Looking to take your e-commerce marketing efforts to the next level? Do you have a marketing budget but are unsure how to allocate the dollars? Maybe a “Test & Learn” strategy is for you.

Test & Learn is ideal for new e-commerce sites where you have no historic data, but also great for established e-commerce sites with lots of historical information.

Setting up a Test & Learn strategy is the most cost-effective way to ramp up your marketing. This is especially true with uncertainties and risks associated with putting all your dollars on just one or two media properties (or one media buyer) or online marketing techniques. The general approach also includes working against a marketing hypothesis you believe is going to work. By testing that hypothesis as a part of a multichannel test, you can adjust it to reduce the risk of longer term marketing investment, and see if your biases and hunches will actually pan out.

Old Marketing Paradigm: “I have a set marketing budget for the year, and I’m going to buy X in media:  here, here and here.”

Test & Learn Marketing Paradigm: “I have a marketing budget for the year, and I’m going to spend 10% across a number of “trial” channels over 6 weeks and learn as much as I can before I allocate the remaining 90% for the rest of the year. I will work in a more agile manner responding to performance instead of spraying and praying that media dollars work”

Step 1: Formulate a marketing hypothesis.

Start by analyzing performance of marketing to date. Review Google Analytics to understand any current conversion funnels and user flows. Also review any pre-existing media performance reports from email campaigns, paid search, display, and advertising efforts.

Your marketing hypothesis should include a quantitative aspect against which you can test.

For example: “A combination of paid search and e-mail marketing using volume-based incentives will drive the most signups and conversions at a cost that works for me: $5 cost to acquire a visitor and $30 to acquire a new customer conversion.”

Of course, you can check with your CFO or finance department to vet this hypothesis before you begin.

Step 2: Identify your test channels.

Your test channels will be the most measurable, fastest-to-market, easiest-to-setup, with a minimally-viable amount of quality creative and copy that can be produced. For example, you might identify:

Paid Search: Google, Bing

Email

Website Offer / Landing Page A - Offer no deep discount

Website Offer / Landing Page B - Offer deepest viable discount

Retargeting ads - coupled with  A

Retargeting ads - coupled with B

Abandoned Cart - coupled with A

Abandoned Cart - coupled with B

Google Display advertising

Targeted, specific media outlet display advertising (i.e. trade journal, niche website)

Marketplace A (Amazon)

Step 3: Set Up The Campaign.

The idea in Test & Learn mentality is to use best quality creative and assets at a minimally viable effort to put forth a good test. It’s best to create a checklist with specific deliverables you and your creative team, or your agency, can produce quickly and efficiently. A sample checklist of what to produce for the test channels mentioned above includes:

Establish a campaign calendar including timing of releasing the media you create for each channel.

Brainstorm and approve the offers and call-to-actions based on what you can support.

Create an array (up to 10) of simple, short copy concepts with CTAs and offers for paid search and landing pages.

Create 4 display ad / creative concepts (for 3 common IAB banner sizes) using the copy concepts.

Translate the copy and creative concepts from above into landing pages - using simple templates and tools like Unbounce or your current e-commerce platform.

Setup the paid search, retargeting, and display campaigns in Google.

Set up proper measurement infrastructure in your Google Analytics.

Test campaign launch.

Step 4: Monitor, Tweak, and Measure

It’s important to be monitoring continuously through the test campaign so you can take notes, tweak ad buys, and make some adjustments to creative and copy. It’s a lot of work for a 6 week test but the heavier the effort in trial and testing, the more you will learn and the more data you will have to ultimately compile the “formula” that will work best.

Step 5: Create a Scorecard

When the test period is over, measure the performance of each channel using specific metrics that are important to your business. Apply the metrics to larger budget considerations to see how your investments would have worked out if you had applied them to a larger budget. You will have “winners” and “losers”, but that’s the point. Test & Learn!

Step 6: Reformulate and Prepare for a True Launch Campaign

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10 Powerful E-commerce Features Available for B2B

Magento has developed a well deserved reputation as the leading e-commerce platform for B2C stores, but it doesn’t have the same reputation for B2B e-commerce stores. Naysayers (often competitors) point to Magento’s core feature limitations as a reason why Magento is not suited for B2B, but as an open platform, those feature / functionality gaps are bridgeable. 

