Will video ecommerce be the next big step for retail?

 Ecommerce websites, like all other technology-dependant mediums, are prone to change over time. From being html supporting pages to interactive ones, ecommerce businesses have seen it all. It is now the turn of video ecommerce to propel an ecommerce website forward.

What started as a small trend when retailers such as Golfsmith, JC Penney, Moosejaw and Verizon Wireless started inserting videos into their product website seems to have unwittingly become a potential new wave.

Extended product description

An ecommerce business that uses an ecommerce site to sell its products will now have an additional medium with which to take a product closer to the shopper’s heart than perhaps ever before.

In static ecommerce websites, we have alt texts to briefly explain products when we scroll the mouse over it. In the case of video, description of the product is not only more precise and elaborate; it is almost like a person explaining it. That is the difference video makes to an ecommerce business.

This translates to a major, altogether new way of reaching out to customers in a way that is bound to be paradigmatic. The effectiveness and proximity to the product is enhanced to a dramatic extent.

Huge potential

One real factor that could help video change the face of ecommerce is that it is adaptable for mobile. Taking this a little further, video can play a central part in marketing, like being effective in social media networking and email campaigns.

Will video ecommerce be the next big step for retail?

 Ecommerce websites, like all other technology-dependant mediums, are prone to change over time. From being html supporting pages to interactive ones, ecommerce businesses have seen it all. It is now the turn of video ecommerce to propel an ecommerce website forward.

What started as a small trend when retailers such as Golfsmith, JC Penney, Moosejaw and Verizon Wireless started inserting videos into their product website seems to have unwittingly become a potential new wave.

Extended product description

An ecommerce business that uses an ecommerce site to sell its products will now have an additional medium with which to take a product closer to the shopper’s heart than perhaps ever before.

In static ecommerce websites, we have alt texts to briefly explain products when we scroll the mouse over it. In the case of video, description of the product is not only more precise and elaborate; it is almost like a person explaining it. That is the difference video makes to an ecommerce business.

This translates to a major, altogether new way of reaching out to customers in a way that is bound to be paradigmatic. The effectiveness and proximity to the product is enhanced to a dramatic extent.

Huge potential

One real factor that could help video change the face of ecommerce is that it is adaptable for mobile. Taking this a little further, video can play a central part in marketing, like being effective in social media networking and email campaigns.

Selling common products on the web is a challenge!

One of the challenges an ecommercebusiness faces is that of selling ordinary products. Of course, we all know that a premium product often sells by itself. This situation is all the more true in an ecommerce business.

When the ecommerce site is loaded with products that are not indispensable for the consumer, how does one sell them?

Let us take the example of selling a cigarette lighter on an ecommerce website. This is a product that is used by a smoker or by a non-smoker who gifts it to one. A product like this offers many alternatives to the visitor. The customer doing ecommerce shopping does not have to wait till the particular brand is made available. If it is not, she would move over to another ecommerce web site.

Create the chance of getting noticed

In this situation of selling a generic product, ecommerce websites have one option: They can make the product get noticed. A cigarette lighter can be, for instance, placed beside a cigarette pack. It could also be made to appear bright and exuberant in its display.

Colourful branding is a great way of making a product noticed. In website ecommerce, ecommerce design is very critical. Intelligent, intuitive and appealing design offers the product a greater chance of being seen than one that is displayed insipidly.

Doing ecommerce online and selling pedestrian articles can be a challenge; yet, it can also be fun and exciting if the e-retail wills it.

Offering more payment options is a good idea

What would be a greater disappointment for an ecommerce business than to have a customer walk out because she was not able to make the payment? This happens when the ecommerce site is unable to support different payment options.

Make payment options easier

The bottom line of good e-retail business is to offer as many payment options to the online shopper as possible. The fewer the payment options, the lesser the chances of retaining the customer. This is why:

What would the ecommerce website shopper feel like, if at the end of the shopping process, the card she swipes is not accepted?

This can be a big put off. It is likely to turn that customer off the ecommerce site forever. That is why it is very important to offer more and more payment options on your ecommerce website.

Get the services of more payment providers

Ecommerce shopping is not all about just getting the customer to visit the ecommerce web site in which the visitor goes to the ecommerce shopping cart. It is the next steps that matter.

