Big-Ticket E-Commerce Marketing StrategyBlueport.com

Groupon has more than 83 million subscribers; LivingSocial more than 28 million. According to Bloomberg, 480 companies are competing in the daily deals space – including everyone from Google and Facebook, which have recently tossed their hats in the ring, to niche sites like the socially conscious Roozt.com or the kosher-inclined Jewpon.com.

With the potential traffic that could come from offering a daily deal, retailers that are considering teaming up with one of these sites need to be sure their own e-commerce websites can handle the load.

A Daily Deal Case Study

Our client The RoomPlace offered a daily deal through LivingSocial: $150 worth of furniture at 50% off. The site activity the day the deal ran was considerable:

• 67% increase in website traffic
• 65% increase in bandwidth used
• 75% increase in calls for content.

Foreseeing the increase in site usage, we made sure all product and site changes that we usually update daily were completed before the daily deal email was sent. We worked with Akamai to increase the regular cache time to 48 hours. This ensured our regular customers would have a seamless site experience and that the influx of new traffic from the daily deal would be able to get to and see the site pages quickly. As a backup, our operations team set up additional hot standby servers.

Our operations team closely monitored live site usage throughout the day the deal went out – just in case. Thanks to the precautions taken, the additional traffic had no effect on site speed, nor was there any downtime.

“Planning ahead, both from a technical and a business perspective was essential,” says Kathryn Kerrigan, e-commerce manager for The RoomPlace. “Thanks to forethought and site stability, we were able to accommodate and convert numerous new customers.”

No matter what kind of business you run, a daily deal offer will drive a lot of new customers to your website. These new customers want to know what their getting whether or not they plan to use the deal online. Beyond the window dressing, be sure your website is technically ready so new customers will get a great first impression and come back for more.

Related posts:

• Could Branded Social Games Increase Your E-Commerce Conversions?
• E-Commerce Is About More Than Online Shopping: Think Digital Marketing
• E-Commerce 2.0 - The Next Wave

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Social gamers are a very attractive audience for e-commerce merchants. An eMarketer report projects that 68.7 million Internet users will play at least one social game per month by 2012. And according to GigaOM, 55% of social gamers in the US are women with an average age of 48 years old; 38% of those women play social games multiple times a day. Retailers selling big-ticket, highly considered products know that this profile aligns with the consumers who possess the income and decision-making power to buy.

Social Games and E-Commerce Conversion Today

As with many aspects of social media marketing, social gaming’s e-commerce conversions are not necessarily as high as merchants would hope. The accepted approach is to cast a very wide net to compensate for the low conversion rate. Often, consumers are much more interested in playing Bejeweled for free, and the advertising is just secondary noise on the screen.

Could Branded Games Perform Better for E-Commerce?

Some companies are looking to use branded social games to cash in on the medium. HSN, or Home Shopping Network, has added social games to its e-commerce site, allowing players to post and share scores on Facebook. Two of the games have direct product tie-ins, including a jigsaw puzzle of an item that’s only on sale for 24 hours. All HSN's games will show a steady stream of featured products playing alongside them.

Other companies have created their own games to create brand awareness, like Purina’s Purina Pet Resort on Facebook or VinTank’s multiplatform VinPass, which aims to help wineries connect with consumers. Marriott has gotten in the game with its own version of FarmVille – My Marriott Hotel – for recruiting purposes.

Is Social Gaming Marketing Is Right for You?

A recent iMedia Connection article suggests you ask 3 questions before marketing your brand in the social gaming space:

1. Does your target audience already play social games?
2. Will your brand be able to be relevant and integrated into the game, creating a good user experience for the gamer?
3. Will you be able to entertain and reward players to create deeper engagement with your brand?

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• Will You Make Back Your Online Advertising Spend in Store Sales? Yes!
• 4 Tips to Boost E-Commerce Site Traffic from Rapper Lil B
• 3 Reasons Why Quality Content Could Be Your Key to E-Commerce Success
• There’s a Lot to Like About Facebook and Ecommerce Marketing
• Facebook's Role in Social Shopping

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

There’s been a lot of chatter about live chat lately. This month, LiveChat announced new features for triggering prospects and measuring conversions from its software, and Bold Software and The E-Tailing Group released the results of a study on the effectiveness of live chat for e-commerce websites. Does your e-commerce platform need to incorporate live chat functionality?

