Webinar recap: Rewarding loyalty with more than free shipping

Last week’s “” webinar contained numerous techniques for merchants to consider to build the repeat business that’s essential to survival in the maturing eCommerce marketplace. Chief among the themes: while free shipping can often form the cornerstone of paid membership clubs, it’s not the only potential loyalty driver merchants can offer.

Indeed, for their brands to stand out from the crowd, merchants must devise loyalty rewards other than free shipping. Free shipping is so highly sought-after that it’s also frequently offered by a number of merchants, whether for paying membership subscribers or to site-wide customers during the holidays and throughout the year. In fact, more than 1 in 4 shoppers say they would never pay to join a free shipping club because they purchase from merchants who offer free shipping with a threshold.

In short, unless a merchant can offer “free shipping both ways” or some other similarly generous blanket policy, it’s hard for a brand to stand out on shipping alone. Rather, merchants should focus on the unique product mix, standout service and lifestyle connections that distinguish their brands, and build perks around those attributes. Among the ways above and beyond free shipping to reward loyal customers:

Perks related to popular product categories.  Merchants should give customers loyalty incentives specifically tied to the products they purchase and use most, in an effort to further enhance the popularity of those categories. For merchants without formal loyalty programs, replenishment schemes, triggered re-order reminders and “buy X, get one free” offers can help drive category-specific repeat business, while within rewards programs, individual category discounts and bonuses can be highlighted within the roster of benefits. MarketLive merchant World Market’s Explorer  offers “Six Reasons to Join” its Explorer program, with three of them focused on popular product categories – gourmet food, wine and coffee.

Loyalty club perks from World Market

Highlight service. Survey after survey shows that customer service is a key determinant of brand loyalty, so merchants should highlight their service offerings throughout the shopping experience. We think customer service is so important, we devoted an entire “Competing with Amazon” webinar to it — but specifically with regard to rewarding repeat customers with stellar service, merchants should target loyal buyers and offer them:

  • Service extras. Consider giving loyalty club members free access to services otherwise offered for a fee, such as gift wrap, product customization services like monogramming or engraving, free or expedited shipping on gift cards, and access to corporate gifting services. Merchants without formal membership programs can segment and email frequent buyers with coupons for such services.

  • Exclusive or expedited access to personal assistance. A unique service “hotline”, stepped-up live chat help, or exclusive access to the expertise of brand insiders  can be awarded to rewards program members or to buyers of particular products. Nordstrom offers top-tier loyalty club members the ability to schedule shopping parties for themselves and their friends with staff stylists and beauty experts in attendance.

Loyalty club perk from Nordstrom

  • Opportunities for feedback. Merchants should consider inviting rewards members to participate in focus group panels and customer advisory councils. Doing so gives participants a sense of ownership in the brand, forging deeper connections and encouraging loyalty.

Lifestyle content and perks.  To demonstrate an understanding of their customers’ priorities and passions, merchants should provide plenty of value-added content, along with relevant discounts and exclusives for related products and services. Every buyer of a new Harley Davidson is given a membership to the H.O.G. club, which gives them access to free travel guides, events and roadside assistance service, along with discounts for lodging.

Loyalty club perks from Harley Davidson


Download the webinar replay and/or for additional loyalty-building strategies. How are you encouraging repeat business?

We’ve previously discussed the importance of building loyalty — both with and without formal rewards programs. And tomorrow, as part of our “Competing with Amazon” series, that dives deep into the topic — paying special attention to how merchants can learn from Amazon’s loyalty-building techniques, and go above and beyond to build lasting brand affinity.

 

Taking a close look at Amazon is especially a propos when it comes to loyalty, as Amazon’s Prime program casts a long shadow over merchants’ efforts to launch and grow their own loyalty programs. Analysts estimate that , to more than 10 million consumers. Once subscribed, analysts estimate that customers buy 150% more than they they did previously on Amazon, with 74% of Prime members saying they make at least half of their purchases on the site.

