Prosper Newsletter: May 2008 > Ecommerce

You understand that the following information is educational in nature and is not intended to be legal, accounting, or tax advice. You are responsible for your own financial decisions and should consult your own legal, accounting, and tax advisors before making your financial decisions.

Searchandising

Advertising in the New Age

The world of technology has come up with yet another word conglomeration: searchandising. What is searchandising you might ask? Searchandising is the combination of product merchandising and search capability that tracks the types of products customers buy or search for. It then recommends products for those customers, based upon their previous searching and buying habits. In other words, it is a system that tracks customer trends and creates a profile for them based upon those trends. Then, every time that customer logs onto the company's website, a list of products that the customer may be interested in (based upon his or her profile) is displayed. The list is personalized advertising that says, "Here, we've done all of the searching for you; now all you have to do is click on the items on this list and buy them."

More and more companies are turning to searchandising as a major part of their marketing plan. One of the best examples is how Amazon.com creates customer-centric profiles for its visitors based upon previous searches and purchases by their customers. The brilliancy behind Amazon is that it uses its customer-centric information to create a homepage for each customer when they log in, which is tailored to their potential wants and needs! Customers are more likely to purchase products that are advertised if they are focused on their needs. Amazon continually updates and changes a customer's profile based on their most recent actions on the site, so a customer's profile and a customer's list of potential products is not static: it is fluid and changing. The customized customer-centric homepage approach is one reason why Amazon is not only a dot-com survivor, but one of the best of the best merchandisers on the Internet today.

Personalized, customer-centric merchandising has become so prevalent and popular that many customers have come to expect it. Some research suggests that two-fifths of United States consumers expect some sort of searchandising mechanism on websites they visit. In fact, the majority of successful businesses that use searchandising software report that their customers were much more likely to purchase a product offered on their customized page!

There are several products available for those who want to increase their business through searchandising. The software available is quite varied in its approach to tracking the search preferences of a customer and then generating a list of potential purchasing interests. The key to implementing a searchandising system is to organize your search and navigation abilities and then to use them to their fullest extent. You might have to reorganize your website to make it more conducive to the new software.

Finally, use the information gathered from the software to constantly monitor the success of your merchandising campaign. Use the information to focus your campaign on the parts of the campaign that are the most successful. For example, if you discover that location influences what customers generally purchase, then focus your campaign and tweak the software so that you offer products that appeal to the location in a customer's profile. In addition, customers tend to reward companies that tailor to their needs. If you have a large, product-oriented site, you may wish to consider searchandising as a way to improve your marketing efforts.

Sources: Melissa Campanelli, "That's Not All," Entrepreneur.com.
Joe Lichtman, "Is 'Personalized Merchandising' Becoming and E-Commerce Reality?" E-commerce Times.

Building Your Business

How do you feel? Are you excited? Are you nervous? Are you ready to be the next Wal-Mart? There are so many options out there that you have can tap into. One of the most important factors that all successful business owners have in common is not knowledge. It is not money, or advanced education, nor computer experience, programming, or design strategy. The simple key to success with eCommerce, or anything else, is self-motivation.

As an entrepreneur, you are your own boss. You're completely in charge of what you do or don't do every day with your business. Some of you may be still working the JOB (just over broke) while getting the business started. That is perfectly acceptable. Time management and goal setting will be important parts of your progress and future success.

Famous coach Lou Holtz once said: "If you're bored with life-you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things-you don't have enough goals."

Why is this important? Goals are self-motivation indicators. If you don't know where you want to go, you'll probably never get there. If you don't have the self-motivation to stick with the task, how can you really expect success? Making changes to enhance the quality of your life doesn't need to be slow or difficult. Unfortunately, most people are still struggling because they continue to rely on ineffective approaches.

Creating a personal mission statement can be a helpful factor in maintaining self-motivation. Here is a sample:

I am the best salesperson at [your company name] with a six week average of over [specific amount of money] in sales. I am making [specific amount of money] per week, which is helping me achieve and exceed my six month goal of [specific amount of money] by June 30, [year] and [specific amount of money] by December 31, [year]. My keys to success have been confidence, focus, overcoming all fears, hard work, persistence, patience, and expecting to succeed, along with listening to the best, taking effective notes (which I apply immediately), setting specific goals that I review daily, and focusing on getting three new sales per day from clients that need the products we are offering. I never worry about things I can't change. I focus only on what I do have control over: attitude, knowledge, skills and work ethic. I'm happy to be running my business successfully and will continue to develop multiple streams of income. These multiple streams of income will help me achieve my life goal of [specific long term goal].

Reading a mission statement like this on a consistent basis can increase the likelihood of your success. Write out your goals in the form of actions, things you are already doing. Read your personalized mission statement frequently. Engrain it in your head and believe it. It is amazing how things just start happening. By reading your mission statement frequently, you'll feel a boost of self-motivation that gets bigger each time. Your business is a success waiting to happen!

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*See the Elective Class Catalog in your Success Center for the latest dates, times, and class details.

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