We understand that plans and meetings can cause you to leave early,  but the 2010 Shop.org Annual Summit is planned as a holistic experience starting with our Online Boot Camp on Monday and finishing on Wednesday afternoon with the final sessions.    There are no “throw-away” sessions at Shop.org events and our Wednesday afternoon breakouts are going to be some of the strongest of the entire conference.    Here are a few highlights of Wednesday afternoon:

• Bryan Eisenberg sharing on 21 secrets of top converting web sites.    This session will be incredible. 
• Kickin’ Keywords:  How Gap Achieved Paid Search Paradise.  If paid search is important to your business, come and learn some practical information for optimization.
• The Retail Business of the Future featuring cross-channel guru Kasey Lobaugh from Deloitte and Steve Zapf from Guitar Center.  
• Real Life Mobile Advertising Case Studies featuring PETCO and Crate and Barrel.
• Roundtable Discussions that will allow you to interact with speakers and other industry experts in a small group environment.
• The Brave New World of Email:  Tactics to Increase ROI.
• 7 Social Strategies that Work.
• Building a Holistic Mobile Strategy for your Business
• Measuring What Matters for Cross Channel Success

You are coming to the Summit to learn all that you can from our active community that you can take home and use to help improve your business.   Make sure that you make the most out of your trip!  We are even featuring a satellite luggage check in Longhorn Ballroom B to make your life easier when you do need to head out.

Our Summit will be Bigger and Better this year.   Learn all you can — stay the whole day!

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content
joseloffl@shop.org

PS:  Coupon Code from our friends at Sheplers for Annual Summit attendees:  From now until 10/13/2010 get 20% off your entire purchase by using code “SHDG” at checkout.  Simply input the code into the “Special Instructions” field, in the Shopping Cart to receive your discount!

I wanted to thank all of our members who helped make our first annual May is Marketing Month a success!  Whether you attended one of our regional dinners, participated in a webinar, watched a webinar playback, viewed a Marketing Month Video Tip of the Day, or downloaded a white paper, we want to thank you for your participation.    We had nearly 500 people attend one of our 11 regional dinners, nearly 300 webinar attendees and that number is growing due to our playbacks, and nearly 1,500 views of our Video Tips of the Day. 

As many of you know we developed Marketing Month to help replace our Online Marketing Workshop.  While nothing can take the place of an in-person event we hope that the networking and content sparked at least one idea for our participating members to help them achieve their business goals.  If you did attend a dinner or a webinar, please fill out a quick five minute survey so we can receive your feedback. 

There are so many people to thank for all of their hard work, but I especially want to thank my partner in content, webinar goddess, and newly promoted Director of Content Artemis Berry.   As usual, she went above and beyond the call of duty to help create an incredible event. 

We are interested to know your feedback so please let us know what you think.

Thanks!

Larry Joseloff
joseloffl@shop.org

Due to popular demand we will be offering these critiques at our Online Merchandising Workshop for the first time.  During the afternoon of July 13th, retailer attendees will be able to reserve 20 minute time slots with industry consultants whose expertise include end-to-end customer experience, site design, and merchandising best practices.   The Doctors at the Merchandising Workshop include both speakers at this year’s Workshop (Jack Aaronson and Bryan Eisenberg) and previous speakers (Lauren Freedman and Elizabeth Peaslee from CreativeGood).

Spaces are limited so if you are attending the Merchandising Workshop, I urge you to reserve your time slot today.  Due to popular demand, we also ask that you limit the number of appointments to two per retailer.   Go to our Merchandising Workshop Doctors Is In Page, read about our doctors, and reserve your slot.  If you have any questions, please let us know.  Thanks!

Larry Joseloff
joseloffl@shop.org

Speakers must talk about SPECIFIC and EASY-TO-IMPLEMENT ecommerce tactics.

 We don’t care if you are a retailer, researcher, educator or vendor – if you think you have got some killer tips to share, we want to hear from you! Here are the details:

To Be Considered as a Speaker:

1. This session is a real meat and potatoes, get your hands dirty, down in the trenches (pick your favorite analogy) kind of session. There is no room for generalities or non-specific corporate jargon. The only points you want to talk about are things that people can make money with within 7 -14 days of them returning to the office. These tactics must not cost a huge amount of money and be realistic for the attendees to implement.   Tactics, tactics, tactics!  
   
