Author: Sally Hooton

A new report from Juniper Research has found that there will be some 516 million mobile users of NFC (Near Field Communication) contactless payment services by the end of 2019, up from 101 million this year.

The report argued that Apple’s introduction of an NFC-based payment mechanism – Apple Pay – would stimulate the wider marketplace, helping to address the key challenges of contactless awareness and acceptance.

At the same time, the report – NFC Mobile Payments: Apple Pay, Host Card Emulation & SIM Based Opportunities & Forecasts 2014-2019 – observed that NFC solutions utilising HCE (Host Card Emulation) were steadily gaining traction within the banking sector. It said that several – including BBVA and Bankinter in Spain and CUA in Australia – had already launched commercial services, with pilot schemes in operation in countries such as Russia and New Zealand.

Network operator role under threat

However, the report pointed out that both these developments threatened the opportunity within NFC for MNOs (mobile network operators). With Apple Pay, the secure element is embedded on the handset and controlled by Apple; with HCE, the SE (secure element) no longer has to be physically present in the handset, again removing the requirement for MNO involvement.

Report author Dr Windsor Holden said: “We would envisage that while NFC deployments and consumer activity will be buoyed by these developments, the opportunities for network operator involvement are limited. Hence we are likely to see more operators re-evaluating their existing commitments to NFC and possibly withdrawing from the space.”

Other findings from the report include:

• Three-quarters of smartphones worldwide will contain an NFC controller chip by the end of the decade.
• While NFC can offer retailers a strong value proposition in terms of customer retention and loyalty opportunities in addition to payment, most retailers remain unclear as to its tangible benefits.

Udesh Jadnanansing (pictured) continues his examination of the customer experience online.

Depending on the goals a customer has from using your digital channels, they may choose different paths to reach them. Equally, one customer may use a different path from another to reach the desired goal. Therefore, to facilitate the holy grail of the digital customer experience, you need a lot more than just some general online feedback or survey tools. What you need is a customer experience strategy with a focus on the customer journey, for proper segmentation and ultimately relevant feedback. When this is in place correctly, it is the first step to turning insights into action.

There are four phases that companies go through in order to reach a mature stage of digital customer experience management. In phase 1 the focus is primarily on web statistics and numbers, phase 2 has a focus on periodic quantitative and qualitative research and phase 3 is the point that continuous feedback is collected real-time via onsite feedback forms. Phase 4 is all about turning insight into action to reach a mature stage of digital customer experience management.

Capturing customer feedback can be done through periodic questionnaires, as happens in phase two of this model, or as in phase 3, continuously through a ‘one size fits all’ feedback form on the website. In the latter case, there is usable feedback within, but that is not always related to what the visitor is doing at that time. Why ask what a visitor is doing on your website when you can see it happening? A professional approach means looking at the goals of the customer, user or visitor, depending on the online journey being made and then asking the right questions when it is relevant for a visitor to give feedback. For example, when you detect a visitor has a problem with ordering the product. Just like in real life, customers do not want store personnel bothering them with questions about customer service or registration when they haven’t even bought the product yet!

When feedback is too general it is hard to define what drives a customer. Taking action is possible, but it is not as refined as it could be. The questions to be asked in order to capture relevant feedback should therefore be linked to the goal that a customer or visitor has set themselves within your digital channel. Does the customer want to order a product, adjust his account, solve a problem or maybe get something done with a self-service tool? People use your website or mobile app to get a certain job done. With a generic feedback form or website evaluation survey, people can leave an open comment like a suggestion and that can be valuable information. But when relevant questions are asked at the right time, not only are the visitors more willing to provide feedback, but the feedback is also much more relevant. The more the questions are tailored to the various points in the customer journey and what someone is trying to achieve in a digital channel, the more relevant the findings are. This allows an organisation to optimize the processes and remove bottle necks within the journey. This way, organisations are continuously working on improving the digital channels and thus the overall customer experience.

Close control

Capturing feedback continuously that is focused on what the client is doing at that time, means having closer control. If someone is stuck within an online ordering process you must be able to identify the problem directly and immediately and ask the customer what goes wrong. And that mechanism should be in place on all digital processes in such a way that a company is able to collect useful information to optimise the digital experience continuously.

Ultimately, a better customer experience is good for customers and therefore also for companies – in both the short term and long term. The easier an online shopper can achieve his goal, the sooner something is ordered in the shop and how often they repeat their business. A better customer experience can lead to more sales in the short term. Thanks to customer feedback the bottlenecks within the digital customer journey can be removed and customers reach the end of the journey more often. Make sure that the huge budgets that are spent on shiny advertising campaigns are not useless because customers switch to your competitors faster than you can say ‘feedback’, when the product is easier to order elsewhere!