It is a good idea to be affiliated to payment option providers to facilitate more payment options. Yes, this is not free service, but a small payment which yields enormous returns in the form of more happy customers is a far more sensible idea than limiting the payment options on the business ecommerce and losing the customer for all time.

Make your ecommerce website interactive

What is it that the visitor to the ecommerce site who wants to do ecommerce shopping sees first? It is not the ecommerce software or ecommerce website development. The most inviting part of the ecommerce website is the web ecommerce design and layout.

It goes without saying that the most important component of the ecommerce business is the ecommerce site. This is the equivalent of the infrastructure in the physical store, and houses everything from the ecommerce shopping cart tomultichannel retailing to eBay store to Amazon integration. That is why it is most essential to have an ecommerce website that is not only functional, but aesthetic as well. Creating a good first impression is very vital in creating a positive opinion about an ecommerce web site.

Never keep anything static

Display of products is undoubtedly the most aspect of the ecommerce website. Display goes beyond just arranging items in a proper order. They have to be made to look as real as possible, because this is about the only element that a physical store offers but is missing in an ecommerce site.

If it is a shoe that is being displayed, the ecommerce site design should be such that it should have multidimensional displays of the product. The ecommerce website should be able to display how the shoe looks like from different angles. It should go beyond the display of mundane details such as size, price, etc. These are important no doubt, but looks should take precedence over information. It is then that the visitor can be expected to become a customer.

Ecommerce integration options for businesses

An ecommerce business is sure to face, at some or another point, what integration strategies it has to adapt, since ecommerce business is essentially about integration.

1. What to integrate?

What to integrate depends on how important what you want to integrate is to the ecommerce business. Some factors your ecommerce business could take into account could be where it stands in the industry, for how long it plans to be in the business and so on.

2. When to integrate?

Some functions may have to be integrated at the start, while some need to be integrated at a later time, which could be either midway through the business or at a later stage.

3. How much to integrate?

The website ecommerce could think of integrating those functions, whose lack of integration will hinder the smooth running of the business. Systems that have lesser importance can also be integrated, in the possibility of their importance increasing over time.

4. With what to integrate?

Whether it needs to weigh the option of whether to integrate systems with one another or with the backend is another important consideration for the ecommerce company. A typical instance of some functions needing to be integrated with one another is a standalone retail store. On the other hand, chain stores or those that offer multichannel integration like eBay integration, eBay store, Amazon integration and Amazon web services may need integration with the backend.

Ecommerce integration options for businesses

Consider these ecommerce integration options

An ecommerce business is sure to face, at some or another point, what integration strategies it has to adapt, since ecommerce business is essentially about integration.

1. What to integrate?

What to integrate depends on how important what you want to integrate is to the ecommerce business. Some factors your ecommerce business could take into account could be where it stands in the industry, for how long it plans to be in the business and so on.

2. When to integrate?

Some functions may have to be integrated at the start, while some need to be integrated at a later time, which could be either midway through the business or at a later stage.

3. How much to integrate?

The website ecommerce could think of integrating those functions, whose lack of integration will hinder the smooth running of the business. Systems that have lesser importance can also be integrated, in the possibility of their importance increasing over time.

4. With what to integrate?

Whether it needs to weigh the option of whether to integrate systems with one another or with the backend is another important consideration for the ecommerce company. A typical instance of some functions needing to be integrated with one another is a standalone retail store. On the other hand, chain stores or those that offer multichannel integration like eBay integration, eBay store, Amazon integration and Amazon web services may need integration with the backend.

Don't fall prey to SEO scams!

In the huge, huge world of the Web, scams are perhaps as common as success stories. It is not uncommon to come across phoney advertising messages promising the moon for nothing. These are not very different in their pitch from the ubiquitous mails we keep getting about being winners of a lottery without a ticket or an inheritance from a person we had not heard about till then. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) scams are no different.

Be realistic!

The online business needs to understand that SEO is not something that one can create out of thin air. It is carried out by SEO specialists. It requires the use of social media tools to succeed.

Social media services are applied to a site to help it improve its rankings, but it has to be noted that this is not a magic wand. Many ingredients such as content, right choice and use of keywords, lots of offsite marketing and related activities go into website optimisation.

