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!

Did you know? 

Total online sales are set to skyrocket to $327 billion by 2016, up from $200 billion in 2011. Furniture retailers can take advantage of this remaining billion dollar e-commerce opportunity, now more than ever. Blueport Commerce offers two ways to help our furniture retailers sell online, tailored specifically for their unique business challenges and allowing them to focus on what they do best – run their brick and mortar storefronts. Blueport Commerce offers the opportunity to sell products on the ultimate furniture destination with furniture.com, or take stores omnichannel on the best online furniture platform on the business. What's better? If it's hard to decide, there's always an option to do both. Interested? Check out our infographic below and give us a call. Click here to download a PDF.  

 

While many of us avid shoppers can attest to the immense benefits of shopping online, it may be a surprise that shopping online for furniture is just climbing the crest of its opportunity for retail e-commerce. According to Google/Compete [note: link loads PDF], for shoppers, the path to purchase is all about the right method, products, price and selection that will influence how they buy furniture online. Here’s how furniture retailers can take advantage of the furniture shopper path to purchase.

Online Is a Tool for the Entire Furniture Shopping Pipeline

While furniture shopping is averaging just an increase of 5% unique visits year-over-year, shoppers are behaving all over the map. Furniture retailers have a huge opportunity to capture shoppers at all stages of conversion online. For example, only one in four furniture buyers purchase online but those that do purchase online tend to spend more than those who purchase offline – the average price paid by furniture purchasers who shopped online was $657 versus $600 for those who didn’t. Two-thirds of these buyers who purchase in-store access the internet for furniture information. That’s 66% of shoppers who are just trying to learn more to help their ultimate purchase, whether online or in a retail store!

Omnichannel Is Right On

Marketing to shoppers through omnichannel efforts is not just to satisfy e-commerce buzzwords – omnichannel is a true tenant of what makes furniture retailers reap the benefits of selling furniture online. In-store buyers rely heavily on retail sites while shopping – 76% of them on furniture store sites. These buyers also cast a wide net while shopping online, with 63% of purchasers visiting multiple furniture brand sites prior to purchase.

In addition, shoppers have specific requirements for furniture that influences purchase, among them style (82%), material (81%), durability (81%), and size (80%). With all of these considerations being made by shoppers both online and off, it’s critically important for furniture retailers to engage shoppers wherever they are in their purchase cycle and through multiple channels.

Mobile Continues to Catch Waves

Mobile and tablets are still increasingly important sources for online furniture shoppers. 13% use a tablet to access furniture information, while 12% use their mobile. While these numbers don’t yet represent the majority of those studied, trends still suggest that mobile and tablets are poised for growth in the coming years for e-commerce. In addition, Blueport’s brick and mortar retailers can count themselves as sites that furniture shoppers visit:

• Furniture-only retail sites (39%)
• Home furnishing sites (40%)
• Online-only retail websites (41%)
• Department store websites (44%)

Furniture retailers that can take full advantage of online commerce, while integrating with their brick and mortar stores and mobile, are poised to seize the billion dollar opportunity ahead of them. And Blueport Commerce is riding the wave right along with them, by helping furniture retailers implement a full-service solution that meets the unique, localized needs of selling furniture online.

According to a recent report from Forrester Research, 2013 will be a trendsetting year for consumer payments. Blueport Commerce examines how furniture retailers can take advantage and the implications of three key trends: innovative versus existing payment options, the digital wallet battle for supremacy, and alternative financial services for underserved customers.

Emerging Payment Models Will Disrupt Existing Payment Structures Among Merchants

Forrester predicts that emerging payment models are expected to disrupt traditional payment economics. For example, “merchants have a growing set of payment options that do not adhere to the traditional interchange or processing fee model.” A handful of these new options could come at a lower cost than old-school payment options and at a bigger ROI for both consumers and retailers. The new emerging payment technologies include mobile digital wallets and startups offering free or low cost payment processing. Furthermore, Forrester states that merchants will reset their expectations for lower costs and greater value from incumbent payment service providers.

Customers Require Differentiation Among Digital Wallets

Forrester’s second trend involves the need for digital wallet providers to stand out from the crowd. In January 2013, Juniper Research predicted that more than 1 billion mobile phone users will have used their mobile devices for banking purposes by the end of 2017, compared to just over 590 million this year. This forecast represents around 15 percent of the mobile subscriber base.

And as digital wallet wars continue (players include Square, PayPal, Google Wallet, Isis, and MasterPass, among others), the contenders who truly solve a user pain point, especially through mobile, will emerge on top. For example, MasterPass simply requires consumers to download an app, and scan the barcode, which adds their product to a shopping cart. At checkout, the consumer just taps the “BUY WITH MasterPass” button on the touchscreen. Soon enough, gone will be the days of waiting in line, carrying multiple credit cards, and consumers are in control of how and when they pay.

Emerging Alternative Financial Services Will Help the Underserved Consumers

The third trend Forrester sees is that emerging alternative financial services will appeal to a broad base of consumers. More plentiful payment options for e-commerce retailers start to become attractive to a set base of underserved consumers who might be “unbanked, underbanked and debanked.” Merchants who look to create fast and simple conversion of cash for digital payments will be able to appeal to other sectors of the population, and compete head-to-head with checking accounts and debit cards.

Advantages for Furniture Retailers: In Store & Online

Brick and mortar furniture retailers can take advantage of offering new payment methods to satisfy their customers’ needs for speed and ease – taking the pain out of “waiting in line” and paying automatically with the click of a button. The convenience of these new payment methods to the online channel is that they help integrate omnichannel store to online efforts and offer a competitive difference among other online retailers. The combination of providing easy and fast ways for customers to shop, whether in store or online, can positively impact conversion.

In addition, for e-commerce furniture retailers these emerging payment options offer an enhanced level of security. Sensitive information, like a MasterCard through MasterPass, is stored online through smartphones, tablets or desktops, eliminating concerns about physical card security, complete with fraud checking and other online security methods. By taking security concerns out of the equation, “We want to let consumers choose their own device, and we’ve built the platform to enable that,” says Ed Olebe, SVP & group head at MasterCard Worldwide.

So no matter what payment method is offered – emerging trends in consumer payments are here to stay and furniture merchants and consumers alike can take advantage of innovative payment methods.

Going beyond social networking to social influence is critical to success for retailers in 2013. According to Econsultancy, using social media to its full potential influences consumer purchases, and goes beyond just brand promotion: it takes advantage tools to succeed and increase conversion in the social sphere. Follow these tips to move the social needle away from being part of the crowd to being the crowd-source. 

Tip #1: Location, Location, Location

Here at Blueport, we preach a localized e-commerce experience for furniture retail that allows shoppers to get their pieces just that much quicker while maintaining quality and a fair price. Online, shoppers behave similarly when they shop around a brick-and-mortar store. If something doesn’t stand out to them or they just happen to not pass by that area of the show room (in this case, a website’s landing page), there’s a lost conversion opportunity.

For social media influence, location is important. People interact and share information when the opportunity presents itself, so make social media work harder for you and make it easier for people to talk about your brand and merchandise. How? Strategically locate your social media channels all over your website to allow for greater interaction and influence for your brand and merchandise. Victoria’s Secret has been able to garner the highest Facebook presence because its landing page connects to more social media and works with multiple devices.

Tip #2: He Said, She Said Matters

Although the days of lunch room gossip are long over, no one said we still didn’t crave being in the know. Thankfully, today social media can fill the void and stay ahead of what on trend chevron pattern John Stamos has in his dining room. 63% of social media users feel consumer ratings are the number one source of information about e-commerce products,, and consumers discuss specific brands casually 90 times per week. Retailers can tap into this natural communication, but optimize it in the online space.

 

Tip #3: Give Shoppers What They Want

58% of Facebook users expect exclusive offers, events and promotions when they become fans of a Facebook page. 74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions. As if that weren’t enough, 70% of active social media users shop online and 47% of them are more likely to be heavy spenders on clothing, shoes and accessories. How can furniture retailers take advantage of this influence online? Specific, exclusive offers help, but it’s also about communicating your brand promise, tailoring your merchandise to your fan demographic and using the data captured to provide insight into your merchandise selection.

Social influence for e-commerce is all about spending just the right amount of time with a few other tips and tricks to make the most of what is offered. Oh and by the way, we’d love to hear from you: @blueportdotcom on Twitter, BlueportCommerce on Facebook and also on LinkedIn. #longliveecommerce

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.

*          *          *

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.

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

Part of being a smart retailer is recognizing the need to drive traffic, both online and to your physical stores. But to be a successful omnichannel retailer, you must use your digital presence to drive traffic to stores, and store traffic to digital, including your social media sites. According to comScore, users spend 1 in 7 minutes online on Facebook. And per State of Search, Twitter has over 100 million active users. So if you aren't promoting your in-store events online via your social media channels, you're not doing all you can to drive traffic to your event. At Blueport Commerce, we're an e-commerce platform and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, and we recommend a multichannel strategy for retailers that involves leveraging social media in the following ways to promote in-store events.

1. Use all social media channels available. In order to reach the largest audience possible, make sure you use all social media channels in which your audience participates. Some of these might include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn, as well as any niche social media groups of which you are a member. It's important to remember that not every consumer participates in every social media channel, so you may reach Bill only on Facebook, while Suzanne is on LinkedIn and Twitter. Additionally, remember to tailor your messaging to each channel's particular style: Facebook is a great place to use images and focus the content on sales, while Twitter will usually require a URL shortener to link to your event page, as well as a 140 character limit. Content on Twitter tends to be a short and brief call to action. If you're a part of a LinkedIn Group, you could write about your event if it has some sort of relevant charity tie-in that furthers your knowledge in your industry. Remember that social media is about engaging your audience in a discussion, versus talking at them. You could even post questions compelling them to answer, such as, "What are you most looking forward to at our Super Savings Sales Event on March 15?"

2. Regularly update your channels about your event and stay alert during and post-event. One of the sins of social media marketing is to "set it and forget it". Whenever you have news about your upcoming event (price markdowns, new inventory, special guests, contests, in-store raffles) you should update your social media channels. Just creating an event page on Facebook is not enough. You want to stay top of mind with your followers, so be sure to post a status update or tweet when you add a noteworthy element to your event. By creating a hashtag, you can stay on top of the conversations followers and others are having about your event. Another advantage is after the event, you can gather post-event feedback to help you make the next in-store event even better. You may think that once the event starts, all your social media work is done and you are home free. In fact, just the opposite - while you have successfully driven traffic to the store, it's crucial you stay on top of social media during the actual event. People may have questions while the event is happening - everything from directions to the store to what time the event ends. You want to be constantly encouraging dialogue and conversation with your followers, aligning your products with their needs. By answering questions quickly during the event, you can encourage even more traffic and add to the legitimacy of the event and your company.

3. Incentivize attendance. It's key not only to promote your event, but to make sure it's worthy of people's time to attend. The best way to get people to your event is to create special reasons for them to go, whether it's face painting or other entertainment for the kids, business card raffles or free furniture giveaways. You may also want to post teaser graphics on your Facebook wall, digital flyer links on Twitter or videos on YouTube leading up to the event, to give people a sneak peek of what to expect.

We recognize that the success of local ecommerce retailing for big-ticket items depends largely on the brick-and-mortar stores, and vice versa. As a result, we at Blueport encourage all our clients to use the free and effective social media channels available to them in order to drive attendance to in-store events and increase their in-store sales. One of our clients did just that - they had a very large in-store event and promoted it online months in advance leading up to the big day. They posted photos of the furniture and appliances that would be featured, asked engaging questions to their followers to encourage discussion, and had multiple free furniture giveaways leading up to the event, available only to their social media followers. Both during and after the event, they kept the buzz alive by posting photos of the event, people at the event and the contest winners with their new furniture. Because it was a multi-day event, it was important that they communicated during the event to get followers who may have been on the fence to attend. It led to them growing from 600 to 22,000 likes on Facebook and increasing their engagement and viral levels. Over the course of one week they reached 1.89 million people and had over 72,000 people engaged with them. And best of all, it was free and allowed them to find a whole new online fan base that translated into in-store traffic and sales.

Related posts:

• Putting the Local in SoLoMo E-Commerce
• Olympic Gold: Why E-Commerce Companies Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Social Media Either
• Retailers Win Over Consumers with Social Media and Content Cultivation
• E-Commerce Gets Fabber -- and More Social!

Yes. Yes it is. And, it’s only just beginning.

This is an exciting time at Blueport Commerce. In addition to preparing our clients for the big-ticket retail selling season (think Thanksgiving, not Christmas) we’re working on Blueport, too.

We recently completed a transaction that will take Blueport, our clients and their customers to another level of big-ticket e-commerce.   

>> We’re investing in people – we’ve already added phenomenal talent to our executive, technology and services teams, and we’re looking for more (i.e., referrals welcome)! 

>> We’re investing in our e-commerce platform technology, partnering with leading-edge players for powerful plugins as well as evolving our own big-ticket platform.

>> We’re investing in the Furniture.com brand, as a groundbreaking consumer experience in big-ticket furniture and a means to drive incremental revenue for our clients.

It was flattering, the number of parties who took an interest in our deal, but it was more gratifying to see the breadth and depth of people we met embracing big-ticket e-commerce. 

We -- and our clients -- had known for a while that there was opportunity in e-commerce beyond the ecom 1.0 “Amazon” model. The excitement around Blueport has been fantastic validation of this idea and what we’ve built together.

So – we find ourselves with new funding, resources, clients, people, technologies. New opportunities and new goals. What’s next? Just to go do it.  

We’re in the foothills of an online penetration curve in an $80B category, and we know how it will evolve. We have over a decade of expertise and the technology to transform the consumer experience in big-ticket online. We have great clients, old and new, that, with us as a partner, will prove that incumbents can win as their industry goes online. It’s all blocking and tackling now, and we’re all looking forward to it.

If you’ve read the official blog of Blueport Commerce for a while, you likely know we don’t talk about ourselves all that much. That’s one thing that probably won’t change. We’d much rather talk big-ticket e-commerce and how you can take advantage of the last big verticals to go online.  

That said, from time to time, I’ll update you on our progress. It’s going to be a fun ride.

This month, Retail Systems Research (RSR), released its report “Omni-Channel 2012: Cross-Channel Comes of Age.” This benchmark report has a number of interesting findings, including:

• Retailers now understand that consumers use multiple channels to complete a single purchase.
• All the retailers surveyed believe a single brand identity across all channels is important.
• Retailers believe consolidating customer data all channels is the most important requirement and biggest hurdle to creating a seamless customer experience.
• RSR recommends retailers focus on understanding their customers, and then a singular cross-channel strategy will come out of that.

It’s Not Just E-Commerce, It’s Digital

At Blueport Commerce, we help our big-ticket retail clients not just with e-commerce, but with their entire digital channel, which has evolved to encompass social media and mobile commerce as well. And with these clients, our ultimate goal is to help them provide customers with the best of both the digital and physical shopping experiences (or the closest approximation of the physical experience online).

The RSR report credits physical stores’ biggest advantage as being able to provide instant fulfillment. But with big-ticket items like furniture, that is often not the case. For sofas, dinettes and similar items, consumers like to be able to see and feel their items. We work with our clients to offer rich, detailed information and spectacular imagery to make the customer feel as close as they can to shopping in the store. And this in-depth content is available to shoppers using their mobile devices in-store and even to salespeople, arming them with the information they need to close sales.

We also have solutions for our retail clients that struggle with legacy systems, allowing them to offer customers up-to-date inventory and delivery information – the same they would get in-store.  We plug right into their own inventory and pricing systems, so we can display real-time local information to customers for pricing, inventory and delivery.

The Future of Retail – Online and Offline

The RSR report addresses the current shift going on in retail today. Retailing today is not just about selling the right products at the right price, but it’s about selling solutions. This requires understanding customers and their paths to purchase so you can deliver the information and product when they need it, while also allowing customers to access the information and items when and where they would like to.

At Blueport, we believe the only way to meet customers’ expectations is to complete a seamless cross-channel experience that leverages the best of each channel.

Related posts:

• With E-Commerce, How Many Physical Stores Do Retailers Really Need?
• Blueport Commerce to TJX: How to Bring Your Local Stores Online
• Online Advertising Now delivering Local Shoppers -- Is Your Website Ready for Them?
• Consistency Is Key in This Multichannel Retail World

Many luxury brands have been slow to cultivate their online presence, and even slower to integrate e-commerce capabilities. They seemed to think that the mass appeal and convenience of online shopping would dilute the value and prestige of their brands or that consumers would not be willing to pay big-ticket prices via the Web. This has been proven wrong, as research shows that wealthy people shop online more frequently and spend more per transaction. As of late, many luxury retailers have come around to see the value of the Internet for driving sales, and, even more, the value in allowing customers to transact on an e-commerce site.

According to a recent study by PM Digital, 81% of the luxury websites surveyed now have e-commerce, and the sites with e-commerce get 98% of the traffic that goes to these luxury sites. About a third of this traffic comes from search engines, and there is very little cross traffic, since luxury shoppers are very loyal to their brands. Surprisingly, only a very small amount of luxury brands’ traffic (0.29%) comes from luxury daily deals sites, like Gilt Groupe, ideeli and RueLaLa.