But small- to mid-sized merchants shouldn’t despair. In fact, they have advantages when it comes to earning loyalty that eCommerce goliaths like Amazon can’t match. Whereas Amazon’s offering must scale to meet the needs of buyers across a vast array of product categories, smaller brands are at liberty to focus their offerings on their target audience, building loyalty by displaying a keen understanding of customer needs in the process. Among the best practices we’ll examine:

Emulate Amazon’s pervasive loyalty messaging. Whether or not merchants have a formal rewards program, they can take a page from Amazon’s loyalty book when it comes to persistently presenting shoppers with reasons to shop the brand frequently. Gifting reminder notices and frequency-boosting holiday campaigns encourage shoppers to engage, while reminders to join the Prime program are strewn along the path to purchase, from the product page through to checkout — a practice merchants with formal rewards programs should emulate, as MarketLive merchant Crazy Shirts does with a promotion for its Crazy Rewards program in the shopping cart.

Loyalty club promotion example from Crazy Shirts

Use timing to your advantage. Merchants should take into account their products’ life cycle and the typical purchasing patterns of repeat customers as they devise ways to encourage shoppers to buy more often. In addition to loyalty programs to spur repeat site-wide purchasing, they should consider offers that appeal to frequent buyers of specific products or categories, such as “punch card”-style discounts or gifts triggered when customers return again and again to order a particular type of product, or scheduled replenishment programs built right into the product offering. Using the repeat delivery service offered by MarketLive merchant Perricone MD, shoppers can opt for recurring delivery on a schedule they control, and earn savings in the process, directly from the product page.

Replenishment program example from Perricone MD

Put customers front and center. The best way a brand can demonstrate affinity with its audience is by letting that audience take the stage. By spotlighting content that features or is created by customers, merchants give their brands a human face and give other customers a sense of community. MarketLive merchant and women’s recreational apparel seller Title Nine frequently features candid shots of staff members and customers, demonstrating how individual embody the brand’s mission of empowering women through athletics. At a recent Title Nine-sponsored foot race, the brand offered participants a photo booth for snapping celebratory post-race pictures with their racing partners. The photos were shared on the brand’s Facebook page, and followers were encouraged to add their own images.

Customer-focused promotion by Title Nine

and join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT for an in-depth look at this crucial aspect of connected commerce. Meantime, what loyalty techniques have proven successful for your business?

Webinar recap: Proactive service – timing is everything

Wednesday’s webinar, the third in our , focused on customer service as a crucial opportunity for brand differentiation. Specifically, MarketLive founder Ken Burke examined the ways specialty and boutique merchants can make their smaller size an advantage by keenly anticipating and meeting shoppers’ needs. Such specialized service is beyond the reach of Amazon, a clearinghouse for millions of products and thousands of marketplace vendors.

What Burke called “pre-emptive service” requires a nuanced approach, though. Overloading a shopper with information too early in the consideration process, or repeatedly prompting them to engage in a live chat session at random points on the site, is a recipe for disaster. Instead, merchants should tailor the customer service offerings according to known “pain points” in the process — stumbling blocks or information gaps where shoppers lose momentum. Among the tips he offered:

Use the cart to convey information beyond costs. While by now, a shipping and tax calculator in the cart is a must-have for merchants, the shopping cart is an opportunity to communicate so much more than a total order amount. It’s also an opportunity to flag opportunities to earn free shipping, such as loyalty club membership that includes free delivery as a perk. Merchants should also use the cart to communicate crucial delivery information. For example, during last year’s peak holiday season, home goods retailer Crate and Barrel used a cart-specific banner to highlight shipping deadlines to ensure gifts arrived in time.

Customer service example from Crate and Barrel

Trigger proactive live chat only in specific cases — and calibrate. According to the e-Tailing Group, , and those who consent to chat after a merchant issues an invitation are satisfied by the interaction: fully half report being very satisfied, with another 44% saying they were somewhat satisfied by the result.

On the other hand, one in five shoppers report that they left Web sites due to poor chat invitation practices. Solicitations that interfere with shopping activity were the top reason for being driven away by proactive chat, followed closely by repeat invitations, the e-Tailing Group found. To strike the right balance between proactive and annoying, merchants should devise a select number of triggers, using analytics to identify top problem areas on the site and then A/B testing what the timing should be for issuing a chat invitation. For example, on the 1-800-Flowers site, an pop-up window offering to help a shopper select the right products appears only after a couple of minutes of stalled browsing, while a specific offer to help with “completing your order” appears almost immediately after hesitation at the beginning of checkout.

