Daniel Loughlin, Managing Director, Export Technologies Export Technologies provide software and consultancy working for small, medium and large organisations to increase sales delivering technology and online marketing that guarantee a significant web presence. Export Technologies has an array of clients, across a wide range of markets throughout the UK and Ireland transacting millions of pounds each week.

4. Operating as company since 2005, based in Belfast at NISP
We partner with companies to provide
• Our Software Platform (IRP)
• Consultancy & Analysis
• Online Marketing
Involved in long term contracts
By 2011 we had transacted £500,000,000 for NI companies
>95% of these eCommerce sales were outside NI & >50% outside UK
By the end of 2013 we aim for £1 Billion in transactions
We want to share some of our key findings on eCommerce

5. eCommerce is more complex than traditional retail
Business model is different to other forms of selling
Involves different skills but the core concepts are simple
The eCommerce platform PARTNER choice is critical
In eCommerce there are online marketing and technology
requirements that need specialists
Standard business rules apply - Revenue must be Greater than
expenses

6. Certain traits in company cultures lend themselves to online success…
Companies that can ADAPT and implement
Companies that can take on new job roles
Companies that can develop capabilities in Customer Service, Data
Management, Picking and Packing, Online Marketing, Strategic
Management … in an increasing number of VERTICALS
Companies that work to understand their online marketplace and are
prepared to compete on the internet
Companies that make the right strategic partnerships in online marketing

7. Can you Compete - a 30 Minute analysis of a MARKET to find out…
Take your top 30 Best Selling items and List your price in a Excel
Examine your price versus the Market price on Google Products and the
number of sellers online
See how these compare
Take the domain names of the Competitors and look at their Alexa
Traffic Ranks & Company Accounts (RiskDisk)
Take the top Selling Brands and Categories and analyse the search
volumes in Google Insights. These can be related back to demand and
potential sales.

8. eCommerce works best if you are
competitive in the right MARKET, have the
right TECHNOLOGY PARTNER, and the
right STRATEGY & PEOPLE…
You must be prepared to ADAPT &
structure your company in the right way

9. TRAFFIC + CONVERSION = SALES
TRAFFIC costs money – no matter where it comes from it has a cost
CONVERSION Depends on many things – Technology, Design, Traffic
Source, Other Factors… but the PRICE is also key
What we are saying that you have to GIVE a percentage of your
turnover to the Traffic Source - CPA%

10. Traffic - A quick look at paid PPC
Traffic From PPC
c m C CPC
C Total Cost
l t SALES
S Gross Profit
s t A
Profit After CPA
t r A
100 Visitors
0 s 10p
p 10GBP
P 100GBP
P 50GBP
P 40GBP
P
200 Visitors
0 s 10p
p 20GBP
P 200GBP
P 100GBP
P 80GBP
P
Visitors numbers can scale up depending on market size

11. Conversion Rates on this 10GBP PPC spend
Conversion Rate
n e Total Sales
l s Total Cost
l t Gross Profit
s t A
Profit After CPA
t r A
Rate 1%
e % 100GBP
P 10GBP
P 50GBP
P 40GBP
P
Rate 3%
e % 300GBP
P 10GBP
P 150GBP
P 140GBP
P
Conversion will reach a limit dependent on technology underpined by price

12. Pricing – the effect of margin
Conversion Rate
n e Total Sales
l s Margin
n Gross Profit
s t A
Profit After CPA
t r A
Rate 1%
e % 100GBP
P 100%
% 50GBP
P 40GBP
P
Rate 3%
e % 300GBP
P 70%
% 105GBP
P 95GBP
P
Finding the tipping point on return and margin is key

13. CPA % - Tying together traffic conversion and margin
Conversion Rate
n e Total Sales
l s Margin
n Gross Profit
s t Profit After CPA
t r A CPA% Sales
% s CPA % Profit
A t
Rate 1%
e % 100 GBP
0 P 100 %
0 50GBP
P 40GBP
P 10%
% 20%
%
Rate 3%
e % 300 GBP
0 P 70 %
0 105GBP
P 95GBP
P 3.33%
% 10.5%
%
Companies should be monitoring CPA % as the key indicator