Live Chat Allows Customers to Contact You in the Way They Want To

E-commerce is about convenience. It’s about consumers being able to purchase from your retail business the way they want, when they want. And this convenience should extend to how customers can communicate with your company. Today’s consumers want to be able to choose the options that work for them, and well-thought-out live chat is an option the consumers you want to reach are interested in.

The Bold Software/E-Tailing Group research finds that 20% of shoppers prefer live chat. And this 20% of consumers tends to include those age 31 to 50 with above average income and who are more likely to be college educated and spend more online on an annual basis than other shoppers. Can you afford not to appease this audience?

The Right Way to Execute Live Chat

If you’ve decided live chat is the right option for your e-commerce business, you need to be sure to implement it correctly. Customers who engage in live chat say its success completely lies with the chatting customer representative. They found the chat software’s features to be far less important.

The E-Commerce Edge Is Customer Service

At Blueport, when we work with clients that are implementing live chat, we instruct them to really think about who they are assigning this task. We find the ideal chatters to be web-savvy and have a good mix of customer service and sales skills. Deep knowledge of the product catalog is essential.

Your retail chatters need to be clear on their goals, which should most likely be customer satisfaction and closing the sale. Chatters should also keep in mind that the customer decided to reach out to them via chat, so they should tread carefully about sending users to alternate medium, like the phone or in-store, for resolution. Your chatters need to be empowered to quickly answer questions and resolve issues all within online chat or in the follow-up method each customer prefers.

Are You Going to, or Have You Already Implemented, Online Chat for E-Commerce?

If you’re thinking of incorporating live chat, remember that the software is just a piece of the puzzle. Go to sites that offer online chat and see what does and does not work for you as a consumer. How long of a wait for the retailer rep to begin the chat is too long? Could the chatter answer your catalog questions, or could you learn more from the product page? If an item was out of stock or not what you wanted, were you offered alternatives? When you said you’d come back later or go to the store, were you given an incentive to buy today. Note what your frustrations and what you liked so you can incorporate best practices into your own implementation.

If your website already has live chat, how do you know if you’re maximizing this opportunity? Regularly review the transcripts to see what opportunities may have been lost and to see if you have given your chatters the information and tools they need to make the customer interactions successful. And be sure to engage in live chat on your website as a customer every now and then to see that the experience is what it should be.

Related posts:

• A Fluid Online Shopping Experience Trumps Deals and Offers
• Marketing to the Smarter Consumer
• E-commerce 2.0 – the Next Wave

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

What does an underwear-showing, tattooed, 21-year-old rapper from Berkeley have that every e-commerce site needs? SEO and social media game.

Lil B is known for his extensive use of Twitter, MySpace and other social media sites to build his brand. Wired recently broke down four things the rapper does and how it helps him in the online world. We’ll show you how you can follow the same principles to help your e-commerce website.

#1 “Keep It Real with Social Media”

Lil B reaches out to his audience via frequent Tweets and more than a hundred MySpace pages offering free songs. He says he communicates with his fans because he loves them.

What You Can Do: Don’t you love your e-commerce customers? Show them by reaching out to them with regular Tweets and special offers. You don’t have to Tweet as much as Lil B, but add some regularity to what you’re doing so that your customers can expect – and anticipate – hearing from you. And use a branded Facebook page or blog to encourage two-way communication about your brand and products.
 
#2 “Do It Big When It Comes to Links”
 
Lil B spreads the buzz by creating buzz so blogs will talk about and link to him. He also encourages fans to respond to his songs via YouTube.

What You Can Do: You need to create something that customers and bloggers will want to link to. Offer a contest that has a viral component, like asking users to create your next commercial or to help design a new product. Create content – like a buying guide, perhaps – that the market would consume and link to. Outside links to your site and content gives you authority.

#3 “Slang Content on the Regular”

Lil B is also producing and cultivating new content from his fans. People – and search engines – expect frequent content updates.

What You Can Do: Creating a corporate blog is a great way to facilitate frequent content updates about your new products, new ways to use your products and more. Harness the power of search engines to drive traffic to your e-commerce site by generating new content and aggregating content of interest to your target audience. Depending on your goals and capabilities, you don’t have to update your content multiple times per day, but you do need to update it regularly. Start with an easy plan of once a week, and then dial up or down as necessary.

