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“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 …
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 …
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 …
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?
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 …
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, …
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 …
Most customers don’t care to promote your brand, but when you put it this way it’s hard not to notice:
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?
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?
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 …
In a move to further consolidate control of online payment environments eBay has gone and bought the second largest player Bill Me Later for an all cash transaction of $820 Million. This is significant because eBay already owns PayPal. Obviously the company is doing this to realign their business by focussing on strengths because the news also comes with the …
A big advantage for ecommerce sites is the ability to track minutest details of customer activity. For the average store, however, swing door operators is the extent of their analytics. Now it’s time to bring analytics deeper into store isles. One idea consists placing infra-red sensors at the ends of isles. These would trip each time customers walk in or …
I’ve just finished reading one of my favorite books this year. It’s called Super Crunchers and I believe it has some very valuable lessons for retailers. The central theme is that through statistical tools like regression analysis it’s possible to test for the co-dependence of variables. Finding these dependencies allows companies to exploit them. Let me explain through my made-up …
Andy Sernovitz is a passionate advocate for Word Of Mouth Marketing (WOM) and his book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking is a must read for all niche ecommerce retailers. So how does small retailer with a limited marketing budget ignite a following? The first thing to seriously consider is the caliber of the product. No …
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