Will e-commerce really make you money?

Kate Hennessy
20 December 2007

Jodie McGregror and husband Stuart White have recently established a customer-focused ecommerce channel for their award winning florist shops

Cashed-up global consumers are your potential new market with e-commerce done right.

The internet is the great equaliser. No matter how big or small your business is, a successful e-commerce strategy and well-planned website can propel you onto the big guys’ playing field. The trick? Making the most of the opportunity and finding something that is suited to your business – not somebody else’s.

E-commerce is an umbrella term that includes email, electronic trading, electronic messaging, electronic data interchange, electronic catalogues, internet, intranet and extranet services. The benefits of investing in such technologies are well-documented but let’s race through a quick checklist.

Reach new markets across traditional geographic boundaries and expand your customer base.
Provide cost-effective customer service with tools such as Frequently Asked Questions, delivery-tracking technology or personalised online customer accounts. It’s win/win when e-commerce allows you to shift a lot of the ‘burden’ of service back onto the customer.
Stay open for business 24-hours. Your customers can purchase online while you sleep.
Potentially save money on labour, materials and other overheads and reduce your inventory holdings.

Edward Goff is the general manager of Business Markets for Vodafone Australia. Edward deals with e-commerce companies everyday.

“Using e-commerce removes the traditional geographic and time barriers of ‘brick-and-mortar’ businesses,” says Goff. “Essentially this allows you to offer your goods and services to both a global and local market 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, often with vastly reduced overheads which are associated with 'traditional' sales methods. And, there’s little doubt that after some peaks and troughs in the early ‘noughties’, Aussies are really buying into it.”

According to research conducted by AC Nielson, in September 2006 5.9 million Australians were shopping online, making us the third-largest online spenders behind the UK and the US. Over half of these online shoppers (51 percent) came back for more and average shopper spending was up 19 percent to $1,900 per annum.

Case study: Jodie McGregor Flowers blooming online

For small business owner and florist Jodie McGregor, launching an e-commerce presence for ‘Jodie McGregor Flowers external link ’ was not just about creating a new sales channel. It was about creating a memorable experience for customers and reflecting the friendly flavour and brand values of her business. Not an easy task, she admits, with something as sensory as flowers.

“Whether we’re dealing with people online, on the phone or in the shop, it’s about trying to create a memorable experience for the customers,” says Jodie. “And because flowers are such a sensory experience, it can be hard to do online or over the phone, but we’ve tried to make the tone nice and friendly, to mirror what we do in the physical shop.

“We’ve put a whole heap of information on our website to give our customers a point of reference to learn all they can about different flowers and how to care for them. There’s also a host of information about us, our services, our Flower Addicts club and how to order online.

Once the site was built, Jodie tried to make the order process a reflection of what she and her staff do in the shop, and guide the customer to getting exactly what they wanted. Customers are guided through flower combinations with a number of questions about style, price, colour and size. And importantly, customers can make special requests, just like in the shop.

Jodie says all communication – verbal or written – is mostly conversational. Whether it’s an email follow up to an order or a welcome note when a new customer joins the Flower Addicts club, the style and tone is very friendly, very conversational. “We show our appreciation that someone has chosen to shop with us or check out our site,” adds Jodie. “In our approach, our language and even our corporate colours, we see the website as another position from which to build our brand. It really goes beyond just having a website – moving towards the discovery of how lots of different areas of your business can be improved through an ecommerce plan.”

A website is the gateway through which customers visit to look for information about your company and the products or services you sell. It is vital you have a website attractive both to your target audience as well as for the search engines.
An e-commerce website should provide quick access to the most sought after information by the consumers of the products or services sold by the company. The content should be descriptive, informative and should be able to win the confidence of potential buyers.

E-commerce tips for small business from Jodie McGregor Flowers

Make it easy for customers to find you. This might mean registering a number of web addresses that would make sense to other people
Internet orders are important: the customer is trusting you completely, without the benefit of any personal dialogue or communication, so make sure you do it really well
Actively and consistently check for new orders so you can respond effectively and in the quickest possible time
Promote the website to your face-to-face customers. We do this by inviting customers to join our Flower Addicts club

Content provided by Vodafone Australia. external link