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A Lesson from Dad: Why Your E-commerce Platform Search Isn't Just About Software

When I was a kid, I used to love to listen to my father talk about politics. He was opinionated and unfalteringly convinced that his point of view was not only right, but shared by "all" Americans (at least the smart ones).  Today, I don't always agree with my dad's political views (and I'm pretty smart), but there's something I remember him saying during an election that I very much agree with, and have found to apply in many areas of my life, especially e-commerce:  "Issues change."

During the heat of an election long before I was old enough to vote, my father was frustrated by the fact that a single issue was swaying the voters to choose one candidate over another.  "Hell," he said, slapping his newspaper down like a flyswatter, "this guy is going to be in office for at least four years, maybe eight, and we're acting like there's only one problem that matters.  This issue will hardly be on the radar 6 months from now and we'll wake up and realize we've got the wrong guy!"  

The bigger point, of course is that that hot issues come and go.  When you make an important decision about someone, you need to take the long view and ask "is this the kind of person who I feel confident about, who has the kind of character, experience and perspective necessary to do a good job beyond the immediate issues at hand?"  The issues are a factor of course, but voting on those alone is short sighted. 

So, what does this have to do with e-commerce? Plenty, especially if you're thinking about a platform search.  Recently, in the middle of a very complex e-commerce solution search, a client and I were evaluating the options.  I asked the team for feedback on what they'd seen so far.  One team member immediately said, "I am not sure about company ABC.  I liked them, but the platform didn't offer a couple of features out of the box like company XYZ's did."  So I asked: 

Which company had done the most research on your business?  Answer: company ABC

Which company asked you the most questions during the call? Answer: company ABC

Which of the two companies would you prefer to do business with if the features were the same? Answer: company ABC

Which company would you choose? Certainly there are so many other things to consider. Track record, price, speed to market, installed client base, the list goes on.  But, at the end of the day, it can be easy to get side tracked by a slick e-commerce feature, just like it can be easy to let the issue of the moment be the focus of your political decisions. 

There will be another e-commerce feature that you want next month, and several more the year after that. And, not all of them will be necessary or even appropriate for your business.  Unless you have a large and highly competent IT team in house (in which case you probably really do want just e-commerce software), you are choosing an e-commerce solution provider who will be your partner in building a successful business, and the decision will likely be one you live with for many years.  Don't let the feature of the moment become the focus of your decision.  Features change.  Just like issues change.  Thanks, Dad. 

Nudge Your E-commerce Customers and Grab the Low Hanging Fruit

Often, I'm asked by clients or prospective clients to look at their e-commerce websites and identify low hanging fruit.  Usually, that means unearthing opportunities to improve the customer experience, and thus, improve conversion.

Here's one way to grab some low hanging fruit: give your customers a nudge.

In any given e-commerce shopping and buying experience, customers are faced with a large number of choices to make.  I'm not just talking about selecting the product to buy. It's all of the various configurations of choices that come after you've found the item that you want:

• What color and size do I choose?

• What shipping method do I want?

• Do I want to sign up for email, and if so, do I want HTML or text?

• Do I want the item shipped to my billing address or a different one?

• Do I want to save my personal info or create an account for next time?

• What credit card do I want to pay with?

• Do I want to donate extra dollars to a good cause?

The list goes on.  Depending on the nature of the product, there can by a myriad of custom configurations of a product (like the Timberland boot builder) or options for receiving a physical product vs. a digital version (such as an airline ticket or software product).  As many online shoppers have discovered, on some websites, it's all too easy to make the wrong choice.  In fact, some websites make matters worse by having the wrong choice "pre-selected", causing frustration, abandonment, or worse, an erroneous order followed by dissatisfaction and returns.

By dissecting all of the places on your site that your customers need to make choices and gently "nudging" them towards the appropriate choice, you can make your customers happier AND improve your e-commerce business results.  

Fortunately, some great brains at HBR have written an article and created a useful decision tree methodology for those of us who lead e-commerce efforts.  The article, Nudge Your Customers Towards Better Choices is a must-read for any information architect or designer faced with getting customers through the online decision making process, and for e-commerce business leaders wrestling with the pros and cons of making "default" choices for customers, either with the intent of achieving a business results (such as getting more email sign ups) or improving customer satisfaction (such as presenting personalized selections).  Note: you will need to pay for this article on the HBR site, but it's only $6.50 and, in my view, well worth the investment, as you'll probably refer to it again and again and put the decision tree they've created on your bulletin board.

Fundamentally, the HBR authors divide the world into two key types of "default" decisions that can be presented to a customer: a) mass defaults, where a retailer "pre-selects" the option that a majority of users will likely choose and b) personalized defaults, where implicit or explicit information about a customer is used to "pre-select" the best option for them. 

