The Nexternal Nexus recently had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Palkovic from Birkenstock of San Diego. Birkenstock of San Diego launched their e-commerce site about 3 years ago and since that time, their online sales have grown steadily. Sales increased 200% from their 1st to 2nd year and another 200% between their 2nd and 3rd year.

Matt attributes this success to a number of factors, including the addition of new products, starting with only 3 brands, then jumping to 5 and, ultimately, to their present 10. As you offer more options to your customers, they will be more likely to buy from you. Also, he attributes their success to great customer service, which has led to many repeat customers. Matt says, “Customer service starts at the moment the customer enters your online store. It is crucial that the ordering process be simple and intuitive. Also, it always helps to know your customers. Most importantly, however, is marketing and advertising. That has been key.”

Understandably, he didn’t want to give away all of the secrets to their success, but he did give us a few pointers. He acknowledged that they have the benefit of being a successful local brick and mortar retailer with frequent print ads, but he also emphasized the importance of search engine optimization and buying pay-per-click keywords and phrases. Helping in this manner, their e-commerce software, supplied by Nexternal Solutions, enabled Birkenstock of San Diego to track their ad campaign and keyword phrase purchases to allow them to get a better handle on which campaigns work and which do not. It allows them to spend their ad budget more wisely.

So, for those of you just starting out, or looking to improve, Matt offers the following advice:

1.) Get your name out there as much as you can. The more people who know of you, the better.
2.) Take care of your customers. This is where you will see a difference.

With that in mind, we should all look forward to what Matt says will be a bright future for e-commerce. Even though Matt says that there is something to be said about walking into a store, seeing a product and buying it on the spot, e-commerce is much easier and significantly more convenient. Without a doubt, Matt exclaims, “E-commerce is now firmly rooted and here to stay!”

We all know that marketing your site is one of the most important things you can do with your e-commerce business. What do you do if you’ve exhausted your marketing budget or can’t afford to spend more, but are willing to put in some extra time and effort?

Here’s a great idea. Search for your site on some of the major search engines to which we link below. If you don’t find your site, submit your site for free to that engine. It’s as easy as that. You won’t immediately get a million hits but in time you should notice an increase. And, as we all know, every little advantage you can give yourself certainly helps.

Submission URLs:

http://www.google.com/addurl.html

http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
This site is frequently overloaded with traffic and may appear to be "down," but, rest assured, this is the correct URL.

http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new

http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm

http://www.hotbot.lycos.co.uk/submit.html

http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php

http://dpcatalog.dogpile.com/texis/websearch/modify.html

On February 6th, Overture announced that it is increasing its minimum bid from 5 cents per click to 10 cents per click effective immediately. Overture, the most popular pay per click search engine company, is used by online retailers the world over. While this price increase will upset some, most advertisers will find that very few of their search engine terms can obtain top five listings for less than 10 cents per click anyway. As Overture has become more and more popular, largely based on the success it produces, keywords and phrases have steadily increased over the last few years. Though the minimum has increased, most online retailers find that it is still one of the most effective and profitable advertising channels in terms of ROI as long as they have a good conversion rate. To find out more about tracking your ROI from Overture, please refer the June 2002 issue - Nexternal Nexus v. 2.06.

And, if you haven't yet heard, Overture announced on February 18th that they have purchased the AltaVista search engine from CMGI. This means that AltaVista might begin to become more and more important in your search engine marketing. We recommend that you keep on eye on this one. Read more about it at http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=OVER&script=410&layout=0&item_id=383636

To subscribe to this ezine, please click the link below:
http://www.nexternal.com/nexus/subscribe

To read previous versions of this ezine, please click the link below:
http://www.nexternal.com/nexus

Copyright 2009 Nexternal Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be republished in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.