B2C and B2B e-commerce sites have differences, but they also have a lot of similarities. We’ve compiled a list of some key features that Accorin has deployed on our clients B2B e-commerce implementations: 

Account request and registration  [Accorin extension]

Bulk Ordering tool  [Accorin extension]

Product Reordering tool

Back-in-stock notification emails

Multiple shipping options:

Pickup at counter (important for wholesalers / distributors)

Customer entered shipping instructions

Less Than Truckload (LTL)

Payments using a P.O. / Invoicing

Order Status Lookup tool [Accorin extension]

Quoting tools

Report automation  [Accorin extension]

Integration with external systems  [Accorin extension]

THE BOTTOM LINE

Jet took-off (how punny) today with one of the first business models to possibly compete with Amazon. Jet is the brainchild of Marc Lore, a former Amazon employee and CEO of Quidsi, an Amazon competitor. Taking a page from COSTCO’s business model and pricing strategy, Jet makes money by charging a membership fee and passing all savings on to their customers. 

We were curious about the shopping experience on Jet so we went ahead and placed an order. Here’s what we found. 

5 Second Impression: 

The design is fine, certainly not great. Standard imagery combined with faded imagery (with weak contrast text), combined with product iconography contributes to a bit of a design mish-mash. 

On the plus side, they have the most important eCommerce elements front-and-center: 

Search is prominent 

Navigation is well structured 

Shipping and Return costs are identified

Purchase Process:

Going through the Jet purchasing process is an interesting game of “how much can I save”; although, given the large amount of information being shown, the UX would benefit from a few tweaks.

Lots of data makes it difficult to make a decision. Having multiple product sizes with different base prices and different discounts adds friction into the purchasing process.  A tool to show “the lowest per unit cost for my preferred brands” would be great. By selecting a couple of preferred brands in a specific quantity, the consumer is able to reduce the decision down to price, since all else is equal.

Cart & Checkout:

Jet’s checkout page has a great layout with some unique User Experience elements. Showing shipping costs before an address is entered is a nice touch that many sites do not offer (or cannot since the shipping costs can only be calculated after the user has logged in or entered their shipping address).

Checkout Steps:

It’s clear that a lot of thought (and probably testing) went into the checkout process. Making a really simple checkout process is not easy. There is always the temptation to add additional steps, more payment options, upsells, etc. Amazon is guilty of adding a lot of elements to their checkout process. Jet has done it well.

Even the order summary screen is nicely laid out.

...and so is the final confirmation screen. Right down to the savings message.

Accorin eCommerce Rating (1 being the worst, 5 being the best)

Overall rating:

Shopping Experience: 5

Post-sales Experience: TBD

Packaging: TBD

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Would you buy again? Sure, but let’s see how the whole experience turns out.

Would you recommend to a friend?  Sure, but let’s see how the whole experience turns out.

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1. Limit Admin Accounts

A potential vulnerability when running an e-commerce store is losing control of your Admin accounts. This risk can occur with simple oversights like an individual who recently left the company still having admin access, or handing over credentials to a developer that needs to support you with the installation of the latest and greatest extension [BTW - we do not recommend giving Admin passwords to extension developers]. It is critical to know who has an account to your site. Make sure Admin accounts are removed when individuals leave the company, development teams have completed an assignment, or if there are accounts you don’t recognize. It is important to have a handle on who can access your site.

2. Limit “Admin” Capabilities

Not everybody needs an Admin account. Sure there are some users that need full access to everything on the site, but there are many user roles that need a sub-set of functionality. For example, Customer Support Reps don’t need the ability to install new extensions. Magento has a lot of capabilities to configure user role capabilities. Use them. Setup roles with permissions that a user needs, and nothing more.

3. Use Strong Passwords

When was the last time you changed your password? If the answer is "I don’t remember", then you need to change your password today. And when setting up a password, make sure it's not something obvious, like the name of your favorite sports team, your company name + the year, or a date of significance (like birthday). A good rule of thumb is to make sure a password contains a random combination of letters (upper and lowercase), numbers and special characters and should be over 32 characters long. Having a password with that type of girth will make it difficult to “guess”, even with a brute-force attack. If you’re in charge of running a Magento store, it is critical that you implement a business practice or extension that forces users with Admin Account Access to have a strong password and reset that password on an established frequency - like every 30 days.

4. Add Two Factor Authentication

If you want to go even further with security, you should set up what is called two factor authentication. This forces admins to log in with a standard username and password but also requires the submission of an additional one time only, security code. There are extensions available that provide this two factor authentication functionality. One highly recommended extension comes from Xtento and they provide an installation package that sends a one time code to your smartphone and recognizes that code upon sign in.

 RECOMMENDED EXTENSION: XTENTO TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION 

5. Add Account Verification by IP Lookup

A simple extension can be leveraged to ensure the individual who has an admin account is actually who they say they are upon login. Along with two factor authentication, there is another extension that assigns an IP address to an account - this means the site will ensure that an individual that signs in with an account is coming from a recognized IP address. All too often, unknown individuals will attempt to access stores using admin accounts but come from different IP address (even from different countries).

