Ecommerce Blog

GAP + Banana Republic + Old Navy + Piperlime = 1 Checkout

Closing the gap between its e-stores, Gap now allows customer to shop all of its stores online as though it were one site. Customers can switch shops just by clicking tabs, add products to a single cart and check-out in one go.

This has fantastic implications for holiday shopping as well.

Prior to the launch of the single checkout, Gap did allow customers to create one account that worked for all of its properties (one login and password), and showed text links to the other stores across the top of each store’s design. The new tabs bring a unified feel to the sites, and the single checkout provides incredible convenience.

Inter-store Merchandising?

It will be interesting to see if Gap experiments with cross-selling and up-selling between stores. Because each store with the exception of Piperlime (shoes) targets a different price-point, mixing $5 Old Navy recommendations alongside $180 Banana Republic garb may not fly. But certainly Piperlime cross-sells make sense - shoes and accessories are natural add-ons to any purchase. Unifying the checkout only makes this much easier to do.

If you’re an online retailer running multiple stores, please join us tomorrow, June 3rd at 9 am PST for a webinar on multi-store ecommerce management. The webinar will cover:

• The rise of multi-store retailing
• How Elastic Path Commerce retailers are using multi-store
• How Elastic Path Commerce supports multi-store management

Details and sign up here.

If you can’t make the live call, you’ll be able to access the replay on our site in our webinar archive.

9 Ecommerce Innovations: What’s Now & What’s Next

Free webinar: June 19th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend

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• Internet Retailer Announces Elastic Path One Page
• Sneak Peek at Elastic Path 6 Ecommerce Software
• BEA Introduces AquaLogic Commerce Services - Press Release
• RIS News Article - Reducing Cart Abandonment
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Original post by Linda Bustos

When a customer lands on a 404 Not Found page, he or she is caught off guard - confused at best and downright frustrated and ready to shop somewhere else at worst. A 404 page is a customer service touchpoint. It’s an opportunity to be helpful, show a business’ personality and even merchandise. Do you treat your 404 page like a landing page?

When checking out how top online retailers do 404 pages, I found many simply redirect users to the home page, which is a perfectly fine way of handling things. For those of you who do use 404 Not Found pages, here are some examples from fellow retailers — the good, the bad and the funny.

404 Page Examples and Tips

1. Have a page

If you don’t automatically redirect, there’s nothing worse than landing people on a generic screen like this:

When you remove all navigation it’s like teleporting a customer out of your store and dropping them into the parking lot blindfolded. This happened on many top retailer sites I tested. What a shame.

2. Don’t blame the user first

I saw lots of cold messages like this that seem to blame the user for typing in the wrong URL. But 404 messages rarely come from type-in errors, they’re usually broken links from external sites or the site itself because the root URL must match the actual URL. Customers rarely type in deep link URLs manually.

Gap’s approach is to assume its own fault first, a humbler approach:

But WetSeal goes a bit too far with “we’re working on this page.” Don’t imply your site is unfinished, it’s not professional. And don’t expect customers to try again later - like when, 3 months from now?

eToys also leads with “you probably screwed up” (paraphrase), and adds if it was a broken link it was “probably from another site ‘cuz we never mess up” (again, paraphrase).

3. Keep it short and sweet

Boden is known for being a personable company, but its 404 page reads like a novel.

4. Add a search box

Golfsmith uses a search box as a call to action to encourage customers to keep shopping on the site and find what they were originally looking for.

But instructions on how to search like “enter a few words into the box” is unnecessary.

5. Remove calls-to-action that don’t make sense

Zappos is king of customer service, but a customer probably doesn’t want to submit a video testimonial for finding a broken link.

I’m surprised Zappos, as helpful as they are, doesn’t chime in with a live help prompt.

6. Think like a customer

If you mention customer service, make sure you link to the customer service page. Don’t make customers have to search it out themselves.

List your hours of customer service (telephone) or an estimated email response time so customers can judge whether it’s worth it to contact you or not.

