Amy Africa, CEO of Eight by Eight talks about the human brain and shopping.

So back to that unusual opening question. Amy used that – and a series of follow up “what if” scenarios – to get the audience to think about how we make decisions. Turns out it has a lot to do with our “reptilian brain” (I hadn’t heard of it, either). Forget the more common “right brain / left brain” categorization – Amy explained that we in fact have three brains: the neocortex (rational data processing), the mid-brain (emotions and gut feeling processing), and, finally, our reptilian brain. The latter is the arbiter or tie breaker between the first two and triggers decisions, as its primary concern is one’s survival, and, as Amy described it, “deciding what’s safe and what isn’t”.

And this has what to do with retailing? Quite a bit. Amy next outlined a raft of 21 factors about human beings and how those impact your customer’s decision to whether or not to visit your site, stay or flee, and – hopefully – actually buy. Lots of food for thought – think of it as a reality / sanity check for you and your business. Herewith some of Amy’s points:

• We are self-centered. Translation for your site: does your site really speak to your customers? Does it resonate with them, do they identify with what the site displays, talks about, exudes? Does your site speak the same “language” as they do?
• We process best in “black and white” – that is, contrasts. In fact, Amy noted, contrast is “efficient” for our brains; we’re programmed to notice differences and changes in our environment (again, a survival technique). Translation for retail sites – “what are your pattern interrupters for your customers on your site?” Amy pointed out that most people vow they can’t stand pop up ads – but, they do make people take notice. The home page carousel (rotating images or content) is also effective, engaging the user to linger a little longer and see what comes next to make sure they haven’t missed something.
• We are visual. As Amy noted, “You only think you think. You really just see.” Don’t “over SEO” your site, Amy further exhorted, forgetting that the user coming to your site from Google “doesn’t see words as much as he sees pictures.”
• We look for patterns. Translation for retail sites: customers like to see patterns, as they feel safe and familiar. In Amy’s experience, navigation accounts for 40% to 60% of the success of a site (that’s more like 80% for a mobile site). Why? “Because 80% of [the customer’s] attention goes to the first screen; the top and left hand are patterns and [therefore feel] safe.” Among patterns, human beings particularly look for faces, as they are reassuring. Amy suggested that by adding a friendly-looking picture of a customer service rep on your product and check out pages, you will increase your chances of improving conversions (sounds like a great A/B testing candidate!).
• We like things that we can touch. Translation for retail sites: are you using words on your site that are meaningless to your customer? If they don’t understand and cannot visualize easily terms like “revolutionary product” or “flexible approach” that you use on your site, they won’t warm to the product or service (or your company).
• We like beginnings and ends. Translation: are you using deadlines and creating a sense of urgency? Use short deadlines – they help customers focus. Amy pointed out that two years ago the average life span of an email was 48 hours – now it’s 9 hours at best, and likely really more like 4 hours.
• We respond to emotion. For a retail site, this is all about the story you tell (versus simply selling a product) – again, not just in words, but in your imagery and the overall look and feel of your site. What’s the first impression the customer gets? What are his or her takeaways from interacting with your site?
• We create false memories. “What do you remember? Our memories are terrible,” Amy noted. “So, how do you compensate for your user’s terrible memory?” For retailers, it’s about putting some action directive (or, a reminder to the customer to take the action you want them to take) on each and every page to compensate.
• We have inattentional blindness. As Amy notes, “We see what we want to see – and we don’t see what matters, often. Are your action directives clear and on every single page? What’s important to you and does the user know it?”
• We like what’s first. Customers who do a search will look at just the first two results presented – at best. For retailers, that means making sure your bestsellers are among the top two results.
• We respond to status. And, Amy posited, “Status and reputation are more important than money.” This is a key underpinning to social media – how many likes or connections, one’s rank as a contributor to customer reviews, and so forth.
• We respond to scarcity. As we all know, “If it’s rare, we want it,” Amy notes. For retailers, this means thinking about scarcity and how it affects your cart and your check out – are you conveying urgency and scarcity so the customer has incentive to finish the check out process?

In light of their astonishing growth and as a preview to Doug’s upcoming appearance as a Super Session speaker at Retail’s BIG Show, we reached out to CEO Doug Mack for our most recent Talking With… interview. During our conversation, Mack repeatedly touched on a few key themes that apply to leading and succeeding with just about any retail business in the world: hone in on innovation, embrace design and technology, leverage your data, and optimize every aspect of the customer experience. While Doug points to some of the companies and brands that he looks to for inspiration, I can only imagine how many companies and brands already are inspired by his leadership and the near-flawless focus at One Kings Lane on website design, online merchandising and building the next game-changing lifestyle brand.

Social media is obviously changing the way some people shop and engage with your brand. What are some of the new and exciting trends in social?

We’ve had great success at One Kings Lane with social media to fuel “word of mouth” around our brand – when you offer something unique and interesting, customers will now share it broadly via Facebook, Twitter, blogs and even old-fashioned email. Some exciting developments in social media are new “interest” focused communities such as Pinterest and Houzz. While Facebook does a great job at addressing the social graph, these emerging sites are addressing interest by providing environments for enthusiasts to spend time sharing what they love across a wide range of categories and interests, including design and home décor.

What does the future hold for flash sales? How is the business model evolving?

