Shop.org Blog

I was surprised to get an email from Potbelly. I’ve occasionally gotten a sandwich there, and I had once dropped a card into the fishbowl they have there to win lunch. I didn’t think I’d ever opt’d in to receive email. The email I received appeared to conform to the CAN SPAM requirements, providing a physical email address and a way to opt out. Out of curiosity, I checked out the Potbelly privacy policy. This sentence seems to cover it: We receive and store any information you enter on our Web site or give us in any other way. Out of curiosity, I went back to the store to see if the promotional piece had said anything about email. It was inconclusive today, as there was a fishbowl with literally nothing on it. A clear, transparent fishbowl. People will still happily dropping cards in, undoubtedly assuming there was some reason for doing so In general, it seems logical to me that if you drop a card in, you should probably expect to get an email. Why else would a business be doing it? Given the huge number of restaurants near Discovery HQ, an investigation commenced.

McDonalds, Chik-fil-A — no opportunities to win free lunch
Eggspectations - Win a free lunch for two - no policy
Chipotle - win a lunch - no policy
Lebanese Taverna - win lunch for two, we’ll send you a copy of our menu.
The pho restaurant - everyone wins lunch for them and friends, if you’re willing to sit through an Ameriprise presentation on financial planning. Clearcut policy, but not really a free lunch.
And, the winner for the clearest “Fishbowl privacy policy” is Noodles & Company. They tell you that you’re signing up for “free noodles”, and that you could win lunch for 8. They also tell you on the fishbowl, and via conveniently located entry forms, in case you don’t have a card, that you’re going to receive email, and that their privacy policy is online at the website.

-Josh

For almost 15 years, the online retailing industry has been part of the US economy. And, for the most part, our industry has stayed out of politics, which is quite a feat for an industry that will generate a quarter trillion dollars in 2007.

While many online retailers would prefer to continue to go about their business without meddling in politics (and I don’t blame them), there are certainly issues that are being debated in the U.S. Congress that will affect our industry. Instead of hiding from this reality, Shop.org is tackling it head-on.

With any maturing industry, the move toward advocacy becomes almost inevitable. As a result, Shop.org announced yesterday that it has expanded its mission to include a focus on advocacy. As a first step, we are forming a policy advisory group comprised of online retail operational executives from the Shop.org membership to serve as our “ear to the ground” for issues that will have the greatest impact on our industry.

There are two particular issues facing online retailers, in which Shop.org’s parent organization, the National Retail Federation, has been active, and that will be our focus as we enter the policy arena.

A “spyware bill” that has morphed into a general online privacy bill is being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives. It would essentially require consumers to “opt in” in order for retailers to collect any personal information on Web sites. Shop.org also plans to tackle credit card interchange, which requires merchants to pay a percentage of their sales back to the credit card company. This practice is especially damaging for online retailers who are required to pay “card not present” fees, which can be fifty percent higher than what traditional retailers pay. Despite paying higher fees, online retailers are rarely, if ever, reimbursed for merchandise shipped from order placed using a fraudulent credit card.

To learn more about these and other issues, I invite industry participants to join us for a policy brief at our upcoming Annual Summit in Las Vegas. The brief, which is scheduled for Wednesday, September 19, from 7:45 – 8:45 am, features Liz Oesterle, NRF’s VP, Government Relations Counsel and Steve Pfister, NRF’s SVP, Government Relations and chief lobbyist.

Please feel free to reply to this blog with suggestions for issues that Shop.org should address on behalf of our industry.

Kevin Hillstrom had a post entitled “Praise to Infrequent Customers.”  In it, he demonstrates how “infrequent customers” can make the difference between profit and loss in a multichannel environment.  I’m curious to hear reactions, and if there are any special actions retailers have taken to cater to customers who don’t visit that often.  It’d be tough to cost justify the same rewards your best customers get, so what can you do to make them feel special when they do visit and purchase?
–Josh

For my 7th installment of the Word-of-Mouth Wisdom interview series, I am proud to interview Ed Keller. Ed serves on our Board of Directors and is an industry guru as well as a seasoned operational CEO. He has continuously added value to the Bazaarvoice team and Board, and we are constantly learning from him. He is also the founder and CEO of The Keller Fay Group, which is doing some of the most interesting work in the word of mouth field.

1. As the author of “The Influentials“, former CEO of Roper, President of WOMMA, Board Director at Bazaarvoice, and CEO of your new business, why do you think the word of mouth movement is buzzing like never before?

Why now and not five years ago?

Read the Entire Post >

I’ve been reading with great interest the story of Harry Joiner, and have written a bit about it on my personal blog. He was banned from Facebook, after attempting to invite his 4,600 contacts through Gmail. There’s been a variety of press, and I’d expect it to attract mainstream media attention shortly. The question it raises for this blog is, what are your policies regarding Web 2.0 interaction on your site? If you have an address book function, do you let customers export it, if they need everyone who’s on a registry or a flower sending list? If you’re starting a social networking function on your commerce site, how carefully will you monitor usage? What about product reviews? Is it clear what the rules are? Do you publish everything, or do you take down reviews that are unacceptable? Are you willing to get into an online blog war about your rules? It’ll be fascinating to hear the viewpoints from industry participants over the next few months, at the conferences coming up.

–Josh

[Updated with comment I received from Harry] - Hi Josh,

Thanks for the coverage on this. I know that many of your readers are Shop.org members and “Internet Retailer” subscribers, so I’ll take a moment to clarify:

All I did was follow the instructions on the Facebook UI to invite my current contact list to join. Facebook never informed me of a limit. My understanding is that technology writer Robert Scoble has 4200 Facebook contacts — and last week, Mr. Scoble described Facebook as “the new Rolodex” and hyped its click-to-call compatibility with the iPhone.

Moreover, Facebook’s email address inhaler slurped up every single Gmail address I had on file — which just happened to be 4600 and change. Facebook even served up hundreds of photos of my contacts who were already members.

Honestly, it appeared to me as if everything was cool when I hit SEND. It was only when Facebook’s customer service rep gave me the boot in a misspelled email that I realized that I had been “F’d”

If Facebook had given me a limit, I would have obeyed it. No problem. I am a member in excellent standing on several online communities and social networks.

Note to Shop.org members: Even as this thing continues to gather steam in the blogosphere, Facebook has remained quiet on the matter. A mistake.  Moreover, Facebook customer service was incredibly resolute about the permanence of their decision — even though they never gave me a Warning or an opportunity to atone for my actions.

It was like getting an instant death penalty for speeding on an unmarked highway.

Kind regards,
Harry Joiner
EcommerceRecruiter.com
As seen in “Internet Retailer” magazine