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A common problem for potential consumers of big-ticket retail items such as furniture and appliances is that it's almost impossible to know how a certain piece will look once it is in their home or office. Measurements can be taken, and photographs can be scrutinized, but it's more often than not a guessing game as to how everything will fit together on delivery day. In fact, one of the biggest e-commerce challenges is that the consumer is often uncomfortable pulling the trigger on big-ticket retail items that cannot be visualized in their own personal space.

At Blueport Commerce we combine the industry's only big-ticket retail e-commerce solution with dedicated e-commerce integration services and personalized service packages to build the right solution for your business. Part of providing all of the components required for a successful e-commerce site is ensuring retailers have the technology necessary to help consumers solve the age-old dilemma of how furniture or appliances will look in their rooms. Here are two hot new furniture retail technologies currently on the market that attempt to do just that.

1. 3D Room Designer by Crate & Barrel

Crate & Barrel has introduced 3D Room Designer, an in-store tool which allows a customer to drop a digital photo of a room in their home or office into a 3D room model – without recreating a floor plan. The customer makes an appointment online and either emails or brings a photo on a USB stick to a nearby Crate & Barrel location. The height of the room is the only measurement the customer needs to know. From there, the customer can work with a store associate to transform their space with 3D models of Crate & Barrel merchandise, swapping out products, materials and colors. More than 2,000 Crate & Barrel products are incorporated into the 3D Room Designer, with all combinations of materials and fabrics together. Store associates are then able to print and email photos of the redesigned rooms to the customer, along with a list of all the items chosen.

While this technology certainly aims to solve the issue of visualization, the problem is that the final image can often look cartoonish and not realistic enough for the consumer to want to purchase. And while the goal of this 3D Room Designer is to drive traffic to brick-and-mortar stores, some customers will not want to make an in-store appointment and then go to the physical store. Additionally, by having the product only available in stores, it turns away those customers who may be in the research stage and want to simply “play around” with the tool online, and make a purchase decision weeks or months down the road.

By ignoring the needs of customers who live in rural areas, far from a store, as well as those who simply prefer to do all of their research and shopping online, Crate & Barrel is losing potential customers. In the spirit of true omnichannel retailing, Blueport Commerce recommends that Crate & Barrel creates a web version of 3D Room Designer that allows customers to do the manipulations themselves, as well as purchase the items online, rather than only going to the physical store.

2. Mydeco 3D

Mydeco.com, a UK-based online home store that sells furniture and home accessories from multiple retailers, boasts 3D, an online floor planner that lets customers visualize their home in 3D when buying new furniture. From the comfort of their home, a customer can upload up to 2 floor plans for free and move the walls and manipulate furniture from any of Mydeco’s retailers to their liking. After the customer is satisfied, they will receive back a 3D rendering in one business day. Additionally, the site has a community feel in that customers can connect with Mydeco’s collection of interior design enthusiasts, students, and professionals.

Mydeco.com also has another tool, Moodboard Creator, which is a Pinterest-like tool that lets consumers use furniture and home accessories from Mydeco.com (or any image they like) to get inspired to redecorate their homes. Pictures can be rotated and mixed, along with background and frames.

Blueport Commerce recognizes the value of Mydeco.com’s 3D tool, as the output is more realistic than Create & Barrel’s 3D Room Planner, and it allows users to get more creative, with furnishings from multiple retailers. Additionally, consumers can use the tool from their homes or offices, and not have to make an appointment or drive to a physical store location. The community and social feel of Mydeco’s 3D planner and Moodboard Creator allow for a greater viral reach, encouraging users to share their designs within the Mydeco community, as well as social sites such as Google+, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and Pinterest. The only negative is that it’s not as fully visually compelling as it could be yet – it has not achieved the next step of augmented reality.
 

Augmented Reality – The Next Dimension

Imagine in the near future a customer being able to walk into a brick-and-mortar store and, with their mobile device or a device supplied by the store, scan and have elements of the display room pop out with information such as pricing, reviews, dimensions, availability and description. Or imagine being able to scan a room in your home or office you wish to redecorate with your mobile device, and have a retailer’s furniture placed into your home, in varying colors and at scale. Hidden Creative has a video depiction that suggests such a possibility here (at the 2:00 minute mark) through the next step of Augmented Reality, called Articulated Naturality Web. As the drive to capture the increasingly-connected consumer continues, retailers will need to stay attuned to technology advancements that can aid them in reaching and capturing tech-savvy consumers.

Blueport Commerce is currently developing exciting new technology that includes augmented reality. Our goal is to help solve the e-commerce challenge of allowing consumers to envision their desired big-ticket retail item in their own space. Let us know if we can help you develop technology to enhance your brick-and-mortar store or e-commerce website presence – we would welcome the opportunity to enrich the consumer experience and increase e-commerce transactions for your business.

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Growing your e-commerce and digital presence is as essential for the holiday season as Rudolph's glowing nose is to Santa Claus on a cloudy December 24th eve. If executed correctly, your web presence can be a beacon to consumers, guiding them to checkout online and in store, depositing gifts to your bottom line.

Retailers know that November and December can make or break their annual sales. This year, a projected $54.5 billion in online holiday sales for November and December could account for 24.3% of the total $224.2 expected e-commerce sales, according to eMarketer – nearly 25% of an online retailer's sales could be closed in the last two months of the calendar year.

