Ecommerce Blog of Blueport Commerce, Big Ticket Ecommerce Solutions Provider

Amazon’s ‘$5 to Leave the Store’ Promotion: Reactions Mixed, But a Sign of Things to Come

Friday, December 9, 2011 by Carl Prindle

This Saturday, Amazon is running a one-day promotion that gives consumers who use Amazon’s Price Check app while shopping in a store a 5% discount (up to $5) on select items. Consumers can redeem the offer up to three times.

This offer -- luring shoppers from local stores to instead buy online via Amazon’s e-commerce site -- has been met with a bit of consumer backlash. Even so, it feels like a harbinger of a future retail landscape that’s divided in two: retail in categories where stores still matter and retail where they don’t.

Consumer Reaction: ‘Kind of Sleazy’

The Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD blog was among the first to report on this story, and consumers were quick to react to what they saw as Amazon’s effort to intercept local shopping. Comments on the story included:

“This seems unethical at best. Amazon is encouraging people to go into a store with no intention to buy, incurring costs for the retailer in staffing and wear and tear on store premises…. Kind of a sleazy move by Amazon.”
“This is not about comparison shopping per se. Of course, I’m all for getting the best price. What I’m NOT a proponent of is giving my business to any retailer, online or brick-and-mortar, who blatantly scams to have their customers ‘spy’ for them, and try in the grander scheme of things to shut down the very business who contribute to the local economy.”
“As a supporter of local small businesses, I find this appalling. But, hey, if you want do Amazon’s market research for them for a measly 5 bucks, feel free. Me, I’ll take my 5 bucks and funnel it into MY local economy….”

The Future of Retail: What Do Stores Do?

I completely understand these sentiments, but at the same time, one starts to wonder: For lower ticket, commoditized items, what value does a store really bring to a shopper?

With a maximum value of $5 off, Amazon is clearly targeting items in the under $50 range. And, for price check to work, the items need to be commonly available. For these commodity-type items, does a store add much (other than cost) to your purchase?

There’s a segment of the retail economy we think will ultimately move largely online. In these commoditized categories, stores don’t bring enough to the table to justify the cost they add. Once Amazon can deliver same day, one of the last reasons for running to the store to buy a low cost, common product will be gone.

Honestly, this end of e-commerce isn’t one that excites us much. Like any commodity market, it will be dominated by players with the scale to cut costs and offer the cheapest price. In this regard, Amazon and Wal-Mart aren’t so different.

At Blueport, we think the other end of e-commerce -- using the Internet to engage, rather than replace, local stores -- is a far more interesting space.

In the categories we commerce-enable -- furniture, appliances, flooring -- stores add a tremendous amount to the consumer experience. They offer expertise, a place to “touch and feel,” local delivery and installation, and ongoing service for big-ticket purchases. We use the Internet to drive sales for these local businesses with walk-in traffic, leads, and yes, e-commerce.

It’s an exciting segment to be in right now. Retailers in these categories have been slow to adopt e-commerce, mainly because they couldn’t see how the Amazon model could work for them. Now, big-ticket retailers are jumping into multichannel e-commerce with both feet. And, I suspect, they may be around far longer than some of their more commoditized counterparts.

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Hyperlocal Beyond Marketing -- Think Localized E-Commerce!

Friday, November 11, 2011 by Carl Prindle

Earlier this week, Forbes.com ran a guest post titled "The Benefits of Geolocation Marketing." It discusses how online marketing needs to be hyperlocal to appeal to an audience that prefers to make purchases close to home.

It’s a good read that makes some good points – particularly that 80% of consumers’ disposable income is spent on businesses within 10 miles of where they live, and that marketing needs to be location based to effectively influence this spending.

What struck me, however, was the opening sentence of the article. “The seeming ubiquity of e-commerce…masks a very contrarian reality,” the authors warn, “Most shopping is still local.” What a late-nineties view of e-commerce! People either buy via e-commerce or locally? These two ways to buy aren’t contrary in the least.

