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May 13th, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

Online sales are continuing to outpace catalog sales. Consider the recent announcement by the marketers at Bloomingdales (parent company being Macy’s Inc) who have just called it quits for the catalog side of business and you can start predicting the future with relative ease. That is…if marketers dare to think differently. Tried and true may no longer apply…

I call it putting your money where the mouse is.

Not just where it starts (as in search and email) but where it travels (which is the entire click-stream process, not to mention visits that might happen over a period of time pre- and post-conversion). And this new emphasis on travel can really be related to improving the overall online experience which is exactly the plan for the Bloomingdales.com web site.

Bye-bye catalogs will also mean bye-bye direct mail to some degree. I’m sure not every retailer will completely abandon the catalog, but there will be fewer and fewer printed every year. So it’s not a matter of if they will abandon catalogs, it’s more a question of when and by how much? For the catalogs that don’t get fully axed, I believe the distribution won’t be automatic - rather, it will be very much an active request by the consumer.

But over time, with more emphasis being placed on positive online experiences, who will even request a catalog? I mean seriously, the catalog will be archaic. As today’s youth move into consumer-hood, they’re already in tune with online shopping. Hell, they’ve been buying in the onlines stores of webkinz world, club penguin and numerous others since they were 3!!! And trust me, these sites don’t offer print catalogs.

On top of consumer demand for positive online experiences, there’s also the green thing / the environment thing. This is like the cherry on top for any marketer looking to phase out the catalog. Save some trees. Gain some customers. It’s all good.

Two questions:

1. Have you noticed fewer and fewer retail catalogs?

2. Are you a retailer considering the fate of your catalog?

I’m curious for comments on this topic…so share your thoughts and let’s start a conversation.

Posted in Conversion, Optimization, Customer Experience, Carolyn Gardner, eCommerce, Search Marketing, Personalization, Email marketing | No Comments »

Earth Day and Greener Shipping Options for eTailers

April 22nd, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

Being Earth Day, we’re all extra sensitive to the environment and what we’re doing / not doing for it. So I did a little extra googling on the topic and came across a company called ShipGreen.net.

Apparently a few smarties have stepped up to “offer a web-based program that integrates with retailers’ online shopping carts, enabling consumers to easily – and accurately – offset the carbon produced from product life-cycle shipping emissions.” Sheer genius, I say. My curiosity had me pick up the phone and I was lucky enough to get a call back from the ShipGreen.net CEO, Jason Sperling. He told me the trial period was a huge success and that they are currently developing the full software release which should be out in some months. We’ll have to keep our eyes on these guys. I can see this market really taking off!

Reducing carbon footprints is already very important to many retailers including one of our very own Sitebrand clients, Roots. This past fall, as part of its commitment to the environment, Roots Canada installed a very cool interactive window display (touchscreen) at its flagship store in downtown Toronto.

Passerbys who used the touchscreen to browse the Roots website were also invited to sign up for the “Roots Insider” e-newsletter (avoiding paper is very green you know). For each and every new Roots Insider subscription, and as additional incentive to environmentally conscious consumers, Roots committed to purchasing carbon offset credit equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide released in a 50-kilometre car trip (the average distance shoppers drive to get to a Roots store).

This brilliantly green promotion is now over but Roots continues to offer greener shipping options as part of their commitment to the environment - not just today on Earth Day, but every day. And they do it with a company called Zerofootprint.

And last but not least, have you heard about eco-friendly clothes? Well guess what, Roots has a new line of apparel fittingly called ROOTS GREEN. Made with organic cotton and other sustainable fabrics such as bamboo, hemp and soy, these sound pretty green to me. But don’t worry, they come in colours other than just green!

Roots Green

Posted in Optimization, Customer Experience, Conversion, Carolyn Gardner, Personalization, eCommerce, Email marketing | No Comments »

Where’s the personalization survival guide?

