Kimberly-Clark tests ecommerce options Warc "We're seeing significant growth in the online channel through our retail partners," Adrian Percival, senior manager of ecommerce at Kimberly-Clark UK, told Marketing Week, "and we're determined to win in...
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Wow, apparently big brands are takign the "publisher' thing seriously and are adding ecommerce and a direct buy component in Europe. Should P&G and a few other major consumer products goods retailers follow it will take a big chunk out of the Walmart-itization of the world.
E O Wilson & Ecom's 3 Legged Stool
Yesterday Thomas Kang shared a great interview with uber-biologist E O Wilson. He mentioned not understanding #ecom .…
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Ecommerce, Emergence and E O Wilson
Ecommerce is not really ONE thing. Ecommerce is a group of three interlinked forces:
* Fast Feedback loops speeding up survival of fittest.
* Collective consciousness of The Hive (emergence). * Meme creation in the social layer (the bee's dance)
The difference between Internet marketing teams who win big in ecommerce and those who come in second (and so win the steak knives) is a tiny seam between how these three legs dance together toward infinity.
Business management magazine, blogs, case studies, articles, books, and webinars from Harvard Business Review, addressing today's topics and challenges in business management.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Find New Categories In Keyword Research It is possible if you work hard enough and look between the lines a little to find new categories by conducting extensive keyword research. This kind of research is arduous and takes time, but it can pay huge returns.
Returns are "huge" because you know going in the new category is yours for the taking AND you know the language to use to do the taking. I agree with HBR, finding new categories is essential and inexpensive compared to creating new products in old categories.
Creating new products in old categories is trench warfare. You move an inch they take it back and move you back an inch. Think of the death dance Pepsi and Coke have waged for years. All that money spent for so little.
Instead of trench warfare I like to think in terms of BLUE OCEANS and redefinitions of value the way Cirque du Soliel redefined "circus" by cutting out all the things that cost big bucks and keeping the cool fun stuff. If you've seen the recent Ringling Brothers ads you know Cirque has won (the ads are all about the tumbling with some lions and elephants thrown in).
I like to win by THINKING and, when possible, get that THINKING directly from potential customers via keywords.
Have you ever heard about how the Walkman came to be? It’s an interesting story – during the 1980’s it became really popular for people to walk around with boom boxes on their shoulders, playing music.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
There is a great line in this post about why The Walkman succeded because Sony asked WHY people where doing what they were doing instead of just trying to sell them one more thing.
The hardest thing any marketer does is shut up (lol). Sony proved the value of the right question at the right time. What is your "question strategy", something that should be a subset of your content strategy.
Scott Mason is our excellent local CBS affiliate WRAL's Tar Heel Traveler. Scott interviewed me yesterday for our Cure Cancer Starter video and I agreed to take a look at his website to say THANKS.
This post is about why "web design" is a dangerously vague term now and why sometimes creating a website that works is about the money or about finding experts capable of making money online to help create your online presence.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
The Tar Heel Traveler Website
Scott Mason is an amazing visual storyteller. He creates "slice of life" pieces for our excellent local CBS affiliate WRAL TV. You can watch Scott's videos by clicking on the link below:
The Tar Heel Traveler on WRAL Scott wrote a great book about a year ago on his travels across North Carolina. The book has been a big hit selling several thousand copies (this is very unusual, most books only sell a handful of copies). Scott created a website to support the book:
TheTarHeelTraveler.com
The Magic Math of Making Money Online
There is a large group of "web designers". There is a smaller group of Internet marketers that know how to design a website to matter more and more every day. Finally this is a TINY SET of Internet marketers that really know how to make money online.
That third set can't be larger than a few thousand people in the world. I've managed teams that have made millions online, but my talent is in recognizing the kind of skills and minds necessary. I know how to create a team that feeds off each other, teams capable of creating websites that matter more and more and so make millions.
I haven't met the designer who created TarHeelTraveler.com, but they made many unforgivable mistakes including:
* Site doesn't have social support.
* No blog (Scott is an amazing writer).