#4 “Swag Up with Keywords”

Lil B incorporates prominent keywords into his song titles and lyrics – “Charlie Sheen” and “I’m Paris Hilton,” for example. People find Lil B and his music without even looking for it.

What You Can Do: While someone searching for Justin Bieber may have no interest in purchasing from your e-commerce site, you can be sure that your web pages and content are targeting the most relevant keywords to drive the appropriate traffic to your site. Be aware of keyword trends. Yahoo! always displays its top 10 trending searches on its homepage. And Google's free AdWords Keyword Tool lets you enter phrases so you can see the related terms web users are searching and how much competition there is for each term.

Related posts:

• 3 Reasons Why Quality Content Could Be Your Key to E-Commerce Success
• J.C. Penney and Google: A Cautionary Tale of Ecommerce and SEO
• Best Buy Brings Online Content to Brick-and-Mortar Stores
• The Power of Online Product Videos

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Back in the early days of the web, when many of us pioneered this business, there was the notion of sticky content. Sticky content was all about putting content on your website to encourage visitors to linger and come back to your site. This was back when business plans were thin, eyeballs were all the rage and no one talked about conversions. But then the dotcom bubble burst, and content creation was deemed an unnecessary task as website teams trimmed down and struggled to keep their Internet businesses afloat.

Fast-forward to now: Content has made a comeback. Google, blogs and social sharing have made offering unique, quality content in some form to your customers a must for any website and a competitive advantage for e-commerce sites. Here are 3 of the top reasons why.

#1 Your Customers

Remember: E-commerce site content takes the place of welcoming sales associates at a brick-and-mortar store. From calls to action to your About Us page, what is the impression you want to make? Also, e-commerce retailers ask their customers to buy items with limited senses. Well-crafted product descriptions can fill the void for customers who wonder what an item really feels like in person. Buying guides and other advice can lead customers through the process of purchasing online and specifically via your website.

Tip: As an e-commerce website, you are a content publisher. Define your target audience and who you are as a retailer. Be sure your content’s voice and tone live up to and reinforce the promises you want to make. Style guides are not just for logos and fonts.

#2 Your Brand

The content you publish on your e-commerce site is an extension of your business. It allows you to give your company a voice and to set yourself up as an advocate, trendsetter, thought leader, or whatever best sets your specific e-commerce business apart. And thanks to social sites, if the web content you create is engaging, sharing it is easier than ever. Good, interesting content can spread like wildfire – are you creating any? If you deliver content that is truly helpful and unique, your customers will blog about it, share it on Facebook, Tweet it and more. Quality content allows others to be your brand ambassadors.

Tip: You can start getting the word out yourself! Share your site’s content via a corporate blog, Twitter account, StumbleUpon, etc.

#3 Search Engine Optimization

Anyone who knows their SEO stuff will tell you: When it comes to search engine optimization, nothing beats fresh, original content. While link baiting and creating directory pages on your own site will help with your organic search rankings, it should supplement your real content offering. Just look at how well blog posts rank on Google. By nature, well-written content is full of keywords, whether on a product page or in an article related to the types of product you sell online. A fresh content offering gives spiders something new to crawl, and nothing beats a quality offering to encourage people to read and link to what you’ve written. And with Google Panda, being sure your product descriptions are truly unique will only benefit your e-commerce store.

Tip: A corporate blog is a great way for an e-commerce site to get into the content arena. You don’t have to worry about integrating a content management system into your platform, and you can use a blog to introduce new products, offer tips and share relevant news about your online retail business.

Related posts:

• J.C. Penney and Google: A Cautionary Tale of Ecommerce and SEO
• Best Buy Brings Online Content to Brick-and-Mortar Stores
• The Power of Online Product Videos
• Content Tips for Big-Ticket Email Marketing, Part 1
• Content Tips for Big-Ticket Email Marketing, Part 2

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

This week’s article from Multichannel Merchant “How to Drop the ‘E’ from E-Commerce,” talks about the evolution of folks who are now in charge of retailers’ e-commerce sites and how they likely worked their ways up through the retailers’ IT ranks and are now measured by online sales. But the article points out that e-commerce shouldn’t be about website sales as much as it should be about digital marketing for the entire retail organization.

Your e-commerce website is an influencer and should be designed to be a cross-channel powerhouse that drives sales and interactions with your business. You need to create a retail business that lets the consumer interact with you on the consumer's terms. And with the way people begin shopping using online search, your website could very well be the first touchpoint for new customers.

6 Ways to Turn Your E-Commerce Website into a Retail Digital Marketing Machine

1. Offer real local inventory information with local pricing -- right down to the store.
2. Provide a feature-rich store locator, allowing customers to search stores by location, hours and other customer-centric criteria.
3. Allow customers to buy online and pick up at a store location.
4. Be sure there is consistency between your e-commerce website and store when it comes to messaging, naming conventions and pricing.
5. Boost your local store online, using Google Places and the like, and integrate with location-based services like FourSquare.
6. Allow local stores to customize their information, and include store specific events, contacts and more.
7. Work with your marketing and merchandising counterparts to ensure a consistent message that works both in-store and online.

Remember: E-commerce is simply an extension of your existing stores. Don’t overlook your website’s full ability to market your products by focusing solely on online sales.

Related posts:

• E-Commerce 2.0 - The Next Wave
• Marketing to the Smarter Consumer
• Retail E-Commerce Trends to Watch in 2011

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Google got in a heap of trouble last year when it launched its Buzz social-networking product, prepopulating it with personal information from users’ Gmail accounts without consent. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a settlement that could become the new privacy standard for the Web.

According to a recent ComputerWorld article, the settlement “requires Google to get ‘express affirmative consent’ from its users for ‘any new or additional sharing’ of personal information with third parties if the new sharing is a change in Google's practices.” It also requires Google to implement a comprehensive privacy program and independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.

What the Google Settlement Could Mean for B2C E-Commerce

Consumer e-commerce sites share some customer information in order to create targeted, personalized experiences for their audiences. In many cases, this can be as benign as a ZIP code so advertisements display merchandise locally available to customers.

Since the proposed settlement includes any customer information -- not just personally identifiable -- functional changes in why an Internet company shares ZIP codes and other data points could potentially require a user’s permission.

According to FTC attorneys, the part of the settlement the FTC would like to extend to be an industry norm is the requirement for a comprehensive privacy policy.

If your e-commerce company has a strong, comprehensive privacy policy that outlines the ways in which your company uses and shares personal information, then additional customer opt-ins should not be a problem. Even if you change vendors, as long as the type of information you use and the reason you use it stays the same, you would not need to notify customers. What you wouldn’t be able to do is retroactively change your privacy policy without users’ knowledge.

Additionally, if you have a global audience -- or hope to one day -- EU data privacy laws require you to disclose what data you keep on your site visitors and how you use it. And you have to give consumers a chance to object to the use of their information. So buttoning up your privacy policy makes good business sense in our global economy.

So what do you think: Is being more transparent with users about how e-commerce sites use their information an industry norm that’s been a long time coming, or has Google’s missteps ruined it for the rest of us?

Related posts:

• J.C. Penny and Google: A Cautionary Tale of Ecommerce and SEO
• Understanding the Google-Groupon Rumors
• Google Shopping Goes Local

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Last week we posted about Forrester’s report on Facebook as an ecommerce driver. And while we agree that Facebook will likely not become a major ecommerce platform any time soon, we do see the social network’s value for marketing your ecommerce brand.

There’s more to marketing on Facebook than adding a Like button to your web pages. You need to become a content publisher with a marketing slant. You need to provide value in the form of resources, product information and special deals. The frequency and scope depends on your audience, and cultivating that audience is the number-one step for successful marketing on Facebook.

Building a Facebook Audience for Your Ecommerce Website

We recently worked with one of our clients to run a Facebook fan promotion. The more likes the store’s Facebook page received within a specific time period, the larger the discount all of the Facebook fans would get.

We promoted this “The More You Like, the More You Save” campaign on Facebook, the store’s website and through email marketing. The nature of the campaign was for fans to spread the word -- if their friends liked the page too, everyone would save more. In two weeks, we nearly doubled the store’s Facebook fans, but it didn’t end there. Once we posted the special coupon code on Facebook, we promoted the discount to the site’s audience, encouraging an additional 1,300 of the store’s customers to go onto Facebook and like the page to get access to the code.

We’ve been able to attribute tens of thousands of online sales to this promotion, not to mention additional in-store traffic and sales. And we can continue to use the store’s Facebook page to market to these customers.

Create Social Noise Around Your Ecommerce Brand

A side effect of this promotion beyond the dollars, is that this store’s customers are talking to each other on Facebook about the store and its products. They’ve discussed the furniture they planned to buy with their discount, great experiences they had and what they like most about the store and brand. By administering this Facebook promotion, we’ve helped our client to create an army of brand ambassadors -- specifically brand ambassadors who like to post to social networking sites.

Engage Your Facebook Fans

Now the big challenge is engaging these fans and keeping them interested in a brand that sells big-ticket items the average consumer does not buy every day. To successfully do this, you need to think community more than transactional. Help your customers keep the conversation going about their purchases. Solicit pictures of what they bought, provide tips for caring for their items, and offer tangential information from other sources that complements your brand. This will help your fans remember you, recommend you and come back to you the next time they’re looking to make a purchase.





Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Will Facebook become a major ecommerce player? According to the latest from Forrester Research, probably not.

In her newly released report, “Will Facebook Ever Drive eCommerce?,” Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru claims a social-network presence is less effective at online retail customer acquisition and retention than e-mail and paid search. She notes that Facebook's major challenge is that the majority of the 650 million users visit the social network to socialize, not to shop. While I agree Facebook is not on track to be the next Amazon or eBay, the social networking site does have a part to play in ecommerce.

Facebook and Online Considered Purchases

Facebook will likely never be a destination for major ecommerce transactions, but I do believe consumers will leverage the community's tools for the social aspect of shopping online and in-person. Whether sending a picture from their mobile phone or posting a link from an ecommerce site, Facebook is one of the quickest ways for consumers to ask their friends if they should get the new sofa in brown or gray.

Retailers can also use the Facebook platform to engage with customers and offer special deals and information specifically for their Facebook fans. Consumers want to be a part of the conversation, and Facebook lets you connect in new ways retailers only wished they could before. And a potential audience of 650 million makes Facebook a very difficult website for retailers to ignore.

What benefits you have seen from your retail store’s or brand’s Facebook presence? Has the site played a role in increasing conversions or helping to drive engagement?

Related posts:

• E-commerce 2.0 – The Next Wave
• The Numbers Speak for Themselves
• Online Shopping on Facebook Gains Momentum
• See, Like, Buy – Capitalizing on Group Buying and Facebook This Holiday Season
• Social Media Monitoring: Facebook and Ashley Furniture HomeStore

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

I read an interesting article this week in Floor Covering Weekly: “Tile Industry Battles Internet Pricing.” While the article is specific to the flooring industry, it discusses an issue that big-ticket retailers, like the ones we work with, face. With big-ticket items for the home (i.e. carpet, flooring, furniture, etc.), consumers like to visit the retail location to “touch and feel” the product before they make their purchase. But then, the consumer might go home and search for the item online and ends up buying from the e-commerce site with the lowest price.

As a multichannel retailer, what can you do to keep the sale rather than lose it to the lowest bidder? Be sure when consumers leave the store, they will get a consistent experience that focuses on their needs.

Here are 5 things you can do online to help keep the sale you start:

1. Offer free samples that can be ordered online and shipped directly to the shopper’s home.
2. Offer free in-home measurement.  Bring samples right to the customer’s door and give a free estimate, including installation.
3. Include coupons on your e-commerce site.  You can test a variety of different offers, including incentives for new customers.
4. Make guarantees on your installations so new customers feel comfortable doing business with you.
5. When customers do take action, use trigger/automated emails to bring people back to your site and offer additional purchase incentives.

You can’t stop consumers from looking for the best deal online, nor do you necessarily want to. It is up to you to offer the best complete deal, including superior customer service and other incentives that a large discount e-commerce site may not be equipped to provide. As the article mentions, sites that offer discounted prices strip away much of the added value consumers need when shopping for big ticket retail products - no hassle returns, product education and design assistance are just a few.

What advice would you give retailers for “keeping the sale”?  We’d love to see your comments below.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

There have been numerous terms coined over the years to describe different consumer segments: Brand Aspirationals, Power Shoppers, Savvy Spenders -- the list goes on.  Today, we’d like to introduce you to the latest consumer segment: XTreme Shoppers, as coined by GfK Custom Research. 

Who Are These XTreme Shoppers? 

To start, XTreme Shoppers are motivated, aggressive and passionate. They can be found across all U.S. geographic regions and income levels. They use multiple resources and go to almost any length to seek out the best possible value. They value such factors as enjoyment, usefulness, simplicity and assurance.

What we found most interesting is that GfK’s research shows that XTreme Shoppers derive more emotional satisfaction from shopping online than in-store, indicating that your B2C e-commerce experience should be a priority if these are the consumers you're looking to attract. When comparing the two channels, more respondents considered online to be inviting (81% vs. 71% for in-store), uplifting (84% vs. 71%), customized (73% vs. 51%), energizing (74% vs. 48%) and calming (80% vs. 53%).

These shoppers consider themselves "in control" of retailers. They want you to be as passionate about them as they are about your brand. Or they will shop elsewhere.

Catering to XTreme Shoppers

Some retailers are excelling at addressing the needs of these multichannel, highly motivated consumers. Williams-Sonoma, for example, maintains consistency across all channels and experiences.  Whether attending an in-store cooking demonstration or browsing the retailer's online library of recipes, shoppers feel like they are being treated to something special when they interact with the brand. The same could be said for Apple, which offers consistent and enjoyable experiences both in-store and digitally.

The takeaway: Gone are the days when price, quality and quantity are the only true purchase drivers.  Is your retail brand meeting the XTreme Shopper's needs, or are you struggling with e-commerce barriers that prevent this cross-channel synchronization?  We’d love to hear from you about what you are doing to attract and please these passionate shoppers.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Analytics firm comScore recently released their 2010 Canada Digital Year in Review report.  Consumers north of the border continue to be a growing market for multichannel retailers here in the U.S. and many Blueport Commerce clients, particularly as ecommerce retail gains in popularity in Canada. comScore’s report looks at digital trends among video, search and mobile users, and reveals what opportunities are available for marketers and retailers targeting Canadian consumers online.

Here are some of the highlights:

-    Canadians are a captive online audience: In 2010, Canada maintained its position as the most engaged online audience, ranking highest among the top markets in average hours and visits per visitor in Q4 2010.
-    Blogging and social networking is on the rise among Canadians, especially older consumers: According to comScore, Canadians spent 58% more time on blogs and social networks in Q4 2010 compared to that of Q4 2009. As this category continues to grow, older age segments are increasingly more engaged with social networking sites.
-    Video rules: Just like their U.S. counterparts, Canadians love video, especially those that are over the age of 35, who accounted for more than half of all viewers in Q4 2010.
-    Mobile is growing in Canada: Canadian consumers are updating their devices more frequently and will be able to access more and more online content in 2011. comScore believes mobile is the next marketing frontier in Canada.

The big ticket retail take away? Canadian consumers are a powerful, often untapped market for online retailers.  The ecommerce principles remain the same when targeting these digitally savvy shoppers.  Incorporating video, social media and mobile elements into an online retail strategy will be essential to engaging Canadians with your brand.



Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

This week I read about an interesting report from IBM, titled “Capitalizing on the Smarter Consumer.”  It contains the results of the company's recent survey of 30,000 consumers about how they shop and why.  This is the latest report to underscore just how much technology is driving e-commerce growth and affecting consumers' shopping habits.  According to IBM, consumers are more comfortable than ever using the Internet, mobile technologies, in-store tools and other innovations to research and buy products.

Most interesting was IBM’s identification of the “instrumental customer”: a consumer who uses two or more technologies to shop. According to IBM, this constitutes a growing number of shoppers, with 49 percent of survey respondents falling into this category (up 36 percent from last year).

Other findings of note:

• 75 percent of consumers would shop on a retailer's e-commerce store
• 39 percent would use in-store kiosks, a 10 percent increase over last year
• 25 percent want to shop via the mobile channel, up from 13 percent
• 78 to 84 percent of consumers now rely on their social networks when researching new products

IBM's research is in line with what we see amongst our multichannel retail clients' customers -- the growing number of technologies and tools at their fingertips is helping customers make more informed decisions and is changing how they go about their research and purchasing process. Their path to purchase may no longer be a straightforward visit to the store -- or even a simple visit to a retailer's website! Today's smarter consumers may research and browse across numerous channels before ultimately buying the product.  Rather than see this as a marketing challenge, we work with our clients to identify new opportunities for engaging shoppers through multichannel communication.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

There were several great articles published this week on the impact the iPad will have on retail and, eventually, workplace computing.  One that I particularly enjoyed was focused on the device’s impact on female shopping behavior.  In her AdAge piece titled “How the iPad is Reshaping E-commerce,” Engauge CMO Patti Ziegler draws on her own experience as an iPad-loving mom.  She quickly points the growing cohort of iPad owners – wealthy, tech savvy and increasingly female – a group that is quickly becoming a powerful driver of B2C e-commerce sales.

Ziegler uses the term “t-commerce” which was coined by Forrester in a January 2011 report to describe shopping on a tablet device.  About a decade ago, Forrester coined the term “t-commerce” to mean e-commerce undertaken using digital television. We think tablet commerce will have a much larger impact on retailers.  Here’s why you should be paying attention, and marketing to, this group of women leading the t-commerce charge:

• Within four months of launch, the female-to-male ratio of iPad users shifted from 1:2 to 2:3
• iPad owners are typically affluent and more likely to be spending money online
• Women control between 70-85% of household spending in the US
• Tablet sales are forecast to nearly quadruple from 2010 to 2015
• Many retailers report that over 50% of their mobile traffic is already coming from tablet devices

What is your organization doing to rise to this new multichannel challenge?  Are you creating shopper experiences that extend across mobile phones, computers, in-store kiosks and tablets – including the iPad?  We're interested in hearing your big-ticket retail t-commerce plans and success stories.

Additional reading:

Ad Age - How the iPad is Reshaping E-commerce

MarketingVox - Time to Start Prepping for T-Commerce

New York Times - After the iPad's Head Start, Rival Tablets are Poised to Flood Offices



Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

“At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, [J.C.] Penney was No. 1 in searches for ‘living room furniture.’ By 9 p.m., it had sunk to No. 68. In other words, one moment Penney was the most visible online destination for living room furniture in the country. The next it was essentially buried.”

This excerpt from the New York Times’ "The Dirty Little Secrets of Search" by David Segal sums up the rise and fall of J.C. Penney in organic search results after apparently implementing some black hat approaches to improve its PageRank. Specifically, it appears that J.C. Penney and/or its search firm, which has since been fired, paid to have links in a variety of categories spammed across the web, all pointing back to the company’s home page. This gave J.C. Penney the top rank for a number of searches during the ever-important holiday shopping season. Google didn’t catch the terms violation until the NY Times submitted the evidence. Google immediately took action, causing Penney to lose its rank, but conspiracy theorists wonder if Google might have looked the other way when it came to discretions carried out by one of its largest paid search clients.

If you are working with a third party on your website’s search engine optimization, know that most of them are on the up and up and are not employing black hat tricks to deliver results. But you should be aware of what they are doing, and paying for links can get you on Google’s bad list.

So what can a site looking to get better organic search rankings do?

3 Ways to Improve Your Ecommerce Site's Organic Search PageRank

1. Content is king when it comes to search engines and the web. Create original content that consumers will want to find.

2. Do your keyword research due diligence. Incorporate the words that consumers are using into the content you create. Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool can help, and you can also look at your site’s internal keyword search for ideas. Work these phrases into the content you create, and use them in URLs and hyperlinks to related content.

3. Get other websites to link to your site, not by paying them of course, but by building real, meaningful relationships. Comment on blogs and articles that are related to your site’s expertise, and link out to others. This takes some time, but the eventual benefits will be worth it.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

This week comScore released their annual comScore 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review, an annual report that recaps key trends in the U.S. digital media landscape, including ecommerce retailing, social networking, online video, search, online advertising and mobile, with an emphasis on how digital and multichannel retail marketers can capitalize on these trends in 2011.

While growth and evolution of the industry is no surprise to those of us in this space, the report does capture an excellent picture of changes driving the evolution and where the industry is heading.  Here are the highlights in numbers:

Ecommerce is booming: Cyber Monday (the biggest online spending day in history with more than $1 billion in sales), was just the tip of the iceberg.  In 2010, total U.S. ecommerce retail spending reached $227.6 billion, up 9 percent versus the previous year. 

The year of Facebook: In 2010, 9 out of every 10 U.S. Internet users used social networking sites, with the average user spending more than 4 hours on these sites each month.  Nearly 1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook.

Video is king: According to comScore, Americans spent more than 14 hours watching online video in December 2010, a 12 percent increase from the prior year.  They also streamed a record 201 videos, an 8 percent increase from 2009.

