2012 07 ijl2012_eddie-prentice_seminar_e_commerce

eCommerce Trends
What’s current? What’s working
IJL Seminar – 4 September, 2012
Eddie Prentice – Digital Marketer

eCommerce Agenda
• Why are we here?
• Social commerce
• Mobile Commerce
• eCommerce trends & issues
• Conclusions
Eddie.Prentice@btconnect.com

Olympic Ticketing
Tickets sold out in spite of the website not because of it

Olympic Ticketing
This is not the real world. Without marketing and
good website usability you fail.
Buyers persevered because there was no alternative.

Internet “Splinternet”
• Explosion of devices and social networks has
turned the internet in to the “splinternet”
• New fragmented reality
• More complex to deliver a consistent
customer experience

eCommerce Facts

eCommerce Why It’s Important?
• 20% shoppers spend more than half their
income online
• 40% of UK consumers shop online at least
once a week
• 52% research purchases SOLELY online
• 40% start their search for ALL purchases
online
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers / Reevo, June 2011

Mobile Commerce

Mobile Devices Deliver on the Promise
Smartphones are now mainstream
Touchscreen tablets are now what we’ve
always wanted them to be

Current Mobile Technology
• 2G = voice and text
• 3G = 2G plus internet services
• 4G = faster and better coverage than 3G (not yet
launched in UK)
Current mobile technology is know as
“third generation” (3G)
Roll-out of 4G services is coming soon! Enabled
by the release of SPECTRUM. Expected to reach
the UK in 2013.

Mobile Facts
26 million smartphone users
in the UK
Source: Comscore April 2012
69% of smartphone owners
currently own their first
smartphone
Source: Our Mobile Planet May 2012

Mobile Usage Its Not About Phone Calls
• A third of smartphone owners prefer using it for Web
browsing or e-mail even when they are near PCs.
• Over the past two years, iPhone users have spent 45
percent more time e-mailing on their smartphones and
15 percent less time e-mailing on their PCs.
• More than 60 percent of smartphone users would
consider buying goods with it or have already done so.
• As more products are distributed over mobile channels,
greater competition will raise the importance of design,
ease of use, and new mobile payment options.
Source: McKinsey Research

Amazon $1billion in Mobile Sales

Mobile Site Design Basics
• Minimise menu and navigational items
• Vertical lists work better than horizontal
menu bars
• Links/buttons should be large enough and
widely enough spaced to view and click on or
touch.
• Search box is very important given a more
limited link navigation
– Enable filtering of results
– Include price in results
• Minimise form filing

De Beers Bridal App
Single theme: Bridal - Focus on customer needs rather than product
Good use of action phrases – Useful navigation options

M&S Checkout
• Mobile users do not want
to invest time in entering
lots of personal details.
• Make registration optional
• Minimise form fill
– Add shortcuts (postcode lookup)
– Pre-populate billing address
• PayPal payment option
may avert security concerns
On entering Checkout, users forced to register. NOT best practice

M&S Checkout
Users forced to put in
too much detail,
including date of
birth

Debenhams Checkout
Debenhams offers a much
slicker checkout process
– Allows guest registration
– Postcode finder
– Assumes same address
for billing & delivery
– Pages short and quick to
load

Topshop Checkout
• Very fast Checkout
• Guest registration
• Only requires delivery
address & card details
• Short pages (quick to load)
• Pulls up numerical keypad
to enter phone number

Social Commerce

Social Media What’s the Point?
Grow customer engagement and build
brand loyalty
It’s about:
• Personalising your brand
• Enabling customers to identify with your
brand

Social Media UK Statistics
• 31.5 million Facebook users in UK (over
50% of UK population)
• 97% students use Facebook
• 45% students use Twitter
• 25% of consumers have a Twitter
account

Social Media Brand Engagement By Age
Source: Fishburn Hedges, via Econsultancy, May 2012

eCommerce & Facebook Fans
• Fans made 131% more visits to the online
store than Facebook users who had not liked
the brand.
• Fans made 639% more visits to the online
store than non-Facebook users
• Once users became fans, they visited the
company’s website 30% more than before
Source: allfacebook.com, July 2012

Attract Customers on Facebook
1. Get More Fans
• The more people who ‘like’ your page, the bigger your reach across
their network of friends. All your fans have hundreds of friends who
can see who they interact with.
2. Turn Fans In To Leads
• Having fans doesn’t get you sales. Turn these fans in to email
addresses.
3. Turn Leads In To Sales
• Email is generally has the highest sales conversion rate of all
sources of website traffic.
Likes Email addresses Customers

Like Our Page Hint Hint
Click on Red Bull App

Like Our Page Hint Hint
Arrows in graphic point
towards Like button.
No need to be subtle.

Facebook Best Practice
• Try and post every day – don’t forget weekends. This
is an active time for many Facebook users
• Focus on engagement, not sales – ask questions, offer
tips, share interesting content links, respond to
questions
• You can sell but get the balance right e.g. 5 posts, one
sales message and 4 helpful content posts (80/20
rule)
• Have calls to action – tell them to like, comment,
watch (and why).
• Make it entertaining or fun

Brands Followed For Offers, Discounts & Updates
Why do you follow brands on Twitter?

Twitter Responding to Negative Comments
How to deal with the negatives?
• Respond quickly
• Apologize / empathize
• Make it easy to communicate (move it public
to private - DM, Email, Phone)
• Be human – no corporate speak
• Put things right – whatever it takes
• Offer an incentive to buy again

Twitter Best Practice
• Avoid spammers. Don’t follow everyone who follows
you. Just follow if it’s right for your business.
• Don’t follow too many people. It’s not a numbers
game and makes you look desperate.
• Don’t over-tweet. Give followers time to breathe and
you won’t be seen as a spammer but don’t allow too
much time between tweets either.
• Don’t be too commercial. Get the balance right. 80/20
rule.
• Be personal. You can go off message occasionally for
comments on matters of general or topical interest
(Usain Bolt OK but David Cameron not OK).

Pinterest 9 Tips for Marketers
1. Don’t just blow your own trumpet - completely misses the point of social media.
2. Let others contribute - allow other users to pin content to some of your boards.
They will share the board with others. Be selective to avoid spammers.
3. Update your boards on a regular basis – to keep customers engaged you have to
give them new content on a regular basis.
4. Use eye-catching images (or don’t bother) – large, hi-res, colourful. You want to
inspire others.
5. Add links to your images - when you do pin your own product make sure to link
back to your e-commerce site.
6. Be wary of copyright infringement - If in doubt don’t pin it. Credit images – you
are unlikely to get sued if you send traffic to the copyright owner
7. Don’t include prices or logos – these images won’t get repinned. Just link back to
your website.
8. Make pins and pinboards searchable - use keywords in the descriptions so users
can find them when searching the site.
9. Add a Pinterest share tab to your website
Ref: www.econsultancy.com

Burberry on Instagram
- Originally showcased products but now photos around London
- Using Instagram to positioning Burberry as a cosmopolitan, British brand
- Also, featured behind the scenes look at launch of new range, presented
as an invitation i.e. building network with exclusive content
- Now over 500,000 followers

Virgin Atlantic Consistent Customer Experience

Ratings & Reviews

Ratings & Reviews No Longer an Option
The views of your peers carry greater weight than the message of the brand

Who You Are Makes A Difference
Source: Reevoo, June 2011
54.2% of UK consumers say a reputable retailer
is important when shopping online

Don’t Fear Negative Reviews
Most people leave positive comments
Source: LightspeedResearch, March 2011

Negative reviews don’t
necessarily have more weight
than positive reviews. They give
authenticity to positives.

Attracting User Reviews
• Ask for reviews on product pages.
• Email customers post purchase to request
a review.
The more reviews you have, the more useful
a resource it becomes for consumers.

How To Display User Reviews
• Display a review summary and then allow
customers to drill further into the detail if
they want to.
• Your customers don’t necessarily have the
patience to read long reviews

