With more than 14 years worth of spending a lot of time on e-commerce sites under my belt, online store surprises can be hard to come by. Rare as it is, I love it when I see something so well done that I smile at the screen, remember the moment and want to tell people about it.
The delicate balance between appropriately conveying the emotive aspect of the brand and efficiently driving transactions is one that e-commerce teams have struggled with since the early days of the channel. (see my previous poston this topic) With robust features and functionality now commonplace in most online stores and best practices in transactional ease will known, online brand differentiation in e-commerce is as challenging as ever.
But sometimes, the essence and personality of your brand can come through in the most unexpected of places on your site. When that happens, it's not only a pleasant surprise for your customer; you leave an indelible, emotional mark on their site experience. Just what a brand is supposed to do. It's not just about the imagery on your home page, the tone and language of your product descriptions or the helpful tone of your service information. Yes, you need all of that. But how about some of the hidden or forgotten corners of your site? It's really these places where you can take an otherwise ho-hum (or even frustrating) experience and turn it into a positive emotional connection. A few of my recent favorites are below.
On the new Columbia Sportswear e-commerce site (launched in the Fall of '09), the company's beloved spokeswoman, Ma Boyle is with you all the way. Even when you get a 404 error (I love this).
When I bought holiday cards from JibJab (everyone's favorite site for elfing yourself into all kinds of humorous situations), I got this thank-you screen after signing up. I now not only know the people behind the company, but I feel like I have a cheering section behind me, celebrating my new membership and sharing an inside joke.
We all love Woot! not just for the screaming deal of the day, but sometimes just as much for the irreverent humor that goes into the site's content. Woot! leaves no page unturned (or shall I say un-clicked?)... Take a look at the customer service FAQ page. This page is either dry as dirt or excruciatingly courteous on most e-commerce sites. Woot! actually makes theirs fun to read and uses the page to hammer home their personality, which is good considering the brutally bare bones service policies.
And then there's Moosejaw, long a leader in cutting edge, youth oriented marketing. Note the clever language enticing me to create an account -everyone will like me more! Now there's a reason!
The moral of the story: leave no page un-clicked. Some of those necessary, straightforward pages outside of the ever precious purchase path can be hidden gems of opportunity where your brand personality can shine through.
Great points Sally. I would even include http://www.despair.com as a leader of incorporating their brand throughout the website. For example, on their customer service page the leading graphic states "We're not satisfied until you're not satisfied!"
Posted by: Kurt | January 08, 2010 at 08:37 AM
Thanks Kurt, I love Despair and I agree they do a fantastic job of keeping the brand hilariously front and center throughout the experience. Great example!
Posted by: Sally McKenzie | January 08, 2010 at 10:34 AM