Bob Angus: The Ecommerce Evangelist Blog

This week's edition of Prime Angus Cuts is dedicated to my favorite micro-blogging, social networking site, Twitter. If you personally have not joined the conversation on Twitter, you should. If you have not thought about how that conversation can help your brand and drive more sales, you must.

Of course, it would be fantastic is you would follow me @bobangus to see what I have to say in 140 characters or less.

Here are a several great articles that you can help you get the most out of Twitter.

Your Customers are Tweeting About You

The classic argument for not using Twitter is "I don't use it because it's not for me. I don't get why someone would care what I am doing." There is a common misconception that Twitter is the same as livestreaming, or basically telling the world what you are doing every 10 minutes. Here is a post from Get Elastic that will help you overcome that view. Tapping Twitter to Understand Customers and Develop Personas.

The bottom line: Your customers are talking about you whether you are there or not. So why not join the conversation?

Follow Someone Who Knows Ecommerce

The love for Get Elastic's guidance continues. They just posted their Big List of Ecommerce Gurus Who Twitter. This list is a who's-who of Ecommerce blogs that are also active on Twitter. I personally follow everyone on the list and enjoy the insights that they express everyday. Linda (@Roxyyo) was kind enough to even include me on the list! I am blushing.

Do Brands Belong on Twitter?

The emphatic answer to this question is... Yes. But you have to be careful and here's why. This post on Mashable is a typical reaction that can occur if you just start broadcasting your message, but don't communicate. I fundamentally disagree with the blogger's opinion, but it is a good reminder. Consumers do not like it when your message adds no value and then you blast it at them incessantly. That goes for any media, online or offline, not just Twitter.

Picture of the Week

Frosty Angus Morning by moos

Posted by Bob Angus at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

VeriSign has just launched a new solution that helps both merchants and consumers get the most out of Yahoo! Shopping and shopping comparison sites like it... the VeriSign Verified Seal for Comparison Shopping.
Consumers turn to comparison shopping engines to help find the best deal. Even during tough economic times, the best deal is not always just the lowest price. Fundamentally, people do not make the decision to buy on price alone. Plus, one is often faced with search results that return a multitude of offers that look virtually the same. It is not always easy to make a choice.

Meanwhile, merchants need a better way to stand out and then maximize sales through shopping comparison engines. Even the biggest online retail brands can easily be lost in the crowd despite their name and the value they deliver. VeriSign and Yahoo! understand these issues and have deployed the VeriSign Verified Seal for Comparison Shopping as the answer.

Shoppers buy from merchants they trust

Shopping comparison sites are an excellent way for to people to find products at the best prices, but the experience is not always perfect. Have you ever tried to search for iPhone or Nintendo Wii or LCD TV? Even the best shopping comparison engines give you a bazillion results that all pretty much look the same. Plus, the ludicrously low priced listings of $149 for 52" Plasma TV usually fill the first results. Yep, "Bob's Shady TVs" and "AAAA+++ TVs" are probably not the safest places to spend your money.

Consumers already have ways they can determine if an online retailer is safe to buy from once they are on a merchant's website. The green bar that is show for a site using EV SSL and the VeriSign Secured Seal are the most well known. However, shoppers do not have a great way to gauge trust before they click through on a comparison shopping link. Until the VeriSign Verified Seal that is!

Did I mention retailers can get the seal FREE for 90 days?

Ecommerce sites promoting their products via shopping comparison engines face the flipside of this dilemma. They need a way to stand out from the crowd while reinforcing trust to drive sales. When shoppers arrive at a "compare" page on Yahoo! Shopping, they get a great visual cue that draws their attention to any online retailer with the VeriSign Verified Seal.

Certainly there are other methods to build your brand image, like huge TV and media campaigns, product placements on the Today Show, or have Tiger Woods be your celebrity spokesperson. Once you have spent the your vast, unlimited marketing budget on that, you have a better (but not ironclad certain) chance of having a consumer have warm fuzzies about buying something from you.

I've got a better idea. Yahoo! Shopping merchants normally pay just $14.99 per month for the VeriSign Verified Seal. If you sign up right now, you can display the seal for FREE for 90 Days. Hey, that means more Holiday sales for you!

For more info, check out the press release or the VeriSign Verified Seal webpage.

Posted by Bob Angus at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is go time for holiday shopping. With your time being incredibly valuable, here are several quick, but high impact articles posted this week that you should read.

2008 eHoliday Study Released

Shop.org/Shopzilla has released the results of the Pre-Holiday edition of their 2008 eHoliday Study. If you are a Shop.org member, you can get the full report. This post highlights a couple of the gems from the report. One that caught my attention was "How do consumers choose to do business with a given online merchant?"

"In rank order of importance, consumers told us that they want the ability to see the cart total prior to checkout, value for money, clear product descriptions, a free returns shipping offer or policy, and a strong merchant reputation... Only then do criteria follow such as guaranteed on time delivery and having the product available to ship immediately."

