In this Volusion blog post, we discuss the concept of situation analysis by applying the SWOT model. SWOT stands for: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By taking a look at where your online store currently stands, you’re better prepared to plan for future success.
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Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution states the following […]
Original post by Matt
If you’re curious how to lower the TCO of operating multiple stores, don’t miss our next webinar An Enterprise Guide to Lowering TCO for Multi-store Environments with our own CTO Michael Vax.
About the webinar:
As an enterprise ecosystem becomes more complex, their ecommerce is also maturing from single sites to multi-tenant environments. Enterprises find themselves running multiple online stores for different brands, geographical locations, sales channels, and so on. IT, operations, and marketing departments must scramble to coordinate their efforts as more stores are launched.
In this one-hour webinar, Elastic Path CTO Michael Vax will discuss how enterprises can leverage their ecommerce platform to minimize TCO and achieve greater efficiencies in a multi-store environment.
Webinar takeaways:
* What online store components can be leveraged between multiple stores?
* What is a multitenant environment?
* What is important for lowering TCO?
* How should you deploy your ecommerce platform?
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Time: 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern
Original post by Linda Bustos
Thanks to everyone who joined us for this month’s webinar: From Manufacturer to Retailer: Expanding Your Brand Online. Thanks to the great team at Elastic Path for hosting such a timely topic. (Note, the webinar replay will be available shortly at the link above).
In this webinar, we covered the 5 critical things that manufacturers must do to be successful online. My favorite among the bunch is #3 – Getting your product information and tools “consumer ready.”
For many online shoppers, manufacturer’s websites are the first place to go for product information – by default, the manufacturer is the authority, right?
Yet, a quick pass through the websites of many manufacturers shows that while the information might be there, it can be a bit of a chore for the consumer to wade through.
The problems tend to fall into a few camps:
1) The site looks beautiful, but the language reads like it was written by a programmer. See below. Does a returning customer really want to be referred to as an “existing user”? Or do they want to see that a required field is “mandatory”? And when the customer has done a search for one of your products, do they really want to see that “100 records” are being displayed?
2) The product offering is categorized in branded terms, not consumer terms. Here’s a great example on the Keen website. I’m looking for sandals, yet the choices in the women’s menu are clever names of product collections, so I really don’t know where to find the sandals.
Unfortunately, typing “sandals” into the search box yields only one pair of sandals, and I know that Keen carries a lot more.
Frustrated, I go back to the home page and click the “womens” header – and viola, I suddenly have robust navigational tool that allows me to choose sandals and other shoes in my language…..but why not just give me that from the get go?
3) There are rich, deep technical details about the product, but I have no idea what’s in it for me. See the below example from the Merrell website. About half of the bullets here have me stumped as to why I should care and what they will do for me.
Do you know why you need a Vibram Multi-Grip Sport Sole/Trek & Tʣ+ Rubber? I sure don’t.
Contrast that with Danner Boot, who does a great job of translating techno-speak in to consumer-ready features and benefits:
Moral of the story: your brand image doesn’t stop with the beautiful photo on the home page. It carries through in every aspect of the research and purchase experience. Be sure you’ve taken the time to get your product information consumer-ready.
Sally McKenzie is a retail and online industry veteran with over 20 years of leadership success spanning brick & mortar, catalog and e-commerce channels. She covers merchandising, marketing, product development, web site operations and strategic planning functions for the online world.
An enterprise guide to lowering TCO for multi-store environments
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM PDT
As an enterprise ecosystem becomes more complex, their ecommerce is also maturing from single sites to multitenant environments. Enterprises find themselves running multiple online stores for different brands, geographical locations, sales channels, and so on. IT, operations, and marketing departments must scramble to coordinate their efforts as more stores are launched.
In this one-hour webinar, Elastic Path CTO Michael Vax will discuss how enterprises can leverage their ecommerce platform to minimize TCO and achieve greater efficiencies in a multi-store environment.
Webinar takeaways:
• What online store components can be leveraged between multiple stores?
