Ecommerce ChallengesBlueport.com

One of the biggest challenges in big-ticket retail is how to provide an ecommerce online shopping experience that approaches the feel of the in-store shopping experience. This is particularly true when you are selling an item like hardwood flooring online, as our client Flooring America knew all too well.

We were determined to improve the ecommerce online shopping experience for their web site, which features thousands of products all represented by a uniform square image of the flooring.  We turned to our merchandising partner Allurent, whose goal is to create the most compelling online shopping experiences with their product Allurent on Demand.

The solution we came up with is the Flooring Explorer, a 5x3 grid of flooring squares that sits at the top of each category page.  Simply mousing over each image gives you the details of each product, including price, and the ability to add the item to your cart. The ability to quickly look at a half dozen products without scrolling helps bring the store experience of dozens of physical swatches to the ecommerce online shopping experience.  

Once live, the analytics around the online shopping widget proved its success. Visitors who used the Flooring Explorer view 8x as many products and added 2x as many to cart. This is an indicator of a successful ecommerce shopping experience.


Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

As ecommerce evolves from a commodity marketplace to one where consumers make considered, "big ticket" retail purchases online, there are unique challenges that must be addressed. Big ticket ecommerce involves more expensive, less well-understood products - furniture, appliances, TVs, flooring, construction materials, etc. Prices are higher and consumer confidence is lower. Inventory is bulky, expensive to move around the country and more expensive to return. 

For these reasons, big ticket commerce is fundamentally local. Stores play a critical role. Ecommerce becomes a powerful tool to help stores compete in their local markets rather than a national channel that bypasses them. Online efforts serve to drive store traffic, generate leads and consummate online transactions, cost effectively and measurably.

Blueport Commerce has developed a business ecommerce solution that is architected around this need for multi-channel localization. Its services drive results through a deep understanding of how consumers research and complete big ticket purchases online and in stores.

What’s the next wave of e-commerce? Here’s a hint –it represents the 45% of retail that doesn’t fit in a UPS box.  We call it “big ticket retail” and it includes large purchases that often require more consideration than traditional online purchases.

For these reasons and more, big-ticket retail is fundamentally local. Stores play a critical role. E-commerce becomes a powerful tool to help stores compete in their local markets rather than a national channel that bypasses them - essentially making it local e-commerce. Online efforts serve to drive store traffic, generate leads and consummate online transactions, cost effectively and measurably, creating a true multichannel retail supply chain.
 
Many e-commerce providers shy away from selling these types of items, as big ticket retail presents unique challenges. It involves more expensive, less well-understood products — furniture, appliances, TVs, flooring, construction materials, etc. Prices are higher and consumer confidence is lower. Inventory is bulky, expensive to move around the country and more expensive to return.

If you are a retailer who thinks your business is too complex for e-commerce transactions, there are solutions available to help you reach your big-ticket retail goals. Fundamental to these technologies and the services is the understanding that enabling big-ticket purchases online is different than traditional e-commerce, long typified by consumers purchasing inexpensive, simple products online and receiving shipment via parcel service.
 

While other e-commerce providers avoid the unique challenges of franchise retail models, Blueport Commerce embraces franchises.  We are the only e-commerce solution designed to handle the complexity of putting a distributed, localized franchise retail model online.

In this franchise retail model, the parent brand handles the "heavy lifting" of content development, catalog development and maintenance, overall marketing strategy, payment processing and technology management. Centralizing these functions guarantees a high quality e-commerce experience that is both highly valuable and affordable for their franchise's membership. Dealers then “localize” the e-commerce experience in their region, refining selection, pricing, promotions and delivery options. 

The independent franchise dealers reap the benefit of a fully functional e-commerce website they could not afford alone, but retain local control of online store content, local marketing, pricing and fulfillment of local orders. More than 900 independently owned and operated dealers use Blueport Commerce to offer their local customers a best in class franchise retail experience online.
 

