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Posts tagged plimus
B2C Marketing Predicts Continued Increase in Shopping Cart Abandonment in 2012
Jan 27th
Turning browsers into buyers has always been a focus for Plimus. We work closely with our vendors to ensure their sites are consumer friendly with a quick and easy payments processor for buyers to complete their purchase. As you may recall, Plimus’ customizable processing platform allows vendors to combine unique selling features such as single-click purchasing and repeat customer features with customizable order pages that create a seamless checkout process. By enabling an easy, simple solution, vendors will consistently improve sales closure rates.
However, a recent article by Charles Nicolls of B2C Marketing, “Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate Set To Rise in 2012,”caught our attention. In the piece, Nicolls discusses how the shopping cart abandonment rate has risen to an all-time high of 72 percent in 2011. Furthermore, he predicts this rate will continue to grow this year and explains the methodology behind his predictions.
Despite online sellers’ efforts to simplify checkout processes, the addition of new security features and the implementation of new payment methods, shopping cart abandonment rates have steadily increased during the past three years.
So why do we see an increase in un-purchased goods and services in shopping carts?
According to Nicolls, the answer can be found by dissecting the diverse characteristics of consumers who abandon their carts versus those who don’t. As consumers become savvier online, they are more aware of different sites or techniques to find the lowest price available. No longer will they simply purchase from the first website they visit; instead, they will want to compare prices for the best deal.
The result … lots of full shopping carts left in the virtual aisle.
It will be interesting to see if Nicolls’ hypothesis holds true. As I mentioned above, we’ll continue our corporate charter by providing the customizable Plimus Marketplace to our customers, helping them increase their revenue. Let us know if we can help you!
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.
Digital Commerce Spending Continues to Rise
Aug 10th
A new study has found that one out of every three online gamers is spending real currency for virtual goods. The study, commissioned by Visa’s PlaySpan and VG Market, polled more than 1,000 men and woman gamers last month.
Some key findings from the study include:
- Console games with online play account for more than half (51 percent) of virtual purchases using real money.
- Social networking sites report 30 percent of purchases while massively multiplayer online (MMO) games account for 28 percent.
- Females are three times more likely than men to use Facebook credits to purchase virtual goods and/or services (32 percent to 13 percent, respectively).
What we found most interesting, however, were the results indicating how frequently consumers were purchasing virtual goods and services online. With more than 10 years serving the digital commerce industry, Plimus has kept a close eye on both how often and how much consumers buy online.
Based on conversations with our customers, partners and general consumers, we’re confident the virtual goods market will not slow down anytime soon. As indicated in the survey, 72 percent of respondents indicated they spent more or about the same money on virtual sales compared to last year. Moreover, results indicated that nearly 48 percent of consumers have purchased in-game currency within the past 12 months.
These figures will continue to rise as more and more consumers engage with the virtual world. Let’s hope that next year’s results show three out of four online gamers spending money for virtual goods.
You can learn more about this study by reading Dean Takahashi’s article, “More Gamers Are Spending Real Money on Virtual Goods, And Women Are Spending More Than Men,” published early last week.
A new study has found that one out of every three online gamers is spending real currency for virtual goods. The study, commissioned by Visa’s PlaySpan and VG Market, polled more than 1,000 men and woman gamers last month.
Some key findings from the study include:
- Console games with online play account for more than half (51 percent) of virtual purchases using real money.
- Social networking sites report 30 percent of purchases while massively multiplayer online (MMO) games account for 28 percent.
- Females are three times more likely than men to use Facebook credits to purchase virtual goods and/or services (32 percent to 13 percent, respectively).
What we found most interesting, however, were the results indicating how frequently consumers were purchasing virtual goods and services online. With more than 10 years serving the digital commerce industry, Plimus has kept a close eye on both how often and how much consumers buy online.
Based on conversations with our customers, partners and general consumers, we’re confident the virtual goods market will not slow down anytime soon. As indicated in the survey, 72 percent of respondents indicated they spent more or about the same money on virtual sales compared to last year. Moreover, results indicated that nearly 48 percent of consumers have purchased in-game currency within the past 12 months.
These figures will continue to rise as more and more consumers engage with the virtual world. Let’s hope that next year’s results show three out of four online gamers spending money for virtual goods.
You can learn more about this study by reading Dean Takahashi’s article, “More Gamers Are Spending Real Money on Virtual Goods, And Women Are Spending More Than Men,” published early last week.
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.
Matrix/Slitherine Ltd. Leverage Plimus to Boost Sales
May 24th
Guest Post from Marco Minoli, marketing director of Slitherine Ltd.
