Posted by Sam Chapple on Mon, Aug 30, 2010
In this third and final installment of our series on eCommerce, we learn of the power of hosted services. You already mastered the basics of launching an ecommerce B2B operation in “The Promise of the Shopping Cart” and the price you should can expect to pay in “The Key to an Overflowing Chest.” Now, like the mythic pirate Bretheren Court, you will have to choose your captain to host your financial endeavor.
I know you want me to just tell you the best shopping cart to pick, but there is no one universal “best” shopping cart. Like the pirate lords, each business has different needs. Let your end-goals be your compass and you’ll soon discover your ideal destination. I will give you this piece of hard-won advice: seek results-based B2B marketing, not technology-driven marketing. In other words, choose based on what will enrich your chest the most, not what looks like the coolest cutlass in the armory.
Shopping Cart & Web Site Costs
Hosted eCommerce web site services like Yahoo Merchant Services, Shopify, Volusion, and Big Commerce all deserve a closer look. The upside: They offer an ‘SaaS’, or Software as a Service, which means you don’t have to worry about maintaining the shopping cart software, including security updates and upgrades. This can give you peace-of-mind in a stormy transaction environment because you don’t have to worry about the technical issues. Plus, you have a support network available to help you 24/7. The downside: You don’t get the full control of a self-serve hosted server account.
Beware hidden fees. They can add up and hurt your business. Actually, “hidden” is not an accurate term because the costs are shown on your contract, but it’s up to you, the captain, to choose and stay on top of store charges. You will pay a premium for premium service. In addition to a monthly service charge, you could be charged as much as 2% more per-transaction. That is no small coin.
Self-serve hosted server account: A custom site, while it may include “free” shopping carts, can require a great deal of skill to configure, upgrade and maintain. That means that the developer brought on board to design the site becomes trapped in an endless loop of maintenance, upgrades and fixes. For the captain, this can result in a financial leak due to hidden costs and endless problems, especially if you try to build the site quickly “on the cheap.”
On the Upside: Self-serve hosted server accounts provide an enormous amount of flexibility. A well-researched business plan and eCommerce strategy is a prerequisite to succeeding.
Brand prominence plays a pivotal role in the eCommerce battle for market domination. Ultimately, you want the message to be about you and not another business entity like Google or PayPal. It’s easy to fall into the “free” trap, but remember you’re selling a brand at that point (witnessed by the fact of low penetration of alternative payment methods). In fact you’re already selling a brand: your business. If you want to simply accept credit cards, would you rather accept credit cards, or, accept credit cards through PayPal?
It sounds (and is) so much ”easier” on the client side to simply accept credit cards and not require signing up for various other brands who then market to your clients without even paying the courtesy of a finder’s fee for your trouble.
As a general rule, a smart sailor protects the brand and develops a strategy outside of PayPal and Google Checkout. It may cost more in the short-run, but it puts you in control of your clients and client lists by going with a gateway and merchant account. This gives a company a virtual payment terminal right out of the box and puts you on course for a successful shopping cart web site application.
Are you launching your B2B company on the ecommerce seas? Want some guidance from seasoned veterans? Drop us a line with your burning questions before you weigh anchor.
Posted by JT Long on Mon, Aug 16, 2010
A backstage Q & A tour of what makes a top 10 hit business web site, from rock star web designer Chris Lee
The difference between a B2B web site that rocks search engines and visitors alike and one that resembles a tune played on a long, slow elevator ride is often the execution. Like a hit song that is covered by bands all over the dial, the impact depends on hitting just the right notes where it counts.
Q: A home page sets the tone for a web site. What needs to be front and center and what should be left out?
A: Clearly and concisely state what your company does and how your company can benefit users. Visitors should be able to scan it quickly, so it needs to be clean and concise. My favorite example right now is Campaign Monitor's site.
It is easy on the eyes, plays up the benefits - "a tidy profit" - with a clear call to action. Below the fold are links to Twitter testimonials and the blog that establishes expert status.
Q: What makes a rocking About Page? How can a business make their liner notes sing?
A: A company's About or Team Page should include information about the actual people working there. This is where you can add your personal touch: pictures, bios, interesting facts, anything that differentiates you and your band of employees as experts in the field.
Q: What behind the scenes tags and coding are important to attract search engine fame and fortune?
