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It's no secret that the huge rise of tablets and smartphones has changed the way that consumers shop.

According to a February 2013 media release from ACMA, almost half of Australian adults now own a smartphone.

They also also found that 9.2 million Australians went online via their mobile phone and 4.4 million accessed the internet using a tablet in the six months to May 2012. As an Online Business specialist, we've seen this trend increasing now faster than ever.

But do people still prefer to use a traditional desktop or laptop device to make online purchases? Not so much.

According to a report released by eBay and PayPal:

Mobile e-Commerce (or m-Commerce for short) accounted for $5.6B AUD in retail sales in 2012 - up from $155M in 2010. That's a 3600% increase in the space of two years.
Based on a poll of 3,200 people, the study forecast that 64% of Australians would own a smartphone by the end of 2012, compared to 51% in 2011. These totals hit 39% and 18% respectively for tablets.

As the owner of any store knows, first impressions matter.

If your potential customers are faced with a tiny screen they're forced to zoom in and scroll around on, you're potentially losing leads. There are two ways of providing your customers with a seamless mobile shopping experience:

With a responsive design that resizes automatically to the screen size. This is ideal for both mobiles and tablets, as it takes advantage of the screen resolution to provide a smooth viewing experience. This is the best idea for a new website, as it can be costly or technically difficult to convert an existing design to a responsive layout.
With a mobile version of your online store; a completely separate area of your website that is displayed on mobile devices only. Instead of displaying a scaled down version of your website as a responsive design does, it's a completely new layout optimized for mobile displays - big icons and reduced information on the screen so your customers just get the information they need, rather than having to scroll across multiple screens. While easier and more cost-effective than a responsive design, they are not as versatile, nor provide as smooth a viewing experience.

Whichever way you go, optimizing your store for m-Commerce will ensure that you aren't left behind.

Contact us today to talk about an m-Commerce solution for your store!

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As part of their commitment to the Business Catalyst product, Adobe is continually releasing updates and enchancements to make the software better. The update that was rolled out last night is one of the biggest, and most exciting, we've seen.

What does it mean for you?

eCommerce

Fancy being able to include discount codes in your customer's invoice or order? How about gift vouchers?

Email Marketing

Lots of very nifty things happening here. While there are some very cool updates...

Changes to the mechanics of email delivery mean that your campaigns are significantly less likely to be marked as spam by the recipient email system.
Updates on the routing information included in the email code will assist with transparency and security.
The precursors to some changes that will trim the editor down to display only the tools you need.

The really big update here is the addition of recurring campaigns, an extension of their inclusion of dynamic content support for email campaigns.

Case study: One of our clients sends a weekly campaign including a link to their price list literature item. To do this each week, they need to do the following:

Upload a new file to the literature item
Create a new campaign
Update the campaign send details
Send the campaign

With this feature though, they can set up a weekly (or daily, fortnightly, monthly...) campaign - or have us do it for them - after which they'll have to do the following:

Upload a new file to the literature item
~~Create a new campaign~~ This happens automatically!
~~Update the campaign send details~~ This happens automatically!
~~Send the campaign~~ This happens automatically!

And of course this doesn't just cover literature. How would you like to be able to create a campaign to automatically send a monthly recap of your blog posts to your subscribers? Or upcoming events? Latest news items? It really is just set-and-forget!

If this is something you're interested in, contact your account manager to talk about how these new features can work for you!

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Many of our first time clients are unsure of how to set up their online store as “window shoppers” throughout the world embrace online shopping.

Remember you have a lot of competition out there; it isn’t just the new boutique around the corner that has everyone buzzing. With over a million sites going live throughout the world each day, retail has never been so competitive.

Marketing experts believe the average shopper makes up their mind about whether or not to buy something within two seconds of seeing it.

Here are some tips on how to take the “window shopper” to the checkout and maximise your sales while you have them in the palm of your hand.

Visuals, visuals and more visuals - have the best images possible. If you can’t access them from your suppliers, hire a photographer skilled in retail photography to do a shoot for you. Just because you have a nice SLR and took some great holiday snaps doesn’t mean you will necessarily know how to make your stock look great. You won’t regret the investment.
Think like a shopper, set up your categories so they are easy to find. Just because you call your stock a certain name in store. Will your “window shopper” find it? Experiment with Google, can you find what you were looking for when you searched it? Maybe your “window shopper” couldn’t either.
Set up your catalogue like you would your physical store. Remember when you found that cute little boutique on the coast which snaffled your week’s holiday pay? How did they do it?
Use every means available to you to encourage add on sales. Think of your stock, if you create a new window display, do you have that gorgeous cocktail dress displayed in the window on its own? Use related products to entice the shopper. What girl doesn’t need a new pair of killer heels to carry that dress?
Use enhancement features; hover tools, poplets, description boxes anything that allows the shopper to “touch & feel”. Make it as easy as possible for your “Window shopper” to become your customer and enjoy the experience.
Lastly, reward your customer. Keep them up to date with the latest arrivals with regular email campaigns and give them a little treat every now and then. Maybe a season launch discount or a pre-sale tip-off and and they will return to your store over & over again.

