Ecommerce News

• Is dynamic pricing really magical?

  Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy sees the delay as a business necessity: The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback. We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible. But not everyone agrees with Reidy and her fellow book publishing execs. One of those people is Seth Godin. He calls the move "lame-brained thinking on many levels, one involving teaching the market a lesson". His suggestion? Take advantage of dynamic pricing: When you produce a physical good like a book, it's really hard to change the price over time, especially if there are retail stores involved. But changing the price on an electronic good is trivially easy.So, for example, you could charge $24 for the Kindle edition for the first two weeks, then $15 for the next two weeks and then $9 for the year after that. Once it's a backlist classic, it could cost $2...Or, thinking about how you might create launch excitement, you could reverse it. $2 the first day, $5 the first week, then $9 later. Better hurry! The title of Godin's post is "The magic of dynamic pricing", and there's no doubt that book publishers could use a bit of magic right now as their industry, like so many others, struggles to adapt to a digital world. But is dynamic pricing really the magic Godin makes it out to be? To be sure, there's a lot to like about the general model he suggests. There are an almost unlimited number of ways you can implement dynamic pricing models to incentivise a consumer to make a purchase. When done correctly, there's no harm to overall revenue, and you might even realize more total revenue than you would have with standard pricing. But I'm not so sure dynamic pricing is all that it's cracked up to be. It can be hard to find the right model (and price points), meaning there's plenty of risk if you get it wrong. And it's not guaranteed to be a hit with consumers. After all, there's always someone who will be disappointed. If you purchased an ebook for $24 within the first two weeks after its release and didn't know that the price would drop to $15 after that, you might feel like you got the short end of the stick. Or if you see an ebook that's selling for $9 but that debuted at $2, you might wonder if it's really worth $9. When you get right down to it, I don't think the battle over ebooks has as much to do with pricing as it has to do with value. What you can charge for anything -- physical or digital -- comes down to perceived value. If you think my physical widget is worth $25, you'll pay it. And if you think my digital widget is worth the same amount, you'll pay that too. Obviously, that's a bit of a simplification, but the point still stands: if you've got a pricing problem, chances are you really have a value problem. In my opinion, book publishers should be concerned about the dirt cheap pricing of ebooks, and they should look to counter in some fashion. To do that effectively, however, they'll need to make sure that they're not protecting an arbitrary price point so much as they're defending the value of their product. Incidentally, dynamic pricing would most likely reaffirm to the consumer that book pricing is entirely arbitrary. That's a message that you don't want to send when you're trying to assert the value of your product. In the case of books, if consumers don't think the value is there, no amount of dynamic pricing magic will 'save' the book publishing industry. Photo credit: AGeekMom via Flickr.

• App review: iBarcode for iPhone

  The app compares prices for the US, UK, Germany and France though you need to change your preferred market in the settings section, otherwise it defaults to Germany. You can either search by keyword, or use the iPhone camera (this works on all iPhones) to scan the barcode and return matching product results: You then need to hover the phone over the barcode, until it is lined up with the arrows on screen, which can be a fiddly job: Once this has been done, matching results from a range of retailers so you can compare prices for the item: The problem with the search results for me is that prices were shown in Euros, despite my having set the UK as the preferred country, and the names or logos of retailers are not shown next to results, which makes it harder to decide which result to click on. Clicking on the link takes you to the retailers' product page, and most I tried were desktop pages, which makes it less likely that a customer will make a purchase straight from the phone. This happens even for retailer like Amazon that have mobile-optimised sites: The app displays a beta logo, and this may explain some of the errors I came across when using the app. All the keyword searches I tried, including 'iPod' which should return loads of results, produced this screen: Conclusion I'm not sure that an app should be in beta when it is released, especially when you are charging users to download it. If people get the app and try it, and find it doesn't work so well, then this means that many will not use it again, and may leave negative reviews, deterring others from using it. I think that shopping comparison services are potentially very useful for mobiles, and anything that avoids the need for users to spend time typing in product details is an improvement. Barcode scanners are one thing that makes it easier to quickly find price comparisons, though I found the camera functions on both the Amazon and Barnes & Noble apps, which allow you to find matching products by taking a picture if a DVD cover or book, easier to use, though this may be easier on an iPhone 3GS. The price is another issue here. OK, 59p for the app isn't going to break the bank, but if you are looking to earn commissions through price comparison, it makes sense to get as many users as possible. Charging a fee, however small, will mean fewer users. It is a potentially useful app, but the various bugs / faults need to be ironed out first, while I think the company needs to think about making it free in order to attract more users. UPDATE: Wolfram from Apnoti tells me that a couple of the issues I mentioned in the review are, the prices displaying in Euros, and keyword search not working, were the result of a UK server issue. I tried the app again, and these two problems have been fixed now. I also asked why there is a 59p price tag on the app: With iBARCODE we don't just query the API from Google Shopping or any other provider but we query product prices on demand from all relevant merchants directly and in the moment when the user starts the price search. By doing it this way, we ensure that prices are most accurate and up-to-date and consumers can make the right purchase decision. Due to the fact that we have immense server costs to enable price requests in real-time we made the decision to make it a paid app.

