By Steve Rowen, Managing Partner
3/3/2009
The results that Google brought back today were kind of amusing when I typed in “eTail 2009.” Nikki and I both attended and spoke at the event last week in Phoenix, and I was interested to see what some other attendees’ perception of the show were. The best one I found came from a “web marketing virtuoso” named Stephan Spencer, in a blog entry he called “Stephan Spencer’s Scatterings: Reflections on the eTail Conference.” In his own words – “There were some FANTASTIC sessions by retailers,” and “There were some (overly strong and not-so-endearing adjective) sessions that were really only thinly veiled sales pitches by vendors.” I couldn’t agree more.
What made this search result so funny was that Stephan’s review was from the 2005 show.
Now, in fairness to the folks at eTail, it is understandable why their conference agenda has so many presentations from vendors: eCommerce is one area where “wisdom of the crowd” is rarely going to come from retailers driving up to vendors to fill a need, but rather a field where - most often - technologists must inform the retailer as to what’s actually possible technologically. The task then becomes about educating the crowd as to how this set of tools (preferably brand X’s tools), can make the retailer’s life more efficient, how the retailer can expand their reach at a minimized cost ratio compared to “traditional channel” means, and ultimately, create a more profitable brand. Still at this point, while it is RSR’s contention that the eChannel really must now be viewed as a traditional channel, it is clear that retailers still need quite a bit of help making that vision a reality. Our research continually shows that only Retail Winners are leveraging the eCommerce channel with any great efficiency or innovation, mainly because only those whose traditional messaging is already outperforming have the basics in place for that message to translate to new shopping options (For more on this, see Nikki’s article this week).
So which were some of our favorite presentations? To Stephan’s point from 4 years ago, I really liked some of the retailers who spoke. In particular, Kevin Ertell, formerly of SVP eCommerce of Borders, gave an excellent speech that went well beyond “fluff”: Ertell took a deep dive into exactly what the bookseller has done with its online channel to create a more intimate shopping experience at its site. For example, Borders knew that much of the fun of visiting one of its stores lies in the experience itself: the smell of coffee, the easy-going music in the background, the tactile feel of the actual books. To try and emulate some of this in the digital domain, the retailer employed multiple vendors to cease operating in the eChannel singularly via an Amazon store (which it had been since 2001), and created a brand new and highly experiential eCommerce platform brought to life by such innovations as the widely-publicized “Magic Shelf” (partnering with Massachusetts-based Allurent Technologies). But Ertell didn’t stop at the media pleasantries. Instead, he outlined some very small tweaks that Borders has made recently that have made a world of difference.
The retailer brought a laptop into several of its stores and asked customers if they wouldn’t mind using it to shop. At the same time, these test subjects weren’t given carte-blanche to simply poke around, but rather were given fairly detailed tasks to perform while under observation, such as “Find a new mystery book you might like,” or “Find the newest John Grisham book.” In watching how actual customers used the site, Borders was able to confirm that people don’t always use technology the way technologists have designed it to be used. As a result, 50 minor changes were made to the site, included such alterations as way search brought back visual results. By design, search brought back an image of each title. But if a book had a hardcover, a paperback, and an audiobook, all paired right next to each other with identical covers and varying prices, customers were invariably confused. Borders simply altered the search function to bring back a regular list.
The search bar also used to autoerase whenever a customer clicked their mouse within it. But many found this frustrating since they only wanted to edit their original search request slightly. As a result, now the search bar only highlights itself, enabling small content edits. And whereas the “add to cart” function used to bring a customer right to directly to their shopping cart once clicked (a phenomenon many customers found annoying), now the retailer uses a popover that asks customers whether they would like to go to their cart immediately or continue shopping.
None of these alterations are mind-blowing, nor were they difficult to enable and adopt. However, simply by understanding that it’s not how you want to sell, but how customers want to buy, Borders came out of this experiment with some dramatic reward. All 50 tweaks were made to the site in one evening. The following day conversion rates doubled – literally overnight.
Another presentation that was quite interesting was from specialty retailer Due Maternity. Founder Albert DiPadova gave a fascinating look into his company’s unique challenge: winning brand new customers every day with whom you’ll only have a relationship for three months. “In the first trimester, most moms-to-be are in a denial stage, particulary when it comes to fashion, since they’re not really showing yet. And by the third trimester, they’ve moved on. So we really only have that second trimester to win them over and encourage them to use us in a real sense of community.”
The company utilizes its 5 physical boutiques mainly as showcases for its US-made fashion and beauty products, while its online presence provides the bulk of it business. The site utilizes several very cool features to encourage pregnant women to not only communicate with one another, but also to interact with their existing friends through such social media tools as Facebook and Twitter – without ever leaving Due Maternity’s URL. “We knew that if we provided a link to Facebook, our customers would go on there and get distracted for hours. However, if we can give them the functionality of Facebook right on our page, they can then confer notes with their friends who may or may not be pregnant for advice on a particular top or a particular dress, all the while helping to make this very special part of a woman’s life fun.”
All in all, the eTail show was very well attended, and indeed very much worth attending. We look forward to eTail East in Baltimore this coming August – especially the retailer presentations.
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