Case Study - Perth Mint eCommerce Evolution 1998-2014

transcript

CASE STUDYEcommerce Evolution

(1998-2014)

David Kerbeydavidkerbey@iinet.net.au

PERTH MINT has no online presence but a well established mail order business

Issued small range of Aust. Gold & Silver coins Small 100% Mail/Telephone Order Retail Operation Mailed 4 Catalogues/Brochures per year (Aust Post) to

4,000 to 5,000 prospects/customers 75% repeat customers - mainly in Australia 2 People providing retail order processing/customer service Despatched less than 2,000 orders PA with AOV $500

Firmly in the “old economy”!

The Internet…..something new

Still very early days for most The killer App was email not the WWW eBay was 2 years old but no one had heard of it Google founded that year but most people used

Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, Excite - or nothing Search Marketing didn’t really exist and there was no PPC MS .NET 1.0 was two years away Broadband not available…most used dial-up connection at

14kbs – 56kbs Households with Internet access in Australia <20% The slowest adopters of computers and the Internet was

our customer demographic …. 45+

Our first website perthmint.com.au closely followed our printed brochures, included everything.A ‘kitchen sink’ approach

A simple document style layout featuring text & hyperlinks with minimal images1998

Website refined and expanded

Our window to the world seemed to work well presenting our expanding range of collector coins supporting the wholesale & retail bricks & mortar network…..but not transactional.

The old business model was unchallenged.

New website Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program to a worldwide audience1999

Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program landing page1999

Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program product page - No Buy-now button1999

Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program paper newsletter delivered online1999

The Add-To-Cart button is adopted and ecommerce began2000

Eventually the opposition to direct sales amongst the traditional wholesale network was overcome and B-2-C web sales were approved, but with important stipulations:1. Uphold RRP2. Offer full range3. Charge for delivery4. Allow geo-targeting of product offering

New site built in MS .NET 1.0 & HTML on Microsoft CommerceServer V1.0 Platform – launched July 2000.

First online sale made 1 July 2000 an hour after go-live.

It was the first of 100s of thousands of sales to 10s of thousands of new customers in dozens of new countries world-wide.

A new stylish home page with new modern design now with ecommerce Add-To-Cart facility

Product catalogue now classic three column layout but product navigation already under pressure

Launched a new micro site discoveraustralia.org.au for a major coin series linked to main site

discoveraustralia.org.au featured improved product presentation

discoveraustralia.org.au used streaming video for the first time

Digital Marketing : We learnt as we went

Built prospect email list; Bi-monthly eDM soft-sell newsletter to customers & prospects

Began pay-per-click search advertising Yahoo Overture

Began Google Adwords search marketing

Permanent cross promotion of website to catalogue customers

Tested copy/layout/landing pages. Launched first micro site for premier product range

Experimented with banner advertising

Introduced RSS feeds

2000-2006

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

The results: Steady progress but still 50% in the

catalogue business Traffic grew steadily month on month with peaks mid-week

& product release Constant stream of new online customers drove growth Conversion of existing Catalogue buyers to Online slow but

steady Customers with email address (Internet connection) grew

from 5% to 55% Sales Revenue grew 5x Lower CPA Higher AOV Online sales ratio grew from 0% to 50%

2000-2006

Launched new site using proprietary CMS built in .NET 1.0 integrated with ERP for the first time

Typical product page, three column, three scrolls2008

Expert usability review recommended new home page layout2009

Layout addressed concerns

Extends below the fold – 2-3 pages

Double number of products

Small banners moved down right sidebar

More white space

Launched youngcollectors.com.au microsite for young coin collectors linked to main site

youngcollectors.com.au included kids games 2009

Main site re-skinned with revised HP layout from usability review2010

Expanding product range meant product navigation an even bigger problem

Typical category header page – text for SEO2010

Typical category page – four across grid2010

Typical product page2010

Launched new site perthmintbullion.com to sell gold & silver investment bullion – real time pricing, price chart feeds and widgets

Typical investment product page2010

Launched mobile site to sell bullion with full functionality to buy and sell in real time

Launched wealth tracker app track your bullion holding value in real time and get news

The power of web 2.0: SEO, SEM, video, content, blogging, affiliates, analytics, apps, mobile, re-targeting, social media

2007-2014

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Built an affiliate network ; Automated email list management

Set up active SEO program

Google AdWords & Yahoo Search account management outsourced; Adopted social media strategy; Launched YouTube Channel

Daily blogging; 3rd party content syndication; Launched Twitter channel; Launched an mCommerce mobile site

Established blogger outreach program

Facebook channel

Facebook Advertising, Remarketing

Social media expansion to Pinterest, Instagram

The Results

Traffic grew strongly with massive peaks on monthly product release days

Extra reach of search and social provided accelerated customer growth worldwide

Conversion of all Catalogue buyers to Online almost complete by 2012

Customers with email address (Internet connection) grew from 55% to 85%

Sales Revenue grew 4x Dispatching 80,000 orders PA worldwide Increased the people in retail order processing/customer

service by one Online sales ratio grew from 50% to 90%

2007-2014

We were firmly in the digital economy!

Thank YouDavid Kerbeydavidkerbey@iinet.net.au