If you are unaware of the power of Facebook and how important it is that your business have a presence on the social networking hub, it is time to start paying attention. That alone might not seem so unique or innovative. But it is the scale and speed at which it is happening that makes it of great importance for Web professionals.
Facebook is big — real big. So big, in fact, that it could ultimately be the one great equalizer — the “one” that could compete with Google for consumer mindshare and perhaps even revenue at some point in the future. So what is this big initiative? Full-on support of the Open Graph.
The Open Graph is a set combination of publisher plugins, semantic markup and a developer API. The three aspects of this platform (the Facebook API, RDF-based markup and plugins), while seemingly minimalistic and perhaps even innocuous in their separate parts, bring together a near realized vision of a fully social, personalized and semantic Web; the likes of which ’Net professionals have not seen since the term folksonomy entered our lexicon.
While the developer API and Facebook’s support of semantic markup (more on those below) will appeal to developers, Facebook has made the Open Graph easily accessible through plugins. Social plugins from Facebook enable your site to create a more personal, social experience for visitors with just one line of HTML.
It is strongly advised that you modify your privacy policy to inform site visitors that Facebook social plugins are in use.
Facebook also announced a simple, RDF-based markup to make these plugins more meaningful — smarter and richer. The semantic markup enables publishers to say what object is on the page (e.g. a movie or book review, an event, etc.). This automatically enables semantics, the understanding that the user is not just interacting with a Web page but liking a specific kind of thing. This can lead to bucketing of objects and provides an immense amount of personalization including but not limited to detailed recommendations.
The new Facebook API is both elegant and streamlined and makes it easy to access user information (with permission, of course) such as profile data, friends, etc. All of the calls are REST based and return JSON objects. For example, my profile information can be fetched like this: http://graph.facebook.com/peteprestipino. The authentication is based on OAuth 2.0 protocol and makes it simple not only to connect, but also to prompt for permissions to access user information.
This new API turns Facebook into a read/write storage of users’ tastes — and not just one user but all Facebook users.
Facebook’s adoption of the Open Graph has numerous implications for users, Web publishers, Facebook competitors and the Web in general. As someone responsible for Web success, your focus should be on offering tools that increase relevancy for users and support the interaction with content — wherever users are online.
Facebook’s adoption of the Open Graph has numerous implications for users, Web publishers, Facebook competitors and the Web in general. As someone responsible for Web success, your focus should be on offering tools that increase relevancy for users and support the interaction with content — wherever users are online.
Social Plugins
Like Button
The Like button lets users share pages from your site back to their Facebook profile with one click. The code that you will need to integrate is for an iframe and can be placed very easily. The best feature of this plugin is that webmasters can customize how the link to the Liked site appears on a user’s Facebook profile by adding meta data for title, site name and even an image.
Activity Feed
The Activity Feed plugin shows users what their friends are doing on your website through Likes and comments. One of the most interesting aspects of this plugin is that if a user is logged into Facebook the plugin will automatically be personalized to highlight content from their friends. The plugin is available via a simple iframe code that can be placed on a Web page.
Recommendations
The Recommendations plugin gives users personalized suggestions for pages on your site that they might like. To generate the recommendations, the plugin considers all the social interactions with URLs from your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the
plugin will give preference to and highlight objects their friends have interacted with. You specify a site for which to show recommendations. You cannot currently aggregate across multiple domains.
Like Box
The Like box enables users to Like your Facebook Page and view its stream directly on your website. In addition to giving Facebook Page owners the ability to attract and gain Likes directly from their website, users can see how many others already Like the page and which of their friends Like it, too. Users can also read recent posts from the page and Like the page without needing to visit Facebook. You are able to specify the height and width, number of connections (a sample of users that have Liked the page), and choose whether or not to display the profile stream
for the public profile.
Login with Faces
It makes sense that users are more likely to sign up for your site if they know that their friends or colleagues have done so already. The Login with Faces plugin shows profile pictures of the user’s friends (in addition to a login button) that have already signed up for your site. Site owners can specify the maximum number of rows of faces to display, and because the plugin dynamically sizes its height, it will show as many friends as will fill the rows specified. The Facepile plugin also shows profile pictures of the user’s friends who have already signed up for your site but does not include the direct login option.
Comments
The Comments Box easily enables your users to comment on your site’s content — whether it’s for a Web page, article, photo, or other piece of content. Then the user can share the comment on Facebook on their Wall and in their friends’ streams.
Live Stream
The Live Stream plugin lets website or application visitors share activity and comments in real time. The Live Stream Box works best when you are running a real-time event; like live streaming video for concerts, speeches or webcasts, live Web chats, webinars and multiplayer games.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Location based data
Location-based data gathering has been a hot button topic in the last year. When it was found out that companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and others were possibly collecting location data without people’s knowledge via mobile devices and other means, it raised a lot of questions as to what the data was being used for and why it was being collected. Since then, Apple came forward and said that the logging of location data on iPhones was a bug in the iOS that has since been fixed. Google, Facebook and many app makers in general have instituted more transparent personal information settings that include opting in or out of using location based data.
Still, uncertainties remain. Some application stores make it mandatory for apps to prompt downloaders that their location data will be used, but don’t require that the app explicitly indicate how that location data is being used. And because there isn’t an app approval process in the Android Market, some apps could possibly steal location data or other personal information before they can be pulled from the virtual store shelves.
But there are also positives to using location based data for consumers and companies alike. Whether serving up a list of nearby restaurants or identifying a meeting place on a map, location based data can provide many benefits. The key is to understand how it works, what it can be used for, and how to avoid potentially dangerous apps.
There are three main location gathering methods: cellular triangulation, Wi-Fi triangulation, and GPS. With cellular triangulation, a wireless provider can keep track of your mobile device’s location; this is constantly happening and, according to some analysts, it is quite accurate. With GPS, your device can find specific places close to you based on your current location.
Your mobile operator usually knows where you are with a great degree of precision, especially in urban areas, given how small cell site coverage areas can be as little as a block or two And whenever you use Wi-Fi, your location can usually be determined to within 50 to 100 feet given how small Wi-Fi coverage zones are.
There are many uses for location-based data that mobile users can take advantage of. One is with social media. You can geo-tag photos so people can see exactly where you were when you took a picture. And some apps provide a way for you to tell your friends or coworkers where you are. One such app is foursquare, which lets you check in to places so people can see where you are. You can see other foursquare users that are in the same location or close to it so you can meet up.
You can also use location data for navigation, entertainment, and more. Some apps let you use your current location to find businesses, restaurants, and other nearby places. And if you are ever in an accident or need help from 911, emergency responders can find your location using GPS.
One of the main reasons that businesses can benefit from using location-based data is through direct advertising, marketing, and promotions at individuals in specific areas. For instance, your company could engineer an app that asks a customer with a smartphone to let you use their location data to tell them where they can find your product in relation to their current location. You could also design an app that shows advertisements for local businesses and tell potential customers how to get them or literally show them using GPS navigation. Companies are already taking advantage of this and there is room for growth in the future.
To know where consumers are and capture that demographic information would allow them to use location-specific advertising. I think that wherever companies are allowed to do this, they will.
Regardless of what mobile device you have and the operating system it uses, there is always a chance you could download a malicious app. There are app approval systems in place that weed out most of the harmful apps, but it is still largely up to company transparency and consumer discretion.
As a company, you should always ensure that your app clearly says that it will use location data in some capacity and give the user the option to opt in or out. And consumers must look at their apps on a case by case basis to determine if it makes sense for them to use location data.
There are many apps that just ask whether you want to use it or not without any specifics. If you go through the list of apps that request approval to capture location data, some of them are understandable and others aren’t. So if I have an app where using that data doesn’t make sense, I won’t allow it.
Still, uncertainties remain. Some application stores make it mandatory for apps to prompt downloaders that their location data will be used, but don’t require that the app explicitly indicate how that location data is being used. And because there isn’t an app approval process in the Android Market, some apps could possibly steal location data or other personal information before they can be pulled from the virtual store shelves.
But there are also positives to using location based data for consumers and companies alike. Whether serving up a list of nearby restaurants or identifying a meeting place on a map, location based data can provide many benefits. The key is to understand how it works, what it can be used for, and how to avoid potentially dangerous apps.
There are three main location gathering methods: cellular triangulation, Wi-Fi triangulation, and GPS. With cellular triangulation, a wireless provider can keep track of your mobile device’s location; this is constantly happening and, according to some analysts, it is quite accurate. With GPS, your device can find specific places close to you based on your current location.
Your mobile operator usually knows where you are with a great degree of precision, especially in urban areas, given how small cell site coverage areas can be as little as a block or two And whenever you use Wi-Fi, your location can usually be determined to within 50 to 100 feet given how small Wi-Fi coverage zones are.
There are many uses for location-based data that mobile users can take advantage of. One is with social media. You can geo-tag photos so people can see exactly where you were when you took a picture. And some apps provide a way for you to tell your friends or coworkers where you are. One such app is foursquare, which lets you check in to places so people can see where you are. You can see other foursquare users that are in the same location or close to it so you can meet up.
You can also use location data for navigation, entertainment, and more. Some apps let you use your current location to find businesses, restaurants, and other nearby places. And if you are ever in an accident or need help from 911, emergency responders can find your location using GPS.