 Live chat trigger from 1-800=Flowers

Live chat trigger from 1-800-Flowers

Give the product page new life post-purchase. You read that right — the eCommerce site product page has a role to play post-purchase, when the repository of information that should include product demonstration videos, product care details, manuals and the like takes on new meaning. Merchants should use transactional emails to offer links back to relevant product page information, thereby giving customers a shortcut to material that will help them put their new purchase to use — and perhaps even head off calls for live service. Cosmetics merchant Vie At Home follows up purchases with a how-to video and links back to the product page as well as complementary products.

Transactional email example from Vie at Home

For more winning customer service tactics, replay the webinar or download the companion whitepaper. How does timing factor into your customer service strategy?

We’ve discussed before how customer service should be a core component of brand identity. With shoppers more empowered than ever to share opinions of brands, stellar service can drive a surge of word-of-mouth recommendations, while a poor experience can lead to site abandonment and complaints that go viral.

But there’s still another reason to provide exceptional customer service: it’s a key differentiat0r when it comes to competing against Amazon and the other online giants who are increasingly dominating online commerce. While most small- to mid-sized merchants can’t replicate every technological bell and whistle Amazon offers when it comes to online self-service, they can provide a level of service Amazon simply can’t offer its mass audience. While Amazon offers individualized service as a last resort, boutique merchants should put it front and center and make it a centerpiece of their brands.

Join us tomorrow for a webinar that explores key strategies merchants should adopt to differentiate their brands. Among them:

Front-loading customer service content.  With Amazon acting as a clearinghouse for thousands of marketplace sellers as well as offering its own products, return policies, guarantees, fit guides and the availability of manuals and other how-to information vary wildly from category to category and sometimes even from item to item. By contrast, the sole control boutique merchants exercise over product quality, policies, and inventory should be promoted as a distinct advantage. In addition, by providing product-specific information such as user guides and demonstration videos, brands demonstrate their expertise and boost credibility with their target audience.

MarketLive merchant Brickhouse Security provides comprehensive customer service information on product pages. In addition to a detailed product description, information tabs clearly outline product specifications and what components and peripherals are included with purchase. Product videos demonstrate how to use products, while video buying guides assist shoppers with product selection.

Customer service content example from Brickhouse Security

Connect to one-on-one help pervasively and seamlessly. Amazon’s approach to individual customer service can best be termed as triage, available only as a last resort. The availability of personal service isn’t prominently featured on the site — it takes four clicks and a login to reach the screen listing a customer service phone number and live chat link — and the majority of site customers never interact one-on-one with a customer care representative.

By contrast, small- to mid-sized merchants should actively promote the personal guidance and individual service they can provide with prominent links to live chat, telephone customer service and click-to-call functionality throughout the shopping experience. In addition, merchants with physical outlets should find the means to connect shoppers with in-store expertise, as MarketLive merchant Helzberg does on its product pages with a “schedule appointment” link that enables shoppers to set up an in-person consultation.

Customer service example from Helzberg

Customer service example from Helzberg

Register for the webinar now and join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT for a comprehensive look at customer service strategies. Meantime, what customer service offerings have helped your brands stand out from the crowd?

Webinar recap: the top priority for building community

This week’s webinar on building community, part of our Competing with Amazon series, covered a wide swath of best practices for merchants to consider as they attempt to engage shoppers and build lasting brand relationships. While the format and functionality of communities depend in some part on the merchant’s product offering and target audience, MarketLive founder Ken Burke said there’s one strategy in particular that most merchants should prioritize in the next six months: social integration using Facebook’s Open Graph. As Burke said in the webinar, this single technology implementation opens up a world of options for engaging community throughout the shopping experience.

 

Part of the power of the tool lies in Facebook’s continuing domination of the social landscape. , according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project; that’s more than half of the population as a whole. By contrast, the next biggest social network, Twitter, attracts just 16% of online adults, Pew found. That usage translates into huge potential shopping synergy: half of shoppers are logged in to Facebook as they browse eCommerce sites, according to social marketing firm Monetate.

