Multi-Channel Commerce & Retailing

Online Logistics/Reverse Logistics Marketplace - The concept

2010-03-18T12:27:18Z

Over the last decade the concept of an online market-place and e-commerce have gained all the requisite importance. The way the Logistics/Reverse logistics is handled on a market-place generally depends upon a number of factors including but not limited to the business policy of the Marketplace. For e.g consider a marketplace which takes care of your deliveries if you are a seller, and you returns if you are a customer. The way this would work from an e-commerce perspective would be as follows: 1. A seller would create shipments on a front-end system and on requesting a carrier to collect the same - the Marketplace carrier would collect and deliver the product to the customer address. 2. A Customer would create return parcels on a front-end system and on requesting a carrier to collect the same - the Marketplace carrier would collect and return the product to a return address.

]]> With this possibility in mind, let us consider a scenario of a market-place where, logistics service providers can also list their services and offerings to deliver products from and to various locations. If this can be enabled the market-place would stand to gain from the immense number of transactions between sellers/customers and the logistics service providers.

Taking this thought further - we may also envision an exclusive market-place for logistics service providers. I could actually find this idea just begenning to bud in India when i happened to visit the following website: http://www.klickcouriers.com/. This concept is quite close to a "makemytrip.com" or a "yatra.com". On Makemytrip and yatra the customer gets a choice to select the best possible airline or a hotel, whereas, on klickcouriers the customer gets a choice to select the best possible Courier/Logistics service. Though not a hundred percent market-place, the concept has a scope to take a larger picture.

What would happen if such a logistics marketplace gets embedded with an online retail marketplace like amazon or ebay? The face of online retailing would change for sure. Just to highlight a few constraints in the implementation of an online logistics marketplace - I would say there are numerous regulations from a legal perspective when an international delivery happens. The operational costs would generally be very high for international logistics as many sellers and customers may generally not deal in bulk on a retail marketplace. Having said that the logistics costs and the per uint delivery costs would be lower on B2B marketplaces where the dealings would be in bulk.

Socially networked Marketplace - Would Ecommerce retailers want it?

2010-03-13T05:22:57Z

In one of my earlier blogs on rediff i had discussed this concept of a socially networked marketplace. I had discussed the concept of a market-place like Amazon or Ebay with an embedded functionality of social networking. Therefore, sellers and customers end up socially networking - Sellers to promote their services and products and customers would network with other customers and sellers. Also there was another idea envisaged there - A scocial networking site with the functionality of an e-commerce website (e.g what happens if Orkut / facebook / Myspace - enable their users to list products and services with a basket checkout functionality). There are other nuances to be considered as well, when we talk of a socially networked marketplace - Would an ecommerce retailer ever want such a functionality to be built into their website, where customers can network amongst each other?

I happened to come across this artice http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/securityfraud/setting-limits-on-customers-talking-with-each-other-in-e-commerce/ last week. Amazon has made its first move against customers and sellers getting in touch with each other directly. This only means that Amazon is now moving into a phase where they want customers and sellers to network through the amazon network and not through personal email, as before. Once the communication between users of the marketplace goes out of the network, Amazon looses all control. Having said this, we may assume that amazon would want to enable the feature of social networking on its own network - rather than customers joining the sellers personal twitter, myspace or linkedin networks and letting amazon loose all control over its customers.

This is probably the first move of its kind and in the days to come other retailers would take cue and follow.

flip-flop-flit

2010-03-12T11:04:34Z

I have always been advocating the point of providing physical store experience over the online stores. The idea is to provide great usability experience. A customer entering the stores normally looks after the labels and gets the product. He might flip- flop through various brands within the store.

]]>
Recently I was purchasing an airline ticket over one of the Travel agents website. I entered my travel details and got few options. I checked out one of the hot (cheapest with convenient timings) options and went to the order confirmation page. As soon as I confirmed it, I got a message that it is already sold out and I will have to select another option. Now as a customer this is irritating as I have to go all the way again to select another close to hot option and check out again with no guarantee that I will get it. In a physical store one the product is out of stock either the shelf is empty which tells that you cannot take the product or the section itself is removed. Is it so difficult to provide similar experience in an online store?

Hmmm…well good point…Have you ever thought of finalizing a product which you want to purchase after going through several stores unless you are brand conscious and go for a particular store + brand product. Yes you go out on the shopping street where normally most of the stores are located. You flip –flop & flit through various stores and then finalize a store where you get suitable product.

Don’t you want the similar experience over the web where you go to a shopping street where all the stores are located or in other words you do not have to open the website of each of the store individually rather you are provided a gateway to it. Katie has explained about one such website which provides good features in her article on Wall street Journal section.
You can enter a search keyword for example. Shoes and search for it.

You will be shown various stores containing the products and you can browse to any store to purchase the product.

You can browse the new site and also return to the flit site as there are some buttons which can bring you back.

Seems to be nice idea of creating market area. Though the site has to improve certain things like search which can bring results for the stores which do not have inventory for that particular product but from customer experience point of view this is great.

And I am sure that there will be usability improvements in the coming days which can bring e-shoppers and normal shoppers at the same level? Any more ideas which you can share.

Knowing the Customer

2010-02-16T16:51:45Z

Much has been written about the need for customer understanding and indeed, customer intimacy. We hear from all quarters about how we need to know who is buying our products, in what combinations and why. We can then target our marketing at them with a laser-like focus providing them with offers and information that will be interesting to them. This benefits the customer by reducing the amount of marketing that we are sending them and saves money for the organization by reducing the total number of marketing items.

