Morello Digital » sales

F-commerce will enable you to leap above the competition

Paul McSweeney — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:55:48 +0000

F-commerce, the ability to purchase services and products via Facebook, will have a significant impact on the use of social media in business as more brands integrate it into their sales strategies.

Delta Airlines recently announced that it had launched a Facebook store application, enabling users to search, book and pay for flights, without having to leave the social networking site; a smart move for an airline that market itself as being ‘the world’s largest Wi-Fi equipped fleet.’ We think that it will only be a matter of time before other brands follow suit and the checkout is brought to the customers as opposed to the customers going to the checkout.

SeeWhy carried out a poll on the subject, finding that 78% of marketers plan to use Facebook for social commerce and 26% plan to build an e-commerce application on Facebook itself. Although these figures suggest that brands are already acknowledging f-commerce as being the next significant step to take, very few are seizing the opportunity.

F-commerce certainly has its advantages for a brand. It is currently difficult to decipher the exact link between social media and sales because a sizable following, regular updates and interesting engagement does not necessarily translate into sales. Integrating sales mechanics into social media platforms will enable brands to better gauge the success of their social media outreach.

Now that a substantial number of brands have a social media presence, it’s time for them to start taking the next steps, ensuring their bottom line benefits from these groups of prospective customers. Allowing fans to purchase the products or services that they’re discussing within the same network could result in certain brands standing head and shoulders above competitors. F-commerce should be seen as a chance to offer fans exclusive discounts and incentives and, if done correctly, opening a Facebook store is likely to enhance a brand’s fan acquisition, therefore increasing exposure to potential customers.

Social Commerce- how to gauge the effectiveness of user-generated content

Paul McSweeney — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:46:24 +0000

Here are two ways we recommend organizations measure real success.

Do Before-and-After Comparisons

It’s possible to compare key metrics – such as average order value, sales conversion, and traffic to the product page, among others – before and after user-generated content is added to the site. The key is to look at the same (or very similar) products at specific points in time over a broad period and avoid any external factors (such as promotions).

Here’s an example of a before-and-after test of reviews on a classic kitchen mixer that sees predictable sales throughout the year. Key metrics would be captured for a full year before reviews were launched. Once reviews were launched, the metrics would be compared quarterly, with a full comparative analysis done at specific points in time one year after launch.

As a best practice, compare metrics using “percent of change” rather than a simple difference, so you can compare the performance of different products to one another and make additional observations. For example, using percent of change, you may see a correlation between the number of reviews and overall conversion. Every marketer should know the percent change formula, but for the sake of convenience, here it is: % of change = [(new value - old value)/old value]*100.

To check the accuracy with this method, you can compare that mixer’s results with a mixer in the same category that doesn’t have reviews for the same period, or you can compare it to other products in the same category. And compare it further to products in similar categories and the site overall. With a few comparison points, assuming you have a large lift for the mixer, you can confidently support the results.

There’s always the question of external factors in a before-and-after analysis, but if the results are substantial, this method can work well on a product-by-product basis on established products that have sold consistently over time. It’s important to take seasonality and other factors into account, too. For example, recent nationwide economic factors played a role in many sales downturns.

Run an A/B Test

While an A/B test can take time and effort to plan, it’s one of the most accurate ways to measure success, when done correctly. A/B testing takes two otherwise identical groups and makes one change to one group. That group, version “A,” becomes the test group, and version “B,” the group without the change, becomes the control group. You then measure the performance of these two groups, and determine what impact the variable made on the results.

For example, if you wanted to test the success of an e-mail campaign, you could do so with A/B testing. You would first split your receipt list into two groups. The control group (Group A) receives a standard e-mail, and the test group (Group B) receives the same e-mail, but with the addition of review content. You then measure key performance metrics, which, in this case, might include response rate, click-through rate, and conversion. We have seen lifts in revenue per e-mail as much as 50 percent with this method. We’ve also seen online retailers do A/B split tests on their websites and show lifts from 10 percent to 50 percent.

Since the only difference between Group A and B is the inclusion of user-generated content, any difference in the performance metrics can be attributed to the presence of that content.

