Tag Archives: business

September 18, 2012 · 10:20 am

Love The One You’re With

One of the trends I hear discussed all the time is that of chasing the next shiny object.  As it turns out, that’s not something that occurs solely in the tech space.  A recent study from Adobe – The Adobe Digital Index – shows that online retailers are ignoring the 80/20 rule by ignoring current customers in favor of attracting new ones.  Maybe today’s screed should have been titled “You Always Hurt The One You Love.”  Their summary:

Online retailers spend nearly 80% of their digital marketing budgets acquiring shoppers (new visitors), but does this focus make sense? To find out, Adobe Digital Index analyzed 33 billion visits to 180 online retail website in Europe and the United States from April 2011 to June 2012. Our data indicates retailers should shift spend to returning and repeat purchasers, two existing customer segments that drive a disproportionately high share of revenue, exhibit higher conversion rates, and really step up in the Christmas holiday season and tough economic times. Migrating just 1% of shoppers to returning purchasers could generate as much as $39 million in additional revenue per retailer.

In other words, we’re spending way too much time and money chasing new customers while we ignore a lucrative user base that’s just waiting to be asked to the dance.  40% of revenue for online retailers comes from returning or repeat purchasers, who represent only 8% of all visitors, according to the study.  In other words, you have to attract five to seven shoppers to equal the revenue of one repeat purchaser.

Having run an online retail business I can tell you that the vast majority of our thinking was about attracting and converting new customers.  It wasn’t as if customer service was an afterthought and we did allocate a good deal of our marketing to up-selling our existing customer base.  However, this study opened my eyes to the fact that we probably could have done more with those who’ve already demonstrated a desire for our products and I’ll keep that in mind as I work with clients going forward.  How about you?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , , , ,

September 17, 2012 · 8:27 am

Shana Tova!

A shofar made from a ram's horn is traditional...

A shofar made from a ram’s horn is traditionally blown in observance of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish civic year. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy New Year!  I know I don’t often repeat content but as I was thinking about what to write as Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah, I went back and checked out another post I wrote on the topic.  It seems to cover it pretty well, so I’m posting it again (in case it seems at all familiar as you read!).

Last night marked the start of the Jewish New Year.  I didn’t go down to Times Square to see if they were dropping a giant knish at the stroke of sundown – probably not.  L’Shana Tova – a happy and healthy New Year to all of you.

One of the things Jews do over the next 10 days (or at least are supposed to do) is to reflect on the year gone by and think about where it took you on life’s journey.  It’s not really as much about looking back in my mind as it is about looking forward.  Oh sure, one is supposed to think about where one strayed from life’s path in terms of dealing with other humans and human codes of conduct.  We get a day of fasting next week to get that sorted out.  But it’s also a time to think about a fresh start.  Which, of course, promoted a business thought.

When do businesses stop and enter a period of reflection?  It’s obvious when they’re changing – witness Facebook last week – but I, for one, certainly wonder sometimes if those changes happen due to the momentum of previous (maybe not so good) decisions or if they’re the result of a pause, some reflection, and a willful thought by the entire organization as to the direction.  Often, I fear, it’s the former.

Jews are to use the next ten days for reflection and repentance.  I like to think of them as ten days of self-improvement.  I’d also suggest that it would do many businesses a lot of good to build the same sort of period into their corporate calendars.  Some do – they call it the budget process – but I think that’s too selective in terms of participants and goals to do much good.  Some smart CEO needs to declare it New Year’s Day for the company once a year and get everyone to do the same sort of professional reflection that many of us do on the personal side.  Identify your sins (figuratively speaking) and atone.  Faulty customer service, weak brand identity, bad employee relations, products that aren’t optimal, fostering an atmosphere of fear – these are all good places to start.

Enhanced by Zemanta

1 Comment

Filed under Thinking Aloud, What's Going On

Tagged as , , , , , ,

September 14, 2012 · 8:34 am

Naked In The Kitchen

For our Foodie Friday Fun today, let’s get naked.

Ingredients

(Photo credit: Beyond Elements)

Not in the clothes sense – in the foodie sense.  You see, to me the hardest challenge for a cook is to cook something like a roasted chicken.  There’s not a lot of technique to hide behind and generally the seasoning is pretty simple.  Maybe there’s a gravy which is a simple pan sauce but there’s certainly no highly refined, triple-reduced sauce with which to drown the improperly prepared protein.  The quality of the ingredients is naked, as is the cook’s ability to capture and present that quality.

I’m a fan of simplicity in the kitchen as well as in business (an after all, that’s what the screed is about!).  I don’t do molecular gastronomy. I look for great ingredients, prep them using relatively basic techniques (but I practice those basics a lot) an deliver them to the table with a simple presentation,   In short, I try to let the goodness speak for itself.

Ideas are the same way.  Don’t muck up the basic goodness with some overly complex sauce.  Respect the building block, nurture it along carefully and get out of the way of the underlying strength of the idea.  People too – they’re the great ingredients of every business.

We conceal ideas behind layers of complexity and like a heavy sauce that complexity can mask what’s good or bad about what’s underneath.  Generally, if what’s underneath is really excellent, you want it to shine on its own , so when I encounter some idea or business model that’s overly complex I assume there are some serious flaws within.

I like elevator pitches.  They’re the business without the clothing of complexity.  I like one page term sheets – they’re deals without the sauce of lawyer language.  It’s really hard to make a lot of complicated business issues simple.  When you do though you’ll be surprised how much more clear (and delicious!) they are to all concerned – if they’re any good, that is!  If they’re not, you’ll see it right away.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under food, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , ,