Buying Online

More and more, consumers are leaving brick-and-mortar stores to buy online. In fact, countless reports from big brands state that online sales growth continues to outpace any in-store counterparts. In addition, a recent survey suggests that consumers are embracing online venues as a way to escape higher prices, poor selection, and dwindling sales staffs associated with the traditional in-store shopping venues. Consequently, competition on the Web is hotter than ever. Many e-tailers are improving their competitive edge by mingling the human elements of the in-store shopping experience with the power of buying online. Here are a few tips to help humanize your website and keep visitors coming back:

See Your Site through the Eyes of Your Visitors
Innovations in a technique called co-browsing enable site visitors to enlist your guidance during their visit. With co-browsing software, one can see what site visitors are interacting with on the site and walk them through the buying process — similar to interacting with a sales associate at a brick-and-mortar store. Through this process, the associate and customer arrive at the best solution, together. Cobrowsing re-creates this experience by giving visitors virtual access to a human on the other end. In fact, cobrowsing gives you the power to do everything with visitors from finding that perfect product to filling out forms at checkout. If you already have a CRM, find new ways to maximize your investment. If you are looking to add a new vendor provided service to your mix, like live chat or email, make sure that you will be able to integrate those products with your CRM. For example, by integrating a CRM with live chat software your reps will have instant access to a visitor’s previous purchases, demographics and visit history. Reps can leverage this info during their chat conversations with visitors in the same way that brick-and mortar associates recognize and work with returning customers. Such interactions with visitors help build rapport and trust, further humanizing the experience of your website.

Analyze Results
Consider this: The overwhelming majority of brick-and-mortar stores are largely unable to do genuine statistical analysis on what is working best in their shops. With the exception of high-volume big brands, most stores rely largely on anecdotal associate feedback about what works for customers and what doesn’t. Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of doing business online is the availability of products that provide data about your website which can be leveraged to improve the overall user experience and positively impact sales and brand loyalty.
Standards like Google Analytics do a great deal of heavy lifting, but there are also many complementary solutions to help you work smarter, not harder. Try testing the waters with options that drill into real-time insight and visitor monitoring. Some solutions even give you the ability to set up custom alerts, like shopping cart dollar amount thresholds or number of pages visited. “Listening” to this kind of individual and trending data gives you the power to further optimize the performance and usability of your sight, keeping visitors coming back.
With technology advancing constantly and competition sprouting up faster than ever, the need to differentiate your site by implementing new ways to transform and improve the buying experience for visitors is critical to continued success. Techniques that blend the best of shopping at a storefront with shopping online are likely to be the next evolution on the path to increasing conversions, boosting sales and strengthening brand loyalty.

Facebook for making money

With Facebook on virtually every retailer’s mind,many of them are asking,“Why aren’t we using Facebook to make money?”
Indeed, some already are. Social gaming powerhouse Zynga Inc., which sells virtual goods through its FarmVille and other online games available only on Facebook, has demonstrated the willingness of Facebook users to spend money on the social networking site. Zynga, which says it has 232 million monthly active users, reported last month in its filing for an initial public offering of stock that it had revenue of $235.4 million for the first quarter of this year, up 133% from $100.9 million in the year-earlier quarter.
The technology for selling on Facebook has existed since 2009 and it’s proven to be an effective, low-cost sales tool. But in a study of retailers in the Internet Retailer Top 500, my company, e-commerce software provider Ability Commerce, found that 90% of those retailers are not selling on Facebook. Moreover, 21% of them, or 105, have yet to even create a Facebook page. Why the delay? What is holding these companies back?  the data we collected points to some answers and may give clues to the future of e-commerce—and specifically Facebook commerce, or f-commerce.But many other retailers, particularly small to midsize ones that sell goods commonly purchased online, such as clothes, consumer electronics, and books and other media products, appear to be missing an opportunity. And with Facebook recently reporting it has 750 million active users, it’s a big opportunity.
One aspect of Facebook that retailers have readily adopted is the brand page. In the roughly one year since Facebook introduced company brand pages where consumers can click to “Like” a company, replacing “fan” pages that used to compile the number of consumers signed up as fans of a company, consumers have enthusiastically “Liked” the Facebook pages of their favorite brands. Retailers have started treating these “Likes” as markers for social media engagement—collecting them through awareness campaigns, contests and other incentives. 
Retailers in the Apparel/Accessories category, which includes the top three “Most-Liked” companies in the IR Top 500, actually average far fewer “Likes” than retailers in other Top 500 categories, with an average number of “Likes” per retailer of 592,175.  at figure falls behind the retail categories of Books/Music/Video, Toys/Hobbies, Mass Merchant and Health/Beauty.
Some merchants have gone beyond just seeking “Likes” to selling directly to Facebook users.
One example is American Musical Supply, an instrument retailer that is No. 262 in the Top 500 with $45 million in 2010 sales. Inside the retailer’s Facebook store,a virtual shopping cart lets shoppers select as many items as they want. When a customer clicks to check out, she is redirected to the secure checkout on AmericanMusical.com and the contents of her Facebook cart transfers with her. American Musical Supply also features contests like “U like U Save,” where its Facebook fans vote on which product they would like to see on sale.
With such an enormous user base, we know Facebook presents a huge marketing opportunity,implementing a Facebook shopping app is easy to do and can open another high-volume channel of commerce.
Retailers now have a variety of applications available to them to enable direct selling on the world’s most popular social network. Here’s a deeper dive into what Facebook shopping apps can offer.
Virtual Carts—Because Facebook does not off er checkout, many companies with shopping applications off er a Buy button that
redirects shoppers to the retailer’s web site to complete a purchase. This can be cumbersome for someone who wants to buy more than one item. Well-designed Facebook
shopping apps work around this issue with a virtual cart. A virtual shopping cart, such as the one used by American Musical Supply, allows a shopper to add multiple items to her shopping cart without leaving Facebook. When the customer is ready to check out, the contents of her shopping cart are transferred to the web site where she can complete a secure checkout.
Live Chat—A simple and cost-effective way to help customers as they browse a web store, live chat has become an integral part of many of the IR Top 500’s e-commerce sites. However, while that feature is readily available for Facebook, only eight Top 500 retailers, or 2% of those with a
Facebook page, offer chat to their Facebook visitors. Among the categories of Apparel/Accessories and Computer/Electronics retailers, just four retailers employ live chat for Facebook, while the categories of mass merchant and jewelry each has one retailer with a Facebook chat interface.
Other retailers are missing out on a great opportunity to easily connect with their Facebook customers and increase conversions. Live chat enables the retailer to help eliminate buyer objections, direct shoppers to products they need, and up-sell buyers on products and related items.
In researching Ability Commerce’s clients, we have found that shoppers who use live chat for help are three times more likely to buy than other visitors to e-commerce sites.  ose shoppers bump up the average order value as well, as chatters buy 55% more than non-chatters.
There are other features that can enhance a Facebook store, but adoption is limited. Of the 395 Top 500 retailers with a Facebook page, only three integrate their Facebook product listings and their Amazon.com merchandise, a step that lets customers buy through Facebook any items a retailer sells through the Amazon e-commerce platform.
Based on the popularity of “Liking” a brand on Facebook and the scarcity of shopping applications, it’s clear retailers have been using Facebook more as a branding tool than as a storefront. That’s a missed opportunity, as Facebook shopping apps can now provide a shopping experience as engrossing as on any traditional e-commerce site.
Looking at other features, only 24 merchants, or 6%, of the Top 500 with a Facebook page, offer some kind of promotional freebie on their page, and only 17, or 4%,
let Facebook visitors buy gift cards.

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.