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Part II of Five Key Insights from MITX’s The Great Mobile Migration: Demystifying Mobile Marketing

We hope you enjoyed reading part one of our two-part series about MITX's "The Great Mobile Migration: Demystifying Mobile Marketing." In part one, we discussed how important it is for furniture retailers to catch up and invest in mobile intelligently and discuss how consumer behavior already dictates shopping on mobile devices. In part two of our two-part series we uncover the unique brick and mortar opportunities furniture retailers face when it comes to mobile: location, data, and advertising Return on Investment (ROI).

3. Location is the largest area of innovation for mobile e-commerce.

If furniture retailers can crack the code of location through mobile, the opportunities are endless. Retailers can tailor shopping experiences at the location level and gain greater insight on shopper behavior. As we learned in the MITX session “The Future of Location Based Marketing,” location-based marketing and tracking is not yet mature for retailers, and more needs to be done in integration with Point of Sale (POS) systems, carriers, and providers. However, it’s been done before, and furniture retailers should take note and get ahead of the curve. For example, Starbucks is a leader of the location pack, with location-based offers and their digital wallet. And, as visitors to the Google developers conference this week found out, location will play an even bigger role in the next generation of search.

4. Data, data, data!

In order to succeed in online e-commerce, furniture retailers MUST take advantage of insight that data offers, and this is just as true with mobile. Retailers can and should capture, analyze, and target their customers at a scale that will work for their business through mobile and at every level from their online e-commerce experience down to their brick and mortar store. This data should give deep insights and allow for optimal performance, though a big caution to being too “big brother” when using data insights for pricing and promotion.

5. But, there’s no money in mobile. A paradigm shift is needed. Advertisers, get creative!

It’s a known fact that within the current mobile infrastructure, businesses have been afraid to dip their toes into the mobile waters due to the low ROI, especially for advertising revenue. However, businesses and advertisers alike can and have been getting creative to help move the needle. The Weather Company in particular offers its advertisers branded backgrounds, providing 40 sets of creative weather conditions including their brand, and in turn they get the whole mobile screen footprint. Innovations with video, mobile rich media, and out of banner experiences serve to enhance the mobile opportunity for advertising while giving shoppers to choice to opt in. Furniture retailers can take advantage of these opportunities as well – offering unique ways for manufacturers to advertise their product through mobile to achieve greater revenue streams beyond merchandise conversion.

While many companies, retailers and non-retailers alike, are already taking advantage of the opportunities for mobile now, furniture retailers can, and should, get their skin in the game. As we learned at the MITX Summit  “The Great Mobile Migration: Demystifying Mobile Marketing,” consumer behavior is dictating the need for mobile, now and in the future. Furniture retailers who can effectively navigate mobile and make it easier for shoppers to buy from them have an opportunity to see ever positive returns and grow their businesses exponentially. Now excuse me, I have to go check my phone...and tablet.  

Miss part one yesterday? Read it here.

Part I of Five Key Insights from MITX’s The Great Mobile Migration: Demystifying Mobile Marketing

Earlier in May, Blueport Commerce joined MITX and other members at their Summit, titled “The Great Mobile Migration: Demystifying Mobile Marketing.” One thing came through loud and clear – if companies aren’t dedicating efforts to mobile, they are already behind. In the words of keynote speaker Cameron Clayton, President of the Digital Division for The Weather Company, “I hate to say it but if you don’t step up [to mobile], the audience will change their brand preference in a second and you are already behind.” Being already behind on mobile can be daunting. Blueport Commerce breaks down five key opportunities for furniture retailers. Put down your phones and tablets and read our two-part series on what we found. 

In part one of our two-part series, we uncover what it means to invest in mobile and debunk the common concern that consumers just aren’t shopping on their smartphones and tablets.

1. Spend Money on Mobile

First and foremost, furniture retailers should be dedicating their budget to mobile. Clayton says, “If you aren’t spending 7% of your budgets on mobile, you’re doing it wrong.” For furniture retailers, it’s not just about throwing money at mobile, but doing it in an intelligent way. For Victor Milligan, Chief Marketing Officer of Nexage, traditionally mobile has been divided into channels and the future is really content that will cross channels, making the very idea of a mobile channel irrelevant. All activities should fall into a 100% mix, including mobile. For PayPal Chief Operating Officer, David Chang, it’s important to understand your audiences and how that fits into your business, mobile, and beyond, and align your efforts accordingly. For Chang, multichannel integration and offers are critical for PayPal’s business success, especially for mobile. Furniture retailers have a large opportunity to focus on mobile the right way, the first time; as a part of their overall pricing, marketing, and promotion strategies within their e-commerce technology. By planning and optimizing for mobile in advance, furniture retailers can ensure the shopping experience is optimal no matter the device.

2. Shopping Concerns Debunked

Newsflash: We all already shop on smartphones and tablets. In the words of Hilary Dionne, Senior Marketing Manager of Customer Insights and Analytics at Zmags, “Couch Commerce” is a common behavior for shoppers, especially on tablets. For furniture retailers, embracing the multichannel opportunities mobile can provide will open doors for shoppers to purchase. In addition, mapping the optimal path to purchase is critical on any device, especially on mobile. Isaac Mosquera, Director of Mobile for ShareThis, emphasizes the opportunity that the mobile experience plays in the purchasing, along with how easy it is to interact with your company. Location also plays a role in mobile for e-commerce as a key way to be innovative. Furniture retailers can take advantage of these tips and tricks to optimize their businesses for shopping in mobile, especially when it comes to selling furniture online.

Furniture retailers have a huge opportunity now and in the future to invest in mobile as part of their overall efforts, not just as a channel. And, the truth is, consumer behavior demands the ability to shop on multiple devices on smartphones and tablets alike. For more information on how furniture retailers can take advantage of mobile, look out for our part II of this series!

Not every e-commerce company can be as financially lucrative or dominant as eBay, Amazon or Zappos. Yet there are great lessons to be learned from the principles that these brands adhere to in order to increase conversion, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, repeat purchases. Blueport Commerce examines the five most important features that these e-commerce industry leaders share, and how furniture retailers can reap the rewards.

1. Anytime, Anywhere Accessibility

“You are not a desktop brand. You are not a mobile brand. You need to be accessible from anywhere,” says Dave Surgan, Manager of Digital Communications at Morpheus Media. Truer words aren’t often spoken: an e-commerce website is no longer viewed just from the comfort of a large desktop monitor – in fact, with furniture showrooming increasing, half of US shoppers rely on phones for in-store research. As a result, testing should be done to ensure that your e-commerce website renders well on all possible browsers and operating systems on desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices. Otherwise, you can kiss a stellar conversion rate goodbye.

2. Intuitive Navigation

Simple and useful website navigation is essential for e-commerce sites, as consumers need to browse among different furniture categories and products quickly through a navigation system that’s intuitive. E-commerce giant Amazon, which has an endless assortment of merchandise, favors a left vertical navigation menu, which allows them to include more links than a horizontal navigation menu would permit. This is most typical for e-commerce retailers, which allows for product categories and sub-categories. However, some online furniture retailers may prefer to adopt a horizontal navigation menu, which is more attuned to how people read, and works better for those with less inventory and product categories.

3. Prominent Search Box

Having a very visible search box is mission critical to an e-commerce site. The ability to search is of paramount importance because many online buyers have a specific piece of furniture for which they are actively searching. A search box aids in helping a customer locate a particular item and navigating the entire site. The most successful search boxes in online stores are in very prominent positions, at the top of the page in the layout, enticing the user to search the site for the pieces of furniture they most desire.

4. Responsive Customer Service

Time and time again the value of listening to the voice of the customer has been proven. In fact, of people that received good customer service, 72% of internet users share that experience with friends or family, 40% share it with coworkers in person, 32% share it with the company that provided the service and 30% share it on social media. Email, phone and live chat are all key channels used by e-commerce retailers to communicate with customers, and a timely and polite responsiveness is crucial. Zappos grew into a $1B company by 2009 largely based on their culture of customer satisfaction – nothing to sneeze at!

