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Analysis, Discussion, Latest News, Technology

Stress Testing

Peer1Hosting
December23/ 2014

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So you’re running an advertising campaign to attract more customers, and it’s proving pretty successful. Brand recognition is rising and as a result, more and more people are passing through your eCommerce site. It all seems too good to be true, until you realise your servers can no longer handle the web traffic and suddenly… the website is down. Your brand’s reputation takes a knock; you lose considerable amounts of money in the downtime and end up wondering what you could have done to prevent such an ordeal.

There is an answer to this: stress-testing. We are constantly being told preparation is the key to success, and your company’s website should not be an exception to this rule. Stress-testing allows you to examine the performance of your website using reliable, repeatable load stress situations. The results offer accurate predictions of what end-users could experience during site stress, by timing how long it takes to access specific pages or receive a response during transactions under different load simulations. Speed, overall performance and risk of crashing are all taken into account during these tests. These simulations can be crucial for identifying areas of concern, allowing you to fix any bugs before they present themselves in the real world.

Recent research by the Aberdeen Group found that 79 per cent of online shoppers who are dissatisfied with a website’s performance wouldn’t buy from the site again. At moments when you’re really pushing for extra traffic and your website is in the spotlight, watching visitors plummet with your servers could be heartbreaking considering all the time and effort invested into directing them into your user experience. Especially when it could have permanent consequences.

Website crashes sadly aren’t a rare occurrence. Charities with websites often feel the strain with extra traffic. Take Kind Campaign for example – following an Emmy Award speech from Aaron Paul highlighting the organisation, the website crashed under sheer volume of traffic throughout that night and the next morning. Whilst this unfortunate event still helped to raise the visibility of the charity, it does raise questions on how much money could have been raised from the site when users first attempted access. Had the website been more prepared, the company could have really seized upon a great moment of hyper-visibility.

Companies in the retail sector have also suffered. In 2011, Ebuyer suffered an outage when holding a clearance sale for Cyber Monday, putting their competitive edge at risk on one of the busiest trading days of the year.

With online consumer spending projected to increase by 62 per cent over the next two years, servers are only going to be faced with more and more pressure from increasing traffic. Your website will be more crucial to your business than it has ever been before. Ensure that you take the right steps to help your business succeed.

Grow

Should pure-play e-sellers consider transitioning to clicks-and-mortar?

Philip Rooke
December23/ 2014

Xmas time

Amazon’s plan to open its first physical store in NY in time for Christmas has put rise of clicks-and-mortar e-sellers back on the agenda. So what exactly does this trend mean? Well, the expression comes from the early days of the dotcom boom when it described offline retailers going online. Now in a new twist it is used to describe established e-sellers who are opening physical stores or pop shops. And with the largest pure-play of all experimenting with it many more are likely to follow but should you be considering it?

 

I have often contemplated the possibility of opening an offline store for the print-on-demand e-commerce company I manage but to be honest, it has been a low priority compared to growing the several tens of thousands online shops on our platform and 19 markets we currently operate in. However, we still need to be aware of the sales potential having several routes-to-market offers, and a multi-channel approach is likely to be an important part in our any company’s long-term strategy so here are four key factors to consider:

 

1. Customer experience is key

 

What matters now more than ever is ‘the experience’ either offline or online. With so many local and international online competitors able to steal your customer, a bad experience loses you customers.  It is critical for offline retailers to provide a good online experience too otherwise the shopping experience is not complete for the consumer when they leave the store.

 

Online brands are as experiential as any offline brand, customers want good service and value so if you provide this your brand will grow by retention and recommendation faster online than any offline retailer can manage. At the same time offline retailers can provide poor service and value, meaning their brand will never grow.

 

Regardless of who you are; what you make or how you sell it – the focus should be on providing customers a seamless omni-channel experience.

 

2. An audience ready for shopping

 

An offline retail space would allow many brands, content and entertainment businesses that use our platform to reach an audience already in shopping mode. Shops can also sometimes give consumers a far stronger introduction to your brand. And in-store visits can become opportunities to drive re-purchase or incremental sales online.

 

3. Works with mobile
Tablets and smartphones are changing the way we shop. The experience of being able to curate and compare real products and complete the transaction later at your convenience is becoming increasingly important and can only be done with the addition of mobile technology and an offline offering.

