The Reighley Report

Social Communities in a Different Light

Chris Reighley — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:01:33 +0000

I witness something today that really struck me to the core. A friend I worked with when I was music director at Bible Baptist Church in Wilmington died today in a tragic car accident. I learned about it on Facebook. The status posts at first where cryptic but became very clear, very fast. First and foremost it is a tragic accident that took the life of a great human being far too early. He leaves behind a great wife and two young children. He had just stated a church in Greenville, Ohio.

What struck me is the online community and how the mechanism worked. I study Facebook as a tool for eCommerce, in particular understanding online consumer behavior. What struck me, was the I really need to take the “consumer” out of my study and put the work “human” in its place. We all have basic human needs, and at our heart we have a compassion for others. Look, at the end of the day we are all brothers and sisters under the skin. We have a deep desire to love and be loved. To be accepted. Online communities are our modern day porch swing, where we can talk about our day.

I found myself reaching out to others in a strange way – electronically. Friends that shared the grief of losing a friend. People from West Virginia, Tennessee, and different parts of Ohio. People right up the street and far away, some people that all we shared was the bond of know our friend and sharing in the shock. This was all done virtually, but really in a strange way it held the same meaning. I know I found myself refreshing the page to see if there was any additional information.

Putting the tragedy to the side for a moment, I think we really need to look at our online relationships in the community of cyberspace and realize it is important to our soul. It helps us to be compassionate to one another. A simple status update may brighten someones day, and at the end of the day, that is important.

Live life my friends, it is too short and too fragile. God bless you all.

Why do online shoppers abandon their cart

Chris Reighley — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:48:08 +0000

I was at my sons baseball game this weekend, and noticed that the bottom of my sandals where getting worn out. See, I am a total sandal guy, and love my Birkenstock! The family is getting ready to go to Disney World at the end of June, so it is new sandal time! Being the total iPhone geek, I got on my phone and stated searching. I went to Amazon and typed in Birkenstock and found a pair I liked. I put them in my cart so I would remember to look at them later – see at this point in my sons game, it was time to go make some selective comments to the ump whose strike zone was talker and wider than most of the 1o year old’s on the team. I digress…..

My behavior is probably representative of a lot of people. We go to a web site, put something in our cart, so we remember it. It started me down the path of thinking about abandon cart stats. As life sometimes does, Sucharita Mulpuru, a principle analysts at Forrester Research just released a report entitled Understanding Shopping Cart Abandonment. While the report does not present anything that a good eCommerce professional did not already know, it does make some great points. First, the report indications that “88% of Web buyers say that they have abandoned an online shopping cart without completing a transaction”. That seems a little high to me. Normally I use the Fireclick Index as a benchmark for cart abandonment stats. Today they are showing a 70% global abandon rate. Two different looks really, Sucharita’s data is asking if a buy has abandoned a cart, Fireclick is show what the actually abandon rate is.

Now for the meat, why do customers abandon a cart – what stops them from completing the purchase process online. When I look at the chart below, two thinks really jump out, Shipping Cost and Readiness to Purchase.

Understanding Shopping Cart Abandonment by Sucharita Mulpuru at Forrester Research

Concerns over shipping is the #1 reason for cart abandonment.

Customers want to understand shipping cost. As indicated above, 44% of customers surveyed abandoned their cart because of the high cost of shipping. Customers concern over shipping does not stop their, 22% say that having the shipping cost displayed in the checkout was too late in the process – 6% of customers abandon because they did not want to wait for the product to be shipped and 3% said they abandoned because they could not ship to a different address other than there billing address.

Not ready to purchase is the #2 reason for cart abandonment

When looking at customer behavior during the checkout process, the second main reason for cart abandonment is that the customer is still in the information search or evaluation of alternative steps of the consumer buying decision process. You see this with 41% of customers stating they are not ready to purchase, 27% comparing prices and 24% stating that they are saving the product to consider purchasing later.

So, as an eCommerce professional, what can you do with this information?

Focus on transparency in shipping charges.
Turn shipping concerns into promotional opportunities. Amazon has done a great job with this with their Amazon Prime membership.
Add “Wish List” functionality to your web site, and make it easy to use! If customers researching, make it easy for them to save the products in a wish list. Then, use that wish list to market and promote!
Fix the little things. I did not talk about the “other stuff” that influence a customer such as privacy policies, email concerns, call center ordering etc. Fix the little things. Make your cart process easy and do the thinks in your control to eliminate barriers the customers perceive as issues during the purchase process.

