The best web sites provide lots of data in easily digested ways, a panel of retailers told the Shop.org Summit in Anaheim, CA, this week. The panel, moderated by Jupiter analyst Eric Peterson, was made up of Rich Last, vice president of merchandising for J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Al Hurlebaus, director of e-commerce at CompUSA, and Julie Bornstein, vice president of merchandising and marketing for Nordstrom Direct.

Some of the elements that reportedly make a retailing web page effective:
• Simplicity: strong callouts, key selling features, price, all where it is easily found and quickly read.
• Zoom and alternative views: "Customers want a complete picture," Last said. He recommends showing the tops and bottoms of shoes, for instance, or displaying a suitcase both closed and open so the shopper can see interior dimensions.
• Advice: Especially important in fashion selling.
• Informative content: Last said J.C. Penney talked to super sales personnel in stores to find out how they describe products to customers.
• Multi-channel synchronization: That creates trust when customers see the same offers, products and quality across channels, he said.
• Product comparison: That resulted in higher conversion rates and a sale with a higher gross margin, ultimately created a 56% increase in sales of compared products which in turn created a 3% increase in overall sales.
• Placing newspaper inserts online: The majority of searched terms at CompUSA.com was for advertised items. Moving the insert to the home page resulted in a 250% increase in online sales of advertised products.
• Store pick-up: Communicating delivery options on product pages increased completion rates by 32%, store pick-ups by 44% and sales by 65%.
• Larger view: It's the No. 1 most visited page on the web site.
• Fitting tips: Adding fitting tips increased products added to the shopping cart by 5-10% and conversion rates on related items went up fourfold.
• Live chat: Making the live chat option available on every page increased live chat contacts by 70%, which resulted in more closed sales. An audience member asked why increased contacts to the call center was a benefit. Because they resulted in sales, Borstein answered.

[via Internet Retailer]

The Wall Street Journal has a revealing interview with Wal-Mart CEO Scott Rebuts published on their site. I especially like Mr. Scott’s takes on the effect Wal-Mart has had on companies decisions to offshore.

As an aside, I recently read on some anti-offshoring website that China needs to properly float its currency to ‘right price’ the exports coming out of their country. I don’t know about you, but, as Mr. Scott cites, customers are going to shop for value and maximum utility, and are not concerned, per say, about seeing the price of foreign goods rise right before their eyes. The market force is really an amazing thing, and it’s that market force that will drive or drown our offshoring decisions.

WSJ: To benefit your customers, you drive down prices as low as possible. But doesn't that encourage manufacturers to move jobs overseas, which puts some of your customers out of work, so they can't afford to buy as much at Wal-Mart? Isn't that a vicious circle and does that really benefit America?

Mr. Scott: There is an assumption behind the question that the only way to reduce costs is to go offshore. We have a history of working with companies like Procter & Gamble, Kellogg, PepsiCo to drive out unnecessary costs -- inventory buildup, packaging expenses -- from the business and pass savings onto the customer.
I am not familiar with the idea that Wal-Mart brings anyone in and says you need to take this item offshore. I can't say it never happened, but I can say that is not our policy. ... The percentage of our general merchandise bought overseas is lower than many companies.
Say we do business with a certain manufacturer and give them all the shelf space for their products. And other retailers are sourcing a similar item overseas and offering greater value. Ultimately, the customer will make the decision. Manufacturers could be putting themselves at risk.

There is no proof that over many years, since the U.S. became more active on the global market, it has manifested in a way that is harmful to the U.S. Unemployment, while higher than during the peak boom years, is around the level it was in 1996, the start of the last expansion period. Average wages are not going down.

A study of 17 big retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and J.C. Penney found that few offer an array of features linking online and bricks-and-mortar services.

• Store accepts returns of online purchases: 16
• Web site features retailer's weekly ad circular: 7
• Store receipts contain retailer's Web address: 5
• Store associates direct shoppers to Web site: 5
• Shoppers can place orders online for in-store pickup: 4
• In-store kiosk allows orders for products not in store: 3
• Can print shopping list from Web site for store visit: 2

Source: Retail Forward Store and Web Site Audits, November 2003-February 2004

[via Wall Street Journal(sub)]

Office Depot, already a darling of the e-commerce world with their consistent growth in online sales, is now focusing on re-designing their retail presence with a number of sweeping changes, as reported by the In-Store Marketing Institute.

While retail is by no stretch a level playing field - Jo Bob sporting goods simply cannot compete with a major chain for location, signage, advertising and the like - there are many learnings that retailers of all sizes can glean from the big boys and apply to their own operations. Some of which are aesthetic, but many are operational and include forging better partnerships with vendors, partners, and even competitors and complimentors.

Some ideas based on the recent Office Depot redesign. None are terribly complex, or even new, but combined, they are powerful.

