eBiz News: Lacking Content Means Losing Sales

This week in e-commerce news, ShopLocal.com introduces community features, research emphasizes the important role quality marketing copy plays in purchasing decisions and NetSuite launches a program for service-based e-tailers. Plus, former foes ChannelAdvisor and Marketworks join forces and osCommerce makes its debut in the book-publishing world.

Shoppers Share and Share Alike
On the social commerce front, ShopLocal.com, which features searchable online and in-store local deals across shopping categories, added new "community" features, based on feedback from consumers, that allows shoppers to create a profile, search product reviews, join a forum discussion on Hot Deals and track prices, all of which can be shared with other ShopLocal.com users.

Consumers can now register for a free "My Account" public profile to personalize their ShopLocal.com experience as well as Price Alerts, delivered by e-mail, that inform shoppers when their desired products are available at a specified price. Visitors are encouraged to use their ShopLocal.com account to share deals, promotions and personal reviews as well as other services, such as free shipping, rebates, coupons and more, with their social network, including friends and family.

This site is in line with a flurry of recent research showing that user-generated content plays a significant role in purchasing decisions. According to a recent study by market research firm Compete, online social networkers give more weight to peer feedback than to any other source of information before making a purchase.

The enhanced site also includes a new section dedicated to the most reviewed products, allowing visitors to see what other consumers are talking about most frequently. And with a featured widget on Google Desktop, ShopLocal.com users can enter a ZIP code and a search term to have updated local deals and information automatically appear in their Web browsers.

Lacking Content Equals Lost Sales
In marketing news, a recent study by The e-Tailing Group underscores the need for online sellers to include quality ad copy at their sites, going beyond a simple description and product shot. It's no surprise that 77 percent of those surveyed say they are directly influenced by the content that goes with a product.

More telling is that the inclusion of detailed descriptions and online shopping tools also influence shoppers' decisions, and that often there isn't enough information to help them make a purchase.

In fact, according to the study, "Seventy-six percent of those surveyed report that content is insufficient to complete research or purchase online 'always, most often or some of the time.' Incomplete content is also a factor as 79 percent 'rarely or never' purchase a product without complete product information. And, resulting actions for 72 percent are to abandon the site and go to a competitor or research further online, typically finding what they want elsewhere."

The study goes on to show the importance of a full-featured product page, citing that 52 percent of shoppers spend six minutes or more on the product page, and allocate that time as follows:

reading text/product copy, 43 percent
viewing product images, 31 percent
and using tools, 26 percent.

Further exploration of product page elements included having participants rank, on a 5-point scale, the importance of 26 features when making purchases decisions. The top 10 as ranked "very important," according to the study, are as follows:

product overview, 76 percent
merchant's guarantee, 73 percent
stock/status availability, 69 percent
quality of the image, 67 percent
customer service links, 65 percent
product specific information, 63 percent
long description, 54 percent
size chart, 54 percent
toll-free number, 54 percent
and ratings and reviews, 53 percent.

NetSuite: At Your Service
NetSuite, a firm that offers online business management application suites, today announced NetSuite Services Company Edition Version 2007.0. The new version is the 12th generation of the NetSuite application suite and adds new project management functionality.

The new features of NetSuite Services Company Edition include the following: project revenue forecasting, cost allocation management, contractor self-service portal for time entries, improved profitability reporting, time and expense custom workflow and routing and streamlined time and expense entry.

Available now, NetSuite Services Company Edition Version 2007.0 is priced at $999 per month for the base suite and $99 per user per month. For more information about NetSuite Services Company Edition visit this section of the company Web site.

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Buy 'Em
In acquisition developments, ChannelAdvisor, a company that offers software and marketing strategies to help Web shop owners sell on comparison shopping sites such as eBay and Amazon, just bought Marketworks, which did the same thing, but primarily for smaller businesses. The two have always been competitors, so industry watchers say the buyout cements ChannelAdvisor's position in the market now that it will be able to cater to smaller businesses.

Start the Presses
Finally, good news for open source fans. Pithy Productions and The osCommerce University Press yesterday released "Inside CRE Loaded: Volume 1 - The Essentials." This book makes CRE Loaded the first open source e-commerce solution to offer advanced documentation above and beyond a basic user manual, according to the publishers.

Written by Kerry Watson and David M. Graham, the book contains documentation of the structures of the CRE Loaded files, data and software. Readers will find all of the basic information needed to customize CRE Loaded templates, shipping and payment modules and more.

Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!

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