Should you start thinking about selling your products for tablet users?

In September 2011, almost 1/2 of tablet users made purchases using their device. 12% of Internet-using Americans own tablets.We are also seeing an increase of purchases made on tablets than on smart phones.

Here’s an eye-opener out of Website Magazine about Tablet usage:

“Mobile advertising company Jumptap, in conjunction with comScore, recently released Wave Two of its ongoing research project titled Understanding Mobile Audience, which “shows that tablet owners are almost as likely as PC and laptop owners to use their tablet device to make purchases.” According to the study, a whole 63 percent of tablet owners make purchases on their devices; this is compared to 83 percent of PC owners who shop on their computers.

How do you know if your customers use tablets?

Right now, here are some facts:

60% of tablet users are male
48% are 18-34 years old
43% have households incomes of $50,000 or more
47% have created a wish list on their tablet in the past month

Scan over the flyer below, there’s really interesting finds!

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Square is a new way to accept credit cards with a mobile device. Keeping it really simple, following Paypal, they only take out a percentage per sale. No monthly fees or extra costs. It’s pretty amazing.

Does it really work? What are the catches? As an experiment, I’ll be trying out Square for my business over the next few month for credit card transactions. I do appreciate my current merchant account, but if I use Square, I could save over $180/year in monthly fees and extra fees. Sounds like a deal I can’t beat.

In the meantime, I interviewed a few Portland, Oregon

businesses on why they have chosen Square and how’s it’s helping their business.

Dane Ault with Monkey Minion Press mentioned that
“We’d been wanting to add credit card processing to our convention appearances for a while before Square came out, but due to the costs associated (monthly fees, processing costs, etc) and the arcane mumbo-jumbo that most of the credit processing companies we looked at wanted, it was just unfeasible, no matter how much it might grow our bottom line. We looked into the credit procesing services offered by Costco, and a few others things that had iphone apps and those cell phones with the card swipers built into the sides.”

Dane noticed that their sales close to doubled once they could accept credit cards at their shows. Folks didn’t mind forking over their credit card to pay for items. He’s pretty happy with how Square has met their needs. He said “The fact that the Square app can also double as basically a mobile Point-of-Sale system and cash register is just fantastic in helping us keep track of not just credit card sales but cash sales, too.”

Kim Malek at Salt and Straw explains why they chose Square:

“We researched many traditional options but found the industry to be quite confusing.  We appreciate the systems to track sales by category and check on sales remotely at any time…I can keep track of what’s going on and call the shop to do things like manage labor or get more inventory as needed. Plus, it’s paper free, which supports our mission of doing what we can to tread lightly in the planet.”

Kim also mentioned some surprises they didn’t expect such as seeing their customer enjoy paying on an Ipad.

“People live seeing the sleek design and innovative interface…like getting to sign with their finger and have their receipt texted or emailed to them. It’s the only POS that causes people to cheer out in delight and call their friends over to watch them pay!”

She noted some cons were the system doesn’t accommodate for tipping so there’s been a decline in tips and some confusion with customers on the whole tipping thing in general. She also mentioned that Square is working on resolving tipping with their system.

Marco Madian, a massage therapist, found the using Square gave him the flexibility to accept credit cards no matter where he is. He works out of 2-3 offices and wanted to be able to bill for chair massages and Square is making it possible!

Marco mentioned that the downsides he’s found are the tipping aspect as well. He stated

“It would be nice if people wanted to tip that it’s not a straight % that they could just add a $$ amount instead.  As a Service Industry (massage) people often tip but to add 10-15% is not normal, usually it’s like $5 – $10 or something similar.”

Dane, Kim and Marco are overall pretty excited about Square and it sounds like it’s helping to grow their businesses. In the part two of this report on Square, I explore how I’ve been using it and talk more how mobile devices are allowing businesses to use services like Square.

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Earlier this year I wrote about Groupon and explored if it’s really helping businesses grow. This has been a pretty hot issue lately and I know I’ve seen a few businesses in Portland close shop because Groupon wasn’t the best decision for them. Others have been abused by some LivingSocial or Groupon customers and swear to never use them again for their business.

Michael Koploy of SoftwareAdvice.com recently emailed me to share a blog post where he laid down guidelines for businesses who want to consider Groupon or similar online coupons as part of their marketing plan. You can read the entire blog post here. Keep reading below for some general tips on what to consider when using an Online Coupon Service .

How Groupon works: A Brief Review

Groupon’s big pull is it’s wide reach of users. There’s a ton of folks signed up to get Groupon’s newsletter everyday. If you are willing to offer a product or service 50-90% off, Groupon will help promote it. If not enough consumers purchase the deal, you got a day of free advertising at no cost, no strings attached. But if the deal does sell enough, Groupon takes 30-60% of the coupon revenue after credit card processing fees. Groupon will then make payments in 3 phases over 90 days.

Two things Groupon promotes to businesses: lots of advertising and new customers. But does it work for every business?

3 Things to pay attention to when thinking about partnering with Groupon:

1. You don’t need cash immediately. Groupon pays out in 3 phases, so be prepared to offer a product or service without full revenue for up to 90 days.

2. You don’t need repeat customers: Groupon promises to bring new customers to your business and do repeat business. Studies have shown that 36% pay beyond the Groupon deal and only 20% return to the business.

3. You can handle a crazy amount of customers. Having days where you are having to scramble to make everyone happy, Groupon customers and your regular customers can be a nightmare. See below for some example of typical Groupon customers.

Different types of Groupon users (taken from the http://thecustomercollective.com/inboundsales/49613/does-groupon-work-your-business)

• The Economical Buyer

The “Economical Buyer” springs into action the minute he logs on his computer in the morning. He looks for a deal at a restaurant or bar he has avoided because he is too cheap to pay full price.  The “Economical Buyer” is very unlikely to provide repeat business unless you are going to continue these drastic discounts off your products/services.

