Are Your Social Media Strategies Helping You Drive Sales?

Social media is one of many digital marketing tools available to businesses. Further, many know that listing their business on these social sites and posting to them regularly is important; but, are you measuring your success rates to know if your efforts are worth it? A survey conducted by Vision Critical provided some statistics on how customers use Pintrest, Facebook and Twitter and how likely these customers were to make purchases either online or in-store. Some of the key points are highlighted below. For the full report, follow this link. The survey included almost 6,000 respondents.

When you look at usage of these three social networks, you will find that 15 percent of the population uses Pintrest, 73 percent uses Facebook and 24 percent users Twitter. Of those people, 29 percent of Pintrest users made a purchase after sharing or liking an item, 38 percent of Facebook users did that same and then last were 22 percent of Twitter users. Taking those statistics into consideration, it is important to discover which social media networks your customers use as different topics are popular on varying platforms.

The survey results showed that for do-it-yourself projects, recipes and fashion and beauty tips, users look to Pintrest. Facebook was most popular for human interest or funny stories and topics that fall under arts and entertainment are popular across all three platforms.

Survey results also showed that 21 percent of Pinterest users made purchases in-store, 22 percent online and 29 percent made purchases both in-store and online. When it came to Facebook, 30 percent of users made in-store purchases, 29 percent did the same online and 38 percent did both. Finally, with Twitter, 17 percent of users made in-store purchases, 18 percent made online purchases and 22 percent made both.

There is no question that consumers use social media to research products that they will either buy in-store or online.  The question to ask yourself is which platform will help your business draw the most sales. In order to figure this out, you will need to consider your industry, customer demographics and determine what it is they use social media for. Then you can work on earning your portion of social media generated sales and hopefully in time, grow that number.

In addition to detailed statistics about purchases in relation to social media usage, the report also includes questions to ask your customers that will help you determine how to make these social media networks work best for your business. To join the world of ecommerce so you are able to take full advantage of these social media platforms along with other digital marketing tools, visit our website to learn about our solutions. Azox develops ecommerce websites that integrate fully with Microsoft Dynamics GP. We also provide payment processing solutions and online bill pay.

Azox Monthly Webinars: E-Commerce and E-Payment Solutions

Join Azox for one of our informative monthly webinars this March! Each month we host three different webinars, one focused on each of our products, which include e-commerce, secure credit card processing and online bill pay. This month our webinar schedule is as follows:

Advantages of Online Bill Payment for Microsoft Dynamics GP

Thursday, March 7, 2013

11:00 – 11:30 a.m. EST

Azox Online Bill Pay provides your customers with a portal that they are able to log in to and view, print or pay invoices online. This add-on solution allows your business to get paid faster and integrates seamlessly with your Microsoft Dynamics GP back office software.

SecureCredit Card Processing in Microsoft Dynamics GP

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

2:00 – 2:30 p.m. EST

Credit Card Extension from Azox makes it possible for a web store to accept ACH and credit card transactions securely online. Through use of tokenization, sensitive data is stored off site, which lessens your business’ liability. Azox Credit Card Extension is also a PA-DSS certified solution. Implementing this add-on will allow you to get more out of your Microsoft Dynamics GP investment.

IntegratedE-Commerce for Microsoft Dynamics GP

Thursday, March 28, 2013

12:00 – 12:30 p.m. EST

The e-commerce solution from Azox helps with inventory management; features advanced searching capabilities and provides valuable analytic information about customer shopping and browsing habits. This solution will help you reduce the cost of your online selling operations and improve the overall customer experience. Azox e-commerce solution integrates completely with your Microsoft Dynamics GP back office to provide customers with a secure online shopping environment that allows them to place and track orders, check their account status and pre-print invoices and packing lists.

If you are in the marketing for an e-commerce or e-payment solution, be sure to sign up for one of these webinars to learn more about what Azox has to offer. If these dates don’t fit your schedule, contact us today to setup a demo or watch for next month’s webinars.

Azox First French Site Built on Dynamics GP Now Live!

Azox has successfully completed its first French store for Mitutoyo! This ecommerce website utilizes eSource B2B with a variety of features to sell meteorological testing equipment to customers. One desired feature of this Microsoft Dynamics GP ecommerce solution was a navigable site. To successfully provide smooth navigation and make finding products easier, Mitutoyo needed advanced search capabilities. There are a few features that helped Mitutoyo provide this to customers. First, the company has their inventory organized into a catalog. This catalog groups similar products together based on assigned attributes. To further improve browsing, Mitutoyo also uses filters. Filters allow customers to search for items by specific criteria, like product attributes and features. While browsing this web store, customers will also be presented with related products in order to up sell or cross sell additional items. Mitutoyo’s site also features saved carts, analytics and multi store. Saved carts allow customers to store items in a custom-named cart and access later for purchase. Analytics, allows for tracking of customer behavior within the web store and multi store allows Mitutoyo to have more than one web store, each with a different URL, that all pull data from the same back office.

Another project completion this week for Azox was the launch of an online bill pay site for EZE Castle, a provider of IT services, technology and consulting for hedge funds and alternative investment firms. The online bill pay solution from Azox creates a portal for customers that allows them to view, print and pay invoices online. Cash, credit card or ACH transactions can be processed instantly any time.

If you are a Microsoft Dynamics GP user in the market for an epayment or ecommerce solution with seamless integration to your back office software, contact Azox today. There are four ecommerce environments to choose from, B2B (business-to-business), B2C (business-to-consumer), Sales Portal, a customer service site, and Mobile Store. Azox also provides online payment processing solutions including, online bill pay and credit card processing, which allows a company to accept cash, credit card and ACH transactions online.