Both of these default types come in a variety of flavors, all of which are described in detail in the article, with examples of appropriate usage based on the business objectives and customer information available.   But, to quickly make they point on how useful nudging can improve the customer experience and business results, here are a few examples of my own: 

First, an easy one.  A typical illustration of an e-commerce  mass default is below.  When it's time for the customer to choose a shipping option, pre-selecting "standard" shipping makes sense.  It's the least expensive option, and if I have special circumstances that cause me to need expedited shipping, I don't expect the retailer to know that.  Of course, if they can highlight messaging about shipping deadlines here around key gift-giving holidays, all the better.

  

In the above example, specific info like the anticipated date of delivery would go a step further to helping the customer make the right choice.

Now, let's look at an example where the wrong mass default is a likely source of frustration.  On the Allen Brothers site, notice that the default quantity choice is set to "0".  Why not set it to "1", since customers ordering will order at least one, and must choose a quantity in order to add to cart?

 
How many customers do you think mistakenly hit "add to cart" without choosing a quantity?

Personalized defaults, when well executed can lead to increased conversion, loyalty and reduced returns.  Consider myShape.com, the women's apparel site that "pre-selects" the right size for the customer based on the extensive body measurement information she provides.  Assuming they have the right data, this saves customers the hassle of determining the right size, and reduces the risk of returns.  This is a form of personalized default HBR calls a "smart default".  I agree, it is smart.

Then, there are those mass defaults that would be so much more effective if they were personalized. I'm a petite.  I've stopped growing (at least vertically), so that's not likely to change. Yet, every time I shop online from my favorite stores, I have to "override" the default "regular" size setting. Sure, most women are "regular", and while most stores probably don't know enough about me to recommend a specific size, they could easily get enough data from me, either in my profile or in my purchase history to pre-select "petite".  Incidentally, when I was rushing through some shopping last holiday, I mistakenly ordered "regular" from two websites (see eddiebauer.com below) and promptly returned them, I was too aggravated to make an exchange.

    

After reading the HBR article and doing a quick drive by on a few sites, I've concluded that paying close attention to key points of customer choice and applying the right form of defaults is an area of untapped opportunity for many. If you're under pressure to improve your business results through low hanging fruit (and who isn't these days?), try this:

Buy and read the HBR article. Identify all of the decision points on your site where defaults are used or could be used. For each, ask yourself:

• Is this the appropriate form of default?
• Is the appropriate choice pre-selected?
• Are there areas where we're using mass defaults when personalized defaults would be more effective?
• What customer data could we gather or what data do we have that would help us offer a truly helpful personalized default?

Then, set up some A/B tests, and gently "nudge" your customers to the right choice.  Chances are, you'll see that a well placed nudge might just push them over the "buy" threshold, and allow you to pick some low hanging fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E-commerce Freshman: Is Your Shopping Cart Before the Horse?

If  launching a new e-commerce site is on your list of New Year's resolutions for '09, here's what you should NOT do first: start hunting for a shopping cart solution.

While most of my clients are established online retailers, recently I have received a number of calls and emails from e-commerce first timers.  The recession has prompted some pure brick and mortar retailers to seek growth in the online world. Or, sole proprietors are starting e-commerce businesses with hopes of  pursuing a dream and ditching the need for a day job.

Inevitably, the conversation starts with the client inquiring about what e-commerce platform or shopping cart software they should use. There are so many out there, it's confusing, etc. 

Well, it IS confusing.  But one of the reasons it's confusing is that you may be putting the shopping cart before the horse. 

If you are looking at e-commerce solutions before planning the kind of business you are going to run and how you are going to run it, odds are that a) your quest for the right software solution will be frustrating and painful and b) you'll probably pick the wrong one.

Here are ten signs that you've put the shopping cart before the horse.  If any or many of these describe you, don't even think about the shopping cart yet.

1.  You haven't decided what you'll be selling in your online store.   The products, how many of them you'll carry, how frequently they'll change, how complex they are to sell, all of that stuff really matters.

2.  If you have decided what to sell,  you haven't looked at how competitors are doing it , or

3.  You aren't absolutely sure as to why someone would buy from you vs. a competitor. Let's face it.  Just about everything is being sold online already.  Chances are a more established player is already a jump or two ahead of you.  What will make your e-commerce site a more attractive option to customers?

4.  Speaking of customers, you don't have a clear picture of your target customer or a  plan and budget for attracting the right visitors to your site.  Don't think that the search engines will just find you.  It takes money and work to get qualified traffic to a website.

5.  You're not sure how you'll get the photos and product descriptions for the products you'll be selling, or who will be doing the ongoing merchandising and updates.  Doing this part well can mean the difference between a professional site and one that looks and reads like an afterthought.  If you're planning on carrying a wide assortment of products, don't underestimate the workload here or the tools you'll need to handle it efficiently.

