Where Content Marketing ultimately leads …

This story appeared in the Washington Post today, To build brand, companies produce slick content and their own media.

One of the closing thoughts in the article is that “every company is now a media company.”  And that is a correct conclusion.

But the common availability of the tools be a media company, doesn’t mean a company can be casual or sloppy about the content it publishes — in either substance or appearance.

Filed under: Direct Commerce, Ideas, News, brand, content marketing, media, washingt

Cash registers fade away as smartphones, tablets take over

This trend was very foreseeable.  And anyone who doesn’t see it, needs to re-evaluate.  Here’s a link the this story by the AP, published by Gannett … Link

Note even Walmart is experimenting with an iPhone app that enables a shopper to scan items as the shopper drops them into her cart.  Stopping at a self-check-out terminal only to pay and perhaps bag up the items.

And if you’ve never used the “self-pay” function in Apple’s Store app, you should try it.  Scan an item, login with your Apple ID, pay with your registered credit card, email yourself the receipt and walk out of the store.  You can do it with any item that is not stored in the back of the store (which includes the big, very valuable items, as you would expect).

Once again, we talking about convenience to the customer … it’s a never-ending theme, but I’m always amazed at how few people get it.

Personally, I’m waiting for my grocery store to allow me to email my receipt … I hate those long pieces of paper!

Filed under: Ideas, multichannel commerce, News, Opinion, AP, Apple, apple stores, cash registers, convenience, customer service, receipts, walmart

Ecommerce Technology is more than the sum of it’s features

One of the essential parts of my consulting practice is vendor identification, evaluation, selection & transition.  Typically, a lot of the time needed for such an engagement is the development of the requirements document … an attempt to document every possible feature a client might need in the operations area being addressed.

But there is more to such an engagement than the rather mundane process of listing the set of feature requirements, and comparing it to what each prospective vendor claims they can provide.

An article in Multichannel Merchant, just today, makes this point well.  Entitled, 5 Tips for Choosing an Ecommerce Technology Provider , click to read it for yourself.

Matching up with the features & functions you need is an important place to start.  But as Raj Kumar Waghray writes, there are other broader, and ultimately, even more important factors:

• evaluating your existing partnership
• understanding your unique needs (my emphasis on understanding)
• serving your needs?
• collaboration quotient (not only theirs, but yours as well)
• eager to serve mindset

There is a business culture component to matching up technology users with technology providers — don’t ignore it.  It is often the biggest factor of the long term success of your business relationship.

Filed under: Direct Commerce, Opinion, culture, ecommerce, multichannel merchant, requirements, systems, technology, vendor evaluation, vendor selection

More on “Same Day Delivery”

Late yesterday, Internet Retailer published a story under the headline:  Price beats speed for online shoppers.  In general, the article sites research on the web site features which are most important to what they buy online.

But the article highlights that for 53% of respondents, price is most important, and they use whatever shipping is the lowest cost or free.

Now there is another 47% for whom shipping cost is less significant.

But I hope it’s becoming clearer to all, that same day delivery is a very limited market.  Limited to the affluent & lazy + the urgent.

Most online buyers do not request “overnight delivery.”  Overnight deliveries probably average 3-5%, at most.  I’ve not seen recent data on that question.  So “same-day delivery” is likely a subset of the overnight number.

It may make a theme for a marketing campaign … and it may even be a profitable segment (because people who want same-day delivery are less price sensitive) … but it’s not a big segment.

Filed under: Direct Commerce, News, Opinion, Internet Retailer, order fulfillment, overnight delivery, same-day delivery, shipping

The Impact of Omni-channel on Retail

The Wall Street Journal published a story this week about Macy’s, which focuses mostly only the perceived impact that an omni-channel strategy is having on their business, going forward.  It’s worth reading here. (subscription required)

What struck me in this story is the twist on the concept of localization.

Most of my conversations with ecommerce folks, in which “localization” comes up, the subject is a reference to localizing a web site to a country.  And, of course, the resulting need for translation, alternate payment processing methods, separating inventory, separating marketing campaigns.  All to be expected.

What Macy’s professes to recognizing is that a store in Fairfax, Virginia (where I live) may demand a different inventory and different marketing than a store in Dallas, Texas.

Now, we’ve all recognized those type of differences — up to a point.

But with the tools available to us now, we can buy uniquely for each store, vary marketing by micro-segment, and attempt to match available inventory (and by extension our merchandising & buying tactics) to these clearly identifiable segments.

But where is the balance … can we focus one segments that are so small, we cannot manage to them profitably? And if that’s true, then what is the smallest segment we should isolate to maximize profitability?

A whole new form of optimization!

 

Filed under: Direct Commerce, Ideas, multichannel commerce, Opinion, buying, Direct Commerce, ecommerce, localization, Macy's, merchandising, omni-channel, retail sales, strategy, WSJ

How to use Social Media as a Customer Service Tool

This headline is taken from a post you can find here.

The younger your customer base, the more important it is that you pursue this strategy.  Granted, it’s not exclusively relevant to younger customers.

In additional to the Social Media, you should also add SMS capability to your customer service arsenal (if I can use that term).  I’m sure you’ve noticed how many younger people use the phone less for talking than for texting.