Excelling for professionals 

In this digital age, churn is an increasing problem for large corporations. In the long-term, customer loyalty is already vital will become more and more important. Customers expect the same experience online as offline. This means a customer experience that matches the brand values of the organisation that they have chosen for. If your product appears to evoke low involvement from your business (such as an insurance product for example), offering better service than your competitor is something to excel at! Depending on those brand values a company chooses points within the customer journey to differentiate. This also goes for customer journeys within digital channels. But there must be understanding in how you are scoring on these parts. How do visitors experience the self-service tools on the website? The better the customers’ journeys are connected to the brand values, the better the customer experience and the more loyalty and in the end a healthy and profitable organisation.

 Udesh Jadnanansing is managing partner at Mopinion.

Philip Rooke (pictured) has advice on, and personal experience of, expanding internationally.

As the CEO of an e-commerce merchandising platform, I am tasked with scaling-up our company globally. We are already active in 19 countries, 12 languages, and our customers can pay in 11 currencies. This year, we are in the full roll-out phase of our marketing, sales and operations strategy outside Europe and the USA. And we now deliver to approximately 200 countries from Brazil to Singapore.

With the world of retail, technology and delivery to global consumers moving so fast, online retailers need more than just inspiring customer experiences, great sales figures and a savvy marketing plan. All the successes generated by launching in new countries can be rapidly jeopardised with a poor delivery and supply chain. Without establishing a solid plan and network you might as well have thrown away the money spent on expanding.

So how does an online retailer in rapid global scale-up mode embrace these business realities? My top three areas of focus are:

1. Get your product to the consumer

Shipping is a vital component in the supply chain and it must be fast, reliable and priced right. This year we added delivery to more than150 new countries. Within weeks, we had to delist 10 countries due to fraud and delivery problems. However, there were some nice surprises within the mix. Some countries even with small populations, such as Bermuda, Guadeloupe and French Polynesia, are doing very well. Other countries had good sales, but have had to be paused until delivery issues are sorted out. Spend time getting this right.

2. Check on the local tax and business rules

This is where partnering can sometimes be a better bet than organic growth; you take on a business which already has all the right permits and understands how to do business in the region. For example, in the USA there are tax variations between the States, which need to be taken into account, along with the tax issues surrounding cross-border sales. If a customised T-shirt is sold by a YouTuber in New York and shipped to Brazil, but the transaction happens in Berlin, where is the tax paid? These are issues an international e-commerce company must be on top of. Spreadshirt is not only an online retailer, but we also provide a platform for other e-sellers, so this is especially key for us; it’s our job to make this a smooth and efficient process. No-one wants to get bogged down in tax issues when they’re creating and selling their ideas. Customers receiving an extra bill will hate you!

3. Plan to get on the ground

Many of our key sellers build a fan base on global social platforms such as YouTube and Facebook – making demand for their products truly international. We see huge traffic coming from countries like India and Brazil, meaning that eventually shipping will not be enough to satisfy consumer expectations. We’ve therefore just acquired a partner in Brazil and are looking at India, Turkey and other countries, to reduce the shipping time. A demand driven approach from traffic or shipped orders always governs our next steps.

Whether a customer is from one of your core regions or from a new market, you have to manage their delivery expectations and value. We intentionally locate production facilities in strategic locations to keep customers satisfied and meet their expectations and demands. For example, in the USA, our Las Vegas facility reduces a day in delivery time to the west coast compared to shipping from our east coast site. It is also ideally located for rapid and cost-effective distribution to Asia and Australia. Orders get to customers in Australia only two days after California for only $1 or $2 more.

The world is a great place to do business and in our experience more valuable orders were gained than lost due to problems. Glitches can be easily sorted out by switching off certain payment types, changing a shipping provider or turning off a whole country.

This approach is working so far: the addition of 150 new shipping countries puts us on par with retailers such as H&M and Zara and far ahead of most other custom apparel and accessory retailers. The process of going truly global has been a positive move and the outlook for the rest of the year is extremely optimistic. Each week, several hundreds of additional orders are coming from our newly listed shipping countries.

For Spreadshirt, the goal is to continue global expansion via acquisition, access, and strong international partnerships with an eye towards local production hubs. We go global while being local. Unlike traditional retailers, we are not restricted by supply chains and stock holding so I envisage an online retail future where everyone wherever they are in the world can create, buy and sell ideas on merchandising, in the language and currency of their choice and never be more than a few days away from receiving it.

Philip Rooke is CEO of Spreadshirt.