2 considerations for attracting tablet shoppers

May 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last week brought more evidence that mobile is changing the way consumers shop — with tablets playing an especially lucrative role. According to initial results from the 2012 State of Retailing Online study by Shop.org and Forrester Research,  49% of retailers reported that average order value from tablet customers was higher than on the traditional browser-based eCommerce site.

While the tablet market is still relatively small, it’s growing fast, with nearly 38 million U.S. consumers forecast to own one by year’s end — a more than 250% increase since the tablet first came into existence a mere two years ago. The new Shop.org study data is in line with earlier research suggesting that these technology early adopters are well-educated, affluent, and more likely to use their devices to buy than smartphone owners.

For retailers, the new data underscores the importance of mobile as a game-changing mode of shopping — and the need to develop and execute a sound mobile strategy. As we’ve stated previously, whether to target tablet shoppers right now depends on your business and your target audience; research is key to devising a mobile strategy that will serve shoppers best and drive sales most efficiently.

Assuming tablet shoppers form an important target market for your brand, weigh these considerations as you formulate your mobile strategy:

Design for swipes and taps as well as clicks. With shopping content being deployed across smartphone devices as well as tablets and desktop browsers, flexibility of presentation is key. And don’t forget email; according to the Shop.org report, one in five emails are viewed on a mobile device. Specifically for tablets, consider these elements:

  • “Landscape” or “portrait”? Like on smartphones, tablet shoppers have the ability to swivel views of content horizontally or vertically — but the impact is especially dramatic on tablets’ larger screens. Adaptive designs that adjust to the width of the viewer window automatically are best.
  • Tappable menus. Drop-down menus shoppers hover over with a computer mouse before clicking to select a sub-category need modification for tablets, which have no “hover” equivalent. Set menus so that a tap displays the drop-down menu.
  • Appropriate text size and spacing. As with smartphone displays, easy selection of the right menu item or text link is crucial, so allow for adequate space to accommodate finger taps.
  • Think swipe. Take advantage of the ability to page horizontally through content with filmstrip displays and plenty of “forward” and “back” arrows. MarketLive merchant Armani Exchange’s “Looks” section works equally well on desktop browsers and iPads, with a “shuffle” button reminiscent of an Apple music player that presents ensembles for both genders in random order.

Tablet-friendly design example from Armani Exchange

Consider the timing of promotions. Tablet usage spikes in the evenings, according to data from social software provider Bazaarvoice, with 5% of all traffic to shopping sites coming from iPads at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. — double the amount of tablet traffic generated earlier in the day. The shift to mobile devices makes sense — by day, consumers are tethered to desktops at work — but the surge in tablet traffic is far more dramatic than for smartphones.

Data on device usage from Bazaarvoice

To take advantage of this usage pattern, consider the nature and timing of promotions and cater messaging to tablet shoppers as they couch-surf online as well as channel-surf on the TV.

  • Do your products have tie-ins to prime-time TV shows or sports events? Consider spotlighting these items during the evening hours.
  • With tablet shoppers generating a higher average order value, consider “night owl” promotions such as free shipping on full-price items for a limited window of time in the evening, or a nighttime sneak peek at the latest seasonal wares.
  • Target email messaging to users with mobile devices, and send those messages during prime time to reach tablet shoppers as they browse.

How substantially do tablet shoppers contribute to your brand’s sales, and how are you catering content and promotions to tablet users?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Mobile Commerce Tagged with Tablets

How to generate Pinterest interest

May 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Since our first look at Pinterest back in January, the site has soared in popularity. As of April, Pinterest is the third-largest social network after Facebook and Twitter, according to marketing firm Experian — outranking Google Plus, YouTube, and LinkedIn, among others.

Not only is Pinterest catching on fast, but it’s showing strong signs of driving tangible revenue for merchants. Nearly one in three users of Pinterest and similar image-sharing sites report buying products based on items they’ve seen there, according to Bizrate Insights. And eCommerce provider Shopify analyzed data from 25,000 of its online stores and found that Pinterest generates seriously qualified shopping traffic. Pinterest users:

  • Are 10% more likely to buy than users coming from other social sites.
  • Spend $80 on average when they buy — double the amount Facebook users spend.

If that weren’t enough, the past week has seen Pinterest receive $100 million in new funding from a Japanese eCommerce concern — raising the possibility that the site may become a shopping destination in its own right.

The upshot for merchants is clear: Pinterest is a social media priority. But before dashing to create a Pinterest profile and pinboards, merchants can gear up by optimizing their existing brand touchpojnts to promote pinning by individual consumers. After all, part of what makes Pinterest unique is the ease with which its members can create their own theme-based pinboards displaying items and ideas; brand followers can highlight favorite products — a word-of-mouth boon for merchants. To help shoppers pin products, and thereby promote your brand:

Think visual. Even more than Facebook’s revamped look for Pages, Pinterest is a visual medium, with pinboards composed of images that link to other sites. To entice consumers to pin your products, go beyond the usual array of detailed product photos and include lifestyle images that not only display items, but convey a mood — as MarketLive merchant Peruvian Connection does with its secondary photo of a silk scarf, which is displayed worn as a hair accessory.

Pinterest-friendly content from Peruvian Connection

And be sure to give shoppers plenty of images in collection-based categories (look books, “shop by room”) and theme-based categories (such as “Father’s Day” or “barbecue season favorites.”)

Add the “pin it” button everywhere. Incorporate functionality that allows shoppers to add items to Pinterest boards with a single click — not only on product pages, but on value-added content such as blog posts, buying guides and expert advice. Williams-Sonoma includes the “pin it” option, not only on product pages, but in its extensive content sections — including this cheeseburger recipe, part of a guide to summer grilling.

Pinterest-friendly content from Williams-Sonoma

Invite participation – and promote across touchpoints. Offer brand followers an incentive to pin products, such as a prize drawing for the most innovative pinboard. To maximize participation, promote the campaign on other social media outposts as well as in email and on the eCommerce site. Home retailer Wayfair created an integrated contest that used email to invite followers to create Pinterest pinboards featuring the brand’s baby products, and then post links to the pinboards on Wayfair’s Facebook page.

Pinterest-friendly content from Wayfair

In an upcoming post we’ll take an in-depth look at effective strategies for Pinterest profiles and pinboards. Meantime, how are you generating Pinterest interest?

Filed under Client Innovations, Connected Commerce, Social Commerce Tagged with Pinterest

2 Key SEO Practices to Adopt in Penguin’s Wake

May 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s been just over three weeks now since Dubbed Penguin, the change took aim at what the search engine giant terms “webspam.” The intent was to penalize sites that employ such questionable on-site tactics as keyword stuffing  and also to discount inbound links from sites with low-quality content, such as paid link networks that contain mostly junk articles.

The update has generated buzz in the search engine community, with “recovery tips” abounding for coping with a Penguin-induced drop in traffic. But the actual impact of the update appears to be mild — Google estimated it would affect roughly results for 3% of U.S. searches.

For ecommerce merchants, the change underscores the importance of adopting a sound SEO strategy. With Google continually fine-tuning its pursuit of relevance with updates like this one, it’s more important than ever to build strong, authentic content and employ legitimate link-building techniques. Specifically:

Employ deep links into content. Although Google doesn’t list precise specifics about what the algorithm changes target, the Penguin update seems to penalize sizes whose inbound links always point to the home page or to any one particular URL — so devise a linking strategy that  showcases a variety of content deep within your site. For maximum exposure, use deep links both internally and off-site, such as on social media outposts.

MarketLive merchant Sport Chalet uses its Facebook page to expose a variety of shopping content, such as an expert guide to SCUBA gear with links to SCUBA products. The SCUBA category earns the top listing on Google for “scuba sports gear.”

Example of content linking from Sport Chalet

Content linking example from Sport Chalet

Build inbound links organically and legitimately. The Penguin update signals more definitively than ever that random submissions to directories and paid link networks that use junk content are outdated methods for building inbound links. According to research by Microsites.com, more than half of the inbound links to sites that were penalized by the Penguin update were from sites outside their subject-matter niche.

Data on SEO from Microsites.com

Instead, merchants should build link networks based on brand affinity with lifestyle sites, expert bloggers and niche shopping sites — in short, the sites that authentically align with your target audience and product offerings.

And if you have a product category or topic area that genuinely warrants it, consider building a free-standing microsite and cross-link it with your flagship eCommerce site to boost exposure and SEO relevance. For MarketLive merchant Title Nine, sports and specialty bras were a top purchase driver on the flagship eCommerce site — so expanding offerings on a microsite devoted to helping shoppers find the right fit was a natural next step. The microsite is accessible from the Title Nine site via a tab, and the two sites share a shopping cart for ease of purchasing — driving high conversion rates in both locations. The Title Nine site offers its own rich content for sports bras, including expert reviews and recommendations — earning it a page 1 search ranking for “sports bras”.

Content example from Title Nine

Content example from Title Nine

Of course, setting up a microsite and building an extensive network of authentic inbound links both require an ongoing investment of resources. For us, that’s really the main takeaway from the Penguin update — there are no shortcuts to effective SEO.

How as the Penguin update affected your site? What SEO techniques are you using to increase relevance and ranking?

Filed under Client Innovations, Search Engine Marketing

Winning customer trust on shopping’s technology frontier

May 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

There are more sophisticated tools than ever available for tracking shoppers’ behavior, both onsite and across the Internet. While that’s good news for merchants, the data shows that consumers disapprove.

For example, in a recent study of search engine use by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, — the practice of tailoring the lineup of natural and paid results based on online browsing behavior — with only 29% agreeing with the statement “It’s a GOOD thing because it gives you results that are more relevant to you.” And more than two thirds of consumers said they don’t like targeted advertising — such as remarketing ad banners — because they don’t want their online behavior tracked.

Data on privacy concerns from Pew Center

And this wariness extends to social media. Fully one in four Facebook users has falsified personal information in their profiles to protect their privacy — a 10% increase from two years ago, according to a new study from Consumer Reports. And while Facebook’s ever-changing privacy settings have grabbed plenty of headlines over the years, it’s not the only social site to experience a backlash over how personal information is used and shared. Earlier this year, nascent site Pinterest acknowledged it makes money from users’ pins through a service that adds affiliate links to products, and recently released a notice to users and new terms of service to deal with copyright and privacy concerns.

With such controversy swirling, merchants using these platforms should make an extra effort to maintain and build their own credibility. By signaling to users that even on the technology frontier of commerce, their brands are trustworthy, merchants stand to gain loyal followers — and new customers. A few ideas for messaging trust:

Bring tried-and-true techniques to the frontier. Just because brands are delving into highly experimental social media sites or developing new formats for mobile users doesn’t mean they should abandon their eCommerce best practices. When it comes to earning trust, there are a number of proven methods that help shoppers complete purchases online — and they should be implemented on new customer touchpoints as well as the flagship eCommerce site. Consider how to incorporate privacy and security badges, product guarantees, and access to customer service help wherever your brand has an outpost — as MarketLive merchant Armani Exchange does on its mobile site, where a customer service link is anchored in a contrasting color in the global footer and prominently accessible through checkout.

Privacy example from Armani Exchange

 

When possible, give users the tools to take control. Not everyone wants to broadcast the products they browse or purchase on their Facebook Wall. When building social apps, merchants should allow followers to control how much information is automatically shared — and message that flexibility prominently, as J.C. Penney does when inviting followers to download its app. Followers can use a drop-down menu to select who sees app activity, with the option of “Only Me” available if they don’t want to share the information at all.

Privacy example from JC Penney

Spotlight transparency. Don’t merely feature a miniscule link to your brand’s privacy policy; instead, build extensive customer service content around services and features offered, and always spell out how shoppers’ information will be used. Zappos includes an explanatory link on its retargeting ads with the text “Why am I seeing this ad?”. The link takes shoppers to a page that describes clearly how the ads are generated, the technology company Zappos partners with to power the ads, and how shoppers can opt out.

Privacy example from Zappos

 

Privacy example from Zappos

What tactics do you use to allay shoppers’ privacy concerns on social and mobile sites and other cutting-edge brand outposts?

Filed under Client Innovations, Connected Commerce, Mobile Commerce, Search Engine Marketing, Social Commerce

Four ways to showcase the faces behind the brand

May 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The world of online shopping is both growing and shrinking. There are now more brands online than ever — while at the same time, the landscape is increasingly dominated by mass-merchant behemoths like Amazon. A new study by WorldPay found that fully 43% of shoppers worldwide have used Amazon.com in the past three months; in the U.S., the number is even higher, at 83%.

For small to medium-sized merchants to thrive in this environment, it’s crucial to communicate a strong brand identity. Brands that occupy a unique position in the marketplace distinguish themselves from the crowd and can compete against the big brands by giving shoppers a sense of community with other brand followers who share the same vision, outlook or lifestyle.

One of the best ways to communicate that identity is by showcasing the brand’s expertise and authority. Toward that end, merchants have long employed expert buying guides and lifestyle content to help define their brands.

Now, with the advent of social media, merchants are taking the concept further and showcasing the individuals whose passion and knowledge collectively contribute to the brand’s expertise — not just founders and CEOs, but employees from all aspects of the business. Consider these new ideas for showing off the faces behind the brand:

Take buying guides to the next level – Rather than one-size-fits-all product lists, publish buying guides with personalities behind them. Let the authors be opinionated and write copy in their own voice about why they endorse the products that make the list.  J. Crew’s home page features a summer style guide by Gayle, “our do-it-all super-stylist”. The guide is assembled like a magazine layout, with callout quotes from Gayle about fashion trends, such as “for me, stripes are a neutral;” shoppers can click on looks to select individual products for purchase. A link on every page of the guide connects viewers to a profile of Gayle, with personal details such as her predilection for Ritter Sport chocolate. The overall effect is a highly personal take on fashion trends from an authoritative voice.

Brand identity example from J. Crew

Brand identity example from J. Crew

BRand identity example from J. Crew

Go social – Social outposts are a great opportunity to communicate the brand’s voice through status updates and posted photos and videos. To add individual faces to the mix, showcase employees whose passions and expertise support the brand’s identity. MarketLive merchant Title Nine uses its Facebook page to showcase staffers who participate in local athletic events — as in the entries below about  runners and cyclists participating in races. The message is that the company doesn’t just sell women’s athletic apparel, but is comprised of individuals who live the same lifestyle as their customers. The post on runners even led to a product discussion, with one poster asking, “Now tell me which sports bras are good for not chafing while running a marathon” and brand followers and employees chiming in with their opinions.

Brand identity example from Title Nine

Brand identity example from Title Nine

Forge in-store connections – Bricks-and-mortar retailers have a unique source of brand expertise: store associates, whose individual areas of expertise contribute to the shopping experience. Bring that expertise online with features that spotlight individual store representatives, as Guitar Center did with the “Experts” section of its site. Store staffers have individual profile pages detailing their music expertise, including photos, videos and audio, along with recommended gear lists. Shoppers can browse profiles to find associates with interests similar to theirs, shop directly from  associates’  gear lists, and send direct messages. The page below for Scott H. shows shoppers that this store representative doesn’t just sell guitars, but uses them in his own performances and has extensive musical training. The profile showcases the depth of expertise of the Guitar Center staff, adding to the overall credibility of the brand. In addition to being accessible from the global navigation link, profiles are displayed on the pages for individual locations accessed through the store locator — signaling to shoppers that their nearest location is staffed by experts. Shoppers browsing local inventory can access profiles relevant to the category they’re perusing.

Brand identity example from Guitar Center

Don’t forget behind-the-scenes staff. When showcasing employee expertise, feature personnel who contribute to the brand’s core identity, even if they aren’t responsible for front-line sales. For example, recreational outfitter REI has given its sustainability director the opportunity to post about his work on the REI blog — such as in this post about eliminating plastic packaging for shipped goods. The in-depth article gives shoppers a peek into the company’s sustainability efforts and bolsters the environmentally-conscious image of the brand.

Brand identity example from REI

How do you spotlight the personalities behind your brand?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Social Commerce

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