The Ecommerce Evangelist Blog Powered by VeriSign The Ecommerce Evangelist Blog is about creating an online experience that makes your customers smile, driving more customers to your online store and increasing conversions to sales. Merchants, entrepreneurs, internet marketers, and everyone who sells products and services and makes money online…this blog is for you.

Bob Angus is a Product Marketing Manager in VeriSign’s SSL business unit with a 20+ year career in selling and promoting internet and software products. Carrying the flag for the ecommerce revolution, Bob loves innovative technology, effective marketing, and scouring the earth for unusual baseball memorabilia. Contact Bob.

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August 10, 2009

Visit VeriSign at HostingCon 2009

HostingCon 2009 (August 10-12) is the biggest trade show for the web hosting industry. This year web hosts, domain registrars, and online service providers are converging on Washington DC starting today. VeriSign and the team from the VeriSign Partner Program are going to be there in force.

On Tuesday August 11th at 2pm, I am speaking on "Selling Premium Services to Cost-Conscious Customers". How to effectively sell value-added products in the face of the current downbeat economy is a hot topic. In fact, I discussed that in a pre-event interview with David Hamilton from Web Hosting Industry Review.

If you cannot make the presentation, make sure to come by the VeriSign booth (#416) and say hello!

300x250 Hosting Con 2009 Speaker

Posted by Bob Angus at 8:11 AM | | Comments (1)

July 15, 2009

Checkout Page is Top Priority - Shop.org Research

Shop.org just released the The State of Retailing Online 2009: Merchandising Report. The report highlights that ecommerce sites are focused on optimizing the basics to boost sales, not adding whiz-bang features. In particular, optimizing the checkout page is the top priority.

Here at VeriSign, we could not agree more. When it comes to how people buy online, trust at the point of purchase and throughout the checkout process is critical. It is great to see that ecommerce websites are addressing how the online shopping experience ends as much as how it begins.

According to Shop.org's research (which was conducted by Forrester Research), online retailers this year have the following priorities for their websites:

  • Checkout process redesign - 79%
  • Improved content on product detail pages - 73%
  • Site search and browse results - 71%
  • Home page - 60%
  • Redesigned help section / FAQs - 35%
Click here for the press release.

Posted by Bob Angus at 7:09 AM | | Comments (0)

July 6, 2009

Upcoming Webinars and Trade Shows (with Discounts)

The VeriSign SSL team is very busy this summer with webinars and trade show events. Here are 4 events that I am involved in the next month that I highly recommend. Plus, VeriSign can offer you special discount codes so that you can attend.

Webinar with theWHIR

theWHIR.gif

Register now for a webinar that I will be doing in conjunction Web Hosting Industry Review (aka theWHIR) on Thursday, July 16 at 11am EDT. The topic is "Boost Margins and Retain Valuable Customers with Security and Trust". This 1 hour session is perfect for web hosting and domain registrar companies who are looking to improve their financial results or anyone interested in the VeriSign Partner Program. Sign up today for this free webinar.

Handling Sales Objection Webinar

It is a fact that to successfully sell any product, including SSL certificates, you need to effectively overcome objections. On Thursday, July 23 at 12pm EDT, I am presenting "Get the Sale: Overcoming 4 Common Objections when Selling SSL" with the help of sales guru Bill Golder from Miller Heiman. These tips will help you increase your conversions, crush your sales target, and get that huge bonus. Click here to register.

eTail East in Baltimore

Today is the last day of the $100 discount special for eTail 2009. VeriSign is a lead sponsor and is exhibiting at the East coast edition of this pre-eminent ecommerce trade show on August 3-6 in Baltimore. Also, make sure to see Tim Callan at his session "How To Improve Sales By Maximizing Consumer Confidence". Register by July 6th to save $100.

HostingCon 2009 in DC

HostingCon 2009 is the biggest trade show for the web hosting industry. This year HostingCon is in Washington DC on August 10-12. VeriSign is going to be there in force. Not only will I be speaking on "Selling Premium Services to Cost-Conscious Customers", but if you register by July 13th you save $60 off on a full conference pass. Make sure to use our code VERISIGN2009 when registering.