]]> As consumers, we look forward to the day when we go to our favorite Web sites and see only content and marketing that is interesting to us, not to John Q. Public. Religious people should see ads for trips to the Holy Land, not to Club Med. Football fans will be presented with football tickets, apparel and souvenirs not golf clubs. Soccer fans will see soccer stuff not cookware. Home decorating will see window treatments, but their spouses will see table saws instead. Some of this is happening now on the Web, as everyone who shops Amazon.com can attest. This is not generally true on other eCommerce sites, and even less in stores. A few luxury stores keep records of what their store customers are buying and looking for, but by and large the retail store visit is still an anonymous shopping experience.

There are two primary reasons for this lack of information, one historical and the other systems-related. The historical reason is that retail started as a transactional business. Customers walk in, pick up merchandise and go to the checkout line. This has worked well as evidenced by the amount of merchandise sold this way, but it is far from the best way to interact with customer. The second, the systems reason is that it is difficult to know who is shopping with you at all times. You can know that someone is browsing you Web store, but you don’t always know who it is. She can order goods by phone based on your catalog, but is this the same person who was on your site. You can see people in your brick and mortar store, but you probably don’t know who they are. You can check someone out and capture the order but who is the buyer? What you need for customer intimacy is to know every time your organization touches the customer. A customer can call you on the phone with an customer service request.

Today, a customer walks into your store and buys a skirt. She goes home and buys shoes on you Web Store. Later she calls the catalog order center and orders a blouse. After they arrive, she calls customer service about a black mark on the shoe. In the ideal world, every one of these touch points would be recorded and linked to the customer profile. In the real world, each transaction is recorded separately with little or no accompanying info about who the customer was.

The key to obtaining this total view is customer identification at the transaction. How can you get a store customer to provide you with her identity without annoying them? How can you know when someone is on your Web store prior to logging in? When a phone order is placed, how do you record the identity of the buyer in a useful way.

One way to do this is by matching credit card numbers. If two transactions are paid using the same credit card, it is likely, but far from certain that they were created for the same customer. Husbands and wives often share a card, and older children often use the parents’ card, especially for online purchases. A better way is by using a loyalty program.

Loyalty programs are often thought of as marketing tools. That is true, but only part of the value. A well-designed loyalty program will incentivize a customer to provide their loyalty card or number for every transaction. Airlines, rental car companies and some grocery stores are very successful at getting me to provide this data. Free flights, free car rentals, and meaningful discounts on groceries and gasoline are all the incentive that I need to identify myself. Without the free stuff, my compliance is sparse. Online stores and catalog sales could also use a loyalty card for checkout.

Another online tool for discovering identity is the Web cookie. A cookie is a small data file that browsers store between visits to your site. Initially, users were afraid of cookies and would disable or delete them as a habit. Over time, this fear has subsided and they are now left enabled and rarely deleted. When an online customer arrives at the site, your code can examine the contents of the cookie to determine their identity and record any interesting or important behavior for later use.

Once all this data is gathered, it needs to be collated. In the ideal world, a customer management system would be at the center of your system architecture. This system would contain every single contact between your customer and your organization would be recorded here. The marketing analysis would be straightforward and the target customers for any campaign easy to identify.

If that is not in place, then a data warehouse can be designed to aggregate this data from transactional feeds. This is less convenient but can accomplish the same thing; segmenting customers based on their buying behavior. This insight might be the differential that causes your firm to slowly gain a clear advantage over the competition. Alternatively, it may allow you to survive if the competition for your customers becomes fierce.

Growing out of ecommerce packages

2010-02-16T09:40:03Z

Most of the large retail enterprises start multi channel commerce transformation initiatives with a strategizing and package evaluation phase - the idea being that the selected ecommerce package would act as the center pin of their multichannel strategy. But is it really about the package or is it about what is done over and above to what the package provides that really matters?

]]> As predicted by market research organizations last year, we see that a lot of the retail enterprises have actively started transforming their ecommerce businesses. They all see the online platform as a basic building block to build differentiating multichannel capabilities. Almost all organizations go through a package evaluation phase where they try to weigh capabilities of commercial off the shelf (COTS) ecommerce platforms. After having seen through some of the strategizing, evaluation, implementation and maintenance phases of our customers, there is a very interesting aspect that I want to bring out – about the relevance of the package evaluation and the package itself, in the medium to long term. Before proceeding further, let me make it clear that this is applicable only for enterprises that are large – large as in more than 250 M USD in revenue annually, or more than 250 K Items, or may be with more than 2 M active users and so on.

It all starts from this question – ‘Why should a particular enterprise be more successful online than its competitor when both are built on top of the same (or comparable) COTS platform, running on comparable infrastructure?’ There could be pure business reasons like better prices, better after sales service, etc – which are actually independent of the efficiency or capabilities of the commerce platform. In my observation each large, successful multi channel business has one or more features that differentiate them from others. It might be inter channel integration for one, a very wide and deep catalog for someone else or extremely dynamic and competitive price changes and promotions for somebody else. These differentiators when built on top of a robust and standard base platform complete a successful system implementation. The platform is absolutely essential and non negotiable – enterprises are not ready to spend time, energy and money in building what everyone in the world already has.