A: Websites need to be compatible with all commonly used browsers (including mobile devices). A qualified web designer knows how to satisfy all these channels. Numbers count, so find a designer who can also ensure that analytical tracking code is included. You can have the prettiest site on the web, but if you can't monitor who is visiting, what they are looking at and where they are going, you can't convert and improve.
Q: How do you structure a site so that it naturally flows toward conversion?
A: Less is more. Short, enticing content focused on benefits of offer/product rather than features keeps them clicking. Include an easy call-to-action for maximum bottom-line impact. Make sure the shopping cart is secure. Fans won't sing your praises if the transaction doesn't work.
Q: What are the best ways to encourage high-volume social media connections?
A: Give them a reason to follow you on Twitter and like your Facebook pages: special give-aways, regular updates, insider info. Then make the RSS feed and social media buttons prominent.
Q: What are the classic mistakes business web pages make? What should web designers not do?
A: The biggest "don't" I see is trying to pack as much stuff on one page as digitally possible - clutter is bad. It hurts the eyes, the brain and kills the amount of time people spend on your site.
Clean is good. Businesses should also not try to mislead users. Be clear about what you do and what you offer. Finally, there should be no broken links, pages or images. Nothing turns visitors away like an error message.
What are your tips for a B2B web site that hits all the right notes? Add your voice in the comments below.
Posted by Sam Chapple on Sat, Aug 07, 2010
So you’re ready to set sail with your eCommerce adventure, but what is the best vessel for your journey? The Black Pearl or the Flying Dutchman? A shopping cart or alternative payment options? A combination of the above? Choose recklessly and fees could hornswaggle you out of your profits. The right decision could be the key to an overflowing chest.
I can already hear the calls of ”Argh! Just tell us the services to buy and spare us the details matey.” As in all business endeavors, the devil is in the details (the ”devil,” by the way, was a long seam in old wooden sailing ships that was very difficult to seal. Ignore the devil in eCommerce and you’ll face the same consequences of sinking your project.)
In the first of this three-part series, we introduced some eCommerce concepts and requirements, but steadfastly refused to name the ”best” shopping cart. The reason is simple: There is no one ”best” shopping cart. The details in your business requirements define what tools you will need to succeed. Use your end goal and the results you expect as your compass, guiding you to the right solution. Seek results-based on best-practice B2B marketing, not technology-driven marketing.
Today we’ll look at some of the fees associated with two ways of conducting eCommerce. We will go over still more fees in the third and final part of the series.
Fees, Scurvy Fees
Nothing is free in the eCommerce seas. Carefully assess bank fee structures associated with your online transactions before bringing your account onboard. Take a hard look at all gateway charges and merchant account processing. Following are some of the fees you can expect:
An Internet Merchant account can run around $10 a month, with a per-transaction fee of 25 cents, an additional charge of the credit card company of between 2% and 3.5% (known as a qualified discount rate), with additional non-qualified surcharges running from 0.5% to 1.5%.
Avast, you should also be aware that cards can be ”charged back” if the card holder disputes the charges. This typically incurs a $20 charge per-transaction fee. This is on top of the funds you lose in a charge-back dispute. To protect yourself from the curse of the chargeback, consider a fraud protection plan , particularly if you are selling products that can be resold on the “gray market.”
For Gateway fees you can expect to pay around $18 a month and some kind of per-transaction fee, typically around 10 cents a transaction. This cost is stacked on top of the merchant account cost, which gives a running total of $28 a month and 35 cents per transaction, plus the discount rate of the credit card company. It’s possible to negotiate lower rates if you shop around and keep your merchant account processor aware of your needs.
Alternative payment programs
PayPal, Google Checkout and a few other alternative payment services typically offer "free" payment services for buyers and a fee-based system for sellers or service providers. Alternative payment methods represent a small portion of overall eCommerce sales, so it’s critical to understand the markets they can be leveraged in. They are called “alternative” because the primary payment method is by credit card: Discover, Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
Google Checkout:
- For sales of less than $3,000 a month: 2.9% plus 30 cents per-transaction
- For sales above $100,000: 1.9% plus 30 cents per-transaction
- An additional 1% for International payments
Google Checkout provides a secure method of purchasing products and services within the Google network. You would need a verified Google account with a verified bank account, and your client would need to have a Google Checkout account with a verified credit card for purchases. Google Checkout will deposit payments in your specified verified account. Google Checkout does not provide any out-of-network services at this time. It does provide fraud protection to the merchant, hence verification of accounts requirement. The association with the Google brand can be a positive and a negative. Google’s big brother image and recent privacy issues can bias some of your customers, although the adaptation of Google Apps has not stopped all businesses. Another challenge is that Google funds management is difficult to reconcile as its API is very limited. On an ecommerce site with a large amount of daily orders, it is not practical.
