The Internet Retailer Conference (June 7-8, 2005) appeals to large companies, major brands, and successful e-tailers. Is there anything here for small to medium online retailers? Looking for those nuggets is my task these two days. Here are some of the great "finds."
Ken Burke, author of Intelligent Selling: The Art and Science of Selling Online (Multimedia Live, 2002, 285 pages, ISBN 0972287116) and founder of Multimedia Live (www.mmlive.com), was one of the presenters on "Web Designs that Sell." He offered a number of suggestions in his rapid-fire style.
"You are competing for 'wallet share' with every other similar retailer or cataloger online," he said. He recommended getting a full-time merchandiser, someone who could help display products online in a creative and constantly changing manner.
Burke also recommended using daily specials, pointed to with banner ads or markers throughout the site. I'll probably start using this to feature various products for a week or so at a time, with discounts also announced in my newsletters.
He also discussed "spotlight merchandizing," focusing attention on a particular product group or line. Find unique ways to display the particular products and features of this line of products. Provide helpful content and user guides, as needed, to inform shoppers so they become ready to buy.
One of Burke's themes was to "Limit the number of messages on any page." Simplify the home page so that it is not so frenetic or busy, since "users have the attention span of a three-year-old child."
He suggests providing up-sell and cross-sell after someone has selected an item for his shopping basket. Offer a suggested product with an "add to cart" button. But once a shopper has begun the checkout process, stop selling. Rather, your focus is on getting them to complete the sale.
He spoke about "selling by spreads," that is, a furniture store showing a fully furnished room, offering each item pictured for sale. Or a model with each item of clothing for sale. Some of his clients have seen a 20% lift using this approach.
Another idea is to pump up the content. Layer content, he says, so that you don't overwhelm the user. Present different levels or types of content for specific target groups, if you can.
Finally, he encouraged e-tailers to use search as a merchandising tool. More than 50% of site visitors use a keyword search to locate products, he notes. Consider showing product photos and suggestions based on search results. Since 20% to 40% of searches fail to find any results, use the "no results" page to provide them with next steps or product categories they can look at.
The second speaker on this topic was David Fry, a Harvard Ph.D. and CEO of David Fry, Inc. (www.frymulti.com), an e-commerce solutions and design company. He underscored some of the same points as Burke.
Product information, says Fry, helps complete the sale. He suggested developing buyer guides to help make complex subjects simple. Answer questions before they're asked. Provide downloadable PDFs that provide critical pre-sale information that builds consumer confidence and saves customer service calls.
He also suggested multi-channel (that is, redeemable by phone, Internet, or in the store chain) gift certificates, especially in that final few days of the holiday period, beginning at December 20. Show the availability of gift certificates in search result pages and elsewhere on the site -- especially when it's too late to order a tangible product.
Don't forget the "lowly" store locator, Fry says. Some of his company's studies have found that, for chain store sites, 82% of users use the store locator feature. As many as 60% of purchases that start online may be completed offline in a local store.
Finally, he suggests setting up multi-channel gift registries. 46% of shoppers have used an online gift registry to start or complete a purchase. Such registries can also serve as viral marketing, since word of mouth will bring to your registry people that didn't know about your site before. Some gift registry systems support the purchase of high ticket items by several friends who go together to make a purchase. Though the cost of setting up a gift registry may be high, he says, the payback can be huge.
