This is how users perceive search engine ads

According to the OVK online report, last year saw expenditure on keyword marketing in Germany rise by eleven per cent to its current level of some €2 billion. However, according to information from the Bundesverband der Digitalen Wirtschaft (BVDW – German Association for the Digital Economy), the Online-Vermarkterkreis (OVK – Circle of Online Marketers) within the BVDW makes no distinction between expenditure on search engine optimisation (SEO) and that on search engine marketing (SEM).

Yet it would be interesting to know the difference, because if you take seriously an Eye-Tracking study conducted by Search Engine Land, the American SEO/SEM magazine, the question must be raised if search engine marketing is still worthwhile?

The answer is yes – under particular conditions. Those conditions being that the advertisement is displayed directly above the organic search results. Whereas a glance with the eye-tracking camera at the keyword ads in the right-hand sidebar reveals that users just aren’t interested.

Go for the middle

70 to 80 per cent of Internet users ignore the keyword ads listed there. Search Engine Land has returned these findings with both Google and Bing. This insight is not particularly new, but the values are so high that the whole area really needs to be given careful consideration.

By way of contrast, the ads located immediately above the organic search results draw considerably more attention for considerably longer. These are noticed by 90 per cent of users.

Nonetheless, specialists continue to consider SEM a justifiable strategy. By way of example, Fabian Haubner, Head of Marketing, PR and Sales at bloofusion, sees its usefulness as follows:

“As long as you can continue to use Google AdWords to reach customers in a cost-effective manner, I don’t see any reason to stop using it. Moreover, AdWords ads are a good way of generating short-term success, particularly for small online retailers. Because SEO successes, particularly in a highly competitive environment, are often difficult to achieve and take their time to come about.”

At the same time, Haubner also recognises the urgent need to adapt SEM strategies to the usage habits of consumers.

“The intensity of competition and associated complexity has of course increased in the Google AdWords environment, which is why companies should really take care to ensure that their campaigns are optimised for cost effectiveness. If this doesn’t happen they run a serious risk of throwing away a lot of money in a very short space of time. This is why I recommend that all online retailers get professional help from agencies, either in the form of a one-off workshop or a complete support package.”

“Anytime anywhere customer” is the slogan for this year’s Global E-commerce Summit. Last year some 400 participants from more than 20 countries came together in Barcelona.

Just as international as the visitors is the line-up of speakers, which includes Jared Blank (VP of e-commerce at Tommy Hilfiger), Dr Cornelius Patt (CEO of Zooplus) and Jean-Emile Rosenblum, Vice President & co-founder of the Pixmania Group. They will be sharing their insight and perspective on successful strategies and process optimisation in e-commerce.

You can see the list of lectures here.

At the Trusted Shops event stand we will be able to give you detailed advice on the subject of trust-building measures and how you can best implement them for your online shop, whether domestic or international.

The fee for participating is €1,295 per person plus 18% VAT. We look forward to welcoming you to our stand. If you would prefer to pre-arrange a meeting then please email us with your name, the preferred event and time, and phone number if you so wish.

The strongest recommendations come from friends or personal acquaintances. This long-established wisdom from dialogue marketing still holds good. Yet, in the age of Facebook, Google+ and special rating solutions for online shops, ratings from other, usually unknown, Internet users are steadily gaining in importance.

72 per cent of customers in the US and the UK trust a customer review from the Internet just as much as a personal recommendation. In the previous study, the “Local Consumer Review Survey 2010″, this figure was lower, at 67 per cent.

Online retailers who have until now not bothered to use customer ratings as active sales promotion measures should sit up and take notice at this point, because the authors of the study go on to show that, on average, two to ten positive shopper reviews are enough to generate a confidence-boosting effect.

65 per cent of the respondents read no more than two to ten reviews to decide whether a shop is to be trusted or viewed with suspicion. In 2010, this figure was only 58 per cent.

How to get hold of links and likes

As an online retailer you may already have had the experience that it isn’t at all easy to get hold of backlinks in the ordinary way. A shop is primarily a commercial website which by its very nature offers little in the way of linking potential. There are, of course, also methods of providing product detail pages, for example, directly with links. But organic, voluntarily placed links and likes rarely occur in this case.

This is where a decommercialised area can be of assistance. This might take the form of a blog for example, providing high-value content relevant to the product range.

The point here is to profit from target-group-specific high-value content with a non-commercial angle that helps attract organic links, Facebook Likes and tweets. In this case, the blog shouldn’t be overcrowded with advertising or product offers from your own shop, otherwise you’ll have missed the objective! This being said, you need to ensure that the important pages in the shop are linked to from the blog, so that traffic from the decommercialised area can reach its intended target.

You could, for example, create lists relevant to your products, such as ranking or check lists, and pass on tips on the use of your products. Here it’s a good idea to use humour and creativity to get yourself noticed.

A look behind the scenes can also motivate customers to click on the like button. This also serves to give the shop a human face, ideally leaving the customer with a favourable impression.

The circulation of prize competitions, and links to them, is still popular. If you run such a competition, you should be creative and perhaps offer an unusual prize rather than just a product from your shop.

