Whether you are a reseller, distributor or manufacturer, your company will ultimately not be competitive unless you embrace e-commerce. There are endless opportunities to capitalize on the Web’s potential to find more customers, convert those customers into higher revenue, and to cut costs by streamlining your business through e-commerce.

1. Sales
& Marketing
E-Commerce For the Imaging
Supplies Industry
by Dimitris Constantinou • Easy Group LLC
I
firmly believe that whether you
are a reseller, distributor or manu-
facturer, your company will ulti-
mately not be competitive unless you
embrace e-commerce. There are end-
less opportunities to capitalize on the
Web’s potential to find more custom-
ers, convert those customers into
higher revenue, and to cut costs by
streamlining your business through
e-commerce. As the business envi-
ronment becomes more and more
complex and our industry continues
to rapidly evolve, it is becoming
more important than ever that as a
business owner you don’t ignore the
glaring opportunities that e-com-
merce has to offer.
Many companies in this industry
have had their recent share of financial
difficulties. While the reasons vary
from company to company, sitting
down and talking with some industry
big hitters at World Expo 2009
reminded me of how much industry effort to become more competitive. concept of e-commerce for me is
leaders underutilize technology, and While the term “e-commerce” to more than that. Simply put, e-com-
specifically e-commerce — especially most people suggests the mere merce is about using the Internet to
in times like this where it would transaction of “buying or selling do just about everything for your
behoove companies to make every goods through the Internet”, the business faster and better. It is about
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2. Sales & Marketing
occurred because manufacturers of
compatible inkjet cartridges (primar-
ily in China) produced homogenous
products, created low barriers to
entry, and information on sourcing
such products (mainly by way of the
Internet) became easy to come by.
This ultimately resulted in a price
war that left very few companies
(manufacturers, dealers or resellers)
profitable, unless they had diversi-
fied into new markets.
giving customers access to informa- company in a “perfectly competitive Therefore, I consider the first sig-
tion and systems and letting them market” will not sustain any profits nificant “building block” of success
serve themselves. It is about exchang- in the long run. Without going into the selection of a market and product
ing information, buying and selling any fancy economics explanations, that is not homogeneous and that has
products, establishing and maintain- this simply means that a company higher barriers to entry (due to qual-
ing an ongoing and dynamic rela- operating in a perfectly competitive ity, complexity of product, patent,
tionship with your customer. It is the market will ultimately have to sell its trademark considerations or other). I
online equivalent of all forms of com- products at a price which equals the am suggesting that you use the Inter-
munication with your customer, and company’s operating cost (zero net in a way that makes your market
the efficiency and competitiveness it profit). This is a strict economics and your product more unique and
can bring to your company is definition, and requires that such a that has higher barriers to entry for
extremely powerful if done correctly. market sells only homogeneous your competition. Look for markets
This article is part one of a three- products, has low barriers to entry and products that make your busi-
part series, which I have structured and perfect information. Sadly how- ness different, that give your busi-
with an emphasis on what I consider ever, I would argue that some com- ness an edge. The Internet allows us
the five building blocks of a success- panies in the ink and toner business many more opportunities in this
ful e-commerce driven company. The have essentially created and oper- regard than traditional “offline” busi-
graphic above illustrates those five ated in a “perfectly competitive mar- ness. It allows us to do what I con-
building blocks: Market and Product, ket.” In my opinion, this has driven sider especially important — to posi-
Pre-Sale Marketing (traffic genera- many out of business or into contrac- tion our products as solutions, rather
tion), Conversion, Post-Sale Market- ture. Take for example a company than just “products.” If you position
ing (maintenance) and Infrastructure. that simply made or sold compatible your products as solutions, market
I will discuss Market and Product, inkjet cartridges. After some time, your products as solutions, and
as well as Traffic Generation in this the compatible inkjet market became exhibit to your customer all the asso-
article. A discussion of the remaining an even playing field, with a result- ciated benefits of your solution (both
three topics will follow in future ing perfectly elastic demand curve tangible and intangible), you are
issues of Recharger. (price essentially became flat, regard- already one step ahead of the compe-
less of the quantity demanded) that tition and have differentiated your
Building Block No. 1: is essentially the definition of a “per- product from a sea of homogeneous
Market and Product fectly competitive market.” Case in products.
“It is impossible for a firm in perfect point — look around at the price of a Take for example selling an inkjet
competition to earn economic profit in compatible Canon BCI-21 inkjet car- cartridge. You could just tell your cus-
the long run.” tridge. You will find that regardless tomer: “Inkjet cartridge for $9.99”.
— Wikipedia Definition of “Perfect of quantity, price is essentially flat, Compare that with selling them a
Competition” and with little or no profits to the solution: Remind your customer how
It is a law of economics, that a manufacturer. This phenomenon much the OEM costs, the quality and
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3. Sales & Marketing
Web space is cheap, and you should
utilize it effectively to communicate
quickly and simply the important features
of your product.
satisfaction that your product comes method is a lot more costly today Banner and Text Link
with, the convenience of ordering than it was a few years ago, but if Advertising
from your establishment, the environ- you follow a few guidelines, I think While this type of advertising is
mental benefits of your product, the you can still compete. Here are two generally not well received by adver-
fast, reliable and inexpensive ship- such guidelines that I would advise: tisers, I typically hear such com-
ping that you offer, as well as other Choose less competitive PPC plaints from advertisers that buy
tangible and intangible benefits. engines. Although Google drives banner and text links in the wrong
The Internet is an easy and inex- more than 60 percent of all search locations. You want to place your
pensive way to position your product engine viewers, the Google PPC banner or text link in front of a tar-
as a solution. Web space is cheap, and engine (adwords.google.com) is very geted audience — in front of viewers
you should utilize it effectively to competitive. Other, lesser-known that are specifically looking for or
communicate quickly and simply the PPC engines offer much less compe- have previously purchased products
important features of your product. tition, albeit with a smaller viewer and solutions similar to those you
base. already sell.
