Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

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Retailers potentially missing £9bn in e-revenue

The whitepaper also noted how user generated content (UGC) is shaping online retail faster than the retailers themselves, and how s-commerce is "not yet equal to the sum of its parts". According to figures from nToklo's work with retailers and brands, the use of UGC and recommendations could account for up to a 27% uptake in sales.

Recently, IMRG reported that the UK's online retail spend for 2011 was £68.2bn and this online spend is expected to grow by a further 13% in 2012. According to nToklo, half of retailers don't yet offer online recommendations to consumers, so it can be estimated that retailers missed out on an estimated £9bn worth of additional revenue online in 2011 alone.

"The increasing interest in social commerce stems from the natural progression of two trends that have seen tremendous growth in recent years: online shopping and social networking", said Anton Gething, co-founder and product director for nToklo. "However, this research shows that social commerce is yet to become the sum of its parts and many businesses are missing out on a potentially significant additional revenue opportunity. In strained times, this additional revenue could provide a much needed lifeline for British retailers."

The research highlighted that 'social' is important to UK retailers, with over 90% of those surveyed having a presence on Facebook and Twitter. However, only 65% of retailers' sites utilise the integration technology these social platforms can offer, such as Facebook Connect. In fact, three quarters (76%) of the retail sites reviewed also did not have their own social community functions onsite, despite many requiring customers to sign-in to the site in order to make a purchase.

Additional findings from the research include:

• 50% of retailers do not provide customers with recommendations through their website;
• 73% of those sites surveyed do not offer consumers the ability to actively discover or share recommendations through social platforms.

"Presenting users with relevant, timely recommendations has been an understood and valuable part of the traditional retail purchase funnel for a number of years, whether in-store or online. However, with the explosion in social engagement, recommendation content is no longer provided by the retail brand alone and increasingly consumers are seeking out more 'social' user reviews and recommendations," concluded Gething. "Therefore, those retailers in a position to offer a cohesive social experience online will be in a position to take advantage of the potential growth in revenue available to them."

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)