But it’s not just Facebook’s critical mass that makes Open Graph integration so potentially effective. It’s also the variety of ways that social sharing can be woven into the shopping experience, from consideration to post-purchase.  As we’ve written previously, merchants must adopt , and ask for only the information they can use to power a more intelligent shopping experience. But given that caveat, the tactics Open Graph enables include:

Gifting with confidence. With holiday season and other gift-giving forming a significant portion of eCommerce sales, facilitating gift purchases should be a priority for merchants. Open Graph informs gifting for both givers and receivers. Shoppers can opt to actively share their wish lists with their Facebook networks, increasing wish list visibility and encouraging purchases; in addition, shoppers can receive gift recommendations based not just on friends’ wish lists, but on past product “likes” or other products popular on social media. Merchants should use available data to populate gift recommendations even when shoppers’ friends haven’t supplied wish lists or product picks to mine, as CafePress does with its educated guesses based on Facebook interests, using “like” or “may like” to indicate the level of confidence in the suggestions.

Social integration example from Cafepress

Shared consideration.  Using Open Graph integration, merchants can let consumers collaborate with others in their network to make purchasing decisions – empowering shoppers to solicit feedback from those they trust most. Macy’s gives shoppers the means to create a product poll to gather input about several items under consideration. Shoppers pick the items to feature and post the poll to their Facebook timeline; the poll is open for 48 hours, after which the results are shared with the shopper. Not only does the shopper get valuable feedback to spur a purchase decision, but friends are exposed to the brand and to individual products.

 Social shopping example from Macy'sSocial shopping example from Macy's

 

 

Post-purchase connections. Often, social media is considered an acquisition tool — but it can also help drive retention and loyalty, providing a crucial link to the brand in the post-purchase phase and thereby transforming a one-way “funnel” into a self-sustaining customer lifecycle.  Open Graph integration enables customers to share their purchase experiences with friends, potentially creating powerful word-of-mouth tools. Merchants should give shoppers the opportunity to share:

  • Purchases. When shoppers complete a transaction on Amazon, they’re invited to share the items they’ve just bought with their social networks – a tactic that seems simple but has not been widely adopted.

Social sharing example from Amazon

  • Reviews. Amazon’s email notification letting customers know their review has been published includes a link for sharing the review on social networks — another way to let customers pass along their endorsement of the brand.

Many other strategies and tactics were shared in the webinar; download to learn more. Have you used Open Graph to enhance the shopping experience? If so, how?

If you caught in our , then you know that the online giant dominates U.S. eCommerce like no other brand, with – more than double the rate of U.S. eCommerce sales overall for the same time period. Amazon is the biggest of the mega-brands attracting the lion’s share of online sales revenues, even as the number of small- and mid-sized merchants continues to grow.

But specialty merchants have some distinct advantages when compared with the mega-merchant — and one of them is the capacity to forge strong ties with shoppers through a brand community. Because Amazon warehouses so many disparate product categories, the brand is largely impersonal; there’s little opportunity for its customers to unite around a common lifestyle or passion.  Whether via social media or on the Amazon site itself, interactions among shoppers are limited. The only trait many Amazon customers share is the desire to earn free shipping. By contrast, small- to mid-sized merchants who focus on a particular product category or audience have the opportunity to provide their customers a platform for meaningful interaction and a shopping experience that connects them with other like-minded consumers.

In , we’ll examine key strategies for building community — and not just via social networks. While social networking sites provide broad exposure and the opportunity to entice new shoppers to follow brands, brand followers tend to be passive; just they follow, according to marketer ComBlu. By contrast, branded community experiences provide a platform for committed brand advocates to shine, and for customers to contribute meaningful input on products and promotions.

