How to improve your e-sales process?

comparative study and advise for an international cd shop chain

the main questions• Are you satisfied with the number of visitors on

your web site?• are you satisfied with your web sales?• do you know how to sell on the web?• what is the quality of your web site compared to

those of your competitors?• how can your e-sales be improved?

the mission• my client was not satisfied with the sales through

his site. He wanted to benchmark it - compared to competition - and wanted to know how to substantially improve the conversion ratio

• we decided to measure my client’s site and those of 9 competitors, chosen by the client

some measures• We always measure the quality of the e-selling

process and relate the scores to the conversion ratio of the web shops

• quality is measured in 16 success factors;• conversion ratio = sales / #unique visitors;• higher quality means higher conversion ratio

the success factors• information• interaction• networking• selection• sensory experience• facilitation• adaptation• ubiquity

• aggregation • advice• customization• quote• comparison• bargaining• decision• agreement

one example factornetworking

to give (potential) customers the opportunity to learn from others about the quality of your offer.

this can be done in very different ways, such as providing test reports, information from earlier customers, or even creating an independant community.

For more information about the factors, contact me.

The 16 success factors are measured with a checklist comprising over 180 questions. This is usually done by experienced students or analysts.If you like, you can do it yourself, using www.scanyours.combe carefull: it’s a lot of work!

how to measure?

The checklist (2 example questions)

(How) does the supplier respond toe-mail?

o not at allo standard file (faq)o standard answero personal answer

Does the site showcustomers’comments?

o not at allo someo many, without linkso many, with links

question answers scores

0123

012

3

the scores• scores are measured per success factor• and expressed in % of max possible scores• for instance: 16 points out of 40 possible points on

the factor sensory experience, results in a score of 40(%) on that factor.

the quality of the e-sales process is expressed in a circle with 16 axes.

informationinteraction

networking

sensory experience

ubiquity

aggregation

adaptation

cus selectionadvise

com

bar

quo

fac

dec

agr the factors

examplescoreof a salesprocess100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

total scores• all individual shops are plotted in the circle• the first plot (dotted line) is the industry average• the next plots are ranked from highest to lowest

overall scores

infint

net

sen

ubi

agg

ada

cus seladv

com

bar

quo

fac

dec

agr

amazon

average

shopping

cdworld

bestbuy

cdnow

proxis

cdteleshop

my client

cdeurope

cduniverse

the conclusion• my client’s e-sales process appeared to be very

weak compared to competition• also the conversion ratio (sales per unique

visitor) was low, compared to competition.• Amazon’s ratio was 10 times higher!

what should my client do?

now... to strategy

• it appears that the sales processes in the cd shops are functionally quite comparable, but they do differ much in quality.

• let’s change the presentation of the results in such a way that factors with high scores are on the left and factors with low scores on the right.

sel fac agr inf quo agg ada adv bar sen net int ubi com cus dec

amazon

bestbuy

cd now

cd world

cd universe

shopping

proxis

cd teleshop

my client

cd europe

>75 40+ 30+ 20+ <2050+

highest scores lowest scores

what do we see?

• there are factors in which most shops score very well

• there are factors in which only few shops - the leaders - have high scores but most have lower scores

• there are factors unused that might give a competitive advantage

sel fac agr inf quo agg ada adv bar sen net int ubi com cus dec

amazon

bestbuy

cd now

cd world

cd universe

shopping

proxis

cd teleshop

my client

cd europe

>75 40+ 30+ 20+ <2050+

follo

w fo

llow

the

the

lead

erle

ader

free

area

cond

itio s

ine

cond

itio s

ine

qua

non

qua

non

highest scores lowest scores

the advise (1)• improve functionality in factors

– facilitation (ease of use) – agreement (payment system) – information (about the cds) – quote (clear presentation of order information)

• just to keep up with the industry standard

do it quickly and without compromise

the advise (2)• improve functionality in factors

– adaptation (of the interface) – aggregation (info about groups and concerts) – advise (which cds to buy)

• but concider these as “nice to have”

not the highest priority

the advise (3)• find ways to offer new functionality in factors

– comparison (of different cds) – customization (is really possible!) – decision (buying decision support)

• to outperform competition

take your time to become an expert

This is how you improve your e-sales

process

by Marcel CreemersTransacSys Consult