THE BOTTOM LINE

5 Things To Do Before You Design and Build Your First E-commerce Store

Tip#1: Find E-Commerce Sites You Love for Inspiration Study websites where you shop online and make a list of the features that you like and don’t like. Keep a list of sites that you think are great and have a sense of why they are great.

Tip #2: Study the Competition Study the sites that will be your competition. Learn about their pricing strategies, shipping strategies, promotions and coupons. Check Amazon and eBay to see if your products are sold there - they’re competition too!

Tip #3: Gauge Demand for your Product or Service Sometimes we fall in love with our own ideas very easily. Ask your friends and family if they would buy what you plan to offer. Then do some ad hoc demand research using Google Adwords Keyword Planning tool. If you have a gmail account you can sign up for Adwords and use their tools for free to estimate demand for your product - Google will tell you how many times the word(s) are searched in a month. So if you’re selling “widgets”, you can compare the demand for them to the demand for “sprockets.”

Tip #4: Plan the “Backoffice” of Your Business First If you already have a business up and running you don’t need to worry as much about this but if you are new to it you need to understand how you are going to receive, process, fulfill, and service orders and the customers associated with them before you design and build an e-commerce store. Remember you will need to have a business entity (sole proprietorship, Corporation, Partnership, or LLC) set up first. Also remember you will need:

- Liability Insurance - Registration with State unemployment office (depending upon the state) - Registration with your state’s retail sales tax division - Telephone Number - Place to collect mail - Bank Account - Merchant Account - PayPal Account (recommended as alternative to credit card for money collection)

Tip #5: Start with a “Hosted” Solution First: (Shopify, Big-Commerce, Volusion, or 3D Cart) These hosted e-commerce providers essentially “rent” you an e-commerce store, already programmed, safe and secure, for a low dollar amount per month. You may at times get frustrated by the lack of features or functionality but you will not have to worry about security, uptime, downtime, or reliability. You may want to grow into your own “owned” store but you really consider a move into that world once you have achieved $millions in sales.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Building successful e-Commerce businesses (and their associated sites) is complex. As with any business, the model must be fully thought through. This is especially true when building out a B2B e-Commerce business. You can’t just paint a B2C e-commerce site and expect it to work for B2B e-commerce. While there are a lot of commonalities, there are also a lot of differences.

From a user experience standpoint, business customers expect the same easy experience that they get in their personal use of e-Commerce sites…..with the additional complexity of B2B e-commerce’s unique requirements seamlessly accommodated. In addition to standard B2C e-Commerce functionality (hey, everybody wants a good user experience), B2B buyers expect tools that fit into their purchasing process, detailed product information, and B2B specific functionality.

When you think of B2C e-commerce, the model is pretty simple. It is businesses selling to consumers. Using the term e-Commerce in the B2B world is not as simple. There are a lot of different B2B e-commerce models. There are manufacturers selling to distributors, distributors selling to businesses, and businesses selling to other businesses. All of them are businesses, but the unique requirements are often different.

In general, the following table outlines some of the main differences between B2C and B2B e-commerce based on key e-commerce site functional areas.

Although B2B e-commerce is different from B2C e-commerce, many of the core components stay the same. You need to understand your customer’s purchasing requirements, provide a competitive product at a competitive price, and delight your customer at each point in the buying cycle. Yes, the details are different, but the fundamentals are the same.

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The Bottom Line

Operating an e-commerce business is like driving on a road that’s always changing. You're an organized, detail-oriented site manager that understands a ton about marketing, technology and of course the products that you sell. You create an annual roadmap within your budget, work hard and expect to see growth, but low and behold the landscape starts changing. You try to stick to your roadmap, but the e-commerce roadway is constantly evolving. Combine that with the other complexities of operating a business, i.e margin pressure, competition, staffing and other headaches. In e-commerce your road literally changes before your eyes - kind of like playing Mario Cart - and to make matters worse, sometimes the changes are invisible until you see negative numbers in your sales. 

Here are some clues for anticipating changes in the Roadway:

Google = Constant Change. Deal With It.

Like it or not, your business and life online are somewhat dictated by Google - if for no other reason than it's the most popular search engine (and brain of Android, Siri and most mobile operating systems). Google made 500 changes to its algorithm in 2013 alone. The makeup of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is changing all the time. In fact, Google made a significant change to its algorithm affecting the way local business listings are prioritized in the 3 days before this past Christmas. In addition, Adwords had several feature changes, primarily the migration of PLA to "shopping," a new emphasis on extensions, sitelinks, call tracking, and address verification.

