How would you describe the state of online retailing in Australia?

The state of online retailing in Australia has never been better, though we remain a generation behind the States and underserved due to our limited size.

On hugely positive notes, we're past the tipping point in relation to consumer trust and use of online retailing; overall, the standard of websites and the quality of the user experience through payment, support and fulfillment is hugely improved over even 12 months ago.

Less encouragingly, we are still a long way away from where we could or should be and there are plenty of obstacles to getting there; despite world-best Internet penetration rates, the Internet is not as pervasive in our everyday lives (say shopping) as say in the States or UK, and this in turn provides less incentive for innovation in Australia.

The whole situation is compounded by retailers such as Gerry Harvey rubbishing eCommerce, and dragging down the overall prospects of online retailing. Do you think retailers in the States have such distain for selling online?

Finally, the banks remain an anchor on the industry and despite innovative, third-party players such as eWay, banks remain a tremendous roadblock to taking payments online; you can open a traditional-store bank account in seconds, and yet doing the same thing online is staggeringly difficult; the banks do not even offer fraud protection to sellers as yet!

How has that changed in the last few years?

The most notable catalyst for the overall improvement has been the sustainable and increasing uptake of eCommerce, right across the spectrum.

The criticism has always been the numbers (or lack thereof) of users using eCommerce and today, we are certainly past the point of sustainability. This has been driven by a range of factors including bandwidth, a vastly improved perception of security, new payment options (such as PayPal) and the overall increased prominence and selection of online shops and retailers. The fact that BigPond have billboards in train stations promoting online music downloads for 99c not only tells you where we are, it is driving it.

Another key change has been the improvement of the fulfillment aspect; there are still plenty of forums full of customers complaining of delayed and incorrect orders, though it is nothing like it was. We are more and more surprised if a product is not delivered when promised and most of us would be stunned if a product didn’t materialise at all. If you think back to eStore days, it was the total reverse of today: you were damn lucky even to get the right product!

There are plenty of other factors that have driven the overall improvement in eCommerce though these have generally been in-line with the overall maturity and growth of the web and can be assumed therefore to be the same.

What are some of the key trends impacting the online retail market?

There are some interested trends influencing online retailing, and of note, it is one space where every participant knows and follows the movements of every other. If somebody offers something or does something, everyone knows about it. To some extent, it is an industry driving itself and creating its own trends.

The general trend is that of overall improvement in all facets of online retailing, and it is pleasing to see the wide range of experimentation – especially in marketing and product display – going on.

As it is, no doubt, recommendation systems, behavioural targeting and funnel optimisation (reducing churn at the checkout) will be increasing prevalent over the next few years. Nine times out of ten, price will remain king though this is understood by most online retailers and bolt-ons such as targeting and optimisation will only support this reality.

Affiliate (performance) marketing is an obvious trend for online retailers and it is unexpected that we are so far behind given the very obvious revenue benefits. Currently, it is players such as Dell that are making the most of this form of marketing, though I’d be surprised if it didn’t extend to the larger, pureplay eCommerce sites in a reasonable period.

There are a few other trends that will impact online retailing in Australia, some of which have already started.

Certainly, we are likely to see more and more traditional retailers engaging in eCommerce, much more than the sort of David Jones/thespot.com.au mashup we saw a few years ago. The revenues are still comparatively small enough that Mr Harvey can poke fun at them, though shareholders of these retailers will increasingly want to see a strategy that’s more than just Lasoo; even Harveys have been rumoured to be building an eCommerce offering for the past 18 months. C’mon Freedom Furniture, where’s the love….?

We are likely to see further fragmentation in certain sectors of eCommerce – especially electronics – with eBay-style, Chinese-electronics stores run from rumpus rooms. This might not come as a surprise, though it will continue to challenge the larger, department-store retailers and I’d be very surprised if leaders (dStore, OO, Deals Direct etc) in this space had not experimented with eBay/one-product style stores already.

Hitwise and Nielson suggest that price-comparison sites are significant traffic generators to online retailers, and these will no doubt continue to evolve and grow in importance. Ironically, in many dynamic spaces, aggregators are the enemies of those they aggregate and so it will be interesting to see where it goes.

Which sites would you consider best practice examples of online retailing (pureplay and/or multichannel), and why?

There are some great eCommerce websites to learn from in Australia.

We don’t have a king-hit website such as Amazon, though there are plenty of websites which have nailed it in certain areas and ways.

CatchoftheDay is a great concept. It loves it customers, and they love it back; it shows that simplicity and differentiation are a great combination.

Kogan is an interested case study of how to by-pass the Main Street retailers to sell containers of Chinese flat-screens at two-thirds the price. It has used PR very effectively, its website is clean and professional and it presents a very clear proposition to customers.