Retailers should already be preparing for the onslaught. Being prepared entails increasing inventory levels, adding warehousing resources and adjusting your product catalog.

In October, you'll want to start building holiday content into your e-commerce store. By November, you'll want to launch overall holiday marketing. For December, you'll need to focus on delivering a superior customer experience. The “Cyber 5,” the Thursday-through-Monday window that includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is a key stretch for businesses whose strategy includes hefty discounting and significant sales. From 2010 to 2011, online Black Friday sales leapt 24.3% from 2010, while Cyber Monday sales were up 33%, according to Forrester Research.

With all this in mind, we at Blueport Commerce, the only e-commerce technology and services company that localizes big-ticket retail online, have several tips to get big-ticket retailers locked and loaded for a joyous 2012 holiday season. This is an essential time to make sure you’re doing everything right, beginning with the basics.

1. Review Your Transactional and Triggered Email Messages

Ensure all text, such as contact information and return policies, is up to date. Make sure the sending information, such as from name and from address, match your non-triggered messages. Send tests to be sure the message renders properly and all links are functional. Bronto Software recommends a general rule that 80% of the message must relate to the transaction and 20% can be used for marketing purposes. Per Forrester Research, marketing effectiveness in driving site visits is on the upswing. The percentage of site traffic driven by overall marketing—including email, paid search and display ads—reached a new high of 32% during the November/December 2011 holiday period, up from 29% about a year earlier. So get your holiday marketing set before Black Friday and Cyber Monday to ensure increased site traffic for the holidays.

2. Merchandise Your Products for the Holidays

Think about what big-ticket retail items become more in-demand according to the season. For example, dining tables become more popular around the late October and early November with the onset of Thanksgiving, followed by Hanukkah and Christmas in the US. The highly anticipated holiday season could bring sales and promotions on dining rooms and dinettes. Big-screen TVs remain popular gifts in November and December, so inventory and merchandising around these items should reflect this, as well as marketing and discounting. You may even want to pair a popular December item, such as a big-screen TV, with a year-round purchase such as a sofa, and offer a package deal in order to move more inventory.

3. Lure Customers Back with Holiday Marketing

Target your existing customers first. Per Amazon, existing customers can be up to 80% more likely to purchase from your business than new customers. A nicely targeted email campaign can make sure your most loyal fans are shopping with you again. Social networks, like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, are good places to reach them with holiday messaging, too. For big-ticket retailers, social media can be a great way to drive in-store traffic with holiday-themed events that allow followers to come into your brick-and-mortar store to touch and feel the furniture.

Remember to add a little joy into your brand image. Absorb this upbeat vibe in your e-commerce store's copy and promotional materials to enliven your brand and get site visitors in the mood to make holiday purchases. Additionally, make the shipping policy and details clear and prominent on your e-commerce site. How long will shipping take, and how much does it cost? And most critical to the holiday season: when is the last day a consumer can submit an order, and still be guaranteed to get their item by the holiday?

4. Narrow Your Marketing

Avoid broad messaging and targeting. The narrower you can focus on your target market, the better. For example, instead of creating a guide of the “best holiday dining room tables,” consider something as focused as the “best dining room tables for Thanksgiving.” The search volume for such niche-specific terms will be lower, but you can concentrate on driving better qualified (aka higher converting) traffic instead. Use this as a seasonal opportunity to target only your most ready-to-purchase leads for the holidays. Also tie this in with your historically best-selling products for each month.

5. Staff Up to Be Helpful

If you post a phone number or email address for customer questions, ensure you have the resources dedicated to it during the holiday season. Customers will require speedy answers to their questions, and it’s in your best business interest to answer them before they shop with your competitors.

Don't forget that January 2013 can yield valuable data and insights when retailers take stock of what worked best in the 2012 holiday season! This allows big-ticket retailers to spend the first half of the year putting together strategies for the 2013 holiday season.

Here at Blueport Commerce, we feel holiday retailing can never be done early enough. As our big-ticket retailers traditionally look to gain a significant boost in revenue from November and December, it is our goal to help our clients with their marketing efforts every step of the way to ensure they seize this opportunity for sales growth. By improving an online retailers' holiday marketing, staffing and merchandising for e-commerce, big-ticket retailers will drive qualified traffic to both the e-commerce site and in-store, thereby fueling growth.

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Mobile users spend 144 minutes a day — 26% of the nine hours they use various media — with their mobile devices. For the first time, television came in second with 141 minutes. This is according to this Business Insider article, where people were asked how much time they spend interacting with all forms of media.

In fact, a survey by InMobi, a mobile ad company, found that people now spend more time watching their phones than watching TV.

 

Interesting findings include:

• 55% of those surveyed used their mobile device to shop.
• 59% said mobile advertising impacts their purchasing decisions, compared to 57% who said television advertising did.
• 24% of users said their mobile influenced their in-store purchase.
• 69% of people used their mobile to find local resources.

Retail chains, take note.

It is clear mobile's popularity (both tablet and phones) is steadily increasing, and the influence of traditional channels like television, desktop, radio and newspapers is declining. But how can you reach your audience if your current multichannel marketing mix isn't working? What should omnichannel retailers do? The answer: Go where your audience is.