* Title is poor and they are poor throughout. * Conventions such as "HOME" is violated (welcome instead). * Visuals could be better. To the designer’s credit the site was created in cascading style sheets and it loads fast, but those benefits don't overcome the site's significant issues.
The lack of social support is, at this time, is unforgivable. The site has a PageRank (PR) of 2 and that is only because WRAL is driving a PR5 into it. This website design has NO CHANCE to scale or matter much. I just wrote a note to Scott explaining that this site in 2002 or 2003 might have worked; now a website design like this is dead on arrival.
Platforms Vs. Websites
I wrote a piece on the death of the "closed loop" website, a website such as TarHeelTraveler.com that is talking to itself about itself, in 2011. Platforms vs. Websites is about changes created by social and mobile (sometimes called SMobile).
The GOOD NEWS is you can use OPP (Other People's Platforms) to help create social websites. I suggested Scott use Flickr and YouTube, but he could also use Scoop.it, LinkedIn and Shopify. We don't have to look far to see the rise of User Generated Content (UGC) platforms such as Amazon, Facebook and Twitter.
UGC Is the secret weapon of all platforms, we all know this by now. Tough part is UGC is getting harder and harder to generate since it is in such clear demand. The Tar Heel Traveler has a built in demand. People want to share stories, pictures and video about a well-loved and visited state.
This means Scott only needs to ASK for UGC, use a few free tools and his PR2 becomes a PR5 in no time. The other big learning is there may be many "web designers", but there is a tiny group that really knows how to create platforms that matter more and more every day. Many are called, few are chosen.
Ecommerce is a weird category that seems to be getting weirder. It was by far one of the first things to take off when people started adopting the Web. People were relatively comfortable buying thi...
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Not sure I agree with the negative tone. Yes US Ecom is hanging right at 10% of total retail, but ecom growth has been much more robust than bricks and mortar. Granted, 1% growth on a HUGE number is more money to the bank than 15% growth on 10% of that same number, but the lines will cross.
Look at the UK where ecom is 15% of total retail. The UK has much higher gas prices and is a smaller economy, but does anyone believe gas is going to go substantially lower anytime soon?
I agree with Sarah's discussion about mobile and its impact being ignored or made to play second chair to social. I think Social + Mobile = another 5 points off of US retail's total.
The other thing Sarah doesn't discuss is the tendency for overly competitive brick and mortar to turn people off with Crazy Eddie like screaming. My boss at M&M/Mars used to say some places were "over stored and under peopled" while others were the reverse. He argued Kansas was over stored and under peopled.
It feels like everywhere is over stored and under peopled now that every strip mall everywhere has the same 5 big box retailers (how they continue to make money I have no idea) and 6 restaurants. The web's retail promise still outstrips its grasp, but cool new things are brewing.
Ecom 2.0 is about many things including the impact of predictive analytics, dynamic rendering, feeding personas with branching AI-like algorithms and moving closer to merchandising and retailing in real time. VC is investing in many ideas that support Ecom 2.0 such as business intelligence tools, predictive analytics and Big Data. Many of these tools have LARGE and IN CHARGE presence in Ecom 2.0. I applaud the concentration on Ecom 2.0 and look forward to the next post in the series. As a former Director of Ecommerce I think there will be enough new Ecom work to go around for the next ten years (easy). Will Ecom ever be 50% of total retail? X groceries and other hard to franchise verticals and yes that level of penetration in gifts, electronics and books is possible. In fact, it may be more helpful to tackle the issue vertical by vertical since some verticals such as health care and groceries have shown stubborn resistance to ecommerce's charms.
If Amazon eliminates the wait with same day shipping that too could move another 5 points. Amazon was stragely absent in this first post. Amazon is the most Ecom 2.0 play I know beause they've tuned their algorithms to within a short toss of Google's. With hundreds of millions of pages in Google, even after Panda and Penguin, Amazon's retail dominance online is hard to fully fathom or argue.