Big Brown Box (a website I have been associated with) has nailed one of the usual roadblocks to online purchasing, by offering blanket, free delivery. It was the first to do this – matched by quite extraordinary pricing – and it has established a clear reputation in an otherwise crowded market.

Peters of Kensington (a website I have also been associated with) is a very impressive case-study of how eCommerce can be integrated with an offline environment; they really are a benchmark to parts of the industry, supported by effective offline advertising and superb retailing knowledge.

It would be impossible to cite the list – it’s big and there are some great sites out there. It would be great to have an Amazon of our own (despite that we all buy from there!) though we’re slowing getting there across the board.

Note: after writing this piece, a colleague commented that it would be interesting to discuss why Gerry Harvey is so dismissive of eCommerce.

My friend stated: the answer is probably somewhere in between it causing difficulties with their franchise model and him believing that selling on the internet reduces profitability due to increased focus on price and decreased importance of other factors).

My friend is completely right, though I’d make the addition points:

Gerry Harvey will smash his franchisees into shape the second he wants to, and he’s a smart guy and would know the theoretical benefits to everyone of eCommerce.

It’s just that he has plenty of time to think about it – his stores are going nowhere, enter successfully whenever he wants (think of how he entered photo printing!) and of course, by dismissing eCommerce as a real threat, his competitors that look to him as a barometer will be less likely to invest, save that they look too silly.

It’s right that eCommerce erodes profit margin, though there will come a point where the revenue and froth cannot be ignored; at that stage, Gerry Harvey will enter and probably double the size of eCommerce in Australia, merely by the ripples he’ll cause. He’s no fool, and we’re all waiting for baited breath.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

In the true sense of the defintion, Recommendation Systems refers to technologies that make real-world, intellegent recommendations to users of websites, based on past-behaviour and smart predicitions.

For instance, if a website sees you looking at the Die Hard DVD set, it might assume that you are probably male, into 1990’s police/comedy/action and would probably consider DVD box sets for similar TV series – say Seinfeld. It would then look at what other people who purchased the Die Hard DVD set purchased, the time of the day, the rate of the Thai Baht and a million other factors and present you with logical, beneficial and relevant recommendations.

“If you like the Die Hard DVD set, you will also like the Lethal Weapon DVD set while separately, there is a limited-time special on the Die Hard X-Box Game for only $29.00 when you purchase any three DVDs with free shipping in your area.”

There’s just no question, these systems are great. I don’t need to go into the benefits, though it’s a win-win for everyone; the website, and the customer. You sell more, they’re happier. And Recommendation Systems are by no means limited to eCommerce.

The issue is that pushing these technologies onto most corporate websites, who haven’t yet grasped who their users are, let alone what these users are looking for, just isn’t advisable; get the basics right before biting off even more.

In my interview (and in my presentation) I make the point that it is quite feasible to engage in the benefits of Recommendation Systems (i.e. making good recommendations to users, holding their hand through the website) without needing to actually invest in the technology. Analyse each page, who is reading it, and try to work out what might interest them next… and then provide those links.

Of course, there comes a point where it makes complete sense to invest in a Recommendations System technology, though if the time is right, you’ll know it… and not before.

The article and my interview is at http://nett.com.au/technology/ecommerce/you-might-also-like/11377.html.

Robert’s Recommendations
If you liked this article on recommendations systems, you may also be interested in:

1. Other articles by Robert Beerworth

2. Subscribing to NETT Magazine

3. Contacting Robert to see how Recommendation Systems might work on your website

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

The audience were senior officials from IP offices from APEC member countries, and predominantly emerging economies such as the Phillippines, Mexico and Vietnam.

My presentation was around best-practice website development; both the planning, and the build. I discussed usability, traffic and metrics, content management, design and copyright. The purpose of the presentation was to empower IP offices and departments to advise their clients (companies, individuals and IP owners) on the best and most effective approaches to developing and promoting their businesses and IP online.

During a period of questions, I reviewed the websites of several IP offices, providing advice on improvements and enhancements.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

I was in my teens when I read an article of his on a train in the Financial Review one morning (and I remember it quite vividly oddly enough) when he described the challenge that VOIP posed to traditional telcos.

When it comes to VOIP; time and distance don’t matter.

If you’re a telco, time and distance is your entire model.

It was the most succinct explanation I can recall.

Anyway, Alan has written an excellent article discussing Craig’s List and the model it owns to the detriment of so many in that offline and online space. Surprisingly, few Australian’s know of Craig’s List though in essence, it is a free classifieds website that started as a small, humble website and today is a monstrous, humble website.

Craig’s List really is one of those pure, web businesses that have nailed it due to a total appreciation of how the web and its users work.  

I really thought the Murdoch’s strategy behind WSJ was right – and overall I do – though it hasn’t worked as well or as quickly as they needed and Kohler’s article references why. He also explains why Craigslist cuts a clear path through an increasing pile of sites that simply can’t pay the bills at a time when bills really need paying, and investors are light and few between.

I am not going to comment further, because Kohler makes it quite clear that you need the right model, it needs to be damn tight and it had better make money… page views are just not enough.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

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Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

The purpose of this presentation will to be define the implementations of Web 2.0 adoption on search behaviour and its implications to businesses.

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Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

The purpose of this presentation will be about Corporate Blogging and how blogs are transforming business. The session aims to make sense of it all and try to crack the nut of social networks at the work space, proper use of Tagging, RSS and more.

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Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

The first was about small business, building a website and marketing online. Quite straightforward.

The second was about business growth and the elements I had used with Wiliam. I felt guilty.

There is no magic answer, and answers often come with hindsight.  

Small business is often reactionary by its nature and while it is easy to argue that the perfect business model requires no luck or hard work, small business by no means has a perfect business model.

Anyway… I don’t profess to have the model or the plan but the objective – by whatever means – was to keep Wiliam moving and that we’ve done so far.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Almost weekly, I am asked what the single most important factor in a website is.

I’ve often cited traffic (see search engine optimisation and search engine marketing) because without traffic, users and customers, what’s the point? You can have the best website, though if nobody is using it… 

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Finally, and apart from the 10 important features mentioned above, I strongly suggest that you invest in some sort of search engine optimisation program on your website. It is critical that after you’ve invested in significant website, you need to ensure that you’re going to be found in the three main search engines; Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

1. I either build my entire website in Flash or I don’t: websites can utilise Flash without being – what are coined – Flash websites. While there do exist Flash Websites (websites that are an entirely self-contained Flash file/animation) – and in most circumstances unless you really know what you are doing, these should be avoided – Flash can be integrated as elements on a standard-style website. 
2. Flash is expensive to develop: Flash is more expensive to develop than say flat text and imagery in HTML, though that’s because it is (or should be) so much more than just HTML. The expense is commensurate with the time and effort that goes into building Flash, though conversely, the expense needs to be viewed in-light of the visual and interactive benefit it delivers. 
3. I can’t make changes to Flash: this can be the case, though Flash can be entirely Content Managed meaning that changes to text, imagery, animation and really any aspect of the Flash you decide needs to be managed, can be. This does add an additional upfront cost, though balanced by reduced costs down the track. 
4. If people don’t have Flash installed they see nothing: this can be the case, though it certainly doesn’t need to be. Websites can easily be built to mitigate the need to have Flash installed with no-less an experience than the user would otherwise have experienced.
5. Many people don’t have Flash installed: it is true that (larger) organisations block Flash for security reasons, though most computers will have Flash installed if they are allowed to do so. According to Adobe’s website, approximately 98.5% of computers have Flash installed (though this doesn’t reflect those that have Flash content blocked).
6. Flash means a website introduction:I am not the first to say it nor the last to say it, though introduction Flash-animations to websites (and in fact, anything that gets in the way of the user seeing the homepage) should never – under any conditions – be considered. If you find a reason, think again and until you can dismiss the reason. 
7. Websites with Flash can’t be optimised for Search Engines:it is true that Flash is not indexed (read) by Google, though that is not to say that websites that utilise Flash cannot be as successfully optimised as websites that do not utlise Flash. A good web developer should know how to achieve this without excessive cost. 

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

• Time and materials
• Milestones (monthly, on deliverable, other)
• Purchase of CMS, design module etc

• A fair number of the websites we take over are because the CMS simply never quite worked.
• The web development firm must be able to demonstrate at least half a dozen, completed websites on their proposed platform.
• The CMS should be .NET/SQL2005 (N.B. this was true for my colleague because he was in a Microsoft environment).
• License fees (if any) must be fully disclosed, including support; completely, avoid Licenses where you do not own the CMS and cannot take it away and have other developers work on it. (N.B. This is not always true and there are some excellent CMSs out there (we use Ektron for some projects) though only agree to restrictive licenses with the end CMS firm, and not with the web development firm and its home-made CMS).
• Your IT team can advise on this, however if the CMS is compiled (DLLs), you must receive the source code.
• The web development firm must outline SLAs, warranties and how they manage upgrades and so forth.
• Ask for screenshots, and ensure that content is not merely managed through a WYSIWYG editor; this is not acceptable and will lead to a poor and unstructured front-end over time.
• Determine what features you really need – many CMSs see an over-investment on workflow management when realistically, you don’t need this. Many CMSs come with feature lists – multi-lingual content, RSS builders – and this is one way to achieve it, though the lists are often not always true.

• Expect to see an example Specification.
• Expect to see the process to completing the Specification; ensure that the process works for you.
• Because the Specification really is the architectural drawing of the whole project, make sure you are happy that the web development firm’s Specification and associated process achieves this.

• Try and determine how much time and effort you will need to invest in the Specification. 

• Determine what resources the web development firm has on hand and where in the project they are utilised; upfront, throughout, at the end.
• Ask for example IAs and the rationale behind them.
• Ask the web development firm to outline the challenges they see based on your existing content and users – NOT your existing IA which is clearly flawed (N.B. my colleagues was, your may well not be).
• Do they recommend focus groups?

• What resources will be allocated to the project and who are these resources?
• What are your required inputs?
• Ask for a project timeframe with clear milestones.
• Does the web development firm use a project methodology, or can it explain its process?
• How does the web development firm capture and manage variance?
• When do you receive project updates, prototypes and demos?
• What is the signoff process?
• Are their penalties if the project is delayed?
• What is post-launch plan?
• Does the plan include content and testing (QA)?

• What statistical packages do the web developers recommend?
• What are the statistics you will receive; are they of benefit and do they tell you anything useful?
• Can you set goals for the website and how are these shown?
• Do you have to pay license fees and so forth?

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

In my presentation, I made the point that few Australian businesses had embraced Web 2.0 (in its many guises), or at least very successfully.

The key to a business successfully implementing Web 2.0 ultimately hinges on the business genuinely understanding Web 2.0 and knowing why it should change.

My slide, titled You won’t get Web 2.0 if you don’t get Web 2.0 argued that Web 2.0 doesn’t mean a flashier website or purchasing Google Adwords. The web is now so important in delivering and communicating with customers; what’s required is an evolution within the business, not just building a new website.

Do we blame marketing?

The question asked was whether the marketing department – typically the area responsible for developing a business website – was the impasse, or reason Web 2.0 had failed to permeate through businesses. Was it marketing that was holding the business back, failing to recognise, or preferring not to recognise the need for change?

I initially answered no, though in hindsight, I was both right and wrong.

There is simply no question that Web 2.0 requires a considerable shift in thinking within a business; the way customers, clients and information are treated and prioritised. This is applicable to any business, of any size, in any industry.

The web has not only made us more cynical – or is it empowered – about how we see and respond to businesses online. It has completely changed our expectation of businesses. At the end of the day, we are all customers, whether buying an iPod or selecting a recruitment staff to find our staff. Consumer hat or business hat, we're buying. We want relavance and an experience, not marketing guff.

Yet even today, some businesses believe they are immune to the web (and especially Web 2.0) due to the nature of their customers or products – I gave the example of a business making boxes and packing carrots into boxes – though this simply isn’t the case for two reasons.

Firstly, we all have customers - and all customers use the web. These customers are increasingly cynical, and bring with them the expectations they have developed online. They’re well researched and they demand gratification.

Secondly is that it is completely inevitable that eventually – in 5 to 10 years time – we will conduct many of the aspects of the supplier/customer relationship online.

Boxes…carrots….whatever.

So many businesses build new products and services and consider the web last, as maybe a way to market the product or service, and nothing more; certainly, they don't consider the web as a central part of the strategy.

But is it marketing that is failing to drive the necessary business change towards Web 2.0? Is marketing unable to make the change or is marketing responsible for the change?

I’d say all three.

Typically, I work with the marketing departments of businesses and commonly (and impressively), they are either proponents or at least open to Web 2.0 and the benefits it offers - blogging, social media optimisation and developing relevant content for customers.

Marketing departments more often than sales are aware of their market, customer movements, and what competitors are doing.

What breaks me time and time again therefore is the defeatist attitude of marketing; despite the excitement and genuine belief of the benefits of Web 2.0, it is rare to see marketing fight the fight for even moderate development in business strategy towards Web 2.0. Just too hard for marketing to deal with.

We love the idea though we need to focus on the website and maybe later look Web 2.0.

Our customers aren’t like that.

Adding an RSS feed to the website just doesn’t cut it; you develop a Web 2.0 strategy, not just a Web 2.0 website.

Who to blame.

So is marketing shying from the fight with the business to force the necessary business change?

Probably, and dare I say it, it may be due to the inherent place marketing has within a business; an important part of the business, though an adjunct and no part of business decision and product development.

Market what we have to market, don’t develop what we market.

Businesses love their marketing departments though they’re the first to go when things go south. Poor marketing!; constantly justifying its role within the business at the whim of the business.

What an impasse!

Marketing know the business needs to change, though they’re in no position to do so! They know Web 2.0 is the way forward even if they don’t know how or why.

