At the end of March, Dragons’ Den star and entrepreneur Peter Jones relaunched the Jessops
business. He’s ploughed £4 million of his own money into the business
and forecasts sales of £80 million in the first year. But can the
Jessops website deliver on this ambitious aim? I take a look in this video review--MT.
Showing posts with label ecommerce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ecommerce. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Thursday, 16 June 2011
On online shopping and the art of persuasion
On Monday, Kevin Hillstrom, the president of Mine That Data and a regular speaker at the ECMOD conference, wrote a blog about multichannel attribution. (You can read it here.) He described how he had decided to buy a new TV from Crutchfield, a US-based retailer of consumer electronics products. In just one month, Hillstrom received a catalogue, abandoned basket notification, free gift offer, a lower price, and an email featuring the selected TV, alongside a free shipping offer. He asked readers to deconstruct that information and explain which marketing activity caused the order, bearing in mind that he had already made up his mind to buy from Crutchfield.
Now, I don’t want to wade into the argument. In fact, what interests me most about this experience is just how hard Crutchfield worked to get the sale. With more than a hint of disappointment I can safely say no retailer has ever courted me like that. The closest I have come is a “Thank you for your interest” email from John Lewis and a couple of “we miss you” emails every now and then. As for abandoned-basket emails, the last one I saw was one my boss forwarded me from hair and beauty care brand Aveda.
To show the contrast between Crutchfield’s tenacious approach to get Kevin to buy the TV, and the more laid-back sales tactics I am accustomed to, here’s my recent experience shopping for shoes. I was looking to buy a pair of Converse Ox trainers and started out using Google’s shopping search. My buying decision was based on price: Who could give me the best deal on Converse Ox trainers. After trying the usual shoe suspects, I ended up on eBay’s fashion outlet. I clicked “watch” on a pair of trainers so that I could save my choice and continue browsing. You’re probably expecting me to say that a pair of trainers followed me around the internet as I continued searching. However, because a lot of my browsing was done on a smartphone I didn’t see any of the now ubiquitous retargeting ads.
A couple of days later I noticed the price of my watched item had been reduced by 15 percent, and still had free delivery. Was that intentional or a coincidence? Could the seller, knowing he had only four pairs in that size in stock, used the tactic to tempt the “watchers” he had? Or was it that with only four pairs in stock, he wanted to shift them faster? Or, was it always the plan to reduce the items a certain number of days before the “buy it now” auction ended? Whatever the reason, I took the bait and bought the shoes.
Now get this—six days after I bought the shoes I received an email from eBay: “Miri Thomas, recommended just for you”. Remember, eBay knows I bought the shoes. So why on earth did it send me a selection of Converse trainers? As Kevin Hillstrom would say, “Oh boy…”
Faring slightly better in trying to woo me was Dell. But only slightly. In March, we bought a new PC. In June, we received a mailing from Dell with 10 percent off related accessories—a nice touch. However, if we were in the market for accessories we would have bought them in the first couple of months of buying the computer—and we did. We got a new printer and a new mouse in April from another online retailer. Dell missed the boat.
Crutchfield wanted the sale and it worked for it. The eBay merchant was on the ball, but the online marketplace got its emails wrong. And as for Dell, I give it top marks for the idea, but it was let down by poor timing.
For the marketer, Crutchfield’s sales technique is, as Hillstrom puts it, an “attribution nightmare”. But as a consumer, Crutchfield’s approach is seductive. Hands up: who among you would rather receive an email showing you the shoes you could have bought, or the PC accessories you already have over a free gift to go with the shiny new TV you have put in your basket but haven’t purchased yet?
Thought so.--MT
Now, I don’t want to wade into the argument. In fact, what interests me most about this experience is just how hard Crutchfield worked to get the sale. With more than a hint of disappointment I can safely say no retailer has ever courted me like that. The closest I have come is a “Thank you for your interest” email from John Lewis and a couple of “we miss you” emails every now and then. As for abandoned-basket emails, the last one I saw was one my boss forwarded me from hair and beauty care brand Aveda.
To show the contrast between Crutchfield’s tenacious approach to get Kevin to buy the TV, and the more laid-back sales tactics I am accustomed to, here’s my recent experience shopping for shoes. I was looking to buy a pair of Converse Ox trainers and started out using Google’s shopping search. My buying decision was based on price: Who could give me the best deal on Converse Ox trainers. After trying the usual shoe suspects, I ended up on eBay’s fashion outlet. I clicked “watch” on a pair of trainers so that I could save my choice and continue browsing. You’re probably expecting me to say that a pair of trainers followed me around the internet as I continued searching. However, because a lot of my browsing was done on a smartphone I didn’t see any of the now ubiquitous retargeting ads.
A couple of days later I noticed the price of my watched item had been reduced by 15 percent, and still had free delivery. Was that intentional or a coincidence? Could the seller, knowing he had only four pairs in that size in stock, used the tactic to tempt the “watchers” he had? Or was it that with only four pairs in stock, he wanted to shift them faster? Or, was it always the plan to reduce the items a certain number of days before the “buy it now” auction ended? Whatever the reason, I took the bait and bought the shoes.
Now get this—six days after I bought the shoes I received an email from eBay: “Miri Thomas, recommended just for you”. Remember, eBay knows I bought the shoes. So why on earth did it send me a selection of Converse trainers? As Kevin Hillstrom would say, “Oh boy…”
Faring slightly better in trying to woo me was Dell. But only slightly. In March, we bought a new PC. In June, we received a mailing from Dell with 10 percent off related accessories—a nice touch. However, if we were in the market for accessories we would have bought them in the first couple of months of buying the computer—and we did. We got a new printer and a new mouse in April from another online retailer. Dell missed the boat.
Crutchfield wanted the sale and it worked for it. The eBay merchant was on the ball, but the online marketplace got its emails wrong. And as for Dell, I give it top marks for the idea, but it was let down by poor timing.
For the marketer, Crutchfield’s sales technique is, as Hillstrom puts it, an “attribution nightmare”. But as a consumer, Crutchfield’s approach is seductive. Hands up: who among you would rather receive an email showing you the shoes you could have bought, or the PC accessories you already have over a free gift to go with the shiny new TV you have put in your basket but haven’t purchased yet?
Thought so.--MT
Monday, 23 May 2011
Compare and contrast: Radley
British accessories brand Radley claims on its website that its “love for hand-crafted, distinctive designs is reflected in all of our products, as is our slightly eccentric Britishness!” We’ve often written about the appeal of British brands to American consumers. Julian Granville of apparel retailer Boden once said that in the US, Boden makes a point of “turning up the Britishness on the dial” to help distinguish the brand from local apparel catalogues. So how does Radley translate its appeal on its website? Let’s take a closer look…
Radley’s UK website is at www.radley.co.uk, while its USA website is www.radleylondon.com. This tactic is also applied by apparel cataloguer Wrap, which in the UK is found at www.wraponline.co.uk, while US customers shop through www.wraplondon.com/. I assume this is because Radley.com was already taken by a Michigan-based supplier of supply-chain software. Nonetheless, for me RadleyLondon.com works as a domain name as it actually strengthens the brand’s British appeal. American customers shopping for Radley may be more enamoured with a brand that’s more clearly linked with London.
The page name is also different. In the UK, Radley is known as “Radley London :: Luxury Handbags, Purses, Luggage, Gifts and Accessories – Official Store”. The US page data reads: “Radley London Official US Store :: Luxury Handbags, Wallets, Luggage, Gifts and Accessories – Official Store”. The reiteration of the word official may suggest that Radley suffers from copycat sites. In my opinion the second mention of Official Store adds nothing and should be removed. Doing so reduces the meta title to fewer than 100 characters, which is much more in line with best-practice. I also noticed that Radley doesn’t include the word purses on its US page title—is this because of the confusion of the meaning of the word purse, which in the UK means ladies wallet, but in the US means handbag?
On the home front
The Radley UK and US home pages look very similar, but you’ll notice that the UK site (above) has more product categories. Most notably, the US website (below) does not stock Radley’s shoe range. In addition, the US site, in contrast to the UK, does not sell gift cards. You’d think that electronic gift cards would be easy to implement, so it’s strange that this option isn’t available in the States. It would seem an ideal gift for a UK resident to purchase for an Anglophile friend living in the USA—for start because there wouldn’t be any shipping costs involved.
I like, however, that the company has thought about prices. On the UK Radley website the Gift Shop tab promotes gifts starting at less than £25. On the US website, prices start at $50. Once again, all instances of the word purse have been changed to wallet.
Visitors to the UK website will also notice that the home page image rotates between a nautical-themed scene that’s also on the home page of the American site, and a call to shop Radley’s canvas bag range. In contrast, the US site stays static for no apparent reason. The offers on home pages are different too. The UK site promotes a mid-season sale, while the US site has a “buy 2 get 1 free” offer prominently displayed in the top right corner. Radley also chooses to promote different ranges to its international customers. The Grosvenor design gets two mentions on the US home page, suggesting this might be one of its best-selling items overseas. This is further reinforced by the accompanying copy that states “Grosvenor is back…” as though popular US demand had called for its reintroduction.
