Digital Marketing Consultant

The electronic retail shopping today is nothing like it was five years ago, and it is unrecognizable from ecommerce at ten years ago.  Even though many online shoppers have been doing business on the web for years, the types of transactions, expectations of quality, and on-site behaviors have all changed dramatically.  Consumers do not go online just to make a purchase.  They go online to browse, compare, and explore.  In other words, they go shopping.

First a few statistics.  During the 2010 holiday season, online shopping reportedly spiked up 13% year-over-year.

• That is compared to a 5.7% reported overall increase in shopping, which indicates the growing importance of the online medium.  At the same time, a recent Limelight Networks study found that 65% of survey respondents claimed to have been shopping online for more than five years.
• This history of on-line shopping appears to show that established online shoppers are doing more of their transactions on the web, even as new online shoppers are only now discovering the web’s advantages.  In other words, growth is coming from both a larger sample of consumers.  Javelin Strategy and Research predicts the percentage of US consumers shopping online will increase to 78% by 2014—and from greater usage among existing shoppers.
• Still, revenue from online shopping is only a fraction of retail revenue overall.  In 2010, holiday online sales rang in at $32.6 billion according to comScore, while the National Retail Federation reports that retail as a whole topped out at $462 billion in revenue.  That means that there is a lot of room for growth in the online space, and, given current growth rates, it also means we could see a big shift in proportional shopping across the retail landscape.  As important as etail is today, its relative impact on the retail sector, including purchases made both online and offline, will increase exponentially in the coming years.

There are three major trends to watch in the growth of online retail:

1. The use of video in online marketing and sales,
2. The growing importance of mobility, and
3. An increasing emphasis on personalized shopping experiences. 

With each of these trends, the impact is not just a matter of a particular behavior spreading to a larger group of people.  More tomorrow.

Chances are, you have heard the rule “Keep it simple stupid.”  You know, the one where simple is best for everyone concerned.  Well, this analogy applies to Internet marketing sales.

By keeping the process simple, you will have more conversions on your website.   Internet marketing has become a way of life in our modern world.  The competition has been getting heavier with each new website that is launched on the web today.  With this increased competition, how can you get your website to the top?

The first thing that you must commit to is customer satisfaction.  All the big players on the Internet already know the importance of customer satisfaction, so if you are just starting out, you have to make this commitment right from the start or risk being left behind.   You will be facing these mega sites and you best believe they are focusing on customer service.  

You must remember at all times who is king on Internet marketing.  Yes, you are correct; the customer is king.

The buying process on your site must be both secure and simply.   Your website should be developed with codes and keywords that allow    shoppers direct access to specific products and information about the products.   Once they have connected with the specific product they are looking for, the shopping experience must focus on quick carting and checkout for the products they have selected.  

You will also want to make sure you have a large selection of payment options available to your customers.   A website that only offers credit card payments will miss out on the sales of customers who may not feel secure disclosing this information on the Internet.

The real objective of your site is probably to secure sales.  To accomplish this, site pages must exhibit your salesmanship.  Your pages have to effectively make the sale for you.  This is what we call Conversion Architecture.  See the free Wisdom Book for details.

The economy of the world has been making the news in on a daily basis for the past couple of years.   Does the economy have an effect upon the eCommerce business?

These challenging economical times have made us hear some unpleasant words such as recession on a regular basis.   All you have to do is listen to the daiy news or stock market report and you quickly get the picture with reports of rising unemployment rates, downward turn of the real estate industry...even the store shelves shows the global impact of the economical situation.  But what if any is the economical effect for online businesses?  Download a business trends report.

During economical slow down and questionable futures, people tend to hold back on spending on non-necessities.  This will equate to less sales for many online businesses.

Fewer sales usually ends up with less competition, as some business owners will get out of business or reduce their marketing efforts in an attempt to spend less itself.  As this occurs more room is made for you to move your business up in the rankings.

Another benefit to online businesses during economical challenges is that, with increasing cost of fuel, people start learning how to shop without traveling and are more willing to shop on line than ever before.                                                 

You can look at the economical situation as a challenge or an opportunity to take advantage of the leverage it gives to internet marketing and ecommerce.  If you want ot take this opportunity to dominate your business sector, speak to us sooner rather than later.

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