What to do?

Subscribe to and read www.SearchEngineLand.com to stay on top of Google algorithm changes. 

Intrusion Threats & Security are Increasing at an Astounding Rate

In 2014, it was widely reported that a Russian crime organization stole the credentials of 1.2 billion internet users. “If the number is accurate, it’s astounding,” says Roy Nutter, computer science and electrical engineering professor at West Virginia University. “That could be nearly half of the world’s estimated 3 billion Internet users.” If you own and operate an e-commerce business, it is no longer a question of if _you will encounter a security threat, it is _when.

What to do?

Immediately change all admin passwords if you have not done so recently, and use complex, auto-generated passwords that are very difficult to hack via brute force programs. Also, consider hiring a CISM (http://www.isaca.org/certification/cism-certified-information-security-manager/pages/default.aspx) to complete an audit of your existing security practices. Also, be sure to understand if you should consider going through PCI compliance (https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org)/ given your risk profile as an online merchant. 

Competitors High, Competitors Low. More Competitors All the Time.

Your competitors just started selling on Amazon at prices that undercut you significantly. A new online merchant just threw up a Yahoo Store and he's fulfilling his orders less than a mile from your brick and mortar store. All of the sudden you are at 9th position bidding against a keyword in Google when, for the same cost, you used to be 1st. The competitive landscape is always changing as the barriers to entry are very, very low for many e-commerce businesses. It's even possible to start selling on eBay for free.

What to do?

Adopt a policy of regular competitive benchmarking across channels and build a monthly scorecard that accounts for changes that are observed. You may argue with your team about how to respond to competitive threats, but at least you will know when you need to act.  

The Bottom Line

The most effective e-commerce marketing programs use email as a core tactic for conversion and retention, but snail mail is often ignored. Once thought to be archaic, direct mail marketing is making a comeback. There is a good reason. Direct mail works (even if a bit overshadowed by email). The Harvard Business Review published a study analyzing the effectiveness of email marketing vs. direct mail. Their study is a couple years old, and is based on an online retailer’s experiment to determine which marketing medium is right for their business. Here are the results:

Hubspot took those results and calculated the ROI.

The numbers speak for themselves. In the email-only scenario, for every dollar spent, $2,600 was recouped! Compare that to the direct mail-only scenario, where each dollar returned only $27. Keep in mind, that while the ROI of email is a lot higher than direct mail, direct mail still generates a positive ROI….and these numbers are for a single company. We have seen that for many companies, direct mail works extremely well as part of their marketing mix. Especially as a clutter-buster with audiences that are overwhelmed by a high volume of email communications. So let’s look at how Direct Marketing for e-commerce stacks up against Email Marketing.

Looking for a new SaaS platform that can help take your e-mail and loyalty marketing to the next level for your e-commerce site?  Have been you waiting for a tool that will help you do more with your subscriber list than "spray and pray?"

Let us introduce you to Boston-based Klaviyo.

Klaviyo is a second generation sales optimization tool that has taken the first generation of e-mail tools and made the whole process better. Think all of the best features of Constant Contact, MailChimp, Exact Target and Rekko. Throw in some customer and lead management features from some of the leading SaaS e-commerce platforms and you have Klaviyo.

1.) Intuitive integration process -  It’s super easy to use this tool with all of the popular SaaS e-commerce platforms as well as the leading licensed platforms. Already using MailChimp and Shopify? Configuration of Klaviyo for abandoned cart messaging took a non-technical member of our team about 15 minutes.

2.) Create marketing segments with ease - Sending multiple messages to different customers within the same campaign concept is a snap.

3.) Klaviyo teaches you best practices -  Klaviyo is "smart" in that it gives you ideas for types of campaigns to try. Don't hesitate to try a new feature because you’re scared of screwing up - it walks you through the process.

4.) Triggering based on actions -  Simple with Klaviyo. At Accorin, we have not seen a platform as easy as Klaviyo for setting up flows and triggering.

5.) Price -  We think Klaviyo comes in at a very attractive price point for a tool that can be used for enterprise scale e-commerce sites. If you feel like you’re overpaying for underutilized software, it’s worth making the switch to Klaviyo.

THE BOTTOM LINE

At Accorin, we’re always fascinated by the latest innovations in eCommerce. When we’re not busy working on our own creations, we’re on the look-out for other’s who are blazing a trail in the eCommerce world. Recently, subscription models have captured our attention, and some of us in the office are looking a little furry (seriously, is no-shave August a thing?). So, we decided to check out Harry’s, a company that sells shaving essentials in a new way. Harry’s has turned a basic product into a subscription service and naturally, we were intrigued.

