The Future of Ecommerce

The Future Of eCommerce
A hypotheses by Marc Horne

Ecommerce has completely changed the 21st century in a way that few other technologies have and is actively changing commerce as a whole on a daily basis.  The amount of information and products that are available online is growing, and the amount of information people acquire and purchase daily online is growing also.

The Internet is one of the youngest and fastest growing depositories of information in today’s world.  Internet growth is still accelerating, which indicates that the Internet has not yet reached its highest expansion period.  Over the past decade, ecommerce has grown into a full-blown industry and today, nearly everyone has made at least one purchase on the internet.

Ecommerce appeals to the masses because of several key reasons.

• It is the most convenient way to shop:  There are no lines to wait in, there is no driving involved, and ecommerce is open 24 hours a day.
• You can shop in your underwear from the comfort of your home.
• eCommerce usually offers a larger selection than brick and mortar stores.
• Most ecommerce stores offer bigger discounts and savings on their products.
• Comparison-shopping is easy because of the vast selection and ability to browse.
• Finding deals has become very easy and everyone loves deals.

With all of the benefits offered to the typical consumer, it just makes sense that ecommerce will continue to boom and grow.

Sure, ecommerce benefits the average consumer immensely, but it makes doing business easier and more economical for merchants and retailers.  Advancements in technology have provided a fast, cheap way to sell and market products. Because of the mass appeal of the Internet and the enormous visibility, advertising and marketing has become an integral part of the ecommerce business model.

Ecommerce also offers less overhead, a wider marketing base, and eliminates the need for a physical storefront.  Many of those with a brick and mortar storefront also have ecommerce sites; and if they don’t – they need one … it is just easier and much more efficient to find, compare and decide upon a purchase online.

The greater visibility ecommerce offers will mean that many businesses can expand far beyond the limits of their physical store, but it also means a market at risk of becoming saturated – which is why internet marketing is one of the most essential aspects of the ecommerce business model.

There are benefits for both the retailer and the consumer.  As more consumers are drawn to the internet for their shopping needs, more and more retailers begin doing business on the internet, which leads to more consumers.

There are some large drawbacks facing ecommerce. In any given niche, there may be millions of similar sites, and only effective marketing can give one site a lead over another. There is also the inability of consumers to view a product in real life, or ‘try it out or try it on’. This can lead to high return ratios for businesses, and inflated costs for consumers.  Finally, many consumers are growing disturbed by the large number of email, spam or other marketing material that they begin receiving after making a purchase. These issues may eventually lead to significant changes in the ecommerce model.  One thing that has already begun changing the way people shop, and how retailers and merchants sell, is the invention of the “daily deal.”

One small example is that just about every time I go to a restaurant I always ask the server, “Do you guys have any daily deals or specials?”

Brick & Mortar businesses have been having successful daily deals and weekend specials for an incredibly long time, but now this trend is moving online very quickly.  And I am a firm believer that these types of sites are the future of ecommerce.

“Deal a day” websites are changing the way we shop — and raising tons of venture capital.”
– CNNMONEY.COM

“Post-recession, deal-a-day sites have the potential to change the way businesses market and sell their products if they continue to see the benefit in offering deep discounts.” CNN Money

“Because of the recession, restaurants, retailers, and suppliers have a lot of excess inventory, and companies like Groupon are popping up across the web to help move merchandise.” – CNNMoney

“Deal brokering: Perhaps America’s next top (news business) model?” Neiman Foundation @ Harvard University

“Retailers, restaurants offer deals as more of us pinch pennies.” – USA TODAY

A recent study by User Interface Engineering found that almost 40% of all online purchases were impulse buys.

You see the trend that is growing larger everyday is for businesses, marketers, and everyday people to offer a 1-sale-at-a-time or a deal-a-day to others.

Many of these websites sell one item per day.  Many sell one item every hour.  And some sell one item per week; most notably Woot.com and SteapandCheap.com…

One day deal is a discount-based selling method invented in order to promote impulsive sales. Its uniqueness consists in the fact that these sales are typically only available for 24 hours, thus, the name “one day deal” or “One sale at a time”, and sometimes referred to as “OADs”.

Since this method was launched, more and more one day deal websites have appeared on the Internet, and their success is already a fact. People are always attracted to bargains, and this is exactly what these websites are offering to the virtual customers.  Consumers are starting to search for items using the keyword “daily deal” or “deal of the day,”  and I predict that in the years to come there will be thousands upon thousands of daily deal websites popping up on the internet and millions of active consumers checking these daily deal sites regularly.

Usually, the daily deal website closely resembles blogs, mostly because they are being updated daily. Also, to increase the so-called “sale drama”, the sites need to have a chronometer shown along with every product, to know exactly how many hours, minutes and seconds the customers still have to purchase the advertised item at the discounted price.  A unit countdown timer is also recommended to have on your daily deal site as this also increases your conversion rates and causes true scarcity.