• What is a multitenant environment?
• What is important for lowering TCO?
• How should you deploy your ecommerce platform?
Original post by Linda Bustos
Remember this cheesy commercial from the 80’s for Faberge shampoo?
Can’t see video? Visit this post on the Web.
Along with Faberge shampoo, the “Tell 2 Friends” adage has gone the way of the Dodo. In the Age of Twitter, it’s more like “Tell 2000 Friends.”
Consider this Tweet from Bazaarvoice CMO Sam Decker. Over 2000 of his followers potentially caught this tweet: “On hold too long with Zappos. I think my expectations are higher after hearing so much about their customer service.”
Zappos customer service did catch that tweet, and followed up swiftly with a coupon:
“Impressed @Zappos_Service saw my tweeted issue and emailed me a coupon as an apology. How many companies do that??”
And now I’m sharing the story with over 8000 Get Elastic readers.
Using Twitter for Customer Service
Consider watching Twitter in real time for mention of your brand name. It’s as simple as heading to http://search.twitter.com/ and typing in the terms you want to watch. You can even search like this:
“linda bustos” OR “get elastic” OR “getelastic” OR “elastic path” OR “roxyyo” OR “elasticpath”
Have your customer service reps keep a tab with the search and check every so often, or use a desktop client like Seesmic Desktop that will alert you for every instance of your tracked words.
This is also an example of how Twitter can be faster than email or phone communication - offering it as an option for Twitter users to contact your customer service reps directly rather than blasting a tweet to everyone can help avoid rants in the public forum.
Quick response is optimal, but any response is better than no response. How you handle positive/negative tweets is up to you, but the first step is to create that feedback loop so you can hear what people are saying about you.
Original post by Linda Bustos
The conventional way to attract customer reviews = do nothing.
Really!
Beyond that, some retailers do follow up after purchases and ask for a review like BlueNile:
Or ask email subscribers to enter a contest like Orvis:
Good ideas, but limited to those who have made a purchase from you (and actually read your follow-up emails) or have subscribed to your email list. That leaves a big pool of potential reviewers, for example:
1. Online shoppers who have seen/handled the product and not bought, or bought from another retailer.
2. Online or offline shoppers who have not seen/handled the products.
Here are some ways to rally these potential reviewers:
1. Provide incentives on product pages. Macy’s asks for a review right on the product page (for a chance to win):
The downside is customers who already own a product, or have experienced the product but decided not to purchase likely aren’t viewing these products again online.
2. Surprise with free samples. Depending on what you’re selling online, you may be able to slip in a free sample into a package. For example, Lush Cosmetics throws in a couple soap samples. Unfortunately, Lush didn’t close the loop by asking for an online review.
3. Use packing inserts. Even if you don’t put in a sample, do slip a packing insert asking for reviews - don’t rely on just follow-up emails. Famous Footwear tried this for their in-store purchases and claim it drove more review participation than any other marketing activity. And that was just for in-store, imagine if online orders were included.
4. Provide in-store access. If you have retail stores - why not set up a kiosk or even just a laptop and ask customers to review products right in the store? And give them access to others’ customer reviews online to help them make purchase decisions in your store.
5. Explore multi-media You could even get creative and allow in-store customers to record their own audio or video reviews for playback on your site. There are services that will also transcribe audio.
6. Throw a customer appreciation party. Why not throw a special customer appreciation party, inviting customers to come to eat good food, try products, write reviews, receive freebies and enter to win a big prize? This could work very well for children’s clothing, footwear, cosmetics stores and specialty food / wine sellers.
7. Recruit sampling teams.
You could offer passionate customers access to an exclusive “review team.” One approach would be to offer customers samples on a regular basis in exchange for reviews. If, like Lush Cosmetics, you frequently add new products to your offering, sending advance samples help you launch the product with customer reviews already submitted. Advance samples also make the reviewer feel part of an exclusive club, which could increase loyalty and evangelism. Naturally, this wouldn’t work for every e-tail category.
