1. What US retailers
can learn
from
International peers
Yulia V Smirnova
Founder of CommerceBrain.com
eCommerce consulting for online shops
(customer acquisition, conversion and estore optimization)
Bit.ly/cb2014bk

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Rules of the Game
① Share the lessons (3)
② Have you come up with 2-3 ways
for your estore & hear your ideas
③ Show you my suggestions
④ Bonus

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Meet Yebhi.com $35M

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Yebhi.com Challenges
① Supply if eCommerce stores
outweighs demand
② Aggressive discounting
③ Small audience that buys

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① Delivering Customer Service
• CTO rate 52%
• 5K orders/day,
2.6K calls
• 70% after order
placed, 30%
before
• 7.5 min per call
A. Call To
Order Ratio
Online content
+ One click
answer system
for CSAs
• CTO rate 23%
• 7K orders/1.6K calls
• Return rate 15% to 3%
• 4 developers, 3m
• 2.3 min per call

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① Delivering Customer Service
B. First Time
Response
?

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① Delivering Customer Service
B. First Time
Response
?
• Target 98%
• Before 73%, after 96%
within 30 days

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How Can I Introduce More
Productivity In How I Service?

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① What US eTailers Can Do
ü Enable first time resolution ($200 value)
or use spot awards, contests and
performance based pay
ü Bring personal and visual via tech to
close on first call (video agent Whisbi)
• Do demo, close on the first time call
• B2B eCommerce (Ex. truck parts, professional
equipment)

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② Randomize Discounts (Variable
Conditioning)
time
# of responses
Fixed
Ratio
Variable
Ratio
Fixed Interval
Variable Interval

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How We React To Variability

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How We Behave In Variability

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How We Experience Variable
Rewards

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② Randomized Discounts
(Variable Conditioning)
• Email 2x per week vs. daily prior
with higher CTR & lift
• Opened resources for conversion
testing and lift from 1.2 to 2.3 %

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How Can I Apply Variable
Rewards?

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What US Peers Can Randomize
ü Revisit the purpose of email (next
segmentation layer)
ü Use dynamic offers for foundation
(CommerceScience)
ü Spice up your loyalty programs

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③ Minimize “Sunk” Costs of
Cash On Delivery

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③ Minimize “Sunk” Costs of
Cash On Delivery
a. Replace follow up calls with
b. Do not dispatch non-
committed
Missed
Call
Free incoming
SMS

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③ Minimize “Sunk” Costs of
Cash On Delivery
• Before
o 3000 service
calls
o agents
cancel 300
orders
o 2500
dispatched
o 500 returns
• After
o 300 service
calls
o Agents
cancel 50,
Zipdial
cancels 500
o If 2500
dispatched
o 200-250
returns

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③ Minimize “Sunk” Costs of
Cash On Delivery
1. Less returns
2. Zipdial cancels the same
3. No loss of revenue
4. Cost of delivery 50% savings
(2X every time back)
5. Only need 10% of agents

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Zip Dial Use for Customer
Acquisition

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Zip Dial Use for Re-­‐‑Orders

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Zip Dial Use for Awareness

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ZipDial Story
• What if I could replace ……?
• Would not be great if I could do less
of ….
• What similar technology or
approach to ZipDial intro can I
apply?

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What US eTailers Can Do
ü Subscriptions to SMS campaigns (new
audience US or if go international)
ü Add virality to your other campaigns
(claim free samples or contest)
ü Push notifications or custom audiences
FB retargeting for abandoned carts
recovery

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Strategy # 7
(18 in a book)
Scale and optimize
eCommerce operations
through more productive
processes, tech and systems
Lesson
Introduce productivity and
operational excellence in
your operations
Yebhi improved
1. How to deliver customer service
2. How to differentiate discount
offers with variability (psych)
3. How to cut sunk costs & cooperate
with customers
• Servicing 40% more
orders at 50% costs
• 650% down
• 45% down 2.5 years

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Bonus
• Full Yebhi.com story –1 strategy
o http://bit.ly/NoPSPf
• “Grow and Scale Your Online
Store To Profit” Kindle book
o 15 stories, 228 tips, 67 lessons, 18
strategies framework, 92 site examples
o yulia@commercebrain.com