One of the main reasons that businesses can benefit from using location-based data is through direct advertising, marketing, and promotions at individuals in specific areas. For instance, your company could engineer an app that asks a customer with a smartphone to let you use their location data to tell them where they can find your product in relation to their current location. You could also design an app that shows advertisements for local businesses and tell potential customers how to get them or literally show them using GPS navigation. Companies are already taking advantage of this and there is room for growth in the future.
To know where consumers are and capture that demographic information would allow them to use location-specific advertising. I think that wherever companies are allowed to do this, they will.
Regardless of what mobile device you have and the operating system it uses, there is always a chance you could download a malicious app. There are app approval systems in place that weed out most of the harmful apps, but it is still largely up to company transparency and consumer discretion.
As a company, you should always ensure that your app clearly says that it will use location data in some capacity and give the user the option to opt in or out. And consumers must look at their apps on a case by case basis to determine if it makes sense for them to use location data.
There are many apps that just ask whether you want to use it or not without any specifics. If you go through the list of apps that request approval to capture location data, some of them are understandable and others aren’t. So if I have an app where using that data doesn’t make sense, I won’t allow it.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Web Analytics tools to measure data
Web analytics is a basic building block of e-commerce that is undergoing a significant transformation. Web retailers still use internally developed and vendor-supplied programs to measure such important metrics as site traffic, conversion rates and average tickets. But retailers are using web analytics to understand a broader universe of data. There’s a lot more real-time data to measure today, and analytics is the tool that will help retailers measure their performance in new channels such as mobile and social commerce.
Historically, web managers have used analytics to measure customer behavior on their primary e-commerce sites. But with new and improved analytics tools, retailers now measure interactions with shoppers across such channels as e-mail, display advertising, search marketing, mobile commerce and social media.
Analytics will be used going forward to measure more data on a real-time basis and that will give web merchants insight into immediate customer behavior and how that behavior has changed over time. Shoppers now interact with retailers through new channels, such as mobile commerce and social media, and will generate new types of behavior web merchants will need to track.
In the past two years, consolidation has spurred more investment by analytics firms, especially for social media tools. There has been resurgence in research and development on web analytics among the various software developers in the past year, and consolidation among vendors has played a role. The new software releases are easier to use, let users measure and monitor multiple channels in more finite detail and look much more closely at individual buying behavior across a broader spectrum.
Retailers can benefit by making these increasingly sophisticated social analytics tools available to more employees. The more individuals within a retail organization that understand and use analytics, the retailer will have a better understanding of what’s driving customer behavior and their purchasing patterns.
The goal of better analytics reporting and understanding remains a top priority for some retailers, especially in using analytics to measure e-commerce and social commerce metrics on a tight deadline. Retailers also need to avoid information overload.
To streamline web analytics program, collect and measure data based on the top priority of each e-commerce department. Best Buy now uses analytics to measure transaction and traffic data more precisely, view data on a priority basis and extract the best data to act on. Incorporating top user requirements and effectively measuring what’s happening across new channels, such as mobile commerce and social media.
Historically, web managers have used analytics to measure customer behavior on their primary e-commerce sites. But with new and improved analytics tools, retailers now measure interactions with shoppers across such channels as e-mail, display advertising, search marketing, mobile commerce and social media.
Analytics will be used going forward to measure more data on a real-time basis and that will give web merchants insight into immediate customer behavior and how that behavior has changed over time. Shoppers now interact with retailers through new channels, such as mobile commerce and social media, and will generate new types of behavior web merchants will need to track.
In the past two years, consolidation has spurred more investment by analytics firms, especially for social media tools. There has been resurgence in research and development on web analytics among the various software developers in the past year, and consolidation among vendors has played a role. The new software releases are easier to use, let users measure and monitor multiple channels in more finite detail and look much more closely at individual buying behavior across a broader spectrum.
Retailers can benefit by making these increasingly sophisticated social analytics tools available to more employees. The more individuals within a retail organization that understand and use analytics, the retailer will have a better understanding of what’s driving customer behavior and their purchasing patterns.
The goal of better analytics reporting and understanding remains a top priority for some retailers, especially in using analytics to measure e-commerce and social commerce metrics on a tight deadline. Retailers also need to avoid information overload.
To streamline web analytics program, collect and measure data based on the top priority of each e-commerce department. Best Buy now uses analytics to measure transaction and traffic data more precisely, view data on a priority basis and extract the best data to act on. Incorporating top user requirements and effectively measuring what’s happening across new channels, such as mobile commerce and social media.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Facebook Page
Facebook is used by most businesses to create a internet presence. Businesses launch a Facebook page as a way of communicating with a significant part of their audience, changing customer's perceptions and to entertain customers and receive an immediate feedback. Having a Facebook page which is relevant, compelling and fresh is important.
For business-to-customer marketers, a Facebook page is imperative. Consumers are there, because they are interested in your product. But they are coming to the Facebook page for much more; otherwise they would head to your e-commerce site instead.
The Facebook page should focus on four areas of content. The first general brand related information: news about products, ranges and discounts.
Next is education, pages should include videos of advice.
Third , Facebook walls, areas on which visitors can post comments. Post regularly on the wall and respond to visitors' comments. Its an opportunity to communicate between employees and customers.
The fourth area of content is shopping, easy ways for visitors to purchase items discussed on the page. include a “shop by video” function:
Viewers watching a video featuring a new range can click on a product they like; the video will stop, and a product page for the item will appear. Shoppers can view
more details about the merchandise and add it to a shopping cart then and there.
The closest you can get to selling on their Facebook pages to their core e-commerce sites. By showing their wares to Facebook visitors in an entertaining manner different from the hard sell of their e-commerce sites, catalogs and other sales media, many marketers feel those visitors will be engaged enough to head to the business’s store or Website or call when they’re ready to make a purchase. Some sites
have Under the “News” tab it does post descriptions of its latest products, with a link to the product pages on its e-commerce site. But by and large it offers “content that would provide value to customers and an opportunity to interact with them.
To persuade its Facebook fans to submit photos and stories for contests and award prizes tocustomers who submitted the most entertaining photos of themselves with mustaches, real or fake.
Ensure that conversations with its Facebook fans remain two-way, constant
monitoring is required particularly when special campaigns are going on. It’s important to respond quickly to comments. Also tasks like posting podcasts about products, services and cleanup of nasty posts.
it’s as important to gauge the effectiveness of your Facebook presence as it is to track the effectiveness of your other marketing channels. The Facebook metric easiest to quantify is the number of fans you have. But quality is, as ever, at least as important as quantity.
You need to track how engaged those fans are: Do they return repeatedly to the page to check out your latest posts and links? Do they submit comments and photos? Do they download and share videos?
Creating a community of engaged customers takes time—not just in terms of the man-hours you need to invest but also regarding how long it may be before you gain a significant amount of traffic. Grant advises committing to 6 to 12 months of experimenting with Facebook before deciding whether you want to ramp up the resources you dedicate to it.
For business-to-customer marketers, a Facebook page is imperative. Consumers are there, because they are interested in your product. But they are coming to the Facebook page for much more; otherwise they would head to your e-commerce site instead.
The Facebook page should focus on four areas of content. The first general brand related information: news about products, ranges and discounts.
Next is education, pages should include videos of advice.
Third , Facebook walls, areas on which visitors can post comments. Post regularly on the wall and respond to visitors' comments. Its an opportunity to communicate between employees and customers.
The fourth area of content is shopping, easy ways for visitors to purchase items discussed on the page. include a “shop by video” function:
Viewers watching a video featuring a new range can click on a product they like; the video will stop, and a product page for the item will appear. Shoppers can view
more details about the merchandise and add it to a shopping cart then and there.
The closest you can get to selling on their Facebook pages to their core e-commerce sites. By showing their wares to Facebook visitors in an entertaining manner different from the hard sell of their e-commerce sites, catalogs and other sales media, many marketers feel those visitors will be engaged enough to head to the business’s store or Website or call when they’re ready to make a purchase. Some sites
have Under the “News” tab it does post descriptions of its latest products, with a link to the product pages on its e-commerce site. But by and large it offers “content that would provide value to customers and an opportunity to interact with them.
To persuade its Facebook fans to submit photos and stories for contests and award prizes tocustomers who submitted the most entertaining photos of themselves with mustaches, real or fake.
Ensure that conversations with its Facebook fans remain two-way, constant
monitoring is required particularly when special campaigns are going on. It’s important to respond quickly to comments. Also tasks like posting podcasts about products, services and cleanup of nasty posts.
it’s as important to gauge the effectiveness of your Facebook presence as it is to track the effectiveness of your other marketing channels. The Facebook metric easiest to quantify is the number of fans you have. But quality is, as ever, at least as important as quantity.
You need to track how engaged those fans are: Do they return repeatedly to the page to check out your latest posts and links? Do they submit comments and photos? Do they download and share videos?
Creating a community of engaged customers takes time—not just in terms of the man-hours you need to invest but also regarding how long it may be before you gain a significant amount of traffic. Grant advises committing to 6 to 12 months of experimenting with Facebook before deciding whether you want to ramp up the resources you dedicate to it.
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Monday, July 11, 2011
Think Big with Web Widgets
Widgets, most people think they are small programs that add a neat effect to a website, desktop or a mobile phone. The were more about branding and buzz than ecommerce.
A cool widget could bring publicity and give a merchant something to promote in email. The widget typically didn't add revenue.
Web widgets have blossomed to to produce complete shopping experiences. Merchants are beginning to use them to quickly and easily bring increased conversion and larger average order size and even open new markets for their ecommerce sites.