The realistic outcome for most businesses is that the decision to evolve business to Web 2.0 will happen well away from marketing.

It will happen when the business – not marketing – is ready. It starts and ends with management.

This is the reality if only because businesses rarely move faster than they have to and few will let marketing drive that move, especially given the business evolution required. 

Business as usual.

Time will tell

Only time will drive business to adapt to the web and Web 2.0; nobody will take the plunge any earlier. Unfortunately, when the broader change occurs, the benefit will have been erased by those that moved much earlier. McKinseys found that those businesses that were first movers in Web 2.0 were far happier with their investment than those that followed. It was business as usual for those that followed.

As I conclude and think more about the question asked of me yesterday, it was probably asking not if, but what department of the business really should be driving the change.

And the answer at this point is marketing, though I know it’s the wrong answer.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

An impressive collaboration of guest speakers from across the spectrum voiced their beliefs on the present and future of a Web 2.0 world.

Recognised industry authorities presented on a variety of topics, including mobile and digital services online, the evolution of ‘Generation C’ and the uptake of ‘Enterprise 2.0’.

A conglomerate of the nation’s Web 2.0 specialists gathered to take part:

• Michael Kordahi, Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Australia
• Jennifer Wilson, Managing Director, HWW
• Oliver Palmer, COO, Tiger Spike
• Malcolm Adler, Director of Digital Business, KMPG
• Scott-Bradley Pearce, Strategic Media & Syndication Advisor, CNET Networks Australia

I discussed the future of Web 2.0 in the forum, examining key questions raised within organisations today, they include:

Where are businesses today?

I find it incredibly exciting to see more and more businesses recognising Web 2.0, even asking for Web 3.0. Countless businesses however, simply do not have a clear view of how Web 2.0 works, or how it can work for them.

Amongst the blogs, social networking portals, forums, and online tools, organisations can no longer treat websites into stagnant advertising material that users momentarily glance at.

The web is as personal as ever – considered as a tight-knit virtual community where like-minded users interact. Integrate tools such as social networking applications, RSS Feeds and AJAX, and the information users crave is delivered instantaneously and is available on demand.

It’s plain to see why Web 2.0 is shifting businesses reach – revolutionising how organisations interact with consumers and the development of online products and services.

The forum provided me with a detailed exploration of innovative new technology that’s being developed here in Australis and oversears - and the suggestions and endless opportunities for corporate Australia.

To download a copy of my presentation, please click here.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

The Internet has always leant itself to very rapid, responsive development and innovation.  It’s quite remarkable, especially when you consider the diversity of developers creating applications for Facebook.

Utilising a combination of transparent development, enormous and captive audience and a framework designed to promote viral communication - clearly Facebook has hit the nail on the head.

Opening its doors to developers has been a truly revolutionary exercise. Facebook has become the pinup for a Web 2.0 generation as the peoples portal – using Facebook applications to build the social networking portal from the bottom up.

What makes an effective Facebook Application?

While the purpose of many applications is questionable (Scratch my vampire?), a successful application must be well written, well supported and relevant to its users. I believe there are still far too many applications out there that fall short and quite frankly don’t work.

Is it wise to rely on Facebook Applications to build your business brand?

Advertising is one approach that may bring revenue, though Facebook applications shouldn’t necessarily be seen as the means to the end. Applications can provide so many other indirect and tangible benefits.

Unlike the relationship a user may have with a traditional website or application, Facebook users inherently trust their applications and forward them to friends; this in itself is the first and most obvious basis of application monetisation.

As an example, a great application we’re building at Wiliam, allows friends to build a short-stay holiday together; the application writes a funny story around the holiday, referring to the specific locations, hotels and airlines selected by the friends.

While the obvious purpose of the application is to allow friends to build fantasy, short-stay holidays together, it is a single click to purchase the holiday, hotels and airlines already selected.

The locations, airlines and hotels are fed directly from the travel agent’s website, and even in the more likely event that the friends did not purchase their holiday, the travel agent is collecting rich statistics of where people would ideally stay and go.

We have thousands and thousands of people using our RSS Blog Feed Reader and the numbers continue to grow every day. We’ve been very lucky to have received wide promotion and write-up in a number of blogs and respected media from around the world.

Interestingly, associating our application with terms such as RSS and Blog might limit its adoption among less savvy users, though we are always refining it.

Should Facebook Applications be embraced in Business 2.0?

Facebook really is a perfect market where the success of an application is decided entirely by users. There is no room for hollow applications that do not clearly benefit the user. An application that merely dumps jobs from a recruitment website is not likely to gain much traction.

Businesses looking to engage with Facebook should really consider the benefits that their application is likely to deliver, and why friends would share the application with other friends; this really is the requisite litmus test.