At Blueport, we’ve been hyperlocalizing e-commerce since the early 2000’s. In today’s world, both your online marketing and your e-commerce experience should be hyperlocal to best meet your shoppers’ – and your business’ – needs.

Localized E-Commerce

Consumers want to shop locally because they want trusted service from brands they know. They want to be able to talk to people, experience the merchandise, get local deals and have the instant gratification of having merchandise in their homes as soon as possible, delivered by someone who can provide service after the sale if needed. And with the right technology, even a large retailer can combine these powerful benefits of its local stores with the convenience of e-commerce.

We work with our retailers to help them sell big-ticket items on the Web. All of our sites reflect local markets – from hyperlocal selection, deals, delivery and service. It’s everything consumers like about local stores, effectively ported online so that consumers can conveniently research and buy our clients’ merchandise, knowing they’ll get the same local store experience they love – especially for big ticket purchases.

So yes, hyperlocal marketing is important. But viewing it only as a way to drive people into stores misses a huge opportunity. Hyperlocalizing both your online marketing and your e-commerce presence ensures the best of what your stores have to offer is leveraged where today’s consumer can be found – online.

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5 Tips for Handling Inventory Stock Information on E-Commerce Sites

Friday, September 30, 2011 by Carl Prindle

“I always remember that it costs a lot to get people in a store…and takes very little to convince them not to come back.”

This quote was from a recent Practical Ecommerce article about inventory stock status on e-commerce websites. The consumer who is quoted had a very bad experience shopping online. He tried to purchase the discontinued HP TouchPad once it went on sale for $99 (originally $399).

Like him, many other shoppers went online to make the same purchase, and, like him, many were successful – at least in placing an order and having their credit cards charged. Unfortunately, the stores oversold, and instead of getting their new tablets, these consumers received emails apologizing for unexpected demand and saying that their orders would be cancelled.

It’s remarkable that the massive players mentioned in the article still have this issue, especially selling a fairly simple item that, if in stock, is easy to fulfill. The resulting outrage points to how high consumers’ expectations have become in the area of fulfillment.

Blueport’s focus is meeting these high expectations, even in the toughest logistical categories. When you’re browsing our sites, you’re seeing real-time local inventory. If you order a sofa, you know it’s in stock and when you’ll get it – often as soon as tomorrow and for a very low delivery price. What Amazon has done for UPSable items, we’re doing for sofas, appliances, large electrics and more.

Regardless of what you’re selling online, the article concludes with a few excellent suggestions:

Be up-front about product availability.
Communicate when inventory is low – it might even help you sell the item.
Be clear about any stock disclosure policies you have in place to protect yourself.
Explain who is fulfilling the orders for your product.
And should you a sell a customer an item that is no longer stock, take care of the problem: Let the customer know you are sorry, explain what happened, and then offer a discount toward a future purchase. Do not automatically add the customer to your email list for marketing promotions.

The overarching theme here is to be straightforward with your customers about the merchandise you have on your website. You could potentially miss a sale or two today, but the long-lasting result of creating a trusting relationship between customers and your e-commerce site can be priceless, especially in categories that are difficult to fulfill.

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Online Advertising: Now Delivering Local
Shoppers -- Is Your Website Ready for Them?

Friday, July 8, 2011 by Carl Prindle

According to a recent eMarketer article, 90% of national ad agencies have clients asking for geographically targeted online ad campaigns. Daily deal sites, like Groupon, and mobile check-in sites, like foursquare, are hot because they can deliver local shoppers.

Seventy-five percent of survey respondents said location was key in helping national brands reach their target audiences, and more than 50% said the ROI on geographically targeted ads is higher. It makes sense -- if you’re looking to buy a new sofa in Chicago, would you be drawn to an ad about stylish sofas or one about stylish sofas in Chicago?

Local advertising brings what the consumer is looking for that much closer. Local means you can see it in a store; maybe get a local deal; and get it quickly and cheaply (and even get service if you have to).

But is your ecommerce platform ready for local shopping? Very few are.

Local Commerce Makes Good on Local Advertising

Remember the early days of ecommerce, which promised to “Amazon” everything? Stores were to become obsolete, and as a result, most ecommerce platforms were built as national channels, designed to bypass local stores entirely.

That’s a real problem for most bricks-and-mortar retailers. The promise of a local ad falls flat when a customer clicks to a homogenized, national website.

To monetize local ads, you need to provide your customers a complete location-based experience that delivers on the ad’s local promise. A landing page isn’t enough -- you need to deliver local online shopping.

At Blueport Commerce, we enable local online shopping experiences for our clients. Blueport’s clients present localized content to their shoppers based on location, including merchandise trends, selection and availability, in-store inventory and pick up, local pricing and deals, fast, cheap local delivery, and even “About Us” pages, managed by stores, and that can speak to a local store’s place in a community.

It’s seamless cross-channel shopping between online and a local store, and it dramatically improves the already impressive ROI of local online advertising.

Your customers are ready for a complete local commerce experience -- are you?

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Will You Make Back Your Online Advertising Spend in Store Sales? Yes!

Friday, June 3, 2011 by Carl Prindle

All retailers want to know that the money they spend online is coming back to them some way, somehow. It's become a mantra that the majority of consumers who buy in stores research online first, but in truth, it can be hard to follow customers from their keyboards to retailers’ registers.

We at Blueport see the value that local e-commerce and online marketing bring to our brick-and-mortar clients every day. But, it certainly helps when a company like Google offers Online to Store research that quantifies cross-channel results.

Google set out to prove that online advertising leads to in-store sales. For one national retailer, testing keyword advertising specific to one product category not only lifted in-store sales for that category by 3.6%, but the online advertising had a halo effect, lifting sales in all other categories by 1%. And, the bigger the ticket, the better the results were.

HP Case Study Shows ROI Is Higher with Bigger-Ticket Items

The Google Retail Advertising Blog post about Hewlett-Packard and the study discusses the following findings:

Overall, HP’s online to store campaign had a 530% overall return on ad spend
The top 25% of markets in the test had a 1,090% return on ad spend
Higher-end models correlated with a higher increase in store sales.

How Can You See Your Own In-Store Return on Your Online Presence?

In an interview, analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik offers some ideas for getting quantitative information on how your online efforts contribute to in-store sales.

Some ideas you might be able to implement for your retail business:

Offer an online survey as consumers exit your website, asking where they plan to buy and how likely they are to buy based on the experience they’ve had online.
In-stores, include a call-to-action to take an online survey for a chance to be entered into a sweepstakes and ask questions about where their interactions with your brand began.
Use a store card program, where you have a number attached to customers when they interact with and buy from you online and in-store.
Allow customers to order online and pickup in-store, and then track additional in-store purchases as a result of the pickup.

We're just at the beginning of this trend. As localized e-commerce gains traction and enables synchronized web to local store marketing, we'll start to see new sectors of retail get even more involved (and see even better results). In the meantime, even this simple test shows how stores can -- and in today's world, must -- harness the power of online marketing.

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eBay to Acquire GSI Commerce

Monday, March 28, 2011 by Carl Prindle

The week started this morning with some blockbuster e-commerce news: eBay announced it is acquiring GSI Commerce for approximately $2.4 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 2011.

The deal is great news for eBay, which has been steadily trying to transform itself from an auctions-oriented company to an e-commerce platform. This is also great news for GSI Commerce, which has been trying to expand its businesses by investing in new categories, though the impact on GSI customers remains to be seen.

As part of the sale, eBay will divest 100 percent of GSI's licensed sports merchandise business and 70 percent of GSI-owned ShopRunner and Rue La La. These assets will be sold to a newly formed holding company, which will be led by GSI founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Rubin.

We will be monitoring the fallout and commentary from today’s news closely and will keep you posted on the broader e-commerce industry implications.

