The application of RIA in Network marketing

Network | Network Marketing

Customer experience has increasingly become a competitive focus of corporate network marketing, and many companies are trying to build more powerful Web applications than ever before. As users grow in complexity requirements for applications, today's Web applications are difficult to fully satisfy complex applications. The experience of users interacting with today's moderately complex web applications was unsatisfactory, leaving the company with a large number of potential customers. In order to solve the problem that the Web model lacks complex user interaction and difficult to build rich applications, a new type of Internet application Architecture--rich Internet Application (RIA) is presented.

1. The basic concept of RIA

1.1 Development course of computer Application architecture

The development of computer application system architecture has undergone several important changes. During this process, the client's performance has fallen (see Figure 1), starting with the mainframe and the advent of RIA.

The horizontal axis represents the richness of the system (operating interface, system function, etc.), and the longitudinal axes indicate the application of the system is extensive (System use range). Ria maximizes the combination of universality and richness.

The basic idea of 1.2 ria

The traditional html-based Web architecture lacks powerful clients, so the presentation of Web content and the interaction between the site and the user is constrained to a narrow range of features. RIA has a relatively powerful client description engine [1] that delivers content-intensive, responsive, and graphically rich user interfaces.

In simple terms, RIA combines Internet applications with traditional desktop applications, making Internet applications rich in interface, interactive, and responsive (see Figure 2).

Major techniques used by RIA in 1.3

There are several technologies that can be used to build rich Internet applications at this time:

(1) Macromedia Flash and Flex. Flash is a well-established commercial product that introduces an interactive graphical interface to Web pages. The flex product adds an XML description language to flash that allows the user interface to be compiled and can be described at any time with Flashplayer.

(2) Java. Java features are very powerful, and some fairly complex client applications are written in Java. The main flaw in using Java to build rich-client programs is its complexity and the need to install overly large description engines.

(3) Oracle forms is used to build a mature commercialization of a database-centric Internet application system. It is tightly integrated with Oracle databases and other parts of the Oracle platform and Enterprise Manager, and is widely supported for internationalization, creating data-centric applications that are highly efficient. The main drawback is that a Web deployment requires a license to use the Oracle Application server.

2. Why use Ria

61% of Western European respondents agreed that it was hard to find products on the Internet, while more than 60% of respondents had lost confidence because of "bad" experience online shopping, according to IDC, a data research firm. The survey concludes that most shopping sites need to simplify site navigation and experience if they are to increase the actual proportion of internet shopping.

2.1 The importance of customer experience in Network marketing

Consumption is a process, "experience" is the customer's feelings in the process of consumption. Consumption "experience" will be kept in the customer's memory for a long time, good customer experience will help to improve customer loyalty, on the contrary, bad experience can let the customer give up the original choice.

In a networked environment, customers can easily jump between merchants and have virtually no cost. A website that gives customers a poor experience often loses confidence, and a survey of online customers says that when dissatisfied with the site being browsed, 66% of people will immediately turn to other similar sites [2].

2.2 Ria can address the deficiencies of existing Web applications in customer experience

The popularity of html-based applications is due to the low cost of deployment, the simplicity of the architecture, and the ease with which HTML is easy to learn and use. Many users and developers are willing to give up the user interface improvements created by desktop computers to enable quick access to new data and application systems. However, some application systems are not entirely suitable for using HTML technology. Complex application systems may require multiple fetches of web pages to complete a transaction, in some areas, such as online ordering or online product preparation, which often leads to inefficient interaction, and customers often give up their original purchase plan in such a poor experience.

If you use Ria, it will make a big difference. Let's think of a subscription system where all the operations can be done in one screen, users can be very free to configure their own required products, the user's every step can be immediately responded to, such as real-time display of the appearance of products, prices, inventory and so on, and they see the product can immediately purchase orders, It won't be found in the last step. Must go back to the previous steps to modify an option, this more humane ordering system will give users a completely different experience, the transaction is more likely to occur.

2.3 Ria can provide a better customer experience and help businesses profit

2.3.1 Ria improves interaction with customers

For customers, if ordering products need to jump a lot of pages will undoubtedly make people feel cumbersome and boring, it is likely to give up halfway to buy. RIA improves the interface and processes that interact with customers, making it easier and faster for customers to complete their subscriptions (see Figure 3).

2.3.2 Ria provides customers with more choice of products

One of the most important factors for a website to attract viewers and ultimately to purchase is the richness of the product listed. Traditional Web applications are often only able to display limited products for customers to choose from. For example, a Web site that sells teacups usually only shows pictures of a certain type of color, and other colors can only be imagined, which makes customers hesitant to buy or buy.

By using Ria, you can deploy an excellent product configuration system for your enterprise, where customers are free to choose the attributes of the products they want to buy and get the final results immediately, customers can have a very intuitive feel for all the products, and feel that their choices are expanded and the likelihood of buying increases.

2.3.3 customers pay more attention to "experience"

Today's customers are willing to spend more money and energy on a happy "experience". For example, when watching a football match on television, many people would like to go to a bar and cheer with other fans. The cost of going to a bar is much higher than watching a game at home, but many people think it's worth it because they can get a better experience.

Companies spend less on increasing customer experience than customers are willing to pay, and increasing customer experience can make businesses more profitable (see Figure 4).

3. The effect of RIA in Network marketing

RIA can help businesses improve their customer experience on the web in at least two ways. One is to make the customer's shopping flow more smooth, such as shortening the search, waiting time, reducing the number of invalid information. The other is to completely change the past interactive process, so that customers can be more personalized to configure their own products, and immediately get the final effect of the goods they want to buy.

The following two successful cases reflect the actual effect of using RIA in Network marketing.

Case One: Single Window (onescreen) reservation system for Broadmoor Hotel

The use of the Internet to book hotels has been very common. The internet is also the cheapest sales channel for hotels. The problem is that after the customer is introduced to the site, it is also necessary to ensure that the customer is able to complete the booking. Today, most hotel online booking systems use traditional multiple-page, multiple-step delivery. This approach often gives the customer a less-than-good experience, and the customer may be forced to repeat the process halfway through the order.

Broadmoor designed a new RIA reservation system. It provides a more concise, clear, and easy to use predetermined step, and the entire process is within the same window (Onescreen). Onescreen the information about the hotel by dividing a three-part interactive screen into one area (see Figure 5).

Users can immediately see the effect of changes made in one section on the other two parts. For example, changing the room type will change the room charges displayed on the calendar. A pop-up window immediately informs the user about the availability of the date, room fee changes, minimum number of days and missing information so that it can make corrections immediately.

Onescreen Ria has brought huge benefits to the hotel. According to Webvertising Hotel customers, the number of online bookings has increased by 89% since the HTML interface was transferred to the Onescreen interface. And the average conversion rate (the viewer becomes the purchaser) is nearly one-fold higher than the 2.3% of the HTML interface. This case study shows that for hotels, using RIA to change the user experience can have a very significant effect.

Case two: MINI USA's product configuration system

Product configuration is one of the most important parts of enterprise network applications, and it needs to allow customers to freely configure the products they want to buy. When customizing products online, customers often encounter some difficulties, such as not seeing the final effect of their customized products, or at the end of the stage to be told that some configuration conflicts, must go back to the previous steps redo. When these situations occur, customers tend to give up buying because they do not see the end result or are too cumbersome to operate. Ria can solve these problems, using RIA-designed sites to help Mini USA to re-enter the U.S. market after 35 years of silence and success.

The MINI USA website fully demonstrates the vibrant nature of the brand and presents its core spirit-love of freedom, adventure and self-expression. It allows customers to customize the mini by a simple, non-linear five-step process, such as customizing the roof pattern, wheels, accessories, and so on, and its navigation structure ensures that everything can be viewed on one page. Users can accurately see the cars they are going to buy, and customers can know at every step the impact of the configuration choices made on the price. This rule-based structure ensures that each configuration is actually purchased. Once the user has completed the car configuration, they can name it, save it, calculate the charge, but also can easily send the configuration order to the mini agent or sent to friends.

The RIA Web site has improved the mini business model. In 2002, the company has 152,000 registered people, and 73% of the new registrant configured the Mini. The average person configured 1.48 Mini and sent it to a friend, creating a huge advertising effect. The mini website has become the largest customer lead provider, averaging 60 leads per month for each agent, representing 50% of the total number of clues. From the actual business volume, the mini 2002-year retail sales increased by 25%, from 20,000 to 25,000, RIA application so that the Mini network marketing has been a great success. The mini case reflects the great advantage that RIA applies to online product configurations.

Wang Sijunyang: Shanghai Polytechnic University