5. Cohesive Omnichannel Experience

Both consistent messaging and look and feel are critical to all brands. “Brands that are doing it right have a consistent look and feel across all consumer touch points,” says Janine Silvera, a marketing and media strategist. Ensure that your brick and mortar stores’ marketing aligns with your online stores’ e-commerce presence – email promotions can work to drive online revenue, as well as traffic to physical stores, and email capture in store can help grow a furniture retailers’ mailing list. Or you can reward in-store traffic with gift cards that can be redeemed online – as long as you keep the traffic flowing in both directions, you’re setting your furniture business up for success!

By keeping these five critical features of e-commerce sites top of mind, furniture retailers are poised to reap the rewards of the estimated untapped $1B opportunity that exists for selling furniture online.

Are you the type of person who gets driven insane by incomplete tasks? Did you have to hit 100 percent completeness on your LinkedIn profile? Or collect a retailer’s loyalty points to get rewards? If so, you’ve been gamified. Gamification is the concept of using game design elements in non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. By 2014, 70 percent of large companies will use the technique for at least one business process, per Gartner’s estimate. And e-commerce is no stranger to gamification – right now the trend is for online promotions to drive consumers to checkout, as well as steer people to social media and email sharing.

Gamification in Action: Checkout

Blueport Commerce has helped implement gamification elements for our furniture retail clients. Last year, Blueport set up an interactive Las Vegas style promo for a superstore client, which allowed users to roll dice online to receive a discount. This tied in to the in-store promotion where casinos were set up in the retailer’s selected brick and mortar locations and people were able to play roulette to get discounts.

Registered users received a link directly to the dice rolling widget via promotional email. For new users, they needed to register before they could roll the dice to get discounts. Each registered user could roll only once, and depending on their number, they would receive a $50, $100 or $200 coupon, valid on orders of $1,200 or more. Codes were then added to the registered user’s shopping cart automatically.

The Results

People found out about the game via website banners and email blasts to opted-in users. Our client banked 2,000 new registered users, and 5,000 people rolled the dice. In just over four days they experienced double digit increases in revenue during the event generated by people rolling the dice and purchasing with discounts.

Gamification is Afoot: Driving to Social & Email

Thanks to Bernie Madoff and their generally suspect nature, Ponzi schemes are generally not thought of in a positive light. However the concept of gamification worked wonders for a Blueport big-ticket e-commerce client who wanted to encourage email sharing. Blueport created a discount app, where a registered user of that retailer’s website received an email giving them a discount for a mattress. Depending on how many people the original recipient forwarded it to, that person could build up discount credits to the point where they were able to get a free mattress. The credits were only applied if the people who received the email signed up on the site. This concept has also been adapted to fit social sharing by other companies.

The principles of gamification state that humans are looking for rewards, loss aversion, status, competition and reputation, and feedback. Good gamification implementation demands that you give users motivation to do something (emotional investment, promise of reward, etc.), the ability to complete the action, and a trigger to complete the action. If e-commerce retailers can successfully create and implement gamification, the financial ROI can bring down the house.  

Buy something online last year? You weren’t alone. According to The State of Retailing Online 2013: Key Metrics and Initiatives by Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester Research, overall growth for web retailers from 2011 to 2012 was 28%. We at Blueport Commerce are thrilled about the continuing trend of increasing e-commerce activity. Statistics from this report we found particularly salient include:

The Explosion of Mobile

Currently Forrester’s mobile forecast shows less than 5% of e-commerce sales coming from phones. However, of the retailers surveyed, smartphone year-on-year growth hit 129%, and tablet year-on-year growth hit 178%. And while the actual sales may not be there yet, as many consumers use their mobile devices to browse while in stores, mobile has a net positive impact on retailers’ conversion rates, as 36% reported that mobile sales and traffic aided their company’s overall web conversion rate.

Blueport’s takeaway: Retailers should be prepared to optimize for mobile and tablet traffic in order to improve conversion rates, both on the web and on mobile. 

The Need for Speed: Optimization

Retailers mentioned their top priorities in 2013 are improving their site’s conversion rates and redesigning their site experience, optimizing their site’s performance. The three top investment areas cited by retailers for long-term growth are site optimization (e.g. website redesign), mobile optimization and international growth (27%), with products and fulfillment to international markets, as well as localization and translation. Under the large category of site optimization, checkout and a responsive design framework were two sub-areas cited as needing improvement in 2013.

Blueport’s takeaway: Optimization boils down to a simple concept: what levers you can pull to make it as easy as possible for browsers to pull the trigger to become buyers. The need to reach consumers where they want and how they want is critical, and retailers should focus on ensuring all consumers’ browsing and buying needs are met with optimized site and mobile experiences.

The Exorbitant Cost of Marketing

Forrester previously found that web marketing usually consumes about 10% of a web retailer’s expenses. However, that figure is only increasing due to greater competition as email marketing continues to become harder to differentiate, SEO and SEM costs are skyrocketing, social media sites are now experimenting with paid models and there are additional costs associated with mobile marketing. Investment in the effort of organic SEO optimization is worthwhile given the ROI – it isn’t as exorbitantly expensive as Pay Per Click (PPC), and, done right, it can increase conversions. Additionally, the benefits of organic SEO last longer than PPC, whose impact goes away the second you cut off the funding.  

Retailers surveyed also noted that IT investments were the most critical for continued revenue in 2013. Adding to their IT resources and improving core site performance were listed as top priorities, at the expense of social media, whose monetization effects haven’t yet been proven.

Blueport’s takeaway: Focus on the levers that will truly push your margin. Since SEO can account for up to 40% of traffic, maximizing low-cost alternatives like organic search are high impact/low cost.

Shipping as an Opportunity, Not a Pain Point

Same-day delivery and broad reach of fulfillment like Amazon’s was all the hype of in 2012, but other than the big players, few retailers are focused on their fulfillment or post-transaction experiences. Forrester recommends retailers follow the path of companies who focus on fulfillment as a differentiator: tactics such as shopper loyalty programs, expedited delivery programs, shipping clubs and store fulfillment.  

Blueport’s takeaway: The key here for furniture retailers is not just focusing on the front end but also on the back end operations. In essence, while many retailers are focused on website redesign and optimization, the back end operational part of the site is virtually ignored. Furniture retailers have the opportunity to offer not only varying delivery options, but also the chance to rethink shipping pricing models overall. By implementing a truly localized omnichannel experience, furniture retailers who allow customers to choose between various delivery options are better set for success.

For those of us that remember some of the first Jane Fonda fitness videos, their impact still makes you want to “Work Out.” Combine videos with product cross-sell and many companies are increasing their conversions online through video. But, can selling big-ticket retail online really be optimized through video? Dust off your leg warmers and leotards and read on.

Below are three reasons why video can help increase conversion for big-ticket retail e-commerce.

1. Watching Video Is Like Sitting On the Couch in the Store

Zappos continues to innovate and now has videos on most product pages where people actually show and walk around in their shoes. Similarly, a major fitness retailer learned that customers wanted to see how their clothes fit moving around in a class and videos helped them provide that information and increase their sales. The same goes for big-ticket retail e-commerce. Customers who can’t make it to your brick and mortar store still want to see your merchandise in order to help them make a purchase. For example, when considering buying a couch, customers might want to see how much the cushion depresses when someone sits in it or the size of the couch relative to the people in the video for perspective.

Watching a video is like being in the store, but your customers don’t have to be there, or feel like they are being sold something. And, unlike TV, they can browse videos online, look at many products in the convenience of their own home and ultimately convert. 

2. Customers Can Find You More Easily Online

In addition to providing your customers with visual value, video can help new customers find you more easily. Video attracts search traffic organically. According to Marketing Profs, simply adding video helps raise a company’s SEO profile, regardless of whether Google, YouTube and others change their algorithms. 

The more opportunities you provide to help your customers find your product online, the more traffic you’ll have to your site, which can only help increase conversion. This is especially true in the world of big-ticket furniture. The web is cluttered with offerings and you want to make sure your brand stands out.