The Flash Sales model is very exciting to consumers, as they tend to get great products at better prices. My view is that innovation is critical for the continued growth of companies in the flash sale space. In our case, we were the first company to offer the Flash Sales model in the home market when we launched in 2009. We then followed up by evolving from a pure flash sales model when we launched the Tastemaker Tag Sales series, where we work with well-known designers and influencers to bring curated sales of one-of-a-kind and vintage items to One Kings Lane. Today, we also shop around the world to bring unique, exceptional items that are hand-selected and deliver tremendous value for our customers. In many ways, we’ve already evolved well beyond flash sales with the variety of merchandise we offer – along with the content we integrate into the experience.

Today’s hot topics in retail include all things mobile, tablet, social and flash. Looking forward, which of those items do you think will sink and which will swim?

I believe the mobile, tablet, social and flash trends will continue to be very relevant to consumers. The reality is that consumers are now becoming accustomed to searching and purchasing items directly from their smartphones and tablets – with tablets representing a particularly encouraging opportunity. Social will be embedded in all e-commerce experiences – so sites that offer an exceptional consumer proposition will benefit from it while those that are undifferentiated will suffer. In flash, I expect we’ll see vertical winners evolve in the years ahead in categories such as apparel, home, kids and travel – while sites that are not a leader at any particular category will eventually sink.

What do you find the most exciting about working in the e-commerce field?

I’ve been in e-commerce for more than a decade now – and I absolutely love the opportunity to find innovative new ways to excite consumers. As we have this mindset in our company, it forces us operate in a non-traditional way in almost every area of our business, from merchandising to product to marketing to operations. For example, unlike traditional retail, our shelves change every single day, 365 days a year, which presents major operational challenges – that as we solve one by one, provides us with huge sources of competitive advantage. The end result is that we continue to deliver a dramatically new and different retail experience for our customers – and yet, despite our fast traction, I think we might still be in the first inning of all the innovation we have planned in the years ahead. The amount of open space to innovate makes it exciting to come to work at One Kings Lane each day.

With your background in design and technology, do you ever find yourself getting caught up in website design and looking less at the retail component? How important is website design for retailers?

That is a critical question for any e-commerce company. We have a phrase that we use at One Kings Lane that one of our employees came up with at our last all company summit – “the merch is the fuel to the car.” Everything we do in the business is critical to our success – but if we don’t get the merch right, we won’t get very far. Design and technology are critical aspects to our overall experience – as we apply these disciplines in three key directions – to our consumers, our employees (who run the business) and our suppliers. One of our driving principles in the application of design and technology is to stay focused and keep it simple – and this certainly manifests itself in our website design. In fact, I believe companies that have hard-to-navigate and cluttered websites is a result of a lack of focus internally – you can see their lack of cohesive strategy represented in the experience on their website.

The feedback we continue to receive from our customers is they love the simplicity of our site. One of the hardest things is to not implement every idea we have for fear it will clutter the experience. We relentlessly curate both the merchandise and website experience to make it a joy for our customers.

How does technology empower retailers today? What are the opportunities of innovation and convergence between the two industries?

Just having a website no longer cuts it for retailers. For retailers to be successful, they need to offer their customers an opportunity to interact with their brand easily from wherever they are, whether it’s on their phone, at home, or in the mall. Also, the future of commerce lies in the massive leverage of data – to have an unfair advantage is optimizing every inch of the customer experience – how you market, how you merch, how you serve. This is extremely hard to do – but those who crack the code will have a systematic advantage in the market.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing digital retailers right now?

Companies have been working on incremental improvements to refine the customer experience, but my sense is we’ll start to see a wave of companies like One Kings Lane that bring a game-changing new experience to bear. The challenge is to sort out if you’ll be part of changing the landscape – or more impacted by it. My sense is digital retailers are also a bit too dependent on certain tools that work today, such as email and SEM, but need to push their thinking on how to be more creative in their customer contact strategies.

What skills do you look for when you’re hiring new staff at One Kings Lane? Do you think today’s graduates are bringing the right experiences to the table?

In every employee we look for passion, agility, innovativeness and customer focus. We focus huge mind share on hiring employees that fit well in our company culture. We’ve had great success hiring recent graduates who have the above traits, along with experienced individuals from a wide variety of industries, including e-commerce, retail, internet and media.

As a recognized leader in your field, who or where do you look for inspiration?

I am a huge fan of major brands that fundamentally change industries. I continue to have utmost respect for Nike, Apple and Starbucks in particular as they completely changed their respective markets, but then never stopped evolving. Apple for instance not only changed the PC industry, but then the music industry – then the mobile industry – and now the PC industry again (via the introduction of tablet computing). All of these companies started with a core innovation, but did not rest on their laurels. As One Kings Lane builds the next lifestyle brand, I will continue to look at these game-changing companies for inspiration.

In yesterday’s Annual Summit session on independent daily deals and flash sales, the first question to ask is “Why?” With the heavyweights I’ve mentioned above, why would retail companies launch their own independent flash sale or daily deal program? Well, let’s take a look at a few companies experimenting on their own: Neiman Marcus, Giiv.com and Lifetime Brand.

Neiman Marcus has found wild success with their flash sales, called the “Midday Dash”, with higher open rates and click rates compared to batch emails, says Aaron Shockey, VP of Advertising and Digital. One cool feature of the sale opportunity: If someone adds a flash sale product to their cart, Neiman Marcus keeps it in their cart even after the sale is over. What have they learned from the program? Shockey says these events have assisted regular price selling, expanded the customer base, and improved engagement. But he also cautions for other retailers experimenting, “You can be unpredictable, but you still need to be consistent.”

