How to Attract More Customers to Your Ecommerce Store

Leave a reply

According to our research, attracting more customers is one of the biggest challenges for NZ Ecommerce businesses. That’s why we’re launching a new training course devoted to exactly that.

Demand for online shopping has really ramped up following Covid-19, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to attract buyers for your products.

There are more buyers, but also many more sellers — over 9000 new NZ ecommerce stores in 2020 alone, according to records compiled by the NZ Ecommerce Association.

According to research by NZ Post, 170,000 adult New Zealanders shopped online for the first time during the first six months of 2020. That’s a healthy dose of new prospects for your products — but you still need to market to them if you want to attract them to your store.

And marketing to consumers is more challenging than ever.

These days, consumers search for products across a variety of media (not just Google Search). They are also searching on Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Trade Me, TheMarket and a zillion other places. They ask for recommendations on YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat and other social outlets. They read reviews and ask their friends and whanau for validation before clicking “add to cart”.

The good news is that the New Zealand economy has stood up surprisingly well so far and consumers are still spending online at record levels.

However, in tougher times like these, many consumers take longer to decide on purchases and need more information to ensure that they are spending wisely. Oh, and wherever possible they’re looking for deals and discounts — or, at least, great value.

So how do you attract more customers?

Our online course, ECOMMERCE MARKETING, tells you what you need to know in a ten-part programme that steps you through the principles and practices of marketing your New Zealand ecommerce store.

The course has been created for Netmarketing Courses by Michael Carney, longtime marketer and author of the top-selling book “Trade Me Success Secrets” (now in its Second Edition) which tells how to sell effectively on this country’s largest and most successful eCommerce platform. Michael is also the creator of a number of other online courses (including several Social Media Marketing courses) and consults on many digital business initiatives.

This is an online course, conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, anytime 24/7, accessing materials online.

This particular online training course provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows and PDF files. No special software is required to participate: you simply access the course through a web browser, on desktop or mobile devices.

Course lessons will be provided in ten parts, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables.

WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE

Any Ecommerce Store operator who wants to attract more customers and close more sales.

 

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Here’s what some of our students have said about our Mastering eCommerce course:

  • Really informative course, definitely helping us whilst we start out on our first ecomm project in NZ — Rob. T
  • Thanks for another great course. I found it insightful, in-depth and I know our web presence and web sales will improve because of it. — Bruce H.
  • I have somehow managed to develop over 80 pages of my own notes to complement the course ones. I look forward to participating in another in the near future. — Mark J

COURSE CONTENT

Course Content for ECOMMERCE MARKETING includes:

Introduction

We start by examining today’s ecommerce environment.

According to NZ Post data, half of NZ consumers shopped online in 2019 (with more than a quarter of Kiwis shopping online at least once a month).

In 2020, of course, that all changed.

With the coronavirus-induced lockdown in late March, suddenly far more Kiwis discovered the joys of shopping online. During Level Four, when we could only purchase essential products, online shopping demand went through the roof.

As time moved on, and New Zealand went to Level One in June, we saw that many consumers switched their buying intentions back to bricks and mortar shopping — but online shopping remained at higher levels than in previous years, with purchases from domestic shopping websites up 34% versus June 2019:


Source: Marketview

Kiwi entrepreneurs, quick to sense an opportunity, opened up more than 2500 new ecommerce stores when we were at heightened alert levels in April and May.

New openings fell away when we went back to Level One, then surged again as Auckland saw further restrictions. Now we’re seeing more new NZ ecommerce stores than ever before.

Today, we find ourselves facing more competition than ever, from other online stores and from traditional bricks & mortar stores as well.

So how are YOU expecting to attract more customers in this environment?

 

Lesson One: Create Sizzling Product Listings

The first step in attracting more customers begins with your website.

It would be tempting to think that all you have to do is toss your products onto a website, with a few attractive images and a brief description, and your job is done.

Alas, the reality is otherwise. In this lesson, we discuss the fact that to serve up your product listings to potential customers, Google needs words that match the keywords and keyword phrases for which people are searching. That’s your first priority.

Those words also need to be compelling to humans, because if you can’t convince them that your product will meet their needs then you’ve just wasted the time and effort you put into attracting them to your product listing page.

But wait, there’s more. You also need gorgeous photographs that show off all the features and benefits of your products, because when customers can’t inspect your goods in person, they need to be able to properly check them out online.

Oh, and if there is any complexity about your product and how to use it, a video showing off its various attributes has really become a must-have in today’s environment.

In Lesson One, we also talk about:

  • the vital importance of the headline
  • what matters most to consumers when deciding whether or not to buy your product
  • what makes a great product image
  • the five big questions that should shape your offer
  • 11 types of irresistible offers that you should consider

Lesson Two: Understand Your Customers

No matter what you’re selling, the key to your success is understanding your prospective customer. If you don’t understand what makes them tick, what their needs are and what they want, how can you serve them effectively?

In this lesson, we discuss ten things you need to know about your customers, including:

  • Who they are (age range, gender, location)
  • What they do (their interests and their online behaviours)
  • Why they buy
  • When they buy
  • How they buy
  • How much money consumers have (especially post-Covid)
  • What makes consumers feel good about buying
  • What they expect of you
  • What they think about you
  • What they think about your competitors

Lesson Three: Master Google Organic Search

We made the point in Lesson One that search engines need useful text descriptions so that they can understand your website. Turns out that there’s quite a science to being found online (and an industry has grown up around the challenges of what’s now known as Search Engine Optimisation, SEO). In essence, if you want your prospects to find your web pages, those pages need to contain content that prospects are looking for. 

Not only that, but each page also needs to be structured effectively to take advantage of the (current) requirements of Google and its AI-powered algorithms.

In this lesson, we’ll be exploring the key functionality of Google Search, along with advanced capabilities of which you should attempt to take advantage, including:

  • what BERT when it comes to organic search results
  • why and how zero-click searches can be both deadly problems and great opportunities
  • how Voice Search is transforming the ways in which consumers gather information, and how that in turn requires a whole new approach to keyword optimisation
  • what you need to know about Topic Clusters, to ensure your priority placement in search engine results
  • the opportunities (and problems) inherent in Featured Snippets
  • how keyword search is giving way to User Intent as the most meaningful search signal
  • the dramatic growth in Natural Language Search
  • the increasing importance of structured data as Google uses AI more and more to handle search results
  • why E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) is now an essential content metric
  • the convergence of SEO and Content
  • why speed is now vital to your search success
  • how Location, Location, Location is now a search engine mantra as well

 

Lesson Four: Optimise Paid Search

Not every page can be Number One on Google. So if you want to hit the top of the search engine rankings (especially for the most popular search phrases), sometimes you have to pay. In this lesson, we talk in detail about Google Ads and other Pay Per Click advertising tools.

We discuss long-tail keywords and share tools to help you understand exactly how to compile lists of keywords and keyword phrases for your advertising.

And we’ll also be exploring these key topics and strategies:

  • Use SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) for your ad campaigns
  • Use extensions for more dominance
  • Always Be Testing: test your ad copy 24/7
  • Go beyond Google Ads (check out Bing, etc.)
  • Create dedicated campaigns for voice searches
  • Should you really focus on being #1?
  • Measure. Measure. Measure.

 

Lesson Five: Leverage Google Shopping

It has long been essential to be well represented on Google Search, using appropriate keywords on your webpages.

More recently, however, Google has introduced its own Google Shopping facility. If consumers search for a particular product by name, advertisers can pay to offer their products directly on the Google search results page.

According to Search Engine Land, Shopping ads account for roughly 75% of clicks from non-branded product searches. All queries considered—branded and non-branded—Shopping ads drive around 52% of ecommerce advertisers’ clicks. Elsewhere, Smart Insights reports that American ecommerce vendors who advertise on Google drive 85% of their paid clicks from Shopping ads.

