Online Retail Banter

Zappos + Amazon means game over!

2009-07-22T17:01:00.002-05:00

Okay, so it is official: The folks at Amazon have in fact solidified themselves as the preeminent online commerce entity at this point. Their purchase today of Zappos.com brings the extraordinary power of zappos' social marketing machine, integrated warehouse-to-site capabilities to the already superb customer experience and unmatched scalability that Amazon provides. Ladies and gentlemen, we have now seen the completion of the "Next Wal-Mart" of retail.

And yes... I still think they can do this after they start charging sales tax everywhere. :-)

Sad day for Shoes.com, shoebuy.com and the other online-only footwear retailers. This combination will be unstoppable in footwear and accessories online only. Only the smart multi-channel retailer will survive this.

Time to pay the tax man...

2008-07-01T14:55:00.003-05:00

The days of the tax-free retailing online in the US are dwindling. July 1, 2008 marks the start of Destination Oriented tax collection in the state of Washington. This change, means that the old rules of "nexus" no longer apply in terms of whether or not a customer pays taxes on their purchase. You now pay taxes based on the delivery location, not the billing address.

Granted, the implementation in WA is voluntary right now during a trial period but... over 1000 retailers have signed up for it. And, as the sales tax revenue begins to increase based on these purchases rolls in... and with the current downward economic trend negatively affecting local tax revenues, experts are predicting that in fact customers should continue to expect this collection trend to be come mandatory sooner rather than later. I tend to agree.

What does this mean? Well, it is the beginning of the removal of the pure-play "advantage" of avoiding sales tax collection. Given that many pure-plays were "cheaper" from a price standpoint based on their "tax-free" play... many are going to have to compete on their core price of the merchandise, and not on a tax advantage.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out... I imagine that the smaller operations will be hit harder not only from a development perspective (load the local tax tables for EVERY zipcode in the US now) but also from a competitive advantage standpoint. Now the logistics and buying capabilities of a Walmart vs. those of Wally's Widgets are going to make it really tough for Wally to compete.

Cheers,
ORG

Paying for your loyalty... in search

2008-05-22T11:11:00.002-05:00

So if you haven't seen it, Live.com/cashback released on 05/21/08. It is a rebate-based program that gives customers cash back for using Live Search to originate their product purchases.

The move is getting a lot of play in the "Search World." Some see it as an act of despiration to "buy eyes" to the fledgling Microsoft Live Search. Others see it as a "game changer" along the lines of google checkout and its free shipping during the holiday 07 season. One thing the move HAS done... is opened up a very interesting CPA-Based model for online retailers.

CPC vs. CPA is one of those "open source vs. microsoft" or "chocolate vs. vanilla" arguments that can go on forever and usually give me a headache. Bottom line is this: CPC - measureable to a point for a retailer, probably drives more eyeballs but less quality. CPA - more measurable (you can attribute a sale easier) drives more quality eyballs... but... it typically costs more per "unit."

That being said... there haven't been a lot of compelling "search engine" CPA opportunities until now. The ones that have tried in the past... have met with limited or no success. Most of the time, they were designed to be a product to offer for the retailer or "acquirer" and not to have much benefit to the "owner" of the program. In this case... it is really a strong attempt by Microsoft to grow their name in search. This means... the retailer or acquirer could be in a distinct advantage if they get in while the buzz is hot. It also isn't a bad deal for the consumer either!

Consumers... like this type of loyalty acquistion in the short term. But as I once heard true loyalty cannot be acquired... it is attained. So... the bet here is that the consumer will try the product in the "bought phase" and see how things grow from there.
All in all... interesting plan.
Cheers,
ORG

In the interest of full disclosure, ORG is affliated with Live.com, however is NOT affiliated in any way with this program.

Online Retailers are you THERE?

2008-05-22T10:41:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the new online reality: Even if you aren't there, you ARE there. And in this case, "being there" means... you'll be charging and paying local sales taxes sooner than you'd thought.

The economy is hurting, and tax revenue is slumping. With this backdrop, the states have started to step up their efforts to collect sales taxes as brick and mortar or "click n' brick" retailers currently do. Currently, the set of decisions and laws that govern this area operate on the "nexus" principle. This basically means... if you have "nexus" in the state where the sale took place, you are to charge and pay sales tax. Online only retailers have been able to get around charging their customers sales tax in only a few states where they have physical operations (headquarters, warehouses, etc.).

But now comes a couple of significant challenges that look like they're going to have some possible impact.

First, in New York, Amazon is getting challenged by a new law that says their affiliate program has members that "have nexus" in the state of New York. The law says that Amazon needs to collect sales tax for all sales originating in and shipping to NY saying that because they pay out affiliate checks to New York-based affiliates... it is just like having a store in the state and paying an employee.

Next comes Texas. Shortly after the announcement and signing of the New York law, the state of Texas started to investigate Amazon, its affiliate program, and a distribution center that's operated as a "wholy owned subsidiary" of Amazon.

Finally, comes the City of Chicago... now suing eBay and STUBHUB over not collecting local ticket taxes. Stubhub has made the mistake of having an office in Chicago so they're pretty much going to have to pay. It is unclear whether or not eBay has an office within the city limits or not.

In all of the cases the nexus rules are being stretched and pulled. But, keep in mind that in an economy where people are spending less overall... tax revenue goes down. The states are hurting for revenue... they're trying to get back some of what has been lost by the growing online retail trend. While this has been rumored for a while... and different attemps have been made to start collecting sales tax... this is the first time some of the "larger states" like Texas and New York have been able to make headway. Also, don't forget... "it is all about the economy stupid."

What does this mean? Well for the large guys like the Amazon's, the Stubhubs and the eBays... it is an inconvenience but... not a show stopper. For the smaller online only retailers... they might want to look at how they're going to be collecting taxes sooner rather than later. I'd had hate to be a small retailer that has to write a "back taxes check." In the past, states have proposed amnisty for those who have voluntarily collected sales tax (Dell Computer is one). For affiliates... if an affliate is the ONLY reason that an online retailer is proved to have nexus in a state... I wonder who will be the first to add in the development and administrative costs for tax collection... in the overall ROI proposition for their affiliate program.

Interesting times for sure.
Cheers!
ORG

Hey shopper... we're tired of trying to figure out what you want. Do it yourself!

2008-03-11T16:34:00.002-05:00

So here's one that makes me finally get off the bench and speak up. I don't know whether to laugh, cry or applaud but I have a feeling of all of the above here.

An article on eCommerce Times about a new startup named iStorez has me in this quandary. So what we have here, basically is the ability for the shopper to assemble their OWN store, real-time based on a set of either search criteria... or some other relevent group.

The challenge is... there are a LOT of us consumers out there... building each of us a custom "store front" isn't really scalable. Therefore, the retailer has to "guess" based on the data they have. This has them walking the fine line between what they think "feels" personalized vs. what we think is "down right creepy." This is a tough one you try to "guess" as a retailer. Paraphrasing Carrie Johnson from Forrester in the article Personalization as the buzzword but done right... usually serves the retailer well. But when it isn't... not so much.

We would all love the ability to know our consumer so completely that we could change our stores for each of you... but... the fact is a lot of us never will have that complete understanding. Also... consumers are funny... they ACTUALLY change their minds sometimes :-)

So I like what iStorez has done here. They OUTSOURCED the problem to the consumer! They are letting the consumer do the personalization themselves based on OPEN DATA POINTS... what you're shopping for. They are not some online survey... not some creepy quasi-data-driven guess. iStorez is trying to provide the platform for consumers to personalize on... and let them decide how they want to shop for your goods. They may be onto something here.

My thought... Millenials will flock to this... IF they can get a more "social" component to it. It is like the ultimate mashup of Facebook-shared shopping list, comparison shopping engine, search, and a good old-fashioned eCommerce site. To me, this is as O.P.E.N. as it gets for a consumer/retailer relationship right now. A key for iStorez will be to make it so easy for retailers to participate... that it is "like" any other "product feed" they may have to manage, that the selection of product is there to drive this. IF the product is there, THEY will come.

Finally... someone given control of the "personalization" to the "person." Could be interesting to watch.

Cheers!
.bb

These shoes were made for walkin'

2008-01-08T01:05:00.000-06:00

So there were a LOT of topics in the last half of 2007 that I didn't take time to write about... but as you know one of my interests is in the online footwear battles... having been in that area from pretty much the start of it.

I couldn't help but notice the end of pretty much the last of the experiments of the "separate online shoe" entity... when Brown Shoe announced they were closing their shoes.com offices in LA and moving all operations to their St. Louis headquarters... and rolling the brand up into their direct to consumer efforts. For those of you who don't know who Brown Shoe is... they are the parent company of footwear brand such as Naturalizer, ViaSpiga, Buster Brown and the Famous Footwear retail chain.