2. We are going to have 5 speakers and an alternate for each session (a total of 10 speakers and 2 alternates). Alternates will be placed on the panel in the event a scheduled speaker drops out or does not have their materials in on time (see below).
3. Your presentation cannot run over 8 minutes. At EXACTLY the 8 minute mark, the moderator will use an air horn to stop your presentation.  This session is not for speakers that cannot stay within their time limit.
    
4. Forget a long personal and corporate introduction – you won’t have time. The moderator will introduce you and we cover your bio and services in the handout. Let the quality of your presentation speak to the value of knowing you and your company.
5. Speaking of Handouts: This session will be moving at a brisk pace. Therefore, we will be giving the session attendees a DETAILED handout so they can listen to you instead of taking notes.  More details will be made available to selected speakers.

  How to Apply:

Please submit your contact information and the three (or four) tactical tips you want to discuss on the Shop.org website at http://www.shop.org/summit10/speaker-application.  Please briefly describe each tip and how it works. If we like what we are hearing, we will contact you and ask you to further define the tips. The deadline for application is May 25, 2010.

APPLY HERE and be aware of the important dates below:

Submit application:  April 15 – May 25
Speaker selection:  May 25 – June 15
Calls with all selected speakers:  June 15 – 30
All presentations and handout materials due:  July 30th
Shop.org 2010 Annual Summit:  September 27-29 – Dallas, TX

Thanks so much and we are looking forward to hearing from you with your killer, tactical, practical, easy-to-implement tips.  Let the GAMES BEGIN!!

Larry Joseloff
joseloffl@shop.org

First up, one of the hottest topics to hit retail in many years: Mobile. We kicked off our time in San Fran with a one-day Mobile Boot Camp which covered basic topics of designing and deploying effective mobile sites, using SMS to increase sales, and what the future holds for this digital trend, but that was hardly the end of the mobile discussion. At the main event, speakers detailed where mobile has been and where it’s heading, how to take the first steps in mobile retail, and digital trends to watch for 2010. Trust us when we say, everyone is on the mobile bandwagon. Best Buy even shared a video of why they love mobile and what it means to the company (it’s worth a watch).

And the other big hitter at our conference was the topic of social commerce (our VC panel summed it up by saying: it’s here and it’s now.) But there were also social media mantras from Diane von Furstenberg, rules for customer engagement from Moosejaw and Marketspace’s Jeff Rayport, and a very popular Sephora session on identifying key participants in your community: “Who’s at your social media party?”

Mobile and social commerce may have been the big ticket items for this conference, but our speaker topics also included The New Customer, Creative and the Customer Experience, as well as Cross-Channel Marketing. If you’re looking for more highlights from Innovate ’10, check out a full listing of blog posts here. Or search #innovate10 for all the Twitter chatter and nuggets straight from attendees. If you attended, feel free to tell us what you thought.

Thanks and feel free to share your experiences at our inaugural Innovation event.

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

Below is a recap of one of the sessions in this track called “Remixed: The Customer Experience,” in which e-commerce visionary and Abode VP Doug Mack outlined key trends in e-commerce customer experience.  Below are some of the trends Doug shared.

1. Departure from the original online shopping metaphor of a home page filled with thumb-nail product images with product navigation on either the top or left side.  Instead, we’re seeing more “hero” pages with spectacular product image shots.  An example he suggested is Coach.

2. Content becomes the interface.  In this trend, with the use of new technology, the navigation is driven through the content.  Check out Gucci for an example of this.

3. Customer empowerment & guidance.  As an online shopper, this is one of my favorite trends.  This includes letting customers decide what and how much information they see.  A great example are sites that allow you to select the number of search results you see – 10, 25, all, etc.  Any online retailer offering customization (Puma, Nike ID) are also part of this trend.  Additionally, Doug mentioned customized faceted search in which the shopper can select search criteria (color, size, style) and add or delete it to find the products they are most interested in seeing.  He cited Moosejaw as an example of this.

4. Social shopping.  Watch out Anna Wintour, social shopping and the “wisdom of crowds” may empower customers to become the new tastemakers.  A great example is Polyvore.com, in which customers can mix and match outfits from a variety of retailers.  The most highly rated products and outfits make it to the top.

