Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/217512
FOCUS PSB www.PowersportsBusiness.com Powersports Business • December 2, 2013 • 13 This issue: E-commerce Next issue: Auction/Pre-owned Growing revenue, brands via eBay Brands, dealers benefit from e-commerce storefronts BY DAVE McMAHON EDITOR IN CHIEF Brand perception takes a front-and-center spot at the list of concerns of successful companies. When a brand lands in less-than-positive light, or becomes associated with an unbecoming environment, the public relations issues that ensue can become detrimental. On the other hand, placing the brand in front of an eager marketplace, or alongside admirable other brands, can bring a boost to product sales. When it comes to e-commerce, brands face the same challenges. Do I want my brand here? Is this what my brand stands for? Shopatron vice president of client success, Greg Squires, encounters executives from the powersports industry who have to make the decision on where their brands are best suited from an e-commerce perspective. And when the idea of managing their brand on eBay arises, he still encounters headwinds. "There are still folks out there who have a dated view of the eBay brand, as kind of a garage sale, if you will, just used goods. Honestly, people who have that opinion haven't been on eBay in the last five years," Squires said. "I'll ask them if they've shopped on eBay in the last few years, and their response is no. So then I ask them to take a look at eBay's new branding, and the data that shows that 70, now closer to 80 percent of products sold on eBay is New/Buy It Now." Most recently, Ducati North America launched an eBay store powered by Shopatron. In total, 38 powersports brands partner with more than 1,800 fulfillment partners on the Shopatron network. From January 2011 through December 2012, powersports brands with Shopatron increased same-store sales revenue by 68 percent. Among the other brands using Shopatron's distributed order management system are Suzuki, Kawasaki, AGV BRP , and Arctic Cat. Several of the brands also use Shopatron's online marketing services, as well as its marketplace service that sets up and integrates the Shopatron order management solution in eBay stores. SUCCESS WITH EBAY The idea that eBay is home to more than only used and auction-oriented products can be hard for some to overcome. But with insight about eBay and where it's headed, most executives in charge of their brand's e-commerce channels come to understand that it's a strong home for their brands. "The thing that really gets brands over the hump is understanding incremental sales," Squires said. "eBay has done a number of studies with Forrester Research that have found that a significant number of transactions that are placed on eBay, when compared to a retail- Dealerships that serve as fulfillment partners for OEM eBay stores, such as Ducati's, can expect to experience a rise in parts and accessory sales thanks to a growing lineup of P&A inventory. er's own website, they find it's 70-90 percent incremental customers. So if I'm comparing email addresses of those buying on eBay with those buying on my website, there's very little crossover. It's a different pool of 120 million buyers shopping there and in large part primarily there." Squires has encountered plenty of "standoffish" executives who raise both eyebrows when the idea of an eBay store arises. Yet they eventually understand it's another way for them to control their brand in a positive setting. "eBay's a very interesting and strong partner of ours," Squires said. "It's a marketplace that's very different from Amazon, in that they don't sell to their sellers, and they don't buy from their sellers. Amazon is a retailer, eBay is not. eBay is a pure marketplace." From pricing to how products are displayed, OEMs that opt for eBay stores to sell parts and accessories continue to appreciate the control they have of their brand in front of the aforementioned 120 million potential customers. "What the first see on eBay is something they don't like, but then they understand they can own the channel, in the same way that a lot of brands own Amazon, and really leverage it as one of their top customers as an avenue to drive sales," Squires said. "It allows brands to expand their online footprint and No. 1, grow sales through that expanded footprint; No. 2, portray your brand in a way that you can define and control, much like you do on your own site; and No. 3, have more more control over pricing. It's a way to combat some of the things on eBay that you don't like to see. Instead of sitting on the sidelines and wishing in weren't happening, you can step in and take control." DEALER INVOLVEMENT Shopatron's success with eBay stores and online fulfillment in the powersports market has largely been due to the high level of dealer integration. "The secret sauce of what Shopatron has brought to eBay is something that hasn't really existed before — working together with the brands' channel partners to fulfill online orders," Squires said. "In the same way you can sell on an Arctic Cat-branded site or Ducatibranded site as direct-to-consumer while See eBay, Page 17 How Google's changes can affect your business Powersports Business Institute @ AIMExpo class teaches about the new SEO BY LIZ KEENER MANAGING EDITOR Lea Scudamore, SEO supervisor at ARI Network Services, speaks during one of her two sessions at the Powersports Business Institute @ AIMExpo in October in Orlando. P13x20-PSB15-Focus.indd 13 Gone are the days when keywords stacked four inches high at the bottom of a homepage would draw the highest SEO ranking. Now that's considered spam, and Google is undergoing changes to rank conversational content higher. As Lea Scudamore explained in two of ARI's sessions at the Powersports Business Institute @ AIMExpo, Google's most recent updates have been some of its most important, and they're targeted at helping users to better find what they seek. "Google has taught all of us to think like a computer, and for the first time ever, it allows us to think like humans; it allows us to search like humans," said Scudamore, SEO supervisor for ARI Network Services. WEBSITE SEO The changes mean that instead of thinking first about keywords and searching terms like "buy and motorcycle," consumers can now type in exactly what they're thinking, such as "I want to buy a motorcycle" and receive in return higher quality content. "It's much more about how we talk and how we search and the intent of our searches," Scudamore said. So what does all of this mean for dealerships? First, any lasting towers of keywords should be trashed as those now have the perception of spam, leaving any website still including them in danger of being penalized in Google rankings. Second, much of the website content should be converted to a more conversational tone. "You can tell your story, and the content that you offer has to be more valuable. It can't be as canned," Scudamore said. Dealers should use their homepages to write what Scudamore calls a "love note" to their customers. That summary of services should See Google, Page 14 11/25/13 11:33 AM