Five Killer Apps to Boost Online SalesBy Kevin Hakman Need to drive more results to the bottom line? If your answer is yes, then this article is for you. And if you’re like most online merchants, “revenues” and “paths to profitability” are key topics of discussion these days in the wake of the “dotcom fallout.” The good news is that more than ever before consumers are embracing the online channel which means there are more online sales to be had. In fact, according to recent research from Greenfield Online, this last holiday season 92 percent of online consumers actually shopped online this holiday season and of the consumers who shopped, 84 percent also bought. So while more customers are choosing to take advantage of the convenience of online shopping, Internet retailers are still seeking solutions to turn more of those browsers into buyers. The truth is that most online retailers believe they could be and should be. So what’s an online retailer to do? For as long as “converting browsers to buyers” has been the mantra of the online retailing industry, software companies have been developing a variety of solutions promising to more effectively connect customers with the products they want and drive incremental sales. Here are five of the latest emerging technologies that represent the beginnings of the fourth generation of such online applications. These applications are designed to answer merchants’ key questions about how to best convert browsers to buyers and boost online sales. So hold on as we take a peek at the cutting edge. ****************** HOW CAN I PROVIDE
OMNIPRESENT SERVICE TO MY CUSTOMERS ONLINE? 5 • Dynamic Intercept Marketer 2.0 from zGraffiti Dynamic Intercept Marketer 2.0 enables merchants to create additional touch points with established customers to other key locations beyond the merchant’s own Web sites including—get this—competitor’s Web sites. This technology from zGraffiti promises to increase customer loyalty and create sales opportunities that would not have otherwise been recognized. Perhaps the most unique of all the emerging marketing technologies is the Dynamic Intercept Marketer 2.0 from zGraffiti. zGraffiti’s technology extends a merchant’s relationship with an established customer beyond the bounds of tat merchant’s Web site. Imagine a customer downloads the software from Lands’ End* as a value-added service offered by the merchant. Now imagine the customer wandering over to Eddie Bauer* online. Dynamic Intercept Marketer identifies that the customer is at EddieBauer.com, sends that message back to Lands’ End, which in turn, pushes a promotion back to the customer’s browser reminding them that Lands’ End carries similar sweaters in a wider assortment of choices. Or, for instance, imagine a customer searching for “leather shoes” at Yahoo! Stores. Again, the software can push a message from Lands’ End straight to the customer at their time of need. Using the software, merchants control the triggers of what gets sent to their customers when so as to not overwhelm them with too much information. But at those identifiable key moments the merchant can establish a touch point and bring the customer back to brand loyalty. The messages that Dynamic Intercept Marketer 2.0 sends can carry a broad range of associated events with it, including initiating an instant chat session with a service representative, dialing a voice-over IP call, or simply the plain old-fashioned, hyperlink back to any page the merchant chooses. And oh yeah, one more option—you can turn it off, too! “From a privacy point of view, this is strictly opt-in technology’” says Murali Prahalad, director of new business for zGraffiti. “We’re not tracking everywhere the customer goes. We’re just enabling the merchant to reach their existing customers at selected moments when the circumstances can add value to them and their customers.” * Note that Lands’ End and Eddie Bauer are used as hypothetical examples only. Kevin
Hakman, Retailing.org, March-April 2001
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