Slitherine Ltd. and Matrix Games are video game publishers that specialize in strategy and war games such as “Field of Glory,” “Close Combat,” “War in the East” and many others. The two companies both develop for a growing gaming audience of currently 200,000 registered users, and over the years, the companies have grown tremendously. In fact, Slitherine recently launched its first Android game, “HISTORY Great Battles Medieval,’ which is also available on the iPad, iPhone, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, PlayStation3, Xbox360 and other major consoles.
Slitherine Ltd. started selling online digital content nearly 10 years ago, when the virtual market was nearly not as robust as it is today. As I mentioned above, we specialize in a niche market of gamers; therefore, it was important that we found a targeted approach to reaching them across the globe. Moreover, it was important to keep our small audience of gamers interested, having regular touchpoints with them to ensure happy (and returning) customers.
In late 2010, Matrix Games and Slitherine merged to create the world’s largest war gaming specialist publisher, with a combined portfolio of more than 150 games. At Slitherine, we were thrilled with this merger and how it increased the reach of our gamers. We cautioned ourselves, however, with the understanding that it was going to be hard to keep our high customer approval rating and that we needed an easy-to-use processing platform. Together our companies searched for a payments-processing solution that would meet the needs of our business model and reach our niche market. Through a rigorous search, we transferred our combined online game channels to the Plimus Inc. platform.
It only took 90 days for our investment with Plimus to pay off. We quickly realized the potential of our new storefront, increasing sales by 15 percent with elevated traffic and conversation rates. We attribute this success to a handful of key factors that no other vendor, currently on the market, offers. Plimus built us a customized storefront, offering a frictionless user experience, easy login process for both new and returning customers and helped us sustain our strong commitment to customer satisfaction.
We are now well into our sixth month after launch and numbers are still very healthy, mirroring the increase of the first three months. Now, we are ready for phase two of the process, where we start to implement new features, including push strategies for direct-to-consumer promotions and pre-orders for upcoming titles. The target is to increase average sales per customer, attract new audiences through word-of-mouth and increase profitability, all through a smoother buying experience and a clever approach to non-invasive marketing initiatives.
I would gladly give my seal of approval for Plimus. I urge any vendor looking for a credible, trustworthy payment solution to get in touch with Plimus. Simply, without a doubt, we are positive that Plimus is the right partner for us and we gladly invest in this relationship as much as Plimus has invested in the relationship with us.
To read more about our engagement with Plimus see the article written by Kristina Knight at BizrReport.com
http://www.bizreport.com/2011/05/slitherine-matrix-partnership-highlights-gaming-effectivenes.html
In Case You Missed It … Buy Anyware API Webcast
Apr 7th
In case you missed it, the Plimus team hosted a webcast yesterday featuring our Buy Anyware ™ API. While I’m hoping you’re all familiar with our industry leading platform … I’ll give you a quick update. The Buy Anyware API gives online vendors complete control of the customer experience by eliminating the tiresome requirements of a virtual storefront. Buy Anyware empowers sellers to revolutionize the buying experience by offering new customer-driven processes and increase revenue through innovative new business models. We’re talking higher conversion rates and increased revenue by making it easier to turn browsers into buyers! That means more moolah (or money) for you! That’s what Plimus is all about – helping our sellers achieve greater business success.
Some of the key topics covered on the webinar included: auto-login, single-click purchasing, persistent identify management and tons more. If you missed it, it’s not too late – you can view the archived version of this webcast here : http://home.plimus.com/ecommerce/webcasts
Enjoy!
Leveraging Customer Feedback on Social Media Channels
Mar 31st
I’m an avid reader of Entrepreneur.com and last week I caught an interesting story written by Gail Goodman. Her article, “How to Harness the Power of Social Media Feedback,” discusses how the rise of social commerce impacts small businesses and entrepreneurs. She writes that the increased activity of consumers and potential buyers on social networking sites, community forums, etc. can pose both opportunities and challenges for businesses.
So what does this mean?
Engaging consumers on their own turf and opening a dialogue gives businesses insight into what the customers like and dislike about the good or service the company offers, or the company itself. Having real insights direct from a target audience can be extremely valuable; however, it also opens the company up for some discussions that it may not want to hear or at least in public for the whole social world to see. Regardless, it is important that businesses participate in the conversation and use the customer feedback (from social networking platforms) to improve overall operations and customer satisfaction. In fact, if a negative instance does occur, it can actually result in praise for the company itself and an improved brand presence if handled the right way.
The Entrepreneur.com piece is a great read for our thousands of Plimus affiliate customers. In order to increase profits and raise revenue conversion rates, affiliate marketers must go to where their customers are. Goodman, in her article, outlined three key elements needed to engage with customers and best leverage their feedback. These elements are:
- Know Where to Look – Make sure you are monitoring the social media platforms and forums where your consumers are posting. Make sure any locations where people can criticize your products or services are consistently monitored.
- Get Your Customers Talking – Encourage a two-way conversation with your customers. Make sure you are encouraging positive conversation and containing the dialogue.