How they're different

Harry’s is an innovative website that sells men’s razors through a subscription process. After the initial delivery of a shaving kit (containing a razor, shaving cream and extra blades) you can sign up to have spare blades and more cream sent to you at a custom frequency based on how often you shave. This model presents a unique eCommerce marketing challenge by selling a service centered around a modest product. 

Unique purchase process

Harry’s offers just three shaving kits and three subscription services which makes the products easy to find (and from a logistics and fulfillment perspective, easier to do well). Their website is clean, elegant and minimalistic, reaffirming the simplicity of their products and services. Browsing the website is an enjoyable experience as it is aesthetically pleasing without taking away from what they offer.

Once you have chosen which products you would like to purchase, you can checkout as a returning or new customer. Although no guest checkout option is presented, both choices initially only require two pieces of information. A great example of reducing sign-up form friction in an eCommerce process. This combined with their easy, three-step checkout should reduce cart abandonment rates and increase the checkout completions. Harry’s also offer free shipping which should further reduce cart abandonment rates. Overall, Harry’s purchasing process is neat and quick with the same elegant feel as their website.

Effective customer communication

If you are a new customer, Harry’s immediately sends you a welcoming email after registration.

This email forges the first personal connection with the customer with a simple “thanks for joining us” while promoting their brand with their cute logo. Although their logo, a wooly mammoth, isn’t very visible on their site, it ties in nicely with their company name and product. The minimalistic design of this first email keep the message light and fun while still pushing their brand.

After purchase, Harry’s sends an order confirmation email, and then a shipping notification once your order has been shipped. Each email follows the tone set by the first one, using funny diction to uplift the otherwise mundane content. These emails take on an almost whimsical feel and encourage the customers not only to open them but to read through them. This level of customer engagement is a tough feat to accomplish, yet Harry’s does it effortlessly. Finally, an email is sent when the product is delivered and the purchasing process is complete. One of the hardest challenges of eCommerce marketing is how to entice customers to return to your site. While most retailers rely on basic transactional emails to do the trick, Harry’s goes above and beyond with their quick responses and witty content.

They have cool packaging

We decided to test out the full Harry’s eCommerce experience for ourselves. We ordered the Truman Set razor kit and anxiously awaited its arrival (again, the beards need to go). When we received our shipment, we were blown away by the beautiful packaging. Everything was well-designed and perfectly branded, from the razor handle to the navy blue cardboard box it came in. The design of the packaging made this otherwise routine purchase feel like a special occasion. Harry’s affinity for simple design and well-made products is emulated in the  product packaging. As an eCommerce agency, we can appreciate their great attention to detail, from start to finish.

Accorin eCommerce Rating

THE BOTTOM LINE

Mobile is everywhere, and expanding fast. In 2013, nearly one third of global internet traffic came from mobile devices. That’s a 35% increase over 2012. We’re seeing a similar trend with our own clients (both eCommerce and non-eCommerce): mobile traffic in the 20% - 45% range. With numbers like these, having a mobile-friendly user experience is critical. We’ve explored all mobile solutions for eCommerce, and responsive web design continues to reign supreme. Check out our top 5 benefits of going responsive:

1. Multi-device user experience

No more zooming and shrinking. Users will actually be able to read and share content, browse pages, and purchase products easily. How convenient; and expected by buyers on the go.

2. Improved SEO

Only one URL to optimize! Prior to responsive web designs, online businesses would have to have a separate mobile version of their desktop site - basically two different sites - to focus their time, energy and budget on. A single responsive website instead of several versions allows search engines such as Google to crawl and index content on one URL. Additionally, Google recently announced its plans to penalize websites that are not optimized for mobile. Google wants its users to have a “positive user experience” and will downrank sites who do not follow their recommendations for building mobile optimized sites.

3. Easy(ier) to maintain

One website to manage means one code base, one CMS, one platform, one URL! No maintenance of multiple mobile enabled page layouts and shopping experiences. Think of the free time you’ll have!

4. Increased conversion rates

4 out of 5 mobile and tablet owners say they use these devices to shop. There’s a 61% chance that users will bounce if they have difficulty maneuvering your site on their mobile devices. Make your eCommerce site responsive and you’ll have the ability to capture those coveted conversions!

5. Staying relevant

Your competitors are going responsive and your customers are starting to expect sites to be mobile-friendly. Let’s face it, your business growth may depend on it.  Additionally, responsive designs adapt to screen size, not device. So, with the development of new technologies and devices, your website will still display properly. A bit of future proofing for your site.

THE BOTTOM LINE