Selling on line
Looking back at the figures for last Christmas online retail sales hit £5.46bn in December 2010, showing an increase of 17% compared with the same month the previous year and up 3.8% from November. Some of that would have been fueled by the cold weather and people turning to the internet rather than pioneering out into the snow but the underlying trend is clear - people are spending more and more on line and all retails establishments must compete with their online rivals.
With a potential squeeze on Retail Sales post-election all businesses are now looking to the internet to bolster their turnover. Specially as Internet Sales are relatively low cost to service.
"2010 looks set to produce another year of strong results for e-retail, with demand expected to remain high as consumers habitually look online for best buys," said James Roper, chief executive of IMRG.
So - where to begin....Price, Presentation and Service.
Well probably the first place is to put a search into Google for some of the key items you will be selling to give you some idea of the competition. I always liken the first page of your Google search to a high street where every shop is selling the same item and you can browse through each shop window to check out the price, the presentation and the service. Oh and the quality - well quality is a remarkably difficult quality (forgive) to sell on the web, after all you can hardly pick it up and feel it.
So that leaves the Price, the Presentation and the Service. Price - if you're selling branded items this is probably THE most important element. If you can't compete don't enter the competition because price comparison is so obvious.
That leaves presentation and service. Presentation in this case means your website, not necessarily just the way it looks, although that is important, but also the "user experience". There's a mixed bag under this heading but some of the key features would be:
- Ease of Use: Products should be easy to find - so the site needs to be logically structured with products grouped together by type. Grouping images under headings like "Weekend surprises" may reflect the distinctive image you wish to purvey but web customers have low patience thresholds and are not likely to want to just cruise around the website just to find out the content. Search boxes are great way to assist the customer find what they are looking for. If you want to include more esoteric groupings like "Gift Ideas" products appearing here should also appear in their respective product grouping.
- Delivery Costs: Delivery doesn't have to be free. If it isn't then it needs to be clear, easy to find and reasonable. If find a high proportion of customers bailing out at the checkout stage, chances are the delivery costs are too high.
- Images: Depends a bit on what you are selling, but people have got to have a crystal clear view of what they are buying. The popularity of digital cameras means everybody thinks they can capture a few snaps for the web, if you're serious about trading on-line then employing professional photographer to put together the product portfolio is probably a sound investment.
- Minimum clicks: One click to add your product to the cart and a couple more to check out. The more clicks in the shopping process the more likely you are to lose your customers on the way.
- Customer Privacy: Quite subtle, but customers need to trust you with their information and you are going to use it with respect. It may be only semantics because you are going to capture the customer's address anyway, but there is a huge difference between feeling you need to join the website as a life member and providing the website with a delivery address.
- Security: Actually I think less important than it used to be as website shoppers are much more savvy. They majority won't just key their credit card details into an unsecured web form any more - so the card entry facility needs to be secure, and seen to be secure. There are number of ways to achieve this. From taking the card details securely and enter them as a 'customer not present' transaction into a card terminal, to proprietary card clearance providers such as NoChex and SagePay, to facilities provided by the card companies themselves like Barclaycard ePDQ. Which route you go down will depend on budget, expected treading volumes, requirements for multi-currency, length you have been in business and even personal preference.
- Speed: Everybody hates a slow website, whether it's the speed the images download or the time it takes to navigate the site. For e-commerce based sites choice of website hosting can be an issue. Sharing your hosting with 1000 other sites running scripts written but individuals of varying programming skills is definitely not a good idea.
- Trust: Easy - provide a UK phone number, an address and if appropriate your Company registration number. To comply with the E-commerce Regulations 2002 you should supply these anyway.
Service, namely Customer Service. If you treat your customers well they are surprisingly loyal on the web. One sniff of poor customer service and they're off. Don't under-estimate the level of work required in packing and sending out your orders, the stock levels required, replying to emails and of course handling refunds and returns. If you're reasonably successful at it it's not something you can do between other jobs.
The positive side is, of course, you have a shop open 24 hours a day and seven days a week without having to be there! It's a great feeling opening you email in the morning to find a heap of new orders placed overnight and checking the balance on your credit card provider. So if you have a good idea for an e-commerce call us for advice.