PayPal:
- For sales of less than $3,000 a month: 2.9% plus 30 cents per-transaction
- For sales above $100,000: 1.9% plus 30 cents per-transaction
- Generally an additional 1% for International payments
PayPal offers a secure payment network and out-of-network credit card payments (by non-PayPal account holders). The one catch to the out-of-network payments is a lifetime limit on an unverified guest, which also carries over to PayPal. You have to verify your account (that is, give PayPal your business account number and let them deposit a small sum of money into it which you then verify). PayPal offers chargeback protection and fraud protection. PayPal payments must be transferred to a bank account to access the funds outside of the PayPal network.
The downside: PayPal carries the stigma of eBay. The upside: PayPal enjoys a big chunk of the alternative payment market (roughly 20% by industry standards of all payment methods). It also boasts a well-developed API and a large number of third-party integrations with shopping carts. While not widely accepted by consumers it does remain an attractive alternative payment method for B2B. PayPal offers a service on the high end, a "virtual terminal" that allows a business to charge a credit card directly.
PayPal Virtual Terminal runs around $30 a month with a 2.4% to 3.1% credit card transaction cost plus a 30 cent per-transaction fee.
You can see how choosing the right crew can make or break your fortunes in the high-stakes world of B2B ecommerce. For those who brave the elements, the reward can be great.
This is the second article in a three part series on B2B eCommerce. The final installment will help you set a course for a smooth ecommerce launch. Please share your experiences setting up a B2B ecommerce site and ask your burning questions about how to protect your booty from the curse of too many fees in the comments section below.
Posted by Sam Chapple on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
Like the crafty Pirates of the Caribbean, B2B sellers lured by tales of gold on the high seas of the Internet need to be aware of the dangers lurking in ecommerce waters.
Just as Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner have different goals and fighting styles, each business has different needs. For example, typically B2B companies have comparatively few products posted online compared to thousands featured on a consumer site. That leads to different considerations when choosing the appropriate vehicle for sailing off into the profitable sunset.
So before you hoist your flag and open for business, let’s take a moment to understand the moving parts in a working ecommerce platform.
Payment Gateway: This virtual port is where an order is actually charged to a customer for a transaction. It is not part of the shopping cart! Payment gateways provide a high security Internet portal for each merchant for manual order transactions and account reporting. The gateway also offers an application programming interface, or ‘API’, for sending and receiving encrypted order transaction information.
This is the source of eCommerce, the passing of dubloons from one account to another electronically. A payment gateway does not need a shopping cart, but a shopping cart needs a payment gateway. The merchant pays a monthly gateway fee and a percentage on each transaction.
Merchant Account: A B2B seller needs a merchant account to accept credit card transactions from the gateway. A merchant account is generally an added option to an existing business account at the business’s local bank. The merchant pays a monthly fee and a percentage on each transaction. Many factors come into play when a bank calculates a merchant's various fees, so it’s important to keep a working relationship with your banker. Missing data like exact address match, as well as off-page factors like your business credit, can influence your rates. Take the time to shop around for rates. The points can add up faster than skeletons in a Disney battle scene.
Alternative Payment Methods: Be sure to examine both sides of every payment method. PayPal accepts credit cards from out-of-network clients; however they have a lifetime limit ($2,500) before clients are required to sign up. PayPal can hold funds from out-of-network (large amounts) or unverified sales. This is part of fraud protection and can take some time to clear. A merchant account, on the other hand, goes right into your bank account. You own it, not PayPal.
Shopping Cart: In its most basic form, a shopping cart is a specialized web application that allows a customer to add products, calculate prices, estimate taxes, and estimate shipping. The application will then bill (not charge) the customer, produce a nice receipt page and send an email confirmation.
