Archives pour juin, 2010


Tired of shopping online alone? Try co-shopping!

Classé sous: Analyse d'affaires, English, Web par Eric Provost — Laisser un commentaire
17 juin 2010

Reproducing offline shopping experience, online?

For most readers of this blog, shopping online is usually not an issue.  However, for most customers, the path to the Thank you page can be hard and complex.  A lot of effort is put on making the shopping cart steps as efficient and clear as possible (the famous conversion funnel), in order to improve the conversion rate.  However, not many retailers offer other kinds of support, which might lead to either online or offline conversion.  Here comes the co-shopping.

Co-shopping tools (such as Clavardon or BrowsePal) are born with the social web trend.  The goal was to allow online customers to do window-shopping and go through the buying process together, by giving them tools to navigate and communicate together while browsing a web site.  These features can be used by many different actors:

  • Pure strangers, only having in common the same interest for the products available online;
  • Friends, reproducing online what used to be a face-to-face activity :) ;
  • Customer service representatives, helping customers like in-store personnel.

In every case, all these interactions can lead to higher conversion since customers are not let to themselves anymore.  To me, the last type of interaction is the one with the most potential, as retailers can then provide an enhanced online experience to their customers.  For speciality shops (which cannot/don’t want to compete on price), this is a nice opportunity to explore as they therefore have a way to get in touch more closely with their customers and provide them useful information to support their buying process, even while being online.

Such tools can be expensive and require a lot of human power to support customers (like in-store activites), but other ideas can also be integrated to shopping cart steps to increase the conversion rate.  One of them is to make the customer service phone number easily available through the process (sorry, I couldn’t find any website as an example).  This way, a customer stuck for any reason in the buying process has the opportunity to call the company to either find assistance to complete the online buying process, or to complete the buying process offline, over the phone.  In the end, co-shopping should help online retailers increasing their customer conversion rate, and make the shopping process a more human experience.

Have you experienced such a tool while shopping online?  What other opportunities do you see to make online experience a better one?  Feel free to share your thoughts (in French or in English) with us!

Thanks to Yannick and Caroline (two colleagues from Alogient) for the initial discussion that triggered this post.

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Le taux de conversion revisité

Classé sous: Analyse d'affaires, Web par Eric Provost — Laisser un commentaire
14 juin 2010

On parle souvent du taux de conversion comme l’une des mesures critiques associées à un site web. En effet, c’est ce qui permet de mieux évaluer si nos visiteurs atteignent les objectifs que l’on s’est fixé pour notre site.  Or, on voit aussi trop souvent cette notion en mode noir ou blanc (par exemple, on effectue une vente ou non).

Un article de SEOmoz publié récemment soulève une approche intéressante pour augmenter le taux de conversion en augmentant les options disponibles sur le site:

Imagine a site which lets visitors donate to one or more charities. These sites often have a small call to action to ’share’ the website/charitable cause – but I’d suggest defining this sharing as a successful conversion, and presenting it as an alternative to giving money. Could this inadvertently reduce the number of donations received? I suspect not, and anticipate that a page would see more traffic and more donations if the two options were presented as shown below.

Charity Mock-up

En plus de définir plusieurs objectifs de conversion, on offre au visiteur toutes les options de conversion dès le départ afin d’éviter toute frustration (et possiblement augmenter le taux global de conversion).

Cette approche peut s’utiliser dans plusieurs contextes.  Des applications liées au micro-commerce ou à des promotions mériteraient d’être étudiées plus attentivement.  Par exemple, je pourrais offrir l’achat d’un e-book pour 10$ (objectif premier de conversion).  Par contre, je pourrais aussi l’offrir gratuitement à ceux qui prendraient la peine de publier un lien vers mon site dans leurs réseaux sociaux (objectif secondaire de conversion), ou offrir 50% de rabais à ceux qui prennent la peine de s’inscrire à ma liste de distribution (objectif secondaire de conversion).  De cette façon, je permets à mes visiteurs de se procurer mon e-book en fonction de la valeur qu’ils leur accordent.