Michelle Crames, CEO and Found of SkuLoop and Giiv.com, says these flash sales and daily deals are an “immediate opportunity to create excitement with your customers.” As a solution provider, SkuLoop is finding wild success in assisting retail companies looking to venture into this space. A recent promotion with PACT Organic Underwear showed 60% more revenue than the same products on Gilt Groupe and a 95% new customer acquisition. Crames’s closing words to the audience: “It’s about losing market share if you’re not doing this. You’ve gotta do this now.”

Jeff Berman, President of Retail Direct and eCommerce with Lifetime Brands, was a little more cautious in his recommendations to the audience, saying, “Daily deals are not for everyone!” Just look at the recent scaling back of Yelp and Facebook in the space. Berman’s experience at Lifetime Brands found that consumers are already getting burnt out on these types of promotions – so his team focused on making their program more efficient in their specific market. Key elements of the Lifetime Brands strategy included: immediacy (deal is one-day only), scarcity (sell out on many product offerings), simplicity (one-click), group psychology (direct link to facebook via iframe to encourage and feature dialogue), and social sharing (“share to save more”).

These three retail groups have had very different – but all successful – programs. With more than 82% of GenXers saying flash sales have encouraged them to try new brands’ products and services, is it time for your company to jump in?

As the CMO of eBags, Wilson was able to share with the Shop.org Summit attendees first hand experiences from both eBags and Handbags.com in the session “Social Commerce in the Trenches.” While Facebook is not the only social network out there, with 750 million active users worldwide, it was bound to be the focus.

With users spending over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook, the challenge for retailers becomes losing people. How? A retailer’s website may say “Like us on Facebook.” So the average shopper clicks through to like the page, sees the brand’s page, then notices that today is cousin Megan’s birthday. So the shopper heads over Megan’s page to send birthday wishes, finds a new photo album from a recent vacation and just like that… you’ve lost them. It’s stickier than fly paper.

Handbags.com set out first to understand their customer and then to create a social cycle that would both utilize Facebook’s feature-rich platform and achieve the benefits that every retailer wants. The first thing eBags realized is that handbag shoppers want different things than those shopping for, say, luggage. Handbag shoppers don’t spend as much time looking at reviews. They can decide for themselves if the bag is cute. They just need to know that the zipper isn’t going to fall off. They give a lot of weight to what their friends think of a handbag. On the other hand, none of my friends has ever asked me if I liked their new piece of luggage.

So how do you create a social cycle that keeps that demographic focused on the retail brand or site, and not stuck in Facebook? One tactical example Wilson gave was the social toolbar at the bottom of their website. From there, if you share the website with friends you’ll earn a $25 coupon for every three friends that also sign-up. The key is, you do all that without ever going to the Facebook site. You log in to handbags.com with your Facebook credentials, pull up your favorite Facebook friends, and share the site. And there you’ll be, still on handbags.com, ready to spend your $25 coupon.

That’s not the only Facebook tool on handbags.com that manages to use the network to share, while still keeping the customer on the site. Want to recommend the new Botkier bag to your friends? You can do that from Handbags.com. Want to register for the site with your Facebook account, and not have to fill out a new user form? You can do that on the site. Want to see which of your friends “likes “Handbags.com? No need to go to Facebook, just look at the Handbags.com homepage and look for your friends’ familiar faces.

Regardless of whether Facebook is too sticky for retailers, it’s a key component of social shopping and therefore should not ignored. Thankfully, there are deep social commerce integrations that allow retailers to utilize Facebook’s strengths and keep the retail brand front and center.

The tips ranged in scope from “duh, I should have thought of that” to “that’s so in the weeds I have no idea what’s going on,” but I’ve condensed many of panelists’ top ideas into a little “Lucky Number Seven” list of how to make more money now. The expansive handout will be available soon on the Summit website.

1. Implement Facebook “Like” and Google+1 buttons. The “Like” buttons can be in more than one place on your site, but should definitely appear above the fold (via ChannelAdvisor’s Scot Wingo).
2. Make your email bullet-proof by making the focal points of your email (including navigation, calls-to-action and borders) visible even if consumers can’t see images. Most e-mails come through with images “turned off.” Outsmart the system (via Bounce Exchange’s Ryan Urban).
3. Watch your mobile speed and make navigation your No. 1 priority. Too much space, meaningless categories and horizontal scrolling are all no-nos. Make checkout simple, offer large search boxes that are front and center (and easy to type in), and provide an embedded call to action for consumers (via Eight by Eight’s Amy Africa).
   
   

   Sheldon Gilbert, Founder and CEO, Proclivity Systems

4. A digital tune-up can go a long way toward improving your conversions. Fix your bounce issues and recommendation engines. Re-examine your “Welcome” series e-mails and make sure they don’t roll out too slowly (via Social Shopping Lab’s Peter Leech).
5. Help customers find what they’re looking for. Incorporate lists of synonyms in case customers aren’t sure how to spell a product time. If you don’t sell something, offer alternative products and consider if the product is worth stocking (via Demandware’s Sue Chapman).
6. Improve your page load time. Ten seconds isn’t good enough. Two seconds is the industry standard, but many major retailers aren’t there yet. Minimize requests, such as downloading images and javascript, and optimize your images. Quick tip: try Pingdom.com to find out what sections of your pages are taking the most time to load (via IMPAQT’s Jamie Keaney).
7. Drop cookies on customers who receive your e-mails. This will work even on customers who look at your e-mail in the preview pane of outlook (via Proclivity Systems’ Sheldon Gilbert).