It made nothing but sense to do this... even though some very good people in LA now found themselves "seeking new opportunities." The cost structure of that operation not sharing fundamental core services like merchandising... really made it hard for that operation to make a profit. We'll never know publicly whether or not it did because BWS doesn't report the P&L for the unit individually. But... in light of the currrent struggle on both the retail and wholesale sides of footwear... cutting the overhead was a good move.

I wish them luck as a competitor in the online shoe races... but with Zappos so far ahead now... and talking about breaking the billion barrier in 2008... you have to wonder whether or not it might be time to let shoes.com fade into the background along with sites like Webvan and BOO. I think it makes a very interesting case proving once and for all that owning what seems to be "the best" domain name... does NOT guarantee success.

Meatball Sundaes, Holiday Shopping and New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-08T00:31:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year to all 6 of you that have read this stale blog!!! I've finally decided with a little inspiration from one of my favorite personal blogs... that I needed to push myself back to the keyboard in 2008. I've found myself thinking that I'm "too busy to blog" but in hindsight... like anything else... there's time if you make it a priority. So... my resolution this year is to... make it a priority! I hope your new year is off to a good start... now let's get going!

Meatball Sundae:
Okay... for the casual reader this one may be a bit much but... I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Seth Godin's latest book, Meatball Sundae. I'm lucky enough that my employer has a wonderful library of books... and so I've reserved through there. Essentially though... the premise is that you can't "mashup" old marketing tactics with new marketing tactics... and expect to get better results.

I'm intrigued as to how he makes the case... but a blog post I read today about how one of my favorite examples of forcing a new marketing experiment (Bud.tv) really highlighted how a great company like A-B really doesn't get "it" when it comes to the new marketing ecosystem of Social Networking, WOM Marketing... and other "staples" of the new marketing era. Godin has authored some of the best recent marketing books out there... so I'm kind of geeked up here to see what this one will be like. By the time I'm done with this one... it should be time for Kelly Mooney's O.P.E.N. brand book to come out.... so my book reading for the first quarter is pretty much set!

Holiday Shopping:
Well it seems that quite a few of you LIKE to shop online. More than last year apparently. Hmmm... imagine that. :-) The growth in importance of online retailing can be illustrated in a thousand ways but, I think the fact that holiday online retail grew 20% year over year vs. the offline channel performance of about 5%... pretty much says it all. It is no lie that it has become tough sledding out there for even the best of traditional retailers, multi-channel retailers... and even some online only places. The effect of the overall performance of the US Economy and its' direct impact on the US Consumer's discretionary spending is well documented at this point. But... through it all... the retailers that have done the hard work to bring multi-channel marketing/retailing and customer-centricity to their DNA... are the ones that will weather this storm.

2008 shapes up to be the real test for multi-channel retailing in my view. Has it matured enough to be a differentiating factor for retailers? You only find out when the going gets tough... and I think that's pretty much happening now. I don't usually bet... but I bet you can figure out where I stand on this one. :-)

New Year's Resolutions:
So... how many did you make this year? 1? 5? more? I have decided to make one. Here it is. "Get er' dun!" (imagine best "Larry the Cable Guy" voice). Too many things like this blog were left "half done" in 2007. It is time to get up and get it done. ALL of it. We'll see how it goes but... at least we've got a start here right?

I'd love to hear from you any time. You can comment, or MEEBOME anytime you see me online (in the right hand side of the blog!).

cheers!

phewwww... what's that smell?

2007-10-11T09:04:00.000-05:00

That would be the smell of a STALE BLOG I believe.

Good GRAVY! Can't believe that I've slipped so much on blogging... was it REALLY May 19th since my last post? UGH.

Thanks to all of you who have commented since then... and to the 4 or 5 of you that have stopped by pining for a new post :-) I've got plenty of topics that I want to cover as the last minute holiday plans are prepped. I'll be posting again soon.

Cheers!
ORG

Online research... creates offline sales

2007-05-19T13:25:00.000-05:00

More proof that if you as a retailer AREN'T making a seamless offline/online experience the core of your growth strategy (including budgeting, staffing, product strategy, etc.) you should be by now.

This article in BrandWeek sums up the latest Forrester Research on the subject. Tamara Mendelsohn, a Senior Analyst with Forrester said that 51% of consumers are researching all of their purchases online prior to buying offline. That's a HUGE amount... and according to reports... this is an average across all verticals.

What does that mean? A couple of things: First, sharpening search strategy is even more important than ever. Next, you MUST have a web-to-store, store-to-web integrated strategy at LEAST on the drawing boards... if not implemented. Systems and processes need to be able to support this trend (which by the way the report cites as continuing to increase) and you are leaving more than enough money on the table at this point to justify the cost. Finally... the last traces of doubt about an ecommerce site and strategy should be gone from your organization. This is as important as operating your stores... it is VITAL to your overall success as a retailer in the US, and even more so abroad.

Why Cutter & Buck doesn't need 'help'

2007-05-19T11:38:00.000-05:00

Okay... I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I'm a bit of a "golf shirt snob." And anyone in the golf business well tell you that Cutter & Buck is one of the best all around shirts you can buy. Their color selections... fabrics... very well done. However, their online marketing efforts sometimes leave room for improvement.

Case in point. I'm on their email list. I get one roughly once a week. It is usually well designed... good links... etc. Here's a quick picture of it.

But... in the address "from" field... the address it comes "from" is help@cutterandbuck.com. Now... I don't know about you, but... when I get an email from "help" at any address... I immediately think of one of two things:

whooray! I got my question answered by support. I'm so happy.

who's spamming me from a help address? I didn't ask for any help.

In this day and age... inboxes are scanned by consumers QUICKLY. They define spam as "everything they didn't ask for, looks like SPAM -> Delete Key."

Which brings me to the point here. I'm normally not a betting man. However, with emails coming from an address like help@cutterandbuck.com I'm willing to bet they have open rate problems. It is VERY straight forward to get this changed. Working with your Email Service Provider and your network support team, this should be a simple DNS record change. Should be ready to go in 24 hours tops.

I hope they get their act together and get this changed. I want to see them succeed online so I can still wear their great shirts!

Wanna talk about it... MEEBOME or leave me a comment.

is m-commerce finally ready?

2007-04-12T11:59:00.000-05:00

M-commerce; is it something you're thinking about? If not... it might be time to look more seriously into it. An article on internetretailer.com along with some other articles about how some big entities are getting into the mobile banking/payment game started me thinking about this subject again.

There are a lot of things starting to finally converge that make this something to pay attention to. Some of those include:

better displays on the newer mobile devices
faster data services provided by the mobile providers
the capability to via hosted services, build a mobile version of your online retail store with a small investment in time and effort.
the generation that has been text messaging like crazy for 3 years or more... is either about to graduate from college or is out... and is now starting to have money to spend.
the ability to behaviorally target the user with context relative information real-time (ads, prices, etc. based on your physical location)

I think that the Apple iPhone, the wifi Zune and the plethora of devices like it will be driving people even further to this mode of shopping sooner rather than later.

I have to admit though that my own use of my Treo 650 as a mobile device has been... well... underwhelming at times. I chalk this up to the capabilities of the services that I've tried to use rather than the capabilities of the device.

In general though, if you don't have a mobile store within the next 8-12 months... and you're looking for a leg up on your competition, it might be time to check out a service like mPoria to see if you can design an experience that is very relevant to your customer. The convenience of the mobile store, combined with the improvements in the user experience and the adaptation of the mobile device as an everyday necessity might just be pushing mobile commerce to a tipping point explosion.

Would love to hear your thoughts... feel free to meebome on the right or comment.

In-Stock Re-Defined, and the "Experience Chain"

2007-04-05T13:14:00.000-05:00

Saw a very interesting article today that spurred some thinking (again... for the three or four of you that read this thing that should come as no surprise ;-)

The article is from those really smart folks over at Knowledge@Wharton (you might have heard of Wharton???). It talks about that consumer's definition of what it "in stock" has really changed dramatically, thanks to the advent of strong multi-channel seamlessly integrated retailers. In a nutshell... "in stock" no longer means "on the store shelves" but rather "somewhere in your enterprise." It is the experience that I was driving the powers that be towards at FamousFootwear when I was there, and it is the experience that consumers are starting to expect and get delivered to them by leaders such as Circuit City, Best Buy to name but a few.

The article goes on to point out that the weakest link in the success of this experience might be the employee they talk to at the store. If your person on the front lines doesn't know how to use the tools at their disposal to meet the customer's demands... your can STILL fail the customer's expectations. It is a great article and I commend it to you. However, it also got me thinking about a new concept; "The Experience Chain"

As I've said before, this superior customer experience, no matter what service you provide or goods you sell... is EXPECTED to be in the DNA of your organization at this point. Without it, your customer has too many choices and too much power for your organization to continue to succeed. Today's customer has Demandments according to one of the people I admire a lot Kelly Mooney at Resource Interactive. The customer's Customer Satisfaction as measured by ForeSee and the American Customer Satisfaction Index has a DIRECT correlation to the performance of an organization.