• The Penny Pincher

These buyers are obsessed with trying anything and everything they haven’t yet experienced in their city. They treat Groupon like a giant buffet offering hundreds of businesses for them to sample. Normally a small business would be happy to have Groupons sold to people that like trying new places. But “The Penny Pincher” never thinks twice about going back to someplace a second time, they’re too focused on lining up plans to visit the next 10 places that offer a deal.

• The Coup-o-halic

These folks look at Groupons as free money. “Wait, you mean I spend $10 and get $25? That’s like $15 free!” As a result, they buy every single deal that is offered. Hoarding these Groupons to use at the absolute best, most useful, cost-saving moment, they drastically alter their shopping and living behaviors for months at a time in order to live off the stockpiled deals they have accumulating around them.  These are the same type of people that would go to five different grocery stores for the weeks groceries just so they can get redeem that weeks coupons.

• Your Current Customers

This guy isn’t going to waste his time trying new places or buying Groupons he may or may not use. He knows what he likes and sticks to the same routine and establishments each week. He doesn’t get caught up in the hype of Groupons for new or trendy places, but he watches the offers like a hawk. The moment a Groupon is offered to a place he visits regularly, boom! He’s on it like white on rice, buying the maximum allowable number of Groupons. Then he smugly but awkwardly spends the next 8 weeks using a Groupon for his $30 bar tab at his local watering hole.

The bottom line is take a close look at your numbers and costs before doing a deal with Groupon or Living Social. Think about the type of new customers you want to attract and how much you are willing to sacrifice or pay for each one. Some businesses have successfully launched their own version of Groupon, offering discounts on package deals of food, massages, pet-washes, etc. They are announcing them to the current customers and clients and are seeing a better return on investment. There’s no middle man and they make more money overall.

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There’s sooo many tools out there for the laptop, phone, and tablets. Which ones are the best?

Here’s a fun summary on the ones I find the most useful:

1) Wireless Bookmarks - need an easy way to keep track of all of your favorite links and not always have them be on the same computer or profile. You can login and see links anytime you want.

2) Mail Chimp – one of the easiest ways to get out a newsletter. Can’t beat how user-friendly their software is to use!

3) Flickr – it has it’s own social network. If you are an artist or photographer and aren’t on Flickr, you are missing out!

4) Skype – it’s amazing how much this has helped families businesses communicate for FREE. Have you tried their conference video calling yet?

5) More tools: I couldn’t leave out some favorites like Blinksale or Google Calendar. I use these tools almost daily! I love how Google Calendar is getting to have better integration on an iPhone as well!

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This week, I have a guest blogger: Helen Fang. Helen is the social media expert at Vendio, an ecommerce software company that enables online businesses to sell on Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and Google from one platform.

It is no secret that the popularity of social media sites continues to grow. Smart online
businesses are taking advantage of the ability to sell through social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter. Even businesses that do not offer products can still leverage
social media to build brand awareness or increase the number of leads or sale for a
service.

The power of social media is that it enables businesses of all sizes to play on the same
field and compete for the same customers. Anyone who would like to find easy ways to
sell online can do so very easily with the help of an ecommerce website and social media
marketing tools.

If you’re a small business looking to get started, but feel overwhelmed by the number of
options – then look no further. We’ll break it down for you in four easy steps.

1. Create an ecommerce website.

You have two main options: first, you can add a “shopping cart” to your existing website. This enables you to create online transactions. PayPal and Google Checkout are two very easy options. If you don’t have an ecommerce website or if yours currently needs an upgrade, do some research before you commit to buy. There are many ways to get an ecommerce website for free or for very little money. The most important question to ask an ecommerce website provider is if your new website can grow with your business? For example, if you have 10 products now, but hope to grow to 100, will your website be able to handle it? Will you be charged a much higher fee? What other charges could there be (e.g. hosting, bandwidth, images, SSL)?

2. Build a strong social brand by developing your ecommerce friendships online.

To build your social brand online you will need to establish a strong presence. One way to
do this is by developing a following online in the social media sites. Start engaging others
regularly in conversations and work in ways to talk about your business. The number
one mistake that businesses make is to simply “join” a social network versus “creating
a presence” on a social network. Know the strengths of each social media channel and
think about it as a marketing channel. Remember that social media is simply a way to
engage with your customers. You still have to close the sale.

3. Increase your social presence with help from your existing customers.

One great place to start is to leverage your existing user base. Tell your customers via newsletters,
blogs, and on your website that you’re on Facebook or Twitter and give them a reason to
follow you. These are people who are already interested in you and will probably help
you spread the word about your business. Simple offers like free shipping or customer
appreciation coupons really help to drive the message home. Make your customers your
best brand ambassadors.

4. Sell directly to your customers on social media channels.

While Facebook commerce or F-commerce is still relatively unproven, the possibility of selling to 700 million users can’t be ignored. Therefore, after you have started (because social media an ongoing strategy that never stops) steps 1-3, the next thing to think about is getting your Facebook fans to buy from you. By engaging others in conversation, befriending them and sharing with others people will begin to build up a trust in you and your ecommerce business. If you’re wondering about how to sell on Facebook, there are many providers who can help – many that are free.

5. Define your strategy and stick to them.

Too often small businesses want to hop on the “newest” social media channel. Keep in mind that this channel may not work for your business. The best way to succeed in social media is to stay focused on your end objectives and always calculate your return on investment. If you’re spending 10 hours a week on social media, how much is that worth per hour? Would that money have been better spent on paid search or a new web design? These are all things you should continuously evaluate because social media, but its very nature, is social. This can result in a huge time suck and you have a business to run.

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