Guest Blogger, online retail
Bedroom Efforts: Protecting brand image
This is a guest post by Derek Traynor of AllMoto.ie, an IIA Member Company, republished with his permission from his blog. In it he writes about a subject dear to our hearts in the IIA: online retail and the knock-on effects of reputable online business for the economy. If you would like to ramp up your own online retail business, don’t miss our upcoming conference, 8 More Ways to Sell Even More Stuff, designed especially for retailers, whatever stage of the online game you are at.
Is this where you want your brand represented? >>
OK firstly let me explain – this isn’t a story about my personal ‘Bedroom Efforts’ (I’ve another blog for that 🙂 ), it’s my opinion, as an etailer (online retailer), on the damage that small, online, bedroom based efforts cause to industry in general.
What I mean by ‘Bedroom Efforts’ is someone sitting at home, on a laptop, listing products on ebay, Amazon and similar, and ordering in stock as it sells. However, let me clarify, my issue isn’t with the sleepy entrepreneurs but rather with the suppliers who decide to sell product through them.
I’ve been harping on about this pet-hate for years now and I’m “happy” to report that in just the last month I’ve had three suppliers contact me with concerns over it – way to get with the times guys – but at least they recognize the problem. These suppliers are eventually requesting minimun retail prices on their products. I’ve no idea where they stand legally if challenged about anti-competition legalities but…. well who cares about that for the moment.
I’m sure a few people are now thinking, “but sure you’re a online shop – who are you to talk?”, but this is where most people are missing the difference: I’m a reputable online retailer, adding value to a customers experience. I do this by providing:
- product knowledge. We’re experts on what we sell and use this knowledge to only sell product that is good.
- product support. If our customers have difficulty with a product we’re there to help by phone, email and often in person at events.
- product backup. Did a purchase break or fall short of what a customer expected? We always repair and/or replacement based on the circumstances.
- stock off the shelf. When a customer buys something it gets shipped within 24 hours (over 85% of the time in my shop).
- a unique user experience. The customer always subconsciously relate to their experience of the product.
- a physical store where people can drop into in person if they want to.
Bedroom Efforts generally damage a product having little or no technical knowledge, no repairs, no returns policy, no parts backup and NO stock. The customer ends up waiting longer, buying ill advised and losing all if an issue arises. What is not seen here is the damage to the brand that was sold. Note to suppliers – one way to lose repeat business is to allow a terrible customer experience in the initial purchase.
The hidden damage goes further though. These bedroom efforts often make almost no margin and that’s fine as they’ve almost no costs. But the damage arises in the lost sale the ‘real’ retailer has lost. Don’t be misled, reputable online etailers have almost as many costs as your local shop (Google ads, website development, online presence maintenance, customer support, STOCK, rent, taxes, to name a few).
What also makes me laugh is that these same suppliers then complain about having trouble getting paid by their retailer network. Maybe it hasn’t crossed their minds yet, but, support your network of retailers. Note to suppliers – IT’S EASY TO GET PAID FROM PEOPLE THAT ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF MAKING A PROFIT.
Imagine this outside Victorias Secrets: “knickers, knickers, two for a tenner”
Chanel and Gucci don’t supply someone so they can set up a market stall outside Brown Thomas (Ireland’s exclusive department store) on a busy Sunday afternoon. Why do suppliers continue to sell to people who just list on Ebay, Amazon, etc, and provide no backup on a Monday morning?
Chanel and Gucci understand the principals of brand image and most importantly – making profit.
Thanks to Derek for that heartfelt post! If you are a member of the IIA and would like to share a guest post about doing business online (any aspect: it doesn’t just have to be retail!) please read our guidelines and get in touch.
Social Media Working Group
Social Media Working Week: an invite from @eoink
As this week is officially Social Media Week I thought it was timely to once again kick start the IIA Social Media Working Group. By way of introduction I am Eoin Kennedy and I am this year’s chair.
This is a general call to all interested in helping to contribute to the social media sector in Ireland though collaborative work. We are inviting you all with an open invite to a kick off session in the Digital Hub on 24th February at from 6.00pm to 7.00pm. Please register for free online.
