Tempt your customers with a breadcrumb trail…

In our most recent issue of Moving Money, we have included a round-up of the results of our 2011 e-business benchmark report as we prepare to survey e-businesses for the 2012 version.

As I was reading the article, I was thinking about how important the first page of your website is.  It really is fundamental in terms of encouraging potential customers to part with their hard-earned cash.  E-commerce is a competitive market with consumers increasingly likely to shop for comparisons before completing their purchase so when a shopper first hits your site, it needs to keep visitors interested, assured and enticed enough to get them to the checkout.

This month, I’ve picked out Sage Pay customer www.Biscuiteers.com as a great example of a website. Its welcoming, easy to use and exceptionally well thought out.  The business behind the site was set up by Harriet Hastings and her husband Stevie Congdon. They came up with the idea to set up a biscuit gift business online with a difference.  With the tag line “Why send flowers when you can send biscuits”, Biscuiteers craft beautiful hand iced biscuits delivered in gorgeous illustrated keepsake tins.

And as a solely online business, the Biscuiteers team know the importance of providing a rich, interactive shopping experience.  Along the top of the Biscuiteers site, there are clear links to the contact details, account log in and basket.  One of the things we found in our e-business benchmark report is that displaying a shopping basket on your home page and across your site is no longer a differentiator; it’s an absolute must.  Likewise, displaying your contact details clearly helps to reassure your customer that you are easily reachable should you not be happy with your purchase or if you have any queries regarding the service.

Always one for a bargain, I quickly spotted a special offer on the homepage of the Biscuiteers website.  We found in our e-business benchmark report that 76% of top performing businesses are using special offers to entice browsers to convert into browsers.

It’s good practice to display your security policy on your website to show customers that you take their personal data seriously and will use it responsibly.

We found that many top performing sites are differentiating themselves in their use of social media but there’s marginal difference between them and the lower performing sites we looked at.  This point is really important, as it’s not necessarily what you do, but how you do it that will make a difference.  It’s no surprise then to see over three quarters (76%) of our top e-tailers regularly luring visitors to their site through the use of social channels.  Biscuiteers are using Twitter and Facebook to engage in real dialogue with their customers, let them know about new products and when to expect a bargain.  They are also using YouTube to post lessons on baking and icing for anyone who wants to have a go at home!   Biscuiteers display these links as icons to aid navigation.

Top sites are recognising more than ever that customers not only want a good deal, they want it quickly.  Offering next day delivery was the most popular service offering.  If your business is able to offer this, don’t hide it away; it’s a great way to get ahead of the competition.

With a multitude of delicious products available, Biscuiteers have made navigation around the site as easy as possible for their customers by filtering all products, making finding suitable products easier for customers to find.

They keep this up to date with latest events so if you’re looking for some Olympic themed biscuits, then you know where to go – unfortunately they haven’t included the occasion ‘I just love biscuits and want to buy some for myself’ which is generally what I would be searching for!

Founder of Biscuiteers, Harriet Hastings told me ‘We’re really pleased to have won Sage Pay’s business of the month award.  It is a real tribute to the team at Tom&Co who have worked so hard on our website and the re-launch last September.  As an online retail shop, our website is our real and virtual shop and the heart of our business.  Customer experience  is critical in building sales and improving conversion rate.’

‘We didn’t use third party user testers but we did spend a lot of time testing the customer journey and functionality among ourselves before we launched the new website.  The biggest questions we had to answer were around navigation and visibility of our growing product range.  The most important decision we made was to make search by occasion the primary search tool.  We looked at best practice on other sites to make sure our social media strategy was up to date and appropriate to our business model.’

Well done Biscuiteers for being awarded as our Business of the Month.  As websites go, theirs really takes the biscuit and of course, the proof is in the pudding!

Food for thought…

I’ll confess, I’m lazy.  Which means the thought of lugging my weekly food shop home is not an attractive one.  We’ve all been there.  When you’re browsing the shopping aisles the temptation is vast and I rarely spare a thought for the long journey home, with aching arms and plastic bag handles cutting off the blood supply to my hands.  Not to mention the dreaded bag split.  Nobody wants their apples and loo rolls making a last bid for freedom and rolling off down the high road.

Which is why I can proudly say I am an online grocery shopper.  At present the sector is dominated by the major supermarkets, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco and Waitrose.  In the year ending May 2009, the total UK grocery market was valued at approximately £146 billion.

Yet I’ll admit I do get the odd twinge of guilt when I see all the packaging that gets thrown away.

A delicious Nearly Naked veg box

The trend among urban professionals is the ‘Grow your own’.  A little piece of rural heaven in your own back garden.  So what happens if you have a 6×4 block of concrete that your landlord has passed off as garden? Or you have the space but, like me, you’re just not the green-fingered sort?

Well the next best thing to growing your own are fresh boxes of produce picked the day before and delivered to your door from companies like The Nearly Naked Veg Company.  Order online and before you know it, this farming company will dig you up a selection of fresh veg and have them to your door before you can say fertiliser!  They can also deliver freshly baked bread, jams and joints of meat sourced from local butchers.

And even better, no over the top packaging and almost no nasty chemicals.  The Nearly Naked Veg Company is based in Devon but if you want to support your local produce, these businesses are springing up all over the place.

So next time your pesky ‘green fingered’ neighbour looks smugly over the fence whilst digging up his home grown carrots, you can pass these beauties off as your own!

Founder Ben with his dog Cooper

Ben Brunning, founder of The Nearly Naked Veg Company told us  “We are truly and genuinely obsessed with our veg! We love to plant it, grow it, pick it and most of all deliver it. We passionately believe that local produce is best, and that there is no need to spray crops with un-necessary preventative chemicals, or preservatives.   Key to our business is having our customers order on-line so we don’t have to have a member of staff sat in the office taking phone calls! This is where Sage Pay has come in, allowing us to take one-off payments, or set up repeat orders for those customers who want veg delivered on a weekly basis – which is most of them!”

I’m really pleased to announce The Nearly Naked Veg Company as September’s Business of the Month.  These guys really know their onions.

(Couldn’t help just one!)