In the consumer products and retail industries, one of the most important (and critical) aspects of your Web strategy is determining your online identity, including your objectives and the right metrics to measure your success.
According to a recent Forrester report (US Retail eCommerce Forecast, 2006 to 2011) online sales are continuing to grow at a rapid pace ($184.4 in 2008 to predicted $271.1 in 2011).
Now is the time to position your company with a solid Web strategy, so you can outshine your competitors, gain market share and excel in the online retail space.
Step One: Determine Your Online Objectives & Identity
Channel conflict is one of the most common obstacles faced by businesses in the consumer products and retail industries as they develop a Web strategy.
In 2008 it is almost a given that your Web site will offer ecommerce capabilities. Would it be more effective to focus your online efforts on brand building, or supporting your retail outlets and resellers? Or is there an ideal combination of ecommerce, brand-building and brick-and-mortar support that makes more sense for your business? How will your decision to position yourself online ultimately affect your other sales channels?
More importantly, does your online positioning support your overall business objectives?
Those can be difficult questions to answer. However, they are the ones that will ultimately determine your overall ability to excel in the online consumer products and retail space.
Before making any decision, you need an in-depth understanding of your customers, including who they are, what they value, what motivates them, how they behave in other marketing channels and why some are your customers and why others are not. Only with this deep customer insight can you make the right decision when it comes to determining your online objectives.
Step Two: Find the Right Mix
As you answer those questions, your online identity and objectives should become clear. Then it’s a matter of creating a plan to develop new customer relationships, and deepen existing ones.
Forrester also reports that most companies spend over half of their online marketing efforts on online customer acquisition (53%), followed by online customer retention (21%), supporting sales in offline channels (15%) and brand building (11%). However, every business is unique and you’ll need to identify the mix that’s right for your specific company.
When executed well, this will result in a predictable and highly profitable channel for your business.
“Developing focus areas and investment allocation as depicted above can also help solidify the role of the Web in your overall retailing and marketing strategy,” says Mark Eckman, a Partner in Brulant’s Consumer Products and Retail vertical. “If the Web is truly part of an enterprise wide multi-channel strategy, then sales to off-line channels and brand awareness should get funding and should count as measures of online success. Many retailers talk about supporting brand and multi-channel initiatives, only to measure only online sales and conversion rates.”
Step Three: Measure Your Success
From the obsolete “hits” to page views, unique visitors and conversions, there are all kinds of Web metrics you can analyze. It can be difficult to determine which ones you need to accurately measure your online, and overall success. A word of caution – it may also cause data-overload!
However, your online channel is just one portion of your business. And you need metrics to demonstrate your Web site’s performance and its overall impact on your company’s bottom line. It can, and does, get pretty complicated. Yet as a multi-channel retailer, you need to quantify the offline impact of your online presence (multi-channel analytics) in order to understand the holistic picture.
As an interactive marketing firm infused with deep technology horsepower, Brulant provides fully integrated online capabilities to our clients with all of the creativity and marketing focus of an interactive agency, deep and agnostic technology expertise found in some IT services and Web development firms, and all of the strategy and business approach of an industry-focused management consulting firm.
Whether your Web site is driving customers to a call center, a retail space or simply selling online, you’ll need to identify, benchmark, and measure the appropriate metrics in order to understand your site’s success and impact on your overall business objectives.
The Recipe for Success: No Weak Links
If you want to excel online, partner with an interactive agency that excels in your industry – like Brulant. In addition to having a vertical specifically dedicated to understanding the online consumer products and retail industries, Brulant offers the largest WebSphere Commerce team in the country and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, with over 70 Microsoft professionals.
We also have the deep customer insight necessary to help you identify and implement the right online objectives for your business, as well as the experience necessary to help you measure your success.
Whether you are strictly focused on the technical aspects of ecommerce, or are looking for a highly creative team that can develop an effective brand building campaign, Brulant has the resources to help.
Gain an edge on the competition now. For more information contact us.
