We like the idea of discussions covering all manor of subjects, whether it's techy-talk discussing the finer arts of SEO coding or the broader subject of the impact (or not) of the various social media sites out there. We're happy to offer our views over a coffee or a glass of wine and have a good old fashioned debate.
Online retail worth £22.3 billion – one in ten pounds is spent via the internet
As evidenced by the IMRG in May 2011, the online retail industry is going from strength to strength and as consumers continue to conduct more of their lives online, the use of smartphones and social networking sites will inevitably have an impact on consumers’ shopping experience.
In 2010, internet retail sales totalled £22.3 billion, compared to £9.1 billion in 2006. This represents average annualised growth of 25.1% over this period.
A total of 30.1 million (60%) of adults used the internet every day in 2010 – almost double the amount in 2006.
The rise of online retail has been driven by greater internet access via broadband and mobile phone services.
A total of 12.8 million (31%) of internet users connect via mobile phone. The adoption of mobile phone technology is being led by 16 to 24 year olds, with 44% of this age group using this platform to access the internet.
Social networking is proving to be popular, with 17.8 million (43%) of internet users using these sites. A total of 75% of 16 to 24 year olds use these platforms.
While mobile and social commerce will inevitably present new and exciting opportunities for retailers and consumers alike, the potential risks are less well understood.
Here we focus on the opportunities for online businesses to grow but also the risks to be aware of, particularly in terms of fraud as criminals look to take advantage and exploit the security flaws in these new payment channels.
We show details of a report commissioned the Centre for Economic and Business Research to calculate the economic impact of mobile and social media commerce, both in terms of internet retail sales and its associated online fraud implications.
The findings show that while they present an opportunity for business growth – the total value of online sales will increase by 4.5 per cent annually by 2015 – they also increase the economic impact of e-commerce by £30 million over the same four years.
These new ways of shopping could become victims of their own success, for all the wrong reasons, if retailers fail to manage fraud correctly. Rather than offering more choices for shopping, retailers that fall victim to fraud may shut down risky mobile and social shopping sites.
So, what's this social shopping thing then?
When we think about how we used to make online purchases, it's amazing how far we’ve come from the ‘Click to Buy’ transaction a few years ago. Social commerce has brought the opportunities to make the emotional connection with the vendor before we buy.
Good marketing campaigns get much further reach and a greater awareness than ever before, and peer recommendations encourage further sales.
The challenge that marketers have is our current mind-set. We’re unsure what’s happening to the economy. When will it recover? Will it recover? How are we going to manage right now. Our survival instinct kicks in, we tighten our belts and we stop purchasing the very things that marketers are trying to get us to buy. We search for more affordable things – and this drives our behaviour.
We use comparison websites, we surf channels for the best deals. Our purchase decisions are all driven by the bargains we can get. Consumers are often not making the decision to buy something in the shops – the impulse to buy is delayed until they have done some research online, read the reviews about the product before they make their decision.
The way we shop has changed too. There are 3 roles that consumers fall into:
* The end user: For them shopping is done almost exclusively online. They shop from home and they use price comparison websites extensively
* The shopper: They walk around town, visiting shop by shop to see what’s on offer. They then use the web to see if they can get a better deal online
* The buyer: They buy physical items in real shops. Yes, they’ll shop around, but they make the purchase at a physical store. Its a real experience for them
The challenge for the marketer is that the power has shifted from the brand to the consumer. The consumer makes the decisions about where, when and how they will shop. With over 300 million applications for smartphones and tablet devices like the iPad, media has shifted from Marketing media to My media, to Our media (through sharing). The right technology allows consumers find the best product for them and buy it at the right brand. It allows them to build a relationship with these brands.
So how do you break through all of your competitors, and the competitive clutter to target your audience with relevant messaging from the brand? how do you enlist your brand advocates to spread the word on your behalf?
Brand advocates are really important in your marketing and advertising efforts. Getting a good dialogue with your brand evangelists is key to broadening your message out beyond the first tier of connections. Your message gets shared and amplified.
Factor in these 5 concepts to connect with your customer:
* Every customer has a lifestyle which goes way beyond your product. Study their lifestyles to really understand how to market to them. If you know your customer well, and know their lifestyles, then you will know what they want to buy.
* As a marketer, you have an opportunity to delight customers by providing timely and relevant content in the right place – on the right device. Make sure your content is compelling and interesting.
* Social Coupons which can be shared – and can go viral, are much better than paper based coupons. They have a huge reach and return. See the reach that Threshers had with their very successful viral coupon campaign and wonder whether it was a genuine mistake or a fake viral campaign
* Consumer promotions and brand advertising work well together and have a higher return that just a TV campaign on its own. Think about a co-ordinated approach similar to the Old Spice US marketing campaign
* Give them the campaigns that they want- in the form factor they want – on the device that they want. Don’t make them change their behaviour to suit you
What is a CMS? Do you need one?
Web technology has been an evolution, just like every other industry. What started with basic HTML is now CMS. It is a maturing technology that keeps on getting better. It's a 'must-have' for every website owner!
CMS, or Content Management Systems come in many different guises. Whatever the complexity or scope of the CMS, the theory and operation is exactly the same; to have something that allows the website owner to make updates as easily as using Word, while allowing the designer to have a flexible, more modular approach to development.
We are all good at some things and not others. A CMS platform allows people to play to their strengths and provides the opportunity to separate the functions you aren’t so good at. A web designer can concentrate on the design or the back end while a client can just provide the content without having to get embroiled in the way the site programming works. Nobody has to do something they aren’t good at, and everyone can work on the site at once without bringing it down or getting in each others way.
This streamlining of the workflow is what makes a CMS such good sense. Work can be carried out while the site is live without affecting operation. Templates can be created to completely change the look of the site without taking it down, changing the way everything works and without having to manually design each page.
Changes can be created, approved and published within minutes, not days. Website users and clients can collaborate and interact on the site freely. Discussions, comments and other interactions are easy to manage and moderate and can be seen almost instantly, creating a community feel to any site.
We, at Reverb, have been using CMS technology for over 6 years. This has allowed us to offer our clients the flexibility of updating their website themselves, while leaving us the time to think about the bigger picture and offer ideas and solutions to meet their customer's growing demands.
Have you got a CMS on your website?
If you would like a demo of what you should be using, feel free to ask.
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