Some of our dotCommerce ecommerce solutions clients have been getting great media attention recently and we felt it was only right to recognise that here on the blog!

Pineapple Dance Studios has been profiled in the Metro with a link to the company’s new ecommerce site, designed by the dotCommerce team.

Pineapple – who you’ll likely know from the hit Sky TV show – previously had two websites: one for the studio and one for their online shop. We combined the two, allowing them to offer valuable content and resources such as a studio timetable, while building in opportunities to cross-sell clothes in the store.

After the site was launched, we analysed how visitors were using the site and made a number of usability enhancements, as well as integrating PayPal. These improvements contributed to an online sales increase of 25%!

If dancing is your thing, then you’ll definitely want to pop over to www.pineapple.uk.com and get shopping!

Rodial has also been in the news recently with the company’s pioneering Glamtox Sticks, that reduce lines on your face by up to 30%, proving a smash hit with the media and consumers alike!

Rodial uses a number of dotDigital Group services including our ecommerce solution, email marketing and SEO. The company’s new website – http://www.rodial.co.uk/ – built by dotCommerce is a hands-down success, with orders and average basket values both doubling since launch.

The site really does have everything you need to get you looking your best, so what are you waiting for?!

We’re always delighted to hear about our customers’ successes, so give us a shout if you’ve got a story to share!

With its recent foray into the world of groceries, ecommerce giant Amazon UK has shown the world that there’s no market it won’t consider getting involved in.  However, unlike books, bicycles and baby clothes, there’s one key difference about groceries; their perishable nature.

If Amazon wants to make a success of this new webstore, it will have to concentrate heavily on the logistics – it’s not simply a case of putting the catalogue online.

Lest we forget, it’s not an easy market to make a success of.  Even Ocado, the much lauded delivery service working with Waitrose, has still never seen a profit.

On top of this, despite millions of pounds invested in a state of the art warehouses, it’s lacking the cutting edge automated robotic systems employed by Zappos and Amazon.  If you don’t believe me, check out the amazing video of this in action below.

At the other end of the market, there is Sainsbury’s that isn’t even really pushing its online shopping function simply because the costs are much higher to fulfil online instead of in store.

This reluctance to cannibalise is understandable, but if it holds back too much, the risk is growing that the likes of Amazon will entrench its brand in the space immovably.

Is the future bright for Amazon?

But to get there, Amazon faces an important question: are people ready to do their weekly shopping online with a brand more associated with books than flour and eggs?

For now, I suspect not, but if it continues to increase the efficiency of its logistics and service, perhaps gimmicks like “same day delivery” would be enough to start swaying people…

What can other retailers and ecommerce solutions providers learn from this Mexican standoff?  For a start, there’s the fact that Amazon’s best asset in the area might not actually just be related to robotic powered warehouses. Alongside these efficiencies, it’s the excellent customer experience records of such brands that may propel their quest for market share.

Indeed, even for brands already operating in the space like Ocado, I suspect the company’s focus on customer experience is the one aspect that is fuelling its high valuation, even if profits are yet to be fully realised.

The online arena is constantly changing, a fact that’s hardly surprising considering the internet has only been a major part of most people’s lives for the last five years or so. With this in mind, I was very interested to read some statistics released by the IMRG today, relating to recent changes in the ecommerce space.

The IMRG – the leading organisation for the UK online retail industry – has been running its IMRG/Hitwise monthly benchmarking report for four years and has taken the opportunity to reveal how things have changed. The results show that while, predictably, Amazon retains the top spot – and has done consistently since the data was first collected – seven of the top ten from May 2006 are still there today. This is perhaps surprising considering the dynamic nature of the digital world.

Of the companies in the list, Amazon.co.uk, Argos, Play.com, Apple, Tesco, Amazon.com and easyJet all retained their place in the top ten. ASOS, HP, ASDA and Screwfix are the fastest climbers in the list, while brands such as MyTravel, Opodo, Packard Bell and Woolworths have disappeared from the list in the last four years entirely, albeit for different reasons!

Increasing number of high street retailers getting it right

Another really interesting point that comes to life through this league table is the number of high street retailers that now seem to be ‘getting it right’ online. Six of the top ten retailers have physical stores, up from four in May 2009. Thirty-three of the top fifty retailers have a high street presence, up from twenty-three in 2006.

