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Social Commerce – The Future of Connecting with your Online Consumer

In an ideal world for most people, the way we buy and sell as a business or consumer, would never change. I, however am not most people and believe that change is a great opportunity to learn more about the technology world and improve the way our businesses function. Two words that have been floating around the web for some time now have a purpose and meaning. Social Commerce is here, and it won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

Mark Zuckerberg was right when he said “If I had to guess, Social Commerce is next to blow up” back in 2011. Social Commerce is the combination of social media and digital technology to sell both products and services online.

Social Commerce will be a driving force for online sales because of the art of storytelling. What better way to connect with an online customer than giving them a reason to connect with YOUR business? Every business has a story and a personality trait which is social media worthy.  If you can connect with your customers on a personal level through story telling on social media, you will build your clientele which in essence will translate into a social commerce transaction.

There are 1 billion people on Facebook with around 75% of those users “liking” a brand’s Facebook page. The Facebook users that like a fan page are ultimately saying they will buy from that business IF that company engages with them in the right way. Did you know that a Facebook share (when someone see’s a post on your Facebook fan page, “shares” it with their community who then follows the link back to your page, visits your website and purchases from you) is worth £2.60? Even more surprisingly, Twitter can generate a massive £21.04 in sales through a share. Think Social Media is a waste of time? Think again.

When I hold a keynote seminar, I always ask the same question. When you are inside Facebook and see one of their advertisements down the side of the page, do YOU firstly click on it, and THEN purchase that product? 99% of the time, no more than three hands are raised out of around 50-60 people. Why? Because we no longer trust advertising more than we do peer to peer recommendations. Andrew Mason, Groupon founder said the following; “Middle-class people sit around, trying to think of how to spend money.  One of the most powerful ways to figure that out is looking at what your friends are buying – these are the people you trust”. This, I definitely agree with.

It has been estimated that by 2015, Social Commerce sales will reach around $30 billion a year with 50% of online revenue coming from social media. We are seeing well known brands like Mercedes selling 666 cars in the space of 8 hours with their “Three Point Twitter” campaign and Adidas selling around £2,500 worth of products via in-stream Facebook and Twitter. Brands are making magic and it’s not just a myth anymore, there is a lot of money to be made if you utilise the tools available to combine social media and digital commerce.

The best way to sell on social media is to in fact, not sell at all. For your followers to really trust your business, you need to take a step back and realise why you are even a part of a social network. The intent is not always a purchase, it is to share great content and to engage with a community. Once you have built this foundation, you won’t need to force your products or services onto those who are connected to you, they will naturally, become brand advocates.

Social Commerce is here to stay and it’s time for you to look at the future of connecting with your online consumer.

Using Gmail More Effectively #Filter #Important #Extensions

As someone who is constantly short on time, I am always trying to find ways to make sure I am doing everything I can to save time wherever possible. In my last blog I spoke about using LinkedIn to avoid wasting time when speaking to a companies Gatekeeper and I want to try and help those who basically live in their Gmail inbox like I do.

As most of you know, Gmail can be difficult at times, especially when you are receiving numerous unimportant emails which are going straight into your inbox. As this is something that used to happen to me on a daily basis I had to find a solution. The best way to avoid having your phone buzzing every two minutes with pointless emails is to filter them. To do this, click on the email, go to the “more” button and select “filter messages like these”. A white box will then appear and you will need to select “create filter with this search”. You will then come to various options regarding how you want to filter the corresponding email address. For me, the best way to organise this is to select “skip the inbox (archive it)” and apply it to a label. Once you have made your decision you can click “create filter”. This will now automatically add the emails you receive from that filtered email address to a different place in your inbox. The advantages of doing this are;

  • To clean up your inbox by removing all the unimportant emails and filtering them into the correct folders

  • To allow YOU to focus on the important emails as opposed to being distracted.

  • To avoid the constant vibration of your mobile phone.

 

Did you know that having an inbox full of emails forces you to multi task which lowers your IQ? I didn’t realise how much of a difference it made to my organisation until I changed the way my Gmail works.

Another great way to make your Gmail more efficient is to integrate an application called PowerBot which allows you to work more productively with Evernote. Powerbot allows you to link the notes and reminders from inside Evernote and transfer them to an email or even your googe calendar. If you go to the Powerbot application site here and click on “install the browser extension” you will see a pop up window where you can select to “add to chrome”. Once you have followed the steps on this page, you will then have to follow the three simple steps to connect your Evernote account with your Gmail account. Keep an eye out for Step 3 – this will show you exactly how PowerBot works.

This free of charge software allows you to file a message from Evernote in your Gmail folder and even insert an Evernote message into an email and send an email to Evernote.

Without using these handy tips, I would find myself having to constantly clean my inbox and using other tools that are not compatible with each other, wasting more of my valuable time.

I hope you find these tips helpful and trust me, there is a lot more you can do inside of Gmail to keep you focused on running a successful business.

U.K. To Get Its Own Version of Small Business Saturday

Small business owners; listen up! This year, the U.K. will be getting Small Business Saturday this year! In the United States alone, their version of this highly popular event say over $5 billion in sales for small businesses.

The Shadow Business Secretary Chukka Umunna spoke to The Independent regarding Small Business Saturday;

“The UK version will be launched against the backdrop of a traumatic time for many retailers in town centers  where an average of one in seven shops is empty after a series of failures over the past five years.” Mr Umunna said: “I want to make Small Business Saturday a reality in Britain to actively champion, celebrate and showcase small, independent businesses on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.”

My Umunna has been a huge supporter of this event that will take place on the 7th December 2013. Small business retailers in the U.K., like many in the U.S. have struggled during the tough economic time. This is the time to really celebrate the achievement many small businesses have managed despite all odds.