What trends are you seeing?

If you have never been to the NRF Annual Big Show I recommend going.  It is quite an experience to see literally thousands of retail industry experts invade New York City.  From someone whose career has been almost 100% in eCommerce, going to a “traditional” retail show and hearing about the important topics that are facing both online and offline retail was enlightening.   It provided a fresh perspective of where eCommerce fits in the entire retail world, where we are succeeding, where we are falling short, and what opportunity lies ahead.   This year is going to be the best one yet.  I am especially excited to the Sir Terry Leahy the CEO of TESCO to provide a true global view of cross-channel retail.

One session Shop.org is managing involves our Board Member Brett Hurt interviewing three leading venture capitalists (VCs) on the current state of the economy and the opportunities for retail to grow in the future.   Brett wanted me to reach out to the community for suggestions for questions.  So, if you were sitting down with leading VCs and could ask them any questions regarding retail or the economy what would you ask them?  Simply respond to this blog or send me an email and I will forward them on to Brett.  

Thanks everyone and I hope to see the Shop.org community out in full force taking a bite out of the big apple at the NRF Annual Big Show.

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

We’ll wrap up the series of posts we’ve pulled together this year on international e-commerce by highlighting some of the dialogue that the study stirred up.

One of the best comments came from a CEO-guy across the table who attended the session where Jim Okamura hit the highlights of the study and interviewed the esteemed panelists.  He had that slightly worn look one has at the last session of the last day, but he was totally into the idea of going global.

Finally he looked over at his VP of e-Commerce and said “Let’s just do this.”

The International Growth Story

Chris O’Neill, who runs Google’s retail practice, was a welcome opening host for the session.  He set that stage nicely by commenting that:

• Well over 50% of Google’s growth is from markets outside the U.S.
• In order for Google’s CEO to approve any program, it must have a global plan
• From an organizational perspective, discussions about international initiatives often revolve around the trade-offs between centralization and de-centralization

What should we watch for on the international front? According to O’Neill, innovations in payments “in a world without the financial payment infrastructure the U.S. takes for granted.”

And stay tuned for how machine translations will fulfill the vision of a border-less e-commerce landscape and where advancements in analytics will leverage data to understand international customer needs that are not being met.

A New Chapter in the Customer Experience Saga

Of the many barriers the study highlighted, the one that requires the most urgent attention is the generally poor online experience that most international shoppers encounter, an ironic similarity to the early days of e-commerce in the U.S. the study points out.

Another key finding was that an expanded range of strategic options has replaced the “all or nothing” mindset that until recently prevailed among international strategists.  Each option has its own different risk/reward profile and collectively, they provide online retailers and consumer brands greater strategic flexibility, which is critical in today’s challenging retail environment.

A “middle” stage of international e-commerce expansion is emerging, which the study calls the “Participatory” stage.  Aided in part by the emergence of “sell-and-ship” solutions providers, this stage offers online retailers a low-cost, low-risk way to dramatically improve the international customer experience while also ramping up global sales.

Global Logistical Expertise is Evolving Regionally

An interesting ancillary finding emerged on the expo floor at the Summit.  As one visited the vendors that are opening doors to international e-commerce, one found that those with logistical expertise currently tend to specialize in different regions of the world.

Not surprisingly CanadaPost/Borderfree excels in Canada while Pitney Bowes (e4x/fiftyone’s logistical partner) delivers the goods throughout Europe.

Access Technology Solutions has built a sophisticated network of trade channels and customs brokerages throughout Asia-Pacific. In fact you can ship express packages from the U.S. into Japan for about what it costs to ship from California to New York. And it can get there quicker.

Meanwhile Borderjump/Aeropost is fulfilling thousands of international orders daily throughout South America.  Look for some consolidation in this sector in the year ahead, but for now, choose your market and go with the strongest player in that region.

Social and Mobile: Hot Panel Topics

No way can we hope to pack in highlights from the report’s findings plus insights from the panel session at the Summit into this no-longer-short post.  Several quick take-aways for you.

One of the biggest challenges of going global is balancing existing brand equity/controls with the need for local relevance.  The panelists agreed that tracking and measuring brand equity is tough globally, especially in the Asia-Pacific regions.