Mes profits seraient probablement moindres à court terme, mais je gagnerais probablement beaucoup à long terme (en visibilité additionnelle, qui se matérialiserait en profits à moyen/long terme).

Avez-vous défini un objectif de conversion sur votre site?  Avez-vous aussi pensé aux objectifs secondaires de vos visiteurs?

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IIBA: introducing the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA)

Classé sous: Analyse d'affaires, English par Eric Provost — Un commentaire
9 juin 2010

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, but it finally became true: the IIBA just announced the intermediate CBAP certification, call the Certfication of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA).  My feeling is that certification will become more interesting for BAs, especially those like me who have not cumulated 7,500h of business analysis work; the requirements for the CCBA will be at 3,750h, which is probably about 2 to 4 years working as a BA.

The CCBA will also help to increase awareness about the IIBA and the CBAP certification itself, as it will become accessible to experts around the world, without reducing the value of the CBAP itself.

All the details are in the June edition of the BA Connection.  For non-IIBA members, I give myself the permission to copy the announcement here (hoping that you will rush to the IIBA website to register after reading it :) ).

Certification Program Update

By Suzanne Bertschi, Certification Product Manager

Introducing the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis™ (CCBA™)

International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is pleased to announce a new business analysis certification. The Certification of Competency in Business Analysis™ (CCBA™) is an intermediate level designation that will launch by the end of 2010.

IIBA® has long recognized the need for an intermediate business analysis certification in the business community. Previously, a business analyst had to wait until they had 7500 hours (approximately five years) of work experience before they could apply for and achieve the Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) designation which could take up to 10 years to accumulate. This has been an issue for many business analysts—while they need BA experience to earn the CBAP® designation, many employers are looking for opportunities for their business analysts to seek certification.

Now, BAs can earn a certification earlier in their career, which will help to expand the opportunities available to them in their chosen field. To earn the CCBA™ designation, a BA will need to be knowledgeable in all six BABOK® Guide knowledge areas, with proficiency in at least two. BAs at this level are in the process of developing business analysis skills and expertise, and apply business analysis to smaller scope and less complex tasks.

Organizations that employ CCBA™ recipients will benefit by being able to demonstrate to customers, competitors, suppliers, staff and investors that the company uses and applies industry-respected standards for business analysis. Individuals who earn the CCBA™ designation will realize the following benefits:

Recognition for investing in their BA career

Personal satisfaction of accomplishing a career milestone

Improvement in the overall performance of their job

Expansion of career opportunities

The process of achieving and maintaining the certification also helps to ensure the BA is continually improving and refining their BA skills. Here are the details about the application requirements for the CCBA™ designation:

  • Minimum 3750 hours of BA work, aligned with the BABOK® Guide, in the last seven years
  • Minimum 900 hours in 2 of the 6 knowledge areas or 500 hours in 4 of the 6 knowledge areas
  • Minimum 21 hours of Professional Development
  • Minimum high school education or equivalent
  • Two references from a career manager, client or CBAP® recipient
  • Signed Code of Conduct

The cost for CCBA™ certification is as follows:

  1. Application fee: $125USD (non-refundable)
  2. Exam fee (for those approved to sit for the exam): $325USD for IIBA members and $450USD for non-members

The application is scheduled to launch by the end of 2010, with the launch of the exam in January 2011. The CCBA™ designation expires five years from the certification date, and the recipient must then reapply and take the exam again, or they can choose to apply for the CBAP® designation.

Role Delineation Committee and CCBA™ Item Writing Volunteer Opportunities

We’ve had a number of CBAP® recipients email us with their interest in volunteering either on the Role Delineation Committee or on the CCBA™ Item Writing Team – thank you for your interest! At the end of May, we replied to everyone who applied letting them know their status. If you have not heard back from us, please email certification@theiiba.org.

Now that we have these teams in place, stay tuned for more updates on their progress in our monthly newsletter.

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