In this lesson, we explore:

  • How Google Shopping works
  • Setting campaign priorities
  • Tracking conversions from Google Shopping campaigns
  • Using negative keywords
  • Ensuring that your product listings meet Google’s data feed quality standards

 

Lesson Six: Master Social Media Advertising

You probably already have a business page on Facebook and perhaps even an account on Instagram. If your audience is predominantly female, you may well be using Pinterest to showcase your products. Maybe you’re even dabbling with the hottest social medium of the year (at least for teenagers), TikTok.

But if you’re not paying to advertise on your preferred social medium, you really won’t be getting much traction. The social networks are commercial enterprises and advertising is how they make money. So they’ve dialled back dramatically on the amount of content they will share with your followers.

Want to reach the people who’ve liked your page? Mostly, you’ll have to pay.

In this lesson we introduce you to the principles and practices of social media advertising, and take you on a tour through Facebook Ads Manager (which is the tool that some six million advertisers use to advertise on both Facebook and Instagram). We also discuss:

  • why you shouldn’t just boost your posts and expect to get effective results
  • the key differences between Google Adwords and Facebook Ads and why they matter to you
  • the limitations faced by New Zealand advertisers compared with our foreign counterparts
  • how (if you’re not careful) you can end up competing with yourself and drive up your social advertising costs
  • an analysis of the New Zealand Facebook & Instagram marketplaces
  • why mobile is so important (and why that matters to you)

 

Lesson Seven: Just Add Video

Online Video is a powerful way to communicate your brand story, explain your value proposition, and build relationships with your customers and prospects. This lesson introduces you to the basic principles and explores some of the available tools.

Not all videos are created equal, however, and we look at the demand for Vertical Videos (thanks, Instagram), Square Videos (preferred by the social networks), Outstream Videos and other permutations and combinations now on offer.

Along the way, we’ll discuss:

  • the implications of the new reality that videos are replacing photos as the primary way we create and share memories
  • how AI and the use of closed captions are making video content more searchable
  • videos are getting shorter (because consumers are quick to skip)
  • videos are getting longer (as more longform entertainment content is made available online, especially via Facebook Watch and IGTV)

 

Lesson Eight: Involve Influencers & Influentials

If you are new to the world of ecommerce, and don’t already have a substantial following, then you might consider reaching out to influencers and influentials to help you connect with prospective customers.

We have deliberately differentiated between the labels “influencer” and “influential”, largely as a result of the arrival of Internet-based influencers, whose voices can be heard across social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.

By our definition, those are “influencers” whilst the more traditional “influentials” tend to be found amongst the likes of journalists, neighbourhood leaders, industry analysts, business networkers and academics.

Both influencers and influentials could potentially have a place in your marketing, depending upon your product category and/or the types of consumers to whom your products appeal.

Why involve influencers or influentials? Because, according to a report by Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from individuals over brands. And, let’s face it, many brands have brought that fate upon themselves by their own less-than-trustworthy behaviour.

In this lesson, we consider the importance of Influencer Marketing — and explore how to identify effective Kiwi micro-influencers who will be good ambassadors for your brand.

 

Lesson Nine: Maximise Email Opportunities

In Lesson Nine, we turn our attention to that perennial marketing mechanism for online retailers, email.

As HubSpot notes:

Despite the amazing advancements in social media and on-site user interface design for communicating with customers, email is still one of the best tactics eCommerce marketing professionals can use to leverage prospects and past customers to increase eCommerce sales.

Email is popular because it still works. According to the US Direct Marketing Association’s Power of Direct economic impact study, email marketing is currently the top performing marketing channel in terms of return on investment (ROI), with a projected return of US$39.40 for every dollar spent.

In this lesson, we:

  • explore the sixteen key elements of an effective email programme for eCommerce operators
  • discuss key legislation that impacts on the use of email (including the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act and the new 2020 Privacy Act)
  • ponder the power of personalisation
  • consider marketing automation as a viable tool

 

Lesson Ten: Accelerate Through Remarketing

Remarketing is one of the most powerful tools in the ecommerce operator’s arsenal.

So what exactly is Remarketing? Here’s how Webopedia defines the term:

Remarketing refers to the techniques, strategies and often the automated email systems used by marketers and online merchants to follow up with Web site visitors who do not make a desired action on the Web site­—usually when they abandon their shopping cart.

Think of it like this: you market to bring a visitor to your website, and if he or she doesn’t make a purchase, you then use remarketing tactics to bring the visitor back to your website and convert him or her in to a paying customer.

In this lesson, we talk about:

  • the power of remarketing
  • remarketing through email
  • remarketing through Facebook
  • remarketing through Google
  • best practices to maximise profit and improve conversion rates

Conclusion

We review what we’ve covered and suggest strategies to implement relevant learnings.

 

TIMING

This course begins on Thursday 28 January, 2021

INVESTMENT

This ten-part eCourse is available for $697+GST. However we offer a $100 Early Bird Discount for bookings received and payment made by midnight on Thursday 21 January, 2021.

Pay only $597+GST ($686.55 including GST) for this course!

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in this course, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=YRWW2HFLMEDHQ

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice before making payment, please send an email to info@ecommerce.org.nz with details of your request.

(The service provider will be shown as Netmarketing Courses in your transaction and on your credit card statement).

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Your booking will be confirmed by email (if you have not received a confirmation within 24 hours, feel free to email info@ecommerce.org.nz .

On the first day of the course you will be supplied by email with login details and Course Notes for Lesson One.

Make Your Ecommerce Business Ready for Christmas 2020

Leave a reply

2020 has been a year of unprecedented growth for online retail, an unexpected side effect of Covid-19 and enforced stay-at-home behaviours, in New Zealand and around the world.

But what can we expect in the final quarter of the year?

How can online businesses, both new and well-established, leverage ecommerce for optimum revenue and profitability?

The short answer is: do your homework, understand what works (and what doesn’t) in ecommerce today, and ensure that you’ve take every step that you possibly can to achieve online success.

To help you, we’ve created a special coaching program (designed specifically for New Zealand ecommerce businesses in 2020) that will help you to set appropriate goals for the Christmas selling season — and then execute those goals with flair and excellence.

In putting this program together, we have drawn upon our more than four decades of providing advice and guidance to New Zealand businesses (about both ecommerce and marketing) and more than three decades of selling and marketing online (see “About Your Coach” below).

The program is a mix of one-to-one discussions and advice (via Zoom or telephone), combined with small group coaching sessions. Some group coaching sessions are live, but will be recorded for you to access later, in accordance with your own timetables.

This is a major new coaching initiative, to help businesses like yours grow.

Because this coaching program includes so much one-to-one interaction, we can only take a small handful of clients, so if you’re interested we encourage you to sign up now.

—

NZ Online Coaching Program: Make Your Ecommerce Business Ready for Christmas 2020

Here’s what we explore in this new Coaching Program:

Session #1: Audit

Before you start the coaching program, you will be required to fill out a questionnaire to help us determine exactly where you are currently at and how best we can help.

Questions covered include:

  • What exactly does your online business do?
  • What’s unique about your business?
  • What products do you sell?
  • What’s unique about your products?
  • What offers do you currently make to prospective customers?
  • Do you create and/or manufacture your own products or do you source them from elsewhere?
  • What new products or services do you currently have in the pipeline?
  • What are the key challenges you are facing?
  • Who is/are your target market/s?
  • How do you sell your products online?
  • How do you handle packaging and shipping of your products?
  • Do you remarket to prospects who abandon their shopping carts?
  • How do you manage returns?
  • What technologies are vital to your business?
  • What acquisition strategies do you currently have in place for getting new leads and converting them into customers?
  • How do you currently market your products/services?
  • How do you follow-up with existing customers?
  • What metrics do you track as a matter of course?

