Over the past year I’ve supported Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, a charity that means a lot to me and certainly a great cause. I was asked to write a blog post on shops “within information sites,” although I feel that can vary so much depending on your business model. Instead, I decided to concentrate purely on charity e-commerce.
I’m a big fan of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s a simple concept that is often studied/expanded and explains how at the very bottom of the hierarchy you have basic needs. These must be satisfied before you can progress to the next, and so on. Here is how I believe you can apply the same theory to e-commerce.
The great thing about having an e-commerce site is it can be used for more than just a platform to sell your products. After all, it is software. Software is what powers all of our computers, POS systems and CRM systems, most of which can be integrated with.
It has become the first port of call for many of us out there looking for a specific product, Google Product Search. Formerly Google Product Base and Froogle, the service provides price comparisons via a search tool on the web and mobile for products. With their recent updates, it has now become a key part of search results, showing the price comparisons in prominent search results.
Your e-commerce store needs to be ever-changing. Not only does fresh content delight the search engines such as Google, but it also keeps users coming back to your website for more. One of the things that you can do to keep things fresh is run a promotion calendar.
Sometimes, the definition of good customer service is staring you right in the face. Every company you deal with has customer service and sometimes it can be good or bad. Take a look at what impresses you with them and implement these into your business. To help give you a kick start and get you on track with a good customer service, here is a 7 day plan to turn your business around.
There is a great blog worth reading called “The Psychology of Games” – if you haven’t read their posts on The Psychology of Microsoft Points, then I highly recommend that you do. We can learn some very valuable lessons from this and apply them to e-commerce.
As Gartner reported earlier this year, Gamification, the idea of turning simple, every-day tasks into a game is an emerging trend and becoming the next big thing. In many ways it certainly has. Foursquare continues to expand into a global market, offering badges and special offers for visiting locations and we’re seeing many unique, innovative ideas through websites such as The Fun Theory.
It can be fiercely competitive in the e-commerce world. Larger companies with strong buying power can undercut even wholesalers and the small company can really struggle to survive, unless they have a good niche. Many e-commerce companies have to make a loss in the first year just to gain a customer base and earn some buying power, but there are other ways to attract business and it isn’t just by lowering the prices.
Supermarkets – well known for their selling techniques. Shelf positioning, label colouring, targeted promotions, loyalty schemes, loss leaders, display cabinets and presentation are just some of the techniques used to entice you into making a purchase. There is however, a way to apply some of these techniques to your online store and for that matter, actually go far beyond anything an offline store is even capable of. Introducing, the smart e-commerce shop.