3. Video Personalizes Your Brand

As indicated by the other two reasons above, the more you can do online, the better! That is never more true than video. Adding video to your already existing initiatives will help drive conversion and you’ll be able to develop video for multiple uses. In a case study of sharpmen.com through Internet Retailer, videos range from story-like videos to product features and benefits. The company’s conversion rate is 3.75%, greater than the 2.99% on average from North America’s Internet Retailer Top 500 and Second 500 guides. 

Whether or not you have big-ticket furniture items to sell online, or appliances and electronics, video can help make an impact on converting your customers online. Now, get out there and “Work Out” your e-commerce muscles!

What Is BGP?
Ever wonder how traffic flow on the internet is routed so efficiently? Blueport Commerce is proud to announce that as of March 2013 we will be live with Border Gateway Protocol. BGP is a protocol that makes core routing decisions on the internet. With a table of IP networks, or "prefixes", which designate network reach-ability among autonomous systems (AS), BGP essentially regulates traffic flow on the internet based on real-time information. This makes it similar to a GPS in a car which will route the driver to the roads with the least traffic. For businesses, the benefit is that they can now optimize bandwidth and maximize redundancy – it leverages the full power of BGP while keeping a company like Blueport vendor-agnostic. For big-ticket e-commerce retailers like Blueport’s clients, it ensures that their website traffic is routed most effectively so that customers can browse and buy from anywhere, on any device, at any time.

What Is “Peering”?
As a protocol, BGP is similar to how http in URLs is a protocol, where the http tells your browser where to point to load a certain website. It defines the best syntaxes to navigate. BGP allows for “peering” – or letting a company like Blueport Commerce partner with an ISP such as Cogent or Lightower. Blueport gives out our AS numbers and the IPs we own to our peering partners, which tells customers how to reach us. In return, our peering partners Cogent and Lightower tell us their data and the IPs accessing us from each way. Other peering partners can be added at any time, maximizing the efficiency of internet traffic on our clients’ e-commerce websites.

What Are the Benefits of BGP?
The benefits of moving to Border Gateway Protocol are redundancy and staying ahead of the curve. With BGP, Blueport is connecting our clients to the internet in the most efficient way possible. Think of it as having two cell phones in case one loses battery power or is misplaced. Or the equivalent of having regular electricity in your home, but also a generator in case a downed tree crashes a power line near your house. You’ll stay connected, even if disaster strikes. For big-ticket e-commerce retailers, it ensures that their customers are always able to reach their website, even during high-traffic periods such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

What’s the Current Process?
ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, gives out IP addresses (which can be thought of as “internet zip codes”), as well as AS numbers. In order to become live with BGP, Blueport submitted the paperwork necessary to get our AS number and public IPs. This allows us to partner with ISPs such as Cogent, Lightower, RCN, AT&T and Comcast.

The older system of IP addresses used by most companies now is called IPV4. These are traditional IP addresses (such as 10.3.45.34). The new form is IPV6, which consists of 4 letters and number combinations and colons (such as A4B4:A3B3:A2B2:A1B1). Blueport is currently migrating from IPV4 to IPV6 and the process should be completed by the end of Q3.

What Are Other Forward-Thinking Companies Doing?
Forward-thinking companies like Akamai, GoDaddy, Facebook and Google have started supporting both IPV4 and IPV6 IP addresses. This allows them to stay ahead of the curve – the reason for the distribution of IPV6’s is that eventually IPV4’s will run out. By taking this step, Blueport Commerce is proving we are ready now for the eventual transition from IPV4 to IPV6.

At the end of the day, the success of an e-commerce website is rooted in the idea of 24x7 availability. By moving to Border Gateway Protocol, Blueport ensures that all of our clients and their customers will be able to transact from any location, at any time, in the most optimal way possible.

Recently, eight members of the Blueport Commerce team attended the MITX: What’s Next E-Commerce Summit (Twitter hashtag #MITXECS) to learn about the latest trends and technology in Boston-based e-commerce. Below are seven highlights we took away from this high-energy, informative and inspiring e-commerce experience.

1. Biggest Recurring Theme: Big Data
   The phrase of the day was definitely “big data”. This was a key focus of Wayfair’s panel to kick off the event. Ben Clark, Director of Software Engineering at Wayfair, spoke to the need to structure the data post-capture and being able to create a tailored experience via tactics like clickstream tracking. By creating a record of how people interact with an e-commerce website, such as their products and interests, retailers can create a truly customized experience that is better than any canned solution. We appreciated the focus on consumer behavior pre- and post-purchase and optimized your e-commerce site for maximum revenue generation.
    
2. Most Fascinating Technology Application: Mobile App Segmentation
   One of Blueport’s favorite quotes of the day came from SapientNitro’s Mark Berinato, Associate Creative Director, Experience Design, who said “Your customers aren’t monolithic,” referring to the need for retailers to meet their customers where they are. During the “Building the Next Wave of Great Mobile User Experiences” breakout session, various mobile experts discussed the need to create different levels of apps for different fan bases. For example, designing a full mobile app with each device getting its own platform works for a client like NASCAR, who has some of the most passionate fans on the planet. In contrast, for the casual Indianapolis 500 fan, NASCAR also commissioned a hybrid mobile app which used a combination of an app plus HTML to engaged mobile users who didn’t require the full functionality of a full mobile app. At the end of the session, the panel concluded that designing a mobile app was all about “choreographing the customer journey,” a phrase we at Blueport really loved as it speaks to the heart of the true customer e-commerce experience, not just purchase.
    
3. Best Example of Customization in E-Commerce: Boston Fashion
   One of the most “tailored” presentations was “Boston Fashion Gets Personal with Gemvara, Blank Label, CustomMade, Bow & Drape”. All four companies cater to a more affluent and unique type of customer that wants the highest level of personalization possible in jewelry, furniture, and fashion (men’s and women’s), respectively. Blueport Commerce really enjoyed this panel for its focus on extreme personalization, loyalty tactics and high-end service. For example, Bow & Drape has photorealistic technology which allows a woman shopping for a custom-made dress to virtually “try on” the clothes on a body that mimics her measurements. Bow & Drape also has an at-home-try-on program, where muslins in up to three different sizes will be sent to potential customers, complete with seamstresses’ marks, in order to ensure the best fit possible. These “fit kits” lead to a whopping 60% conversion rate. Also impressive was Bow & Drape’s surprise post-purchase gifts to their loyal customers. We at Blueport Commerce loved the concept of learning to emotionally connect with highly selective consumers pre-purchase to establish trust, something essential for selling big-ticket items such as furniture online.
    
4. Most Interesting Presentation: Karmaloop
   A crowd-favorite presentation was the always-entertaining Greg Selkoe, the founder of Karmaloop, a Boston-based streetwear company. In this fireside chat, Greg touched on multiple topics including the fact he hires passionate people who wear his products as his customer service representatives, knowing that it adds credibility to have people that truly care about the brand representing it. Greg also says he doesn't hire experts anymore regarding his site content because they don't know his audience the way his team does. Greg also spoke passionately against rigid Boston laws that he feels prevent Boston start-ups and businesses from thriving, and encouraged people to check out his project, Future Boston Alliance, which advocates for collective action to improve Boston laws and businesses. 
    
5. Best Vendor Station: STaples
   Thanks to their adorable mini-cupcakes and enormous pastry spread, Staples absolutely killed it in the vendor display department. And who doesn’t love a little conference carbo-loading? Oh, and their panel in the morning on creating an omnichannel experience was delicious as well, touching upon the need for automated metrics around page speed and page performance before even thinking of rolling out new capabilities.
    
6. Most Controversial Statement: Omnichannel
   Speaking of omnichannel, the most controversial statement of the day belonged to Steve Davis, President of Rue La La, who boldly stated his disdain for the phrase “omnichannel”, insisting that it’s overrated and what really matters is the customer experience. Steve also views traditional customer service as reactionary, while by contrast, a great concierge anticipates your needs. Rue La La is extremely focused on NPS (Net Promoter Score) as a mission-critical metric and feels strongly that customer loyalty must be earned. While we at Blueport don’t necessarily agree the need to be omnichannel is overrated, Rue La La is a great example of a truly customer-centric company that prides itself on and strives for great customer service.
    
