Maximizing Customer Engagement M David Goldsholle Founder CEO

Maximizing Customer Engagement M. David Goldsholle Founder & CEO david@Hardware. And. Tools. com

Let’s Look at Ourselves • Everyone here is after the same thing - increased sales and market share • Everyone here has the same major competitor, Amazon • Some have problems both competing with and selling in their Marketplace • Amazon has set a high bar for e. Commerce retail Many people go to Amazon, search, find products and simply place their order • Some of us have additional problems because while we compete with Amazon on our own sites and sell in their Marketplace, the rules are strict and change regularly •

Prime Members Make Up Over Half of Amazon’s Base • • • 63 Million Prime Members this Spring, up 19 million since last June* Prime members spend over $1200 on average vs. $500 for non-members* Consumers feel the online retailer offers good prices Throw in the idea that ordering more makes their subscription a better value Prime is a good deal that becomes even better the more you use it It's hard to imagine a Prime member buying from any other company if they find what they want on Amazon * Estimates by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners – CIPRLLC. com

Setting a High Bar • No one can afford to beat Amazon on FREE 2 Day Shipping and in some areas Same Day or 2 Hour deliveries. • 90% of all sales on Amazon are made from the Buy Box • Amazon controls the Buy Box so price rarely takes it away • The additional sales on Amazon are usually made from the “Other Sellers on Amazon” list on the Buy Box page • “Add-in Items” and Non-Prime sales occur from there • As of November 1 Amazon will issue automatic returns and charge the seller for return services which may exceed the total value of merchandise returned. (Their rules …)

Good Selection Doesn’t Guarantee Sales • 97% of visits to retail sites end without a purchase. • We must all maximize the customer experience • We must offer through interesting original content • We must resonate with online shoppers.

Display All Products Like Fashion Items • Think about products not as sku’s but as variants of a style • Color, Size & Style should be only one click away • Every page should become a long tail landing page • Bounce rates will decrease • Average session duration and page views increase • Transaction revenue increases Amazon has it right above, but hundreds of other handrail brackets are not color linked For purposes of this and some future examples, I have chosen the “Handrail Bracket” subset of Home Finish Hardware. This group makes up under 1/10 of 1% of our product assortment.

One Click to Change Style One Click to Change Color

Assign Usable Attributes for Every Product and Use Them Site Wide for Search The Attributes we use are: 1. Capacity 2. Color 3. Count 4. Feature 5. Material 6. Product Type 7. Size 8. Specification 9. Style 10. To Fit

Four “C’s Apply to Titles, Information and Attributes on Every Product Page • Clear – Use correct grammar and avoid ambiguity • Concise - Eliminate unnecessary words, but not at the expense of being clear, correct or complete • Correct - Present ideas and explanations accurately and precisely • Complete - Do not leave out anything that is important

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Get It Right! Online consumers rely on images because they can’t touch or feel the product • They want to see the product in detail so they can visualize it before they buy it •

Amazon Knows How to Display Products… But • They rely on employees without product knowledge • They allow user-generated content • They receive bad or incomplete data feeds from Marketplace Sellers • When notified: • 1. Seller Support says they will work on it 2. Product Merchandising sends multiple emails and needs more and more proof 3. Normally the matter gets dropped over a weekend because you don’t answer their requests for multiple product shots when your photo studio is off-duty. Most of the time wrong or bad info remains and consumers blame the selling dealer who had nothing to do with the bad info

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Rewards Programs • • • Points for Purchases: You select a number of points per dollar of sale. Say ten points per dollar, any number can work. Offering Extra Bonus Points on Some Days and/or on Some Products or Departments can be effective. Be a Member: Create a login and subscribe to a newsletter to earn bonus points, plus double points on certain featured Newsletter Specials Product Reviews: Review your current & past purchases to earn bonus points Punch Card Campaigns: If you deal with recurring orders a "Punch Card" campaign can work well. Buy x orders of y and the next one is Free or half price or whatever Spending Goal: Encourage customers to come back often and spend more with rebates, discounts or cash back after a certain level of spending in a period Facebook Likes: Visit our Facebook page and get points Instagram: Follow us on Instagram and get points Twitter: Follow us - Get rewards for original tweets about us Referrals: Bonus points for referring friends and relatives On Site Content: Read a specific article or blog post, then earn points by answering a simple question or rating the article/post

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Pricing Breaks Sell them by the Piece, Shelf Pack or Master Case • No one wants to pay “Retail” although if you include shipping the price someone may pay is considerably higher than retail. • Your website can work for B 2 C and B 2 B • Often someone buys one and later needs a lot • This option is extremely platform dependent • Results may be Erratic with when mixed with $$ Off offers, clipless coupons and site-wide discounts

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Product Reviews Many people will not buy products without reviews Done properly reviews help with SEO

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Shopper Reviews A third part review site adds credibility for customers who do not know you.

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Live Chat • • • A Great conversion boost if your live chat people can access in work carts before checkout Visitors know you are more accessible and trustworthy Naturally platform dependent and limited by hours of call center Questions and Answers • It must be easy to find • The customer must know when a product specialist will call or email back, or will you just post the answer online. • We normally post the answer as part of our information • It is better to show Q&A on site for customers and SEO

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Badges & Seals

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Best Sellers • I’ve been told by many people these work • From our experience, it gives away too much competitive intelligence • We Avoid It • There are products Amazon shows as Best Sellers in our Storefront we haven’t sold, thru Amazon, in months

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Lost Leaders Online Marketplaces Your Online Store • Total Failure if Not Liquidating • Usually a failure • Only the subsidized item sells • They buy more of the item you are subsidizing and get Free Shipping • You get no “Thanks” from the consumer – Amazon Does • • On e. Bay there is some value as you can further market to the customer If you are working close on a good seller and are not careful, someone may buy you out and then sell it on e. Bay, Amazon and others. • It can work if you limit the quantity of lost leaders and get shoppers to add other items to their carts

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales In Depth Information and a Website Blog Our forums got so busy we re -platformed them to multiple page servers and a back end database • Recruit Free Lance Writers • Content must link to more content and to products • We relied on a 15 person editorial and graphics staff • • In our earlier days we researched all content and created it in House Content must be database driven and integrate with your ecommerce platform • Always use images and diagrams within your content • It is less expensive to outsource articles • Allow visitors to comment and post projects too •

Proven Techniques to Increase Sales Information in the Sub-Cat Pages

If you ask why our current site misses some of these, I’ll answer in terms you may have heard before: • “It should have worked” • “It worked in Test” • “It ran fine in Development” • “It did well in the Sandbox” • “You mean the servers actually slowed down that much” • “With all you are putting in a 15 second load is OK” • “What do you expect? ? ? ”

We are currently Replatforming to allow us to add over 50, 000 products to multiple marketplaces… Then we’ll change our website and return to Growth