Has Amazon innovated at the rate of Google or Facebook? Not even close, but their singular innovation, Kindle, may end up trumping all at least as far as books are concerned. The real reason Amazon dominates is their partner network, a network upset at least momentarily by the nexus created by an expanding network of distribution centers. Here in North Carolina it is impossible to be an Amazon affiliate thanks to our trip over the big bucks to pick up the small state government.
As Amazon expands their DC network nexus will exist everywhere and so state sales tax will follow. The imposition of state sales tax could slow Ecom 2.0, but Ecom growth will continue to outpace the over stored and under peopled brick and mortar retailers.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Great checklist for B2B or B2C website homepage design.
Unique Customer Aspirations
UCA stands for Unique Customer Aspirations. I am creating this idea right now on Atlantic BT's blog. The concept is a mashup of an idea discussed in Seth Godin's new book The Icarus Deception and Jim Stengel's book about how brand ideals should drive called Grow (both highly recommended).
I was taught to sell by P&G back in the day. P&G stressed USP, or unique selling propositions. USPs was the unique brand quality of P&G products such as Ivory soap's "so pure it floats".
The concept of USPs was matured by Kim's book Blue Ocean Strategies. Kim stressed the development of Unique Value Propositions or UVPs such as how Cirque du Soleil changed the concept of "circus". I've discussed the importance of USPs and UVPs on a ScentTrail Marketing Video. Marketing has changed so much, but our understanding of those changes is running behind. I believe there is a new concept called Unique Customer Aspiration or UCA and undrestanding UCAs is critical to successful Internet marketing.
UCAs are about how your product or services change, empower and help people, customers, friends and so create brand advocates. I'm writing about this new UCA idea now for Atlantic BT's blog.
Want to help define a new concept? Want to lend your ideas to UCA? Share your thoughts in comments here or email Martin.Smith(at)Atlanticbt.com.
Look for my first draft tomorrow.
Great comment by Phil Buckley (@1918) about UCA on Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/102639884404823294558/posts/fsR8GLTC6g5
Martin (Marty) Smith:
UCA is going to be a key Ecom concept.
Click on the Earnest Edge to watch a great example of awesome video marketing.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Watch Discover The Earnest Edge Video Here
http://ernestpackaging.com/
Good News & #StealThis Video Marketing Tip
The Discover The Earnest Edge video is GREAT video marketing. The #StealThis is in the editing that alternates between pitch and fun. The outtake feel of the fun INCREASES the overall impact. Wouldn't have bet on that.
Don't kid yourself; there is some serious money here. The video is smooth, and looks like butter. He can FEEL the money, but the spontaneous feel combined with some of the facts such as tenure of employees and customers creates TRUST, and trust is created FAST.
The tricky part about video is SENTIMENT is more important than fact. What you SAY isn't as important as HOW you say it. All of those smiles and laughter communicate powerful nonverbal signals directly into our brain.
SENTIMENT buys your attention. I listed to the fact about tenure because everyone seemed to be having such a good time. That made me CURIOUS and I actually listened.
The Content Marketing & SEO Bad News
Earnest may not lose many customers, but they don't understand Internet marketing either (and so they will lose customers). Their website is in trouble:
PageRank: 3 (home) Links In: 39
Page Spread: 400 pages in Google Facebook Likes: 324
Twitter: almost 2,000
OUCH! (except for Twitter, it is acceptable)
Talk about spending money in all the wrong places. Million dollar video with no content marketing support (blog is a PR1), no community and no campaigns (where is the "join" or "subscribe" form?).
Diversify or Get Clobbered
Internet marketing is only as strong as its WEAKEST link and there are a passel of weak links on EarnestPackaging.com The "tapestry" approach I keep ranting about protects this kind of under-diversificaiton. Having a GREAT video and lousy everything else is a prescription for disaster.
Give almost any Internet marketer 3 technical SEO writers who know or can learn the packaging business, a great graphic designer, a platform approach to the code and marketing, some gamification and a budget of between $20K and $50K and those prized "Earnest videos" won't be seen. Cool that Earnest has such low customer turnover, but very business is an Internet business now. The team that knows and can act on the truth of that statement wipes these beautiful videos off the web.