However, social media is evolving as a means to cost-effectively tap communities and facilitate word-of-mouth ─ and by doing so, to better understand how to adapt brands to local market preferences.

Panelists also agreed that having a mobile strategy is an essential component of going global.  Depending on which international market you target, expect 20% to 40% of the traffic coming to your site to originate from mobile devices ─ and plan for women to over-index on mobile.

Organizational Catalysts?

The panelists provided advice for e-commerce professionals trying to push their leadership to go global.  After conducting initial market assessments, focus on understanding the types of payments that are locally relevant.

Accept that payment models will not be one-size-fits-all.  In China, expect to accept at least five types of payment.  In Germany, more than half your holiday orders may go out with an open invoice.

Next Stop: Monaco, October 26-28th

It’s always intriguing when you put almost a year into conducting a study and then it’s done.  But of course research is never really done, in fact, we’ve barely written the first chapter of the international e-commerce expansion story.

The next chapters will provide different viewpoints.  The Shop.org Global e-Commerce Summit will offer a diverse collection of best practices and insights from leading global e-commerce professionals outside the U.S.

And look for a quantitative study exploring international e-commerce expansion from the J.C. Williams team next spring, with a focus on how online merchants of different sizes are mastering global e-commerce.

Until then, enjoy the International E-commerce Expansion Benchmark Study, the most uncreatively-titled report out there today.

Thanks,

The J.C. Williams Group

This year we have expanded our “Doctors” to 14 throughout each afternoon and reservations are going fast.  I invite every retailer who is attending the Summit to take advantage of this great feature.  To learn more about each Doctor and to reserve your time in advance, plesase visit our Doctors Is In Page at the Shop.org website. 

Also, just as a reminder we are still accepting questions to ask our CEO keynote speakers in the interview portion of their program.  Simply leave a comment on the blog or write me directly at the email address below to submit your question.

Thanks!

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content
joseloffl@shop.org

On Tuesday afternoon we will begin with a in-depth look on how retailers such as Fandango, Harrah’s Entertainment, and Moosejaw are succeeding today using mobile commerce.  This is not a session where we will look into a crystal ball, as mobile commerce and mobile marketing is happening right now and we will learn what retailers are doing today.   Right after our mobile session, “The Cutting Edge” track will continue with a session that our attendees are already talking about titled “Twitter and the Social Media All-Stars.”  We all know social media is popular and important, but now we will look in detail how retailers such as Overstock, 1-800 Flowers, and Drugstore.com are using Social Media to grow their business and share some mistakes they have made so hopefully you can avoid falling in the same trap.   On Wednesday the 23rd The Cutting Edge track will continue with a look into how retailers are using Widgets and other similar applications in creative ways followed by a exciting session featuring the new rules of relevance and innovation in email marketing.  Each day will end with a series of round tables on related topics moderated by speakers and other industry experts.

“The Cutting Edge” track is not the only place where you will find inspiration as our “Customer Experience” track is also featuring can’t miss sessions that will broaden your horizons and provide fresh perspectives on your current retail practice.   I am especially excited about our “Reinventing Online Retail: Radical Business Models That Are Paying Off Today” session that is moderated by VC Joshua Goldman and features the CEOs of two of the most innovative and successful retailers out there today:  woot! and The Gilt Groupe.  They will discuss what lessons can be learned from these companies and if multi-channel retailers can implement some of these approaches to attract new customers and stimulate loyalty from existing customers.   On Wednesday the 23rd, the Customer Experience track will continue with a unique session that recreates one of the most popular sessions of the 2006 Annual Summit.  Industry expert and top-ranked Shop.org speaker Doug Mack will sit down with three senior level retailers to discuss whether the predictions they made three years ago about online and multi-channel retail came true and what this same group will be talking about three years from now at the Summit.  These industry veterans bring diverse perspectives—and will share their insights into how the online shopping experience may need to change over the next few years to keep up with growing consumer expectations and to win the increasingly fierce battle for existing shoppers. 

With all of this diverse and valuable content, it has become even more important to bring a variety of members of your organization to the Summit.    I would also like to offer you a personal walk-through of the agenda at the Annual Summit to provide more details and help guide which members of your team should attend the specific sessions.   You can contact me below and we can set up a short call.