See reputation and trust are factors that shoppers are not willing to compromise. And you thought you could bank on a free shipping offer to influence behavior. Get your VeriSign Secured Seal posted now!

Microsoft Reports Results for Live Search Cashback

Techcrunch posted their latest analysis of Microsoft Live Search Cashback, the search engine that pays searchers to click and buy. The good news is that this approach to differentiate Microsoft from Google seems to be working... for merchants.

"Microsoft is reporting that according to Comscore, Live Search referred 12% of all commercial transactions across the web - a number that is much smaller than Google's referral share, but one that is also significantly larger than Live Search's market share, which hovered around 9% during the same period. This makes the Live Search user base very appealing to advertisers, as it shows that they're more likely to purchase goods than their Google counterparts."

Don't Make This Mistake

John Quarto-vonTivadar at FutureNow's GrokDotCom posted a quick reminder for all merchants... Sell Me Something, Not Some Thing. He shows readers a recent ad that simply did not tell the audience what the product or service is. Sure the ad has a call to action, but consumers will not act if they do not know what an offer is promoting and cannot even guess why they would want to take their time finding out.

Picture of the Week

Posted by Bob Angus at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week I posted Mary Meeker's optimistic long-term view for online retail. At a macro level, several mega, $500+ billion consumer product categories are virtually neglected in ecommerce. Two categories jumped out at me in particular - OTC medicine/personal care with 6% sales online and groceries with just 1%. Well today, Alice.com has unveiled their initial plans to help consumers more conveniently purchase some of these household goods online.

Alice.com does not plan to take on inventory (remember Webvan?). They are building an online platform for essential household packaged goods, like  toothpaste, soap, and toilet paper. No fresh produce, meats, or food in general at this time. This platform focuses on linking to manufacturers (and the payment?) and coordinating how to ship to consumers directly.

Two trends are converging that may help Alice.com. First, consumers currently lack a convenient way to shop for these household essentials on the web. The closest innovation in convenience we have is the repackaging and distribution reshuffle of buying in bulk from Costco or Sam's Club.

Second, these core goods are not completely recession-proof because the key distributors like Wal-Mart, Target, and grocery stores are not. Certainly, those stores are not in expansion mode. As a result, the consumer goods giants like Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, and Kimberly Clark are looking for alternatives. These savvy marketers know that the Internet is not a fad and are constantly exploring online marketing opportunities.

Everytime I have to dodge cars in the store parking lot with a bundle of toilet paper under one arm and a sack of dog food in the other, I think back fondly to the days when Webvan delivered this stuff to my front door. Current online providers like Amazon.com and Drugstore.com have not fully tapped into the market opportunity. I am looking forward to hearing more about Alice.com as they near launch in Q1 2009.

Posted by Bob Angus at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Mary Meeker, famed Internet analyst for Morgan Stanley, delivered a powerful presentation on Technology/Internet Trends at this week's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. While she kicked off with a vivid depiction of just how brutal the economy is right now, Mary detailed several key trends that should provide accelerated success once the world breaks out of its recessionary doldrums. Good news for you in ecommerce. She sees room for growth in online retail and tells us why.

Consumers need value more than ever

The key catalyst for online shopping is of course the consumer. Right now, most everyone is tightening their belts and that certainly pressures the retail sales - online and offline. However, one should look at how the tough times impact purchase behaviors rather than just focus on the shrinking wallet size. There is huge opportunity to provide unique value and to establish your brand so that business can flourish at the end of the recession. Or as Mary says,

Companies with cogent business models that provide consumer value should survive/thrive - consumers need value more than they have needed it in a long time... and the Internet should be the best place to find it.

Room to Grow by Gaining Share

The overall pie may be shrinking, but ecommerce is poised to be a much bigger slice. According to Forrester Research's The State of Retailing Online 2008, online penetration into the entire US retail market is just 6%. Logic follows that there is significant room to grow share as consumers search online to find value (not just bargains).

Break things down into categories and you see upside in several really big categories. Home furnishings, cosmetics, OTC medecine, and sporting goods are among major segments where less than 10% of sales are online. Poor Fluffy - pet supplies come in at a paltry 4%. Check out slide #40 of the presentation (see below) for the full category breakdown.

Follow the Amazon Way to Value

So how does an online retailer do it? Mary points to everyone's favorite benchmark, Amazon, as the leader in providing value, maximizing sales, and grabbing more and more share. I cannot possibly go through the entire ecommerce 101, 201, and 301 lessons that we can learn from Amazon and other stellar online retailers. But it all starts with the consumer and delivering value to them.

