Selling online

Yesterday SmartCompany presented a webinar with a difference – a panel discussion featuring three successful, yet completely different, online retailers.

Fellow SmartCompany blogger Naomi Simson is of course the founder and CEO of online experiences retailer RedBalloon.com.au. She has taken the online space so seriously – and had so much success – that she now employs 45 staff for her online-only business.

She was joined by one of our original bloggers, Chris Thomas, who wore two hats to the webinar. One as general manager of search engine marketing firm Reseo and the other as the operator of the Hibermate.com website, the sales channel for his sleepmasks of the same name.

Our third panellist was Nicholas Egonidis, who operates men’s underwear online retailer BelowTheBelt.com.au. Nicholas has been operating the business for some six years and is also on online only retailer.

In preparation for the webinar, I gathered a selection of tips I had offered over the years as well as those suggested by expert bloggers from around the world. Our panellists then had an opportunity to share their own experiences on each suggestion.

Here’s a summary of what ensued, and you can also access the recorded audio of the webinar by clicking here.

Part 1: Fundamentals. Removing barriers to purchase

Ensure professional photography

This is one of the biggest barriers to purchase I’d come across with e-commerce websites. Many websites feature amateurish, poorly composed, lit and dressed images that look like someone’s happy snaps.

Naomi agreed, emphasising that without the ability for visitors to touch or inspect products or services as they can in a physical retail outlet, professional photography was imperative to give an unhampered impression of the product.

I suggested too that manufacturers of product featured in websites should be approached to provide decent images because it’s their product you are trying to sell after all.

Offer multiple payment options

Because there is still some reticence for all customers to part with their credit card details online and because they often prefer an alternative payment method, I suggested that websites should offer as many payment options as possible.

While most agreed, because Chris’s business was operated from home and that he sold internationally, receiving phone calls and faxes in the middle of the night did not make him popular with his life partner, so he reverted to online sales only.

However there was general consensus that where possible as many payment options as possible could be offered.

Make delivery charges clear from the outset

This was regarded as one of the biggest obstacles to purchasing online and was backed up with customer research data. Of all reasons to abandon an online purchase, delivery charge surprises is the most common.

Panellists provided a range of suggestions to overcome this, such as providing a delivery charge table on the product page. Chris found that the best way to overcome the issue was to include it in the product price. While this resulted in the occasional lower margin from some locations, it resulted in less “cart abandonment”.

Provide tangible contact details

E-commerce research indicates that the less information there is about a vendor, the less likely the customer is to purchase from them – there is simply not enough evidence that the vendor should be trusted with your information and card details.

The panel suggested that emphasis on branding, professional design, testimonials, support phone numbers and guarantees are other ways to engender confidence in the vendor.

Offer a clear returns policy

A clear returns policy and other expressions of assurance also provided customers with greater confidence to purchase. Naomi was outspoken on providing as much guarantee of a product as possible, going so far as to guarantee that direct providers of experiences would not offer it cheaper than RedBalloon did, and even asking customers to report any instance of such.

Ensure website is professionally designed

Professional design is as important to a website as a clean and attractive shop is to a physical retailer. Yet the incidence of poor design is a common fault of e-commerce websites.

Naomi reported that RedBalloon was up to its seventh design and that it was just a normal part of online selling. However Chris had deliberately avoided a re-design as it worked well for a single product website unlike the 2000-plus offerings of RedBalloon.

Respond to orders and queries promptly
As reported in this blog recently, many online sellers are “channelist” when it comes to receiving orders, giving greater priority to in-person and phone sales than online sales, often resulting in slow or even ignored orders.

Such an attitude was seen as sacriligious by the panelists – especially given that websites were their main channel to market. But often online sellers “shot themselves in the foot” by stating a response time that they could not possibly deliver on.

Clear instructions

Many online sellers stopped sales in their tracks by not making the “add to cart” or “buy” button prominent. Chris told how he had worked hard to make it abundantly clear where to buy, inquire or any other action the customer wanted to take, just to ensure there was no confusion whatsoever.

Non-collection of credit card details

Providing credit card details to the vendor instead of the banking institution was seen as a major barrier to purchase. Naomi went so far as to ensure that even card details taken by phone were entered directly into the banking gateway instead of being kept as a record of any kind. However, this approach limited fax and mail orders where credit card details were provided.

Bring as much product to front page as possible (while still looking good)

Many e-commerce websites sacrificed upselling, cross selling and general promotional opportunities by not featuring a range of different products on their front pages, preferring a single large glossy image or collage.

Through trial and error, Naomi found that by featuring a range of diverse offerings on her front page, she increased the awareness of her range, which in turn increased the chances of customers returning for a different kind of gift to their last purchase. 

Part 2: Advanced tactics to close/up the sale

Introduce delivery tracking

Delivery tracking capabilities were seen as a great asset to the online retailer. Not only did customers enjoy the convenience of being able to check progress whenever they needed to, but the “self-service” capability of the feature saved significant time in dealing with either email or phone queries relating to it.

Provide currency conversion

Automatic currency conversion not only offered overseas customers great convenience, but gave the vendor greater credibility as a professional retailer. Any device that would save the customer time and hassle could only be a good thing while reducing the chances of them departing to a local competitor.

Include customer reviews of product/services

While the panelists were cognizant of the pervasiveness of web 2.0 capabilities like customer reviews, in reality most had difficulty allowing a less positive review on their websites. Instead, panellists tended to channel positive reviews into the website and less positive reviews to customer service to follow up with a view to rectifying any latent dissatisfaction.

Offer chat help/phone help

While in-time support was desirable, it was often seen as expensive, particularly for distant customers or where there were small margins. RedBalloon makes it clear that it only services Australia and New Zealand, which limits the incidence of costly international communication.

However chat and Skype technologies could reduce the cost of real-time customer service considerably while RedBalloon went the full mile by providing a toll-free number.

Point to related products during checkout without distracting from checkout process

While suggesting related or similar products during the shopping process was considered a great way to upsell and cross-sell, care needed to be taken to avoid distracting shoppers from proceeding with the transaction at all.

Experiment with eBay

Despite what many eBay sellers say, most customers perceive eBay as a website for bargains rather than just a convenient place to shop. However eBay is a great and affordable means of clearing stock or bundling products. It can even be used as a “loss leader” tactic to bring traffic to your website and/or build a relationship with shoppers.

Throw in a (pleasant) surprise

A low cost surprise included in an order is an inexpensive way of making the purchase a memorable one for the shopper, helps build the relationship with them and can lead to good “viral” as they tell others about the nice surprise they received. Naomi in particular makes a point of doing this with her customers.

When an event features panellists of this calibre, there is often not the time to field as many questions as hoped, and this was certainly the case on this occasion. However the webinar paved the way for future panel discussions that can be shared with participants in this country and beyond.

Feedback thus far suggested that the idea of getting the opinions of successful retailers from the comfort and convenience of one’s own office was a brilliant learning opportunity – one that we hope you can participate in soon.

Keep an eye on the upcoming webinars here (and even bookmark it), and check out the SmartCompany archive of previous webinars.

Craig Reardon is a leading eBusiness educator and founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which provide the gamut of ‘pre-built’ website solutions, technologies and services to SMEs in Melbourne and beyond. www.theeteam.com.au