Now, a good COTS multichannel platform would provide the robust and standard platform – when conceived and implemented properly. But do they provide the differentiating features also? As answered by the question itself – they do not. If they did, they would not be ‘differentiating’ any more. Once any such features are rolled out in COTS product, those would become standard features and would get rolled out to all the users of that product. There are many examples – one of the most relevant ones right now is the marketplace concept. This is where many selling partners could compete by offering the same product(s) – may be at different prices or by having bundled services. No major ecommerce platform has it out of the box and so large retail enterprises have built this on top of existing COTS platforms. Another example is the ability for automatically pricing items based on internal (like supplier inventory, demand, etc) and external (competitor pricing) factors. The picture that I see repeatedly with large retailers is this – a lot them start with the COTS package and ends up building capabilities over, around and increasingly outside the platform. If one looks back at some of the large COTS implementations done in the last few years, it would become clear that most of focus is on building things around and on top of the platform, once the initial implementation is complete.

Tying this back to where I started - If the COTS platform ends literally being the platform on and around which one would build differentiating features, how can package selection be more important than the ability to plan and implement additional and differentiating features on top of it ? This is precisely my point as well. I am not trying to say that package selection is irrelevant for large enterprises. They are important and should be done after due diligence. However, package selection is only a necessary but not a sufficient ingredient for success in business. The process of designing customer centric business capabilities which would differentiate one business from another is the key for large retailers. This requires a clear business vision, backed by strong architecting and design capabilities.

Banks and the Third Party Marketplace

2010-01-28T17:26:11Z

Marketplace is the buzz word these days. Sears recently announced the launch of the Sears marketplace which was preceded by Walmart a couple of months back. Play.com, the Jersey based online retailer of music and electronic products also has its own third party marketplace where one can sell DVDs, CDs, Games, Books etc. And ofcourse we have Amazon and eBay which has been around for so many years now. No doubt this gives ample opportunity for everyone to sell and most importantly a wide and competitive choice for the consumers thus giving the right thrust to the Long Tail economics that Chris Anderson proposed a couple of years back. Talking about Long Tail, this is one thought that has been going around in my mind for sometime now. Marketplace has evolved in Retail as well as in the Entertainment space. What about Banking? Is a third party marketplace possible for the Banking industry as well? Can there be a one stop shop for consumers that would address all their banking needs? A marketplace where, not only banks, but individuals can come and sell customised banking products and other individuals come and buy them? Looks improbable ...

]]> ... but definitely not impossible. The Long Tail Theory talks about unlimited shelf space, primarily made possible by the internet because of which there has been a shift in the demand curve across products allowing Niches(the tail) to score rather than Hits.The Banking industry has also come a long way from brick and mortar setups to providing the convenience of the internet in a secured way to the customer. Though when it comes to money matters over the net, people arguably are skeptical and apprehensive, but when the trust builds up and the customer gets the assurance of secured transactions, a banking marketplace can definitely become a reality. A little research on google led to a couple of interesting sites in the UK and the US where banking marketplaces from lesser known brands are already up and doing business. Be it taking a loan for medical school, buying a bike, paying past bills or funding for wedding expenses, Zopa and Prosper have set up third party marketplaces where lenders out there are ready to provide you, the borrower, with the requisite money.

And just like an eBay or an Amazon, you can choose from a host of options that suit your needs in terms of the loan amount and the time of repayment. Anybody after fulfilling the basic criteria can become a lender and can list their products, set their own rates and successfully make their idle money work. Prosper even claims to have close to a million members and a business of $188 Mn so far.

This concept, if implemented by established banks, can be particularly interesting as because banks with their own established brand name can go a long way in building that trust amongst their customers (both borrowers & lenders) and provide an extended portfolio for the consumer to choose from. In the process, the bank can also generate revenue with other's products. This is true democratisation of production as well as utilising the benefit of unlimited shelf space as mentioned in the Long Tail theory. And when distribution of these products are facilitated through a marketplace, they will definitely sell.

Going forward, I will not be surprised if in the future a consumer says , 'Enough of fixed deposits, enough of riding the unpredictability of the stock markets, let me see how much disposable income I got which I can lend'. This can become one more channel for an individual to make their money work hard and give back handsome dividends. And it surely will not be long before you start thinking what to do with your extra cash. Well, you got 3 choices : Lock it, Invest it or Lend it!!!

1-800-Flowers blazing m-Commerce trail

2010-01-12T19:37:43Z

Right about last week, I was reminded ones again by my wife that our one month marriage anniversary was fast approaching and I needed to do something “special”. I went to 1-800-Flowers.com app and ordered Tulips for same day delivery with lighting speed without ever leaving the app (of course this requires existing 1-800-Flowers.com account). You might think there is noting “special” about purchasing flowers, and having it delivered on the same day. You are right; there isn’t and my wife will agree with you. However, 1-800-Flowers' mobile site has made it so simple for forgetful husbands like me (if you are in the same boat, I suggest you give 1-800-Flowers.com app a chance available on iPhone, Blackberry and Android) that it seems “special”. The experience, app which is sleek and easy-to-use, begins with a practical list with colorful icons: Birthday, Get Well, Anniversary, Same day Delivery and more and ends with checkout in few touches. This magic happens on Didby's Mobile Commerce Suite. 1-800-Flowers.com understands that Mobile shoppers typically want to make a decision fast hence providing relevant no non-sense information is a key.

