In addition to Trust & Safety issues, most trade media companies struggle to understand who their users are beyond simply tagging them as ‘buyers’ and ‘sellers.’
This oversimplification fails to represent the massive range of businesses participating in global trade which in turn limits their ability to best use the media offered. As an example, how can an online trade marketplace provide support for a user if they are generically profiled as a ‘buyer’ when they are actually a remote buying office or a wholesaler or an agent or trade show organizer or even a third party service provider. While each of them may be able to glean something from generic ‘buyer’ information, the media company is missing a huge opportunity to provide in depth and helpful content for each customer segment which creates the ultimate ‘sticky’ environment.
Knowing business type is one thing, understanding business needs is another. Again, what you find on most online trade marketplaces is the aggregation of generic product and supplier content made available free to users online. Based on this model, the user experience is similar to:-
1. I need a widget.
2. Search for widgets.
3. See a list of companies associated with widgets.
4. Contact companies associated with widgets.
5. Sift through countless types of communication and try to find one most suitable for me.
Now don’t you think it would be much more helpful if the content being offered to me satisfied my basic requirements as well as anticipated other areas of interest based upon my business needs?
Let’s imagine that these online trade marketplaces are dating sites? As a user, you can register as ‘male’ or ‘female’ only. You can then conduct a search for other males and/or females and then begin contacting each one in hopes of finding Mr. or Ms. Right. Forget personality profiles, common interests and horoscopes as these websites aren’t even asking if you want to date blondes or prefer blue eyes much less what age group you are seeking.
The fact is that online trade marketplaces need to better understand their customers by collecting more information and then use that information to best match them. As we all know, this is what has made the internet different from a catalog since day one.
One of the big reasons why trade media does not segment customers well is that they don’t want to scare users away. Like most sites on the web, if a new user is confronted with a long, detailed registration form then he is highly likely to click out immediately. However, there are many ways to gain registration through short forms and then collect more detailed information over time, especially if you are providing customized content based upon business type, profile and need.
This issue also relates back to Trust & Safety as well as the Authentication & Verification of a user which adds further credibility to customer segmentation. We will cover these issues in future postings.
Online trade marketplaces aren’t dating sites, but they could learn a lot from them. How you collect and manage customer data, match users, educate beginners and control the flow of information between community members is all part of the game. Keep in mind that the process never ends as the data must be constantly studied and optimized to insure you continue to meet the needs of your users which change over time. So far, there are few that do this well and many that need improvement.
