Jason and Paul walked the room through about 15 live examples of social media campaigns from a variety of top online retailers like Sephora [tutorial YouTube videos), OfficeMax’ Penny Pranks (funny YouTube videos) and Folica (tips and tricks provided by customers appearing alongside product reviews).

The first example was Wet Seal’s Runway, a tool which allows customers to create their own fantasy outfits using Wet Seal clothing, and submit it to the Wet Seal community. It gives customers the chance to play stylist, preview what individual items might look like together, and interact with other shoppers like them to discover fashion ideas. There’s also an element of “fame” that a Wet Seal shopper can achieve if her outfits are popular and receive high community ratings.

Paul commented that when he was with Williams Sonoma, they had a virtual table where you can design your table to see what it would look like with your desired items on it. The problem was, in Paul’s words “people have crappy taste.” He believes a level of validation was missing. He was pleased to see that Wet Seal’s Runway utilize community feedback that rewards certain citizen stylists. Jason added that there is a drop-down where you can separate outfits styled by Wet Seal stylists and customers.

How can the Wet Seal Runway be improved? Paul would like to see more effective tagging employed by citizen stylists. For example, what if I want to see what people are wearing to parties? Jason would like to see more conversation started around the outfits.

Personally, I would like to see product pages including links to the community section and show which user-created sets include that item. In the perfect world, the highest-rated outfits would appear first, you could hover over the set to enlarge it without leaving the page, and you could add all the items from the outfit(s) you like to your shopping bag at once and then edit the items you may not want.

One of the challenges, especially with fashion, is that you may sell out of a certain item and the customer will not be able to purchase it. The question is — do you want to pull outfits that are past their sell-by date? Are they archived? Is there a way to help customers surf fresh styles? How would citizen stylists feel about having their creations removed?

The goal is to make the whole of what Gap does greater than the sum of its parts.

Some may ask, with such differentiation between the four brands, how in the world did this idea get past the “brand police?”

1. The decision to universalize the shopping experience was customer driven. Focus group customers were asking them to do this. And Gap understands the best brand strategy is to do things that customers love, not what the brand marketers think customers want.

2. Gap knew it could preserve each individual brand identity, while offering the single brand customer to become a multi-brand customer effortlessly online.

3. Offering Piperlime as the fourth tab can further accelerate the growth of its pureplay Piperlime brand alongside its legacy brands. For now, the legacy brands will help sell Piperlime shoes, but over time they believe Piperlime will also help sell legacy brands.

By challenging its traditional strategic thinking and adopting a customer-centric approach, Gap is rapidly increasing its online market share and delighting customers. But as President Toby Lenk stated in his keynote Enhancing the Customers’ Shopping Experience Through Innovation, they are just scratching the surface for what’s possible in online retail.

So during the Merchandising Trends in 2008 session, I was surprised to hear experts Doug Mack, VP and General Manager of Hosted & Consumer Solutions at Adobe, and consultant Sally McKenzie both agree that they didn’t like the carousel navigation feature on Endless:

This goes to show that different people (both in the industry and customers) can have different opinions!  This was just one of the examples discussed in the session.  If you missed it, here’s your chance to weigh in on what you think about Endless’ carousel.

A few reasons cited by the experts (loosely paraphrased) were that the carousel is clunky to use, and there is a problem with adjacency – the selection offered may not be what the customer wants to see.  They also prefer to see more content on the page rather than so many product choices. (Please note that the screen shot shows the zoom effect of rolling over a point on the product image, which covers up the product description — there is one hiding underneath.)

Regarding adjacency – this is a very good point. Relevance of any cross-sell is key to effective merchandising.  Because Endless is an Amazon property, there is likely a sophisticated personalization engine that determines the product selection that could offer more relevant results.  There are also a number of filtering tools available, like price sliders, color refinement, brands and sizes that help the customer hone in on specific product attributes that will improve adjacency.

The carousel’s placement at the top might not be optimal, perhaps showing the selection below the product information is less imposing on the customer, but still helpful. (Something that should be split tested).

It also takes a long time to view the conveyor belt of products when it might be faster just to jump back to the category page and view far more thumbnails at once.  American Eagle Outfitters may do a better job with its category exposure.  When viewing any product page, you can hover over View All [Category] and browse the category without clicking back:

An idea for Endless might be to allow a “Quick Look” that provides product price, description and other information when hovering over products in the carousel.

As retailers and as online shoppers, what do you think of carousel navigation? How does it detract from the customer experience? How does it help?

The following is a recap of the tips these retailers learned from the trenches at every key phase of the vendor selection process:

• Start
• Research
• Developing and prioritizing requirements
• Set evaluation criteria
• Request for information and proposals
• Checking references
• Proposal
• Considering options, approaches and selection solutions
• Implementation

Start

Do’s

• Clearly define why you’re replatforming, agree on short-term and long term benefits that will be realized
• Overcommunicate – plan for lots of project updates, meetings and reports
• Make sure stakeholders are involved right from the start
• Research options using experienced vendors and partners

Do not’s

• Don’t think re-platforming will fix business process problems (garbage in, garbage out)
• Don’t underestimate the cost of the project (factor about 25% additional “buffer” into the budget)
• Don’t assume current staffing will carry you through the project (integration partners, etc)
• Don’t assume agreement with the project = a complete understanding of what needs to be done and why

Research phase

Do’s

• Understand what end result you want and success criteria before you begin, and communicate them clearly
• Document success criteria for RFP group, a simple way is a checklist or scorecard
• Involve a C-level executive and IT executive in your RFP group, and include members from various functions in your organization (finance, marketing etc)

