on Mar9
I was talking with Tyler from Sitebrand a while back and he gave an interesting anecdote that really put personalization for eCommerce web sites into perspective.
Imagine you have a retail store and three different visitors come into your store:
- The first is a businessman in an expensive suit, carrying some luggage. He clearly just got off a plane or is about to get on one.
The second is a mother with a 2-year-old on her hip- The third visitor is a young woman (around 20 – 22) who heads straight for the bargain racks
How would you approach each visitor? What would you say to each one? Your approach would be very different, would it not?
Now imagine those three same visitors go to your online store. Would you want to approach them with the very same messaging and products? Probably not. That’s where web site personalization comes in. There are companies (like Sitebrand or Kefta) that specialize in helping you segment your site visitors and speak to their needs with messaging, sales, offers, and products that are targeted specifically to them.
So you can help the businessman find what he needs for his trip, the mom find what she is looking for before her two-year-old needs his nap and the best deal for the young bargain-hunter.
Does Personalization really work?
I did a quick search and lo and behold I found a (very dated) 2003 report from Jupiter Research that says that web site personalization does not always provide positive results. To quote Jupiter:
“To drive key business metrics, most sites are better off focusing on the basics, like usability, information architecture and making key tasks easy for users to accomplish,” said David Schatsky, Senior Vice President at Jupiter Research.
What this says to me is NOT ”personalization doesn’t work”, but that if you haven’t first done your due diligence and optimized the usability of your web site, you’d get more bang for your buck by tackling usability first.
Also of note, personalization companies have taken advantage of the big strides that have been made in web analytics software in the past few years–which means they can measure and show exactly how the personalization is impacting sales. Then you can tweak your personalizing strategies until they do provide measurable positive results. Using a tool like Google Analytics (which is free), you can easily measure your return on investment for each tool you employ on your eCommerce web site.
What is usability and how does it work?
The most popular and well-known usability methodology is usability testing: a fast, inexpensive way to determine how well your site works for real online shoppers. It involves finding a few of your target web site visitors, sitting down with them, giving them a few tasks, then just watching and observing what they have trouble with. You don’t even need any specialized equipment (although I find it helps me to record the sessions with a webcam and some usability software like Morae or Silverback). It uncovers the obvious mistakes that most users would have trouble with very quickly and helps you uncover small things you can fix that would mean big improvements in your e-store’s navigation and user-friendliness.
So does personalization help?
Logically, it seems like it SHOULD help–after all, you wouldn’t speak to the businessman the same as you would the mom or the bargain-hunter, but in the end, I think it depends on a lot of things. It depends on how usable your web site is, how well you segment your traffic, whether your targeted messaging is effective, etc. If you test all these elements as you implement your personalization, I don’t see how it could NOT help increase your sales. We all like to be spoken to as individuals and we like it when companies can tell what we need when we need it and deliver it quickly. If you can do that, you’re bound to succeed.
Don’t forget to include reliable payments!
No matter what you choose to use to optimize your online sales, make sure you choose a quality payment solutions provider. Intellivative offers a quality XML-based payments API that integrates with just about any shopping cart, content management system, or personalization software.
on Feb3
I ran across a blog post from Brendan Regan of FutureNow on one of my own pet peeves: disruptive advertising on the internet. He describes an annoying Domino’s ad popping up on MySpace and literally interrupting the music he was listening to. He was so angry he had to blog about it. Hey, I’d be mad too. My task flow has been rudely interrupted many a time on the Internet, and every time it does, I make a mental note never to do business with that company again.
Invasive ads are the norm on television and nobody gets upset (they might skip over them, but they don’t get mad about it …), but on the Internet it’s a different story. Why?
Active vs. Passive Medium
Television is a passive medium. Someone watching TV is usually sitting there, not really doing anything important. On a passive medium like TV, you can interrupt the viewer with ads and suggestions (hey, wouldn’t you like a pizza right now? Look, yummy, hot, cheesy piiiiizza …) and it might even tempt them into buying something.
The Internet, on the other hand, is an active medium–when someone is on the Internet, they are trying to get something done. Users on the Internet are focused on the task at hand (even if the task at hand is Play), and they can get more than a little upset if someone interrupts their task, especially if the interruption has absolutely nothing to do with what they were trying to accomplish.
On the other hand, if someone supports the task at hand with helpful information, products, or services, Internet users respond positively. In eBusiness, if you can find a way to support the user’s task at hand, you win customers and therefore, more business. This is why ads that interrupt the user’s flow tend to get ignored, or worse yet, drive business away. Those who criticize performance-based marketing on the Internet just don’t get the reality of this active medium.
It’s almost funny how many big businesses (like Domino’s Pizza and Dell computers) don’t understand the difference between passive and active mediums–they keep interrupting users from their task. It’s like walking up to a football player on the field in the middle of a game and asking him if he’d like to buy a computer. It’s not going to work. First of all, you’re not going to stop him from his task. He’s playing football, you idiot, and he’s going to do whatever he’s got to do to get back to it. If that means plowing over you in the process, he will do it. And then (after the game) he will tell all his friends how stupid your company is. If he’s a blogger, that bad press might find it’s way all over the Internet.
So think of the user’s task as the football game. If you offer him an incredible football or some awesome cleats before (or even after) the game, he might go for it. But he’s not going to stop the game to go buy your product or service–it would be foolish to even try to interrupt him in the middle of the game.
Success for your eBusiness
So if you want to succeed at eCommerce, then, you have to find a way to suggest your products or services just at the right moment–and no moment is better than when they are searching for it. Search engine optimization is so critical on the Internet. The second key for eCommerce success is the usability of your site (the ability to help the user through their task). Every aspect of your eBusiness strategy, from advertising to checkout, has to focus on supporting the user’s tasks, offering helpful information when they need it, suggesting your product or service just when they need it, and ensuring you make it painless and quick for them to get it once they do decide to buy.