7. Merchandise

Bravo to Busted Tees for showing product on the 404 page, and linking to the catalog. If a link was from an external site (in other words, the customer may not be familiar with the product offering) this can be a compelling reason to stick around and check out the merch.

8. Be funny

I knew Urban Outfitters would do something edgy, but don’t do this unless it’s consistent with your brand’s culture and target market’s expectations of you.

9. Provide multiple links back into the site

Northern Tool combines humor and usability, offering the most logical actions as links - go back one step, start from scratch, browse categories or talk to someone.

10. Use product finders

I Want One of Those combines humor with search and a useful product finder.

11. Don’t yell or try to sound smart

This is funny, but not because Burberry has a sense of humor - rather it’s yelling big fancy words!

Going the Extra Mile

If something’s broken on your site, why not reward your customers for giving you a heads up? We’re busy people, and may not bother to contact customer service to let you know but an incentive could help you fix a problem that may be costing you far more than $5 in lost revenue. Plus, you could turn a comparison shopper into a buyer - now that person will hunt for something to buy to use the discount or at least visit you at a later date. If you sell higher ticket items, consider sending a higher value gift card to make it worth it.

And do thank people when they take the time to alert you of broken links. I do this often and haven’t been thanked, not that I expect thanks, but an acknowledgement that a link has been fixed, at the very least, would let me know my voice was heard.

Most Creative 404 Pages

This is one of the coolest “Results Not Found” page I’ve ever seen. You really have to see it to believe it - it has an interactive, microsite feel.

http://www.bluedaniel.com/404.shtml

Smashing Magazine has also collected some entertaining 404 pages worth checking out.

9 Ecommerce Innovations: What’s Now &amp What’s Next
Free webinar: June 19th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

Our VP of Innovation, Jason Billingsley has a key eye for new ecommerce trends and will be presenting a full hour’s worth of innovations in a webinar 9 Ecommerce Innovations: What’s Now & What’s Next. It’s happening June 19th so mark your calendars.

Jason tipped me off about a new website launched in April for Martin + Osa, a spin-off of American Eagle Outfitters, that has built a full-motion video merchandising area called “Shop by Outfit.”

M+O stylists have put outfits together that customers can buy all at once, and the outfits are shown on real models that move around as you view the page. You can zoom in by rolling over an image, and the model does a 360 degree spin so you get a feel for what the outfit looks like (well, on the perfect model anyway).

If you click to refine your outfit results to just “Moonlight,” “Seashore” or “Sunshine,” (which I don’t see serving much purpose), the girls whose outfits don’t fit your criteria gingerly walk out of the scene.

Shopping by outfit can save a shopper time as traditionally, one would need to navigate to different categories and add items individually. And by choosing from pre-selected sets, the fashionably clueless get some ideas of how to dress.

Shoppers can also build their own outfits using “Layer Your Own Look,” which turns traditional site navigation on its head - essentially you can shop multiple categories without leaving a page, and see how items “work” together. Looks can be saved for a future visit or added to the shopping bag for checkout.

More and more fashion retailers are adding some form of “shop by look” merchandising. Other stores include Rampage, Lacoste and Arden B (a quick search for “shop by look” in Google gives you more examples). When you click on a look, you see all the items listed individually on the same page, so you can check off the items you want. The problem with this is you navigate away from the look unless you’re savvy enough to open a new tab or window to hold your place. Martin + Osa smartly uses AJAX to show detail without navigating away from the page:

Product details can be viewed by switching tabs. The tabs may be too subtle here to notice, but it does help pack more information in a smaller space.

M+O also provides detailed product images that show extreme close-up views of fabrics, pockets and other item details.

For most online merchants, this type of rich media investment simply is too expensive to implement. But as more and more large retailers add video and Flash applications to their e-stores, customers are going to become more spoiled and will expect to see 360 degree product views, products in context (clothing on people) and very detailed product images. This is reasonably easy to implement for any retailer using static images. Though this is also not cheap, it’s far less expensive than what M+O has done.

