What’s This Sticky Stuff on Me?
| Category: Customer Service | Date: 2003-10-22 |
The giants of consumer e-commerce have it all figured out. Their sites are sticky with customer interaction and follow-up tricks. They send a thank you email after every purchase and deliver sales coupons weekly. Regular customers get newsletters and breaking product information. Every visitor is part of a drawing for weekend trip to Universal City and a walk-on bit on Just Shoot Me. This sticky stuff’s easy.
But, ah, excuse me, did you say only 16% of the top 50 retailers bother to send a simple follow-up email within 30 days? And is it true that only half of the Internet leaders ask the simple question, Would you like to be notified about related products?
If e-retailing has become so simple and obvious, how come only 25% of consumer sites recognize the buyer as a repeat customer? Come on, folks, we’ve known what it takes to strike gold with a Web store for weeks now. How come the best Internet retailers are doing such a poor job of treating their customers like gold nuggets?
A recent report on e-commerce stickiness by Rubric, a provider of e-marketing applications in San Mateo, CA, shows surprisingly poor customer relations at the leading Internet sites. In the same study, Rubric also confirmed that 90% of Internet buyers indicated that personalization (the heart of Internet marketing) would increase their likelihood of purchasing. Duh-ah.
Rubric tested the customer support system of 50 leading Internet sites over a 30-day period, monitoring communications, product notifications, problem resolution, all of the touch-the-consumer devices that successful Web sites use to keep customers. Few sites managed even the simplist techniques to foster customer loyalty, even as consumers are making it abundantly clear these techniques will increase their purchases.
Rubric wouldn’t name names, but they did name categories. We found out which categories are doing a good job and which are doing a poor job, said Rubric’s Director of Product Marketing, Michael Smith. The brick and mortar retailers are doing the poorest job, said Smith, while the companies with background in direct marketing, such as catalogs, are doing the best job.
Not too surprising. Direct marketing companies have long mastered the tender art of customer interaction, follow-up, targeting, segmentation and, goll darn it, they remember who you are. Store-front retailers get by with zip-code saturation flyers, print ads, billboards and lobby greeters, not exactly the precise-point targeting necessary for the Web-savvy. And remember that rule about creating a separate company for the Web site? Are the major retailers still running their Web efforts from the Web master’s den?
Rubric concludes that, the leading e-commerce sites are missing a large opportunity to increase their ‘stickiness’ by not effectively remarketing to their own customers. I swore we covered this in Web Marketing 101, and if I remember right, the lessons were instantly broadcast to every earthbound creature with an email address. The Web aces can’t keep secrets, you know.
Once more for the fun of it, here are the secrets of Web-based consumer marketing. The Rubric report restates the obvious in its conclusions on what’s effective in e-commerce. The parentheses are mine.
Use interactive marketing to cross sell, up-sell and re-sell products (Want fries with your order?).
Apply database marketing principals of targeting and segmentation (If mom orders a breast pump, guess what, she needs infant clothes and baby equipment).
Use personalization to broaden and deepen relationships (Thanks for buying again! Do you want to use the same card you used last time? BTW, you get a 5% discount for coming back).
Use continuous relationship marketing to build customer loyalty (You just bought a Muddy Waters CD, do you want to receive a weekly newsletter with blues reviews, concerts, new releases and interviews?).
This online stuff is too easy. The Internet offers astonishing powers of connectivity and communication. The e-commerce winners will the be retailers who put these powers in play.
About the Author
Robert Spiegel, The Shoestring Entrepreneur, is the author of The Complete Guide to Home Business (AMACOM, due Oct. 99) and The Shoestring Entrepreneurs Guide to the Best Home-Based Businesses (St. Martins Press, due Feb. 2000). For questions or comments, email Rob at: See details below.
spiegelrob@aol.com
But, ah, excuse me, did you say only 16% of the top 50 retailers bother to send a simple follow-up email within 30 days? And is it true that only half of the Internet leaders ask the simple question, Would you like to be notified about related products?
If e-retailing has become so simple and obvious, how come only 25% of consumer sites recognize the buyer as a repeat customer? Come on, folks, we’ve known what it takes to strike gold with a Web store for weeks now. How come the best Internet retailers are doing such a poor job of treating their customers like gold nuggets?
A recent report on e-commerce stickiness by Rubric, a provider of e-marketing applications in San Mateo, CA, shows surprisingly poor customer relations at the leading Internet sites. In the same study, Rubric also confirmed that 90% of Internet buyers indicated that personalization (the heart of Internet marketing) would increase their likelihood of purchasing. Duh-ah.
Rubric tested the customer support system of 50 leading Internet sites over a 30-day period, monitoring communications, product notifications, problem resolution, all of the touch-the-consumer devices that successful Web sites use to keep customers. Few sites managed even the simplist techniques to foster customer loyalty, even as consumers are making it abundantly clear these techniques will increase their purchases.
Rubric wouldn’t name names, but they did name categories. We found out which categories are doing a good job and which are doing a poor job, said Rubric’s Director of Product Marketing, Michael Smith. The brick and mortar retailers are doing the poorest job, said Smith, while the companies with background in direct marketing, such as catalogs, are doing the best job.
Not too surprising. Direct marketing companies have long mastered the tender art of customer interaction, follow-up, targeting, segmentation and, goll darn it, they remember who you are. Store-front retailers get by with zip-code saturation flyers, print ads, billboards and lobby greeters, not exactly the precise-point targeting necessary for the Web-savvy. And remember that rule about creating a separate company for the Web site? Are the major retailers still running their Web efforts from the Web master’s den?
Rubric concludes that, the leading e-commerce sites are missing a large opportunity to increase their ‘stickiness’ by not effectively remarketing to their own customers. I swore we covered this in Web Marketing 101, and if I remember right, the lessons were instantly broadcast to every earthbound creature with an email address. The Web aces can’t keep secrets, you know.
Once more for the fun of it, here are the secrets of Web-based consumer marketing. The Rubric report restates the obvious in its conclusions on what’s effective in e-commerce. The parentheses are mine.
Use interactive marketing to cross sell, up-sell and re-sell products (Want fries with your order?).
Apply database marketing principals of targeting and segmentation (If mom orders a breast pump, guess what, she needs infant clothes and baby equipment).
Use personalization to broaden and deepen relationships (Thanks for buying again! Do you want to use the same card you used last time? BTW, you get a 5% discount for coming back).
Use continuous relationship marketing to build customer loyalty (You just bought a Muddy Waters CD, do you want to receive a weekly newsletter with blues reviews, concerts, new releases and interviews?).
This online stuff is too easy. The Internet offers astonishing powers of connectivity and communication. The e-commerce winners will the be retailers who put these powers in play.
About the Author
Robert Spiegel, The Shoestring Entrepreneur, is the author of The Complete Guide to Home Business (AMACOM, due Oct. 99) and The Shoestring Entrepreneurs Guide to the Best Home-Based Businesses (St. Martins Press, due Feb. 2000). For questions or comments, email Rob at: See details below.
spiegelrob@aol.com
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