It’s incredible! Just when you think that you are on top of your game and happily sat astride the big digital horse, confident about your e-surroundings… you look around and all of a sudden there are 10 more emerging technologies that you need to learn, and exploit to make business, and maybe even life better somehow.

Blogs, feeds, twitters, portals, mobile apps – all of these technologies and many more are fast becoming the must-have technologies within the digital world. Companies like Ninethirty must be fast to react and pre-empt change within our industry, so that we can give our clients the very best emerging opportunities.

My head might be spinning now! But it’s well worth it in the end, to “be there” when change occurs, and even better to become an instigator of change ourselves is what I am aiming for.

Web 2.0 is already producing leaders – Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Google – but for many organisations, coping with its implications remains a challenge because for the most part, Web 2.0 has been flying underneath the corporate radar.

In an example of Web 2.0 technology reaping real-world benefits, a major airline’s flight crew has chosen to use Facebook to manage their schedules, as did management consultancy Capgemini for the co-ordination of a new starters’ “onboarding” programme.

By November of 2007, Facebook had acquired 50 million subscribers, with many organisational personnel already signed up, including 17,000 employees from Microsoft, 20,000 from IBM, and 13,000 from Accenture.

Open APIs

One of the key tactics in the battle between Facebook, MySpace and Google has been the opening up their application program interfaces (APIs) so that anyone can develop for them. The opportunity to capitalise on a fast-growing user base is tempting companies that have been looking for ways to get involved with social networking but are not keen on developing their own networks.

Social networking – which sits alongside blogs, wikis, mashups and RSS as the key tools that define Web 2.0 – can make such an impact, the failure to consider the impact of social enhancement technology on the performance of the enterprise is a big mistake.

So it is no longer enough for IT directors to dismiss Web 2.0 as simply the next round of web-development technologies, although some still do.

Among the many advantages that the Internet gives us, one of the main ones is online shopping, an activity that many have become addicted to. Shopping is a necessity for all of us, some of us really enjoy it, and others try to keep it as simple and short as possible. Well, online shopping is the best solution for both those who consider it a chore that they try to avoid and for those who do it on a daily basis.

The main advantage of online shopping is that it allows people to browse through many items and categories without leaving their house, to compare the prices of as many shops as they want, and also to order as many items as they can afford without having to worry about how they will transport them, because the online shopping websites also deliver the things to the buyer’s home. Furthermore, the Internet is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so you don’t have to hurry or worry about finding a parking spot.

If you plan on shopping from the Internet then first use a search engine to find online shops. If you want fast deliveries and low shipping fees then try to search for the shops that are in your country. You can use a shopping directory that contains categorized links to stores from a specific region or from all over the world, together with reviews from other customers. If you live in a big country you’ll be surprised to find out that there are thousands of online shops available where you live, and these shops sell everything that can be sold, from baby products to dog houses and motor oil.

Most of the online shopping websites have the same pattern, first you choose the category under which your item is listed, and then you can select the item that you’re looking for, and add it to your shopping cart. If you want to buy other items, you click the “add to cart” button near them, and when you’re finished you check out. After that you can see a list with everything that you’ve ordered, and the total amount that has to be paid. You can also remove items from your shopping cart if you desire to do so. Payment is usually done by credit card. The buyer enters the data on the credit card and the shop charges the price and then delivers the items to the buyer’s house in a few days. The transaction is perfectly safe and the credit card data you send is encrypted so it can’t be stolen.

Remember to always compare the prices, check for discounts, search for the lowest shipping taxes and make sure that what you’ve found can’t be found cheaper anywhere else.

After you’ve done some online shopping you’ll see how easy it is and you’ll quickly get used to it. Soon you will know what the best shopping websites are and you will be able to buy the things you need very easy and fast, saving a lot of time and trouble. Online shopping is the most practical, economical and fun method of shopping, that is perfect for everyone.

This includes well known high street companies like Clarks and H&M, as well as plenty of smaller retailers.

Increased sales

UK online retail sales are rising as customers take advantage of the ease and inconvenience of shopping online. Launching an e-commerce site gives you access to these shoppers, and should help increase your overall sales volumes.

Increased exposure

People use search engines to find goods and services, whether they eventually make a purchase online or offline. Having an e-commerce site means that your product is more likely to appear on people’s Google searches.

Breaking free from geographic restrictions

Having just one or two retail outlets can limit your reach and the amount of customers you can sell to. A move into e-commerce will remove these restrictions and allow you to sell to anyonr in the country, or even worldwide.

Reduce customer queries

Another benefit of a website is that customers will be able to find answers to common questions online, saving the time and costs associated with dealing with these queries in person/on the phone.

E-commerce is affordable

Thanks to application service providers (ASP’s), small businesses can sell their products online with very little outlay – under £100 a month in some cases. There is also the option of setting up a seller account on eBay.

E-commerce levels the playing field

Small businesses often fear they don’t have the resources to compete with the big boys, and this is true offline, when businesses have to pay for premises etc. Online, you can compete with the big names at very little extra cost.