As part of our commitment to our S+S clients, we offer monthly information sessions which allow our clients to access the latest tips and tools to maximise the success of their online store.

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Fast-track your understanding of Pinterest with this great 5 minute slideshow presentation including a 2 and a half minute introductory video.

(For best viewing, click the 'Fullscreen' icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the slideshare)

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Google Adwords Packages We are pleased to now be able to offer specialised Google Adwords and SEO services through our partnership with Ausclicks. Working together with Ausclicks, we are able to offer specialised Google Adwords & Analytics bundles to suit all needs and budgets. Contact us today to get started - bundles start from as low as $500 (not including ad spend)
Free Setup - Nab Transact The Adobe business catalyst ecommerce tools support a myriad of payment gateways, however we are pleased to advise that we can now offer to all our clients a special deal with NAB, utilising the Nan Transact gateway. Download information regarding this special offer now! We are happy to discuss this further with you if you wish. This offer is available to all our customers across Australia. A NAB Business Transaction Specialist is also very happy to speak with you, wherever you are, about this arrangement. You do not need to be a NAB customer to take advantage of this offer. Contact us to find out more
Facebook Timeline Facebook never stands still, the most recent change is Timeline for Business. This will effect all business pages from the 31/3. We are conducting some information sessions on this next week, but get in quick as they are filling up fast! Secure your place now
The Rocket is on the launchpad Are you keeping up with our new building? We are starting to get excited to see it taking shape and looking forward to all the extra room, for staff and clients. If you haven't been keeping up to date - find out more at our blog.

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The old McDonald's adage of 'would you like fries with that? is a real winner in the online space.

The benefits of cross selling or upselling items are well know to retailers - but are e-tailers using them to their advantage?

The Adobe Business Catalyst system allows for easy integration of related items or those impulse buys so favoured of traditional retailers that they stick at the point of purchase and various vantage points in their shops.

Are you using these tools to your advantage?

It is a shame to see only one item appear in a shopping cart when with a little effort you could entice them to purchase that extra bangle, extra fitting or extra food purchase to boost your average spend per sale.

How can you do this?

Ensure you link related items to all products - even if they are not necessarily related! Ie make sure the fitting that goes with the bulb are always linked together, the shoes or bag that goes with the dress are easily just a click away
Freight enticements - let people know freight is free with purchases above a certain level. Isn't it better to encourage people to lift their spend another $50 to avoid paying say $6 in freight?
Specials on the home page or filtered through the inside catalogue pages - encourage that random impulse buy by putting specials in the face of your regular browsers.

Bringing your real world retail merchandising skills into the online world is not hard - just different, so make sure you are maximizing your individual shopping cart spend at every opportunity.

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Yes, it is possible!

The Client

Woolerina have been producing the highest quality Australian made merino wool clothing since 2006 and in July 2010 they expanded their production capacity and range all based from their Forbes office.

In May 2010, Woolerina moved their site across to our platform in the anticipation that it would be a better fit to grow their online business in tandem with their offline real world business.

The Plan

In December 2010, Woolerina approached us to help build and drive more sales through their site. A considerable amount of sales were generated by the Woolerina team travelling all over Australia attending various fields days, wool shows and ag shows to promote awareness of their product. It was exhausting and at times costly work that the team felt could be better spent elsewhere.

Woolerina wanted to reduce their considerable travelling and away time - but ensure that sales continued to improve both online and offline.

We suggested a variety of points to achieve this end and coupled with some funding assistance from State and Regional Development, the following steps were recommended and actioned.

Extend the online shopping with the introduction of product reviews
Adding cross selling and upselling opportunities
Extending the site with social media
Encouraging more regular email newsletters
Blogging (yes we do harp on about this one!)
Providing shopping discounts
Creating adwords campaigns targetting new markets
Extending the depth of keywords and description to better match what the consumer calls the Woolerina product
Extend connections with likeminded businesses - ie Australian Made, Sporting Groups etc

The Outcome

Less travel for the Woolerina team during the busy May buying rush and increased sales!
Traffic has increased significantly and steadily each month since the start of 2011 - with both increased visits and views.
Steady increase of new email newsletter subscribers
Increased Facebook Likers
Increased online sales and increased online sales as a % of overall sales

Well Done Woolerina - especially as one of the key principal's had a baby whilst all this was going on!

You can read more about this case study here and see how we might help you to achieve something similar with your business.

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Seeing as how it is International Women's Day, I thought we should devote some space to looking specifically at how women use the web.

It's not just that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus - but the 2 sexes do in the main use the web differently, and that difference is going to drive web strategy over the coming short term.

