The eTail Blog

It’s easy to get bogged down in data when you’re trying to measure your website’s traffic, visitors, what clicks are most important, etc.

At eTail East this year, speakers discussed this issue, including Brandon Proctor, VP, Marketing, Build.com, who talked about how to measure what is making customers actually buy.

Catch a small glimpse into what he talked about here, and of course there will be lots more discussion on this at eTail Palm Springs!

(Try not to notice the rather loud background noise – which surely you will notice now that I’ve brought it up. Apologies for that!)

Interesting take on the idea of personalization and re-marketing that we keep going on about.

When can/does it become too much to handle? How can an e-retailer avoid it being too noticeable to the consumer and no longer transparent? How will e-retailers successfully use these techniques to attract new customers and not freak out their existing ones?

As with most things, it’s about balance. In my humble opinion, there must be a happy medium achievable between “stalking” people with items, as the above article mentions, and suggesting purchases through thought-out targeted ads. For instance, if I’m looking at a beautiful Cole Haan purse and I move to another website – perhaps I should see ads for stores similar to Cole Haan in varying price brackets. Or ads for products at Cole Haan that match the style of purse I was looking at. Then it’s a bit more subtle, no?

Surely this is easier said than done, but it’s possible and some companies are probably doing it already. Are you one of them?

So I read yesterday that Google is now offering phone calls via Gmail. Then I went home, signed into my Gmail account and got this big notification pointing over to my list of names that said make a call, or something to that effect. And subsequently was confused.

Does this mean they want to be Skype? Or beat Skype at its own game? And is this going to do something for the company’s revenue? I want to know Google, what does this all mean?

Not that there’s anything wrong with Google being Skype, I just need to sort my little head out with this so someone, please explain to me why this is all happening! Is there an e-commerce goal/benefit in all of it?

This article hit close to home for me. A few people in my life, namely one, who shall remain anonymous, have posed the theory that “multi-tasking” via various technological devices in fact hinders productivity, despite its effort to enhance it.

Apparently this certain someone’s opinion carries weight. According to research from the University of Michigan and the University of California, our brains need a rest – and when we give it to them, they tend to process and remember information better.

But alas, this is not the trend toward which our society is heading. Instead, technologies are being developed daily which make it easier for us to eat up every free moment of time by sending an e-mail, playing a game, tweeting our whereabouts and of course, buying things.

That’s where this gets interesting for us e-commerce aficionados. While studies that show people learn and process information better after taking a break from their iPhones, Blackberrys, iPads and the like, I wonder how the constant use affects their mobile buying decisions. I have a feeling – quite a strong one – that research on users’ purchasing trends would turn out positive results based on the more they fill up time with using them. Why? Besides the obvious – which is that the more people are looking at little screens, the more they’ll be apt to click ads leading them to products or search their favorite sites for deals – people, especially business people, are on a constant strive for productivity. Even when at the gym, as the aforementioned article asserts, people want to get things done, and mobile devices help them do that.

If productivity is the goal, that feeling you get when you click the purchase button on that gift you’ve been meaning to buy for Mom, or that order you were supposed to make for those office supplies at work will get you there. It’s an act that’s instantly gratifying – you got something done.

My guess is that regardless of research on negative intellectual effects of mobile technologies, usage will only get more fervent and so will online mobile purchasing.

More companies are starting to submit to the power of online content. Not long ago, it would have been a dream to imagine streaming, free TV over the web. Now networks are almost expected to do it.

The Dish Network is one of the most recent to offer content online. Sony is also continuing to bet on online TV through Crackle.com, which could become the primary entertainment channel for Sony’s PlayStation Network, a growing video service that feeds games and online content into homes via PlayStation 3 consoles.

What will this mean for everyone trying to sell product online? Will you continue to increase online advertisements on these networks? And if so, does that mean you’ll cut back on traditional, print ads?

I’m curious – as always.

I remember sitting in on some presentations and panels at the recent Luxury Interactive event in NYC and hearing people talk about better aligning your e-commerce site with your brick and mortar stores to drive sales from each.

The argument being made was that many buyers shop online and then go into the store to buy, often finding the item is not available there. Or vice versa: the customer sees something in-store, goes home to shop online and it’s nowhere to be found.

