What’s the next wave of e-commerce? Here’s a hint –it represents the 45% of retail that doesn’t fit in a UPS box. We call it “big ticket retail” and it includes large purchases that often require more consideration than traditional online purchases.
For these reasons and more, big-ticket retail is fundamentally local. Stores play a critical role. E-commerce becomes a powerful tool to help stores compete in their local markets rather than a national channel that bypasses them - essentially making it local e-commerce. Online efforts serve to drive store traffic, generate leads and consummate online transactions, cost effectively and measurably, creating a true multichannel retail supply chain.
Many e-commerce providers shy away from selling these types of items, as big ticket retail presents unique challenges. It involves more expensive, less well-understood products — furniture, appliances, TVs, flooring, construction materials, etc. Prices are higher and consumer confidence is lower. Inventory is bulky, expensive to move around the country and more expensive to return.
If you are a retailer who thinks your business is too complex for e-commerce transactions, there are solutions available to help you reach your big-ticket retail goals. Fundamental to these technologies and the services is the understanding that enabling big-ticket purchases online is different than traditional e-commerce, long typified by consumers purchasing inexpensive, simple products online and receiving shipment via parcel service.
Many retailers face challenges when developing or purchasing online ecommerce software solutions. Such challenges include:
- Products that are challenging to sell online because they are expensive, unbranded, not well understood or highly customizable
- Products that have complex delivery requirements that can't be met by standard parcel services
- Franchise or co-op models where brand, product offering and distribution is controlled locally by independent dealers
If you face these challenges, it’s important to look for an ecommerce solution provider that specializes in your area of business. When selecting an ecommerce software provider, ask how they can address your specific challenges.
Also, be sure that the vendor you select combines its ecommerce technology platform with relevant experience and real advice, consultation and support. This will help you enable a seamless ecommerce business solution and a true multichannel strategy which will in turn allow you to better focus on your core business, drive results and create e-commerce growth. Contact us to see how we’ve solved your challenges for the largest of big-ticket retailers.
Fulfillment and customer service should be a priority for every e-commerce transaction – however all ecommerce solutions are not created equal. Fulfillment becomes even more complicated for big ticket retail, or those retailers whose products do not easily fit into a UPS box.
E-commerce can't succeed in a category like big-ticket retail without a specialized technology provider. One with an e-commerce platform that’s able to process your product from order to delivery — and make it as easy as calling UPS.
How is an online order fulfilled?
Ecommerce solutions should make the process a closed loop that begins and ends with your existing systems. A platform should be able to extract your SKUs from your system, and return orders to your system in a format identical to an order written in your stores. Whether you have a home grown system or a major commercial package, the end result should be that e-commerce orders that are no different to fulfill than store orders.
Additionally, it’s important to ensure that your website only features products you can fulfill, and provides accurate local delivery dates. Dropped or discontinued products should be removed from your site automatically. Customers should be shown the same delivery dates they would get in a store, based on local stock, purchase orders or inter-store transfers.
The result is e-commerce volume that, from a service and fulfillment standpoint, is the same as store orders. Your team will know how to fulfill an e-commerce order from day one — just like a store order.
While the talk is often about what new technologies can enhance your ecommerce store, the nuts and bolts of any shopping experience lies with merchandising. Just like in your physical stores, selling the right item at the right price is key.
But when you're a multichannel operation, doing that successfully online can be a challenge. Customers want the multichannel commerce experience to be seamless and consistent – and Blueport Commerce can help you meet their expectations, without a lot of extra work.
For the past decade, Blueport Commerce has helped big-ticket retailers like you integrate their online store into their merchandising vision with the following strategies.
Using your existing data: Blueport Commerce's Product Sync updates your online catalog from your existing systems. Once it's in there, our Online Merchandising component allows you to augment that data for presentation in your ecommerce store, such as adding rich imagery and additional product information. And our Catalog Services division will help you develop the elements you need to display your catalog in its most engaging form, including providing image support, refining product information and copywriting. And all this information is kept current because we sync nightly, importing new individual items as well as packages, thus retaining critical relationships between items.
Making it easy to merchandise the ecommerce store: Through our Online Merchandising system, additional relationships can be introduced such as cross-sells or upsells, or configure new money-saving packages. Feature your bestsellers, new items or use your ecommerce store to sell items that you don't have the floor space to display in stores. Best of all, by analyzing your retail sales online, we can tell you precisely which products and merchandising approaches people like best.
Pricing Management Tools: To start, our Price Sync updates pricing on your site nightly based on your systems, making baseline pricing the same online as it is in your stores. But then our Online Merchandising system allows you precise pricing control, including the ability to modify pricing locally. We can even scan your inventory for odds and ends and add them to an online clearance center automatically.
Merchandisers, we're here to help you manage your ecommerce store – learn more by contacting us.
Are you a franchise retailer wondering how you could help your franchise owners get online? You’re not alone – here’s how we helped flooring franchise retailer Carpet One Floor and Home solve the franchise ecommerce problem.
With over 1,000 individually owned and operated franchise stores, Carpet One had physical locations covered but was lacking a comprehensive online marketing strategy. They understood that a web site could play a huge role in increasing revenue, brand awareness and traffic to their franchise stores but wasn't sure of the approach.
We starting working with Carpet One in 2008 on a complete franchise ecommerce solution, and in Spring 2009 launched the new site. The Blueport-powered Carpet One sites reflect each store’s unique offering, generating leads as well as sample, do-it-yourself, and installed flooring orders fulfilled by these local dealers. Providing both technology and ongoing management services, we allowed Carpet One to focus on what they do best – marketing, merchandising and operating their business.
Soon after launch, Carpet One saw substantial increases in qualified leads, both in-store and online. In addition, they’re seeing an amazing return on investment – an ROI of $10 for every $1 spent online, cost per sale online is half of traditional media and the average order generated online is 50 percent greater than only retail-customers.
For big-ticket retailers, email marketing programs can play a significant role in guiding customers along the path to purchase. To be successful, these email programs will require careful planning and robust data but the benefits are significant.
A robust ecommerce email marketing program enables retailers to track every registered user and leverage ecommerce CRM data for personalized marketing. Based on this information, retailers can create customized email marketing campaigns to help actively persuade customers during the big-ticket decision making process.
Use the items a customer left in their shopping cart, their number of visits to the site, the categories they shopped and the items they viewed to craft personalized, automated ecommerce email marketing programs that reach out to talk about new products, sales or promotions to match an individual customer's preferences.
If you're outsourcing to an email services provider, look for an
ecommerce email marketing system that supports segmentation of email content, offers, subject lines and timing to personalize campaigns and maximize results.
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