Category: Social media

On Election day… two good examples of creative marketing

Two examples I like of using creative and topical themes in online marketing, the first a clever email campaign from Boden, the second a risque Google adwords ad from Ann Summers linking in with the leaders’ debate last week.

I don’t know if Boden and Ann Summers do their email marketing and PPC management in-house or through an agency; they’re either good examples of creative in-house marketers with a great understanding of the brand and customers, or a very well-managed agency relationship.

1 Comment by on May 6, 2010
filed in Ecommerce strategy, Social media
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Buying jeans because your friends “like” them?

Levi’s partners with Facebook to bring you a unique social shopping experience. Now you can Like, Share, and Shop for Levi’s. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Well, I checked it out and I’m not convinced. Levi’s  just seems the wrong product for effective social shopping; even if my facebook friend or friends do like a certain pair of jeans, how does that help me to buy -online – jeans that are right for me?

Isn’t it just a basic form of product reviews, but without a scale of “liking” and without any useful and insightful comments?

For me, the value of “social shopping” is to a) recreate in the online world the event of going to the high street with friends or b) to spread the word about special and exclusive offers. Levi’s offering doesn’t do either of these. The recreation of real-world high street shopping is much more likely to work with products/ clothes which are more distinctive than mostly blue jeans. The social, viral spreading of special offers becomes effective once it’s beyond the control of the retailer, for example retweeting of offers, or on sites like hotukdeals (as I wrote about here).

I do however like how Levi’s integrate their facebook content into the right hand side of the page; much more engaging than the ubiquitous “Join us on facebook” link on most retailers’ sites. And a rather impressive 287,712 fans.

1 Comment by on April 22, 2010
filed in Social media
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Trends in internet retailing

This is a nice summary of key trends, from internetretailing.net

  • Multi-channel integration. Online consumers are getting ever more demanding, and ever more intolerant when retailers fail to join up their multi-channel dots. A seamless cross-channel experience, driven by a single view of the customer, will become a core requirement for success in the years ahead.
  • Mobile. The potential of mobile as a new channel for retailers has received much of the industry’s attention over the last few months. The ability for customers to easily price check, find the latest coupons and deals and purchase online from their mobile phone — even in-store — is going to lead to significant changes in shopping habits.
  • Mobile – again. One of the most interesting developments is likely to be the way in which mobile will link into retailers’ multi-channel strategies as a way to connect up the different channels through technologies such as mobile barcodes, coupons and NFC.
  • Delivery. Fulfilment and delivery service providers have responded well over the last few months, introducing ever more sophisticated delivery options. ‘One size fits all’ is no longer enough.
  • Personalisation. Everything from personalised on-site recommendation engines to tightly targeted email campaigns will be key to delivering growth as internet retailing becomes ever more competitive in the years ahead.
  • Choice. Whether it’s offering a wide range of ways to pay, or options for the frequency of marketing emails, consumers are set to expect online retailers to use information gained from previous purchases and site visits to tailor the offering to meet their particular needs.
  • Social media. On the one hand, social media has now become quite entrenched. On the other, however, an understanding of the ways in which social media can be leveraged to aid business decisions is still in its early days and is set to deliver significant commercial advantage to those who gain the greatest expertise.
  • Email. Still very much a key sales driver, and one that internet retailers still need to be investing in and making a key development priority.
No Comments by on March 29, 2010
filed in Ecommerce strategy, SEO, Social media
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Add to bread basket…

My local bakery in Stepney looks as if it hasn’t changed for decades, so it’s pleasantly surprising to see them embracing the online world with a modern-looking website, in fact two websites for trade and retail customers, and a Facebook page updated several times a week.

When I first discovered the site they were actually selling bread online, with a “add to bread basket” feature a nice touch… Although they don’t seem to be selling online currently, it’s a lovely example of a local business using a website and facebook to win new customers and build loyalty with existing customers.

Facebook has just updated me about the “Almond macs coming out of the oven…” – I might wander over and try some…

No Comments by on March 23, 2010
filed in Ecommerce design, Ecommerce strategy, Social media
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I Like:

Zappos.com (the biggest online retailer of footwear in the US, now owned by Amazon) has this nice widget to encourage you to “blog about this item”.

I Like:

Ramona by Lassen at Zappos.com
Ramona by LassenZappos.com - Powered by Service

It’s a great example of building engagement with the brand AND helping SEO by building links to their site. Apparently Zappos has been doing social media well for a while, as this chart of inbound links since they embraced Twitter shows:

No Comments by on March 5, 2010
filed in SEO, Social media
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What to believe?

“Whizzy imagery out-performs ratings and reviews in Adobe survey”

A survey by Adobe concluded the following are effective in increasing conversion rate.

  • Product tours or multi-media viewing which combines guided spin, zoom imagery, videos or animations with copy (36%
  • Visual filtering and advanced search on product features including size, color, and price (33%)
  • User comments and reviews (32%)
  • Search landing pages (32%)
  • Product comparisons (28%)
  • Zoom (28%)

Well, looking at the numbers not significantly, and it does seem like a convenient conclusion for Adobe, who sell “whizzy imagery”…

Also today I was interested to read this discussion questioning the value of “trustmarks” such as McAfee, with plenty of examples where adding such logos actually decreased conversion rate.

The key lesson from these two examples is to take claims to improve conversion rate with a pinch of salt. Work out what’s most appropriate to your business. Tackle the low-hanging fruit first. And test everything.

No Comments by on February 18, 2010
filed in Ecommerce design, Social media
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Lessons to learn from invite-only online shopping

I became a member of Gilt.com, via an invitation from Gwyneth Paltrow no less!

Gilt.com is a members only shopping site set up to recreate the buzz of a New York sample sale but online – you have to be a member to join (by invitation only), each “sale” of a particular brand lasts 36 hours, starting at a fixed time of day with limited availability – first come, first served. Each sale is previewed a few days before and there are 5-10 different sales live at any one time. Typically a lot of products will show as sold out, but you can join a waiting list.

Prices are typically half the RRP, and I suspect the same bargains are probably available elsewhere online. In addition you may have to wait 2-6 weeks for delivery. But that’s not the point – the site is using exclusivity and limited availability to create a real buzz, and avoiding the need for traditional online marketing. Very clever!

No Comments by on February 10, 2010
filed in Ecommerce strategy, Social media
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When social shopping can really work

There are various ways that social media is slowly being adopted by online retailers. It’s becoming increasingly common to find facebook, twitter & blogs on ecommerce sites, and “share this’ bookmarking & product reviews seem fairly standard now on product pages.

Apart from product reviews where there’s a proven link to increasing conversion rate (79% of online UK retailers surveyed reported that the main benefit of consumer-generated rating and reviews was that they improved site conversion rates), it’s hard to demonstrate a direct sales benefit, although of course it all helps in terms of brand building, customer loyalty and rich content for SEO.

In my experience the most effective social shopping sites (and the most effective form of online marketing!) are www.hotukdeals.com and www.moneysavingexpert.com. A post such as this

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/452300/viners-alaska-32-piece-stainless-st

would typically boost daily sales by 500% – 1000% i.e a spike in sales normally over a couple of days driven by sales of one particular product, with customers discussing and rushing to get the bargain. A product that would normally sell less than 5 a day would sell 500 in one day, with zero cost per conversion, and adding 100s of new potential repeat customers!

Of course success stories like this are unlikely to happen all day everyday, and despite my efforts at influencing the system will be quite random events (be careful – it’s easy to get blacklisted for self promotion)!

The key thing is to be aware of the potential, and keep an eye out for the start of a spike in traffic from one particular source, sales of one particular product, or use of a voucher code.

Then make sure stock levels are available, check the margin on the product, use a popular landing page to up-sell/ cross-sell, monitor what people are saying about your brand and website. And watch the sales roll in!

No Comments by on January 29, 2010
filed in Ecommerce strategy, Social media
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© 2011 Helen Coupland