March 12th, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

5 Survival Guides

For anyone craving more information on many popular terms associated with online marketing, Oneupweb offers five free guides:

SEO Survival Guide - More than 100 terms related to natural search.
Paid Search Survival Guide - Essential information for successful PPC advertisers.
Social Media Survival Guide - Conquer the world of consumer-generated content.
Blogging Survival Guide - Discover online empowerment through corporate blogging.
Eye Tracking Survival Guide - Improve your online presence; see what your market sees.

Sadly, there’s no mention of a web personalization survival guide. But I’m not surprised because the whole concept of web personalization remains underused and misunderstood…at least for now. With any luck, e-commerce marketers will soon look for life beyond the predictable tactics of search, email, etc. And by “beyond life”, I really mean stepping up and trying new things - that’s what living is, right?

It’s not about finding new budgets either. It’s about spending existing budgets differently. For the converted (pardon the pun), the measurable impact of web personalization is significant in terms of lifts to conversion and revenue.

My moral of this post - just because everyone else keeps sinking more and more money into search and email doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. Just look at your analytics and you’ll see reports that highlight the continual failures with this type of follower mentality.

Instead you should take “the norm” as a cue to be different. Consumers are being wooed in every direction. Think beyond the “woo” factor (aka acquiring new customers with a wam-bam approach - I got you here and now your mine!!! This rarely succeeds for the long term).

Now don’t get me wrong. Acquisition is important. But real customer value is earned when you factor in the “wow factor” (aka converting and retaining with a personalized approach that thinks beyond the landing page…an approach that is customer-centric, vs corporate-centric).

Who’s up for the challenge?

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Customer Experience, Social Media, Web Analytics, Search Marketing, Personalization, eCommerce, Email marketing | No Comments »

Customer Engagement via Email, LiveChat…and Twitter?

March 5th, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

When I think of LiveChat technology, I think of LivePerson which has been around since back in the 1900’s (since 1995 / 13 years to be precise). And since I’m all about monitoring the online customer experience, I absolutely love what LivePerson stands for. Here’s a blurb straight from their “about” page:

“Founded in 1995, LivePerson is a provider of online engagement solutions that facilitate real-time assistance and trusted expert advice. Connecting businesses and experts with consumers seeking help on the Web, our hosted software platform creates more relevant, compelling and personalized online experiences. ”

Allow me to pull some powerful statements as they relate to customer experience:

* online engagement solutions
* facilitate real-time assistance and trusted expert advice
* connecting businesses and experts with consumers seeking help on the Web
* creates more relevant, compelling and personalized online experiences

Taking it a step further, I’ve always liked sites that serve the LiveChat option. For me, the most meaninful invitations for LiveChat come after I’ve been on a site for that “oops, she’s probably lost and needs some help” amount of time. But regardless of how it’s presented as a service option, I’ve never seen LiveChat offered outside the web…until today that is.

This morning I received an email from Kiyonna Clothing - a Sitebrand customer that designs stylish plus-size women’s apparel in sizes 10-32. And this email was different!

Yes, this morning’s email personally invited me to have a LiveChat with Kim, a style expert and personal shopper. With just one click, I could chat live with an expert and have all my fashion questions answered…just like I would expect if I walked into the store itself! To me, this is a great way to get personal in the inbox. It’s a great example of thinking differently and I love it. The email also pointed me in to the web site, but this LiveChat invite was such a refreshingly nice way of putting customers first since it truly says “Carolyn, it’s Kim and I’m here IN PERSON to help you get PERSONAL answers to your PERSONAL questions” It wasn’t an intrusive invitation and it wasn’t hard-sell. Plus, to cover all the bases, Kiyonna offered 3 ways I could connect with Kim - LiveChat, email or a toll-free phone call. Sheer brilliance I say! Scroll down to see the email in all its glory AND a startlingly different perspective on LiveChat…one that speaks to Twitter, the new kid on the block…

What do other people thing? I always find it interesting to get other people’s perspectives and for that reason, I flipped this email to a few respected colleagues. Most thought the LiveChat invite in the email was very cool, but one who happens to be very GenY said this: “It’s interesting, but I’m not really big on LiveChat. It actually seems archaic to me because it’s what I used to do online when I was 12.” She went on to say how she prefers Twitter…

While Twitter sounds interesting, I’m not sure how it could be used in a business sense? And I don’t think I’m alone! According to the Twitter value proposition:

“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

Since Twitter itself doesn’t even position itself to be a business tool, can anyone tell me how it could be used to help customers the way LiveChat helps customers? Please share your comments as this is spicy stuff!