For example, look at the category page displays shown below from infant apparel merchant Baby Cottons. The image to the left is a traditional e-commerce display.
The right display, however, uses a new widget to power shopping by outfit. It’s much more graphics-oriented and uses flash to create a unique customer experience.
The widget even carries the shopping experience to the product page, reverting to the e-commerce site only after a shopper adds a product to her cart.
Baby Cottons created its boutique using one of Allurent’s 22 widgets. Allurent offers a library of widgets that, after a few weeks of integration, merchants can use to create different shopping experiences for a group of products in a day or two.
Apparel brands Charlotte Russe and 7 For All Mankind report that their boutiques use Allurent’s widgets and are producing a three-times increase in revenue per visitor vs. a standard category page. Think of Allurent as an app store for shopping-experience widgets. The subscription model allows merchants to try out a wide range of widgets, everything from fit guides to Facebook stores like the one at right, without incurring the expense of a custom development project.
Luxury gifts merchant Jomashop used a widget from Turn To to take customer ratings and reviews to the next level. Rather than read what a few shoppers wrote about a particular product, Jomashop’s site allows you to search your contacts on social media sites and see what your friends have bought from a particular Website—if they have signed up to share the information.
The Jomashop product page presents shoppers with a link that says, “See what your friends are buying” or “Find friends who bought this product.” When you click the link, the widget presents a number of social media sites that a shopper can sign into for help from a friend. It also allows shoppers to see a list of the products bought by people in their Zip Code—not the names and addresses of these close-by buyers.
Jomashop reported a six-fold increase in product page conversion from shoppers using the widget. Turn To publishes monthly tracking data on its blog that shows shoppers
who interact with its widget convert at a rate two- to seven-times greater than the site as a whole. Widgets like this, as well as Facebook’s widget, that allow its members to indicate that they “like” a product (or other content), may mark the beginning of a transformation of social media sites into engines that can drive e-commerce.
The seemingly ubiquitous widget from ShareThis has also begun to find ways to monetize its offer. ShareThis is one of the most successful widgets of all time; its icon appears on more than 130,000 sites.
This little application gives sites a single button that visitors can use to share links and comments through social networks, Twitter and e-mail. More than 430 million bits of content are currently shared monthly through the widget.
The company’s theory was that people who share are also valuable influencers when it comes to e-commerce.
ShareThis recently started testing a display ad network that allows advertisers to target people who have shared specific types of content, much like using search terms to target consumers through Google AdWords. Its network takes this further and can also target the people with whom specific content is shared. This allows ShareThis to present relevant ads to both the sharer and sharee.
Results from the first test of share-driven online ads for Mederma, a brand that produces creams for scars and stretch marks, support the company’s premise. People who had shared content on topics related to the product clicked to redeem a Mederma coupon at twice the rate the company historically produced through its AdWords program. What’s more, recipients of that content were 1.6 times as likely to click to redeem compared to content network, keyword-based targeting.
While this is just a single test of an early stage product, it could open up a completely new way for merchants to target consumers for particular offers. ShareThis has several more tests in progress.
Invodo takes on another hot topic in e-commerce: video. Many studies over the last year have shown that shoppers who view product videos convert at a rate that is 20% to 50% higher than the site average. There’s also plenty of evidence that adding video can also improve SEO results.
In addition to video production and video SEO services, Invodo offers a widget that allows merchants to dynamically deliver video clips to shoppers. Rather than tediously embedding a specific video on a specific page, the company’s widget sends the product number back to Invodo, checks to see if there is a video for the product, and, if so, displays a play button that launches a player and the clip.
Invodo maintains the videos on its servers, and provides a management console for
reporting and coming-soon testing. While creating video is still a challenge for some companies, this widget makes videos easy to deploy and manage.
Finally, mobile widgets are starting to catch up to their online cousins. A great
example is the mobile app from 1-800-flowers.com. The app, created with the Digby Mobile Commerce Suite, features large product photos and an easy checkout.
More common, though, are apps like Wine.com’s, which has been downloaded more than 100,000 times on the iPhone and iPad since December. It has great adoption; however, it is branding oriented, more like the Web-based widgets of old. While you can research wine, you can’t purchase. This may be one reason why the app has a rating of only two out of five stars in the iTunes app store.
While mobile apps are still developing, more merchants are turning to Web-based
widgets to add revenue-producing functionality quickly, easily and inexpensively. Expect the number of retail-oriented, Web-based widgets to continue to increase. Just don’t be fooled by the name widget.
A cool widget could bring publicity and give a merchant something to promote in email. The widget typically didn't add revenue.
Web widgets have blossomed to to produce complete shopping experiences. Merchants are beginning to use them to quickly and easily bring increased conversion and larger average order size and even open new markets for their ecommerce sites.
For example, look at the category page displays shown below from infant apparel merchant Baby Cottons. The image to the left is a traditional e-commerce display.
The right display, however, uses a new widget to power shopping by outfit. It’s much more graphics-oriented and uses flash to create a unique customer experience.
The widget even carries the shopping experience to the product page, reverting to the e-commerce site only after a shopper adds a product to her cart.
Baby Cottons created its boutique using one of Allurent’s 22 widgets. Allurent offers a library of widgets that, after a few weeks of integration, merchants can use to create different shopping experiences for a group of products in a day or two.
Apparel brands Charlotte Russe and 7 For All Mankind report that their boutiques use Allurent’s widgets and are producing a three-times increase in revenue per visitor vs. a standard category page. Think of Allurent as an app store for shopping-experience widgets. The subscription model allows merchants to try out a wide range of widgets, everything from fit guides to Facebook stores like the one at right, without incurring the expense of a custom development project.
Luxury gifts merchant Jomashop used a widget from Turn To to take customer ratings and reviews to the next level. Rather than read what a few shoppers wrote about a particular product, Jomashop’s site allows you to search your contacts on social media sites and see what your friends have bought from a particular Website—if they have signed up to share the information.
The Jomashop product page presents shoppers with a link that says, “See what your friends are buying” or “Find friends who bought this product.” When you click the link, the widget presents a number of social media sites that a shopper can sign into for help from a friend. It also allows shoppers to see a list of the products bought by people in their Zip Code—not the names and addresses of these close-by buyers.
Jomashop reported a six-fold increase in product page conversion from shoppers using the widget. Turn To publishes monthly tracking data on its blog that shows shoppers
who interact with its widget convert at a rate two- to seven-times greater than the site as a whole. Widgets like this, as well as Facebook’s widget, that allow its members to indicate that they “like” a product (or other content), may mark the beginning of a transformation of social media sites into engines that can drive e-commerce.
The seemingly ubiquitous widget from ShareThis has also begun to find ways to monetize its offer. ShareThis is one of the most successful widgets of all time; its icon appears on more than 130,000 sites.
This little application gives sites a single button that visitors can use to share links and comments through social networks, Twitter and e-mail. More than 430 million bits of content are currently shared monthly through the widget.
The company’s theory was that people who share are also valuable influencers when it comes to e-commerce.
ShareThis recently started testing a display ad network that allows advertisers to target people who have shared specific types of content, much like using search terms to target consumers through Google AdWords. Its network takes this further and can also target the people with whom specific content is shared. This allows ShareThis to present relevant ads to both the sharer and sharee.
Results from the first test of share-driven online ads for Mederma, a brand that produces creams for scars and stretch marks, support the company’s premise. People who had shared content on topics related to the product clicked to redeem a Mederma coupon at twice the rate the company historically produced through its AdWords program. What’s more, recipients of that content were 1.6 times as likely to click to redeem compared to content network, keyword-based targeting.
While this is just a single test of an early stage product, it could open up a completely new way for merchants to target consumers for particular offers. ShareThis has several more tests in progress.
Invodo takes on another hot topic in e-commerce: video. Many studies over the last year have shown that shoppers who view product videos convert at a rate that is 20% to 50% higher than the site average. There’s also plenty of evidence that adding video can also improve SEO results.
In addition to video production and video SEO services, Invodo offers a widget that allows merchants to dynamically deliver video clips to shoppers. Rather than tediously embedding a specific video on a specific page, the company’s widget sends the product number back to Invodo, checks to see if there is a video for the product, and, if so, displays a play button that launches a player and the clip.
Invodo maintains the videos on its servers, and provides a management console for
reporting and coming-soon testing. While creating video is still a challenge for some companies, this widget makes videos easy to deploy and manage.
Finally, mobile widgets are starting to catch up to their online cousins. A great
example is the mobile app from 1-800-flowers.com. The app, created with the Digby Mobile Commerce Suite, features large product photos and an easy checkout.
More common, though, are apps like Wine.com’s, which has been downloaded more than 100,000 times on the iPhone and iPad since December. It has great adoption; however, it is branding oriented, more like the Web-based widgets of old. While you can research wine, you can’t purchase. This may be one reason why the app has a rating of only two out of five stars in the iTunes app store.
While mobile apps are still developing, more merchants are turning to Web-based
widgets to add revenue-producing functionality quickly, easily and inexpensively. Expect the number of retail-oriented, Web-based widgets to continue to increase. Just don’t be fooled by the name widget.
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Sunday, July 10, 2011
Internet Marketing
Internet marketing principles that can boost your sales online.
-Find out what people want and give it to them. Never assume that you know what your prospects want- you must research to find out. Online forums are a good place where your target market will be hanging around. Forums are a place where people will be honest and candid about what they really think and want on these largely anonymous online forums.
-Speak to your prospects biggest problems and burning desires. Once you have discovered your prospects burning desires and biggest challenges make your marketing centered on proving you can help them solve those problems or fulfill their desires.
-Proof is what sells in marketing. The marketplace is increasingly skeptical focus on proving what you say is true. Make a cogent proof laden argument for why folks shuold choose you.
-Trumpet your Uniqueness. Its a saturated market folks receive 3000 marketing messages a day its important you offer a unique way of solving people's problems or giving them what they want. Display this uniqueness in your headline.
-Create easy first steps. Rather than trying to sell your product immediately offer a free report, CD, DVD etc. on a topic of burning interest of your target market. Once they are in your database you have a potential customer for life. You will find that this will give you a more profitable business than going 'straight for a sale'.
-Create irresistible offers. Make your offers irresistible. A good way to do this is by adding bonuses or discounts with strictly enforced deadlines.
-Practice Chameleon Marketing. A great way to make your advertising more effective is to make it look like its not advertising because people have trained themselves to ignore advertising when they see it. Don't make your display ad like an ad, make it more like an editorial.
-Test and measure everything. Business experts have found just by tracking the results of your sales campaigns you can increase your results. The biggest breakthroughs in business come when you test and measure new approaches. Once you discover what works keep doing it.
-Find out what people want and give it to them. Never assume that you know what your prospects want- you must research to find out. Online forums are a good place where your target market will be hanging around. Forums are a place where people will be honest and candid about what they really think and want on these largely anonymous online forums.
-Speak to your prospects biggest problems and burning desires. Once you have discovered your prospects burning desires and biggest challenges make your marketing centered on proving you can help them solve those problems or fulfill their desires.
-Proof is what sells in marketing. The marketplace is increasingly skeptical focus on proving what you say is true. Make a cogent proof laden argument for why folks shuold choose you.
-Trumpet your Uniqueness. Its a saturated market folks receive 3000 marketing messages a day its important you offer a unique way of solving people's problems or giving them what they want. Display this uniqueness in your headline.
-Create easy first steps. Rather than trying to sell your product immediately offer a free report, CD, DVD etc. on a topic of burning interest of your target market. Once they are in your database you have a potential customer for life. You will find that this will give you a more profitable business than going 'straight for a sale'.
-Create irresistible offers. Make your offers irresistible. A good way to do this is by adding bonuses or discounts with strictly enforced deadlines.
-Practice Chameleon Marketing. A great way to make your advertising more effective is to make it look like its not advertising because people have trained themselves to ignore advertising when they see it. Don't make your display ad like an ad, make it more like an editorial.
-Test and measure everything. Business experts have found just by tracking the results of your sales campaigns you can increase your results. The biggest breakthroughs in business come when you test and measure new approaches. Once you discover what works keep doing it.
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Saturday, July 9, 2011
IPads Unique Features
IPad's unique features to inspire and sell are making retailers invite shoppers to use these features.
Consider an iPad app created by a apparel retailer that presents an image of woman in a green dress. When a customer blows into the iPad's microphone, as prompted by the app, the woman spins in slow motion to show off the dress from every angle, all accompanied by operatic music. This application places the user in the driver's seat so that they can control the technical function of apparel and experience the brand in a way that is entertaining. Other retailers, have created iPad apps, including some that bring formerly printed catalogs to life in new ways.
And, experts point out, the large number of mostly affluent consumers accessing conventional web sites on iPads means retailers will have to rethink some aspects of how they design their e-commerce sites.
The iPad can render retailer apps designed for the iPhone, but only displays them at the size of an iPhone screen. That means the app won’t take advantage of the much larger screen of the iPad. The iPhone screen is only 3.5 inches long on the diagonal versus 9.7 inches for the iPad.
Many of the first retailers to develop apps specifically for the iPad were high-end brands that cater to more affluent consumers, and that saw the potential of creating richer apps that would appeal to buyers of Apple’s tablet computer.
iPad app for its RLX athletic apparel brand features athletes in flight, demonstrating the form, style and functionality of the apparel. The tablet technology enables shoppers to interact with the athletes’ images on screen by tilting, rotating, flipping and tapping the iPad to manipulate their movements, taking advantage of what Apple calls its “accelerometer” that detects how an iPad is being held. For example, a shopper can tilt the iPad app back to make a stream of models move the photos can be tapped to play a video or to access more content such as an article, and consumers can swipe in any direction—up, down or diagonal—to see more images.App enables consumers to receive sales alerts, pinch and expand their fingers to view bigger, rich images, to touch and drag items to a shopping cart and to jump from one Gilt sale to another with one tap.
Besides offering a richer experience, there’s another reason to consider an iPad app, the fact that the iPad, like the iPhone, does not render Flash. Many e-commerce sites use Adobe Inc.’s Flash technology to present graphics, video and animation, and those elements will show up as blank boxes on an iPad or iPhone screen.
Ultimately, HTML5, the latest version of the HTML language used to create web sites, may solve that problem for retailers. It renders on Apple devices and can serve as a replacement for images now presented using Flash. Mobile technology vendors including Mobify use HTML5 to replace Flash in the mobile realm. Mobify has worked with hotel booking site Kiwi Collection and online bookseller Alibris.com to replace Flash with HTML5 for mobile sites and apps.
For loyal shoppers, however, retailers can benefit from apps that keep a shopper logged in and allow her to customize her preferences. Further, with permission, the retailer can send shoppers pop-up text alerts via an app, a form of communication not possible through a mobile web site.
The combination of the relatively large color screen and the touch interface is
leading many magazine publishers to tailor their content for the iPad—and for retailers to do the same with their printed catalogs. Retailers are launching interactive iPad catalog apps that consumers can flip through as if they were thumbing through a paper magazine.
Yoox.com, an Italy-based retailer of tony apparel and home décor, launched an iPad app that lets shoppers flip from page to page with a touch of the finger to view high-resolution product images.A tap of an item brings up more images. Yoox developed its iPad app in-house and made it available in six languages; shoppers can have their purchases delivered to 67 countries.
Upscale department store chain offers a commerce enabled catalog iPad app that lets customers view and shop not only from the retailer’s web site but also from catalogs.
And the iPad app is extending beyond retailers of physical goods. Consumers can use the app to book reservations at the more than 4,000 Best Western hotels worldwide.
In addition to reserving rooms, app users also can share travel experiences and photos through the app via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter, plan their travel by inputting addresses of attractions and restaurants nearby, and use a GPS-enabled map to create itineraries.
Additionally, a trip saver tool allows users to save past trips, including favorite locations visited, or to save the itineraries they create for future trips.
IPad app users also can add pictures and additional information to the app to help them remember and share details about saved locations. They can categorize and sort locations by city, trip name and location type for easy future reference.
As online retailers plan and navigate their own mobile paths, they might want to consider making a stop at the iPad app. It’s becoming quite the popular attraction, and the numbers suggest it’s poised for growth.
Consider an iPad app created by a apparel retailer that presents an image of woman in a green dress. When a customer blows into the iPad's microphone, as prompted by the app, the woman spins in slow motion to show off the dress from every angle, all accompanied by operatic music. This application places the user in the driver's seat so that they can control the technical function of apparel and experience the brand in a way that is entertaining. Other retailers, have created iPad apps, including some that bring formerly printed catalogs to life in new ways.
And, experts point out, the large number of mostly affluent consumers accessing conventional web sites on iPads means retailers will have to rethink some aspects of how they design their e-commerce sites.
The iPad can render retailer apps designed for the iPhone, but only displays them at the size of an iPhone screen. That means the app won’t take advantage of the much larger screen of the iPad. The iPhone screen is only 3.5 inches long on the diagonal versus 9.7 inches for the iPad.
Many of the first retailers to develop apps specifically for the iPad were high-end brands that cater to more affluent consumers, and that saw the potential of creating richer apps that would appeal to buyers of Apple’s tablet computer.
iPad app for its RLX athletic apparel brand features athletes in flight, demonstrating the form, style and functionality of the apparel. The tablet technology enables shoppers to interact with the athletes’ images on screen by tilting, rotating, flipping and tapping the iPad to manipulate their movements, taking advantage of what Apple calls its “accelerometer” that detects how an iPad is being held. For example, a shopper can tilt the iPad app back to make a stream of models move the photos can be tapped to play a video or to access more content such as an article, and consumers can swipe in any direction—up, down or diagonal—to see more images.App enables consumers to receive sales alerts, pinch and expand their fingers to view bigger, rich images, to touch and drag items to a shopping cart and to jump from one Gilt sale to another with one tap.
Besides offering a richer experience, there’s another reason to consider an iPad app, the fact that the iPad, like the iPhone, does not render Flash. Many e-commerce sites use Adobe Inc.’s Flash technology to present graphics, video and animation, and those elements will show up as blank boxes on an iPad or iPhone screen.
Ultimately, HTML5, the latest version of the HTML language used to create web sites, may solve that problem for retailers. It renders on Apple devices and can serve as a replacement for images now presented using Flash. Mobile technology vendors including Mobify use HTML5 to replace Flash in the mobile realm. Mobify has worked with hotel booking site Kiwi Collection and online bookseller Alibris.com to replace Flash with HTML5 for mobile sites and apps.
For loyal shoppers, however, retailers can benefit from apps that keep a shopper logged in and allow her to customize her preferences. Further, with permission, the retailer can send shoppers pop-up text alerts via an app, a form of communication not possible through a mobile web site.