Building Block No. 2: Choose your keyword phrases Articles, Forums and Blogs
Pre-Sale Marketing (Traffic) carefully. Very popular keyword Articles and forums are powerful
Don’t waste your time on just any search phrases such as “ink car- ways to get customers to find your
traffic, you need targeted traffic! tridge” will of course have a lot of Web site. Whether you write your
Beware of “buying traffic.” A tar- viewers, but the PPC bidding war own articles or incentivize your cus-
geted Web site visitor that is actually will also be a lot more competitive. tomers to write them for you, articles
looking for the solutions that your Choosing longer keyword phrases and forum discussions on neutral or
Web site offers is worth a lot more (for example, “remanufactured hp 02 third-party Web sites will benefit
than one thousand random visitors. ink cartridge”), will be a lot less com- your Web site in two very significant
How do you generate targeted traffic petitive than the keyword phrase ways (directly and indirectly):
to your Web site using the Internet? “ink cartridge”, and so the PPC cost The viewer reading the article will
There are many ways, but the most will most likely be less. You will not learn something new and interesting
effective that I have found are listed only have less competitors, but, just about your Web site or products and
here: as importantly if not more impor- be directed to visit your Web site — a
Pay-Per-Click tantly, you will have a higher conver- direct benefit.
All the major search engines sion rate (the rate at which your Web Search Engines constantly “crawl”
(Google, Yahoo! and MSN) offer site converts a visitors view into a the Web and index Web pages that
“Pay-Per-Click” (PPC) marketing sale) — simply because your search provide unique and useful content
platforms. These allow advertisers to phrase is more highly specific to (such as a good article). If such arti-
bid on specific keywords or keyword what the customer is actually search- cles reference your URL, the search
phrases, and position the results to ing for. There are many analytical engines will give more credibility to
the search engine viewers based in tools that allow you to estimate key- your Web site as though it is an
most part on the highest bids that the word phrase search frequency, and “expert” in the topic that was being
advertisers offer. This marketing cost to market through PPC. discussed in the article or forum.
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4. Sales & Marketing
Depending on how well respected A Web site that stays
the originating site is to the search
engine, the search engine will give a static for a long time
weighted value of that “incoming
link” to your site — an indirect ben-
suggests to the search
efit. engines that it is not
Social Networking
While social networking sites
maturing or providing any
such as Facebook have yet to find a new content for its
way to effectively commercialize
their viewer reach, I think it is only a viewers.
matter of time that these tools are
incorporated into mainstream online
marketing. Twitter has recently offer flat commissions to advertisers tion) that is not too competitive,
launched twibs.com, a business-to- that promote your site. The affiliate and focus on that keyword phrase
business side of Twitter. Although program company will monitor the in all aspects of that Web page:
the marketing opportunities with sales that are generated as a result of your meta tags (title, keywords and
social networking sites are not very the efforts of your marketers, and description), content of the page,
clear right now, it would be wise to maintain the commission payouts in image alt tags, and more. And make
get started testing such marketing a transparent and fair manner. To be sure that you don’t overdo it on
mediums, because as was the case competitive with Affiliate Programs, keyword density (how often that
with PPC marketing, the companies your Web site should have a high keyword phrase is repeated on the
that got involved in the early stages conversion rate (to incentivize the page). Don’t try fooling the search
benefited the most. marketer to send their traffic to your engines, as they can and do penal-
Video site instead of another site), and you ize Web sites for SEO tactics that
Google has starting showing You- may also need to incentivize your are not “white hat” or friendly
Tube listings on search results pages. affiliates (and end users) through the towards the search engines. Also,
YouTube is free, but you could also use of coupons or other methods. be sure to constantly update your
participate in a paid version of You- Web site. A Web site that stays static
Search Engine
Tube, which most likely is given Optimization (SEO) for a long time suggests to the
preferential treatment by Google. The strongest advice I can offer search engines that it is not matur-
Other video marketing opportunities any Web site owner is to “play by ing or providing any new content
include Citysearch.com (paid), and the rules” and stick to the basics. for its viewers. And since search
Google TV that allows an advertiser Maintain an organized and simple engines are built on the reputation
to place a video on a specific TV Web site that has good organiza- of the quality of their results, they
channel (shown to DirectTV custom- tional structure and a simple site will want to position more dynamic
ers only at this time). The advertiser map (that meets the requirements Web sites to their viewers that offer
can select the TV channel, how many for site map submission for all the updated and unique content.
viewers it wants to reach, and how major search engines). Focus on A more detailed analysis on
much they are willing to pay on a keyword phrases specific to the e-commerce infrastructure will be
CPM (cost per thousand impres- page that you are promoting. If you presented later in this three-part
sions) basis. are promoting a specific page on series in Recharger Magazine. R
which you are selling a replace-
Affiliate Programs and Mar-
keting Networks ment for the Samsung CLP300 car-
tridge, then pick a specific keyword Contact Dimitris Constantinou at
You can list your Web site through
phrase (use the same tools dis- dimitris@easygroup.us.
Affiliate Programs such as Commis-
sionJunction.com or MYAP.com and cussed earlier for keyword selec-
54 • October 2009 • www.rechargermagazine.com