The deadline for eCommerce website owners to fully comply with new EU cookie legislation is 25th May 2012. What the amended ‘cookie law’ means is that from now on, permission must be obtained by a clear and explicit consent to opt-in from all website visitors before installing cookies on their computer.
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The festive season is here once more and the annual round up of facts, stats and analytics from around the web are flying thick and fast, covering the online landscape in a wondrous blanket of gleaming awesomeness! All those trillions of daily tweets and billions of Facebook users bigger than entire populations of European countries combined, etc.
Suffice to say, and despite dire predictions of imminent economic collapse from the offline realworld, the future outlook for sassy mobile and tablet superspace, replete with social buzz and shopping on the fly, never looked more promising for eCommerce …
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Website owners who fail to keep up and pay attention to the changing web are about to have a rude awakening! From January 2012, Microsoft will update Internet Explorer (IE) browsers to the latest version automatically – without the user’s knowledge! The message is clear – the multichannel and platform search and social age is here now and either eCommerce adapts or dies!
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On Demand.. On The Move .. Always On .. whoa, definitely a bit too fast-paced for some site owners! The problem actually is, either they expect the web to somehow magically deliver instant results, or they still think it’s not for their type of business or for their particular customers! Their websites haven’t really kept up with any of the changes on the web in the last five years! As many as 40 per cent still haven’t got round to SEO, and as for “all this twittering …!”
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“Optimise your website for mobile – now!” is the big message constantly aimed at you, the hapless site owner trying to get a handle on what needs to be done to keep your presence ranking on a fast changing web. Dipping your toes into social media, blogging and tweeting was a bit of a leap of faith and now being told you have to lay out more money to enable user access to content via mobile and tablet … calm down dear, it’s only multichannel marketing!
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Website experience is now multichannel! That means visitors expect to access site pages via smartphone and tablet as well as a browser – and receive the same quality of seamless, customer-centric experience. The fragmentation of visitor segments according to platform, channel, location and present need presents site owners with the challenge of maintaining optimal brand visibility. Reshaping a website design for total “access all platforms” rather than simply by products or services now needs to be top of the ”to do” list!
The evolution of mobile to smartphone and netbook to tablet has transformed user behaviours. Consumer appetite for site content and social media ‘on the move’ or on the TV sofa has exploded and now highly differentiated by demographic segments. Consumption is being shaped by context, i.e. the platform technology and corresponding location.
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The convergence of online and offline. It’s not so new. In fact, over 90 per cent of retail sales occurs offline in real stores after search has been conducted online to collect the relevant information. The development of multichannel only reinforces consumer capability to jump across technology platforms to reach their purchasing destination. That includes still making the traditional telephone call or trip to the high street.
eCommerce has always optimised the close relationship between online marketing and the call to action in real-world purchasing. It is never more apparent than in local search online to conversion in-store, offline. Downloading online offers and coupons, opting in with subscriptions, sign ups and texts are simply being added to with tweets, mobile apps and QR codes. More consumer choice of connection – more routes to market!
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Recent observations of Google testing a new design concept for its’ search results page could replace the ‘Google No.1’ mentality, which has constantly obsessed eCommerce site owners, mostly to the exclusion of all else in the last twenty years. In the age of the smartphone and tablet, it’s the scroll and the flick-thru’ rather than the clunky click that gets the speedy search result. Seems Google, mindful of search and social remodelling the landscape around itself, is going scrolling…
In other words … Google is testing the idea of an infinite scroll of web search results. It appears that the top search box, navigation bar and the left-hand side panel will be retained while the user scrolls through results, producing a page sequence matching the current Google experience. While a click is still needed to go to the next page to see more results, the possibility for infinite scrolling in web search results, as deployed in Google Image Search, could be a real boost to future online marketing campaigns and improved traffic performance from selected SEO keywords.
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Slowcoach businesses may be missing out on Quick Response customers! According to digital business analysts, comScore, over 50 per cent of those who scanned QR codes were high income segments between the ages of 18-34 interacting with physical print, such as magazines, newspapers, or product packaging.
Offline jumping to online and back again is where much multichannel and platform action is taking place, so are site owners queuing up for QR?
A few are but the majority not, is a fair answer! Adoption of QR codes by eCommerce in physical locations, such as shop windows or high street advertising has been scarce. Whereas, according to comScore, it seems that savvy brands are finding more effective integration in traditional print applications, thus providing interactivity and data capture to formerly static advertising mediums.
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In 2011, nearly a third of 24-35 year old mobile owners are pushing up nearly a third more retail search. As a result of more than a 200 per cent increase in total mobile search, the challenge for site owners is to gain a clear understanding of their audience on-the-move behaviour. As apps are downloaded, used once and discarded, keeping your niche engaged is key to mobile commerce.
Customising marketing strategies according to channel and platform is vital to site survival in the multi channel age. One online marketing campaign no longer fits all and an informed, multi disciplinary approach has to be adopted to gain a real understanding of how, when and where to connect and to give potential customers what they really want, the way they want it on today’s moving web.
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Using social media as part of an integrated marketing strategy is today’s big message for business to get their heads around! Some have been getting it, others – definitely not! It’s the word ’marketing’, which seems to be causing confusion. Twitter ‘n Facebook are not just another way of advertising and selling kit. But too many businesses have simply carried on with ‘push’ messaging. And wonder why they’re being ignored!
Making money off the web, monetising social media … it’s natural that the eCommerce business mind would think like this! But true social engagement with a prospective audience potential takes time, effort and resources – not pushing out product hype and channel linking via autofeed software.
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The latest UK stats are in – it’s official – the UK is going shopping by mobile! Retail search on the move has increased fourfold in the last quarter. Yet with some 10 million online consumers making a transaction using a mobile device in the UK last year, over 80 per cent encountered problems and a ‘bad’ site experience. Site owners are still not getting the message – or if they are – choosing to ignore it!
According to the recently released figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the volume of retail search increased by nearly a third through the use of mobile, which rose by over 200 per cent, year on year. Targeted online retail search only was up by a fifth, and overseas retail search grew by three quarters in 12 months.
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