Shopping cart websites are essentially the check-out part of a brick and mortar supermarket and a virtual product catalog rolled up into one. The idea is to make it work like a real shopping cart... where you walk around choosing stuff and putting it in your basket. When you're ready to pay, you go to the checkout and it's all added up. You pay by credit card or debit card, and your payment is verified electronically. On the merchant’s side all the payment transactions and approval codes are batched for payment at the end of the day via the gateway. Sales are compared to gateway transactions to reconcile the accounts.
Fraud protection: The online merchant is at a disadvantage with fraud, having both cyber gangs and the credit card companies against them. Specialized services provide card-not-present fraud protection for merchants at an additional cost.
The Whole Enchilada
A gateway combined with a shopping cart application provides the greatest flexibility in selling products by giving payment transaction and merchandising tools to the B2B company. With that flexibility comes additional learning and time requirements.
When evaluating services, don’t forget the cost of your time in managing a store and the daily clerk duties it entails. The simpler the flow, the easier it will be to utilize the resource.
Separate “must haves” and “nice to haves” based on your long-term business priorities. That’s where developing a written business plan around an online service or product line is so important. Mastering the mechanics of digital distribution and payment is far more important than trying to build the best B2B website at first. Small steps get you there quicker.
There is no one size fits all in B2B online sales. That's why it is important to get the right kind of help with B2B eCommerce.
I just want to take payments
Many times in the services industries there is no one set price for a product, or clients pay for time or by subscription. This can be difficult to handle with a standard shopping cart. That is where experienced sailors of the ecommerce seas can help keep you from getting seasick.
This is the first article in a three part series on B2B eCommerce. The next installment examines the pros and cons of different ecommerce solutions and how you can minimize the price of doing business online. Please share your experiences and ask your burning questions about how to protect your booty from the curse of too many fees.
This article is by Sam Chapple, captain of Ecommerce and Internet Marketing at B2B Communications.
Posted by Sam Chapple on Thu, Jun 03, 2010
When it comes to choosing a web content management system to build your B2B website, what you get for free is a lot of work... especially if you try to integrate with a shopping cart or CRM.
When people evaluate a Content Management System for a B2B website, they often miss some very important requirements. They always seem to look for the one that’s ‘best’ and cheapest. Instead, they should base the choice on the intended audience and skill set of the site operators.
Probably the biggest mistake is going for a Content Management System that is perceived as ‘free’. This is a mistake because there is skill in running a website, and many ‘free’ CMS require a multitude of skills and time to develop, test and deploy. This does not end up being a one-time cost either.
Let’s look a little closer at the various options without getting lost in a particular CMS.
Open-Source
There are many ‘community’ based software projects like WordPress, Drupal, Mambo, Joomla!, Post Nuke and a whole lot more that are technically free. That is, the source code is
available to everyone and can be freely modified and distributed, but not sold.
These projects are excellent sources for development applications but are not some kind of out-of-the-box solution. Many times they end up in the hands of inexperienced but well meaning people who get completely lost in the complexity and the assumption of open-Source software that you know what you are doing, and if not, you will find the answer. That is, no technical support.
It’s true there are user forums and it’s true that open source is a great hobby. But if you are not willing to dedicate your precious time learning about the applications and getting under the hood, then ‘free’ is not ‘free’.
Closed-Source
Closed-source software applications are proprietary. That means the code behind the application is not available and is usually a trade secret. This is done for business reasons. It’s very difficult to develop software without money.
Companies license their closed-source applications for use only, not modification. Closed-source software companies like Oracle or Microsoft also offer paid support.
The big drawback to closed-source is its cost: It’s relatively expensive and requires additional resources (as does open-source) such as web servers and operating systems.
Hosted Services (SaaS)
Answering the call of the small business hosted services are application service providers (ASP) and the new breed, SaaS, or Software as a Service. This means you rent the application and not own it. This is an easy way for small businesses to get the tools that the big businesses already have. Probably the most well known is SalesForce, a Customer Relationship Management system that offers cradle-to-grave tracking of business leads and contacts.
A powerful inbound marketing platform called HubSpot incorporates blog, website and content management along with powerful analytics to track leads generated through a process called ‘closed loop marketing’. This is a process of gaining feedback in the form of email addresses, phone numbers and business addresses as lead follow-up, and data to track results.