Now go home, implement a couple of these quick fixes, make more money, and let us know how it goes!

In advance of the release, we sat down with Forrester Research Principal Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru to discuss findings from the latest survey of retailers. In the video, Mulpuru shares how retailers are investing in mobile, which retailers are getting mobile “right,” and outlines the differences between smartphones and tablets (and why that should matter to retailers).

Innovation and technology were the keys to expanding market share and increasing sales, according to Columbia’s Mick McCormick, who delivered his “Gear up for Growth: Innovation in the Outdoor Industry” keynote this morning at the 2011 Shop.org Annual Summit. In an unusual move, the company hired a new team that would function entirely like a start-up and was segmented away from the corporate structure. The team took a hard look at the company’s four brands and made changes that emphasized technology.

Here’s a snapshot:

• Mountain Hard Wear previously was known as a great mountaineering brand, but Columbia redesigned it as a brand for athletes by focusing on innovative lower-weight mountaineering gear.
• Montrail’s focus was all over the map in 2008, so Columbia reinvented it as an all-around running brand and emphasized how its running products differed in terms of technical results. Montrail told the story of its new focus via its website, which offered a sliding bar that customers could use to showcase different types of running products based on their interests.
• Sorel used to be a men’s winter footwear brand with a limited scope. The brand reboot (pun intended) broadened the opportunity by focusing on young, fashion-forward women. These customers are greatly influenced by fashion blogs, brand sites and high-end retailers. So Sorel introduced custom videos targeting this customer and worked with her favorite retailers, such as Neiman Marcus and Barneys, to get Sorel boots in their stores.
• Consumers viewed Columbia’s namesake brand as a value brand, which is a perception the brand has changed by embracing technology in its products as well as via digital means. In less than ten years, Columbia’s number of patents grew from one to 157, allowing the brand to tout its high-tech products, such as its Omni-Heat line. Custom video, strategic online advertising and retail partnerships, and QR codes all play a role in telling the brand’s story to consumers.

The digital experience is much more than e-commerce, said McCormick. Customers want customized video and Web content to learn about your brand’s story. So get away from the idea that your business is all about transactions. The best way to influence customers is to be present throughout their shopping experiences online and in stores with more information – whether it’s via a QR code or a sleek online video.

Golfsmith International’s Director of eCommerce & Online Experience, Jamey Maki

Well, according to Golfsmith International’s Director of eCommerce & Online Experience, Jamey Maki, marketing golf products – specifically leveraging video to drive conversation and experience – requires a similar mindset. Maki shared his thoughts on video marketing during his Tuesday session at Shop.org’s 2011 Online Merchandising Workshop.

“As a marketer, it’s my job to convince you to spend $500 to get one more yard off the tee, to save one more stroke off your final score,” Maki said. “So, as golf is a very technically-oriented sport, it’s very technically demanding to convey products through conventional copy.”

That’s where video marketing comes in. If a picture is worth a thousand words, guess how much a video is worth?

Maki cited several statistics to back up his claim that video is a prime sales-driver, like:

• One minute of video is the equivalent of 1.8 million words.

• YouTube is the second largest search engine, delivering more than two million views per day.

• Video was responsible for 30% of all internet traffic in 2010, according to Cisco, and is predicted to be responsible for 90% by the end of 2013.

At GolfSmith, Maki wanted to bridge the gap between retail and online by providing unique content which would in return offer better SEO content and brand differentiation. To do so, GolfSmith began using videos to technical features and ease-of-use features that wouldn’t be easy to explain via traditional graphics and copy, like an insulated rain coat that allowed its wearer to take off the sleeves if it got too hot or a driver that had an adjustable head to alter the lift and lie of your shot.

“We wanted to convert shoppers to buyers,” Maki said. “The results were a 35% increase on products that had videos and a noticeable increase in our SEO rankings. Video is here and it’s something your customers are expecting – there are so many benefits, it’s something you have to do these days.”

So, whether you’re selling a putter that will help shoppers find their “happy place” or a jacket that keeps them warm, cool, dry and looking good all at the same time, incorporating video will more than likely lead golfers – even amateurs like me – to your online check-out page.

If one can go by the tremendous creativity, pragmatism, and high level of engagement with customers evident at last week’s Shop.org Online Merchandising Workshop, however, our industry is well positioned to continue outright thriving. Online retail for the most part has continued to experience strong growth – and, so far, it’s no blip. Retailers whom we surveyed in March 2011 reported an average increase of 40% in Web sales for 2010 vs. 2009, ranging from 21% average growth for companies in operation over 10 years and 91% for companies in operation less than four years. The recent MasterCard Spending Pulse monthly report further underscores this growth track.

Perhaps, then, the last three years represent one of those “Necessity is the mother of invention” kind of periods, pushing our industry further – much further, even? – than might have been otherwise. As I took in the stories and advice during last week’s Workshop, it occurred to me what a difference three years make:

• Social media has gone from an experiment (if with some very vocal supporters) to major investment area for retailers. Even if some are still hesitant about bottom line benefits (see the 2011 State of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social Media & Mobile report published in late May), few refute its power to actively engage customers in so many ways. (See also last month’s interview with Kerry Cooper, CMO of Modcloth – and check out their site for great examples of getting their customer involved and returning.)

• Luxury goods on sale? Not so much back then, much more likely today via Gilt Groupe, ideeli, One Kings Lane, and then some, to the tune of a $1 billion in 2010 and growing, per comScore. What hasn’t changed: the element of scarcity, one of the underpinnings to the luxury industry.