The benefits of being affiliated with a great and widely adopted application is often the only aim businesses should have; the rest will follow.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

The article, ‘Web 2.0 Innovator Leaps Facebook Frontier’ was published on their website this afternoon, and is a compliment to everyone involved with Wiliam – including our brilliant web design team of sixty-five plus professionals.

I hadn’t taken-part in a media interview for some time, and it gave me the opportunity to really reflect on our outstanding achievements from the past ten years (Wiliam actually turned 10 this month).

More so, it’s the achievements of the last three or four years that are really exciting and in many respects, quite ground-breaking. And the article features just some of these highlights.

The first is certainly surviving ten years, which is closely followed by surviving and thriving the dot com crash. It was a difficult time for many in the industry, including Wiliam – the majority of them in our space didn’t survive the burst.

Most recently, it’s the development of our first Facebook application that I’m really proud of. To my knowledge, Wiliam was the first website design and development agency in Australia to successfully build and launch a Facebook application, the Blog RSS Feed Reader.

As a direct result, Wiliam is receiving at least one enquiry per day from organisations looking to cash-in on the viral marketing potential of Facebook and other forms of social media. Some major Australian brands have enlisted us to develop these applications, one of those being Foxtel.

It’s certainly an exciting period for Wiliam, as we continue to grow and strengthen our position as a market leader in the web design and development arena.

If you’d like to read the article, please click here.

SmartCompany.com.au is a completely free news, information and resource site for Australia’s entrepreneurs and SMEs.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Long being overshadowed because of its simplicity, Facebook has certainly emerged as the ‘next big thing’ in the social networking space – with news released today that Microsoft has struck a deal to invest $240 million into the social networking portal.

The agreement echoes Facebook's enormous success throughout the past year, more than likely sparking Microsoft's eagerness to pay top dollar to build a tactical partnership.

News mediums and blogs have been flooded continuously this week with rumored talks between Facebook and Google regarding a possible deal - as Facebook is a major rival for advertising revenue.

It’s quite frightening to think that with a merger of this size between both Microsoft and Facebook, could eventually transform the social networking portal as a software platform or spin-off.

I see this as a spot of old fashioned ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”.

Microsoft obtains a slice of the social networking action, while Facebook acquires access to Microsoft’s innovative technologies and advertisers – converting Facebook into a dominating, social media empire.

Everyone wins – including users.

I believe the possibilities are endless with Facebook development. Having recently co-created a Facebook Application - who’s to say Facebook won’t eventually progress to integrate e-commerce facilities and offer variations in online subscriptions?

Currently the ninth most visited website in the US (according to Hitwise), and the number 2 social networking portal behind MySpace – one question remains.

Will Microsoft’s partnership hinder or enhance Facebook’s success? Will users tune in or tune out to changes?

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

In particular, its Web 2.0 trends such as user generated content, communities of travellers, interactive experiences and Facebook Applications that are changing the way in which consumers’ research, plan and transact their travel experiences.

While preparing for a presentation I gave yesterday, I stumbled upon a statistic – over a quarter of all US travel related sales will be made online. That’s led to a huge shift in every aspect of running an organisation within the travel and tourism industry.

The presentation, Travel & Tourism in the Digital Age, was staged by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) at the KPMG Auditorium in Sydney.

Around eighty industry leaders and members attended to listen to four speakers, in what I believe was a good insight into the ways in which the web, technology and the travel industry are merging.

Some of the key challenges that are facing the sector are;

- User empowerment
- Users seem to be working it out faster than many businesses
- Lack of industry and overall business knowledge to help guide travel businesses: worst still, lots of hype.
- Retail discounters like wotif.com.au
- Unbranded discount travel

It’s obvious that key players in the travel and tourism industries are taking the lead with tackling these challenges - and those that don’t develop and continually update their online strategy will continue to lose market share.

To download a copy of my PowerPoint presentation, please click here.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

48% of online shoppers bail at the checkout.

48% might seem a high number – after all, very few customers in the real world bail from their purchase once their goods are on the counter – though it is easily explained:

1. The eCommerce shopping process is obviously very different to the real-world shopping process and we are far more committed to entering our pin by the time we have made it to the counter at our local Bunnings. It is just too easy to build a shopping cart, click checkout and then leave altogether without another thought.

2. eCommerce websites are often used as catalogues for pricing and cost analysis purposes; users either have no intention of buying, will buy at a later date, possibly from another shop or will buy offline. Every designer at my firm has visited Apple’s website, configured a Mac Pro with eight Xeon chips and 16GB of RAM merely to gasp at the price; Apple continue scratching their heads.