Curiously, the Discover Radley tab on the home page has been slimmed down for US consumers. I would have thought American customers would need more brand-building copy than their UK counterparts. Gone are the Collection and Your Stories sections, leaving the US customers access to News, As Seen In, About Us, and Our Handbags. Not entirely sure why Radley dropped these two categories. It would make sense to also allow American customers to share their Radley experiences on the website and make Radley a truly global brand. The UK prize is a gift card, so that may restrict US customers, but I am sure Radley could credit the winning customer with $200 towards their next purchase.
Neither site displays a phone number on the home page, but a click through to the Contact Us page displays different information depending on the region the customer is from. US customers can call local number, as well as contact the UK head office.
Perusing product
From the home page I picked the Purses category on the UK site and the Wallets category on the US website to compare more closely. Each click took me to an identically laid-out product category page. From there I chose the Plain Sailing large wallet. At time of writing, the UK site had the purse on sale, down from £75 to £53. The US site still had it at $120, roughly equal to £75. The copy for each wallet was the same, and each site included links to bookmark, print, and share the product. Strangely, the UK version of the purse has 10 likes on Facebook. The US version has none. Similarly absent on the US site are product reviews. For the Grosvenor Medium Across Body Bag, for example, the UK site has eight reviews (above), where the US equivalent has none (below). In fact, having browsed the site extensively, I struggled to find five product reviews on the US website. Against each product is a clear call to action to submit a review, so either American customers aren’t interested in reviewing Radley’s products, or Radley isn’t interested in publishing their comments. Where Radley does get top marks is in sizing. In the US, each bag and wallet has its dimensions described in inches.
Overall, the US site is just as cleanly designed at its UK counterpart and features all of the same functionality. A little more uniformity is needed when it comes to user-generated content though. I would also like to see a bigger story made of Radley’s Britishness on the US website. As it’s a fairly new brand—just 13 years old—it doesn’t have the heritage of, say, a retailer like Smythson, so it may need a little more differentiation to make it stand out--MT
Radley’s UK website is at www.radley.co.uk, while its USA website is www.radleylondon.com. This tactic is also applied by apparel cataloguer Wrap, which in the UK is found at www.wraponline.co.uk, while US customers shop through www.wraplondon.com/. I assume this is because Radley.com was already taken by a Michigan-based supplier of supply-chain software. Nonetheless, for me RadleyLondon.com works as a domain name as it actually strengthens the brand’s British appeal. American customers shopping for Radley may be more enamoured with a brand that’s more clearly linked with London.
The page name is also different. In the UK, Radley is known as “Radley London :: Luxury Handbags, Purses, Luggage, Gifts and Accessories – Official Store”. The US page data reads: “Radley London Official US Store :: Luxury Handbags, Wallets, Luggage, Gifts and Accessories – Official Store”. The reiteration of the word official may suggest that Radley suffers from copycat sites. In my opinion the second mention of Official Store adds nothing and should be removed. Doing so reduces the meta title to fewer than 100 characters, which is much more in line with best-practice. I also noticed that Radley doesn’t include the word purses on its US page title—is this because of the confusion of the meaning of the word purse, which in the UK means ladies wallet, but in the US means handbag?
The Radley UK and US home pages look very similar, but you’ll notice that the UK site (above) has more product categories. Most notably, the US website (below) does not stock Radley’s shoe range. In addition, the US site, in contrast to the UK, does not sell gift cards. You’d think that electronic gift cards would be easy to implement, so it’s strange that this option isn’t available in the States. It would seem an ideal gift for a UK resident to purchase for an Anglophile friend living in the USA—for start because there wouldn’t be any shipping costs involved.
Visitors to the UK website will also notice that the home page image rotates between a nautical-themed scene that’s also on the home page of the American site, and a call to shop Radley’s canvas bag range. In contrast, the US site stays static for no apparent reason. The offers on home pages are different too. The UK site promotes a mid-season sale, while the US site has a “buy 2 get 1 free” offer prominently displayed in the top right corner. Radley also chooses to promote different ranges to its international customers. The Grosvenor design gets two mentions on the US home page, suggesting this might be one of its best-selling items overseas. This is further reinforced by the accompanying copy that states “Grosvenor is back…” as though popular US demand had called for its reintroduction.
Curiously, the Discover Radley tab on the home page has been slimmed down for US consumers. I would have thought American customers would need more brand-building copy than their UK counterparts. Gone are the Collection and Your Stories sections, leaving the US customers access to News, As Seen In, About Us, and Our Handbags. Not entirely sure why Radley dropped these two categories. It would make sense to also allow American customers to share their Radley experiences on the website and make Radley a truly global brand. The UK prize is a gift card, so that may restrict US customers, but I am sure Radley could credit the winning customer with $200 towards their next purchase.
Neither site displays a phone number on the home page, but a click through to the Contact Us page displays different information depending on the region the customer is from. US customers can call local number, as well as contact the UK head office.
From the home page I picked the Purses category on the UK site and the Wallets category on the US website to compare more closely. Each click took me to an identically laid-out product category page. From there I chose the Plain Sailing large wallet. At time of writing, the UK site had the purse on sale, down from £75 to £53. The US site still had it at $120, roughly equal to £75. The copy for each wallet was the same, and each site included links to bookmark, print, and share the product. Strangely, the UK version of the purse has 10 likes on Facebook. The US version has none. Similarly absent on the US site are product reviews. For the Grosvenor Medium Across Body Bag, for example, the UK site has eight reviews (above), where the US equivalent has none (below). In fact, having browsed the site extensively, I struggled to find five product reviews on the US website. Against each product is a clear call to action to submit a review, so either American customers aren’t interested in reviewing Radley’s products, or Radley isn’t interested in publishing their comments. Where Radley does get top marks is in sizing. In the US, each bag and wallet has its dimensions described in inches.
Overall, the US site is just as cleanly designed at its UK counterpart and features all of the same functionality. A little more uniformity is needed when it comes to user-generated content though. I would also like to see a bigger story made of Radley’s Britishness on the US website. As it’s a fairly new brand—just 13 years old—it doesn’t have the heritage of, say, a retailer like Smythson, so it may need a little more differentiation to make it stand out--MT
Friday, 11 February 2011
Compare and contrast: Best Buy
Best Buy UK’s troubles have been well documented in the last few weeks, with a slew of management departures hitting the business. The UK store opening programme has also apparently reached a standstill and losses for the British side of the business are expected to reach £55 million this year, compared with a previously anticipated loss of no more than £45 million. So why hasn’t Best Buy’s low-cost-great-service USP translated well from the US to our shores? Perhaps a closer look at the retailer’s UK and US websites could shed some light.
First impressions
On entering the US site, www.bestbuy.com (above), I was immediately asked whether I was a Spanish speaker or whether I wanted to continue using the site in English. The message was bold and clear, instead of being hidden on the home page where a non-English speaker may struggle to find it. This gets a tick from me in terms of usability. On the UK site, www.bestbuy.co.uk (below), I was greeted with a survey request: “Please could you spare a few minutes to give us your views on the Best Buy website? If so, please click on the 'Yes please' button below and the survey will open up in a new window for you to complete at the end of your visit.” In the interests of research, I clicked to take part—more on this later.
The home page
The first thing I noticed on the UK site is the horizontal category selector featuring 12 different sections. In contrast, the US site has only four. The categories on the US site have drop-down menus for subcategories, then a product list. For example: Products > TV & Video > Home Theater Systems. To find the same products on the UK site, the journey takes the user from the home-page tab TV& Home Cinema > Home Cinema Systems & Separates. In theory, fewer steps to find product would make the UK site more user friendly. But there’s an argument for both approaches: The US site narrows down the choices at the home page—the user only has four options and is less likely to get “lost” at this stage. The UK page, on the other hand, has lots of choice on the home page, but eliminates one step of the drop-down menu system—a sometimes tricky element, especially when using a laptop.
Category pages
Landing in the home theatre section on both the UK and US Best Buy websites, I was once again shown very different screens. The UK site has a lot more going on: one main image at the centre of the page and below it, 11 more product photos. Compare this with the US website (below): one main image that further breaks the category down into All-in-One Home Theater Systems, Speaker Systems, and Sound Bars. So if Best Buy in the States doesn’t devote most of the page to product, what does it use the space for?
Immediately below the main image are two boxes that take the user to an audio shopping assistant. Clicking through to the box on the right helps customers get the most from their digital music device, such as an iPod. The box on the left clicks through to a page featuring a photo of a home setting that guides the user through the different applications of home theatre systems. For example, help on picking the best system for outdoor use, or creating “multiroom audio”, which Best Buy helpfully tells me means playing music from your computer or system into other rooms of the house. This tactic works to impart Best Buy’s vast knowledge and encourage customer loyalty. By providing so much information and advice, Best Buy becomes the go-to place to find out about what’s new in the audiovisual marketplace. And there’s more—further down on the page is a link to a customer forum and a link to the Best Buy Community.