Once you’ve filled in and returned your questionnaire, then, at a mutually agreeable time, we will connect with you via telephone or Zoom to discuss your current strengths and weaknesses and what you need to do to make the most of this coaching program.

Session Goal: Our aim as a result of Session #1 is to ensure that you start to accelerate your online business success as you proceed through what remains of 2020.

Session #2: Get Ready for the Peak Christmas Selling Season

Right now, New Zealand is, to steal shamelessly from Charles Dickens, a tale of two economies.

On the one hand, whole sectors of the economy — travel & tourism, hospitality, retail, education — have been decimated by border closures and lockdowns. Thousands of people have already lost their jobs, or are about to do so now that wage subsidies have ended.

On the other hand, even under worst-case economic predictions, the vast majority of Kiwis are still employed and have money to spend. They can’t currently travel offshore so many more than usual are willing to support local businesses by travelling domestically and by shopping, both instore and online.

Here’s why you can expect to multiple your efforts through online shopping  in 2020:

  • According to research by NZ Post, 170,000 adult New Zealanders shopped online for the first time during the first six months of 2020
  • NZ Post has indicated that online shopping more than doubled when New Zealand moved into Alert Level 3 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • NZ online shopping remains about 30% up on 2019, with early indications signalling that COVID-19 has forever changed the way Kiwis shop
  • Domestic online sales have been making up 71% of all online shopping

That rapid adoption of ecommerce was, of course, driven by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing Kiwi lockdown. But will the migration to online shopping endure when things return to the “new normal”?

Some traditional retailers have seen the writing on the wall and are moving completely online. Here’s a current example, just spotted in the local mall, for T&T Childrenswear:

Local and international retail gurus are all predicting that, now that so many more consumers have been exposed to the joys of online shopping, they are likely to continue doing so.

A US study by Forrester Research (The State Of The US Shopper — COVID-19), released in July 2020, found significant expectations that online shopping would continue post-stay-at-home:

Some of the reasons cited for this change in behaviour (that also have relevance in New Zealand):

Consumers Are Cautious About Returning To Retail Locations
As retail locations begin to reopen, consumers are concerned about them reopening too quickly. Their fears around contracting and spreading the virus have caused a change to in-store behaviours. That probably wasn’t the case in NZ initially, when we gleefully assumed that the coronavirus was permanently eliminated, but now that we’ve been through further Alert Levels we’re likely to be more cautious for some time to come.

Consumers Are Buying More Online And Experimenting With Click and Collect services
To keep up with increased eCommerce demand, retailers are adding additional BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store) and omnichannel fulfillment. Shoppers have mixed feelings on Click and Collect services but consider it an acceptable compromise in New Zealand.

When The Pandemic Subsides, Some New Shopping Behaviors Are Likely To Stick
The pandemic has had a huge impact on consumers’ existing shopping habits, which may accelerate the changes they make over time. As the pandemic progresses, new habits may stick (most likely those that made their lives easier or better).

And it’s never been easier for businesses like yours to sell directly to consumers. You don’t have to hustle for shelf space in supermarkets or retail stores — just set up a professional online store, attract visitors through marketing and promotion and be ready to reap the results.

And the best time to do all that is in the leadup to Christmas 2020.

We’ve already seen a surge in spending post-lockdown, but the peak shopping season (October-December) still lies ahead.

For many years, the last quarter of the year has accounted for the largest share of consumer expenditure. This year, despite the coronavirus, we expect to see the same pattern, with expenditure increasing in October, then again in November, peaking in December.

We have seen similar seasonal sales trends in online retail as well — except that in the last few years online sales have peaked in November rather than December, driven by (a) November shopping events such as Singles Day and Black Friday; and (b) the need to shop early, especially from overseas websites such as Amazon.com, in order to meet Christmas shipping deadlines.

This year, however, so far 2020 has turned out to be something of a rollercoaster, with dramatically untypical online shopping peaks in April, May and August, thanks to lockdowns.


Source: Marketview September 2020

Even so, you should still plan on high volumes of online shopping in November and December. And you should expect consumers with friends and family overseas to be shopping earlier than ever – international freight schedules are in disarray as a result of the pandemic so those who want their gifts to arrive in time for Christmas need to buy much sooner than usual.

So how can you focus your efforts successfully on Ecommerce during the Christmas Selling Season?

Firstly, by leveraging all the promotional opportunities you’ll have before the end of 2020.

We’ll provide you with a calendar of key dates from October to December, including:

  • OCTOBER
    10.10 Shopping Festival (USA)
    Amazon Prime Day
    NZ Election
    Labour Weekend
    Halloween
  • NOVEMBER
    Click Frenzy (Australia)
    Singles Day (China)
    Black Friday
    Cyber-Monday

And we’ll share strategies to maximise each of those promotional opportunities.

Next, we’ll explore some of the marketplaces that you might be able to use to promote your products, including:

  • Amazon.com and Amazon.com.au
  • Trade Me and eBay
  • TheMarket
  • PriceSpy
  • PriceWise
  • Neighbourly
  • Google Shopping
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Facebook Shop
  • Instagram Shopping
  • Pinterest
  • Etsy and other niche sites
  • Daily Deal sites (handle with care)

We’ll talk about the seven most important steps you must take when listing your products on online marketplaces and discuss why Daily Deal sites can destroy your business if you don’t take appropriate precautions.

And we’ll explore the Offers you might make to improve your sales (and increase basket size) in the current climate.

Session Goal: Our objective is to ensure that you’re ready to take advantage of every opportunity to sell your products online.

 

Session #3: Your Buyers

Google talks about a process, the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), which reflects the processes that today’s consumers go through as they research and buy products. In this session we talk about prospective buyers, discuss what makes them buy (or not), review how and why they’ve changed in the last few years, discuss ZMOT and its implications for Kiwi sellers; and explore buyer motivations (and how you can trigger the urge to buy).

This session also covers:

  • The 10 most important factors that consumers look for when deciding whether or not to buy from you (and how you can improve each aspect)
  • The seven aspects of online shopping that shoppers most want to see improved
  • The five most attractive offers that you can make, to close a sale
  • The six factors that consumers are most likely to consider when comparison shopping
  • The most popular items that Kiwis are buying online these days
  • The four most-important offerings you can provide that will have consumers recommending you to their friends
  • The five most likely reasons why consumers abandon their shopping cart in the middle of a purchase
  • how you can use what you learn about your customers’ wants/needs, pain points, hesitations/anxieties, likes, loves and obsessions to improve your conversion rates

Another important issue to consider in the wake of the coronavirus is simply this: how will your customers and prospects behave in today’s economic times (which are a challenge for many)?

In recessionary periods, research tells us that four Psychological Segments will dominate:

Segment 1: Slam on the Brakes
The hardest-hit consumer segment, which may reduce, delay, or eliminate spending. It includes lower-income buyers and high-anxiety buyers of all wealth levels.

Segment 2: Pained but Patient
The segment with near-term anxiety but a positive long-term outlook. This is often the largest segment. Buyers economize across all areas. More bad news may push them into the slam-on-the-brakes segment.

Segment 3: Comfortably well-off
The segment that continues buying at almost the same level, with some additional selectivity about purchases. It’s made up mostly of wealthy consumers.

Segment 4: Live for Today
A segment that skews young and urban, with a focus on experiences over stuff. They are generally unconcerned about savings, though they may delay major purchases.

Buying Decisions Take Longer

You should also expect buying decisions to take longer, as a recent Oracle research study reports:

In this session, we discuss how different customer segments behave in response to recessionary pressures, and recommend appropriate strategies and tactics for each segment.

Session Goal: To help you develop an enhanced understanding of your customers and buttons and how best to motivate them to buy more of your products in Q4 2020.

 

Session #4: Re-Evaluating Your Products

it’s time to take a closer look at exactly what you offer and whether that should change or evolve.

