift cards or loyalty points, providing a multitude of ecommerce payment solutions is the final component of a successful ecommerce shopping experience that drives conversion and minimizes cart abandonment.
But integrating multiple ecommerce payment solutions and checkout options into your site can be a daunting and time consuming task. Finding an ecommerce platform that supports these multiple payment options can be even more difficult.
That's why at Blueport, we make integrating multiple ecommerce payments solutions a one step process for our clients. All of the payment and checkout tools that you need are readily integrated into the Blueport ecommerce platform.
So, when your online store launches, so does a robust and flexible payments and checkout process. It's really that simple.
Be it credit/debit cards, PayPal, gift cards or loyalty points, providing a multitude of ecommerce payment solutions is the final component of a successful ecommerce shopping experience that drives conversion and minimizes cart abandonment.
But integrating multiple ecommerce payment solutions and checkout options into your site can be a daunting and time consuming task. Finding an ecommerce platform that supports these multiple payment options can be even more difficult.
That's why at Blueport, we make integrating multiple ecommerce payments solutions a one step process for our clients. All of the payment and checkout tools that you need are readily integrated into the Blueport ecommerce platform.
So, when your online store launches, so does a robust and flexible payments and checkout process. It's really that simple.
A Big Screen for Big-Ticket: In Defense of the iPad
Monday, April 12, 2010 by
Morgan Woodruff
Recently while reading my morning blogs I was prompted to upgrade to the most recent iTunes version, the one that supports the iPad.
iTunes then separated out my apps, and I noticed an advertisement for the Gilt Groupe shopping application which was specifically tuned for the larger screen of the iPad. I flipped through the screen shots – and was immediately impressed. The iPad app instantly began to show its chops through bigger, sharper imagery – a clear win for big-ticket retailers, like Gilt.
In my opinion, imagery plays an ever increasing role in big-ticket retail, which is why the iPad has the potential to be a big win for this category. Since the decision process is longer for these high-priced items, consumers typically want to feel and experience the product on a richer level. Being able to zoom in on an item on the iPad’s big, vivid screen with the pinch of your fingers means that consumers can get a clear picture of the product like never before. They can zoom in and see the texture of a fabric or the wood grain on a table. They can literally feel like they are in the store touching this product.
This interaction with a product before a customer makes the sale is pivotal for building confidence in the big-ticket item they are buying, creating higher customer satisfaction and lower return rates. Big-ticket retailers offering iPad apps will also be virtually unlimited in the visually stimulating and interactive content they can offer their consumers.
Will you be purchasing the iPad? What are your thoughts on the big-ticket e-commerce potential of this new tool?
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
iTunes then separated out my apps, and I noticed an advertisement for the Gilt Groupe shopping application which was specifically tuned for the larger screen of the iPad. I flipped through the screen shots – and was immediately impressed. The iPad app instantly began to show its chops through bigger, sharper imagery – a clear win for big-ticket retailers, like Gilt.
In my opinion, imagery plays an ever increasing role in big-ticket retail, which is why the iPad has the potential to be a big win for this category. Since the decision process is longer for these high-priced items, consumers typically want to feel and experience the product on a richer level. Being able to zoom in on an item on the iPad’s big, vivid screen with the pinch of your fingers means that consumers can get a clear picture of the product like never before. They can zoom in and see the texture of a fabric or the wood grain on a table. They can literally feel like they are in the store touching this product.
This interaction with a product before a customer makes the sale is pivotal for building confidence in the big-ticket item they are buying, creating higher customer satisfaction and lower return rates. Big-ticket retailers offering iPad apps will also be virtually unlimited in the visually stimulating and interactive content they can offer their consumers.
Will you be purchasing the iPad? What are your thoughts on the big-ticket e-commerce potential of this new tool?
Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce
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