BlogSales

Subscribe via RSS

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.

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?

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.

The Importance of Payments for an eCommerce Business

As a startup or small business the payment provider you chose for your eCommerce site is of high importance. You should be thinking about the user and the smoothest payment journey possible.

At Gloople, we saw the importance of the perfect payment provider from the beginning. We have met with over 18 different PSP, ISO and Acquirers from the new kids on the block; Stripe, Paymill, Braintree all the way to HSBC, Securetrading, Ogone, Skrill, Paypal, Realex, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments and many, many more.

Generally, as a small business, payments fall into the below categories;

  • Credit and debit cards

  • Electronic payments

  • Direct transfer

Before you can choose the right payment provider for your business, you need to think about the kind of goods and services your business is selling. Credit and Debit card payments are the most popular type of payment method as the online world has developed over the years.

If your business trades online and has a physical store, you should offer credit and debit card payments. If your store is online only, you should be using payment systems like PayPal to make sure the checkout process is efficient. If your business sells to other businesses, you should look at credit transfer via the BACS system.

If you are spending your time searching for the perfect payment gateway, you should ask yourself;

  • Have I read the small print? – make sure you’re not getting yourself into a long term contract with extra payments that will crop up. A lot of businesses will try and hide the information which you may disagree with in their small print.

  • What’s the support like? – With the eCommerce world in constant action, you need support to be there when you really need it.

  • Is my online payment gateway and shopping basket compatible? – You will need to check this to make sure your shopping cart can be integrated.

  • Are there going to be hidden costs? – This can sometimes be overlooked so you need to be aware of any potential hidden costs such as multi-currency payments ect.

  • Does my payment gateway come with anti-fraud? As you develop your site, you need to pick a payment provider that can provide the basic anti-fraud tools.

  • Can I see the sales figures? – you should be looking to analyse your sales data all the time so chose a payment provider that will help manage your sales data.

The process of finding the right payment system has taken over three months of preparation with meeting after meeting followed by proposals. I am now in the process of sitting down with the Gloople team where we will, collectively chose the right partner for OUR customers. As a platform it is important that we give our merchants (brands and retailers) the simplest and quickest solution to help them start selling the day they sign up.

I hope when that when the time comes, you will have the right information to pick the payment provider suitable for your eCommerce site. In next weeks blog I will be going into more detail around the positives and negatives, to the various payment providers I have mentioned and their monthly fees, percentage and fixed fees per transaction.

Niche Marketing is the New Mass Marketing

Some may say I’m crazy to suggest Niche Marketing and Mass Marketing are so similar that one may become the other but if you think about it, small businesses are broadly targeting narrow markets.

Niche Marketing is selling to a certain target group or sector whereas Mass Marketing is selling various products to a broad range of people in different sectors. The latter used to be the most effective but with the way marketing has changed over the past three years, we are seeing Niche Marketing provide better results.

With Social Media as influential as it is; it has made Niche Marketing the all-important marketing concept for 2013. People are turning to social networks and blogging sites to share passions and interests and are searching for content related to these passions.

What are the advantages of Niche Marketing?

  • Less Competition and tailored promotions meaning you spend less on advertising.
  • Helps develop a strong brand and customer loyality
  • Your strategy is targeted meaning your products will only target those who would be interested in purchasing them.

The secret to exploiting a niche market is to find a fast growing target that has customers who are accessible but are trying to find that service which is yet to be offered.

When Gloople was first formed in 2011, we found a niche in the market. We are the World’s first Social Sharing eCommerce Platform. We offer something that isn’t offered anywhere in the world so our customers will be loyal, mainly because there is no business offering what they want.

Niche Marketing Tips

  • Not everyone is going to love you – Take the TV show Arrow for instance. Not every single person who watches TV are going to enjoy Arrow. You can’t let this phase you as you can’t pleasing everyone. Focus on pleasing those who are loyal to your business as those are the customers you should value.
  • Niche Marketing to Multiple Niches – You may have two different products, say a face cream targeted for those with acne and an anti-aging cream. Those who suffer from acne will not want the anti-aging cream and vice versa. This is your chance to show versatility however, you will need two different marketing strategies.

In a recent blog I wrote, I shared some great statistics around Small Businesses and how they are the root of our economy and it is likely that a large amount of those businesses use Niche Marketing to sell their products. Something which was so popular like Mass Marketing has now been replaced and improved by Niche Marketing.

Are you a Niche Marketer or a Mass Marketer?