Ecommerce Blog

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Original post by Jennifer Martinez

Online job post boards are full of Volusion clients trying to find qualified freelancers or foreign companies to complete work on their storefronts, but what are the risks of outsourcing your Volusion projects on these types of boards? This question has been a hot topic in our forums lately. Current Volusion customers weighed in on […]

Original post by Kate

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Original post by Jennifer Martinez

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Original post by Jennifer Martinez

This almost passed me by, last week saw a pretty big announcement in the online gaming sector. PartyGaming acquired Cashcade for £71.9m in cash with up to a further £24m payable dependent on future profit performance. So just to be clear that’s almost £96m, a fair chunk of change by anybody’s standards.

For anyone not sure of who these companies are, PartyGaming is an online gaming operator whose brands include PartyPoker, PartyBingo and Gamebookers. They are a publicly traded company and can be found on the London stock exchange under the ticker PRTY. In the year to 31st December 2008 they generated revenues of $472.9m and profit (EBITDA) of $144.2m.

Cashcade is described in the press release as follows:

“a leading UK-based online marketing business specialising in bingo and casino games. As at 31 January 2009, Cashcade’s websites had approximately 2.2 million registered players and over 460,000 cumulative active players. Its core owned bingo websites include Foxy Bingo, Think Bingo, Cheeky Bingo and Bingo Scotland. Core owned casino websites include GetMinted and Foxy Flutter. Cashcade also supports the branded bingo and casino websites of three media organisations - Trinity Mirror plc, STV Group plc and Emap plc.”

What makes really interesting reading is the following line from the press release:

“In the year ended 31 December 2008, Cashcade generated net revenue of £44.9m (2007: £28.5m) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (”EBITDA”) of £12.2m (2007: £4.9m) implying an acquisition multiple of 5.9 times 2008 EBITDA”

What this is saying in effect is that PartyGaming paid almost 6 x the annual profits for Cashcade. That’s a very nice multiplyer and goes a way to showing how competitive the online gaming sector is and the value placed on registered users.

What I also found very interesting was this article from Reuters where PartyGaming Chief Executive Officer Jim Ryan said that the global online bingo market is projected to grow in size to about $2.5 billion over the next four years.

If you stop and think about it, that is a staggering valuation, I can’t think of many other sectors that can match it. It’s for this reason that I recently relaunched Bingo.org.uk. The online bingo sector is so vast and competitive, and there is so much cash floating about, that I hope to sell the site once I get back on the first page of Google for some good bingo related search terms. The site is slowly beginning to gain traction now that I am feeding it with fresh content, so hopefully we’ll see some more movement up the serps soon. For now, £150k will get you the site

What I’m listening to right now: The Perfect Chill

Post from Kieron’s Blog

Online Bingo is where the money is at - Cashcade sold for £71.9m

Original post by Kieron

It’s been a while since we discontinued the Friday-link-list we used to call Blogger’s Digest here at Get Elastic. Blogger’s Digest was a collection of the week’s essential reading for ecommerce fans from around the blogosphere. In the spirit of Blogger’s Digest, I’d like to point out a post that is essential reading for anyone who measures a website conversion rate.

Multichannel savant and President of MineThatData, Kevin Hillstrom, shared his method of measuring conversion rate across time. The idea is to segment visitors based on their site engagement:

• Homepage or Landing Page Visit Only
• Multiple Pages Visited
• Shopping Cart Abandoned
• Purchaser

Wouldn’t you like to track whether the customers who didn’t purchase eventually purchase the following month, or at least move toward conversion — like return to the site, view more products, add products to cart, or place an order? Would you like to know how many purchasers buy again in the next 30 days?

Kevin’s method maps your segments with their possible future behaviors:

• No Return Visit
• Homepage or Landing Page Visit Only
• Multiple Pages Visited
• Shopping Cart Abandoned
• Purchaser

Here’s an example grid of one month’s site behavior by segment, where segments are established the previous month:

As Kevin points out, understanding customer behavior overtime gives you some context around your site metrics.

“If you know that customers who abandon a shopping cart are unlikely to come back to your website, then shopping cart abandonment is a REALLY bad thing. If you know that two-thirds of the visitors will come back over the course of the next thirty days, well, you think about abandonment with a little bit less fear.”

From a targeted selling perspective this information is also valuable. If you knew that 13.7% of customers who abandon their carts will return and abandon their carts once more, you can set up rules to identify these customers (through cookies or authenticated [logged-in] session tracking) and target them strategically. If your goal is to reduce the re-abandonment stat while boosting the conversion for this segment, you might offer a live chat prompt to this type of customer (reserving your precious live chat resources for those most likely to need it). Or you may offer an incentive, a discount or free gift with purchase — time limited.