• Use a consistent color scheme throughout your store to identify areas, categories, and points of interest. Customers are becoming acustomed to homogeneity of signage and language across channels. Make sure the colors and language are synchronized with your online presence.
• Watch the height of fixtures to provide clear sight lines. Merchandise high-margin/high-exposure items in the center store.
• Create merchandising "pods" for key product categories.
• Increase the use of pallet displays in order to reduce labor costs and reinforce a value statement in the minds of consumers.
• Work with your vendors to obtain more display-ready trays to minimize restocking. Similarly, increase shelf depth to minimize restocking and reduce the perception of out-of-stocks.
• Utilize more gravity-fed and spring-loaded shelving will be used selectively to keep products organized.
• Partner with vendors on vendor-supported signage program with co-marketing opportunities. Buyers should contact each of their vendors for more specifics on any programs they offer.
• By all means, use overhead signage utilizing product images and text rather than lifestyle graphics in order to ease navigation.
• If you are a store with limited inventory, or want to more closely link you online & offline presence, use Web-based, wireless kiosks that enable customers to order products from your site, view a catalog of products from your vendors, signup for your loyalty program, or join your marketing email list.

I'm always a sucker for a good case history and ends with an increase in sales. Phil Terry wrote a piece for Catalog Age that got me thinking about how of the web is still controlled "by design" and not "by data." Which, according to Warren Buffet, might not be a good thing.

“You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.” -Warren Buffet

Gift cards are moving into a new category, more and more often being strategically integrated into businesses as a tool to capture or retain new customers, improve operational efficiency and business intelligence.

For example, Spencer Gifts offered customers who bought a certain amount of products, a gift card that required they return within a certain time frame.

Gift cards of varying amounts can become integral parts of loyalty programs and provide yet another opportunity for you to connect with the customer when the cash in the card at your store.

Gift cards can also spawn relationships with local large businesses as employee incentives, which is a great way to get a captive audience and repeat business. By pitching the value of your gift cards and setting up a resonable program for local businesses, you could forge some great long-term partnerships as businesses come back time and again to purchase more cards as they dole out rewards to their employees.

The numbers for this deal look good we well. On the consumer side, some 92% of U.S. adults are aware of gift cards, compared to 76% in 2001. And, 59% indicated they had purchased or received a gift card in 2003, versus 36% in 2001, according to the ValueLink Consumer Insight Survey 2004.

[via Patricia Odell - PROMO, May 6 2004]

Chris O'Donnell explains why he doesn't like WalMart. I agree with him...sort of. I hate shopping there because I think of how they treat employees and I despise the product quality, according to Paul, Home Depot pulls the same shit though.

What I do respect about them is the way that they manage data and fine-tune each store's inventory, placement, and refine their sales environment for their target demographic, which, apparently, I am not part of. Having worked at the #1 Home Video producer (Warner Bros.) and seeing the vendor side of WM, when you're at the top of your game, I have respect for how they use data in the retail environment. There are many things you can learn from WM. But that's really where my respect comes to a screeching halt.

Chicago is toying with the idea of a Wal-Mart, which would be the first in-city. Here's a great writeup on it, the politics, and the ramifications:
http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/kill_the_juggermart.php

HBS Working Knowledge: It's Back to Business-Basics for Nonprofits

Former HBS professor Jeff Bradach shares practical advice on how nonprofits can improve their strategy and produce measurable results for their cause and donors.

Rob also offers his take on this over at Businesspundit

We were just discussing the topic of how our small business can accept credit cards, which we've not needed to do to this point because most of our business is B-to-B and all of our clients pay by check. But as our first widget is set to roll out, we know we'll be dealing with corporate credit cards soon enough.

Lo and behold, PayPal has just release a service this past weekend called "PayPal Account Optional", which enables US-based merchants to process credit card transactions using PayPal without requiring buyers to signup for a PayPal account -- signup is now completely optional.

The "PayPal Account Optional" feature can be toggled on or off from a PayPal account holder's profile setting, under the "Selling Preferences" / "Website Payment Preferences" area at the bottom of the page, below the "Auto Return" setting.

Klever Karts are driving shoppers around the store

A new self-service shopping cart solution for the retail environment is to be co-developed by Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc. and Klever Marketing Inc., resulting in an integrated, intelligent shopping cart with a built-in wireless computer that shoppers can use to scan items while they are shopping.

Story via: The Wise Marketer

Ask Tog: Top 10 Reasons to Not Shop On Line.

In this day and age, it's sheer amazement to me that companies are coming across with B & C class service and web sites. We're forgetting that online, it's not your competitor's store they're comparing you to, but to the amazons, REIs, and Red Envelopes of the world that they just visited before they started shopping at your online place of commerce...
[Tomalak's Realm]

[Internet Retailer] The market for site search technology is moving to search and browse....In three years, most technology vendors have shifted focus from returning a set of search results to creating a multi-faceted interface in which retailers can present merchandise they want to promote and consumers can narrow their selections.

WebTrends surveyed 1,000 US adults between 3 and 7 December 2003, 632 of whom had researched or purchased a product online. The survey determined that having to enter too much info, surprise costs at the point of checkout, or a lack of supporting product or service information were the most likely factors contributing to shopping cart abandonment.

This relates to an earlier study conducted by CatchFIRE Systems that illustrated the lack of understanding of how the web works and how to keep shoppers from abandoning sites on the part of most marketers. Now marketers have some information to work with...

Bottom line: It's no longer acceptable to have a piece-of-crap shopping cart or online shopping experience. If you're getting into the e-commerce game at this point, or if you're still in the game, you simply can't afford to be playing a c-level game!