When used correctly, it is powerful, but, if done incorrectly, it can provide misleading results. To run a successful A/B test, take time to plan ahead, base your sample size and time frame to gather enough data to show clear, realistic results, and make sure to just test one variable at a time, so you can confirm that results are based on that one variable.

Other Key Points to Remember

Look for at least a three-month test window to help make sure your results are sound. While some specific campaigns may take less time to gauge results, three months is usually a good rule of thumb.

It’s also important to make sure you have the right Web analytics tags and data capture methods in place. For a holistic view of how user-generated content is working for you, tag all interactions your site visitors have with this content – including online and offline encounters. And align your tagging methods with your business’ overall success metrics.

Final parting thought: If a data point doesn’t matter to the bottom line, think about why you’re really measuring it.

Apple's iAds set to herald a new dawn

Paul McSweeney — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:44:16 +0000

Last week, it was announced that the 5 billionth person in the world now has a mobile phone. Not only is this a staggering number in itself, but I think it has great implications for future advertising budgets.

Traditional advertising is not going to go away any time soon. TV viewing is rising in some segments of society, and its ability to engage is unparalleled. But mobile advertising, although multinationals have dipped their toe in the water, innovations such as Apple’s iAds, is set to herald a new era.

Companies such as Sears and Nissan, have already committed to spending $60m this year in Apple’s iAds. Adverts released by Apple have video and interactive components, which it hopes will combine the emotional punch of television commercials with the engagement of the best internet pitches.

Mobile devices now vastly outnumber fixed-line broadband connections. Mobile ad spending is forecast by PwC to more than triple from $2.2bn last year to $7.7bn in 2014, 0r 7.4% of total online marketing.

Consumers’ increasing appetite for mobile applications is driving online retailers to speed up their mobile marketing initiatives. Most retailers either already have or are developing a mobile strategy. One in five boasts having a fully-implemented mobile strategy in place already.

It’s imperative for online retailers to stay on top of what their customers want and these days it’s all about the mobile phone. Mobile commerce has tremendous potential and will no doubt grow to become a significant part of overall sales volume in years to come. whether to increase customer satisfaction, grow their brand or drive traffic and sales, online retailers are in this game to stay.

Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations.

Have you bought anything from your mobile device yet? How would you feel about mobile advertising? Intrusive or useful.

7 things your Brand should be doing today.

Paul McSweeney — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:16:14 +0000

I have been listening to a few great webinars recently. And with some help from an impressive digital retail agency by the name of Fluid, and from Paul Marsden, I have done my best to summarise some of the key points. So here goes; how to deploy an effective social commerce makeover for your brand:

1. Start selling on Social Platforms – Open a Facebook store and simply experiment. It’s fast, inexpensive and simple to implement. It should not only drive your online sales; but will doubtless increase your Facebook followers too.

2. Add Mobile into the social mix – Allow users to share content to mobile via SMS. This is one of the fastest areas of growth in the market. If you implement a share by SMS icon to your site, your sales will jump.

3. Implement Facebook Social Plugins – start by adding the Like button to product pages on your e-commerce site. By doing this, you get your product onto Facebook walls – where click through rates are a fantastic 6.5%. This drives traffic to your e-commerce site. The Like button is the new mini review. See Tripadvisor.

4. Cross-sell/Up-sell with personal recommendations – 90% of people trust recommendations from people they know vs. 70% who trust anonymous reviews, and 67% of people spend more online after recommendations from friends. Therefore make allowing people to make personal recommendation on your site a priority! See Levi’s.

5. Integrate chat on your e-commerce site – so friends can shop together and discuss products. Luggage brand JanSport saw a 59% increase in product views and a 147% increase in time on site after integrating a Chat feature on its site.

6. Make your website your social flagship – social features are not just for social media platforms. You should use them on your website, by adding social media conversation feeds to your site, whilst exporting your content to social media platforms. Give your customers a multitude of reasons to keep coming back!

7. Bring the in-store experience online to social media platforms – to make all your channels social. Such examples could be live webcasts of in-store events.