July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Apple’s online store slid out of the top five in customer satisfaction while Amazon remains tops, according to an online retailer study by Foresee. In fact, Apple had its lowest score in four years, achieving only an 80 percent rating.

Amazon retained its industry-leading 88 percent satisfaction score from 2011 in the study, which asked more than 24,000 consumers about their online shopping experiences between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Dell slid to 77 percent — below average —  while Netflix improved slightly. The worst performer, however, was JCPenney, slipping from 83 percent to 78 percent.

Amazon has had the highest score running for eight consecutive years, according to Foresee.

“At this point, Amazon has been dominant for so long and has such a history of focusing on the customer, it’s hard to imagine anyone else coming close,” ForeSee president and CEO Larry Freed said in a statement. “Companies should emulate Amazon’s focus on the customer, which is clearly linked to superior revenues over the years.”

In Apple’s defense, it might argue that those superior revenues are not accompanied by significant profits. And that it’s difficult to maintain high standards when the company increased net sales 144 percent from $108 billion in 2011 to $156 billion in 2012 — a staggering number that is quadruple Apple’s sales from just four years ago.

What I can say from personal experience is that Apple seems to be working hard at improving. I recently ordered a MacBook Air for my son for Christmas, and when there was some concern over whether it would arrive in time, Apple added an iPod Shuffle to the order, gratis. (The Air did eventually arrive on time.)

But customer service is a numbers game as well as a personal, one-on-one business.

“We’re seeing that even some of the largest companies in the country are at risk if they lose sight of customer satisfaction,” Freed added. “Satisfaction with the customer experience … is the most important predictor of future success.”

Here is ForeSee’s list of the top 100 online retailers in the U.S., with their customer satisfaction scores:

photo credit: jgarber via photopin cc, McFlickr via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

This post was written by Travis Steffen, founder of WorkoutBOX and ActionJunkie Labs and co-founder of Lessons On Becoming A Millionaire. He is heavily involved in a variety of other online startups. Travis is also a published author, producer of the upcoming reality show, World’s Toughest, and is currently building a new charity.

You’ve developed a great product, and you and your team are now focused on selling as many pieces as you can through your website. Suddenly, a member of your team voices their opinion:

“What about giving customers a promotional code to discount their purchase price? That should be a solid way to increase sales, right?”

At first, it may seem like a no-brainer — sure, a discount will definitely increase your absolute number of sales. However, if you don’t put the necessary thought into a promotional campaign, you may run the risk of decreasing long-term profits.

On one hand, you’re giving people more of an incentive to buy, since customers feel as though they’re getting a better deal than they otherwise would. This can be a good thing, but only if you get these discounts into the hands of the people who wouldn’t have purchased from you otherwise. If you give discount codes to people who would have already become your customers, then you’re basically giving away money. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling — that strategy isn’t good.

If you give out coupon codes to all prospective customers without exception, you not only reduce your average profit per sale on the customers who would have bought from you regardless, but you also run the risk of reducing the perceived value of your brand.

A few approaches could help you solve this problem:

1. Target potential customers who are on the fence.

If a potential customer is unsure if they want to buy, coupons or promos can sometimes help sway them. One of the only ways you can target these people is by hitting them up as they leave your site without buying. By putting a special offer in front of people who are exiting your site right as they leave, you’re targeting customers on the fence — instead of everybody at once. The more you can customize your interactions for people who are on the fence and actually want more information, the more successful those interactions will be.

2. Provide coupons as a way of incentivizing desired actions.

For example, reward users with a future-use coupon code for clicking a “Share” button after purchasing to advertise your product to their social networks. Offering a discount for their next purchase encourages repeat business AND spreads the word about your brand. The downside to this strategy is that you’re not presenting the coupon to users who were on the fence about buying in the first place, which is the most valuable place to offer a coupon.

3. Instill a sense of urgency.

This is done quite often via sales copy and is a time-tested concept. For example, tell potential customers what your product is typically valued at (let’s say $50). Then, cross this number out and tell them what it’s being sold at (let’s say $20). This difference in price makes your customers feel as though they’re getting a great deal as they’re saving $30. However, some users who have every intention of buying will tell themselves that they’ll just buy it later. To inject even a bit more power to this strategy, let your customers know that your current price will only be this low for a  limited time. This gives them a reason to buy right now, instead of waiting around and possibly forgetting completely.

4. Craft your checkout page with promo links.

Customers who would have bought from you anyway may begin asking for a promo code because they either heard of others getting one, or because your checkout screen highlights the area to input a promo code too much. Instead, have customers click an extra link to input a promo code. Make it obvious to the users who are looking for it, but don’t throw it in the faces of users who don’t have a coupon code to enter. If you put a form field out in the open, asking for a promo code, users will bounce to look for one on Google. And when they don’t find one, they may never return.