300x250 Hosting Con 2009 Speaker

Posted by Bob Angus at 6:20 AM | | Comments (0)

June 15, 2009

TheFind Displays VeriSign in Search Results

At Internet Retailer 2009 in Boston, TheFind announced that it is integrating the VeriSign Secured Seal into their search results. TheFind - who delivers a comprehensive shopping search engine with over 350 million products from more than 500,000 stores - is the first search engine to address online shoppers' need to trust merchants by incorporating the VeriSign seal directly into its search results.

thefindlogo_frontpage.gif

Or as Fran Rosch, senior VP of Authentication Products at VeriSign, says...

"As the Web's most trusted security provider, VeriSign is pleased to provide TheFind's fast-growing audience with the security and peace-of-mind that comes from seeing the VeriSign Secured™ Seal within search results. Gaining the trust of online shoppers is vital for the success of e-commerce. TheFind is providing a great benefit to VeriSign Secured merchants and their customers by making the VeriSign Secured Seal an integral part of the search experience."

Displaying the VeriSign seal in search results is not only an indicator that shoppers can more easily identify trusted merchants. It is an incredible opportunity for merchants to stand out and drive more traffic and sales through shopping comparison engines, like TheFind. This is great news for everyone!

Click here for the press release.

Here is a screenshot of the search results for "Sony 52" HDTV" and the subsequent information for Amazon:

TheFind Screenshot.JPG

Posted by Bob Angus at 9:36 AM | | Comments (0)

Big VeriSign Contests at Internet Retailer

Visit VeriSign (booth #1043) at Internet Retailer 2009 this week for your chance at winning several big contests. Of course, you will also want to get the scoop on why 90% of the 2008 Internet Retailer 500 trust VeriSign to secure their sites and how those leading online retailers are increasing transactions as a result.

Now about those contests...

Everybody wins - Take the Phish or No Phish Challenge at the booth. You will get to test your knowledge of phishing scams in a fun interactive game and you receive a "Trust This" t-shirt. Here's an online version of the Phish or No Phish Challenge to hone your skills in advance.

VeriSign is also partnering with Ratepoint to give away a new Vespa LX50 scooter. Pick up a passport at the VeriSign booth, get a special sticker from us, then go to the Ratepoint booth (#1016 - just steps away) for their sticker, and then submit the completed passport for a chance to win.

Finally, we are a participating sponsoring for 2 big Internet Retailer contest. Check your tote bag that you receive at registration for the two contest forms and directions on how to enter. One drawing is for a 6 day/5 night trip to Napa and the other drawing is for a 2010 Lexus hybrid... sweet.

See you at the show!

Posted by Bob Angus at 6:10 AM | | Comments (0)

June 12, 2009

Free Shipping Series #2: Do the Math for Profitable Free Shipping

The second post in the Free Shipping Series focuses on the simple math calculation that you should do to make sure you are profitable when running free shipping deals. We know that free shipping is important to customers, but the key is to leverage this tactic without losing money. As an ecommerce site your fundamental goal is to be profitable, right?

Breakeven Analysis

The calculation that you want to perform is a breakeven analysis. I've adopted this analysis based on the excellent post and spreadsheet model provided by Troy Brown of Timberland. As Troy says:

A. How much does it cost me to give free shipping to everyone (including those that would have purchased anyway without the free shipping offer)?
versus
B. What percent of my orders have to be truly incremental to drive to break-even on a bottomline VARIABLE PROFIT basis (after COGS and volume-driven, variable OPEX for shipping expense, fulfillment, other marketing, technology, payment processing, customer service, etc. is removed).

Or to translate... Does running a free shipping offer lead to incrementally more profits than if no free shipping promotion was run?

