I ran into this opinion piece this morning: “Marketers whose long-term strategy involves engaging Hispanics online need to figure out a way to get the demographic group to be more comfortable with e-commerce, according to the author of this opinion piece, Marcelino Miyares, the director of direct-response agency Mercury en Espanol. “While Hispanics are online at roughly the same usage rates as the general market, e-commerce has remained underdeveloped,” he writes. “The reason for this is that Hispanic consumer confidence in online transactions remains low.” Source: http://bit.ly/dBoBeZ
I couldn’t agree more with the author. We made the same conclusion four years ago when we were conducting a market research study prior to the launch of the Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce. Businesses need to the following to increase their conversion rates in their online stores:
1. Design a simple but effective e-commerce strategy.
2. Use a powerful turnkey e-commerce solution. Easy to use, reliable and secure.
3. Provide high quality customer service. Via phone, live chat, click-to-call and e-mail. One or two bilingual agents can help you improve your bottom line. A communications strategy is recommended to educate the customer about the brand or product and generate the initial sale. Your strategy should aim at building a relationship and then developing a commitment.
There are three reasons why I see Hispanics online getting more involved in e-commerce transactions within the following years:
1. Youngest generation of Hispanics are online, they are searching for products, researching brands and are not afraid of making a purchase online.
2. Hispanics online are more familiarized with Internet tools and have favorite sites they trust.
3. More Hispanic business owners will start getting involved with e-commerce within the next couple of years.