They’re actively recruiting IT, and product managers, usability experts and more. They’re looking to triple their workforce. Their new centre dedicated to e-commerce will open around May of this year.

Brian Tilzer, Staples.com’s vice president for ecommerce and business development, said it will be, “hub of innovation, with both world-class universities and technology companies.”

He continues, “Staples new E-Commerce Innovation Center will become the home to some of the world’s best e-commerce talent with the goal of rapidly bringing breakthrough new ideas to market in emerging online technologies like mobile commerce and social media.”

They’ve released a mobile app, which is available on both iPhone and Android. They claim it has more than 150 features, including access to daily deals, access to easier re-ordering, and greater rewards for account members.

It will be interesting to see if Staples can follow through with this plan. With the amount of resources and people they’re hiring, improvement seems very likely.

Product for sale on Shoply.com

While I still believe this to be a fundamentally sound way to view social media use, I see a future that contains a shift in this thinking as well.

As the level of social behavior continues to evolve and social networks grow more important in the lives of their users, they will become much more than outposts – they will move increasingly towards self-containment and wholly functioning marketplaces.

There is a growing mass that simply sees the Internet as Facebook and Facebook is really okay with that. Other marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, Buy.com and eBay are moving to socialize your product search and sort and become decision engines. These online destination are making moves to merge this behavior with pop up offline presence as well.

As mobile users depend upon apps like Siri (personal assistant on iPhone 4S) and Yelp and gain access to large amounts of research via QR readers, search engines will play a diminishing role in how buying decisions are made.

Buy.com just launched a feature that allows you to connect and shop collaboratively with friends making social shopping a real-time phenomenon. Paypal just released an app called Send Money that makes sending money to friends on Facebook a snap. As trust in doing business on these platforms merges with increasing levels of content and engagement, expect people to do more and more in these marketplaces.

What this behavior signals for small business marketers is the need to begin to view some outposts as destinations. In other words, it’s time to start looking at building a store on Facebook, Shoply, Amazon, Buy.com, Etsy and eBay.

I know many business sell in these places already, either as a primary distribution channel or as a supplement to their own online or offline store, but it may be wise for all businesses, regardless of what they sell, to set up shop in one or more of these destinations.

You may not see an immediate profit from your eCommerce enabled Facebook store, but it’s time to make that an option and start teaching those that interact with you there how and why they might also want to buy from you there.

The key, as it has been so clearly for the last few years, is to also up your engagement, education and participation in these markets rather than simply look at them as transaction enablers. These are growing major cities and you need to claim and grow your holdings there before it becomes overcrowded.

Facebook ecommerce solutions

• Payvment – http://www.facebook.com/payvment
• Lunarmods – http://www.lunarmods.com/
• Ecwid – http://www.ecwid.com/
• Infused Commerce – http://www.infusedcommerce.com/

Marketplaces

• Shoply Store – http://shoply.com/sell/
• Sell on Etsy – http://www.etsy.com/sell
• eBay Stores – http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/building.html
• Amazon Webstore – http://webstore.amazon.com/
• Buy.com – http://www.buy.com/
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  ]]> http://www.ecommercetrends.com/social-networks-will-become-marketplaces/feed/ 0 http://www.ecommercetrends.com/from-social-commerce-to-syndicated-commerce/ http://www.ecommercetrends.com/from-social-commerce-to-syndicated-commerce/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:16:00 +0000 Brian Solis http://www.ecommercetrends.com/?p=283 Part 10 in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual…this series serves as the book’s prequel.

  

  Today’s social media best practices will show you the marvels of creative marketing in social networks, the benefits of customer service on Twitter and blogs, innovations in co-created products and services, and insights into how to build a more engaged business. As organizations migrate from rigid to social business models, no line of business, department, function, or small business for that matter, will go untouched or unchanged. So what’s next? As you can see in the image above, one of the more aggressive trends on the horizon is social commerce and it centers on improving the complicated relationships that exist between…

  1. Consumers and their friends/peers as they shop
  2. Consumers and retailers
  3. Retailers and Brands

  4. Brands and Consumers, pre-, mid and post commerce

  The idea of buying with friends is not necessarily new. But, sharing in purchase experiences, interacting with products through connected apps, and influencing decisions through social and mobile networks is quickly becoming “the next big thing.” And, it’s also quickly becoming the next big wonderment. The idea of social commerce is so big, so distributed that entire ecosystems are forming around each of the four categories listed above. Like social media, social commerce is bigger than how we view social today – meaning its bigger than Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare and Groupon.  This is about building meaningful relationships with customers. This is our opportunity to create useful and shareable experiences that satisfy the needs of consumers and sparks engagement between brands, retailers, friends, and friends of friends.