 

4. Logistics and focus

 

The biggest challenge for online retailers considering an offline move is one of logistics and focus. At Spreadshirt, we have over 500 employees around the world all specialists in online marketing, e-commerce experience, mass customization and rapid direct-to-consumer fulfilment to 190 countries. Not one specialises in running a scaled offline retail business.  There are thousands of differences between both channels from the thought process to supply chain, to how you manage staff to customer experience in the offline environment.  And there are issues to consider such as shoplifting, stock damage and cash transactions. Deciding to move offline without taking into account all these considerations would be reckless! E-commerce retailers looking to make that move should really look to find an experienced retail partner before doing so.

 

The move to the high-street isn’t necessarily for everyone either, if as in Spreadshirt’s case – you deal with brands that are looking for global coverage,  it would take hundreds of shops to match the millions of visitors we get via online search, sharing and white label shops.  This also applies to many specialist e-commerce retailers who have a global reach or specialist markets that are not on the high-street.

 

Ultimately though, what matters is creating an integrated omni-channel approach that creates connections across multiple channels and drives value to consumers, as this is what will lead to business success.

 

Author: Philip Rooke, CEO of Spreadshirt. Follow him on Twitter @PhilipRooke

Copywriting Services, Marketing, Sell, YOU!

Content and commerce – a potent partnership

Adrien Nussenbaum
December22/ 2014

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The combination of content and commerce is one rich with potential for retailers of all sizes. A new Christmas tradition that has emerged over the past few years is that of the major retailer ad campaign. The premiere of the John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and others’ Christmas television ads, attract millions of viewers, generate countless column inches and the theme is used as the basis for the entire Christmas campaign.

These campaigns will include a lot of content that is used on the retailer’s website to complement the online store. But such content can come in many different forms and a new customer of Mirakl’s has really hit on something with its approach to the content / commerce combination.

The Beautyst
The Beautyst is an online beauty community and store that has just expanded its digital strategy to launch the world’s first marketplace fully dedicated to beauty products. This feels like a natural evolution of the offering. Launched in 2011, The Beautyst currently has a community of 250,000 ‘beautystas’, 650 beauty bloggers and offers more than 20,000 products as the ultimate online destination for essential make up tips, beauty news and online shopping.

It added an online store last year and the recent addition of a marketplace makes for a really compelling proposition. The marketplace will provide extensive product choice to the ‘beautystas’ and offers brands a new e-commerce channel that harnesses the power of The Beautyst’s social following and community – a potent combination of content and commerce.

Social media and beauty
Social networks have long been important to the beauty market, with users sharing tips and recommending products to eachother. The Beautyst has extended the beauty shopping experience by making it even more collaborative and community-based. The social content (photo and video tutorials, blogger feedback) is at the core of the purchasing journey to guide consumers, with more than 300 pieces of content posted every day.

Consumers register their beauty profile, and then receive a completely personalised experience. Social content (video tutorials, pictures, user feedback) is recommended to them, and they discover new products to purchase in just a few clicks. The addition of a marketplace to The Beautyst means that both major cosmetics brands and smaller firms have a new route to market.

Content and commerce has been until fairly recently, a relatively unused combination. But this is set to change in 2015. Whether a global brand, small retailer or online community such as The Beautyst, using content to drive commerce is a trend that is only set to grow.

Analysis, Customer Care, Engage, eSeller Guides, Internationalisation, Payments

Catching the Christmas trade: 10 tips for online shops

Tobias Schreyer
December21/ 2014

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The peak selling season is here. Online traders should use the pre-Christmas period to perfect the presentation of their range. Our 10 tips will ensure your online shop is in shape for the Christmas trade.

Online Christmas trading gets going from mid- to late November. This is the period when online retailers see a significant increase in turnover. The buying frenzy then continues until about four days before Christmas Eve. Why? Because from then on time is running out for items to be delivered on time. But even then Christmas trading is nowhere near over. Our 10 tips show you how to get your online shops in the best shape to cope with the Christmas rush.