- Respond to Customer Feedback – If there is both positive and negative conversation, be sure to address every conversation accurately and in a timely manner. Remember that a negative message can turn into a positive one if handled deftly.
By simply addressing these three elements, you will improve your overall business offering and increase revenue streams, not to mention elevate your brand reputation.
I urge our affiliate pros to check out the article and let us know what you think? Have you been successful with customer engagement on social media platforms? Share your stories with us!
Study Finds Casual Gaming Helps Ease Depression
Mar 10th
A recent study found that playing casual games can lift a person’s mood. The study, conducted by East Carolina University (ECU) and funded by Popcap Games, revealed that consumers who regularly played Bejeweled had reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Sound familiar? Good for you, maybe you’ve been playing your casual games like me to boost your mood and outlook. In June, I posted a blog about another study from the same vendor, “Casual Gaming – Who Knew It Could Improve Cognition?,” which found that consumers playing games such as Bejeweled, Peggle or Bookworm “… for 30 minutes demonstrated an 87 percent improvement in cognitive response time and an overwhelming 215 percent increase in executive functioning.” Now it seems like we’re seeing a trend here – casual games are not only fun, social activities but they also are good for your overall mental health.
These results are part of an ongoing study by ECU, which found that, in addition to helping cognition, playing casual games helped reduce tension, anger and fatigue. According to an article in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the director of the ECU department conducting the survey found that casual games had potential as a treatment for clinically depressed patients. Just think about how big an impact this could have on the medical industry.
During the past six months, I’ve closely followed the developments of this study and believe the results are a strong affirmation that game developers must cater to their online audience and build a “frictionless” online experience. Limit the distractions during the gaming experience to maximize that positive impact on gamers’ outlooks.
What are your thoughts? This study didn’t look at Farmville or other Zynga games; for those players, do you feel the same? How are casual games impacting your life?
Charles Born,
Head and VP of Marketing
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jar0d/4649749639/
Hello, Goodbye – Online shopping and abandoned carts.
Feb 23rd
According to KISSMetric’s nifty shopping cart abandonment infographic, e-commerce sales totaled $25 billion in 2010. More surprisingly, 88% of consumers have completely abandoned an online shopping cart without completing a transaction. They don’t include figures about how often shopping carts are abandoned in brick and mortar stores but I’m sure you’d bet your rent money that it’s considerably lower. Why? Blame the very same convenience that makes online purchasing quick and easy.
One obvious advantage brick and mortar stores have over online retailers is the customer’s ability to inspect the product up close and in person. By the time customers get to the cash register, they are essentially committed to buying the product. Barring a forgotten wallet or a lack of funds, rarely do you see customers ditch their goods at the checkout and walk away. Since very little time was committed to the purchase, it is extremely easy to simply ditch a cart in the online world. People can just as easily open up a new browser tab and look elsewhere for a better deal or for a retailer that provides a better buying experience.
There are ways to improve this experience, ranging from major site overhauls to a simple removal or addition of a field in a checkout form. Above all, customers must be sufficiently confident about the product they will purchase – a confidence that can be built surprisingly easily.
When customers are presented with large, clear images coupled with loads of information, reviews, ratings, and other important information they need to make a purchase, they will head to the checkout page confidently and they are much less likely to abandon their cart. Inevitably, some customers will abandon their cart to rummage the net for a better deal but price isn’t usually the deal breaker for confident customers. Zappos, for example, doesn’t always have the best prices but they do provide a top-notch buying experience and customer support – and they’re certainly not struggling to make a buck.
At the checkout page, customers are essentially faced with a decision whether or not to commit to something. Anything that reduces the anxiety about making that commitment will increase the chances the customer will continue with the purchase. Displaying payment options, support and contact information, and security tags in plain view will reassure customers. It’s important to note, also, that customers are more likely to make a subscription purchase if they are presented with clear instructions on how to cancel. Once they’re sure they can cancel painlessly, they will be more likely to go ahead and subscribe. Even seemingly minor things such as removing unnecessary entry fields or reducing the number of steps a customer is required to go through will improve your chances of closing the sale.
You know your own customers better than anyone and you should know what they think of your buying experience. You should also ask yourself what you think about your buying experience. Are you convinced that you’re presenting the optimal experience to your customers? Would you buy a product from your store? Think about those things and always remember that it is absurdly easier to walk away from an online store than a brick and mortar one. Still, brick and mortar stores would rather chase down empty carts in the parking lot than full carts left behind in the store. As an online retailer, you don’t have to put the items back on the shelf but it hurts just the same. These experiences are what drove our development of the Plimus BuyAnyware™ API and the one click shopping experience is can deliver for our vendors. Experience shows this capability, along our customizable order pages, make for increased conversions and sales.
Billy Ramirez,
Account Manager
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkripper/1050103849/