Usable Payment Systems
So your payment processing system has to be painless and quick, right at the point the customer makes the decision to buy your product or service. Your payments solution should:
- Be available at the moment when the user decides to purchase (even it it’s at 3 a.m. on a Sunday night).
- If your payment system is not ready to go when the user wants to purchase, you’re most likely going to lose the sale.
- Offer payment options that fit your customers (not too many payment options, though!)
- Offering too many options tend to overwhelm the customer and get in the way of completing the task.
- Most customers on the Internet tend to pay by credit card.
- Fit seamlessly into the flow of your eCommerce site
- Your web site has to be straightforward and simple, so the user can readily accomplish what they want to.
- If they can’t figure out how to pay, or if it’s too much work, there are plenty of other eCommerce sites out there that will be glad to help out your customers.
- Securely process the payment and protect the customer’s private information
- Security on the web is a very major factor. Make sure you check the methods that your payment processor uses to protect the customer’s information to make sure it’s the highest level of security available.
- Offer the user assurances at the point of sale–tell them why their credit card information is secure, how it’s secured, and who is securing their payment transaction. Calming the user’s fears goes a long ways towards getting the sale.
Oh, and speaking of payment systems, if you’re looking for a flexible, secure eCommerce solution for your business that will fit into the flow of your web site, give you all the popular payment types, and work with your shopping cart software, take a look at the Intellivative Payments API.
on Feb3
I ran across a blog post from Brendan Regan of FutureNow on one of my own pet peeves: disruptive advertising on the internet. He describes an annoying Domino’s ad popping up on MySpace and literally interrupting the music he was listening to. He was so angry he had to blog about it. Hey, I’d be mad too. My task flow has been rudely interrupted many a time on the Internet, and every time it does, I make a mental note never to do business with that company again.
Invasive ads are the norm on television and nobody gets upset (they might skip over them, but they don’t get mad about it …), but on the Internet it’s a different story. Why?
Active vs. Passive Medium
Television is a passive medium. Someone watching TV is usually sitting there, not really doing anything important. On a passive medium like TV, you can interrupt the viewer with ads and suggestions (hey, wouldn’t you like a pizza right now? Look, yummy, hot, cheesy piiiiizza …) and it might even tempt them into buying something.
The Internet, on the other hand, is an active medium–when someone is on the Internet, they are trying to get something done. Users on the Internet are focused on the task at hand (even if the task at hand is Play), and they can get more than a little upset if someone interrupts their task, especially if the interruption has absolutely nothing to do with what they were trying to accomplish.
On the other hand, if someone supports the task at hand with helpful information, products, or services, Internet users respond positively. In eBusiness, if you can find a way to support the user’s task at hand, you win customers and therefore, more business. This is why ads that interrupt the user’s flow tend to get ignored, or worse yet, drive business away. Those who criticize performance-based marketing on the Internet just don’t get the reality of this active medium.
It’s almost funny how many big businesses (like Domino’s Pizza and Dell computers) don’t understand the difference between passive and active mediums–they keep interrupting users from their task. It’s like walking up to a football player on the field in the middle of a game and asking him if he’d like to buy a computer. It’s not going to work. First of all, you’re not going to stop him from his task. He’s playing football, you idiot, and he’s going to do whatever he’s got to do to get back to it. If that means plowing over you in the process, he will do it. And then (after the game) he will tell all his friends how stupid your company is. If he’s a blogger, that bad press might find it’s way all over the Internet.
So think of the user’s task as the football game. If you offer him an incredible football or some awesome cleats before (or even after) the game, he might go for it. But he’s not going to stop the game to go buy your product or service–it would be foolish to even try to interrupt him in the middle of the game.
Success for your eBusiness
So if you want to succeed at eCommerce, then, you have to find a way to suggest your products or services just at the right moment–and no moment is better than when they are searching for it. Search engine optimization is so critical on the Internet. The second key for eCommerce success is the usability of your site (the ability to help the user through their task). Every aspect of your eBusiness strategy, from advertising to checkout, has to focus on supporting the user’s tasks, offering helpful information when they need it, suggesting your product or service just when they need it, and ensuring you make it painless and quick for them to get it once they do decide to buy.
Usable Payment Systems
So your payment processing system has to be painless and quick, right at the point the customer makes the decision to buy your product or service. Your payments solution should:
- Be available at the moment when the user decides to purchase (even it it’s at 3 a.m. on a Sunday night).
- If your payment system is not ready to go when the user wants to purchase, you’re most likely going to lose the sale.
- Offer payment options that fit your customers (not too many payment options, though!)
- Offering too many options tend to overwhelm the customer and get in the way of completing the task.
- Most customers on the Internet tend to pay by credit card.
- Fit seamlessly into the flow of your eCommerce site
- Your web site has to be straightforward and simple, so the user can readily accomplish what they want to.
- If they can’t figure out how to pay, or if it’s too much work, there are plenty of other eCommerce sites out there that will be glad to help out your customers.
- Securely process the payment and protect the customer’s private information
- Security on the web is a very major factor. Make sure you check the methods that your payment processor uses to protect the customer’s information to make sure it’s the highest level of security available.
- Offer the user assurances at the point of sale–tell them why their credit card information is secure, how it’s secured, and who is securing their payment transaction. Calming the user’s fears goes a long ways towards getting the sale.
Oh, and speaking of payment systems, if you’re looking for a flexible, secure eCommerce solution for your business that will fit into the flow of your web site, give you all the popular payment types, and work with your shopping cart software, take a look at the Intellivative Payments API.