E-commerce allows you to operate around the clock

By selling online, your business is open for custom 24/7 – this means that you can appeal to those consumers who are normally at work during your opening hours.

Research suggests that 38% of online shopping takes place outside normal shop hours, peaking between 7pm and 9pm.

E-commerce continues to grow

Online retail is still growing, and shows no signs of stopping, so you still have a chance to take advantage of this trend.

Niche products/services can thrive online

While your product may have limited appeal in your local area, by selling online you can find consumers that are looking for what you have to offer. This is the ‘long tail’.

This is the case for both retailers who think they’re performing well and those who don’t.

The issue
The big gap in most businesses is still around the strategy piece and the inability to make truly informed decisions in relation to the scope of opportunity presented by the e-commerce channel, and therefore the structure and investment that is required in order to maximise the opportunity and sweat the asset.

While many multi channel retailers are now enjoying seven, eight or even nine digit revenues from e-commerce, most retailers still lack real insight into whether or not the channel is as successful as it might be. As they don’t know what to benchmark against.

There are too few e-commerce players on the board
This lack of insight is partly due to the fact that e-commerce is not its own directorate in most businesses, and therefore there isn’t an experienced e-commerce practitioner on the board. As such, decisions made around strategy, structure, technology and investment can be ill-informed.

But to caveat this, there is still a big shortfall of experienced practioners who have the breadth of skills and depth of experience required to add this strategic insight at board level. And this is also often determined by what stage of the lifecycle e-commerce is at within each business.

The level of investment in technology and customer experience is often insufficient
A question for retailers: “How much would you invest in a new store shop fit?”

In most cases, it’ll be a very similar amount, if not more than you would invest in developing your e-commerce platform, and yet the latter will end up driving up to 20% of your turnover or, well over 10 times the turnover of any one store.

I hear the term ‘fit for purpose’ being bandied about frequently. But I wonder if that is entirely relevant to the e-commerce channel. As the lack of insight makes it a pretty tough call to determine, what is the benchmark for being fit for purpose?

So while many companies have made significant investments, what might your ROI have looked like if you’d raised the bar and invested enough to deliver a ‘best in class‘ website?

Having already put me off the purchase with way too much cross selling during the checkout process, VistaPrint has now compounded the problem by sending my 10 emails in the space of 11 days.

Emailing checkout dropouts

The first email I received was titled ‘Oops! Did you forget?’ and was sent three days after I abandoned the checkout process. This is something all retailers should be doing, as customers may simply need a reminder to prompt them to go back and complete their purchase.

The email also included a 25% discount if I ordered that day, which is a good way to entice customers back to the checkout. Also, clicking the link on the email sent me straight to my shopping basket ready, to complete the purchase. Both good ideas, though it could be argued that waiting three days to send the email is too long.

In last year’s Email Marketing Industry Census, we found that 69% of companies were not emailing customers who abandoned shopping baskets, a missed opportunity, so VistaPrint should be congratulated for this at least.

Subscribing

I didn’t actually remember signing up for emails in the first place, though I did submit my email as part of the registration process. Looking back at the site again, I can see that I had subscribed by default, as I hadn’t unchecked this box which tells VistaPrint that I’m interested in receiving special offers.

Email frequency

For me, ten emails in eleven days is too many, and this frequency simply encourages customers to ignore emails or hit the spam button. Also, they were all variations of the same offer. For example, I was told I had 24 hours left to save 100% and get free delivery, then received the same offer 48 hours later.

Deciding how many emails you should send is not an exact science, and retailers need to be smart about this, monitoring customer response, unsubscribe rates and other factors to find the right balance for each customer, or simply ask customers this question when they sign up in the first place.

Also, emails should be sent often enough so that customers don’t forget they signed up in the first place. Perhaps 2 or 3 emails a month, or once a week is acceptable, but 5 or 6 a week is definitely too many. This level of frequency will almost certainly lead to high unsubscribe rates, or having your emails reported as spam, which can have an effect on your sender reputation with ISPs.

Unsubscribing

After so many emails, I decided to unsubscribe. Apart from the tiny unsubscribe link in the email, the unsubscribe process was easy enough, and contained some useful features.

First I am directed to this page which, as well as offering me the unsubscribe link, gives me the option of reducing the frequency of emails.

This is a good idea, but should really have been offered when I signed up, as this may have avoided the need to unsubscribe in the first place. It also suggests that VistaPrint knows it may be sending too many emails out.

After selecting the middle option, I am asked why I chose to stop the emails and what the company can do better in future, as well as offering a 25% off voucher to shop again at the site.

This is a good idea, but VistaPrint should be using this feedback to tailor their email campaigns more effectively in future, unless only a few customers object to the frequency of emails.

We are able to offer a full service, from campaign design to delivery, reporting and mailing list management. We can tell each of our clients which emails have been opened, by whom and at what time! We can also give you full information about which links within the email were most polular and were clicked the most.

Speak to us today and let us tell you all about the service, which when done properly can elevate your marketing campaigns to the next level.

Ninethirty has created e-mail campaigns for Stewart Interiors, Wignall Developments and Fletchers Solicitors, and we look forward to working with you!