6.  You don't know how you'll handle customer service inquiries, who will take the calls and answer emails or how you'll keep track of them.  Many early stage e-commerce efforts overlook the need for human contact with web orders.  It happens, so figure out how you will make it easy for customers to contact you and what you will need in terms of resources and infrastructure to deal with it.

7.  You're up in the air about whether you're going to fulfill orders yourself or outsource the function.  If this is you, you may want to skip ahead to point #10 below and let that start your decision making process.  Think about the volume you'll be doing and what you need to be able to manage, process, and fulfill orders, both at the start and as your business grows.

8.  You haven't thought through your polices and cost structure regarding shipping and returns.  This is a highly competitive and rapidly evolving area of e-commerce.  Flat rate shipping, expedited options, pre-paid returns, shipping promotions, the list of options and logistical issues is significant.

9.  You don't know who will be designing or developing your website, and/or you're not certain about all of the content and features your site will need.  While you're at it, think about how frequently you plan to make cosmetic and technical changes to your site and how those will get done.

10.  Saving the most important for last: You don't have a plan for how much business you will do, thus you don't know how much you can afford to spend on your e-commerce site.   The key here is to start with a plan.  Even if the plan is wrong, you'll be better off than if you had no plan at all.  Start with the fundamental metrics: How much traffic will come to your site?  How many of those visitors will place an order? How much money will those visitors spend and how many units will they buy?  This should be the basis for answering many of the questions above (like whether or not it will be feasible to handle fulfillment yourself, or what kind of budget you need to attract the right number of visitors to your site).

You'll probably find that working through these issues will cause your thinking to change regarding what you need in an e-commerce solution and who you need to help you along the way.  Chances are, you'll need more than just a shopping cart behind the horse.

As Promised: Platform Picking Part 2

Note: If you are currently in the hunt for a new e-commerce platform solution, you may want to read my previous entry on getting organized for the platform selection process. You can find it here.

And now for the promised, albeit late sequel to that post, Part 2:

Many times when I assist clients with the e-commerce platform selection process, I find that they either  a) have outgrown their current solution or b) have come to the painful realization that they made the wrong provider choice the last time around.

There's no question: choosing an e-commerce solution is an important decision, and making the wrong choice can be costly.  Couple that with the complexity of the subject matter and the shifting vendor landscape, and you have aggravation knocking at your door. 

Assuming you've taken the advice in my "Part 1" post and you've done your pre-planning, you are now ready to move into the evaluation process.  Here are my TOP 10 hit tips to help you make the right decision.  Do yourself a favor and get this work well underway BEFORE you get into detailed discussions with potential e-commerce providers.  Doing so will help you focus on what's important to you and help you avoid getting sucked into the sales pitch.

1) It's not about the platform.   That's only part of the equation. Outline the services you will need from a new e-commerce provider.  For example, do you need:

• Strategy consultation?
• Site design?
• Development?
• Usability testing?
• Systems or 3rd party integration work?
• Hosting & monitoring?
• Ongoing site maintenance & support?
• SEO or other marketing services?
• Customer service?
• Fulfillment?

Using the above as a starting point, make a list of the things you expect your provider to do vs. what will be done in house or by other 3rd parties.   Think about how you want to work.  Is it important for one provider to do all of the things you need, or are you willing to manage multiple relationships; for example, hiring an agency to do the design work and asking your platform provider to take care of the development work and hosting?  Think about how much depth of expertise you need in each area, and how many relationships you feel comfortable coordinating and managing.

2) Make a list, check it a bunch. Make a detailed, categorized list of all of the things your website must have, both customer facing and behind the scenes.  If you have an existing e-commerce site, use that as your starting point, assuming you want to keep all of your current functionality.  Group your functionality needs into buckets, like product presentation, search/browse, promotions, customer accounts and site administration tools, etc.  I know, this is a tedious process, but doing it will get you and the rest of the stakeholders on the same page, as well as form the foundation for your vendor discussions and RFP. 

While you're at it, identify areas where you plan to use 3rd party software solutions, like analytics, reviews & ratings, on site search, imaging, etc.  You'll need to be sure your solution can integrate with them and that the provider is used to doing that kind of work.   Once the essentials are identified, list out the "nice to haves" or the "phase 2/3/4" items; this will assure that you are looking ahead, and that the capabilities of the platform will support your future needs.

3) Take your measurements. Collect your current e-commerce site's vital statistics, and if possible, project them out for the next 2-3 years:

• traffic by source
• conversion rate
• # of orders
• average order size
• total sales volume
• # of products for sale
• # of skus
• #of page views

Your potential providers will need to understand the size/scale of your operation to determine if there is a good fit.   Ask about the vital stats of some of their current clients.  You don't want to be too small or too big of a fish.