3. Poor website usability: freight pricing complexity, bad form design, requiring a customer to register a password/account before they can buy, too many steps (I just wanted to buy a monitor and I’m at checkout page four of six!), poor instructions and warnings:

*Enter Area Code
*How did you hear about us?
*SURRY HILLS (VIC)
SURRY HILLS (NSW)
SURRY HILLS, SYDNEY (NSW)
Users cannot complete the transaction or just plain give-up.

4. Lack of trust in the security of the checkout.

No doubt there are others – the shop doesn’t take AMEX? – though the above mentioned are the greatest contributors to customer drop-out.

How to improve

The principal point of this blog is to help online businesses improve their checkout and checkout process. There is a lot of rationale and discussion, mainly to assist in understanding users and why they are churning.

Improvement of the checkout process and customer conversion should be an strategic effort of any business; customer churn is the bane of any retail business and no business forgoes a potential customer if it can be avoided; it comes down to nothing more than sales and revenue. Similarly, if the acquisition cost of a customer can be dropped –through higher conversion rates of customers – this directly affects the bottom line.

It is even more important if there is investment in traffic generation; SEO, SEM or online advertising. Indeed, efforts to improve customer conversion should come higher than efforts to drive traffic; get the shop right and then find the customers, not the other way around. Otherwise, it is merely wasting money. There is a frightening rush of corporate money into SEO and SEM at the moment and I fear far too many businesses are investing in traffic without focusing on their websites first.

While this blog is meant to focus on improving the checkout and checkout process specifically, before moving on, let me clarify three points and make a two more:

1. I am making the necessary distinction between the catalogue and the checkout. In making my points, I am basing it all on users that have clicked checkout and not those that have only added a few items to the cart, stop. Many users can work out the price of a purchase without needing to advance to the checkout, though many users cannot – for sake of this article, I am not focusing on advanced eCommerce users but the broader base of users that go through the motions to the point of checkout, mainly to cost their purchases, and those that dropout because of the checkout itself.

2. The estimate of 48% reflects a cross-section of online shops, and the numbers will vary from shop to shop. Someone that gets to the checkout stage of buying an iPod or Xbox Game is presumably armed with pricing/availability knowledge, understands exactly what they are buying, knows it fits in an overnight bag and is probably committed to buying. These are knowledgeable eCommerce buyers, looking for the lowest price and unlikely to buy in the product in question at a mainstreet store.

On the other hand for example, clothing websites and websites selling stock images would experience higher drop-out rates at the checkout because users are ultimately frightened off at the underlying fear of receiving their frock two sizes too small, or are presented with a price outside of their expectation or budget (I am specifically referring to stock image websites in this regard, though many others fall into this category). Some products are better suited to eCommerce than others; time will change this to some extent, though I am writing this in 2007.

The point is that the 45% number will vary from website to website and industry to industry, and should not necessarily be a benchmark.

3. Confidence in eCommerce security is significantly increased on only a few years ago. Today, customers that are at the checkout point are probably not the crowd that hold reservations about the integrity or safety of buying online, and I don’t think it is a factor for businesses to become too concerned about.

4. Tighten any SEO, SEM or online advertising/affiliate marketing strategy – there is just no point in paying to attract users that aren’t customers anyway or delivering them a different message to the one of they saw on the website before yours. This is a much bigger discussion, though it is a very important point and needs mentioning.

5. A friend of mine owns a streetware shop in Coogee, Sydney. He told me a while ago that one in ten customers actually makes it to the checkout; they are mostly just browsing and cooling time in his shop.

For sake of argument, assume this number holds true online as well; for every person that actually clicks Add to Cart, nine never make it past browsing the catalogue. Could this be improved with better POS, discounts and incentives plastered around the shop?

Improve the transactional nature (and creative) of the online catalogue, improve messages, focus on the design and ease of the catalogue, and make campaigns timely, exciting and compelling. Make every effort to compel the user to buy and stop browsing. If the customer was never going to buy, they were never going to buy (possibly for reasons outlined earlier), though they were not a customer in any event.

It is instead that percentage of customers that might have purchased, though just could not find the reason to even begin the process.

Know your moving as many customers as possible to the till.

Having established all this, before making any creative or functional improvements to the checkout itself:

1. Get the best, most relevant reporting possible. Assumptions are only that, while statistics are statistics. Who clicks where, what search terms lead to the highest conversion rate, is there a shopping cart size at which users noticeably drift off?

2. Establish easily understood goals of the shop; goals make it very helpful to focus and then analyse efforts. It also helps to accurately understand the acquisition cost of a user.

As a starting point, Google Analytics is free software, works seamlessly with their AdWords (SEM) technology and easily integrates with most websites; it features a goal feature – say from the landing page to the checkout – and allows for very easy tracking of website goals.

