How to Increase Sales and Conversion - Small and Medium Internet Retailers

I have been working in eCommerce industry for quite sometime now and has worked with some major internet retailers and quite a few small and medium internet retailing companies.

 

Before we get into to topic lets look at what internet retailing has done. This channel (Internet Retail) has made the retailing world flat. The scenario was different few years back. Huge stores who can offer great discounts got more sales and to invest on such a store was merely impossible for small and medium retailers. But the game is different online. A small or medium player can compete with Wal-Mart and there is no monopoly in here. It all depends on how search engine friendly your website is and how effectively you do online marketing. It does not stop there, you can still increase your conversion using tools like LiveChat.

 

Search Engine Marketing - SEM can improve your site's visibility on Search Engine's. This means that you are inviting a lot of eyeballs into your site. These are potential leads. To get your visibility increased you can use Search Engine ptimization (Natural or Organic Search), Pay Per Click Marketing (Paid or Sponsered Search), Affiliate Maketing, Link Building and Comparison Engine Campaigns. These are few ways in which you can invite eyeballs or in other words you can bring traffic into your website. Every component mentioned has its own advantage for ex: SEO is time consuming but long standing wherein PPC is quick and instantaneous.

 

You can carry out any of these based on your BUDGET.........BUDGET?????? this is the biggest headache for small etailers. For businesses that do not have a huge budget on marketing can still do all these in a structured manner. For Instance: Initially they can spend on paid and affiliate marketing increase sales and revenue and then step into doing Search Engine Optimization. Pay Per Click or Paid Marketing can bring you instant sales so is Affiliate which is one step ahead you get the sale and pay a commission for it use this for other activities. While you these also try to get maximum conversion. Today there is huge competition in online retailing, the maximum you convert is good for you. So you can use LiveChat as a sales tool to convert maximum leads. There is a lot ways to do get success out of LiveChat (I would post a thread on LiveChat advantages separetly).

To do all this small and medium internet retailers can look at Offshore Companies that can reduce operational cost.

name, fame and money VS law....the Sanjay Dutt saga

Sanjay Dutt - now a good samaritan and a good actor who has given some films recently with good messages to the society.......good and that has to be appreciated.........but today he is awarded a six year sentence for his involvement is an arms deal and his allegiance with the underworld is also being proved.

Media has given extreme importance to his story and some channels went one step ahead and started portraying him as a gandhian who is a changed man and deserves to be relieved of his cases. I have a different view on this and my view is the courts view. A person at the age of 34 knows what he does and whom he is having contacts with. While he attended the party with the under world don in 93 didnt he know that he is meeting a person wanted by the police . If supporting a don is a criminal activity then knowing his whereabouts and not informing the police is equally criminal. It did not end there, he has further maintained the relationship which helped him to buy an AK 56 rifle.

He is being sentenced for what he committed as a crime. If he has realised his mistake and has changed himself then he should serve the sentence. Law always is leanient to people who have a good behaviour while they serve their sentence. But caliming to be released before serving the sentence is based on good behaviour during the trial is not something that should be considered.

I also heard people talking if politicians can commit crime and go scot free then why not Snjay (Kiron Kher mentioned this while talking to IBNLIVE) if that is the case no one can be sentenced for any crime and this country will be like Sudan (Darfur). I agree there is lot of loop holes and mistakes happening but that cannot be quoted as an example to free a convict. Why didnt Kiron Kher raise her voice when a person was jailed for decades without a charge? (this story was in news sometime ago)

I appreciate the honourable judge Mr.Kode for this verdict.