Once these are put into effect, it still takes a lot for the website to crawl up the rankings and attain higher rankings. SEO can push the page rankings, but only with sustained effort. Even if it does reach the top, it takes a lot to remain there.

Understand how social mediamarketing works

Understanding the working of website optimisation and social media marketing is the key to preventing frauds. SEO scams, like superstition, can flourish only in an environment of ignorance. So long as online businesses are in awe of technology, a fake SEO company is expected to have a field day.

An online business may not be able to prevent a scam at the source, but what can be done is to be knowledgeable about the workings of website optimisation. When you design ecommerce website, you have to make sure the right ecommerce design that uses the professional help of ecommerce designers and has the proper ingredients such as SEO is in place. Only then can scams become less common.

Should your ecommerce business offer daily deals?

Deals are an indispensable part of an ecommerce business. Any e-retail can hope to survive only by offering deals. This is because a good deal is something any customer would look forward to.

So, which are the kinds of products that can be offered as daily deals, and which do not do well?

An ecommerce web site would get an idea of these items over time, but some of the kinds of products that are suited for daily deals include items of daily use. You could think of items like say toiletries.

A rule, kind of

Your ecommerce site could go by a simple logic: Daily deals are suited for daily items, while they are not for those that are consumed once in a while. The trick is to mix and match that stimulates the sale of related products.

Even products that are not related, or are not consumed on a day to day basis, can be pushed through deals. Your ecommerce shopping customers can be made to buy a pair of goggles that has not moved for a long time, if it is offered when the bill exceeds a certain amount. The cost of the goggles can be made up by the high value of the bill. This way, the ecommerce company does well, and the items keep moving.

Best of all, the customer who gets the feeling that his ecommerce shopping cart is always full is a happy customer, whose loyalty is the best reward for ecommerce websites.

Dealing with ecommerce site crashes is important!

As someone who has been in e-business, you would know more than anybody else that in terms of embarrassment, there is nothing that comes anywhere near a site crash! An ecommercewebsite crash is more than an embarrassment. It can be highly frustrating and worst of all; can result in a loss of face. There can be no bigger disincentive for the shopper than to arrive on a website and find it in bad shape.

Creates a bad impact

Having a glitch-ridden ecommerce site is disastrous for the ecommerce business because it creates a bad impression in the mind of the customer. One bad experience is enough to deter a customer from visiting sub-standard ecommerce websites for perhaps a lifetime.

Choose the right ecommerce website

Most ecommerce websites flounder because they are not built to handle high traffic at one go. So, choose an ecommerce site that has the resilience needed for this. This should be the most important factor to consider when choosing your ideal ecommerce website. It takes precedence over other qualities such as ecommerce site design, ecommerce shopping software, ecommerce design and other related ones.

Other elements

If this is the critical aspect of an ecommerce website, other factors need to be taken in to account. Ecommerce shopping software should be such that it should make all functions such as payment gateway, eBay integration, Amazon integration, etc. smooth and easy. All these should be supported by a strong backend which ensures that crashes happen at no time of the business.

Customers' trust is indispensable for ecommerce business

We have heard this before –nothing contributes to a business’ success more than the customer’s trust. This is the universal strand across all businesses, whether it has a brand or not.

In ecommerce, you may have the catchiest ecommerce site design and you may have the best ecommerce software; but do these in themselves enable your business to earn customers’ trust? How does one bring that about in the ecommerce business space?

Bringing about the human touch to ecommerce

It is a fact that no matter how well one’s brand is known, it is the human element that makes an ecommerce business a success. It is the salesman who finally brings about the sale. Where there are no humans involved in selling, and where the business is all about items such as ecommerce website design, ecommerce web development, ecommerce business solutions, ecommerce shopping software, e commerce site development, online shopping cart software, e commerce software and the like; is there space for human contact?

Ecommerce solutions may run on a good e commerce software and get propelled by proper support services, but more important is to get a good feel of what the customer looks for. Understanding customer behaviour is the important component for success in ecommerce, and this requires human intervention.

Yes, there is no person convincing a customer about a product, but in a technology-intensive industry, customer behaviour analysis is its equivalent.

The technology that is already there needs to be used to analyse and understand the customer better. This should be used to offer the products the customer looks for. This is how the human element of technology works.

