Online Retail Review – Rating 6/10
Good for fast, affordable fashion for those seeking a regular fashion fix.
Bad for selling each item with engaging product descriptions and imagery.
General
Sportsgirl began operations in Melbourne in 1948 as the younger, more vibrant alternative to big sister label Sportscraft. They now have over 110 retail outlets, still target a younger demographic and have a reputation for offering a reinterpretation of the latest designer trends at affordable prices.
Founded by Wolf Bardos, the company grew and expanded under his son David and is now owned by Sussan Corporation, a private company owned solely by CEO Naomi Milgrom. Read more...
Your “About Us” page is your opportunity to let your customer get to know you so use it and tell them a story about your business, how it came to exist, what drives your business. But don’t be boring!
Letting your visitors get to know you is important because it makes potential customers feel safe with you and you are also giving them something to talk about. What do I mean? Read more...
Online Retail Rating 7/10
Good for creating an accessible, helpful and easy to navigate site.
Bad for full range of Big W products found in retail outlets and product reviews.
General
The Big W chain of retail outlets was founded in the 1970s and is a division of Wooworths Limited. They have over 160 retail stores around the country making Big W one of the largest discount department stores alongside Kmart and Target.
Price and stocking a large range of brands is their stated point of difference and they guarantee to match a lower price advertised by their competitors. Read more...
Rating 5/10
Good for Country Road clothing.
Bad for creating an enjoyable and engaging shopping experience.
General
Country Road began in 1974 as a business specialising in women’s shirts. It grew from there into an iconic Australia brand that has had its ups and downs. They have 60 retail stores and 80 concession outlets and are now owned by Woolworth Holdings South Africa.
Country Road is one of the staple brands you’ll find in most large shopping centres around the country. They are known for streamlined tailoring and quality fabrics with prices in the mid range. Read more...
How can you improve your conversion rate optimisation? In other words, how can you get your web visitors to take action when they arrive on your website? Telling them what to do is a good start.
When a visitor arrives at your website, it is like they’ve entered your showroom. This is your opportunity to demonstrate to your visitor what you are all about and how you can help them. However, there are a few key differences between a web visitor and an actual visitor to your premises. For one thing you can do without the formalities like saying ‘Welcome, how are you? Isn’t it hot outside…’. Read more...
Have you got any SEO emails like this:
We carried out a preliminary analysis on your website and discovered the following areas of concern.
1. Your website attracts limited traffic, which affects potential sales.
2. Your keywords don’t feature in Google first page, which affects visibility.
3. Your website has got coding errors, which affects ranking.
4. Your back links are not good enough, which affects link popularity.
5. Your website is not properly promoted, which affects the overall score. Read more...
What does customer service mean when it comes to an online business? The answer varies depending on whether you have an offline presence as well or whether it is purely an online entity.
If your business has an offline and online presence then things like consistency between them is crucial. From maintaining the look and feel of the site in line with the retail outlet to things like being able to access membership information online if customers use a loyalty card in-store to register purchases.
Regardless of whether your business operates exclusively online or not, some customer service best practices include the following: Read more...
Sometimes customers and what goes on in their collective minds can seem like this mysterious puzzle that marketers and business owners are constantly contending with. There is no easy answer and sometimes, it seems, no easy way to get it.
Surveys, and particularly online surveys, are a good way to find out what your customers are thinking. But there are drawbacks. Participation rate is one that leaps out. If you get about 5-10% of your list to complete the survey then generally that’s considered a win but what about the other 90% – what are they thinking? Are they too annoyed to even respond? Read more...
What is an acceptable return on investment (ROI) in online marketing? That depends on your business, your industry and the degree of risk involved. 100% ROI or higher is definitely possible but it’s unlikely that you’ll achieve it straight up. First you’ll need to spend money testing to find out what works and what doesn’t.
Some companies struggle with spending money and not being able to see the return and as ROI is the accepted barometer of success it’s easy to understand why. However, there has to be an allowance for testing, both in terms of time and budget. Gathering data on what works and what doesn’t isn’t free, it costs but it can be invaluable in helping a business to understand the opportunities that exist and how consumers react to their offering. Read more...
One of the advantages of online marketing is the speed of being able to test different strategies and web copy. There is no need to worry about print runs and distribution logistics. With digital marketing you can get your message out to the market quickly and you can adapt instantly based on the feedback you receive.
The main advantage of this is that you don’t need to know everything about how your target audience will react to your offer. You run two versions of your best guess and let the market decide because the numbers never lie. I’ll say that again just to make sure you got it – the numbers NEVER lie. Read more...