Thanks and the Summit is only a month away!!

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content
Shop.org
joseloffl@shop.org
202-661-3057

At this year’s Annual Summit I can guarantee that this will not be a problem.   We are continuing with the format from the 2008 Annual Summit’s most popular session with a full afternoon of tips and tactics titled “50+ Things You Can Do To Make Money Next Week.”  For those unfamiliar with this session, Allan Dick, great friend of Shop.org and CMO of Vintage Tub and Bath, will moderate this session that features speakers presenting for only 7 minutes each on a minimum of three specific easy to implement tactics that can produce immediate results.

When we asked the Shop.org community for ideas we received over 80 applications from members wanting to present for only 18 available slots.  Allan and the Shop.org team spent hours going through each application, making difficult decisions, but finally coming up with what we think is the best speakers with the ideas that are the most tactical, easy to implement, and with the potential to produce instant results.   Listen to what Allan has to say about this session with his preview video.

This is not for the faint of heart: prepare to be showered with tips from SEO, paid search, email, social media, and increasing conversion from a variety of industry experts.   We will even have a handout where additional ideas from our speakers and our alternate speakers will be highlighted.

If you are in the market for actionable tips and tactics, look no further than Shop.org Annual Summit “Tactics” track in Islander Ballroom I on the afternoon of September 22nd.  If you have questions or want more information, please let me know and I can help out in any way possible.  Thanks!

Larry Joseloff
202-661-3057
joseloffl@shop.org

The highest ranked session at last year’s Annual Summit was a unique presentation titled “24+ Things You Can Do To Make More Money Next Week”  This was a no holds barred session where speakers presented their most tactical ideas that are instant money-makers for retailers in no more than 8 minutes.  It was fast, diverse, even chaotic at times, but based on user feedback the most valuable session of the entire Annual Summit.

This year we are expanding this same idea into a two-session track for the Annual Summit. We want even more speakers who can talk about SPECIFIC and EASY-TO-IMPLEMENT ecommerce tactics. We don’t care if you are a retailer, researcher, educator or vendor – if you think you have got some killer tips to share, we want to hear from you! Here are the details:

1)      Session title and description:

Session Title: 40+ Specific Things You Can Do To Make More Money Next Week (Parts 1 and 2).

Description: Last year’s highest rated session is back with a vengeance! Forget the grand strategy talks; ignore the expensive, time-consuming software implementations; discard the hard-to-measure long-term plans – this session is about specific, actionable tactics you can use to make money NOW. Our panel of experts is going to give you killer tips to improve your Paid Search, Natural Search, Affiliate Marketing, Social Marketing, Email Marketing, Web 2.0, Shopping Feeds, Technology Issues, and Site Optimization. We’re going to be moving fast so we will have a handout for session attendees with all of the gory details. This is the session you want to attend if you want to get your hands dirty and improve the bottom line. It will also help you convince your boss that you came to the Summit to make money – not just party in Vegas.

2)      To Be Considered as a Speaker:

a.       This session is a real meat and potatoes, get your hands dirty, down in the trenches (pick your favorite analogy) kind of session. There is no room for generalities or non-specific corporate jargon. The only points you want to talk about are things that people can make money with within 7 -14 days of them returning to the office. These tactics must not cost a huge amount of money and be realistic for the attendees to implement.   Tactics, tactics, tactics!  

b.      We are going to have six speakers and an alternate for each session (a total of 12 speakers and 2 alternates). Alternates will be placed on the panel in the event a scheduled speaker drops out or does not have their materials in on time (see below).

c.       Your presentation cannot run over 8 minutes. At EXACTLY the 8 minute mark, the moderator will use an air horn to stop your presentation.  Your presentation will also be limited to 12 slides.  This session is not for speakers that cannot stay within their time limit.

d.      Forget a long personal and corporate introduction – you won’t have time. The moderator will introduce you and we cover your bio and services in the handout. Let the quality of your presentation speak to the value of knowing you and your company.

e.      Speaking of Handouts: This session will be moving at a brisk pace. Therefore, we will be giving the session attendees a DETAILED handout so they can listen to you instead of taking notes. The deliverables for this session will be:

                                                              i.      A personal biography (150 word max). Bios longer than 150 words will be truncated at the 150 word mark.