  1. Fast delivery
    The weeks leading up to Christmas are, without doubt, a stressful period for you as a trader. But customers are also in a rush and they will take their anger at delayed online orders out on you. For this reason, in addition to the standard delivery (2-3 days), you must be sure to offer an express delivery (24 hours). You should also make the payment methods available clear to your customers, as these are a very important factor in the purchase decision.
  2. Proactively contact customers
    The pre-Christmas period is a very good time for customer newsletters. Write to your customers and tell them, for example, that your online store will deliver as quickly as possible or that your range includes special festive offers.
  3. Keep an eye on your stock
    Check stock levels in advance and stock up on your best sellers. Avoid having to advertise popular items as “Not available” at all costs. It’s also important to remove items that are no longer in stock from the range immediately or stipulate a reliable delivery date.
  4. Check the website
    It goes without saying that you know your own online store like the back of your hand. Even so, in the pre‑Christmas period you should be even more vigilant in checking and improving your website. Highlight your customer service, mention the delivery options (standard and express delivery) – it’s better to do it once too often rather than not enough, and don’t forget to highlight discounts and the payment options available. When delivery time is short just before Christmas, that’s when gift vouchers come into their own.
  5. Offer vouchers
    Don’t underestimate the option of vouchers, as gifts of money can be of great significance. Offer your customers a gift card. Prepaid credit cards, ideally branded, are perfect for this. They can be personalised and have your logo on them. For prepaid credit cards the only technical requirement is your standard credit card tool.
  6. Offer accessories
    People loosen the purse strings at Christmas and customers like to buy even more than they originally planned to. For that reason it is important to display suitable accessories alongside selected items at all times.
  7. Christmas service
    It’s not only your stock that needs to be primed for the Christmas trade. Customer service is also on red alert for six weeks. Prepare your customer service for the stressful Christmas trade; that will be sure to pull in extra sales.
  8. Show goodwill
    Put your store’s goodwill agreements to the test. It’s definitely worth adapting them and adjusting them to fit the customer. But one thing to note: that doesn’t mean giving the customer something for nothing. Just be aware of your customers’ needs. Satisfied customers will come back.
  9. Collect customer feedback
    On the subject of satisfied customers, do follow-up with your customers after delivery. Ask them whether everything was to their satisfaction. If for whatever reason that’s not the case, try to help the customer.
  10. Post-Christmas is just like pre-Christmas
    So Christmas is over and sales were good? Congratulations, but for online shops the whole circus starts again on Boxing Day. Impatient types will shop online at Christmas just the same or will want to exchange something quickly. Stay in contact with your customer as immediately after the Christmas trade comes what is known as the post-Christmas trade.
Christmas, Fashion, SEO

Shopper frenzy for novelty Christmas Jumpers

Warren Cowen
December20/ 2014

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OneHydra has today revealed that consumer search for Novelty Christmas jumpers has increased 235% since October 2014, with search for Rude Christmas jumpers leading the way with a 662% upsurge. This dramatic escalation in search could be directly attributed to the increasingly popular Christmas Jumper day (12th December) created by Save the Children.

Consumer demand has put pressure on retailers to offer a wider variety of festive jumpers, and there has already been a 235% increase in consumer search from October to November 2014 for the term Christmas jumpers. Estimated values indicate that search is set to continue this upward trend with a further increase of 234% from November – December 2014.

Taken from a basket of 736 different key words and phrases that included a wide variety of Christmas jumper types, key search terms that have seen a dramatic increase from October – November 2014 are:

  • Novelty Christmas jumpers – 235% increase
  • Funny Christmas jumpers – 517% increase
  • Cheesy Christmas jumper – 237% increase
  • Rude Christmas jumpers – 662% increase
  • Bad Christmas jumpers – 222% increase

These particularly popular search terms indicate consumers are searching for humorous jumpers in the lead up to Christmas jumper day. Retailers who have recognised the frenzy and met the consumer demand are:

  • Matalan
  • Asda
  • Next
  • ASOS
  • Boohoo

It comes as no surprise that ASDA are seeing such an increase given they are the official retail partner for Save the Children’s Christmas jumper day, further proof of the growing recognition for this event.

The research was completed using the OneHydra repository of over fourteen million keywords and ranked the keywords in terms of SEO visibility from October – December 2014.