Further segmentation of your data is also useful. What if you discovered a high percentage of customers who abandon their cart are international visitors, spooked by the high shipping charge or unable to complete purchase because of shipping restrictions. You can segment out these visitors and concentrate on the conversion rate that matters — your domestic market.

It’s worth the time to wrap your head around segmentation. It can lead to a better understanding of your customer and more intelligent marketing activities to maximize your conversion rates and revenue.

You may also like these similar posts:

• The Forgotten Metric: Direct Traffic Signals Brand Preference
• Conversion Optimization: When & Where to Address Customer Anxiety
• Convert First Time Visitors With Coupons
• Conversion Rates Misunderstood
• Picking Up On Customer Anxiety: When to Trigger Live Chat

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Hey Get Elastic readers, we’re looking for an ecommerce consultant to add to our team! If you’d like to live in beautiful Vancouver, BC and think life at Elastic Path would be right for you, please consider applying for the position. Or if you know someone who would be a good fit, please pass this on! Details as follows…

Elastic Path Software provides a flexible ecommerce platform and professional services for enterprises. We’ve doubled our revenue for the past 3 years. We’ve recently been named #25 on PROFIT Magazine’s fastest-growing companies in Canada and have received Emerging Company of the Year Award from BCTIA. Over 200 customers including Aeroplan, Samsonite, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and key partners such as Oracle have selected us as their ecommerce solution. We currently have 100+ of the smartest people on our team and recently opened a UK office. As a growing company, we offer a fast-paced, high energy work environment.

What’s exciting about ecommerce?

Ecommerce is one of the few industries still going strong, and that growth is projected to continue. As such, Elastic Path is in a good position to take advantage of these market opportunities. We’ve taken the best of Java technologies to provide a well-architected ecommerce platform that helps customers accelerate innovation while decreasing costs and risk.

We’re looking for an exceptional ecommerce consultant

The ecommerce consultant will join our professional services team and will have the opportunity to work on leading edge ecommerce tactics with our clients. We’re looking for someone who has a passion for ecommerce and a desire to grow with our company to potentially become a Principal. You’ll be working in a very dynamic environment where your energy and ideas will always be valued.

• Draw on your ecommerce expertise to help clients improve their results:
o Design and help close ecommerce consulting engagements
o Structure consulting work plans based on sound management consulting methodologies
o Understand the cost drivers, tactical and technology options for typical ecommerce challenges
o Build practical recommendations and guide implementation
o Understand financial models and construct business cases to support recommendations
• Create long-term relationships as a trusted advisor at the executive and management levels
• Identify new opportunities for ecommerce
• Provide ongoing, high-leverage advice on ecommerce best practices
• Be completely immersed in ecommerce best practices, new ideas, and business models, possibly presenting at industry events such as Shop.Org and Internet Retailer, as well as EP webinars
• Travel as required (approximately 25%)

It’s as important for you to find the right company as it is for us to find the right candidate. We believe there are some unique skill sets required to succeed in this position:

• Degree in Computer Science, Business, or related disciplines
• At least 3 years of ecommerce consulting experience combined with a solid track record of success
• 10 years experience in a progressively more senior business with proven success implementing digital strategy for successful ecommerce sites
• Understanding of the ecommerce vendor industry (software, services, search engines, etc.)
• Successful leadership experience combined with a strong background in product management
• Strong communications, facilitation and, problem solving skills
• Able to handle multiple demands and priorities simultaneously
• Basic knowledge of IT and application development
• Operational experience with a complex ecommerce site (as a Director of ecommerce, merchandising manager or marketing manager) is an asset
• Consulting methodology and training is also an asset

We’re also looking for someone who fits well with our corporate culture:

• Strong interest in ecommerce
• Healthy work ethic and positive can-do attitude
• Ability to take direction and openness to feedback
• Superior project management skills with great attention to detail
• Quick learner and resourcefulness in solving problems
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team

Join our team

We offer a competitive benefits package, a profit sharing bonus, and many cool perks. If you want challenging projects, the opportunity to work with equally driven people, and to be part of something remarkable then we’d love to hear from you.

Please apply at http://www.elasticpath.com/jobs/

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Original post by Linda Bustos

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Original post by Jennifer Martinez

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Original post by Jennifer Martinez

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Original post by Jennifer Martinez

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Original post by Kevin Kelleher