According to Internet retailer magazine, Mobile site had 295,000 (monthly average) unique visitors in 2008 with site response time of 6.10 seconds and site was scored “Excellent” in Consistency. 1-800-Flowers mobile site was also selected as one of the best m-commerce site from 156 m-commerce sites and apps.

This is all exciting and great however; my position with my wife hasn’t improved and am still looking for something “special”.

3-D browsing

2009-12-14T22:18:59Z

So Mr. Dhir has taken us through the some of the possibilities of scanning and using 3-D images for selling such things as clothing online. There are a lot of dependencies for this to come about and put the "reality" in augmented reality. Once the dependencies are in place, the possibilities are amazing.

So what needs to be in place for this Web 3.0 to work? Along with viewing things in 3-D (think Halo, except for shopping and not shooting), there is also the potential for 3-D browsing. All of this will put a strain on your graphics card. You'll also need a new 3-D monitor and 3-D navigation tool. Technology has a funny way of catching up quickly though, I expect these items to be in place before someone can write a practical application for them.

Assuming all of the technology comes together (it always seems to), what does this mean for eCommerce as we know it?

With Adobe's Scene 7 already showing 360 degree views of products, augmented reality proposing more 3-D views, the next step is 3-D browsing. The question is, does this really create a better browsing experience?

My prediction is that what starts as a gimmick could develop into something tangible. The obvious place for this phenomena will be at a store kiosk. It's unlikely that brands and retailers build 3-D browsing for the net in an environment where no one has a 3-D monitor, mouse, or "goggles." However a store kiosk at a high street retailer can generate interest and create a unique shopping experience. Coupled with endless aisle (the idea of being able to purchase items at a kiosk that are out of stock or not available in the store) this creates a cool shopping experience. DIY retailers have been using virtual showrooms for the past few year but this presents a whole new level of that experience.

As the technology develops, Web 3.0 will catch up with gaming industry, and we'll practically be browsing in "The Matrix." Where do you see the opportunities? As always I have more questions than answers......

Augmented Reality Arrives for the Fashion Industry

2009-12-04T11:22:32Z

Back in June I came across an ingenious online shopping experience that Zugara had developed to allow customers to ‘try on’ clothes online before committing to a purchase. By using an Augmented Reality interface between their site and a customer’s computer and webcam, Zugara provide a service whereby customers can see an augmented reality version of the clothes they’re interested in, projected onto their image on screen. Sounds pretty cool huh?

]]> This of course followed the fantastic use of augmented reality by UK retailer Glasses Direct in which customers can’ try on’ different glasses before purchasing them online. So here we have two solid examples of real-world applications of augmented reality. I then pondered, how long will it be before we can stand in front of our webcams and have flawlessly fitting clothes delivered to us each time we shop online? Think about it, it's merely a case of developing software to determine our measurements; surely this cannot be too difficult right?

When I read on Revolution Magazine that the UK fashion company InnovaClothing developed software that uses state of the art body scanners to capture a 3D image customers to produce perfectly fitting clothes, I was excited to say the least. This is the world's first online shopping service that features a 3D body scan to fit clothes to each customer's unique body shape.

After all this hype I’m going to throw a bit of a curve ball, because this technology isn't quite as far along as you would hope. The service currently requires customers to endure a consultation scanning session in the company’s office in Glasgow. However sources have suggested that this service will be made available in more widespread locations in the next 2 years.

It would be interesting to know how far we are from having the same service provided directly through a website. As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments around this topic.

For those of you who found this entry interesting I would implore you to take a look at a research project by the University of Cambridge called ProFORMA. It's only in the very early stages of development but already the results speak for themselves. This video shows how easy it is to scan an object with only a standard webcam. Considering that this is a conventional 2D camera it certainly may spell the end of costly 3D scanners and open the doors to a whole new realm of customised clothes shopping online.

Mobile Momentum – What’s the Hold-up?

2009-11-13T20:02:18Z

Every retailer in the eCommerce world is excited about the prospect of interacting with their customers via mobile devices like iPhones. They dream of the day when a customer places an order using an iPhone app, then drives by the store to pick it up. They envision their customer creating a shopping list, pushing a button, and getting an ordered pick list mapped to the layout of their local store. They also want to create an item-Finder where the customer walks into the store, enters an item description on their phone and gets an aisle and shelf location for that item returned to them on their screen. They would love for their customers to be able to access product reviews, video demonstrations and detailed specifications from their mobile device so that the purchasing decision could be made on the spot, even for expensive items like cameras and TV sets.

]]> There are many rational reasons for this exuberance. There are twice as many mobile phones in the world as computers. The price of cell phone service is expected to continue its downward trend until it is affordable by all but the poorest people on the planet. In the USA, it is hard to find any teen or young adult without a mobile device of some sort, regardless of income. In the US and Europe, the mobile computing device is seen as complimenting the use of the home or office computer. In many parts of Asia, however, the phone is affordable and the computer is not. In these regions, the phone is the only computer available.

However, this beautiful picture is easy to describe, but harder to paint. There are several reasons for this:

· Network Slowness - Network speeds are annoying. Even if you are in range of your carrier’s network, the response times are not up to modern customer expectations, making them reluctant to even try and use their phone as an app platform.

