Find out about eCommerce and your business

1. What is eCommerce?
Colin Lewis

2. What is eCommerce?
eCommerce Definition:
The buying and selling of products, services & information using digital channels, usually
commerce businesses usually employing some or all of the following practices:
• Provide Etail or virtual storefront on websites with online catalogues,
• Buy or sell on websites or online marketplaces.
• Provide secure business transactions
Dave Chaffey: Internet Marketing, Strategy Implementation & Practice
• Electronic Commerce refers to both financial and informational electronically mediated
transactions between organisations and any third party it deals with.
• eCommerce involves management not only sales transactions but also non-financial
transactions such as inbound customer service enquiries and customer requests for
further information are considered to be part of e-commerce.

3. Benefits of eCommerce
• New / additional / solo sales channel that improves conversion
• Lowers cost of sales through lower overhead (no 25 year leases) and
increased automation/streamlining of business processes.
• Removes geographic restrictions & Increase’s exposure to a wider audience
• Internationalise very easily
• Improve branding - > better customer experience.
• Always open -operate 24/7
• Adoption continues to grow rapidly – matching broadband and mobile
• Niche products/services can thrive online
• Tracking allows you to learn from customer behaviour – IMMEDIATELY
• Now very affordable -> low barriers to entry
• You can do it yourself!

4. eCommerce Sales Growth
Ireland
• Estimated size of Irish eCommerce market €4 billion e-commerce market
• Irish retailers are now investing in meeting the growing online demand for their products.
• 2013 compared to 2012: Grew by 17% - Retail grew by 25%
• Prior to 2013 - little if anything that could be bought online from iconic Irish retail brands
• Spending up remarkable 51% in Q2 2014 when compared with the same time PY
• Revenue growing 67% faster than traffic it is clear the Irish consumer has an insatiable
appetite
UK and Europe
• In 2010 Europe overtook the USA. In 2012 European B2C e-commerce, including online
retail goods and services grew by 19% to reach €311.6 bn.
• UK: Now £13n++ could grow to £45bn by 2020
• eCommerce websites are still only 12% of the Internet

5. Building
an
eCommerce site

6. eCommerce Models
• Clicks & Bricks/Mortar:
A business model by which a company integrates both
offline (bricks) and online (clicks) presences. e.g.
Tesco.com, Topshop.com, PaddyPower.com, argos.ie
• Pure Play:
Does business purely through the Internet; they have
no physical store. E.g. Asos.com, ebay.com.
• Mobile:
e.g. Hot Hotels, Tinder, WhatsApp

7. Things to think about
• Do you have an existing website? Will this integrate, replace or be a new website
• Have you access to in-house technical (web development & design) resources?
• Do you have offline stores? How will this integrate with them, their inventory etc...
Or will this be a pure play ecommerce site
• How many products will you have?
• Who will manage order fulfilment, do you already have a warehouse, mail order
division, will you need one
• How much revenue do you expect to generate online,
• How much do you expect the online to cannibalise the offline, what will be the
consequences of this
• Do you have somebody/ a team who will manage your e-commerce operation?
• Do you need an agency to help build/maintain your store?

8. Choosing an eCommerce Platform
Basic
• Simple ‘Buy Now’ buttons integrated into an existing website
• On-demand ecommerce solutions
• Online marketplaces: third party websites such as eBay & Amazon which host the e-commerce
presence of multiple sellers
Comprehensive – dedicated eCommerce website
• Custom-built/Bespoke eCommerce website
• Packaged applications (paid or free/open source) – Enterprise Level
Reflecting the difference between ….
• Re-usable software (that can either be implemented by a third party or by in-house
developers – i.e. a base platform)
and
• Using a solution provider, which may use a solution provider as a starting point in
delivering a fully functional online store for a retailer.

9. On-demand/Hosted ecommerce solutions
‘Cloud’ based software
• On-demand solutions are easy to set up
• No investment required in technology
• Most come with excellent and easily customizable designs
• Marketing tools built in
• Mobile device enabled, great apps available
• Perfect for small to medium sized business with less than 500
products, 50,000 visitors per month and less than 1000 orders
per month

10. Things to think about: getting paid
• Two Payment Processing Options:
 Payment Bureau
 Payment Service Providers (PSP’s)

11. Payments online – Payment Bureau
• Payment Bureau’s act as both Payment Processer and Acquiring
bank
• PayPal & Google Checkout are the main players
Pros
• The only option for many start up’s
• Easy to set up
• Helps increase conversion
• Fraud Protection - Both checkouts offer a level of fraud protection
to both buyers and sellers
Cons
• Higher fees – 2% - 3.5%
• Revenue settled slower

12. Payment Service Providers (PSP’s)
• Retailer must have an internet merchant account with an acquiring
bank (a bank which provides internet merchant services).
• They must also have an account with a payment service provider
(PSP) also known as a payment gateway. A PSP is effectively an
online credit card machine.
• Merchant’s bank account’s - BOI – Elavon, AIB – AIBMS (Not all
banks provide this service)
• Payment Service Providers
• - Realex, SagePay

13. New forms of processor
E.G. Stripe
• Payment forms
• Processing and compliance
• Integrated mobile payments for iOS &
Android libraries to charge on the go.
• Storing cards and processing
subscriptions to powering
marketplaces and everything in
between.

14. Payment Service Providers (PSP’s)
Pro’s
• Lower fee’s - 2% for most cards / 49p for debit cards
• Excellent site integration options
• Works well if you are doing larger volumes
• Funds settled within 1-2 days
Con’s
• Not really available for start ups
• Time to set cost
• Set up costs
• More susceptible to fraud
• Monthly fee’s in conjunction with transaction fee’s (20-30 Eur)

15. But wait
How do I get traffic?
(‘punters to my site’)
And how do I get them to buy?

16. Back to the A C R

17. Digital Marketing For eCommerce Sites
• Standard Channels • Additional DM Channels for eCommerce
• SEO/Organic Search
• Paid Search
• Email Marketing
• Display & Video Advertising
• Mobile Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• PR
• Marketplaces: eBay & Amazon
• Shopping price comparison engines
• Google x 5 – Adwords for eCommerce,
Product Search, Reviews, Google
Checkout, Youtube
• Product Videos
• Review sites
• Social Media & Commerce

18. Design is an acquisition tool

19. Copy is a conversion tool

20. Source
WorldPay
Why do they leave?