e-Commerce: Complete. Configured. Connected.
Posts tagged e-business
Online Giving Continues to Rise
Sep 20th
It’s no surprise that consumers are spending more money online. From digital goods and services to retail consumer goods, e-Commerce sales continue to grow worldwide. In addition to our everyday online purchases, consumers also are increasingly giving digital donations and making philanthropic gifts online. We all want to consider ourselves to be gracious, giving people; however, how much do we actually give?
A new infographic from nonprofit consultancy Convio, shows that the Internet is the fastest-growing channel for nonprofit fundraising. Since 2008, nonprofits have received donations totaling more than $1 billion from online sources. Moreover, the average donation is rising as well. Last year, the average online contribution rose to $91.94, an increase from $67.47 and $80.80 for 2008 and 2009, respectively.
To maximize this fundraising channel, nonprofit organizations must improve their customer experience and streamline the payment process. By reducing and eliminating anxiety commonly associated with online transactions, organizations will increase conversion rates, resulting in more donations for their cause.
The same techniques that Plimus uses to help vendors build customizable order pages can assist charitable organizations update their online presence with single-click gifting capabilities and repeat donor features to help reduce the barriers to online donations. Like any online business, it’s vital that nonprofit organizations also leverage a payment platform that is seamless for donors.
What do you think of the growing support for social giving? Will this trend continue in the coming years? We’d love to hear from you … let us know.
More than Metrics
Jul 13th
I regularly read TechCrunch for today’s industry news, as the outlet has a fresh perspective about what’s new in the industry. Recently, I caught a good post about e-Commerce and how successful online retailers must look beyond the common industry acronyms, such as LTV (lifetime value) and COCA (cost of customer acquisition), and focus on knowing their buyer.
“e-Commerce: Beyond The Metrics,” written by Gautum Gupta an associate at General Catalyst Partners who focuses on financial services, enterprise IT, consumer services and new media. With his diverse background, Gupta provides an interesting perspective on the online retail marketplace and the importance of understanding the buyer.
Gupta writes:
Commerce, both offline and online, has historically been largely anonymous and impersonal. Offline, customers walk into stores, see the exact same merchandise, are greeted by employees who don’t recognize them, and are all bound to the same terms and conditions on the back of every purchase receipt. Online, the pen and paper of the old mail-order catalog were replaced with drop-down menus and search boxes.
This statement caught my attention because of its raw truth. There are too many online retailers not selling their products or services the right way. These vendors do not understand who they are selling to and therefore, do not know how to effectively retain current customers – or how to attract new buyers.
The article also discusses how truly understanding the customer is more than knowing his or her name and basic demographic information. Complete knowledge of the consumer means knowing not only the buyer’s purchasing habits, but also those of his or her family and friends. It means understanding a shopper’s brand and style preferences and what factors influence their opinions and purchases. In retail, understanding a customer in this way allows the seller to build a better relationship with the customer, resulting in stronger brand loyalty and higher buyer conversation rates.
While the offline world faces additional challenges in getting to this level of understanding, the online world has and a built-in way to capture much of this information. Each click a consumer makes on a site leaves a trail that vendors can mine for limitless information on a user’s preferences. Additionally, vendors can engage in social media channels to learn more about their customers; they can adjust their websites to include eye catching graphics; and host surveys and polls to better understand what buyers say makes them tick.
Plimus works with several interesting companies that help online vendors develop websites that attract the attention of prospective customers. One, Justinmind, a recent winner of the prestigious Red Herring Top 100 Europe Tech Awards, provides application prototyping solutions to help international banks, governments, IT consultants and technology agencies better define and validate their business applications and websites through highly interactive wireframes. With customized websites and business applications, sellers are able to gain a stronger understanding of their audience and increase overall business operations.
Justininmind is just one of many customers leveraging Plimus’ Digital e-Commerce platform to handle its global online sales. We’re pleased to be able to work with several companies that are pioneering the new digital commerce era with innovative websites and customer offerings.
We’re always excited to work with new customers, give us a shout if you want to learn more.
Survey Finds Challenges in Getting Tablet Users to Pay for Content
Jun 30th
Last week, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) released the results of a survey that revealed some interesting observations about the preferences and habits of tablet owners when it comes to purchasing content.
Among the findings:
- Just less than half of all tablet users would be willing to pay for content if it meant avoiding advertisements
- 25 percent would prefer to buy content directly from publishers, rather than an intermediary such as Amazon or iTunes
- Newspaper apps have been downloaded by more than a quarter of the tablet users surveyed; 20 percent reported downloading a magazine app in the past 12 months
- On average, tablet users spent $53 on apps in the past year
The finding that has prompted the most discussion in the Plimus breakroom, however, is that tablet users willing to pay for content overwhelmingly seek flexibility in how they make those purchases. They want the ability to select between recurring paid subscriptions, single-issue purchases and one-time downloads. For online publishers, this presents challenges in how best to streamline and ease the buying process.
These challenges need to be addressed if publishers are going to realize their intention of generating revenue from this new platform. If these self-identified “early adopters,” who are typically more affluent, educated and media-savvy, are reluctant to commit to paid subscriptions for news, television shows and other content the outlook doesn’t look great for the general public’s adoption of paid content.
With the OPA forecasting that roughly 23 million people in the U.S. alone will own tablets by next year, publishers need to quickly figure out how they will streamline the subscription process for those willing to pay for content – while at the same time determining how to entice those who are reluctant to pay. As a vendor that has been able to monetize this new content delivery model, Apple provides a strong example for publishers looking to provide a seamless and easy online transaction process.
Here at Plimus we are working to address this growing market segment with our flexible and adaptable payment platform and Buy Anyware API that online publishers can build into their apps. Plimus solutions offer a streamlined payment process that becomes part of the content consumption experience. If you’re a publisher who’s struggling with this issue, give us a call – we’d love to help you capitalize on this growing market.
Study Evaluates Consumers’ Behaviors Towards Social Commerce
Jun 14th
Consumers want more from the traditional online experience. As consumers ourselves, we’re familiar with this – we want to relate to and feel valued by the vendor from which we are purchasing. Additionally, we like to incorporate ourselves in the buying experience — making a more interactive transaction. As consumers, we increasingly interact with retailers through a variety of social networks and other online outlets. A recent report, the “2011 Social Commerce Study,” conducted by Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs, evaluates how online shopping is directly influenced by social media, and the impact of social media on consumers’ online behaviors and habits.
According to the survey, 42 percent of online consumers have “followed” a retailer via Facebook, Twitter or the retailer’s blog. On average, consumers actually follow six retailers at any given time.
Respondents indicated they follow brands for a variety of reasons:
- 58 percent follow companies to get deals and savings
- 49 percent do so to receive updates on products or services
- 39 percent follow companies for information on contests and/or events
What do these findings mean for online merchants? Simply, social commerce is directly impacted by social media.
Consumers view the online shopping experience as larger than just the act of purchasing. Today’s buyers are influenced more by the recommendations of friends than methodically crafted marketing materials. They weigh whether or not to buy based on recommendations from their peers on social networking websites, rather than formal reviews.
In order to build a comprehensive online shopping experience, it is imperative that sellers understand what’s driving their buyers. Digital commerce is a huge market and Plimus can and will help you get started. We’ll assist you in building a comprehensive processing solution that completely addresses the needs and desires of your consumers and incorporates social media into every offering.
We’re ready, are you? Let’s get started today!
Not Surprising… Survey Finds Poor Online Experience Costs Businesses Billions in Lost Revenue
Jun 7th
A recent report from Econsultancy and Tealeaf found that companies are losing billions of dollars in revenue as a result of consumers’ poor online experiences. The assessment, “Reducing Customer Struggle,” surveyed more than 500 businesses across the globe, finding that the majority of companies are losing 24 percent of their annual online revenue because their customers’ report a bad, cumbersome shopping incident.
Come on… this is no surprise to us here at Plimus. We understand the importance of creating a frictionless customer experience in which the selling point becomes part of the focus of the online shopping event. Make the customer feel safe, secure and valued. Ease his or her hesitation and anxiety. Do those things as a seller and you’ll see an increase in revenue. With these simple adjustments, you’ll see significantly less shopping carts left abandoned on your website.
As you may recall, in April we surveyed more than 100 random, consumers via Facebook and Twitter. Results of this social survey mirror the Econsultancy report. The survey, “No Shopping Cart Left Behind: The Buying Habits of Virtual Goods Consumers” found:
More than half of consumers purchase more online digital goods than they did last year
Two thirds of survey participants indicate that ease of transaction is the most important factor when making online purchases
More than 20 percent of respondents reported that sites with complex order forms keep them from completing a transaction
One in five respondents would shop online more frequently if the checkout process was faster
Improving the payment process means increasing monetization. Digital commerce continues to grow daily and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. With this continual growth, vendors can’t afford to lose sales. Optimize the shopping experience!
Plimus can help sellers create a better online experience for buyers. With Plimus’ payment processing platform, vendors can provide single-click purchasing, customizable order pages and a seamless checkout process for their consumers. Plimus gives online merchants the tools needed to eliminate the stress and hassle of the buying experience, making each transaction a positive experience for the consumer.
Additional information on Econsultancy survey can be found here.
What e-Commerce Growth Says About Online Shoppers
May 16th
During the past three months, a variety of reports have been published highlighting the growth and success of the e-Commerce industry. Just this week, comScore, an Internet marketing research firm, reported that online retail spending increased a staggering 12 percent in the first quarter of 2011. While this is another great piece of news for e-Commerce, what we found most compelling about the report is what it revealed about the buying habits of online consumers.
The comScore report attributes the 12 percent growth to an increase in the number of online buyers (up 7 percent) and transactions per buyer (up 9 percent). While it is obvious that these statistics are in line with the overall increase in sales, the report also found that there was a slight decline in dollars spent per transaction (down 4 percent). This particular finding raises some very interesting points about the differences between online and real world shopping.
When it comes to traditional retail stores, price is everything. Retailers at brick and mortar stores define success in terms of the amount of money derived from each individual sale made. On the other hand, online merchants focus the bulk of their effort on driving traffic to their sites and converting visitors into buyers. In the virtual world, monetization is not about price-point. Instead, it is about leveraging online media, such as social channels, to draw consumers in and then create a shopping experience that keeps them coming back time and time again.
In the past, we have discussed how online merchants can best leverage the influence of the social Web in order to attract and retain customers. Additionally, we have touched on the importance of creating a seamless purchase experience for buyers. The latest comScore report proves that these online shopping trends are effectively changing the economics of online shopping. As the dynamic between online merchants and online shoppers continues to evolve, Plimus will continue to provide the tools necessary to successfully monetize today’s virtual economy.
Getting Started with Plimus Webcast
Apr 28th
In case you missed it, the Plimus team hosted a webcast this week helping prospective customers learn more about the company and how to get started selling on Plimus. This webcast was entertaining for our team as we really enjoy discussing with callers how new sellers can get started with Plimus.
Plimus simplifies the buying process for your shoppers and increases the potential for turning browers to buyers. The Buy Anyware API gives online vendors complete control of the customer experience by eliminating the tiresome requirements of a virtual storefront. With Plimus, it’s simple and easy for sellers to turn a profit by creating a ‘frictionless’ buying experience that shortens the distance between prospect and customer. We’re talking increased moolah quickly.
If you missed it, not to worry — you can view the archived version of this webcast here http://home.plimus.com/ecommerce/webcasts. I highly recommend checking it out to learn how easy it is to partner with Plimus. Let’s get started today!
[AK1]Include link to archived webcast on website
Cyber Monday Hits an All-Time High
Dec 8th
2010 marked an all-time high for the e-Commerce industry. Cyber Monday, a day dedicated to online holiday shopping deals following Black Friday’s official kick-off to the holiday shopping season, surpassed one billion dollars of online spending in the United States. This year’s event is now the heaviest online shopping day in history. Pretty cool, if I may say so myself.
comScore released figures, following the day, which indicated a 16 percent increase in e-Commerce spending versus a year ago, $887 million in 2009 to $1.028 billion dollars this year. So what does all of this mean?
It means that consumers are increasingly pounding the virtual pavement and shopping online in addition to visiting shopping malls and department stores for their holiday shopping. It means that online retailers and e-Commerce and deals sites, such as Amazon.com, eBay, BestBuy.com, Facebook, Groupon, etc. are giving consumers a good enough reason to choose shopping for deals on the couch with their iPad in pajamas over venturing out into the holiday craze. And it means consumers don’t have to get up at 4 a.m. and wait in those insane lines on Black Friday – instead, they can sit comfortably at home (or in the office as the case seems to be) and click away for the big holiday sales. In fact, nearly half of consumers this year did their holiday shopping at work.
That is great news for Plimus and our Plimus sellers and affiliates. Plimus’ e-Commerce platforms handle nearly 20,000 digital goods transactions daily. With that said, digital sales for our customers and affiliates helped beat the billion dollar mark as consumers are planning to give and also receive digital goods this holiday season.
In my recent post, I discussed a holiday survey we conducted, “Are Consumers Dreaming of a Digital Holiday?” The survey solicited via social media platforms, asked consumers about their projected holiday spending and how big a role digital goods would play. I’ve included some of the highlights below and you’ll see that our responses match up nicely with the numbers collected from comScore.
Charles Born,
Head of Marketing
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_justified_sinner/2498066986/
Want to Improve Your e-Commerce Site? APIs Can Help.
Sep 8th
In case you haven’t seen the increasing number of industry reports and news articles, e-Commerce is growing at an exponential rate making it vastly important for online merchants to find new ways to make their businesses relevant enough to cut through the market clutter. In a piece for Practical Ecommerce, Armando Roggio gives an overview of how Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable Web-based applications to interact –helping online merchants improve store features, add site content and engage customers and partners… pretty cool, huh?
In the article, Armando compares the API to a simple instruction manual – in that APIs explain how a Web developer can operate a particular application. In order to illustrate his point, Armando uses the example of an online merchant using an API to track customer information and transfer it externally for marketing purposes. Many API’s not only allow merchants to transfer this information to an external marketing site, for example, they also instruct merchants on what formats can be submitted (i.e. XML), how to connect to the application’s servers and provide all kinds of other information as well.
Additionally, Armando explains how APIs can improve online businesses through user interface enhancements, helpful feature add-ons and much more. For example, it’s an API that provides users with real-time shipping rates from FedEx and the United States Postal Service online. So, when an online merchant connects to an external application to add a useful feature and improve the user experience, it’s most likely an API that’s doing the heavy lifting, enabling website features many of us have come to expect in our day-to-day online activity.
We had a great conversation with Armando back in June regarding the launch of the Plimus Buy Anyware™ API. You can read the result here. The Buy Anyware™ API allows e-Commerce developers to integrate online sales solutions into website content or applications without requiring users to go to a virtual store or shopping cart. For example, if a social gamer wants to purchase one virtual good or another, he can do so without being diverted from the game screen. These anytime, anywhere transactions can turn browsers into buyers and lead to increased revenue. It’s a great example of how APIs can improve business online by providing a seamless experience for consumers while boosting monetization for vendors.
Customer Profile: Yummy Interactive Talks Frictionless Gaming
Aug 27th
For today’s blog, I’d like to highlight one of our partners, Yummy Interactive. This week, Christopher Hennebery, VP of software distribution at Yummy Interactive, spoke with Rebecca Lieb from Econsultancy about making digital rights management as painless as possible. During the discussion, Christopher described how Yummy is now able to offer its customers a “frictionless” e-Commerce experience – with the help of Plimus.
Plimus announced its relationship with Yummy Interactive back in the middle of June at E3 and since then we’ve been working with them to offer a seamless online buying experience for gamers. Yummy Interactive’s GameShield In-Game Activation, developed with Plimus, provides game developers a way to turn the trial-to-purchase process into a hassle-free, immersive experience. This e-Commerce platform provides a one-click purchase experience, which helps maintain immersive gameplay throughout the transaction. This, in turn, gives these developers a new tool to use to increase revenue and convert trials into sales.
Rebecca’s post includes a great conversation with Christopher and provides some interesting statistics on how Plimus and Yummy Interactive are helping game developers increase their revenue streams, “We’ve seen one of our clients base a 19% increase in conversions from trial to purchase.” Click here to read the entire blog on the Econsultancy website.
Charles Born,
Head of Marketing