14. CPA is never a value – it is always a % cost of the traffic source – i.e., you will
have to give a % of your sales to whoever sent you the traffic
eg. Your spend always depends on turnover
1000GBP sales - 100GBP Spend on Online Marketing (10% CPA)
2000GBP sales - 200GBP Spend on Online Marketing (10% CPA)
What we are fundamentally saying is
Acquire traffic & convert it at an acceptable COST
It’ s as simple as that…but before you can convert anyone you need them at your site

15. Paid traffic sources are the only ones to build a business on
SEO (natural google listings) while useful do not offer a scalable model
CPA % from traffic source change over time
All Traffic sources CPA% will depend on how SKILLFULLY you set them up
Success in TRAFFIC generation often depends on specialists
You want to give the traffic sources as small a Percentage of your
turnover as possible

16. What we are seeing is PPC and Affiliates to a lesser degree play the key role
in FIRST TOUCH CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

18. Key sources:
PPC, Affiliates, Content Networks, Organic Search, Price Comparison Sites,
Marketplaces, email Marketing, Social Media…
The CPA% varies by traffic source
PPC is the key traffic arena and all arenas are skill dependent
Traffic sources often depend heavily on technology
As turnover grows these can become VERTICALS
The maximum traffic needs to be derived at the minimum CPA%

20. Once the traffic is there you must convert the traffic to revenue
eg. The browser must become a buyer
PRICE is a key driver
Your site must be simple
Key selling points must be prominent
Customer needs to feel reassured
You have seconds to engage their interest
Multivariant testing is a key way to measure Conversion

21. Through PPC, Affiliation it’s possible to reach most of the world’s consumers
But when you think this through…it brings new requirements to your website,
organisation and technology for conversion to buyers…
Non UK customers will have different currencies
Different customers will have different languages
Each country will have different key selling points
Each country will have a different demand for products
Some countries will require different payment methods (Credit Cards, PayPal
etc… but also iDeal, Alipay, Yandex money, ELV, etc)

22. These all need to be tackled through TECHNOLOGY – the right eCommerce
PARTNER can help break down these barriers
It also requires company mindset change and new skill sets
If the key areas are tackled the international expansion can be prolific in
certain markets

23. Generally online customers are not loyal
When you have the customer you need to try to retain them
Online loyalty schemes and vouchers stimulate repeat sales
Email mail shots and social media connect with the customer at low cost
Some companies extend offline engagement such as catalogues
Repeat custom and increased average order value reduce overall CPA%

24. Success depends on Technology and also the right Consultancy
Success Depends on effective & efficient PPC & associated skillsets
Efficiency of picking and packing and procedures and IT systems is critical – it
reduces cost. Multichannel overlay assists in efficency…
International eCommerce is significant. A weak pound and English language
helps. We see goods manufactured in a country, shipped to here to the retailer,
then sold back to the countries consumers.
The best online strategy is to differentiate and market individually to any country

25. Irish sales are easy to pick up while there is an exchange rate advantage and
generally we have found the online competition in Ireland is weak
80% of eCommerce strategy will not depend on where you are based in the
United Kingdom
The focus for the retail markets we are in should be on getting sales outside
Northern Ireland. Overall less than 5% of our transactions have been from NI
Increasing sales requires many technical and business cornerstones in place
As a technology company our take has always been the TECHNICAL angle on
overcoming barriers and reaching customers and this is what we have found
worked. Having technical solutions, relating to the generation of traffic, ability to
handle different languages and currencies

26. We have also found that there is very little for free. To acquire new customers
almost all of our focus has been on paid arenas. Paying guarantees exposure.
We have yet to see a successful model based on Search Engine Optimisation
eCommerce statistics like Google Analytics should have readership at board
level and core concepts must be understood
Companies need the right culture, and people in the strategic role who can
cope with change and to identify when (and which) external specialists are
required
Its a big arena but the rewards are equally big....

27. Our view is that you need to be in the RIGHT MARKET with the RIGHT
PRODUCTS to succeed online
You must accept that you must give a PERCENTAGE of your
TURNOVER to the traffic source & try to keep it to a minimum (a low
CPA%)
Your PRICING must be in line with the online MARKET PRICE
Then…
You need the right PEOPLE
You need the right TECHNOLOGY PARTNER
You need expert ONLINE MARKETING at an acceptable cost
You need the drive to succeed and be able to ADAPT

28. If this is in place
THE SALES CAN BE INCREDIBLE