Do not’s

Developing and prioritizing requirements

Do’s

Do not’s

• Don’t allow the 20% of top requirements to affect your judgment on the 80% of requirements
• Don’t lose focus on what your organization is not good at
• Don’t fall into the “this is how we do this today” trap

Set evaluation criteria

Do’s

• Start with entrance criteria and “table stakes” – this saves a lot of time for both you and vendor
• Be specific and concise with your criteria – 1 paragraph or less
• Gain internal signoff before heading to vendor selection
• Share evaluation criteria with vendors and allow them to explain how their product or service meets your needs

Do not’s

• Don’t include vendors outside your selection criteria

Request for information and proposal

RFI (request for information) do’s

• Include this step if you need information on a new industry or from an unfamiliar vendor, if your new system is “critical” to your business or if you need to narrow your playing field of vendors

RFI do not’s

• Don’t skip this step if you need it because of tight time lines

RFP (request for proposal) do’s

• Be specific about key milestones and dates
• Set a hard deadline – and add 25% to that deadline as buffer
• Be realistic about timelines and manage internal expectations – often executives are not aware of the level of detail involved

RFP do not’s

• Don’t take on RFP work in the middle of critical business periods (holiday, back to school etc)
• Don’t assume every milestone will stay on schedule

Checking references

Do’s

• Reach out to colleagues who’ve done process before, linkedin, shop.og posting information, vendor user groups – due diligence
• Secondary research forrester / Gartner
• Information about company itself –stock price today vs. one year ago, financial health etc. people previously employed by company etc.
• Dig into references, the people you speak with should have similar experiences to you
• Avail yourself of vendor provided references, but also check out blind references – could discover another side of the story
• Consider references outside of your vertical
• Consider hiring a consultant to help you with your overall project – someone objective and familiar with the process
• Prepare a list of questions for your references so you don’t take more of their time than you need to – but be aware to keep the list short, and allow references to decline to answer certain questions

Do not’s

• Don’t short circuit this process – you can glean more than just from white papers and site copy

Proposal

Do’s

• Combine the terms of the website development including time frames potential constraints and legal responsibilities involved
• Determine specific items included in quotations, not cost of additional services and any penalty provisions
• Pay attention to the qualifications of the people who will actually be performing the work for you
• Look for a summary of organization and outcomes to be achieved, be on the same page with your vendor

Do not’s

• Don’t assume everything is included. Watch out for integration costs. Integration with POS and warehouse systems can be huge
• Don’t accept a proposal without a delivered deadline. It is a written understanding between parties
  Considering options, approaches and selection solutions

Considering options, approaches and selection solutions

Do’s

• Define the “long list” of providers and platforms, consider where the bisuiness will be in 3-5 years
• Determine selection team and agree on the process prior to down-selecting
• Use the opportunity to eductate the organization through the process

Do not’s

• Be afraid to let the vendor educate you
• But also don’t allow them to create requirements that are not important to YOUR organization
• Lose control of the process either internally or externally
• Forget to bring the internal stakeholders (all of them) along in the process

Implementation

Do’s

• Properly staff the project
• Ensure time padding exists for high risk and complex items
• Share the responsibilities for successful implementation
• Ensure segmentation to learning for the self sufficient in critical areas to be

Do not’s

Knowing the average Borders customer spends an hour in the brick-and-mortar store, sometimes with coffee in hand, to look at magazines, listen to music and hang out, Borders CEO George Jones’ vision is to create a headquarters for knowledge and entertainment – and offer this experience online and in store to create a true cross-channel (not just multi-channel) environment.

When George Jones took the helm as CEO of Borders in July 2006, one of his first initiatives was to break the bookseller’s five-year licensing agreement with Amazon.com and “go independent.” Since 2001, the Borders brand had been driving traffic to Amazon only to leave the customer with an Amazon browsing, buying and post-purchase experience. Product was shipped in Amazon boxes. Follow up emails enticed customers to buy again from Amazon. And, because of certain regulations like taxation, Borders couldn’t even offer Internet-wired kiosks in its stores.

Not only that, but competitor Barnes and Noble rode through the dot-com dog days, investing in the ecommerce channel and building a loyalty program 4 million strong. Something had to be done.

The vision came to fruition in May 2008 with the launch of the new Borders.com.

Here are a few of the features and exclusives that make the Borders shopping experience vastly different from Amazon:

Magic Shelf. An innovative browsing experience, the Magic Shelf aims to replicate the in-store browsing experience of outward facing book covers. With personalization, customers can see recommended titles based on their individual interests, and discover books most relevant to them.

BordersMedia. An area for online shoppers to hang out (with a cup of coffee, if they desire) and consume exclusive video content — interviews, how-tos and performances by well-known authors, artists and celebrities.

Check inventory in store. One thing you can’t do with Amazon is order online and pick up in store the same day. Borders offers free shipping to a local store, and the local store is credited with the sale, even when the order is placed online.

Buy used books, music and movies. Borders levels the playing field with Amazon and goes one step further – you can have your used items shipped to store.

Lulu.com and Shutterfly partnerships. Borders’ partnership with Lulu enables customers to self-publish their own book and even sell it online. The Shutterfly partnership helps you turn photos into a bound book. Customers who use these services often become life-long loyal customers.

Borders also launched its own loyalty program, and unlike Barnes and Noble, made enrollment free. It now boasts over 28 million members, and is enjoying weekly open rates for its ShortList email campaigns of over 20%.

One way to measure success – publishers now compete for BordersMedia opportunities. Even an include in the ShortList email alone can turn a title into a New York Times bestseller. Everyone wants to be on board with Borders.

Stories like this prove that even if you are a late entrant into ecommerce, if you can find a way to differentiate yourself and truly provide a rich customer experience, you can achieve success.