• Mobile and retail in the same breath? What a quaint thought on that miniscule screen – yet here we are, with smartphone adoption growing exponentially to meet our voracious appetite for ratings and reviews, price comparison, and store info wherever we are.

• As for tablets – well, no doubt some stealthy tinkering was already going on in Cupertino, but three years ago I think most of us only knew about the paper variety. . In her keynote presentation last week, Jeanniey Mullen of Zinio noted that, scarcely a year after market entrance, tablet users are often more affluent, skew towards purchasing in the evening and/or at the weekend, and at this point spend more than the typical smartphone user.

• Particularly interesting is all that traffic from outside one’s home country that has evolved from an analytics report curiosity to potential bottom line gold mine, with retailers large and small scrambling to figure out global currency, taxes, shipping and service to tap pent up overseas demand.

All of this to say – we’ve got Back to School on our doorstep, and Holiday 2011 close behind. As Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy advised us many years ago, “Don’t panic!” – and, I’d add, stay focused, be creative, and keep the customer front and center. To help you with facts, figures and best practices, check out inspiring takeaways and tips from the 2011 Merchandising Workshop sessions, then watch in the coming weeks for our upcoming NRF / Shop.org Back-to-School / Back-to-College consumer survey results, as well as the annual Shop.org 2011 Holiday Strategy & Planning Guide.

Few phrases cause more anxiety in the hearts of e-commerce executives, and for good reason. With average abandoned shopping cart rates hovering around 40-50%, it’s easy to understand that converting even a fraction of these deserted carts into sales could substantially add to a retailer’s bottom line. What’s difficult is figuring out how to do that.

Eight by Eight CEO Amy Africa shares tips for lowering shopping cart abandonment

During a session at Shop.org’s Online Merchandising Workshop, Eight by Eight CEO Amy Africa shared incredible insights on the physical reactions involved in buying online, a “magic formula” for trigger emails, and the best ways to test for success. She also offered exceptional suggestions on ways retailers can convert on-the-fence shoppers. Some were simple, some were extensive. Here are ten of them:

1) Make it easy to take the plunge. “Check out now” buttons are a good idea, Africa said. “It’s very important that when someone raises their hand and says they’re ready to buy, you act on that.”

2) Leverage temperature bars. Don’t we all like to see how much we’ve accomplished? Let your customers know how many more steps there are until they’re finished with the check out process by using a temperature or status bar at the bottom. Why? The higher customers get on the temperature bar, the more likely they are to actually pull the trigger on a purchase. Hello Direct and Amazon.com were cited as examples of companies that do this well.

3) Reconsider one-step check out. One-step check out is all the rage in online retail, with a handful of service providers making it very easy for consumers to simply click and buy. While this option is ideal for some consumers, it isn’t best for everyone, said Africa. “In a perfect world, you’ll have a four to five step process for some people and one-click for others,” she said. “It’s your job to know which check out they should receive.”

4) When it comes to buttons, remember: Bigger equals better. “Take your biggest button and triple it,” she said. “The biggest button should be what you want them to do next.” What that means is don’t create a bunch of similar-sized buttons. If your “check out now” button and your “keep shopping” buttons are the same size, Africa said, it confuses people. And then they leave. And then you’ve got to speed right down to #10.

5) Look at your vertical fields. And from the things-I-never-would-have-thought-about department, here’s a good one: Put your city, state and zip codes on three lines, not one. Why? Having these fields on separate lines gives the impression to the buyer that they’re going through the process faster, Africa said.

6) Quit asking pointless questions. Once a customer makes it to the checkout, the process needs to be easy and hurdle-free. So, retailers, stop asking questions that don’t pertain directly to the sale. Shipping information? Fine. A billing address? Absolutely. But don’t ask them for the code on the back of their circular. There’s another time and place to gather that data.

7) Use pop-ups. When a customer has merchandise in your cart and is leaving your site, use a pop-up to ask them if they’re sure they want to move on. Hate pop-ups? So does Africa. So do some consumers. (So do I.) But, quite frankly, they’re a great way to get attention and, if the creative is right, are very effective.

8) Offer a guest checkout option. Yes, we all wish every single customer would want to create a username and password. But they don’t. If given the option, about 30% of shoppers will use guest checkout. Why? The perception is that it’s faster (even if it’s not). For a customer who’s shopping in a hurry, guest checkout might be the deciding factor on whether to move forward with a purchase.

9) Don’t make me ask you again… If you already know certain things about your customers – their name, their shipping address, their email – don’t make them tell you twice. Do them a favor and prepopulate those fields. It will give them more time for, I don’t know, shopping.

10) Send them an email. And another one. And another one. While an abandoned cart program shouldn’t exclusively rely on emailing your AWOL shoppers, reaching out to people who left your website with items in their cart is essential. During the session, Africa talked about the importance of email timing (around lunchtime), personalization (use their name and specific items they abandoned), how many emails you should send (five), and whether retailers should offer extra incentives in those emails to get people to buy (she says no).

For more insights from Amy, or if you just need a good laugh, read her blog – I mean, qlog.

I don’t want to give away all of Cooper’s great insight into how to create a bustling marketing and merchandising operation, but there are three popular rules that Cooper says are just made to be broken.

Broken Rule #1: Always organize merchandise in a way that makes sense.