8. Free return shipping with conditions
I expect this to be controversial — but you may consider offering free return shipping as a courtesy for helping customers like them understand the shortcomings of the product. You’ll need to be sensitive how you word it on your Returns Policy page.
Pros:
Cons:
Would be interested in hearing your thoughts on any of these ideas, especially #8.
Original post by Linda Bustos
Last week I wrote about how to think positively about negative reviews.
I just came across a site that embraces the negative and has created a product comparison matrix that shows both the pluses and minuses of its products. The Allergy Buyer’s Club also includes its own experts’ rating system, including “Best in Category” badges.
Though all this information may be overwhelming for some, this is a huge trust builder. This retailer is not trying to conceal the shortcomings of product, and has taken the time to lay out all the facts for a customer to make an informed decision. And it makes nice work of explaining benefits, not just features.
Bad pun alert: Allergy Buyers Club really “clears the air” on its products’ short-comings.
I can hear crickets chirping.
Side-note: I think a “filter by room size” option would be helpful. (I’ll spare you an air filter pun).
The ecommerce platform of the future
When: February 18th, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Presenter:
Brian K. Walker, senior analyst for ecommerce technology, Forrester Research
Register to Attend…
Original post by Linda Bustos
Sucharita Mulpuru and Forrester Research recently released a report called Myths And Truths About Online Customer Reviews. The report covers a lot of ground, but I want to hone in on customer behavior after reading negative reviews. Many retailers have avoided adding reviews for fear negative reviews will hurt sales, despite the proven conversion benefits they deliver.
From the report, here are 7 actions consumers take after reading not-so-shining reviews (customers may take more than one action)
“After reading negative customer ratings/reviews about a specific product on a retailer’s Web site, how do you respond?”
- 47% search for an alternative product
- 37% read professional/editor-written reviews of the product
- 26% continue to shop for the product regardless of the negative ratings/reviews
- 18% look for a retailer/manufacturer that offers a money-back guarantee
- 7% contact the retailer for clarification of the issues raised in the negative review
- 7% contact the manufacturer for clarification of the issues raised in the negative review
- 6% post a follow-up question for the author of the negative review
Base: 2,890 US Web buyers who read and/or post online customer ratings/reviews on retail sites (multiple responses accepted)
Source: Myths And Truths About Online Customer Reviews Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research December 2008
How does your website address the actions customers take after encountering a negative review?
1. Add link back to category that allows sort-by-customer-review.
Link to category (Diapers.com):
Sort by Customer Review on category page (Backcountry.com):
2. Include star ratings on cross-sells.
When showing alternative items (cross-sells and similar items), it may be helpful for the customer to sort similar items by star rating if you show more than a few suggestions on the product page.
Before / After:
3. Use Expert / Staff Reviews
Including an official staff/expert review and marking it as such builds trust with the product AND your call center. Make it “sticky” as part of your product page so it doesn’t get lost in the haystack of customer reviews.
If you don’t have an official staff review, you can have staff submit reviews and be identified as such with the Power Reviews product (below) or with your own custom build:
Bonus for expert video reviews, like Crutchfield:
Crutchfield also includes a “Customer Favorite” and the “Staff Favorite” on category pages above product results:
5. Show money back guarantees right on product page when available
Backcountry already links to a 100% Guarantee, but the link is not very conspicuous. The guarantee badge is not so pretty, but it stands out being more proximal to the product image.
Before:
After:
6. Allow customers to ask and answer questions on your page. Like Bazaarvoice offers or Backcountry built in-house:
7. Include manufacturer’s website URL and contact number on the product page.
Before:
After:
Make sure the link opens in a new window so you don’t lose your customer, and warn about the new window.
8. Enable comments on customer reviews.
According to the research, 6% post follow up questions for the reviewer (Amazon allows you to leave a comment on a review which may include a question). But there is no guarantee the review writer will ever come back to answer the question.
If you set up a system in your community where a reviewer gets alerted of comments on their reviews, these may become spammy/annoying — unless your incentives for community participation are attractive enough to that reviewer to come back and answer the question(s).
But there’s still value to comments. With a comment thread, even if the reviewer doesn’t answer the question, other community members can. And even better, a negative review may be clarified by a comment.
For example, a common complaint for GPS systems is slow satellite acquisition. A commenter on a review at Amazon replied: “Our satellite acquisition problems on the [model] were completely solved via a software update, which the CSR walked us through.”
Another responded “Unfortunately, it sounds like the receiver chip in your unit is probably the **** chip (not well received) instead of the *** chip (highly received). Hopefully a firmware update will help.”
Now shoppers reading reviews can understand there is a solution to the problem with the product, and decide whether it’s an acceptable problem and solution.
9. Know when to offer live chat. Here’s where you can get creative. Consider tagging customers who sort by average customer review on the category page with an attribute that associates them with an interest in customer reviews. If they linger on the product page for more than X minutes, invite them to chat.
This can also help you control live chat costs. You don’t want to offer your CSR services to every single customer. Customers who always sort by lowest price are likely A) less profitable and B) not concerned with chatting about the qualitative virtues of a product. They rely on your search and sort features to tell them if a product/price is attractive or not. Pop-ups interrupt this process and may irritate customers.
The recent Belkin fiasco is a perfect example of why you should welcome negative reviews - without a few negatives the reviews seem inauthentic. Customers want to see a mix of positive and negative reviews - so offer them, but make sure you support the customer who wants additional information, alternative suggestions or personal assistance.
And don’t forget, accepting negative reviews also helps your copywriting.
The ecommerce platform of the future
When: February 18th, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Presenter:
Brian K. Walker, senior analyst for ecommerce technology, Forrester Research
Register to Attend…
Original post by Linda Bustos
I’ve written before how showing products in context with product images can help increase conversion. Showing a product in use, on a model or its relative size reduces customer anxiety about the appropriateness of a product. Of course, video can be even more effective (just ask Shoeline.com who achieved a 44% increase in conversion with video).
But creative retailers also describe products in context. Outdoor gear retailer Backcountry.com injects some humor into its Bazaarvoice Ask & Answer product (where customers ask a question about an item and a customer service rep responds on the site) for a Timbuа Messenger Bag.
Customer question: Whats the volume of the extra large?
Answer:
The extra large bag has a TPRCV of 20.
What is TPRCV you ask?
The geniuses at Timbuk2 explain it best:
We know you don’t have time to buy the wrong size bag. We also know you’re imaginative and visually oriented problem solvers living in a three dimensional world where toilet paper is routinely available.
Soft, stackable and building block-like, toilet paper rolls can be easily arranged to simulate the internal dimensions of any bag.
Working in tandem with our R&D department, our marketing team recently completed an assessment of each bag. We have identified, down to the roll, the maximum capacity for each bag we tested. The resulting TPRCV (Toilet Paper Roll Capacity Value) can be used in a simple, at-home comparison of corresponding stacks of TPR, helping you make an informed decision about what size bag best suits your purposes.
You will need a flat, level surface, a maximum of twenty-one toilet paper rolls (TPRs), your imagination, and your design and rendering skills.
For best results, use two-ply.
By: Matt Fuller
August 9, 2008
This is a “cheeky” example of how to put a product in-context. For some, “20 toilet paper rolls” is more helpful than 26.25 x 14 x 9in.
In this case, the context was provided in response to a customer question, but including this information in the regular product description has even more impact, as shoppers are more likely to read the product description than every single review and staff response.
Exercise: For the products you carry, anticipate what kinds of use or sizing questions customers may have, and what information is not made obvious by the current image and description. (Hint: read a lot of customer reviews - from your site and competitors).
PS: Backcountry has a leaderboard for user-generated content to recognize the contributions of photos, reviews, questions and answers. “Gear Gurus” are encouraged to use their real names to build real community. Check it out here.
Original post by Linda Bustos
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