Starting today, I will publish a post once a month here on this e-commerce agency e-Plus news site, analyzing a major e-commerce blog in the national market. Initially, I will examine the Ponto Frio blog.
• Also access and read the article: “ How to set up an e-commerce business ” (starting with an e-commerce blog)
Ponto Frio is a Brazilian company founded in 1946. Today, it operates in online and offline retail. In the Alexa ranking, it occupies positions 5.725 (global) and 169 (national). Visitors stay on the site for an average of 4min02 (January/2019 data).
Penguin's e-Glu: the Ponto Frio blog
The Ponto Frio blog is called “ e-Glu do Pinguim ”. My analysis takes into account the aspects of this media as they were available on January 4, 2019. Follow along:
• Design:
When I ran a check using the online application " Responsive Design Checker ," I discovered that the Ponto Frio blog is not responsive. In other words, it doesn't adapt to different screen sizes.
In contrast, the Penguin's e-Glu name is prominently displayed at the top. Just below it there is a search field and also a menu with various product categories. Before the page break there are some calls to miscellaneous posts.
After the page break there are more headlines, all of them accompanied by photos. Finally, in the footer there are blocks of information divided into “Categories”, “Popular on the blog” and “Institutional”.
Basically, the blog looks elegant and well balanced from a Design point of view.
• Contents:
In general, the Ponto Frio blog exposes product features to online consumers who are looking to clear up doubts and/or reinforce in their own minds the reasons why they should buy something.
Blog posts feature tips, comparisons, infographics, lists, etc. All posts have texts from 600 to 1.000 words. They are accompanied by photos and also by videos.
At the end of each post there is an application that recommends reading other posts. This is pretty cool because it reduces the bounce rate and thus improves the positioning in search engines.
• Links:
Most of the Ponto Frio blog links send the reader to a page with several products within the Ponto Frio virtual store. In this way, the reader can choose one of the listed products and click on “Buy”.
These links are placed above specific keywords , which are likely the long-tail keywords used to rank the blog in SEO terms on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
It is important to say that these links do not open on a second page. They actually open on the same page as the blog. This means that when the reader clicks on a link, the blog closes and gives way to the virtual store.
• Authors:
The blog posts of this media are often signed by real people, however, there is no biography of them and, therefore, it is not possible to know who they are. There are articles that do not receive any subscription.
• Frequency:
Ponto Frio blog articles are not dated. Therefore, I could not establish the frequency of publication of this media. Personally, I don't like this approach.
I certainly prefer dated posts, as this helps the reader establish the perishability of the information. In addition, it avoids the waste of time and frustration of reading something that in the end may be out of date.
• Banners:
I didn't see any Ponto Frio banner or any partner sites on the blog.
• Mobile:
As I wrote before, the Ponto Frio blog is not responsive (it doesn't adapt to mobile screens). At least that's what I see today, January 4, 2019. That may change soon (or not).
I submitted the blog's URL to the Page Speed Insights app , which measures loading speed, and found that it has a score of 79 points for desktop (which is considered average) and a score of 23 points for mobile (which is considered slow).
• Organizational culture:
The organizational culture aligns with both the online store and the physical stores of the retail chain. It uses the popular penguin logo and the colors red, black, and white. In other words, everything is unified, as it should be.
• Search Google:
The term “Penguin e-Glu” has no Google search. Only the term “Ponto Frio blog” is searched between 10 and 100 times a month, according to the Keyword Planner keyword tool.
• Audience content:
The platform provides a space for readers to post comments, which is integrated with Facebook. Consumer opinion is very important, as it can help the online store sell more.
• Social networks and subscriptions:
A good blog should convert visitors into subscribers . In this context, the Ponto Frio blog has a newsletter subscription box. The problem is that it's hidden among photos and text far below the fold of the page.
There is also a box that points to subscriptions to the Ponto Frio fanpage on Facebook, however, it is also not very prominent. Both the newsletter subscription box and the fanpage subscription box also appear next to each post.
Perhaps this is not a problem for Ponto Frio, as the company has almost 3 million fans on Facebook. Wow!
Finally, in the header and footer of each post there are icons that allow the consumer to share the content on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest.
Conclusion about the Ponto Frio blog
The Ponto Frio blog has a series of problems such as the issue of post dating, lack of responsiveness and authors without biography. But it works, and that's what matters.
Furthermore, this medium has many good qualities. For example, it has multimedia content (text, photo, videos, infographics, etc.), which makes it possible to influence consumers with different information gathering habits.
So I say this to make it clear that blogging doesn't have to be perfect. In any case, it needs to exist in order to direct readers to your virtual store. Optimize it daily to, over time, increase your audience and your efficiency in getting subscriptions and referrals to product pages.