How Big-Ticket Retail Can Succeed with a Refined Mobile Strategy

Adapting to a world that embraces mobile can seem daunting even for those who have already taken their retail stores online. But via a multichannel analysis, there are some quick and easy steps that you can take so that your mobile viewers can convert into mobile purchasers. Following the best practices of SoLoMo (Social Local Mobile), you can ensure shopping experience that is optimized for anyone on the go. At Blueport Commerce, we help our big-ticket retail clients not only transition to e-commerce, but provide their customers with an optimized mobile shopping experience.

1. So (Social Media): Include social sharing buttons. Many mobile users spend hours on social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter. Often, if they are following their favorite e-commerce stores, this can be their first source of information about an upcoming sale or in-store event. By including these buttons, all it takes is one quick click by the consumer to share his favorite sectional on his Facebook wall for all of his Facebook friends to see in their newsfeeds. Congratulations, you've just advanced your multichannel marketing strategy, and better yet, have had others do it for you.

2. Lo (Local): Get found – both online and in person. Because 69% of people use their mobile devices to find local stores, having a store locator app (which automatically finds the user's current location with GPS or allows them to plug in a preferred zip or postal code) can be the difference between making or breaking an in-store sale. In many instances, buyers feel the desire to see, touch and feel big-ticket items in person. By leading them to your brick-and-mortar store, they feel more confident completing their big-ticket purchases. Additionally, offering localized content for big-ticket items, such as less expensive delivery or shorter wait times, can help close a sale.

3. Mo (Mobile): Make your e-commerce website mobile-friendly. Shoppers on mobile devices tend to be on the move and cannot wait for slow-loading, complicated graphics or a disorganized site that renders strangely on a portable device. You can either reevaluate the mobile version of your website or create a unique mobile experience.

The Big-Ticket Retail Takeaway

Big-ticket items, such as furniture and appliances, often have long purchase cycles and require more research before potential buyers will pull the trigger on purchasing. By including social sharing buttons, offering localized content and a store locator app, and optimizing your e-commerce site for mobile, you're leading your mobile customers to what they're really seeking: more information. And as you lead them further down the funnel, closer to purchase, you are creating engaged, informed online shoppers who are interacting with you through their chosen medium.

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Back in the early 2000s, the path to purchase for a jacket or dress probably went something like this: choose a store or cluster of stores, browse around, try a few items on, make your decision and buy. The entire process took about half a day. But now in 2012, the time to get from browsing to buying takes 3.4 days, according to this article from InternetRetailing.

The article cites data, focused on fashion, showing that digital retail channels are responsible for this shift. Between e-commerce websites, mobile apps and physical stores, shoppers have a number of outlets to complete the full purchasing cycle as compared to 10 years ago when they primarily relied on the physical store. Today, nearly 91% of consumers use at least two channels before making the purchase.

The purchase process is composed of four steps: “browsing, researching, purchasing and collection.” The data shows consumers are spending half an hour longer on the first step and less time on the last three (largely because online retailers make it all more efficient). Then what is responsible for the nearly three additional days dedicated to shopping? Much more time now exists between each phase. A shopper can look in a store on Saturday and then visit the retailer’s website on Monday at lunch to pick up where she left off.

This creates a new challenge for multichannel retailers that need to keep customers engaged with their brands over a longer time period. It also creates additional opportunities as retailers know more about their customers, being able to better target and personalize this longer shopping cycle through emails and advertising.

What About Big-Ticket, Highly Considered Goods?

Big-ticket items, like furniture and cars, already have a significantly longer purchase cycle, lasting months, so these retailers already have some valuable experience in maintaining relationships over a longer period of time. The challenge with big-ticket retailers is adapting offline strategies to work in this increasingly digital world.

Here at Blueport, we work with our furniture retail clients to leverage the best the digital channels have to offer in a way that complements their existing physical programs. This includes everything from integrating physical store customers into our targeted email streams and leveraging the data we have on online customers to create a more personalized experience on site and off.

The increased length of time it now takes consumers to make a purchase could be a winning proposition for retailers and their e-commerce websites. The big opportunity is that there is now more time to target and refine your messaging as well as build your brand to potential shoppers – those retailers that seize this opportunity will end up ahead!

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If you have an e-commerce website, or any website for that matter, search engine optimization is an important part of your business. But a bunch of SEO tricks will not drive organic traffic from search engines to your site. What will? If you create quality content your customers want to read, then your SEO strategy will fall into place and drive traffic to your online retail site.

Search Engine Watch recently ran an article titled “10 Old SEO Methods You Need to Stop,” which lists 10 of the most popular SEO tricks that Google Panda, Penguin and other algorithm updates have deemed outdated. Here they are:

1. Article Submissions
2. Press Releases Without News
3. Reciprocal Linking & Link Exchanges
4. Creating Thin Content
5. Losing Your Voice Through Automation
6. Ignoring Social Signals
7. Implementing Tactics Without a Strategy
8. Focus on Rankings
9. Focusing on Google Only
10. Ignoring Design

The Right Way to Optimize Your E-Commerce Website: Quality

The overlying theme to successful search engine optimization is aligning your business goals with your customers’ needs and creating quality content based on that. If you put search engines before your customers, then you are missing the boat.

Your content and SEO strategy should be reflected in all the text on your site, from product descriptions to marketing copy and even your navigation labels. But where do you begin when creating this strategy?