The combination of the relatively large color screen and the touch interface is
leading many magazine publishers to tailor their content for the iPad—and for retailers to do the same with their printed catalogs. Retailers are launching interactive iPad catalog apps that consumers can flip through as if they were thumbing through a paper magazine.
Yoox.com, an Italy-based retailer of tony apparel and home décor, launched an iPad app that lets shoppers flip from page to page with a touch of the finger to view high-resolution product images.A tap of an item brings up more images. Yoox developed its iPad app in-house and made it available in six languages; shoppers can have their purchases delivered to 67 countries.
Upscale department store chain offers a commerce enabled catalog iPad app that lets customers view and shop not only from the retailer’s web site but also from catalogs.
And the iPad app is extending beyond retailers of physical goods. Consumers can use the app to book reservations at the more than 4,000 Best Western hotels worldwide.
In addition to reserving rooms, app users also can share travel experiences and photos through the app via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter, plan their travel by inputting addresses of attractions and restaurants nearby, and use a GPS-enabled map to create itineraries.
Additionally, a trip saver tool allows users to save past trips, including favorite locations visited, or to save the itineraries they create for future trips.
IPad app users also can add pictures and additional information to the app to help them remember and share details about saved locations. They can categorize and sort locations by city, trip name and location type for easy future reference.
As online retailers plan and navigate their own mobile paths, they might want to consider making a stop at the iPad app. It’s becoming quite the popular attraction, and the numbers suggest it’s poised for growth.
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Web Apps
Web apps creation success depends on ten principles.
-Useful Apps- Give the users value by giving them a useful app. The value of your app will depend on your service: managing travel plans like TripIt does, connecting people like Facebook or finding the best seat on a plane like Seatguru. It will be the driving force to bring users to come back to your app and maybe pay for it.
-Fast Apps- Your app must be lightning fast. Users are accustomed to getting immediate responses with zero latency. One of the main reasons that native iPhone apps are so popular is because the response is immediate.
If you have heavy content or functionality that slows your app, at least give the illusion that your app is fast by displaying something on screen as soon as possible. Entertain users at each step. If you can enable some of the functionality while the rest loads in the background, even better.
-Modern and Sleek Apps-How many successful Web
apps do you know that looked exactly the same five years ago as they
do today? You could have the best application in the world but if the
graphics look old, users will think that it’s out of date. Look at similar
apps in your space and see what design styles they are using; it could
be small things like adding shading or rounded corners to buttons
and text boxes or complete, frequent redesigns. Simple elements can
make a big difference, if used correctly. Notice how many iPhone
apps change their icon, just a bit, when they release a new version.
The updated icon gives users a feeling that they’re getting something
shiny and new, even if the new version is just some minor bug fixes.
-Surprise / Overdeliver- Even my new Canon digital camera has a smile detection
setting that I would have never imagined (it takes a picture only when
the people in the frame are smiling). By giving users more than they expect,
you create a positive overall experience with your service and give
users the feeling that you are thinking about them and working hard to
give them whatever they need — and maybe what they don’t yet know
they need.
-Easy to Use- Your app should be as easy to use
as possible. Conversely, if you are providing something
the user cannot live without, you can get away with making them
jump through some hoops.”
Users are bombarded by information and don’t have the patience to
read a lot of content, go through a long sign-up process or learn how
your system works. If your app is not easy to use and requires a steep
learning curve, users will quickly lose interest and move on. Make
sure your users are able to experience the value of your app with
as few clicks as possible. Advanced functionality can come later for
those users motivated to dive in and get more.
-Notifications- It doesn’t matter whether it’s an
email, a Chrome extension that displays a badge or an iPhone app
with push notifications — your app should reach out to users and
remind them, Hey, cool stuff is going on here, don’t forget about me.
Quora, for example, lets users “follow” a question and pings them
when somebody adds an answer. The Groupon Browser App notifies
users when a new deal is available in their area. These notifications
ensure that users don’t miss interesting items and further engages
them with the service. The trick is in finding the right mechanism
and frequency to make notifications valuable, not intrusive.
-Fun- Businesses of all types recognize that fun equals engagement.
Flickr is a great example of taking a simple photo-sharing
service and making it fun. MailChimp is in the boring email business
but when you use their service you find email fun to use. Adding
even a little fun or whimsy to your app can add greatly to the overall
experience. Fun can be communicated in many ways — from
the voice of your application (the text and tone used throughout the
app), to cartoons, hidden items, fun colors or anything that adds an
element of surprise to the experience.
-Great service/experience- We all
have stories about great service we received from a clerk in a store or
phone representatives who went out of their way to help us. Those
experiences always reflect positively on the brand. Giving users great
service makes them happy; which drives them back to your app and
gets them to tell their friends about it. Zappos is the best at this and
it’s an integral part of their company DNA. Great service is especially
important when you want users to pay for your service.
-Listen to Users and Constantly Update-The beauty of the Web is that you don’t have to wait
for long release cycles and deployment. You can release updates, collect
feedback and pivot accordingly. Make changes, and the next time
users open your app they get the latest version. Just keep listening and
updating. Once you have more resources, you can even deploy A/B
testing to optimize and customize certain experiences in your service
for different segments.
Some of the tools you can use to monitor what people are saying
about your brand are Google Alerts, Tweet- Beep.com and
TweetDeck. You might also consider adding a feedback/comment
feature to your app that allows users to make suggestions
-Monetize your App-Even though Web
apps are usually free, you still need to make a living. If your app is
costing you money, you won’t be able to continue giving great service
to your users. There are numerous established and emerging
models for generating revenue that can work for your business.
Consider a freemium subscription model (like Flickr’s model),
advertising, donations, SMS, market intelligence, affiliate marketing,
selling virtual goods/currency, a combination of any of those
or any crazy idea you may come up with. Whatever works for
your users is legit.
Whether your Web app is a game played by millions or a
niche service intended for a small audience, keeping the 10 golden
principles in mind can help you create an app that is valuable
and successful.
-Useful Apps- Give the users value by giving them a useful app. The value of your app will depend on your service: managing travel plans like TripIt does, connecting people like Facebook or finding the best seat on a plane like Seatguru. It will be the driving force to bring users to come back to your app and maybe pay for it.
-Fast Apps- Your app must be lightning fast. Users are accustomed to getting immediate responses with zero latency. One of the main reasons that native iPhone apps are so popular is because the response is immediate.
If you have heavy content or functionality that slows your app, at least give the illusion that your app is fast by displaying something on screen as soon as possible. Entertain users at each step. If you can enable some of the functionality while the rest loads in the background, even better.
-Modern and Sleek Apps-How many successful Web
apps do you know that looked exactly the same five years ago as they
do today? You could have the best application in the world but if the
graphics look old, users will think that it’s out of date. Look at similar
apps in your space and see what design styles they are using; it could
be small things like adding shading or rounded corners to buttons
and text boxes or complete, frequent redesigns. Simple elements can
make a big difference, if used correctly. Notice how many iPhone
apps change their icon, just a bit, when they release a new version.
The updated icon gives users a feeling that they’re getting something
shiny and new, even if the new version is just some minor bug fixes.
-Surprise / Overdeliver- Even my new Canon digital camera has a smile detection
setting that I would have never imagined (it takes a picture only when
the people in the frame are smiling). By giving users more than they expect,
you create a positive overall experience with your service and give
users the feeling that you are thinking about them and working hard to
give them whatever they need — and maybe what they don’t yet know
they need.
-Easy to Use- Your app should be as easy to use
as possible. Conversely, if you are providing something
the user cannot live without, you can get away with making them
jump through some hoops.”
Users are bombarded by information and don’t have the patience to
read a lot of content, go through a long sign-up process or learn how
your system works. If your app is not easy to use and requires a steep
learning curve, users will quickly lose interest and move on. Make
sure your users are able to experience the value of your app with
as few clicks as possible. Advanced functionality can come later for
those users motivated to dive in and get more.
-Notifications- It doesn’t matter whether it’s an
email, a Chrome extension that displays a badge or an iPhone app
with push notifications — your app should reach out to users and
remind them, Hey, cool stuff is going on here, don’t forget about me.
Quora, for example, lets users “follow” a question and pings them
when somebody adds an answer. The Groupon Browser App notifies
users when a new deal is available in their area. These notifications
ensure that users don’t miss interesting items and further engages
them with the service. The trick is in finding the right mechanism
and frequency to make notifications valuable, not intrusive.
-Fun- Businesses of all types recognize that fun equals engagement.
Flickr is a great example of taking a simple photo-sharing
service and making it fun. MailChimp is in the boring email business
but when you use their service you find email fun to use. Adding
even a little fun or whimsy to your app can add greatly to the overall
experience. Fun can be communicated in many ways — from
the voice of your application (the text and tone used throughout the
app), to cartoons, hidden items, fun colors or anything that adds an
element of surprise to the experience.
-Great service/experience- We all
have stories about great service we received from a clerk in a store or
phone representatives who went out of their way to help us. Those
experiences always reflect positively on the brand. Giving users great
service makes them happy; which drives them back to your app and
gets them to tell their friends about it. Zappos is the best at this and
it’s an integral part of their company DNA. Great service is especially
important when you want users to pay for your service.
-Listen to Users and Constantly Update-The beauty of the Web is that you don’t have to wait
for long release cycles and deployment. You can release updates, collect
feedback and pivot accordingly. Make changes, and the next time
users open your app they get the latest version. Just keep listening and
updating. Once you have more resources, you can even deploy A/B
testing to optimize and customize certain experiences in your service
for different segments.