That’s a trend you should not fight … instead, go with it.

While I don’t think you can avoid using social media for customer service — over the long term — I’d also push people towards texting, if you can.  After all, texting is at least private, by default.

Filed under: Direct Commerce, Ideas, Customer Care, customers, SMS, social media, texting

Dept of Commerce stats on Electronic & Mail Order Sales for 2012

The Dept of Commerce has released it’s final report on Retail Sales for 2012.  Below is a graph of the monthly report for Total Retail Sales (the blue line against the left axis) and Electronic & Mail Order Sales (the green bars against the right axis).

Total Retail sales grew 3.7 percent, over 2011, and totaled just short of 4.9 trillions dollars.  Electronic & Mail Order Sales grew 13.2 percent, over 2011, and totaled 324.4 billion dollars.  Electronic & Mail Order Sales represent 7.4 percent of Total Retail Sales.

I don’t want to over analyze what all of this means.  But it is clear that Electronic & Mail Order Sales (what I call Direct Commerce) is growing faster than Retail Sales over all.  And the growth curves changed noticeably, at the beginning of the last recession (late 2008)

 

Filed under: Direct Commerce, News, Direct Commerce, ecommerce, electronic & mail order sales, retail sales, us dept of commerce

Amazon’s Same-Day Delivery Will Shake Up Retail

The title of this post is the headline of an article posted at Ecommerce Times on Jan 17, 2013.  Here’s a link.

The article points out the very convenient solution Amazon can provide in some high-density markets for customers who are willing to pay for the convenience of not having to actually go to a store themselves for something they need today.

The author then proceeds to describe some of the warehouse systems, which Amazon uses to facilitate their same-day delivery service, including a reference to Kiva Systems.  Kiva Systems provides robots for use in the Pick & Pack process of direct-to-customer fulfillment centers.  It’s a great systems … I met with the founder when he was looking for both initial funding and early clients (back in 2003 or so).

But we need to keep this “same day delivery” thing in some context.

According to data from the Department of Commerce, under the category of Retail Sales, Mail Order and Ecommerce Sales still amounts to only seven percent of total retail sales … yes, 7%.

Now, that’s still a significant number.  And for some retailers, it may even account for a major percentage of their annual profit.

Please take note that in most direct commerce research, “free shipping” remains among the most effective promotions.

But given that same day delivery will only appeal to the more affluent, for whom delivery cost is not as significant as convenience, and given that all direct commerce accounts for only 7% of total retail sales … it’s somewhat of a stretch to say that same day delivery will “shake up” retail.

A bit too much hyperbole, for me

Filed under: Direct Commerce, Ideas, Opinion, Amazon, Direct Commerce, Ecommerce Times, Kiva Systems, retail sales, shipping, systems, WMS

After all is said and done, it’s still about what you sell

I’m a fan of Kevin Hillstrom’s blog:  MineThatData.  He posted yesterday about the impact of social media on sales, profits and stock prices, and specifically compared HP, Dell and Apple.  The post was entitled, Dell, HP and Apple:  It’s the Merchandise.

In summary,

• HP has lackluster products, declining sales, declining stock price and no social media presence.
• Dell has a spectacular social media presence, uninspiring products, pretty flat sales, and less dramatic, but still declining stock price.
• Apple has products that continue in high demand, growing sales, skyrocketing stock price (even though it’s down over the very short term), and absolutely no social media presence.

Hillstrom concludes that superior products that customers demand still does more to drive business success than most marketing, and certainly more than social media.

Another relevant consideration to keep in mind, as you budget and strategize about your marketing efforts.

Filed under: Direct Commerce, Ideas, Apple, Dell, demand, HP, merchandise, products, sales, social media, stock price

Defining and Measuring Good Customer Service

One of the keywords I monitor is customer service.

I remain impressed with how many people think about it, and how we dance around the edges without really getting to the heart of the matter. (at least, that’s the way I see it)

It seems to me that good customer service can only be measured by a customer.  Yet, many of us try to estimate a measure of customer service by measuring something other than the customer:

• on-time-delivery
• speed of answer (in a call center)
• wait time
• average handle time
• percent of calls with 1st call resolution
• return rates

These are each appropriate measures of something — and I’m not advocating that we stop measuring them.  But they do not equate to good customer service.

Good customer service equals meeting a customer’s expectations regarding how a transaction should go.  From checking out, to getting the product, to handling a return, to dealing with a problem that crops up along the way.

I think we should be making following up calls to a persistent percentage of customers who complete orders and a set of customers who did not complete orders.  Here are the questions:

1. If you did not complete an order, why not?
2. If you did complete an order, were you satisfied with how the entire process was handled?  Y/N
3. If No, what went wrong?
4. If No, did we handle the problem the way you wanted us to? Y/N

You see, it doesn’t matter if we think we handled an order correctly.  It doesn’t matter whether we think we handled a problem correctly.

The only thing that matters is what the customer thinks.

Do you know what your customers think about your customer service?

There is a direct correlation between customer service satisfaction and repeat buying rates.  And it’s cheaper to motivate a customer to buy again, than it is to find a new, first-time buyer.

Filed under: Direct Commerce, Ideas, acquisition, customer service, KPIs, satisfaction