If you succeed in implementing one of these ideas in a decommercialised area on the website, then links, Likes and tweets for these pages should follow from which the entire shop can benefit. If this strategy is to succeed then the blog should of course also be publicised so that the high-value contents can be found in the first place by potential linkers and likers. This can be done via the shop itself or your Facebook fan page; alternatively you can actively approach the press or bloggers from the appropriate scene and present your contents to them. So what you really have to do is to seed your contents – this is absolutely fundamental to success!

A further positive aspect of a decommercialised area is the user behaviour on these pages. If some product detail pages have a high bounce rate and short average lengths of stay, you can re-evaluate this statistic for the entire website. You should never underestimate the time and effort that go into a good blog! From the basic concept through to ensuring the regular appearance of maximum value contents, this strategy requires a great deal of work and passionate commitment.

An association that benefits everyone

This merger will strengthen the Europe-wide trustmark that retailers can use to expand their markets into new countries without having to ensure a strong physical footprint. At the same time, consumers can also access a wider range of products by shopping with European retailers.

“The need for a strong, single European trustmark is clear, online retailers throughout Europe need to expand their market and target customers outside of their own country. Without ecommerce, this is a prohibitively expensive venture; safe, secure online shopping gives these organisations the opportunity to sell to more customers, and gives shoppers the confidence to buy.”

commented Jean-Marc Noël, Managing Director at Trusted Shops.

“We have compelling data which shows that the future of retail customer relationships is online, our research reveals that retailers need to address the security and certainty concerns of their online audience – which is international now, not just within the borders of a city or country. This alliance between Trusted Shops and IMRG strengthens both trustmark schemes and will enable European growth for internet retailers.”

commented James Roper, CEO, IMRG.

A quality of service similar to offline shops

Retailers that go through the accreditation process will be able to assure full buyer protection to consumers, making it easy and safe for them to shop online with complete confidence. Detailed audits and safe ecommerce practices will ensure that consumers can make purchases through websites carrying the trustmark, safe in the knowledge that their experience will be as safe as if they went into a high street store.

Malcolm Harbour MEP and Chairman of the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee welcomed the strengthening of the Trustmark Online initiative: “Our Committee has been calling for more intensive efforts to raise consumer confidence to boost internet shopping especially across Single Market borders. This new collaboration should have the scale to promote Trustmarks to consumers and encourage more take up by retailers.”

You should be aware of these results.

20 percent of customers generate 80 percent of sales. A survey carried out by the market research institute Infas of more than 5,000 consumers in Germany, UK, France, Spain and Poland has attested to this old direct-marketing rule, as almost 65 percent of online shoppers choose those shops with which they are already familiar, having purchased products there previously. This figure is supported by the fact that 40 percent of those surveyed enter the shop’s URL manually, meaning that they are already familiar with the online shop.

The frequency with which Europeans revert to price comparison services before entering a shop indicates that a favourable price is still an important decision criterion for many consumers. Online advertising and social media, on the other hand, have only minimal influence on the choice of online shop.

Germans love what they are familiar with, Spaniards and Poles like to compare

With 69 percent, the Germans are the most conservative online shoppers. But both the British and the French like familiarity (both 60 percent) and prefer buying in shops they already know.

On the other hand, the Poles (55 percent) and the Spaniards (55 percent) are a little more flexible. They love to browse on price comparison websites and compare products, an activity that the British and the French, however, do not think much of. A mere 26 percent (UK) and 33 percent (France) make use of a price comparison service.

Consumers on the Iberian peninsula would generally appear to like trying out new things – by buying in shops based on recommendations. In an international comparison of buying on recommendation, 34 percent of Spanish do so, which puts them on a par with the Poles (33 percent). And 12 percent of shoppers rely on social media, as in the UK, to find the online shop of their choice.

Analogue ordering undesirable

These days, the processes used in most online shops are geared exclusively to the digital, and thus automated, processing of orders. There is no longer any provision for manual order entry. However, the shop retailer cannot avoid an analogue response element when using print advertising if the aim is to make sales. Especially if more than one product is being advertised. This can take the form of an order card, fax order form or telephone number, although it must at the same time be said that the card and the form, in particular, present a tricky obstacle to the placing of an order: a fact that has a negative impact on conversion. Using the shop URL as the sole response channel can also present a problem when it comes to encouraging the interested party to actually make a purchase. If the products in the print advertising material are not prominently displayed on the shop’s homepage as “hero” articles, the potential customer first has to go through the tedious business of combing the catalogue for the product of his/her choice.

The QR code – Jack of all trades

The field of mobile commerce presents one possible means of escape from the response trap. Today, barcodes can easily be read in passing using the mobile phone camera and corresponding apps. The users can be linked directly to the product page of the article that is being advertised via a special two-dimensional code, the Quick Response code (QR code). The online shop myToys tested the solution quite a while ago as part of an outdoor advertising campaign. Products from the toy manufacturer Lego were advertised using QR codes built from Lego bricks and affixed to posters. In order to find out what the codes meant, passers-by were able take photos of them with their mobile phone camera and read them using an app. The users were linked on their mobile end device directly to the myToys product detail page, from where they were able to order the products.

The bridge from analogue to digital

Although the main purpose of the QR code was to arouse the curiosity and attention of the passing users, it also built a bridge between analogue advertising and digital ordering. Following the myToys example, a QR code providing a direct link to the product page in the shop for every item on offer can be printed on flyers, brochures and catalogues. The interested parties can immediately be directed via a mobile shop or shopping app to the product, setting up the conditions to encourage them to make a purchase.