When consumers are looking closely at their spending, they look heavily at price. Sure, you have to make sure you can be found based on that criteria. However, shoppers now actively put a dollar value on other factors - like transportation, one-stop convenience, shipping costs, and return policies. You have to consider that total cost into the value you provide. With that approach, you should not only survive this difficult economy but should be able to springboard when times are good again.

For your viewing pleasure, here is the Mary Meeker's presentation:

Posted by Bob Angus at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week's edition of Prime Angus Cuts has a little bit of everything - a white paper, a countdown, and night vision goggles. Yep. It was one of those weeks.

First Time Here? A Marketer-Oriented Approach to Optimizing Online Conversions
You know your costs are higher to acquire new customers than to foster repeat customers. Sitebrand just released a new white paper that provides a practical approach to converting first time visitors into purchasing customers.

Best Buy offers new APIs
All retailers provide product feeds, but few provide APIs. Joshua-Michele Ross on O'Reilly Radar discussed the new open source APIs from Best Buy (aka Best Buy Remix) and why an open approach will help them succeed over their closed competitors. I went to Remix and played with some of the early apps in their widget gallery. I created a basic countdown for release of Far Cry 2, which is at the top of my video game wish list, and added it to my Google home page.

$80 Night Vision Goggles
About this time of year, the lists start coming out for the top toys and gadgets for this holiday shopping season. If you are an affiliate marketer, these lists can lead to some great commissions. When PC World posted a sneak peek of notable gadgets, one item jumped out at me... the EyeClops Night Vision from Jakks Pacific. Like most humans, I can't see anything in the dark.Plus I don't have the budget for military grade night vision goggles. These is sooooo cool. Do they work? Check out a review on Ars Technica.

Picture of the Week

Posted by Bob Angus at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a year when financial fright and Presidential election ghoulishness is daily news, Halloween looks to be a great escape from the doom and gloom headlines. According to the National Retail Federation's 2008 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, Halloween spending should scare up an estimated $5.77 billion for retailers in the US this year.

Some additional numbers that both ecommerce websites and offline stores should like include:

• More consumers will celebrate Halloween this year - 64.5% vs. 58.7% in 2007.
• The average person plans to spend $66.54, up from $64.82 in 2007.
• Halloween is most popular with young adults with 18-24 year-olds planning to spend $86.59.
• An estimated 51.8 million adults plan to wear a costume.

If you are looking to optimize your campaigns over the next few weeks, here is a breakdown of spending by age and what they are spending on:

Not surprisingly, politics is playing a bigger role in adult costume purchase choices in an election year. Further analysis of what costumes consumers plan to purchase estimates that over 570,000 adult plan to wear a political themed costume.

Still, you may not want to put the Barack Obama mask or a Sarah Palin wig front and center on your home page. They land squarely in the long tail with a 1.5% share. Witches and vampires are still the category killers for adults and Disney princesses are charming to children. I even sense there is some strength behind Hannah Montana as a write-in candidate with over 1.5 million of her costumes expected to sell.

Posted by Bob Angus at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The second annual Online Market World ecommerce conference starts today at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This show should be great. Tons of great sessions, speakers, and exhibitors. Of course, VeriSign will be there in force to help you learn how to increase your conversion rates by instilling trust in customers.

Make sure to see Tim Callan at one of the Online Market World Super Sessions. Maximizing Online Transactions Through Trust Indicators kicks off today (Wednesday October 1) at 12:15pm in Room 2010. As the session title indicates, you will learn how to use trust indicators to create an optimal customer experience and to fend of the negative elements that can erode consumer confidence when buying online. Be there.

There is also a Risk Management track of conference sessions on Thursday. VeriSign will also be participating here. Of note, there are 2 sessions: Fraudulent Trends and What to Do About Them at 10:30am in Room 2006, Site Security: What to Check; How to Remedy Common Problems at 1:00pm again in Room 2006.

You can also visit us on the show floor. The VeriSign booth is Booth 315. See you there.

Posted by Bob Angus at 5:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The concept of developing customer segments and personas is a well-known marketing practice. You ability to know who your different customers segments are, what they like/dislike, where they are, and how they transact is critical to successfully selling anything. This week I would like share with you some great articles that provide great actionable advice based on good customer segmentation.

Optimizing Product Reviews for Different Buyer Personalities
This post by Linda Bustos of Get Elastic takes a look at 4 major customer segments - competitive shoppers, spontaneous shoppers, methodical shoppers, and humanistic shoppers. Based on each type of shopper and their characteristics, Linda offers excellent examples of how you can capture their attention, interest and desire with customer reviews. The end result is that they're more likely to buy from your store.

Social Networking and the Multi-Channel Shopper
Louis Columbus of CRM Buyer wrote a great article on E-Commerce Times that discusses the importance of shoppers who buy from you, but through multiple channels. These multi-channel customers are often your most loyal customers and they tend to spend the most. Louis guides you on how to use feedback via social networking to better understand these valuable customers to optimize you content, offers, and cross-channel campaigns.

