ETD: 898 Tracking Conversions; Google Wallet; News clips from
Gifts & Dec Direct
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Jun 23 12:00:33 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0898 June 23, 2005
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Tracking Conversions
[3] Google Wallet
[4] News clips from Gifts & Dec Direct
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
My how time flies. We are coming up on our 900th issue of E-Tailer's
Digest. And still having fun with all of our friends and colleagues.
What is important to you at your site? The usual metric is how much
traffic do we get. Unfortunately, traffic doesn't pay the bills - sales
does. I have provided some tips on what to consider with your
site. Anybody have some more information they would like to share?
One of our list members (Jules Kaplan) has a service, that at first blush
may appear to be hurt by the new Google Wallet. Jules has provided us with
an insight into their business and how it will not be affected by
Google. Interesting information.
Our friends at Gifts & Decorative Accessories have some interesting news
tidbits, which are especially important to those of us with brick & mortar
stores.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Tracking Conversions
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Many people wonder how to get more business. As we reported in earlier
digests, traffic to your site is not as important as is sales, i.e.,
conversion of lookers to buyers. And conversion must include those who
visit your store.
Here's some ideas on tracking conversions:
A. What type of site do you have and what are you seeking? Do you have an
e-commerce site? Lead generation? Content provider?
If you only provide content, then you need to track differently - traffic
to pages are critical.
B. Learn more about your traffic.
1. Why do people leave without buying?
2. Where do they come from?
3. Where do they go?
4. Where in the world are they coming from?
5. Why did they leave?
6. What type of content are they seeking?
7. What can you do to make them stick, and buy?
C. Track the conversions that happen in your store (offline). Traffic to
your site may be a way for prospects to learn about your company, and then
come to your store to buy. That is an excellent conversion, and needs to
be tracked.
1. Have a single telephone (preferably toll-free) number for the Web
site alone, then track inbound calls for quantity, closing rate and closing
value
2. Use telephone extension numbers to track different parts of the
site, e.g., assign a unique extension for menswear and a different
extension for accessories.
3. Assign a different telephone extension number (or toll-free
number) to each marketing campaign to measure results.
Sales is a numbers game. Many people say the more traffic you have the
more sales, which may not be true. You need to target QUALIFIED prospects
to generate more sales. And you need to know how to look at numbers. If I
say our site generated 100 leads last week, and 60 this week, what would
that mean? To some, it means traffic is declining. My next question would
be how many sales did we get from those leads? That is the most important
number!
George
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[3] Google Wallet
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Is is a good thing the Pay Pal will have competition from Google and is it
good for the EFT and Credit Card Processing industry as a whole, my answer
is yes.
Will it hinder our company - Inovium Corporation - in developing clients,
it may in certain B2C area, but we do not concentrate in the B2C but in
B2B. Inovium manages a company account receivables and we do procedures
that Google can not do.
We can post from 1 to 100,000 invoices at a time, Google and Pay Pal really
is designed for 1 to 1 relationship. They will have more effect on the
Shopping Cart business. Inovium is in the Electronic Invoice Presentment
and Payment arena.
Also we allow a business to brand their name and logo on the Inovium ASP
application. Question to the group: Would you rather be presenting your
own brand or the Pay Pal Google brand if you are a B2B company.
Now for the biggest difference - SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE and our pricing
structure. Pay Pal and Google both work on a percentage of the goods sold,
we work on a flat fee arrangement.
Also we can provide certain services that Google and Paypal will not
offer. Example for large volume companies that receive check payments, by
end of the 3rd quarter of 2005 we will have a image reader where we will be
able to post the payment directly to the customer account and also be in
compliance with Check 21 processing which went into effect October 28,
2004. As a side note, their are less than 100 banks out of the 8500 banks
nationwide who are Check 21 compliant as of this date/ It will be sometime
before all of the banks will be Compliant.
Again, is competition good for business, and again I answer in the
affirmative YES. Never be afraid of competition for the cream of the crop
will always survive and do well. It gets the bottom people out and that is
good in this competitive world.
Jules Kaplan
Inovium Corporation
jkaplan at invoium.com
http://www.inovium.com
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[4] News clips from Gifts & Dec Direct
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1. Small Businesses Outpace U.S. Economy
New York — The survey CIT Small Business Outlook, conducted by CIT Group
Inc. and BusinessWeek Research, concluded that 70 percent of small
businesses have performed well over the past 12 months in comparison to the
U.S. economy. Sales growth is the top priority, but managing healthcare
costs is also important. “The positive responses expressed
confirm the
resiliency of the U.S. small business market,” said Tom Hallman, vice
chairman of CIT’s specialty finance group. Some 85 percent of respondents
expect their 2005 gross annual sales to be higher than their 2004 revenue,
and 42 percent expect to increase revenue by expanding into new markets or
customer bases. On healthcare costs, more than half expect healthcare price
increases to outpace their budget with the next five years, and 37 percent
consider universal healthcare benefits the best solution to healthcare cost
concerns.
2. DMC to Double Trade Mart Building
Dallas — The Dallas Market Center will add 500,000 square feet to its Trade
Mart building, providing expanded showroom space for the lighting industry.
The $21 million project will add four floors to the Trade Mart adjacent to
Harry Hines Blvd. The top two floors will be built as showrooms contiguous
to the current lighting areas of the building. The two lower flowers will
be used for parking, but will be convertible to showroom space as demand
requires. “Dallas Market Center is committed to the sustained growth of
what is already the largest concentration of lighting resources in the
world,” said DMC chief executive Bill Winsor. “By responding to requests
for additional showroom space, we will double our lighting marketplace,
offering our loyal buyers unmatched resources from the leading
manufacturers.” A groundbreaking celebration takes place this Friday, June
24, in the Trade Mart atrium; the new addition will open in January 2007.
3. REA 2005 Finalists
New York — Finalists for the 2005 Retailer Excellence Awards (the REAs)
have been selected. Each week we introduce you to one in Store Design,
Promotion, or Visual Merchandising. This week, it’s Imagine of Warren,
Rhode Island, a finalist in the Store Design category. Emily Calandrelli
and Gene Oberhauser moved their three-year-old store into a renovated
historic movie house. Read the complete story in the July issue of Gifts &
Decorative Accessories. Gold and Silver award winners for Store Design will
be announced at G&DAs gala dinner/boat cruise of New York harbor, Sunday,
August 14, during the run of the New York International Gift Fair. George
Little Management sponsors the dinner. Tickets are $125 per person; call
Gail Ma at (646) 746-7341.
Quinn Halford, Editor In Chief
Matthew Kalash, Managing Editor
Gifts & Decorative Accessories.
www.giftanddec.com.
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