7. Most Engaged Tweeters
   No surprise, but MITX was full of very active social media enthusiasts. Some of our favorite tweets came from the following companies, speakers and audience members:
   @MITX
   @Selkoe
   @drkleiman
   @trishofthetrade
   @bowanddrape
   @karmaloop
   @UsefulArts
   @ScottKirsner
   @sapientnitro
   @compete
   @aubriepagano
   @gemvara
   @blanklabel
   @custommade
   @SteveHaase

Overall, the #MITXECS was a very informative, fun and engaging day that made Blueport Commerce proud to be a part of the fabric of the Boston e-commerce scene. Our hope is that big-ticket retail is an even bigger focus at the next e-commerce event.

Want to read more? Read the MITX Event Recap: Top Tweets from the 2013 "What's Next" e-Commerce Summit (#MITXECS) and listen to Greg Selkoe’s Fireside Chat on Boston.com [may require Boston.com registration].

Did you enjoy your New Year’s Eve holiday by spending time with your family? Our big-ticket retail clients did, because they weren’t worried about whether their websites would be live during their blowout New Year’s inventory clearance sales. One of the most critical decisions you’ll ever make as a big-ticket retailer looking to transition to e-commerce is whether to host your own website, or to use a managed solution. Blueport Commerce examines the pros and cons of hosting your e-commerce website yourself, or outsourcing it to a managed solution provider.

In-House Hosting Gives You Total Control – And Sole Responsibility

The benefits of an on-premise e-commerce hardware solution include increased control, budget flexibility, owning the source code and being able to make changes at any pace you desire. Because you are hosting the e-commerce hardware yourself, you are able to exert more control over your e-commerce website, and iterate at any time. And at first glance, hosting yourself will allow for lower initial costs.

That said the drawbacks of an on premise e-commerce solution are that as your business grows, the complexities and hidden costs start to multiply. Hosting your own e-commerce hardware means you need a fully trained technical staff to maintain it, servers to keep the website up and running, licenses for all of the hardware and software associated with the website, a budget to stay compliant with federal rules and regulations, and money to stay current with threat assessments. Inevitably, the maintenance, constant availability and security needs of hosting a first-class e-commerce site become something few companies can afford to handle internally, from a resource, bandwidth and cost perspective. You will spend more time, money and effort trying to manage all the disparate puzzle pieces than you would by working with a managed solution provider.

Managed Solution Means Manageable Cost

Blueport Commerce, the only e-commerce technology and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, embodies the benefits of a managed e-commerce solution. With a managed e-commerce hardware solution, you’re free to focus on what you do best: selling big-ticket items, instead of worrying about keeping a website running at optimal performance. And because you’re not staffing up when you use a managed solution, your overall costs are actually lower – and those savings can be used to grow the business. Additionally, managed solutions like Blueport Commerce have key partnerships and alliances with vendors that allow for enterprise-grade equipment to be purchased at a cost-savings that is then passed on to the client. Blueport’s business partnerships with established best-in-class technology partners like Cisco, Microsoft, Akamai, Dell and F5 include Tier 1/Priority Support, with dedicated local reps and faster response times when needed.

Because Blueport Commerce is an all-in-one managed e-commerce solution, our clients have all of the formerly disparate puzzle pieces already assembled for them – allowing Blueport and our clients to collaboratively focus on customizing their website for optimal return on investment. By figuring out the best way for each particular client to do business online, Blueport Commerce’s managed e-commerce solution sets each client up for success and allows for the one item you can’t really put a price on: peace of mind.

For big-ticket furniture retailers, it’s important to know who is shopping, where, why and how selling furniture online is part of the equation. This week, we at Blueport Commerce are going to give you insights into all of this, drawing on data from a recent Furniture Today and Apartment Therapy study.

The unlikely pair partnered to complete a 1,600-respondent survey on where, why and how different generations shop for furniture. For this survey, Generation Y includes people age 18-36, Generation X includes ages 37-47 and Baby Boomers are 48-66 years old. While you can read the complete study in Furniture Today’s print publication, we provide some of the highlights and our expert insights.

Where People Are Shopping

It’s rare that in a survey, 100% of one group answers a question the same way, however 100% of Generation X and Y respondents answered that they “frequently shop” at lifestyle furniture stores. These stores are defined as retailers that carry furniture and home accents at full price, such as Ikea, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Restoration Hardware, and Crate & Barrel. Baby Boomers’ preferred furniture shopping source is also lifestyle furniture stores, with 69% saying they regularly shop for furniture there. Ikea is the most popular brand, with 44% of Generation Y and 36% of Generation X saying they regularly shop at Ikea.

Traditional furniture stores, where furniture is the store’s total business or single-largest category, were the next most popular shopping destination for many, but with significant generational differences. Half of Baby Boomers commonly shop at traditional furniture stores, but this number drops to 33% for Gen X and only 23% for Gen Y.

Lagging far behind was the  classic department store (defined as full-line operations carrying a variety of merchandise such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Sears), with less than 10% of any generation shopping there regularly.

Why People Shop at These Stores

We believe consumers of all ages respond well to lifestyle furniture stores because they promote a complete experience. Their showrooms and catalogs tend to focus on the feelings and emotions that the furniture and highly stylized rooms provoke, allowing less visual buyers to benefit from product placement and suggestions. They make the entire furniture decision and purchase process more enjoyable for their customers. Many lifestyle furniture stores also sell a wide range of affordable accessories – letting the aspirational shopper get a taste of the brand without committing to a big-ticket purchase.

Shoppers who liked traditional stores cited the quality product and variety as their reasons for shopping there, as well as being locally owned and having top-notch customer service. Comments such as "the store's customer service and free delivery are great" and "I like to support local, small businesses” are typical reasons as to why shoppers preferred to do business with a traditional store.

Blueport Commerce isn’t surprised by these findings, as the advantage of localized big-ticket retail e-commerce is being able to close the gap between brick-and-mortar showrooms and online shopping. Consumers enjoy the experience of the stores and being able to touch and feel the furniture, while reaping the benefits of easy browsing, knowledgeable furniture sales staff and streamlined checkout.

How Furniture E-Commerce Fits In

One of the biggest surprises in this survey is how “online” was a top choice for furniture shopping across all age groups: 39% of Generation Y, 36% of Generation X and 27% of Baby Boomers regularly shop for furniture on the Internet. Why? Because online shopping is “easy” and “a great resource with a wide range of choices.”

It’s encouraging that each generation is more and more comfortable with shopping online for furniture. The increased comfort level is resulting in a significant likelihood to purchase as well. When asked if they’d be comfortable buying a sofa without sitting on it first, 24% of Generation X, 18% of Generation Y and even 15% of Baby Boomers said they would.

As the only localized big-ticket e-commerce solution company, Blueport Commerce has embraced the trend of the growing number of people who are ready and willing to purchase big-ticket items online. By offering consumers more of a lifestyle furniture shopping experience online – for example, using more complete room images and suggesting accent pieces such as lighting and rugs when looking at larger items – retailers can benefit from increased browsing and conversions online.

Additionally, an e-commerce store can offer a targeted experience to consumers, increasing the likelihood of closing a sale. Targeting consumers by generation, for example, makes sense: members of Generation Y may live in smaller-sized apartments and condos, so furniture specifically selected for them, as opposed to Generation X or Baby Boomers in larger homes, can make all the difference. With 46% of respondents claiming they continuously shop for new furniture, providing an engaging online experience could be one of the best investments any furniture store could make.

E-commerce sales continue to steadily rise, with year-over-year sales growth for the period from October 29 to December 25, 2012 reaching 15.2% (Retail Info Systems News). If you're a big-ticket brick and mortar retailer looking to pick up on online best practices and integrate them into their physical stores, you should be taking note very closely. With the goal of engaging customers throughout the year, not just seasonally, you can recapture the potential sales lost through showrooming. And not all retailers need to adopt the Target defense of price-matching all sources – sometimes the best defense is a good (marketing) offense!