Reviews Still need convincing?
• 87.3% of UK consumers sometimes or always
read reviews before purchasing.
• 86.9% will not purchase a new product before
reading the impartial opinions of owners.
• 78.2% of UK consumers are more likely to buy
products with good reviews
• Almost half of UK consumers have written a
review.
Source: Reevoo, June 2011

eCommerce Trends & Issues

Mega Drop-down Menus
Most major retailers now have Mega drop-downs

Ernest Jones Mega Drop-down Menus

Mega Drop-downs Pros and Cons
Pros
• Reach lower levels of
navigation with fewer clicks
• Offer different paths to the
same product/brand
• Filter the customer’s product
selection, saving clicks
• Merchandising - offer the
most popular at top and on
the left
• Works well with horizontal
navigation bars
Cons
• Drop-downs can be very
difficult to use on mobile
devices
• "Paradox of Choice" - slows
the process with greater
complexity
• Technical issues - code that
behaves differently
depending on browser
• Can be difficult for visitors to
scan and make sense of it

Mega Drop-downs Tips
• Use headings
• Use columns
• Showcase your best sellers
• Keep it short - don’t extend off page of small screen
• Add a drop shadow or border to make it stand out on
page
• Test it in a range of browsers
• Consider using the full width of the page
• Use images and icons
• Speed - Comes up instantly on hover and disappears
when mouse is moved away
Ideas for improving mega drop-down usability

Mega Drop-downs M&S
M&S has many best practice features of a mega-drop-down

Abandoned Shopping Carts Reasons
Source: Comscore / Entrepreneur.com
Shipping related issues figure in 3 of top 5
reasons people abandon shopping carts

Shipping Time Cart Abandonment
The longer the delivery time the higher the abandonment rate

Checkout What Shoppers Want
The top 2 options people want to see at Checkout
relate to shipping & delivery date

Checkout “NO” to account creation
ASOS reduced cart abandonment by 50% when
they took the account registration process
out of their Checkout

ASOS First Checkout Page
Before & After
Form improved for
existing and new
customers
OLD
NEW

ASOS Checkout Good Practice
Visible FREE
returns and FREE
next day delivery
Products images
reassures correct
product has been
selected
Transparent
delivery costs
Visible and
reassuring
payment button at
top and bottom
Easy to see
“Change Details”

Trust symbol
Progress Indicator
Useful Information
specific to the field
Clear primary
call to action

Ability to confirm
or edit your order
before placing it

Site Search
Becoming more important for shoppers researching specific
products and for mobile devices.
• 30% of site visitors use the search box
• Improved sales - customers who find what they are
looking for easily are more likely to make a purchase
• Higher conversion rates - more intuitive search and
navigation means higher conversion rates.
• Increased site usage - customers are more likely to spend
more time on the site
• Improved customer loyalty - customers know they can
find products easily
• Improved branding - a better customer journey compared
to competitor websites
Source: Econsultancy

Site Search
• Make it easy to find and make it obvious what it is
• Avoid confusion – keep away from other boxes e.g.
newsletter sign up

Shoppers Respond To Up-sell Suggestions
£232
£263
£254
All similar items
slightly more
expensive than
shopper selection.

Shoppers Like Your Suggestions

Cross-sell Up-sell Rules
• Keep suggested items relevant. Showing
unrelated items is a waste of valuable
merchandising space.
• Keep the number of cross and up-sell options
to a reasonable number. Avoid cluttering the
page and spoiling the effect.
• Show accessories that are obvious cross-sells
e.g. jewellery box.

Calls to Action
• Buttons need to jump out at the shopper -
leave them in no doubt about the next step
they need to take
• Test different combinations to see what
works best:
– colour
– button size
– wording
No absolute right and wrong. If it doesn’t stand out clearly
on the page, then there is room for improvement.

Buttons: Contrast More Important Than Colour
No need to agonise
over blue or green.
Only question is “DOES
IT STAND OUT?”
3 Things to Test:
- Colour contrast
- Button Size
- Wording

Conclusions

What do shoppers get excited about?
• 80%: Finding a great price or deal on a
product I want
• 60%: Getting a better price than other
people
• 53%: Finding rare items or hard-to-find
items
• 47%: Discovering great new products
Source: Yahoo 2011

Conclusions
• Mobile is changing the game - but not
changing the rules
• If you don’t engage your customers in
social media, others will
• Ratings and reviews on your site are a must
- the views of your peers carry more weight
than the message of the brand
• Transparency on shipping costs and
delivery is a critical

IJL Seminar – 4 September, 2012
Eddie Prentice – Digital Marketer
Email: eddie.prentice@btconnect.com
eCommerce Trends
What’s current? What’s working

2012 07 ijl2012_eddie-prentice_seminar_e_commerce

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