All posts in Web Thoughts

Out of Stock – 5 ways that online retailers do it and 3 key learnings

by Simon on December 15, 2010 in E-Commerce, Web Thoughts with 1 Comment

For anyone working in ecommerce during the Christmas period, there are three words that fill them with fear – Out of Stock. How do online retailers handle this online, are they helping or hindering visitors to their website?
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Mega Monday? Not this week…

by Simon on November 24, 2010 in E-Commerce, Web Thoughts with No comments

Both Amazon and Apple are both trying to migrate the Thanksgiving driven seasonal shopping duo of Black Friday and Cyber Monday over to the UK this year.

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So Google, what’s next?

by Simon on November 23, 2010 in E-Mail, Social Media, Web Thoughts with No comments

At the end of last week I was lucky enought to be invited up to Manchester to attend an event Google were running. The speakers ranged from UK MD Matt Brittin to YouTube star and self-made cosmetics siren Lauren Luke.
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Surprise and delight your customers to boost your conversion rate

by Simon on October 23, 2010 in E-Commerce, Web Thoughts with 1 Comment

Whilst a lot of advice surrounding boosting your conversion rate focuses around on-site recommendations, it’s always worth following the customer’s journey – from beginning to end, to get full visibility of the customer experience. You might have the perfect checkout flow from registration through to payment confirmation, but what does the customer experience when their order arrives or if they need to return their order?
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Rock band analytics

by Simon on September 30, 2010 in Web Thoughts with 3 Comments

I went to see a friends band play a couple of weeks ago. A few songs in I noticed a couple of people stroll in, listen for a minute or so and move to a different part of the pub. That’s going to effect their bounce rate I thought to myself… bounce rate? What was I thinking I was in a pub, with a lovely pint of cider, but I couldn’t escape my inner geek! Then I realised that the KPI’s you apply to your website are pretty portable and can be a really useful guide to even something quite different, like a bands live performance.

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Review: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh (CEO, Zappos.com)

by Simon on June 7, 2010 in Web Thoughts with No comments

Over 244 pages Tony Hsieh, CEO of the world famous Zappos.com brand provides a wonderful insight into what made him the ‘hip, iconoclastic’ and inspirational CEO that he is today. When was the last time a book left you with a inspirational thought or idea after every section you read? This book not only delivers happiness, it delivers inspiration.

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A $1.6 million e-commerce nightmare at 6pm.com

by Simon on May 23, 2010 in E-Commerce, Web Thoughts with No comments

It’s every e-commerce managers nightmare – a product went live with the wrong price and customers have realised. In the bargain hungry, viral jungle of the internet a simple pricing mistake can cost you a significant amount of revenue.

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Are you the next Mayor of your local Starbucks?

by Simon on May 17, 2010 in Social Media, Web Thoughts with No comments

Mashable today covered a story that users of location-based social networking tool Foursquare could qualify for discounts at Starbucks. Social-media savvy customers simply need to regularly check-in at their favourite Starbucks. If you are the person that checks-in most at a particular venue then Foursquare rewards you by making you the Mayor of that location. Starbucks is one of the most pro-active brands in the social media space and is rewarding it’s Starbucks Mayors with a discount voucher for a Frappuccino.

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10 Ways to Deal With a Social Media Explosion

by Simon on March 28, 2010 in Social Media, Web Thoughts with No comments

What is the best way of preparing or repairing your brands reputation when big news breaks online? From a secretive new Apple product launch to a damning piece of negative press, once it appears online, its only a matter of time before the waves start to hit the social media shores.

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5 Things to Avoid During a Social Media Explosion

by Simon on March 27, 2010 in Social Media, Web Thoughts with 1 Comment

The spotlight turned back on to social media management recently following the way that Nestle handled the ‘social media explosion’ that occurred on their Facebook Page. Greenpeace created a video about Nestle’s use of palm oil in Kit Kat’s and how it directly endangered the lives of orangutans. This video quickly went viral after it was removed from YouTube and the main focal point for the public’s rage was the Nestle Facebook Page.

Below are 5 things to avoid doing when the going gets tough.

1. Moderation

Don’t delete peoples comments, unless they are totally irrelevant or break the terms of use of the environment you are in. On Facebook there is a Report function that might be advisable to call upon rather than deleting a comment. The removal of comments is both frustrating (for posters) and confusing (for readers).

2. Composure

Remain calm and collected, don’t rise to any comments that are obviously posted to generate a reaction. Never reply in anger.

3. Change

Resist the urge to edit or tweak your original statement, treat a post in social media like you would a blog and use strike-throughs and updates to modify a message.

4. Haste

The immediate reaction to a social media onslaught on your Facebook Page or Blog is to quickly reply to each comment or query. The danger here is that the quality of your message will be effected. Slow down and where possible compose responses that meet the needs of a number of commenter’s into a single reply.

5. Abandon Ship

I’ve seen on more than one occasion a brand’s Facebook Page that has been abandoned after an explosion. If the situation is not managed well the community of ‘fans’ that remain may be very jaded and any communication that the brand communicates might be met with negativity. The only way to resolve this would be to back track and clearly address the root cause of the original problem and hopefully move forward from there.

I hope you’ve found these 5 pieces of advice useful and it would be great to have any additional words of wisdom added in the comments below…

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