The boundary of e-marketing?

If you think the Internet is the way that you can promote anything without boundary, you may realize that there is no such utopia while hitting upon some invisible walls. The walls in the Internet are referred to the intangible boundary, such as the culture, the languages, the consumers’ behaviors, and even the Internet coverage. However, an excellent e-marketer or the entrepreneurs could turn the threats into opportunities, building the entry barriers for their business based on those constrains. Here are some ideas about how the obstacles look like and how to address the issues, and even turn the treats into your opportunities.


@Logistic service
It is no way for customers to spend extra money on delivering service, especially in the highly competitive market, while your competitors consider the free delivery service as the essential customer service. TIPS AND TRICKS: However, how about playing around the concept of “shipping fee”, drop the product price to zero, but remain the shipping fee itself. There is a successful business model initialed by advertising companies who usually have to distribute the product samples to target customers and then collect the feedback, or simply give away the products samples away to raise the brand awareness in some cases. The main cost came from shipping fee and the objective of giving away the product for marketing purpose rather than gaining margin from them, provoke the ideas of “free product, the only fee you pay is shipping fee”. It sounds pretty make sense while the total price dropping within $10-$15. For vendors and advertisers, they shift the shipping fee to customers in a reasonable way and even better is that those customers who are willing to pay some extra fee are definitely should be the target customers.


@Payment and tax
Due to the boosting online crime committed by the hackers came from worldwide, the credit cards are not totally boundary-free payment method. You can find some eCommerce companies are not willing to accept the credit cards issued by some certain areas or countries. Taxation is also a problem accompanied with shipping service. TIPS AND TRICKS: how about introduce the “Micro Payment” methods that can be pre-paid by credit card, the bonus from other third-parties associations, or even customers’ cell phone services. We both know that the first transaction take much efforts than second, once the customers established the relationship with you, the switching cost of the customers tends to be increased so that you can charge the premium as long as you keep their satisfactions. Moreover, some specific industrial sectors are keen to provide payment methods other than credit card to avoid the concern of customers who are not willing to leave their personal ordering information. The great and classical example is – rated 18 related sectors, such as online porn movies, adult toys, interacting chatting service etc. it is a good idea for those special sectors to provide anonymous payment methods that can also protect the rights for both sides.


@Customer service
In some countries, it is mandatory to accept any returned purchases from customers. The regulation influences the margin structure and logistic service significantly, resulting in a nature tendency of geographic constrains. Under this circumstance, it becomes a vital issue that to find out the truly loyalty customers and the customers who contribute the main portion of your margin so that you know whom are deserved your red carpet services. The famous case of FEDEX’ S customer service survey conducted in 2005 revealed an appealing information that the most frequently purchased customers are not necessary the most profitable customers. Moreover, the troublesome customers usually burn out the margin while you thought they are your GOOD customers. The convention that every customer deserves the equal importance is needed to be examined by analyzing the contribution they bring in terms of net value, net margins, and other values that can be measured.


@Third parties’ certification (B2B specific)
As the transaction involved in international trading, the certificated intuitions play an important role to facilitate the transactions. The lack of qualified certification could lead the result to the dead end of the business leads. TIPS & TRICKS: how about creating one for yourself or be the first mover in the emerging market. The extremely successful case- alibaba.com, a B2B website based in China, focus on the market of international trading. While alibaba.com faced the challenge about the lack of authorized organization as the intermediates to certificate Chinese manufacturers and factories, alibaba.com build a trust program provided by banks from worldwide, establishing a specific authorized system for Chinese companies to provide their transaction record as the reference for foreign companies. This trust program keeps the competitors away and even more, create a new standard procedure of B2B transaction in small to medium sized companies.


@Boundary is not that bad
As the battle is joined, the boundaries are not that bad if the marketer know how to play around with them. Just like the old sayings- no pains no gains, we may put this way- no treats, no opportunities.