According to this NYTimes article, Nordstrom is starting to listen to this advice and employed a new strategy which integrates the online shopping experience with the in-store experience.  How it works? If a shopper is looking at an item on Nordstrom.com, s/he can see exactly which store has that item available and then reserve it for a same-day pickup in-store (which could, of course, encourage him/her to buy more while visiting the store). If the customer wanted to buy online and the web warehouse was out of the item, it would not matter as long as one of the retailer’s brick and mortar locations had it in stock because it would be arranged to be shipped from that store to the customer.

This is exactly the sort of thing we were discussing at the Luxury show. Retailers are still struggling to understand how and why the online arm of their business is so important since traditional methods of doing business have deep roots and often the upper management is comprised of an older generation of thinkers. But the tide is turning, as is evident with this development at Nordstrom.

Neiman Marcus was another high-end retailer in on the discussion at Luxury Interactive. Perhaps they will be next?

Ok so when it comes to social networking and e-commerce combined, one of my favorites is UrbanDaddy.

Friday, they launched “The Dashboard.” I’m still playing around with it so admittedly I don’t really know exactly what it is. But from what I see, I am so super intrigued and think it’s pretty much awesome. It’s sponsored by Grey Goose and thus a great example of a brand that’s ahead of the social commerce curve. Plug in your city and play around with it.

It’s sort of like a little game and it has some funky music to accompany it. I’m hearing a lot lately about how game theory could play into e-commerce. Still just a buzz, but could be more soon. I had the luxury of being on a MAC using Chrome and it looked great, but now I’m on IE and it still looks super rad. Here’s a shot of how it looks. Cool, right?

When you run a site where virtually all the product you’re selling is created by your customers, you have to be pretty savvy about what they’re posting and how they’re using your site. But according to Jana Eggers, CEO of Spreadshirt, an e-commerce site where you can go to create personalized t-shirts and other apparel items, customer content is a relatively untapped resource that can help sell your product for you. You’ll always run the risk of seeing some negative content or things like Spread____ (take a wild guess) but ultimately, it’s worth the risk as you allow your users to get closer to your brand – which is what they are longing for.

As Spreadshirt has evolved, it has begun to use more and more personalization and also to integrate customer-generated content into their web design. Learn from the site’s CEO, Jana Eggers, how to take their success and apply it to your e-commerce site, with this informal post-presentation chat she had with me at eTail.

Are you on Foursquare? How about Places?

I have an embarrassing story. I joined Foursquare – excited to become the mayor of at least one location – my office. And then I suddenly realized: I don’t have a smartphone.

Yet – yet, everyone!

I know, it’s totally blasphemous for a writer, marketer, self-proclaimed social media expert, blogger to have an old-fashioned, no-Internet phone. Especially when Facebook just announced the launch of Places, similar to Foursquare – the network I tried in vain to join.

BUT, I will be getting one, I will! The past year plus has been somewhat of an experiment for me – to see how far I can go in this world of social media without being mobilely connected to it. I think that experiment has met its end. There are simply too many websites and networks and apps being developed specifically for mobile to be out of the loop anymore.

According to this NYTimes article, Facebook’s new Places service  could help tap local and small-business advertisers and sharpen competition with Google. The service borrows from location-based social networks like Foursquare, tapping into people’s desire to “win” at this game of virtual turf wars. The more you check into a place on Foursquare, the closer you become to being deemed by the service as mayor. And apparently, according to another NYTimes article, (they are really tracking this mobile movement over at NYT!) that mayor-ship is a coveted position among social media gurus.

Using Places on hand-held devices like the iPhone, users will be able to check in at restaurants and bars, for example and alert friends on Facebook of their presence. They will then be able to see any friends that are nearby as well as other people who have checked in at the same location and have agreed to have their location broadcast.

In case you missed the article about Kathy Hecht’s personalization presentation, check out this video interview where she talks about why personalization is of such importance to modern-day e-commerce websites.

“Customers want to feel that they are important to you,” she said. “They feel important when you show them that you understand who they are, and why they’re there.”

Listen to her tips below, and tell us what you think!