Steapandcheap.com and woot.com are two of the largest one sale at a time websites; however, these sites are popping up in nearly every niche industry that you can imagine.  From electronics, to outdoor gear, to information products, to sports equipment, and everything you can fathom.  The wonderful thing is that these types of sites are still in their infancy, and this is why businesses and marketers can and should get in on this early, and capitalize big time.

The three main elements that these type of sites use are:

1) Scarcity

2) Urgency

3) Interactivity

Scarcity: Needs to be used in order to drive the action necessary to get a sale.  Think about a time in your life when there was only 1 item left on the rack and it drove you to grab it even though you had no intention of doing so.  The use of limited inventory is absolutely one of the biggest and most crucial of selling techniques both online and off.  The fact that you could have had a product but you let someone else get it is often one of the biggest psychological triggers that borders on jealousy and resentment.  You see this every day in many different forms.

-Fast Action Bonuses only for the 1st 100 buyers

-Limited space in an event

-Concert Tickets

-Plane Tickets

Using a unit countdown timer like shown below on your website enables you to immediately use scarcity in your marketing efforts.

*Important Note* – The FTC has been cracking down on businesses and marketers using false scarcity.  It is important that once your quantity remaining goes down to zero, your offer is not available.  This is one thing that is great about the Bloopio software.  When your unit countdown timer hits zero, your offer is sold out.

Urgency: Now this is very similar in many ways to scarcity in the action that it triggers and the emotions that are developed, but it is implemented in a completely different way.  Urgency puts a time constraint on your prospect to make a decision and not to mull it over for too long, and fall in to a state of ‘analysis paralysis.’  This is something you also see in your everyday life and has been used for ages.  Grand opening sales, tax free weekend, spring blow out sale, out of business sale; the list goes on forever, but the key to this is your prospect is forced to make a decision to take action, and has measurable constraints in which they must take action.

This is used online often and we will get into examples of this, and how we use it but an important disclaimer must be brought forward here and now.  Fake Urgency is not good, your customers/prospects will not appreciate it, and it can get you in trouble with the law.  So when using urgency you must stay true to the time contract you have put on your customers & prospects.  Again, this is another great feature of using Bloopio to run your deal of the day websites; when the timer countdown hits zero, the page will automatically refresh to the next offer and becomes unavailable.

Interactivity: Sales in the offline world are closed most often by one human (sales rep) answering another human’s (prospect) questions about a product or service.  In the online world this is not as easy as we are not actually connected and interaction is virtual!  This is why we have email, phone numbers, chat and so forth.  The key to using interactivity to provide an efficient and effective selling platform is 2 fold:

1-Questions answered publicly are both more efficient and effective in achieving a sale.  Almost all of the time, if one person has a question, someone else has the same question and answering these questions publicly will help to keep from answering questions multiple times.  This also further strengthens the other 2 elements as it is proof that there are others out there competing to get in on the product or service.

2- Trust, although online shopping is growing rapidly, much of the population still has fears about buying online especially when they don’t know the person or the brand.  If someone can post a question or comment and receive interaction from you they will instantly have MUCH more trust in you and your products/services.

More and more people are visiting similar websites and the future of one sale at a time sites is not a mere bar graph with a couple big players, but rather a myriad of micro‐niche one-sale at a time sites.

The possibilities are just the start and the potential is absolutely huge.  What is great is that Bloopio gives you the ability to easily run a deal of the day website in an automated fashion, without any technical knowledge or knowhow.  It’s so easy that I actually have my assistant run a couple of my own Bloopio sites for me.

If you already have an established website, blog, or social networking site; it is very wise and profitable to have a deal of the day offer that is based-on or linked-to from your site.  Just imagine if Facebook had a deal of the day that they offered to people based on where they live.

If you have a brick and mortar business; it is very wise and profitable to have a deal of the day that offers coupons, discounts, and deals about your products and services.

Creating campaigns is easy if you have the right platform to run them from, and Bloopio grants website owners the ability to manage a site that comes equipped with scarcity, urgency, interactivity, and a super cool look that makes for a trendy shopping experience.

We have been able to create powerful software called Bloopio that allows anyone to tap into the psychological factors that encourage people to buy immediately. Things like; urgency, scarcity, and interactivity.

Having real urgency and scarcity in your offer is absolutely priceless and will increase the conversion rate nearly every single time when used correctly.

• Visit http://dailydealbuilder.com to learn about our deal software platform.

We are also looking for potential rev share partners.  If you have a really good idea for a deal of the day website, email us at support@bloopio.com and let us know and we will arrange a meeting.

Make moves today,
Marc Horne
HC Consulting Group