Tanya Steele, Executive Director, Fundraising at Save the Children, said: “This year will be our biggest Christmas Jumper Day yet. We had over a million people take part last year and we want to see even more jumpers being worn this year. As with every campaign, partners play a huge role and we are thrilled that George at ASDA is our official retail partner. They have produced an amazing jumper range and stores across the UK will help us reach a huge audience and raise vital funds.

Thanks to our fantastic range and variety of partners, there is a Christmas jumper for every style and personality including our beloved pooches ­ so there really aren’t any excuses not to don a festive sweater and help raise millions of pounds to improve the lives of children around the world. I know the British public will get behind Christmas Jumper Day by signing up, donning a jumper and donating ­ the countdown to Friday 12th December has begun!”

Warren Cowan, CEO, OneHydra, adds: “As noted by Tanya Steele at Save The Children, Christmas Jumper Day has dramatically increased in popularity and over the past few years we’ve seen this reflected in the number of searches for Christmas jumpers and other related terms. Consumers are searching for low cost, humorous jumpers that they wear once and then throw to the back of the wardrobe. The retailers who are responding to consumer demand best will have analysed their data, spotted the trends and optimised their site accordingly.

This being said research has demonstrated that 35% of retailers do not reprioritise their site for seasonal keywords. With Christmas one of the biggest seasonal peaks of the year – 73% say Christmas is the seasonal peak that has the most impact on their businesses – retailers are missing out on an important revenue and falling behind their competition who may be optimising their SEO in real time.”

Christmas, News, Technology, Your News

Season of Goodwill presents opportunity for charities to increase online donations

Peer1Hosting
December18/ 2014

Peer 1 Hosting study highlights potential for increased online donations during the holiday season

Independent research commissioned by Peer 1 Hosting has found that while on average one third of British and North American consumers are planning to donate more over the 2014 holiday season, less than a quarter of those surveyed intend to make a donation online, demonstrating an opportunity for charities to increase donations during one of the peak donation periods of the year.

The study, which canvassed the opinions of 700 UK and 700 North American consumers, was commissioned by Peer 1 Hosting to highlight the importance of responsive websites to the not-for-profit sector, as they prepare for an expected increase in donations (and therefore web traffic) during the holiday season. The ability to donate online is paramount, with fast websites having the potential to provide aid to millions of people around the world.

According to the survey, consumers are planning to make donations worth an average £54 to charities, however only 20% of North American and UK respondents state that they plan to donate online, and less than 5% will do so via a mobile device. When asked the reason for this a quarter of respondents stated complicated processes followed by slow websites, which prevented them from being able to donate online.

The research shows that charities can potentially take advantage of increased donation sums with less complicated and secure online processes. The way nonprofit organisations connect with their donors is changing. The one donor – one-transaction days are behind us and now more than ever, building a strong donor relationship is a must for successful nonprofit organisations. All of which can be addressed with the right web-hosting infrastructure coupled with “real-time” payment driven applications.

Sheila Bouman, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Peer 1 Hosting, commented that a seamless online experience is key. “In today’s modern world, people are increasingly carrying out their lives online; whether it’s connecting with family and friends via social media, managing their finances with internet banking, or buying and selling goods.

“People now expect to be able to carry out tasks seamlessly online, and this is no different in the charity sector. However, it is clear that even though the motivation is there, people are struggling to donate to their chosen charities, which means these organizations are missing out on vital donations, which ultimately impacts those in need over the holiday season.”

Key findings:

  • Over a third plan to donate more during the holidays
  • On average consumers plan to donate 3 times to charities
  • People will be donating on average £54 per charity
  • Less than 25% will be donating online
  • People cited complicated processes, slow websites, and incompatible websites as the main reasons for not donating

 

Christmas, eSeller Guides, Grow

Making the most of the online retail boom this Christmas

Greg Zemor
November28/ 2014

Greg Zemor, Founder of online marketplace management solution Neteven, gives his tips on how best to prepare your distribution strategy through online marketplaces this Christmas

Despite the economic downturn in Europe, ecommerce has seen double-digit growth and Christmas 2014 is expected to break online retail records. According to the IMRG-Capgemini eRetail Sales Index, in 2013 shoppers spent £91 billion online in the UK alone. This year the figure is estimated to climb to £107bn by the end of 2014. The question is how online retailers can ensure that they capitalise on the growth in online sales and make their offering as competitive as possible.