  

  SpinBack, a social commerce and analytics platform that was recently acquired by BuddyMedia, published a clever infographic that demonstrates the value and possibilities of social commerce. In four simple, yet profound steps, socialized commerce makes the case for retailers. However social commerce just isn’t about being social. This is about defining an integrated and substantial experiences across the entire ecosystem. The nature of how consumers interact with one another, brands, and retailers is fundamentally a higher touch proposition than ever before.

  Imagine sending  a more sophisticated social consumer to your website or social presence as it exists today? Ask yourself, what’s so compelling about the clickpath today that would compel a discerning consumer to travel from beginning to end and find the journey so completely fascinating that they will tweet, update Facebook, and update every relevant network along the way. Chances are, they won’t. This is why developing a foundation for social commerce is just the beginning. Designing the entire online customer experience, from beginning to end, is where our focus will lie over the next few years. Add to that a layer of engagement, and you can feel and count the effects of the disruptive nature of socialized commerce.

  

  For those who seek inspiration or justification, Spinback assembled some astounding facts. Here are just a few standouts:

  - 90% of all purchases are subject to social influence

  - Social commerce is expected to generate $30 billion in 2015 (just a few short years away)

  - Facebook friends are four times more valuable than Twitter followers

  

  As you lead the way, it’s often helpful to point to stats or achievements to make the case for change even if you’re in the middle of an existing strategy. At the same time, every new year introduces the need for new plans. As we can see, short term success is possible. The question is, how do you translate the short term to longer term value? Nonetheless, we can see that using Groupon, The Gap generated $11 million in one-day sales. Through F-commerce, Pampers sold more than 1,000 diapers in one hour. And, LivingSocial drove more than 42,000 shares in one day for a $20 Amazon voucher.

  Social Commerce Opens the Door (and Conversation) to Syndicated Commerce

  Social commerce is just one part of a multifaceted approach to a new era commerce. It’s important to realize that there is no one way to reach every consumer with a sweeping commerce strategy. One to many now longer works in a time where consumers are not only connected, they’re empowered. Remember, social commerce only reaches a finite percentage of your overall prospects. Such is true for any other single channel such as mobile or F-commerce. True commerce must be far more comprehensive, yet focused than any one channel.

  Social commerce in of itself, is a vast universe that covers social networks, apps, F-Commerce (Facebook Commerce), mobile, Facebook Connect and Twitter @Anywhere, and much much more. As consumer needs, preferences and networks of relevance are as varied as they are concentrated, the focus of any social commerce strategy moving forward should not solely target the social consumer, but instead the connected consumer. This means that social plays into a much more expansive approach that reaches consumers through their channels of preference.

  Sounds easy enough right? Not so fast. Ask any consumer what it is they expect from a brand or retailer online and they’ll tell you that in addition to discounts, promotions, special offers and exclusive information, they want the ability to buy within their network.

  To quote the now cult-status video, Double Rainbow, “what does this mean?”

  It means that businesses must now think about a distributed commerce strategy that accounts not only for social commerce, but also all forms of commerce ranging from mobile commerce (m-commerce), e-commerce, Facebook commerce (F-commerce), social commerce, real world (in-store) commerce, e-mail commerce, and every other form of commerce that matters.

  The future of commerce is not simply social. The future of commerce takes a holistic approach in the form of syndicated commerce. Customer deals, offers, promotions, and experiences must be one with the brand and the brand experience. To achieve oneness across syndicated commerce, business leaders must define the experience, desired outcomes, and mutual benefits along the way. More importantly, each platform must feed into a single system that identifies people, their relationships, and their preferences to introduce substance and value – regardless of medium.