A Fluid Online Shopping Experience Trumps Deals and Offers

Friday, December 10, 2010 by Carl Prindle

This past Cyber Monday saw online retailers bring in a record breaking $1 billion in sales (comScore). But according to a new Google Commerce poll, while deals and promotions certainly lure in customers, what really keeps them coming back is a superior online retail shopping experience that makes product search fast and easy.

A few key findings from Google’s poll:
- 77% of those surveyed used search within an e-commerce store to find products.
- Responders were most impressed by ecommerce retailers who had great deals (22%) and a fast and easy shopping experience (14%).
- Shoppers cited a difficulty finding items (11%) more frequently than shipping problems (10%) or a lack of good deals (8%).

Though not specific to big ticket purchases, the Google poll underlies a fundamental principle of the way we approach ecommerce development at Blueport Commerce: a retailer’s online store should, above all else, provide a customer with the product information they are looking for quickly and easily. This is especially imperative for big-ticket categories, where the research process is longer and a customer likely spends more time on your site searching for different product options and comparing product specs, then they would for, say, a book or DVD. At Blueport, we focus on creating a site exerience that gets people to the products they want to look at immediately, without having to wade through layers of navigation.

If a customer shopping your bricks and mortar store became frustrated looking for a particular item, your sales staff would surely be able to promptly help him/her and answer any questions. Many retailers now offer live chat with retail staff to bring this in-store experience online, but customers are still often navigating alone, and thus need the product discovery process to be simple and fluid.

Whether you are launching a new site or revisiting your existing ecommerce storefront, always remember to take a step back and think about the customer research/shopping process. How easy is it to find a particular item? Can your customer sort their search based on different requirements? Are you categorizing products they way you think about them, or reponsding to how your customer thinks? Does your product catalog help the customer visualize how that item would fit in their home? Is it easy for your customer to instantly reach sales staff if they have a question?

Cover these basics and not only will your customers shop your e-commerce store on Cyber Monday, but they will keep coming back year round as well.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Google Shopping Goes Local

Friday, November 19, 2010 by Carl Prindle

This week Google launched several new features to Google Shopping, most notably localized product search – which we first discussed here back in March.

Google users will now see two new links accompanying product search results, including the location of local retail stores and an indication if a product is in stock, in limited quantities or out of stock in their area. A click on an individual product will also return a list of nearby stores that carry that product with an embedded Google Map for obtaining directions.

70 large retailers are on board for the initial launch, including Macy's, Pottery Barn, and Best Buy. Google has also struck deals with retail industry software giants JDA, Epicor, and Oracle to integrate the Google Shopping upload process into the inventory management systems of those retailers.

Google understands that most consumers (especially those looking to make big ticket purchases that require consideration and research) go online to compare specs, prices and features before heading to their local store for in-person research and to buy. This local, cross-channel, big ticket experience is, without question, the next wave of online commerce.

But, say you’re a big ticket retailer not named Pottery Barn.

You probably aren’t running your inventory on Oracle or JDA. Most likely, you probably haven’t been able to make local inventory information available on your own website, much less Google’s. So how can you take advantage of this explosive trend?

This is where we come in. Blueport has been building localized e-commerce systems for big-ticket retailers for over a decade. Leveraging our localized platform, your Blueport website perfectly reflects your local store offerings, regardless of what systems you are running in your stores.

With that infrastructure in place, it’s simple to take advantage of the latest in localized online advertising – like Google’s new local product search. Better yet, when consumers come to your Blueport site, you’ll have enabled the type of seamless, local, cross-channel shopping experience that makes Google Local a powerful idea.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Big-Ticket Purchases Require Research -- Does Your Ecommerce Site Meet the Need?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 by Carl Prindle

As we've discussed, researching products online is very common (especially with big-ticket items), so Pew’s new research came as no surprise for those of us in the retail software industry. The research house found that 58% of U.S. adults research products and services they are considering purchasing online (compared to the 49% who did so in 2004).

Additionally, 24% of U.S. adults say they have posted comments or reviews online about the products or services they buy, indicating that many consumers are willing to share their opinions about products and their buying experiences.

