Posts Tagged ‘online retailers’

Price or Reputation…

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

What are consumers looking for? A new survey conducted by Webcredible, a user experience consultancy, has brought up some interesting findings. While for many years, consumer habits of online shoppers where largely driven by price, it has now been identified that reputation may be the biggest driving factor.

Apparently 28 per cent of the 1,300 people who were polled between April and June said that they are more likely to be persuaded to make a purchase online by the reputation of the site , not it’s prices. This indicates that consumers are largely concerned with the security of a site when making purchases.

Even with the credit crunch, price came second to reputation in what persuades consumers to buy online with a total of 26 per cent. This shows that people want a brand they can trust who will be more likely to offer better customer care. So with online fraud being at the forefront of many online buyers minds, having a safe and reliable site is what they are wanting over the best prices.

The design of a site (16 per cent) and ease of use of the site (15 per cent) were up next in persuading users to buy online. The last result of 4 per cent shows that consumers are least likely to be persuaded to purchase online with special offers.

Overall, if you are wanting to get the most out on your online retail site take some tips from Mrudula Kodali, Senior Consultant at Webcredible who states:

“Given that so many online shoppers are affected by all these factors, persuasion needs to be a key focus for ecommerce sites. Retailers must ensure that their websites are well designed, easy to use and well-optimised for search and combine this with competitive pricing and a well-built reputation. Only then will they be able to really maximise revenues by making the most of these online shoppers that are open to persuasion.”

But what are you driven by when making online purchases, price or reputation?

Tags: , , ,
(1) Comment

Get the product in front of the consumer

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Getting the product to the consumer requires placement and promotion, aside from your website and using search engine optimisation to promote your website in the search engines there are various ways that you can get the product in front of the consumer.

Google Product Search

Many shoppers, when looking for a product will search  online, Google provides a Product Search service which automatically produces the relevant products to your search. Shoppers can quickly and easily find your products when you submit them in Product Search, delivering you more traffic and helping you increase sales. Inclusion in the Google Product Search is completely free; there are no charges for uploading your items or charges for the traffic you receive. Ranking in search results is based solely on the quality and relevance of your product listings.

Social Networks

Fed up of hearing about social networks? Yes, we thought so but they do work! If you are selling online, or in fact selling offline too, and want to market your product for free then social networks are a good place to start. Bebo, Facebook and the like are a good place to start in terms of brand recognition and building a customer base.

With the internet having a large fashion community there are several social networking sites tailored to clothing, fashion and style. Websites such as Stylehive, Polyvore and Zoo Qoo are all websites focused on design and fashion. Each of the websites are successful in marketing a product in a different way, Stylehive is a product bookmarking website, Polyvore allows you to create outfits or mood boards with the products from registered businesses and Zoo Qoo is a website where creatives can share their passion for their respective field. Essentially these social networks, well any social networks, has the potential to generate a viral buzz about your product.

Retailers on Polyvore
Retailers on Polyvore featuring dress from New Look, shoes from Dorothy Perkins, cutlery and plate from Debenhams, Crest toothpaste from Walgreens, chair from CasaSugar.com, lampshade from missprint.co.uk and crisps from snackaisle.com.
Twitter
Tailing on from social networks is Twitter, operating in a different way Twitter can be an excellent way to give advice, answer questions and keep customers updated with the latest products. By keeping your chat interesting, following Tweeple with similar interests etc and not being too aggressive with the sales Tweets then you will (hopefully) gather a collection of followers. Check out @ASOS and @playcom for an examples of how to communicate with your Followers.

Price Comparison Websites

Consumers often use the internet to find the best bargain and to ease their search they will use Price Comparison websites. Register your company onto the likes of PriceRunner and Kelkoo to make sure that your product is being considered along with the rest of them.

Ebay Shops

Setting up an Ebay shop is another way to get your products out there, not only can you benefit from all the traffic on the Ebay website but you can have access to many marketing tools.

Blogs and Forums

Whether you read blogs or not thousands of consumers do, and they look to bloggers and forums to receive honest and impartial advice. There are literally millions of blogs and forums and no matter how absurd your product may be guarantee there will be someone somewhere talking about something similar. If you find such a blog, email the blogger telling them about your product and if you are feeling flush you could even go to the extent of sending some samples or a tester. At the very least keeping up to date with what the industry bloggers and forums are saying, and get involved- give advice, refer to your product and do not be scared to give away any ‘insider secrets’- bloggers and those interacting with the blog respect honesty.

Tags: , ,
No Comments

Look after yourself online

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Market research company E-Marketer has reported that visits to health related websites have increased by 21% in the past year.

I don’t find this hard to believe, at the slight sign of a sniffle I am off checking out all my symptoms to make sure I haven’t caught the bubonic plague, however, turning me into a slight hypochondriac aside; having such information at our finger tips is incredibly valuable, we can become much more attune with what is happening in our bodies and by accessing these resources many people with mild ailments may choose to go online rather than pester our overworked GP with something that will turn out to be nothing more than a common cold.

Another valuable tool online has to be Google Health a facility within Google that allows users to manage your health records in a safe and convenient manner, the benefit for users are that such health information can be easily imported every time you see a new doctor- sadly this feature is only available to USA, but it heralds the beginning of a new way to manage secure documents.

Online pharmacies and prescription services are also on the rise, high street pharmacy Lloyds are now offering prescriptions online, allowing individuals to have their prescriptions delivered to their house for a small postage cost. On 360innovates seo client list is online pharmacist Pharmacy at Hand who offers customers a variety of pharmaceuticals and cosmetic products from cotton wool buds to indigestion tablets. One of the main advantageous many customers find when using the website being that they can discreetly purchase any embarrassing products that they would feel uncomfortable buying in the local Tesco’s.

Overall, taking our health matters online is a very good thing, it increases awareness and can help take the weight off our GP’s, the only concern we should have is the possibility of people incorrectly ‘self-diagnosing’ and letting a problematic illness go without proper treatment.

Tags:
No Comments