OK, you’ve got a Web site. It’s doing all right – you think. But how does it compare with what others are doing? Is there something simple you’ve missed that might make a difference? After all, according to Forrester Research Inc.’s prediction reported in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal, “At least half of existing online retail sites will disappear by 2001.” You want to be in the other half.
Sure, you’ve read every article you can get your hands on and dutifully attended seminars. But what you need is a Web bible. Not long ago I got a look at a hefty example that was packed with details. Want to know what was in it? Here, along with my own observations, are some tidbits.
Think you’re a dolt because you don’t have real-time inventory status on your Web site? Well, nobody else does, either. According to my new Web bible – the Direct Marketing Association’s State of the Interactive/E-commerce Marketing Industry Report: 2000 – just 14% of Internet businesses surveyed supply real-time inventory information. This means Web and non-Web orders should be integrated – something only about half the respondents have done. Sounds like a potential marketing advantage for those that step up to the plate and make the advantages of real-time inventory status known to consumers.
Want to know what this looks like? Head to one of the most customer-friendly sites out there: Drugstore.com. If an item is out of stock, a symbol next to the product’s image lets you know. Sure, you could have that symbol on your site and update it every day, but think of all the business you could lose over 24 hours if a product is in stock and you haven’t updated your site to reflect it. Beating other sellers by offering better service has been one of the key advantages for catalogers. This is no time to build a prettier Web site if you have to neglect the back end in the process.
A lack of service on the Web is confirmed by Shelley Taylor, president of Shelley Taylor & Associates, who noted in that same Wall Street Journal article: “Brick-and-mortar companies aren’t translating their history into the new medium. They have a lot more sizzle and a lot less substance.” Her company conducted a study of 100 e-commerce sites and found weaknesses in the areas where businesses have traditionally been the strongest: service, delivery and the handling of returns.
Some firms, though, are definitely coming to understand the service thing. Compaq believes so strongly in customer service that, as of the first quarter of this year, a customer satisfaction incentive comprises half of the executive bonus program.
What are some of the other findings in the DMA study? As you might suspect, e-mailings to customers and site visitors work. This method of online promotion gets the highest rating for effectiveness even though search-engine positioning has the highest percentage of use. If you’re not e-mailing your customers to inform them of special sales, events, new product introductions and so on, you’re missing a dynamite opportunity. But don’t push it. Unsolicited e-mail has the lowest effectiveness ranking. Various graphics in the study show all the online promotion methods, how they’re used and how effective they are. Charts indicate sales opportunities and what to avoid.
Web site banners may be one approach to steer clear of. According to the study, “static banner ads [and] links,” though used by 38% of the respondents, got the second lowest rating in effectiveness. One reason may be a lack of what Fast Company magazine founding editor William Taylor calls “permission marketing.”
Permission marketing uses good old-fashioned contests and sweepstakes to get customers to click on the banner. These techniques give consumers control and the feeling that they’re granting a company permission to market to them. Mr. Taylor tells a story about H&R Block using “We’ll Pay Your Taxes Sweepstakes” banners to generate 50,000 leads. Ninety-seven percent of the people who played the game continued to participate in an educational trivia game that was sent to them weekly with their permission. At the end of the program, over half of these people understood the new product. Point being: If banners create participation in some form, they may prove more useful than the DMA survey claims most respondents find them to be.
The study also reinforces the idea that thinking on your feet is mandatory. We all know that Internet users call other forms of communication “snail mail,” so your focus should be on answering any e-mail questions daily or even faster. (Quick aside: I e-mailed a question to a company in Seattle at 7 a.m. EST and had an answer, even though it was only 4 a.m. there, within a half hour.) This would sit well with David Hakala of Sm@rt Partner, who believes a key to successful Web sites is that “all customer e-mail that goes unanswered for 48 hours or more [should] be forwarded to the company’s president, who will answer it all before receiving morning coffee.”
But there is much more to speedy Internet behavior than answering e-mail. One DMA questionnaire respondent notes: “In traditional direct marketing, marketers have four to five weeks to review results, but in Web marketing companies need to read results on a day-by-day basis and react quickly.” A good Internet site is, unlike a printed catalog, a living thing that’s designed to be changed regularly. It’s extraordinarily counterproductive to visit one and find specials with dates that have expired or promotions for events that have already happened. Sites advertising out-of-date promotions make it abundantly clear that the company behind the site is not on top of the times or its business.
One of the advantages of the Web is that it has no borders. The DMA’s research proves this: It shows that more than 90% of respondents accept orders from outside the United States and Canada and that these orders tend, on average, to be 10% of their business. The report breaks out the size of the companies and the countries they market to. What it makes clear is that the business exists, but few, if any, firms have aggressively used their sites to expand their marketing territories. Another opportunity awaits.
Want the State of the Interactive/E-Commerce Marketing Industry Report? Call the DMA’s Ann Zeller at 212-768-7277 for pricing information or to place an order.
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