NEWS
Why Real Businesses Aren’t Dead
There’s no arguing online retail is the future, but brick and mortars are still alive and well. At least the ones adapting.
Quartz predicts Amazon will become the largest clothing retailer in the US by 2017, surpassing Macy’s.
Bonobos is the clothing store where you can’t buy anything and people love it.
Warby Parker – a company that sells RX eyeglasses. They send in the mail frames to potential customers to let them try before they buy. The company used to only offer online transactions, now they’ve started opening store fronts in several major cities across the US.
TRENDS
https://www.handshake.com/blog/ecommerce-trends-b2b-2015/
https://www.shipwire.com/w/blog/9-e-commerce-trends-2015-influence-buyer-experience/
mobile, social, supplier integration, direct marketplace retailer, data drive SaaS solutions, integration online-offline evolution, content-comments-reviews-wow-services-new products, inventory VS on demand, USP on service-experience-transformation, marketing funnel-LTV-CAC, idea extraction
PLATFORMS
Shopify
Magento
Prestashop
SOFTWARE: ERP, CRM
Sugar
Infusion
Ontraport
KPI
It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.
1. Monthly, Quarterly & Annual Sales
2. Email List Activity: Open rate, Bounce rate, Purchase rate, CTR, New subscriber growth (aweber)
3. Customer Acquisition Cost
4. The Traffic Sources Of The Sales (google analytics, ontraport)
5. Number Of Daily New Users (google analytics)
6. Unique Customers: monthly revenue / number of new unique customers that month
7. Incremental Sales: marketing ROI by campaign or media
8. Sales Funnel conversion rate: http://incomediary.com/go/10kfans
9. Goal Completion Rate: key tasks in the funnel to improve
10. Keyword Performance (similarweb, alexa, compete)
11. Social Media Interaction (buffer.com)
12. End Action Rate: effectiveness of marketing your campaigns
HOW TO CHOOSE A NICHE
– Which niche is experiencing the most pain and whose members will be open to replacing their current methods for new ways?
– Which niche has the largest transaction size when a member gets a new customer? (When the value of what you teach is higher to the customer, you can charge a higher price.)
– Which niche is easier to reach? (Are there magazines, mailing lists or other resources that allow you to easily contact potential customers?)
– For which niche do you have the best stories (breakthroughs achieved, example marketing materials, experiences the members of the niche can relate to)?
– Which niche will relate to you better? (Sure, you could do any niche, but if you have a niche where you will be seen as a peer, all the better.)
– In which niche do you have relationships with key industry leaders who are in a position to refer you?
– In which niche do you have relationships with vendors who could sponsor training programs or help you promote your programs by recommending your products to their customers?
ECOMMERCE BUSINESS APPLICATIONS
Document automation in supply chain and logistics
Domestic and international payment systems
Enterprise content management
Group buying
Print on demand
Automated online assistant
Newsgroups
Online shopping and order tracking
Online banking
Online office suites
Shopping cart software
Teleconferencing
Electronic tickets
Social networking
Instant messaging
Pretail
Digital Wallet
Stumble Upon
Del.icio.us
Buzz