Ask yourself these questions about your retail business -- these are the same questions we at Blueport ask to help our big-ticket retail clients when developing their digital content and SEO strategies:

• What subjects are your customers interested in that you can offer expertise on and is related to your business?
• What are your customers’ pain points when shopping for products like those you sell?
• Are there emotional ways to appeal to customer who might be interested in buying your products?
• What stories can you tell in which your merchandise is the hero?
• What issues might your customer face after bringing your products home – these issues can be tangentially related?
• What is your unique value/brand proposition in your markets?

Your answers to these questions can be the foundation for creating your unique voice and the types of content your e-commerce site should be providing in the marketplace.

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Right about now, retailers -- whether large or small; online, offline or every line -- are gearing up for their busiest quarter of the year. The quarter that, in itself, can define the health of the business. And in a year when Pinterest went full force and tablets became affordable, the sky will be the limit for social media and mobile promotions.

But hold it right there! Don’t miss out on the point of the season for retailers: Sales. And how do you get sales? Of course, pricing is a major component, but customer service and branding can be equally important.

A recent iMedia Connection article implores retailers and their marketers to breathe new life into omni-channel retailing by reigniting the one-on-one connections with customers. The author calls it soul retailing, “stirring an emotional response that gets people to talk, share and love your company or product.” He says every retailer can get there by:

• Go back to basics: Worry more about letting your customers shop than driving them to one of your channels.
• Bring back one-to-one engagement with targeted offers rather than batch sends you hope will sometimes stick.
• Use all the technology out there to create well-aligned experiences that drive sales over playing games.
• Keep it all simple – customers do not want to have to work to find and buy your merchandise.

The point is that all these different channels and technologies can only help you move your retail business forward if you use them correctly, and before you grab the most cutting edge technology, you need to figure out how it will improve the experience for your customers. For example, Neiman Marcus’s NM Service app lets customers use their mobile devices to create a uniquely personalized experience in-store by alerting sales associates to the individual’s presence in the store, shopping history and merchandise scanned for more information that day.

Of course, the goal is for the channel to match the message. In social media, a hard sell just won’t work. We work closely with our furniture retail clients to help them focus their brands and refine their messaging for online. Design information and even content on entertaining and recipes, for example, is a great alignment for a Facebook page. One of our clients, Leon’s Furniture in Canada, has a rich history that the company has documented. Part of their strategy is to resurface the information and old photos, building up interest and their timeline at once. And then on sites like Pinterest, where everything is so visual, announcing the newest items with great artwork is a great win.

To keep the buying process personal, we help our clients craft blogs that extend their thought leadership within their subject matter expertise. We also use the blog platform to connect with customers by answering their questions in this longer format. Additionally, we work hard to create targeted email campaigns to boost the bottom line in-store and online.

Are there other ways you use modern technology to create good, old-fashioned meaningful connections with your customers? We want to hear about them! Please share in the comments below.

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In some ways, the Olympics is just like any business, including your e-commerce website. This year for the 2012 London games, the Olympics and NBC, the network airing the event on TV and the Internet, have social media to navigate.

And the solution for both of them is the same: If you can’t beat them (which you can’t), join them. The reality today is that social media is a part of people’s lives, and the best a marketer of any breed can do is harness its word-of-mouth power.
 
Social Media & the Olympics

Unlike during previous Olympic games, the use of sites like Twitter and Facebook has grown significantly. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, “Social media usage has surged since the last summer games. In 2008, Twitter had about 300,000 tweets per day. Now it has 400 million. Facebook had about 100 million active users in the summer of 2008. As of April 2012, it had 900 million.” It’s so prevalent that visitors were asked to refrain from tweeting and texting during specific events after the data network was too clogged to send bike GPS data to broadcasters during a men’s cycling race, reports dailywireless.org.

And beyond the personal user, media outlets covering the Olympics are present on these social networks. Contrary to many people’s intuition, the real-time streaming of winners, losers and other Olympic news  as actually led to an increase in viewership at prime time. “In its first three nights of the London Olympics, an average of 35.8 million viewers have tuned in, the biggest first weekend for any summer games on record, according to NBC,” reports the WSJ article. “Average viewership has been 1.4 million more than the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and five million more viewers than the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which was mainly live.”

It appears these “spoilers” and all the buzz  may be getting people more excited to see the games.

Social Media & Your E-Commerce Business

E-commerce marketers can learn from NBC and the Olympics that while a true social media strategy includes relinquishing control, the payoff for that trust is an impassioned community that can powerfully extend your brand.

We know it’s hard to let go, but here are some strategies to help you get started:

• With social media, it’s always best to start with the reigns the tightest you want them and then let them loose as you become more comfortable. Doing the reverse will upset your brand followers. For example, if you think you might want to approve comments on your blog at some point, launch it that way. But also consider letting this control go, especially once you see the nature of the comments. In most cases, you can easily delete a comment that goes against your terms.
• You need to really invite the conversation and show your customers you want the back and forth. Ask them to post images and reviews of items they’ve purchased, or allow them to weigh in on merchandise you plan to sell in the future. Show your fans they are a priority by quickly responding and commenting on their posts about your brand. To really put this on hyperdrive, be sure you have a good listening process and reach out to those talking about you beyond your own social network pages. Keep an eye on blogs and review sites.
• Allow critics to voice their negativity. I know it’s hard to believe, but there will always be haters out there. Don’t close them out. Allow them to say their piece, and openly help them if necessary. If you don’t let them interact in this way on your brand pages where you have the control to interact with them, they will find other public places online to do it. And you’ll be surprised: As you grow your social media brand, when someone posts something invalid, your other fans will come to your aid.

