E-Commerce and Privacy

E-commerce is simply about profit. It's about offering your products and services for sale online and closing those sales while at the same time building a loyal customer base. That is your mission isn't it?

In sales, knowing your customers' needs is the first and foremost rule to abide by. But how will you encourage your Web site visitors to tell you everything you want to know about them?

Your goal is to find out who your customers are. You want to know their buying habits, likes, and disklikes. With the data gathered, you can target your marketing, fine-tune your product offerings and improve your customer service.

In order for your potential customers to feel comfortable in providing their valued data to you, your site must instill a sense of trust and privacy. If you do that, then you will indeed get what you want to know willingly from customers and prospects.

The concept of privacy is prevalent in most news items you read about today. Back in February, Doubleclick got itself into a whole lot trouble when folks found out that they were collecting this data AND using it as they deem fit without telling us. How dare they? Just think -- I was going to use their ad service on a big e-commerce site that I'm helping to implement. Today, we've opted not to use them at all because of the negative cloud surrounding that company. But I digress...

Many e-commerce sites are fully aware that they have to protect the anonymity of the people that use their site. It's a no-brainer.

One good way to do this is to follow the Amazon and Yahoo model They have links to their privacy policies at the bottom of every page. It details why they're collecting the information and exactly how they plan to use it. Many of the major players are following this lead. A simple model but nonetheless ignored by many sites.

You should believe that you capture the data because it adds value to the customers' experience. No need to capture data which isn't going to ultimately bring value back to the customer. Is it necessary to know my gender? Only if you plan to suggest gender-based products such as women's business suits vs. men's suits. Is it necessary to know my mother's favorite color? I can't imagine how that will benefit me when I'm on an auto e-commerce site. Hope you get my drift here.

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