Ecommerce user journeys contain many phases where retailers can inluence outcomes, corresponding to phases within the purchase decision cycle. The PIEPP purchase decision cycle model is great at helping to explain the complexities of human decision-making when we buy things.

PIEPP stands for:

Problem recognition - Identifying a need, whether “real” or not.

Information search - The more complicated the object, or the higher its ticket price, the more the information is needed to make a purchase.

Evaluation of criteria - Assessing whether the product meets your needs - a conscious and unconscious process.

Purchase decision - Are there any barriers to stop

Integrating online and offline marketing campaigns and providing a successful multi-channel user experience is a powerful way to increase profitability and customer loyalty.

It therefore should be a priority to ensure that all your channels work together, mutually supporting each other with your brand and offering messages, and that these channels provide a seamless path for your users through to an acquisition…

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - Natural /Organic Search

What is it?

This online marketing technique optimises websites to adhere to the relevancy algorithm criteria of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN). The aim is to get your web pages to appear in the top positions on the search engine results pages (SERPs) for search queries. This mechanism is designed to drive targeted and qualified traffic to your website using relevant content that is attractive and useful to the consumer…

Blogging has become almost “de rigueur” in the online marketing industry, with seemingly every company website hosting a blog designed to connect with their audience, improve their search engine listings and drive traffic to the website.

But as with every mass-uptake of an online technology there are varying degrees of success and competency: there are those examples which are executed well and produce impressive results, and those implemented poorly which inevitably fail.

While blog copywriting is a huge topic, far beyond the scope of a single article, there are some basic principles and techniques which can vastly improve the chances of success when followed…

Twitter is a social networking site. It is kind of like an instant messenger but publishes all the messages you send using 140 characters or less. Like many social networking sites it allows you to follow people and for people to follow you. If you follow someone you can view everything they post. If someone follows you they can see everything you post. You can post to twitter via you mobile phone or by using various third party applications…