Over £1 billion worth of online transactions were abandoned in 2011 by UK shoppers, according to recent Experian research. Further to this, Econsultancy tells us that a significant 58 per cent of people say that concerns about payment security put them off.

Turn baskets into sales by boosting trust

These statistics explain why customers don’t always go for the cheapest options when they shop around online and why many retailers will find it difficult to break into new markets.

Customers stick with what they know – because they trust what they know. Customers will pay more for a product because of the security – perceived or real – that they feel when dealing with a specific brand. If that trust does not exist, then the sales will not convert…at least not at the rate that businesses would like.

Trust in international sales

The issue of trust becomes even more important when you look at international retailers: two thirds of people told the infas survey that trustmarks are important or very important to them when shopping on foreign websites.

When more and more retail is happening online and businesses look across borders for additional revenue, the key to securing more new sales will be to immediately engender trust in potential customers.

Right now, too many retailers don’t take measures to address these consumer doubts. The result is that they lose out on sales. Some companies may spend millions on advertising campaigns to try and establish familiarity and therefore trust with consumers.

But there are more efficient ways to demonstrate and advertise the trustworthiness of a retail site.

Establish trust with a trustmark

Trust is critical to the success of any relationship, no matter what its nature. This is why so many retailers are looking at trustmarks as a way to communicate that they are trustworthy. The Trusted Shops Trustmark is an ideal solution for this.

Jean-Marc Noël, CEO of Trusted Shops, will speak along side James Roper, CEO of IMRG, at the event – which will be Internet World’s 20th anniversary. The title of their talk is: All you need is Trust! Five keys to inspire instant trust in European consumers.

They will discuss how retailers can build consumer trust on the Internet without spending millions of pounds on advertising.

You can register to attend Internet World at London’s Earls Court for free here and ‘All you need is Trust!’ will be on at the Ecommerce Theatre at 3pm on Thursday April 26.

The company

The European Trusted Shops Seal of Approval has been guaranteeing the safety of online shopping since 1999. Today, more than 12,000 online sellers already use our services to prove their reliability and to gain the trust of online customers. Each year, several million consumers purchase from online sellers that have been certified by us, and use our Seal of Approval, Buyer Protection and Customer Rating products. More than 120 employees in Cologne, Warsaw and Paris support the development of Trusted Shops in Europe.

Your job

Is direct customer contact one of your strengths? Would you like to use your skills in an international working environment? Then join our team and bring your abilities to a diversified position. You will attend online shops in all matters relating to membership and you will act as a competent contact person for our international customers in all contractual questions and operative issues.

Your individual tasks will be as follows:

• Processing all contract-related issues from the point of placing an order until the date of termination
• The active support of Trusted Shops members by e-mail and telephone
• Responding to questions concerning the financial/accounting aspects of international orders
• Providing support in respect of queries – including technical ones – concerning every aspect of the Trusted Shops system
• To be a contact person for international cooperation partners

Our requirements

• Business-level English
• Very good knowledge of French and German, both oral and written
• A qualification in business administration, ideally in banking
• A strong affinity with the Internet and e-commerce
• A well-developed service and customer orientation – ideally with previous professional experience in customer service
• Excellent communication skills
• Teamwork and cooperation skills
• Good to very good MS Office skills

Do you enjoy dealing with international customers? Would you like to use your foreign language skills on a daily basis? Do you feel confident in customer meetings? Are you capable of putting yourself in the place of the other person – even in difficult situations? If so, we look forward to receiving your application documents!

We offer

• a challenging task in the trend-setting international e-Commerce market
• flat hierarchies in a professional, highly motivated team
• a permanent contract of employment
• a pleasant working environment in the heart of Cologne

Contact

Are you interested?
Then please send your complete application documents in English as a PDF document, stating your salary expectations and the reference number SMI 120411ts to:

Jenny Figueroa

jobs[at]trustedshops.com

We look forward to receiving your application!

Here you may print this job advertisement as PDF.

Read more about the European Commission’s reform proposals

On Wednesday, 25 January 2012, EU Justice Commissioner Reding presented a reform initiative by the European, which envisages a complete overhaul of EU data protection legislation. The proposal contains the draft of an EU data protection ordinance intended to provide a uniform regulatory framework for the data protection rules applicable to enterprises in all member states. Furthermore, a directive is planned with the intention of regulating data protection during collaboration between police forces and the judiciary.

Uniformity should relieve enterprises of cost burdens

The primary aim of the reform is to bring about uniformity of data protection legislation throughout Europe. This would be realised by means of a data protection directive, which would have a direct effect on all member states and largely supersede national data protection laws. The intention is to bring to an end the existing fragmentation of data protection legislation in the EU, which has come about through differences in the implementation by the individual member states of the EU data protection directive currently in force.

The harmonisation of data protection legislation should above all relieve enterprises of the burden of administration costs, which could, according to the Commission, result in savings to the tune of some 2.3 billion EUR per annum. In addition, the intention behind the uniformity of legal principles would be to bolster the online rights of consumers and, in consequence, their confidence in online services: a development that could clear the way for growth and innovation in Europe.

Mixed reception

In terms of content, the draft includes some innovations that have met with a mixed response amongst specialist professionals. Although the Commission’s aspiration to modernise and bring about uniformity of legislation has generally met with a positive response from many quarters, points of detail are already being hotly debated.

