I would like to share with you one of my favourite website. I really love it and I believe I’m going to order some christmas presents there.

Have a look at:

www.thinkgeek.com

If I could, I would buy EVERYTHING!!! I love those nerdy gadgets, the glowing tshirt, and all those things taht would make me a real geek.

The only thing I really don’t appreciate of that website, is the delivery time.

It takes 3 weeks to have a tshirt delivered in Europe from that website. If I order something now, I’m not sure I will have it under my Christmas tree before the holidays!!!

In addition to this, import taxes are always very high. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I want to move to the United States just to have the Motherboard Christmas ornaments!!!

Recently some companies that do business online have been caught giving away or selling information about their customers. Several of these companies provide guarantees on their websites, claiming that customer information will remain private. Some companies that purchase customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from the database, also known as opting out.

However, many customers are unaware if and when their information is being shared, and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies if such activity occurs.Another major security concern that consumers have with e-commerce merchants is whether or not they will receive exactly what they purchase. Online merchants have attempted to address this concern by investing in and building strong consumer brands, as for example Amazon and eBay, and by leveraging merchant/feedback rating systems and e-commerce bonding solutions.

All of these solutions attempt to assure consumers that their transactions will be free of problems because the merchants can be trusted to provide reliable products and services. Additionally, the major online payment mechanisms (credit cards, GoogleCheckout, etc.) have also provided final buyer protection systems to address problems if they actually do occur.

From my point of view I usually do not like to buy on-line. I really prefer to walk around some shops, try things, get in touch with what I am interested in and get involved in it. The only things that I have bought are some books from Amazon and AbeBooks, which I needed for my studies. Am I outmode???

Have a look to these video to learn more about digital consumer behavior. You jsut have to click on the link you find in the list below:

Digital consumers are full speed ahead

The slowdown will fuel online growth

Follow consumers online to get more bang for your marketing buck

Here’s a chart with the male/female ratio for each site:

Is it strange? I don’t think. The women really are better communicators, in fact, the data indicates that they work more at it.

What does it means? If you are in business or designing messages for social media, you might want to start focusing your messages better. Given the different online shopping styles of men and women is important.

 It’s important to consider that men have  only one mission on the web while women expand their mission. In fact, if men are out to research the best digital camera or the best shirt, they’re not doing much else.

But women are interested in a digital camera, they’re looking at clothes for their kids, they’re thinking about what they’re doing that weekend and if they need to pick something up for their husbands.

This means that e-retailers need to design site navigation to facilitate this. A site should also allow women shoppers to move easily between product and category. The product page needs to allow depth of product information for men, while allowing women to scan that product information and easily move on.

To reach both men and women, it’s “really critical” for an online store.

Focus the messages, design and offers are the keys of success.

What I wanted was an easily accessible website, fast delivery and low delivery costs. And Apple was able to make me and happy customer (again!).

The process of purchase was very easy, I accessed Apple website, I choose the item I wanted, I paid with my credit card, and that’s it, the order was placed! Apple sent me a confirmation email where it waas stated that the delivery time was approximately 7 working days.

To my surprise, 3 days later I had my Snow Leopard copy in the mailbox! How was it possible? I don’t know, but I was astonished by Apple’s quick delivery!

If we want to apply the principles of digital marketing to this situation, Apple was able to manage my expectations successfully. I believe Apple knows well what ecustomers want and what they need, and they are able to deliver a service which met my expectations and did not leave me disappointed. In this way Apple is one the path of making me a loyal customer, a customer even more in love with that brand!

• If I need to book an accommodation where I can spend my holidays, I used many search portals dealing with houses. I gave more weight to the houses with a positive feedback and I’m always careful to avoid fake.
• If I need to book a room in a hotel I just use Google and I look for different accommodation or I just book directly to the website of the hotel (if I already know where I want to stay).
• I use Google Maps for the review of the location and holiday resort where I want to go.
• I use Google Image to look for the best places that I can visit (beaches, cities etc…)
• I always consult websites like “Tripadvisor” or “Turisti per Caso” to read the suggestion of the other tourists that have already been in that place. I take note of the restaurants, hotels, transportation means, museums etc, they suggest going!
• I use Google Maps or Via Michelin to know the prices and distances between my city and the location where I want to go.
• I weekly have a look to the websites of low cost airlines companies to find special offer or discount.

These are only some of the websites that I use when I’m planning my holidays. I can say for sure that Internet has significantly changed the way we travel and the behavior of each consumer.

I was thinking about the successful and unsuccessful marketing experiences online.

I personally believe that many many companies have misunderstood the meaning of digital marketing and they have overestimated this powerful tool.