With Big-Ticket Items, Research Is a Bigger Deal

Understanding this behavior is particularly important when selling big-ticket items. Big-ticket purchases require more research and consideration due to higher price points and complexity. In fact, 81% of consumers say they conduct pre-purchase research once the cost hits $100. Furniture, mattresses, appliances, flooring and home decor are all examples of products that consumers are spending a significant amount of time researching online prior to purchase.

Whether the ultimate purchase is made online or at a local store, retailers needs to take the necessary steps to ensure they are providing a seamless cross-channel customer experience that ultimately makes a sale. When executed well -- and with these shoppers in mind -- ecommerce sites can become a critical tool to help stores compete both locally and chain-wide.

The report’s author, Jim Jansen, comments, “Ecommerce is now a 360-degree experience for shoppers. It begins with research that in turn leads to purchases that then trigger commentary and reviews by shoppers. Every part of the online experience seems to have become second nature to Internet veterans.”

To cater to consumers' need for information, your online merchandising should include rich product descriptions and imagery as well as the ability for users to add and access product reviews. It should also be synchronized with local stores - so that selection, prices and promotions online match what's in stores in local markets.

Is your ecommerce software equipped to handle this growing group of U.S. shoppers?

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Online Research Is Critical for Big-Ticket Purchases

Thursday, September 23, 2010 by Carl Prindle

According to recent data from Compete, the likelihood that a consumer will research a product before making an online purchase dramatically rises with the product's cost.

Naturally, the higher the price point, the more important it is for a customer to feel completely comfortable before clicking to buy the item. Some of the interesting findings highlighted by Compete include:

Dividing online purchases by price, 81% of consumers say they will conduct research before buying a product that costs $100 or more.
Electronics is the most frequently researched online, with about 90% of consumers performing research before spending money.

One of the more interesting aspects of this research is the fact that ecommerce retail sites trump search engines as the top resource for research, with 45% of consumers using them to conduct online research. Search engines (40%) and retailer emails (35%) followed closely behind to round out the top three.

Although this is not the first time we have seen this type of data, it does underscore the importance for big-ticket multichannel retailers to develop a robust ecommerce presence for their merchandise. Whether your customer makes the final purchase online or in-store, your ecommerce store plays a critical role in helping to make that sale happen.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

E-commerce Continues to Be a Bright Spot in the Retail Industry

Monday, September 13, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Despite the U.S. economy's continuing slow recovery, e-commerce remains a bright spot in the retail industry.

DMNews highlights some positive online retail growth numbers in a recent article, citing some survey stats. For example, according to a ChanelAdvisor consumer-shopping-habits survey, 58% of consumers surveyed plan to purchase their holiday gifts online this year, beating brick-and-mortar retail stores by nearly 20%.

Furthermore, 41% of respondents said their online shopping habits were unaffected by the weak economy. The amount consumers are spending through online retail shopping is also growing, with the number of shoppers saying they spend more than $76 on internet retail sites per month -- this is an increase of 27% over 2009.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Big Ticket or Bigger Ticket?

Thursday, September 2, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Things tend to run bigger here in the States than they do in Europe -- meal portions, cars, homes, our waistlines. But it turns out, even our big-ticket items are bigger tickets.

I recently read this headline: “Majority of people would use mobile to buy big-ticket items.” Being that we at Blueport Commerce are in the business of turning big-ticket purchases into e-commerce and multichannel sales, I clicked to read more.

The write-up detailed an international survey in which 51% of the people interviewed said they would be willing to purchase big-ticket items via their mobile phones. What the headline did not mention was the definition of “big ticket.” The survey defined it as “physical goods for amounts up to EUR 100,” which by my conversions is around $128 USD.

In comparison, we tend to think of big-ticket items as items both more expensive and physically larger that cannot be easily drop-shipped and therefore have unique challenges when it comes to selling them online. Luckily, we’ve spent the last 10-plus years conquering those challenges. Learn more about how we turn big-ticket retail into successful e-commerce.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Enabling the Socially Mobile

Sunday, August 1, 2010 by Carl Prindle

You’ve probably seen it before – a consumer in your store snapping photos of products with their camera phone to share with friends or ask for advice and opinions. Some may even post the photo to Twitter, Facebook or another social network. Mobile social consumers are not just looking for facts to support their purchase decision – they are looking for friends (or at least other consumers) to endorse it. The bigger the ticket, the more important this consulation becomes.

