Online Security & Trust; A Safer Way To Shop With Confidence.

      Everybody. The internet has now become the mall of America, where people shop for everything from cameras to caviar to clothes to computers. An overwhelming 76 percent of online users have purchased at least one product or service.
     Online shoppers are like a snapshot of a crowded suburban mall on a Saturday afternoon. They are your husband, your wife, your girlfriend, your brother, your children, even your grandparents. They are more or less half men, half women—51 percent to 49 percent.
     Sixty-seven percent are married and 43 percent have kids. Their median household income has declined sharply. It is now $59,100, compared to what we had four years when it was $66,000. Forty-three percent of people who shop online have online access at work.
     Seventy-two percent have at least one wireless device, and 40 percent have already paid or are willing to pay $39.95 a month for broadband. These are the prime prospects the advertisers spend a fortune to reach.

    Oh yes. The number of online shoppers who pay for their purchases with credit cards has almost tripled since 1997. It’s up to 70 percent now, compared to 59 percent in 1999 and 34 percent back in 1997. 
    Looking to the future, while 49 percent of the newbies paid with a credit card, 66 percent of the integrators did so, and 79 percent of the trendsetters. Remember that newbies have been online for less than a year, integrators from one to two years, and trendsetters three or more years. This tells me clearly that online shopping is becoming a way of life.

    First of all it’s important to note that convenience is the primary motivation for online shoppers. Price is secondary. Fully 97 percent of online shoppers are motivated primarily by saving time and simplifying their lives. And of this 97 percent, only 36 percent are additionally motivated by saving money. 
     Money is not an issue for the rest of them. Even among the more price-conscious shoppers it’s worth reiterating that price is not their primary motivation. They tend to shop for prices only after they have decided on a particular product or service. Online shoppers place a much higher value on time than money.
   This is great news for e-tailers because the online users are still the early adopters and opinion leaders that they spend a fortune to reach. So it’s a golden opportunity for new product introductions.

     We’ve found that there are five core mindsets or need-states of online shoppers. These can be seen as differentiating motivations driving people to shop online and sending them to particular types of places. 
    The first mindset is something I call "Need Ideas." In this state, the shopper is typically looking at gifts and toys. Second is "Need Simplified Information"; this is the state in which people tend to go online to shop for electronics, computers, software, small appliances.
    Shoppers who "Need Personalized Recommendations" are those who are looking for books, CDs, games, software.
     And then there’s the state I call "Need Newest Products." This is the state of mind that characterizes people online shopping for cosmetics, clothes, cars and computers.

    Yes. Especially with the fifth state, "Need to Save Time." That would be basically everybody.

Our research shows that more than half of all online shoppers—53 percent—have left e-commerce sites after putting items in the shopping cart. Even worse, 35 percent report abandoning their shopping carts very often.

    No, that’s not the main reason. The biggest reason people abandon shopping carts is that they are having checkout problems of some kind—that’s what 56 percent say. Another 35 percent leave because of security concerns. 
    Thirty-five percent also say they have left things in their carts because they were just looking, so that’s what you were talking about. And 34 percent say they did it because of high shipping costs. Another 26 percent leave full carts because of a lack of customer service.

   It means that e-tailers are putting too much emphasis on getting people to their sites and not enough emphasis on the kind of interactivity that they need to close the sale. Because the people online are no different than the people who shop in retail stores, they’re one and the same person. 
       What is happening is the traditional retailers are so mesmerized by this technological gizmo that they’ve forgotten the core principles that made them successful in their brick and mortar stores. They have to take the same kind of thinking to their clicks-and-mortar operations.

     Most definitely. Customers who leave items in their shopping carts are getting a bad feeling about something. One way a site can make sure this doesn’t happen, of course, is through how it helps customers through the process on the site, how it treats them. 
    But another big issue has to do with building a brand, creating an affinity. You can’t just drive traffic, you have to establish a brand. This involves advertising, and it involves the traditional media. 
   Traditional media play a key role here. The kind of connection you create with the consumer through advertising in traditional media is just as important as more direct means e-commerce sites use on the web itself.
     In fact, traditional media is just about equally effective when it comes to what motivates people to visit an e-commerce site. According to our research, 59 percent of online shoppers go to e-commerce sites as the result of a search engine, but 58 percent went as the result of advertising in traditional media.

      Thirty-eight percent of online shoppers say they were motivated to visit an e-commerce site by television, 32 percent by magazines, 24 percent by newspapers and 17 percent by radio.

     Thirty percent say they were motivated by banner ads.

     I continue to preach that the web should only be the bull’s eye in the media mix. Advertisers have to use traditional media to generate the awareness and interest. Because until we reach a level of interactive TV or broadband the kind of text-based messages that you have on the internet cannot create the emotional appeal that you’re able to get through print and broadcast.

     Because consumers have a strong, built-in affinity with the magazine. They know it, they trust it, and they spend time with it, including time spent looking at the advertising.

     This is because you’re limited in a banner ad in terms of what you can convey about your product or service. And also of course the clutter by now is so enormous on the internet, it’s just about impossible to stand out or get someone’s attention. Plus—this is really important—people don’t have on the web the built-in affinity or rapport that they have with a favorite magazine or a favorite TV show. I mean, even when you’re watching TV and you hit the mute button, you’re still going to see the brand name, it’s still has an impact.