Chart out a roadmap for your ecommerce business

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Any business that has a serious intention of growing should be having a roadmap. An ecommerce roadmap is, in simple terms, a plan for the future of the business. So, what is a roadmap? It is the route to the target that those in ecommerce business set for their business.

An ecommerce business roadmap is not a goal; it is the means to one. An ecommerce company may set itself goals, but the route it is going to take to get there is the ecommerce business roadmap.

Challenges

That anyone doing e commerce online needs a roadmap is beyond doubt. But in this particular industry, there are unique challenges. First, there are many new businesses which are not sure about where they will be headed over the long haul. So, for such ecommerce websites, it is a little tricky to chalk out an ecommerce business roadmap.

Secondly, and more importantly, website ecommerce is by nature dependant on technology, which as we all know, changes drastically over time. Any ecommerce business that draws out a roadmap based on factors of the present may have to encounter uncertainties brought about by new technologies, which could throw existing technologies and modes of business out of gear.

Foresight is the key

This is not to suggest that when you design ecommerce website, you will not be able to have a roadmap. A good businessman is one who can foresee the direction of his business, no matter what technology is present or will come up in the future. On this rests the chalking out of a roadmap and its realisation.

Watch out for these ecommerce products

How does one make an assessment of the most popular products of the future in a highly lopsided, fragmented global market for ecommerce shopping?

The world over, there has been a phenomenal growth in the number of people who shop e commerce online. Yet, this growth is very unevenly distributed between the developed and developing economies, with a fair percentage of growth being witnessed in the emerging economies.

Any reference to what people will buy in the future will depend on a large number of variables. Some pointers can be had from a study Nielsen Company conducted in March 2010, during which it polled more than 27,000 Internet users in a wide swathe of 55 markets from across the globe, in the markets of the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America and South America.

These were the top five answers the study threw up:

• Books
• Clothing and related accessories
• Videos/games
• Electronic gadgets
• Music

Again, this is highly unpredictable and can change at any time. Yet, this could shed some light on what one can expect in the future. Whether these products are the definers of the future of ecommerce is difficult to say, but one fact is certain – e commerce online is not only here to stay, it is here to grow.

Easy way of reaching out to over 200 million potential customers

Reaching out to more and more customers is one of the cornerstones for success in ecommerce business. As a business, ecommerce drives on selling better when more people are within its reach. When this is the stated aim of an ecommercebusiness, one of the easiest ways of doing this is to have eBay integration into the e commerce online.

More is better in ecommerce

Why eBay integration? It is for the simple fact that it has a user base of over 200 million. Of these, no fewer than 15 million are from the UK. As many as 10 million products get traded, making it the world’s largest online marketplace.

eBay ecommerce integration is made as easy as a few clicks. Once this is done, the way is cleared for opening your own eBay store. This is the easiest way to making your ecommerce site a multi-channel retail store. Multi-channel retailing, as we all know, is the integration of several functions into e commerce online. That is not all. You also get:

eBay shop design

eBay template design

eBay integration with website

eBay listing software

eBay listing tools

eBay design

eBay store design

Do I need to integrate with Amazon?

When starting an ecommerce business, an ecommerce business is bound to ponder over this question. The answer would be a firm ‘no’. That is, if you want your business to remain where it is and lose out on the opportunity of selling to about 90 million potential customers.

Amazon integration is a must for an end-to-end ecommerce business suite. Websites ecommerce drive on a single motto –of reaching out to more and more people. When you have a simple chance of reaching out to a huge chunk of this planet’s population, why should you let your e-retail suffer the lost chance?

An ecommerce web site that does not offer Amazon Integration is incomplete, to say the least. Amazon ecommerce integration is one of the easiest ways of selling your products through one of the world’s largest online marketplaces.

When you integrate with Amazon, you associate your business with this name known the world over. One of the big benefits it offers is that it automates data flow from Amazon Seller Central, Amazon.com's virtual bazaar where sellers can offer their products for sale, to your ecommerce site without requiring any effort from you.

Enjoy freedom with policies

Another major advantage Amazon Web Services offers is that you set your own policies with your customers in regard to items like customer return, shipping and handling policies for your set of Amazon.com products. If you design ecommerce website that is Amazon approved, you can sell in several Amazon.com categories. Amazon will handle payment processing without charging an item listing fee.