Among the methods for creating on-site community the webinar will address:

  • “Socializing” the path to purchase with integration tools. One increasingly popular way to marry community and commerce is to use tools available from social networking sites to integrate consumers’ social networking data with the shopping experience. Taking advantage of these tools gives merchants a means to create a community hybrid that incorporates the best of both worlds – the critical mass represented on Facebook and other social sites combined with the ownership control of their own eCommerce sites. Shoppers on the Macy’s site can poll their network of Facebook friends about which products to buy — giving the shopper a recommendation from trusted friends as well as introducing the shopper’s friends to products on the Macy’s site.

Social shopping example from Macy's Social shopping example from Macy's

  • Deepening the conversation via branded communities. Merchants should tap their deep knowledge of the customer lifestyle to find unique ways to build community around specific activities and passions. That community can take many forms, from customer reviews that spawn in-depth discussions to mobile apps that encourage members to engage with the brand, as Nike’s Nike Plus running community tools do. Runners download an app that tracks their runs via GPS and enables sharing with the main community site, where the fastest times for popular runs are spotlighted via “leaderboards”.

Community example from Nike

for more strategies for building one-of-a-kind communities. Meantime, how do you encourage shoppers to engage with the brand and each other?

Webinar recap: It’s not just the content — it’s what you do with it

Tuesday’s “Competing with Amazon” webinar dove deep into the topic of content, exploring how merchants can define and differentiate their brands through .

As MarketLive founder Ken Burke analyzed Amazon’s offerings and identified how merchants can go above and beyond to create unique brand experiences, an important subtext emerged: it’s not just the content itself, but what merchants do with it that matters. “If you build it, they will come” is a fine line for a movie script, but for merchants to maximize their content investments, they need to find creative ways to use content throughout the eCommerce site and across touchpoints. Just a few of the ideas the webinar discussed:

Merchandise product and lifestyle content. On the eCommerce site, merchants should promote content all along the path to purchase — not just on the product page or in siloed content sections. MarketLive merchant Cost Plus World Market showcases an in-depth content section about its Africa Collection not only on product pages, but on the home page and the category page.

Content example from World Market

Similarly, apparel merchant Lilly Pulitzer includes a promotion of the company’s history on a product index page — enabling shoppers easy access to a compelling story that creates a personal connection with the brand.

content example from Lilly Pulitzer

Share your brand value proposition everywhere. Merchants have long known the value of emphasizing their brand’s unique expertise, service and reputation, whether through a logo tagline or a compelling “about us” story. But merchants should find a way to share their brand’s core value statement on every page of the site — or at the very least on every product page, where shoppers can factor in the reputation of the merchant as they make their purchase decision. Auto parts merchant AutoAnything places an easy-to-scan list at the top of product pages, highlighting the expertise and service that back every product.

Content example from AutoAnything.com

Do double duty with user-contributed content. Merchants should take advantage of tools that enable reviews and “question and answer” content to be cross-posted to Facebook and the eCommerce site — thereby elevating visibility of the features for social followers and encouraging participation across touchpoints. Benefit Cosmetics offers an “Ask and Answer” section on Facebook that allows followers as well as Benefit staff to chime in. Readers can rate contributions as well as submit their own; the questions and answers are displayed on the relevant product page of the eCommerce site as well as on Facebook. A question about a product called Dallas received 11 enthusiastic responses from customers, which were also displayed on the product page alongside nearly 100 reviews and ratings.

content example from Benefit

Give video star status. Given Amazon’s paltry video offerings, merchants would do well to adopt a “video first” strategy when it comes to developing content — and to highlight video content across touchpoints. On the product page, for example, video should be given equal prominence with still images, as on the Brookstone site, where a tabbed format gives product demonstration videos equal prominence with still images. A “Play” icon on the default image further signals that video is available.

Content example from Brookstone

And content that goes beyond product demonstration videos can make for a compelling experience across touchpoints. Buy.com’s weekly “BuyTV” program, spotlighting timely product categories such as Easter, attracts users not only to the main eCommerce site’s video content section, but on YouTube and Facebook as well.

content example from Buy.com

For more winning content strategies and examples, replay the webinar or . How are you using content across touchpoints to increase brand engagement?

As discussed in our 2013 trends webinar, the top priority for merchants this year is brand differentiation. The competition for consumers’ dollars is fierce, with top mega-brands attracting the lion’s share of revenues on one end of the spectrum even as the field of small- and mid-sized merchants becomes ever more crowded.

