PATIENT: Doc, almost all our orders used to come through the call center. Now 75 percent come via our Web site. Weโre ready to give up on our catalog and go Web-only. Is that a good idea? CATALOG DOCTOR: To keep your Web business healthy, I advise keeping your catalog. Youโll be surprised how much the catalog drives both sales and profits. Itโs probably the primary driver of Web site orders. PATIENT: But how can I know for sure? I need to be able to justify an ongoing investment in the catalog. CATALOG DOCTOR: Letโs look at four different ways to learn how
E-Commerce
Itโs not so much what you sell online, itโs how safe you can make that transaction. According to a recent national survey of 2,706 consumers conducted by JupiterResearch for eBillme, an online payment solution provider, 81 percent of credit and debit card users value fraud protection as the most important factor when selecting an online payment option. Thatโs four times more important to respondents than purchase rewards. Listed below are some more highlights from the survey. * 77 percent of credit card users said theyโd accept changes in the online checkout payment process if it would enhance security; * when provided a
As per my headline, for this issue of Catalog Success: The Corner View, I hand my pen โ um, keyboard โ over to Catalog Success E-Commerce Insights columnist Alan Rimm-Kaufman. Alan heads the Rimm-Kaufman Group, an online agency providing large-scale paid search bid management and Web site testing services, and was formerly a marketing executive with the Crutchfield catalog of consumer electronics. I leave the stage to Alan, who starts with a potential scenario followed by nine predictions for the future of the catalog/multichannel business as it affects you. Scene: A bar at a conference hotel during a marketing trade show. Bill:
Familiarity with the types of products offered by a company or brand has proven to be a key influencer in driving traffic to your Web site. Such was the finding of the 2007 edition of the Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index conducted by ForeSee Results. The survey used the methodologies of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, and is based on the responses of more than 11,000 online shoppers. Here are some of its findings. * 78 percent of respondents said familiarity with the types of products offered by the company or brand led to satisfaction when visiting a Web site; followed by promotional
When preparing their next offers, multichannel marketers may want to take a second look at the value of free shipping. Its appeal to consumers appears to be growing. Such was the finding of the seventh annual Post-Holiday Customer Insight survey conducted by Decision Direct Research, the marketing research division of the list company the Millard Group. Of the 73,000 consumers who completed the recent survey, 61 percent said free shipping spurred them to shop from catalogs, and 53 percent indicated free shipping was the driving force in getting them to shop on a Web site. Here are some more noteworthy findings of the survey:
Many B-to-B catalogers are looking for ways to increase their online businesses. Most are currently spending significantly on some form of paid online advertising, improving their organic search efforts and improving their conversions of site visits to orders.
Another idea you might want to consider is starting a new company online. If you believe every successful endeavor starts with a consideration of your potential market and products, consider examining the following points.
* Take a look at your 10 best-selling products and ask yourself, โCould any of these become a stand-alone business?โ Examine how your products might serve a new market if they
This article assumes that insights gained from Web testing lead to effective print catalog presentations. That is our โBig Assumption.โ If you disagree, skip to the next article. No hard feelings; see you next month. Still reading? Good. There are two decent reasons to accept this Big Assumption. First, the Web is so prevalent that the demographics of Web shoppers are pretty much the same as the demographics of all direct shoppers, making the Big Assumption reasonable. Second, the Web offers catalogers their first chance to do real testing. While many catalogers think theyโve been testing for years, they really havenโt been
With many Web options available, overseas expansion for multichannel marketers might not be as daunting as it once was. John Lazarchic, vice president of e-commerce for multichannel pet supplies retailer PETCO, laid out a multistep plan to attract business from foreign customers during a Feb. 13 session at the eTail conference in Palm Desert, Calif. 1. Choose a comparison shopping engine and marketplace site, because โฆ * they capture large audiences; * when used effectively, they can significantly impact traffic and sales; * you compete with the many online businesses that compete on price, and theyโre all most likely using such search engines; and
Recently, I found myself in the middle of a discussion about how long it took to actually place an order on a particular catalogerโs Web site. Granted, this particular company admits itโs not on the cutting edge of online selling. But the result was an eye-opener. Knowing the product number, it still took me 22 clicks to buy an item on its Web site. Would anyone really put up with that? It actually surprised me how many customers did.
We, of course, began a search of this companyโs competitorsโ sites and found the same product could be ordered with far fewer clicks in
In a recent mystery shopping study conducted by the e-tailing group, TV home-shopping marketer QVC captured the top spot. The consulting firm ranked 100 Web sites based on a perfect score of 100, gauging such factors as the siteโs key pages, the overall presence and execution of merchandising, and customer-service tactics. Here are some of the more noteworthy findings of the report: * QVC captured the top spot with a score of 86.5; * the average score was 67.9; * 40 percent of the sites earned index ratings greater than 70, 44 percent of the sites were in the 60 to 70 range and