To determine exactly what else you might sell, you should start with your existing customers and hot prospects. What do they want? If they didn’t buy your products or services, what would they buy instead? If you have a few friendly customers on tap, ask them what they would prefer to buy. You may be surprised by the answers.

Is what you already offer physical or virtual? Whatever your answer, could you also sell the alternative? The Covid-19 experience has seen many businesses switch from physical to virtual. For example, Les Mills had already been offering its fitness classes online but then accelerated, accentuating the virtual. Could you do likewise?

Do you sell one-off products, or are your initial purchases simply the first in a continuing subscription? How could you make the move from one-time to ongoing?

In this session, we also discuss:

  • Key trends from New Zealand and elsewhere that may impact on what you have to offer
  • products that are already hot offshore that you might add to your portfolio
  • if you source your products from elsewhere, should you drop-ship (i.e. you take the money and manage customer interactions while the manufacturer ships products to your customers)?

And, one of the key questions in this session:

How do you make your products unique? If you are not the creator and manufacturer of the products you sell, how can you package such products so that you are providing your customers with a unique offering they can only come from you?

That probably sounds optimistic at best, impossible at worst. But once you personalise your offerings — or at least personalise the way you present them — you will indeed be able to turn yourself into the only destination able to offer the brand called You.

Session Goal: Our objective in this session is to encourage you to take fresh look at the products that you offer and consider how you might make them even more desirable for potential customers.

 

Session #5: Marketing

You won’t sell anything if you don’t attract visitors to your listings — but how do you get noticed online? We explore digital marketing tools such as PR, Organic Search, Pay Per Click, Social Media Advertising & Marketing, Online Video, Instant Messaging, Influencer Marketing and of course Email.

Session Five shows you:

  • How to see what Google sees when it looks at your website. We don’t want to scare you, but you’ll probably be horrified (most online businesses are, at least at first).
  • The strategy we call Trojan Horse Marketing — and how you can use it effectively to build ongoing relationships with customers and prospects
  • The brave but risky strategies adopted by some of the world’s best ecommerce operators — and why they’re now virtually compulsory
  • The source of more than 30% of all traffic to leading ecommerce sites — and the steps they take to maximise that traffic
  • How often you should communicate with your customers, and what happens if you talk too much or too little
  • How an observation made long ago by one of the world’s leading admen is now absolutely vital to your online success
  • The single technique that accounts for a whopping 77,316 website visits each month to a leading U.S. online retailer
  • Cheap and cheerful tools you can use to streamline your online marketing, whether you’re a massive multinational or a sole trader
  • The key ingredients that can spell success or failure for your online store

Session Goal: We aim to show you how to attract prospects that will buy your products, over and over again.

 

Session #6: Your Systems

It doesn’t matter how many prospects you attract to your online store, if you don’t have the systems and processes in place to convert those prospects into buyers, you’re just wasting both your time and your money.

That’s why we devote our efforts in Session Six to ensuring that you have an effective conversion machine.

In this session, we cover:

  • nine key principles designed to improve the rate at which your visitors are converted
  • how your website can grab more attention, in a world where goldfish are more attentive than the average consumer
  • the 71 key elements that will help your website succeed
  • conversely, the 20 key elements that will doom your website to failure
  • how to create sizzling descriptions & enticing offers
  • the “would you like fries with that?” increased-basket-size strategy

This session also covers:

  • How to structure your website pages to make more sales (not lose them)
  • How to turn your shopping cart into an effective selling tool
  • The untapped power of the “Thank You” page
  • The nearly universal adoption of smartphones in New Zealand — and why that matters so much to online retailers
  • The 10 most important ways in which consumers are using their mobile phones to shop online more effectively — and what you absolutely must do to take advantage of this hottest of new trends

Session Goal: To show you how to make your website the most effective sales tool in your business.

Who should take part in this coaching program?

The primary target audience for this coaching program, those who will get the most out of the content, are those who are already selling online.

This coaching program isn’t for everyone. You must be prepared to put in the effort to ensure that you take full advantage of the materials that we share with you.

LIMITED AVAILABILITY

Because this is one-to-one coaching, we can accept no more than six participants.

Sorry, we have filled the coaching program and are no longer accepting applicants.

—–

WAITLIST

If you would like to be considered for this coaching program when and if applications re-open, please send an email to info@ecommerce.org.nz asking to be put on the waitlist.

—

About Your Coach

Your coach, Michael Carney, has been giving advice to New Zealand clients large and small for the last four decades, as a Strategic Planning Director, strategist and Media Director with some of New Zealand’s leading advertising agencies. Since 2010, he has trained people from more than 3000 businesses through his online training organisation, Netmarketing Courses, from time to time in partnership with a number of industry associations including the NZ Marketing Association and the NZ Retailers’ Association.

Michael is also the author of “Trade Me Success Secrets: How To Buy and Sell Effectively on NZ’s Favourite Auction Site”, now in its second edition; and has worked with many organisations on their ecommerce strategies.

How to Sell Online

Leave a reply

Are you ready to start selling online?

If you’re unsure what to do, we can help, with our newest online training course, designed for those new to selling online.

How To Sell Online

This is a seven-part online training course providing a comprehensive introduction to Online Selling, from the basics to detailed instructions on how to build and run a programme.

This eCourse is conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular eCourse provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course content will be provided in seven lessons, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables.

Course Content

The course covers the following topics:

Lesson One: Know Your Customer

To whom are you selling? Is your market local, regional, all of New Zealand, Asia-Pacific, the English-speaking world or everywhere? In the current environment, are your designated markets easily able to click and collect or to receive deliveries?

Is your potential buyer female? Male? Young or old? Urban or rural? Niche or mass-market?

In recessionary times like these, consumers change their behaviour. They are typically much slower to spend, do much more homework and require a lot more reinforcement and validation before dipping into their wallet. In this lesson, we explore what you should know about today’s customers, what they need to know about your products and how you can communicate with them effectively.

This lesson also covers:

  • The 10 most important factors that consumers look for when deciding whether or not to buy from you (and how you can improve each aspect)
  • The seven aspects of online shopping that shoppers most want to see improved
  • The five most likely reasons why consumers abandon their shopping cart in the middle of a purchase

Lesson Two: Which Products?

Some products are easier to sell online than others. We go through the attributes of products that have proven the easiest to sell through e-commerce.

If you don’t produce your own products, are there any issues with having the rights to sell particular products online (i.e. are there any territory restrictions that you need to observe)?

We also cover:

 

  • The five most attractive offers that you can make, to close a sale
  • The six factors that consumers are most likely to consider when comparison shopping
  • The most popular items that Kiwis are buying online these days
  • The four most-important offerings you can provide that will have consumers recommending you to their friends

 

Lesson Three: Where to Sell

Do you actually need a website to sell online? Not necessarily. We review some of the options available to you to list your products on various online marketplaces such as Trade Me, The Market, Google Shopping and Amazon.

Then we examine the basics of setting up a website. What are your options for getting a website set up on a shoestring budget? We look at such possibilities as Wix and WordPress and give a quick introduction to what is required. We tell you how and where to get your own website name and consider the most cost-effective alternatives for hosting your website.

 

Lesson Four: Choose Your Ecommerce Software

If you are new to selling online, there are a number of decisions that you will need to make when setting up an online store. Amongst those:

  • what software should be used to operate your store (we explore the most popular options available to New Zealand sellers)?
  • what payment options are available ? We explore the possibilities available to New Zealand businesses when it comes to accepting online payments, either by direct debit or by credit card (without you needing to have a merchant account).

Lesson Five: Plan Your Logistics

So now you’re selling successfully online — but you’re also drowning in paperwork, struggling to get goods out the door and in danger of being overwhelmed by your own success.

As many online sellers have found to their surprise (and frustration), it takes a surprising amount of time and effort to process, package and dispatch products if you aren’t already set up to handle such things in reasonable volumes. And that’s even without the coronavirus getting in the way. We discuss the essentials, including “click and collect” and various freight options.

