Business on the web - A Mandate

"Many a false step was made by standing still". This quote from Tim Ferriss book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich  has a profound impact on me.

In the last few months I have been  interacting with quite a few Small and Medium size businesses ( SMBs) who want to have a foot print on the web albeit reluctantly.In most of these interactions, the business owners think that web is a mere online brochure ware and all it takes is a web developer to design & develop some static pages and have a domain address printed in all their offline collaterals.Cheap and Quick!!!!

Why do they want to go for this half hearted attempt? Simply because they are caught between new age consumers demand for an Interactive website against SMBs time tested ways for marketing and sales,typically offline and push based approach.The stated answers for resisting change includes:

• Don't want to spend a lot of money on a new channel 
• Not sure of the RoI
• My customers prefer offline marketing and sales
• Online is not personal. B2B business need personal touch

I tried exploring the reasons for the resistance/half hearted attempts to move the web and found that most of the reasons emanate from lack of knowledge of doing business on the web which further results in  trust deficit. Result: SMB owners contract a small time web designing agency ,usually chosen based on cost considerations,who inturn with scanty information and no direction will create a static brochureware website.No prizes for guessing the result of this initiative.The result of this initiative will prove the SMB owners  words ," I know that this will not work", prophetic.. .Project failure... Investment down the drain. All these are as a result of fear of unknown, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action

Dear SMB owner... doing business on the web isn't a choice anymore...Its a Mandate. Consumers across demographics research online before purchasing offline. This phenomenon is called as multichannel buying.

Doing business on the web is not all that complicated. . All that the SMB owner needs is clarity on the role of the online/web channel, conviction that it will work, commitment in terms of resources and few baby steps to set up the online channel.Few baby steps to set up the online channel:

• Register a domain name
• www.domaininseconds.com
• www.godaddy.com
• Decide on dependable hosting services
• www.godaddy.com
• www.net4.in
• Define the role of the web channel based on Persuasion Architecture
• Who are your target audience?
• What do you want them to do on the web?
• What are they doing on the web? If you don't have a website do research on competition website
• Identify design agencies who understand your domain,your customers and technology
• Build a website with a theme and a personality based on the product,brand and industry maturity
• Need for subject matter experts and user experience consultants
• Use a simple content management system which help manage the website in a seamless manner- Plenty of open source options like Joomla,Drupal can come in handy
• Need  an ecommerce site with payment processing capabilities. Can set up a store front using
• Yahoo store
• ebay store
• Need a payment gateway to accept customer payments
• Google checkout
• Pay Pal

Now your website is all set... Launch it...What next?

• Draw customer traffic to website - Based on budgets, the campaign can be pan echannels.To start small, invest on
• Google Adwords or Pay Per click campaigns- choose specific keywords that relates to your business and run continuous campaigns.Refer to www.adwords.google.com
• Know more about your customers,optimize website and Measure results
• Set up web analytics using the likes of www.google.com/analytics or www.clicktracks.com to measure various Key Performance Indicators ( KPIs)
• Tract competition using www.alexa.com and continuously improve your website

Very easy and simple isn't and interestingly most of these tools and services come at competitive rates...monthly plans are available.Now that you know your cost and website goals( it can be leads or online sale), its easy to calculate RoI. Tools like Google analytics provide such info on a dashboard. With these baby steps, 2 out of the 4 objections, high cost and RoI issue, stated by SMB owners have been addressed. 

Once the online business is in an auto pilot mode then it is imperative enter the world of web based customer interaction & intimacy - web 2.0. Will try and address the other 2 objections of SMBs in the next blog post

Sample Maggi's new Pasta at the online store-'Sense'ible way

The dot com boom in 90’s was raucous with every company trying to get a whacky idea and make money out of it. One such endeavor was the ecommerce. The thought of buying and selling using the internet was fascinating and innocuous that every company which jumped into the bandwagon. The justification was solely based on appealing to one's rationales. This includes:

• Convenience
• Better deals
• Speed to market

While all these are true, the dot com marketers were up against a monster called ‘ human behavior change’. The pros of eCommerce was up against few compelling downsides:

• Absence of Touch, feel and trial
• Credit card security
• Customer Trust
• Promise vs delivery
•  Sticker shocks
•  Delays in delivery

The rationales which appeared convincing no longer holds water. Building an ecomm website, driving traffic, increasing customer stickiness, losing customer due to poor experience and trying hard to get  the customer back is turning out to be a Sisyphean element for companies. Gone are the days when customers pickup brands blindfolded. The offline brand building exercise have lead to brand awareness and purchase predisposition but the consumers tend to drift at the time of purchase.


‘Enter online customer experience’. The latest report from Razorfish( quote by Garrith Schmidt – expert in Experience Planning) has indicated that 65% of the customers are influenced by their online experience and  will eventually determine purchase. This is termed as Digital Primacy.


