The latest eCommerce Expo at Olympia London was a success, boasting high levels of attendance - an increase of 34% from last year. Held on 28 and 29 October 2008, the Expo showcased not just leading companies but also up-and-coming companies offering very specific ecommerce services, from basic SEO writing and PayPal online payment services, to advanced email marketing techniques and multi-channel strategies.
eCommerce Seminars
The main attraction was the seminars, organised into four main tracks: Essentials, Advanced, Future and Infrastructure. Seminars lasted 20 to 30 minutes, led by industry experts, giving pointers related to their services. In the main keynote theatre, case studies on large companies like IKEA and Tesco made e-commerce accessible to visitors, who packed all five theatres, spilling into the aisles jotting notes voraciously.
Influence Users at Early Research Stage – Longer Journeys
A buzzword at the eCommerce Expo was longer journeys for the online marketer. Speakers pointed out that companies should influence web users at an early stage: when they do their research. It would not be enough to improve one’s website look or usability, it is equally important to appear on related websites like market places, price comparison, even hobby and social networking websites, thereby entering the user’s consciousness at an early stage. Of course, increasing Google ranking by SEO writing and search advertising Pay Per Click campaigns are basic powerful tools that cannot be ignored.
Completing the sale does not mean the end of the journey. Longer journeys include building a client database for email marketing. Sending a customer an email after the sale encourages the next sale, by asking feedback or suggesting related products to the previous sale. A lack of response would generate yet another email to them and so on, at intervals natural to the consumer.
Segmentation
Email marketing is one of the web’s most influential analytical tools, because through email marketing behavioural targeting can be tested and carried out. Companies like Coremetrics, Responsys and Emailcenter UK firmly placed the term ‘segmentation’ in the novice’s mindset, stressing that emails can be formatted to track which parts are opened and whether they are clicked through. Emails can be split tested to see whether subject titles are effective, and even segmented to appeal to different target groups. For instance, a fashion e-newsletter can have segments on male or female clothes, accessories or make-up depending on the tastes and preferences of the recipient. Segments can then be automated so content is easily changed.
How to Guides
Another buzzword was ‘guides’. Web experts say that visitors are drawn to the guide section of the website, with the hands-on breakdown of the information they want. Guide sections personalise the encounter, making consumers feel like the centre of the web experience.
User-Generated Content & Multi-Channel Strategies
Advanced techniques included multi-channel strategies and user-generated content. Sounds like a lot of jargon to the novice, but these techniques improve the user’s on-the-page experience, by borrowing off-the-page. When a webpage sells more than just the desired item, by including accessories, similar items of competitive price, what other users bought and user-generated content like reviews or stories, it culminates in a trove of persuasive information that has the consumer hooked.
Emphasis on SMEs - No Social Networks?
Most seminars covered the basics: online payment, web usability and consumer understanding, helpful for small and medium enterprises. Surprisingly little was said about social networking, apart from the one seminar by Broadvision: ‘eCommerce and Social Networks’, which recommended advertising with established social networks like Facebook and MySpace, rather than creating a niche social network site. Hopefully 2009’s Ecommerce Expo will include more on this exciting prospect.
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