7 iCommerce Tips: Learning From Apple

7 iCommerce Tips: Learning From Apple

Table of Contents

1 Make your online store easy to navigate

Keep choices to a minimum2

3 Build relationships with your customers, even online

7 Inform and teach your customers to create loyalty

4 Make sure support is always available and accessible

6 Segregate your social platforms if you have multiple markets

5 Personalize the shopping experience

Make your online store easy to navigate1

Make your online store easy to navigate

● The online store is simple, has the nearly trademarked white space, and clearly defines the five major products Apple sells.

● Product headers are easy to see and navigate through.

● At all times, the “Buy Now” button (in blue) is available for the prospective buyer.

● The product specs are simply laid out and easy to touch or click on, as the customer navigates through the buying process.

● Once in the advanced sales funnel process, the purchaser is directed to very visual choices, making the options very clear and extremely easy to navigate.

What can retailers learn from this?

1 Create a visually pleasing online store and showcase your products with your consumer in mind.

2 Make your sales funnel easy to start on your site. Create distinct “buy” buttons.

3 Keep your products sorted, with distinct navigation buttons.

4 If possible, allow for changes along the sales process without causing problems for your customer.

Keep choices to a minimum2

Keep choices to a minimum

● Consumers buy when they have fewer choices - too many decisions leave the customer paralyzed in purchasing.

● Apple has hundreds of thousands of products

available through its site, yet it keeps choices to a minimum.

● Products are sorted neatly into simple header sections.

● Clicking into one section, leads the consumer into further easy to see and and easy to manage choices.

● A consumer is not overwhelmed, making for a more pleasant shopping experience.

● The buyer is likely to purchase again.


1 If you have many products in your store, bundle them in categories.

2 Show your prospective consumer more choices only as they make their way through the sales funnel.

3 Let your consumer know you have options, but don't overwhelm them with too much choice all at once.

Build relationships with your customers, even online3

Build relationships with your customers, even online

● At Apple, a core aspect of its retail training is customer relationships.

● This applies online and offline.

● The eCommerce site is filled with clickable visuals - the customer is not obliged to buy, but is welcome to 'hang out' and play around with the product.

● The site offers a clear, distinct phone number for ‘questions’. with happy sales staff photographed by taglines of “Get answers before you buy” and “Get support that’s personal”.

● Additionally, they have an active community section on the site, where customers can ask and answer Apple related topics directly with other customers.

- Ron Johnson, Former Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Apple Inc., in Harvard Business Review

"[S]taff isn't focused on

selling stuff, it's focused

on building relationships

and trying to make

people's lives better.”


1 Customers online are just as valuable to your bottom line as customers who walk in to your bricks and mortar store. Treat them as such.

2 Create easy options for your customer to reach you for questions, not just sales and support.

3 Create a community for your customers. You can do this in a forum type outlet, like Apple.

You can also do this through your social media sites, such as by setting up common hashtags on Twitter, active posts on Facebook, or unique boards on Pinterest.

Make sure support is always available and accessible4

Make sure support is always available and accessible ● Support is extremely accessible, and always

available.

● The online store has distinct visual options for support on all the major products.

● Each leads to an easy to navigate support page with notable topics, resources and contact options.

● Downloadable fixes and updates are at the ready.

● Manuals and video tutorials are simple to access.

● Communities are available to garner support from fellow Apple product users.


1 Customers online are just as valuable to your bottom line as customers who walk in to your bricks and mortar store. Treat them as such.

2 Create various options for customer support. For example, keep product manuals on your website.

3 If your product is a particularly technical one, but your consumer is not, make your support team seem friendly. For example, show faces of your staff on your support page.

Personalize the shopping experience5

Personalize the shopping experience

● Apple is all about being a little bit different, and having individualized, personal choices.

● Apple knows how to customize a product,

from a variety of accessories for any of your products, to personal engravings.

● The online store creates a very personal feeling, with many of the products shown with human faces, or interesting places.

● The written content on the site is professional, limited, and colloquial.

● Products like iTunes and Apple TV offer you your choices, anytime, anywhere, and anyhow you like it.


1 Offer customized and personalized options for your products. For example, offer gift wrapping services that a customer can choose and personalize.

2 Show your face, or the face of staff or customers (if they are willing) on your site.

3 Pay attention to the tone of your written content on your site. Are you writing to connect with your customer?

Multiple Markets? Segregate your social platforms

6

Multiple Markets? Segregate your social platforms

● Believe it or not, Apple really doesn't do a lot in the way of social media.

● When they do, they have multiple, segregated Facebook and Twitter accounts.

● They use the social sites to promote new songs, movies, apps, TV, books, educational material, and podcasts.

● 2 Facebook Pages: iTunes and Apps

● 7 Twitter handles: music, apps, TV, Movie, iTunesU, Bookstore and Podcasts

● Favorite songs are easily shared by fans to friends.

● Songs, albums and other products are streamlined to purchase with a click from Facebook to iTunes.


1 With multiple products targeting multiple markets, set up specific social platforms to interact with your audience.

2 Promote your products, but keep the lifestyle of your consumer in mind, and post about related stuff too.

3Set up a social store on your Facebook page to make it easy for your fans to purchase your wares, and to share this with their friends.

An easy way to set up a social store is through Wishpond’s Social Marketing Suite

4

http://bit.ly/11KwU5G



Inform and teach to create customer loyalty7

Inform and teach to create customer loyalty

● Teaching your customers about your products creates loyalty.

● The more informed a consumer is about your product, the more they feel like they know it well, and the more they will appreciate it.

● Apple rules in this domain. The site has:

○ A plethora of cleanly designed videos, and simple how-to’s

○ Detailed specs for every product, with comparisons to other Apple products

○ Manuals and user guides available for every device

○ Easy quick start guides○ Warranty information

● And, if you still need more information, customer service is available through a clearly marked 1-800 number on the site, or at your nearby Apple store.


1 Educate your customers about your product by having easily accessible information on your site.

2 Make simple how-to videos about your products. You can embed these on your online store site, as well as social sites.

3 Include specifications about your product, so that the consumer can choose which product is right for them.

Thank you for viewing!

Contact us at [email protected] for a personal social marketing consultation.

wishpond.com

Written by:

Krista BunskoekPR & Content Marketing ManagerWishpond

@wishpond