There are also times when unscrupulous website designers sell an open-source application branded as their own. It’s important to understand and compare your options. It’s fairly easy to check on a brand by using a search engine like Google. You should be able to find a fair amount of feedback on a particular system you are interested in.
What you get for free is a lot of work. I know. I have a ‘free’ sail boat in my back yard. Free comes in many forms.
This article is by Sam Chapple, Ecommerce and Internet Marketing Manager at B2B Communications.
Posted by Cris Rominger on Fri, Aug 07, 2009
By Cris L. Rominger
What are the 9 must-have qualities of a user-focused B2B website design?
When approaching a re-skin or redesign of your company's website, it's helpful to keep in mind both branding goals and user goals.
For example, consider these questions:
Website branding goals
- Do the changes communicate professionalism? Are they appropriate for our industry/market?
- Do the changes render error-free on different browsers? At different resolutions? On different operating systems?
Website user goals
- Do the changes help users accomplish their goals on the site quickly and easily?
- Are we communicating a clear value proposition?
- Is our site organized for our visitors? Are the paths to information clear?
- Is the orientation clear? Is the labeling instructive?
- Does our content instill trust and credibility? Is it formatted for online readers?
- Does our writing compel visitors to take action?
- Is our content portable?
Managing design to hit branding goals
While these questions may sound straightforward, they are also very easy to overlook in implementation.
Last October, Forrester Research released its Best and Worst of Brand Building Web Sites, 2008 Report. They looked at 20 top brands through two key questions:
- Does the site cater to user needs? (termed “brand action” in the results)
- Does the site support brand positioning?
The results were shocking: only 4 sites passed test #1 – Does the site cater to user needs? Only 7 sites passed test #2 – Does the site support brand positioning? And only 1 site passed both tests.
Fixing branding problems
According to Forrester principal analyst and report author Ron Rogowski, “Common Brand Action problems included poor text legibility, confusing category names, and missing or buried content. On the Brand Image side, sites were guilty of layouts, imagery, and production values that failed to support brand positioning. To improve the online brand experience, top firms should document their users’ goals, clearly define their brand attributes, and map relevant attributes to the right target users.”
Rogowski goes on to recommend that companies “…should also collect brand positioning statements and conduct Brand Image Reviews to ensure that the site presents the brand’s core attributes in a manner that is consistent with other channels and relevant to target users.”
Self-check site changes
If you need to evaluate your proposed site changes, try going down the free checklist we have posted called The B2B Website ROI Checklist.
Or, learn more about our
B2B Website Design Services >>
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Tue, Aug 04, 2009
NOTE: A big thank you to Jep Castelein of LeadSloth on Demand Generation for his contributions to this post.
By Rebekah E. Donaldson
Say you are a CEO paying for search engine marketing services — also known as SEO services or SEM services. What result are you seeking?
Qualified leads, of course.
Today’s article is about the cheapest, most direct route to that result.
In particular, do you really need SEO consulting from people like me, if you can get SEO software for less?
Some savvy business people seem to think ”no.”
For example, a few weeks ago I read Shar VanBoskirk’s post, “Search Marketing Automation Will Compete With Agencies.” In it she describes up and coming Altruik as “SEO automation vendor”.
(She says later that they’re making “technology-enabled” search marketing possible. Which seems a world apart to me. But more on that below.)
SEO consultants wrote in with strong objections. More notably, even Altruik’s CEO, Tom Kwon, distanced himself from the idea that software can automate SEO!
Kwon wrote:
“…I don’t think there will ever be a white hat SEO solution that guarantees rankings….
“Everyone asks me about ranking, ‘how do I improve the ranking of my website?’, I usually respond as follows: Good organic rankings are the result of a comprehensive program that encompasses both on-page and off-page SEO strategies. Successful SEO strategies combine the two to gain and maintain rank power….
“Our goal is to empower all the highly skilled SEOs and SEMs with our platform to make visibility and on-page SEO easier. We will always need these skilled individuals and their services to ensure a well-rounded SEO program overall.”
Your take-away: Makers of SEO software urge you to use of skilled individuals. And it’s not just because SEO services providers are a big channel for them.