We look at currently available tools and best practices (including listing, multi-channel management and logistics systems) and talk you through what you need to do to cope. In this lesson we also explore the steps you must take to build your reputation and credibility online — and how to protect that reputation at all costs.

Lesson Five takes you through:

  • The ten questions that will kill your business if you don’t know the right answers
  • Effective economies of scale and how they can be applied to your business
  • The one common failing that will absolutely doom virtually any online sale
  • Logistics solutions — where to find them and what to evaluate
  • The importance of tracking for smooth after-sales service

Lesson Six: Effective Online Selling Secrets

In this lesson, we discuss how you can make ecommerce work for you. We talk about the 71 secrets of effective product pages and the 20 classic ecommerce mistakes you should avoid; and how to remarket to visitors who have left your site without buying.

Lesson Six also shares:

  • The very best moment to ask your customer to spend a little (or a lot) more
  • Upselling and cross-selling strategies that work best online
  • Data, data, data — and why that replaces ‘location’ as the online retailing mantra
  • How an oddly-named technology pioneered by Pattie Maes at MIT now powers the world’s most effective online selling machine (and how you can and must use it yourself)
  • The three crucial ingredients of online retailing success — and how you can constantly refine them to improve your profitability in any market
  • The secrets of today’s online retailing sales funnel
  • Lessons you can learn from a long-dead professor

Lesson Seven: Getting Found Online

It’s very easy to be overwhelmed by Search Engine Optimisation and all the scientific mumbo jumbo surrounding search engines. We cut through the orchestrated litany of linkjuice jargon and explain the core principles you need to know to get your business found on Google and Bing search engines.

Once you have your web presence established, how do you attract traffic? We look at Pay Per Click advertising on Google and Facebook and their associated networks, take a look at the Video On Demand possibilities and consider online Display Advertising. It’s possible to waste a lot of money online; in Lesson Six, our aim is to save you from all that.

 

Course Creation & Tutoring

The course has been created by Michael Carney, longtime marketer and author of several books, including the top-selling book “Trade Me Success Secrets” (now in its Second Edition) which documents how to sell effectively on this country’s largest and most successful eCommerce platform. Michael is also the creator of a number of other online courses (including several Social Media Marketing courses) and consults on many digital business initiatives.

Who Should Take The Course

Any business aiming to sell products online.

————————

This course begins on Thursday 28 January, 2021.

INVESTMENT

This seven-part eCourse is available for $497+GST. However we offer a $100 Early Bird Discount for bookings received and payment made by midnight on Thursday 21 January, 2021. Pay only $397+GST for this course!

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by cheque, bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in this course, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here.

If you would prefer to pay by bank deposit, or require an invoice before making payment, please send an email to info@ecommerce.org.nz with details of your request.

(The service provider will be shown as Netmarketing Courses in your transaction and on your credit card statement).

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Your booking will be confirmed by email (if you have not received a confirmation within 24 hours, feel free to email info@ecommerce.org.nz).

On the first day of the course you will be supplied by email with login details and Course Notes for Lesson One.

 

ABOUT THE COURSE

This is an online course, conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular eCourse provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course lessons will be provided in seven parts, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Here’s what some of our students have said about our other courses:

  • Really informative course, definitely helping us whilst we start out on our first ecomm project in NZ — Rob. T
  • Thanks for another great course. I found it insightful, in-depth and I know our web presence and web sales will improve because of it. — Bruce H.
  • I have somehow managed to develop over 80 pages of my own notes to complement the course ones. I look forward to participating in another in the near future. — Mark J

Nearly Half of Kiwis Now Shop Online

Leave a reply

Earlier this month, Roy Morgan Research released some of the online shopping data from its Single Source New Zealand, July 2014 – June 2015 research study.

According to that research, just under half (49.3%) of New Zealanders 14+ (1.8 million of us) bought at least one product over the internet in the previous four weeks.

9.0% of Kiwis now buy travel products such as tickets or accommodation online in an average four-week period, making it the most common internet purchase ahead of women’s clothing (7.9%), tickets to shows, movies or events (6.1%) and fast food/delivered meals (6.1%).

Other popular online purchases include Books (5.0%) and eBooks (4.1%), music downloads (4.7%), and men’s clothing (4.0%)—with around half the number of online buyers as womenswear.

Top 20 products Kiwis buy online

NZ online shopping

John La Rosa, General Manager Client Services – ANZ Roy Morgan Research, commented at the time:

“It’s clear that many of the most common online sales are for non-physical items like tickets, bookings, home delivery, and downloads—that is, products with no shipping or that don’t need to be tried on or tested in a bricks-and-mortar store. For many, the internet is now the default channel for buying a travel or movie ticket, booking a hotel room, or ordering a pizza.

“Other commonly purchased items such as clothes, books and cosmetics are items that we know are identical whether bought online or in a store, so it may come down to price and convenience.

“But other products ranging from small electrical goods, sports equipment and homewares to computers, jewellery and hardware, are also gaining in the online space. It’s important that traditional retailers stop viewing online as a threat, and instead as an opportunity to reach and appeal to customers in different ways. Today’s consumers aren’t thinking in terms of online or offline—to them, it’s all just shopping. Retailers therefore need an ‘omni-channel’ view of their offerings, competition, pricing, service and advertising.

“Around two-thirds of internet shoppers agree they only buy from online retailers they know—whether that’s trustworthy online-only outlets or the websites of bricks-and-mortar shops. Around 1 in 5 say they only buy from New Zealand online stores.

“Also, the internet isn’t just a sales channel; it’s often the way we do a bit of pre-purchase planning via computer, mobile or tablet instead of visiting stores. Almost half of Kiwis agree they research products or services online before buying in-store, and almost 1 in 3 did product research online within the last four weeks.”

The study is based on a sample of 5983 New Zealanders 14+ and was conducted over the 12 months to June 2015.

How To Sell Online: 10 Easy Steps For Beginners

Leave a reply

how-to-sell-online-10-easy-steps-for-beginners

So you want start selling online? That’s great! But where do you start, especially if you’re new to the whole business of selling online?

Here’s what we recommend:

1. Identify your potential customers

Every sale starts with a customer. If you think you’re going to sell to “everyone”, you’re sadly mistaken. Only an excruciatingly small proportion of the global population will want to buy what it is you have to sell.

So let’s get real. We won’t get fancy, at least not yet.

When you’re ready to get fancy, we’ll direct you to Tony Zambito and his definition of what he calls Buyer Personas, “research-based archetypal (modeled) representations of who buyers are, what they are trying to accomplish, what goals drive their behaviour, how they think, how they buy, and why they make buying decisions.”

For now, we’ll settle for a rudimentary customer definition that includes:

  • Gender (Male, Female)
  • Age Group (Children Under 8, 9-13, 14-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65 Plus)
  • Employment Status (student, full-time employment, part-time employment, unwaged, domestic duties, retired)
  • Marital Status (single, in a relationship, married, divorced, widow/widower)
  • Location (just your city, all of New Zealand, Australasia, Oceania, Southern Hemisphere, English-speaking countries, global)
  • Interests (sporting, hobbies, arts & cultural)
  • Media Habits (consume traditional media, predominantly online, heavy social media users, mostly mobile)

No, you won’t know all that information right away — but if you have existing customers, you can survey them. Otherwise, survey your new customers as you acquire them.

Why do you need to know this information?

Because it influences:

  • What you sell to them (their needs/wants will vary based on their circumstances)
  • What they can afford to pay
  • How you sell to them (younger audiences prefer short copy, lots of pictures, ideally video)
  • Where you sell to them (no point advertising on Facebook if they’re not there)
  • When you sell to them (if they’re working, they won’t be buying much during work hours)

 

2. Choose what you’re going to sell

You may already have a product you’ve developed and plan to sell. In that case, skip to the next step. On the other hand, if you’re planning to sell someone else’s product(s), keep reading.