Although there isn’t much time left until the festive shopping season is in full swing, there is still time for every online retailer to ensure they are fully prepared. For online retailers that rely on online marketplaces to increase sales and reach new markets, here are my top tips:

Procurement

Procurement is key for a successful multi-channel strategy. Being able to offer the right products at the best price and have flexible and reliable suppliers is the base for every retailer aiming at selling on online marketplaces. Online marketplaces are some of the most visited websites in Europe and millions of retailers sell their products on them each month. Defining your procurement strategy according to the specific requirements of each marketplace is essential. Retailers should make sure they have sufficient stock of any product that they are likely to be best sellers over Christmas, rather than taking up valuable storage space with lots of slow moving products.

IT systems

If all goes well, Christmas will mark a surge in visitors to your website. With this increase in traffic comes the importance of having an optimal IT systems in order to prevent any risk of technical problems. A slow website can damage sales, however, there is nothing worse than your website completely crashing during Christmas season.

Furthermore, you should ensure that your IT systems are fully prepared for increased orders. One of the perks of using a marketplace to distribute products is that it takes advantage of the marketplace’s comprehensive IT infrastructure.

Ensure that your website is fully synced in real-time with your warehouse, with intermediation platforms such as Neteven and marketplaces IT system – especially if you have bought in a number of new product lines for Christmas.

Referencing

Each marketplace has specific criteria for categorising products. Online retailers need to reference their products in line with the requirements of each marketplace. This ensures that products are correctly displayed for the specific audience.

It’s worth remembering that marketplaces sometimes modify their algorithms to match changes to Google. An easy fix is to use technology that acts as an intermediary between marketplaces and retailers. This guarantees that only product data that conforms to a marketplace’s requirements is entered. It will increase the chances of mastering eBay’s ‘Best Match’ algorithms or of winning the ‘Buy Box’ on Amazon’s product pages and will enable merchants to start selling abroad, without constraints, on marketplaces such as La Redoute, Spartoo, Galeries Lafayette or Zalando. Furthermore, if merchants want to optimise their referencing on online marketplaces, they must enrich their product data as much as they can. Platinum keywords, category trees, attributions or pictures are essential details to provide for a good referencing.

Commercial strategy

It’s important to bear in mind that retailers need to be strategic with their pricing strategy on marketplaces to be competitive across categories and product-types.

One way to determine the best strategy is by analysing buyer behaviour. Another is to use competitor analysis tools that are available on intermediary software. This helps retailers to quickly determine the right product prices, and whether or not to include shipping costs. Once determined, these tools will automatically match the prices of competitors several times a day.

Marketplaces often put forward products that have no associated shipping costs first. Therefore, think carefully when adding shipping costs to a product.

Logistics

When selling on marketplaces, it’s vital to pay close attention to stocking, shipping, tracking and managing returns. Logistics solutions should be built within the sales channels, so that they can be adjusted during peak sales across physical stores, websites and marketplaces.

It can be wise to increase delivery slots to avoid customer disappointment and to maintain regular contact with the customer, updating them on the whereabouts of their package.

Being organised is also important in relation to ‘returns’. The number of items being returned is likely to increase dramatically over Christmas and most customers will expect to return items within 14 days. If badly managed, these returns can seriously impact on a company’s margins.

Customer service

Customer service goes hand in hand with logistics. It’s advisable to dedicate resources to respond to any customer queries within a certain time frame. As a lot of the customers you deal with on marketplaces will be first time buyers, make sure that they’re satisfied and want to buy from you again.

Some marketplaces also ask customers to rate the seller. This rating will be affected by the shipping cost, delivery time, customer service and how the product compares to its description. Marketplaces integrate this feedback into their algorithms, so it’s worth bearing it in mind.

And finally, remember that the online sales period doesn’t end at Christmas. January is a key sales period and retailers need to be equally prepared. Make sure you manage promotions to be competitive and begin selling new season products on marketplaces at the start of January.

 

Christmas, Your Store

2014 set to be a bumper online Christmas

Deepak Goyal
November28/ 2014

It is anticipated that UK online shoppers will spend £13 billion this Christmas – that’s around 18% more than last year, making 2014 a festive season full of opportunity for online sellers.