                                                            ii.      A brief description of the company you work for (100 word max). Bios longer than 100 words will be truncated at the 100 word mark.

                                                          iii.      A PowerPoint presentation (remember 12 slides maximum)

                                                           iv.      You may, if you wish, provide limited additional material for inclusion in the handout as long as it DIRECTLY relates to the topics you discussed. Shop.org reserves the right to determine to include this material or not.

                                                             v.      All deliverables are due by 5:00 pm EST, Monday August 17^th.  We will remove speakers from the panel that do not have their FINAL Power Point presentation in on time.

3)      How to Apply: Send us the three (or more) tactical tips you want to discuss. Please briefly describe each tip and how it works. If we like what we are hearing, we will contact you and ask you to further define the tips. The deadline for application is Friday, June 26.

4)      There are three reasons why Shop.org is being so draconian with our session preparation requirements:

a.       We want to provide the absolute best quality content for our members. Speakers who pay attention to details tend to provide the best tactical presentations.

b.      The rapid-fire format of these sessions makes having a handout critical. We must have your materials in to us well ahead of the conference so we can get those handouts printed.

c.       We have 12 speakers and 2 alternate speakers for this track. We simply do not have the time to chase down speakers who are unable to stick to the format and deadlines associated with this program.

Send your ideas or questions to Larry Joseloff at joseloffl@shop.org.  We will be selecting the speakers soon after the June 26  deadline.

Back in 1998, Tracy saw the potential of the Internet and invested in NRF building a community of online retail executives from within its membership.  This community grew over the next year or so and it caught the attention of a group called Shop.org, which was formed in 1996.  Shop.org was looking for a strategic partner that could help it take its own online retail community to the next level.  Tracy saw the potential of Shop.org being part of NRF and actively pursued the combination of these two groups.  From the earliest days of e-commerce, Tracy had the vision to recognize the power of the Internet to change retail.  Now, in 2009, Shop.org, as NRF’s digital division, is a vibrant community that provides critical research, connects thousands of experts to share best practices and trends, and actively participates in public policy debates on issues affecting the industry.

On behalf of the entire digital retail industry, I’d like to thank Tracy for believing in the power of the Internet in retail, her support of Shop.org, and the strategic guidance she has provided over the years that has helped Shop.org grow and thrive.  In Tracy’s open letter about her retirement, she talks about the NRF/RILA merger and reflects on her three-plus decades in the retail industry, in which she identifies the Internet and the rise of Wal-Mart as two defining moments.  While it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to see her describe the Internet this way, it brought a huge smile to my face nonetheless.

Thank you, Tracy.

I recently sat down with Stephan to discuss a special hands-on session that he is moderating at our upcoming Online Marketing Workshop “SEO Power Session: 90 Minutes of Undisputed ROI”.   While Stephan has TALKED about great SEO strategy in the past, this session will be a bit different.  We have arranged for wireless internet in the room and we are inviting all attendees to bring their own laptop computers with them to the session.  Stephan will walk everyone through practical exercises that identify major gaps and quick wins in keywords, content, site architecture, internal linking, and inbound link acquisition.   Attendees will be able to work right along with Stephan and improve their SEO program while at the Marketing Workshop, and walk away with specific tactics to take back to the office and put into action.   The theme for the workshop is Optimization and Stephan’s tactical tips and tricks are exactly what everyone should be looking for during these challenging times. 

Even though budgets may be tight, Stephan’s SEO session alone will provide you with a significant return on your travel investment, not to mention the rest of the conference agenda including inspiring keynote addresses, instructional roundtables, and other practical sessions on essential topics such optimizing your affiliate program, measuring what matters, and improving your email program by integrating social media. 

Remember that all Shop.org members can claim their free pass right up to the date of the Workshop.  I hope to see everyone in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona in May, where we will guarantee that you will leave the Workshop with renewed enthusiasm and new tools to optimize your online marketing efforts.

Oriental Trading Company did have reviews before Taylor came on board, but his predecessor was so concerned about negative customer feedback that he took them down after just four days. Taylor believes that was a missed opportunity. “Oriental Trading lost all of this value,” he said. “I wish we had two years of data because we would be two years ahead of where we are.”