· Model Proliferation - Mobile Phone device models number in the hundreds, and if you count out-dated phones still in use, into the thousands. New models are introduced on a weekly basis, complicating this further.

· Lack of Standards - Very few phones are created to a programming standard. Most phones have a custom interface that is programmed as part of the product development process. This lack of standards makes third-party creation an application that will run on all makes and models literally impossible. In fact, programming to even the five or ten most popular phone platforms is unaffordable by all but the best funded companies. (This is the cause of app-envy, a phenomenon that occurs when your friend can use a great application on her device that doesn’t exist on yours.)

· Phone Browsers - Phone browsers are mostly terrible. Many of us tried using a browser when we got our first smart-phone. We had to scroll up, down, left and right so often that we gave up. It felt like reading a magazine through a keyhole. Most people use their phone-based browsers for flight status, sports scores, headlines and not much else.

All is not lost however, as everyone in the mobile phone industry understands these problems and is motivated to solve them, or at least lessen the pain that they inflict on the customer. I will list a few of these positive trends.

· Network Slowness – The great race of this decade is to improve mobile data transmission speeds. If you remember back 5 or 6 years, you could grow a beard waiting on a page to load on your phone. Now, things are faster, but not nearly like Wi-Fi. However, with each passing year, speeds will improve because this is a “do-it or die” issue for carriers. If fact, there may come a day when Wi-Fi speeds are surpassed by 4G, 5G, or nG.

· Model Proliferation -The number of phone models will continue to increase until this class of devices reaches a certain level of maturity. Eventually, all of the logical improvements will be made, and future improvements will provide diminishing usefulness.

· Lack of Standards – There are two major standards that are here or emerging: iPhone and Android,( along with many ideas for future ones). The iPhone is a pseudo-standard based on the popularity of Apple product. Creating and selling apps on this platform is already a billion dollar business. The tight distribution model via a single carrier, AT&T, is holding this platform back from being even bigger. This could change, however. In the future, other carriers may be selling the iPhone. If this happens soon enough, the iPhone could become the dominant platform for the foreseeable future, resulting in a huge market share. In that case, the developer will be primarily able to program to one device: ----- If that happens too slowly, however, the Google Android OS is positioned to fill the vacuum. Android is an open-source smart-phone operating system that provides many of the features of the iPhone. Its primary advantage is that every phone manufacturer can create products for this platform without paying anyone a fee, and every carrier can sell one that works on its network. Android also provides a Java-based programming target for third-party developers that could grow to rival the iPhone in size, (but spread over dozens of phone models offered by many carriers).

· Phone Browsers - There is one safe course of action that developers can take while waiting for the shakeout to occur: program to the browser. To me, the best part of both the iPhone and the Android phones (like the HTC Hero) is the browser. Both phones display in wide-screen mode when turned sideways. Both have the two-fingered zoom that make browsing on the small screen better than tolerable. This feature makes real non-mobile Web pages easy to view and interact with. Perhaps the wise course for developers would be to program your new apps to the browsers, making sure that the display looks good on the best smart phones. You could then write a native app for each important phone platform that redirects the user to the Web page in one touch.

The mobile niche is interesting, but very fluid. There is gold at the end of this rainbow for those who figure it out, however.

SEO Vs marketing: Which is more important?

2009-11-11T10:12:22Z

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a necessity for retailers in today’s e-commerce market. A customer should not be expected to know the URL for a retailer, they should be able to search for the product they are looking have the retailer’s URL returned for them.
]]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Therefore a variety of SEO techniques should be effectively implemented by any retailer in order for them to be seen ‘king of the search results’. An example of this is www.scarfworld.com. This website has placed keywords in the title to assist in SEO, and as a result it is one of the top results in Google for ‘Scarf’.

Marketing on the other hand has been the mainstay of retailers for decades. Before e-commerce was even heard of, retailers have been using marketing techniques to ensure that customers (and prospective customers) knew that the retailer had what they wanted, or they had a wide selection of alternatives. http://www.funshipisland.com is an example of a microsite. It is an entirely contained website which runs independently but it is owned by the Carnival corporation which runs a separate website for selling its cruise packages.

Here are just 3 examples of techniques for both SEO and marketing:

SEO:

- Title tags: Title tags are commonly used when search engines index websites, therefore having an informative title tag about your site/page is very important. Having your company name as the title is no longer enough, the name, address, and type of products is more advised.

- Meta tags: Not commonly used by Google anymore but still worth having. Meta tags will provide some search engines with information about your site which is not visible to customers.

- Content: The most important technique in SEO. Ensuring your pages have appropriate and detailed content will guarantee search engines will pick up your pages and return them in results in the correct context. Not only is it important for SEO, it’s also beneficial for your customers to have as much detail as possible.

Marketing:

- Email campaigns: Retailers can send blanket emails to customers to build awareness of promotions of seasonal ranges that are going on. However, the most effective form of email campaign is a targeted email campaign. Products, deals, and offers are emailed to the customer based on their preferences (i.e. products they’ve viewed or purchased). This can draw traffic to the retailer’s website as the customer wants to find out more.

- Microsites: A retailer can set up one (or many) microsites on their website. A microsite is a small website which focuses on a specific range, brand, or product. Building a microsite has various advantages, for example it can have SEO of its own.