What all this tells us is that, despite the struggles and misfortunes, the retail industry has suffered over the last four years, there has still been a lot of growth and development, but also a lot that has stayed the same; there’s been a surprising amount of stability.  I’d argue there is still a lot to do; our Hitting the Checkout report from last year (download it here), for example, found that some of the UK’s top retailers are yet to really take advantage of newer channels like social media to improve results from ecommerce.

The big question now is, what will the next four years bring? Mobile commerce anyone…?

Why not follow the dotDIgitalblog on Twitter to stay up-to-date with the latest articles.

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Retailers who sell both through their own online shop and through an eBay shop will know the stock control and fulfillment problems this can create if the two platforms aren’t in sync.

dotCommerce has released an important eBay feed feature that provides real-time stock level and fulfillment synchronisation between your own online store and your eBay store.

Real-time stock control through ecommerce solution dotCommerce will ensure your eBay customers are seeing the same stock levels as customers of your own online shop.

Then, when an order is placed on your eBay shop it can be automatically fed into dotCommerce for order processing,  keeping all your transactional and customer data in one place.

More about dotCommerce ecommerce solutions.

In order for social media to be ‘social’ it needs be driven by ‘engagement’. It should drive conversation, customer feedback and thereby develop customer loyalty. However a recent study by US-based ForeSee Results suggests that all customers really want is information about sales and new products.

The research paper, which focuses on the top e-retail sites in the UK surveyed over 10,000 retailer visitors to measure their purchase intent, loyalty and recommendations.

ForeSee’s VP of Retail Strategy, Kevin Ertell, reveals, “what surprised us most was how many customers say they really wanted to hear about sales and products.”

Victoria’s balancing secret

So what is the answer? Victoria’s Secret seems to have struck the right balance between promotion and engagement. The ForeSee study found that 40% of those who follow their favorite retail brands through social media want to hear about deals, and 54% want to see products. Customer support was only a prominent issue for 6% of users.

Victoria’s Secret has close to three million Facebook followers and a quick look on its fan page shows that it’s largely driven by new product launches and events, as well as playing host to an active discussion forum.

Ertell suggests that “the most satisfied and loyal customers are seeking out their favorite stores’ pages, and then if those experiences are rewarding, they become even more loyal.” It’s quite clear then that a mixture of new products and special offers, supported by a sense of engagement is crucial for the social shopper.

Is Facebook the key for retailers?

The ForeSee study tells us the most important social media tool is by far and away Facebook. A staggering 81% of online shoppers who use social media regularly use Facebook compared to Twitter’s 12%. Ironically, our recent soCommerce study found that more brands are using Twitter as their online presence (26%) rather than Facebook (24%).

What’s also interesting with the ForeSee research is that the 74% of those who friend, follow or subscribe to a store will follow less than five brands, suggesting that social media users are highly selective of the brands that they do follow. Take it with a pinch of salt, but it suggests that if a person is following you then they are likely to be a big fan and an influential customer.

Latest sales index figures released by IMRG Capgemini show great news for retailers in the health and beauty sector.

Online sales of health and beauty products in February 2010 were nearly one third up on those for the same period last year.

Other sectors that fared well included lingerie – up 30% – and beers, wines and spirits – up 20%.

In total, an estimated £4.1bn was spent online in February, compared to £3.6bn in 2009.

The marketing power of Valentine’s Day was clearly a driver in these booming figures. It seems not only has romance never gone away – it’s gone well and truly online.

As consumers’ confidence in buying online, and in finding value online continues to grow, the opportunities for retail businesses to tap into seasonal sales opportunities like Valentine’s Day fit perfectly with internet and email marketing.

Email marketing is a great tool for driving seasonal online sales through timely, targeted, and carefully personalised email campaigns. Start the communications far enough in advance to be able to build up a dialogue, offer earlybird sign up to seasonal discounts or gifts, and build in referrals and recommend-a-friend offers.

And remember to create specific campaign landing pages to welcome and convert the seasonal campaign traffic you are driving.

Use your website to invite browsers to sign up for your next seasonal campaign offer and tell them what’s in it for them. Use both time and purchase related triggered emails to target the messages even more tightly, and take some of the workload off your marketing team.