I wrote a piece about Why Internet Marketing Isn't What You think It Is a few months ago and this packaging website needs to read it.
The UPS new logistics can help grow your business, provide customer service solutions, improve efficiency and productivity, and increase sustainability. Put the new logistics to work for you.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
If you run an eCommerce website take a look at these great factoids on the UPS website. Love how the leading to the comScore white paper is such a rich, engaging page. The comScore study is a longer read, but well worth it since I bet your site follows trends conScore outlines.
Use the comScore study to see where your eCommerce site is out of alignment and then tune it to make more money even as you spend less. This great UPS graphic about why people abandon their carts and the comScore report will be helpful in understanding how your Ecom site compares to baselines and best practices.
ScentTrail Marketing is about what is happening NOW in Internet marketing.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Atlantic BT is working with Ryan Shelley (@barnapkins) to create short videos about Internet marketing. We've been tweaking the format and have learned a few things including:
* Standing up is better than sitting down (more energetic). * Short is better than long (duh). * Graphics and b-roll footage help pick up the pace. * Important to address the camera.
We just tested only having ONE person speaking instead of two. My concern is two people becomes strange. It feels like WE (the two people on camera) are having the conversation instead of sharing with the viewer.
I think two people work here thanks to Ryan's editing. What do you think? One person talking to the camera or two people where there is an onscreen moderator (a guide), but most of the talking comes from one of the two?
Compared to other metrics, site search usually gets passed over as one of those things you’ll improve soon. But taking steps to improve your site search can improve conversion rates.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
When I was a Director of Ecommerce I was a HUGE believer in "internal search". We purchased an expensive, $30K a year, SaaS to help.
I will never forget our CFO sneering that we would, "Never pay for such an expensive addon". We paid for a year's worth of better internal search in a week and we didn't even know how to use the tool yet.
Searching is THE paradigm. Google has trained every web surfer instant and relevant results are only a click away. Frustrate that desire for meaningful results by visitors to your website at your absolute peril.
This great KISSmetrics article explains how to tune your internal search to make even more money. Did I ever convince my old CEO? Not so much, but doesn't matter. I don't work for or with him anymore (lol).
The video game industry is worth more than $100bn worldwide, so it's no surprise that businesses are using gamification to try to boost sales.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Great examples of gamification and ecommerce here ALL new to me. I continue to believe our websites are about to become more like video games and this excellent article is just another brick in that dam.
Your brand's online presence needs to align around targeted customer intent, not keywords-focused optimization. Focus on tactics that will play to Google’s more complex side: mapping queries to actions, intent research, and aligned content creation.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Fascinating Scoop by Brian Yanish, a trusted source. Here is what I know:
* Heuristic measures matter more.
* Metrics like time on site, pages viewed and return matter. * When heuristics matter more engagement matters more. * When engagement matters more content is KING. * When content is KING storytelling isn't far behind.
* When storytelling and engagement are important video is important. * When all of these things are true User Generated Content is critical. Would I go as far as this article? Let me get back to you on that, but well-reasoned and new truths are exposed.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Marty The Merchant
Morgan Stanley's Blue Paper: eCom Disruption A Global Theme paints the financial reasons clicks will continue to crush bricks in growth. I've been meaning to write about the new eCom for months. Morgan only beat me to a piece of it.
Morgan Stanley's report is strong on MONEY and soft on Hearts and Minds. Things like the SMobile revolution (smashing Social Media Marketing together with Mobile Commerce) only get a glancing nod. I end this post with a 7 step check list for two of my favorite smaller online retailers (Moon Audio, hifi for your head and Vestique, amazing clothes for women).
I've shown you mine, now what are your new eCom ideas? What do you see as major opportunities or threats?