A great social media strategy can equal gold for an e-commerce company. Are you and your e-commerce company ready to embrace and champion this medium to move your business forward?

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Here at the Blueport Blog, we’ve extolled the virtues of using social media to extend your retail brand online for some time, and a new eMarketer article shares new data that supports this.

Now we’re not going to try to convince you that setting up a Facebook page, Pinterest boards and a Twitter feed for your retail business will automatically turn into immediate sales – online or offline – that you can track right back to the social media source. But we will say that cultivating your brand presence on these social networks can help you turn your customers into brand advocates who like you, follow you and share your content.

According to a study from Ipsos OTX and Ipsos Global @dvisor, 18% of US Internet users would buy a brand because a friend likes or follows it on social media. And when it comes to consumers in certain attractive demographics, this endorsement becomes even more valuable: 21% of US Internet users age 35-49 and 23% of US Internet users under age 35 would buy a brand after seeing that a friend likes or follows it on social media.

How Can You Get Consumers to Like & Follow Your Retail Brand?

According to a study from Burst Media, the number one reason consumers like or follow a brand is to keep up with the latest content. This is followed by being able to then share the content with family and friends.

In this competitive market, it is not enough for retailers to work on their merchandising and pricing. While that is certainly an important piece, retailers must also consider what content they can contribute to the marketplace that complements their product offering and will be of interest to their target audience. Once their content mission is established, retailers must develop the content, incorporating it into their website, a branded blog and as a part of their social media.

At Blueport, we help our clients develop a content marketing plan. We’ve launched blogs, like Furniture.com’s House Rules blog, to deliver content that complements the e-commerce offering: information on buying furniture, home decorating and caring for their furnishings post-purchase. In addition to the search engine optimization impact, this is also fodder to beef up the brand’s social media presence so brand advocates can share the content and spread the word no matter where they are in the purchasing process.

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For online retailers, everywhere you turn is another way for you to be more social as a brand so you can reach your customers in new and more engaging ways. If only you could find the time to integrate social media into your overarching e-commerce strategy…

Here at Blueport Commerce, we think the summer is a fabulous time to boost your social presence on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and more. As consumers turn their focus to lighter fare and a virtual sense of bumming around, you can make sure your brand is there to meet them with whimsical blog posts, interactive contests and maybe even a viral video.

Here are some of our best posts on social branding for e-commerce businesses to inspire you for success:

• Pinterest Leads to Purchases – But Not Only for Online Shopping
• E-Commerce Gets Fabber – and More Social!
• 3 Things E-Commerce Brands Large & Small Can Learn from Dollar Shave Club and Its F***ing Great Viral Video
• Why You Should Get on Board with Pinterest
• E-Commerce Shopping Sites vs. Social Sites
• 5 Ways for Online Retailers to Be a Little Fab
• Could Branded Social Games Increase Your E-Commerce Conversions?
• 4 Tips to Boost E-Commerce Site Traffic from Rapper Lil B
• 3 Reasons Why Quality Content Could Be Your Key to E-Commerce Success
• There’s a Lot to Like About Facebook and E-Commerce Marketing
• Facebook’s Role in Social Shopping
   

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

A recent Forbes piece takes a look at the future of e-commerce and how curated retail sites, like AHAlife are just the beginning of what is to come.

To date, there is no doubt that e-commerce is a force for quick retail transactions. From toothpaste and books to diapers and concert tickers. You know what you want, go to the website and in a few clicks these goods are on their way to your door. But these are the items that don’t require tons of research and thought.

For big-ticket items, like furniture, consumers want a more intimate experience with what they are buying. They want an emotional connection with the sofa before they pay a larger sum and welcome the piece into their home. As Shauna Mei, AHAlife’s founder says, “the next 10 years [for e-commerce] will be about leveraging digital technology to enhance and create real, emotional experiences.” And we here at Blueport Commerce, with our solutions and services for big-ticket retailers, believe we are on the forefront of this movement.

For years, we have been working with our clients to help them use the best of the web and technology to bring their product catalog to life. Through detailed imagery and rich product descriptions that go far beyond manufacturers’ details, we help our clients create romance and a story behind each item. We create an emotional connection between shoppers and the items they browse, giving them reason to take action, whether it’s using their online research to go in-store or choosing to buy the big-ticket item right there online.

We at Blueport are excited about this next step in the evolution of e-commerce and know that we and our clients are poised for continued success.

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We know consumers like to research their purchases on the Web, and it seems like a natural extension for this to extend to mobile usage.

According to a report from Mojiva, as mentioned in this eMarketer piece, when shopping for big-ticket items like cars, 69% of US consumers researched their pending purchase or lease on their mobile phones. And data also shows that these poised shoppers are receptive to mobile ads while fact finding. More than half of respondents said that related deals and offers were of most interest to them, and 57% said they would browse an advertiser’s website after seeing an ad on their smartphone.

Mobile Research and Big-Ticket Goods

Here at Blueport, we believe that these trends don’t just apply to the auto industry and are likely relevant to a number of big-ticket items, including furniture. Even though merchandise like sofas and bedroom sets are not easily cross-shopped, consumers find values in the research, looking up additional information and online reviews, sometimes while right in the store.

