How to improve your e-sales process?

How to improve your e-sales process? comparative study and advise for an international cd shop chain

the main questions • Are you satisfied with the number of visitors on your web site? • are you satisfied with your web sales? • do you know how to sell on the web? • what is the quality of your web site compared to those of your competitors? • how can your e-sales be improved?

the mission • my client was not satisfied with the sales through his site. He wanted to benchmark it - compared to competition - and wanted to know how to substantially improve the conversion ratio • we decided to measure my client’s site and those of 9 competitors, chosen by the client

some measures • We always measure the quality of the e-selling process and relate the scores to the conversion ratio of the web shops • quality is measured in 16 success factors; • conversion ratio = sales / #unique visitors; • higher quality means higher conversion ratio

the success factors • aggregation • advice • customization • quote • comparison • bargaining • decision • agreement • information • interaction • networking • selection • sensory experience • facilitation • adaptation • ubiquity

one example factor networking to give (potential) customers the opportunity to learn from others about the quality of your offer. this can be done in very different ways, such as providing test reports, information from earlier customers, or even creating an independant community. For more information about the factors, contact me.

how to measure? The 16 success factors are measured with a checklist comprising over 180 questions. This is usually done by experienced students or analysts. If you like, you can do it yourself, using www.scanyours.com be carefull: it’s a lot of work!

The checklist (2 example questions) question (How) does the supplier respond to e-mail? answers scores • not at all • standard file (faq) • standard answer • personal answer 0 1 2 3 Does the site show customers’ comments? 0 • not at all • some • many, without links • many, with links 1 2 3

the scores • scores are measured per success factor • and expressed in % of max possible scores • for instance: 16 points out of 40 possible points on the factor sensory experience, results in a score of 40(%) on that factor. the quality of the e-sales process is expressed in a circle with 16 axes.

information agr the factors interaction networking dec sensory experience fac quo ubiquity 20% aggregation bar 40% example score of a sales process 60% adaptation com 80% cus selection 100% advise

total scores • all individual shops are plotted in the circle • the first plot (dotted line) is the industry average • the next plots are ranked from highest to lowest overall scores

inf agr int average amazon net dec shopping cdworld sen fac bestbuy quo cdnow ubi proxis agg cduniverse bar cdteleshop ada com my client cus cdeurope sel adv

the conclusion • my client’s e-sales process appeared to be very weak compared to competition • also the conversion ratio (sales per unique visitor) was low, compared to competition. • Amazon’s ratio was 10 times higher! what should my client do?

now... to strategy • it appears that the sales processes in the cd shops are functionally quite comparable, but they do differ much in quality. • let’s change the presentation of the results in such a way that factors with high scores are on the left and factors with low scores on the right.

highest scores lowest scores sel fac agr inf quo agg ada adv bar sen net int ubi com cus dec amazon cd world cd now shopping bestbuy cd universe proxis cd teleshop my client cd europe >75 50+ 40+ 30+ 20+ <20

what do we see? • there are factors in which most shops score very well • there are factors in which only few shops - the leaders - have high scores but most have lower scores • there are factors unused that might give a competitive advantage

conditio sine qua non free area highest scores lowest scores sel fac agr inf quo agg ada adv bar sen net int ubi com cus dec amazon cd world follow the leader cd now shopping bestbuy cd universe proxis cd teleshop my client cd europe >75 50+ 40+ 30+ 20+ <20

the advise (1) • improve functionality in factors • facilitation (ease of use) • agreement (payment system) • information (about the cds) • quote (clear presentation of order information) • just to keep up with the industry standard do it quickly and without compromise

the advise (2) • improve functionality in factors • adaptation (of the interface) • aggregation (info about groups and concerts) • advise (which cds to buy) • but concider these as “nice to have” not the highest priority

the advise (3) • find ways to offer new functionality in factors • comparison (of different cds) • customization (is really possible!) • decision (buying decision support) • to outperform competition take your time to become an expert

This is how you improve your e-sales process by Marcel Creemers TransacSys Consult

How to improve your e-sales process?