The group has an official set of aims outlined but in truth this sector moves incredibly rapidly and I would really love to hear people views on what they think a grouping of like-minded, motivated and skilled digital people can achieve. In essence the working group is a collective effort and we can achieve more through harnessing each other’s expertise than we can as stand-alone units. No one of us has all the answers.
My experience of these type groups is that if we follow a defined and agreed set of work that it moves quickly from a talking shop to something of real value. We will be asking for time but we will respect it and use it as efficiently as possible. Your expertise may come in the form of peer review of papers/reports we build, speaking at events or face to face meetings to run through work.
Ultimately the Irish Internet Association and the industry in general will benefit from a lot of the work done by the group but this not a selfless task and by giving up time your efforts will be acknowledged.
For my part I am committing a year in chairing the group. I don’t have all the answers and this is not driven by ego but I am passionate about the social media sector and how it changing how we communicate and do business.
At the session on the 24th I will outline some of the work done previously, the work in progress and some thoughts about areas we can make a real impact. I am stepping into big shoes following on from the excellent work by previous chairs Conor Lynch and Brendan Hughes and I would like to thank them and the other members of the group and the IIA staff for the hard work to date.
A note from Roseanne, IIA Membership Manager: While we welcome all to come along to this meeting to hear about the Social Media Working Group plans only fully paid-up members can join the Working Group. You can join online or get in touch with me by email or 01 5424154 to discuss membership with me. I will, of course, be at this meeting if you would like to talk to me then.
Feedback Friday
Feedback Friday: YourLocal wants YourFeedback
Last week after a long process of redevelopment YourLocal.ie, an IIA Member company, relaunched their site. Personally I think it looks rather spiffing but my opinion in this instance is neither here nor there. Josephine from YourLocal.ie has been in touch and is looking for feedback on a very particular aspect of the new site:
“We would love to get some feedback on the search results on our site. There are particular results coming back for searches that make sense in terms of Geo coding however I am not sure these are the best search results for our users.”
So all you search marketing experts out there please visit YourLocal.ie, run a search and let YourLocal.ie know in the comments below what you think of the results. If you need more direction please ask in the comments below – Josephine is on hand to respond.
If you haven’t taken part in Feedback Friday before PLEASE REVIEW THE GUIDELINES before getting all harumphy when I don’t publish your comments. Thanks!
Uncategorized
Data Protection Commissioner issues warning about phone scammers
Every organisation, whether in the public or the private sector, must respect the confidence placed in it by members of the public who hand over their personal data. Every customer, client and employee has the right to full control over the use of their personal information. Personal information is a valuable resource and processing it is a privilege earned by respecting the rights of individuals.
Members of the public must also be on guard to protect their personal information from criminal gangs and other organisations that purposefully set out to engage in fraud or mis-use. In that regard, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is calling on all households to be particularly vigilant when receiving phone calls from organisations “out of the blue” offering to fix problems that the householder did not know existed.
Specifically, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and Microsoft Ireland would like to warn people of a scam that remains active in the Irish marketplace. Irish consumers are receiving telephone calls from persons claiming to be from Microsoft, or working on behalf of Microsoft, to tell them they have a virus on their computer.
Details of the Scam:
- Consumers are cold called from someone claiming to be from Microsoft and told there is a problem with their computer and offered help to solve the computer problems.
- Once the caller has gained the consumer’s trust, they ask consumers to log onto a website to download a file to help solve the problem.
- They then ask for credit card details to pay for software which will fix the virus and also potentially attempt to steal from the person by accessing personal information on their computer. In addition to gaining access to your personal details, they can also infect your computer with damaging viruses and spyware.
Deputy Data Protection Commissioner, Gary Davis indicated “Our Office has received ongoing complaints and queries from unsuspecting members of the public who have received these calls. This would appear to be a major scam targeting Ireland and people need to be aware of the issue. Together with the Gardaí, Comreg and the National Consumer Agency we have sought to highlight the issue to ensure that consumers do not fall victim. We are making progress in identifying an Irish link to these calls and intend to bring prosecutions. In the meantime the best answer is to hang up if receiving such a call and if you have provided details of your credit card to any entity on foot of such a call, we would advise you to contact your credit card provider immediately.”
