Boosting Online Cross-border Sales of Shoes: Strategies for Success

1. 2nd meeting 7th June 2018 Project Meeting - Rzeszow Boosting Online cross-border Sales of Shoes Name: ThanasisTheocharidis Organisation: Cosmic Innovations Region/Country: Cyprus

2. Online Sales Strategies (O1/A3) • Inputs: • O1/A1 – Rationalisation Phase • O1/A2 - Needs Validation Phase • O1/A3 - Training Methodology • Online consumer reports, mainly for the retail sector • Output: • Seven (7) digital strategies to uncover the potential from a range of services available to a virtual, "border-less" online community with customers in different locations

3. O1/A2 - Report on needs of footwear professionals Shoe configuration tool, Provision of environmental information in shoe card The analysis phase concluded that BOOST4Shoes project should focus primarily on skills covering:

4. O1/A3 – Online Strategies Definition Payments Ordering Communication Delivery Promotion 7 Strategies in total. All strategies will be broken down to actions spanning over all 6 areas of the e-Commerce life cycle (Ordering, Payment, Delivery, Communication Overall Service, Promotion). Here we see which is the main area of each strategy.

5. O1/A3 – Online Strategies Definition Go Mobile: targets to enhance the overall buying service. Moreover, the related technology can be used to provide additional benefits and address different needs. Promote: If an e-Commerce website is not promoted, customers won't be able to find it. A variety of free and paid advertising methods are available online for this purpose. Achieve “C”-Commerce: This refers to customer oriented e-Commerce and can be achieved via 4 Steps. Attitude to deliver: International deliveries opening up markets outside of the country is now viewed by many as the holy grail due to the fact that, in a recession, this initiative has generated significant revenue to retailers. Serve & Protect: Online shopping will continue to be an increasing global trend. Yet, the biggest barrier is the fear of potential fraud or identity theft. This fear still keeps millions of consumers from buying goods or services online. Attention to detail: Refers to overall service provision and may comprise specific delivery options, communication, etc. Mine you data: Refers to employing business analytics for extracting useful information from all data available in order to increase sales and grow.

6. O1/A4 - Action List (I) • The e-Commerce lifecycle comprises 6 main areas. These will be the modules of the Online Sales Manager (OSM) course and the actions will belong to these modules: • Ordering • Payment • Delivery • Communication • Overall Service • Promotion (Marketing)

7. Online reputation O1/A4 - Action List (II) Each module will comprise logical actions designed to improve performance pertinent to the area covered by the module. Here is an example with some logical actions per module: Rich online experience

8. O1/A4 - Action List (III) - Ordering Ordering • User profiles • Shoe fitting tool • Product info (material, origin, environmental issues etc) • Product comparisons • Stock information • Customization tool • Search box • Ease of selecting and amending orders • Product suggestions • Ordering progress Expected Impact

9. O1/A4 - Action List (IV) - Payments Payments • Security • Popular payment methods • Focus on cross-border payment methods • Mobile ready Expected Impact

10. O1/A4 - Action List (V) - Communication Communication • Delivery details via SMS • Customer service phone lines • Delivery rescheduling via SMS • Live chat • Monitoring & responding via social media Expected Impact

11. O1/A4 - Action List (V) - Delivery Delivery • Order tracking options • Item Returning Policy • Delivery Service Evaluation • Delivery rearranging • Information about customs charges • International address look up • Provision of special delivery instructions • Explicit mention the carrier • Delivery options Expected Impact

12. O1/A4 - Action List (VI) - Promotion Promotion • PPC tools • Website and Consumer Analytics • Promotional techniques • Search engine optimization (SEO) • Social media links • Email marketing • Newsletter Expected Impact

13. O1/A4 - Action List (VII) – Overall Service • M-commerce and tablets • Delivery information on product page (before check out) • Gift wrapping • Product Image quality • Alternate views (including zoom option) • Consumer reviews • Product Demos • ERP & CRM integration Overall Service Expected Impact

14. O1/A4 - Action List (VIII) – Conclusions • 44 actions across 6 modules*: • Ordering: 10 actions • Payments: 4 actions • Delivery: 8 actions • Communication: 5 actions • Overall Service: 10 actions • Promotion: 7 actions • * Consider reducing to maybe 40 • Some actions “touch” also on aspects spanning across modules: No problem, focus should be documenting the implementation of the action properly and not on staying within the boundaries of a module. Modules are just for classification under the OSM course.

15. O1/A4 - Action List (IX) – Proposal Provisions • Actions have a primary filter (action type): • Simple actions that can be implemented immediately without requiring an investment ("Quick wins"); • Simple actions that can be implemented immediately, but require an investment; • Actions that have prerequisites (other actions need to be implemented first), but require no investment; • Actions that have prerequisites and require an investment.

16. O1/A4 - Action List (X) – Proposal Provisions • Actions have secondary filters: • English language skills: Basic/Intermediate/Advanced • ICT Competence: Basic/Intermediate/Advanced • Webshop level: Starting/Established/Well-developed • Other filters also possible but need to be part of the action documentation template.

17. Resources • Template for documenting actions: • Excel Template with example of fully documented action • Example of previous online application by Danmar • Excel for action verification and allocation to partners