Being found versus being successful
The reason SEO must involve people is that being found is a long way from being successful. And to you — the person paying for SEO services — ’success’ doesn’t = getting found in search engine results!
Success means getting found and getting qualified leads. The latter is an order of magnitude harder than the former.
People optimize content
There are two essential tests to run on search-optimized content:
- Test #1 – Does this content help our prospects?
- Test #2 – Does this content help search engines?
A well rounded SEO pro will help its client consistently pass both tests.
Wanted: SEO copywriting skills
I’m hearing Tom Kwon saying in his comment that Altruik is designed to help you pass test #2.
To pass test #1 you need to be a strategic marketer armed with sound competitive analysis and monster business writing skills adapted to following complex online content and conversion optimization rules. (More on this in our recent e-book.)
If software can help us pass test #1, we should call him “Hal” (after the artificial intelligence that takes over in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Technology-enabled SEO, yes
To be fair, Shar also said that SEO is more and more technology-enabled. That is right. But I’m not sure it’s news.
Back in the day, we used WebPosition software to keep track of clients’ rankings and check on-page optimization.
Today one of our tools is Hubspot Marketer, software as a service which has a good UI and is backed by an energetic support team. Among other things, we use it to see rank changes relative to competitors, do keyword research, create landing pages, track what’s helping our lead funnel vs what’s a waste of time, and other modules.
No tool named “Hal”
Even Hubspot is no “Hal” — and it’s not trying to be, either.
Hubspot provides site owners with lots of best practices and ideas to make best use of the system and create high-quality content. If site owners don’t have the time to educate themselves on inbound marketing, Hubspot recommends they get help from qualified agencies.
Because in the real world, you need to impress both human prospects and search engines. That’s how you take your website’s rank to the bank.
Posted by Cris Rominger on Fri, May 29, 2009
If you’re looking for practical, best-practices marketing advice on what works and what doesn’t, you can’t beat MarketingSherpa’s research. Nothing but tried-and-true findings straight from the trenches. The recently released 2009 Ecommerce Benchmark Report is full of new information to help drive sales. Here’s why I’m a fan…
We’re loyal followers and avid readers of their products – and also affiliates. That means you can purchase new reports at a discount from our site. Very cool.
Zero in on what matters to you
I especially like how MarketingSherpa acknowledges that not all organizations are created equal and what works in one industry doesn’t necessary work in another. That’s why they’ve separated out lessons to be learned from “High Knowledge” organizations that are making use of advanced web analytics and automation. And why they’ve broken out data for B2B vs B2C products and B2B vs B2C services.
That means, as a B2B marketer, I can look at products or services data and zero in on:
- Trends, benchmarks, and challenges
- Metrics for cart abandonment, tools and promotions, and shopping cart tests
- Free and paid media tactics and tests
- Email, offline, search, and social media tactics
- Conversion rates
Think beyond pricing
Knowing we’re all coping with lean economic times, the report also highlights tactics and tools that can increase revenues without further chipping away at slim margins, such as:
- Limited time/inventory promotions
- Loyalty programs
- Customer reviews/ratings
- Product videos
Find answers to top questions
Most importantly, the report answers questions that are top of mind for many ecommerce marketers, such as:
- How can I lower shopping cart abandons?
- What percentage of repeat customers should I expect?
- What motivates online shoppers to buy?
- What marketing tactics bring the best ROI?
- What’s the average ecommerce search click conversion?
- How does my site’s search presence stack up against our competitors’ visibility?
We’re conducting a shopping cart audit next week. As an e-retailer, it’s too easy to lose touch with your customer’s experience. Having an objective third party test the waters can help ground you in the user’s perspective and answer questions such as:
- Is it working the way we expect?
- Where are the leaks?
- What is causing friction?
- How can we make it easier?
Help a marketer out
Here’s where you can do your part for the greater good. We’ve likely all had a bad online shopping experience. If there was one thing – or two or three – that you’d change to make a process easier, what would you suggest?
My pet peeves are 1) being asked to enter my shipping address, even if it is the same as my billing address. Couldn’t you just give me a checkbox: “Use billing address as shipping address”; 2) wiping out all my data if I try to submit without filling in a required field; 3) not letting me change the quantity ordered once I’m hit with the grand total.
What are some of your online shopping rants?