Extension of scope

One of the key innovations is a significant extension of the scope of the EU regulations, by definition also to include companies outside the EU that process the data of EU citizens. With regard to this, the press release states the following:

In future, the handling of personal data outside the EU by companies that are active in the EU market and offer their services to EU citizens must be subject to EU regulations.

Principally affected by this would be enterprises from non-member states whose business models are based on the processing of personal data from user-generated contents, such as social networks. This regulation therefore meets with the approval of consumers and data protectors in particular, although the companies affected by it might well be less enthusiastic.

Extension of the requirement to obtain consent

A further innovation comes in the form of the extension of the principle of consent, which already applies to many areas of German data protection law.

In the opinion of the BITKOM interbranch organisation, this only appears at first glance to be consumer-friendly; according to BITKOM president Kempf, the web might end up becoming an obstacle course if special consent were in future to be required for anything and everything. According to Kempf, European data protection legislation does not require any further tightening above and beyond the stringency of the German system; what it needs instead is modernisation to reconcile the demands posed by rights of freedom and the need to offer protection.

Higher fines for violations

A similarly important proposal is to increase possible fines for violations of data protection law, which might in future be imposed by single competent national data protection authorities, thus reinforcing their independence in the implementation of the legislation. Thus, Article 79 stipulates the following draft:

The supervisory authority shall impose a fine up to 1,000,000 EUR or, in case of an enterprise, up to 2 % of its annual worldwide turnover…

The turnover-dependent framework for fines therefore falls significantly short of the figure of up to 5% of annual turnover envisaged in earlier drafts.

Outlook

The Commission’s draft itself envisages implementation of the ordinance between 2014 and 2016. In the light of the enormous need for discussion, however, it can safely be assumed that the process will be long-winded, meaning that the estimated duration of one-and-a-half years must in part be viewed as optimistic. It remains to be seen how the discussion develops and what influence this will have on the legislative process.

When planning marketing, every online seller should consider extremely carefully which target groups he is going to invest his budget in. In 99 per cent of cases, this group will, of course, be the high-value customers but this is not always the case. This also applies to the focus of both new customer acquisition and the activation and retention of existing customers.

But what criteria should be used to determine the quality of a customer? The traditional mail-order trade has seen the emergence of two fundamental principles, which are also of great significance in e-commerce.

1. Real data from the customer history is correlated to the production costs of that customer
2. The assessment is carried out on the basis of the expected future revenue from a customer (earning-capacity value)

Customer ratings using CPO

This approach assumes that an online seller incurs costs from advertising expenditure for customer acquisition, activation or retention. The costs of these campaigns or measures are divided by the number of customers acquired or retained to create the

Cost per Order (CPO). This way of looking at customer value is appropriate for the evaluation of

• losses of customers, for example through inadequate materials planning, returns or poor service. In this case, if the online seller wants to win this customer back, it is important to make a comparison with the CPO value at which the lost customer was originally acquired.
• the address database. If an online seller wants to sell his company or take over another, the value of the address database is a real company value. The online seller can use this evaluation, for instance, to determine whether he could acquire these customers himself at the same or lower of cost.

Customer rating on the basis of the CLV

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the term used to designate a customer value analysis, which takes as its starting point the expected revenues from a customer. German mail-order expert Jan Thieme summarises the variables of CLV as follows:

“The CLV is the sum of all expected profit margins discounted as of the point of acquisition minus acquisition investments.”

This is how you would calculate the CLV of a customer:

“The CLV is calculated using the profit margin D_t of the customer the period t and the life expectancy n of a customer as well as the arithmetical interest rate r and the investment in the acquisition of the customer at the start of period 1 (I₁). The value I₁ corresponds to the CPO,” explained Thieme.

The CLV should make it possible to allocate an expected sales turnover to each customer. However, as the profit margins are future variables, what often happens in practice is that the mean value of the total customer base, or a part segment thereof, is used. The graph below clearly indicates this and how the CLV of a customer can be extended through reactivation.

CLV and database marketing

In order to minimise the wastage associated with an advertising campaign, direct m

arketing requires the careful segmentation of an address database. This applies equally to online and offline channels.

This is because a seller’s own customers vary with regard to creditworthiness and payment behaviour as well as their returns patterns. Order volume, average order values and the revenue potential of the items sold are just a few more of the distinguishing features that influence this segmentation. Effective database marketing needs proper segmenting of the database in line with customer value. This might, for instance, take the form of

• customer segments for the acquisition of new customers with the highest possible CLV
• activation of existing customers with a high CLV
• different customer service priorities. For instance, in the event of supply shortages, new customers might be favoured.
• identifying of customers who still yield a good profit margin in spiteof a high rate of returns.

However, hope can be deceptive.

Online retailers have been using modern internet technology to facilitate the experience of “clothes shopping” on the web for several years. In many cases, one of the objectives is to decrease the frequency of returns. A special kind of return procedure has evolved over the years within the fashion sector: the selection return.

The customer orders an item of clothing not just once, but several times – in different sizes, colours and designs. The customer then keeps the item that fits and that he/she likes best; and the other items are sent back to the retailer.

Such selection returns can pose a problem for the online retailer, as the returned goods must be processed and repacked. Added to this are the processing costs of managing the returns and storing the goods again.

