Kristina Harrington and Ken Novak are two experts who have spent their careers helping industrial organizations digitally transform and grow their online businesses. They teamed to create the eCommerce Success Video Series so they could bring their knowledge to an even wider audience. The videos touch on various topics that impact manufacturers and give insights into best practices, along with how to truly succeed with an online sales channel.
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Kristina Harrington, GenAlpha, President and COO | Ken Novak, HATCH quantified, Owner |
Episode 1: Product Search
Search is an incredibly important part of eCommerce. It's often the first interaction when someone visits a site. If there's a subpar product search experience, it's an instant bad first impression. But search is a complicated process for manufacturers. There are multitudes of product and part numbers that all need to be accounted for, which puts stress on the search engine. So allocating the right time and resources to this part of the eCommerce process pays dividends when it comes to online sales.
Episode 2: Product Lead Times
Historically companies have been hesitant to show lead times, but that needs to change. Customers have deadlines they need to meet, and they expect to be kept up-to-date on lead times. This can become even more crucial when supply chains are strained, and buyers want to be confident they'll have the product when they need it. There are some best practices that make providing lead times simpler and assure that customer expectations are being met.
Episode 3: Product Quotations
Should product quotations be used in an eCommerce site? If someone was to email or call, they'd get a quote, so why should online be any different? Providing quotes can provide tremendous value not only to customers but to a sales team as well. No one has to call a call center to get a quote, so those team members can instead work on higher value-adding activities.
Episode 4: eCommerce Checkout Page
What all goes into a good digital checkout experience? Manufacturers are often missing critical items that lead to fewer sales and an inability to meet customer expectations. Buyers are used to the buying experiences in their personal lives, and those experiences inform what they want when making a B2B purchase. There are a few steps that will have a big impact on eCommerce success.
Episode 5: Product Attribution
Product attribution can be a challenge for manufacturers that have a lot of products to manage. There can be thousands of different attributes that all need to be accounted for. To start there needs to be a data cleanup so that customers can access different categories and values. It will be a continuous process, so begin with the products that are being searched for the most and go from there.
Episode 6: Product Categorization
Product categorization can be a challenge for industrial companies because often they haven't had to sell their products that way. It's important to think about what customers would call products since they'll be the ones searching for them. There are ways to research and discover new ways to categorize products that lead to increased online sales.
Episode 7: Website Navigation
There are a few navigation mistakes that industrial companies often make. The first step to fixing them is to make sure product content is on the website. It will help reduce any friction that exists when customers are trying to find a product and lead to greater eCommerce success.