Operating as company since 2005, based in Belfast at NISP We partner with companies to provide Our Software Platform (IRP) Consultancy & Analysis Online Marketing Involved in long term contracts By 2011 we had transacted £500,000,000 for NI companies >95% of these eCommerce sales were outside NI & >50% outside UK By the end of 2013 we aim for £1 Billion in transactions We want to share some of our key findings on eCommerce

eCommerce is more complex than traditional retail Business model is different to other forms of selling Involves different skills but the core concepts are simple The eCommerce platform PARTNER choice is critical In eCommerce there are online marketing and technology requirements that need specialists Standard business rules apply - Revenue must be Greater than expenses

Certain traits in company cultures lend themselves to online success… Companies that can ADAPT and implement Companies that can take on new job roles Companies that can develop capabilities in Customer Service, Data Management, Picking and Packing, Online Marketing, Strategic Management … in an increasing number of VERTICALS Companies that work to understand their online marketplace and are prepared to compete on the internet Companies that make the right strategic partnerships in online marketing

Can you Compete - a 30 Minute analysis of a MARKET to find out… Take your top 30 Best Selling items and List your price in a Excel Examine your price versus the Market price on Google Products and the number of sellers online See how these compare Take the domain names of the Competitors and look at their Alexa Traffic Ranks & Company Accounts (RiskDisk) Take the top Selling Brands and Categories and analyse the search volumes in Google Insights. These can be related back to demand and potential sales.

eCommerce works best if you are competitive in the right MARKET, have the right TECHNOLOGY PARTNER, and the right STRATEGY & PEOPLE… You must be prepared to ADAPT & structure your company in the right way

TRAFFIC + CONVERSION= SALES TRAFFIC costs money – no matter where it comes from it has a cost CONVERSION Depends on many things – Technology, Design, Traffic Source, Other Factors… but the PRICE is also key What we are saying that you have to GIVE a percentage of your turnover to the Traffic Source - CPA%

Traffic - A quick look at paid PPC Visitors numbers can scale up depending on market size

Conversion Rates on this 10GBP PPC spend Conversion will reach a limit dependent on technology underpined by price

Pricing – the effect of margin Finding the tipping point on return and margin is key

CPA % - Tying together traffic conversion and margin Companies should be monitoring CPA % as the key indicator

CPA is never a value – it is always a % cost of the traffic source – i.e., you will have to give a % of your sales to whoever sent you the traffic eg. Your spend always depends on turnover 1000GBP sales - 100GBP Spend on Online Marketing (10% CPA) 2000GBP sales - 200GBP Spend on Online Marketing (10% CPA) What we are fundamentally saying is Acquire traffic & convert it at an acceptable COST It’s as simple as that… but before you can convert anyone you need them at your site

Paid traffic sources are the only ones to build a business on SEO (natural google listings) while useful do not offer a scalable model CPA % from traffic source change over time All Traffic sources CPA% will depend on how SKILLFULLY you set them up Success in TRAFFIC generation often depends on specialists You want to give the traffic sources as small a Percentage of your turnover as possible

What we are seeing is PPC and Affiliates to a lesser degree play the key role in FIRST TOUCH CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

Key sources: PPC, Affiliates, Content Networks, Organic Search, Price Comparison Sites, Marketplaces, Marketing, Social Media… The CPA% varies by traffic source PPC is the key traffic arena and all arenas are skill dependent Traffic sources often depend heavily on technology As turnover grows these can become VERTICALS The maximum traffic needs to be derived at the minimum CPA%

Once the traffic is there you must convert the traffic to revenue eg. The browser must become a buyer PRICE is a key driver Your site must be simple Key selling points must be prominent Customer needs to feel reassured You have seconds to engage their interest Multivariant testing is a key way to measure Conversion

Through PPC, Affiliation it’s possible to reach most of the world’s consumers But when you think this through…it brings new requirements to your website, organisation and technology for conversion to buyers… Non UK customers will have different currencies Different customers will have different languages Each country will have different key selling points Each country will have a different demand for products Some countries will require different payment methods (Credit Cards, PayPal etc… but also iDeal, Alipay, Yandex money, ELV, etc)

These all need to be tackled through TECHNOLOGY – the right eCommerce PARTNER can help break down these barriers It also requires company mindset change and new skill sets If the key areas are tackled the international expansion can be prolific in certain markets

Generally online customers are not loyal When you have the customer you need to try to retain them Online loyalty schemes and vouchers stimulate repeat sales mail shots and social media connect with the customer at low cost Some companies extend offline engagement such as catalogues Repeat custom and increased average order value reduce overall CPA%

Success depends on Technology and also the right Consultancy Success Depends on effective & efficient PPC & associated skillsets Efficiency of picking and packing and procedures and IT systems is critical – it reduces cost. Multichannel overlay assists in efficency… International eCommerce is significant. A weak pound and English language helps. We see goods manufactured in a country, shipped to here to the retailer, then sold back to the countries consumers. The best online strategy is to differentiate and market individually to any country

Irish sales are easy to pick up while there is an exchange rate advantage and generally we have found the online competition in Ireland is weak 80% of eCommerce strategy will not depend on where you are based in the United Kingdom The focus for the retail markets we are in should be on getting sales outside Northern Ireland. Overall less than 5% of our transactions have been from NI Increasing sales requires many technical and business cornerstones in place As a technology company our take has always been the TECHNICAL angle on overcoming barriers and reaching customers and this is what we have found worked. Having technical solutions, relating to the generation of traffic, ability to handle different languages and currencies

We have also found that there is very little for free. To acquire new customers almost all of our focus has been on paid arenas. Paying guarantees exposure. We have yet to see a successful model based on Search Engine Optimisation eCommerce statistics like Google Analytics should have readership at board level and core concepts must be understood Companies need the right culture, and people in the strategic role who can cope with change and to identify when (and which) external specialists are required Its a big arena but the rewards are equally big....

Our view is that you need to be in the RIGHT MARKET with the RIGHT PRODUCTS to succeed online You must accept that you must give a PERCENTAGE of your TURNOVER to the traffic source & try to keep it to a minimum (a low CPA%) Your PRICING must be in line with the online MARKET PRICE Then… You need the right PEOPLE You need the right TECHNOLOGY PARTNER You need expert ONLINE MARKETING at an acceptable cost You need the drive to succeed and be able to ADAPT

If this is in place THE SALES CAN BE INCREDIBLE