Your organization will meet these expectations only if your "Experience Chain" is humming along with the same efficiency as your "supply chain" or your "operational chain." If it isn't, your going to miss your "mark" with your organization's goals. In short, you could really look at all of your business functions, as part of your "Experience Chain." I'm going to better define this... what it includes, etc. but for now, here's my first crack at a definition:

"The Experience Chain: The sum of all your organization's strategies and activities, that provide your customer(s) with a superior customer experience."

Remember, the phrase "The Experience Chain." I'll be writing more about it soon.

Got any thoughts? Love to hear them. MEEBOME or comment.

Why I just paid $79 for an Oil Change...

2007-04-03T21:17:00.000-05:00

It is always easy to talk about your superior customer experience when you buy a new pair of shoes... or that piece of high fashion... upper end electronics... even your morning coffee/latte. But... I bet not many folks talk about their superior OIL CHANGE experience... Time to break some new ground ;-)

I paid $79 for an oil change today. I normally pay $44 for an oil change. I could pay $19.95 a lot of places, but... I don't. I pay the extra money. Every time. Why? Because I trust the Valvoline Instant Oil Change place will do it right, and keep my car running great! I trust that they will do it efficiently, on time, and won't pressure me into anything I don't want. I also trust that they know what's best for my car.

How'd they earn this trust? They have a simple formula. Their shop is clean, always. They do what they say they will do. They are very easy to use, with excellent systems for POS, a great CRM/Loyalty club, etc. And, they have a great product.

So today, I went to get the oil changed on the element. I use 5W-30 Durablend (a blended synthetic oil). It costs a little more but I want my element to last a long time. When I pulled in, I'd been wanting a place to get the tires rotated on it... but had put it off because... well... I didn't want to go to another place to do it. Well... at the Valvoline Instant Oil Change they do that... and the helpful service tech pointed it out when I came in. Boom... I spent $25 more for a rotation. They got it done in no time.... top to bottom I was out in 30 minutes.

Like clockwork they went through their routine... "Bay 3 Filter Verified!!!" "Bay 3 ready for oil!!!" came from the techs as they went about their work. When all was done, a quick review, speedy payment process done right there in the service bay, and a friendly reminder to fill out a quick telephone or web survey on their performance... and I was on my way.

I'm sure that someone could say that this is their job... and I'm just noticing someone or a team doing their job. But... I've changed the oil in my car before... and I've been to quite a few of these places... what keeps me coming back and paying more for this service is... the consistent level of service and the ease of use. In short... they get it right.

So... next time you get your oil changed... you might want to check out the level of service you get. Can you count on it every time? I know I can...

Feel free to comment or MEEBOME in the right column. If you need me, look for me in about 3500 miles... at a Valvoline Instant Oil Change.

ATG & Kelly Mooney - they get IT

2007-03-22T10:52:00.000-05:00

While my very near future employer might not appreciate this... I have to say that when I was evaluating platforms for the integration of the customer experience in retail and B2B, one company kept coming back to the fore; ATG. They truly are at the "thought leadership" position in terms of how the digital technology of today can change the success of your organization. Their platform gets to the DNA of many specific areas in a retail or B2B operation, and it plays extremely well with others ;-)

It is time for their annual conference, and this time they've got an impressive lineup of speakers, from Chris Anderson to one of my favorites; Kelly Mooney. If you're lucky enough to have some time and a few extra $$$'s, you might want to check this event out.

Why doesn't my Agency Get the digital space?

2007-03-22T10:05:00.000-05:00

Little different than online retail but I think related none the less.

My last stint was at a "traditional agency." They did an excellent job at DM, B2B and essential print marketing. But... their idea of a truly integrated digital, video, and DM campaign failed miserably. The concept was presented to one group and supposedly approved. The development of the digital component was never "headed" so much as it was batted about like a shuttlecock in a world championship Badminton match. The people who were supposed to "lead" the project... hadn't built a website in their lives... let alone an integrated campaign. The digital portion of the project was a PORTAL, which never had a single requirements document written for it. From the description, you would figure that this agency was a 20-person shop, with smaller clients. It wasn't. It is in fact a "network agency" with one of the biggest agency groups out there. The client was... um... really big.

The results... the root concept presented by the creative team, was axed by the client... only after 6 figures had been spent on a "digital experience" to match that "vision." The campaign and site however rolled out with that root concept in tact because... well... it was too late to change it. The results were... um... underwhelming. The level of integration was... well... not integrated. I left the agency shortly after the project rolled out, but this agency and network group have since participated in another high profile... hiccup... in the digital space.

So... why the dysfunction? Well... I read this MediaPost article today... and I think that the warnings to "traditional agencies" part of it pretty much summed up the experience. The article talks about the silos that exist in agencies... and the barriers these become to the truly integrated campaign. It also says that it is imperative that the "traditional agencies" figure this out now... or risk not surviving, because today's consumer... younger for sure but even boomers at this point... EXPECT INTEGRATION. They expected in the message, in their customer experience... they believe one brand, one vision. Most agencies are not setup to handle this.

The agency I was with, had creative groups lined up around verticals... and clients. DM group didn't consort with the TV, etc. They "worked together" on projects but... did not have an integrated approach... and for the most part while well intentioned... the creative group had little or no large scale experience with digital experiences. Meanwhile, the Account Service layer had been very used to controlling all aspects of the project; planning, production, execution. Very much like running a DM project. They had NO experience with running a project the level of variables involved in a digital project, but had all the authority and responsibility for it. Then you had the technical group, which was very talented, but also did not have the analysis layer to produce and effective large scale digital experience. And finally... getting this large, disjointed team on the same page... on ANYTHING... was nearly impossible.

So... what's the lesson... the solution here? The lesson could be best learned by looking the mistakes of their clients... especially when it comes to how THEY'VE mishandled integrated experiences. For example; no longer does retail operations work in a vacuum with regards to what the marketing team is doing for a campaign, or the digital team is doing on their "biggest store" the website. These teams are together... working as one on singularly focused campaigns and improving the customer experience. I think the reason you're seeing the upper tier digital agencies start to become the 'agency of record' in more situations... is that the RG/A's of the world GET the integration needed organizationally to achieve integrated marketing. It has been my experience that the "network approach" or even the siloed-mid-agency approach has some challenges focusing like this.

My advice to agencies that aren't yet integrated... is you can't do an effective integrated campaign until you yourself are integrated. If you don't change now... the clients are going to pass you by.

Love to hear your comments... either via meebome or below.

Are you experienced?

2007-03-20T09:23:00.000-05:00

Retailers and really anyone that needs to sell you SOMETHING are more focused on the customer experience than ever today. They're starting to realize that in a market where something can become a commodity so fast it can make your head spin, your survival might rely on it. There are all kinds of thought leaders in this area. I tend to keep track of Kelly Mooney and the gang over at Resource Interactive as folks that have some great insights, but there are countless examples out there. So... when my daily NRF SmartBrief came to my inbox yesterday with an article from the NYT about the Samsung Experience store in Manhattan and I thought it was a great time to chime in for a minute about what it means to have an "excellent customer experience."

Now, I'm sure that someone could write a long case study on this stuff, in fact I'm sure many have. But, really it boils down to this; If your customer's demands are met, then you've provided a good customer experience. If they begin to choose you over your competitors on a regular basis, you're providing a great customer experience. If they choose you so often that your competitor either starts to copy you, or loses market share, you are providing a superior customer experience. What happens... the "customer" begins to "trust" you. So... I think of a superior customer experience as one of "trust" of you, your service, your product(s) and your ability to meet their "need."

In the NYT article, they talk about the Samsung Experience store and how you can't buy anything in it (gasp!). You just get to try out cool Samsung stuff. They also talk about the new ATT Experience stores that are coming, which will highlight the new capabilities of "the new ATT" with wireless, voice, web, and TV coming together on one platform. Both of these brands realize that the more interaction people have with your products... the opportunity to investigate on your own... the more they learn about you... and develop a trustworthy relationship with your brand. Once you have that... you have a brand affinity that will follow them.

When I was at Famous Footwear, we learned this lesson to some degree with some store redesign concepts based around ease of shopping and also simple things like the ability to easily sit down and try shoes on. Instead of the "pile it high and it'll fly" approach that was ESPECIALLY prevalent in Shoe Retailing (remember walking into the store and seeing boxes of shoes stacked to the ceiling???) we made more room for benches, better lighting, etc. We differentiated ourselves on this as well as better product. We TALKED about it with the beginnings of the "more shoes more ways" marketing campaign. And guess what? It worked! More sales, happier-more loyal customers... and a record year in 2006 for Famous Footwear.