Gather Your Metrics

Here are the key numbers that you are going to plug into the breakeven model:

  • Number of Orders - How many unique orders do estimate you will receive for the given promotion or period of time?
  • Average Order Size - What is the average dollars spent in an individual order for just the product/service (excluding shipping and handling, taxes, extended warranties, etc.)?
  • Gross Margin - Estimate the % profit contribution of an order after paying for fixed Cost of Goods Sold. Here's the math...
    (Revenue-Cost of Goods Sold)/Revenue.
  • Operating Expense - Estimate the variable expense component of the order, like shipping, fulfillment, marketing and media costs, and technology costs of hosting and bandwidth. This metric is also a % of order revenue or...
    (Revenue-Variable Expenses)/Revenue.
  • Free Shipping Promotion Cost - What would you normally charge for shipping for this order?
I highly recommend that you also play with several alternative values (high, medium, low) for each factor. This allows you to develop several different scenarios and take into account seasonality, length of the promotion, product categories, customer segments, and any other variable factor that would influence your estimates.

Crunch the Numbers

I have attached a spreadsheet so that you do not have to build your own. Again, thanks to Troy Brown whose spreadsheet was the foundation for this model.

When you plug in the key metrics, the model calculates the variable contribution of an order, the number of orders to just breakeven, and the percentage of customers that need to be incremental. Use these numbers to make the decision whether you should run a free shipping deal.

For example, if the model says you need 30% incremental customers to breakeven (the line you have to cross to for this promotion to make financial sense), ask yourself... will more than 3 out of 10 customers simply walk away from your site because of a lack of free shipping? If the answer is a confident "Yes!", then go for it.

Now, time to crunch the numbers. Plug in the metrics for your online business. Develop several different scenarios. Then develop some free shipping offers that will boost your profitability, not give it away.

Did you like this post on the math behind profitable free shipping offers? Check out the other posts in the Free Shipping Series:

Free Shipping #1: Consumers Love Free Shipping, do online retailers?
Free Shipping #2: Do the Math for Profitable Free Shipping

Posted by Bob Angus at 9:14 AM | | Comments (1)

June 8, 2009

Free Shipping Series #1: Consumers love free shipping, do online retailers?

Online shoppers are on the hunt for deals. One of the favorite ways consumers like to save on their online purchases is by searching for free shipping offers. How important is free shipping to consumers? Incredibly important. Check out the recent research:

As you can imagine, this data is not lost on the marketers at ecommerce sites. The National Retail Federation's Shop.org, says eight out of 10 online retailers offered free shipping during the past two holiday seasons, up from about 60% back in 2004.

Free Shipping Deals Can Cut Both Ways

So consumers love their free shipping and retailers are obliging. However, ecommerce websites should not offer free shipping deals without careful consideration. Sure the offers are attractive and help conversions, but free shipping can quickly destroy already paper thin margins and may even erode key value propositions.
The margin equation is simple. An ecommerce site's shipping costs are usually a fixed cost. Eliminating the offset charge by giving free shipping directly reduces profit margins. Or as Troy Brown of Timberland said in a post on shop.org:
Finally, keep in mind that a $1 of lost shipping income is 100% pure bottomline USDA Grade A profit.  There are no "offsets" to $1 of shipping income, unlike $1 of product sales when COGS and any volume-driven variable operating expense must be deducted.  You might be left with .20-.30 of every $1 of product sales to cover fixed costs and provide an acceptable profit.  But if you lose $1 of shipping income, you lose $1 of bottomline profit.  Don't squander it.

Free Shipping is a Tactic, Not a Strategy

The other major risk for online retailers is that free shipping becomes their value proposition to their customers. Free shipping is a tactic, not a strategy or your value. Look to drive a certain behavior with a tactical offer, like increasing conversions, boosting average order size, promoting more profitable products, or countering an aggressive competitive campaign.

If free shipping becomes more than an offer and evolves into an expectation or the primary value, an online retailer has put itself in a precarious position. In most cases, the financial pressure of lost margins is not sustainable and competitors can easily respond and counter this tactic.

