Six Tips for Building Better E-Commerce Customer Relationships: If You Build It, Will They Come?

You may recall the baseball film from the 1980s in which a divine voice famously whispered to Kevin Costner, "If you build it, he will come." Some marketers may also claim to hear The Voice as it relates to promoting their e-commerce Web site or online shopping mall.

Looking at some robust projections—a Forrester Research/Shop.org study estimates that 2006 online sales increased 20% to $211.4 billion—it would be tempting to think that if you build it, they will come.

Yet marketers must resist that temptation and take a much more strategic approach to e-commerce—one that focuses more on customer experience. The truth is that from a functional and ease-of-use perspective, all e-commerce Web sites and online malls are not created equal. Since the competition is a click away, marketers must make certain of a compelling and secure shopping experience.

For starters, marketers must ignore the temptation to adopt a promotion-only strategy and must instead truly build trust and loyalty with online shoppers.

They'd accomplish that by touting their safe online shopping experiences, focusing loyalty programs on rewarding word-of-mouth behavior, creating segmented and audience-appropriate online store offerings, offering the most compelling awards benefits, and, in sum, creating the best possible online shopping experience.

Merchant-funded online shopping malls have emerged as an ideal way for companies of any consumer industry to provide this kind of additional customer value at no extra cost; build stronger relationships with existing members; attract new customers by offering an easy, free way to earn rewards; and increase revenues as customers shop.

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W. Kimathi Marangu is executive vice president of business development for Mall Networks, Inc. Based in Lexington, Mass. He can be reached at Kimathi@MallNetworks.com.