ModCloth, and – more importantly – their hip and trendy fashion shopper, doesn’t believe that this should always be the case. ModCloth merchandising is completely random. One site visit and you’ll see that it’s perfectly normal to find a pair of sunglasses nestled between a bomber jacket and a sundress. Cooper says the website launches between 25-50 new products a day – in random fashion – where the “sense of newness creates a reason for our girl to come back.”

And come back she does. One-third of ModCloth customers visit more than once a day. A “crazy” (Cooper’s word, not mine) five percent visit more than 5 times a day. Why so many site visits? This brings us to the next broken rule…

Broken Rule #2: Let the designer or buyer drive fashion trends.

The ModCloth shopper doesn’t prescribe to this and neither do company merchandisers. ModCloth lets the community drive fashion in every channel possible, but most notably through its Be the Buyer program and by listening to the customer through social media and reacting to it. We dug deeper into this concept in a recent Q&A with Cooper, where she detailed exactly how engaged the ModCloth shopper is when it comes to trendsetting.

Broken Rule #3: Only measure success through conversion.

Social media has changed this rule from the get-go over the past few years. How does ModCloth measure success? By measuring the lifetime value of its products, campaigns and branding on the consumer.

In the end, Cooper strongly suggested the audience learn and play around to figure out the ‘rules’ for their target customer.

“Regardless of the tool you use, there are a lot of opportunities to think differently about how you engage your customer and what it is she is going to respond to because it’s not always what you think it is,” Cooper said. “Putting numbers behind that hunch is key to bringing together merchandising and marketing and making that customer part of your community.”

This year, we’re proud to have more attendees than ever – representing over 100 retail companies – all there to learn the strategies and tactics that will help optimize online retail merchandising efforts. Mobile merchandising, online photography best practices, leveraging video, product comparison tools, and shopping cart optimization. We’ve packed as much as we can into a day and half of sessions.

Our educational sessions are some of the strongest we’ve ever programmed – they are original, challenging and inspiring. And that inspiration will come in the form of our innovative keynote speakers:

• ModCloth’s CMO, Kerry Cooper, will tackle customer focused merchandising
• Charlie Cole, VP of Online Marketing at Lucky Brand, will examine real-life optimization challenges and how his team evaluated their success or failure
• Global EVP and CMO of the world’s largest digital publishing merchandiser Jeanniey Mullen will look at how mobile devices are changing the merchandising landscape
• Jon Nordmark, co-founder, eBags and co-founder and CEO, UsingMiles.com will discuss how the culture and tactics required to be an online merchandising leader

And, those are just the keynotes. There are numerous general and 20-minute Back-to-Back Sessions, Vendor Retail Case Study Roundtables and Industry Expert Roundtables as well as Doctor Is In: One-on-One Website Critiques for attendees who want honest and constructive feedback on their corporate websites.

Lastly, and critically important to the show, our EXPO Hall offers solutions and services geared toward online merchandising challenges and also does double-duty as the central location for networking. Networking is a vital component of Shop.org events and sometimes, the most important thing you learn at our events came from your fellow attendees. So I encourage you to get out there, chat up the person next to you, ask questions or participate in a roundtable. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

For those attending the show, we can’t wait to see you!  For those that could not make it this year, we’ll be blogging and tweeting (#merch11), just like we did in 2010, from a few of the sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.  So, stay tuned.

• Online shoppers plan to spend a net average of $114.25 on just their significant other or spouse, about 66% more than offline only shoppers.

• Online shoppers will also spend more than their offline-only counterparts on other family members such as children and parents, as well as friends, co-workers and pets (really!).

• Altogether, online shoppers plan to spend a combined net average of almost $200 for Valentine’s Day, or about two-thirds more than offline-only shoppers.

So what are online shoppers buying this year? Greeting cards, candy, an evening out and flowers are top of the list for at least 2 out of 5 online Valentine’s Day shoppers. Online shoppers will also spend almost twice as much as offline only shoppers on jewelry, budgeting a net average of over $50 for this gift item.

Of course, Valentine’s Day shoppers who say they will shop online, will also make some offline purchases too. One-third will make some purchases in discount stores and department stores and 1 in 5 will head to a florist and specialty stores.

Shop.org members, don’t forget: full results of this survey are available for download.

One Kings Lane CEO Doug Mack

Backcountry.com: User-Contributed Merchandising

• Backcountry.com relies on their online community to contribute  to merchandising efforts by taking photos of their products being used.
• Summit crowd response: overwhelmingly positive.
• Doug’s take: Thumbs up. This particular technology will work for some companies and not others. Retailers need to think about their customers and how they’ll use the product to see if this is a good fit. For Backcountry.com, this effort was a total home run because of the nature of the products they sell. Doug also noted that Backcountry.com does an excellent job of moderating the customer submissions.
• Kelly’s take: Thumbs up. It’s not a showcase for the brand, it’s trying to help consumers making product decisions. Kelly pointed out this is a great no-cost way to showcase products in use.

Wet Seal: Social Shopping

• The goal of the “shop with friends” interface, similar to Facebook, is to allow consumers to shop and chat with friends online.
• Crowd response: mixed.
• Kelly’s take: Thumbs up. Kelly gave huge props to Wet Seal for this initiative based on the fact that they integrated a platform that their customer was already a part of. Definitely a worthy experiment.
• Doug’s take: Thumbs up. A lot of retailers are having a hard time figuring out how to use Facebook, but Wet Seal identified the perfect way to reach their consumer. Doug also liked the notion that this technology is used in real-time; bringing that aspect into the online retail experience is notable.

