Retail, in the eyes of the everyday customer

This is the exact opposite of defection latency. This applies to eCommerce retailers that roll out new features or widgets on their site. It takes time before customers completely understand how to use a new widget so even though they might find it very useful there is a delay in permanent behavior change.

Internet Retailer covers well endowed companies that sell a lot online. I’d like to make a partial attempt to cover those that do so much with so little:

Apparel
— TeeShirts – CafePress.com

— Fitness (women) – Danskin.com

Intimates — barenecessities.com

Fashion — intermixonline.com

Baby Products — Babycenter.com

Pet supplies — drsfostersmith.com

Skin Care — skinstore.com

Hair Care — folica.com

Cosmetics — yvesrocherusa.com – Traffic down but the UI is perfect for the TG

Stationary —- crane.com

Art — ArtSelect.com

Jewelry — limogesjewelry.com

Interesting Gifts — perpetualkid.com – I wished they used Tag Clouds (like miego.com)

Storage — containerstore.com

Flooring — flor.com – the fact that this site was developed by a large agency should disqualify it but it is an exceptional example of environmental visual merchandising

Furniture — homedecorators.com – 7 physical stores and 1 Million monthly visitors online.

Chairs — Sit4Less.com

Home — wrapables.com

Chocolates — Dylanscandybar.com

Coffee and Tea — peets.com — they make the list for their innovative coffee selector interface

Cook Books etc. — gooseberrypatch.com – Very unique visual merchandizing strategy

Crockery — oneida.com – unique Virtual Table Setting application, works like crap but its a good and bold attempt

Gourmet Food — tastefullysimple.com

Sea Food — seabear.com

Outdoor equipment — altrec.com

Biking — sandhillspowersports.com

Golf — rockbottomgolf.com

Electronics — woot.com (what did you think?)

Auto Parts — autopartsgiant.com – ugly but effective

Giftbaskets.com is on a quest to create a new site search interface. Thank goodness someone in a sea of retail sameness is making an effort to be different. Unfortunately this particular idea is a dud. Maybe iteration 2 will work better.

search…..I typed in ‘cheap gift for mom’ in the search box…

and got a lot of crud…….

In a world of infinite choice, context – not content – is king. -Rob Reid

To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.

Shelves are places where things go to die – Chris Anderson

Ease of use is use – Apple

Inconvenience doesn’t scale – Ian Rogers

If you don’t make it easy for customers to show their support, they won’t – Andy Sernovitz

I just heard about an idea that John Chambers has for a hotel chain where the rooms know who you are. What a good idea.

Another good idea:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid716692140/bclid909803988/bctid1111636885

Any consultant would advice against selling something as complex as “Peanut Butter with Asian Curry Spice” online. The safest way to sell this flavor is to first get people to try it at your store. At first glance not even you would buy it. But PB Loco (which is a really smart retail concept started by 3 lawyers) seems to have found a creative way to convince people this flavor is good:

I would have even mentioned the number of bottles sold. shoppers tend to feel safe knowing they are not the only ones taking a risk with their first purchase. And if you really want to buy it go click on the picture…. I’ve linked it to their eCommerce store.

Why do online retailers ask for type of credit card? If it starts with a 4 it is a Visa and if it starts with a 5, it’s MasterCard

Many retailers like Value City don’t sell online but that doesn’t stop them from making customers waste time thinking that they do….

This is my drill-down journey from their homepage to a product page.

Click 1

Click 2

Click 3

Click 4

Click 5