I just went back and re-read an article I saved from the June 17th issue of The New York Times titled Online Sales Lose Steam (subscription required). Growth of online sales has slowed over the last year, and in some categories has dropped dramatically. The experts cited in the article (think Lewis Black running around onstage, waving his hands in the air) claim several factors contribute to this online climate change.
“There’s a recognition that some customers like a more interactive experience,” said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president for consumer products at Dell. “They like shopping and they want to go retail.”
Nancy F. Koehn, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies retailing and consumer habits, said that the leveling off of e-commerce reflected the practical and psychological limitations of shopping online. She said that as physical stores have made the in-person buying experience more pleasurable, online stores have continued to give shoppers a blasé experience. In addition, online shopping, because it involves a computer, feels like work.
Hmmm. Interesting reasoning. Have you all considered that perhaps online sales are down because most websites SUCK?
Women are online for convenience and to save time. Studies show that women spend more time doing research than any other task. The latest news from the Pew Internet Study revealed that fully one-third of women are online from midnight to 8 a.m. If this is the only time she gets to use online resources, your website needs to be easy to navigate.
Most websites are chest-thumpers. You spend all your time talking about “you,” instead of trying to answer her questions and fill her needs. One of the first questions Holly would shoot your way is, “What questions is she asking?” If you can’t answer that immediately, then your website is a waste of time because you don’t know what her needs are or how to satisfy them.
Just because you sell one product or service, don’t make the mistake of believing all of your customers have the same need. “I sell pencils. Customers need pencils to write, period.” Well, maybe some of them do. Then maybe there’s a portion of your potential customer base that needs a good pencil because every other pencil they’ve tried has a soft lead and breaks easily. Another group might like the nostalgic feel a pencil in hand lends. And there’s probably a large customer segment that isn’t even buying for themselves - mothers, who need a reliable, safe pencil for their school-age children. If you’re not talking to every one of their individual needs, you’re missing out on sales galore. As best-selling authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg put it, you’re “waiting for your cat to bark.”
It would be easy to breathe a sigh of relief, point to the NY Times article, and say, “See? E-commerce has hit its peak. We were so right not to invest in the best possible website.” But just watch and wait... I guarantee you that while everyone else is running over the cliff with the crowd that takes the easy way out, the few good websites out there that follow the teaching of online behavorial experts will not only hold their own, they will eventually dominate the online shopping experience.
Do you run with the crowd... even if it’s over a cliff?
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