  

  Oh but what is the reward or ROI for all of the extra expenditures, resources and time required to build out an entirely new system? Well, what’s the cost of irrelevance or obsolescence when the I in ROI could stand for ignorance? Certainly by developing a dedicated, yet holistic strategy is far more lucrative than continuing on a path of business as usual. What’s at stake is customer engagement, deeper customer loyalty, and ultimately drive sales and profit.

  Syndicated commerce delivers value to consumers and shapes and steers experiences that deliver long term value to businesses.

  Social media is a great disruptor and it is rightfully earning its place within the foundation of everyday business. But our job is only just beginning. We cannot rest on validation that organizations now Tweet, blog, or maintain a presence on Facebook or Youtube. That’s not what this consumer revolution is about. What’s happening now is not because of social media nor will businesses transform simply because of social networks. Instead, businesses must realize that disruptive channels and networks represent an opportunity for insight and engagement. Even though many businesses are using social media now merely for marketing purposes, the ability for businesses to listen to, learn from, and connect with customers will transform the entire organization from the inside out. From customer service to employee relations to product development to commerce, social media and disruptive technology in general sets the stage for a new era of business.

  To be continued…

  Comments

  ]]> http://www.ecommercetrends.com/from-social-commerce-to-syndicated-commerce/feed/ 0 http://www.ecommercetrends.com/optimizing-your-b2b-website-to-increase-roi/ http://www.ecommercetrends.com/optimizing-your-b2b-website-to-increase-roi/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:28:04 +0000 Amanda Chaney http://www.ecommercetrends.com/?p=279 A lot of people think that E-commerce isn’t really a big part of B2B transactions. Greg Ott (DamandBase) and Joe Rawlinson (National Instruments) aim to discuss  how it is.

  Some things to keep in mind:

  • At some point in the B2B sales cycle, almost everyone touches your website.
  • One size fits all format for your site rarely ever works. You end up with low conversions, low engagement, and it’s hard to track effectiveness.
  • A lot of B2B marketers do a great job focusing on learning a lot about prospects, but not the reverse, helping your prospects learn more about you.

  How is Web Conversion Unique to B2B?

  1 | ROI is typically measured in leads. No real ad or e-retail monetization. This makes it harder to optimize.

  2 | There’s typically no impulse buying buy visitors.  You aren’t just selling to one individual, you are selling to an entire account or company.

  3 | Revenue is typically more low volume, but with high value. Be sure to segment the high value from the low value leads.

  4 | Relevance is more identity based rather than behavioral. Look at your sales team, see how they segment prospects. You need to start thinking the same way for the structure of your site.

  Website Conversion Optimization: There is typically a lot of focus on Landing Page Optimization, and not nearly enough on your entire site experience and website conversion optimization.

  B2B Website Optimization path

  1. Target Content to Increase Engagement.

  Make your content more personal. This goes against the typical “one-size-fits-all” mentality a lot of B2B sites use today. Try to segment your audience from the get go, then direct them to the most relevant content. You can use IP address or cookies to determine industry, company, etc before the page even loads. As with landing pages, you’ll have more chance of conversion when you serve the most relevant content to the visitor in question.

  • Be sure to select high value areas to begin your optimization efforts, instead of going for the entire site at once.
  • Create and categorize content for high-value segments and profiles.
  • Use identity-based segmentation. Be sure you are correctly identifying your visitor, or creating categories to serve most relevant content for any anonymous visitors.

  2. Optimize your website forms to streamline lead capture.

  Similar to landing page optimization best practices, try to streamline and shorten your form. Do you really need all those fields? What do you need RIGHT NOW? You can get more leads, and get more data later if you need it. Adobe took one form that had 12 fields and cut it down to 8; this one revision resulted in a 33% lift in completion rate, and over a $1 Million increase in revenue.

  3. Segment, Test, & Measure Your Results

  One great point Greg touched on was you need to optimize your specific segments, not just the overall averages. You’re specific segments, when optimized separately, can result in huge incremental gains. Be sure to measure your performance by these different segments as well. It’ll be easier to figure out where optimization efforts need to be concerted.

  If you are not continually striving to optimize your B2B site, you are losing business. You want to capitalize on every visitor that arrives on your site.