This is the reason why online retailers are looking for ways to reduce the number of selection returns at the point of the order being placed. The range of solutions implemented is wide and varied:

Virtual mannequins

A model with average body measurements, and generally in both male and female versions, is used here as a static, virtual mannequin. Users can place the item of clothing on the mannequin. The digital model can be viewed from three different angles: from the front, from the back and in profile.

Virtual fashion show

KnickerPicker.com, an online shop for lingerie and sportswear, has chosen a different approach. Here the mannequin is not based on a photographed, static model, but on a video.

Users can select the body model that best matches his/her own body shape from a selection of five pre-defined models with different body proportions. Specific products from the range can then be selected, which will then appear on the models. The user can rotate the video model around on its axis, or make it walk away from them or towards them. As this is based on a video recording of real models, as opposed to the static photo models, this virtual fashion show has a very realistic appearance.

Augmented Reality

The principle behind the solutions is basically identical to others found on the market: the user positions him/herself in front of a webcam that records an image of their body and reproduces it on a PC or other end device.

The user can then project the items of clothing onto their own body, enabling them to view a digital, dressed mirror image. For example, Otto.de has been testing such a virtual fitting room as a Facebook app on its fan page for several months. Several online spectacle retailers also use similar applications.

The problem with the fit

Can solutions such as these serve to decrease the number of selection returns? Yes, they definitely can. Although there have not yet been any definitive case studies of online shops, it is the right direction.

However, online retailers should not expect miracles from the applications described here. This is because all three potential solutions only help to prevent items from being returned because the customer does not like them, for example, if a particular colour does not suit him/her. This does not solve the main problem in the fashion mail-order business: items that are returned because they do not fit.

On the one hand, this can be attributed to the fact that there is a lack of unified size specifications world-wide. Online retailers attempt to address this by having comprehensive measurements tables on their shop’s service pages. On the other hand, the many different fits pose a problem for many customers. Fitting problems are not necessarily just the result of incorrect body measurements when determining clothing size.

For example, a men’s shirt from Italy will be smaller than one in the same size from the USA. This is due to different fittings during production. Similarly, a size “L” T-shirt with a tailored fit can be the correct size for a customer, but too wide around the stomach without a tailored fit.

The failure can therefore be attributed more to the buying agents than the customers. If, for example, details of the fit are directly entered into the article’s basic sizing data, these can be provided to the customer on the product detail pages. It would also be feasible to incorporate information regarding the fit into the advisory functions presented above.

If an item of clothing is cut very wide due to the dressmaking pattern used, the shop system could suggest to the user that they order a size smaller.

Outlook

It will be several years before virtual size advisors are used to any great degree in online shops. Applications based on Augmented Reality could perhaps have the greatest potential. The combination of virtual fitting room and body scanning, as is currently being introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, is an especially interesting development to existing approaches.

Andrea Reitmeier, a journalist specialising in online issues, describes such an application in her blog. Body metrics with 3D body mapping brings the fitting room into the living room via the TV. Sensors measure the individual’s size and body shape, allowing them to then select clothes in the shop that will fit perfectly. Microsoft Kinect is already known to have a similar approach.

If applications such as these could then be supplemented by information on fit, this could significantly decrease the number of selection returns.

L’entreprise

Le label de qualité européen Trusted Shops garantit la sécurité des achats sur Internet depuis 1999. Aujourd’hui, plus de 10.000 sites marchands utilisent Trusted Shops pour démontrer leur fiabilité et gagner la confiance des internautes. Chaque année, plusieurs millions de consommateurs achètent en toute sérénité sur les sites marchands labellisés avec la garantie de remboursement Trusted Shops et les profils d’évaluations clients. Plus de 100 collaborateurs basés à Cologne, Varsovie et Paris contribuent à développer Trusted Shops en Europe.

Votre mission

En tant que « Country Manager (m/f) France » vous représentez Trusted Shops en France. Vous élaborez les objectifs opérationnels et stratégiques en collaboration étroite avec l’équipe de direction pour établir et développer la notoriété du label de qualité Trusted Shops sur le marché français. Vous identifiez le potentiel du marché français et participez à la planification stratégique de l’entreprise.

Vous êtes responsable du développement du bureau Trusted Shops à Paris et de son équipe. Vous planifiez et organisez activement la présence de Trusted Shops dans les médias, sur les salons et conférences en collaboration avec le service marketing et relations publiques. Vous développez les contacts avec les sites marchands français principaux. Vous développez et assurez des partenariats stratégiques avec des acteurs de l’e-commerce en France : éditeurs de logiciels pour sites marchands, agences Internet, etc.

Nos exigences

• Etudes supérieures, de préférence commerciales ou d’ingénieur.
• Capacité de penser et d’agir à la manière d’un entrepreneur.
• Talent de présentation et de communication.
• Connaissance approfondies du marché de l’e-commerce en France avec un réseau de relations.
• Plusieurs années d’expérience professionnelle dans le domaine de l’e-commerce.
• Langue française maternelle et très bonne connaissance de l’anglais. Des connaissances en allemand constituent un plus.

Vous avez fait vos preuves dans le domaine de l’e-commerce en France et vous désirez aller plus loin ? Vous voulez contribuer au développement dynamique d’une entreprise européenne innovante* ? Vous pensez et agissez en tant qu’entrepreneur et désirez gérer une équipe ? Vous menez à bien vos projets de manière structurée et efficace ? Vous aimez convaincre et communiquer ? Dans ce cas, nous nous réjouissons de recevoir votre dossier de candidature !

* Trusted Shops est agréé OSEO

Nous vous proposons

• un défi professionnel unique avec des opportunités de développement personnel et d’évolution de carrière.
• l’opportunité de contribuer à établir une marque européenne sur le marché français de l’e-commerce.
• de nouer des relations privilégiées avec les grands acteurs de l’e-commerce en France.
• un poste à responsabilité avec une grande autonomie.
• des relations directes avec l’équipe de direction.

Contact

Avons-nous suscité votre intérêt ? Veuillez alors nous envoyer votre dossier de candidature complet au format PDF avec indication de vos prétentions et du numéro de référence CMF110901ts à :

Nicole Thiele
jobs[at]trustedshops.com

Nous nous réjouissons de faire votre connaissance !

Télécharger et imprimer cette offre d’emploi en format PDF ici.

Read on.

Some good news from the US: shopping cart abandonment may be annoying for the online retailer, but it’s not a disaster as three out of four online buyers return to the shop within 28 days. And it gets even better.

48 percent, almost every second consumer, can be encouraged to make a purchase even after abandoning the order, whereby it is, of course, important to ensure that the customer has given his advertisement consent. However, this figure applies only to repeat customers or visitors who are already familiar with your shop.

It’s much more difficult with new customers. Studies show that only three percent make a purchase in the same shop after abandoning an order. For this reason, the researchers recommend paying special attention to building a relationship with the customer, for example, by offering a welcome gift.

This is the key result of a large-scale survey carried out by SeeWhy between July and August 2011. The purchase behaviour in more than 260,000 e-commerce transactions by 617 000 visitors to various online shops in the US was analysed.

Be careful with delivery costs

Among other things, delivery costs have been identified as “order killers”, particularly when the online retailer has set a minimum charge for free delivery. The Swiss e-commerce consultant Erik Beyer asserts in the carpathia blog that a $100 limit promotes the highest abandonment rate. He writes that this is particularly the case if shipping costs are too high in relation to the purchased product. Moreover he states that if shipping costs are equal to the cost of the product itself, the abandonment rate is 100%. One of his suggestions to help mitigate this problem is to enclose vouchers and special offers with the packages.

How has the UK implemented the Cookies Directive?

So far only eight of the 27 Member States of the European Union have implemented the Cookies Directive, although the deadline for doing so expired on 25 May 2011. Those countries are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Malta, Sweden and Great Britain.

Implementation in Great Britain

In the magazine for data protection Zeitschrift für Datenschutz (ZD) 2012, 24, Andreas Thürauf published an interesting article entitled “Cookie Opt-in in Great Britain – the Future of Cookies? Overview of the Changes and Effects”.

The article concerns the implementation of Directive 2009/136/EC into British law, the solutions proposed by the Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO) and the possible effects of the new law on behavioural advertising.

First, the author presents the British regulations that were applicable up to 26 May 2011: He mentions that up to 26 May 2011 in Great Britain, Article 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR 2003) intended that the users of a website should be provided with clear and comprehensive information on the purpose, type and scope of the use of cookies and be given the opportunity to refuse the storage of cookies on their end device. In practice, that information was often contained in the website’s legal notice.

Article 6 of PECR 2003 was amended through the implementation of the Cookies Directive. Most of the wording of the Directive was adopted.

Consent to the placement of cookies

According to the Directive, in principle the user must give his/her consent to the use of cookies, unless they are strictly necessary in order for the provider of an information society service to supply the service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user.

The requirement to provide clear and comprehensive information from the existing regulations has been retained.

When is a cookie strictly necessary?

The Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO) – the data protection officer in the UK, who is appointed by the crown and independent of the government, has proposed solutions for obtaining effective consent.

According to Thürauf, these solutions could also be of significance for the other Member States, as Great Britain would like to play a pioneering role in the issue of consenting to cookies.

The ICO cites “shopping basket cookies” as an example of cookies that do not require consent: The author states that the ICO gives as an example the use of a cookie in an online shop in which the customer marks products which he/she would like to add to the shopping basket. In this case, the consent-free cookie enables products which were marked on a previous page to also remain in the site’s “memory” and to still appear as selected if it is called up again.

He considers that cookies which are used so that the operator of the site knows that the user has not agreed to the placement of cookies are as such also exempt from the requirement to obtain consent.

The time when consent is given

Thürauf then considers the issue of the time when consent is given and presents the different opinions, for example that of the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Article 29 data protection group.

However, the ICO has not yet stated a position regarding the time when consent is given.

Browser settings as consent?

In Germany there is frequent discussion as to whether certain browser settings for blocking cookies should be sufficient. The ICO in Great Britain takes a different position on this issue:

The author cites that because, according to the ICO, the browser settings cannot be deemed to constitute consent to the placement of cookies, or only in particular cases, the ICO provides a catalogue of measures for obtaining effective consent from the user.

He then presents several possible solutions.

1. Obtaining consent by means of a pop-up
   According to the ICO, this possibility is the clearest, but not the most elegant.
2.  Consent to the conditions of use
3. Individual setting of the website
4. Use of analytical cookies

Notification of the use of cookies is provided in the headline or footer of the website and users must give their consent there. The ICO uses this solution itself on its website and considers it to be a model example.

Conclusion

In the conclusion of his article, Thürauf argues that the conception of the ICO is as yet the most far-reaching initiative of the European Union for solving the problem of the cookie opt-in.

He also believes that the advice on the implementation of the obligation to obtain consent provided by the ICO is suitable to be transferred to other Member States. However, it is necessary to wait and see how the other states implement the Directive.

Finally he quotes that if one follows the opinion of the British legislator, the implementation and permissibility of consent by means of browser settings depend on the technical development of the browsers.

How to write sales-boosting product texts

In the beginning was the word – and this also applies to online retail. The text which praises or describes a product is just as important for conversion as attractive photographs or user-friendly and well thought-out navigation.

Martin Groß-Albenhausen has summarised the most important rules for writing good copy, thus providing online retailers with access to catalogue copywriter know-how which has been successfully put into practice for several decades.

The benefit/benefit/benefit rule

This three-pronged rule was formulated by the US catalogue guru, Hershell Gordon Lewis.

1st benefit: State a property of the product which makes it superior to others.

Example: “At last, a truly silent washing machine.”

2nd benefit: Place this property in the context of the customer’s leisure time or professional life.

Example: “Whirring and clanking are now a thing of the past.”

3rd benefit: Tell the reader how the product property will improve his/her leisure time or working life.

Example: “For the first time in your life, you can play quiet music in the kitchen…. and enjoy it.”

Seven deadly sins

1. “Sloth” is apparent in lifeless homepages which neither perform a pre-selling function nor provide an introduction to the product range, let alone say anything about the positioning.
2.  “Pride”, i.e. too much “I” copy, too much talk about the company or the entrepreneur and too little about the customer.
3. “Gluttony” means pages which try to do too much, without order or direction.
4. “Lust” means that the fun of the “art direction” overshadows the main objective of all advertising design, i.e. selling based on benefits to the customer.
5. “Greed” manifests itself in saving on sales boosters, which generally involve the mail order retailer giving something back.
6. “Wrath” may be felt by customers if texts are incomplete, the lettering too small or the order information concealed.
7. “Envy” means looking at what others are doing too much instead of developing one’s own language and positioning expressed in images, copy and goods.

Shop design and copy

Of course, product texts sell above the content level. Nevertheless, there are a couple of rules which should be observed when designing and presenting texts in an online shop:

• No red, green or orange headlines. Texts must provide contrast – nothing beats black or dark blue.
• Dominant backgrounds distract from the subject at hand, i.e. the product.
• Text on unstructured or dark backgrounds is difficult to read and reduces the response.
• Inverse lettering is tiring to read and diminishes the response.
• Colourful, shaped bullet points may look nice, but they turn information into a work of art. They appeal to other areas of the brain and reduce information processing.
• Right-justified or centred text hinders reading comprehension.

The text academy model

This model assumes that the merchant has only limited space and time in catalogues and often also on the shop’s product pages to accommodate benefit arguments, calls-to-action, teasers, all the basic communication concerning the features of the product and obligatory declarations. The model therefore uses a standardised starting point that nevertheless arouses interest. In practice, the model functions as follows:

• Magical mail order lead-in is a word or expression such as “New:”, “Only from [company name]:”, “Exclusive:”, “Bestseller:”, i.e. a teaser with a colon which conditions the further reading of the text.
• Product name: This may be the technical concept, for example, but also (as in the case of Jako-o) a name which in itself is beneficial. “Only from ….: the babygro that grows too”, or “A stroke of luck for children: our mum-friendly, easy-to-wash jeans”.
• Dash and benefit OR “…”: “Only from …: the babygro that grows too – buy it once and your baby can wear it up to the age of two”. In this case, the online retailer has already included the benefit, i.e. the fact that the product has a long lifetime. Of course, you can do it even more elegantly and express the benefit as “going one better”. “ – instead of going through five sizes in 12 months, your baby can wear this babygro until their second birthday. And you can spend the money you save on presents.”
• Descriptive sentence
• Enumeration/facts/data: These include product declarations, information such as “fun motifs sorted into themes for boys and girls” etc.
• Order line: “Only €4.95 until the end of January – it’s enough to have you giggling and drooling yourself! Or save twice as much with a three-pack for €12.95”
• Call-to-action

The most important basics are listed here.

The level of organisation of a mail order warehouse mainly depends on the quantity of stored items. A commercial ebay dealer might make do with a few shelves in his own garage. However, with an expanding range and an increase in shipment volumes, the online retailer may quickly reach his limits.

The storage areas

For many online retailers a simple three-way division of the warehouse should be perfectly adequate.

• Incoming goods:  Here, the delivered goods are checked for completeness and quality. At the same time the supplier can take back empty euro pallets. The incoming goods area can also be used as a temporary supply warehouse, as long as the delivered pallets have not yet been separated.
• Order-picking warehouse: In this warehouse individual merchandise is stored. In most cases simple shelving racks or flow racks are adequate, from which the picker takes the items ordered.
• Dispatch: Here the goods are packed, prepared for shipping and collected for the shipper. FMG – i.e. fast moving goods – can be stored in the dispatch area for a short period of time. This way the goods can be picked directly off the pallet, saving time and shortening walking distances. In large mail order warehouses fast moving goods are stored in pre-picking zones at the front of the dispatch area.

These sub-areas do not need to be separated by walls – when using fork-lifts or pallet trucks this would be more of a hindrance. Rather, these are storage areas which might be identified by floor markings in order to prevent pallets from the incoming goods area from being “just quickly” stored in the dispatch area.

Storage area allocation

A warehouse, in which a picker first has to search for each item, is not very effective. This creates avoidable delays until the goods are ready for shipment; in turn, the maximum logistics capacity of your shop decreases and sales figures may fall due to a larger quota of returns. This is why each item must be allocated to a storage area. Logistics experts call this “marriage to a storage area”. There are two options:

1. Numerical space allocation: Here items are always stored in a fixed area according to the sequence of the item number. This method is suitable for most small and medium-sized online shops with a manageable product range and shipping volumes.
2. Chaotic space allocation: For shops with high shipping volumes the numerical system is not flexible enough to react to changes in the product range. Instead, new items are automatically allocated to the next available storage area. This requires that each item number in a table is allocated a storage area number.

Warehouse planning

When planning a warehouse, technical capacities must be taken into account in addition to economic considerations. The following basic factors should be considered when planning your warehouse.

• Number of items in the product range
• Size of inventory items
• Average and maximum storage quantity of an item depending on disposition cycles and planned clearance sales
• Shipment quantity per day on average and at peak times
• Average number of items per shipment. Multiple item shipments are more efficient for picking
• Quota of returns

You should be aware of these strategies.

There is no such thing as an average return rate in online trading. Returns just depend too much on the type of product to be able to make a general statement. While the return rate is around 15 per cent in the case of technical items, returns can easily exceed the 50 per cent mark in the fashion business, explains Dieter Urbanke, CEO of Hermes Fulfilment GmbH.

Especially in the fashion trade, shop operators have always been up against “selection orders”. These involve the customer deliberately ordering an item in different sizes and colours. The customer keeps the item which fits them or which they like and the other items are sent back to the trader as returns.

Of course the shop operator incurs additional costs for the return shipment and for inspecting, refurbishing and placing the goods back into stock. It may therefore definitely pay to deal with so-called serial returners in a proactive manner and try to exert some positive influence on their returning behaviour.

Obviously, shop operators might also find that the causes of a high return rate are closer to home. For instance when packing errors are made, when product images are unrealistic, or when the staff are inefficient in cleaning up addresses.

Traders have tested various strategies to reduce the return rate. It is up to each shop operator to test whether and to what degree any such measure is effective. There are a great number of measures for preventing returns that a shop operator should be aware of. We have put together a list of the most important strategies based amongst other things on the book “Versandhandelsmanagement” (Distance Selling Management) by Dr Jan Thieme:

Customer-focused measures

• Addressing “serial returners” by telephone or in writing with comments on return behaviour (e.g. reference to size charts, virtual fitting room or body scanner).
• As a follow-up measure, if required, refusal to deliver or selective deliveries to serial returners with a negative profit margin.
• Deactivation of serial returners with a negative profit margin, no more newsletters, no more catalogues, etc.

Product-focused measures

• Improvement of quality control regarding efficiency, fit, etc.
• Inspection of suppliers or of specific delivery batches
• Removal of items from product range
• Provision of replacement items to avoid further returns

Communication-focused measures

• Check whether displayed images of goods are too unrealistic
• Improvement of operating instructions
• Use of size charts, fitting guidelines, virtual dummies or body scanners
• Review of returns information (are the options for cancellation/return highlighted too strongly?)
• Monitoring of agent behaviour in the call centre

Fulfilment-focused measures

• Quality management and research into error causes in the picking & packing department in the case of packing errors
• Optimisation of packaging
• Selection of a delivery service provider who offers flexible delivery scheduling with multiple delivery attempts
• Review of processes involved in address cleanup
• Complete deliveries
• Prompt deliveries (the later the delivery, the higher the likelihood of returns)

Measures focused on material requirements planning

• Better goods availability reduces returns

Confidence-boosting measures

Their purpose is to evoke a positive emotion in the customer when he or she takes hold of the goods:

• Welcome gifts for new customers
• Surprise gifts
• Renewed confirmation of reliability through use of a seal of approval logo on a parcel insert, the exterior of the packaging or the paperwork (invoice, delivery note, etc.)

Show the feminine side of your shop.Conversion experts note time and time again that most online shops are made by men for men. Meanwhile, female Internet users dominate interactive shopping – no matter whether it’s via TV, catalogues or the Internet.

When it comes to e-commerce, men are from the drawer, women are from Amazon. Most online shops are made for men, although women shop differently. Tough luck – as feminine web design promotes long customer relationships and stronger sales growth. And even if most men won’t admit it: they too prefer shops optimised for women.

All the more astounding then, that many online retailers don’t take into account the needs of women when designing their online shops. In a very interesting analysis, iBusiness has discovered what strategies online sellers can use to make their shops more attractive to women.

These are the ten tips you should bear in mind:

1. Analysing female-friendly sites generates knowledge for your own shop
2. Well-connected women enable your business to grow quickly
3. Men are on a mission and buy, while women are looking for an experience and shop
4. Women disclose information about themselves to gain benefits
5. Slow down the purchasing process for the benefit of new contacts
6. Identify the relevant product characteristics for women
7. The right product beats price
8. List short and long-term product characteristics
9. Show various different situations for use
10. Show the opinions and experience of others