Some of the tools you can use to monitor what people are saying
about your brand are Google Alerts, Tweet- Beep.com and
TweetDeck. You might also consider adding a feedback/comment
feature to your app that allows users to make suggestions
-Monetize your App-Even though Web
apps are usually free, you still need to make a living. If your app is
costing you money, you won’t be able to continue giving great service
to your users. There are numerous established and emerging
models for generating revenue that can work for your business.
Consider a freemium subscription model (like Flickr’s model),
advertising, donations, SMS, market intelligence, affiliate marketing,
selling virtual goods/currency, a combination of any of those
or any crazy idea you may come up with. Whatever works for
your users is legit.
Whether your Web app is a game played by millions or a
niche service intended for a small audience, keeping the 10 golden
principles in mind can help you create an app that is valuable
and successful.
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Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Affiliate Fraud
Affiliate fraud can determine the success or failure of an entire affiliate campaign. Affiliate traffic has enormous potential. But it has many disadvantages- recruiting, training, managing and accounting for thousands of individual affiliates. Affiliate networks can take care of all of these headaches.
First, it is important to understand the dynamics between affiliate networks and advertisers. Most affiliate networks utilize utilize pixel tracking, conversion analysis and or affiliate performance metrics to identify and eliminate any fraud within their networks. If specific affiliate ID is responsible for excessive refunds or chargebacks, affiliate networks are not able to detect it. Which affiliates have the lowest rebill, retention or returned shipped packages cannot be tracked either. Affiliate networks can only see a piece of the entire order flow. Advertisers are the only ones who has access to everything post-transaction. Post-transaction data analysis, is therefore necessary to identify and eliminate affiliate fraud.
Make sure every transaction has an associated affiliate ID. Example: Transaction number 1844 was generated by affiliate ID PQR. This can be automated by passing the affiliate ID along with the consumer's billing information when processing any credit card transaction.
Monitor transactions that are approved, declined, refunded and charged back. Look for affiliate ID with
A)Lowest Approval Ratio(Initial transactions if there is a continuity model involved.)
B)Highest Decline Ratio (Including rebills.)
C)Highest Refund Ratio.
D)Highest Chargeback Ratio.
Approval Ratio
Affiliate traffic should be approving at least 80 percent and more. Each affiliate should be in the range of 80 approved transactions for every 100 generated. Now rank the affiliate IDs from highest to lowest. The bottom 10 percent are the worst performing affiliates and most likely driving fraud into your offers.
Decline Ratio
Decline ratio is critical to any online offer that involves continuity subscriptions.
An advertiser may be paying out $50 or higher CPA but it may take a couple of rebills to become profitable on each sale. A slight affiliate fraud could drop rebill ratios and resulting in negative ROI.
The decline ratio is each affiliate IDs number of declines divided by the total number of attempted transactions. If affiliate ID XYZ has 99 declines for every 100
rebill transactions, his decline ratio is 99 percent — grounds for immediate termination. Better performing campaigns have decline ratios of 30 percent or less. Just look at your affiliate ID’s decline ratios, identify the worst offenders
and get rid of them.
Refund Ratio
Depending on the type of offer the refund ratio should be in the range of 5-15 percent. Anything above 20 percent is too high. This is the number of declines requested divided by the total number of approved transactions generated. Eliminate affiliates that consistently produce highest refund ratios, as those are most likely caused by stolen credit cards.
Advertisers should calculate the first three ratios once a week before paying affiliate networks insertion orders. This allows you to monitor the performance of each affiliate and consistently weed out the worst offenders. Additionally, most reputable affiliate networks will credit back any obviously fraudulent transactions, which can help to lower overall advertising costs.
Chargeback Ratio
This ratio must be consistently performed in real time. Anytime a consumer disputes a credit card order or transaction, it is referred to as chargeback. Think of chargebacks as fire — when uncontrolled, it becomes a very dangerous situation. Think of each chargeback as a single match — a very small flame but with the potential to create serious damage if left to burn. Diligently monitor your chargebacks and the fires will never get out of control. It’s that simple.
There are two types of chargebacks. Operational chargebacks are caused by
mistakes made in operations. Failing to ship a product or issue a timely refund are two types of operational chargebacks. The other type of chargeback is specifically associated with stolen credit cards. “Customer Did Not Authorize” and “Card Stolen” are the most common chargeback descriptions.
For each affiliate ID, monitor the number of chargebacks against the total number
of approved transactions. So, if affiliate ID XYZ had 20 chargebacks on 100 approved
transactions, the affiliate has a 20 percent chargeback ratio. To put things in perspective, in the brick-and-mortar retail world, the average chargeback ratio is about 0.15 percent. For the online e-tail industry, the average is about 0.45 percent. If you have an affiliate ID(s) that’s consistently generating above a 5
percent chargeback ratio, get rid of them.
All of these ratios and numbers can be easily calculated using a basic spreadsheet if
your offer is generating less than 100 orders per day. For more sophisticated campaigns involving multiple products, offers and networks, you can custom build database systems to automatically track data or simply outsource to any number of reputable vendors that provide these services.
First, it is important to understand the dynamics between affiliate networks and advertisers. Most affiliate networks utilize utilize pixel tracking, conversion analysis and or affiliate performance metrics to identify and eliminate any fraud within their networks. If specific affiliate ID is responsible for excessive refunds or chargebacks, affiliate networks are not able to detect it. Which affiliates have the lowest rebill, retention or returned shipped packages cannot be tracked either. Affiliate networks can only see a piece of the entire order flow. Advertisers are the only ones who has access to everything post-transaction. Post-transaction data analysis, is therefore necessary to identify and eliminate affiliate fraud.
Make sure every transaction has an associated affiliate ID. Example: Transaction number 1844 was generated by affiliate ID PQR. This can be automated by passing the affiliate ID along with the consumer's billing information when processing any credit card transaction.
Monitor transactions that are approved, declined, refunded and charged back. Look for affiliate ID with
A)Lowest Approval Ratio(Initial transactions if there is a continuity model involved.)
B)Highest Decline Ratio (Including rebills.)
C)Highest Refund Ratio.
D)Highest Chargeback Ratio.
Approval Ratio
Affiliate traffic should be approving at least 80 percent and more. Each affiliate should be in the range of 80 approved transactions for every 100 generated. Now rank the affiliate IDs from highest to lowest. The bottom 10 percent are the worst performing affiliates and most likely driving fraud into your offers.
Decline Ratio
Decline ratio is critical to any online offer that involves continuity subscriptions.
An advertiser may be paying out $50 or higher CPA but it may take a couple of rebills to become profitable on each sale. A slight affiliate fraud could drop rebill ratios and resulting in negative ROI.
The decline ratio is each affiliate IDs number of declines divided by the total number of attempted transactions. If affiliate ID XYZ has 99 declines for every 100
rebill transactions, his decline ratio is 99 percent — grounds for immediate termination. Better performing campaigns have decline ratios of 30 percent or less. Just look at your affiliate ID’s decline ratios, identify the worst offenders
and get rid of them.
Refund Ratio
Depending on the type of offer the refund ratio should be in the range of 5-15 percent. Anything above 20 percent is too high. This is the number of declines requested divided by the total number of approved transactions generated. Eliminate affiliates that consistently produce highest refund ratios, as those are most likely caused by stolen credit cards.
Advertisers should calculate the first three ratios once a week before paying affiliate networks insertion orders. This allows you to monitor the performance of each affiliate and consistently weed out the worst offenders. Additionally, most reputable affiliate networks will credit back any obviously fraudulent transactions, which can help to lower overall advertising costs.
Chargeback Ratio
This ratio must be consistently performed in real time. Anytime a consumer disputes a credit card order or transaction, it is referred to as chargeback. Think of chargebacks as fire — when uncontrolled, it becomes a very dangerous situation. Think of each chargeback as a single match — a very small flame but with the potential to create serious damage if left to burn. Diligently monitor your chargebacks and the fires will never get out of control. It’s that simple.
There are two types of chargebacks. Operational chargebacks are caused by
mistakes made in operations. Failing to ship a product or issue a timely refund are two types of operational chargebacks. The other type of chargeback is specifically associated with stolen credit cards. “Customer Did Not Authorize” and “Card Stolen” are the most common chargeback descriptions.
For each affiliate ID, monitor the number of chargebacks against the total number
of approved transactions. So, if affiliate ID XYZ had 20 chargebacks on 100 approved
transactions, the affiliate has a 20 percent chargeback ratio. To put things in perspective, in the brick-and-mortar retail world, the average chargeback ratio is about 0.15 percent. For the online e-tail industry, the average is about 0.45 percent. If you have an affiliate ID(s) that’s consistently generating above a 5
percent chargeback ratio, get rid of them.
All of these ratios and numbers can be easily calculated using a basic spreadsheet if
your offer is generating less than 100 orders per day. For more sophisticated campaigns involving multiple products, offers and networks, you can custom build database systems to automatically track data or simply outsource to any number of reputable vendors that provide these services.
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Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Google Check-ins
Google has been maneuvering different parts of its mobile, local and social strategies posing a significant threat to other web businesses. Google has added the check-in capabilities to Latitude, the social and sharing feature of Google location based service Places.
