by Fronetics | Oct 15, 2015 | Blog, Consumer Electronics, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
Consumers are using social media to help them make purchase decisions. An infographic by Invesp provides key details including that:
- 4 in 10 social media users have purchased an item online or in-store after sharing it or marking it as a favorite on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest.
- 50% of those purchases take place within a week; 80% take place within 3 weeks.
- 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals.
- Twitter is the most influential for tech purchases, and the least influential for gardening and decor.
- The top 2 ways Twitter helps solidify purchase decisions are: purchase location identification and product discovery.
A Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study found similar results. CEA found that 24 percent of consumers who use social media say that they always or almost always refer to social media websites before they make a consumer electronics purchase. For high engagement users (13.5 or more hours per week) this increases to 65 percent.
Here’s how companies can use this information to reduce returns.
Inform
Use social media to give consumers the basic facts about your company and your product.
Educate
Use social media to educate consumers about your product. Specifically, social media can be used to educate the consumer about how the product can be used, the benefits that can be realized by the use of the product, and the ROI of the product.
Engage
Use social media to engage with consumers.
If a consumer is considering the product, use social media to answer questions the consumer has, or to address concerns. Similarly, if the customer has already purchased your product, you can use social media to answer questions the consumer has, or to address concerns.
Through the use of social media you can enable consumers to make more informed purchase decisions. Additionally, you can use social media to answer questions and better educate consumers on how to use your product thereby reduce no fault found returns.
This was originally published on Electronics Purchasing Strategies.
by Fronetics | Oct 14, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
A study conducted by Accenture found that supply chain risk management is seen by companies as a priority. Seventy-six percent of companies who participated in the survey described supply chain risk management as important or very important, and 25 percent of respondents reported that they are planning to make increased investments of at least 20 percent in supply chain risk management in the next two years.
Social media is one place where an investment should be made.
Social media is not just for kids. Social media is not just for socializing. Social media is a business tool that can play an important role in supply chain risk management. Here are three reasons why your company should invest in social media.
News in real time
Social media is the new “newswire.” It has supplanted the AP, Dow Jones, and Bloomberg for breaking news. The earthquake in China, the Boston Marathon bombing, the death of Obama bin Laden, and the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton were all stories that broke on Twitter. Stories that played out over social media include the horsemeat scandal and Apple’s China supply chain sage.
When it comes to supply chain risk management, knowing what is happening in real time is vital. Whether it is learning about an earthquake that happened near your manufacturing facility, or monitoring the path and intensity of a hurricane – real time information will enable your company to make more informed and timelier decisions on how to manage or mitigate risk.
Identify emerging risks
In addition to providing timely information on events such as natural disasters and terror attacks, social media is a tool that can be used to identify additional risks to your company and supply chain. Specifically, social media can be used to identify risks such as weak links in your supply chain, missteps made by a supply chain partner, and customer concerns/dissatisfaction.
Managing and mitigate risks
A survey found that 89 percent of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience. The survey also found that 50 percent of consumers give a brand only one week to respond to a question before they stop doing business with them.
Social media is a great tool to provide customers with a great customer experience – fast. By engaging a dissatisfied customer over social media, listening to their concerns and addressing them – you are more likely to retain that customer and gain more customers. As the adage goes: “It is less expensive to retain a current customer than attain a new customer.”
Additionally, because social media allows for information to be distributed to a large number of people instantaneously, it is an effective tool for letting customers and partners know you are on top of an issue, or for altering them of an upcoming disruption.
When it comes to supply chain risk management communication and information is vital – social media is an effective tool to add to your company’s risk management toolkit. Get your company off the social media starting line.
This was previously published on Electronics Purchasing Strategies.
by Elizabeth Hines | Oct 12, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain
There are organizations that sell products and there are organizations that sell solutions. To be sure, both can be successful as long as products are being sold as products and solutions like solutions. The difference is that the product sale is really a commodity sale. Commodities come with an “each” price or a “per pound” pricing matrix, etc. It usually is a short or shortened sales cycle and negotiations revolve around the total price and your typical supplier performance metrics. The solution sale is much different. This sale is one that requires client discovery, isolation of unique client pain points (that only your solution can address effectively), and being able to drive distinct value for the client, and in turn, for your organization. This sales effort is highly specialized and requires selling time (sales cycle) that is much more detailed than a product sale. That being the case, you need to be sure that your close rates are high enough to justify the work load and sales cycle needed. You also need to be sure that the deals you close have a deal size that reflect the sales effort and cycle time (said another way, is the deal worth winning?)
If your sales team thrives on creating value for their customers far beyond ‘supplying’ their ‘product’ at the best price, check out our other solution selling tips below.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 29, 2015 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain
Across the globe, many industries are seeing aftermarket services outperforming the general market. We can point to many reasons for this occurrence: the tendency for aftermarket services to remain stable in trying times, buyers remaining flush with cash, competition among buyers driving valuations higher with historically low pricing, and buyers making strategic purchases to focus on supplementing growth of their own businesses by acquisition. Regardless of the reason why, investors have become increasingly interested in the aftermarket sector and the implications of this are significant. These deals have the power to change the market, alter customer base, and challenge companies’ competitive positions.
This is a far different story from just four years ago when an article ran in the New York Times Dealbook section by Stephen Davidoff titled, “For Private Equity, Fewer Deals in Leaner Times.” Davidoff’s article listed the primary forces that drove turbulence in that marketplace. At that time, there were too few “good” merger and acquisition opportunities, “deals” were greatly overpriced, and there were fewer sellers in the market (and the ones that were making themselves available are being snatched up by strategic buyers). But what was most interesting, and what I’ve been tracking since then, was that the private equity industry’s biggest problem was having too much money to invest. You read that correctly — too much money to invest.
When I read the phrase “too much money to invest,” it got me thinking about the hi-tech aftermarket services industry and how underserved it had been from a private equity standpoint. In the hi-tech aftermarket industry in particular, there were, and still are, plenty of really good platform companies with strong footholds in service or geographic niches that truly make them unique and valuable. What they typically lack, though, are the funds and guidance that a responsible and possibly patient private equity firm can offer. Not only do these platform companies in the high-tech aftermarket services space make for attractive investments, but it seems to me that the financials in these “niche companies” are there to support private equity interest, as well. These businesses typically have gross margins in the 35-40 percent range and net margins that are really attractive when compared with the overall hi-tech space. Combining or rolling up companies with expertise in adjacent service and/or geographic areas into a “newco” with broader reach and a deeper service offering will surely deliver financial results that private equity would consider better than not investing. The high-tech aftermarket services space is a fractionalized marketplace with accomplished participants, quality customers, and better than traditional financials when compared with the overall industry averages. And private equity firms have started to realize these points. To this, I say bravo, but there’s still lots of money that needs to be put to work.
![5 Tips Supply Chain Managers Need to Build Landing Pages That Convert [Infographic]](https://www.fronetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/landing-pages-that-convert.jpg)
by Fronetics | Sep 28, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain, Talent
Landing pages are a fundamental tool in converting website visitors into leads. They’re what convince your visitors that they absolutely must download your fabulous resource offer. Yet often times they’re treated as the annoying little sibling to high-value content pieces – tagging along almost as if an after-thought. In reality, landing pages have just as much, and possibly even more importance than the content offer. Besides, what good is your best resource if it’s landing page stinks?
Here are five tips supply chain managers need to build landing pages that are sure to convert visitors into leads.