Worst of all, online shoppers who are hooked on free shipping are likely to simply go away if the offer is removed. In a November, 2008 comScore study, 72% of consumers said that if an ecommerce site eliminated free shipping, they would use another ecommerce site that did offer free shipping. Reversing that level of expectation is difficult to overcome once it is set. So if you dare to make free shipping your strategy, and not a tactic, you have to commit and be able to sustain the financial pressures of lower margins.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to writing posts related the impact of free shipping offers to your online sales and how to effectively maintain your valuable margins. Here are links to all the Free Shipping Series posts:

Free Shipping #1: Consumers Love Free Shipping, do online retailers?
Free Shipping #2: Do the Math for Profitable Free Shipping

Posted by Bob Angus at 8:58 AM | | Comments (1)

June 5, 2009

Prime Angus Cuts: Links of the Week 6-5-2009

This week's edition of Prime Angus Cuts offers up some great articles about understanding customer lifecycles and how to effectively harness that understanding into bigger sales. Make sure to save these articles. You'll want to reference them in the future.

Building Advocacy Before the Purchase

Doug at Retail Contrarian is explains that many retailers only think about building raving fans after someone has become a customer. That's totally wrong. You want advocates for your brand and products as part of the pre-purchase part of the customer lifecycle.

How can personalization help shorten a multiple-visit sales cycle?

Dan from Sitebrand's Persuasive E-marketing blog discusses how luxury online retailers and those with longer sales cycles can increase conversions... and shorten the sales cycle. Sure a discount offer helps a customer push the "Buy Now" button. For non-impulse purchases, customers who experience some personal attention will move to purchase faster. Even something as simple as a newsletter can help.

How Many Potential Buyers Are Visiting Your Website?

"On a typical website, 3% of visitors are Buyers and the other 97% are either the Potential Buyers and Disqualified traffic." Bryan at Future Now's GrokDotCom recommends that you chat with your web analyst, because they can help you boost sales by:
  • segmenting and understanding that 97% of non-buying traffic better
  • bringing in less bad traffic and finding more quality prospects or potential buyers
  • and of course what can turn those potential buyers into paying customers.

Increase Conversion Rates by Identifying Funnels and Goals

Now that we understand something about our traffic and customers, Michael at Practical Ecommerce provides some landing page and exit page advice. Use your analytics data and help your customers get exactly what they want by personalizing their experience.

Have a great weekend!

Posted by Bob Angus at 12:12 PM | | Comments (0)

June 2, 2009

Father's Day Shopping - Ecommerce Leads the Way

Retailers are banking on every holiday in the midst of the current economic downturn. The good news is that Father's Day on June 21 is projected to deliver a nice spike - especially for online retailers. NRF and Shop.org just posted the results of their annual Father's Day survey conducted in early May 2009 by BIGresearch.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • 75.4% of US consumers plan to celebrate Father's Day this year with average spending estimated at $90.89.
  • While that average is down slightly from last year ($94.54 in 2008), those consumers who shop online are expected to spend over 50% higher at $136.31! Yet another indicator that ecommerce is carrying the way during this recession.

What items are hot for Dad among online shoppers?

  • Books and CDs - 40.5% (nearly the double the number as consumers overall)
  • Clothing - 38.2%
  • Gift certificates - 36.3%
  • consumer electronics - 29.1%
  • Plus online buyers appear more likely to buy personal care items, sporting goods, tools or appliances, home improvement or gardening tools, and automotive goods than offline-only shoppers.
Personally, I am looking forward to showing off a new pair of socks and buying my Dad a good book for his new Amazon Kindle 2.

Posted by Bob Angus at 7:53 AM | | Comments (1)

April 22, 2009

RSA Conference 2009 - Cisco and McAfee Weigh In

This week I am taking a break from my ecommerce focus to deliver live coverage of the RSA Conference in San Francisco, CA. The Wednesday afternoon keynotes focus on confidence and how security stays a few steps ahead to keep us confident in an ever-changing world. Of course, as everyone transacting online knows, confidence = trust and trust = SALES. So the news and trends coming out of the premier security event should be of interest to everyone. And make sure to follow me on Twitter and the VeriSign Twitter team for constant live updates.

Cisco CEO John Chambers and McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt each had keynotes at RSA Conference 2009. Both focused on how to build confidence via better security in an ever-changing world.

Cisco - Operational Excellence Over Innovation

John Chamber provided a picture of how collaboration is opening up the world and how new ways of communicating can drive future growth. However, with these new methods of collaborating, we create to new security risks. Ultimately, if security fails and the bad guys win, confidence will erode and that future growth opportunity can wither.