Once done, focus on the checkout itself, and consider every reason for why a user might be leaving at this point:

1. Consider the overall usability of the checkout. Ensure that every possible question the user might have at this point is answered. Let users have one more peek at the product without sending them out of the checkout process. Never underwhelm, overwhelm or fail to meet an expectation.

By the time we get to the checkout, most of us just want to move on, and this is not the point at which to test patience or cause confusion.

2. Make freight pricing easy, and as far as possible, standardised. Online delivery (images, licenses etc) is no different.

3. Reduce the checkout steps as far as possible, and make all forms a real pleasure to complete. Excellent form design is a real art and a worthwhile investment. Have a friend try and buy one of your products and take their feedback.

Take only as many customer details as are necessary to reasonably complete the transaction and maybe gather some marketing research information. There is a direct correlation between the amount of information a website takes from customers, and the drop-off rate of customers from the checkout.

Do not include a Clear button. Customers will accidently hit it and give up in exacerbation. I know it sounds 2001, though I hit Clear a few weeks back on the newly-designed Pizza Hut website and had to catch my breath!

4. If possible, avoid users having to create an account to purchase; we just want to buy the flowers, not open an account. If an account is necessary, integrate the account establishment as part of the purchase.

5. Make warnings and instructions crystal clear. Customers need to know immediately what fields remain incomplete and why.

6. Make your security clear.            

eCommerce strategy is a very broad topic – getting customers, getting them to buy, pay more, buy more and come back again – and nothing is more important than the fundamentals. It may only be single-digit improvement in customer conversion, though if eCommerce is a numbers game, and the conversion rate of customers through the checkout can be improved, it must be a key priority.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

While I fail to see how many of these applications enrich our social networking lives, there are a handful that are useful, engaging and spread like a wildfire – which essentially contain the key elements to quality Web 2.0 friendly content.

Initially begun for university students to network and interact, its distinctive, unadorned simplicity minus the extravagant features, has demonstrated as the chosen place where Generation Y’s movers and shakers click.

“Their young, smart and brash”, as described in an article by Stephanie Armour, in USA TODAY.

So why would this bright and web-sassy demographic sign up to a load of applications that quite frankly make little or no contribution to their lives?

Welcome to the next generation of Web 2.0 fashioned applications – Facebook style – The Blog RSS Feed Reader.

I personally grew tired of the Facebook application wasteland that currently exists. I too am a member of Facebook and have been searching for a sophisticated, intelligent application that would not only engage my social network but inject quality content onto my Facebook profile.

After extensive experimentation and many late night discussions, ‘The Blog RSS Feed Reader’ was born. A collaboration between myself and Wiliam staff members, Benjamin Christie and Jason Deacon – the feeder syndicates blogs via an RSS feed, directly onto Facebook Profiles - displayed for everyone to see in social networks.

Its unique personalisation, suitable for individuals and organisations alike, delivers an ingenuous method to generate traffic towards Facebook Profiles.

The real beauty lies behind the content material streamed. While user generated content is largely generic from other applications, users ultimately control what the Blog RSS Feed Reader produces - using the exact content they have nominated to be selected.

Essentially the Blog RSS Feed Reader operates as both a content syndication service and a notification system which doesn’t require any additional software – users only need to download the application and it’s ready to use immediately.

Within days of uploading the application, over 1288 individuals had added it to their Facebook Profile. This overwhelming response, clearly demonstrates how effective online viral marketing has become.

While the response to Wiliam’s Blog RSS Feed Reader application has been tremendous, Benjamin stumbled upon a glowing review on facebookprofile.com that had us convinced that we were clearly onto the right track.

  “…..it looks awesome…very web 2.0 style….Honestly just use it.”

It’s my firm belief with social utilities such as Facebook, that organisations should manipulate viral resources such as business branded Facebook applications and integrate them as a key online marketing tool.

There is no doubt that Facebook applications have the capability of generating brand awareness.

The clear advantage I have and potentially countless organisations, from uploading business branded Facebook Applications – is that It allows me to tap into various demographics and creates an opportunity for developing relationships with potential clients, employees and partners.

Add Wiliam’s RSS Blog Reed Feeder to your Facebook profile here.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.

Pensioners average 42 hours a month, while 18 – 24 year olds average 38.

Such a study of course doesn’t explain what older users of the Internet are doing – are they using social networking, eCommerce and so forth… though it does dispel the notion that the Internet is not as relevant to an older audience.

Of course, it could be that older users of the Internet are slower than younger users and that's why they're taking longer.

Robert Beerworth is the Managing Director of Australia's leading web design and web development agencies, Wiliam Pty. Limited. His business blog offers cutting-edge insights into successful online strategies for website design, development and online marketing, Web 2.0, corporate blogging and ecommerce strategies.