The New eCommerce Infinite Inventory and YOU
http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-new-ecommerce-infinite-inventory.html
Our customers made a big impact on the ecommerce industry this holiday season, generating over a half billion dollars in sales. Check out this post to learn even more impressive performance results from our successful merchants.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Liabilities of Platform Ecom
I know it is strange. I am normally PRO platform (See Platforms vs. Websites http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2011/09/internet-marketing-platforms-vs.html#.UOwaJonjkeY ).
I am NOT pro ecom websites using an aggregator such as Volusion or Shopify except as a snapstore supplement. In this equation Shopify or Volusion is the platform NOT people creating stores there.
This means the platform benefits accrue to Volusion and Shopify. It is not wonder I can't fid a store inside the Volusion ecosystem that has higher PageRank than the loft 7 Volusion puts up. When you see a platform pulling a PR7 or 8 you know that SEO benefits are flowing to the platform and less so to those using it.
It doesn't mean you should use aggregators, it just means don't put your single store there. If this sounds like we are returning to the need for diversification you are correct and win a cookie. The problem is more than one store can be a lot of work.
When we added a new store when I was a Director of Ecommerce it tripled the work. If your IT is up to a feed based system where you maintain a core database once and it feeds all other stores via web services then consider a blanket or tapestry of stores. If your IT looks at you like a deer in the highlights when you ask that last sentence then you better stick with one store just make sure it is YOUR store not THEIRS (i.e. on OPP or Other People's Platform).
This is a inspirational resource of various types of e-commerce website designs.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Like almost all of these Ecom website designs. Amazing how much better ecommerce design is becoming and how fast. Mobile is one reason why. Mobile forces an economy of design that strips down to bare money making essentials - something that is always a good idea in ecom design.
Forbes India
Will E-commerce Companies Finally Start Makin...
Forbes India
here has been a lot of momentum behind e-commerce businesses in India over the past two years.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Wow, this is a beautifully written piece about the ecommerce explosion and now the long quiet after the initial ecommerce storm in India. The power of the article is to read it writ large, to read it as if India wasn't what Alok is discussing since he writes great and his logic is concise and connected. Well done and valuable for US not just THEM.
How To Create Killer Product Pages [Infographic] - Usability Conversion Optimization, Web Design
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Great infographic on what may be the most important page design on any ecommerce website - the product page.
How Mobile Shopping Will Improve in the Future http://t.co/IhWyTnB7 #Mobile #Mcommerce #Ecommerce
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Some improvements will come from how we as ecommerce merchants structure our presentation, data and offers. Other improvements in "mcommerce" are going to come from technology. This article from Mobile Commerce Daily covers both of these trends with ways mobile shopping bets better in 2013.
Content is key to search engine visibility and SEO #infographic Search engine optimization (SEO) is
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Shared this excellent content marketing leads to traffic leads to money infographic in Ecommerce Revolution because solving the left brain engineering and right brain creativity of content marketing for ecommerce will be a priority of the New Ecommerce that began emerging after Google's Panda algorithm changes.
35 Beautiful Ecommerce Websites 'Related' LinksShowcase Of Well Design Ecommerce Websites30 Beautiful Non-Profit Organization Websites45 Beautiful Typography Websites30 Inspiring Music Websites For Design InspirationA Showcase of Outstanding Websites...
Martin (Marty) Smith:
My favorite from these is BikeByMe.com. Very Cool. There are other designs that will convert better, but none are more fun.
I will start from the very basic and then go into advanced topic of how exactly e-commerce tracking code interacts with Google Analytics and how you can resolve various e-commerce tracking issues.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Solid tips and explanations here begins with basics and works into more complex ecom metrics.
A couple of tips for a clean online store design with some inspirational examples of minimal e-commerce sites.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
I'm in favor of ANYTHING that helps customers move toward a conversion point faster. This is my favorite line from this post about clean ecommerce store designs:
More and more companies are ditching lots of color, models and movement on their websites in favor of more minimal design schemes.
I attribute this "simple is better" trend to the strength of A/B testing. The more testing you do the more simple your pat to conversion becomes (it is inevitable). Good Ecom design tips here for 2013.
SEO and Data Got A Thing Going on is one of the SEO Triptych.
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