According to Chambers, the opportunity for security to stay a few steps ahead of the bad guys is not just about innovation. The race is too fast to rely on just running forward as fast as possible. The fight will be won with a architectural plan and operational excellence. Cisco is building a comprehensive security architectural approach into their products and services and operational excellence occurs when one integrates these systems.

McAfee - Predicting the Unknown

Dave DeWalt used the analogy of predicting the weather to defending against the many attacks we face everyday. I loved this analogy because I always used to think of weathermen as often inaccurate shamans. No confidence at all.

Now we have meteorologists who can pretty effectively predict whether it is going to be a rainy day or a 100 degree scorcher. Now I am confident that I can leave my umbrella at home. The same goes for predicting where the next attack will be initiated. How McAfee sees it, we can be effective in predicting the unknown by employing the same approach as meteorologists:

  • Sensors - Deploying sensors everywhere to gather data just like the weather sensors floating out in the ocean, flying amongst the clouds and posted across the land.
  • Communication Hub - Creating a central place to read, communicate and store data like the satellite that reads all the weather sensors and communicates to databases back on the ground.
  • Learning - Multi-vector correlation and learning systems just like the programs that meteorologists use to analyze data.
  • Global - Finally instantaneously disseminate the security analysis and remedies globally.

Posted by Bob Angus at 1:59 PM | | Comments (2)

RSA Conference 2009 - Tons of Great Product News from VeriSign

This week I am taking a break from my ecommerce focus to deliver live coverage of the RSA Conference in San Francisco, CA. Of course, as everyone transacting online knows, security = trust. So the news and trends coming out of the premier security event should be of interest to everyone. And make sure to follow me on Twitter and the VeriSign Twitter team for constant live updates.

VeriSign has been very, very busy innovating new security products that will impact consumers and enterprises. At RSA Conference 2009, we have already had 3 major announcements that has the newswire and the VeriSign booth abuzz.

New SSL Certificate Discovery Tool to Save Companies $$$$

Corporate IT departments have a complex task managing security across all their systems. Invariably non-standard installations occur in complex enterprise environments, which costs companies a ton of money to find, clean up, and maintain. The new VeriSign Certificate Discovery module saves IT managers countless administration hours and reduces the risk of rogue certificates that can lead to lost sales. Better yet... it is FREE for VeriSign MPKI customers! So contact your sales account manager to request it today.

VIP Mobile Credential Available on Over 90 Popular Mobile Phones

The VeriSign® Identity Protection (VIP) Access for Mobile credential is now available for download onto more than 90 popular mobile phone models including the BlackBerry (Storm, Curve, Pearl and Bold), as well as the Motorola RAZR and others from Nokia and Sony Ericsson. The mobile credential is the hot item at the VeriSign booth at the RSA Conference. Drop by Booth #1332 and you can get your credential in seconds.

Developers Can Now Add Authentication to Their Mobile Apps

iPhone developers have to check this out. With two-factor authentication gaining traction among major online businesses and consumers worldwide, a new "test drive" program announced today at the 2009 RSA Conference will show developers how rapidly they can integrate strong authentication into applications written for mobile devices. The result is that your mobile application will be more trusted so that you will stand out from the crowd and get to watch your sales skyrocket.

Posted by Bob Angus at 8:06 AM | | Comments (0)

April 20, 2009

Liveblogging RSA Conference 2009

rsa_conference_logo.gifThe premier security conference of the year is happening this week in San Francisco - RSA Conference 2009. I will be live blogging and video blogging all the big stories, keynotes, and activities happening here at Moscone Center. Subscribe to my RSS feed to have new posts sent directly to you.

Plus follow me on Twitter for even more up-the-minute coverage. Actually, follow all of the VeriSign Twitter stars here at the RSA Conference for all our insights into the event.

VeriSign
Branden Williams
Tim Callan
Allen Kelly

If you are at the conference, make sure to swing by the VeriSign booth (Booth 1332) to say hello and check out all the great new security technology we are showcasing. See you there!

Posted by Bob Angus at 2:22 PM | | Comments (0)