In an interesting interview from Multichannel Merchant, Randall Stone, senior partner and director of customer experience and retail design at Lippincott, has keyed in on a few retail strategies that are being used to enhance in-store shopping experiences. Here are the ones we at Blueport Commerce, the only e-commerce technology and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, felt most applicable to big-ticket retailers:

1. Integrate Digital Tools Specific to the Showroom: Add digital kiosks and tablets throughout stores to allow customers to access online product information, reviews, as well as full e-commerce functionality to allow them to purchase online after getting to touch and feel the furniture. Provide customers with technology that allows them to visualize products in their everyday lives (read our coverage of augmented reality tools  here). Design a showcase experience that enables on-floor sales associates with tools (such as tablets) to see inventory levels, and allow consumers to customize any products they're interested in purchasing.
2. Embrace Omnichannel: Retailers have a chance to better engage consumers with a browse anywhere/buy anywhere approach. Retailers should allow customers to shop whenever and wherever they please and then pick-up, or have the goods delivered – site to store, store to home, etc.  Retailers who provide an omnichannel experience will be brand leaders.
3. Mobile Apps: Mobile apps allow consumers to shop in-store, pay painlessly with their smartphone and depart. These apps make shopping experiences quicker and easier. Oftentimes, coupons can be loaded onto the mobile app in order to incentivize shoppers to spend while in-store. In fact, in a recent survey, eMarketer found nearly two-thirds of 18- to 34-year-olds reported using their mobile phone for shopping this past holiday season, and almost half said this made their phone a faster resource for accessing information than asking a store associate.
4. Focus on Your Consumer Year-Round: Shopping holidays are high-volume revenue days for retailers, but they don't always mean repeat business. Customer loyalty is dependent on the consistent experience consumers have in your store and online – retailers need to deliver their brand experience all year long. Retailers who concept clever ways to differentiate themselves, such as express frequent shoppers’ lines or loyalty programs, will find retail success year-round. Some stores are experimenting with pop-up stores, flash sales and/or tailored events to appeal to new prospects. Big-ticket retailers can benefit from in-store promotional events that offer a rich, multimedia and interactive experiential component to drive store traffic. Additionally, for big-ticket retailers, design services and email marketing tactics can play a key role in keeping your customers engaged year round.

With big-ticket retail, the focus is going to be inherently local, as consumers often want to touch and feel the big-ticket items they are going to purchase. By focusing on creating a cohesive brand experience from site to store, enhancing convenience and providing a superior customer experience, big-ticket retailers can turn showrooming prospects into satisfied, loyal customers.

What do you think? Join the discussion on our Facebook page.

2013 is a year – when you were a kid, picking dates unimaginably far away – that might have been the founding year of your Lego moon colony, the birthday of a future hero or the expiration date of a seemingly permanent galactic treaty.

When I Uber, use Nike+ or email from 34,378 feet, it feels a bit like the future. Things once cumbersome have become easy – they feel clean, simple and efficient, like the future we imagined in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Is an iPad so different from a Tricorder? I think much of Apple’s market cap comes from the fact that it’s one of the few companies that looks and feels like the future. Forget that (Maps, Lighting) and watch out below.

Retail’s challenge – make the messy elegant

While experiences like hailing a cab have been transformed, the messiness that is retail has a way to go. In many ways, it’s messier now than ever. Shopper interactions with stores continue to expand in scope, channels and expectation. 

Morgan’s 3 Key E-Commerce Trends to Watch in 2012 were dead on – highlighting new devices and channels, as well as the need to maintain an experience across these multiplying mediums. Brick and mortar retailers, only a few decades ago able to count on the ritual of “shopping” to drive their traffic, are challenged to adapt. Their real challenge is to streamline this complexity into a modern, clean, relevant experience. Can Ron Johnson bring the future from Apple to JCP? It will be fascinating to watch.
 

2013 – Trees > Forest

2013 feels like the year that the factionalized retail trends of the past few years will start to harmonize. Chasing the latest widget, device or channel will evolve to a holistic view of brand delivery, understanding consumers’ needs and meeting those needs consistently across mediums. 

Three specific trends to keep an eye on in 2013 and beyond:

Ubiquity – Can we count (and scrap) the terms used to describe the ways shoppers and retailers interact? Distinctions between e-, multi-, omni-, digital and physical commerce will collapse, as former pure plays like Amazon build massive physical infrastructure and retailers like Williams-Sonoma consolidate stores in favor of online. 

2013 may be the year we finally start to treat stores as just another brand delivery method. The question for retailers in the past has been “do I need an online/mobile/social presence for my stores?” The question of the future is “do I need stores to deliver my brand?” Some categories (like furniture) will continue find stores useful. Other categories won’t. In either case, the days of stores being the default, requisite method of delivering a brand feel long gone.  

Back to Brands – Just as ubiquity will replace channel focus, a holistic approach to brand will replace digitally limited ideas like “user experience”. Where retailers have been looking at online and social as a way to express their store brands online, they are starting to look at what their brand means – regardless of channel – and how that can best be delivered. New entrants start with brand, and only embrace the channels that can deliver it. 

It’s those retailers that have a strong sense of brand and brand delivery that are winning in retail today. That clarity of purpose drives efficiency in their decisions online and off, and is a beacon to consumers looking for simple, cohesive solutions in a messy landscape.

All Aboard – Laggard industries will continue to be transformed, either by upstart entrants or forward-looking incumbents. If Uber can transform messy municipal markets like taxis, is there any market that “can’t” go online? 

Winners and losers in these markets will be determined by who has the assets to deliver the brand experiences people want. In some cases, those assets will be digital, others physical. Particularly interesting will be markets like furniture, where incumbents have massive advantages in brand delivery, and are finally bringing them to bear in a $70B market.

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2012 was an unimaginably great year at Blueport. 2013 looks to be even more so as we continue to work with our retailers to deliver their brands online and recreate our own brand, Furniture.com. We’re looking forward to looking back with you on what will be a fascinating, fantastic year.

Blueport Commerce’s Bob Howland shares his retail e-commerce experience and why he thinks big-ticket retail is the next big thing.

What sparked your interest in e-commerce?

I think e-commerce is all about being customer-centric. In many ways, I felt pre-wired to e-commerce even before I was specifically engaged in e-commerce roles. All of my experiences in the past – whether driving customer segmentation at AMEX, competitive differentiation at GE, or brand management at J&J – were about engaging customers how they want, where they want, and when they want. The focus on end-to-end customer experience was the same across these roles and translated well to e-commerce. 

What led you to GSI?

At Vanguard in the late ‘90s, I led a charge to move the mutual fund giant from being an inbound call center to embracing the internet as a way to educate and engage retail investors. Vanguard became one of the first investment firms to enable transactions online, which was transformational for the business and the industry.  

I was enamored by how the internet transformed customer-centricity, as well as the huge branding implications for businesses. I wanted to find a company that was completely focused on the digital space with a branding and commerce focus. GSI Commerce was a natural fit as a high growth company that served as an end-to-end e-commerce provider for leading retailers. 

How did you help GSI grow to a $1B+ company? 

My expertise is centered on optimizing businesses and the customer experience. At GSI, I saw a significant opportunity to grow our current clients’ businesses as well as expand our offerings to become a more valuable partner to our clients. 

The initial successes were two-fold: 

1. First, we developed our digital marketing services capabilities. Our retail partners were already strong in offline marketing, such as weekly flyers to drive in-store traffic. So, GSI focused on the areas they needed help – online marketing – to drive dramatic increases in site traffic and overall sales.
    
2. Second, we focused on the omnichannel experience. A company’s website is often the hub for their brand. It’s always accessible and available whenever the consumer wants to touch the brand, and gets far more visibility than any other marketing vehicle (often more than ALL other marketing vehicles combined). Helping retailers fully maximize the web, not simply as their online store, but more broadly as an omnichannel tool brought huge dividends to our clients. 

Ultimately, companies such as GSI and Blueport live and breathe e-commerce every day, just as retailers do with their core store businesses. The value that we provide to our clients is the ability to bring the omnichannel opportunity to life and develop a roadmap for maximizing the opportunity. I’ve seen this approach succeed time and time again whether it is apparel, home décor, electronics, or food. Big-ticket retail has a huge opportunity to replicate this success.