Speaking on the issue Paul Rellis, General Manager, Microsoft Ireland said, “Microsoft takes the privacy and security of all our customers and partners’ personal information very seriously. We are advising customers to treat all unsolicited phone calls with scepticism and not to provide any personal information to anyone over the phone or online. Anyone who receives an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft should hang up. We can assure you Microsoft does not make these kinds of calls”.
More information on this scam and how consumers can protect themselves is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/Msname.aspx
Note to Editors:
The Council of Europe has decided that each year there should be a special day dedicated to Data Protection. The 28 January is the anniversary of the opening for signature of the Council of Europe’s Data Protection Convention. This is the fifth year that countries across Europe and indeed beyond have marked the day by increasing awareness of data protection and privacy rights. More information on Council of Europe Data Protection Day can be found at: http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/data_protection/
From the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner Press Office
Uncategorized
Dublin Startup Weekend at NDRC
This will be the second Dublin Startup Weekend, and the concept is simple – a roomful of people are brough together (c.50 – 70 developers, coders, marketers, product managers, web evangelists and startup enthusiasts) to go from concept to launch (or at least prototype) in 54 hours. The format is basically:
- Pitch an idea on Friday night
- Work with your team on Saturday
- Present your product on Sunday
The last Dublin Startup Weekend in May 2010 saw four start-ups formed, all of which are still plugging away (see BragBet; GeoDealio; CauseHere and HittheRoad). These start-ups emerged from the 60 participants, all of whom pay to take part, and form teams around good ideas.
Startup Weekend started in the US, but now has run in over 100 cities across the world with over 15,000 people having taken part. Billed by Forbes as a ‘Name You Need to Know in 2011’, two Startup Weekend originating companies have recently raised investment (Memolane.com raised $2m, and Foodspotting raised $750k)
Amy Neale and Sean Murphy (who are facilitating the event on the ground in Dublin) are passionate about creating a successful event for Dublin. The Dublin Start-Up weekend is run on a voluntary, not-for-profit basis by the duo (participants pay for tickets, which cover their food costs for the weekend), to see what great new ideas emerge from the community, and to help in any way to get them off the ground. The only agenda is to bring together great people with good ideas and support them to build a community and start companies.
More information:
Amy Neale
NDRC
P: +353 1 542 4155
E: amy.neale@ndrc.ie
W: www.ndrc.ie
Tw: http://www.twitter.com/ndrc_i2i
Uncategorized
IIA Membership is great value
Your membership will afford the very best value for money for your company. For example:
Professional Services
- Professional Services: Support on specific legal queries could save you €300 per query;
- As an IIA Member, you can approach our working groups for advice relating to a range of issues from legal queries to web development;
Training and Education
- You can save up to €1,035 on training costs this year as an IIA Member. With an average satisfaction rating of 85% for IIA training events, they are well worth it;
- You have access to course materials and Case Studies valued at €4,200;
Research and Consultancy
- Development guides and White Papers valued at €3,600 are at your disposal. This ever growing range of business intelligence resources is developed for the Irish market and includes "Cloud Business: Assessment of the risks versus the benefits" and many others;
Marketing
- All members have an opportunity to raise their company profile by participating as a speaker, in a working group, as a guest blogger or simply by adding company news or company feeds to IIA.ie;
Member Offers
- You can avail of or make special offers that will help grow and expand your business.
How to join:
It couldn’t be easier. Click here to join online by credit card, EFT or invoice and start making the most of your membership today.
If you have any further queries please don’t hesitate to contact our membership manager, Roseanne Smith, at members@iia.ie or 01 5424154 or you can IM her from Meebo on the IIA Blog.
Membership, events, Meetball
Network at Meetball
We are no shortage of all shades of busy here in IIA HQ and plan to keep it this way in 2011. Darren, who looks after our events & training, has just sold out the third intake of the IIA Diploma in Digital Marketing in association with Irish Times Training.
Meanwhile I’ve been having some great chats, catching up with members on the phone, reminding them to renew their membership for 2011 (I’m a bit of a stuck record on this every January!) and to tell them about our Meetball Networking event on January 26th 2011 at The Tower Bar, The Church, corner of Mary St/ Jervis St., Dublin 1.
