The benefits & pitfalls of Scottish companies selling online

As a specialist digital consultant, I speak with a lot of Scottish businesses of all sizes about the opportunities that eCommerce can bring. Most agree that using the Internet to open up new markets and sell a greater amount of products is of commercial interest to them – who wouldn't want more customers and more revenue?

However a lot of businesses have still to venture into eCommerce and time after time the same key reasons for not doing so keep cropping up:

• Concerns about the cost of setting up and running an online business
• Concerns that “you need to be technical” 
• Concerns about online payments and security
• Concerns about distance selling and the appropriate regulations
• Concerns about delivery, returns, etc.
• Concerns about getting & keeping customers

However, help is on-hand from Scottish Enterprise for those organisations who want to learn more about how to go about setting up an online store and grow their business via electronic means. Courses, workshops and dedicated digital and eCommerce expertise via specialist consultants are all available.

Plus it is important to remember is not just about selling to the home Scottish market, eCommerce opportunities also lie abroad. In fact, back in 2013 a report on Scotland’s Digital Future stated that more than 90% of eCommerce in Scotland was already being conducted with other UK or overseas customers. It is therefore unsurprising that in the last few years a Scottish Enterprise workshop on the topic of International eCommerce has been run in many locations across the country. I sometimes help take this popular workshop and it covers topics such as: researching new markets, translating content, global payment methods and international digital marketing techniques.

So what are you waiting for?

What factors affect your conversion?

Everyone who runs an eCommerce website is hooked on conversion as the vital key performance indicator to improve. And quite rightly…. It is the one metric that tells you how well your website it turning lookers into bookers (or browsers into buyers if you don’t like things rhyming and prefer alliteration instead.).
So what affects conversion? Well there are a number of factors that have an influence including:

• Usability
  How easy your site is to navigate and transact with
• Security
  How well your site conveys and actually take steps to ensure the safety of customer data
• Content
  How well  the site text and imagery informs &  supports the sales process
• Layout
  It’s not just how much you have on a page, it’s where you put it that counts
• Speed
  How quickly your site appears & displays affects bounce & therefore conversion
• Aesthetics
  How it looks also affects how it converts (try changing the colour of a few buttons if you don’t believe me)

All you have to do it find out what works for your customers.

Burger King loses Twitter account to hackers

In the last hour or so the US Twitter account of global fast food restaurant seems to have been hacked.

To add insult to injury, the account now displays the logo of rival McDonalds and the account description:

BURGER KING® USA official Twitter account. Just got sold to McDonalds because the whopper flopped =[ FREDOM IS FAILURE℠. mcdonalds.com

I'm sure I don't need to remind those who manage social media accounts for large and possibly contentious clients that they need to have decent passwords and should change them regularly....

Social Media Espionage

I'm surprised (and a little humoured if I'm honest) to read that some of the most senior members of Western military have been compromised by their Facebook activity.

It seems that by posing as a top NATO chief, spies have managed to 'friend' other Military / Defence officials and obtain their personal details as a result. So although they thought they had become genuine online friends with Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, they've more than likely handed over their family and friend information to Chinese agents.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/9136029/How-spies-used-Facebook-to-steal-Nato-chiefs-details.html

It isn't just corporates that are being brandjacked via social media now. It is clear that the security services are targets. And just like companies that eventually adopt social media rather than avoid it, Nato has now advised its senior people to set up & own their own social network pages to hopefully prevent a repeat of this embarrassing issue.

How can I build trust in my ecommerce site?

In this clip I explain the ways you can build trust on your website and make customers more confident about purchasing from your ecommerce website.

In short its all about content and imagery to reassure users, plus adequate security.