Direct Brand-to-Consumer Niche Selling. How to Do it Right

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under B2C, website planing | Leave a Comment

The other day I received a call from a specialized brand manufacturer. His voice sounded urgent. He needed help, he explained. And fast. So far he had been offering his merchandise in brick and mortar stores around the country. “It’s high time we start marketing directly to consumers,” he said pointing to the rapidly growing number of manufacturers, big and small, who have taken the step.

It was a good point. An avalanche of brands have indeed started selling directly to consumer both online and off. Examples include Bose, LuluLemon and Apple of course. Sure larger margins are a draw. But it does not seem to be the main one – after all, most vendors continue offering their goods via third parties, as well. But they are eager to leverage the changing nature of the shopping experience. Customers are no longer restricted to local B&M stores and their limited selection.They compare prices and features online, and quickly locate the best deals for their needs. In other words they have assumed control, and forward-looking brands realize they need to engage users directly if they want to understand evolving needs and remain successful. Read more

Overcoming Buyer’s Hesitation with Additional Product Information

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under Trust, Usability | Leave a Comment

Predicting user requirements and properly addressing them is one of the more crucial goals in a Product Detail Page.

We see many attempts to fulfill users’ needs by means of Q&A pages for example, or more focused information attachments to specific products. Also, the application of “Inside Information” the store gathers from its shoppers’ habits, is another creative way to help shoppers make the purchasing decision. Already widely used are features like “best-seller” and “people who bought…”, but I came across the following:

HomeFurnitureShowroom.com allow their customers to view the frequency of product return.

While not revealing any specific number, this intuitive scale gives shoppers a general indication of the rate that people have returned the product in the past. Something like that can help remove hesitation and eventually make a difference between a purchase and a non-purchase. (The data can be automatically generated by synchronizing the page with the RMA record).

Think of a scenario in a physical store, a slight remark by the vendor or something written on the product’s package can make that difference, and the same applies for e-commerce. Of course, the product support history can be more effective for some products and less for others.

Ultimately, the product detail page should simulate all aspects of shoppers’ encounters. The more relevantly informed shoppers are, the better and easier purchasing decisions they will make, thereby increasing your profit and decreasing any post-purchase service issues you will need to handle.

6 Crucial Steps to Planning Your E-Commerce Website

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under website planing, Usability | Leave a Comment

Before any serious undertaking that requires your time and effort, you always make a plan - and your e-Commerce website should be no different. The truth is, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. But what exactly goes into an e-Commerce website plan? Having a solid plan of action can help you more easily measure your results, test new marketing avenues and stay connected with your target audience. By having an e-Commerce plan, you’ll be able to see what’s working, rather than guessing and hoping for the best. Let’s take a closer look at some of the points you should consider when taking your e-Commerce website from concept to creation.
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Can your customers trust you?

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under Trust, website planing, Usability | Leave a Comment

If you’re a niche ecommerce business, establishing trust is your top priority. Here’s how

If I had to choose the single most important attribute of a niche ecommerce business, I’d say it was trust.

Establishing trust with your customers is crucial to the success of an online business. For you, the business owner, it translates into a higher conversion rate and a lower cart abandonment rate. For your customers, it translates into the ease of mind that leads them to feel comfortable handing out their credit card information, without worrying about identity theft or number stealing. They have to believe that your ecommerce site is the front-end of a real, legitimate business that will supply what it says it will – not a Read more

Design a business, not a website

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under website planing, Conversion Insights, Usability | Leave a Comment

Many ecommerce businesses will be redesigning their sites in 2009. Some may be spending the money just because their site needs a “new look” – but for most it will be because the site has never really done what it was meant to do in the first place.
A recent survey by Internet Retailer magazine noted the following reasons for site redesigns: “Improved site optimization is the top priority for 72.9% of merchants, followed by clearly organized home, category and product pages at 62.4%, better navigation at 49.4%, improved site search at 47.1% and faster checkout at 40%.”
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Making it BIG by focusing small

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under Niche Success Stories | Leave a Comment

16 Fast Growing Online Niche Retailers

In recent years, niche online retailers have posted some of the fastest growth rates among the Internet Retailer’s Top 500 biggest web businesses (measured in annual revenue). 2007 was no exception. Among those Top 500 companies earning at least 30% growth in revenue year over year, around 3 in 4 were specialty stores or specialty store conglomerates. Read more

THE VIRTUAL FITTING ROOM -

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under The Near Future | 1 Comment

Making an online shopping trip more and more like the “real” thing

A lot of wild and wonderful predictions are being made about how computer-use is going to totally transform the shopping experience. Totally transformative changes have happened already – not least the way that customers looking for goods or services now automatically turn in their masses to a search engine (usually Google) to find them. The use of the Search function is leaping upward at the phenomenal rate of 20% a year, and it’s brand-new users who mostly account for that growth. Existing users, for their part, are boosting their use by 25% year. Read more

Keyword Espionage

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under Keyword Research | Leave a Comment

A little spying on your competition can often help

As we figure what precise keywords we should choose to draw people to our website, it makes a whole lot of sense to also get really savvy about what our competition might be doing in this field.
The great guiding principle in picking keywords is of course sheer logic. Our job, after all, is to figure out just what the customer has in mind when he or she is searching, and that is best figured out logically. But it helps, too, to know what keywords the opposition uses and finds effective — and of course what words don’t work so well. Read more

Design: Too Important for Just Designers

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under Usability | Leave a Comment

The look of your site is a lot more than looks

We naturally want a website selling our goods or service to look good. That’s a no-brainer.

But striking the right balance between aesthetic attractiveness and the best kind of functionality doesn’t come easy. But it’s really important. Read more

The Vital Search Within

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Asi Erenberg Filed Under Conversion Insights, Usability | Leave a Comment

Making it easy for visitors to find what they want INSIDE your store is essential

“Search Within” might sound to the initiated like some eastern meditation technique, but of course in online commerce it’s much more down-to-earth. Search within your online site, enabling customers to quickly find exactly what they went once they’ve arrived at your site, is hugely important. And there are ways to ensure it works well, as well as some common pitfalls that can be avoided. Read more

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