I am true believer that any of today’s much talked about online experiences are inspired from offline experience. In that case it would useful to look at how sale happens in a retail store and what is that we can take as inspiration. So what is the science of shopping and why do we buy? I am truly inspired by Paco Underhill’s book on ‘Why we buy’. His recommendations for a physical store is after thorough research at store fronts and is truly amazing. Some of them which caught my attention includes:

Events in a store	Offline retail store
Traffic into the store	Entrance is a runway – Customer takes time land  and to adjust to the shopping store
Exits at entrance	Cognitive drift – It is very easy for the customer to  drift given the multiple options. Potential reason  for exits
Navigation	Butt brush effect – Woman in particular get put off if somebody brushes past them while shopping .  Importance on spacious aisles( navigation)
Shopping	Sensory marketing: what appeals to the senses  and how customers  are lured to a notion  of purchase.
Metrics	Closure rate · Interception rate · Waiting rate

If customers were to buy what they planned for then the economy will collapse. So what is that the online marketer needs to do to lure the customer for more purchase and repeat purchase. What are some of the best practices that one can take from the offline store experiences. I will just take one aspect of retail shopping that will have an impact on purchase behavior and explore possibilities in the online world – Sensory Marketing


Touch and Trial are very crtical to customers shopping experince. Imagine how you would explore things in a supermarket before you buy it.The customer would expect a close to offline experience in the online shop before a purchase. How do we appeal to the senses of the user and enable purchase? If touch and trial are very vital for a purchase, how can we make it available to the online user or provide compelling alternatives ? Lets take the case of an offline multi brand retail store wanting to make an impact in the online world.I will try and attempt to give tactical solutions to solve this issue.


Touch: Lets assume that the customer wants to buy a camera at the store.This is being handled very well by most online shopping stores through interactive 3 D demo’s, product pictures in actual size to reduce dissonce, user reviews about the product etc which act as a surrgogate to touch. The launch of Apple’s iPad will further enhance it because the interactive sessions done through mouse and keyboards will be replaced by a stylus called fingers. This will get it closer to the actual touch we may desire.


Trial: Lets take for example a customer who wants to buy monthly groceries using the online shop (assuming it will happen one day). This is an ideal platform to induce trail.This can be achieved using a dextrous combination off offline and online.Lets say Maggi wants to promote its new Pasta and they have decided to do a sampling exercise. Customers never say no to incentives or freebies.This can be done either when the customer is about to check out or while he is browsing for products in similar categories. The sampling can be done as follows:

• Either at check out or while browsing for similar products show the Maggi Pasta sample to the customer
• The customer has a choice to try the sample
• Once he/she chooses the option, the sample is delivered to the customer along with the grocery
• The next time the customer logs in to make purchase, solicit feedback about the sample and check if he is interested in purchasing the product
• If yes, add to shopping cart, else seek feedback

This will be a good opportunity for marketers to induce trial and close loop with a possible sale.


‘Sense’ible way

Enter ebusiness

As we look at the world wide web, we find organizations at different ends of the spectrum. At one end we have brick and mortar companies which use the web as brochureware and at the other end we have companies which do business in the online space..

In general, the web has moved away from a static medium which has a meager capability of static information, simple transaction to a medium which encourages multichannel buying. But traditional marketers still perceive web as a supplementary channel and not so much a standalone channel which has the capability to address all aspects of the marketing mix. Some Marketers believe that the web cannot be used to:

1. Generate consumer insights
2. used for category expansion
3. Reinforce Imagery
4. Service customers through online as there will be no personal touch

The web is doing all is this and much more. Thanks to web 2.0, consumers self expression,a manifestation of their thoughts, are well captured. Just that it is an arduous task of sifting through voluminous data. Consumers expression about products, services etc can be captured through videos, photos and comments written in youtube,flickr and blogs respectively.

Web is utilized as a persuasion medium. Lets take for example the travel industry.First time customers for a specific travel product are well enticed through peer comments, Photos, videos and ratings. Websites of car manufactures are good example of how to build imagery and encourage multichannel buying.3D demo of cars gives a good perspective of the user for color choice, interiors and dashboard appearance. The other product literatures reduces information asymmetry thus giving the control to the user as far as purchase is concerned.

Banks are good example of how they have pioneered channel migration strategies.Avatars are used to give a personal touch to the experience.Personalization as feature is provided by default to give the user a perception of familiar territories..

Thought leaders in this space are modelling the movement to online as a mimic of the real life so that the transition is seamless for the users. iPhone's user experience won rave reviews because of this aspect.

As marketers, you have a business case.It is only fair to state that for your business to succeed, a strong ebusiness strategy is a must...