You may already think you know what sort of products you’d like to sell. But that may change once you’ve defined your customer more precisely (as noted above).

Alternatively, you may have decided on the types of products you want to sell, you just need to find out where to source them. In that case, may we recommend that you take a look at the Worldwide Brands Directory (www.worldwidebrandsdirectory.com). It’s a certified database of thousands of the best dropshippers and light bulk wholesale suppliers, who carry millions of drop-ship and wholesale products you can sell on the Internet. Worldwide Brands has been certifying these suppliers since 1999, and has built up an enviable reputation for its directory (you’ll find a review here: www.worldwidebrands-review.com).

 

3. Get your own web address

Yes, you could just have your own free web address on someone else’s site (yourbrand.freehost.com), but why would you (apart from the free part, of course)? That would be like setting up a shop inside a supermarket — everytime anyone asks you for your address, you end up promoting your landlord, not yourself.

If you think you’re only going to be selling to the New Zealand market, purchase a .CO.NZ web address (eg www.yourname.co.nz). There are plenty of domain name resellers, but we recommend www.discountdomains.co.nz — NZ .CO.NZ domains purchased there start at NZ$27.95 +GST per year.

On the other hand, if you think you’re likely to be selling internationally, sooner or later, look for a dotcom address — we recommend www.godaddy.com (but just for the address, not the hosting). Godaddy dotcom addresses typically start at around US$10.99 a year for the first year.

 

4. Get a website

Once you’ve registered your web address, sign up for a hosting account with global hosting provider Hostgator (http://bit.ly/explorehostgator). We host all our websites there, hosting is from US$3.96 per month (for unlimited storage and unlimited traffic), and their support is generally excellent.

During the signup process you specify your existing domain name and Hostgator will tell you how to transfer it to them.

Once you’re up and running you’ll have access to your website backend through an industry-standard service called CPanel. There are plenty of articles and video tutorials online about CPanel (just google “how to use cpanel”).
Using CPanel, set up some email accounts (eg info@yourdomain.com, support@yourdomain.com, etc). If you use Microsoft Outlook, you can set up separate accounts on your computer to clear each email account.

5.Install WordPress

Using CPanel’s “QuickInstall” facility, install WordPress (listed under “Blog Software”) – the software will be installed automatically on your website.

 

6. Add WordPress plugins

Once you’ve set up WordPress, your site will be ready for you to start adding content right away. However, for optimum effectiveness, you should add in a number of key plugins which add enhanced functionality. You can either google “best WordPress plugins” or use a service like WPFreshStart (http://wpfreshstart.com/ — currently costing around US$27), which quickly adds important plugins to make it easier for your site to be found through Google.

 

7. Set up a business account with www.PayPal.com, to handle payments by credit card

PayPal has no set-up costs, just a per transaction percentage (currently 3.4% + $0.45 NZD per transaction).

 

8. Add your estore

You’ll still need to add ecommerce functionality. Start with Shopify (http://bit.ly/exploreshopify). After a 14-day free trial, you’ll pay from (Starter plan) US$14 per month.

 

9. Market your estore

Once you’re set up, you’ll want to market your products online. Check out our Social Media Marketing courses to help you do that.

10. Learn much more about eCommerce

We would be remiss if we didn’t point you in the direction of our “Mastering eCommerce” course: www.ecommerce.org.nz/ecourses

 

Kiwi Online Shopping & The Global Threat

Leave a reply

As we plunge into 2015, shopping online will continue to outpace traditional retail growth — NZ annual online spending is now equivalent to around 9.5% of traditional retail sales (excluding grocery and liquor).

Good news for online traders, right? Yes, but there’s an elephant in the ether, in the form of international eCommerce.

Take a look at the latest stats, from BNZ/Marketview (October 2014):
online-shopping-oct2014
As the charts above clearly indicate, more and more Kiwis are choosing to shop online at international merchants, and it’s a trend that seems to be accelerating.

Domestic online sales are still in the majority, but that’s unlikely to remain the case for much longer. As the graph below shows, international purchases now account for 43% of online sales.

If the current international growth rates continue, we can expect international online purchases to be greater than domestic online within two years.

online-by-location-oct2014

So where’s the money going? BNZ/Marketview helpfully provides a breakdown by industry sector:

online-spending-patterns-oct2014

Of even greater interest: how spending patterns have changed over the last 12 months. Most notable: the dramatic decline in expenditure on daily deals, as consumers grow weary of being bombarded with constant email exhortations to save money by spending.

online-growth-oct2014
Another trend which has become evident in 2014 and which will simply swell in importance in 2015: shopping by smartphone. A pre-Christmas survey commissioned by new Kiwi shopping site and app SellShed found that one in three Kiwis (35%) were planning to use their smartphone to find presents for friends and family, avoiding Christmas queues in favour of convenience.

Other eCommerce trends of note, from a bevvy of industry experts (as reported by Ometria):

  • Pia Stanchina – Industry Manager, Fashion at Google: “We forecast that 50% of UK retail-related queries will come from smartphones this Christmas, which is testament to the transition from the desktop era to the mobile era.”
  • Drew Sanocki – Ecommerce consultant, drewsanocki.com: “I think the biggest thing is segmentation and targeting. I’m consistently surprised at the number (and size) of retailers that I work with that aren’t implementing even a basic level of segmentation and target to 1) identify their best customers and 2) treat them well.”
  • Alicia Navarro – CEO, Skimlinks: “I’m excited about Apple Pay and the future of payments on mobile devices. The easier it will be to transact on mobile (and to track sales accurately) the more the advertising and affiliate markets will expand, which benefits publishers, advertisers and ultimately users.”
  • Ashleigh Tennent – Marketing and Customer Experience Director, Wool and the Gang: “Opportunity lies in storytelling, not by the brand, but by its community. Smart brands will get their customers to create incredible content – that’s far more believable and real. Over time you’ll find that the content that converts at the highest rate will be created from within your own community.”
  • Michel Koch – Ecommerce Director UK and International, Maplin Electronics: “Here are the three top opportunities for ecommerce marketers, in order of importance:
    – embracing multi-touchpoint analytics and attribution modeling to improve campaign efficiency, by identifying the best performing journeys across channels and devices and the right timing to push the right message to the right customer.
    – leveraging mobile in a multichannel environment, providing customers with timely information and services wherever they are (home, stores, on the go).
    – leveraging the power of video (product and how to videos) and user generated content (photo and video curations) to differentiate the brand and increase visibility across channels and devices as well as improve conversion.”

0-action-step

If eCommerce is going to be important to you in 2015, we really have no choice except to recommend that you check out our Mastering eCommerce course (especially because you can enjoy a $200 discount if you sign up by December 21).

Where Kiwis Shop Online

3 Replies

The latest Nielsen Online Retail Report is now with us, and it reveals the usual tantalizing collection of statistics and trends.

Probably the most significant (and inevitable) is the dramatic growth in shopping through mobile devices, as the growth in smartphone penetration in New Zealand is mirrored in device usage. As Nielsen notes:

New Zealanders shopping online ‘anytime, anyplace’ on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, increased significantly last year. Nielsen has found that 41 percent of smartphone owners made a purchase via the device and 58 percent of tablet owners. There are now 655,000 people shopping on their smartphones, growth of 127 percent year on year and 414,000 on their tablet (a 73% increase).

Tony Boyte, Research Director, Nielsen, explains, “For those purchasing via a smartphone, growth comes from those who are now comfortable using all the benefits it has for making shopping decisions on the go. But for tablets, their use in the shopping process is in line with ownership growth. As tablet ownership grows, we expect to see an even bigger increase in purchasing using a mobile device over the next year.”