That is why we work with our clients to be sure they are providing consumers with rich, detailed information no matter how they decide to access it. For every product, we think it is essential to include dynamic imagery (sometimes with alternate views), in-depth descriptions and information, and customer reviews. And then, beyond the e-commerce website, retailers need to cultivate a positive social media presence and respond to customer issues that pop up all over the web, on places like Facebook and Yelp.

For big-ticket retailers that put resources into their digital presence, the results can be an invaluable complement to what their salespeople can offer.  The end result is that these retailers are providing consumers with the information and products they want, -- wherever, whenever and however they want it.

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Last week, global e-commerce player Rakuten announced its involvement in the $100M investment in Pinterest. “While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover and curate to make the experience more entertaining,” said Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani. And we agree.

While the verdict is still out as to if and when Pinterest may have on-site e-commerce functionality (see CllickZ’s “E-Commerce May Not Come Soon to Pinterest” and Fashionista’s “Pinterest Could Become an E-Commerce Site”), we can see many reasons why a company like Rakuten might want in on the investment as well as why a company like Blueport would work with our clients to help them have an engaging presence on Pinterest. When purchasing big-ticket items, like furniture, consumers require discovery and something more than the commoditized shopping sites like Amazon.com have built empires upon. But the number one reason is that pinning leads to purchases.

According to an infographic (see below) explaining research performed by Emily Carr University and Vision Critical, 12% of people who pin an item then buy it online. But, more interesting, 16% of users who pin an item then buy it offline at a physical store. Pinterest users who purchase are more than 2½ times more likely than non-purchasers to visit Pinterest and 3 times as more likely to pin items than non-purchasers. Fifty percent of all Pinterest users surveyed plan to research more on Pinterest.

Additional data from a Shopify study, reported on by Mediabistro’s AllTwitter, further points to the need for a Pinterest presence to engage potential shoppers:

• Pinterest is now the third most popular social networking site.
• Pinterest already refers the same amount of traffic to e-commerce sites as Twitter (and this number is growing).
• Pins that include prices get 36% more likes than those that do not.
• Buyers referred from Pinterest are 10% more likely to buy than those referred from another social networking site and 70% more likely than those referred by other websites.

While Pinterest is only likely to be further integrated into e-commerce, retailers of all sites will benefit from pinning now.

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Fab.com’s 3.5 million US members were alerted by email to new site enhancements released on Wednesday: “We just reinvented social shopping. Again,” the email proclaimed.

While the fruits of Fab.com’s labors are to be determined, the site released more than 100 enhancements, many with an eye to further integration with Facebook and Pinterest and the fun of social sharing. The e-commerce website’s goal is to “successfully almost replicate the experience people have when they go shopping with their friends in the physical world,” said CEO Jason Goldberg in a Betabeat article. “That’s hard to do online, but we think we’re coming a lot closer to that.”

Fab.com’s Social History

As you may recall, Fab.com originally launched as a social network itself. So it’s not surprising CEO Jason Goldberg would find value in social commerce. But he also has hard numbers to support it:

• 50% of new customers come to Fab.com through social sharing.
• 30% to 40% of an average day’s traffic comes from Facebook.
• 2% of site visits come from Pinterest (and that’s pre-integration).

Additionally, right on its own site, Fab.com was finding that 15% of visits to the Fab live feed result in a purchase.

The New and Improved Fab.com Social Commerce Experience

While the many enhancements range in significance, here is a look at some of the more interesting site changes for Fab.com consumers:

A new Friends tab has been added to the live feed so customers can see specifically what their Facebook friends are buying.

• On product pages, Fab.com has replaced its Google+ button with “Pin It” functionality.
• Customers can Pin items directly from the live feed.
• The live feed has additional sorting options, so customers can opt to see a specific category.
• Consumers can buy directly from the feed without first going to an item’s product page.
• Fab.com also introduced new navigation that brings attention to trending categories and products.
• There are also new privacy settings, so users can control those actions that get shared.

What Can Your E-Commerce Website Learn from Fab.com?

Whether it’s an issue of resources or your own comfort level with social commerce, your e-commerce website may not be ready to integrate with social networking sites in the way Fab.com has done, but there are some easier, quicker social wins that could boost your e-commerce branding and sales.

Social Integration: Make it easy for your customers to share items with their social network pages. Encourage customers to pin your products to Pinterest or Like them on Facebook. Go to the appropriate social networking sites for integration information.

Social Presence: Creating brand pages on Facebook and Pinterest allows you to interact with your customers in new ways. Customers want to feel special, so involve them in a behind-the-scenes look at your company by asking them questions about the products you sell or future promotions you may run. And of course, exclusive deals and contests never hurt anyone and can be a viral way to expand your network.

Put Policies in Place: Whether you have a social presence or not, your customers do. If they have a really great experience or a really awful one, they will likely take it to the web. Be ready and have a process in place to handle any negative vibes out there. But also consider a policy for rewarding people who truly love your brand. This can run the gamut from special drawings for giveaways to enlisting these brand loyalists to help you create content by Pinning or blogging for you.

What is clear is that now is the time of social, and it’s up to e-commerce companies to forage their way into this new and exciting frontier.