So I don’t leave you hanging, I did not purchase my Birkenstocks from Amazon, although they are still in my cart. I found a great pair on eBay. No worries, I am ready for Disney now!

Chris Reighley is an eCommerce marketing professional, online consumer behavior expert and social marketing evangelist. He is currently working on a PhD in eCommerce for Northcentral University in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Chris owned and operated many ecommerce retail stores in the music, golf and health & beauty categories. Currently Chris is the Director of eCommerce at FillTek in Cincinnati, Ohio where he works with online retailers such as Hugo Boss, Tretorn, Tommy Hilfiger and Bluefly.

Six Stages of the Consumer Buying Decision Process

Chris Reighley — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:56:26 +0000

Ever wonder how you make a decision when you buy something? Do you naturally go through a process? Well, research has shown, that a consumer goes through a buying decision process when purchasing something. Now, that’s great, you now have a new piece of information for your next trivial pursuit game – right. Here is the deal, as online marketers, we need to understand the consumer buying decision process so that we can build our sites, understand how to effectively marketing online and how we should manage our checkout and post purchase relationship to engage our online customer at each point in the buying process.

So, what is the process you ask…. Here are the six stages of the consumer buying decision process:

1. Problem Recognition (awareness of need)
2. Information Search
3. Evaluation of Alternatives
4. Purchase Decision
5. Purchase
6. Post-Purchase Evaluation

First, you may notices that the actual “purchase” is only one part of the process. Also, not every buyer event goes through each step. Lastly, not ever buying decision leads to a purchase.

Let’s go through each step briefly.

Problem Recognition in this stage, a consumer realizes or recognizes that their desired state is different from their actual condition. This could be a simple as “I’m naked, I need clothing”, or “I’m hungry, I need food.”

Information Search in this stage, a consumer recognizes their need (or want) and sets forth to find a solution. If it is clothing they need to solve their problem, the look for clothing, if it is food, they look for food.

Evaluation of Alternatives in this stage, a consumer has a good idea of what they want, now they are looking at the options that exists. They are evaluating the features of products and brands.

Purchase Decision in this stage, a consumer is processing the information from the information search and deciding on the products, store, payment options. More importantly, they are making the decision to move forward with the purchase or not.

Purchase this is the stage that the transaction is completed. The actual problem that was recognized is solved!

Post-Purchase Evaluation in this stage, the consumer determines if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the purchasing outcome. Here is where cognitive dissonance occurs, “Did I make the right decision.”

Understanding each step in the process and how it relates to our job as ecommerce marketing gurus is important, and where we will spend our week. How can we influence the consumer along each step of the process.

Now that you have an overview of the process, we will talk about each step the consumer goes through and how we can influence it! Talk to you tomorrow.

Start 2010 with a Beer and a Lesson

Chris Reighley — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:49:11 +0000

It is amazing the lessons that can be found in the simplest places. I have to admit now, that I am a big fan of Guinness Beer. I have been for a while. To me, there is nothing better than a black and tan (Guinness and Bass). So, when I went on Amazon.com one day and saw the book title The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield I downloaded it to my Kindle! Well, I just finished it and was pretty amazed and it has some great life lessons.

First, I know that times are changing fast in our generation. It seems like the world is moving so fast, and changes are happening within our life time at a speed not seen in any other generation. Well, that’s what I thought. Here is a passage from the book about the changes that Winston Churchill experienced in his life time:

Consider the life of Winston Churchill. He was born in 1874. Men still lived who had fought Napoleon. Ulysses S. Grant was in his second term as the American president and Karl Marx was just then in the British Library writing the Communist Manifesto. Mark Twain had written none of the books for which he had become famous. Electricity, radio, television, and telephones were still unknown and only the year before Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers universities had met to draw up the first rules for a new game. It was called “football.”

When Churchill died ninety years later in 1965, men had orbited the earth, walked in space, and sent a probe to the surface of Venus. An automobile had already driven over six hundred miles per hour and sex-change operations had been successfully performed. Nuclear power had already come of age. Lyndon Johnson was the American president at that time and though he was considered an elderly man, he had been born when Churchill was already thirty-four. The year Churchill died, the Queen of England gave the Order of the British Empire to the Beatles. It was an honor Churchill had also received, yet for a far different contribution in a far different age.

Change is not unique to our generation. We like to think, and rightfully so, that we are having to deal with more change than anyone before us. Really, change is a shared experience through the ages. How we deal with, and what we make of change is up to us.

Mr. Mansfield highlighted a few key points about the story of the Guinness history. Here is my take on those points:

Discern the ways of God for life and business.

A great quote from Harry Grattan Guinness is “Gentlemen, find out the will of God for your day and generation, and then, as quickly as possible, get into line.

That really says it all. Find you place within the time that we live, make sure it lines up with the will of God and go for it!!

Think in terms of generations yet to come.

Did you ever notice that today in business and life, we are thinking short term. We don’t build a foundation for the future, we barely build a foundation. We need to be anchored in long term thinking – for the generations yet to come. Do you know it took 23 generations to build the Canterbury Cathedral? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine building a business not with a 5 year plan but a 50 year vision. We need to broaden our thinking and vision.

Whatever else you do, do at least one thing very well.

Ever notice that some companies want to be all things to all people? When you follow this line of thinking, you do nothing well. Advise that is good for all of us, be very good at one thing, then build on it.

Master the facts before you act.

Going back to the point that we think our generation owns change, we seem to act before we think. We are so bombarded with data that we sometimes don’t think strategically. We take an idea and run with it before we think about it. Challenge ideas and data. Once you have thought about an idea or project, gathered and interpreted the data and created a sound strategy, then act. Not only should you act, but act quickly and decisively – but only after your have mastered the facts.

Invest in those you would have invest in you.

Another great quote from Edward Cecil is “You cannot make money from people unless you are willing for people to make money from you.” This is lost on our generation. The best investment a company can make is in their human resources. Ya, it cost money, that’s why they call it an investment. Productivity does not come from squeezing everything out of an employee for the least amount of pay and benefits. Productivity comes from motivating an employee. People are people – if they only go through the motions of working for you, you are not going to get the greatest benefit from the resource. Educate your employees, care for them, pay them a fair wage and treat them like the precious resource they are. If you don’t care about them, they won’t care about you or your business.

2010 is going to be a great year! I will be the best year ever. Look out for those lessons, they may come from the simplest places. They could come the next time you have a beer! Hope it’s a Guinness!

Nestle – You Are Cool

Chris Reighley — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:29:29 +0000

A friend from high school put me on to this.

Every call an 800# and really listen to the menu options? Well, try calling the Nestle Crunch Hot line at 1-800-295-0051. When you are asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, just wait quietly for about 10 seconds and you will smile. Promise! Keep going and press 4 listen to the options.

If you like it, join the Facebook group I love calling the Nestle Crunch Hotline so I can listen to the fun options

Have a GREAT New Years!!

Random Thoughts

Chris Reighley — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:45:55 +0000

Just a few random thoughts from the day:

Apple

Looking forward to hearing more about the Apple Tablet (iSlate is the rumored name). As the story goes, this will be a tablet computer that runs on a similar OS as the iPhone. Anywhere from a 7″ to 10″ display. This will be Apples answer to the Kindle and possible rival NetBooks. Price range $1000.

I have a Kindle, which I really like. An Apple version with touch screen and color display that can act like a NetBook would be sweet. $1000 price range is a little high. Can’t wait to see it!

Online Holiday Sales hit $27 Billion

ComScore reported that online holiday sales (11/1/2009 thru 12/24/2009) were up 5% to 27 billion. Tuesday, December 15 was the busiest day of the online season, with $913 million in sales. Interesting stuff, below is the sales by week YoY for the last 6 years:

HubSpot

Attended a great webinar by HubSpot today on how business can use Facebook. Here is a really cool tool that you can use to see your ranking on Facebook, Twitter and also your web site. Give it a try!

eMarketer

In the category of “Come on now”, eMarketer today talked about how companies are worried about their brand reputation on social networking sites. I get that. Very important for companies to understand how customers are shaping their brand. Now for the part that makes me go “Come on now”:

So, 344 companies answered the questions “How does your company minimize negative comments” about their brand on social media. 47% – Directly engaged with publisher/blogger to rectify issue or address negative experience. That is GREAT!!! Listen and engage your customer.

What is the world are the 14% of the respondence thinking that tried to get the negative content removed. You have to be kidding me. Are you stupid or what. All that does is create a fire storm. Worst – 30% do nothing – that’s right nothing. Don’t you care what your customers think about your brand??

Oh my, my.

Top Social Computing Predictions For 2010

Chris Reighley — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:51:25 +0000

In a recent report by Emily Riley and the team at Forrester Research, they made a few predictions for social computing. Here is their list of predictions:

Companies’ social councils will attain budgets and power.
Listening Platform insights go mainstream.
Marketers will focus less on fuzzy social media metrics and more on real marketing metrics.
Twitter will become profitable or get acquired.
Facebook will get more hands on to protect users’— and its own — interests.
Incompatible mobile devices and siloed social applications will shatter the social experience.