Know Thy Audience Members (That Means Thinking Like Them)
Have you ever looked at an ad or offer and said to yourself, "What were they thinking?" Robyn of BlueAcorn had a recent experience like that. She shares a profound example of bad marketing and reminds us all of some of the basic things you need to do to avoid making the same mistake.

Picture of the Week

Note that I am not suggesting that customers are like cattle. I just love cow pictures. I'm an Angus after all.








Cows 1 by flikr

Posted by Bob Angus at 6:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just uploaded some great pictures of the VeriSign booth at shop.org's Annual Summit 2008. The booth was constantly busy. It was fantastic that almost everyone we spoke with was already a happy VeriSign customer.

Tim Callan was also featured on the local Las Vegas TV news on KTNV. The consumer advocate reporter for KTNV, Trisha Keene, did well by getting 5 out of 5 right in the Phish or No Phish Challenge.

We were also thrilled Chewbacca stopped by the booth. He was very interested in Extended Validation SSL for the Star Wars online shop and protecting the Jedi Council member intranet. :-)

Posted by Bob Angus at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At shop.org, I attended an instant impact, high value session called "24+ Specific Things You Can Do to Make More Money Next Week." The presentation was a high energy blitz of simple tactics that any ecommerce site could kickoff immediately. Presenting these actionable tactics were 8 well-known internet marketers and the topics ranged from SEO to feed optimization to social media. I'd like to highlight 3 of the tactics discussed that I feel can really help you make more money right away.

Site search results should never be null

What results show up on your site when a visitor searches for "Sarah Palin"? If you said nothing, you may be losing out on some easy sales. Sheldon Gilbert of Proclivity Systems had a great tip to improve your sales when someone searches your site.

Ecommerce sites should have their null search results (tech speak for no matches) display sale items or top-selling products. Don't just show an empty page. Customers are still likely interested in a brand, product category or special deal you are selling even if their search didn't get an exact match.

Use keywords, not product names

A significant portion of the action items focused on search engine optimization. There is one item offered by Todd Friesen that cannot be reinforced enough for online retailers. Customers search for products based on keywords significantly more than product names. So when a manufacturer's product name contains arcane, industry jargon or is fundamentally dissimilar from common language, do not blindly use that product name in your page titles, headers, tags or descriptions.

The example Todd gave was a large bed and bath retailer who uses a major product category and lists products called "window panels." What's a window panel? You may be more familiar with the common term... curtain. How big of an impact is that difference? Some quick research using the Google Adwords keyword tool indicates that "curtains" and its derivative uses has an approximate average search volume of over 2,300,000 searches in a month. "Window panel" and its derivative uses get only 130,000 searches. That's a huge 17x difference that directly impacts sales. And I won't even go into the results you get when you try to find curtains using the retailer's own site search.

Bottom line: Do some simple keyword research before relying solely on selling by a specific product name. Your results can differ dramatically if you are selling sofas or couches, bikes or bicycles, or curtains or window panels.

Segment customers with you free shipping offer

Every online retailer knows that free shipping offers are very powerful in driving conversions. However, those offers can kill your margins. Brian Platter from Peet's Coffee & Tea shared a great approach to increasing profits - segment customers and deliver different free shipping offers to them. The offer should drive a specific desired behavior without giving away valuable profits.

For first time visitors to your site, you want them to buy anything for any reason. So you should present the least restrictive free shipping deal to them. Existing customers who buy from you infrequently, you may use the offer to induce an upsell to increase the order size or to introduce them to a new brand/product you are selling.

For customers who already buy from you frequently, you are giving away the store by providing lower margin deal over and over again. Think about what behavior you want to drive and restrict the offer accordingly. The example Brian used was offering free shipping on $40 minimum purchase AND at least one gift purchase. The gift purchase would likely bring a new customer to the Peet's online store, while retaining the regular purchase behaviors of their loyal customer.

Now take action

Those three tactics are instant winners for your business. Plus, they spur the fundamental thinking behind into the remaining tactics from the presentation:

• Know how your customers search
• Always present something that can be purchased
• Drive desired behaviors with your offers and deals

A special thanks to all the presenters and the moderator that kept the show moving at supersonic speed. For the entire list of 24 ecommerce tactics you'll have to wait. It is not yet posted on shop.org's website. Hmmm... I sense a new post coming.

Posted by Bob Angus at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here at the shop.org Annual Summit, VeriSign and Ratepoint just announced an incredibly easy way for online businesses to boost the confidence of their customers. How? We are bundling Ratepoint's customer feedback platform as a value add option when you are buying your EV SSL certificates. It's a great 1-2 combo to address the multiple ways that online shoppers think about trust.

Check out the press release on CNN Money. See... there actually is some happy news in the Money section today!

Posted by Bob Angus at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)