It’s also important for any retailer who does use a “shop by look” approach to allow customers to see cross-sell detail information without clicking away from the look page.

A side note: as I mentioned in my interview with Rich Page, American Eagle has one of my favorite navigation menus in terms of design, placement and usability. I’m happy to see Martin + Osa doing the same.

9 Ecommerce Innovations: What’s Now & What’s Next
Free webinar: June 19th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

Saks Fifth Avenue is stepping out and debuting “Fashion in Action” - first streaming video fashion catalog. The feature went live last Monday as an effort to combat the deterioration of direct mail catalogs - to make them more entertaining and interactive.

So far the virtual catalog is just a test, using items from Saks’ top-selling departments: contemporary ready-to-wear, handbags, and shoes. Some videos also cross-sell jewelry.

The videos are short with typical fashion television background music and narration that describes each piece worn by the model. Customers can shop for the entire “look” with one click, where you can see all items shown in the look on one page with details on each.

I’ve noticed a trend among fashion retailers towards merchandising entire “looks” - Rampage’s Collections is an example.

The benefit of showing sets of items close together is that the customer gets a better idea of how cross-sells actually work with each other. It’s more convincing than trying to visualize how thumbnails of different items would look like together. It’s also more like in-store merchandising. We’re all familiar with mannequins and window displays.

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Original post by Linda Bustos

As customer reviews become more and more common on ecommerce sites, we can expect innovations to emerge in design, usability and quality.

It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on Amazon for usability innovations. Today we’ll look at an example of how Amazon helps customers filter product reviews when there are literally hundreds of them. Not only does Amazon help customers hone in on specific types of reviews, it also takes the opportunity to show relevant merchandising based on the customer reviews themselves. In this post I’ll also suggest something that Amazon isn’t doing yet that could help you save sales when review content actually discourages a customer to purchase the item in question.

I’m going to use the example of a book that’s going to be a top-seller on Amazon simply because it’s endorsed by perhaps the most influential television personality in the world - Oprah Winfrey. Most people will not feel the need to read reviews because they trust her opinion so much. Others will be so excited about the book they will read the reviews just to tide them over until the book arrives at their door.

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Original post by Linda Bustos

We just wrapped up our webinar on merchandising (cross-selling and up-selling) with Mike Svatek of Baynote.

This was an incredible session and I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of catching the replay which will be posted within the next few days. The replay will walk you through all of the screenshots used in the presentation - I’ll only be using select screenshots for this recap.

Mike chose the king of cross-selling Amazon to illustrate the concepts in the webinar, sharing an impressive statistic:

35% of Amazon Sales come from cross-sells & recommendations
Venturebeat (Dec 06)

How does Amazon do this?

Merchandising Based on Intent

First-Time Visitors - Pre-Intent

If Amazon has no information on you (your first visit, you are not logged in or your cache and cookies are cleared) you’ll see default merchandising (pre-intent) within a number of merchandising zones, what Mike refers to as a shotgun approach:

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Web Analytics for Online Retailers: Technology Use & Satisfaction 2008
Free webinar: April 17th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Eric T. Peterson, CEO, Web Analytics Demystified
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

Like Vitaman’s Nikki, American Eagle Outfitters is giving a “human” touch to its merchandising. AE has snagged video-blogging vixen iJustine as a spokeswoman for its Spring Break events in Cancun. And you can find her ooh-ing and aah-ing products within an interactive Spring Break packing guide.

Unlike Nikki, iJustine gushes about goodies for both girls and guys when you rollover certain items.

But like the Vitaman valet, she is very enthusiastic in romancing the products:

Guys, trust me. Throw on a polo and a smile and you’ll have every girl’s attention. They’re so great looking and so easy to wear with anything. If you don’t pack some polos, you might as well stay home.

Whether having a human describe products is something customers want to see - I don’t know. Perhaps for high school / college types who’d rather watch the movie than read the book - watching a product description is preferred?

But really, this concept isn’t new. We have the choice to read the newspaper, or watch an attractive anchor read it to us. Why wouldn’t that also apply to ecommerce?

Video is Here to Stay

It certainly takes a lot of time and money to build interactive Flash-based applications. But if you don’t want to go that route, you can still add a human element by adding video content to product pages, like Tiger Direct:

This video sold me on this camcorder, which I purchased immediately along with a bunch of accessories. I found Arno to be knowledgeable, friendly and humorous. Plus this video actually showed me how close you can zoom in with this camera - try describing that with text! With absolutely no background knowledge of camcorders, it really helped to have a virtual salesperson to turn to. Plus it’s nice to refer to the demo to learn how to use the camera when I get it rather than relying on the package black and white insert.

I expect to see a lot more video merchandising (with real people) popping up in the future.

Effective Online Merchandising: What Sells?
Free webinar: March 13th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Mike Svatek, Director, Marketing & Product Management, Baynote
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

If your company or products are fortunate enough to attract media attention, naturally you would want to highlight this your ecommerce website. Not only does it add credibility to your site browsers, but it can also help new visitors to your website responding to your good press find those featured items quickly.

One store that gets a lot of media love is Rampage. Today we’re going to look at how Rampage leverages its media coverage, and what it can do to take it one step further.

Home Page

The pencil skirt in the image above was recently included in a fashion segment on the Today Show. Rampage includes an “As Seen on the Today Show” link on the home page, so any visitor, whether they have seen the clip or not knows right away the media thinks Rampage is a trend-setting store. Even if you don’t want a pencil skirt, the recognition of the Today Show may boost consumer trust.

The home page also links to a media coverage section — mostly top fashion magazines. There’s 17 mentions from fashion magazines in Winter 2008 alone. Each reference has a thumbnail of the magazine with details of which item was featured.

You can click through for more detail of the actual article:

From here you can click through to the product page. Rampage uses URL parameters to track which product page views came through the media area, and also to add a “return to media coverage” link on the product page for usability.

Collections

Another area where Rampage pounces on its publicity is in its unique merchandising area: “Collections.” Each collection shows sets of items (much like a magazine editor’s picks layout) with product details appearing upon mouseover (great usability). This is great merchandising for female fashion, because unlike sidebar cross-sells, this gives the customer a feel for how things look as an outfit. (It’s much harder to visualize when product thumbnails are 4 inches away from each other.)

Collection′ />

Again, Rampage uses unique URLs for clicks to product pages from collections, and the user is shown a “return to collection” link.

When you roll over any product in a collection, you see the product name, the price (sale prices in red), the available sizes and a fun description. If the item has been covered by a magazine or TV, this is mentioned in the rollover box.

Product Page

This is the current product page:

The product description includes a link that jumps to MSNBC.com, where the Today Show clip lives.

But this clip is embeddable, so Rampage could easily incorporate this video right on the product page. The customer wouldn’t have to leave the product page. This would appeal to the “competitive” customer, as I learned from Jason’s webinar last week on personality types. The “competitive” shopper is click-averse, and rollovers give you the information without a click.

Here’s my concept for a new landing page with video. (I also took the liberty to trade the product color links for attractive color swatches).

This is a loooong video that also features other retailers. Rampage’s item is not mentioned until the end of the clip. If Rampage could contact MSNBC.com and ask permission to show only a short clip (introducing the expert, and honing in on the Rampage feature), this would be more effective.

Many sites are introducing video with product information and customer reviews right on product pages. If media clips like this are available and embeddable, it makes sense to include these also.

Effective Online Merchandising: What Sells?
Free webinar: March 13th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Mike Svatek, Director, Marketing & Product Management, Baynote
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

American Eagle Outfitters recently AJAX-ed up its web design including its navigation menu. What’s different about AE’s flyout menu that’s different from Office Max’ and Eddie Bauer’s navigation redesign is that it actually merchandises within the flyout. Here’s what I mean:

When you roll over a section in the horizontal menu, a sub-menu appears with some featured items. In the example above, you see one featured Clearance item from each category: men’s, women’s and aerie.