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SoLoMo is not just one of the most entertaining buzzwords to say that has emerged in the last year, but it is also the topic of a recent blog post at Shop.org. The post discusses data and topics Forrester Research’s Melissa Parrish presented at a recent workshop. While there’s some interesting information about mobile for retailers, the conclusion it comes to on the local aspect of SoLoMo e-commerce is a little disheartening, and I would say that we can do better than that.

Findings on SoLoMo Consumers

First, let’s look at the good stuff retailers should know when working on their social, local, mobile commerce plan.

To date, most SoLoMo activities for retailers have focused on the “check-in.” While some brands have created geolocation-based apps, only about 5% of online US users with mobile phones use them. While that 5% is a very socially active group and is twice as likely to share product information, reviews and offers with friends, they are mostly male. So they are a small audience that might not fit in many retailers’ core demographic.

Additionally, Forrester has identified a new group of consumers: “the always addressable customer.” These consumers own and use at least three connected devices, and  go online several times a day from several different locations . Always addressable customers tend to be highly educated, high earners who are very social and use technology as a tool.

A Closer Look at Local E-Commerce

Based on these findings, the post questions what local means for selling goods online, and suggests focusing on giving consumers access to the brand rather than physical location. “So where does ‘local’ fit in to this data? For a retailer, the ‘Lo’ part of SoLoMo is simply that wherever your customer goes, you must be there. ‘Don’t think technology first – think about what your customer needs.’”

While I agree you need consumers to be able to reach your brand, product information and make a purchase wherever, whenever and however they want in a seamless and integrated manner, local content is an essential part of the equation that this blog post completely overlooks.

Similar to Forrester’s always addressable customer, eMarketer presents the smartphone class, and it describes its members as people who “snack” on their smartphones, consuming bits of content throughout the day. This gives retailers multiple potential touchpoints, but of course, there is a lot of noise retailers have to break through.

Offering localized content, like products the consumer can order with inexpensive delivery and shorter delivery times, creates a more engaging experience between your customers and your brand. And with big-ticket items, like furniture, tying into the closest store where the customer can go see and feel the item could be the difference in making or losing a sale.

Retailers that use mobile technology to be able to both engage consumers wherever they are and add a localized layer to drive customers in store will win. Sometimes even highly connected customers want to interact with real people. Being able to remind customers where you are (and how close that may be) when they feel they need you gives you the ultimate edge.

We at Blueport Commerce help our clients offer a local shopping experience for their customers regardless of the device. We tie right into our clients’ systems and have the same up to the minute inventory and product information the stores have, helping to create the omnichannel, seamless presence consumers now demand.

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By now you’ve seen it -- the 94-second hilarious spot that introduced a new player to the $13 billion men’s shaving industry. Online-only Dollar Shave Club shaved away 12,000 customers from its competitors within two days of opening its e-commerce site. It didn’t take them millions in advertising -- just this really funny video.

There’s much the likes of Gillette, Schick and Bic, and in fact any retailer looking to sell online can learn from this little e-commerce company that could, as Fast Company offered its own recent list. Big or small, retailers need to realize the landscape is changing, and how you relate to customers deserves to be reexamined.

1. Authenticity

Consumers can see through your marketing speak. And if they can’t, they likely have a network of friends and family who can validate whether your brand lives up to its promises, your products are worth their prices and your customer service is up to par.

2. Social Tactics Done Right

Why did this video go viral? It’s darn entertaining!

CEO Michael Dubin delivers the message simply and honestly. He’s witty and smart -- forget just buying his razors; this guy is fun! I’d go for a beer with him. He is the brand. And customers met the brand and liked him.

The danger with some companies’ ventures into viral video and other social tactics is they try to be viral, which too often delivers in an overthought and overengineered result that falls flat for the public. Humor is hard. And so is having a distinctive voice.

Consider tapping your passionate customers who are already your advocates. See how they are spreading the word about you and similar products. Harness their love of your brand. Their voices will be more authentic and will help you develop the reach you need, and in an appropriate manner.

3. When a Dollar Makes Sense

With Dollar Shave Club, customers know they’re not going to get frills, but for a small amount of money, the video promises decent shave with one of their razors. It’s believable, and consumers can test it out for the fraction of what their regular razors cost.

In this economy, consumers are poised to shop, but they want to know they are getting the best deal possible. That is why some brick-and-mortar stores have been losing sales to in-store shoppers who can find a better price online. Our clients, which sell big-ticket items that are not easily commoditized, are not in the clear just because their merchandise cannot be cross-shopped. They still need to demonstrate the value of their products, whether it comes down to the items themselves or the customer service that comes with it.

So for retailers selling online, examine how you can harness some of the honesty, social tactics and value that has helped Dollar Shave club off to an impressive start.

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These days, shopping online is like going to a post-Oscars party. You can grab a drink (in this case, one from your home bar) and settle in to see some of the hottest stars and the hottest fashion. Who’s the latest guest to join the party? Justin Timberlake.

This week, BeachMint announced Justin Timberlake will work with his interior designer, Estee Stanley, to select home goods and accessories to be sold on HomeMint.com, the company’s newest property to launch later this spring. JT will be in good company, lending his name and design sensibility alongside Kate Bosworth (JewelMint), Jessica Simpson (BeautyMint) and Rachel Bilson (ShoeMint). In similar news, LuxeYard.com, a luxury home furnishings and décor flash sale site, announced the addition of entertainment journalist/reality TV personality Giuliana Rancic to its list of curating trendsetters.

