Price Differentiation for Increased Sales And Larger Profit Margins

First, it depends on what kind of estore software you use. Is it your own source or do you use al in one ecommerce solutions such as volusion, bigcommerce, magento... You can imagine it would be definitely better If you have both your own software and development team in house. This will effectively cash on programming the new applications and projects, integrate it to your e-store the way you want it and cost effective. If you are using shopping cart solutions, you will be more limited to put it into practice.
After this individual point of view, the main topic is how customers come to our e-store:
Where they come from;
1)- Price comparison sites: Means they are looking for low prices, so you don't want to offer high prices. If you do, they won't even come and visit your website unless they haven't have any other choices.


2)- Search Engines: Means they were already looking for a specific product and found you. Middle price would be the best fit for your e-store price segmentation strategy.


3)- Direct Visits or Result of Reviews: Means they are already comfortable with you, your site, your customer service, your value and they are high likely to pay your asking price.


It is obvious that you will enjoy increased sales and larger profit margins with the effective use of price differentiation.

notion source: upstreamcommerce.com

Your Pioneers in Social Media? Let's Find Them and than Chase Them Up

I always want to follow top players in the fields of social media, search engines, affiliation, e-store, in a nutshell multi-channel marketing. Today, I will go over the social media with my little research below.I’ve followed many companies and seen their successes over the years. I put together this list of some of the “bigger players” in the social media atmosphere that are doing exceptional jobs with their campaigns. Granted, these companies have budgets that one would only dream to work with, they still can show us a few things that we can all implement into our own social media campaigns.

• Coca Cola
• Facebook Fans: 41,366,566
• Twitter Followers: 522,143
• Google+ Followers: 504,556

My favorite part of Coca Cola’s social media is their Facebook Timeline. They have utilized Timeline to the fullest by adding in all of their history and adding in their assortment of applications. The best way they have captivated Fans though? With visuals. If you go to the Coca Cola Facebook Timeline, you can see that of their recent posts about 90% of them include some sort of picture. They could have used other Facebook tools for some of their posts like questions or even just simple status updates but they used pictures instead. They have figured out how to get the maximum amount of feedback from their Fans and it’s working… well. They do a great job on Twitter by making sure to reply to people talking about them. This is a good way to interact with Followers and encourages them to keep talking about your brand.

• Ford
• Facebook Fans: 1,467,664
• Twitter Followers: 121,529
• Google+ Followers: 428,365

Ford has done a phenomenal job in using social media. They have made sure to integrate their social media campaigns into every aspect of their company. They measure everything that they do on social media all the way through to the purchase of a car by asking customers if their social media efforts influenced them in any way to their purchase. You’d be shocked at the number of customers they get into dealerships as a result of social media. They were also one of the first companies that attacked the Google+, getting on board the second day that the social network opened to the public. With so many followers, they must be doing something right. The biggest benefit to their presence on Google+ is that the followers they have are more valuable and the conversation is richer. They also have an entire website dedicated to social media. It is a way for fans to get involved with Ford socially. Social Media Examiner recently did an interview with the head of social media for Ford, Scott Monty, and he has some valuable things to say about how Ford has used social media to help their brand in big ways.

• Starbucks
• Facebook Fans: 29,643,724
• Twitter Followers: 2,376,361
• Pinterest Followers: 402 total but over 800 on some of their boards.

Starbucks, like Coca Cola, does a great job at utilizing photos. They have been one of the first and most dominant companies on the Pinterest platform. Creating pictures that have their logo in them and that appeal to a variety of users, increasing their Repins tremendously. They also appeal to their Facebook Fans by showing their involvement in community projects and charities. Of course not every company can do this but even if you sponsor an event at a local diner that benefits ANYONE, you should showcase this through all of your social media. Starbucks has documented their support very well which is definitely another great idea that you can use in your own social media efforts.