For more advice about integrating email marketing with ecommerce solutions call us on 020 8662 2762.

Are retail brands effectively using social media to connect with customers?

We were keen to find out, so we did some research…and we’re launching the results today, with a free benchmark report, giving you all the juicy details: www.dotcommerce.co.uk/social_ecommerce_solutions.

We found that social media is being used by 42% of UK retailers, but they’re not very keen on expanding their activity across multiple networks, with only 12% using more than one form of social media channel to engage with their target audiences.

When it comes to the channels retailers are using, more brands have a presence on Twitter (26%) than Facebook (24%) despite the latter having been around for a lot longer and with far more users.  But what surprised us most was that the majority of brands with a social media presence are failing to tell anyone about it, with no links or references to their Twitter or Facebook pages anywhere on their websites.

Want to know more? Download our report which details the full results of our study, with lots of best practice guidelines to help your brand get the most out of social media. There are also over 60 handy tips for Twitter, Facebook, User Generated Content, Blogs and other sites like LinkedIn, MySpace and YouTube that will help your business get ahead in this exciting new landscape.

And, if you’re one of the 58% of UK retailers with ecommerce solutions not already using social media for marketing, what’s stopping you? Entry costs are low, and the potential for spreading marketing messages virally through social media sites is high. Read our report and give it a try – and drop us a line on our Twitter, @dotCommerce, to let us know how you get on.

With the online marketplace becoming increasingly competitive and consumers’ wallets ever tighter, encouraging website visitors to buy is a key focus for many online retailers. And it seems that offering free shipping may well be the answer to boosting those sales figures.

A recent survey from Compete found that free shipping on orders would induce 93% of online shoppers to purchase more products online, with 67% encouraged to buy more through free product return offers.

The survey also uncovered a link between free shipping and customer satisfaction; overall satisfaction levels are 10% higher people who use free shipping versus those who didn’t.

It also suggests that buyers are actively looking to avoid paying shipping costs, with the survey revealing that as many as 67% of online window shoppers go on to actually purchase items in a store instead of online so they don’t have to pay for delivery.

The stats are certainly compelling. If your online store is experiencing a post-Christmas sales slump, a free shipping promotion is well worth considering.

Happy New Year! January is a great time to sit back and reflect on your plans for the next year and take stock of what needs doing.

But in the world of ecommerce, trends come and go so quickly it is often impossible to keep up so I’s not wise to sit on your laurels for long in the post-Christmas period.

With this in mind, rather than give you a list of predictions for 2010, we thought it would be useful to arm you with suggestions as to the areas of your site you should be focusing on this year to make 2010 a success.

1. Add value – The e-commerce model has matured. With the increase of price comparison sites, retailers need to focus on adding value to their ecommerce offerings. Why not introduce bricks and mortar integration so people buying online can pick up in store or accrue loyalty points online like you can with a boots card?

2. Interactivity – increase the interactivity of your “Selling Pages” by including greater product detail, with better descriptions, reviews, images and videos

3. Mobile commerce – You can’t move for iPhones these days! Mobile commerce has been on the horizon for a few years, but we expect it to take off in a big way in 2010. It’s actually not difficult to get a usable version of your site optimised for the smaller viewing area of a mobile device. Look to Amazon for a good example of how it can be done well

4. Social media – Integration with social networks is also going to be increasingly important for retailers and those that tap into the online ‘groundswell’ will have a much greater advantage. They are the savvy businesses that realise that socially connected individuals can easily tell their friends about a product or service and encourage them to buy

5. Luxury can work online – The luxury retail market will undergo some interesting changes this year, with US-style invite-only shopping portals likely to launch. Traditionally luxury brands have not sold well online as many want the five-star experience they receive in an offline store. Rich media websites are now able to recreate more of this online, but make sure you focus on ensuring that one-on-one relationship

6. SEO – Natural Search is still vital for online businesses. If you are not using search engine optimisation (SEO) to increase your Google rankings then you must start, as your competitors almost certainly will be. This should be a central part of your marketing plan and if you don’t have the budget to go for the killer keywords, you can still focus on “long tail” and geographic based keywords

What else is there? What are the other areas you will be focusing on in 2010? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!

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Tink Taylor