I haven’t written a post in a while, I apologize. I have been very busy working hard =)
I am genuinely disturbed by some ecommerce trends… So I’m going to rant a bit and hopefully help others avoid problems and be successful.
First up on my soapbox is “social proof”. I am so bothered by this one I can hardly utter the words. Apparently, if you’re just a professional company with products, a website, employees and telephones but not on Facebook… then you can’t be trusted and you’re inadequate. Kinda bullshit when you think about the fact that people are selling imaginary products on Facebook to unsuspecting sheep, when they don’t even have the inventory at all!
Anatomy of a Facebook Scam
Wow, these widgets are HOT right now and I need money! This I’ll create a new FB page, steal the images, sell them SUPER cheap and run Facebook ads until I get caught. Since I have NO INVENTORY and NO PLAN of delivering, I’ll refund anyone that complains without question and keep the average 44% cash of the people who forget or shop so much they loose receipts etc. NICE MONEY BRAH!
Alright then, social proof… In my own stores I am working on the following to improve this:
- I have gone to great lengths, thrown things and swore, but I have direct links to recommend us on Facebook and review us on Google.
- Even more painful yet, I have added our products to Facebook catalogs and installed that demon spawned frigging PIXEL! Instagram isn’t up yet because they suspended our non-completed account whilst trying to register it for illegal posts of which there are no posts. Waiting to hear back from those jerks!
- Our structured data markup is on point and the stupid, “I have to have my own language” open graph crap is done as well.
- We are sharing products daily on Pinterest and Facebook. The traffic is better and some conversions as well!
Maybe I’m old skool, or just old, but what happened to ACTUAL trust signals like real phone numbers, non-disposable websites, honesty and customer service?
I’ll leave you with this last thought, guaranteed to keep you awake at night.
Recently my mortgage company sold my mortgage…. UGH. So the new company sent me a CRAP TON of emails and letters. Everything from broken “setup your online account instructions” to RUDE ass customer service. Their online account manager has been down for more than a month. However, the scariest part is their privacy documents. I read these things. Their privacy policy gives them permission to sell the following:
- Full name
- Address
- Phone numbers
- Average income
- Email address
- Interest rate
- Length of loan and years in
- Average balance of the loan
“IF”, really it says IF, I don’t want to share these bits of information I have to write 3 different departments opting out!
I should really call it a day…………………