What Makes Luxury E-Commerce Successful?

When selling big-ticket luxury items online, however, it’s not as simple as using a plug-and-play e-commerce solution. Luxury brand customers expect a high-end boutique experience whether in-person or online. Here are some aspects to consider when selling luxury via e-commerce:

• You need to provide rich product descriptions. The more expensive an item is, the more information the consumer will want you to provide.
• Offer exceptional customer service, getting as close to what you offer in-store with a personal shopper. On the Web, that translates to online chat.
• The entire online shopping experience should be like going into one of your boutiques. Craft a strong welcome message on your home page. And then as customers drill down into products, allow them to zoom in on the images or even watch product videos – the goal is for them to handle the product, virtually.

Related posts:

• Big-Ticket E-Commerce Should Be Ready for the Holidays
• The (Unexpected) E-Commerce Advantage
• Consistency Is Key in This Multichannel Retail World
• New Insights on How Consumers Research Products and Shop Online
  

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

There was a time when some big-ticket retailers didn’t think they could cash in on the holiday shopping season, let alone such e-commerce-fueled events as Cyber Monday. But then again, there was also a time when no one expected anyone to buy anything online and computers filled entire rooms.

Whether it’s a push from e-commerce or the trend that holiday shopping starts earlier and earlier, we’ve found that big-ticket merchants, like furniture stores, which had traditionally been slow over the holidays, have been able to share in some of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday cheer.

At first, we would ask our clients what their plans were for these major dates on retail calendars, and they would often tell us they had nothing special planned. But slowly, we helped them to turn these potentially down days into big sellers with special events. For example, one of our clients began with a special Thanksgiving Day offer. It wouldn’t compete with stores, so what would be the worst that could happen? And it worked!

From exclusive email offers to Black Friday doorbusters and Christmas Day specials, our retail clients have been able to boost their fourth quarter sales. One client now mirrors the types of deals you see in retailers across the country with 12 days of deals leading up to Christmas; the big difference is our retailer is selling bigger ticket items like furniture and appliances as well as some electronics – and all three categories perform well.

So whether your big-ticket business can benefit from consumers being poised to spend over the holidays or you can take advantage of shoppers looking for great deals and not just gifts, holiday-timed offers can be a gift to your bottom line.

Related posts:

• Holiday Emails Trump Social Media
• The Big Online Opportunity for Big-Ticket Retailers This Holiday Season
  
• 'Tis the Season for Multichannel Shopping
• Keep Your E-Commerce Site on Target and Avoid Outages

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

According to comScore’s State of the US Online Retail Economy in Q2 2011, despite an increased consumer perception that the economy is getting worse, Q2 e-commerce spending was up 14% YOY. Here are some interesting findings from the recent report:

Online Shopping

E-commerce sales growth is growing at double the rate of total retail sales growth, indicating that consumers are shifting from shopping in-store to buying online. The number of online shoppers increased 16% YOY for Q2 – there are now 170 million people shopping online.

Big-ticket items like furniture, appliances and equipment have shown moderate growth of 5% to 9% YOY for Q2.

Cutting Back on Spending

Because of their economic concerns, consumers are looking to save. They are now switching brands, shopping only when items are on sale, looking for deals online and going to different retailers in order to spend less.

Get Smart About Smartphones

The number of consumers using their smartphones to browse retail content in some form is now at 78 million. 22% of smartphone owners say they have made purchases via their smartphones, 50% have used their phones to find nearby stores and 40% have used their smartphones while in a store. The top reasons for using the smartphone in-store? To compare prices or to compare an item to other items not available in the store. 36% of consumers who abandon in-store purchases after using their smartphones end up buying online instead.

Social Media Matters

Overall, retailers not taking full advantage of the opportunity social media presents. For example, retail ads only make up 15.4% of the display ads on social networking sites.

If you are looking to expand your social media presence, comScore offers insight on Facebook: Once consumers like a page, they are very unlikely to return to that page. Facebook users spend the majority of their time on the newsfeed, so what and how you post will account for much of their interactions with your brand. Fans and their Facebook friends who are exposed to your brand on Facebook via advertising and status posts have a much higher brand engagement, which includes visiting your e-commerce website.