Why Blueport and big-ticket?

I was looking for the right opportunity to engage with an organization, but had specific criteria for the business model fit and long-term vision. Furniture is the last $1B+ e-commerce opportunity left. And, for good reason. It’s hard to sell furniture online and drive the type of customer experience that has become standard to online retail shopping. Why? The biggest difference is the end-to-end experience and the many challenges around delivery of big-ticket items, such as sofas into homes. I think Blueport has the will, experience, and technology platform to work with our clients to create a positive and remarkable end-to-end customer experience for furniture, as Zappos did for shoes. This is the vision that Blueport and its client base share, and why I ultimately came on board.

What is it going to take for big-ticket to achieve success in e-commerce?

Consumer demand and technology proliferation leave no choice but for furniture retailers to adopt an omnichannel presence. But, that’s not all – we need to understand the need to provide an exceptional end-to-end customer experience. At Blueport, our mission is to help big-ticket retailers drive exceptional omnichannel experiences in order to optimize both online and offline sales. We want retail partners who believe in delivering these “wow” experiences and the incredible untapped growth opportunity embedded within them. 

Fun fact: 61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision according to Econsultancy, making them essential for e-commerce websites. Benefits include optimized SEO, increased conversion rates, improved customer trust, an uplift in sales and more engaged customers. Blueport Commerce, the only e-commerce technology and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, always encourages our clients to implement reviews on their websites in order to ultimately increase revenue. Here's a look at the benefits of customer reviews, and the numbers behind them.

1. UGC is Good for SEO

User generated content such as product reviews can act as a magnet to crawling search engines like Google and Bing. Because consumers are regularly writing reviews on their purchases, the content is fresh, relevant and updated – just what search engines love. Additionally, consumers often search for the name of the product plus the word "review" or "ratings", which helps with long tail keyword searches. When properly formatted reviews get pulled into search results –for example, with the star ratings or headlines, these rich snippets can produce a 10-20% increase in click-through rates.

2. Trust!

Not surprisingly, consumer reviews are trusted nearly 12 times more than descriptions that come from manufacturers, according to a survey of US internet users by online video review site EXPO. In a Reevoo study, 30% of potential consumers actually suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see any negative reviews on a retailer's website. Additionally, consumers who go out of their way to read bad reviews convert 67% more than the average consumer. So just by having reviews, even with a mixed amount of positive and negative, a big-ticket retail e-commerce website can cause consumers to place more trust in their products and customer service.

3. Sales!

Every big-ticket retailer's ultimate goal is to drive revenue. And reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales according to Reevoo. Site visitors who interact with both reviews and customer questions and answers are 105% more likely to purchase while visiting, and spend 11% more than visitors who don’t interact with user-generated content, per Bazaarvoice. So by keeping your browsing shoppers engaged with the reviews on your site, you can increase your likelihood of getting them to convert to paying customers.

Blueport encourages all of our clients to implement product reviews on their e-commerce websites and to also actively encourage consumers to leave product reviews, both via emails sent a certain amount of time post-purchase, as well as on product pages. In the end, it can be the difference between a lost opportunity and a closed sale.

Last week, we examined the record-breaking success of e-commerce over US Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2012, and their worldwide impact. This week we examine the numbers and impact of Cyber Monday 2012. As the only e-commerce platform, technology, and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, Blueport Commerce breaks down the Cyber Monday 2012 holiday numbers to uncover trends and insights relevant to big-ticket retailers.

Numbers are courtesy of MultiChannel Merchant/IBM's Cyber Monday Report; ITProPortal’s Black Friday 2012 Results: $1bn Milestone Hit as Online Spending Soars, But Cyber Monday Nets Even More; Internet Retailer’s A Robust Weekend for E-Retail; The Retail Email Blog’s Alert: Record-Setting Cyber Monday Propels 5-Day Weekend Email Volume to All-Time High and MarketWatch’s Bari Furniture Reports 62% Increase for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday

Sure, the term "Cyber Monday" may feel antiquated, but the concept is current enough to be embraced by the millions of people who didn't feel like hitting the local malls or stores to wait in line for hours. Let's face it: shopping from the comfort of your desk, whether at work or at home in your pajamas, is a lot less stressful than braving the crowds and hitting local stores. And online shoppers in the United States agreed, to the tune of $1.465 billion spent on Cyber Monday, making the day the most lucrative ever for e-retailers per comScore Inc. (Internet Retailer). Some more intriguing overall statistics include:

Cyber Monday 2012 Vs. Cyber Monday 2011

• Shopping Peaks at 11:25 am EST: Consumers flocked online, with shopping momentum hitting its highest peak at 11:25 am EST (IBM).
• Mobile Shopping and Mobile Traffic Increase: On Cyber Monday more than 18 percent of consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, an increase of more than 70 percent over 2011. Mobile sales reached close to 13 percent, an increase of more than 96 percent over 2011 (IBM).
• The iPad Factor: The iPad continued to generate more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, driving more than 7 percent of online shopping. The iPad also continued to dominate tablet traffic reaching a holiday high of 90.5 percent (IBM).
• Multiscreen Shopping: Consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Overall 58.1 percent of consumers who were in a store used smartphones compared to 41.9 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Cyber Monday (IBM).
• Social Sales: Shoppers referred from Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube generated 0.41 percent of all online sales on Cyber Monday, a decrease of more than 26 percent from 2011 (IBM).

Blueport Cyber Monday tip: Save the best for last. Black Friday traffic was high for all websites across the world, with traffic from people scoping out deals. However, a big-ticket retailer’s best deals should be saved for Cyber Monday, which had the highest conversions, with people buying online at more than double the rate of Black Friday.

“Despite some news reports suggesting that Cyber Monday might be declining in importance, the day has once again set an online spending record at nearly $1.5 billion,” says comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “However, it is also clear that the holiday promotional period has begun even earlier this year, with strong online sales occurring on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Now, we shall see the extent to which continuing and attractive retailer promotions are able to boost sales for the remainder of the week.”

Now what about furniture? In a trend that foreshadows the ROI potential of taking your big-ticket retail items online with e-commerce, home goods continued to grow, reporting a 26.8 percent increase in sales from Cyber Monday 2011 (IBM). Additionally, Bari Furniture, an online and brick and mortar retailer specializing in Leather Furniture, said that Black Friday and Cyber Monday produced record sales, with Black Friday sales up 59% over 2011 and Cyber Monday sales hitting an all-time record with a 64% increase (MarketWatch).

"As our selection broadens, reviews from our customers tell us that year over year growth will continue to expand for niche sites like ours that focus so closely on service, selection and value," President Tom Tilaro said.

Blueport experienced this phenomenon firsthand. One of our clients, TheRoomPlace, had their best-ever online sales day on Cyber Monday, lifting their revenue 14% from 2011. Another one of Blueport's clients, Leon's Furniture of Canada, experienced a 380% increase in revenue on Cyber Monday compared to their daily average sales. The best part of this? Leon's is actually a long-time Canadian retailer, where Thanksgiving is celebrated the month prior, meaning that Cyber Monday is truly becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

Between the success of big-ticket retail's predecessor of home goods and furniture over the holiday weekend, as well as the increased overall spending by consumers via e-commerce, Blueport Commerce remains committed to furniture as the next big category to go online.

As the 2012 Thanksgiving-Black Friday-Cyber Monday e-tailing season is behind us and we look to the December holiday season, big-ticket e-commerce retailers who sent early emails (early in both time of day sent and in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday) reaped the best rewards. Knowing that December is often the splashiest and most profitable holiday season, it’s a best practice to promote sales early and often to your loyal email subscribers and social media followers, as well as offer pre-holiday deals to your VIP customers.

Miss our Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday 2012 breakdown? Check it out here.

Even if the Grinch was an e-commerce retailer, he'd be forced to smile after the close of a landmark 2012 Thanksgiving holiday weekend. By all accounts, from Thanksgiving Thursday to Black Friday to Cyber Monday and everything in between, 2012 was a wildly successful holiday e-retailing period. And retailers have a lot for which to be thankful.

