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Amazon’s Subverting Your Customer Loyalty michael kors outlet Here Are Expert Ways To Fight Back

It’s no surprise that retail aggregators are increasingly shaping how people buy. cheap michael kors Think of Amazon, pretty much unmatched in customer retention thanks to its ease of use, dizzying selection, recommendation engine and friction free return policies. Or look to Chinese e commerce titan Alibaba and its historic $21.8 billion IPO this September. Markets are bullish on the future of retail aggregation, particularly as it happens online, and so are customers.

Which is at best a mixed blessing for my consulting clients who have independent businesses even those who sell much of their product through these selfsame aggregators.

No company specializing in a single line of products can match the breadth of offerings that a company like Amazon offers. And this carries some unnerving implications for brand continuity and customer loyalty:

When a fan of Tumi luggage begins a search at Amazon as opposed to Tumi’s own website, the results may not break Tumi’s way. Amazon’s site michael kors handbags might point out to the prospective shopper that « people who looked for this item also looked for Briggs Riley luggage. » Suddenly the Tumi bag the shopper originally pined for (hard shell with an extra outer pocket) seems a bit overpriced or Michael Kors handbags outlet slightly off color. One click over to a Briggs Riley suitcase is easy to make. Let’s face it: No matter how astounding your brand’s own Web presence is, you won’t always manage to get a customer to purchase from you directly, thanks to Amazon’s advantages with the customer experience it provides. For starters, the customer’s credit card is already securely stored with Amazon, which makes ordering from Amazon both convenient and relatively safe, two factors that go a long cheap Michael Kors handbags way in the still wild west of e commerce. Then there’s Amazon’s customer friendly return policies, so seamless that they often result in a refund to the customer’s account within 30 minutes of the UPS pickup.

Furthermore, there’s no way to beat Amazon at the low price game (even though you’d think you should be able to, as the source provider) in the long term. Chalk this up to Amazon’s willingness to loss lead to maintain sales and scale, and to customers and bots reporting lower prices back to Amazon constantly, which allows the company to reduce its prices immediately to match or beat whatever other vendors (that would be you) offer. All of which extends Amazon’s advantage beyond its unparalleled product variety, the variety that makes it such a mixed bag (even though it’s such a necessity for many small companies) to Replica Michael Kors Handbags sell on Amazon’s site in the first place.

Aggregators aren’t going to go away, but there are ways to nudge potential customers toward starting and ending at your own site. Add as much character to your site as possible aim to make it more of an experience and adventure to buy from you than to go elsewhere. (See Rockler or Big Ass Fans for two inspiring examples.)

But don’t offer an experience at the expense of ease, or you’ll scare your customers right back to Amazon. The adventure a customer has on your site needs to be a frictionless one: Do whatever it takes to ensure that your checkout process is easy and seamless. Incorporate a Visa Pay or even (yes) an Amazon Payments button into your site if you can. This may seem off brand but it’s a comfort to your customers, since many of them have all their card information at those sites to begin with. Also, your returns process needs to be as simple, fast and personable as the shopping experience itself. Finally, offering free, brand relevant extras can distinguish a direct purchase. Throwing in something special and surprising for your customers, whether you do it in the actual product cheap michael kors shipment or shortly after, helps create a little magic and offers a personal touch that an aggregator shipment lacks.

Another way to distinguish yourself from aggregators involves making your packaging and messaging distinctive. When a customer orders clothing or gear directly from Moosejaw, an outdoor recreation apparel retailer, it arrives in a repurposed package (a previously used UPS overnight sack turned inside out) that says, « NO KNIFE, USE TEETH! » Brooks Brothers distinguishes its shipments with beautiful boxes screened on the inside with the company’s insignia, with woven blue on white Brooks Brothers ribbon tying up each purchase. The messaging by mail or by email that accompanies a shipment can also distinguish your company.

HEX, a company that makes « fashion tech accessories, » cheap michael kors in other words spiffy looking iPad covers and the like, is a young operation with no marketing budget that has to compete against established brands like Michael Kors. HEX has grown its business by sending 13,000 hand written thank you notes (so far). This may sound extremely old fashioned, difficult to scale and hard to spread via social media (since the thank yous are actual paper notes) but HEX has found that cheap michael kors its gesture of thanks finds its way online. Many of the brand’s fans snap photos of the cards they receive from HEX and share them on Instagram and Twitter.

With such efforts, you’ll ideally start or continue a dialogue with your customer, rather than ceding that relationship to outside forces. A wok company that sells both directly and through aggregators is a great exemplar of this behavior. Along with the wok, the company includes in its packaging a bamboo backscratcher. michael kors handbags This might sound like more of a headscratcher than a backscratcher, until you look more closely: The company (The Wok Shop) has decorated the backscratcher with the word REACHABLE, along with the company’s direct contact information.Articles Connexes:

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