There are a lot of companies that have dedicated all of their marketing expenses to digital marketing, they have actually changed all their business perspective. They thought that being on the Internet would me the solution to all their problems.

Some of these companies failed, a lot of these companies failed! Why did they fail?

In my opinion the reason of these failures lie in the fact that the Internet is not enough. You should mix your marketing effort, but you should not rely only on emarketing…

From the profits point of view hacking involves a substantial lost of revenue, for example the voluntarily shutting down of the site, due to the lost of valued customers and consequently missing of market share.

Companies have to react in a consistent way and the only solution possible seems to be an extensive overhaul of the site using different software or a full upgrade to the latest version of the security programs used. The impact of the hacking is considerable. Hackers can break into servers through Web applications and steal customer credit card information, or worse. Hackers stealing your customers’ credit card information is bad enough, but it is not the worst. Clever hackers could also take control of your Web site or servers and use them to sell illegal merchandise or mount attacks on other sites.

In the worlds of hacking the most well-know techniques are the “cross-site scripting”, that allows the collection of consumer’s data when they do an order through a website ignoring the hacker attack in progress.
This procedure is a little part of credit card defraud that beginning with this step of collecting data and finish with the physical cloned card.

Another techniques widely used is SQL injection hacking, in this case the perpetrator goes to a merchant site and inputs special character sequences in the User Name and Password fields. A vulnerable SQL-based application on the server interprets them as commands rather than simple data input. One character string, for example, tells the software to accept as valid all user names and passwords entered from that point on.

Nowadays companies have integrated departments specialized to scan every possible enemy deriving from hacking attack, obviously these engrave on the company assets and sometimes the personal employed are directly recruit from the hacking environments.
With the continuous technology improvement could companies better safeguard their private information and protect their customers???

Here I just want to list the most important advantages that companies can obtain using this type of online sales:

1. It’s a strategy that allows quick and profitable monetization of stocks: the margins, in fact, are quite high, certainly higher than those achievable by other methods of management of stocks

2. Opportunity to reach a greater amount of consumers that don’t have the possibility to buy the specific product through the usual channels. In fact there are consumers that have difficulty in finding designer clothes or luxury brands or just find them at higher prices.

3. No overlap with the traditional distribution network, thanks to the very short duration of the campaign without damaging the image of the brand.

4. Attention on the creation of a strong relationship with the final consumers. The major players in the industry invest a lot in the creation of trailers and shooting of the products that are offered online: websites are usually pleasant, friendly, accessible, engaging, highly interactive, designed for a sophisticated and demanding audience.

5. Mailing list:  this websites have devoted much effort in collecting a mailing list, even if all the e-tailer insist on the importance of “word of mouth. Who is invited by those who have already tried the service or by companies affiliated with the service (Born4Shop, for example, can count on partners such CartaSi, Fastweb, Sole24Ore, TicketOne, RCS, Gay.it) enters for free. Other website, such as Piustyle.com charges an amount of 15 euros on the first purchase. By contrary, to feed the crowd to its site, Privalia focuses on activities of viral marketing on the web through games and competitions that can capture the interest of the people of the Net: this strategy has allowed to intercept about 40 thousand new members. Currently, one third of the Privalia’s community comes from the “member get member”,that rewards those that have invited other potential buyers. The concept of “community” is central to this E-Business, so that some operators have even created their own blogs.

6. Creation of blogs: this tool has the aim of establishing direct contact with members and increases the transparency of services and operation of the portal. Every visitor has the possibility to voice his views and suggestions and sharing them with other members and with the company.

The strategy used by websites like BuyVip and Privalia is simple: they send a warning e-mail in advance to the potential buyer (consumer that has already subscribed himself to the website). They advise that the next   day at a specific hour they will begin selling a set of proposals brands (very famous brands) at a discount, ranging from 30 to 70%, since these inventories may be part of a previous season. The short duration of offers, from a minimum of two to a maximum of five days, along with the discount benefit, play a decisive role stimulating emotional purchase and impulse: you can buy the object of desire just with a click of the mouse, and within ten days the merchandise you bought will come to your home. The product, in fact, is taken directly from the supplier (this also allows considerable savings for the client), conveyed in the stores of the website, packaged and then shipped by courier.

There are many players in this emerging market in Italy. First real national pioneers as Born4Shop and SaldiPrivati or Piustyle.com (launched by an entrepreneur with a long experience in managing inventories of branded collections and active also in Spain and Belgium). Second other players already established in other counties that are trying to replicate their strategy in Italy. This is the case of a giant like Vente-privee.com (510 million euros in turnover 2008), but also names like BuyVip or Privalia. There are of course many other players but I think they are currently too many for a market so small, specialized and relatively undeveloped like the Italian one.

What do you think?