Genesys explains how Asian businesses can do e-commerce better

Source: Genesys.
Thomassain.

Many businesses fall short of their e-commerce promises or fail to keep up with the rapidly evolving expectations of their customers, says Genesys, which provides businesses with a customer experience platform that enables them to leverage customer information and data from their contact centre interactions for a seamless customer experience.

"According to a Forrester report, the estimated total of annual abandoned shopping cart revenue will reach US$31 billion dollars in the next few years," said Erwann Thomassain, Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific, Genesys. "Forrester’s 2013 study, CX online, revealed that 52% of customers will abandon online purchases if they can’t find a quick answer." 

One reason is an attention span that is growing shorter, says Thomassain. "It’s estimated that 55% of people spend fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page and 38% who visited a page closed it immediately after it loads. When moving online, businesses have to get it right. As statistics show customers can be unforgiving, so creating a unique customer experience is pivotal to retention and repeat sales," he said.

Another reason is logistics, he said. "Customers are increasingly demanding shorter lead times and reliable logistics providers," he noted. 

Another hurdle businesses in the region have to overcome is the underdeveloped banking services, Thomassain added. "Low banking and credit card penetration rate is an obstacle to businesses looking to offer fast and convenient online payment to complement their e-commerce offerings. Across the region, markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Philippines said less than 5% of e-commerce shoppers paid online last year."

Genesys believes that live multi-channel interaction along with detailed profiles and catering to the buying behaviours of customers is what will help convert the remaining 80% of ‘wanderers’ during the browsing stage of the buying cycle. "With the competition for customer loyalty heating up, understanding that customers expect an effortless yet engaging service is crucial and must be considered in the customer experience journey provided," he said. "Businesses ignoring this trend are simply missing out of potential sales and giving away market share to their competitors."

To establish a successful presence in e-commerce, Thomassain advises businesses to: 

- Make it as easy and hassle-free as possible. "With the average attention span on a website at 15 seconds (that is, if they stay pass the page has completely loaded), customers can get easily frustrated when maneuvring through sites, so it’s important to simplify the process and ensure they don’t switch elsewhere else in one swift click," he said.

- Think about security. "Nothing ruins a customer’s confidence in a retailer than having all their personal and financial information leaked to hackers due to vulnerable firewalls," he pointed out.

- Use multi-channel platforms to fully identify and understand the context of each customer interaction. "With a holistic view into the customer journey, businesses will then be able to power great customer experiences," he explained. 

Read what Genesys thinks about e-commerce potential in Asia Pacific here.

LinkedIn offers advice on minimising talent mismatch

A global study by PwC commissioned by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, has included recommendations for professionals, employers, educators and government on poor talent adaptability – the inability for people to retrain for new skills or switch industries.

The study, Adapt to Survive, analyses interactions from LinkedIn’s network of 277 million professionals and information on 2,600 employers from PwC’s Saratoga database, a resource for people and performance metrics, to establish how 11 markets align talent with opportunity.

According to LinkedIn, professionals, employers, educators and governments can position themselves to minimise the possibility of talent mismatches. 
 
Professionals

The rise of social media and an increasingly connected global workforce means it’s never been easier for people to identify new opportunities, plan to develop the skills, and create a network that will allow them to transition into new roles. This could be as simple as staying up-to-speed with companies that might be hiring in your area, or identifying emerging sectors around the world that could present an opportunity for a dramatic career change.

Employers

Talent is the number one factor in competitive success for business, and businesses need to move faster to adapt to new market forces. An existing mismatch of talent in the wrong roles creates a window of opportunity for employers able to identify and attract the right talent to their organisation. 

Social media has made it possible to identify all the relevant candidates – both active and passive – many of whom may not be doing the jobs they want. Employers should use talent analytics to identify the hard and soft skills that are central to the business strategy today and in the future, allowing them to hire strategically.

Educators

Education never stops, and educators should be looking at what skills are in growing demand and which jobs are emerging in the global workforce. They should then adapt curricula so students are equipped with relevant skills when they leave formal education.

Governments

Governments should play an active role in shaping a national mindset that values, nurtures and rewards adaptability. They need to use the levers at their disposal such as employment and immigration laws, as well as proactively shaping education and training systems.

The coolest productivity tips for Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office 2013 provides a number of advances over the older versions, but users who have used Office for years may not realise what these cool new features are. At the launch of Office 365 Personal in Singapore, where pricing was announced (S$89 a year), Elsie Chong, Marketing Manager, PC Category, Consumer and Channels Group, Microsoft Singapore, introduced her favourites:

PDF Reflow: Word 2013 will open PDF documents as if they are Word documents, preserving the formatting as far as possible while making the text editable. The edited document can be saved as a PDF, or as a Word file.

Excel 2013 has a function called 'Flash Fill' that instantly understands what is being abstracted from existing data, and automatically fills up the rest of the row or column with the appropriate data. In this example, Chong typed in 'Andrew' and the software filled in the rest immediately.

Powerpoint 2013 has a mini dashboard feature which is officially called the Presenter View. This is an all-in-one screen that allows presenters to manage everything they need while giving a presentation, including skipping slides without the audience realising it, reading speakers' notes in extra large print, and switching displays.

As with Word and PDFs, the new Office for iPad also preserves the formatting seen in documents created on other devices, Chong said. "It was built from scratch, and optimised for touch," she said. In particular, the transitions between Powerpoint slides work as they should, she added.

The cloud-based Office 365 will always enable the latest versions of Office for subscribers' use, allowing them to enjoy the features as Chong has described. 

Criteo offers three tips for sales conversions

Criteo, a digital performance display advertising player has some tips gleaned from working with travel industry partners that could help companies to turn contacts into paying customers. The tips are applicable to all industries: 

Tip #1: Acquire new users at the right time of the year
 
Travel apps are downloaded more in the summer (roughly June to September), so there’s a window of opportunity, before peak season, to reach a higher percentage of active users*.

Promote your download in sync with your customers’ planning and purchasing cycle to get the best return on new acquisitions, Criteo advises.  

Tip #2: Don’t just promote downloads: change the message based on user activity

Companies should offer alternative messages to reach different types of existing users. Companies can promote their product or service to active users or re-engage lapsed users, all during seasonal window of opportunity, Criteo suggests.

Tip #3: Reactivate your most valuable users while they are most receptive
 
Analytics can help to re-engage customers, says Criteo. By tracking registrations, sales, and sales value, companies can calculate average revenue per daily active user, their lifetime value, and ROI, then target them with relevant ads. 

*Active users = users who have opened the app at least 3 times