This technique allows you to show more content without a click. Clicking away from a page means another click if you want to go back. But flyouts give the user a faster peek at what’s behind the menu buttons. And if you accidentally roll over a menu item, you may be enticed by that 50% off offer you otherwise would not be aware of.

The downsides of AJAX-y menus are they cover up content, can be finicky and require steady mouse control to operate properly. Or worse, they can appear when you don’t expect them too when you mouse a bit too close to the hot-spot. Not everyone will find this a usability improvement.

I noticed when you click on the Clearance button you get different featured items. I think it would be better to keep the same items as in the flyout, because a customer may click out of habit, and wonder where that green camisole disappeared to. You want to minimize the “whoa, what happened?” factor, especially when you’re introducing Web 2.0 coolness that may involve a learning curve. (Even for technosavvy Millennials like the AE customer. It just might be mom or grandma picking out a gift).

Text in the red box doesn’t need to change after you click on Clearance. If a customer clicks on Clearance, he/she understands it’s the clearance section, you don’t have to restate the obvious. When it comes to online copy - less is more.

All-in-all, it’s a pretty neat idea. What do you think about merchandising within navigation? Love it? Hate it?

PS: If you’re interested in merchandising tips and trends, be sure to sign up today for our upcoming webinar: Effective Online Merchandising: What Sells?

Effective Online Merchandising: What Sells?
Free webinar: March 13th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Mike Svatek, Director, Marketing & Product Management, Baynote
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

Eddie Bauer recently revamped its online store design using customer feedback. At first glance, it’s hard to see much difference other than the doesn’t look like much has really changed. But when you look under the hood, you find Eddie Bauer’s packed its new site with plenty of Web 2.0 to improve usability and customer satisfaction.

Before

After

The Changes

Larger Product Images

Eddie Bauer now shows images 25% larger in category pages, so customers can see more detail without clicking on the product to get a better view. Rolling your mouse over some images will show alternate views.

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Effective Online Merchandising: What Sells?
Free webinar: March 13th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Mike Svatek, Director, Marketing & Product Management, Baynote
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

Today, we all know how important customer reviews are to retailers and customers alike. They help convert buyers by building trust and confidence in the product, they reduce returns, draw long-tail search traffic and are a simple entry into on-site communities for ecommerce websites.

But there was a time when no one had them. It makes you wonder what we’re missing today that we don’t know we’re missing.

Let’s take another effective merchandising tool: cross-selling. Currently, ecommerce marketers are banking that their personal cross-sell suggestions or algorithmic-based recommendations will be relevant and attractive to shoppers. This *can* be really hit and miss. But what if we gave customers a crack at cross-selling?

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Effective Online Merchandising: What Sells?
Free webinar: March 13th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Mike Svatek, Director, Marketing & Product Management, Baynote
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

Today is January 14th, which means we’re only one month away from what some believe is the 2nd largest retailing event of the year. Last year, Valentine’s Day raked in $905 Million in online sales.

Though men are expected to spend the most on Valentine gifts and are stereotypically procrastinators, ecommerce marketers should not run a last-minute Valentine’s campaign. Today we’ll talk about ways you can sell lovin’ through email, social media and your website.

Interesting Statistics

Last year, Discovery Card conducted a Valentine’s Day Shopping Survey and found that:

• Men expected to spend an average of $127 on their ladies, and the ladies $74. Of the women, 53% said they would purchase gadgets for their men.

• 65% would make their purchase one week before February 14
• 10% of men would wait until February 14
• 39% of women planned on spending nothing
• 22% of men and 15% of women planned to purchase a gift online

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12 Things Retailers Must Learn from Christmas ‘07
Free webinar: January 24th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Linda Bustos, Emerging Media Analyst, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend

Original post by Linda Bustos

Cross-selling (offering items related to the product like accessories and warranties) and up-selling (suggesting more expensive alternatives) are effective merchandising tools both online and offline. You could think of cross-selling as an etailer’s answer to “would you like fries with that?”