While negative product reviews are often a concern among many in senior management, Taylor insists that negative reviews–more than positive reviews, in many cases–teach a company valuable lessons, increase customer loyalty, and can actually lead to sales.

When reviews and ratings were added to the site, Taylor saw them as a huge opportunity. He and his team read every single one- and two-star review to try to understand if there is an issue with a particular product or if the company has made a mistake.

On one occasion, Taylor read a review from an angry bride who wanted to use some autumn leaf decorations for her upcoming wedding. (He acknowledged that this absolutely the last person you want to irritate.) She said she would not recommend them to anyone and that they were “awful.” Based on that feedback, Taylor said members of his team went down to the warehouse and opened up the product. Sure enough, it was awful: a new vendor had not delivered what they had promised. Taylor took the product off of the website, and has since taken down dozens of top-selling products due to bad reviews. “Take them down until you can fix them,” he said. “How many times is a customer going to buy from you if you keep disappointing them?” That experience, among others, Taylor said, has given the company grounds to go back to suppliers to demand new shipments or make claims.

In another instance, the company received several negative reviews on a particular package of bulk candy. The reviews said the product didn’t look at all like the picture. It turns out, the reviews were right. The picture was updated and information about the ratio of hard to soft candy was added to the product description. Oriental Trading also added a comment inside of the reviews to let new customers know that the photo had been changed.

In his final example, Taylor illustrated how negative product reviews can actually help retailers make money. A customer wrote that a child’s craft project was too difficult for children to put together and said she had to use a glue gun to make the pieces stick together. What the woman didn’t know (and the company was either poorly or simply not communicating) was that she should have been using glue dots to adhere the pieces.

Enter an up-sell opportunity. Today, when the company is selling crafts for kids or items that may be particularly tricky, it adds in the product description that glue dots are a useful accessory. Customer service representatives are trained on this as well, not only to ensure that crafty moms and their snowbound counterparts have everything they need to make a project seamless but also–you guessed it–to add to the company’s bottom line.

Since then, customers have written positive reviews on the same items mentioning that they purchased the crafts even after reading the negative reviews. In learning from others’ mistakes, they have said, they used glue dots and the kids had a great time.

The merchant team is using this feedback, too, and took this particular challenge one step farther. Instead of guessing how crafts should best be assembled, they brought their children into the office to determine–product by product–which adhesive worked best. (I imagine this experiment was likely a win/win and that the kids loved it, too!)

Although implementing product reviews does take a bit of faith, Taylor made a strong case for how all reviews–positive or negative–can keep customers coming back for more.

We have numerous new speakers (Bob Thacker, SVP Office Max, Alfred Lin, COO Zappos, Bradford Matson, CMO, Bluefly), returning favorites (Avinash Kaushik Analytics Evangelist, John Squire, Chief Strategy Officer CoreMetrics, Sam Taylor, CEO Oriental Trading Company), and many networking opportunities including our newcomers reception, Opening Night Reception and Dinner on Monday, Vendor Retailer Case Study Roundtables, and Birds of a Feather Roundtables in the EXPO Hall. 

We are covering numerous innovative topics such as how consumer behavior will change during the economic recovery and what retailers needs to do about it today, disruptive business models for the new consumer, the eCommerce platform of the future, how international expansion can stimulate growth, and case studies showing how innovative retailers can be even in a recession.

I am especially excited for our new Innovation Contest presentation at the end of the day on Tuesday and I wanted to congratulate our winners which include Bazaarvoice, Richrelevance, SLI Systems, Vcommerce, and Ordermotion.  

For everyone coming, I am excited to see you in Orlando.  For everyone who could not make it, please follow our live blogging, Twitter Feeds, and drop me an email after the event, and while it will not be the same, we can share some presentations and talk about what you missed.  

Thanks!

Larry Joseloff

VP, Content, Shop.org

Shop.org awarded six $2,500 scholarships to the each of the members of the winning team of the American Express / NRF Foundation National Intercollegiate Retail Challenge.  The students did an amazing job on this project with the help of some very experienced mentors from the industry.  Winning the scholarship money came as a surprise to the students and it was wonderful to see the expressions on their faces when they heard the news.  Even more gratifying was that two members of Ray’s family who were there for this moment - Maria Greenly, Ray’s wife and Valerie Greenly, Ray’s sister.