As such, the impact of social media as part of a complete cross-channel approach cannot be ignored. Already impacting the traditional e-commerce space, the growing use of social applications through mobile devices highlights the importance for retailers to carve out a social media presence that ensures their brand is visible and accessible in this space and creating sites that are optimized for mobile viewing and sharing.

Are you seeing this trend within your stores? How are you addressing the intersection of mobile and social commerce?

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Using Mobile to "Seal the Deal" In-Store

Thursday, July 29, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Mobile not only helps to drive customers into stores – it can help close the deal once they are there. Consumers increasingly use their mobile devices as in-store shopping tools, often relying more on their phones than on price tags or salespeople.

The quick research conducted on a mobile device while in-store is frequently the final push they need to make the purchase. Retailers that facilitate the research process through mobile shopping tools synchronized with in-store execution will ultimately close more sales.

This is especially critical for retailers selling big-ticket items, as they require more research and consideration than smaller purchases. You’ll often see big-ticket customers standing in store aisles, iPhone or Blackberry in hand, researching product comparisons and reviews for the big screen TV or appliance they are about to purchase. The more sophisticated customer may also scan product barcodes in the store with their phone to instantly compare prices at different retail locations.

These mobile in-store behaviors underscore the importance of complete synchronization between pricing, promotions and selection offered in store and what your customers see via online and mobile research. Tailoring your mobile sites to a user’s location and offering localized product or promotional information consistent with your traditional website is critical to enabling customers’ mobile research.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Capturing Consumers On The Go

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Most of today’s consumers use the Internet to plan the limited time they have for brick and mortar shopping expeditions - browsing from a home (or work) computer to optimize how they will spend the discretionary hour or two they’ve allocated for shopping.

To capture this shopper, a compelling “traditional” website is a must - ideally one that is synchronized with what’s happening in local stores. With a localized website in place, retailers, especially those targeting smartphone-wielding demographics, should take the next step – capturing consumers who have already left the house.

Whether or not you believe that your products will ever sell over a phone, you can take advantage of location-based services and GPS-enabled phones to entice on the go consumers into stores. Product information, prices and nearby locations to “touch and feel” products can be ‘pulled’ through local searches by consumers. Coupons and promotions can be ‘pushed’ to a consumer’s phone based on their location.

How is your company integrating mobile into your cross-channel strategy? For more information on how other retailers are successfully using mobile to capture consumers on the go, check out this article: How Mobile Commerce Can Capture In Store Sales.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Is Mobile Commerce Right for Big-Ticket Retail?

Friday, July 23, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Today, Ecommerce Times features an article that I wrote on using mobile commerce to capture the in-store sale. I know what you’re thinking – “I’m a big-ticket retailer. No one is going to make a considered purchase via their mobile phone.” And you’re probably right.

But mobile commerce means more than just buying goods through your phone. Increasingly, mobile is impacting how consumers search, locate and decide to purchase goods both online and in bricks and mortar stores. As consumers are evolving into true cross-channel shoppers, the real mobile opportunity for retailers presents itself. Integrating mobile into a comprehensive cross-channel strategy ensures you are meeting your customers where -- and how -- they shop for your products today.

Give the article a read: How Mobile Commerce Can Capture In-Store Sales

I’d love to hear your feedback on Blueport’s view on how a mobile strategy can help big-ticket retailers like you.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Online Shoppers Optimistic about Economy; Big-ticket Spending Begins

Thursday, June 17, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Last week, I wrote about the rise in consumers’ intent to purchase big-ticket items (see: Intent to Purchase Big-Ticket Rising - Ready to Catch the Wave?). This week, Pricegrabber issued a new report stating that 52% of the online consumers think the recession will end by January 2012. The part of this survey that really caught my eye is that 56% of respondents said they have already bought a big-ticket item this year (and this survey was conducted as early as February!). Encouraging news for big-ticket retailers - particularly those in the home improvement category, as 16% plan to buy home improvement items.