- RSS: RSS (Really simple syndication) can be setup to allow customers to receive information about deals, promotions or new releases direct to their desktop without having to have an email address or navigate to a website. With smartphones emerging in the market, RSS is becoming a more popular method of keeping up to date with the latest product releases.

Of course both SEO and marketing have their own pros and cons. In SEO, a retailer can use a variety of techniques from white hat, black hat, or grey hat. White hat SEO techniques are methods which are sanctioned by search engines while black hat methods disapproved of. Black hat methods often involve deception such as hidden text or repeating key words needlessly in the hope of improving SEO. Grey hat are methods considered not to be white hat or black hat (or in some instances may be both) – i.e. it’s a grey area as to whether or not certain methods are appropriate.

Marketing also has its pros and cons. Insistent emails from retailers can become frustrating for a customer and it can result in them blocking emails from the retailer altogether. Similarly, using microsites can be problematic if branding is not used appropriately. Many retailers use microsites as an opportunity to break from their standard CSS and HTML templates in order to promote the range, product, or brand. By not clearly marking that the microsite still belongs to the retailer, a customer (especially one not comfortable with online shopping) may feel they do not know the site and therefore cannot trust it.

In conclusion, to make customers aware of your business and your products a retailer must effectively implement both marketing and SEO. Marketing and SEO do sit very closely together, and in some instances overlap, however only time will tell if one becomes more dominant than the other in generating brand awareness.

Your Web Page is Too Quiet

2009-11-02T22:16:41Z

If you are like me, you always have some streaming music either from an internet radio or a favorite playlist when shopping online. If you turn it off for a while you will notice how awfully quiet everything becomes. While retailers have done a decent job to attend to the consumer’s every sense in their physical stores, they have largely left the online domain to the visual dimension only. While technology is not there yet to help with touching, tasting and smelling, hearing is definitely possible, yet ignored by everyone. I can definitely do without some of the annoying overhead messages or background noise heard in the stores, but I would not mind listening to music or have some sort of sound effects while I browse a site. Using some carefully selected music or sounds can add a totally new dimension to the online user experience. A retailer can utilize this to drive brand recognition, improve product visualization and even call to action to drive sales. The trackable user experience and instant feedback from deploying this online can also help the retailer fine tune their sound messaging and improve the customer experience and sales conversion in their physical stores.

A great overview and introduction to deploying sound can be found in this TED speech by Julian Treasure - http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us.html. It is fun, dynamic, educational and only about five minutes long. Mr. Treasure represents the effect of sounds based on the sound properties he refers to as Drivers (Time, Pitch, Texture, Density and Dynamics), the situational influence – Filters (Function, Environment, People and Brand Values) and the effect itself – Outcomes (Physiological, Psychological, Cognitive and Emotional). The proper combination of Drivers and Filters can be used to trigger the desired Outcomes.

Below are a few things that come to mind when implementing the use of sound online:

· Start small with playing sounds/effects on individual items only (ex. Forest sounds on hiking gear) or use compositions to tie whole themes together like Halloween or a Summer apparel collection

· Allow users to voice record their product ratings. This can bring more credibility and life to the review

· Employ a control on the web page which is easy to see, displays what music is being played and is easy to turn on/off

· Link to the music store or CD item being played. If someone likes it, let them easily buy it

· To take things further, an online radio station like Pandora could be deployed where the retailer can create their own “Station” centered on a theme or event. This station can be easily shared with the consumer and placed on sites like Facebook and Twitter

It would be very hard to get something like this right the first time, so proper testing and measuring results will be keys to success:

· Start with allowing only certain users to hear the music/sounds played and measuring the effectiveness. If a company knows more about the online user, it can also measure response in various segments and use to fine tune segment specific messaging

· Some metrics to consider:

-       Time spent on pages with or without music
-       Sales conversion ratio while music is playing
-       Size of basket when music/sound is used
-       Percent of time music was selectively turned off
-       Sales of specific music tracks which are playing
-       Above metrics broken down by the set of Drivers and Filters employed

As shown in the video above, sounds invoke deep and complex responses and getting the desired ones while still maintaining the correct branding may be a challenge. However, I feel that with the proper marketing resources, technical backing and the right amount of testing the potential is very exciting!

Please share any experience you have had around this topic or companies you have seen that have successfully implemented this.

Website Accessibility – a potential Revenue generator

2009-10-23T09:45:26Z

The power of the web has always enthralled me. It truly has changed our lives in so many multiple ways. My consulting assignments on retail and ecommerce have taken me through various personas that have been created and reached out to by most of the web companies. But at times I have wondered how much of an effect would the web world have on a differently abled person. Has ecommerce companies of the world thought of a differently-abled persona? A population size to the tune of almost 10% (650 million) of the world’s total population and a great potential for revenue generation? Has the power of the web changed their world too?

]]> During an impending client visit at Bangalore, I was in discussion with Dr. Jai Ganesh and Dr. Ajay Kolhatkar (from Infosys) on the potential demos that we can organize. And by pure co-incidence, I came across the in-house developed web accessibility tool called iProwe. And all the answers that I was looking for seemed to be addressed by this one tool.

According to the United Nations Global Audit for Web Accessibility, almost 97% of the world wide web do not meet the prescribed accessibility requirements for differently abled users. This means a person who is visually challenged and cannot read images, the hearing impaired who cannot listen to audio, users with colour blindness, users with motor disabily thus impairing their use of a mouse or keyboard, users with cognitive disabilities and elderly people who cannot read small fonts cannot access the websites that you and me frequent every day. As a result, this potential revenue pool has never been tapped.