Cross-Selling and up-selling have a number of benefits, and can increase:

• average order value

• conversion rates by guiding customers to appropriate alternatives if a product they’re viewing isn’t right
• exposure for high margin items
• customer satisfaction by suggesting related items to enhance or augment the product and user experience
• awareness about the depth of your product offering

There are many places on your website where you can cross-sell, the most common being the product page and on the view cart page - right before checkout. You can also cross-sell on the home page (if you logged a user’s last visit or they sign in) or in a post-purchase email. Today we’ll just focus on the product pages and view cart.

Not all retailers use cross-selling in both areas, some only cross-sell on the product pages to avoid confusion, indecision and cart abandonment upon checkout. It’s important to cross-sell wisely on view cart pages as this is a valid concern - let’s look at some dos and don’ts for both product pages and view cart pages, and then dig into some real life examples from top retailers.

Cross-Selling Dos

• Show relevant items whether they are accessories or alternatives to the same product

• Show larger sizes or other same-product up-sells when possible (Example: Tiger Direct)
• Use personal words like “you” rather than “we” - “You Might Also Like” vs. “We Suggest”
• Use emotional words like “need” and “want” (Examples: Palm.com “Need accessories?” and McDonald’s “Do you want fries with that?”)
• Use words like “Special Offers,” “Special Offers for You” or “Great Deals” to communicate savings and value
• Create urgency with “Limited Time Offer” or “Limited Quantities” (Example: Tiger Direct)
• Do save your sale / low margin items for the view cart page. Show regular priced / high margin alternatives from the product pages.
• Make it easy to return to the product page after you add a suggested item - even better to keep shopper on the product page but clearly let the shopper know an item was added to the cart
• Offer a mix of price points when suggesting items on the view cart page
• Show “no brainers” like gift cards, warranties, batteries et cetera that are easily understood by the customer, don’t require a click away from the page and are easy sellers
• Offer discounts on one item when you buy another item on the “view cart/bag/basket” page (Examples: Blue Nile and Macy’s)
• Provide enough detail on add-ons (thumbnail, price and description) so customer is less likely to click away from cart page
• Let the customer check off add-ons from the view cart page rather than buttons for each product. Customers may think adding a product to the cart will take them away from the cart page and they’ll get lost (Example: Palm.com)
• It’s a good idea to show “top rated” suggestions along with review content to build trust and catch interest. I haven’t found an example of this, please comment if you’ve seen one

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Analytics: 12 Things to Learn from Christmas ‘07
Free webinar: Date To Be Announced, January 2008
Guest Panelist: To Be Announced
View the ecommerce webinar archive

Original post by Linda Bustos

If low prices are your competitive strength, it makes sense that you want to communicate this to your customer the best way you can on your website. Customers increasingly turn to price comparison sites like Shopping.com and Bizrate which pull up-to-date prices from participating merchant data feeds. But is displaying competitor prices on your own site a good idea?

Last week Zachary, a GetElastic reader from PlumberSurplus.com alerted us that a competitor was showing an incorrect price on a price comparison table on its product page. This was discovered by Plumber Surplus during routine price checks on the competitor’s site.

The competing site in question has since taken down the price comparisons. Plumber Surplus never contacted the competitor about it, the comparison tables just came down on their own. So we don’t know why the site decided to take them down, but I can think of at least three good reasons why ecommerce sites should avoid using price comparison tables:

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Is Your Affiliate Program Your Top Sales Generator? If Not…
Free webinar: Tuesday, December 11th, 9am PT / 12pm ET:
Affiliate Marketing: What Every Retailer Ought to Know
Guest Panelist: Shawn Collins, Author, Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants

Original post by Linda Bustos