If Begging is an act of SHAME....then offering is an equal shame

This question has been running in my mind for a long time. Why do people beg??????? I have had discussion with number of friends on this in the pat. Every one have their own point of view some said its right and the others argued its wrong. I always believe its wrong. The ones who argued its right to beg always said that the others fail to look at the reality. Now lets talk about the reality before that lets see who actually begs.........economically deprived (very broad classification though), physically challenged, MOTHER's WITH NEW BORN (u see them often in signals) aged people and there is this category which always looses money and get stranded and would seek for their transport expense. We generally offer money to aged and physically challenged but why do we do the same to people who are healthy and young. We should never encourage anyone mentioned above to beg coz these days people have a lot of opportunities to make out a living. Especially the the highlighted category, few days back I read an article in a weekly magazine which said that there are people who rent out new born and infants to beggers. They do this to create sympathy and this article went on to say that they DRUG these babies to make them look dull out of hunger and not to pesture them while they beg. If a baby is drugged it generally lies there idle on the shoulders of the begger. I started to take closer look at those babies after reading this and was shocked to see the description was true.

 

Now lets see some realities:

 

Today I met two people who inspired me to write this article

1.Murugan - Carbage Collector

2. Sekar - Street Hawker.

 

Murugan - collects plastics, papers and bottle's from garbage and sells it. This is collected by some wholesaler. I asked him why he does this and why didnt he find another better job. He said he could not find a job and I thought this guy is lazy. I was surprised to know he walks not less than 50 to 60kms a day starting from 5am in the morning. So he is not lazy. His earnings were wuite interesting he makes 200 to 250Rs a day but there is challenges like rain and other things. He was happy with this earning and says he could make a living out of this. A decent living upto him which he earns out of his hard work not begging. He told me that he would die rather begging. I wanted to appreciate him some way, I had no idea to offer him money and make him think otherwise so I gave him food packets and some snax I bought for my lunch though the offering is worth for 100+Rs I felt good doing that also, i told him that this for sharing his business confidentials.

 

Sekar - sells bags in T Nagar. He carries his inventory on his shoulders and does a pitch to every passer by. I wanted to talk to him as I did with Murugan this time I had to invest 130Rs to get information from him anyways the investing is worth both ways. He, his father and his mother all earn at home. He sells seasonal products and he started by selling peanuts and felt his return are the same. So with help of his cousin who has a road side shop, he started selling products like this which is on a commission basis. His cousin gives it for 100Rs and it is talent to sell it to any price anything more goes to his pockets. He said at the end of the day if he has reached not his base target of 150Rs a day earning he would give away for a very less margin but most of the days he is able to achieve it. He give his mother 100Rs and the rest for him. His recent achievement is buying a DVD player since he likes watching movies and hearing songs. Though he was better than the first one, still he works hard to make a living.

 

These are realities and I do not understnad why people still beg? especially people who beg with children in their hand. I also think government and non profits can give out micro finance to help these small time sellers and give them little money at a very low interest and support them.

 

Conclusion:

 

DO NOT APPRECIATE BEGGING!!! rather Help people like Sekar by buying products from them and little magnanimity you can even buy it without bargaining or less bargaining and Help peopl like Murugan to come and collect those waste papers, bottles this way your trash can become someone's bread. Last but not least: you can see aged, retired people working as securities and watchman's you can help them coz they work hard to earn their bread.

Abdul Kalam Speech

Today, President of India, Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam gave his last speech as President to the combined house of parliament. It ws so deep and still a very simple speech. He said only three things How and What should India be in 2020? What will be our challenges? What is the key areas that should be addressed to achieve it? and What is our parliaments role and how should parliamentarians take it further? I am trying to get the trenscript of his speech and will post it once I get it.

It was a vision document, a guide for every Indian to carry.........I would suggest it to be displyed in parks, schools, colleges and in work place.

I wish Abdul Kalam all the very best in whatever he is going to do rest of his life and thanks a million to him for transforming the post of Presidentship from a mere formality to reality............

Professional Discipline and Dedication

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – John Rohn

We hail China and Japan for their accomplishment in building their nation and excelling in whatever they do. They literally are ruling every field that they have entered so far be it Business, Science and Technology or Agriculture anything for that matter…….they may be trailing in services and IT sector due to their linguistic limitations but researchers say they will very soon catch up with this short coming and if that happens India’s dominance in IT and services sector will be at threat.