A web accessibility tool like iProwe help companies make their websites friendlier for the differently abled. And this can have multiple ramifications. But even before we go into the commercials of making websites accessible, let us understand why even a ecommerce company would think of implementing this when their sales revenue on a QoQ and a YoY have always been showing growth (Maybe not during a downturn though). Most developed nations have legislations and regulations in place which necessitates websites to be accessible for the differently abled. To quote a few, in the US, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments, 1998 allows federal employees with disabilities to file complaints if they are not accommodated. The British Standards Institution (BSI) Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 78 is applicable for all organizations and is intended for use by those commissioning or maintaining public facing websites and web based services. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has laid down clear guidelines specifying accessibility of websites. This along with many other nations like Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Netherlands and other in the European Union have set guidelines for enabling the web for the differently abled.

Now coming to the economics which will be of interest for every web company. Apart from being a newer segment which would mean higher revenue, more so in a downturn when you wish your sales figures would keep moving northwards, an accessible website can significantly reduce the marketing cost of reaching out to the differently abled – to the tune of 12-35%. In addition to that, accessible web pages take upto 75% lesser time to load. It also shows a significant increase in the natural search engine traffic.

The patent pending iProwe automatically analyses the accessibility issues of websites and recommends remedial measures. It combines multi level scanning allowing the tool to scan multiple level of websites against a set of intelligent rules and recommendations derived from several accessibility guidelines and accessibility design best practices and generates ready to use reports in convenient forms. The tool’s intelligent crawling engine has an advanced algorithm based on a variety of disability profiles and meets the WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards. The tool also uses a rich repository of design best practices for website accessibility taken from across industries like retail, financial services, insurance which gives it the edge over its nearest competitors in the market.

This has indeed been an amazing revelation. I am sure in my next ecommerce engagement, I can confidently suggest the client an additional persona which will open up an entirely newer segment of target consumers for them.

The choice is clear. The benefits are clearer. Web companies can wait for legislations to be enforced or proactively owns social responsibility and open up their doors for the differently abled.

Notable links :
(i) Infosys iProwe : http://www.infosys.com/iprowe/default.asp
(ii) Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act :
      http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=14
(iii) British Standards Institution PAS :
      http://www.bsigroup.com/en/About-BSI/News-Room/BSI-News-Content/Sectors/ICT-- Telecommunications/News-Content5/

How do you rate in Retail Decision making?

2009-10-19T11:22:00Z

I came across a compact sample of typical EDW reports utilized to track and support Retail decision making, when trawling across Teradata’s website (https://www.teradata.com/t/assets/0/206/280/fbff8440-b4c5-4211-a03a-c933460f35e0.pdf). It raises the question for many organisations as to whether the time spent deploying custom developed reporting and processes for their EDW could not be better served by moving to a purpose built solution such as provided by the leading EDW vendors

]]> In times past a company would ‘lock in’ key learning and intellectual property through the development of complex custom designs in back end Retail analytics. Focusing on maximising Customer data allowed a Retailer to:
·         Use market basket data to help guide promotional activity and planning.
·         Manage vendors based on their importance to the business.
·         Modify localized assortments by store to satisfy profitable customers.
·         Review product sales and inventory channel.
·         Monitor and proactively manage vendor performance.
Having developed such monitoring and reporting capabilities an organization was faced with the challenge of maintaining the designs and reports to keep the necessary levels of granularity and relevance, as well as reflecting any functional or performance improvements on the base platform. Such a custom design would, however, impose restrictions on smooth platform transition and may have missed any new developments from the supplier e.g. Purpose built retail process designs and reports. While these ‘native’ equivalents may have lacked the detail and insight of a Retailer’s own reporting, developments in the market have allowed experience with multiple customers to be incorporated by platform vendors (in a space such as EDW) into their core products. This has enriched the level of ‘out of the box’ reporting so that similar reports are now considered standard functionality. A sample of such reports used for Decision analysis, for example as deployed by Teradata EDW, are as follows:
·         Merchandise Unit Performance (for a Product, All Locations)
·         Flash Sales Report (a Location by Product Groups)
·         Price Point Analysis (by Product Groups for all Locations)
·         Lost Sales (Potential Sales) Analysis (by Products for all Locations, for a
·         product group)
·         Stock and Sales (by Products and by Locations)
·         Sales and Profitability (by locations and by products)
·         Trend Reporting (a Product Group by Weeks)
·         Fast, Slow Sellers (by Items)
·         Markdown Analysis (by Product Groups)
·         Cluster Performance (by two Item Traits)
·         Average per Store (by Products/Product Groups)
·         Price Point (by Location, by Week, Crosstab)
·         Vendor Sales and Stock (by Vendors, graph)
·         Vendor Comparison Performance, Profitability (by Vendors)
·         Rate of Sales
·         Pre, During, Post Promo Sales and Margin (by Products/Product Groups)
·         Product Affinity (by Affinity Products)
·         Price Point Sensitivity Market Basket Analysis (by Price Points)
·         Sales, Expense, and Labour (by Locations)
·         Top 100 Customers (by Customers)
·         Potential Lost Customers (by Customers)
·         Cross Channel Performance (by Channels)
·         Average Market Basket (MKB)
·         Statistics (by Product/Product Group)
I thought this would be a nice ‘sanity check’ for an organization to firstly, compare and assess any ‘holes’ in current report coverage but secondly, to open a debate within the organization as to whether it is tracking the correct reporting metrics. As often happens, a tracked metric mandates a behaviour which allows it to be met. So while these metrics could be considered to be based upon a ‘system’ perspective, they do provide a benchmark for the ‘minimum set’ an organization might expect. And, referring back to the custom development path mentioned earlier, possibly an initial argument for investigating a change of solution towards exactly such an ‘off the shelf’ solution (if a significant amount of overlap is seen between current ‘custom’ reporting and these ‘standard’ product reports).
And while we are talking comparative studies, here is a look at some work SAP did on a “Future Retail Centre” (http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/f08ba07d-fe2b-2c10-5c89-b66f3e0c6dd3&overridelayout=true#4) . SAP Research built this “Future Retail Centre” in Regensdorf, Switzerland together with academic, technology and industry partners to showcase research developments and retail thought-leadership. This demonstrated a consumer-oriented walk-through together with a logistics environment and looking at tools for a typical retail headquarters.
The consumer scenario reflected unique shopping styles and followed a hurried “quick shopper” with a mobile phone shopping list. Using this device the shopper was guided via a map through the store and a two-touch mobile payment or scan utilised   to facilitate the buying process. A more leisurely “weekend shopper” could gain access to product information through a personalized shopping cart and the immediate, RFID-based tallying of products chosen. An optic weight scale and point-of-interest advertising triggered by the customized shopping cart completed the customer-centric shopping experience (shown on the relevant ‘shelves’.
In the logistics scenario, a warehouse was set up with a labelling machine which applied RFID tags to the cases which are then used in processes such as picking of mixed pallets, packing and goods issue / goods receipt, all enhanced and optimized thanks to RFID. A new addition to the Future Retail Centre showed pallet movements with a forklift truck which had been enhanced to automatically read its position through RFID chips in the floor and thus reduce errors in scanning locations.Retail headquarters concerned with analysis and optimization of pricing could utilize a “Price Zone Optimization” algorithm which uses historic point of sales information to guide a retailer through setting up a new pricing strategy.
In the management of vending machines, capturing real-time inventory is the basis for accurate accounting as well as replenishment optimization. The Smart Vending application sent data of each transaction as it happens to the ERP system.
In addition, the Future Retail Centre can utilize Second Life as both a visualization and collaboration tool for Retail Management, as well as exploring its potential as an alternative shopping ‘channel’. ‘Food for thought’ and worth considering whether these really are ‘future’ concepts or whether they may be achievable in the medium term after all.

In-Flight e-Commerce: A New Sales Channel?

2009-10-16T08:43:52Z

In my recent business travels I have started noticing more and more airlines offering wireless internet services aboard their flights. Wi-Fi is being offered to all passengers, not just the business class fliers, essentially opening up a whole new world of e-commerce.

Currently airlines such as Jet Blue, Airtran, Delta, Virgin, and American have partnered up with services like Go Go to offer passengers a free pass during their flight to experiment with the online in-flight experience. Jet Blue even went as far as to invite you tubers and bloggers to a sample flight to write about their experiences and share amongst their audiences.

Aside from the convenience and efficiency it offers when traveling on a regular basis (which as a consultant I greatly appreciate), it also has the potential to drastically change the way we do business. Airlines have struggled with their duty free sales on planes, and their paper catalogs offering knick knacks in their Sky Mall are not maximizing on their potential to reach consumers. Having a consumer’s undivided attention on an airplane for an extended period of time could provide some very exciting opportunities. Here are some ideas…

]]> SKY MALL

For example, the concept of an interactive sky mall online could be quite appealing. Passengers would be more inclined to browse through products, and might even apply product rating, and consumer comments to the products providing merchants with feedback on the products.

It would be great for example, for passengers to have a virtual mall of the duty free of the airport they will be landing in. This way they could browse, search, purchase online in the air, and have the purchases delivered to them while they land, or if they are in transit. Airports tend to be extremely vast and passengers don’t always have the time and energy to go through all the stores, but by having the chance to see what is available and making their purchase decision online it can increase the sales opportunities at airports and on airplanes.

ENTERTAINMENT

Through internet access, airlines can offer a much wider range of entertainment services to their passengers, through a library of movies and shows that are not always available in flight. Passengers on 16 hour – 24 hour flights could catch up on shows they are missing back home, or watch their Netflix movie off of their queue keeping themselves more entertained.

ADVERTISING

Mobile media companies such as JiWire have already started launching the world’s first ad-supported Wi-Fi network for commercial airlines. Row 44’s Skytown Center will incorporate a virtual shopping mall approach by calling upon 100 advertisers lined up to reach a very captive audience. JiWire is focused on an ad-supported model, where they would provide the equipment, which then helps airlines manage the costs of having to offer free Wi-Fi now simply as a cost of doing business for travelers expecting it.

The audience is apparently eager for such a service. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, 76% of business travelers surveyed said they were likely to choose an airline based on Wi-Fi availability, while 70% would prefer Wi-Fi service over meal service on flights.

Now if only they could figure out how to let us keep our cell phones and ipods on during take offs and landings! Oh and battery outlets will also become a necessity to enable passengers to be plugged in and online during long international flights.