Posted in Customer Experience, Carolyn Gardner, Social Media, eCommerce, Email marketing | 15 Comments »

Landing Page Letdown and Conversion Impact

March 3rd, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

According to a new study* by Engine Ready, a San Diego-based search marketing firm, the best conversion comes from visitors who arrive via a bookmarked URL or a URL they type directly.

To be a bookmarked URL, we all know it means the site is a favorite and that would clearly indicate a loyal shopper is visiting. Long live the loyal shopper! And for someone to type your URL directly, we’re talking about a site with a solid brand and an easy to remember URL. Again this visitor is likely another very motivated shopper with intent to buy.

According to the study which included e-tailers in the consumer-packaged goods (CPG), home improvement and clothing categories: “These brand-driven consumers have the highest conversion rate (at 3.3%) and spend just over $170 per order. In terms of engagement, direct access visitors averaged 312 seconds on-site per visit and viewed an average of six pages each time.”

Not far behind, sitting in the second most valuable spot are visitors who arrive via a link from another Web site or email. According to the study, these visitors are “converting about 3% of the time, and spending about $168 per order. And while they spent some 246 minutes on-site and viewed an average of four pages on each visit, these referral visitors had the highest bounce rate (when a visitor leaves a Web site without viewing any other pages or before a specified time frame, such as 10 seconds). Referral traffic bounced off of the landing page nearly 50% of the time. ”

Did you read that? Referral traffic is bouncing nearly 50% of the time. Why? Well I would say it’s because the landing page isn’t measuring up. Visitors are compelled enough to click links from other sites or emails and yes, this is good. But unfortunately, all too often, the landing pages miss the mark - i.e. they fail to deliver the right message at the right time. Now of course, there could be occasions where mystery links are unclear so visitors click thinking they are going to see one thing and instead they see another. That’s a whole other issue.

But regardless, when someone hits a landing page, the e-tailer has a very small window of opportunity. If the first impression is anything other than relevant, the visitor will move on. To make the most of that first impression, it’s all about creating a personalized landing page and web experience that fulfills a visitor’s needs (throughout the click-stream process). So what can e-tailers do to fulfill visitors’ needs and improve the overall web experience?

In my opinion, the only way it will improve is when e-tailers start thinking differently by shifting more budget into the overall online experience. Gobs of money are spent driving web site traffic - this is well documented. But not enough is being spent to ensure the visit is a good, long one that results in conversion.

Clearly this sweet spot (aka the landing page) has room for improvement…because all to often it’s not putting the unique interests of the customer first. For the 50% of the traffic that does stick around, you can bet they’re seeing what they want when they want it. Ideally they’re having a personalized web experience that changes dynamically, in real-time depending on the keyword they arrive with, the length of their visit, the depth of their visit, their click-stream path and so on.

This respect for the landing page is exactly what Danskin, a Sitebrand customer does. Using the Sitebrand Retail Marketing Suite, Danskin ties its web marketing initiatives to other initiatives like email and keyword campaigns to create a more integrated and holistic marketing program. By doing so, they are able to create landing pages that are personalized by user-generated search terms. I repeat…landing pages that are personalized by user-generated search terms. Naturally, this strategy leads to higher conversion because visitors are seeing what they want when they want it. If you’re interested in all the details, you should read the Danskin Case Study.

*Note: I didn’t have a link to the study when I first posted, but thanks to a comment by Brian Lewis from Engine Ready, I can now tell you that the complete study - called “PPC vs SEO - The Final Round” - can be downloaded at: http://engineready.com/company/industrystudy/index.html

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Optimization, Web Analytics, eCommerce, Search Marketing, Personalization, Email marketing | 3 Comments »

What does your email look like on the iPhone?

February 13th, 2008 by Kelly Rusk

iphone Sadly, I don’t know since it’s not (widely available) yet in Canada… *sniff*

Lucky for all of us deprived of an iPhone, MarketingSherpa published a special report! If, however, you’re questioning whether it’s that important, consider that during the 2008 Macworld keynote speech, he mentioned that in the iPhone’s first quarter, it managed to snatch up nearly 20% of the smart phone marketshare — second only to RIM’s unstoppable BlackBerry! Not too mention some other great points referenced in the MarketingSherpa article.

If you’re short on time, the bottom line is HTML renders very nicely, however, limitations (like small screen and touch screen) do create some new problems, not to mention the lack of ability to target iphone users separately. So you’re best bet is to go out and get one yourself and test, test, test.

PS-Please send me one!

Photo from Flickr.Uploaded on June 10, 2007
by miss karen

Blackberry Email Hell

Posted in Kelly Rusk, Email marketing | 1 Comment »

Booking Travel Online – Why don’t web sites listen like agents do?

February 11th, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

Imagine you are here…

Yes, for those of us buried in snow, now is the time we’re keen to book those much needed vacations to the sunny south! And for lots of us, we turn to the web for inspiration and great last minute deals! Comparison shopping is easy. This is the good part.

But it’s not all good. Before I explain the woes of my online travel booking experience, I want to remind you of the traditional travel agency route that many people still use. You know the one where we work with – gasp - a real person who listens…

With the traditional travel agency, it’s all about building a relationship with a specific travel agent. If I had taken this path, I would have called a few agencies and spoken to a few agents. Depending on which agent impressed me the most – i.e. which agent seemed to listen and understand my vacation priorities – that would be the agent I go with.

Through a conversation, this agent would know exactly what I want in terms of a vacation. For example, they would know I am looking for a family-friendly resort in Mexico…specifically in the Mayan Riviera. I want a last-minute, 7-day, all-inclusive, beachfront resort, 4 stars or better and under $1,500 per person. Re a departure city and date, I want to fly out of Ottawa somewhere around the weekend of Feb 16. That’s it. With one visit, the agent would be armed with everything he/she needs to know. And best of all, I only had to say it ONCE.

Now let me share the online version I literally just experienced. It mirrored the traditional story of above. I clicked buttons and drop-downs that outlined every detail of my desired vacation. But here’s the crap part. I had to repeat my vacation details over and over again! Even though I was a repeat visitor to numerous travel sites, not one of them started building a profile on me so they could serve me more efficiently with each visit. On every site – and I searched several big ones including selloffvacations.com, redtag.ca and gotraveldirect.com – I had to keep repeating myself. By this I mean with each visit, I had to go through the process regarding desired departure city, departure date, budget, desired resort star rating. And every time I had to say I want last-minute deals, beachfront, all-inclusive…

If I had been speaking with an agent, and she/he had kept asking what I wanted (when I had just told him/her), I would have asked “what part don’t you get?” I would have said, “I just told you I wanted to fly out of Ottawa…why are you making me tell you that again and what makes you think I suddenly want to fly out of Toronto or Montreal?” Knowing I am interested in last-minute deals, the agent would proactively tell me (via email or phone) about them…since they literally change daily, almost hourly.

When are online travel sites going to figure out they need to change their process? When are they going to realize they need to recognize visitors and present a web experience that makes sense? It’s so easy with web personalization. Just take this scenario and get smart. Recognize where visitors are coming from and present offers that make sense. Here are some very easy personalization ideas that would drastically improve the overall customer experience which in turn would increase sales:

1. Recognize where are people are from and geo-target accordingly. If it’s a Toronto visitor, show the vacation deals that depart from Toronto…odds are they’re not interested in the
Montreal departures!

2. Recognize repeat visitors and serve vacation deals that make sense! In my case, I was a repeat visitor always clicking through to see last-minute vacations in the Mayan Riviera. Odds are that’s probably the destination I want to go to, so why not cut to the chase and show me those specific last-minute deals right up front, early in the visit.

3. As for other data you should be gathering, it should also be clear that I want a 7-day, all-inclusive, beachfront resort for under $1,500 per person….so why not show me that stuff from the get-go as well? Again, it’s unlikely the 7-day vacation is suddenly going to morph into 14 days or that my budget is suddenly going to jump over $1,500 per person.

4. Oh and get this! I even had a few abandoned shopping cart scenarios! Yup, out of curiosity I went through the check-out process without booking. My intent was clearly very high. Why didn’t one of these travel sites follow-up with me?

5. And another scenario related to a site that suddenly sold out of all vacations to the Mayan Riviera. Had someone not told me this site suddenly released more trips to the Mayan Riviera, I wouldn’t have gone back to check it out! Wouldn’t it have been smart if the web site had presented a message saying “More trips to the Mayan Riviera might be announced! To be first to know, sign up here!” Or to show something like – “Can’t get the Mayan Riviera vacation you hoped for? Check out these similar destinations!”

Pretty common sense stuff, don’t you agree? But clearly, common sense isn’t so common.

To end on a high note, I am thrilled to say this vacation is a reality! We’re off to the Mayan Riviera this Friday! A big thank you to my friend who works at GoTravel for calling me about the bonus releases! But since she is only one person and she doesn’t personally know every other visitor that had been watching deals to the Mayan Riviera, there are a lot of unnecessarily lost sales. Odds are they went elsewhere. Hmmm…maybe next year, web personalization can be a part of the mix!?!? What a concept. Imagine the impact.

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Web Analytics, eCommerce, Personalization, Email marketing | 1 Comment »

Why is ‘customer experience’ lost in email marketing?

February 7th, 2008 by Kelly Rusk

Customer experience (or customer experience management) is a big buzz word these days (Have you met our new Director of Customer Experience? *waves at Carolyn*). New trends online like Web 2.0 and The Long Tail have put more control in the hands of customers, means progressive marketers are scurrying to change their “we know best and we’ll tell you what to do” attitude into “You’re the customer, how can we give you what you want, so that you’ll want to buy from me…”

Yet while marketers are nodding their heads in agreement, we’re still seeing things like opt-out emails, pre-checked sign up boxes, or tiny buried legal text that says something like “by providing your email, you’re consenting to receive marketing messages from us.”

We all hate spam, so by that logic, the ‘do unto others’ theory should prevail. Until then, I’ll just continue to hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button on unsolicited mail, and you should too (or ‘This is SPAM’ if you’re really vengeful).

Posted in Kelly Rusk, Email marketing | 1 Comment »

Coremetrics eCommerce Report: Holy Holiday eSales!

January 31st, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

It’s always interesting to see new trend reports in the e-commerce space. Even more interesting is understanding why these trends are happening. You could talk to ten different people and get ten different perspectives. I don’t have ten people with me right now, so I hope you’re cool reading my opinion on some new data from a Jan 22 news release courtesy of our friends at Coremetrics. This data relates to an eCommerce Report that compares 2007 holiday sales to 2006 holiday sales.

All in all, while online sales went up in just about every category, the big winners were department stores, intimate apparel and health & beauty sites. But now — along with my two cents on why it’s happening — here is some Coremetrics’ specific findings:

Department Store eCommerce sites saw the highest growth this holiday season vs. last with a 35 percent increase in sales.

When you sell just about everything – which most department stores do – it’s easy to cast your visitor net very wide. And for the holiday shopper, there’s nothing like minimizing the hassle by going to the one-stop shop. Through their analytics reports, ese sites know about all the drop-off points. That said, I am sure they are leveraging these findings to their fullest. For example, during the holidays, shoppers are often stumped at what to buy for certain people on their list. So if these dept stores notice someone has been on their site for close to the typical visitor’s drop-off time, isn’t this an ideal time to promote “gift cards? Ah yes, gift cards. I’m a big fan of them. I especially love that dept stores like Target send the gift card via email which means as a shopper, we can be very last minute.

Intimate Apparel and Health & Beauty sites saw strong gains in online sales with a 27 and 26 percent interest in sales, respectively.

I smiled when I saw this one. I think the initial traffic is all about those caring men who simply want to browse sites looking for the best intimate apparel for their adoring wives, girlfriends, etc. Ya right. But the thing is, these casual “browsers” are converting into buyers! I know La Senza is a master of the online selling game. And kudos to them. They have consistency all round – sizing, quality, shipping, service, after sales. It’s all good and it makes for an easy sell. Once you buy something online, they keep you in their radar using irresistible emails with just the right offers at just the right time. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Strategic? You better believe it.

As for health & beauty, again it’s a classic gift thing. You can’t go wrong buying any of this stuff online. Who doesn’t love getting a new bottle of their favorite lotion or potion? And again, the bundling upsell potentials are endless in terms of getting people to increase their avg cart spends. “Spend $40 and get this miracle cream for free!” On top of all this, you’ve got a category that loves to spend money on their digital marketing efforts…clearly it works.

Home sites rebounded from a slow start during the start of the 2007 online shopping season (6 percent increase in sales) to finish with 13 percent year-over-year sales growth.
Sports Apparel sites made strong gains in the average order value of online checkouts raising that number by 14 percent vs. last year’s figure.
Office Supply/Electronics sites along with general Apparel sites saw more modest gains with a 10 percent increase in sales.

These last three trends are all worth noting. I suspect the home site lag at the start of the season is unrelated to anything specific. Perhaps their initial strategy was stinking so they had to switch gears part way through the season? Who really knows?

As for sports apparel, if the average order value of online checkouts went up by 14%, I’m guessing they’re getting smarter with the upsell/cross-sell piece. Plus like our friends in health & beauty, they’re likely using their analytics to see the avg cart size and then cross-sell promotions that encourage shoppers to spend more than that avg amt so they qualify for free shipping or whatever other incentive works.

As for office supply/electronics sites, they just keep going up! And why wouldn’t they? They’ve had it figured out for a long time now…

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Web Analytics, eCommerce, Personalization, Email marketing | No Comments »

Are you really offering printer-friendly docs?

January 9th, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

We’re all very conscious about saving trees these days. Doing the green thing is no longer optional. In fact, it’s expected and it’s a big reason why email is such a hero. That reminds me…have you heard the latest? According to our good friends at JupiterResearch, email marketing spends will grow to $2.1 billion in 2012 from $1.2 billion in 2007!!! Meow!

Anyhow…back to my point about trees…Yes email helps reduce paper waste, but it will never be a paperless society. There are always going to be things we need to print. We’re set up for it - i.e. long docs are politely PDF’d for printing; coupons are set up with compelling reasons to print and redeem in-store…etc.

To top it all off, we often see nice little messages in our emails or on web pages implying we can get the “printer-friendly” version. Printer-friendly, my ___! All too often these so-called printer-friendly things are anything but! They are toner crazy and that makes me crazy!

It’s at this point that I point back to the designers who get all hung up in “the look” vs. “the tone(r)”…

Too many designers say bring on more toner! Well they don’t quite say it, but they demand it because they’re so consumed by making these PDFs and coupons all dramatic and fancy. I’m cool with professionally designed stuff, but when the efforts for drama and beauty take a lot of toner, it’s over. The toner waste makes me lose all the pre-printing desires I had!

So for all my marketing friends - please remind your designers of what makes something truly “printer-friendly”. It’s pretty simple - don’t use dark backgrounds with light fonts.

God it feels good to get that off my chest…

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Email marketing | 1 Comment »

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