This polarization is so marked that we thought it worthwhile to take a look at the biggest of the big sellers — Amazon.com — and to examine how merchants can successfully position themselves and compete. Amazon’s playbook is certainly worth studying, based on the site’s success: in the past five years, U.S. eCommerce sales grew an average of 14% annually, while , at  an average of 36% per year, according to industry researcher Forrester.

Small- to -mid-sized merchants can gain brand exposure by participating in Amazon’s network of Marketplace sellers, but ultimately, they want to establish a direct relationship with consumers. That’s a difficult proposition when Amazon’s economies of scale enable it to offer the most efficient shipping — and a low free shipping threshold — along with discount prices on nearly every item.

But there’s evidence that consumers recognize value beyond pricing. When asked what factors influence their buying decisions, 77% of shoppers said they consider a brand’s reputation, 79% said they value a broad assortment of items, and 66% said a unique selection is important, according to the MarketLive Consumer Shopping Survey. These statistics suggest that merchants who can articulate their uniqueness as a brand — especially when compared with Amazon’s mega-warehouse identity — can not only survive, but thrive.

On Amazon, nearly everything under the sun is available – but all those items are presented and merchandised identically, without calling attention to unique product attributes or supporting the lifestyle of the potential buyer. In short, Amazon sells products; the rest of us have the opportunity to sell brand experiences.

A key component of creating a brand experience is content, which will be the focus of , the first in a series devoted to competing with Amazon. Previously, we’ve discussed how content can and connect them with consumers across touchpoints. As it turns out, the right combination of text, images, videos and user contributions can also create a wholly unique and irresistible value proposition, one that presents a viable alternative to Amazon.

The webinar will examine and explicitly compare Amazon and successful specialty merchants in four key areas for developing uniquely alluring content:

Unique product pages. Merchants can not only exceed the amount and depth of information presented on Amazon’s product pages, they can break free from the standard format to design and create content that caters to their specific audiences. For example, the specialty merchant eBags helps shoppers match their laptops with appropriately-sized backpacks and satchels — a specialized tool Amazon doesn’t offer.

Content example from eBags

User-generated content beyond ratings and reviews. At first glance, it seems like small- to mid-sized merchants can’t compete with Amazon when it comes to user-generated content, as Amazon’s massive audience almost guarantees that it will have the largest number of ratings and reviews. But sheer volume isn’t everything. Specialty merchants have the ability to go beyond reviews on the product page to tap a wide range of user-generated content that conveys brand identity – from social media contributions to customer service support. For example, the brand testimonials offered by fitness program creator Beachbody go beyond simple ratings and reviews or even the before-and-after pictures offered for their products on Amazon. Testimonials such as this one from Robert R., who describes gaining “happy weight” in the first years of his marriage, identify situations prospective buyers can identify with.

Content example from Beachbody

Deep value-added content. To create a truly superlative brand experience, merchants should supply still another category of content: authoritative value-added content that demonstrates the brand’s in-depth knowledge of the customer’s lifestyle. Buying guides with personality, behind-the-scenes content, expert advice and blogs all give merchants the opportunity to distinguish their brands. The founder of apparel brand Lilly Pulitzer originally ran a juice stand and made her first fashion creations with bold prints to cover up the juice stains; a section of the eCommerce site on the company’s history is presented with bold graphics in the same vivid colors as the company’s now-famous prints. The history serves to ground the brand in a personal story and add meaning to the products on offer.

Content example from Lilly Pulitzer

Video. More than 50% of the nation’s population watched an online video in January of 2013, according to measurement firm comScore — but it’s a format that’s conspicuously absent from Amazon.com. Apart from scattered video reviews submitted by customers and a handful of online video tutorials for its own branded Kindle e-reader products, Amazon has no video content to speak of. This lack presents a huge opportunity for other merchants to provide shoppers with a compelling brand experience they can find nowhere else. By developing video content to support products and lifesyle, and encouraging consumers to submit their own, merchants can win a definite advantage over Amazon.

Tune in to the webinar tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT — and meantime, let us know: what content has proven compelling for your brand?

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