This free business networking event is for IIA Members and non-members so if you’re not a member of the IIA it’s a perfect opportunity to come along and find out all about the association.
We already have a rake of registrations including our two new board members, David Kerr of Bonkers.ie and Jermain Williams of Dialogue. So come along and meet them, other board members and working group members too. Register for free online now.
We are using EventElephant, an IIA Member Company, for these registrations and so far I’m very impressed with this online event organisation service. Apart from the easy to use site, two offline aspects of this that I think are slick are
- the ability to download attendee badges for print and
- if you have a barcode scanner you can use this to register attendees; they even link to a number of recommended scanners.
A number of IIA members have also bravely volunteered to demo at Meetball:
The Digital Hub Development Agency
Mason Hayes + Curran Solicitors
There are two demo slots left so if you think your company could do with a boost or if you have a new service or product offering get in touch with me, Roseanne, at members@iia.ie or ring 01 5424154 or Skype me at clogher.
Or pop your question in the Meebo chat box on the right and I’ll IM you back – thanks!
Register online for Meetball and we’ll see you there!
Membership
Happy (Re)new Year
It’s nearly 2011. If you haven’t renewed your company’s IIA membership for 2011 we really hope you will. In fact for your sake we really hope you do before 31st January 2011 because we are giving every company who renews before then 25% off one training event in 2011. You will also be included in a draw for a pair of tickets to the 2011 Annual Conference which will take place in May.
All of this applies to companies who join before the end of January too.
It’s not like you even needed this extra nudge with all the value and benefits that come with membership but we like to help you renew early so that we can concentrate on maximising that membership for you during the rest of the year.
International Strategy Working Group
Mark Rodgers says, “Go Global, act like a local”
Mark Rodgers, chair of the IIA International Strategy Working Group and Director of Cipherion was a guest on yesterday’s Sunday Business Show presented by Conall Ó Móráin. You can listen to all of yesterday’s show on the Sunday Business Show site or you can subscribe in iTunes. It’s a show filled with many gems so I would recommend it.
Here is the excerpt with Mark speaking with Conall Ó Móráin about internationalising your business online.
[podcast]http://blog.iia.ie/wp-content/uploads/SundayBusinessShow19thDec20101.mp3[/podcast]
Uncategorized
Minister O’Keeffe urges small firms to tender for more public contracts
He has asked public sector organisations to build stronger relationships with the Government’s job creation agency, Enterprise Ireland, to improve their procurement practices and get a better grasp of the indigenous enterprise landscape.
Enterprise Ireland is now working closely with targeted public contracting authorities nationally and at local government level where the agency has secured executive buy-in from procurement managers in boosting the participation of small businesses in tender opportunities.
The agency has already connected over 70 of its client firms with public bodies developing a number of programmes that will improve service delivery.
The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), for example, is developing a number of technology-led solutions which will help improve passenger experiences as they transit through terminals.
The DAA is engaging with a number of Enterprise Ireland high-potential technology firms as part of that process.
Meanwhile, a cluster of Enterprise Ireland clients are engaged around opportunities for the design, build and management of infrastructure supporting the ESB’s rollout of electric cars.
Minister O’Keeffe said it was vital that small Irish businesses were fully aware of public sector procurement opportunities.
‘It is important that public sector organisations develop relationships with Enterprise Ireland so that they have a strong knowledge of the indigenous enterprise landscape.
‘Public sector organisations should be aware of the economic impact their procurement spend can have on small Irish businesses and, in particular, the implications for job creation in local communities.
‘Irish firms themselves should be given every help to fully engage with the public procurement process so that they can pitch successfully for business opportunities,’ said Minister O’Keeffe.
The chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, Frank Ryan, said many of the agency’s client companies have innovative solutions that can bring value and efficiencies to public sector bodies.
‘We are delighted to work with contracting authorities that are taking positive actions in engaging with Irish small and medium-sized enterprises for increased tender participation.
‘Winning reference sites in Ireland is of great importance to our client companies, both in terms of the value of the contracts won and as they seek to internationalise their solutions for export growth.
‘We welcome the opportunities which these current engagements are giving and look forward to their conversion into business wins’, he said.
