Author Archive
November 14, 2008 by Dan Auns
eCommerce Black Friday
We are officially 2 week from Thanksgiving. Football, Turkey, and the official launch of the holiday shopping season…… Black Friday is almost upon us!
For online retailers, Cyber Monday is now right around the corner too. Batten down the hatches and tighten up your eCom helmets, it is about to get a little nutty.
For those of you who had optimization on your 2008 roadmap, congrats. Your hard work is about to be rewarded - easy math shows the incremental improvements are measurable all year round, but are magnified with seasonal swells.
For those of you who don’t. Some 3rd party validation from our friends at ClickZ/Zaaz, who have posted a handy calculator to help you make your case for optimization in your 2009 agenda/budget.
If the ‘Incremental Value’ and ROI numbers look compelling here, give me a call and I will help you generate some analytics reports about your business, that will ’show you the money.’
Optimization is your friend folks, don’t settle for seasonal trends to lift the business alone. You can move the needle also.
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No Comments | Posted in Dan Auns, Optimization, eCommerce, online marketing
October 11, 2008 by Dan Auns
A good friend of mine, who I have known since high school works in a car dealership. We talk quite often about the trials and tribulations, pros and cons, even the risks and rewards of our chosen career paths. I always enjoy his perspective on how they measure their sales efficiencies.
I was fascinated to learn that they actually try to determine the number of qualified car shoppers that visit their lot each month. No surprise that they also monitor the number car sales each month, and that they try to maintain an acceptable ratio of shoppers to sales. To be clear, my fascination was not simply that this was occurring - but that they tried to only quantify the ‘qualified’ car shoppers. They do their best to not factor in the kids, ‘tire kickers’ and other unqualified people who visit the lot with no intention of purchasing a new car in their manual performance reports. Fascinating.
Like most who don’t live and breathe eCommerce/analytics/optimization, my friend was not aware of the many tools widely available today to online businesses. Methods to essentially provide the same sort of physical performance reporting that they do by hand.
All this business intelligence talk exposed some critical differences as well.
Now the manual subjective nature of qualifying people has huge room for error, but the intent is genuine. Some kids may just want to sit in the new Challenger - Great. But they don’t represent a lost sale.
Even with more sophisticated automated reporting tools, I don’t talk to many people who dissect their online business in the same manor.
The parallels are obvious - If you don’t ship outside of North America, why not generate a North American conversion report (for example)?
My take: Online stakeholders need to start to think about business analysis differently. This is not about better dashboards, reports, and ones and zero’s collected by your website. Real people are interacting with your brand, your store, and your products. Get to know them.
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Track me down in Vegas next week ……..Vegas, baby. Vegas.
D.
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No Comments | Posted in Dan Auns, Sitebrand, eCommerce, online marketing
August 22, 2008 by Dan Auns
People always seem to talk about their dog’s age in ‘dog years’ which I am told works out to be about 7:1. Rover may be only 3 people years old, but pooch is now slightly older than our industry. Don’t forget that online retail is only creeping up on 20 people years of age. ……….I am lead to believe that 20 people years should have some sort of accelerator ratio as well - because the emerging eCom 2.0 feels generations removed from the 1.0 world we all will soon miss.
Swimming in the choppy eCommerce oceans with us, are business that used to rely solely on catalogs to drive sales. Good old fashioned Sears Wishbook style print catalogs (I think we all have fond memories of racing to the back of that phone book thick glossy to find the latest toys). Now, I don’t think that I am playing the role of the spoiler here saying that the catalog model is in decline. Retail has changed and finding a single channel print cataloger today is almost as impossible as finding a current phone book thick glossy catalogs, they just don’t exist any more. Case in point, the Wishbook lives on. Online that is.
In talking to many of these online catalogers out here amongst us, I never know what to expect. Some of the most savvy, connected people in our space today work at shops who still drop catalogs. I have also bumped into some folks who seem to operate on the opposite end of the savvy spectrum, who seem to be holding onto something, stuck in the same old print cycles.
I find the lack of middle ground fascinating. There does not seem to be any eCommerce fence sitters left in cataloging. Either you have embraced and invest in your online channel …….or you have a ‘webmaster’ who simply keeps the site alive, sku’s active.
My take; Being a multi channel merchant is powerful. Beyond using your website for simple order fulfillment, your website can be used to drive new sales, acquire new customers. There are millions of folks out here who have never thumbed through one of your catalogs, who are looking to buy your stuff.
In less than 3 dog years, the catalog only business model has been turned on it’s head. I wonder what this channel will look in just a few more people years?
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1 Comment | Posted in Dan Auns, eCommerce
July 28, 2008 by Dan Auns
Before I get started with a regular by-weekly post …..a quick introductory/positioning statement.
As a Senior Account Executive here at Sitebrand for over 2 years, I have had the pleasure of meeting thousands of interesting people in all sorts of interesting roles. The common thread, the internet is a fundamental piece of their business strategy. From fellow vendors, to thought leaders, VP’s, C level exec’s, business owners and more - there are no shortage of interesting conversations in this space to be had, if you make it a priority to get out there and have them.
Fundamentally my role here is to meet people, and learn. As a vendor/solution provider, it is impossible for me to provide an option, if I am unaware of the ailment. Imagine going to a doctor, and getting a new miracle drug prescription at the reception desk with out ever speaking to the doctor? Analysis is imperative.
I find it fascinating that there are some universal themes, or undercurrents in many of my conversations that seem to impact everyone.
To get the conversation started, one of these predominant topics: Change.
Regardless of your business (Or thoughts on Web/eCommerce 2.0) doing business online implies change. Businesses are no longer wondering if online is viable, they focus on increasing conversion. The internet is not going away, this thing works.
A lot like how electrification was the catalyst for the (North American) Second Industrial Revolution. The parallels today to what electricity did for business back then, and to what the internet has done over the past 20 years - are hard to overlook. It is easy to pick out the players who embrace change, and those on the outside looking for answers.
Today, companies winning online seem to be better able to adapt and react to change. Be it planned (i.e. a platform migration), or otherwise (i.e. Google tweaking their algorithms). Change is also about thinking ahead, taking calculated risks, and sticking your neck out from time to time. The reward for status quo, is status quo.
I have had much more meaningful conversations with those who are effective at managing change.
I look forward to your feedback. Better yet, I look forward to many more meaningful conversations.
Cheers.
D.
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1 Comment | Posted in Dan Auns, Sitebrand, eCommerce
