Part 3: Role models and real-world analysis

Can you recommend any sites which you'd see as examples of how selling should be done online?
Forrester research just published a study of the top 30 e-tail sites and reported that every one still had major flaws. Unfortunately, that's been our experience as well. Even as e-businesses supposedly gear up for the 2000 Holiday Season and assure prospective customers (as well as their own investors) that it won't be a repeat of 1999, we have yet to find a site that does everything right.

It is certainly possible, though, to identify things that certain sites do very well. has been flogged a lot in the press lately for a variety of reasons, but their 1-Click process really is excellent. Anything that makes the buying process extremely simple and quick is a big step in the right direction.

VitaminShoppe.com does a great job of relationship building through reminders, order confirmations, and other follow-up activities that make the customer feel like the company genuinely cares about them and appreciates their business.

Discount magazine provider MagMall.com does a great job of communicating their USP right on the home page, and also does a great job with up-selling (most sites don't even try) and with customer service.

Lands End is another example of a great job integrating their online and offline operations.

And by the way, Mark, iBizHome truly is a great example of doing many things right: quick download, great content, available sample, a strong and clear USP and a great customer experience. And you "sell" subscribing really well; the visitor is never more than 1 click away from a sample or a sign up.

E-sales pioneer and behemoth Dell.com does an excellent job with two of the five steps in the expert sales process. Interestingly, though, there is significant room for improvement in the other three. So do we applaud Dell for how many millions of dollars they sell every single day, or do we chide them at least a little for probably leaving a great deal on the table - again, every day?

You offer a Real World Sales Analysis, which evaluates site design in the light of 80 criteria relevant to the customer's inclination to buy. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? What specific criteria are proving real pitfalls for websites?
A Real World Sales Analysis™ is a detailed diagnosis of how a website engages a prospect and supports them in the decision to buy, or fails to do so. Its power lies in the fact that Future Now does not look at the website from the "traditional" perspectives of technology or graphic design or marketing. Rather, we look at the site, and at e-commerce in general, from the twin perspectives of consumer psychology and the six-step expert selling methodology as embodied in our proprietary, patent pending Digital Salespeople™ process.

As you said, we report on over 80 of the most important metrics and issues. We also shop the site, interact with customer service, and do a qualitative evaluation. And behind it all are actually more than 500 questions and measures that may or may not apply to a given project The reason why the Real World Sales Analysis™ has the power that it does is simple: buying decisions ultimately are made not by "eyeballs" or "click throughs" but by people. Also, and completely contrary to how most e-commerce has been done until now, literally thousands of years of experience and at least 100 years of research proves that, while we may rationalize our buying decisions with facts, whether we are aware of it or not we make our buying decisions based on feelings.

A Real World Sales Analysis™ tells you exactly what you need to do to improve the sales ability of your site in plain language you can act on immediately.

Some of the pitfalls I already mentioned: slow download speed, confusing layout, inconsistent navigation, sloppy information architecture, overuse of graphics, weak copy, poor usability, and so on. Most sites have very poorly designed checkout processes, fail to inspire trust, and don't even try to up-sell or cross-sell. We also find that most sites fail to articulate their USP (unique selling proposition) very well, if at all. But the biggest pitfall of all is that even if they get most of those things right, all they've done is eliminated obstacles to buying; the sites still don't sell.

Continued...