As the only e-commerce platform, technology and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, Blueport Commerce breaks down the Thanksgiving 2012 holiday numbers to uncover trends and insights relevant to big-ticket retailers in a two-part series. Part one looks at Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday; Cyber Monday will be covered in part two.

Numbers are courtesy of IBM's Black Friday Report 2012; comScore’s Black Friday Billion: Kick-Off to Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Season Surges Past $1 Billion in E-Commerce Spending for the First Time; ITProPortal’s Black Friday 2012 Results: $1bn Milestone Hit as Online Spending Soars, But Cyber Monday Nets Even More; Internet Retailer’s E-Commerce Sales Rise 17.4% on Thanksgiving Day; SearchEngineWatch’s Black Friday E-Commerce Sales Set $1 Billion Record, 2012 Holiday Online Sales Strong; and The Retail Email Blog’s More Retailers Sent Email on Thanksgiving Than Black Friday.

Thanksgiving Day

• Strong Gains Overall: Thanksgiving Day saw strong gains on the e-commerce front, with a 32 percent year-over-year increase in online spending bringing the total for that holiday to $633 million (SearchEngineWatch).
• Promotional Email Frenzy: On Thanksgiving, more than 83% of major online retailers sent their subscribers at least one promotional email, setting an all-time record for the day. In 2011, 75% of retailers sent their subscribers email on Thanksgiving; in 2010, 60% did; and in 2009, just 45% did (Retail Email Blog).
• Record-Shattering Web Traffic: Visits to retail web sites broke records, with Akamai Technologies Inc. reporting a peak of 7.63 million page views per minute from North American consumers to the websites of its retail clients at 8:55 p.m. Eastern Time on Thanksgiving Day (Internet Retailer).

Blueport's tip: It's never too early to start promoting discounts or special offers. Don't feel limited to just Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. And don’t think furniture has no place in these sales – it’s about more than just gifts. Even if people are buying for themselves, early awareness of deep discounts is critical to drive big-ticket online purchases. And US Thanksgiving has started to be recognized (at least for e-commerce) in Canada, with Blueport client Leon’s of Canada experiencing a traffic surge, with a visitor increase of 360% from US Thanksgiving Day 2011.This proves that Thanksgiving is now recognized outside of the US as a major e-commerce event.

Black Friday

While Black Friday traditionally conjures up images of overly caffeinated shoppers bundled up in multiple layers of clothes, camping out overnight at their favorite retail stores the night before stores open, an increasing number of consumers prefer to do all of their Black Friday shopping online. According to comScore, Black Friday saw over $1 billion in e-commerce sales for the first time ever, and a 26 percent increase versus Black Friday 2011.

“Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel – particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. “With Black Friday online sales up 26 percent and surpassing $1 billion for the first time, coupled with early reports indicating that Black Friday sales in retail stores were down 1.8 percent, we can now confidently call it a multi-channel marketing phenomenon.”

• Social Sales: Shoppers referred from Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube generated .34 percent of all online sales on Black Friday, a decrease of more than 35 percent from 2011 (IBM).
• Mobile & Tablet Shopping: Mobile purchases (including tablet) soared with 24 percent of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, up from 14.3 percent in 2011. Mobile sales exceeded 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent in 2011. The iPad not only dominated the tablet shoppers with 88.3% of share, it reached nearly 10 percent of all online shopping (IBM).
• Multiscreen Shopping: Consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Of the people already in a physical store, 58 percent of these consumers used smartphones compared to 41 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains while in-store on Black Friday (IBM).
• Brick-and-Mortar Sales Down: As the internet rises, in-store sales were down 1.8 per cent despite slightly improved year-on-year foot traffic amounting to 308 million visits to bricks-and-mortar retail outlets (ShopperTrak via ITProPortal).

Blueport Black Friday tip: The lack of influence of social media is surprising; particularly that it was down from 2011. While we encourage our retailers to keep an active social media presence, it's important to always link to either appropriate sale items or the homepage, allowing viewers to see upcoming promotions. And Black Friday certainly proves the importance of having a mobile-optimized website, if not a mobile app in addition, to encourage active shoppers to engage with your brand and, most importantly, transact.

Blueport client TheRoomPlace had its highest traffic of the year on Black Friday, doubling their traffic from four weeks prior. And Black Friday even hit Canada, with Leon’s increasing their visitors 33% from Black Friday 2011, proving that Black Friday is now recognized outside of the US.  

Blueport Commerce and our clients are thrilled with the increase in e-commerce purchases of the 2012 Thanksgiving holiday season. While Thanksgiving and Black Friday have traditionally been thought of as in-store retail events, this year’s online spending numbers prove that more and more consumers are moving to an e-commerce model for the convenience, discounts, and promotions.

Let us know – did you see improvements – or disappointments – during these two days?

Part two of this series next week will examine Cyber Monday 2012’s numbers and trends.

It is inevitable that any retailer in the e-commerce space will aspire to be the success story that is Amazon, no matter how unrealistic that dream may be. As an e-commerce site that was born in 1994 as a seller of used books, Amazon has morphed into a Goliath in the industry, becoming the dominant retailing marketplace for products ranging from books to electronics to food. With its low prices, rapid delivery and huge inventory, Amazon poses a threat to retailers in all industries.

“It is coming down to convenience, assortment and price,” said the operator of a Los Angeles area consumer electronics retailer to HFN. “And Amazon is beating us on all three fronts.”

However, there are steps furniture retailers can take to counteract Amazon.com before they find themselves floundering like former retail giant Best Buy. We at Blueport Commerce, the only e-commerce technology and services company that localizes furniture online, have our retailers place an emphasis on service, product knowledge and convenience to ensure customer loyalty and retention.

1. Service

While Amazon is known for their accommodating customer service, our clients can actually benefit from showrooming, which extends a personalized touch that Amazon itself can't offer. Shoppers in a brick-and-mortar store may be tempted to see, touch and feel a piece of furniture they like, and then immediately try to find it for less online on their mobile device. With the help of experienced, knowledgeable salespeople in the brick-and-mortar store, as well as an e-commerce website optimized for mobile, plus a mobile app, furniture retailers can turn showrooming from a lost opportunity into a closed sale by keeping the buyer on their brand's site. Additionally, offering iPad and touch tablets loaded with inventory information as well as allowing store consumers to experience online checkout while in their store, can reach more connected consumers. 

Kathee Tesija, Target’s executive vice president of merchandising and supply chain, said it best when she said, “Do we love being a showroom? Yes, when we can book the sale.”

And we at Blueport Commerce are confident that in this case, our clients can book the sale.

2. Product Knowledge

Currently, Bed, Bath & Beyond is one retailer most at risk of losing out to Amazon. “Our work suggests there is 89 percent direct product overlap with Amazon in kitchen electrics, 83 percent in cookware and 83 percent in cutlery, all key traffic-driving categories,” said Matt Nemer, retail analyst with Wells Fargo.

Bed, Bath & Beyond is responding by changing its merchandise mix toward more exclusive products, mirroring that of Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Pier 1 Imports, who are less vulnerable to Amazon due to name cachet and exclusive products. Bed, Bath & Beyond now has its own specialty food, as well as home textiles. In a similar vein, by offering a strong range of one-of-a-kind, name-brand products, as well as having a plethora of information about each product available both online and in-store, furniture retailers can benefit from consumers who aren't just price shopping, but are looking for durable and stylish furniture and appliances that last. 

3. Convenience

Bed, Bath & Beyond, which currently receives only 3 percent of their total sales from e-commerce, has invested heavily in improving their website and opening an 800,000-square-foot e-commerce fulfillment center in Georgia. Convenience-based improvements they are exploring include in-store pickups and returns on e-commerce purchases, identical pricing on merchandise between stores and online, more exclusives and increased private label. Like Bed, Bath & Beyond, furniture retailers who can most successfully merge the in-store and online e-commerce experiences to result in the most seamless, customer-centric experience possible will succeed. 

“Having a unique product mix, backed by a strong knowledge of the products and consumer needs, will definitely help smaller brick and mortar retailers hold off Amazon,” said Alan Mendelson, a business reporter based in Los Angeles.