Resource Interactive's Kelly Mooney

Burberry: The Art of the Trench campaign

• The Art of the Trench campaign was basically an invitation to consumers to take a picture in the Burberry trench and share it with the company. Along with famous photographers, ordinary people could submit their photos, which essentially became a showcase gallery.
• Crowd response: Almost 100% loved it.
• Doug’s take: Thumbs up. The engagement with Burberry users is unbelievably “on brand.” There’s great marketing, imagery and encouragement for other users to submit. Every one of the Facebook Likes goes on someone’s Facebook page, which gives the campaign a face. Any brand could pull this off if they think it through, he said.
• Kelly’s take: Thumbs up.  This campaign made Burberry cool and could potentially live on forever. It’s very proper, but also gave the trench a street appeal and made it more hip. This campaign made people feel like a part of the brand, instead of just talking at them.

Tobi Fashionista: Virtual Try-on

• The Fashionista technology literally brings the store to the consumer with virtual fitting rooms.
• Crowd response: Pretty popular.
• Doug’s take: Thumbs down. In this case, the customer has to know how to use technology to play and it feels a little bit like a showoff of technology. Perhaps too much work for the consumer.
• Kelly’s take: Thumbs up. The technology is a little clunky, but it solves a real problem for real women. Women want to purchase the correct item the first go-round, not waste time with returns. In this case, our homes have become our fitting rooms. Kelly also loved the ratings and reviews based on body types. This may not be a perfect execution, but it solves a problem.

Tiffany & Co.: Digital Layering

• The functionality of this app includes a ring-sizer functioning for use on the iPad.
• Crowd response: Pretty popular.
• Doug’s take: Thumbs up. This was a discreet problem to solve, but it was executed perfectly. This brand found a thoughtful implementation for a common problem.
• Kelly’s take: Thumbs up. Compared to the alternative other brands recommended to find ring size, which includes a cut-out piece of paper wrapped around your finger, the Tiffany app is great. Kelly loved the simplicity of the goal: helping somebody make a choice.

Sears QR Codes: cross-over and mobility

• This app allows consumers to snap a pic of QR code and then find deeper product information, adding mobility to the in-store experience.
• Crowd response: Overwhelming like.
• Doug’s take: Thumbs up. For Doug, this one is a really big deal because it solves real world customer problems. It allows customers to have the resource of the best merchant in the company, and ask for their opinion. The technology can of course be augmented by knowledgeable staff in store, as well. Soon this technology will include payment functionality so customers can bypass checkout lines. It’s truly transformative technology.
• Kelly’s take: Thumbs up. This technology is going to become so normal, we won’t be able to have shopping experiences without a digital layer, she said. Kelly shared her experience of shopping in Target, price comparing with her mobile device, and then purchasing from Amazon.com while standing in Target.

Shopkick: Passive Geolocation

• As customers walk into a physical store, this app is a location based service that acts like “a dog-whistle for mobile” – tracking where you go.
• Crowd response: Mixed. A little over half don’t like it.
• Doug’s take: Thumbs up. The next big thing online will be (and is) the game-ification of the web and the entertainment value of shopping together without physically being with your friends. Retailers have already started using game theory – you don’t just shop, you win. It’s a very powerful force. And it’s going to be a mega-trend.
• Kelly’s take: Thumbs up. Kudos to Best Buy and Macy’s for trying it out in-store. Kelly doesn’t believe the “active check-in” apps like Foursquare will last long but she does believe the passive check-in is going to transform our experience. Recently, Apple was awarded a patent for temporary apps – apps that allow mobile to update automatically as customers walk into a venue, automatically updating with the appropriate app to make the most of the experience, and then disappearing after you leave.

During each afternoon of the Shop.org Annual Summit, retailer attendees will be able to reserve 20 minute time slots with a number of industry consultants whose expertise include multi-channel strategy, end-to-end customer experience, site design, and merchandising best practices. These private one-on-one sessions allow you to network with industry experts who will critique specific aspects of your website, go over questions and ideas you may have, and provide tactical and practical solutions for what ails you.  There is no charge, but you must be registered with a full-conference retailer pass to the Annual Summit before you register for “The Doctor Is In”.

We  suggest that you sign reserve your time with a Doctor in advance as this is an extremely popular feature of the Summit.  Three doctors are already filled with appointments, but there is plenty of opportunity to still participate. Please make your advance appointment by Wednesday September 15th to make sure you have the opportunity to meet with the Doctor of your choosing.  Simply go to our Doctor Is In page, read about each Doctor’s expertise, and reserve your time.  Due to popular demand, we also ask that you limit the number of appointments to two per retailer.

Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions!

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content — Shop.org
joseloffl@shop.org

Our parent organization, the National Retail Federation, and partner BIGresearch polled consumers between August 1 and 10 to get an update on how Back to School (BTS) shopping was going. Shop.org members can now download the data update for online BTS shoppers. A few highlights in the meantime:

• As of August 10, very few consumers were done with their back-to-school shopping, but online BTS shoppers even less so than other average BTS shoppers. Perhaps online shoppers are used to holding out in the hope of better deals as August wears on?
• It turns out that coupons, sales and/or promotions had already influenced the vast majority of online BTS shoppers who had started their shopping by early August.
• Furthermore, six out of 10 online BTS shoppers noted that coupons influence them to shop at a particular store (vs. closer to four out of 10 among all BTS shoppers). Overall, online BTS shoppers appear to respond well to a mix of both online and traditional advertising. Around half of online BTS shoppers are responding to in-store promotions and the trusty advertising insert. One-third also cited word of mouth, direct mail and TV / broadcast as influencers. Social media (Facebook, Twitter and the like) worked some degree of influence for approximately one in 10 online BTS shoppers at this point.
• Close to two-thirds of online BTS shoppers expected to shop in discount stores, department stores and clothing stores as they completed their BTS shopping later this month. Almost half were also expected to hit office supply stores, compared with just one-third of all BTS shoppers. 