In short, the "experience" is the WHOLE THING. It is a concerted effort on behalf of your WHOLE TEAM to meet the customer's needs... and building trust in them so that they pick YOU rather than YOUR COMPETITOR.

So... with that discussion in mind... I pose the question (borrowing from the late great Jimi Hendrix); Are you experienced?

Would love to hear your thoughts... either meebome at the right or comment.

Learning that product rules... still.

2007-02-27T10:17:00.000-06:00

The news today that GAP will close its Fourth & Towne stores probably shouldn't come as a surprise to most in the retail world. GAP is really struggling with what it wants to be when it grows up. This is well documented with the shake-up at the top, having designers and CEO's leave, etc.

What is interesting about GAP however is that while they have struggled in their stores, their online sales continue to grow (or at least had... they've got numbers coming out any day now that could change that trend). They have a very well documented modern eCommerce infrastructure... and they've rolled out new brands like Piperlime to take advantage of that. Fourth & Towne on the other hand... was a ''brick first, online second" play by GAP. At the time it debuted back in August of 05... the thought was that their target market wanted goods multi-channel. Heck... I remember when it came out... I was saying "smart move" because of their approach for the market. So... what happened?

GAP's products... almost across the board (with the exception of Banana Republic) have been getting HAMMERED as ordinary... or just not exciting... by customers and analysts alike. Piperlime on the other hand is really selling other peoples' products... again a new step for GAP in a lot of ways. Only the Banana product seems to be catching the fancy of their target.

The lesson here is... the best infrastructure can't make up for inferior product. You have to have Trend-right product... in the retail industry... to succeed as a multi-channel retailer... a pure-play... or a brick only variety. It applies to almost all market segments... verticals, etc. Keep that in mind when you're working on that next big ecommerce effort. Don't expect your platform... your usability studies... or your Web 2.0 widgets to make up for bad product. They CAN contribute to the experience... but they can't make up for your BRAND Experience.

Love to hear from you. Comment on this.. or any post... or MEEBOME using the blank to the right when you see I'm online. Cheers!

Sprucing up...

2007-02-17T15:29:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally took the time to spruce up the template a bit today. Hope everyone finds this one a little easier to read. More to come soon. cheers!

From the "not so targeted email marketing" department...

2007-02-07T19:07:00.000-06:00

Okay.. I admit it; I'm a Mark Cuban JUNKIE. His blog (blogmaverick.com) absolutely cracks me up! Here's a guy who's net worth is a bazillion... yet he's not afraid to point out stupidity in the world... in a very public way. Whether it is the NBA... or Donald Trump in this case... he's got enough money and enough clout that I think sometimes you need to listen to him.

Case in point: Today's blog. Mark got an email today from Donald Trump. It seems that if Mark responds to this email, and for only $76... he can learn the tricks that have made the Donald famous.

Uhhh... I'm guessing they didn't scrub that email list too well. Granted they probably wasted about $.002 to send Mr. Cuban the email but a simple check on Forbes.com would probably have yielded suppressing Mr. Cuban's email address as someone who is "outside the target" for this email.

Lesson learned: You might want to make sure you know something about your customers before you send them email. If they get email from you and they don't trust you knowing them... once.... you'll be in the spam box. I wonder if Mark Cuban has reset his spam filters yet for Trump University.

Or... maybe someone's spamming from an address similar to Mr. Trump's University perhaps? I'm sure there's one of those super-smart-tent-dwelling Apprentices that might be able to solve the problem. Meanwhile... the "Trump" brand name takes another hit either way.

Nordstrom Gets It. (DUH!)

2007-02-02T12:25:00.000-06:00

Ever shopped at a Nordstrom? It is amazing. The customer experience is second to none. Their online experience has been good too, but they've been through the typical trials and tribulations of growing a direct e-business (first a stand alone company, then integrated, then... a hybrid) and they've also been like other major retailers and invested in "ecommerce systems" and processes as stand alone entities.

Well... now that they've got this significant direct business that continues to grow, they have taken the bold step to re-tool their core capabilities to become a truly multi-channel retailer. One inventory of products, accessible from anyone in their chain (store,phone, online). No "I can't get to that" or... "that's not in my system" any more. The story in the February Internet Retailer talks a bit about what they're doing but essentially, they've standardized on the Oracle Retailing Suite, are going to do away with redundant systems and inventories... and are going to integrate into their very DNA the notion that the Nordstrom brand is ONE BRAND; with seamless access to that brand from where ever their customer needs it.

They get it. They know that you can charge MORE for a positive customer experience. The way they used to do that is have MORE EMPLOYEES on the sales floor. Today's way of achieving that positive customer experience is simple: a superiorly integrated shopping experience.

Kudos to Jamie Nordstrom and the gang out in Seattle for having the guts to do it right.

Your Next Ad Campaign - YOUTUBE!

2007-02-01T09:52:00.000-06:00

Little broader focus this morning... talking about Marketing/Advertising 2.0 kind of stuff.

All 3 of you that occasionally read this blog know that I'm a Big Fan of MEEBO. Not just as a tool, but as a way to start a company, and how they've managed their success to date. Also, how PUBLIC they've been about the whole thing. They just seem like a bright bunch of eggs over there... and I wish them continued success. (BTW: If you IM, and you're NOT using MEEBO, you don't know what you're missing!).

So.. when I logged on to MEEBO this am, I get the daily blog post from the MEEBO team. It seems that they decided (along with some other startups) that it might be time to do an ad for their fine company and products. However, instead of blowing all of their $$$ on the "lone superbowl ad" they've decided to shoot the ad themselves, and go around traditional "media buys" and put it on YOUTUBE themselves.

This got me thinking... sure, you'll have 120m households watching the Super Bowl worldwide this Sunday, but for $3m a minute... are you getting the best bang for your buck on that ad when you could just submit it to YOUTUBE for Free... AND get paid for your ad (if it generates revenue... YOUTUBE's going to pay you for ad revenue now)? Why would you hassle with the inexact science and guess work involved in a complicated national media buy... when you could shoot the commercial... and plop it on YOUTUBE?

You could of course spend millions on your own "platform" to circumvent the traditional media channels (See Bud.TV for that example) but... again... is that going to be the best bang for your buck right now?

Frankly... I don't think so.

At a minimum... I think if I had ANY broadcast ads running right now... I'd have them on YOUTUBE. Look at the economics of this... Your CPM for your AD on YOUTUBE is... well... completely variable but could be just the cost of the ad. You have the potential of putting your ad in front of 82m people a DAY! And, unlike most standard ads, you get these advantages:

completely user-driven consumption - no reliance on broadcast or cable/satellite scheduling to see your ad
much better analytics on the response
the buzz created by being out there

You could of course couple this with an email to your loyalty club... or even get a PR-Generated story in a local paper about "company takes new approach to advertising" to generate some more buzz. The possibilities are ENDLESS.

Check out YOUTUBE for some of your favorite brands today. See what the PULSE of the user-generated content wave is all about. My take is... smart marketers are already doing this but if you're not, you should get on the bandwagon.

Thoughts? Comment or MEEBOME!

Zappos misses mark for 2006

2007-01-31T16:00:00.000-06:00

Okay... so I said the other day that Endless.com was laying down the gauntlet in the online footwear pure-play business.

Well... it seems that Zappos was about $3m short of their "stated plan" for $600m in sales in 2006. Oh yeah... they grew at 61%, which is healthy to say the least, but... I have to think that the gravy train of growth they've been on is starting to run out of steam. According to a story on InternetRetailer.com they only sold $597 in 2006. While the real reason for the press release was to say that they were going to also have free overnight shipping, they always seem to be able to slip in the sales number in their notes somewhere.

I think that the way that Zappos has built their business is admirable. They have focused on serving their customers needs, and that has proven to be very successful from a growth standpoint. I'm a big believer in that method of retailing. However, I see this as a signal that there's not a lot of room left in the space for pure-plays shoe stores that want to be the "category-killer" and in fact, that killer may have just been put into place in Seattle.

Dear Office Depot.... Get a clue!!

2007-01-30T09:34:00.000-06:00

So... My wife orders some Kodak Photo Paper from OfficeDepot.com. They are always one of Internet Retailer's top X00 Online Retailers. They've been featured in articles about how they want to create multi-channel customers... so you would expect that at this point, there shouldn't be any issues with returning something you bought online, to your neighborhood store.

Uhh... wrong.

It seems that my wife needed a different-sized photo paper than she ordered. We were near our Office Depot in Kirkwood, MO last week, so she went in to exchange the paper she bought. When we went to the counter... you'd have thought that we asked to have all of the money out of the safe. My wife HAD her online receipt AND packing list. She asked if she could get credit for the paper, and pay the difference for the new paper. We were greeted by "did you call the 800 number first? I don't know if I can take your return." Call the 800 number? What... isn't this Office Depot? That's what the sign says outside... uhhhh... NO we didn't call the 800 #. So, after speaking with a manager, and seeing that in fact they DID recognize the SKU (I suggested to the clerk that she try scanning the bar code on it and VIOLA! it was there!!!) my wife was able to pick out other paper, charge her firm's Office Depot Card, and we left. The whole process should have taken 5 minutes.... it took 35 minutes. And, not only were WE held up, but the poor 5 people behind us were waiting much longer than they needed to as well.

The moral of the story here is simple: Systems can be in place (and at this point are EXPECTED to be by your customer). The best email marketing campaign can be rolling. You can have a wonderfully effective search marketing campaign. You can call yourself "multi-channel" all you
desire. But, if you don't execute at the store level, it is all for nothing. Multi-channel is not a marketing campaign, it is a coordinated, brand-driven way of doing business. If it is NOT in your organizations' DNA, you're NOT going to make believers out of your customers.

Maybe the loyalty findings about Multi-channel customers have less to do with their price-sensitivity, and more about the "leaders" in multi-channel retailing executing like Office Depot did. Just a thought.

As an aside, on the same trip, we returned some coffee mugs purchased from Target.com that were broken in shipping. Not only did the clerk at the return desk know about the whole situation from the packing slip we had, but we were allowed to KEEP the 2 unbroken mugs. Total time in Target, 5 minutes. Maybe the folks at Office Depot need to take a little trip to Minneapolis to see how this whole Multi-Channel thing is done.

Love to hear your take on it. Comment or MEEBOME.

Wal-Mart...err... Amazon... Endless... Strikes Again

2007-01-30T09:24:00.000-06:00

Well, well well... the folks over at Amzaon.com and Endless.com have raised the gauntlet even further with the announcement that they will PAY YOU $5 for choosing overnight shipping.

Again... now that zappos.com has followed suit with the free overnight shipping... this leaves shoebuy.com and shoes.com in a serious bind. Remember that there are only two ways you can compete in the pureplay shoe marketplace; Either more sizes, or easier shipping. The click-brick combos are the ones that can make up the best for the inherent "fear" in online shoe shopping (will it fit me?).

Why would Amazon do such a thing? Simple; They Can. As I said in my blog a few weeks ago, Amazon is VERY serious about OWNING this space. They have pulled out ALL of the stops in terms of features and they have access to almost any brand they want to get to.

The pureplay online shoe market is going to be made or broken with this year's spring business. And it goes to show you that in the online space, it is in fact Amazon, not Wal-Mart, that you should fear the most if they decide to enter your pure-play niche.

Comments or MeeboMe's welcome and encouraged!

Sears + Gap? Imagine the Possibilities...

2007-01-11T14:23:00.000-06:00

Saw this story today come across about Sears' war-chest of cash and the rumors that at least they have Goldman Sachs' number in their rolodex :-)

Imagine the online retailing possibilities here. Let's take Lands End's prowess, Sears' experience and now throw in GAP's Technology and if someone at GAP could hit a fashion trend or two, you'd have a REAL eCommerce/Multi-channel powerhouse. The integration tasks could be huge, but the upside is too. (Don't forget about GAP launching Piperlime a while back as well.) This would take some real discipline, and a uber ego to pull it off. Maybe someone like Mr. Lampert could do it?

Fun fun fun in the online world.

Care to share any thoughts?

Surprise! Online Retailing Works

2007-01-11T08:54:00.000-06:00

Well, in case you hadn't noticed we got more proof today that this year online retailing actually works. (Okay... this shouldn't come as a big surprise but... hey... I like sarcasm every once in a while.)

The folks over at ComScore released their study of the 2006 online retailing results for both the holiday season and 2006 as a whole. For the year, online sales were up 24% over 2005. The holiday season was up 26% over 2005. So... both strong gains. Thinking of this in the ever popular "store-for-store" retail measurement, I'd surely like to be a part of a retailer that has consistently shown 20-plus percent year over year, for the past 3 years. It seems that just over $26 billion was spent this year online during the holiday season. The other noticeable trend was that the spending was LATER this year than in the previous few years.

So, for all of you out there... how did your online business fare in 2006? Were you up the "mendoza line" of 24% for the year and 26% for the holiday?

Comment or MEEBOME on the right. Would love to hear from you.

Well... there goes the neighborhood - for shoes...

2007-01-10T15:06:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the new year. Lots to catch up on... but I wanted to hit this first.

Yes... it was only a matter of time but the "new wal-mart" has come to the online shoe selling market. Amazon announced that they've opened an online only shoe marketplace called endless.com. The store pretty much lays down the gauntlet for the online pure play Shoe Retailers like zappos.com, shoebuy.com, shoes.com, onlineshoes.com, etc. With it's advanced (and usable!) search, 24/7 customer service, the free overnight shipping and the always popular Amazon personalization, they've pretty much blasted their way into the market. It was only a matter of time before Amazon did this. Their own footwear category has been going well since it's inception, and I'm sure Mr. Bezos and gang have been watching with great interest all the e-retailing media hype about zappos' success every quarter.

Here's why I think the free ride for the online pure-plays in the footwear segment is pretty much over. Think of these online shoe stores as... the local and regional stores that used to populate the rural landscape in the US. Remember... you'd drive through a small town and "dave's general store" or "Robinson's Family Clothing Store" used to be downtown on the square. Then, the bentonville gang started sprouting supercenters everywhere they could. Bringing "always low prices" to the masses, and right off the square where the land is cheap. What happened to the smaller stores? The ones that tried to compete head on... for the most part... went by the wayside. Only the savvy few were able to survive if they had a TRUE NICHE. Walmart won these battles with fair quality goods... at unbelievable prices... with razor-like precision when it came to logistics and operations.

The same thing can be said for Amazon. They have all of the logistics going for them. They set the standard in experience in the online sector, and now they've come to the shoe neighborhood to wipe out the "mom-n'-pop's" of the footwear world. And in the footwear world... Amazon has a "leg up" because unlike walmart... the amazon folks have literally an unlimited access to brands. So in a sense... they're even STRONGER than a walmart supercenter. I think that once Amazon gets endless.com going, you'll quickly see consolidation in the online pure play sector. The operating margins behind Shoes.com, Zappos.com and Shoebuy.com cannot sustain the free overnight shipping that Endless is offering. They eventually will have very little brand exclusivity, and at some point, when Amazon starts "crossing the streams" and using the rest of their apparel inventory to bring you a "full fashion experience" they will have all of the fashion footwear brands in their pocket. Brilliant plans by Amazon. (insert Guinness Guys here)

So... who's going to lose the most? Well... my guess is that you'll see either shoes.com or zappos.com start to decline quickly. There's just not enough room in the pure-play market, and now that Endless has raised the shipping barrier to "free overnight" they have the most to lose and the least wiggle room. Both of these online superstores have been under profit pressures since their inception and with Amazon now going after the business, long term survival of these will be tough. Shoes.com at least has Brown Shoe Company behind them. Zappos can only continue to go to the "venture capital" well so long. I think that shoebuy.com getting purchased by IAC last year has enough resources behind it, that they can stick it out for a while based on the strength of the rest of their portfolio.

How do you win? Multi-channel footwear purveyors like Foot Locker, Finish Line, even Famous Footwear, have the key to surviving and the position to market against Amazon if they can move quickly to the "Shop online-pickup in store" model. That model resolves the one fear people have of online shoe shopping: What if it doesn't fit? If I were responsible for one of these chains... I'd be looking at how fast I can implement the instore pickup model. Otherwise... well... just ask Mr. Robinson what happens when walmart puts a supercenter in your neighborhood.

Worth just what you paid for them... those are my thoughts. Got any of your own? Feel free to comment or MEEBOME on the right.

Getting Flogged for... Flogging

2006-11-07T09:44:00.000-06:00

The power of Word of Mouth Marketing is at the center of all that is "the customer experience." Positive customer experience leads to positive word of mouth recommendations. The difference today vs. 10 or 15 yrs ago is that everyone's a Gutenberg now, with the power to transmit that "Word of Mouth" worldwide... at the click of a mouse.

This power is both inspiring, and in fact scary. The inspiring part is proven each day by the millions of people like that blog, comment, etc. in the various forms of media that are infinitely accessible throughout the world. Never before has our society been give the tools to have a true "voice" in the overall culture as they have today. It is evidenced in political races (in the US, and elsewhere), in product reviews, just a dizzying array of opportunities to "speak up" are available today. The scary part is the attempt by marketers to deceive the public by "flogging;" the practice of writing fake blogs for the purpose of casting some entity (person, company, cause) in a positive or negative light.

As I said... the power of these word of mouth communications are nothing short of amazing, but at this point the principle of "caveat emptor" in the blogsphere has been brought to the forefront with the revelation over the past week that both McDonalds and WalMart have engaged Edleman to Flog on their behalf, without any sort of declaration that these fake blogs were in fact simple propaganda for these entities. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association(WOMMA) has formally put Edleman on probation for their actions. Edleman was one of the marketing entities that co-wrote the code of ethics that WOMMA established in Feb. 2005 to guard against such abuses. Fast Forward to September 2006 and... BUSTED!!!

And don't think for a moment that this type of activity doesn't tempt retailers with product review capabilities, or other ways that retailers and businesses alike are perceived in the view of this new sphere of marketing influence. For years now rumors have persisted that certain retailers are involved in the practice of "jacking up" certain ratings, or perhaps writing their own reviews, etc. In truth, it would take a tremendous effort or a very public admission in order to prove this, and I personally hope that events like this disclosure of these "flogs" will send a chilling effect over the business marketing community... forcing them to think long and hard on how to ethically use this new "power" that we've been given.

I think that for marketers, it goes back to the essential question that should guide all of your efforts: Is what I'm doing... for the good of the customer and her experience?

What do you think? Would love to hear your side... feel free to MEEBOME or comment below.

Cheers!
.bb

If the shoe fits... sell it.

2006-11-06T17:22:00.000-06:00

Buying a pair of shoes online. It seems to be a topic that when you first turn and tell your neighbor about it... they give you a "deer in the headlights look" and say... "but how can you buy a pair of shoes without trying them on? I would NEVER do that."

Well... someone is doing it... as a matter of fact... a LOT of those people are doing it. Footwear is one of the fastest growing segments of online retail. Growing at 15% the Online Footwear Market is estimated to be a tidy little $5.5billion by 2010. Compared to the rest of the Footwear retail segment, that's pretty significant given that even in the best of times... shoe retailers off line are grinding out 5% store for store gains each year.

There are a LOT of competitors in this space... ranging in age from 7-10 years for the older players... to this month for the latest competitor: Piperlime.com (from GAP.com)

What do they all have in common? They all offer a selection that at this point is impossible to match in terms of depth of sizes, and styles, in an offline shoe store. This is not too unique in terms of any retail experience, Best Buy and Circuit City can't possibly stock all of the electronic goodies they sell, for example. But, shoes are a unique piece of apparel. There is an emotional bond with footwear that is definitely unique, and VERY strong. Consequently, there is a high bar that the online footwear purveyor must clear in order to provide a superior customer experience in the market.

The entry of GAP into this foray isn't really as much of a validation of online footwear sales (zappos.com has done that all by itself thank you very much) as it is a signal, that retailers with adeptly integrated and flexible eCommerce platforms, and a positive customer experience led by those platforms, have a good chance to succeed in niche markets quickly.

You might remember that about a year ago, GAP literally shut down its online operations to re-tool them from the ground up... in order to "get direct right." They caught a lot of flack for it
and for a while... the standard measures of success trended downward but after a while, you know what happened? The success started to come back to them, in multiples. This flexible new platform allowed them to launch a world-class online footwear store in 5 months total. Their entry into the online footwear business is just a case study in re-tooling your efforts around what your customer wants, and having the flexibility to meet their needs in a matter of a quarter, and not a multi-year effort. I think I might have commented on that somewhere :-)

Unlike many of the corporate retailers, GAP understands that you have to be centered around the customer's success. What is a more natural combination than shoes with clothes? Zappos.com has talked about it... but not really succeeded. It is hard to imagine them working on it much given the success they've had on footwear only. Bluefly has done some of it but has focused only on footwear that applies to its high-fashion niche. Shoebuy.com has tried bags as has shoedini.com. Marginal success with both of those. Perennial 3rd placer Shoes.com really hasn't tried an integrated approach much, instead focusing on trying to be the an eCommerce engine for the rest of the Brown Shoe Company Brands (like LifeStride, Dr.Scholls, and the soon to be released Bass. ) or niche sites with little or no following (bluefiresports.com, luxuryshoes.com, etc.). Retailers like LandsEnd and cataloger LL.Bean have their niche-related footwear. But... at the end of the day GAP sells everything from Jeans to Dresses, and can now pair the footwear with them to match. They've got the best platform for success in the online footwear market, and really pose the first credible threat to zappos.com's sales juggernaut. If GAP can succeed at integrating its Piperlime with its offline efforts (things like instore returns, etc.) then I think you have the makings of a real challenger in the online shoe market.

Care to comment? Try the MEEBOME widget if I'm online, or post a comment to the blog. They're always welcome.
cheers!
.bb

You can't make the customer the center, until you do it internally first

2006-11-06T16:34:00.000-06:00

This topic is a little more universal than just the online retail world, but has so much to do with it that I couldn't resist.

Isn't it funny how long it takes companies to respond to customer requests? From retailers to service companies... any attempt to either offer feedback, get an issue resolved... or in some cases just using their product is nothing short of abject failure.

There are countless people that I admire when it talks about their passion for a positive customer experience... I read Kelly Mooney's blog regularly, as well as the gang over at Grokdotcom and for a change of pace I really like reading Mark Cuban and his common sense at blogmaverick. The folks at Creative Good always have wonderful things to point out... as does Lauren Friedman and the e-tailing group (although I think Lauren ought to start blogging a little more than doing email ;-). There are a number of folks that I think offer retailers, and marketers in general, great advice. There are loyal readers everywhere that diligently soak up this information, forward it on to friends, etc. So, the question I have is... why aren't organizations getting significantly better, QUICKLY?

I think I have a pretty good way to explain it to these organization, and if asked, here's one way I might approach it.

"Left hand, meet right hand. Right hand, meet left hand. Now, which one of you two knows what your customer wants and can do something to change how your organization works?"

I have seen countless groups within companies pay for all of the focus groups, mystery shopping and customer experience studies you can imagine. However, to act on these observations, it comes down to this: Until you align your organization around the success of your customer, you just can't have the type of success that profits both you and serves your customer. It is really that simple.

Having been on both the Corporate side and now the consultative side of this customer experience equation for 10+ years, I've come to the conclusion that most organizations that have to deal with customers on a daily basis... are not structurally equipped to do so.

Whether the barrier is geographically-based responsibility for a given product set, lack of knowledge on how customers use your products/services/retail environments, to artificial metrics for success not devised with the customer's benefit at heart, I really feel probably 50% of the companies you interact with in the US (those let's say with a presence in at least 20 of the 50 states) are organizationally unable to handle looking at their company from their customer's perspective. Or, at the very least unable to ACT on the observations they DO receive/perceive because of some organizational boundary. Good people, with the best of interests in their hearts, are thwarted in their efforts to achieve even the basic of customer experience metrics, because of internal boundaries that are insurmountable.

So... how do you fix it?

Simple, call a "do-over" with your organization. Draw up an organization who's sole purpose is to meet the customer's needs. It can start at the grass roots. Start in your small sphere of influence, and work from there.

I envision a chart... with the customer in the center and every major business function (finance, marketing, operations) intersecting with it. When I get one drawn... I'll add it to the blog... but for now... picture it in your imagination (anyone remember how that little imagination feature works?). I predict that given what we know about customer loyalty... that preference is not based on price alone... but in fact on a holistic experience that surpasses all competitors... if you could accomplish this "do-over..." even if it were within your customer-facing organizations to start... you would see sales increases, customer satisfaction increases, and market share increases.

I invite all three of you that read this blog (LOL)... to submit some ideas on how YOU would call a "do-over" in your organization. Or better yet, examples of organizations you think are already on this path... doing things "right."

cheers!
.bb

MeeboMe - Low cost consumer chat?

2006-09-27T13:03:00.000-05:00

I've personally been a big fan of online consumer chat for retail sites, both as a user and in past roles as an ecommerce manager. I think that this kind of real-time contact with a knowledgable customer service agent, in context... is invaluable. Most research also backs up my belief, since it is a leading way to reduce the fear inherent in some ecommerce transactions. It also provides yet another one-to-one touchpoint for your organization, something that in our connected economy the consumer is still wanting.

But, the question has always come up... how can you cost justify the expense of putting in a system for this, when a lot of the "benefit" is "perceived" or "soft." I think I just found my answer to that question in the form of my favorite "Web 2.0" tool: MEEBO.

For those of you who don't know, MEEBO is a great tool to log into all of the major instant messaging networks, from one browser window. While other pieces of software like Trillian and GAIM do the same kind of thing, MEEBO does it all from a Browser Window. You don't have to install anything on your machine. Go to MEEBO.com, login (or not!) and go. A little over a month ago MEEBO introduced a little widget called "MEEBOME" that you can embed into your site, and start an instant chat session with the "host." I saw on the MEEBO BLOG today a note where one retailer is using this as a way to do online chat with their customers... brilliant!!!!! This gives you the proof of concept any retailer would need, provides you with a cost effecient way to reach out to your customers within the context of the shopping expereience... and did I mention that its free?

If you're a smaller retailer online, or any smaller business that's online for that matter... what a GREAT way to "expose" your "experts" to your customer base. I could envision SO many ways to use this tool. If you have some ideas, post them in the comments or better yet MEEBOME in the column to the right!

Playing "Fair"

2006-09-19T08:44:00.000-05:00

Life in the online retail and apparel business CAN be fair. At least that's the premise that Bill Bass, former Lands End eRetailing expert thought when he decided what to "do next." Bass and some of his former Lands End co-horts have debuted a new brand/site/catalog called Fair Indigo which is selling Fair Trade clothing and accessories for Men and Women.

Bass was the driving force behind both the discipline and innovation that the eCommerce team at Lands End was famous for. This overwhelming success in converting Lands End from a nice sized cataloger to a Multi-channel powerhouse started with Bass' vision of how people prefer to shop, and carried through from there. This was the key reason why Sears decided they needed to buy Lands End and adopt many of the online tactics that Lands End had used to grow... in order to make Sears a major online retail player.

His new venture is interesting. After leaving Sears, he formed a group called Black Wolf Group and invested in a moving company in the Southwest. All the while however, people were talking... they knew that he wouldn't go too far from the online apparel space and at some point, you knew that he'd have an original idea. Now the proverbial cat is out of the bag; Fair Indigo has debuted not with a large national ad campaign... but a website and some interviews. Grass roots. I doubt seriously you'll ever see a Fair Indigo ad on the superbowl show but, I do think you might see Fair Indigo take the "red bull" route to marketing and commercial success. Viral marketing, email, sponsoring events that are eco-friendly, all aimed at a market that is growing and growing.

And... his first generation site... nothing to sneeze at for sure. A PHP-based site (imagine that... a new world company using open source) with all kinds of AJAX tricks. Great zoom, wonderful product photography, a really cool conditional text/back order feature... overall a very concise and easy experience. I predict that Fair Indigo will "Fare" well. I know for one, I'll be buying one of their tee shirts to support the cause (As soon as I can get it in a Large...).

Wanna learn more? Check out these links:

Fair Indigo.com
Fair Indigo Foundation
Wisconsin Business Article (09/15/06)

It's one... multi-channel world

2006-05-18T10:01:00.000-05:00

Okay... this blog's a bit on heavy on the academic/theory side. I promise though... there's a point at the end.

Here's my main question: Have you ever wondered why people continue to silo their marketing efforts, yet spend millions of dollars building a seamless brand?

Connectedness is pervasive at this point in the society of the consumer (for the purposes of this discussion, I define consumer as... everyone). Information and experiences are increasingly interrelated and there are tons of discussions going on about how the "next generation" of consumers... workers... whatever it is you want to describe them... live in a completely connected world. Google knits together information for them... as John Battelle (in his book The Search) describes into a "database of intentions." The text messages and streamed video to their cell phones... it is all about being connected. So it stands to reason that for your brand to stay with this group, it needs to be connected too.

Yet... Organizations are still aligned around specific market segments that sometimes really limit thinking on a "multi-channel" scale. An example of this limited thinking might be a statement like this: "what reaches a retail consumer isn't the same as what reaches a small business owner." Are we saying that the consumer couldn't be a small business owner too? In our new "connected" world, the answer is probably... yes they are a member of both groups. So that begs the question, do you market to them differently with tailored messages, or do you try to reach them in a manner that is consistent with your brand position... across whatever "role" that consumer currently is "playing" (owner or retail consumer in this case). The answer is, you need to bring it back to your brand first. Your brand is the same brand... no matter what role you're trying to reach in our increasingly connected society. Once you have the solid brand position, you can then extend it via the most effective medium (email, text message, print ad, direct mail, or a combination of all) using the traits inherent in that medium that will most effectively deliver the message.

So... what's the moral of the story? I think that organizations that are NOT looking at their structure... especially retailers but also businesses in the B2B market, and figuring out how to structure marketing planning and even operational planning, so that they can service each market's individuality while at the same time maintaining that consistent presence across all channels, are going to miss opportunities in the new "connected economy." The organizations addressing this now... or that have addressed this, will be the ones you want to buy stock in (if you don't have it already...). Which one will you be?

new APPLE v. PC ads - look outside your window

2006-05-03T11:04:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen them yet... the new commercials for the "getamac" campaign are causing moniors all over our office to receive water-soda-coffee power-washings... Check them out here:

My personal favorite is the virus version but... we DO have a report of the first official virus for a mac this week. Here are two views on it:

From CIO magazine (predictable corp slant here)
From MacDailyNews (defending the apple)

You decide what you want but... the Mac is going to become a more popular home computing platform over the next year... because it is simple to maintain. The iPod has been the perfect lead in to it.

What does that mean for you? Make sure your sites work in Firefox. Make sure that you're focusing on "ease of experience" learning a lesson from the ease of iTunes, and the iPod... in everything you do. These matter to the consuming generation of now, and if you're not watching this trend here... you won't see the wave when it swamps you.

This is another in a series of reasons why I think it is imperative for retailers to look outside of their vertical... and outside of the industry... to better understand how they can improve their overall experience.

cheers!

back in action

2006-05-03T10:48:00.000-05:00

Hey fellow online consumers and purveyors... after a bit of an absence... I'm back and ready to blog-away.

I've switched a bit of the focus personally as I've moved to a new firm that does more b2b marketing/interactive. However, I'm still watching the online retail space VERY CAREFULLY as 2006 is a watershed year for a lot of the major players. I will be "redefining" what online retail means a bit (if att is trying to sell you a new cell phone and some DSL together, that's retail too ya know) but, we'll still be in the trenches looking at the trends and commenting as we see fit. Also, now that I'm in a different place, I'll be able to reveal a little more about "online retail guy" in the coming weeks as well.

So, hope you're reading this... welcome back if you are and I'll have a new post up about some interesting developments in online retail, coming soon.

cheers!
onlineretailguy

Time to invest in online operations

2006-02-02T08:23:00.000-06:00

Greets all. Well the first of the year is off with a bang and by almost all accounts major retailers were effected by online retailing for the holidays. There are numerous reports of how much online retailing grew in 2005, but I think that this article from eMarketer and this one from Internet Retailer sum it up pretty good.

With the future so bright that you're gonna need shades (ewww... corey hart 80's reference) some of the forward thinking retailers have seen their investments in their online/multi-channel retailing efforts pay handsome dividends. BestBuy's Sam Taylor for example just told Internet Retailer this week about their 2005 Gift Card and Gift Center efforts driving significant holiday gains. Circuit City's "24 minutes or $24 gift card" promotion brought to the forefront their multi-channel abilities, and has been a key in a positive. And of course, the darling of the online world Zappos.com smashed even their own estimates for 2005 by posting $370 million in online sales.

What all of these have in common, along with many other retailers is that they made significant investments in their online operations and infrastructure starting as far back as 10 years ago. They also continue to shift resources ($$$'s) from their traditional business and marketing efforts to where their significant growth is: Online and multi-channel retailing. There's no better example of someone "getting it" than what Federated announced this week. They are going to spend $120 million over the next two years to open a new "direct business" distribution facility, and completely revamp their online/direct retailing infrastructure. Federated realizes that their core business, the department store, is fading fast and if they do not transition to a full multi-channel model, they will be completely left behind.

So... what is the lesson to be learned? If you're planning to succeed in retailing, the double-digit growth is online not offline. The combination of both (multi-channel) is even more efficient and is increasingly they way for traditional brick-based retailers to go. Your marketing, your merchandising and your technology infrastructure need significant investment now, or you will be passed by. Does your budget reflect supporting this double-digit growth potential or are you still spending the vast majority of your budget on traditional and slower growth efforts?

Good luck in 06, and happy retailing.

PS: to any of you who were in Atlanta for Shop.org's First Look at the last minute, I was unable to attend. More on that later, but I hope that all of you who did attend havd a great show.

Web Trends gets caught with hand in WhiteHouse Cookie Jar

2005-12-30T09:15:00.000-06:00

Happy Holidays... boy you hate to see stories like this one when you're out there trying to get every web analytics contract you can.

It seems that the folks on the Whitehouse Web Site use Web Trends, and someone at the AP decided to check and see if anything at the site set a cookie. Of course the folks at Mr. Bush's current address think like a lot of us, that it is nice to know some basic trends about the visitors to their site, so they went out and purchased Web Trends hosted edition to do some basic web analytics. Uh oh... that's not allowed on a Government Web Site there gang.

With the recent revelation that the NSA site too was setting cookies (setting the privacy hawks into a bit of an uproar about ANY government site EVER setting a cookie), why didn't the folks on Mr. Bush's staff pick up on this right away? Bad PR move there gang. It goes to show that you need to know what is going on with your site... and the folks that RUN a site need to have a basic technical understanding of how all of the parts operate.

This does have impact for retailers. We all set cookies for web analytics (if you have any of the major packages like Omniture, Web Trends, HBX, CoreMetrics) . Some retailers are setting 3rd Party Cookies on their sites for Web Analytics (either using hosted versions of their WA suite, or to do things like track affliate performance... or keyword search program performance). I think we can expect that the press is going to make this an issue in 06. So, we'll need to be prepared, beyond what the Whitehouse is saying (our "contractor" did it without us knowing). Ultimately we're responsible for what our sites do. When you sign up for that "service" to help you track something, or if you use these now, you'd better be prepared to explain why this is a benefit and NOT a privacy invasion.

This issue is only going to get "hotter" in 2006. Combining the mainstream media's inability to grasp technical topics, with the overall sentiments in the court of public opinion that cookies are bad, we as retailers are going to need to partner with our WA providers to get a positive message out. The folks at the Web Analytics Association are starting to do that. If you haven't checked out their resources yet, it might be time.

Happy retailing everyone. Hope to see some of you in Atlanta!!!

why RSS has a long way to go

2005-12-07T10:03:00.000-06:00

Back at the 2005 Shop.org annual summit in September, there was a great session on 6 consumer trends retailers need to watch for, RSS feeds were one of the things that was seen as a small fry soon to supersize, especially with the echo boomer set.

It set me thinking... if there's still so much of the online retail going on in the work place (hence the whole premise behind cybermonday), there's a significant challenge for RSS' role in online retail: Corporate Information Security.

Corporate desktops are heading in exactly the opposite direction from the type of freedom that RSS gives. Restricting user access to common web-based services like email and chat are quickly becomming common place in corporate America. (I can't even get access to a web-based email account at my employer gmail, yahoo, msn, netscape, all blocked for "security reasons." Chat is RIGHT OUT because not only can you not install the client, but the traffic is blocked as well) I leaned over to a collegue in the session from Walmart.com and asked her "could you install an RSS reader on your computer at work?" She laughed and said "no way."

Email meanwhile can be controlled, monitored effectively and is something that information security types feel they have a descent handle on.

Now, I'm all for blocking porn, spam, etc. while we're using the "company-provided" information technology resources (computer, bandwidth, etc.) But, is it too far off where one can see a day where in the interest of "information security" and the "proper use" of "information technology resources" where shopping could be restricted? It wouldn't be good for business now would it?

I posed the question to one of the speakers, Carrie Johnson from Forrester after the session. She had a hard time grasping the reality of the "locked desktop" in corporate communities, but understood that it could be a barrier to adoption of RSS. I guess the bigger question is this: What's going to happen when the EchoBoomers hit the workforce... and can't IM their friends/blog during their day and check their RSS feeds? Will major companies react or stay the course? We'll see.

shop.org First Look 2006 - multi-channel panel

2005-12-06T23:15:00.000-06:00

Sometimes for retailers it is hard to look past the holiday season but if you haven't checked out Shop.org's First Look 2006 Event, I can't recommend it highly enough. I went to my first shop.org event (the annual summit in September) and was blown away at the interaction there, while the conference had a zillion attendees. I can't wait for this first look opportunity.

I was also asked to speak on a panel by my friend Lauren Freeman over at the e-tail group. If you're going to Atlanta for the first look, I'd love to meet you. Here's the session description.

If you've somehow not heard of Lauren, you need to checkout her site. Lauren's a GREAT source of knowledge in our industry, understanding retail from both the merchant and consumer perspective. Many retailers could benefit from her perspective and expertise (including myself). Many actually have.

forrester 2006 Multichannel retailing report...

2005-12-06T22:56:00.000-06:00

Tamara Mendelsohn and Carrie Johnson over at Forrester are set to release a new report on the state of Multichannel Retailing in January. While the study results aren't released yet, one trend coming out of it surfaced yesterday at InternetRetailer.com: Yes, the kiosk is back!!!

It seems that now that consumers are rapidly getting used to the kiosk at Airports, Grocery Stores and some of their favorite retailers, they're warming to the idea that we all should have one. The story indicates that 67% of consumers think that a kiosk would be a great way to get information on a product without having to talk to a sales associate.

Without talking to a sales associate... makes you think doesn't it. Now this shouldn't be a news flash to folks that regularly read things like Mark Hurst's Good Experience website or know Kelly Mooney's Ten Demandments... but just to clear things up... I'll say this once:

The consumer is absolutely in charge of her shopping experience. She will decide how she wants to shop you, when she wants to shop you, how much she's going to pay for your goods, and will completely rate her experience within minutes of completing it.

Keeping in mind that we no longer control the shopping experience forces us to focus on how to give that consumer control over the experience and still make a profit.

Keep a watch out for that report coming in January. Carrie, Tamara and the team
there are a bunch of bright eggs. It will probably be something we should be
listing to.

gap's upgrades already paying off

2005-12-06T22:24:00.000-06:00

Much has been written about the bold step the crew at GAP took by shutting down Gap.com, oldnavy.com and bannanarepublic.com in August/September, to implement a new eCommerce experience. If you were under a rock, here are a few stories about this from our friends at Internet Retailer magazine:

This was a bold decision by GAP management. They've been on the comeback trail in general as a retailer. Their multi-channel efforts have helped lead them back, and their websites have been at the forefront of that. But, they were by no means back yet. So, what could have driven them to take such a drastic step as closing down their sites?

The answer is simple: provide a better shopping experience, and your customer will reward you. They set about rebuilding almost everything, front to back. They knew that if they didn't, their site would not serve as the multi-channel hub that retailers will need to survive and thrive in the years to come.

The results are not as simple, but are encouraging. Essentially, gap knew that it would be losing millions a day by the site(s) not being available to consumers. The question is, would consumers wait? The answer right now is... yes they did wait, and they're back.

GAP announced 3rd QTR results today, and while they were down... they weren't NEARLY as "down" as they should have been. According to the story, they were only down 9% over last year, this while experiencing either outages or significant slow-downs in sales through this significant channel.

That means, eventhough the sites were completely gone for two weeks, and had significant limitations for a total of 4-5 weeks, gap online sales only dipped like they were offline for a few days. I'm not at Gap headquarters or anything, but I have a hunch that the folks there are looking at their web analytics package with significant glee this holiday season. My guess is they are seeing significantly higher conversion rates thanks to nifty features like Quick Look, and that we'll see that their 4th quarter online numbers will be in the positive this year. Anyone want to take a milkshake bet on that one?

Kudos to those in Gap ecommerce management that sold the overall management team on the concept that some painful investment now, will in fact deliver rich rewards for the future. Also, kudos to those who actually executed on the promise.

fields.com lives on... but not for too long

2005-12-06T22:07:00.000-06:00

It is funny how some major retailers can't find it in the budget or time to strategically update technology or user experience on their sites... while others are busy doing it eventhough they have an END DATE!!

It seems that the folks running Fields.com (the Online Site for the doomed but adored Marshall Fields) have made some user-centered changes to help sales in this, their scheduled last online holiday season. With the Federated purchase of May Department Stores, Federated announced that they will convert all Marshall Fields stores to Macy's by September 2006. The internet retailer article details a few of the changes they've made for the holiday season.

A quick check of the site reveals new rich media features in their online circulars/tabs powered by the folks over at Scene 7. All of their changes didn't cost a lot though... a simple "shop by price" page for gifts makes it simple to do your gift shopping by that all important price point. I argue that many of the gifts that you buy at the holidays are gifts you have to buy... gifts for the office, for that 3rd cousin you see twice a year. If we as retailers are supposed to be making it easy for our consumers to shop... then solving little problems like the "gotta buy a gift" problem are big "little wins" that will generate loyal customers. Too bad these loyal Fields customers will be either relocating or buying from macys/bloomingdales/lord & taylor this time next year.

some focus for the blog..

2005-12-06T21:47:00.000-06:00

blogs tend to be all over the map. Good ones in my view sometimes lose their focus and become wonderfully entertaining reading... in a time-wasting sort of way. Hopefully, we'll have more focus than that.

What we'll focus on:
Online retailing takes on many flavors and has multiple aspects to it. We'll cover many of these topics, but for the foreseeable future we'll be focusing on the online retail components involved in multi-channel retailing.

Some of those components include:

site design
inventory principles
meeting and exceeding customer expectations
marketing challenges and opportunities
anything else I see someone doing in the space that I think is cool!

So, let's get started!

and the blogging begins...

2005-12-06T13:48:00.000-06:00

Greets fellow online retailers. Welcome to the first of what hopes to be many posts about Online Retailing from the perspective of someone inside the industry, with a unique perspective. I welcome all comments, questions and generally any information you want to contribute.

My goal is simple, to communicate with other online retail experts on the perils and successes of our craft. I hope this blog will help facilitate that by offering:

unique reviews and insights
a bit of humor
stories of our successes and failures

To start the blog will be on a semi-weekly basis but, there's a lot of pent-up content in me so... who knows.

So, without further delay... let the blogging and commenting begin!