Ecommerce Boot Camp

Welcome to the Austin Internet Marketing
Meetup-SEO/SEM/SMO/PPC
VOLUSION Ecommerce
Boot CAMP
FEEL THE BURN IN 60 MINUTES
#ecommbootcamp

Meet the drill sergeants
Molly Sylestine
Helped hundreds of businesses jumpstart their ecommerce efforts
Favorite ecommerce tool: Free shipping alerts
Favorite blog: Bakerella
Matt Winn
Learn something new about ecommerce in 2 minutes, every Tuesday with Matt at volusion.com/youtube
Favorite ecommerce tool: Abandoned cart emails
Favorites blogs: HubSpot & CopyBlogger

Who’s with us?
You have an offline business, but want to get online
You have an idea for something to sell online
You’re already online, but want to sell more

Today’s training schedule
Number crunches
Basic training
Ecommerce circuit
Cooldown & Q&A

Number Crunches
$279B
US Ecommerce projected to be a $279 Billion industry by 2015 (Forrester)
61%
61% of shoppers begin their research for purchases online (Website Magazine
53%
By 2014, 53% of total retail sales (online and offline) will be affected by the Web (Forrester)
84%
84% of consumers said they were more likely to check online for reviews prior to making a purchase compared to twelve months ago (Retail Bulletin)

Why you need to shape up!
“A company website is just a basic, must-have marketing tool for the 21st Century.” (Entrepreneur)
Ecommerce levels the playing field between you and your largest competitors
Selling online provides an opportunity to extend your business across geographies
Ecommerce sites allows for heightened
customer relationships and referrals
It’s a business
necessity!

It’s all about the Benjamins
Ecommerce Sales (millions): 2002-2010

Ecommerce is growing faster than retail
YOY Revenue Growth – Ecommerce vs. Retail

Number crunches
Basic training
Ecommerce circuit
Cooldown & Q&A

Basic Training
Getting Started in Ecommerce
4) Select a domain name
5) Determine how you’ll get paid
6) Protect your store
Secure your inventory
Decide on a solution
Build your ecommerce site

1) Secure your inventory
Work with something you’re passionate about
Self-created or from a third party
Drop-shipping
Warehouses
Determine your pricing strategy
2) Decide on a solution
Open Source - built from scratch, total control
Licensed - some control, uploaded locally
Hosted - updates, security, hosting

3) Build your ecommerce site
Start with product and category pages
Move on to information pages to complete the site
Consider design and branding every step of the way
4) Select a domain name
Pick a name that is short and easy to remember
Find a web address that is descriptive of your business
Decide between .com, .net or .biz

5) Determine how you’ll get paid
Use PayPal or Google Checkout at a minimum
Decide on using a personal or business bank account
Research and apply for credit card processing
6) Protect your store
Purchase a SSL certificate
Learn the signs of fraudulent orders
Achieve PCI compliance or certification

Number crunches
Basic training
Ecommerce circuit
Cooldown & Q&A

The Ecommerce Circuit
4 Exercises to Achieve Success
Design
Marketing
Customer Service
Social Commerce

Exercise 1: Ecommerce Design
Q: Why is site design so important?
A: CREDIBILITY
68% a
of US online shoppers agree that they will distrust a site that has an unprofessional appearance
75% a
of web users make judgments on the credibility
of a company based on its site design

Template/Navigation
Make it interesting, easy to navigate, branded and include social media links and contact info
Homepage
Include call to action features, promos and possibly a slideshow
Category Pages
Make it clean and subcategories easy to navigate
Design Elements
Working on core strength

Branded
Social Media
Easy to Navigate
Calls to Action

Design Elements
Working on core strength
Product Pages
Have great product photos, good descriptions, alternate views, color swatches, sizes, prices, specs and reviews
Informational Pages
Complete your website and give it personality by adding extras like an about us page, a store locator, contact pages and more
Landing Pages
Use these to extend your business to targeted audiences via marketing promos, PPC, SEO or featuring specific product categories
Social Media Design
Make sure you have branded yourself across all channels
ea