NicheSuite POS Features

Whether you are a large, multi-location retail chain or a small, independent retailer, NicheSuite POS Solutions serve your every need. Our POS solutions give you the option of choosing the right technology and with it, the benefits relating to the operational, capital/operational expense, support needs and security & maintenance. NicheSuite can also be deployed on different kinds of IT infrastructure and hardware.

POS – Administration features

• A searchable full audit trail of the store's sale history is enabled by the electronic journal
• Can enrol new customers into loyalty programs for campaigns/CRM purposes
• An employee database that supports attendance, labour scheduling and time can be maintained
• Ensures smooth functioning of day to day tasks between headquarters and stores
• Generates pertinent and effective reports relating to profitability, sales and stock
• Interfaces with multi-order points like cell phone, kiosks and web
• Is capable of printing vast variety of reports with which cash management processes can be smoothed
• Items such as edge shelf labels, applicable tax rates, prices and tender types are updated
• Registries for items such as for bridal and baby gifts and events by dates, names, items, prices, etc are supported
• Set up authorisation levels and usage security with which to manage different stakeholders and groups and control the roles they play in the system
• Shipment packages with online integration with shipment companies like DHL, FedEx, Royal Mail, UPS and USPS etc can be tracked
• Special offers, such as promotions and percentage discounts, can be launched
• The GUI, which is browser-based, enables back-office users to manage every aspect of the store. This makes its use easy and reduces training costs.
• The price check system, which is fully integrated, allows reporting on management of promotional message displayed to customers and system usage, helping to improve customer service
• You can set up and manage ecommerce and retail stores and warehouses and set up associations between them.
• You can synchronise intervals between warehouses, ecommerce stores and retail stores. With this, you can see a real-time synchronisation between these different business channels and set up preset stock replenishment levels
• Your business can set up payment gateways like Barclays, CyberSource, Google Checkout, HSBC, PayPal, Sage Pay and any other custom payment gateway that has inbuilt 3D Secure support

POS –terminal features

• Can handle different kinds of payment methods, such as credit card, cheque, cash, voucher, or gift cheque
• Can integrate with third-party processors, such as stored value cards, smart cards etc
• Can manage advance sale, cash and credit
• Goods can be shipped to consumers
• Indicative sale, like consumer specific promotion or up-sell prompting, can be done
• Its Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) interface aids third-party integration
• NicheSuite POS supports internationalisation. A number of languages and currency options that can be comfortably swapped are available for the user/cashier
• Offers a host of flexible sales functions, such as sale by item, and accepts all popular modes of online payment
• Offers support for US taxation
• PLU, the number assigned to that product which is not bar-coded, is supported. When server action is restored, offline transactions are automatically recorded and updated
• Returns/Exchange, Refunds and Deliver Slip can be tracked
• Sales can be reviewed through a web browser interface
• Store is completely automated, because of which super fast checkouts are ensured and human errors reduced
• Supports currency and drawer management
• Targeted sales goals can be set. Every step towards achieving these goals can be tracked online, adding to the motivation levels among sales personnel.
• The Hold and Retrieve Options under Suspend/Retrieve functions, by which an employee can return to a transaction later, is enabled
• The print management system gives out clean receipts and can void transactions when required
• Use of gift certificates is supported

How to make online visitors to stay on your ecommerce site

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You’ve got them to your ecommerce site. What next?

Website ecommerce is all about getting your customers to buy from your ecommerce business. Getting your customers to stay on your site is the first and most important step to successful ecommerce business. Great. So, how do you make this happen?

Give them what they are looking for!

In website ecommerce, there is perhaps no weapon that is as effective as user experience. This is a nearly beaten to death expression that is so vast it means one thing to you and another thing to me; yet, this is the clincher. This has to be brought about by the combination of ecommerce shopping software and ecommerce design.

On the one hand, internally, the e commerce software should have the potency to power the features that the visitor looks for. Externally, the ecommerce design should be appealing and aesthetically done.

On top of it, there is a combination of website optimisation and social media marketing. Social media tools and social media services, which SEO specialists carry out, act as another bait that draws your visitor to ecommerce websites, from where it is necessary to use a few tricks to make them stay and buy.