As always, I welcome your feedback and thoughts.

BIGresearch generously provided Shop.org a more detailed analysis of those online shoppers to understand this segment in more detail.  Shop.org members can now download the full results, and herewith a couple of highlights: 

• Online BTS shoppers will shop not only online, of course:  approximately three-quarters plan to buy also in clothing stores, discount stores, and department stores (and that’s quite a bit more than their offline-only counterparts).  Close to half will also buy in an electronics store, or twice the number of offline consumers.  A reminder of just how important the multichannel shopper really is to the multichannel retailer. 
• Almost half of online BTS shoppers plan to start their shopping 3 to 4 weeks before school starts, although well over a quarter already started their shopping as far back as late June or early July.  (Once school is out, it appears that BTS messaging almost can’t start too early.)
• The overall news about total spend for BTS this year is certainly good:  BTS shoppers  in general expect to spend a combined average of $606.40. But the news gets better:  people who plan to do at least some of their BTS spending online plan to spend a combined average of $871.99, or 44% more than offline-only BTS shoppers. 
• Part of that impressive spend difference certainly has to do with significantly higher expected net average spend among online BTS shoppers for electronics or computer related goods.  That said, online BTS shoppers are anticipating a higher net average spend for clothes, shoes and school supplies as well. 
• As to how the state of the economy is impacting BTS shopping for online consumers, over half noted that they are shopping for sales more often and doing more comparative shopping online, whereas close to half are buying more store and generic brands, spending less overall, consulting ad circulars and newspapers (there’s that channel –agnostic customer again…), and using coupons more. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

The Guide draws from the 2009 eHoliday pre- and post-holiday surveys. This annual research, conducted in partnership with BIGresearch, explored what consumers and retailers expected before the season started, as well as what actually happened after the season ended. Additionally, we are able to draw examples of what retailers did from the annual Resource Interactive O.P.E.N. Watch Retail Edition. New this year, we are also pointing readers to other Shop.org resources, from Webinars and research to blog posts and press releases.

So, rather than rattling on with highlights, how about a little quiz testing what you remember of last year’s Holiday season (answers at the bottom) — use them as little reminders of things to think about for the upcoming season. If you’re stumped, you know where to find the answers – and much more.  Also, be sure to register for next week’s Webinar on preparing for the holidays, featuring panelists from Gump’s, Kenneth Cole, and Sport Chalet. 

Happy holiday planning in the meantime!

Shop.org eHoliday Quiz

1. What day of the week during the month of December has been most auspicious for online retailers surveyed in recent years?
a. Friday
b. Tuesday
c. Monday
d. Sunday

2. How many consumers bought at least one gift card as part of their online holiday shopping last year?
a. One quarter
b. One third
c. One half
d. Three-quarters

3. Which did retailers cite as the two most cost effective marketing vehicles for the past two holiday seasons? (Please pick 2.)
a. Email to one’s house list
b. Twitter
c. SEO
d. Affiliate and loyalty programs

4. What percentage of consumers finished their holiday shopping in the last two weeks of December?
a. One quarter
b. One third
c. Half
d. Two thirds

5. How are most consumers likely to find a retailer online?
a. Received an email from a retailer
b. Used search engine results
c. Shopped from the Web site before
d. Go to a set bookmark

6. Which two online marketing channels yielded half of paying customers for retailers surveyed last holiday season? (please pick 2)
a. Email to house list
b. SEO — natural / organic
c. SEM – paid listings
d. Affiliate & loyalty programs

7. Other than free shipping offers, which promotion did consumers use the most for their online holiday shopping?
a. Coupon – dollars off
b. Coupon — % off
c. Free shipping upgrade
d. Loyalty or membership points

8. What percentage of retailers surveyed last fall planned to use email to promote offline (e.g. in store) Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend specials?
a. One quarter
b. One third
c. Half
d. Three quarters

9. What was the most commonly offered Cyber Monday promotion in 2009?
a. Coupon – percentage off
b. Free standard shipping with conditions / minimum
c. Free standard shipping with no conditions / minimum
d. Limited time promotion

10. Which is the promotion that retailers expect most to offer again this Holiday season?
a. Coupon – percentage off
b. Free standard shipping with conditions
c. Limited time promotion
d. Coupon – dollars off

Answers: 1.c , 2.c , 3.a & c , 4.d , 5.c , 6b & c. , 7.a , 8.d, 9.a , 10.c

I wanted to write a quick note and thank all of the attendees, staff members, speakers, board members, content committee members, and everyone else that made the Shop.org 2010 Online Merchandising Workshop such a success.   I have been helping to direct content for over four years and according to most of the feedback we hit the nail on the head by providing content that is by the member and for the member.

Please check out our recap page that has a brief summary of the event along with links to the blog entries and many of the presentations.   If you came to the Workshop and you have not filled out the survey yet, please do as we ready every piece of feedback and use it to try and make every event the best it can possibly be.   If you missed the workshop, we hope to see you in Dallas for our Annual Summit as this is looking like the best one yet — of course everything is bigger in Texas!

Thanks again and please feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or additional feedback on the Workshop.

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content
joseloffl@shop.org