Christmas shopping starts early these days – there were reportedly over 2.7m searches including the keyword ‘Christmas’ on eBay alone in August 2013. Nevertheless, there’s still time to make sure that you are doing everything you can to capitalise on the Christmas opportunity.

Here are four areas to focus on:

1. Use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to bring purchases forward

  • 36.8 million items were ordered worldwide through Amazon on Cyber Monday 2013 – a staggering 426 items per second!
  • In 2013, Amazon UK saw an increase in Black Friday sales of 63%, resulting in sales of over 4 million items on that day for the first time in the company’s history.
  • eBay saw an increase of 84%.

All signs are that Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Friday 28 November and Monday 1 December respectively) will be bigger than ever this year:  65% of retailers surveyed in the UK are planning to put on promotions on Black Friday; while 96% believe that there will be more traffic to their site on Cyber Monday this year, compared to last.

To attract more buyers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (or the local equivalent) you must make sure that your promotions can be easily found – and that people know in good time what you are offering and when your promotion is taking place.

2. Stand out from the crowd using Google Shopping and Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs)

In the US, internet users conduct around 12 billion searches on Google every month – often as the first step of an online buying experience.

So, how can you break through the ‘white noise’ to ensure shoppers go to your products rather than your competitors – particularly during Black Friday and Cyber Monday peaks?

One way is to become a master of the PLA.

Research has shown that PLAs are used extensively by Christmas shoppers to make purchase decisions. PLAs are Google’s image-centric ads. They rely on a high-quality image to engage shoppers and the inclusion of prices so shoppers are able to make direct price comparisons within the search results page. So it really is important to display your best price and include details of any promotions.

To make sure you are making the most of PLAs, see ChannelAdvisor’s ‘What Retailers Need to Know About Product Listing Ads’ – specifically their ‘10 Tips for PLA Success’:

https://go.channeladvisor.com/UKWebsiteResourceLibrary-GoogleShopping101-OnePager_LP.html

3. Communicate!

Don’t risk your potential customers shopping elsewhere because they don’t know what special events/discounts/terms you are offering. This is even more critical in the run-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

If your email marketing plans have room for improvement, take a look at the 10 steps fromwww.dotmailer.com to make sure you maximise your share of the available online spend this year.

Part 1: https://www.dotmailer.com/blog/10-steps-for-the-most-successful-black-friday-cyber-monday-email-marketing-program-ever/#.VGYdtjSsU1J

Part 2: https://www.dotmailer.com/blog/10-steps-for-the-best-black-friday-cyber-monday-email-marketing-program-ever-part-2/#.VGYyQzSsU1J

4. Make the most of your overseas profits by optimising your exchange rate

In Europe, 19.3% of online sales for the year will land during Christmas (that’s a 10% increase over last year. The peak online shopping days across Europe are forecast to bring in $2.1 billion.
That’s very good news if you are selling online to customers outside the UK – and possibly using Amazon or other international marketplaces to do this. Not such good news however if you look at what can happen to your profits when you bring back the proceeds to the UK. Did you know that these marketplaces can charge up to 4% of your sales value for foreign exchange transactions? It’s certainly worth investigating an alternative.
E-tailer Collection Accounts provide you with an overseas foreign currency bank account, located in the markets in which you sell. This account collects all of your sales proceeds from online marketplaces in multiple currencies, ultimately helping you save up to 75% of foreign exchange costs when converting back to your home currency.

The example below compares the cost of repatriating the proceeds of marketplace sales with e-tailer Collection Accounts and a typical marketplace such as Amazon. Whilst ‘Sarah’ is fictitious, her business and sales volumes are typical of many Amazon sellers. Her decision to sell overseas via the online marketplaces is a sound business move as she can benefit from their international reach. However using those marketplaces to bring her money back home is not necessarily the best option, as Sarah found when she saw what a currency specialist could offer.

CFX – Etailer table

In this example, the financial impact of the alternative is quite clear.

What is not so immediately apparent in the example is that by opting to hold funds in an e-tailer Collection Account, Sarah has also introduced a level of financial control into her business: cash-flow permitting, she is now able to hold funds in the e-tailer Collection Account in the source currency until the market reaches a preferred exchange rate. So Sarah has the opportunity to take advantage of exchange rates when they are in her favour rather than having to convert on a fixed periodic basis, as and when the marketplace converts and sends the funds back to the UK.

