Evading eCommerce Pitfalls

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News

• SGIA now has a new name. PIA and SGIA have merged to form PRINTING United Alliance (PrUA), becoming the largest association in the U.S. serving the printing and graphic arts industries. PrUA serves not only as an industry resource but as an advocate according to the new press release.

• Dad Joke: Where do you take someone injured playing Peek-a-boo?

  The I.C.U.

  (Joke courtesy of Joe Ortinau)

Evading eCommerce Pitfalls

Aaron: As many of you may know, Erich Campbell is usually the man behind the scenes pushing the buttons for 2 Regular Guys; those of you who have been in the decorating business know him as a machine embroidery digitizer and educator, having written for many of the industry magazines we know and love, but you may not know that Erich has been deeply involved in building and running eCommerce stores for most of his decoration career, even spending a stint working for a major industry eCommerce company. With that, let’s bring Erich on so he can join in the discussion!

5 eCommerce Pitfalls

Lack of Focus: This can come in the form of not knowing your audience and therefore not being able to target them or not curating your garments so that your customers are doomed with an overmuch of choice; Let’s talk about how a lack of focus in any area can cause issues for ecommerce.

Failing to Promote: No matter what balance of online to offline sales your company does, not spending active effort and capital to promote your online store will leave it suffering. Whether you use company stores as a tool for order-taking, you are running retail-styled collections, or building a customization business online, people can’t use your site if they don’t know it’s there. Let’s talk about promotions.

Poor Presentation: When dealing with customers online, you can’t rely on your personal charm to pull off the sale; the presentation of the site, the images and copy you use to show and describe the product, and the design of your site can influence the way that your customer feels about your brand. Moreover, it shouldn’t stop online- if your customer gets one order in a nice logoed box with a ‘Thank You’ message and a topper sheet to prevent dirt / infiltration another with a roughed-up box without as much as a packing slip, which one is going to produce delight and let them know you care about their order? Let’s talk about the presentation.

Failure to test / poor understanding of the purchasing process: If you haven’t purchased something from your own store, that is the first thing you need to do when we finish talking today. Not being able to speak the customer’s language or to locate them in the ordering process when they need support makes you either look ignorant or makes your system seem less trustworthy. You need to test; first, because you need to see if you can find areas of friction that reduce the ease of ordering that may need to be addressed, and second because you need to be intimately aware of how your orders are processed when you come in contact with a customer. Let’s talk about that familiarity, ease of use, and how we provide support.

Inconsistency: Online orders are processed through a different system than in-person orders in some shops; this can lead to inconsistent pricing and process between the two systems; that kind of inconsistency can lead to customer resentment if they are switching between ordering methods. Moreover, once we are working online, we have to understand that the concept of a 9-5 store hours boundary for contact doesn’t really exist in the market. You can state it upfront, but the assumption is always that an online store is staffed around the clock. Let’s talk about consistency and how people can deal with these customer expectations.