From how we browse, to what we browse and how we click ( something to do with the male genetic trait related to remotes I think!) - what are the things that make women take notice online.

Women spend more time than men across the world visiting social networking sites - expect a sizeable number in the facebook area.
57% of the world's 400 million Facebook users are women.
Women are the digital mainstream, a group of savvy Internet explorers who are more engaged than their male counterparts, and are the primary drivers of online and group buying.
Men and women visit retail sites in practically equal amounts, but women spend 20% more time on those sites. That time equates to more money spent in most retail categories, as women buy more frequently than men do.

Mashable has a great overview of the numbers that this equates to - view the full story here

Another approach is outlined in this blog at Get Elastic - Are men hunters and women browsers online?

I'm not sure about Men being hunters online, but our experience is that men to tend want to click on objects and women tend to like to be able to read, to be guided through a serious of steps to get to the outcome that they want. They are looking for valuable information, a bargain and options.

Men like to get to the point and fast.

"The Web of the immediate future is one that is increasingly visual, empathetic and design-centric. Video and photography are informing the shape and direction of the Web in ways that will encourage more girls than ever before to consider a career with technology and the Internet" - a great statement from Think Big website.

I am not looking to stereotype either sex in how they use the web, but it is clear from all current research that if your demographic is women, particularly mothers with children - then you had better get into your social networks and ensure you have a sale section on your ecommerce store!

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How to get your customers to convert

Any sales process has a variety of methods to get the customer to convert, to commit, to open up the wallet!

What should you be doing at your website to trigger the same response?

Know your customer

Many businesses still make the mistake of thinking a website is just a brochure 'on the internet' for products and that it will magically just work!. They create it, leave it, and wonder why it’s not generating any traffic, let alone converting visitors.

It’s impossible to make an entire website relevant to everyone that visits. Instead, businesses should tailor separate sections of the website to what their customers will be interested in.

We are working on a site right now with 2 distinct audiences, teenage girls and their mothers. Our challenge in the design and structure is to meet those 2 different targets and we are guided by what our client tells us about what she undeerstands of her market.

Who are your customers and what are they looking for?

How do you segment them, it could be age, it could be demographic, it could be desires and goals, it could be needs and wants. Your answers will determine the content that will be on key landing pages of your site.

What do you want people to do when they get to a page?

You need to be clear about what it is you want visitors to do when they arrive on a page. Clear Calls to Action are critical for the key pages of your site - in fact all p-ages should have some kind of call to action on them - a point to reading and acting on the information.

Be mindful what the 'conversion' might be - is it a order, a booking form, email subscription - what is the action you want to see happen?

K.I.S.S - Keep it simple stupid

We also advise our clients against making call's to action too hard - yes, you need to get information and you need to segment details - but don't make it a burden - you have about 10 seconds to get them to respond. If your form or process is confusing or long winded - you can forget it. Just get the bare facts - you can grab the rest of the information in a more personal follow-up.

Analyse

Finally, pay attention to how your visitors respond to your triggers, review your weekly reports and then collate your monthly data. For more in-depth analysis, talk to us about Google Analytics and how this tool can provide additional information to support your sales methods.

We have quite a few clients who are now using our Pulsar Package coupled with ongoing Customer Care to really understand what is occurring with visits and traffic and assist with getting more clients 'over the line'

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What's going on with E-commerce in Australia?

We have been inundated with requests for Ecommerce solutions so far this year - with 4 on the go! Here are some facts to digest, including trends from HitWise Australia

While Australia has experienced rapid growth in online shopping, the lack of local big brand retailers selling online is forcing shoppers to buy from overseas competitors - creating space for local and niche operators to flourish!

Industry commentators say Australia is several years behind the US and UK and Australian consumers are voting with their wallets when it comes to shopping online - there is growth on the way.

Online shopping in Australia is expected to expand its share of the retail market from 2 to 3 percent to 7 to 8 percent - closer to the threshold it already occupies in the U.S. and the U.K

Huge growth in the online House and Garden sector (where consumers browse online and buy in store - we love to research!)

Growth in the electronics sector - with car audio, games, LCD TVs, DVDs, XBox 360s and CDs all commonly searched

Continued growth in traffic to shopping and classifieds websites

Security remains a key factor for both buyers and sellers. Buyers want to know they can trust the site to get their goods and that the privacy of their credit card details will be preserved. Sellers want to know that they are not being defrauded.

Trends such as these create opportunities for businesses to sell their products online and take advantage of store-pick-up methods of shipping. Or simply to showcase them and publish stock levels. Either option grows business revenue and cuts down on postage costs which are a huge deterrent for both buyers and sellers online.

Providing your customers with an easy-to-use shopping experience, good selection of payment options and a strong security policy to build trust can help online businesses be a success.

Tuesday Tip - Drive conversions with m-Commerce!