Online retail: The brand benefits

Came across this report on Twitter yesterday, which gives a very interesting insight in to online buying behaviour. And most importantly, an interesting insight into the role that your brand can play in increasing online sales.

There are three things that relate to any business that sells online:
• Loyalty - How loyal customers boost your sales
• Design - How the layout of your site influences customers
• Multiple channels - Engage with your customers at every opportunity

Loyalty
71% said recommendations from family and friends is the most important factor in choosing a site. So if work hard to develop the loyalty of your existing customers, you won't have to look for new ones. Your existing customers will bring in all the new business you need through referrals! So what do you do to nurture the loyalty of your exiting customers?

Design
Poor design of a website is a significant factor in discouraging potential customers. Top of the list is poor quality product images and descriptions (42%), but also included is poor navigation (32%), no contact detail (18%) and a long checkout process (16%). So even after you've got visitors to your site, you can still lose them - in lots of ways! It's no good investing in great SEO, if you don't invest in great design.

Multiple channels
Success online is about more than just a website. Offline activity drives shoppers online: 21% respond to offline advertising and 46% said knowledge of the retailer from a high street presence was a key factor. But digital activity drives shoppers too. 36% respond to an email marketing campaign and 62% visit a social profile site (Facebook, Twitter etc.) before buying. Do you make the most of all the opportunities you have to engage with potential customers?

So if you're serious about selling online, you should be serious about building your brand - offline and online. If you'd like to have a chat call us on 01392 248107 or email jonathan@alderandalder.co.uk.

And the winner is...

Our relationship with our clients is quite simple really: we work with companies to help them achieve their business objectives. So it's always exciting when that happens - and this week it has! We heard this week that YouGen were winners at the Green Web Awards! You can find out more about the Green Web Awards here.



We started working with YouGen two years ago, developing their visual identity and brand, then working with Optix Solutions to apply the brand to their website. You can read more about developing the YouGen brand here, and applying the brand to the website here.

We like working with ambitious businesses - again, I wrote about this earlier - and YouGen, and their success, is a great example of this. It's exciting to harness that ambition and channel it into a brand that will help to take the business where they want to go.



It's also exciting to work with like-minded partners, like Optix Solutions, where you share a desire to help the client succeed, and a recognition of the skills and experience that you each bring to the project. For us it was great to see the brand come to life online - and winning the Green Web Award is a testament to the quality of the site.

If you'd like to talk to us about what your brand should be doing for your business, call us on 01392 248107, or email jonathan@alderandalder.co.uk.