Why Celebrity Curators Equal Big Business for E-Commerce

According to this Practical Ecommerce article, when OpenSky first launched its e-commerce site, leveraging influential bloggers to sell merchandise, the model did not work. When the company relaunched in April 2011 using celebrity curators (Kristin Cavallari, Guy Fieri and Molly Sims, to name a few) who choose the products and accompanying recommendations and content, it was a model that worked.  Revenue and orders are growing 50% month to month, and the company hit $1 million in sales last October.

While celebrity endorsements are nothing new, why does celebrity curation have such a profound and positive effect on e-commerce sales?

Personalizing the Website: Celebrity-curated e-commerce sites  bring a personal feeling to the online shopping experience. Customers aren’t virtually strolling down Amazon.com’s endless array of aisles, but are instead being guided in their shopping experience to items that are already endorsed to have value.

Appeals to Women: Women do the majority of online shopping and tend to use the web socially much more than men do. Most of the categories that have so far seen success with celebrity curation – home goods, apparel,  cosmetics, cooking – are verticals where women buy, and much of the celebrity curation has been geared toward that demographic.

Brand-Building: By aligning with a celebrity, online retailers get the halo of that celebrity’s reputation. It’s a fairly quick way for a website to establish its expertise, style and reputation.

And, of course, it’s a bit of good, old-fashioned star power. After all, when it comes down to it, wouldn’t you like a little more Justin Timberlake in your home?

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The answer to that question depends on what you’re selling. For instance, if you sell electronics and video games or other commodities, like Best Buy does, then you need 50 less physical stores than you currently have.

Last week, a day after Best Buy’s e-commerce site was down for 17 hours’ worth of upgrades, the company announced it would close 50 big-box stores as a cost-reducing measure.  Similarly, big-box commodity seller Wal-Mart is losing ground to Amazon and is working to beef up its own e-commerce offering.

We’re seeing this trend, because commodities can be easily searched online and via mobile devices, and consumers can easily shop the lowest bidder. After all, a Canon Powershot is a Canon Powershot and has the same features and feel no matter where or how it is purchased. E-commerce operations with lower overhead can underprice physical stores and win the business away from them.

However, if you’re a retailer selling big-ticket or other non-commoditized items, your e-commerce presence can be a vital customer touch point that drives the overall business. When executed correctly, the e-commerce site becomes a full brand extension that drives in-store traffic and vice versa. This is what Blueport Commerce helps its clients do.

For the merchandise our clients sell, like furniture and flooring, the store behind the products matter.
Consumers often begin their searches online, researching selections and offers from various retailers, but for some, they will need to move on to the store to make their final decision. As a retailer, you want to give customers the choice so they can buy in the way that best suits their needs. Even if sofas from two different retailers look the same, they likely come from different manufacturers and may be constructed differently. Given that this is a larger, more expensive purchase, consumers are also looking for trusted retailers that can provide quick, inexpensive delivery, as well as service, if ever required.

Our clients are fortunate -- they can truly harness the power of multichannel retailing, because all channels play important roles in the buying cycle. And consumers win as well, because they’ll still have a place to go test drive a sofa.

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Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

When looking for anything on the web, people are faced with numerous possibilities. It’s like our lives have turned into an overwhelming list of search results listings with seemingly limitless possibilities. For some, this is an opportunity to explore and play, but for others this is just plain daunting. Here at Blueport, we believe thematically culling items is especially helpful for big-ticket retailers that sell larger items that aren’t easily shopped around like other commodities.

And shopping on an e-commerce website is the same. Many online retailers’ site links are merely returning keyword searches, giving shoppers choices, but sometimes the vast number of items returned is too large. As a recent eMarketer article about its new report, “Curated E-Commerce: How Less Can Be More for Shoppers,” says, “As the Internet matures and expands, the number of choices available to users grows exponentially…. Over time, though, human curation was all but replaced by algorithm-based searching.”

The report discusses the merits of retailers hand-picking items and grouping items together based on themes or other qualities beyond data points that might align with a specific user’s Facebook profile data points. It’s about bringing a genuine human quality back to the online shopping experience that can’t be replicated solely through metrics.

“Curated e-commerce is becoming recognized by both retailers and shoppers for its simplicity and ability to help fill an online void,” says Krista Garcia, the report’s author. “There will always be a place for comprehensive, multi-category retail sites, but fine-tuned collections enhanced by personal touches also perform a necessary function in the e-commerce ecosystem.”

How Curated E-Commerce Can Help Your Online Store

Here at Blueport, we believe thematically culling items is especially helpful for big-ticket retailers, like our clients, that sell larger items that aren’t easily cross-shopped like more commoditized items. Often, shoppers come to our clients’ websites knowing they want a sofa or a dining room set and little beyond that. They may have specific ideas related to material, color, size or price point, but often stores are not organized by these characteristics. But curated collections can be!

Curated galleries of merchandise allows retailers to guide their customers to product in different ways, often with a more brand-oriented, personal touch. Retailers can use these galleries to offer information related to what they sell so customers get advice as well as exposure to a specific slice of inventory. It helps to perpetuate the retailer’s voice and authority.

We have already developed curated offerings for our clients and have found that those shoppers who interact with category widgets or curated collections on the websites and via email have deeper interactions with the sites overall. And we think an even more aggressive curated approach will capture more consumers in an increasingly overwhelming online shopping landscape.

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Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce