April 6, 2010

Smart Money, The Wall Street Journal Magazine of Personal Business, looked to AIS Media CEO Thomas Harpointner for his expertise in e-commerce, specifically Interactive tools and applications that make online shopping easier and more convenient for consumers. His comments included:

“Don’t focus too exclusively on price and ignore other fees like shipping or return costs,” says Thomas Harpointner, the CEO of AIS Media, an e-commerce consulting firm. “It’s in the consumer’s best interest to look at the total price of ownership of that product and factor in all the fees,” Harpointner says, and “sometimes the best deal is really at a local retailer.”

Click here to read the full article: Tools to Make Online Shopping Easier

Harpointner’s eCommerce Key Points:

• Social Networks Impact Online Shopping: Social media and friend referral networks have a strong impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions. A decade ago, none of this technology existed. Now, consumers are using blogs, social networks and Smartphone applications to price shop and check ratings and reviews while they are standing in a retail store.
• Mobile Marketing on The Rise: Mobile marketing reaches various age gaps, aiming at younger adults. It is difficult reaching teenagers with email campaigns because they rely on text messaging. The takeaway is that you have to know your audience. You have to take into account that people are checking text messages more than email so you must have a mobile strategy. Businesses need to focus on where their audience is and use their traditional advertising that is working well, and augment advertising strategies to reach the Interactive marketing world. Know that today’s consumers expect to receive their information in more than one way so it’s not so much a challenge as it is an opportunity.
• Smartphone Applications: There are a number of different online shopping applications available for smartphones. Browser add-ons do not have a platform that works on all phones. Which applications and browser add-ons consumers use are really determined by their phone preference. Applications and browser add-ons are valuable tools for retailers and consumers and will continue to be a growing trend. Making your company or retail store available through a smartphone application is critical.
• Consumers use Search Engines: 96% of all searches that are done on the Internet start with the use of search engines. Consumers find coupon sites before making a purchase via search engines. After finding that coupon site, customers will bookmark the site directly and refer to it again and again. Making a bad buying decision becomes unlikely after consumers find coupons and search for online ratings and reviews of the product. With all of the cutting-edge information available on products via the Internet the chances of consumers getting stuck with a bad product is very unlikely.