Exercise 2: Marketing your store
Q: Why is marketing especially important for ecommerce?
A: CLUTTER
130,859,083
Registered domains in the US alone (WhoIs)
Internet users around the world (United Nations)
Online advertising spending in the US topped in 2010 (eMarketer)
2 Billion
$26 Billion

Get started with PPC/FB ads
Increased sales- the most obvious benefit but there are more.
Branding/brand awareness
Improved credibility- appearing in both organic search results and paid search results builds trust with shoppers because it makes your company look like a credible, established, large company
Beat your competition- whether you’re doing PPC or not, your competition is, so don’t let them steal your traffic with their online ads

Get started with SEO, now
Preparation and patience are virtues
Analyze the current state of your SEO health:
Refer to analytics to discover your most popular keywords
Don’t ignore the long tail – leverage it all you can
See if you’re cannibalizing yourself across your website
Compare your progress with your rivals
Turn your findings into action:
Optimize pages and link build for popular keywords
Create content geared toward the long tail
Focus your SEO efforts in specific parts of your site
Utilize keywords for various stages of the buying cycle

Don’t forget shopping feeds
Increased exposure of products
Help to qualify traffic by weeding out the window shoppers
You can target really specific shoppers
Free: Google, Bing, TheFind.com
Paid: Shopzilla, Nextag, Amazon (ads)

Exercise 3: Delivering Exceptional
Customer Service
Q: Why is customer service so important to ecommerce?
A: RETENTION
7X
Acquiring a new customer can cost 6 to 7 times more than retaining an existing customer (Frederick Reichheld, Bain & Company)
Of customers are willing to pay more than the standard price, if a great customer experience is involved (RightNow)
Of Americans report that quality customer service is more important to them in today’s economic environment, and will spend an average 9% more when they believe a company provides excellent service (American Express)
85%
61%

Happy customers impact your bottom line

Work to increase customer retention
Customer service is the new marketing
Some ideas to help you get started:
Remember that customer service is unique to your business
Find problem areas via customer surveys and CRM analysis
Segment your customers, give each a specific carrot
Under promise, over deliver
Provide special deals to keep customers coming back for more

Exercise 4: Expanding through social commerce
Q: Why is social commerce important?
A: REACH

55%
High product ratings will increase likelihood of purchase for 55% of consumers. (eConsultancy, July 2010)
Of users believe a brand should have a social media presence (Business in Social Media Study)
For businesses of all sizes, companies that have blogs have 79% more Twitter followers than those that don’t. (HubSpot)
93%
79%
Followers of brands are more likely to purchase (HubSpot)
67% more on Twitter 51% more on Facebook

Grow your social presence
Know why people follow your brand:
To receive discounts and promotions
To show others they like your brand
To receive access to exclusive information
To get updates and news about the company

Grow your social presence
Try these ideas!
Segment your promoters and detractors
Reach out and touch someone
Share good content (again)
Sell your products directly through social media
Don’t be afraid to ask
75% of Facebook users liked a brand because they were directly invited (MarketingProfs)
Place your icons everywhere, provide incentives, run contests, be creative!

Number crunches
Basic training
Ecommerce circuit
Cooldown & Q&A

Nutrition Guide
Send us a your feedback on today’s presentation to marketing@volusion.com and we’ll send you a hefty PDF that contains 101 awesome ecommerce tips!

Ecommerce, spoken here
facebook.com/volusion
Linkedin.com/companies/volusion
@volusion
Youtube.com/volusion
Onlinebusiness.volusion.com

The Austin Internet Marketing
Meetup-SEO/SEM/SMO/PPC
VOLUSION Ecommerce
Boot CAMP
Cool Down – Q&A

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Ecommerce Boot Camp

by Volusion

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Ecommerce Boot Camp Presentation Transcript