4) Avoid culture shock. This might sound squishy, but it's critical.  How do you envision working with your provider after the new site is up and running?  Time and time again I see retailers who were lured by the bells and whistles of the platform, only to find that their expectations for account management and service were out of synch with the provider.   What kind of account support do you expect? How often do you plan to introduce new features? How aggressively do you plan to build your business and expand your site?  Do you have people on your staff that "get it", speak the technical lingo and can navigate their way around admin tools? Or, do you need a provider that is skilled at a lot of hand holding?  Note: sometimes I can tell by the pace of my first conversation with a provider whether or not I'm dealing with a company that will have the patience to work with a less savvy client.

Also think about how formally your company works - Would you rather see storyboards, wireframes, comps and prototypes for every new site features? Or are you happy having a few conversations about requirements and going straight into build?

5) Chat. Assuming you did your homework (see Part 1 again), you know the type of provider you're looking for and the overall payment model you're interested in. Schedule a long call or visit with everyone on the consideration list before the RFP goes out. Do yourself a favor and create an agenda for the call, and give that to the vendors in advance.  Everyone has a standard sales pitch, but you don't want to waste time going into features and tools that you don't need. Ask for examples and demonstrations of the things that are the most important to your business.

6) Author, author. Write a good RFP.  There could be an entire blog post about this topic alone, but in a nutshell, be sure you're asking for all of the information you need to make a thorough evaluation.  For example, at a minimum, your RFP should ask for:

• A company overview, including information about longevity and financial health
• A full overview of their capabilities in relation to the services you need (see pt #1 above)
• Confirmation of their ability to produce the features and tools needed at a line item level, along with links to examples of their execution for other clients
• Location, configuration and services associated with hosting
• Process and timeline for the project, by phase
• Payment terms for the project as well as ongoing maintenance and fees
• Project/account team members and their background/experience
• Contract terms
• References

7)  Keep score. Create a weighted scorecard that allows all respondents to be compared side by side on a number of factors, such as:

• Cost/economics
• Feature set
• Administrative tools
• Cultural fit
• Implementation time
• Ancillary services

Keep a running bulleted list of pros and cons for working with each vendor. For example, one supplier might not offer the SEO support that you need, but they may have a lower cost structure, which might allow you to hire an outside expert.

8) Repeat until you believe: There Is No Perfect Solution.  There just isn't.  But the more you know your own business and your own needs inside out, the closer you'll get to the partner that's right for you.

9) Get a 2nd opinion. Of course, check references. But remember, those references were listed for a reason. See if you can get the "word on the street" as well.  Consider hiring a consultant or an industry research firm, even on a limited basis, to give you their take on whether or not your finalists are worthy of your business.

10) You're nowhere near done.  Once you've made a decision, negotiated, and awarded your business, the "real" work starts.  No matter how good your partner or your internal e-commerce team, the implementation of new websites is never totally easy or painless - don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Level expectations (including your own), dedicate the right resources to the effort and fasten your seatbelts. 

                                                                                                               

A Tall Tale Called the Long Tail? A Sensible Merchant's Point of View

WARNING: This post is too long by almost anyone's standards. But it's a cool and very important topic to e-commerce merchants.  You might want to read it anyway.

Back in 2006, like a bunch of other people, I bought Chris Anderson's book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.  Like a bunch of other people, I loved it.  At last, it seemed that someone had intelligently outlined the forces at play in the world of e-commerce and the changing dynamics triggered by increased product choice & accessibility.

Anderson's work sent an alarm bell to many traditional merchants: it's time to start obsessing about product extensions, limitless choice and highly personalized niche "micro" assortments.  For those tasked with managing inventory and running a profitable business, not an easy task.

Then, just to keep us on our toes, around the same time The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz was published, calling on those same merchants to avoid the pitfalls of over-assortment, to allow customers to focus on just a few choices and avoid the "overwhelm" factor.

So, what's an e-commerce merchant to do?  Sell less of more and risk over-assortment and dead inventory? Or sell more of less and risk commoditization and lack of brand differentiation?

I was prompted into thinking about this again recently, when I saw a brief article in the WSJ: Study Refutes Niche Theory Spawned by Web, which highlights recently released research by Anita Elberse and her supporting Harvard Business Review article Should You Invest in the Long Tail?

As it turns out, the conclusions of Elberse's work challenge some of the Long Tail's key principles. Specifically:

• Best sellers are more important than ever (Anderson says they are losing steam to niche products)
• Scores of niche products are never purchased and are unprofitable (Anderson says they are gaining importance to retailers)
• Niche products don't rate well in terms of customer satisfaction (Anderson says that some long tail products are just bad products)

Elberse's work has spawned a very interesting discussion on Chris Anderson's blog longtail.com. Overall, while Elberse's research is solid and her conclusions worthy of debate, some aspects of her work, specifically the use of percentages vs. numbers in her reporting and her definitions differ from Anderson's.  Those differences are big enough to cause loyalists of The Long Tail to stand firm, and confused merchants to perhaps become even more confused.

After reading the books, the research and the blog (all well worth your time to read, by the way), it seemed to me that it was time for a bit of merchant sensibility to be infused in the mix.

The risks of going too far with both limited "best seller" assortments and over-specialized niche offerings are well known to retailers.  While the web gives us exciting opportunities to break down brick and mortar barriers, capitalizing on those opportunities takes strategy, discipline, investment and plenty of hard work.   To be successful mining long tail profits, there are are few big things you need to master:

A) Know your product category. Long tail examples typically cite books and music: digital consumption or high sku count or both.   If you're not in one of those categories, you need to think through how the long tail applies to what you are selling.  Are there niche size ranges, colors, designs, or features that cater to an under-served market or to extreme loyalists who can't get enough of what you sell?   What data do you have to support investing in long tail inventory?  It's not just about carrying everything under the sun.

B) Take clues from your other channels.  If you are a multi-channel retailer, talk to the merchants for stores and catalog to understand where the opportunities are for logical product extensions.

• Is there a hot category where the limits of shelf space simply don't allow for a full assortment?
• Are there areas of the catalog where space has been cut back due to tighter mailing budgets?
• Are there product lines where the amount of product information desired by the customer is inappropriate for the store or catalog to tackle?
• If you have a limited number of stores, are there opportunities to aggregate demand via the web, therefore building enough volume to justify the investment in an extended product line?

All  of these areas could potentially yield insights as to where long tail merchandising could be successful.

C) Invest in customer insights.  One of the key takeaways from Elberse's research is the need to have intimate knowledge of your customers and their buying behavior.   There are some customers that will never venture into the long tail (such as the busy mom who always buys the same brand and size of popular jeans).  Others will actively seek out long tail products (such as a petite woman who is hard to fit, or a cooking enthusiast eager to try a rare French sausage in her cassoulet recipe).  Understanding who will buy in the long tail and successfully predicting what they will buy is critical to inventory management and profitability.  Elberse points out that a large number of long tail products in music are never purchased.  That's no surprise.  The long tail doesn't let merchants off the hook; quite the opposite.  We still need to intelligently select, assort, and manage inventory to our customers' needs.  A good merchant is a good editor, even in....NO, especially in the long tail world.

D) Invest in product discover ability & accessibility.  Herein lies the key to long tail success.  Carry a lot of the right stuff, and be religious about helping people find it.  Assuming you know your customer and have picked the right products, they have to be able to discover those products in a relevant context.   E-commerce technologies are critical to unlocking the long tail.  Among the the tools you must have in place are:

• Powerful search, preferably in guided navigation format, allowing customers to sort, edit and drill down on a wide variety of attributes, from top level to granular.   Tools like this will help your customer avoid the paradox of choice.  And don't underestimate the manpower and work required behind keeping your product data in search shape.
• Product recommendations.  Don't think that this can be done by a merchant manually assigning "you might also like" items on every product page.   That won't scale, nor will it give you the success rate of automated recommendations that draw from customer history and product data.
• Product information.  Sure, amassing and maintaining a vast body of product content is hard.  But a huge part of what makes that long tail product discoverable to people that might want it is what you have to say about it, or in the case of customer reviews, what other people have to say about it.   The more that oddball product is described, tagged, and recommended, the more likely it will be found by the perfect prospective owner.
• Product reviews and ratings.  As mentioned above, it's not just the reviews themselves, but how you use them as a discovery tool.  Incorporate them into search, comparison tools and site navigation.  Allow customers to ask questions and answer one another.  Incorporate the terminology and attributes used by reviewers into your product descriptions and copy.   And of course, read what customers are asking and saying about the product.  Sometimes a long tail product is a poor seller because it's a lousy product, not because people can't find it.

E) Don't abandon best sellers.   Elberse makes this a cornerstone of her article, citing her research findings indicates that retailers are selling more blockbusters, not less.  Anecdotal case in point:  Last week I bought a CD that would, by anyone's definition qualify as a blockbuster.   The only reason I bought it was because I was on a site  that offered me "top sellers" as part of my recommended products.   Now that I am no longer 15 years old, I am not that savvy about what's selling in music.  I would have likely never known that this CD existed or that it was appealing to me.  The fact that the site I was on knows my musical tastes and offers me a multitude of ways to navigate and discover products was what drove the sale.   So, just like good e-commerce merchandising tactics help people discover the long tail products, they also help less aware customers discover the blockbusters.  And sometimes, it's the blockbuster purchase that drives the customer into the long tail the next time they visit.

So, is The Long Tail a tall tale or a real profit opportunity?  Ultimately the question rests with the retailers who are working to execute e-commerce well.  Comments and success stores are of course, welcome.

And, if you are still in the mood to read more, here are a couple of good case studies of companies successfully navigating the world of long tail retail:

The Hyper-Personalized Business Model Trend

A Niche E-tailer Size up Glamour....One Customer at a Time

And, last year's post:  The Long Tail in Real Life....3 Variations on a Theme   

Feel Like You're Losing Your Mind? Yes, it Really Could Be Your E-Commerce Job

The other day I was flipping through the Atlantic Monthly.  Actually all I ever do with magazines anymore is flip through them. I never actually read them.

The cover story, titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" caught my attention.  It's worth a read. That is, if you have the attention span for a six page article. 

No offense intended...of course you can get through six pages. It's just that Nicholas Carr's article will help validate that those feelings  you've been having of impatience and inability to focus may indeed be real, and may indeed be caused by the internet.  If you spend most of your day online like I do, you get accustomed to accessing information at warp speed and skimming through sound-bites of data to get things done.  But then, sadly, you realize that you've lost your ability to take things in at a "non-internet" pace. 

Just like Carr suggests, I too have noticed that it's become harder for me to sit and read a long book, something that I love to do.  I'm so used to being able to cut to the chase that reading through paragraphs to get to the plot seems inefficient. In truth, I now only read full books when I'm on vacation for exactly this reason. 

So, is this bad? Not entirely, according to the article. The brain, it appears, is quite malleable, and adjusts to things like our intake of data and consumption of media. The internet's impact on our brain activity is probably neither good nor bad, it just causes us to behave differently.   

Carr does a great job of comparing the concerns about the internet's impact on our brains to numerous industrial developments throughout history, such as the typewriter and the printing press. Many back then said that the proliferation of written documents and books would negatively impact memory.  It's probably fair to say that the expanded access to written information has had a profoundly positive impact on the human experience, regardless of what it's done to our memories.  After all, do we really need to remember everything if we can look it up in a book?   

The internet may be changing the way people read (or avoid reading), but I think we'd all agree that it's profound impact on our lives has been overwhelmingly positive.  Nonetheless, as marketers we need to be increasingly alert to how our own behavior (and our customers' behavior) is changing as a result of increased internet consumption.  It means communicating with customers in a way consistent with the way they are reading;  abbreviated text messages, mono-syllabic search ads, tickers on the tv screen, pop up ads, interruptive alerts. 

So, in a shameless example of practicing what I preach, if  you find that reading this blog is too lengthy and laborious a task, you can now follow me on Twitter, where you can read my musings about e-commerce in satisfying bites of 140 characters or less.   

Proper Prior Planning for Platform Picking - Part 1

It seems that just about every e-commerce company I speak to lately is either in the process of re-platforming, or gearing up for a platform search.  And it makes sense; after all, now that the channel is well over 10 years old, many e-commerce sites are running on aging technologies.  They've served retailers well, but it's time to reap the benefits of functionality and administrative advances that have evolved over the last 5+ years.

The search for an e-commerce platform solution can be daunting. The landscape is crowded and confusing, and the list of requirements alone can make for an RFP that rivals War and Peace in length. 

Given the importance of the platform decision, it would remiss of me to tell you to just "take these 5 easy steps and success will be yours...."  The truth is, this is a big, important decision and making the decision will take significant research and effort.  There are, however, some steps that you can take early on that will help considerably in preparing the organization and streamlining the process.

1) First, decide who will be involved in the decision process. This will likely (and rightly) be a cross functional effort across merchandising, marketing, IT, customer care, operations and more.  Identify the team members, the decision maker and the approver.  Who will need to weigh in throughout vs. just check in at key decision points?

2) Agree to an organized selection process. If you can afford the luxury of a project manager, by all means assign a good one to map out the milestones and keep the group on track.

3) Agree on the problems you are trying to solve with a new platform.  There is no "perfect" platform solution, but you will be able to get closer to perfect if you clearly define the problems you have with your current platform and prioritize which are the most critical to solve.  You may want to put more control in the hands of business people vs. developers, or you may want to decrease the time it takes to deploy new features. You may need a more robust functionality set, or better content management capabilities.  It's common for companies to believe that a new platform will solve every current ill, and chances are it won't.  Be clear about what you must solve vs. what you'd like to solve.

4) Look at your e-commerce business goals 5+ years out.  You will need your new platform to take your business to the next level, whatever that may be.  It will be important to understand not only your sales and order volume growth, but also important changes to the way you plan to operate and do business.  Do you foresee bringing currently outsourced operations in-house (such as customer care, design, development, etc.)?  Do you plan to launch new lines of business or brands? Are you planning deeper levels of integration with your other channels?

5) Get an overview of the platform landscape.  Before you dive in to specific providers, get an understanding of the models and choices: full service providers, hosted solutions, custom build shops or build yourself on licensed software...and yes, there are providers that blur the lines between the models (just to make it even more confusing).  Learn about the differences in payment models and service offerings. You will want to select a model first, then a provider within that model. The more work you can do to eliminate models that are not appropriate for your business up front, the smoother your search will go.

Note on point #5 above:  Companies who do NOT take this step typically regret it. Getting RFPs from vendors in different sectors of the market with different models will make it impossible to do an apples to apples comparison, and will create internal confusion and delays. Hint: you might want to consider getting a market overview from an objective third party or someone who's been through the process before.

Taking the early stage steps above will make gathering of requirements, writing an RFP, scoring potential vendors and making a decision a more efficient effort.  You'll be clearer on what you need, which means that eliminating inappropriate providers will be easier. 

Stay tuned for a follow-up post, where I'll cover the selection process itself in more detail, and some best practices for choosing the right solution.

Virtual Gets Real: The Avatar Grows Up

It's been a frantic month of travel and client deadlines, so the time since my last post has been unacceptably long by any blog best practice standards.

If there's an upside to that, it's that I've had enough airplane time in the last month  to get through a virtual (no pun intended) rash of new articles that are well worth reading about virtual reality, and how retailers are beginning to see glimmers of success in their practical application of these technologies.

Unlike earlier stories about the failures of expensive virtual world marketing campaigns (see my previous post on this topic), the articles listed here are well worth taking seriously and indicate that we are, indeed, starting to figure this out.

The areas of promise fall into three camps:

First, consumer research.  Driven primarily by CPG companies (Kimberly Clark, P&G, General Mills), virtual store aisles are providing valuable insights into consumer shopping behavior and response to packaging, product placement and promotions. First, read and article from MediaPost Publications (The Power of the Virtual Shopping Trip), about how virtual environments trump in-store testing on a number of levels, including speed and ability to control environmental factors.  Three more articles worth reading are from E-Commerce Times (Around the E-Commerce Corner: More 3-D, Avatars) the Indystar (Market Research, Virtually Speaking) and The Post-Crescent (Virtual Reality Gives Kimberly-Clark a Head's Up). You can also read my previous post on this topic; clearly progress has been made since that writing.

Second, marketing.  While there are still many issues around effective measurement and the cost of execution, there's evidence that retailers are moving beyond the virtual shopping mall storefronts and into tactics that promote virtual brand engagement and community.  You can read more about this and get some good stats at eMarketer (A Second Look at Virtual Worlds) and Business Week (Second Life Marketing: Still Strong).

Third, business productivity. Read a recent WSJ article (Virtual World Gets Another Life) about how IBM and others are creating virtual corporate environments and meeting spaces where training, presentations and discussions can take place.  For some great visual examples of this in action, look at Business Week's CEO Guide To Virtual Worlds.

I for one, was thrilled to see how these technologies are evolving past the video game stage into valuable business application. Now if I could just find an avatar that would write my blog for me when I get too busy....

Kindle-ing All The Way: Making My Reading Season Bright and My Suitcase Light

No vacation would be complete without a little bit of field testing thrown in.  This past week, my husband and I escaped the last minute holiday crunch with a trip to Hawaii.  Whenever we travel together for more than a long weekend, we face a logistical dilemma: books.

Both of us are avid readers (my husband's greatest fear is being unexpectedly stuck somewhere without ample reading material) and we use our vacations as time to catch up on the books we accumulated since our last getaway.  A good week's vacation in a "butt in a beach chair" destination can require at least 5-6 books per person.   In the past, we've shipped a box of books to our destination ahead of time, or checked a separate bag full of books. 

Fortunately, Amazon's Kindle was introduced in time for me to buy one for my trip.  While my husband lugged 6 books in his luggage, I loaded my Kindle with 8 titles and packed only one "real" book (I carried it for safe measure in case I didn't like the Kindle or it broke or something, then I'd at least be safe until I could find a bookstore).

Here's the verdict on my Kindle experience:

Portability: The Kindle is lightweight and fits easily into my handbag, so I was able to take it with me everywhere - big win.

E-commerce:  Buying books for the Kindle is a breeze, and the wireless delivery is fast and slick.  When I first ordered my Kindle it was sold out, so I used the two weeks leading up to the delivery to buy my digital books - they were all waiting for me on my Kindle the minute I took it out of the package.  I do wish the selection of books available were a bit better, but it's not bad and I'm sure it will improve over time.    Buying books and newspapers on the Kindle itself (as opposed to on Amazon.com) is terrific when you're on the road.  At the airport, I purchased that day's WSJ for 75 cents, vs. having to wrestle with a newspaper on the plane and deal with cramming the used paper in the seat pocket.  I'm not ready to give up the "real" newspaper for everyday, but for travel, I'll never lug the newspaper again.

Reading: The Kindle is easy on the eye and not a compromise compared to traditional books.  I read 4 complete books on the Kindle and started a 5th during my vacation, with no eye strain.  It has a long battery life, and reading in the sun was no problem.  The only issue I had with readability was when reading a business book (yes, I did read a business book on vacation) which had some numerical charts, and in most cases the charts did not fit on one screen and were pretty much unreadable.

Interface: Using the Kindle is more intuitive than I thought it would be.  If  a sign of good usability is that you don't have to read the manual or go to the demo screens, then the Kindle passed the test for me - I was able to figure out just about everything in one try, though the Kindle probably does some things that I have not discovered yet.

Design: There are a few design flaws with the Kindle, which you've probably read about in other reviews.  I had read that some users objected to the very large "next page" and "previous page" buttons on the side of the device, as they caused users to hit them and turn pages when they didn't want to.  I initially had this problem, but resolved it easily by using the Kindle in its case, which is easily held like a traditional book.  By resting my hand under the spine, I was able to easily turn pages only when I wanted to.  This, however, created another issues.  With the Kindle in its case, it is impossible to turn it on or off, or to turn the wireless on or off ; the buttons for each are two very tiny switches on the back of the Kindle.  You have to either take the Kindle out of the case or try to get your finger between the back of the Kindle and the case, either of which is impossible to do without hitting the paging buttons.  This is a minor annoyance, not a deal breaker for me.

The Bottom Line:  At $399, the Kindle is expensive.  It's a e-commerce winner as far as the buying and fulfillment experience goes (as you'd expect from Amazon).  There's room for improvement on the book selection and product design side, but for an "out of the gate" product, I'm calling it a success.

And my suitcase, for the first time ever, is lighter than my husband's!

An E-Commerce Christmas Carol: Lessons of Christmas Past

October is typically among the most stressful in retail.  If you're in e-commerce, you're worried about whether your site is ready for the  coming (you hope) onslaught of customers.  You're in the last minute "lock down" of any new site features that you want to deploy, and once that's done, you probably won't touch the site, other than for routine maintenance and promotional updates, until after the deadline for Christmas delivery has passed.

I was sifting through some old reading material yesterday, and I came across a very good WSJ article (Big Box Stores Aim to Speed Up Shopping) that I had saved about big box brick and mortar retailers like WalMart, Costco, Target, etc. and the work they are doing to streamline the navigation and checkout process in their stores.  It's well worth the read, whether you spend your time selling in stores or online.  By watching their customers and timing their activities in the store, then tweaking staffing, signage, systems and processes to reduce the amount of time customers had to spend shopping and checking out, these retailers were able to increase sales volume and average order size. For those of us that are fans of site usability testing, this is like using the brick and mortar store as one big lab.  It reminded me of a story from my e-commerce Christmas past that I talk about every year at this time.   

It was late Fall on the early side of the dot-com bust.  The crunch was on to get all of the last bells and whistles deployed on the site in time for the holidays.  And then the hammer hit: business for the company had been tough, and marketing budgets were cut.  We panicked. How would we make our sales numbers without the ability to drive traffic to to the site? 

An astute member of the team pointed out that we had more than enough traffic coming to our site to make our numbers without the marketing spend.  We just needed to be sure that more of those people actually bought something.  In other words, focus more on the bottom of the purchase funnel, less on the top.

This was a resourceful team. Within a week, we borrowed a video camera, hooked it up to my brought-from-home TV set in another office, and voila!  A crude, but functional usability lab was born (probably one of the first of its kind for e-commerce).  We focused our first study on one area: the checkout path.  Not only did we watch customers struggle with the basics of getting through the task, we timed them, and quickly learned that it took a lot longer to buy that shirt than it should.

Quickly, the design team got to work. There were a handful of simple changes and even language changes that could be done immediately, and some more involved changes that we wouldn't be able to catch in time for the holidays.  Even without the major changes, the team was able to significantly reduce the "task time" and improve the ease of checkout.  The result?  Higher conversion, and we beat our holiday numbers, even without the marketing spend and a few of the bells and whistles we had sacrificed in order to get the checkout work done.

Now,  to most of you that have been in e-commerce for a while, you've grown used to sophisticated usability labs, analytics tools and site optimization practices, so this story probably sounds a bit "101". But I make a point of telling it every year about this time, as I think it is an appropriate reminder that bells and whistles, exciting as they may be, are no substitute for some of the important, and yes, basic things that customers really want for Christmas - like an easy and error free shopping experience.  That's a gift that will give back to you, may dollars over. Even the brick and mortar guys are starting to figure that out.