Even though Southern California is often a paradise for those who want year round warm weather, amusement parks, sporting events, nightlife, etc. we are often reminded that there is a price we pay for living in this desert oasis, occasional brutal natural disasters. By now most everyone around the world has seen images or heard about the “Station Fire” in Los Angeles County and it has become the largest fire ever in the county. Even though our office is over 10 miles away from the southern most portion of the fire, the below images taken from atop our building show how massive it was.

I love shopping, especially shopping on-line because it is very convenient. Moreover you can take your time, fool around and not be disturbed. We all know e-commerce is getting more and more popular nowadays but only few are really successful in this retail environment. Recently I saw an article about an analysis of the two hottest e-commerce websites (target.com & Walmart.com) and what made them successful which attracted my attention.

First of all, let’s take a look at the following graphs which indicate the level of various customer interaction on these sites.

According to the above charts, there are three different major points to consider when deciphering whether a website resonates with the customer.
1. Shows the data related to viewed products – turns out that Wal-Mart is ahead.
2. Shows the data related to items placed in the shopping cart –turns out that Target is ahead.
3. Shows the data related to completed purchases – turns out that Wal-Mart is the big winner!

Why do customers appear to prefer gathering product details and information on Wal-Mart’s website more so than on Target’s website? Why will customers add products to the shopping cart after browsing the product page(s) on Target more so than on Wal-Mart? Yet despite that fact, why do customers prefer to make their final purchases at Wal-Mart more so than at Target? Let us propose our theory for the answers to these questions.

1.

Looking at the Wal-Mart website, you’ll find that it’s easy to navigate and allows customers to easily find what they are looking for which further encourages the customers to click on the item for more details. Site navigation is critical for ecommerce websites as the more complicated it is to find an item the less likely a customer is willing to stick around and search for it, rather than just move on to another and easier to navigate website.

2.

Adding items to their check out cart is where Target excelled over Wal-Mart. In this case, Target makes it easier for the consumer to add items to their cart by placing the “Add To Cart” button right next to the product image and making it very obvious to see. In contrast, Wal-Mart places the “Add To Cart” button on the bottom right hand side of the page and can be easily overlooked by perusing customers. So Target is more likely to get clicks from those who are just casually browsing than Wal-Mart is.

3.

Finally, and most critically is the final sale. Why is it that almost 50% of customers decline to finalize their order transaction on Target compared to only 30% of customers on Wal-Mart?

Possible explanations could be:
First, there are only 4 steps for the payment procedure on Wal-Mart’s website compared to 6 steps on Target.
Second, there are many customer fill-in block designs on the payment page of Wal-Mart. This allows the Wal-Mart Customers to easily comprehend what needs to be filled in during the payment procedure with less confusion. On the other hand, Target emphasizes more on esthetic design than ease of use. Without the easy to identify boundaries and blocks to guide the customer through the check-out process, it’s easier for customers to get confused or loose track of what needs to be filled in when they need to pay more attention on what and where to fill in.

These are based more on our opinion than actual research studies, but dealing primarily in an ecommerce world where a majority of our products are sold online, we have a strong understanding of what it takes to successfully sell items online.

The key points to focus on are:
How to develop the click through rate from the product page and eventually to the shopping cart? How to attract customers and prevent losing them? How to avoid customers losing their way in your e-commerce site? If you focus on those details, it will save you a lot of money on Internet marketing tools turning your website into a good and successful e-commerce site. It’s the little details that make all the difference!!

You know the saying, “stop to smell the roses”? Well at Vinpower, we encourage our employees, friends and family to take some time to experience and enjoy the world around you. As an environmentally friendly company where we focus on recycling and reducing waste, the Earth and the sky above is extremely important to us. So it pleases me to showcase some of our employees and their hobbies that branch out and enlighten us as to how vast the world and universe is beyond our homes and work place. Enjoy the professionally taken photos from one of our valued Vinpower Digital employees:

Vinpower gazes at the Milky Way from Hehuanshan, Joy Mountain (11,207 ft), located in Central Taiwan. Hehuanshan is located within the Taroko Gorge National Park, one of the seven nationals park in Taiwan.

Day view

Night view

The constellations of stars make up the two zodiac sign noticeable in this captured shot: Scorpio and Sagittarius. Across Sagittarius, you will notice the nebulae around the stars.

The World Witnessed a Brilliant Moment in Taiwan History.

For the very first time in Taiwan’s history, we hosted a world sporting event in the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung hosted by Kaohsiung City. There are nearly 5,000 athletes and coaches from over 103 countries that participated in the World Games 2009.

Although these athletes come from different countries and speak different languages, they all share a common World Games spirits, which are peace, friendship and cooperation.
The Chinese Taipei team grabbed 8 Gold Medals, 9 Silver medals and 7 Bronze Medals in several games such as “BODYBUILDING”, “JU-JITSU”,”ROLLER SPORTS SPEED”, “TUG OF WAR INDOOR” and “KORFBALL”

The host city- Kaohsiung designed a variety of fine arts as gifts. People can buy them as souvenirs at shops, hotel boutiques or at the department stores.

We found one of the gift designs matched almost exactly the gift that Vinpower Digital delivered to our valued customers at Computex 2009. We designed a gift that shows our sincere nature and represents the sprit of Vinpower Digital – Integration. With its elegant feature, we also included the graphic of Vinpower’s unique products like the SharkCopier and The CUBE to make this gift stand out more.

World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung lasted until July 26, and even with the games over, Kaohsiung City welcomes nationwide tourists to visit the site of this splendid and once-in-a-lifetime event!

The total solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 appeared at approx 9:00~10:00am Taiwan time today. Chinese mythology refers to a solar eclipse as the “celestial dog” which is thought to eat the sun during an eclipse. Since this is not a common event, it was a great opportunity and bonding experience for members of our Taiwan office to marvel in this amazing occurrence.

Contact phase observation taken by our very own professional photographer, Jerry Fu

This is not the best way to take a solar eclipse picture, best to leave it to the professionals!

Another example of what not to do during a solar eclipse. Do not look directly at the sun during an eclipse, even when it looks as though there’s minimum exposure. It is just as dangerous as looking directly at the sun itself during a normal day. Self-made solar filters using floppy disk removed from its case, a Compact Disc, a black color slide film, etc. must be avoided at all costs. Hey girls! That’s incorrect.

All the smiles during the eclipse, a great way to show off a magical day!

The iPhone sold over 1 million units in a matter of days and all the so called experts were amazed because they didn’t think a 3rd generation product in a depressed economy could create this kind of demand. But when you live in a consumer culture, everyone should realize that when you offer a desirably or necessary product at a reasonable price, there will always be a market for it.

Apple knows they will never have the sales volumes of the PC, so they don’t try and compete on price in those arenas. Instead they focus on greater feature sets that reaches a loyal and more finicky clientele at a slightly higher price to offset volume through greater margin. Yet in the mobile phone sector, they have combined a rich feature set with a lower cost to appeal to an even broader consumer base which has obviously worked based on the sales.

At Vinpower Digital, we have taken similar steps in our sales and development process. As a true manufacturer as apposed to just a system integrator, with our fingers on the pulse of the industry, we focus on a greater array of features which better resonate with the end users as apposed to just trying to undercut others through lower pricing. Don’t get me wrong, we understand the hard times we’re facing and the value of the dollar, so our products are competitively priced, but we aren’t satisfied with being a me too product.

So when someone says the market is dead and sales have dried up, maybe they should review what it is they are offering and determine if it’s the market or the product. Vinpower Digital is not unscathed by the economic crisis that has adversely affected the whole world, but I do think we have faired better than many in this industry because we offer the consumer a better choice in a variety of products. When someone needs a duplicator or accessory product, they have many choices, but in the end they will choose the products that best fit their needs and can grow with them, that’s what Vinpower Digital offers and why we have been successful in our industry.

We’ve reached the century mark. I know this is not a big deal in the constant and quick pace blog and Twitter world, but it means something to those of us who continue to post entries and hopefully raise awareness through our blogs. TV shows always celebrate when they have filmed their 100th episode and it’s a huge accomplishment when people reach this milestone, so it’s only fitting we celebrate it as well. I want to take the time to thank everyone who has ever read the Vinpower Digital blog and all those who have contributed to it. Here’s to another 100 entries which I hope can reach and enlighten many more people.

Below are a few pictures showing the presentation made as discussed in the previous blog from May 22, 2009 titled “CompUSA Blurring the Lines between Brick and Mortar and Online Retail Shopping”. These images further show the emphasis the company has put into their new direction of personal interaction with online assistance:

Recently I had the benefit of touring CompUSA’s new flagship facility in Plantation, Florida (http://www.compusa.com/retailstores/compusaStores/plantation.asp). We were given a special presentation and tour by Gilbert Fiorentino (Chief Executive – Technology Products Group) of the stores creative new interactive shopping capabilities.

The store itself on first glance was not much different than any other electronics store. They had rows of large screen LCD TVs, desk top and laptop computers, end caps of digital camera, and so on. But when you look closer you’ll notice that every component is also connected to or attached to the internet where you can find the answers to all of your questions about the products specs, features, and comparison to similar products. In fact the internet access is not restricted to show only CompUSA products but allows the user to freely surf other non-offensive sites including their competitor’s websites. Mr. Fiorentino proudly proclaimed that he was happy to allow his customers to shop Best Buy (which there’s a store located across the street) as he feels confident in the end they will come back to CompUSA for their purchases.

The interactivity of the online super store was not only a benefit to the consumer, but also to the stores employees so that they will never be at a loss when trying to answer a customer’s questions about a product. The sales reps no longer need to be specialized in a given category or a master of all, rather just savvy enough to navigate the companies website to find the answers needed.

Yet the best part of all is that the customer is not restricted to purchasing only the items carried in the store. In fact from the same internet connected kiosk where they are checking the specs on the latest digital cameras or TV’s they can also navigate to any of the thousands of products CompUSA sells online including duplicators and purchase on the spot with free shipping direct to the customer’s home. For those customer’s that don’t feel comfortable paying with a credit card online, they can go directly to a cashier and make their purchase safely and easily.

I tested it myself searching some of the various products we offer through CompUSA like:

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=vinpower&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=xerox+duplicator&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=optical+quantum&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

Before there were set boundaries between the tangible convenience of brick and mortar stores and the low cost expansive world of internet shopping, now those lines have been blurred and it’s ultimately to the customer’s benefit.

While traveling to Japan on business, to my great fortune I happen to arrive during one of the most beautiful times of the year, when the Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom! If you haven’t had the chance to witness this for yourself, I highly recommend making a trip during late March early April to view this natural wonder for yourself.

This is a picture of me with my hosts from our Japanese distributor, SOHO walking through Ueno park.