This event in the U.K. is being backed by several influential groups including the Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses, British Independent Retailers Association, The Association of Convenience Stores, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association, to name a few.

We should expect to see other well known small business advocates celebrating the event. Startup Britain and Startup Loans are two leading organisations who will be marketing this great event to their audience.

The U.S. version of Small Business Saturday is held on the Saturday after Black Friday. The idea was first formed in 2010 by American Express who picked up on the growing trend that Small Businesses were succeeding in such harsh times. They then decided to promote it around the holiday season and now has hundreds of supporters including cities, states, chambers of commerce, small business advocacy groups, high profile public officials and large brands like American Express, FedEx and The Small Business Administration (SBA)..

The U.S. have managed to successfully tap into Social Media to promote the event. Not only has Small Business Saturday become a major movement, social media activity is constantly active throughout the year. With it’s own website (www.shopsmall.com), Twitter handle and Hashtag (@Shopmall / #Shopsmall) Small Business Saturday has proved its ability to impact Twitter but even more so on Facebook with over 3 million likes on it’s Facebook Page.

I am a huge advocate of Small Businesses as I am an owner of one myself so I will definitely be supporting this cause, even if it is on both my Sister’s birthdays! Voted as one of the UK’s top 100 Startup’s by Startups.co.uk, keep an eye out for Gloople’s name around the 7th December!

What will you be doing to support Small Business Saturday?

How to Protect Your Brand Reputation

It’s no secret that social media can break a brand’s reputation in one single tweet or facebook post. How can YOU make sure you either avoid this or take control of the situation straight away? You need to use a tool which allows you to monitor your businesses mentions on Social Media.

Most people would suggest using Google Alerts for this but there is one huge problem with this. The alerts are not in real time. By this I mean I receive google alerts on my mentions a week later than when I was mentioned. This means it takes me one whole week to react to a mention which isn’t good enough. A tool I have been using for a long time which allows me to see how I, or my business Gloople has been mentioned in real-time is Mention.

Mention was recently nominated as “Startup of the Year” at the TNW French Startup Awards proving it’s worth in the social tool market. This application can be accessed via the web, desktop and even iPhone. You can create alerts for key terms based on your business so you can monitor your industry, brand mentions and competitors.

After setting up my alerts, I found it much easier to track and mute all of the social noise on the world wide web.

As I am a contributor for various sites, I find Mention great to see what has been published and in real time. Without the use of Mention, I would never have found an article written about me by ZoneTwo from when I was at Pure London earlier this year. I also found an article written by the Telegraph on Gloople and the SEIS.

One of the reasons why I stand by Mention is the fact that I can use their platform on my mobile. A lot of companies have managed to make the transition from desktop to mobile but not quite made it as user friendly as most consumers would hope but this isn’t the case for Mention. As you can see in the image below, their iPhone and Android app is very easy to use and still works in real time.

Are you using Mention?

The True Cost of Selling Online

Following from my last blog; The importance of Payments for an eCommerce Business, I wanted to discuss payments in more detail, especially when it comes to the cost of selling online.

I know that a lot of eCommerce businesses try and ignore or disregard the importance of managing the costs of selling online but it is something you MUST do before even considering selling online. By costs, I don’t just mean your website build, there are so many additional costs you need to consider;

  • SSL Certificate

  • Monthly fee to Payment gateway

  • Monthly fee for Merchant account

  • Fixed transactions fee

  • % per transaction fee

You are going to have to face the facts when it comes to selling online, there are no two ways about it; you need to accept online payments and to do this, you need to use some form of payment provider.

You have two options when it comes to online payments. You can either take payments immediately without having to create a Merchant ID or, create your own Merchant ID, which can take anything from 2 days to 6 weeks, with companies like SagePay or Worldpay and pay a monthly fee and/or percentage per transaction.

If you DON’T want to create a merchant account, you can work with providers like Stripe, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments and PayPal, which allow you to start taking payments from Visa and Mastercards almost immediately. With Stripe however, your consumer will be kept on the same page and will not be diverted to another website, giving your customer a greater user journey.

Regardless of the company you use, you will be look at a charge of upto 3.4% on the processing fee and a 30p transaction fee for every item sold. These costs vary according to your monthly turnover. Here is a great converter, giving you an overview of all the options in the UK and the total costs per month. Be Careful of the hiddens costs, like 3D secure, mobile terminal, quick checkout all of these might be an extra charge.

Lets say you bought a Necklace from a wholesaler for £1.00 + VAT = £1.20, if you sold the item for £3 on your website, you have to pay 20% VAT leaving you with £2.40. The cost of processing the sale would be 10p (3.4%)+ 30p, leaving you with £2.00 and lets say your shipping to the customer was free of charge and cost you another 40p, leaving you with £1.60.  You are left with 60p profit, and out of this you have to pay, website costs, wages, warehouse etc etc. Can the business exist on this type of profit margin?

If you go down the Merchant ID route, you will still need a gateway to take payments. Some PSP (payment service providers) and ISO (independent sales organisation) can charge a small business up to £25 as a monthly minimum fee and for this you will get between 350 and 1000 transactions depending on the company you go with. The likes of SagePay, PaymentSense, Authorize.net, Realex, eWay, Securetrading, Paypoint and Ogone, to name a few offer a payment solution for those wanting to go down the Merchant ID route. If you are looking to set up a merchant account but unsure how to do so, here is a great blog to help you.

I know that it can be scary when thinking about the cost of selling online but you really need to consider the best route for you, your business and most importantly, the smoothest journey for your consumer.