We envy their growth and we try to compete with them…..good……but are we trying to understand why and how they could achieve all this…….I strongly believe that their discipline especially their professional discipline that’s taking them to height…….when you have discipline mixed with dedication you can accomplish your goals with ease…….This is not only with China and Japan alone you can take example of any developed nation…….they may differ in the way they structure their discipline but they take it very seriously…….couple of other examples are USA and UK……..I have closely worked with North American business men and have always admired their discipline and dedication in doing their duties….NO EXCUSES…….

Today India is growing in IT and ITES sectors at a fast pace……..I am very much concerned about the discipline and dedication within the group of people working in this sector for the very reason that it employs young and fresh minds. They are in the right stage to be groomed/taught professionalism, discipline and dedication. This not only helps to create a good business but also helps to create good people, nation and future generation……..my worry is that there is many businesses who fail to take this seriously and just not bothered about these things…..they are keen in building their business and earn good money……..they exploit our young minds and leave the with nothing but little money in their hands…….it may look like we are growing and getting better but in long term we would fail to achieve our goals coz we have not learnt the basics of professional life’s…..

Discussing this topic will bring in some light to this topic and you can go ahead and suggest ways to tackle this issue……….

InterLinking of Indian Rivers:

A topic that has gained momentum in last 5 years in this country and we are in the very early stages of even exploring the possibilities of carrying out this project. There is various factors on why this is issue is highgly debated like change in the monsoon, high demand and growing intolerance between states. If you look at other countries grown up and gorwing have already started  implementing inter linking of their rivers now and the ones who have done it are enjoying its benefits. Our competitor China is linking its rivers in a fast pace. 

India faces certain challenges because the dunamics of geo-politicality of this country is very different. It is always quite difficult to gain support to such an issue in a democratic and diverse country/society like ours. I strongly believe this is not a political and politicians issue alone and a consensus cannot be reached by politicising this issue. Infact, politicising this issue will undermine the merits of linking of rivers. But the bitter fact is that it is one of the most politized issue in our country now.

In the recent past water sharing issue is one of the most heated thing going on between the states. The threat is so high that the relationship between any southern state is not in good side. In days to come this will contribute further spoling of good relationship between states and will fuel to fragmentation. While every state is affected by water sharing issue TamilNadu is on of the ost affected coz we are in the corner and our climatical conditions are not as favorable as our neighbour Kerala which is another corner state. I do not want to blame any government or state for their actions coz afterall they are trying to protect the interests of their state and everone does it. It should be handled with an open mind and should be considered as a national issue of concern. It should be debated, discussed and a consensus should be arrived at a national level.

It is important economically, politically and for the better future of this country to carry out this project as soon as possible. There should be a lot of work done and lets discuss, debate and do as much as we can to get this started viewing this issue in a broader perspective.

Belief and Positive Energy

I was talking to someone on belief and positive energy. These three components are something that everyman should have in surplus and every one should know how much of these they have in themselves. You may aim, dream or be ambitious in life…….aiming, dreaming and being ambitious alone cannot make you achieve in life. You should have faith in you, you should believe in you and most importantly you should have positive energy within yourself to keep you rightly motivated.

Belief and positive energy will portray you better in life..…..you will look confident and sound good and you can get along with people easily. One should be able to identify and learn through the good and bad things happening in his/her life. Unless you have positive approach towards things you will not be able to identify or learn from life.

It took 27 years for me to understand this very simple concept of living and making life easier and enjoyable. These days I literally enjoy everything and I get to learn a lot and am considerably successful after I started this approach.

You may fail in Business, Relationships, Work, and most importantly Love……there is nothing like failure in all the above said. It is a failure if you deject or shy away from facing it but if you have positive approach and learn from the happening you will win over the situation and regain your position in anything. I can quote hundreds of examples here………

Belief and Positive approach is not the only key to success but all successful people have believe and have positive approach…………so it is for you to choose……..I have always said why god made both good and bad, right and wrong, positive and negative. right and evil spirit, he differentiates to the ones who choose good what is bad and who choose bad what is good……..