• Disney
  
• Facebook Fans: 35,023,410
• Twitter Followers: 1,209,606
• YouTube Subscribers: 165,404 (Disney Channel YouTube Channel)

Disney has utilized their history and nostalgia that their brand brings to many users. They create trivia on Twitter, asking questions like, “What was the first Disney animated feature to have an all-animal cast of characters?” By this they create many Retweets and Favorites. With the hashtag #DisneyTrivia, they are sure to keep this up for quite some time. They also post things on Twitter like, “Hakuna matata [ha-koo-nah mah-ta-tah] n. A problem-free philosophy. Means no worries for the rest of your days.” Most everyone knows what this means and they created tons of Retweets, Favorites, and I’m sure tons of new followers by this post alone. Their Facebook Page ties in their brand history and appeals visually to users by posting photos like this and adding in a quote from the movie or something uplifting. If your brand has a lot of history like Disney does then it should be easy to use it to your advantage. You already have the content, you just need to use it!

So let’s take a look back at everything we can learn from these big players in social media. From Coca Cola we know that we need to appeal to our Fans and Followers visually. Ford has shown us that we need to integrate social media into every aspect of our company whether it means creating an entire website or simply surveying your customers if social media had any influence on their decision to be your customer. The utilization of Pinterest and creation of your own photos that subliminally showcase your brand is a great way Starbucks has shown us how to use social media. Finally, Disney has shown us the importance of tying in your brand’s history to bring nostalgia and reminiscence to their fans.

Create Content That Matters

Wacth Bob's and Steve's Story:

Let Your Customer Buy More During Checkout

As a blogger that covers the world of B2B and B2C ecommerce, I find that quite often my personal online shopping experiences drive content for my blog. Today's blog post is no exception although I am a little stunned by the site that frustrated me.

I love Amazon.com. First because I am an avid reader, consummate nerd and I love to learn new things. Second, because Amazon.com is far and away the leader in ecommerce functionality and user experience and is quite often an organization's benchmark when they venture into the world of ecommerce.

Today, Amazon.com threw me for a loop. Stumped me. Did not lead me, instictively without my having to ask, to what I wanted. And what's odder still is that the hiccup happened during the payment process. Here's the scoop.

I was looking to purchase a couple of books. I reviewed my cart and started to check out. I got to the "Review Your Order Screen" and realized that there was a third book that I wanted to purchase. I scanned the page, looking for the helpful "Continue Shopping" button. No dice. All I could find was the "Place Your Order" button.

I clicked on the logo. Nothing.

I tried to click on the bread crumb string at the top of the page. Nope.

I was stumped. I wanted to buy more. I wanted to give Amazon my money and I was frustrated with the prospect that I would have to close my browser window and start over.

As my mouse pointer hovered over the "X" button to close the window, I had a flash of clarity. This was Amazon. The Holy Grail of ecommerce websites. Could there really be such a blatant flaw in their checkout process that would limit my ability to increase my purchase??

I refused to believe it and I returned to the page. I continued clicking and scanning. And then I saw it.

There at the very bottom of the page, in the itty bitty font that follows most every page these days was a tiny link that said "Go to the Amazon.com homepage without completing your order."

I was instantly relieved and then immediately even more concerned. Had I not gone back and looked again, I would have completely missed this link. I would have just recreated the order because I wanted the books and Amazon is my site of choice, but how many customers wouldn't have?

I'm guessing that the super smart people over at Amazon know something that I don't, which probably includes the pull of the Amazon brand and that customers are likely to order again if they can't amend an order during the "Review Your Order" stage. Of course, this is because they are Amazon and people love them. But your site is not Amazon.com, and while that is okay--good even, there is a lesson here.

Make sure that you give your customer the chance to buy more from you by allowing them to go back and add more items to their cart during checkout. This does not have to be an active solicitation to purchase more--outright promotional offers at this juncture would probably derail the sale--but should be clearly labeled so that a customer can go back, add the additional item(s), check out and continue with her day.

The Perfect Customer Lifecycle

The Perfect Custoer Lifecycle:

1. Attract Traffic
2. Capture Leads
3. Nurture Prospects
4. Convert Sales
5. Deliver & Satisffy
6. Upsell Customers
7. Get Referrals