5. Don’t offer coupon codes at all.

Many higher-end brands never offer coupons and also don’t allow retailers to discount their goods. They view it as a negative strike against their high-end branding efforts. While this strategy doesn’t apply to the majority of brands, it remains a valid option for some.

Regardless of which strategy you choose to use, put some thought into it. Don’t put a promotion live just because you think it’s going to skyrocket sales. If you’re not thorough or targeting the right people, that discount can significantly decrease your bottom line.

The moral of the story here is that even seemingly simple, no-brainer decisions are worth some thought. Don’t take anything lightly, as the smallest decisions may impact your brand in a big way.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Image via krossbow/Flickr

Thanks to a partnership with deal-savvy startup StackSocial, VentureBeat is launching a new VentureBeat Store today.

As you may recall, we first wrote about StackSocial in July after the startup secured a $800,000 round of funding from 500 Startups and others. The company provides a white-label daily deals-like online store for news publications to place within their website, which features a number of hand-picked, tech-oriented deals (software bundles, tutorials, select hardware, etc.) that appeal to the publication’s audience. For example, the current featured deal is a Paradox Watch kit that transforms your iPod Nano into a sleek wrist watch.

Sales run for about 14 days, and three to four new deals get added every week. Both StackSocial and VentureBeat take a cut of every sale, with emphasis on us making money so we can continue running our awesome website. [Disclosure: VentureBeat makes money off of the VentureBeat-branded store, which you probably already deduced because all of our readers are Sherlock-level sleuths.]

Each deal contains its own separate page with the regular retail price, the discounted percentage, and final price. There’s lots of info explaining what you’re getting, why its useful, video tutorials, reviews, customer comments, etc. — your basic product page. Even if you don’t see anything you’d like to buy on the page (or don’t enjoy saving money on useful stuff), the VB Store also contains separate tabs for giveaways and free stuff. For instance, we have a great deal with 99designs that can save you money on any of your design needs. We also have discounts for services like Help Scout, a customer support management tool, as well as cool freebies like WordPress themes and GarageBand tutorials. To take advantage of any deal, all you have to do is create a StackSocial account or log in using Facebook.

We’re all excited that the store is live. Go check it out and let us know what you think.

Apple customers who want to see more of a product before they buy online may get that chance. A tool that allows customer service representatives to share their screens and walk a customer through a product page may be in testing.

The screen share tool has been spotted in Brazil, according to Apple Insider. Currently, you can chat live with an Apple employee if you have questions about a product you’re viewing in the online store using its “Ask Now” button. Being able to screen share allows the customer service rep to walk you through features of the product, as well as potentially up sell you on accessories.

The feature shows an image of the customer service representative that you are speaking with on top of a chat box. That representative will get your permission prior to initiating a screen share, and is available by phone to walk you through the demonstration as it appears on your screen. Even if you say yes to a screen share over the chat, you still have to click a “yes” or “no thanks” button that appears in a black box at the bottom of your chat screen to actually execute the share.

The feature was first spotted by Brazil website MacMagazine.

Apple also recently alerted customers of its education program that they will be getting an entirely new online store. With the new e-commerce store, educators will be able to create and view proposals, as well as access order statuses online.

hat tip Apple Insider; First image via MacMagazine; second image via Apple Insider

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Russia has been a bit of a rough neighborhood for tech startups, but a Ulyanovsk-based startup called Ecwid just received $1.5 million in its first round of funding from Runa Capital, the first serious angel investment group in Russia. Ecwid builds seamlessly integrated online stores for any website or social media page.

The company has produced a cut-and-paste widget that quickly builds a web store for any website in less than five minutes. The widget works with any existing website, including major content management systems such as WordPress and Joomla. It can also be used to create a web store on Facebook and accepts payments from major payment systems such as PayPal and Google Checkout. The service starts at $17 for stores with over 100 products, and Ecwid offers a free widget for smaller stores.

“Ecwid is unlike any other e-commerce application, as it allows a store owner to retain his/her existing site, design and CMS,” said Ruslan R. Fazlyev, Ecwid’s founder and CEO, pictured left. “Installation is as simple as dropping in our code, so adding an online store to any existing web and social network presence is as easy as embedding a YouTube video.”

Ecwid plans to put this round of funding towards opening its first U.S. and U.K. offices in the spring of next year. The offices will be based in Mountain View, Calif. and London. Ecwid’s goal is to grow sales to include small business owners and web studios.

Ecwid was founded in 2009, growing out of Fazlyev’s first start-up, X-Cart. The company currently has eighteen employees. Runa Capital is the first serious angel investment group in Russia and has helped build up the tech startup industry there.

Check out the video below for a demo of how Ecwid works.