If you missed last week's webinar with Elastic Path, From Manufacturer to Retailer: Expanding Your Brand Through E-commerce, you can view a recording of the webinar here
You can also check out my guest blog post on getelastic.com highlighting a portion of the webinar: Getting Your Product Content Ready for the Consumer
Still hungry?
A critical decision manufacturers face when establishing their e-commerce presence is "What is the meaning of life?", or more practically, "What is our site's role in e-commerce?" The obvious answers of "we want to sell more product" and "we want to build our brand" immediately surface, but the subtleties of how you choose to do that can be much more interesting and complex.
While manufacturer websites are cited as one of the first places shoppers go to get product information (source: Forrester Research), these sites, while growing, aren't getting a lion's share of the online sales. See the below chart from e-Marketer:
It may be that the commerce capabilities on these sites are limited. It may be that consumers simply want to research on manufacturer sites, then go to the retailer (bricks or online) to buy.
Whatever the case, manufacturers can win by determining where they can add value to the shopping experience and how they can best facilitate the transaction, even if it's on a retail partner's site instead of their own.
Here are a few note able examples from the webinar showing distinct approaches to handling the transaction:
First, online powerhouse Nike. Great site, well executed shopping process with extensive imagery and product information. This is all about Nike capturing the transaction and customer relationship themselves, and they do it well. Note that access to retail partners is hardly noticeable at the bottom of the page and the store locator is utilitarian at best, no indication of whether or not those stores even carry the product I'm looking at.
Contrast the approach above with Patagonia, who offers a choice of seamless options to purchase, either on their own site, or at a retail partner. They let me know that the item I'm looking at is available from a variety of partners, and take me right to the appropriate product page, with identical product descriptions to assure me that I am indeed getting the item I want.
Callaway Golf offers a good shopping and transactive experience, but then passes the order to a nearby retail partner for fulfillment - a nice way of servicing the customer and adding value for retail partners:
Samsung does the ultimate in combining great decision tools for both product selection and retail selection. The shopping tool helps me choose the dimensions, price and specifications of my TV. Then, I can see what retailers have the item in stock and even do a price comparison.
Whether it's one of the above or somewhere in between, the options for taking or transferring the transaction should be carefully considered, factoring in:
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Your brand's pervasiveness online and offline - how easy is it for customers to buy your product somewhere else?
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The size/scale and capabilities of your retail partners
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Your relationship with your retail partners
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Your own capacity/infrastructure for handling fulfillment, service and direct customer relationships
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Your brand and business objectives: is it about building a direct customer relationship? Or helping your retail partners sell more of your product? Or both?
Above all, think creatively: where can you add unique value in the customers research and purchase process? And, where can you bring value to your retail partners?