Our retailers who offer quality service, a deep product knowledge and convenient ways for customers to shift between digital and physical channels are the stores who will survive as Amazon continues its rapid growth. 

As all consumers know, 'tis the season to be thankful, merry and wise – especially when shopping! And from a big-ticket retailers' perspective, it's more crucial than ever that social media be part of any e-commerce marketing campaign. No longer just for individuals, social media actually affects consumer holiday spending – for example, in 2011, 66% of Black Friday purchases resulted from social media interactions (Fast Company). Here are three ways you can make your social marketing as seasonally appropriate as possible.

1. Be Responsive

Responding in a timely manner and encouraging social sharing are critical to retail chains' success. A recent survey by Fast Company found that brands only respond to half of the posts on their social media pages. This is problematic, as 80% of users who receive a response will end up purchasing. Additionally, when a brand actively communicates with its social media followers, 28% of them will pull the trigger on a purchase specifically because of that outreach. Prioritizing real-time engagement with social media fans, aka your potential consumers, can monetize your social media investment. While this is important to keep in mind every day of the year, with the heightened activity during the holiday, a fast response could make or break the sale.

2. Don't Be Too Sales-Centric

Consumers are consistently bombarded by holiday season retail advertisements, offers and promotions. YesMail's holiday marketing survey found that campaigns aimed strongly on getting consumers to buy showed below-average engagement, while messages about holiday spirit performed much better.

"Consumers are oversaturated with holiday messages this time of year,” said Michael Fisher, president of Yesmail. "Brands have to be especially careful about not being overly promotional during the holidays, even though customers are increasingly turning to social channels to find deals."

It's important that retailers are not viewed as too pushy. When in doubt, focus on what the holiday spirit means, not pushing big-ticket retail product. An example might be a big-ticket furniture retailer sending a regularly-scheduled promotional email about the in-laws visiting during the holidays and the importance of making them feel comfortable in your guest room, while featuring a relevant bedroom collection.

3. Encourage a Social Dialogue

Facebook's mission is to "give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected." Likewise, Twitter's is to "instantly connect people everywhere to what's most important to them." Social media networks were initially concepted on the idea that people could be friends digitally, and share things that matter to them – including brands. Think of your organization as a "friend" in the sense that while obviously the bottom line ROI matters, it's key that your social media channels are seen as approachable, helpful and timely – especially at this time of year. How can you encourage a better social dialogue?

• Enable content that's easily shareable: keep your tweets and Facebook statuses concise, so they can be easily retweeted and shared.
• Similar to young children on Christmas Eve, holiday spirit never sleeps! Timing matters – schedule holiday posts for off-hours. A YesMail survey recently found almost 60% of consumers prefer to interact with brands on social media between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., but the majority of brands run social campaigns during office hours (Business News Daily).
• For added holiday spirit, run a holiday-themed promotion, contest or offer on Facebook or Twitter via a third-party app to grow your fanbase and increase virality.

Since May 2012, consumer spending on durable goods, which includes big-ticket items such as cars, washing machines and televisions, climbed 3.6% (Benzinga). As the only e-commerce technology and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, Blueport Commerce wishes both retailers and consumers a joyful holiday retail season, spurred by a flurry of timely, helpful and friendly social media activity.

Did you know Canadians lead the world in online engagement, with users spending an average of 45 hours online a month? Consumers in Canada are heavily engaged in social media channels, as well as online search and banking. In 2010, 8 out of 10 Canadian households (79%) had access to the internet, and over one-half of connected households used more than one type of device to go online.

Yet in contrast, Canada's internet economy is expected to grow by 7.4% a year through 2016, better than the country's overall GDP, but still lagging many global peers. And shockingly, only 1% of retail expenditures in Canada are from online transactions, compared to 8% in the United States. Compared to similarly connected nations, eMarketer notes that product assortment, payment paths and the number of online operators still lag in Canada’s e-commerce ecosystem.

So with all of these connected Canadians, one would think the consumer demand for e-commerce is there, yet the retailers aren’t. Why the disconnect? Blueport Commerce, the only e-commerce technology and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, examines some of the reasons for e-commerce’s failure to thrive in Canada.

Lack of Government Support

The federal government could do a lot more to create incentives for the internet economy to take off, said Tawfik Hammoud, partner and managing director at BCG who worked with Google on a study on Canadian e-commerce. Hammoud points to the governments of South Korea and Australia as examples of countries that worked to get e-commerce up and running.

“Canada needs a bit of a shot in the arm to get its e-economy growing going forward and if we don't do that we'll probably lose even more in terms of the ranking,” said Hammoud.

Canadian businesses are investing 40% less in information and communications technologies, or about $2,400 less per worker, than American businesses, according to Canadian Business. This means potential vendors struggle to justify the expense of building out a channel and lack the tools to overcome the challenges.

Selection, Payment & Technology Options Lag Behind

Canada is currently lacking the large presence of small online retailers that the US has. Although 71% of small businesses purchase products online, only 18% actually sell products online. And in order for a consumer to get the selection they want, they are often forced to shop for products from other countries, such as the US or the UK. There are hefty import and tax fees involved for Canadians that choose to purchase from other countries online using a credit card. For example, a $30 shirt imported from the United States could cost as much as $58 after taxes and fees. The inflated price makes many Canadian consumers decide to visit their local brick-and-mortar retailer rather than order it online, even if they can locate the product for less online (before fees and taxes).

Even in-country Canadian credit card transaction costs are prohibitively high for Canadian merchants. Per CBC News, merchants pay two to four percent of the sale price in various transaction fees whenever they accept a credit card for payment. Money first goes to the credit card network (Visa or MasterCard in the vast majority of cases), the company that processes the payments and the merchant's bank. A Bank of Canada survey looked at the estimated cost of processing a $36.50 transaction, which was the median cash transaction in its survey. Costs broke down like this:

• Debit card: 19 cents
• Cash: 25 cents
• Credit card: 82 cents

Additionally the provincial tax system has been cited as an obstacle – in Canada, different provinces have different retail taxes and it is an onerous compliance burden for businesses to attempt to follow all of the rules, leading to less interest in e-commerce. 

And finally, with Canada being a smaller country, there is a lack of capital for funding the necessary expenditures on new technologies needed to drive e-commerce. With telecommunications, for example, this problem is further exacerbated by foreign ownership restrictions. The cost of implementing an e-commerce platform is high and many retailers are unable to currently accept online payments.

Shipping Challenges

Canada’s low population density makes shipping difficult and highly expensive for retailers – and that gets passed down to the consumers. The result is Canadians tend to research products online, but not actually make purchases via the internet, unlike Americans. Additionally, the poor showing of e-commerce as only 1% of Canada’s annual retail expenditures may also be affected by Canadians who shop online but from US retailers who ship north of the border, thus their e-commerce spending is reflected in the US’s annual retail expenditures, rather than Canada’s.

A Brighter Future

However, there is hope on the horizon. Large Canada-based retailers have begun to compete with US-based Canadian operators such as Amazon, online offerings have begun to expand, and creative solutions to supply chain difficulties have been implemented. One of Blueport Commerce's success stories, Leon's Furniture, has worked for five years to bring their furniture, electronics and appliance sales online. Their e-commerce revenue now holds its own against their physical store locations. And Canadians’ noted preference for going to brick-and-mortar stores to shopping online could work to big-ticket retailers’ advantage. Because of the consumer’s need to oftentimes see the furniture in a physical showroom, Blueport Commerce is able to localize the big-ticket retailer experience, creating an integrated shopping experience. This also applies to shipping, with consumers entering their Canadian postal code to allow for their local supply and local delivery, cutting down on shipping costs. With eMarketer predicting $35 billion in e-commerce spending by Canadians in 2016, it’s in Canada’s best interest to incentivize Canadian retailers to get their big-ticket retail items online.

Related posts:

• Move Over Omni-Channel Retailing, It’s Time for a Little Soul
• E-Commerce Leads to Smarter Brick and Mortar Retail
• Canadian Consumers Are Waiting for You Online