Breakout From Lockdown

Introduction

Ecommerce has just become a war-zone and only the fittest will survive.

Sometimes, you need a kick-up-the pants to break a habit. The paradigms that structure our lives have inertia that drags us along, keeping us doing the same things, in the same ways, often discounting new ideas and ways of doing things. Covid-19 has made us think about a different way of life.

People who would never have considered socialising, or shopping, online, or even working from home, are embracing it all. In a few short weeks, society has pretty much crossed the Chasm from ‘early adopters’ of networked services and they have become ‘mainstream’ for the first time. Who isn’t Zooming these days? I’d argue that this leap of necessity has changed our lives, and ecommerce, forever.

Our three step plan

First, let me say I’m writing this for the survivors, as some of us won’t survive the business interruption and subsequent lull in activity. It will have been one step too far. It isn’t just banks that need to survive ‘stress tests’. Any business that aspires to last more than a few years needs to be either, lucky, or prepared for the unknown.

Fortunately, successful businesses have inertia of their own, which can carry them through all this; it gives them the chance to adapt and prosper. But beware, the more money directed online at your products and services, the more competitive life will become and the big beasts, most notably Amazon, are having a feeding frenzy at the moment that will only make them stronger. Post Lockdown, ecommerce is no longer a fight for customers, it is a war, and only the fittest will survive.

The three things we think you need to get right - the subjects of this paper - to survive and prosper post Lockdown, are:

1. Reconnecting with your customer base.

Inertia also keeps people buying from you, rather than looking elsewhere. It’s just easier, if they are getting what they think they want. But then there is a break and they have time on their hands to look around. For the first time in a while, perhaps, long-term customers are wondering why they are buying stuff from you. You need to keep in touch, so they don’t forget you and when the moment is right, they need an incentive to start buying again, from you, before they start to think you are no longer their best option.

2. Managing your difference.

If Amazon is now a retail utility, as some now describe it, why would people continue to shop with you? There is only one answer to that: you offer something that Amazon doesn’t. Now, if you are doing well, that is probably true already, but you may not have formulated, or communicated what it is - the difference - well enough to succeed in the ‘new normal’ that we are all expecting. You need a good answer to this inevitable question, and you need to make sure your customers and prospects know what it is. If you are just selling commodities – something they can easily buy elsewhere - you will not survive long.

3. Refurbishing your store.

It will be even more important to pay attention to every aspect of how your online store, looks, feels and operates. We have customers who manage each page, almost pixel by pixel. Guess what? They absolutely dominate their markets. You’ll need to refresh your online store more often and that will take more cash than you have invested to date. Only the most successful online retailers – the differentiated ones, who can demand higher margins - will be able to afford to do this.

So, that is our Blueprint for post Lockdown ecommerce success: reconnect; pay much more attention to what makes people buy from you; and get the paint pot out and spruce your store up a bit. You need to do all of this for it to work. We’ll go into more detail about each aspect and, crucially, how to integrate them, in the three sections below.

Yes, this is one of the ways we are trying to keep connected with you, our customers, and those of you who may, one day, become one.

What you need to do

Reconnect with your customer base

Let’s start at the beginning. Are you an order taker, or do you make an effort to manage your relationship with your customers? By that I mean, do you take the initiative to contact them, for any reason, even to try and sell them more stuff?

If you do, then you will already have the tools you need to get started. If you don’t, for whatever reason, you now need to. Lockdown is nothing less than an extinction level event for retailers and right now current and potential customers may not be aware that you are still operating, let alone open for business.

If you are worried about spamming your customers, then don’t be. I am not suggesting you send them spam. Send them something useful, of value, or at least of interest. New products, or promotions come into the category.

Don’t you get emails from companies that seem to pop-up too frequently, but you DON’T unsubscribe from? I do and I do not unsubscribe because I like the brand and want to know what they are doing. From time-to-time I even buy something I didn’t realise I wanted. It’s called brand loyalty (brands are the subject of the next section in this paper). It’s what will enable you to thrive in the long term.

Keep it simple

I apologise for the simple list that follows, but we manage this for several businesses and work with many others and it is quite surprising how hard people find this, even though it sounds obvious and easy. These practical steps apply whether you are doing this for the first time, or you are getting started again after Lockdown:

1. Get an email marketing system, like Mailchimp. You should pay for additional features and learn how to use them.
   
2. Organise your contacts. You need to split them into groups with similar needs, or who buy similar things - you are likely to have more than one. If you don’t you probably haven’t thought about this enough. Exactly what, varies greatly, so it is hard to be specific, here. Of course, you need a legal basis for which to communicate by email. If you contacts are customers, then you have a legitimate reason to contact them, so long as they are offered the opportunity to opt out from future communications.
3. Be relatable. Coming out of Lockdown, you may want to demonstrate your solidarity with your customers’ struggles and offer something of more value than normal. For instance, we will reduce our prices by 25% for all new business we take on during the remainder of 2020. For each group, think of something they might find, interesting, valuable, or useful. Yes, it can be something as simple as a discount code, but perhaps you can be more imaginative than that. For instance, for anything with a membership feel to it, quizzes are popular now. Design some interesting emails - different ones for different groups - that work at the headline, sub-head, and content level and are SEO savvy. They need to look good as they are an envoy for your brand.
4. Reuse the content. Creating content is hard work, but what many people forget is that once created it can be reused. Send it out and then, if it is bloggable, add it to your blog and post links to this on social media. This will help to build credibility and engagement, which is critical for converting new customers. We have found that what we have to say about selling online has got us business.
5. Monitor the results. Now there is much to this, but it is your engine for generating sales. You need to monitor and correlate your store activity, from Google Analytics, Sales Console and any other analytics source you have access to – there are many - with the emails. You can learn much by doing this and you can steadily improve your open rates and sales, (you should use this understanding to tweak your site too).
6. Adjust & Repeat on a regular basis. As regularly as you have something of interest, value, or usefulness to say.

If you already do all this, you are one of the few and one of the businesses most likely to survive.

If you aren’t convinced, then think about why you are reading this. What’s in it for you? Did you find something of value, or interest, or something that may be useful? Does it make it any more likely you’d buy anything from us, or recommend us to a friend?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then QED - get reconnected to your clients!

Manage your difference

From what we have seen over the last couple of months, retailers have had one of the following experiences:

• Near zero sales because they have been forced to close.
• Lower sales because demand has softened.
• Sales have been maintained by focusing on different products.
• Sales have increased because products have not been available from usual, often traditional ‘brick’ retailer, sources.

Over last two months, we’ve all been living in a looking glass world, where the conventional laws of business have been turned on their head. Companies that used to sell beer are making hand sanitiser, businesses that once manufactured winter coats are making PPE.

Before all this began, all successful online retailers offered something different and this influenced their customers to buy from them rather than alternative suppliers. If you can’t now articulate why they chose you in the first place, there is a high risk that your clients will not reconnect with you.

Whatever your experience, it is essential not to forget who you were before all this began. It was your meaningful differences that drove your business before Lockdown. Now, what makes you different to you competitors is vitally important to the future of your online store. In fact, your main task, as a business owner, is to nurture, build and protect this difference.

That is why, as the economy emerges from Lockdown, it is essential that your staff and customers remember why they choose you over your competitors.

These are the things to focus on:

1. Why You? You need a very good answer to the question: 'Why do people buy from me?' For instance, these days they choose Amazon because: ubiquity; wide choice of products; ease of use; and order completion, to name but a few. They choose us because: breadth of ecommerce knowledge and expertise; our commercial focus; and we are good partners. Notice there is no single USP, but a subtle mix of things. Why do they choose you?
2. Your Focus? You need to work out which is your strongest customer benefit. In our case, we focus on making you more money, not just doing stuff. Let's face it, why would you use us if we didn't? What's yours?
3. Align Your Brand. You need to make sure your brand SCREAMS your strongest advantages and that you capture it in a good logo, strap line and Positioning Statement.
4. Tell Everyone. Brands are promises that people rely on. Make sure you tell everyone what your promise is, at EVERY opportunity. (Have I mentioned, that we make our customers richer?) This requires considerable discipline. So, sadly, not done well by most.
5. Be Consistent. Brands are about CONSISTENT delivery of your promise. This is easier to say than do, so, keep working at it. This particularly applies to how your store looks and feels, the words you use, and how you behave towards your customers.
6. Filter. Only do new stuff that aligns with your business focus. Really, this is a big one; it is very easy to go off track if you don't know what track you are on. Apply this filter to new products, business development ideas, and partnerships.
7. Keep everything up-to-date. Post Lockdown, this means investment more than you ever have done before, in all of this. More money certainly, but, critically, much more of your time.

Yes, do all this and you will stand out from the crowd. The more your stand out, the more business you will get, provided you do all the other stuff well. Seriously, who would you go to find out where to buy an asses head costume?

Give them a fresh experience

I encouraged have you to pay more attention to what makes you different, because that is what drives sales. I also said that this is always a mix of things: rarely is there a standout USP that swings the deal. Of course, other aspects of your marketing mix, like pricing, need to be competitive too. This is especially true for your store's look and performance.

When potential customers arrive at your store they need to think four things:

1. Yes, this is what I was expecting from the promotion that got me here. Or, what I have experienced last time I came.
2. These guys know what they are doing. They are a credible supplier for this product or service.
3. There is interesting stuff here, so I'll take a look around.
4. The site is fast and super easy to use.

We call this Engagement. It is the second element of our Blueprint for Ecommerce that we apply to all our work.

To get that response you need to do the following:

Consistency: Make sure you have your Market Position pinned down, so that all your customer communications say the same thing. Don't say something different on Adwords to what they find on your site. You might be surprised how many do.

Benchmark: Benchmark your site against the very best, both in your market and elsewhere, and make sure you match their site innovations. Copy them. They'll be copying you.

Credibility: Use blogs/articles, and testimonials, to evidence your credibility. Make it obvious you are experts. Provide your own reviews if you like.

Information: Provide lots of product information, so that the customer knows exactly what they are buying. This alone has allowed some to compete head-to-head with Amazon with similar products.

Ease of use: Be super critical about your sales completion process. There are still lots of sites that make it hard, or confusing, to buy. Where is the Basket? You need to make it VERY easy to push the BUY button.

Invest in hosting: Do not skimp on hosting. Not all hosting is the same, so don't get too hung up on cost alone.

Remove barriers: Reduce the physical and emotional barriers to a sale. Make it easy and offer guarantees. For instance, we offer 100%, no quibble, money-back guarantees if you don't think we've delivered what we promised.

Conclusion

Post Lockdown, you need to make sure that getting all this right gets more attention. The best stores are being changed all the time. Small incremental changes that add up to a big difference. Yes, at times, you'll need to move to a new platform, or a complete redesign too. Look at it as an investment, not a cost. Is your online store still good enough? If not, you need to act, now.

We hope you have found this white paper useful. If you want to hear more, join our mailing list where we will be continuing with weekly articles on topics we think will be of interest, as the battle for market share begins in earnest over the next twelve months.