  Joe Rawlinson then talked about simplifying your website and order process to acquire more leads/sales. 

  How are the choices you give your visitors impacting your business?

  • Reduce complexity, narrow choices
  • Treat a visit to your site as a virtual sales visit

  Joe brought up a great example of complexity vs. simplicity and how the results were impacted by each:

  Experiment: JAMS ON A TABLE

  The experiment involved a simple test of using a complex display with 24 different types of jam versus a simple display of only 6 varieties. The 24 jam display resulted in a higher volume of visitors, while the simplistic display with only 6 varieties resulted in a higher volume of sales.Think about it…Groupon: They give you clear, simple options, and have developed an extremely successful business model out of it. Simplify your offerings. Here are some questions you should ask yourself about your site:

  • How can you simplify the choices you give your visitors?
  • How can you show the visitor the result of what they are choosing? Show them the trade-offs if they went with another option.
  • Are you distracting them by offering too many options?
  • Are you giving them social proof? People tend to back something or buy something if they see that people within their trusted circles are also doing so. Use social media and recommendation/reviews to take advantage of this tendency.

  While your site is your pride and joy, it can always be improved. Think about the tips and ideas above the next time you visit your website. There could be some simple revisions you could make today that could have a huge impact on your business.

  Comments

  ]]> http://www.ecommercetrends.com/optimizing-your-b2b-website-to-increase-roi/feed/ 0 http://www.ecommercetrends.com/tips-to-make-your-ecommerce-site-ready-for-the-festive-season/ http://www.ecommercetrends.com/tips-to-make-your-ecommerce-site-ready-for-the-festive-season/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:02:00 +0000 Navneet Kaushal http://www.ecommercetrends.com/?p=275 With, autumn setting in, the festive fervor catches up and spreads among people all over the country. As an e-commerce site owner, the festive season is a chance to double your sales and maximize your profits as the internet traffic shoots up by more than 40% over the festive period. This means you need to get a plan ready to divert some of the increased traffic to your site, and set the cash registers ringing (not literally!).

  Set You Goals:

  Like any good marketing plan, you need to set up your goals. These may vary according to your site, but the general idea is:

  • How Much Sales You Are Targeting?
  • Any Products You Plan To Highlight?
  • Want To Introduce Any Special Schemes, That May Carry In The New Year?
  • Newsletters And Email Sign ups?

  Once you have the answers to these questions, you need to set the game in motion by following a custom built marketing plan.

  Get The Look And Spread The Cheer!

  Your ecommerce site must get a festive make over. So you can add a festive header and footer to your site. Add a “Diya” for Diwali or may be a “Star” for Christmas. This not only makes your site attractive, but also is a way of informing the customers that you are ready and open for festive purchases.

  • Oil the creeks- in other words, check and double check that your site works. Check it over for ease of purchase, and make sure there is no error that could hinder a buyer.
  • Allow people to check in easily- this means that if you have a “sign in process” before the users can explore the site, then get rid of that for the festive season. You have to make purchasing easy, and make sure that the a browser converts into a buyer.
  • Change the newsletter sign up logo – make it festive centric. Something like “Sign Up For The Best Christmas Deals.”

  Stock Up For The Season With Products And Offers:
  
  You have to remember that for some one to buy from you amidst the million other festive offers, you have to give the customer something extra. You have to give people incentives to shop with you.

  • Offer free gifts- nothing gets people going like the chance to get something for free. So something on the taglines of- “Buy A Toy Car And Get Batteries Free!”
  • Offer price discounts- roll out special festive offers. Give the customers a chance to buy something at 10% less the price. This will be a good incentive for many.
  • Offer Free Shipping- this may seem quite a good deal to many customers, of you offer them an incentive to buy for example free shipping on orders over a certain amount during the festive period.
  • Keep an option for late shoppers- work out something, how can they pick up stuff, if it is too late to ship.
  • Most importantly, set up a special- Gifts Section!

  Gifting Ideas Galore!

  A great way to sell in the festive season is to make a gift out of your every product, so that people can buy almost anything as a gift for someone. You can offer well categorized choices for people to choose from- for instance-

  • By Relationships
  • By gender
  • By price
  • By type

  This classification will seem helpful and attractive at the same time-increasing your chances for a sale!