• Site review: Officer's Club

  Homepage As seems to be the trend with some fashion sites, Next, ASOS etc, the new Officer's Club website has a black background. The homepage layout is clear, and information such as the free delivery offer has been prominently displayed, as has a phone number and all the key navigation. Just below the fold, a scrolling display showcases new items and bestsellers, a useful way of presenting a large amount of products without crowding the page: Navigation The navigational options are clear and easy to use, the product filtering options make it easy to find relevant results from searching and browsing and narrow down the options. One interesting feature I haven't noticed on e-commerce sites before is the addition of price filters to the drop-down menus, possibly a means of catering to a price-conscious customer base: The site also has a 'quick look' option which allows shoppers to click on products within search results and see product details, choose a size and add items to the basket without having to go to the product page: This same feature was introduced to the new Adams website, as the old version of the site had relatively low transition rates from product list pages to product detail pages. This kind of preview option is designed to overcome this problem by offering customers an easier and smoother route to view product details, availability etc and make a purchase. It also makes it easier to look at a number of different products quickly without having to load up each product page in turn. Elsewhere on the site, I like the '£50 outfit' offer, a version of Marks & Spencer's 'dine in for two for £10' for fashion. The offer is clearly communicated to customers and the basket adjusts the total price accordingly as the items are added: Product pages The product pages are well designed, with clear price and product information, and useful cross-sell options on the right of the page: The product images are provided from four different views, the photos are good quality and can be zoomed into, making it easier for customers to get the best idea of how the product will look when they get it home: There is a clear link provided to see delivery prices, though shoppers do have to scroll down to find the prices, and unless people use the back button, no obvious route has been provided back to the product page. A clearly labelled link back, or displaying the delivery charges and info in a pop-up may be a better way to do it. Basket/Checkout The basket page is clear, and contains all the information that customers are likely to need, which means they do not have to leave the page to find anything out. Site security logos and reassurances about safe shopping are clearly displayed, as are the different payment methods available. The option to pay by PayPal has been provided, which makes a lot of sense given the target market and the fact that people do like to have alternatives to card payments. The possible barrier of making customers register before purchase is dealt with by removing the need to register altogether, though there is the option to enter a password at the end of the checkout. There is a one page checkout process on the site, which does potentially speed the process up, especially as data entry is restricted to just the essentials, and the form works well, though the process hasn't been enclosed, with the main navigation remaining visible throughout: Possible customer errors in postcode entry have been anticipated, so if you enter the letter O instead of a zero, it will still find the correct address. It also provides the option for shopper to add more detailed delivery instructions:   Conclusion The site is well designed throughout and has been made easy to use for customers, and it does the basics of e-commerce usability very well. It seems to be working so far, as I'm told that sales so far are ten times higher than for the same period last year, and that there has been a rise on conversion rates.