OK, what does this mean? Here is my take on the top 3 predictions.

Companies’ social councils will attain budgets and power

No doubt about it, companies have taken notice of the groundswell and are trying to figure out how to take advantage of the social networks. Spending on social network ads will reach more than $1.295 billions in 2010 as predicted by eMarketer. What we have to do as marketers is push a corporate social strategy. Call it a council if you like, the direction and leadership needs to come from the “C” level. Social strategies need to be a part of the long-term corporate mind set. It is our responsibility to develop that strategy and sell it to the “C’s” – make it their idea

Listening Platform insights go mainstream

The first and most important activity a company can do is listen to their customers. Companies should invest in listening to the groundswell. Be it a listening platform such as Nielsen BuzzMetrics or just doing some homework on Twitter and Google – LISTEN!! This should become an integral part of marketing research for every company.

Marketers will focus less on fuzzy social media metrics and more on real marketing metrics

I really believe that a company needs to have a social objective first so that you can defined what the real marketing metrics are. As Bankie Banks says, “If you don’t know what you’re looking for, no one can help you find it”.

I think Forrester has it right with their predictions. 2010 will be a great year for social marketers. We have lots of tools and as we develop strong strategies – we are going to have a lot of fun!!!

Apple, Google, Yahoo and YouTube Tops in Mobile for 2009

Chris Reighley — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:23:38 +0000

The iPhone is the top used mobile phone in 2009, with a 4% subscriber base followed closely by The BlackBerry Curve. This according to the Nielsen Company.

Top 10 Mobile Phones in Use (U.S.) – January -October 2009
RANK	Device	Embedded Base of All Subscribers
1	Apple 3G iPhone 4.0%	4.0%
2	RIM BlackBerry 8300 Series (Curve, 8310, 8320, 8330, 8350i)	3.7%
3	Motorola RAZR V3 series (V3, V3c, V3m, V3i, V3i DG, V3)	2.3%
4	LG VX9100 (enV2)	2.1%
5	LG Voyager	1.7%
6	Samsung SPH-M540 (Rant)	1.5%
7	RIM BlackBerry 9530 series (Storm)	1.4%
8	LG VX9700 (Dare)	1.3%
9	LG Vu series (CU915, CU920)	1.3%
10	RIM BlackBerry 8100 series (Pearl, 8110, 8120, 8129)	1.2%
Source: The Nielsen Company

Apple is also celebrating the good news of overtaking the Windows Mobile platform in 2009. RIM (BlackBerry) still holds a large share of the smartphone OS market.
In other top 10, Google Search is the top website accessed over a mobile phone in 2009, Yahoo! is the top brand accessed over a mobile phone in 2009, and YouTube is the top video channel.

There is your fact nugget for the morning. Woo Hoo!

Is eMail Marketing Dead with Online Youth??

Chris Reighley — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:46:59 +0000

Read a great report by David Daniels from Forrester research entitled ”How Email Marketers Should

Capitalize On Youth Communication Patterns”. Here are some quick findings from the report:

90% of US online youths (12-17) have at least 1 email account.
Only 19% of US online youths are likely to opt-in to an email newsletter.
62% of US online youths will share or forward an email.
Only 20% of US online youths will enter a contest – compared to 40% of US online adults who will.
40% of US online youths spend 1 to 4 hours per day on social sites.
40% of US online youths spend 1 to 4 hours per day on their cell phone.
41% of US online youths spend 1 hour texting.
Only 6% of US online youths prefer email as their primary communication tool.
70% of US online youths spend less than an hour a day communicating via email.

So, is email marketing dead with the online youth??

Nope.

As an online marketer, you need to understand and take advantage of the behavior of your customer. This is a GREAT audience for viral marketing. First, make sure your email marketing messages can be shared easily. Let this group spread the word for you. Your email marketing needs to be to the point and be able to be pushed to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Second, drop the contest for this age group. Seems pointless when your customer doesn’t care about freebees. Third, embrace mobile commerce. Whether it be an app, or a mobile coupon, take advantage of what your customer is using to communicate.

The unanswered questions is how do you get this 12-17 age group engaged in your email marketing. How do you get them to opt-in. This is tough. If you can’t get them to opt-in to email, get them connected via a fan or group page on Facebook or connect with them via Twitter. You may have more success talking their language!