Related posts:

• The Numbers Speak for Themselves
• E-Commerce Continues to Be a Bright Spot in the Retail Industry
• New Insights on How Consumers Research Products and Shop Online
• Talk to the Phone: Shoppers Prefer Interacting with Their Smartphones Than with Store Staff

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Earlier this month, when Groupon’s first big-ticket deal for $199 for $500 toward a new car at a Detroit area dealership failed, it didn’t only make for amusing headlines (“Groupon Hits the Skids,” for example). It also got people asking whether the daily deal model can work for big-ticket items.

As a company that provides the technology and services to help its clients localize big-ticket retail online, Blueport Commerce takes the stance that daily deals can work for big-ticket items if executed correctly. The Groupon car deal was not.

Why Conventional Daily Deals Work

Daily deals are so popular, because they are great deals. Groupon’s subscribers expect a significant discount on the goods or service being sold. Half off a dinner? Wonderful, and I’ve been meaning to try new places!

So far, successful daily deals have been somewhat simple and often for items subscribers were likely to spend money on anyway. Salon services at 70% off? Well, I do need a haircut anyway.

Lastly, the offer is usually concrete. I will pay X and get Y. Any variables in what I spend beyond what I paid for the Groupon are easily in my control.

So What Was Wrong with the Automotive Offer?

The offer was to buy $500 that could then be used toward a new car. A quick look at the dealer’s website has cars starting around $16,000. So someone who bought the deal is only getting at most a few percent off his final purchase. 

Among the things that makes daily deals so successful is the easy spontaneity of it all. You only have a short amount of time to choose this deal, and then it’s gone. But it takes people some time to research a purchase like a car.

A recent article from The Atlantic, points out that one issue with this deal is that car price is negotiable. The piece quotes Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School as telling Reuters: “This voucher is for a very small portion of the cost of a car or lease, so it’s basically an agreement to buy or lease a car from LaFontaine. That’s poor negotiating because the dealer could take advantage f that by offering the same car for more money. They (Groupon) need to fix that before this part of the model can take off.”

The Big-Ticket Daily Deal Challenge

Many folks are saying that daily deals won’t work for big-ticket items. Perhaps these are the same people who years ago told us that consumers would not buy furniture online. But people do buy furniture and other big-ticket items online, so eventually daily deals in this arena could take off.

Our client The RoomPlace actually did a successful daily deal with LivingSocial not too long ago. The offer was $150 worth of furniture for $75. This worked because even though the offer was for big-ticket items like furniture, consumers could choose from a large price range and could choose whether they purchase something solely for the face value of the deal or use it toward a larger purchase.

Big-ticket retailers can look to daily deal sites, or create their own, in order to drum up business. For great results, they need to turn their big-ticket deal into something that is concrete for users. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Be sure that a consumer could leave your store or website with an item or service for the value of the deal.
• Consider offering a specific item at a steep discount rather than following the voucher model.
• Once the consumer cashes in on the deal, be sure you do what you can to keep in touch, such as offering an at-register email sign-up or customer survey.

Related posts:

• Get Your E-Commerce Website Ready for Daily Deals
• E-commerce 2.0 – The Next Wave
• When It Comes to the Newest Technology, Set Objectives First
• Online Advertising: Now Delivering Local Shoppers -- Is Your Website Ready for Them?
• See, Like, Buy - Capitalizing on Group Buying and Facebook This Holiday Season

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

Oftentimes, the big-ticket retailers we speak with think their business is too complex to go online.  Those readers familiar with Blueport know that we specialize in meeting the unique, localized needs of these types of companies.  Doesn’t fit in a UPS box? Perfect! That’s our specialty.

And that’s why we thought the findings of a recent study from ShopVisible and JC Williams Group was worth sharing.  The study discusses the challenges that retailers are currently facing to provide excellent online customer experiences. After conducting interviews with executives at leading retailers and consumer product manufacturers who had undergone an e-commerce platform change or were currently in the midst of an enterprise-wide system change, the report found that those companies who are just getting started in ecommerce have an advantage over those who have had an ecommerce site for years.

Why?  The answer is simple.  While retail executives are aware of current trends such as social and mobile commerce, they are having trouble innovating based on old legacy systems. The report concluded that “brands that perhaps have not previously had direct-to-consumer interactions with customers have an advantage of coming into ecommerce with a clean slate.”

Ecommerce is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity and key initiative for many brands today. So if you think you’re late to the ecommerce game, think again.  You may be just in time to deliver the right kind of experience that your customer is looking for!




Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce