Is your company ready for the online holiday rush?  Here is a summary of several issues to consider that appeared in a recent article by Cindy Waxer for InsideCRM, Ho-Ho-Hold on to Your Customers:

With the number of online retail sales expected to grow to a whopping $271.6 billion by the year 2011, companies simply can’t afford to fall out of favor with their Web shoppers. Here’s what businesses need to bear in mind as they strive to keep their customers happy during the holiday crunch:

Manage your inventory. “Adequate inventory is something e-tailers can have difficulties with if they experience a spike in demand,” warned Michelle Warren, a senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group.

Keep tabs on your technology. Unanticipated spikes in online traffic can send an e-tailer’s servers crashing — and Web shoppers running elsewhere. For this reason, Warren advised to “consider working with your solution provider to ensure that you have the right amount of technology in place.”

Read the rest of this entry »

bookmark to:

Here are several excerpts from an interesting article by Joshua Weinberger, Managing Editor of CRM Magazine, The Litany of Retail Woe: 50 Chains Shutting Stores:

A frighteningly long list of retail closures came across the transom during the last few days, and while I haven’t yet fact-checked every point (stay tuned for links, chronology, etc.), I quickly found enough supporting material to merit republishing and amending the list.

The sheer breadth of the damage here is breathtaking. The bloodbath crosses every kind of retail sector, and is clearly not just a reflection of the tough times we’re in, but a harbinger of worse times to come.

Every closed retail location may represent eventual savings for the company involved (after shouldering the actual costs of the close itself, that is), but also represents dozens or even hundreds of out-of-work employees (who are, after all, someone else’s customers), reductions up the supply chain, and rent and taxes removed from that store’s local economy.

In other words, this is bad news with ripple effects that will be felt for months and years to come. (For starters? According to one report, “Consumers will lose $100 million this year on worthless gift cards, from restaurants and stores that have gone belly up.”)

Things don’t look like they’re going to be getting better any time soon given the following news reported in an AP article today…

Read the rest of this entry »

bookmark to:

Here’s an interesting article from theWISEmarketer.com (free registration required), E-retail Opportunities Missed After Checking Out:

When a customer places an order through a retailer’s web site, what is the last thing they see? All too often it’s just an order reference that they’re asked to print out and keep in case anything goes wrong, according to Philip Williams of NetFidelity UK, who suggests that e-retailers are missing a vital opportunity.

The post-sale web space can be used to develop additional streams of passive incremental revenue without actually having to sell more products at the time. It’s a space where consumers are already in the ‘buying mood’. At that time they usually feel good because they’ve just bought something they need or want. It’s the perfect place, NetFidelity argues, to encourage repeat purchases.

Read the rest of this entry »

bookmark to:

From E-consultancy comes, 10 Tips on Improving Online Customer Service:

The Christmas season is well underway for retailers, which means customer service departments will be facing a battle to maintain standards.

With many customers shopping online for the first time, as well as those internet shopping veterans who will turn out in great numbers, etailers must ensure that they provide a positive experience to encourage repeat business.

We’re big on the subject of customer retention here at E-consultancy, so what can an e-commerce firm do to keep shoppers satisfied and coming back for more? How can the internet play a part in all of this?

E-commerce companies should consider the following, to boost customer satisfaction while reducing those expensive offline support costs that can devour margins… and remember, it isn’t too late to introduce some of these - there are some quick wins here…

Read the rest of this entry »

bookmark to:

Here are several excerpts from a recent article by Jessica Tsai, The 5 Pain Points of E-Commerce:

As part of Shop.org’s Annual Summit, Forrester Research Senior Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru delivered a keynote address that resoundingly argued against the conventional wisdom that online retail may have already seen its best days.

“Some think e-commerce has peaked,” Mulpuru said, citing recent news reports from sources such as MSNBC.com (”Online Shopping Growth to Slow in Next Decade“) and The New York Times (”Online Sales Lose Steam“). But Mulpuru believes that e-commerce still holds great potential — in fact, she predicts an approximate 25 percent year-over-year growth for both 2007 and 2008.

The Web 2.0 era has delivered very sophisticated functionalities, Mulpuru told the crowd, but the growth she’s predicting will not come by depending on technology alone. In her keynote, Mulpuru described many online retailers as “running before they can walk” because they are so caught up in what’s new and complex — such as videos and podcasts — that they haven’t yet nailed down the fundamental attributes of their online presence.

When businesses begin to really focus on what they’re offering and how they want their customers to interact with them, Mulpuru noted, solutions will become readily apparent. To that end, she addressed what she called the five pain points of e-commerce — and said that dealing with them is essential to maintaining a successful online presence:

Read the rest of this entry »

bookmark to: