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
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
If the shoe fits... sell it.
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
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
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
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
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
MeeboMe - Low cost consumer chat?
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Playing "Fair"
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)
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)
Thursday, May 18, 2006
It's one... multi-channel world
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?
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?
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
new APPLE v. PC ads - look outside your window
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!
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
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
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
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Time to invest in online operations
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.
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.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Web Trends gets caught with hand in WhiteHouse Cookie Jar
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!!!
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!!!
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
why RSS has a long way to go
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
shop.org First Look 2006 - multi-channel panel
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.
I was also asked
If you've somehow not heard of Lauren, you need to checkout her site.
forrester 2006 Multichannel retailing report...
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:
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.
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
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:
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.
- Gap leaves temporary gap online (August 26, 2005)
- Gap still hasn't filled its downtime gap (August 31, 2005)
- Gap finally plugs its performance gap (September 9, 2005)
- Gap still struggling with performance issues (September 21, 2005)
- Gap launches new site after two weeks down time (Octobmer 2005)
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
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.
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..
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:
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!
and the blogging begins...
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:
So, without further delay... let the blogging and commenting begin!
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
So, without further delay... let the blogging and commenting begin!
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