Location based services let users share their locations with friends via mobile apps when the arrive at local businesses and establishments. Companies like Gowalla and Foursquare have their built their check-in services around social rewards such as badges and stamps. Users check in to Facebook Places, Shopkick and Loopt to receive deals from participating businesses, check-ins through apps from Yelp and others offer the platform for users to rate, recommend and review local restaurants and stores.
Google is the most widely used location based service ahead of Facebook Places. Google's new check-in feature gives users the added options of setting notifications and checking out from a location. Google has something else that the other location based services do not — the rapidly growing Android mobile platform. Though an iPhone
app for check-ins is said to be forthcoming, Google Places already has apps for the iPhone and Android devices that integrate with its other location-related services such as Google Maps and Navigation.
Google also has Hotpot local ratings and recommendations engine. So, users can share their locations with friends, rate and review local businesses all via Google's services and across all mobile platforms.
Google is also planning to launch its own entry in the daily deals space with Google Offers. Which brings us to Offer Ads, another mobile initiative of Google’s in which advertisers send coupons to users through email or SMS to drive customers into their physical store locations. For businesses that use Google Places to build awareness for their products and services, the convergence of these services creates the perfect storm of mobile, local and social marketing. Between check-ins, coupons, ratings and reviews, merchants have everything they need right on the Google
homepage — not to mention Google Analytics to gauge the individual performances of each service.
Location based services let users share their locations with friends via mobile apps when the arrive at local businesses and establishments. Companies like Gowalla and Foursquare have their built their check-in services around social rewards such as badges and stamps. Users check in to Facebook Places, Shopkick and Loopt to receive deals from participating businesses, check-ins through apps from Yelp and others offer the platform for users to rate, recommend and review local restaurants and stores.
Google is the most widely used location based service ahead of Facebook Places. Google's new check-in feature gives users the added options of setting notifications and checking out from a location. Google has something else that the other location based services do not — the rapidly growing Android mobile platform. Though an iPhone
app for check-ins is said to be forthcoming, Google Places already has apps for the iPhone and Android devices that integrate with its other location-related services such as Google Maps and Navigation.
Google also has Hotpot local ratings and recommendations engine. So, users can share their locations with friends, rate and review local businesses all via Google's services and across all mobile platforms.
Google is also planning to launch its own entry in the daily deals space with Google Offers. Which brings us to Offer Ads, another mobile initiative of Google’s in which advertisers send coupons to users through email or SMS to drive customers into their physical store locations. For businesses that use Google Places to build awareness for their products and services, the convergence of these services creates the perfect storm of mobile, local and social marketing. Between check-ins, coupons, ratings and reviews, merchants have everything they need right on the Google
homepage — not to mention Google Analytics to gauge the individual performances of each service.
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Monday, July 4, 2011
Email Automation
Email automation the cost is very low and high potential of financial return and consumer engagement. Email works for businesses of all sizes. If the business automates most or all of its email marketing activity, they stand to benefit the most.
If you are an email marketer then, you are aware how time intensive managing email communications and campaigns can be. Testing of different email techniques (text / HTML) and strategies to get the best ROI.
Automated emails are of three types: recurring, transactional and threshold.
Recurring emails are based on a specific date or timeframe. Recurring emails are is used in various online services, such as weekly reports and also to maintain a level of consistent engagement with the customers. Example, setting up a recurring reminder to buy additional supplies or renew a subscription. This requires deep integration with existing software systems.
Transactional email is just a single email following a transaction. It can be a confirmation email after purchase or a welcome email after signup or request for information. Online buyers expect transactional email so it is important to test message types. Consider a transactional email to be the trigger for a "drip campaign"; a series of messages triggered by an event such as a purchase. This is called lifecycle messaging. Drip emails can be useful in B2B email marketing, because you have a longer sales cycle.
Threshold email occurs when customers behavior reaches a certain point. Example: a customer purchased five items in a period of six months. A threshold email can be sent to the customer to offer a percentage discount on the next purchase. It could also be used in reverse thresholds, example: emails could be sent to those who have purchased only one product and did not buy another for six months. Sending an email with the survey about their specific purchase behavior can provide meaningful data.
As you might imagine, combing through databases to find the right audience segments
and aligning that with marketing objectives can quickly become overwhelming. Select
one of the many email service providers offering segmentation, integration with popular software solutions (e-commerce or CRM) and plan ahead, setting up recurring and threshold campaigns, and continually reviewing transactional emails for opportunities.
If you are an email marketer then, you are aware how time intensive managing email communications and campaigns can be. Testing of different email techniques (text / HTML) and strategies to get the best ROI.
Automated emails are of three types: recurring, transactional and threshold.
Recurring emails are based on a specific date or timeframe. Recurring emails are is used in various online services, such as weekly reports and also to maintain a level of consistent engagement with the customers. Example, setting up a recurring reminder to buy additional supplies or renew a subscription. This requires deep integration with existing software systems.
Transactional email is just a single email following a transaction. It can be a confirmation email after purchase or a welcome email after signup or request for information. Online buyers expect transactional email so it is important to test message types. Consider a transactional email to be the trigger for a "drip campaign"; a series of messages triggered by an event such as a purchase. This is called lifecycle messaging. Drip emails can be useful in B2B email marketing, because you have a longer sales cycle.
Threshold email occurs when customers behavior reaches a certain point. Example: a customer purchased five items in a period of six months. A threshold email can be sent to the customer to offer a percentage discount on the next purchase. It could also be used in reverse thresholds, example: emails could be sent to those who have purchased only one product and did not buy another for six months. Sending an email with the survey about their specific purchase behavior can provide meaningful data.
As you might imagine, combing through databases to find the right audience segments
and aligning that with marketing objectives can quickly become overwhelming. Select
one of the many email service providers offering segmentation, integration with popular software solutions (e-commerce or CRM) and plan ahead, setting up recurring and threshold campaigns, and continually reviewing transactional emails for opportunities.
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Friday, July 1, 2011
Live Chat and Video Chat Customer Service
ITSRx is an online specialty pharmacy that dispenses drugs for serious and chronic diseases like cancer,hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis. Many of the medications have to be injected, which means the retailer’s customer service agents often have to assuage the concerns of those new to the drugs.
For years the retailer handled those requests via e-mail,phone, mail or fax. But last September it launched both a webcam-based video chat and a text-based live chat program. The video chat service gives customers the option of scheduling one-on-one private consultations via webcam with ITSRx pharmacists. A customer, for example, can
show the pharmacist how he is injecting the needle to see if he is doing it correctly. Or he can talk with the pharmacist about drug interactions or side effects.
“Customers can be 1,500 miles away from the pharmacist but video chat brings them together like they are in person,” says Brian Smith, director of information technology at ITSRx. And the retailer’s text-based chat lets consumers get order-related questions—such as scheduling delivery and refi ll requests—answered quickly.
Since adding the two chat options, ITSRx’s call volume dropped, saving the company about 25% in call related costs. Moreover, the pharmacy’s web site conversion rate increased 20%.
The retailer is not alone in adding new technologies like video chat and more established methods like live chat to enhance customer service. A recent survey from market research fi rm Datamonitor shows 98% of companies offer phone support, 90% e-mail support and 25% live chat. Each additional service channel means more consumers can get the help they need, however they want it.
Live Chat
More web retailers are adding live chat as consumers become more comfortable with communicating by typing questions and comments into chat boxes on web sites. For instance, 58% of U.S. consumers say they’ve interacted with an e-retailer using live chat, up from 54% last year, according to a recent survey by retail consultancy e E-tailing Group Inc. Moreover, 20% of consumers say live chat is their preferred way to interact with a merchant.
“Adoption is on the rise generally, and there is a significant population of web site visitors who prefer live chat as a contact method,” says Lauren Freedman, president of e E-tailing Group. “It’s only been a short time that consumers have truly been able to take advantage of live chat, and to see that it is almost equal in preference to the telephone is exciting and transformative.”
Chat’s effectiveness was particularly apparent during the 2010 holiday season when 77% of e-retailers who used live chat rated it a critical communication method, up from 69% a year earlier, according to a recent survey. In part that’s because more than half, 54%, said customers who engaged in online chats with retailers over the holidays converted to a lead or sale 20% or more of the time.
The survey also found that proactive chat—when an e-retailer invites a consumer to chat based on her on-site behavior—yielded higher conversion rates than when
consumers asked to chat with the e-retailer.
Video Chat
Chat is about building connections, says Joan Conlin, vice president of customer care services at Lands’ End, which is a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corp.
Fostering that relationship is important, she says. “Establishing personal connections with our customers has always been an important part of who we are at Lands’ End,” says Conlin. “Offering our LandsEnd.com users real-time, one-on-one personal shopper assistance makes online shopping even more efficient and enjoyable.”
The retailer recently launched Lands’ End Live, a new live video chat service that lets shoppers see and talk to a personal shopping assistant as they trade messages on
LandsEnd.com. The retailer says the service is the first of its kind offered by an apparel retailer in the U.S.—making it a novelty that attracts consumers’ attention.
It’s a one-way video service: the customer can see the retailer’s agent, but not the other way around. That way the consumer can be comfortable shopping in her pajamas. Meanwhile, the personal shopping assistants can navigate the site, provide product recommendations, compare merchandise, demonstrate product features and discuss details about merchandise colors and patterns.
Shoppers on LandsEnd.com access the online tool by clicking the Live Help button on the site’s customer service pages. e site opens a brief welcome video, and shoppers
can get more details by selecting the Find Out More option. They can launch the video chat by clicking the Help Me Now button at the bottom of the browser window.