So what does this mean for big-ticket retailers looking to reap the advantages of e-commerce? Look at the consumers surveyed – online shoppers. Whether these consumers ultimately purchase their big-ticket items online or in-store is up for debate, but I’m willing to bet that before they make any plans, they will be visiting your website during the research phase. Are you – and your website – ready?

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

Intent to Purchase Big-Ticket Rising - Ready to Catch the Wave?

Tuesday, June 8, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Adweek points out "a growing inclination by consumers to spend on purchases they've deferred during the economy's downturn" including furniture, appliances and carpeting.

A return to the good old days for big-ticket retailers? Not so fast.

ATG just released a report noting that in the last year, more people browsed for products online (92%) than in stores (84%), with mobile making a strong showing at 27%.

Consumers are coming back into the big ticket market - but how you reach them is radically different than it was in the last boom.

The next wave is coming - online. Ready to catch it?

Google Moves into Local Inventory Search

Monday, May 3, 2010 by Carl Prindle

Blueport Commerce Reaction: Been there, done that… (since 2001).

In March, Google announced its plans to move into yet another new area – local inventory search. Through a new deal with Best Buy, Sears, Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn and the Vitamin Shoppe, Google will begin experimenting with localized search for inventory at brick and mortar retailers. Using the system, a consumer could search for a specific item and in theory find the store closest to their location with the item in stock.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Google’s strategy is that rather than waiting for retailers to have their own online local inventory strategy in place and then making it searchable, (a more typical model, where a search engine helps consumers find data) the company is developing its own system in conjunction with these retailers (in effect, trying to create data).

This new ground for search is causing some growing pains for Google, as their retailers have not uploaded full inventory lists, making the system inaccurate. According to StoreFront BackTalk’s Evan Schuman, Google’s inventory search also forces users to select specific models, rather than allowing searches for broader product categories. Customers may know model numbers for some products, but for many categories, consumers may not have a clue as to the model number they are looking for (home furnishings? flooring?). And finally, let’s face it – so far, few retailers keep track of their local inventory online, making it extremely difficult to provide accurate local search results.

It’s clear that a system like this has tremendous potential. And, Google’s interest reinforces to a key fact - when it comes to big-ticket retail online, localization is crucial. Most cross-channel shopping is for big ticket items. To sell these items, you need a great local online presence, seamlessly linking your website, local inventory, and stores.

In time, Google will likely work out the kinks. In the meantime, Blueport Commerce already provides its customers with websites with that provide fast, accurate, local inventory search as part of the company’s core localization strategy. We’ll continue to look to Google to help consumers find our customers’ great, localized shopping experiences, but we’ll take care of building them ourselves.

Big Ticket E-commerce Playbook, Rule Five: Focus on Your ‘Stuff’

Thursday, April 15, 2010 by Carl Prindle

E-commerce 1.0 = All Store, No Stuff: E-commerce efforts often focus on technology, particularly in selling e-commerce 1.0 categories. Decisions on what text or button goes where or removing a field from a checkout form (the “online store”) can make a difference in convincing someone to purchase a simple, well-understood, impulse item. In selling big ticket categories online, however, obsessing over these areas while ignoring basic online retailing is perilous.

Big Ticket E-commerce = Content, Content, Content: Start with the big questions: Do you have the right products? Richly and accurately merchandised? At the right price? Are you solving a customer’s problem (an installed floor in a week, a sofa in two days, removal of an old refrigerator)? Like you do in your stores, focus on your offering (the stuff) first, then optimize your e-commerce store around your offering. In big ticket e-commerce categories, if you get the “stuff” right, customers will work with you on the store.

Copyright 2010, Official Blog of Blueport Commerce

The Next Wave of E-Commerce Blueport.com