Customer Segmentation
My dad asked me to buy 3 GPS accessories for him. He gave me the name of the equipment and the web address of store. I had never heard of buygpsnow.com and though it violated quite a few of my ecommerce essentials I knew dad had done his research. I made the purchase. Data can be highly subjective. Looked one …
My Favorite Things
My Mac, My Kindle and My Moleskine…
Tell Me What I’m Getting Into
Every eCommerce store wants you to join their email list. But customers hate the idea of getting email blasts and this apprehension can be a negative for companies that actually do send out well crafted, thoughtful emails. Madeinnapavalley.com solves this by providing an example of their typical email newsletter: Here is the sample email pop up:
You Just Lost A Potential Customer
“Site under construction” is a message I encounter often. And it always makes me wonder why companies don’t just capture my email address and send an email when the site is live. Today I came across bassshoes.com and they’ve implemented this strategy: So I entered my email address and pressed go. This is their follow up page: I cannot believe …
Retail 2.0
I remember hearing about the bankruptcy of CompUSA last year but had not clue their assets (including real estate) were acquired by a company called Systemax which still operates 30 stores under the CompUSA name. When CompUSA went bankrupt it made perfect sense to me but after hearing a CNNMoney interview of Gilbert Fiorentino (who heads retail operations) I’ve changed …
Good News For Retailers From Mint.com
Mint.com is an award winning personal finance site that helps 900,000 US consumers track their spendings, and they may have a valuable piece of data for retailers. I know most retailers are very glum these days with the worsening market reports. But we should listen to Mint’s CEO Aaron Patzer because he has access to hard facts. Aaron’s message to …
Would You Consider This A Design Flaw?
I was on the Wish List page on tenderfilet.com and noticed a search box. Being a curious monkey I entered ‘h’: I was surprised to see this list pop up. The screenshot below is a partial screenshot of the results page: It has the customer’s full name and address. Would you consider this a design flaw?
Why eCommerce Is So Damn Paradigm Shifting
I’ve been a big fan of the Road Warrior segment in Fortune magazine for a long time. It’s such a clever idea: interview frequent travelers on their favorite travel companions (items) and publish it for readers. I would launch an ecommerce store that played on this idea. The site would be very similar to the Fortune segment but customers will …
And Why Should I Be A Repeat Customer?
Lets face it, most products available at your store could be bought somewhere else (possibly for less). In todays crowded ecommerce marketplace it’s really hard to make a customer remember you. That’s why this find by Andy Sernovitz is so brilliant. Andy writes “Jim Kukral makes a crazy offer when you sign up for the email newsletter on his blog, …
Making Store Locators Work When You Don’t Have A Store At The Customer’s Location
Let’s say this is your store locator page…. …and a searcher from Chicago lands on it. Normally this would lead to an abandon (because you don’t have a Chicago location) but there may be a way to convert this exit into a sale. Right at the bottom of the page I’d post this message: “If you couldn’t find a local …
Whiteflowerfarm.com Gave Me A Reason To Evangelize
Most customers don’t care to promote your brand, but when you put it this way it’s hard not to notice:
We Didn’t Make A Dime Sale
Imagine if your web-store had a yearly “Thank-You” sale for your top 200 customers. The Thank-You sale is a sale where you only charge the cost of production (sourcing) plus shipping, in short, you don’t make a dime. Do you think this is a bad idea? If so, why?
Monday Question
Why can’t I go to my grocery store’s web site and: – create a shopping list – set a future shopping date – mark a discount alert And have the store send an email when my list has the best possible collective discount? Do any of your grocery stores already provide this service?
Why Can’t We Be Friends
For a retailer, it would seem, the brick and online store are like oil and water. Both are needed individually but must never be mixed. But mixing has its benefits. In previous posts we’ve discussed bringing store functionality online through features like browsing stores by area code, but the reverse is equally powerful. Retail space is expensive and brands like …