Web site visitors who launch Lands’ End Live video chat can communicate with the agent via voice using a headset or their computer’s built-in microphone and speakers, or by typing in comments into a text message box. Lands’ End personal shoppers can demonstrate product features and details, as well as help navigate the
web site regardless of the chat option selected.
Serving the Customer
Retailers have ample possibilities when it comes to deciding what customer service tools to off er—regardless of whether they outsource some or all of their customer service functions. But key to determining what tools a retailer needs is a thorough understanding of who its customers are, says Justin Christopher, marketing and sales director of Jenson USA, a retailer of bicycle and accessories.
For instance, because roughly 15% of Jenson USA’s sales come from abroad, the retailer offers a language translator in its live chat. And because its high-end bicycles have long sales cycles, consumers—particularly those who will have to deal with an international shipment—want to ensure the product meets their expectations, he says.
Meanwhile, a retailer like Offi ce Depot Inc. aims to speed up its customers’ ordering process by using a customer relationship management system that determines
whether the consumer has called the retailer before,the content of previous contacts with customer service,and, if he’s a member of the retailer’s Worklife Rewards
program, nearly every item he’s ordered in the past.
Retailers have to pay heed to the tools they’re offering shoppers because the consumers who demand the most online customer service are also those who spend the
most on the web—that is, at least $301 annually for travel, apparel and consumer electronics, according to a recent survey. 65% of apparel shoppers rate online customer service extremely or very important for web shopping and 59% of consumer electronics shoppers say the same thing.
Additionally, 53% of survey respondents who shop online more than once a month deem customer service extremely or very important, compared with 45% who shop online once a month and 40% who shop online every four to six months. at means that retailers can’t afford not to focus on customer service because the consumers who most want
outstanding service are also a merchant’s best customers.
For years the retailer handled those requests via e-mail,phone, mail or fax. But last September it launched both a webcam-based video chat and a text-based live chat program. The video chat service gives customers the option of scheduling one-on-one private consultations via webcam with ITSRx pharmacists. A customer, for example, can
show the pharmacist how he is injecting the needle to see if he is doing it correctly. Or he can talk with the pharmacist about drug interactions or side effects.
“Customers can be 1,500 miles away from the pharmacist but video chat brings them together like they are in person,” says Brian Smith, director of information technology at ITSRx. And the retailer’s text-based chat lets consumers get order-related questions—such as scheduling delivery and refi ll requests—answered quickly.
Since adding the two chat options, ITSRx’s call volume dropped, saving the company about 25% in call related costs. Moreover, the pharmacy’s web site conversion rate increased 20%.
The retailer is not alone in adding new technologies like video chat and more established methods like live chat to enhance customer service. A recent survey from market research fi rm Datamonitor shows 98% of companies offer phone support, 90% e-mail support and 25% live chat. Each additional service channel means more consumers can get the help they need, however they want it.
Live Chat
More web retailers are adding live chat as consumers become more comfortable with communicating by typing questions and comments into chat boxes on web sites. For instance, 58% of U.S. consumers say they’ve interacted with an e-retailer using live chat, up from 54% last year, according to a recent survey by retail consultancy e E-tailing Group Inc. Moreover, 20% of consumers say live chat is their preferred way to interact with a merchant.
“Adoption is on the rise generally, and there is a significant population of web site visitors who prefer live chat as a contact method,” says Lauren Freedman, president of e E-tailing Group. “It’s only been a short time that consumers have truly been able to take advantage of live chat, and to see that it is almost equal in preference to the telephone is exciting and transformative.”
Chat’s effectiveness was particularly apparent during the 2010 holiday season when 77% of e-retailers who used live chat rated it a critical communication method, up from 69% a year earlier, according to a recent survey. In part that’s because more than half, 54%, said customers who engaged in online chats with retailers over the holidays converted to a lead or sale 20% or more of the time.
The survey also found that proactive chat—when an e-retailer invites a consumer to chat based on her on-site behavior—yielded higher conversion rates than when
consumers asked to chat with the e-retailer.
Video Chat
Chat is about building connections, says Joan Conlin, vice president of customer care services at Lands’ End, which is a subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corp.
Fostering that relationship is important, she says. “Establishing personal connections with our customers has always been an important part of who we are at Lands’ End,” says Conlin. “Offering our LandsEnd.com users real-time, one-on-one personal shopper assistance makes online shopping even more efficient and enjoyable.”
The retailer recently launched Lands’ End Live, a new live video chat service that lets shoppers see and talk to a personal shopping assistant as they trade messages on
LandsEnd.com. The retailer says the service is the first of its kind offered by an apparel retailer in the U.S.—making it a novelty that attracts consumers’ attention.
It’s a one-way video service: the customer can see the retailer’s agent, but not the other way around. That way the consumer can be comfortable shopping in her pajamas. Meanwhile, the personal shopping assistants can navigate the site, provide product recommendations, compare merchandise, demonstrate product features and discuss details about merchandise colors and patterns.
Shoppers on LandsEnd.com access the online tool by clicking the Live Help button on the site’s customer service pages. e site opens a brief welcome video, and shoppers
can get more details by selecting the Find Out More option. They can launch the video chat by clicking the Help Me Now button at the bottom of the browser window.
Web site visitors who launch Lands’ End Live video chat can communicate with the agent via voice using a headset or their computer’s built-in microphone and speakers, or by typing in comments into a text message box. Lands’ End personal shoppers can demonstrate product features and details, as well as help navigate the
web site regardless of the chat option selected.
Serving the Customer
Retailers have ample possibilities when it comes to deciding what customer service tools to off er—regardless of whether they outsource some or all of their customer service functions. But key to determining what tools a retailer needs is a thorough understanding of who its customers are, says Justin Christopher, marketing and sales director of Jenson USA, a retailer of bicycle and accessories.
For instance, because roughly 15% of Jenson USA’s sales come from abroad, the retailer offers a language translator in its live chat. And because its high-end bicycles have long sales cycles, consumers—particularly those who will have to deal with an international shipment—want to ensure the product meets their expectations, he says.
Meanwhile, a retailer like Offi ce Depot Inc. aims to speed up its customers’ ordering process by using a customer relationship management system that determines
whether the consumer has called the retailer before,the content of previous contacts with customer service,and, if he’s a member of the retailer’s Worklife Rewards
program, nearly every item he’s ordered in the past.
Retailers have to pay heed to the tools they’re offering shoppers because the consumers who demand the most online customer service are also those who spend the
most on the web—that is, at least $301 annually for travel, apparel and consumer electronics, according to a recent survey. 65% of apparel shoppers rate online customer service extremely or very important for web shopping and 59% of consumer electronics shoppers say the same thing.
Additionally, 53% of survey respondents who shop online more than once a month deem customer service extremely or very important, compared with 45% who shop online once a month and 40% who shop online every four to six months. at means that retailers can’t afford not to focus on customer service because the consumers who most want
outstanding service are also a merchant’s best customers.
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Machine to Machine
M2M has ushered in an age where people, machines, devices and networks are all connected and able to interact with one another. Traditional M2M purpose-built devices differ from consumer facing devices. Firstly, consumer-facing devices have a shorter expected life span and they are typically designed with a specific function in mind or single purpose devices.
These single purpose devices are self contained microprocessors and sensors embedded into everyday objects and connected to networks interpreting and transmitting data without the need of human intervention. These devices apply to business, but there are many consumer single purpose devices too. These are called consumer M2M and include a personal GPS unit, a connected photo frame and an ereader. The primary purpose of each of these devices is the transfer of data to make a realtime decision.
A consumer connected device, on the other hand, is considered a multi-purpose product that can serve, among a multitude of uses, a machine to machine function. When discussing the definition of multi-purpose device, they are products connected over a network that receive and transmit data enabled by human intervention. An example is a tablet.
The ereader is considered a single purpose device. The single-purpose action provides an individual with the ability to purchase, download and read ebooks and magazines.
In the case of a tablet, while part of its functionality can be defined as providing an M2M function, this is not the sole purpose of the device. Tablets offer a wide range of functionality, such as HD video, digital cameras, multi-touch display, music and much more. For this reason a tablet is considered a multi-purpose device.
Both an ereader and tablet fall under a broad definition of connected device, based on primary purpose, each device falls under more specific single-purpose and multi-purpose device subsets respectively.
These single purpose devices are self contained microprocessors and sensors embedded into everyday objects and connected to networks interpreting and transmitting data without the need of human intervention. These devices apply to business, but there are many consumer single purpose devices too. These are called consumer M2M and include a personal GPS unit, a connected photo frame and an ereader. The primary purpose of each of these devices is the transfer of data to make a realtime decision.
A consumer connected device, on the other hand, is considered a multi-purpose product that can serve, among a multitude of uses, a machine to machine function. When discussing the definition of multi-purpose device, they are products connected over a network that receive and transmit data enabled by human intervention. An example is a tablet.
The ereader is considered a single purpose device. The single-purpose action provides an individual with the ability to purchase, download and read ebooks and magazines.
In the case of a tablet, while part of its functionality can be defined as providing an M2M function, this is not the sole purpose of the device. Tablets offer a wide range of functionality, such as HD video, digital cameras, multi-touch display, music and much more. For this reason a tablet is considered a multi-purpose device.
Both an ereader and tablet fall under a broad definition of connected device, based on primary purpose, each device falls under more specific single-purpose and multi-purpose device subsets respectively.
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