STUDY FINDS LEADING E-COMMERCE SITES MISSING THE "STICKY" FACTOR
A new study of 50 leading e-commerce sites by Rubric, Inc., a leading provider of Web-based E-Marketing applications, shows that most sites are failing to effectively market to some highly valuable customers -- their own.
Only 16% of the e-commerce sites studied sent a follow-on marketing offer to customers who purchased from their site in the last 30 days, and of these, only two were personalized. 47% did not ask customers if they would like more information on related products and services.
"As acquiring a new customer is a much more expensive proposition than retaining an existing one, it is surprising that so few sites are cross-selling, up-selling, and reselling to their own customers," said Anu Shukla, Rubric CEO.
"The results of our study provide clear evidence as to why many e-commerce sites turn over 60% of their customers every six weeks. Many are competing mainly on price and are not building customer loyalty, which is a recipe for unprofitability."
Despite the Internet being an interactive and personalized medium, only 4% of the sites used personalization in their follow-on marketing campaigns. Less than half of the customers receiving a follow-up offer rated it as appealing based on products they had purchased recently. Repeat buyers did not receive special attention. Only 25% of the sites recognized customers as repeat buyers when they responded to a follow-on offer and fewer than 5% of the sites allowed customers to request reminders for when it was time to buy again.
Overall, the vast majority of sites failed to proactively remarket to their customers with personalized cross-selling, up-selling, and reselling offers. The lack of consistent and continuous communication was a major inhibitor to building relationships.
Customers seeking more information from these e-commerce sites found it difficult to get replies to basic questions such as "which model should I buy." 40% of e-mail questions went unanswered, including sites that promised a reply within two days. One site left a voicemail saying an answer was coming electronically, but one never arrived. 43% of the sites did not offer customers web based self-service to check on the status of their orders.
"E-commerce sites are racing to convert browsers into buyers, and ad hoc purchasers into loyal customers," said Hal Steger, Rubric vice president of Marketing. "This study demonstrates that there is a large need for E-Marketing systems that make it easy to proactively communicate with customers in an ongoing and personalized dialogue."
The entire results of the study, "Evaluating the 'Sticky' Factor of E-Commerce Sites," can be requested on Rubric's web site at http://www.rubricsoft.com or by calling 877/782-7421.
Rubric is the leading provider of Web based E-Marketing applications for Fortune 500 and e-commerce companies. Rubric EMA enables the implementation of a closed loop system to increase revenue, reduce marketing costs, increase marketing efficiency, and measure marketing effectiveness.
Rubric EMA provides an E-Marketing engine to accelerate e-commerce by automating the planning, execution and measurement of e-campaigns. It enables precise segmentation and targeting capabilities to launch personalized cross-sell and up-sell campaigns across Internet and traditional channels.
Rubric EMA provides a lead management engine to optimize lead flow. It integrates response and lead management to automatically capture and measure campaign responses from multiple customer touch points.
The software performs lead mining, consisting of automatic lead scoring, qualification, assignment, routing, and feedback, to transform a higher percentage of raw inquiries into qualified leads and customers. It can be integrated with Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, call centers, and contact managers.
Rubric EMA is also a communications engine to build relationships. It uses graphical workflow to enable the cost-effective automation of continuous relationship marketing programs. These programs conduct ongoing personalized communication with diverse audiences to increase their levels of awareness, knowledge, and loyalty and to develop incremental profiles about them.
Rubric customers include Hewlett-Packard Company, Outpost.com, N.E.T., Rainmaker, Merant, BEA Systems and other leading Fortune 500 and e-commerce companies. The company is backed by top-tier venture firms, including Brentwood Venture Capital, Menlo Ventures, The Cambridge Technology Capital Fund, TL Ventures, Amerindo, and RRE. For more information, Rubric can be contacted at 877/RUBRIC1 (877/782-7421) toll free, 650/513-3870 or http://www.rubricsoft.com.