Boyte continues, “Mobile devices also have a considerable role in the path to purchase. New Zealanders are using their smartphone and tablets for researching products, competitive price checking, finding store locations and shopping lists. Smartphones in particular are constant companions to shoppers on-the go either in-store or while travelling.”

Kiwis-shopping-by-mobile-device

Source: Nielsen

By the way, we called the above findings inevitable because they’ve been trending that way for some years, and the tipping point just arrived. That’s why we feature Mobile Shopping strongly in our Mastering eCommerce online course and why we’ve recently introduced a new Mobile Marketing course.

 

The Top Ten Shopping Websites That Kiwis Visit Online

Top Ten Websites Where Kiwis Shop Online

Source: Nielsen Online Ratings 2013 vs 2012

Trade Me Still Number One for Kiwi Online Shoppers, But Watch The Warehouse

To no-one’s surprise, Trade Me continues to dominate the segment, reaching 56% of All New Zealanders (2+). What’s of particular interest, however, is The Warehouse, which has grown its audience 30% year on year. That growth is in line with one of its four current Strategic Priorities, to ‘be the leading multichannel retailer in New Zealand’. As the Warehouse Group noted in its 2013 annual report:

Multichannel and direct customer engagement
More and more Kiwis are shopping on our online store – we now have our full range of general merchandise, apparel and over a million books available and we have launched Red Alert, our daily deal site. Our online customers can now personalise their account telling us what their interests are, and key dates in their lives so we can tailor our marketing and communications with them.

Our online offerings ensure New Zealanders can shop “Anywhere, Any Way”. They also give us more opportunities to be the ‘House of Bargains’ with unique offers, like our recent successful sale of Piaggio Scooters, chicken coops and rabbit hutches on ‘Red Alert’.

We will continue to improve our online store and make it easier for our customers with new developments such as our ‘click and collect’ option which means customers can buy online and pick up in store and our soon to be launched mobile app, making it even easier to buy online.

 

100,000 More Kiwis Now Shopping Online

The Nielsen Online Retail Report shows continuing growth in eCommerce. Kiwis have well and truly embraced internet shopping. There are now 1.9 million New Zealanders shopping online, 56 percent of the total population. The number of people shopping online increased by over 100,000, growth of six percent in the last year.

percentage-of-kiwis-shopping-online

Source: Nielsen Online Retail Report 2014

 

Kiwis are now buying online more often

At the same time, the number of purchases made by each person is buying is increasing at a rapid rate. Nearly half a million Kiwis each made 11 or more purchases on the internet last year, an increase of 58 percent in the last two years. This is reflected in spend with $3.8 billion spend online in 2013 and an expected increase to $4.15 billion this year.

What did they buy? These were the most popular categories:

most-popular-categories-purchased-by-Kiwi-online-shoppers

Source: Nielsen Online Retail Report 2014

Nielsen notes: “While all of these categories have traditionally been strong for online shopping, we are seeing great growth in the number of people purchasing clothing/ shoes/ accessories, books/ magazines, plus smaller categories such as computer equipment, baby supplies, furniture, consumer electronics and groceries.”

 

$1.3 billion spent by New Zealanders on websites based overseas

The BNZ Online Retail Sales Index data we’ve been tracking (here, here and here) shows that the big growth story in online shopping is Kiwis buying from international stores. The Nielsen data reinforces that, reporting that “$1.3 billion is spent by New Zealanders on websites based overseas, with USA, Australia and the UK the most popular. 34 percent of the total amount Kiwis spent shopping online is spent overseas, an increase from 26 percent the previous year and double that of 2010.”

The complete Nielsen Online Retail Report 2014 is now available to purchase here.

Australian Online Retail Industry Awards Finalists

Leave a reply

If you’re looking for inspiration in eCommerce, industry awards can be a great place to start. Finalists for such awards usually include both best-practice operators and innovative eCommerce entrepreneurs, so they’re a better resource to explore than merely looking at the eventual winners.

With that in mind, take a look at the just-announced finalists for Australia’s Online Retail Industry Awards (as reported by PowerRetail):

ORIAs

The finalists for the 2014 StarTrack ORIAs are:

Best Pureplay Online Retailer

Best Multichannel Retailer

Best New Online Retailer

Best Social Commerce Initiative

Most Innovative Online Retailer

Best Online Retail Marketing Initiative

Best Customer Experience

Best Aggregation Channel

Best Site Optimisation and Design

Best Mobile Commerce Site/Application

Industry Recognition Award

7 Lessons That Kiwi Small Businesses Can Teach Us About eCommerce

Leave a reply

7 eCommerce lessons from NZ small businesses

We can always learn more about eCommerce, especially from those who are hard at work in the trenches.

For the last week or so, Caitlin Sykes has been running a series on eCommerce and Small Business over at the NZ Herald website. Here are some of the key lessons from that series:

1. Stay on top of evolving technology

Rennie Resources started in 1999, offering economics workbooks, resources and online learning to NZ schools and teachers. When the business began, all sales were made via post and fax; today 90% of orders are done online, with very few via post.

The company’s online presence has been regularly updated:

“We have recently built the fourth version of the e-learning website incorporating what we have learnt from listening to feedback from students and teachers. More schools now have computers and bring-your-own-device policies, so we are seeing a shift towards schools and teachers using our online resource.”

Dan Rennie, founder of Rennie Resources and Elearn Resources

Robert Ewan of t-shirt and lifestyle brand Mr Vintage adds:

“The biggest change we’ve seen [recently] has been the increase in conversion rate on mobile devices, so stripping back our mobile site and making it easy to navigate on a mobile has really helped.”

 

2. A blend of online and offline sales can be very effective

Holistic Hair is a natural hair care company primarily focused on finding natural alternatives to help alleviate specific hair and scalp disorders. The company sells online and through health food stores, pharmacies and hair salons.

Nigel Russell, founder of Holistic Hair, explains how the company manages relationships with retail outlets while also selling products direct to consumers:

“The online business is primarily based on a consultation model, allowing me to advise and recommend products directly with the customer and we always give them the option of buying it nearby by providing a detailed list of our stockists.

“What we have found is customers may buy online the first time, almost as a trial, then locate a retailer nearby and continue buying from them.”

Turet Knuefermann of fashion brand TK made a similar point:

“Having physical stores as well as the online presence gives consumers the confidence they are able to talk with someone with regards to their products.

“We’ve found customers are searching online for products and that then draws them to come and try garments on in store. Many of the online TK shoppers are existing customers who already know and trust our product who have moved out of town or overseas, or their friends who have been recommended our brand by them.”

3. Rapid Response can provide huge opportunities for eCommerce operators

Whatever industry you serve, eCommerce can allow you to take instant advantage of topical events. That’s particularly true in categories such as t-shirts, as Robert Ewan of Mr Vintage, explains:

“Being quick to market with products has really worked well for us in the past, especially with topical and sports-themed t-shirts. We do all our design and printing in-house so we can have new products live on the online store in a matter of hours. Back in the early days of the business this was great for building the brand, as we could release a t-shirt about a topical event then, because the product was released so quickly, the t-shirt itself became part of the story in the media.”

 

4. Excellent Customer Service is essential

Striving for service excellence is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a vital component of doing business online. As Turet Knuefermann of TK notes:

“Being prepared with the right systems and freight forwarders is key for fast and reliable delivery. We want consumers to have the same trust in our online products and service as they do in our stores. I think ensuring as much information is given at point of sale as possible is also important to reduce returns, and queries should be answered quickly and personally.”

 

5. Start small

The ready availability of low-cost, subscription-based eCommerce software means that you needn’t invest vast sums of money to get started. Take a few small steps and see if eCommerce can work for you.

Tanya Carlson, founder of women’s fashion brand Carlson, talks about her experience:

“Because this was our first foray into ecommerce, we were initially quite reluctant to throw a whole lot of money at this untested market, so we chose Smallfish as our platform. For a small, monthly fee we were able to build our own store, which we can update and edit as much as we like, and the platform is so user friendly no coding or website-building experience is required.

“Our multi-site manager took this project on and is still in charge of the day-to-day maintenance and editing of the site. There are some limitations to the colour scheme and layout of the store with this kind of platform, but it has been a great way for us to venture into ecommerce without a large financial commitment, which is ideal for us as a small business.”

6. Social Media can provide low-cost, high-impact marketing

Social Media has been surprisingly effective for these Kiwi eCommerce businesses, especially in the fashion sector Tanya Carlson talks about what works in terms of growing online sales:

“Tying everything back to our social media. New products are always posted on Facebook as soon as they are uploaded to the online store and we keep our VIP customers informed of new arrivals and promotions via email as well. We notice that every time we send out a VIP email both the online and in-store sales of the styles mentioned spike for the next few days. It’s great to be able to see our communication with our customers have a positive impact on sales so instantly.”

It’s a tactic echoed by Turet Knuefermann:

“Our Facebook presence, which we set up in 2011, has been the biggest support to our online store and has given us the highest measurable return. What’s more it’s free and takes seconds to update. I think it’s also less intrusive than the kind of email mailouts that flood people’s inboxes daily, as people choose to look at your feeds, and they’re quick to share with friends. It’s also easy to link images to the website and people don’t expect a high quality image – they just want the latest update on what’s new and to be inspired. The more you can do to make your product visible, the more people will be inclined to purchase and share their excitement with friends and family, which in turn creates more demand.”

[If you’re interested in social media marketing, please check out our online training courses at our sister site, SocialMedia.org.nz]

 

7. You don’t necessarily need Big Data – but you do need the right data

One area where eCommerce strongly differentiates itself from its offline counterpart is in the availability of information. You need to avoid drowning in data but you should always track relevant metrics.

Andy Abel of Need A Part, a Wellington-based online retailer specialising in small appliance parts, talks about the importance of relevant information gathering and analysis:

“It’s impossible to give users a good experience if you don’t know how they’re using your site so we do a lot of custom reporting on Google Analytics to track how customers interact with our site. This information has led to us changing sizes and colours of buttons, slimming down the checkout process, and putting certain information in more obvious places.

“We’ve also started crowdsourcing a lot of information. We now hold more than 500 different parts in stock, but there are thousands more that aren’t worth holding in regular stock. Every single time a customer enquires about a part that we don’t stock, our suppliers provide us with up-to-date information, such as the current price and whether or not it is currently available. That information is then available on the website to anyone else who is looking for it.

“In the last year we’ve also started integrating with online tools from New Zealand Post. They are really ahead of the curve in terms of free online services to help online businesses. We use their address finder to help people move through the checkout faster, and we’ve recently started using their ‘tracking notification’ system. Every time a parcel is scanned, our website is pinged, meaning we can contact the customer. When a delivery scan is recorded, we email the customer to let them know. It’s amazing, as it means that customers can get in touch straight away if the parcel hasn’t turned up. It saves them waiting three days, getting angry and then calling us.”

If you’d like to know more about eCommerce, check out our online training course on the topic.

Online Shopping Continues To Grow, But …

2 Replies

The latest BNZ Online Retail Sales Index (covering the 12 months till the end of February 2014), shows continued growth in online shopping – but with Kiwis continuing to buy more and more from international stores.

Specifically:

  • 42% of NZ online retail purchases in February were from international merchants
  • Online purchases at offshore merchants were 21% higher than in February 2013
  • Online purchases at domestic sites were just 6% higher than in February 2013

Here’s how the sector has been trending over the last five years:ecom-feb2014

The BNZ report also drills down into exactly which product categories are being purchased from international sites:

categories-feb2014

No great surprise to see that Furniture is predominantly purchased from Kiwi suppliers: international freight costs for large items remain a significant barrier.

The BNZ reports that:

At domestic merchants, online sales in February were up strongly for Supermarket & Groceries, Other Specialised Food, Department Stores, and Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics.

[However] domestic online sales of Clothing, Liquor, Electrical Appliances, and sales at specialist Daily Sales sites, were all softer than in February last year.

Why are domestic online retail sales lagging behind?

Yes, relative product costs can be a significant factor — internationally-sourced items offered locally can include margins for the importer, distributer and the retailer, resulting in substantial premiums for “buying locally”. However, as recent research by Sapere (“The value of internet services to New Zealand businesses“, March 2014) suggests, another key factor is local retailers’ reluctance to embrace online sales:

In retail, all our respondents with an online store said it was their fastest growing channel, but (apart from the online-only operators) online was still a small minority of sales. One major chain thought that, despite extensive effort and very large investments, they were still only 1-2% of the way towards the frontier of what was possible.

One service provider suggested that no more than 1 in 12 of New Zealand retailers were really doing a good job of integrating online and offline stores. “The others are just online by default or because they think they have to be, but it is costing them a lot, and it brings new hassles, they have to do it all themselves, and they are not sure whether it will work at all”

Sapere continues:

Retailers are experimenting online but there is still much to do. Internet services are seen as important and effective for marketing and, for a small but growing number of firms, for sales. The competitive impacts of total price transparency enabled by online shopping and competition from online and overseas retailers are evident for retailers operating in some categories. We estimate that a retailer making more extensive use of Internet services is 7% more productive than the average retailer.

The Sapere report included a number of interviews with NZ retailers, sharing their perspective on online retail:

One interviewee said that she foresaw a gloomy future for retailers selling goods exposed to overseas online competition who did not have a strong brand or a point of difference. Bearing this out perhaps, we spoke to a jewellery retailer with a strong point of difference who saw no threat from the Internet. For that business the website and social media were channels for branding and advertising, and a useful addition to the print plus word of mouth model that had prevailed for a long time as the way to get work.

It was not clear in general in what circumstances online retail would add to total sales, whether it would just take share from another competitor or from the offline store, or whether it was additive to sales overall. Some interviewees said that they were just pursuing every angle that they could that might generate more business, and expanding on the things that seemed to work. One interviewee took the view that online sales were not additive at all at the sectoral level, i.e., it was just boosting competition and shifting sales between competitors.

One larger clothing retailer told us that an integrated online/offline/telesales strategy was working, but that it had taken a long time to figure out how to get the different elements to work together rather than competing with each other. This interviewee also said that having an offline store in an area helps to boost online sales in that area: perhaps customers are more confident to shop online if they know that there is an offline store as well.

Another large chain told us that its online store had a clear, material and positive impact on total sales, that customers spent more online than in store, and that this was because the online environment could better meet customer needs, rather than just diverting business from competitors.

One retail service provider was cautiously optimistic about the overall impact of the Internet on retail. “Online is certainly taking away instore sales to some extent, but it is also an opportunity to capture customers who are browsing online. Comparison shopping is now so easy, consumers are price conscious and better informed, but they are willing to purchase online or come in store if they find what they want and they know that you have it.”

 

Succeeding in Online Retail

All this research leads us to conclude that if the only thing that differentiates you from other retailers selling the same products is your geographic location (eg yours is the only shop in Gore selling these products), you’re going to fail at online retail.

Conversely (and we first made this point in 2005, in our book “Trade Me Success Secrets“), your best opportunity lies in offering unique, personalised items with a high perceived value, so that you’re effectively providing both uniqueness and a great deal.

What was true for Trade Me in 2005 (competing with thousands of other Kiwi sellers) is even more relevant in 2014, when you’re competing with millions of other sellers from around the world.

Location matters — but only if:

  • you know what your local/regional/national customers really want, and give it to them through your customised products and services
  • your delivery times are quicker as a result of being close to your customer
  • your delivery costs are also lower as a result (did you know that free shipping is more attractive than a discount in most cases?)

If you’d like to know more about online retail for New Zealand businesses, check out our Mastering eCommerce course