Category: Ecommerce

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Ecommerce – nothing is simple

Ecommerce

E-commerce has many components. Since the main purpose is to make money you need to process credit cards. This isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do.  It also can spring some interesting surprises.

sem[c] ‘s client The Samurai Business Group presents a number of events every year. It order to improve the process both for the business and its clients we introduced Brown Paper Tickets, an online events aggregator. Samurai had maintained their own shopping cart on their website but decided it was wise to begin phasing it out for a variety of reasons. The new approach offered a better user interface, better calendaring and good attendee tracking capabilities. The only hitch was that Brown Papers Tickets required one of a set number of merchant account providers for credit card processing. Samurai’s provider was affiliated with Authorize.net.

Mary Ahart at Matrix Payment Systems got the ball rolling quickly and in less than a day we got things setup, tested and into production. So far, so good… right?

The next day we heard from Mary that their risk management TriSource Solutions LLC had discovered a problem with the Brown Paper Tickets website.

???

Incredulity was our first response.  How could a well establish company like this have missed such a problem?  Admittedly it was a bit obscure: they had included Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned companies in their list of countries in which they claimed to deliver tickets. Trisource accurately assess this as a risk and Brown Paper Tickets, when notified, quickly agreed to correct their problem. Trisource proved why Mary could cite their great track record in preventing online fraud. Your e-commerce success can all go away if you are defrauded. You are warned.

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What’s happening in online retail?

What’s happening in online retail?

There continue to be important new developments in online retail sales even after the nearly twenty years since commerce went online.

Brick and mortar retailers continue to struggle. Former powerhouses like Best Buy and Barnes and Noble appear to be in trouble largely due to their inability to compete effectively with Amazon and other online retailers.

An increase in the advantages offered by Amazon is close by as they roll out same day delivery in select markets. Walmart is also test marketing same day. Why go to a store at all?

Starting an online store has never been easier. sem[c] has worked successfully with a number of businesses creating online stores with Shopify. Can small retailers compete successfully with the giants?  The answer is a qualified “yes”. As in any competition the underdog needs to promote an effective point of distinction.

Google AdWords has given retailers even more powerful online ad capabilities with their recent changes to their Product Listing Ads. This gives even more precision control to the marketing reach of even the smallest online store.

What is a good strategy for such a store? How do you position it for success?

A small online store will offer a curated collection of items for sale. The nature of that curation will be one point of distinction. Some other areas that can be promoted as distinctions include price, unique selections and service.

Price is a very important distinction. Being the highest in a list of retailers offering similar or the same product will be unlikely to lead to very many sales. Being the lowest in the same list might lead to sales but definitely cuts your margin. Large firms like Amazon and Walmart change their prices continuously during peak retail seasons like Black Friday and Monday.

Your store will not have the same type of pricing problem if you offer unique items. This is possible in a number of different ways like bundling or white labeling. Being able to offer one-of-a-kind anything requires a great deal of creativity and can involve a great deal of risk. It may require a Kickstarter finance campaign.

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Why is there spam?

It works. It makes money. Think about it.  Why would so much effort be made to create and disseminate something that it seems everyone hates and never reads?

There is a lesson about social media marketing in today’s example. My wife received an email that spoofed my name. It wasn’t from any of my accounts. It was correctly marked “Junk” by her email app. She didn’t notice anything other than it seemed to be from me, opened the email and clicked the link. This was a successful transaction in terms of marketing and shows why companies are spending money of Facebook to replicate this kind of effectiveness because of the social engineering that is involved. People are simply more likely to act on something recommended by family or friends.

You can do something to counteract this kind of effectiveness. It may seem like a lot of work but you should make sure before you click any link that:

  • The name of the person and the email address make sense
  • The link’s text makes sense with the URL that you are going to visit. In most browsers you can see this address near the bottom of the screen when you mouse over the link.

The problem is compounded by the general lackadaisical approach people take to their passwords. A recent report on Mashable is titled:

This can make it pretty easy for unscrupulous spammers to hack into your address book(s). Especially if you use the same password for many different sign ons.
If not, your spam filter will need to work overtime.