  Help people further by offering a FAQ session, so that they know what they want to buy. You can take them to the ideal gift by using a flowchart idea. This way, a woman would know what to get her 18 year old niece!

  • Combine products together- this will make them more attractive for the people, while making them useful too! For instance, if you combine a cooker with a blender, people can buy it thinking to give them each to two families!
  • Offer gift vouchers- gift vouchers are quite popular to catch hold of shoppers who are just browsing. A voucher is a primary choice for people who just can’t make up their mind what to buy as gifts. With a voucher, they can leave the deciding up to the receiver. Gift vouchers get a lot of takers, who are into last minute shopping, if you offer to send them as email vouchers.
  • Presentation-When you will deliver the gifts and other shopping items, make sure to pack them nicely for the festive season. This effort by you will be marked as a good professional touch at your part, and ensure that the shopper will return to your site again!

  Here is a video about the same:

  E-mail Marketing-Take It Up Early!

  Email special offers to your customers, well ahead of the festive season. Prepare a nice festive offers mail, and send it just as Fall sets in. Then schedule the reminders on a regular basis.

  • Create Email specific landing pages- this is a very essential step, as if you have a special email offer, the link should land on that offer page only- this will give it maximum impact. But at the same time, list all your other offers running, on that landing page too. So that people are attracted to look around further.
  • Send out Festive Greeting Too- you need to establish a personal contact with your buyers. So show them your human side. Do not forget to send people- Happy Diwali Or Merry Christmas emails on the day of the festival.

  Send emails reminding people of the offers running, and the new ones ready for the new year. Send an email with offers for the New Year on Christmas day.

  Internet Marketing And SEO:

  You have to begin on your festive special SEO campaign well in advance. Start around three to four months before so that you get the maximum benefits in the festive season.

  Find The Festive Keywords And Optimize Them- For the festive season, you will have to arrive at a whole new set of keywords to optimize for your ecommerce site. So, if -

  “Diwali designer candles” work for you or “designer gifts for Diwali” find that out.

  Think of including local too, if it applies in your case- like- “Christmas cakes Chicago”.

  You can arrive at the best keywords quickly by researching your analytics from the previous festive season to judge what worked for you.

  “Christmas 2011, get Christmas gifts, avail Christmas discounts at our store. Cheap Christmas goods here, with Christmas decorations.”
  

  • Optimize Your Site- Make sure that every single festive offer rolled by you is optimized. This means working on the titles and the meta description.
  • Create Content for your keywords- This is a part of optimizing, as you need to create content with your keywords. So interesting festive lore and write ups about gifting traditions are a good option. But again, do not do keyword stuffing, as this may upset the search engines, so avoid doing this-

  • A good piece of content would be- “Brighten up your Diwali this year, with our custom made Diwali gifts. Available for shipping within 24 hours!”
  • Write new and festive centric blogs- Articles on helping people prepare for the festivals- some festive delicacy recipe maybe? Think of what people would want to know during the festive season and write unique, informative and quality content.
  • Keep and eye on the competition- Learn from your competition. See what they are doing and what can you pick up from them.

  Go Social:

  Social media is your sure shot way to promote your offers quite successfully. But again, keep in mind to keep it social while selling! Do not spam the social networking sites with your offers.

  • Facebook- Keep updating your Facebook page with latest offers and discounts. Write interesting content as status update. Post festive and happy pictures!
  • Twitter- Apart from Tweeting offers, tweet interesting festive tips and articles. Engage others in conversation frequently and occasionally push your products. Invite your followers to Retweet your offers.
  • Press Releases- Do a press release outlining your offers. Link the release to your site.

  Optimizing the video and photo sites too!

  Additional Tips:

  • Keep a track of your Analytics to know where people are coming from- what keywords driving them-what are they looking for. This way you can add the product they are looking for.
  • Keep an eye on Google Trends- this will give you an idea what people are searching for and then use this information to optimize your site.

  Conclusion:

  This festive season, outline a marketing plan based on the pointers above. Give yourself and your design and development team some time to come up with creative plans and their neat implementations. Start in advance and see an increase in business in the last quarter of 2011 and new business in 2012.

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