For a free trial or to find out more about how e-tailer Collection Accounts can enhance your Christmas profits, contact the dedicated online retailer team on +44 207 847 9269, email etailers@currenciesdirect.com or visit

 

 

SOURCES

  • Sage Pay Data, August 2014
  • www.thedrum.com 26 July 2014
  • Amazon figures, 26 Dec 2013
  • econsultancy.com
  • econsultancy.com
  • Barclays’ Christmas Countdown Survey 2014
  • Adobe Digital Index (ADI) “2014 Holiday Shopping Predictions” report, November 2014
  • Adobe Digital Index (ADI) “2014 Holiday Shopping Predictions” report, November 2014

 

 

Christmas, CRM, Products, Sell, SEO

Last minute SEO tips for Christmas

Warren Cowen
November26/ 2014

Last minute SEO tips for Christmas: With not many sleeps left before Christmas, most retailers will have had their Christmas SEO strategy in place weeks, even months ago. But even if your website is in lock-down there are still opportunities to help ensure you have a bumper haul this festive season.

  • Gold: Improve all Rankings

Identify pages with crawl problems, such as 404s/broken links. Conduct a quick site crawl, or if that’s a problem because we’re in a peak period, use Web Master Tools. If you have the time then another great tool for checking links – and old friend of SEO specialists who’ve been kicking around since the early days of search – is Xenu’s Link Sleuth. Internal links pointing to 404 pages should be cleaned up to avoid detrimental SEO impacts and a poor user experience. Any external links pointing to 404 pages should be the subject of a link reclamation project which 301 redirects any old pages that happen to have useful external links pointing to them.

  • Frankincense: Review your Category and Product Pages


Make them more unique, engaging and relevant to the language, which consumers are searching for. Understand your customer’s language, intent and tone by compiling all search query data from your analytics, ad-words and internal site search. So frequently retailers use different naming conventions to the language used by their customers. For example, a retailer used a number of different ways to refer to a 12v lead acid rechargeable battery without using the term “Car battery”. A lead acid rechargeable battery has about 1200 searches a month, whereas car battery has over 18,000 searches per month.

  • Myrrh: Reprioritise your Hierarchy

There is a general SEO rule that the higher up a page is in your website hierarchy the better chance it has to rank. Consider what categories and products are your best sellers at Christmas and create direct links from your home page to maximise ranking potential. A good example of a retailer doing this well is Boohoo.com. They’ve created a deep-link within their MegaNav for Christmas jumpers, taking an item that is usually 3-clicks away from the home page to just 1-click away and consequently they rank #1 in Google.

SEO plays a vital part of delivering the trading strategy for retailers during the Christmas peak, but yet many retailers find it a challenge to research trends and implement quick changes for unexpected seasonal peaks. By using automated SEO tools, you can ensure that your brand never fails to maximise on the festive season.

 

 

 

Christmas, News, Sales

Search is yet to peak for Christmas

Warren Cowen
November20/ 2014

Consumer search for seasonal attire is set to peak from the last week of November until the week commencing the 29th December, according to OneHydra. In particular search for party dresses is set to soar not only in the lead up to the festive season, but throughout. This therefore puts pressure on brands to be ‘search ready’ in this competitive period.

2013 data indicated that there were over 16 thousand searches a day at the height of the party season, over a 400 per cent increase on the average four thousand between Spring and Summer and this year’s volumes are set to surpass those of last year.

Taken from a basket of 2,000 different keywords and phrases that included ‘party dresses, key search terms that have been particularly popular so far this season are:

  • Party Dresses
  • Plus size party dress
  • Red party dress
  • Maternity party dress

This snapshot of popular Christmas keywords demonstrates that consumer search is still generalised, and consumers are looking for multiple options in the beginning stage of their search for party dresses. However, there are a few branded search terms that are performing well:

  • Asos party dress
  • Topshop party dress
  • River Island party dress
  • Monsoon party dress

The research was completed using the OneHydra repository of over fourteen million keywords and ranked the keywords in terms of SEO visibility from October – November 2014.

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