The UK website (above) also links to a forum from the left-hand side of the page, but the emphasis is less on advice and more on the sale. Instead of the audio shopping assistant, UK customers are presented with calls to action to buy a “web exclusive” or that “our online only range offers great value—click here”. Apart from the forum, the only other buyer’s guide comes in the form of an interactive video guide to buying the right TV. Again though, the onus is on “buying” rather than “evaluating”. On the plus side, I liked that the video presenter had a British accent. It demonstrates that this content is specifically for a British audience rather than a rehashed American production. The production values are great and the video does well to guide the user through the different choices he has when it comes to selecting a new television. This is a commercial operation after all, so I can’t really fault Best Buy for driving the customer towards a sale.
The product page and basket
I selected a system and added it to my basket—much easier to do on the UK site. I picked something straight from the category landing page. The US site required me to go to another page where I could compare systems. I picked a similar product and noticed the price—everything really is so much cheaper in America. In the UK, Best Buy’s prices are probably comparable with the current offerings of Comet and Currys. Both sites feature a very detailed product page, though the US site features more white space. In the UK, the product is the hero, with 366 words devoted to describing it. The product page on the UK site (below) is far more comprehensive with tabs for the customer forum, a “learning resources” tab, accessories and specs.
Now, here’s an anomaly: the US product page (below) has no product specs. I am all for customer reviews describing the user experience, but I would also think that how many HDMi ports, or USB ports the system has is important information. Can Best Buy really rely on its users to pass on enough product information? It seems a bit cavalier to me.
When I clicked to add the two items to their respective baskets, the pages were quite similar. On the UK site, customers can see the order total including delivery, and a reminder to purchase related accessories. The US site goes one better by estimating a shipping time, and displaying payment options at this stage and I could complete the transaction as a guest—no login required. It is here that the US site asked for my opinion, by displaying a popup for an exit survey.
The survey said…
I navigated away from the two websites to answer the customer survey on the UK site. It started off well, with copy informing me that the survey was short and would only take a few moments. It asked how likely I was to recommend Best Buy to friends, what I would like improved and which of the following had an influence on my decision to visit the Best Buy website today. A further three screens followed asking for various bits of information, but when it asked me “Based on your experience with the Best Buy website, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about the website? Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means strongly disagree and 5 means strongly agree. If a statement is not applicable to you, or you don't know how you would rate it, please leave it blank,” I gave up. I felt there were too many choices, who has the time or inclination to fill all this in? And it wasn’t over yet, six more screens followed, but I left the answers blank.
Overall, each website has its good and bad points. I like the product information on the British site, but I like the hand-holding the American site offers. The site clearly works well for the US audience, but somewhere it is not connecting with a UK customer base. In the US, the business has a strong USP, whereas it’s a relative newcomer here. So while it learns more about our customs, maybe a more concise survey would get a better response.--MT
First impressions
On entering the US site, www.bestbuy.com (above), I was immediately asked whether I was a Spanish speaker or whether I wanted to continue using the site in English. The message was bold and clear, instead of being hidden on the home page where a non-English speaker may struggle to find it. This gets a tick from me in terms of usability. On the UK site, www.bestbuy.co.uk (below), I was greeted with a survey request: “Please could you spare a few minutes to give us your views on the Best Buy website? If so, please click on the 'Yes please' button below and the survey will open up in a new window for you to complete at the end of your visit.” In the interests of research, I clicked to take part—more on this later.
The home pageThe first thing I noticed on the UK site is the horizontal category selector featuring 12 different sections. In contrast, the US site has only four. The categories on the US site have drop-down menus for subcategories, then a product list. For example: Products > TV & Video > Home Theater Systems. To find the same products on the UK site, the journey takes the user from the home-page tab TV& Home Cinema > Home Cinema Systems & Separates. In theory, fewer steps to find product would make the UK site more user friendly. But there’s an argument for both approaches: The US site narrows down the choices at the home page—the user only has four options and is less likely to get “lost” at this stage. The UK page, on the other hand, has lots of choice on the home page, but eliminates one step of the drop-down menu system—a sometimes tricky element, especially when using a laptop.
Category pages
Landing in the home theatre section on both the UK and US Best Buy websites, I was once again shown very different screens. The UK site has a lot more going on: one main image at the centre of the page and below it, 11 more product photos. Compare this with the US website (below): one main image that further breaks the category down into All-in-One Home Theater Systems, Speaker Systems, and Sound Bars. So if Best Buy in the States doesn’t devote most of the page to product, what does it use the space for?
Immediately below the main image are two boxes that take the user to an audio shopping assistant. Clicking through to the box on the right helps customers get the most from their digital music device, such as an iPod. The box on the left clicks through to a page featuring a photo of a home setting that guides the user through the different applications of home theatre systems. For example, help on picking the best system for outdoor use, or creating “multiroom audio”, which Best Buy helpfully tells me means playing music from your computer or system into other rooms of the house. This tactic works to impart Best Buy’s vast knowledge and encourage customer loyalty. By providing so much information and advice, Best Buy becomes the go-to place to find out about what’s new in the audiovisual marketplace. And there’s more—further down on the page is a link to a customer forum and a link to the Best Buy Community.
The UK website (above) also links to a forum from the left-hand side of the page, but the emphasis is less on advice and more on the sale. Instead of the audio shopping assistant, UK customers are presented with calls to action to buy a “web exclusive” or that “our online only range offers great value—click here”. Apart from the forum, the only other buyer’s guide comes in the form of an interactive video guide to buying the right TV. Again though, the onus is on “buying” rather than “evaluating”. On the plus side, I liked that the video presenter had a British accent. It demonstrates that this content is specifically for a British audience rather than a rehashed American production. The production values are great and the video does well to guide the user through the different choices he has when it comes to selecting a new television. This is a commercial operation after all, so I can’t really fault Best Buy for driving the customer towards a sale.The product page and basket
I selected a system and added it to my basket—much easier to do on the UK site. I picked something straight from the category landing page. The US site required me to go to another page where I could compare systems. I picked a similar product and noticed the price—everything really is so much cheaper in America. In the UK, Best Buy’s prices are probably comparable with the current offerings of Comet and Currys. Both sites feature a very detailed product page, though the US site features more white space. In the UK, the product is the hero, with 366 words devoted to describing it. The product page on the UK site (below) is far more comprehensive with tabs for the customer forum, a “learning resources” tab, accessories and specs.
Now, here’s an anomaly: the US product page (below) has no product specs. I am all for customer reviews describing the user experience, but I would also think that how many HDMi ports, or USB ports the system has is important information. Can Best Buy really rely on its users to pass on enough product information? It seems a bit cavalier to me.
When I clicked to add the two items to their respective baskets, the pages were quite similar. On the UK site, customers can see the order total including delivery, and a reminder to purchase related accessories. The US site goes one better by estimating a shipping time, and displaying payment options at this stage and I could complete the transaction as a guest—no login required. It is here that the US site asked for my opinion, by displaying a popup for an exit survey.
The survey said…
I navigated away from the two websites to answer the customer survey on the UK site. It started off well, with copy informing me that the survey was short and would only take a few moments. It asked how likely I was to recommend Best Buy to friends, what I would like improved and which of the following had an influence on my decision to visit the Best Buy website today. A further three screens followed asking for various bits of information, but when it asked me “Based on your experience with the Best Buy website, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about the website? Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means strongly disagree and 5 means strongly agree. If a statement is not applicable to you, or you don't know how you would rate it, please leave it blank,” I gave up. I felt there were too many choices, who has the time or inclination to fill all this in? And it wasn’t over yet, six more screens followed, but I left the answers blank.
Overall, each website has its good and bad points. I like the product information on the British site, but I like the hand-holding the American site offers. The site clearly works well for the US audience, but somewhere it is not connecting with a UK customer base. In the US, the business has a strong USP, whereas it’s a relative newcomer here. So while it learns more about our customs, maybe a more concise survey would get a better response.--MT
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Prospecting by retargeting
“CRM is dead and PRE is the future”, declared Screwfix’s head of ecommerce John Ashton in a session called Personalisation, Prospecting, and Profiting in 2010 at this year’s ECMOD conference. “PRE”, he explained, stands for Personalised Recommendation Engine and it is currently responsible for 15 percent of total business at Screwfix.
Whereas customer relationship management (CRM) is defined as managing the interactions your customer has with your brand to drive acquisition and retention strategies, according to Ashton, the personalised recommendation engine is all about using your customer’s actual behaviour with your company to instantly add value to your business.
In a nutshell, a PRE is a program that uses the data your business has on an individual to show that person products that he may be interested in based on his behaviour on your website. This means using the pages and products he viewed, what’s been added to the cart, past purchases, or what other customers like him have bought to form an idea of the products that may also be of interest to him. At Screwfix, for instance, CRM meant targeted offers, say, for all plumbers on the database. Using a PRE Screwfix is now able to display offers at an individual level, based on what is in the shopper’s basket, or what he’s looked at before.
Moreover, in 12 weeks’ time, said Ashton, Screwfix will have achieved a single customer view across all of its channels—trade counters, catalogue and website. This will enable the trade counters to see exactly what someone has bought in the past whether online or in-store, and instead of suggesting generic offers like “would you like a measuring tape with your order”, staff can suggest more relevant products, for example, copper piping as an additional purchase to someone who has a boiler in his shopping basket. This tactic will also be applied to Screwfix’s email marketing to personalise email offers and make its 1.2 million weekly emails more “interesting”, added Ashton.
Wrapping up his presentation, Ashton told delegates how Screwfix is using retargeting. He explained that of Screwfix.com’s 700,000 weekly web visitors, 650,000 leave without buying anything. However, in the past six months, the company has been “retargeting” those that have left empty-handed. Ashton described how Screwfix is using a tool called Criteo, which tracks users’ online behaviour using cookies to display ads to them once they have left the site. The results are impressive says Ashton, who added that before using these targeted ads, which can display to users the last few products they viewed on the screwfix website, he had struggled to see any sort of return using online display advertising. From Ashton’s presentation it appears that it’s no longer about reaching out to prospective customers, who may never have heard of you; it’s about maximising the traffic you are already getting by personalising the experience.--MT
Related articles: Highly recommended
Friday, 26 March 2010
Compare and contrast: Lush
Chocolate Easter eggs always seemed a British thing to me. The same way the Americans call Christmas “the holidays” to accommodate all faiths, I always thought Easter was handled similarly. I mean, they don’t have a bank holiday to enjoy. However, according to an American friend of mine, Easter eggs, especially chocolate ones, are big business across the pond. It is this conversation that first piqued my interest in this week’s compare and contrast subject.
Lush, a retailer of handmade cosmetics with a “green” ethos, is active in approximately 43 countries. Let’s take a look at Lush’s American site (www.lushusa.com) and its UK website (www.lush.co.uk) to see how each handles Easter-related promotions, and what other differences there are between the two websites.
The first obvious distinction is that the two sites have very different layouts. The UK home page (below) is a simple black on white with the main space dedicated to Easter products such as egg- and chick-shaped bath bombs. The very bottom of the page is given to displaying links to the rest of the site.
The US site (below) has many more elements to it and is instantly more dynamic and engaging. First, it seems slightly larger, in that it takes a few more clicks of the mouse’s scroll wheel to see all the content compared with the UK home page. Second, the main part of the site is designed to appear as though it is on parchment or paper—with paperclips to boot. Whilst it uses a drop-down menu system for its product categories, like the UK site does, the American site uses smoother AJAX and animated icons that make the menus look slicker.
On the left-hand side of the US site are links to social-networking website Facebook as well as product links. The main part of the page is dedicated to a rotating graphic that flits between Easter offers and a caption competition. The US site looks “fun”—the cute chicks, eggs, and rainbows give it a cheery and uplifting air. If it weren’t for the colourful products on its home page, the overbearing black of the main banner on the UK site would make it look formal and corporate—an image I’m sure Lush does not want to portray.
Also missing from the UK site is a Favicon, an icon that sits in the address bar, on the page tab, or on a favourites bookmark, that can be customised as the brand’s logo or in its colours. The US site has one. Why this was left off the UK site is a mystery (see image, right). Another design element missing from the British site that’s present on the American home page is that the links to other pages of the site are image-based rather than text-based—users can navigate to the forum, a store locator, and to the Lushopedia (a cornucopia of product information) by clicking on the corresponding graphic. The UK site either features the links at the very top of the page (without images) or buries them at the bottom of the page (also without illustrations).
According to Amy Africa, the worst position for a search box is the top right of the site. Both Lush sites are mindful of that, but each chooses a different spot. The UK site goes for the middle of the top banner, whilst the US site places it where Africa recommends—the top left. However, the US site fails to act on another of Africa’s tips—where is the buy button? Whereas you can buy directly from the UK home page, visitors to the US site must first click on an item either in the rotating graphic or on the sidebar and then add the product to the basket
Speaking of product, moving inside the site I click on the “bath bombs” link in the US website and the equivalent “bath ballistics” link on the British site. Name-differences aside, I much prefer the US website’s grid layout. The UK site presents me with a page of “ballistics”, as I hover the cursor over a certain colour I highlight a particular type of ballistic. I then have to click through to see just that item. Hold on… where are the Easter-themed ballistics? Why aren’t they on this page? What else is missing from the main graphic and where can I find the item I want? Oh, wait a second, there's an option to “Change to grid view”. Much better, but it took a friend to point this out to me before I found it.
Whilst both sites devote a prime section of web real-estate to Easter, the US website comes off more modern, with a breezier design and more engaging copy. It seems odd to me, seeing as Lush was founded in the UK, that its American counterpart would get the better creative treatment—the UK site misses out on basics like a Favicon and dynamic imaging on its home page. The US site offers customers so much more—video content, the opportunity to join a campaign against seal hunting, and a note about the company’s eco-friendly packaging. For a business that prides itself on its hip attitude, Lush’s UK website comes off rather bland.--MT
Lush, a retailer of handmade cosmetics with a “green” ethos, is active in approximately 43 countries. Let’s take a look at Lush’s American site (www.lushusa.com) and its UK website (www.lush.co.uk) to see how each handles Easter-related promotions, and what other differences there are between the two websites.
The first obvious distinction is that the two sites have very different layouts. The UK home page (below) is a simple black on white with the main space dedicated to Easter products such as egg- and chick-shaped bath bombs. The very bottom of the page is given to displaying links to the rest of the site.
The US site (below) has many more elements to it and is instantly more dynamic and engaging. First, it seems slightly larger, in that it takes a few more clicks of the mouse’s scroll wheel to see all the content compared with the UK home page. Second, the main part of the site is designed to appear as though it is on parchment or paper—with paperclips to boot. Whilst it uses a drop-down menu system for its product categories, like the UK site does, the American site uses smoother AJAX and animated icons that make the menus look slicker.
On the left-hand side of the US site are links to social-networking website Facebook as well as product links. The main part of the page is dedicated to a rotating graphic that flits between Easter offers and a caption competition. The US site looks “fun”—the cute chicks, eggs, and rainbows give it a cheery and uplifting air. If it weren’t for the colourful products on its home page, the overbearing black of the main banner on the UK site would make it look formal and corporate—an image I’m sure Lush does not want to portray.
Also missing from the UK site is a Favicon, an icon that sits in the address bar, on the page tab, or on a favourites bookmark, that can be customised as the brand’s logo or in its colours. The US site has one. Why this was left off the UK site is a mystery (see image, right). Another design element missing from the British site that’s present on the American home page is that the links to other pages of the site are image-based rather than text-based—users can navigate to the forum, a store locator, and to the Lushopedia (a cornucopia of product information) by clicking on the corresponding graphic. The UK site either features the links at the very top of the page (without images) or buries them at the bottom of the page (also without illustrations).According to Amy Africa, the worst position for a search box is the top right of the site. Both Lush sites are mindful of that, but each chooses a different spot. The UK site goes for the middle of the top banner, whilst the US site places it where Africa recommends—the top left. However, the US site fails to act on another of Africa’s tips—where is the buy button? Whereas you can buy directly from the UK home page, visitors to the US site must first click on an item either in the rotating graphic or on the sidebar and then add the product to the basket
Speaking of product, moving inside the site I click on the “bath bombs” link in the US website and the equivalent “bath ballistics” link on the British site. Name-differences aside, I much prefer the US website’s grid layout. The UK site presents me with a page of “ballistics”, as I hover the cursor over a certain colour I highlight a particular type of ballistic. I then have to click through to see just that item. Hold on… where are the Easter-themed ballistics? Why aren’t they on this page? What else is missing from the main graphic and where can I find the item I want? Oh, wait a second, there's an option to “Change to grid view”. Much better, but it took a friend to point this out to me before I found it.
Whilst both sites devote a prime section of web real-estate to Easter, the US website comes off more modern, with a breezier design and more engaging copy. It seems odd to me, seeing as Lush was founded in the UK, that its American counterpart would get the better creative treatment—the UK site misses out on basics like a Favicon and dynamic imaging on its home page. The US site offers customers so much more—video content, the opportunity to join a campaign against seal hunting, and a note about the company’s eco-friendly packaging. For a business that prides itself on its hip attitude, Lush’s UK website comes off rather bland.--MT
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Welcome back, Jigsaw catalogue
There’s been chatter on Twitter today on what the Holy Grail of multichannel retail is. Some say it means doing away with catalogues to focus on web orders, whereas others contend that catalogues drive web orders and so should be more intelligently targeted. You may remember we’ve blogged about this subject before (see Which is the tail and which is the dog).
Our Twitter friends wanted hard evidence of what would happen to a company that stopped mailing catalogues. Well, it just so happens that this week we received a catalogue from tech specialist Jigsaw. The 24-page glossy catalogue looks more like a magazine. It features case studies and articles—product related, but not particularly salesy. As you’d expect from a company selling high-end computers and photography equipment, there was plenty of advice on getting the most of your tech. In short, the “magalogue” required more than just a cursory glance from its recipient—a smart move by Jigsaw that surely extends the publication’s shelf life.
So what’s this got to do with web versus print? Well, on page three of the magalogue, Jigsaw’s letter declares “What’s going on? I haven’t had a catalogue for ages”. It goes on to explain that as the company added more and more products to its range, the catalogue became “unwieldy, difficult to post and not great for the environment”.
However, axing the catalogue had a negative effect; customers contacted Jigsaw wondering what they had done wrong to be ignored. I find it strange, though, that Jigsaw didn’t keep customers in the loop via email. Or perhaps receiving emails doesn’t rank as highly with Jigsaw customers as receiving a catalogue through the post. In any case, it's clear that a print catalogue is important to Jigsaw’s loyal customers, to the extent that they felt compelled to contact the company to share their grievances.
Oh, and my favourite part of the letter: “To the charming fellow who complained at an event that he no longer had anything to read on the loo since we cancelled the catalogue—this is our gift to you”.--MT
Our Twitter friends wanted hard evidence of what would happen to a company that stopped mailing catalogues. Well, it just so happens that this week we received a catalogue from tech specialist Jigsaw. The 24-page glossy catalogue looks more like a magazine. It features case studies and articles—product related, but not particularly salesy. As you’d expect from a company selling high-end computers and photography equipment, there was plenty of advice on getting the most of your tech. In short, the “magalogue” required more than just a cursory glance from its recipient—a smart move by Jigsaw that surely extends the publication’s shelf life.
So what’s this got to do with web versus print? Well, on page three of the magalogue, Jigsaw’s letter declares “What’s going on? I haven’t had a catalogue for ages”. It goes on to explain that as the company added more and more products to its range, the catalogue became “unwieldy, difficult to post and not great for the environment”.
However, axing the catalogue had a negative effect; customers contacted Jigsaw wondering what they had done wrong to be ignored. I find it strange, though, that Jigsaw didn’t keep customers in the loop via email. Or perhaps receiving emails doesn’t rank as highly with Jigsaw customers as receiving a catalogue through the post. In any case, it's clear that a print catalogue is important to Jigsaw’s loyal customers, to the extent that they felt compelled to contact the company to share their grievances.
Oh, and my favourite part of the letter: “To the charming fellow who complained at an event that he no longer had anything to read on the loo since we cancelled the catalogue—this is our gift to you”.--MT
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Compare and contrast: Damart
As a Yank who lived most of her adult life in the Boston-New York corridor, I wasn’t impressed by what passed for record-breaking low temperatures here in England's West Country. But I was impressed that the cold spell boosted sales at Damart, best known for its thermal underwear, by 20 percent. So that seemed as good a reason as any to compare Damart’s UK and US ecommerce sites.
At first glance it’s apparent that Damart makes a real effort to localise its sites, down to the tagline: “You think you know Damart… think again!” in the UK (above), “… more than you imagine” in the US (below). The point the company is trying to get across is that it sells much more than warm undies. This is especially obvious on the UK site, where the home page includes tabs for Ladieswear, Menswear, Underwear, Footwear, Household, and Sale in addition to Thermal. The Stateside product line is much narrower, with just three product categories: Menswear, Accessories, and Ladieswear.
It seems counterintuitive that the US home page doesn’t include a category link dedicated to thermal garments. It does have a banner touting “Warmth & Comfort with Damart Innovation Thermolactyl”, but as HL Mencken wrote, “No one in this world… has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people”, and this might be too subtle for busy shoppers seeking thermal undies. If you ask me, Thermolactyl sounds more like a dinosaur than a type of toasty fabric.
The US site gets short shrift in several ways compared with its British counterpart. There’s no contact phone number; you can order via the web only, and if you have any questions, you must ask them via an online form. Given that Damart’s target audience seems to skew older, this seems like a grave error. Would it really be unprofitable for the company to contract with a third-party call centre in the States or set up some other type of telephonic solution? The UK site posts the number in boldface on its left-hand navigation bar, albeit just below the fold. The UK site also displays its security credentials on the bottom of the home page, whereas the US site doesn’t, which again seems to be a miscalculation given the age of the target market.
And of course, there’s the fact that the US product range is much more limited. I counted 59 SKUs on the US site (yes, my dedication is such that I actually tallied the number of products). The British site has... well, appreciably more (I’m not dedicated enough to count what appear to be hundreds of SKUs).
Because the Stateside offering is so much smaller, the navigational options are fewer. You click on one of the three product categories and, for the Ladieswear and Menswear, are shown a page with links to two subcategories (Tops and Pants); for Accessories you’re simply shown the first page of products. The subcategory pages feature eight product thumbnails per page; you can sort the items by price or name. The product pages enable you to see a slightly larger version of the main image—not detailed enough to give you any sense of the fabric quality—and colour swatches.
Some of the product images include a warmth rating, and of those items, only some of the warmth ratings are visible on the subcategory page thumbnails. So if you were shopping for an ultra-toasty vest, say, you’d have to click every single item to find the warmest. Or, if you’re like me, you’d say, Sod it, and head to Google, where you’d type in something like thermal vest and take it from there.
The UK site resolves this issue with its category pages. The Thermal category page, for instance, features separate columns for Ladies, Men, and Warmth Accessories, and under these are links to subcategories for product types (pants, vests) and warmth ratings. The product pages themselves are similar to those on the US site.
The British site also does a somewhat better job of highlighting Damart’s “innovations”—its patented materials. Just below the search box on the top of the left-hand nav bar is a box with links to several of its fabrics: the aforementioned Thermolactyl, the equally prehistoric sounding Climatyl, something dubbed Ocealis (a name that’s uncomfortably similar to Cialis), and “Other innovations”.
These fabrics sound impressive: “Océalis [the accent is used here but not elsewhere on the site] is a revolutionary new double faced fabric with breathable fibres, designed to keep you dry and comfortable through the hottest summer days. As a fibre that 'breathes', it quickly removes your perspiration and creates a dry and healthy climate, even during the hottest of summer days.” Granted, the copy could have used some editing; there’s no reason to repeat “hottest” and “summer days” at the end of both sentences, and the strapline, “Freshness in an instant”, brings to mind a feminine hygiene product. But as someone who begins to sweat profusely when the temperature hits 21C/70F, I’m intrigued. And what do you know: The Ocealis page includes links to the products made with the fabric.
I know that the purpose of the article is to point out the similarities and differences between the UK and US versions of the website, but what’s most apparent to me is that neither makes the most of what I’d consider Damart’s unique selling point: its exclusive, innovative fabrics. If I sold clothing made of fabrics that kept you cool and dry in hot weather, warm and dry in cold weather (Thermolactyl), and at an “ideal, constant temperature” regardless of the weather (Climatyl), I’d be bragging about it on my home page, not hoping that visitors are curious enough about my “innovations” to click on the link, regardless of which country I’m marketing to.—SC
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Compare and contrast: Learning Resources
Though relatively small, educational-toys cataloguer Learning Resources was one of the first US mailers to expand into the UK, first targeting British teachers in 1994. More than 15 years on, the company now targets parents as well as instructors on both sides of the Atlantic. When it comes to ecommerce, though, the UK website appears to suffer from a steeper learning curve than the US one.
In some ways, the UK website (learningresources.co.uk) resembles the US website of several years ago. Stateside marketers still believe that the British marketplace is several years behind their own. I’m not about to argue whether such remains the case, but I will say that I see no reason for the British site to have been designed to fit such a narrow width (see above), so that the right-hand third of the screen is blank.
The typography of the UK site is dated as well, with display copy appearing in an intentionally uneven serif font that’s no doubt meant to suggest a sense of whimsy and that, if I recall correctly, used to be prominent in the print catalogue. What works in one medium, however, doesn’t always work in another, and what worked five years ago doesn’t necessarily work now.
The US site (learningresources.com) looks much more up-to-date (and not just because the logo in the top left corner is adorned with a blanket of snow!). The main image is huge (see below), and there’s a navigation bar across the top, with separate tabs for parents and teachers. The home page of the UK site has two distinct images to direct you to the appropriate section. What’s more, its navigation bar is a small box in the right-hand column.
The British site does enable visitors to download free sample pages and the table of contents from several dozen of its books. Surprisingly the US site doesn’t seem to offer this feature, which I’d imagine really helps convert sales. Then again, the US site has two distinct Resource Centers, one for educators and one for parents, which include free downloadable activity sheets; parenting and teaching articles; and for educators, the ability to search the product database to see which items correlate to the various state and national teaching standards. Given that each US state has its own standards, that’s impressive enough; it also reaches out to Canadian teachers by offering the same feature for the various provincial standards.
In addition, the US site includes videos demonstrating how to use some of its products. I had problems accessing several of these demos, however, which was a shame. I was really curious to watch the video for the Teaching Cash Register, which I’d given my daughter as a gift back when she was four or so. She loved it, but unfortunately it didn’t help her learn how many dimes make up a dollar or how many nickels a quarter. Perhaps the video would have showed me what I did wrong. (Though I suspect that encouraging her to pretend the cash register was a typewriter or a piano didn't help.)
Enough of my reminiscing; let’s go shopping. The US site enables you to navigate by subject, product category, theme (such as animals, human, and multicultural diversity), or brand. UK shoppers don’t have the theme, brand, or category options, but they can drill down by age and by price as well as by subject. Being able to narrow products by age group seems particularly useful for this niche; I can’t think of a reason for the US site not to allow it.
The product pages on the US site (above) include the breadcrumb trail, which I always find helpful. The UK site lacks this navigational aid, but I’ll try not to hold that against it. The UK site also lacks customer reviews—for shame!—though the product copy gives prominent play to any industry awards or plaudits the particular items have won.
When it comes to overall product page presentation, the US site wins hands down. The copy is bullet-pointed for easier readability, the product image is fairly large, multiple images are available, and included are photos of recently viewed products and other products “you may also like”. There are customer reviews, a “tell a friend” button, and the ability to add an item to a wish list.
On the UK site, you’ve got one rather small image (below), several dense-looking blocks of copy, and below the fold in many cases, “related products you may be interesting in browsing”. I appreciate that Brits tend to be more genteel than Yanks (or are at least perceived that way), but “related products you may be interested in browsing”? Just come on out and say “Other products you may like”, for goodness’ sake; you won’t offend anyone, honest.
Could a fear of offending Brits by being too pushy be why the UK site doesn’t ask for visitors’ email addresses? One person who’s no doubt offended by that is internet guru Amy Africa, who insists that if a website does nothing else, it must get the email address of its visitors, so that it can continue to market to them. This reticence on the part of the UK site, along with its reluctance to adopt features such as multiple images and customer reviews that are becoming standard (if they’re not already) on both sides of the Atlantic, shows that Learning Resources’ British team have much to learn from their Stateside counterparts.—SC
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Vive la difference
Last night, my boyfriend and I were looking online for some Christmas gift inspiration. It struck me that we use the internet in completely different ways, and I am sure I am not alone in noting how frustrating it is to watch someone else shop online.
For one thing, he never—and I mean never ever—types the URL straight into the address bar. Even if he knows it, and even if it’s Amazon! He uses Google for everything (yes, Google specifically, no other search engine will do). At least now I have trained him not to automatically click on the paid-search links and instead look through the organic search results first. I imagine Google’s fortune is largely made up of lazy customers clicking on paid links instead of typing the merchants’ URLs directly into the address bar.
When he doesn’t know where to buy the item he’s looking for he’ll type it into Google and use Google’s product search. I tend to use a comparison site like Kelkoo, a marketplace or eBay, or if I know a shop that might do it, I’d search for that seller and see what else comes up on the page. I also like to use Quidco, which my boyfriend thinks is a waste of time. (We’ll see if he still thinks that after I buy a tasty takeaway for us both with the saving I made on home insurance)
Tabs are another bone of contention. Say a search has thrown up several different options, I personally like to open each page in a new tab, assess each one and close the tab once I know I no longer need it. That’s not how he does it. He loathes having more than three tabs open at once. He thinks it makes the machine run slower, and for all I know it might, but I like it my way.
When we’ve settled on a product but don’t want to buy it straight away I like to bookmark the product using the social-media widgets. He didn’t even know what the “Addthis” button did. I am proud to have imparted some of my web wisdom onto him. I love the Addthis button. I use it all the time to send myself product reminders and send him suggestions. My boyfriend prefers to either save his basket, manually add the page to his favourites, or write the product number down somewhere. What we both agree on however, is that more websites should give you the ability to save the basket and return to it another time from another computer.
Luckily my boyfriend isn’t so trigger happy that he completes the checkout process without looking for discount codes first. At first I thought it was a girly thing to do, but now anecdotal evidence shows more men are now coming round to the idea of searching for vouchers.
What all this goes to show is that you can never assume that because you shop online one way, your husband, colleague, or customer will do the same. Even more important is user testing. It might be frustrating to watch people double-click a web link on your site, but unless you know how your customers want to shop with you, you'll leave a gap that your competitor will fill.—MT
For one thing, he never—and I mean never ever—types the URL straight into the address bar. Even if he knows it, and even if it’s Amazon! He uses Google for everything (yes, Google specifically, no other search engine will do). At least now I have trained him not to automatically click on the paid-search links and instead look through the organic search results first. I imagine Google’s fortune is largely made up of lazy customers clicking on paid links instead of typing the merchants’ URLs directly into the address bar.
When he doesn’t know where to buy the item he’s looking for he’ll type it into Google and use Google’s product search. I tend to use a comparison site like Kelkoo, a marketplace or eBay, or if I know a shop that might do it, I’d search for that seller and see what else comes up on the page. I also like to use Quidco, which my boyfriend thinks is a waste of time. (We’ll see if he still thinks that after I buy a tasty takeaway for us both with the saving I made on home insurance)
Tabs are another bone of contention. Say a search has thrown up several different options, I personally like to open each page in a new tab, assess each one and close the tab once I know I no longer need it. That’s not how he does it. He loathes having more than three tabs open at once. He thinks it makes the machine run slower, and for all I know it might, but I like it my way.
When we’ve settled on a product but don’t want to buy it straight away I like to bookmark the product using the social-media widgets. He didn’t even know what the “Addthis” button did. I am proud to have imparted some of my web wisdom onto him. I love the Addthis button. I use it all the time to send myself product reminders and send him suggestions. My boyfriend prefers to either save his basket, manually add the page to his favourites, or write the product number down somewhere. What we both agree on however, is that more websites should give you the ability to save the basket and return to it another time from another computer.
Luckily my boyfriend isn’t so trigger happy that he completes the checkout process without looking for discount codes first. At first I thought it was a girly thing to do, but now anecdotal evidence shows more men are now coming round to the idea of searching for vouchers.
What all this goes to show is that you can never assume that because you shop online one way, your husband, colleague, or customer will do the same. Even more important is user testing. It might be frustrating to watch people double-click a web link on your site, but unless you know how your customers want to shop with you, you'll leave a gap that your competitor will fill.—MT
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Compare and contrast: L’Occitane
A cataloguer/retailer of toiletries, L’Occitane has branched out far beyond its origins in the Provence region of France. Today it has commerce-enabled sites for 19 countries, including Colombia, Israel, Russia, and Slovakia. Among its English-language sites are those specific to the UK, the US, and Australia.The home pages of the various L’Occitane websites use a similar architecture: hero photo/offer taking up two-thirds of the first screen, with a right-hand column of two stacked offers making up the final third. The offers differed among the Australian, UK, and US sites. On the Australian site (above), the main box was a rotating selection of best-sellers that were on sale; the right-hand column reminded visitors that this was the last week to receive a $10 gift voucher with every online order and promoted the Christmas catalogue. (The Aussie home page also featured some lovely tinkling music to put you in a Christmassy mindset.)
The UK home page (right) also rotated the images of its hero offer, Festive Limited Editions, as well as of the Limited Edition Collections highlighted on the top of the right-hand column. The second item on the right-hand column was a link to the site’s Christmas Gift Boutique, with product categories consisting of Festive Limited Editions, Irresistible Special Value Gifts, Petite Gifts Under £20, and Our Best Sellers. A third, smaller right-hand box linked to a page of "beauty secrets".The Festive Limited Editions accounted for the hero spot of the US home page (below) as well. Beside the photos of the boxed sets was a prominent note that standard shipping was free with every Limited Edition. To the right was a link to the site’s page of Provencal holiday recipes and a promotion of a boxed set of goodies free with every purchase of at least $100. It’s not surprising that the Stateside site emphasises the free P&P: As Scott Silverman of US trade group Shop.org told USA Today, “Consumers [in America] feel it's their right to buy online without paying for shipping”.
The US site reiterated the free shipping offer alongside the main navigation bar, which enabled you to shop by Product Type (such as fragrance, skincare, men, new, and best sellers) or by Ingredient (shea butter, verbena, almond, essential oils, and the like). The other two sites used the same mode of navigation, though the UK site labelled the tabs By Category and By Range.Above the product navigation bar was an overall site nav bar, and additional navigation links ran along the bottom. These varied significantly among the three home pages. Unlike the Australian site, for instance, the US and UK sites offered free gift wrap and free samples with every order—the latter a great way of creating additional sales of what is a very sensual product. The US site, unlike the other two, did not include a catalogue request link. But it was the only one to include a blog and links to a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. Combined with the prominent placement of the link to the recipe page, these features indicate that the US team, more so than its UK and Australian counterparts, considers increasing customer engagement critical to encouraging brand loyalty and repeat business.
L’Occitane US was also more advanced when it came to gift cards. They were featured on the home page of the US site, and they can be redeemed online, via phone, or in-store. While Australian shoppers can buy gift vouchers online, they can be redeemed in-store only, not an ideal situation for a multichannel retailer. Even less ideal: The UK site didn’t sell gift vouchers at all.
All three sites offered a Best Seller product category. The products differed among the sites, which was reassuring; I’d suspect a fix if the favourite product Down Under was also the favourite in the States. (For the record, face creams seemed to be more popular with the Aussies, while Yanks favoured hand creams, and Brits loved the Immortelle skincare range.)
The product copy also varied somewhat among the sites. In Australia, the headline on the landing page for the Immortelle range emphasised its “skin-brightening” abilities, while the other two sites came right out and praised its “anti-ageing” qualities. But while the actual verbiage differed, the copy on all three pages used a similar blend of fanciful imagery and scientific-sounding claims. Can you guess which description is from which site?
A. “Immortelle is a wild and mysterious flower from Corsica, which yields a miraculous essential oil - a precious elixir of youth. Immortelle anti-aging skin care reduces signs of aging by multiplying collagen production, improving microcirculation and fighting against free radicals.”
B. “Immortelle is also known as the everlasting flower, because the papery flowers retain their form and color when dried. We have extracted a precious essential oil from the plant, which has anti-free radical and anti-wrinkle properties. The Immortelle collection offers anti-aging products for the face and body.”
C. “On the Mediterranean island of Corsica there lives a flower that never withers – Immortelle. Thousands of flowers are slowly distilled to extract the plants essential oil. L’OCCITANE has harnessed the power of the Immortelle essential oil to create an anti-ageing range that helps to stimulate micro-circulation, increase collagen synthesis and protect against cell ageing.”
If you guessed A for US, B for UK, and C for Australia, give yourself a pat on the back. Oddly the UK description used American spellings (“color”, “anti-aging”). I’m not sure whether we can draw any useful conclusions from this, however, especially as on other pages the product copy was all but identical from site to site.
The product ranges themselves varied to some degree among the sites. It would seem that orange is not a popular scent in Australia, as L’Occitane did not sell its Ruban d’Orange range on its site there, though the UK site did. The range was available in the States as well, though in the product copy it was referred to simply as Orange, not by its French name nor the English translation (“Orange Ribbon”).
On the actual product pages, the descriptions were similar, if not identical, from site to site. Other similarities on the product pages: the breadcrumb trail as a navigational aid, the ability to enlarge the product image, a “send to a friend” facility, links to products “Customers Also Liked”. The US product pages offered the most additional features: links to recently viewed items and related products, an Advice tab (which often recommended ancillary products—very savvy), “Testimonials” (which I’d suggest renaming “Customer Reviews”; as it stands, one might assume that only positive comments are solicited or that negative remarks are censored). The UK product pages included the same features, except for the related products. The Australian site, however, did not include customer reviews or recently viewed items.
All told, L’Occitane does an admirable job of maintaining brand consistency across borders while allowing its local teams enough autonomy to tailor the details of their websites to the individual markets (American spellings on the UK site notwithstanding). If only L’Occitane could figure out a way to replicate the scent of one of its boutiques as soon as you log on to any of the sites.--SC
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Comfort and joy
Two diverse organisations, John Lewis and Oxfam, are using online video in a similar way: to encourage us to spend some of our Christmas budget at their websites.
In its enewsletter last week, John Lewis included a blurb about its Toy Joy video, in which "we asked some children we know to give our predicted best sellers a test run, and as you’ll see, they had lots of fun". In the three-minute clip, a half-dozen or so kids play with scooters, dollhouses, glow-in-the-dark light sabers, and the like. It's a cute idea; I just wish that the production was a bit less slick. The kids seem more like child actors told to play nicely than "real-life" kids who jumped at the chance to mess about with toys. One of the girls in particular appeared positively joyless playing with what looked like a pretty fun dressmaking kit.
John Lewis doesn't seem to have uploaded the video onto YouTube, which seems to be a lot opportunity. Oxfam, on the other hand, has a series of videos on the clip-sharing site as well as on OxfamUnwrapped.com. The site sells "gifts that make a big difference"--£30 buys farming tools for a Third World family, £221 a desk and chair at a school in an impoverished community, £25 a goat for a family in need. The print catalogue includes plenty of callouts directing you to the website to "see this gift in action". The video (below) in which a Honduran family shows how the gift of a cow (£80) improved their well-being is more effective than any copywriter's verbiage could be. And if the expression on the girl's face at the 1:25 mark doesn't epitomise "joy", I don't know what does.--SC
In its enewsletter last week, John Lewis included a blurb about its Toy Joy video, in which "we asked some children we know to give our predicted best sellers a test run, and as you’ll see, they had lots of fun". In the three-minute clip, a half-dozen or so kids play with scooters, dollhouses, glow-in-the-dark light sabers, and the like. It's a cute idea; I just wish that the production was a bit less slick. The kids seem more like child actors told to play nicely than "real-life" kids who jumped at the chance to mess about with toys. One of the girls in particular appeared positively joyless playing with what looked like a pretty fun dressmaking kit.
John Lewis doesn't seem to have uploaded the video onto YouTube, which seems to be a lot opportunity. Oxfam, on the other hand, has a series of videos on the clip-sharing site as well as on OxfamUnwrapped.com. The site sells "gifts that make a big difference"--£30 buys farming tools for a Third World family, £221 a desk and chair at a school in an impoverished community, £25 a goat for a family in need. The print catalogue includes plenty of callouts directing you to the website to "see this gift in action". The video (below) in which a Honduran family shows how the gift of a cow (£80) improved their well-being is more effective than any copywriter's verbiage could be. And if the expression on the girl's face at the 1:25 mark doesn't epitomise "joy", I don't know what does.--SC
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Quick ecommerce takeaways from Amy Africa
The title of Amy Africa’s ECMOD session “Ten Simple Things You Can Do to Improve Website Performance” was erroneous; she delivered nearly three times as many tips and takeaways—too many for one lone scribe to capture. Here, then, are some highlights from the ecommerce consultant’s session:
- Design your web page as a three-column format, though the columns do not need to be of equal width. In fact, you want the centre column to be widest, as that is where you should place the most important elements of each page. “We look at the left if we need more help,” Africa explained. “We look at the right if we want to leave. For everything else we look in the middle.” That’s why product category indices are almost universally on the left. And that’s why you should place elements designed to prevent viewers from leaving—previously viewed items, best-sellers, special offers—on the right.
- Don’t place your text search box in the top right corner. “If your site is good,” Africa said, “it should work without people having to use text search.” This is especially important when you consider that, according to her research, about two-thirds of people who abandon a site do so while in the search process. So rather than prominently feature search in the prize upper-right spot, move it to the left-hand navigation column.
- “You can only ever count on 30 percent of users scrolling down a page.” Therefore you need to make sure your key elements and messages appear on the top of every page. These would include the email sign-up box (“Sell you soul to the devil for your users’ email address,” Africa advised) and the perpetual shopping cart. And make sure that you feature at least three products above the fold on your landing pages.
- Add an image carousel to your landing page. Carousels are revolving slideshows of images. According to Africa, “They help refresh the eye in a positive way and tell the user, ‘These are things that you need to look at’.” In addition to an image, each slide should have a call to action, such as “Click here now”, and a catchy headline.
- Use instigated chat on the pages where it matters most. Instigated chat is a proactive form of live chat; rather than waiting for the user to contact the etailer for a chat, a customer service rep contacts the user via a pop-up box if the user seems to be having a problem—for instance, if he has been on the same page for more than one minute without taking any sort of action.
- Leave abandoned shopping carts open indefinitely so that when the user returns, no matter how long the absence, he is shown the cart with his selections. And while we’re on the subject of abandoned carts, bear in mind that abandoned-cart programmes, in which you contact visitors who have abandoned their carts via email reminders or offers to encourage them to return to complete the transaction, “are programmes,” Africa said. “Sending one email does not count.”
- Put your perpetual shopping cart in multiple places throughout the site: the upper right-hand corner, of course, but also on the bottom of the page and somewhere in the right-hand column.
- Add a “temperature bar” at the top of your checkout pages so that customers know how far along in the process they are.
- “Choose brains and brawn over beauty” when it comes to website design. “Esthetics doesn’t make a lot of money online,” Africa insisted. “You want to do something for your site today? Add more ‘checkout now’ and ‘add to cart’ buttons.”--SC
Monday, 12 October 2009
Which is the tail and which is the dog?
In the years since ecommerce arrived on the direct marketing scene like an unexpected and not-all-that-wanted younger sibling, cataloguers have viewed it as an auxiliary channel. The print catalogue was the core business, and any sales generated via the website were considered ancillary.
That may have been the correct attitude a decade ago, but not anymore, says Bill LaPierre, senior vice president of list and marketing firm Direct Media/Millard. Direct marketers have to realise that now the web is the core business, he explained last week during his ECMOD session “Crucial Techniques for Your Survival That Successful Catalogues Don’t Want You to Know”. The catalogue’s primary purpose is to drive business to the web, LaPierre says; any sales that result directly from it are ancillary.
Of course, this is counterintuitive to most multichannel marketers. As a result, LaPierre contends, they’re not leveraging the unique benefits of the internet to their fullest potential and are wasting money on less-than-effective catalogue mailings. “The successful cataloguers we work with focus on having a website that’s better than their catalogue,” he said. “The successful cataloguers understand that the web is the cheapest way to acquire a customer.”
Which is not to say LaPierre thinks catalogues should go the way of the Betamax and the eight-track player. But they do need to be reevaluated as website traffic drivers first and as standalone sales vehicles second. “Instead of mailing a 150-page catalogue,” he suggested, “you might mail three 50-page catalogues that are better targeted.”
LaPierre cited US womenswear merchant Chadwick’s as an example of a print catalogue that has evolved into a web traffic driver. Product copy is virtually nonexistent; the images sell the apparel, and the callouts of specific web features—customer reviews, the ability to view the looks on models, the search and sort options—sell the website.
Another US cataloguer/retailer, outdoor gear seller Cabela’s, produces similar versions of its catalogues: spread after spread of products, with copy limited to the product name, the SKU number, and the price. Want to learn more? Visit the website—and while you’re there, you can see Cabela’s entire, exhaustive product line, read customer reviews, watch product videos, and more.
Cabela’s hasn’t killed off its traditional-format catalogue; it still mails its “big book”, complete with detailed product copy, to some of its stalwart customers. But by analysing and segmenting its customer file it has determined which customers are just as likely to order from the smaller traffic driver as from the more costly traditional catalogue and sends them the cheaper-to-produce version, enabling Cabela’s to cut costs without cutting response or sales.
For this strategy to work, your website needs to be top-of-the-line. It should offer alternative search and sort options (for instance, search by size, by colour, by material; sort by price, by popularity, by newness), extensive product specs, customer reviews, effective cross-selling, multiple imagery—in short, the elements that distinguish the web as a marketing and sales channel.
One last caveat, which you no doubt know but which we feel compelled to say anyway: Don’t forge ahead with any huge changes without testing them first.--SC
Friday, 2 October 2009
Compare and contrast: Hotel Chocolat
Why is Hotel Chocolat the subject of this month’s “Compare and contrast”, in which I look at the UK and US versions of a particular merchant? Well, I could say it’s because Halloween takes place in October, and you can’t have Halloween without sweets. I could also say it’s because Royston, Hertfordshire-based Hotel Chocolat launched its first US store, in Boston, last month, two years after entering the market via the web.
But I’d be lying. The real reason is that I figured, if I’m going to be staring at web pages, those pages might as well offer something lovely to look at—something like chocolates.
Neither Hotel Chocolat site disappoints in this regard. On the home page of the UK version (above) a good-size image of a chocolate skull and gravestones accompanies the headline “Boo!” and copy challenging you to “discover our hair-raising Halloween chocolates if you dare...” followed by a link to a page of Halloween sweets. The company makes sure to emphasise its unique branding proposition—that the chocs its sells aren’t your run-of-the-mill goodies but are instead top-of-the-line—with the headline “Luxury Chocolate Gifts” directly below the Halloween image and, to the right, a list of the site’s top five best-selling “luxury gifts for him & her...”.
But I’d be lying. The real reason is that I figured, if I’m going to be staring at web pages, those pages might as well offer something lovely to look at—something like chocolates.
Neither Hotel Chocolat site disappoints in this regard. On the home page of the UK version (above) a good-size image of a chocolate skull and gravestones accompanies the headline “Boo!” and copy challenging you to “discover our hair-raising Halloween chocolates if you dare...” followed by a link to a page of Halloween sweets. The company makes sure to emphasise its unique branding proposition—that the chocs its sells aren’t your run-of-the-mill goodies but are instead top-of-the-line—with the headline “Luxury Chocolate Gifts” directly below the Halloween image and, to the right, a list of the site’s top five best-selling “luxury gifts for him & her...”.
Having determined, no doubt correctly, that Americans are less familiar with its brand, Hotel Chocolat uses the home page of its US site (above) primarily as a branding vehicle. Rotating images emphasising the decadence of its chocolates (a woman in evening attire feeding a blind-folded man sat at a grand piano a bonbon) and their premium quality (a close-up of a cocoa bean, simply propped shots of its chocolates against a dark background) take up most of the screen, selling Hotel Chocolat rather than the individual chocolates. Below the slide show are links to “our finest Champagne Truffles”, information about the company’s cocoa plantation, an introduction to the company (“A state of mind, a place, a feeling... Why Hotel Chocolat?”), and the email sign-up.
Another reason Hotel Chocolat plays up the gourmand extravagance of the brand in the US may have to do with its pricing. A box of 16 Champaign Truffles on the UK site costs £15 ($23.83); on the US site, $36 (£22.64). The Halloween Pick-Me-Up Gift Bag (which is seriously adorable, by the way) is £10 ($15.89) on the UK site—not cheap, but accessible enough that I may buy one for my daughter. On the US site it costs $25 (£15.73), which means if we were still living in the States, my daughter would definitely be making do with some Hershey kisses.
Then there’s the shipping. Next-day shipping is available on both sites, though only the UK version promotes it on the home page. Perhaps that’s because figuring out shipping costs on the US site is overall a bit of a trial. The UK site offers two tiers of shipping rates (for one item and for multiple items) for standard and “gold” (next-day) delivery within the country as well as flat rates for standard delivery to the rest of Europe and other parts of the world except the US. If you’re on the UK site and want to send an order to the States, you need to click the link to the US site.
Fair enough. But not only does the US site not offer any sort of flat rate, it doesn’t even show you the delivery cost until you’re about to pay for your order. And shipping isn’t cheap. It doesn’t help that Hotel Chocolat fulfils its Stateside orders from Massachusetts, far up north on the East Coast. Even so, delivery of a $16 (£10.06), 3.53-oz box of Caramel Canapes to New Rochelle, NY, just outside Manhattan and no more than 300 miles away from the fulfilment centre, would cost $7.53 (£4.74)—and that’s without the $7 (£.4.40) insulated packaging, which is “strongly” recommended if temperatures at the delivery destination are above 70F (21C). Shipping to Arizona, say, or southern California would be prohibitive. Those Caramel Canapes had better be damn good.
In comparison, another upscale chocolatier, Godiva, charges $6.95 (£4.37) for shipping of orders under $18 (£11.32), regardless of destination. And it does not charge extra for “climate-controlled packaging”.
Hotel Chocolat's UK and the US sites both underscore the brand's expertise in all things chocolate, with links on the home pages to glossaries and recipes. And both aim to simplify gift selection: The US site enables you to browse by occasion, product, and person; the UK version adds another option, attributes, to the list.
The browse function is not only more thorough but also sleeker on the UK site, however. When browsing by occasion, for example, a drop-down menu offers a list of 10 choices, including “dinner party” and “self-indulgence”. The menu on the US site is much clunkier and, oddly, more downmarket in appearance, and it offers just five choices. Apparently in the UK “autumn” is occasion enough to indulge in chocolates, but not in the US. Then again, given how much more costly the products are in the States, it's much tougher for Yanks to justify dropping that much dosh merely to celebrate the falling of the leaves.--SC
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Now I'm a believer
For the longest while, I didn’t quite get all the hype surrounding Asos. Sure, it sells a broad range of apparel, and yes, its website has top-notch navigation and functionality. But being the jaded soul I am, I expect no less from an ecommerce site. Praising an etailer for offering multiple search and sort options, to my mind, is like rewarding a child with extra sweets simply because he did his homework. He’s supposed to do his homework, just like ecommerce sites are supposed to make shopping simple.But now I’m an Asos fan. And it’s because of the problems I had in completing my order on its site.
Two days ago I tried to buy two items from Asos, but the site insisted that my credit-card details were wrong. I retried several times, then tried with my debit card. No go. So I filled out the online form and emailed it to the Asos customer care desk. Within the hour I received an automated response “just to let you know we are still looking into your query”.
Apparently my query was a tricky one, because I heard nothing else until the next day. “Thanks for your email and we’re sorry to hear you've been having problems placing your order,” read the second message. “We have passed on your details to our Technical Team and they are working round the clock to get this resolved as a matter of urgency. They aim to get this fixed within the next 24 hours, and as soon as they have any further information, we will send you an email to advise. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.” I liked the tone of the message: apologetic, helpful, friendly. I decided to give Asos one more day before shopping elsewhere for the items I’d been trying to buy.
And lo and behold! This morning I received another email: “Hi there”. Right away I knew the problem was resolved; Asos wouldn’t greet me with a jaunty “Hi there” if it were about to tell me bad news.
“Great news!” the email continued. “Our Technical Teams efforts have now paid off and we’re pleased to let you know that the problems you have recently experienced, when trying to place your order, have now been fixed. We know that you are probably eager to get shopping again, but before you do please can you delete the stored card information and then re-enter and save, ensuring you select the correct card type – you are ready to go! As a thank you for your patience we’d like to offer you a 20% discount off your next shopping spree with us…” As much as I loved the cheery but not too familiar phrasing of the message, I loved the discount even more.
Full of the warm-and-fuzzies, I went back to www.asos.com and bought not only the two items I’d originally tried to purchase, but a few small additional products as well. In doing so, I found even more to love: the care instructions included on the product pages, that I’d receive my order within two days at the standard P&P, that I could request a specific delivery date for just a few pounds more.
Okay, I concede: Asos just might live up to its hype.--SC
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