Proudly serving the industry for which it was named for more than 50 years, Outdoor Power Equipment provides dealers who sell and service outdoor power equipment with valuable information to succeed in a competitive market.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/108758
Sell More Stuff. Our solutions now reach 22,000 dealers worldwide. What are the latest trends in technology-enabled business solutions in the OPE industry? JML: • Mobile: It's all about mobile.The increasing availability of mobile applications has empowered consumers with unrivaled convenience. And that means that websites must be mobile-friendly. It also means that in order to increase online parts sales, OEM parts look-up content must be mobile-friendly. (See article on pages 26-27 for more detailed discussion.) • New website technology: The introduction and deployment of new technology has enabled website providers to improve dealer websites, making them more user-friendly. They also provide crisper graphics, better form handling and more dynamic navigation. All of these improvements, when coupled with mobile capabilities, are designed to help dealers sell more stuff. Winning Strategy: Give your website a visual and usability evaluation. Does it look current and appealing? Does it take a lot of clicks and load times to get to key information or products? Are you taking advantage of all the latest dynamic functionality that your website platform has to offer? How does your website look, compared to your competition? • Personalized consumer website visits: Consumers are increasingly willing to trade some privacy for site personalization, which allows a site to display relevant content, based on a visitor's landing page, the items that person clicked on, and previous visits.This technology is widely used by major online sellers today, including Amazon,Target and Walmart. Fortunately, the technology is trickling down to dealer website platforms, proving to be a key tactic to increase the average order size. Winning Strategy: Offer customers the ability to create a login or use their social media accounts to retain personal preferences, settings and information on your website. For e-commerce-enabled sites, this should include remembering users' shipping and billing addresses at a minimum. 3) What impact can technology-enabled business solutions make on an OPE dealer's bottom line? JML: Technology can have a huge impact on a dealer's bottom line. For example, dealers using the latest version of our OEM parts lookup solution for websites have seen as much as a 62-percent increase in online parts sales! When we talk with dealers, our goal is to help them understand the power of these new tools and empower them with solutions that will help reduce costs, increase sales and profitability, and create life-long customers. 4) When shopping for a provider of technology-enabled business solutions, what are the key factors that OPE dealers need to consider? JML: In order to make sure that a solutions provider will meet a dealer's current and future requirements, dealers should ask and get answers to the following questions: • How will it directly impact my bottom line? Will it help me sell more? • Will it save me time? Is it easy to use? • Does it integrate with third-party applications, including business management systems, shopping carts and websites? • What is the quality of the content provided? Is it up-to-date, accurate, comprehensive? Is it mobile-friendly? • How long has the solutions provider been in business? How deep is their knowledge of the needs of outdoor power dealers? How knowledgeable is their support team? • Is the solution built using modern or old technology? Is it mobile-friendly? • Are current customers happy with the product? Are there customer testimonials? OPE OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT FEBRUARY 2013 19