Many retailers face challenges when developing or purchasing online ecommerce software solutions. Such challenges include:

• Products that are challenging to sell online because they are expensive, unbranded, not well understood or highly customizable
• Products that have complex delivery requirements that can't be met by standard parcel services
• Franchise or co-op models where brand, product offering and distribution is controlled locally by independent dealers

If you face these challenges, it’s important to look for an ecommerce solution provider that specializes in your area of business. When selecting an ecommerce software provider, ask how they can address your specific challenges.

Also, be sure that the vendor you select combines its ecommerce technology platform with relevant experience and real advice, consultation and support.  This will help you enable a seamless ecommerce business solution and a true multichannel strategy which will in turn allow you to better focus on your core business, drive results and create e-commerce growth. Contact us to see how we’ve solved your challenges for the largest of big-ticket retailers.

• Merchandising products that are challenging to sell online because they are expensive, unbranded, not well understood or highly customizable
• Managing shipping requirements and costs for products that have complex delivery requirements that can't be met by standard parcel services
• Integrating franchise or co-op models where brand, product offering and distribution is controlled locally by independent dealers
• Greater emphasis on cross-channel shopping

• Localization
• Custom System Integration
• Online Merchandising
• Online Marketing
• E-Commerce
• Order Tracking
• Franchise/Co-op Extranet
• Store Intranet
• CRM & Email Marketing
• Inventory Management

While the talk is often about what new technologies can enhance your ecommerce store, the nuts and bolts of any shopping experience lies with merchandising. Just like in your physical stores, selling the right item at the right price is key.

But when you're a multichannel operation, doing that successfully online can be a challenge. Customers want the multichannel commerce experience to be seamless and consistent – and Blueport Commerce can help you meet their expectations, without a lot of extra work.

For the past decade, Blueport Commerce has helped big-ticket retailers like you integrate their online store into their merchandising vision with the following strategies.

Using your existing data: Blueport Commerce's Product Sync updates your online catalog from your existing systems. Once it's in there, our Online Merchandising component allows you to augment that data  for presentation in your ecommerce store, such as adding rich imagery and additional product information. And our Catalog Services division will help you develop the elements you need to display your catalog in its most engaging form, including providing image support, refining product information and copywriting. And all this information is kept current because we sync nightly, importing new individual items as well as packages, thus retaining critical relationships between items. 

Making it easy to merchandise the ecommerce store: Through our Online Merchandising system, additional relationships can be introduced such as cross-sells or upsells, or configure new money-saving packages. Feature your bestsellers, new items or use your ecommerce store to sell items that you don't have the floor space to display in stores. Best of all, by analyzing your retail sales online, we can tell you precisely which products and merchandising approaches people like best.

Pricing Management Tools: To start, our Price Sync updates pricing on your site nightly based on your systems, making baseline pricing the same online as it is in your stores. But then our Online Merchandising system allows you precise pricing control, including the ability to modify pricing locally. We can even scan your inventory for odds and ends and add them to an online clearance center automatically.

Merchandisers, we're here to help you manage your ecommerce store – learn more by contacting us.

 

Lighting One’s business doesn’t fit the standard e-commerce model. 

As the nation’s largest independent group of specialty lighting stores with more than 140 showrooms, Lighting One faced the unique challenge of maintaining the company’s brand identity while empowering the individual showrooms with the ability to manage their unique local markets. Lighting One partnered with Blueport Commerce to take advantage of our powerful and proven e-commerce platform that enables each store to modify branding, pricing and selection in their local markets on the fly.

Through our unique franchise module, we developed fully-integrated e-commerce websites for each independent location, including store–specific URLs and site content, custom pricing and promotions, and order management.  

This integrated system enables every Lighting One store to maintain its unique local identity, while taking advantage of the massive scale of the Lighting One cooperative. For example, Brose Electric Shop, a Michigan-based Lighting One dealer, never had an e-commerce website of its own and began generating revenue almost immediately upon going live on the new Lighting One site powered by Blueport Commerce.