Mobile reached a turning point: In 2010, smartphones reached 1 in 4 mobile subscribers. Approximately 47 percent of mobile subscribers are now connected Internet media users (via browsers, applications or downloaded content), up 8 percentage points from the previous year. 



Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Congratulations to our email marketing partner e-Dialog for being honored for Innovation in Email Marketing in this year’s Econsultancy Innovation Awards for the company’s work with British Airways.  The email marketing campaign promoted the airline’s new mobile application for its loyalty club, and achieved more than 70,000 clicks and doubled download targets over the course of the marketing campaign.  Way to go, e-Dialog!


Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

I read an interesting piece in Fortune this week about the revival of the store within a store concept.  Some of the country’s biggest multichannel retailers, including Sears, Target and Walmart have recently rolled out new marketplaces or boutiques within their existing retail stores.  

The benefits of these partnerships are easy to see. By partnering with specialized retailers and manufacturers, large retailers can fill holes in their product offering and capitalize on new retailing or product trends quicker.  They can also tap into a wealth of new crosschannel and cross-brand marketing opportunities.

A variation of the store within a store concept is also gaining steam for online retailers. Fortune notes that almost 80% of the products sold by Amazon come from outside sellers who handle their own products, set their own prices and provide their own customer service. Sears also recently launched  "Marketplace at Sears" following on this concept.

I think this is a trend that we will see much more of over the next year, as our traditional retail models continue to shift and retailers embrace new ways to engage their customers and drive sales across channels.

The key for retailers will be developing compelling store within a store environments (be it online or in-store) that excite customers and draw them in.  That sense of uniqueness and surprise will be essential to elevating the brand, capturing customers’ attention and capitalizing on sales opportunities.




Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

The New York Times’ Claire Cain Miller just wrote a great profile of Warby Parker, a New York startup that is seeing success by building an ecommerce market for prescription eyeglasses. This is the latest example of how traditional notions of what consumers will or will not buy online no longer apply.

Ecommerce Has Evolved

Up until recently most skeptics considered certain items off-limits in the ecommerce retail world -- items like furniture, fine jewelry, cars and appliances. All of these products were considered too complex, and as such, most retailers felt consumers would need to see them in person before committing to a purchase. 

At the heart of Warby Parker’s strategy is a focus on offering customers convenience and superb customer service to make them feel comfortable with purchasing online.  For example, the site allows shoppers to upload photos of themselves and virtually try on glasses.  All eyeglasses are completely returnable, but the company will also mail customers five loaner frames to try on at home, or they can even be directed to several of Warby Parker’s physical locations across the country. 

Ecommerce Works for Big-Ticket Retail

Here at Blueport Commerce, we recognized the ecommerce market for these big-ticket purchases over a decade ago and have been at the forefront of developing online retail strategies for retailers in these categories ever since. Warby Parker is another example of the immense opportunity online for businesses in all categories, and we are excited to see more companies take cues from these successes and make their foray online.



Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

A newly released report from eMarketer highlights the seismic shift that is occurring in how consumers shop, and consequently, how multi channel retailers need to market to them.

Digital media, technology and content have dramatically altered the multichannel retail shopping experience.   eMarketer outlines how retailers can use technologies to target consumers during their three shopping phases: pre-shop, in-store and post-shop.

Pre-shop: Make the shopping experience as easy and convenient as possible for consumers, by equipping them with a variety of digital shopping tools to help them save money, grant them access to deals or provide the product information they are looking for quickly.  At the heart of this is your ecommerce store, which should give customers everything they need at their fingertips and a foundation for their purchase path. 

In-store: eMarketer highlights several technologies that retailers can incorporate into their stores, such as self-checkouts or kiosks, but they emphasize the most notable of these is mobile. In addition to store staff, location-based check-ins and in-store mobile tools and apps such as price comparisons will offer retailers an additional opportunity to engage and interact with their customers in the final moments before they make their purchase decision.

Post-shop: Once a customer has made their purchase, retailers should look for creative ways to encourage customers to share their stories via social media or other online communities.

As eMarketer notes, more touchpoints for consumers along their purchase path mean more opportunities for retailers to get creative in how they engage with them.  Start by thinking holistically about the customer purchase path and how your various retail marketing initiatives impact their decision process every step of the way. 


Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce