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4 key strategies for succeeding online
March 11, 2008

According to a February 2008 Pew internet survey, more than 80% of Americans researched a product online before they bought it.  That is up 13% from 2006.  Advertising Age ran a good article titled Ring Up E-Commerce Gains With a True Multichannel Strategy about marrying brick-and-mortar stores with their online counterpart.  Having read my blog for the last year, this is nothing new for you. 

Authors Michael Stich and Jim Leonard wrote that vendors and retailers are constructing a new working partnership. They create new experiences based on consumer habits and deliver both greater choices and tightly tied checkout across multiple channels [think of a customer ordering shoes online and picking them up at the store for example.] ...[Mastering] e-commerce not as a discrete channel but as a source of killer shopper insights that fuel innovation across all distribution channels.

Put it this way: the beauty of a good e-commerce store (and a good website) is gathering the data and understanding your customer traits at the basic level.  Metrics are your most valuable tool when building and enhancing your site; which leads to figuring out how they shop, what they bought, why they jumped off a page, how long they stayed, where they came from, and how much they spent.

Stich and Leonard stated that e-commerce success results from jointly experimenting with four fundamental strategies: sell to a niche consumer, create a compelling business model, create a compelling product and dramatically improve the purchase experience. These strategies work consistently across categories and extend to models back in the offline world.

So how do you do this as a small business owner with a limited budget?

Sell to a niche consumer
(Think Wine.com, Zappos) Being a small retailer, you're already familiar with selling to a niche customer.  You can expand your product line by offering more online than in the store, plus test how well new products perform by featuring them exclusively online.  Make it even easier on yourself by working with the vendor to have the products shipped directly from the wearhouse to the customer.  If you sell products that are hard to find in other stores, or are a novelty, they may perform better online.

Create a compelling business model
(Think eBay, Amazon, Orbitz) Does your model work well for all aspects of your business?  Is your brand reflected properly?  Cross-promote with recommendations, coupons, specials, offers good for in-store or online only, price comparisons, among others.  Is there a Big Box store whose website / business model you find seamless and enjoyable?  Study it to find ways to incorporate it into your own business and incorporate it into your brand.

Create a compelling product
(Think M&Ms, Nike) Are you able to customize your product offerings by making them personal, gift-wrapped and delivered, or built-on-demand?  Do you sell something that nobody else does, is handmade, or unique?  How your market what you sell makes the product compelling to your audience as well.

Dramatically improve the purchase experience
(Think Netflix, Blockbuster, Blinds.com) Give them multiple ways to pay (credit card, check, PayPal, pay for it later, etc.), multiple ways to pick it up (delivery, at the store, etc.). Give them recommendations on what to order or buy as well, supply customer recommendations, and acknowledge that the order has been received.  Complicated and antiqued e-commerce systems that take too long to process lose customers.  Keep it simple.

Check out: 10 Tips from companies that are succeeding

Posted by Suze Bragg on March 11, 2008 | Comments (0)