Usage of Social Media Value Chain to calculate the ROI

By using each step in the value chain as a method to determine costs and benefits, marketers can understand
the components needed to achieve value, and enable the measurement and calculation of ROI.
Using the Social Media Value Chain, Alinean analyzed hundreds of different organizations to determine thepotential ROI. The research uncovered the following ROI trends:
1. Certain marketers are realizing better levels-of-engagement, and as a result, lower costs/higher
downstream benefits and a more positive ROI, particularly larger companies with popular brands, customer demographics that match social media users, and particular industries including: High
Technology, Consumer Products, Retail, Travel , Media and Entertainment, Hospitality, and Automotive;
2. The majority of organizations are currently achieving a marginal or negative ROI, especially companiesthat are having to spend more to engage effectively and reach critical mass on their efforts, especially smaller firms, those that do not have popular brands, and those in particular industries with lowengagement levels, particularly: Energy, Utilities, Wholesale & Distribution, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare,Chemicals, and Professional Services/Service Providers;
3. Best practices matter in social media ROI success, in particular those companies that implement a
hierarchical approach to engagement, The Social Media Hierarchy of Needs;
4. Certain companies who are aggressively pursuing social media channels and implementing innovative
campaigns are achieving a significant ROI of 500% or more from these efforts.

HOW TO CALCULATE ROI FROM SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

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Calculating the ROI of social media requires a framework or model of the dynamics of social media
campaigns. This is then populated with measurement of how engagement with new prospects, existing
customers, and collaborators via social media channels helps to drive and derive a bottom-line impact to the
company, either through cost avoidance/savings or incremental revenue/margin impact.
Alinean proposes that Social Media ROI can be calculated by analyzing the value chain, from Investments to
Engagement to Benefits and Derived Value and finally, to ROI (net derived value/investments) as follows:
1. Investments — to get any benefit from social media requires an investment, particularly in marketing
labor, resources and tools to establish the social media presence, create content and campaigns,
monitor and collaborate and measure social media success;
2. Engagement — a first order effect of the investments, measuring the resultant number of followers,
advocates, reach and influence of the social media marketing efforts;
3. Benefits — the quantification of the resultant value of engagement, measuring the impact that social
media marketing is having on generating incremental revenue with new prospects and existing
customers, driving product/operational savings and innovation with collaboration partners, or avoiding
costs, such as avoiding the marketing expenses for other less effective/ efficient or redundant lead-gen
programs;
4. Derived Value and ROI — a financial summary comparing the ratio of investments versus derived
benefits to assure that the social media efforts are generating enough value compared to other
potential investments, and worthy of more (or less) investment.

Calculate your ROI from Social Media Marketing

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Marketers are investing significantly more in social media efforts, with increases from 6% to 18% percent of
marketing budgets expected within five years.
1
Marketers understand that you must make an investment to
deliver social media results and success, but what spending levels are required, and how much effort needs to
be expended to deliver specific results?
As social media marketing efforts increase, so does the investment required. And in today’s ―age of austerity,‖
every significant investment now requires proof of bottom-line impact and superior value — a condition
called Frugalnomics. As a result, with the social media spending increases, comes increased executive scrutiny,
and challenges from other stakeholders who may be losing budget to these efforts. This is driving the need for
better social media measurement and return on investment (ROI) accountability.
Recent survey results from Altimeter state that measurement is indeed one of the most important aspects to
social media success; in fact, the top priority reported by 48% of corporations was ―Creating ROI
Measurements‖ for internal programs.
2
According to Altimeter, ―those that can effectively measure
improvements can make the business case, and can truly obtain more budget funding.‖
However, even though social media ROI measurement is important, Altimeter found that benchmarking efforts
are incomplete, with 65% of corporations using only Engagement Data as the top measurement metric, and a
mere 22% capturing Product Revenue, a key element in quantifying value and ROI.
With so little measurement, can anyone say that there is actual ROI from social media in general and your own
unique marketing efforts in particular? Alinean believes that the sustainability of funding for social media is at
risk in enterprises that are not able to demonstrate solid business cases for these initiatives.
In the next several sections, this paper address the ROI measurement issue, outlining a practical set of
methodologies, calculations and measurements to better understand and calculate the ROI from Social Media.