Four of the six winners of the scholarships (middle) as well as Rich Last from JC Penney and Chairman of Shop.org (far left), Valerie Greenly (second to the left), and Maria Greenly (3rd to the left).

The best news is that there should many more proud days in the future since Shop.org has raised nearly $900,000 for the scholarship fund to date and we plan to agressively donate money from the fund in the upcoming year. 

I’d like to thank Kathy Mance who runs the NRF Foundation for tying the Ray M. Greenly Scholarship to the NRF Foundation student challenge project.  I’d also like to congratulate Melinda Burke of the Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing at the University of Arizona, who was the advisory to the winning team for the second year in a row. 

I’ve noticed a number of colleagues recently who joined LinkedIn several years ago, now actively looking for resources on how to leverage it, either as part of a job search, looking for resources for their business, or as part of professional growth.  Jason’s book covers everything you would want to know.  The chapters on some of the newer features, such as LinkedIn Groups and Answers can get you quickly up to speed on areas you may not have explored.    There are also two appendicies – LinkedIn for Job Seekers and for Sales Professionals that are very helpful in those areas.

Let us know about your interest in the area, and once you’ve joined the Shop.org LinkedIn Group, feel free to jump into the existing discussions or start one of your own.

Josh Greene.

Avinash recently sat down with the Head of Retail at Google and Shop.org Board of Directors member John McAteer to discuss the challenges of multi-channel retail and the impact of online investments in in-strore sales.  Watch the video below to see what Avinash has to say on this crucial topic for multi-channel retailers.

Feel free to leave a comment on what you hear and keep checking in for future releases from this multi-part blog interview.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz–1lM34V4[/youtube]

The pre-holiday study surveyed 2,040 consumers and 60 online retailers in late September and early October. A sampling of highlights from those findings:

• Over half (58%) of the online retailers surveyed expect online holiday sales to increase at least 15% over last year, though that is fewer than the three-quarters (77%) who expected these same results last year. As Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org, summed it up, “online retailers are resilient but not immune” to the current economic climate.
• Two thirds of consumers expect to use the Web for at least part of their holiday shopping, citing advantages such as 24-hour shopping convenience, price comparison capabilities, and, yes, free shipping offers.
• To that end, retailers have been busy all year investing in new or improved site features and services. Topping the list of focus areas were site search, product videos, cross-selling on the product page, and customer reviews. One fourth of retailers surveyed invested in a Facebook page this year.
• Two thirds of consumers indicate that they typically start their online shopping at a specific site, while another third note that a search engine or directory is a leading starting point. Once they have arrived at a given site, consumers told us they specifically look for clearance sale pages, customer product reviews and a shipping deadlines calendar, among other features.
• How do consumers choose to do business with a given online merchant? In rank order of importance, consumers told us that they want the ability to see the cart total prior to checkout, value for money, clear product descriptions, a free returns shipping offer or policy, and a strong merchant reputation (this list should sound fairly familiar to those of you who consulted the 2007 results). Only then do criteria follow such as guaranteed on time delivery and having the product available to ship immediately.

There’s much more in the full set of eHoliday study results, and I encourage Shop.org Members to take a few minutes to download the deck (log in required) and take a gander. The holiday season is well underway already, but perhaps you’ll find something in the research to help you tighten a message, highlight a feature, and otherwise fine tune your holiday marketing and merchandising plans even at this point. Additionally, Shop.org Members can download the 2008 Shop.org Holiday Strategy & Planning Guide (also log in required), released earlier this fall, and shouldn’t miss yet further resources in the Holiday Resources area on our site.

If you are a retailer and are interested in participating in our upcoming post-holiday retailer survey in January, please let us know at research@shop.org and we’ll make sure to include you. In addition to receiving those results, you’ll also receive the 2009 Holiday Strategy & Planning Guide, due out next summer, which will draw on best practices and lessons learned from this holiday season to plan your efforts next year.

Finally, I’d very much like to hear your feedback on the eHoliday study and Shop.org research overall – please feel free to post a comment below or drop me a line (swerdlowf@shop.org) with your thoughts.

Kind regards. –Fiona

Fiona Swerdlow

Head of Research, Shop.org

SwerdlowF@Shop.org