Retail, in the eyes of the everyday customer

MetroKitchen.com is a site that specializes in cookware.  They have a simple, yet very effective Gift Ideas page …

… where shoppers select a relevant option and see a list of highly targeted gifts.

Opportunity: On “For wine fans” page (for example) MetroKitchen.com just lists products–

Which means I have to click the first item, read description, hit back button, click the second item, etc.  I wish they had presented Wine Gifts in this format …

… so the shopper could read a short description for each product and then visit product page to make purchase.

Gumshoe.com has a unique merchandising strategy.  They list their ENTIRE inventory of 100s of shoes on one page.  Play around with their filter options–

http://gumshoe.com/storefront/products

The standard product page consists of product image followed by product description.  However, to support product description if you can repeat the most important/differentiating points from your description into product image you will dramatically improve effectiveness.  Posted below are some e-tailer examples.  As you can see, this strategy works for all types of items- from diaper changers to ballet shoes:

Every e-tailer (big-small, broad-niche, impulse buy-pricey stuff, PPC-SEO, single purchase-lifetime value) has a definite set of strengths and weaknesses.  The key to success is focusing on your strengths.

Jas-townsend.com is a niche e-tailer that is good at making product videos, which they use abundantly throughout their site.  I wonder how many conversions can be directly attributed to these clever videos? Some examples-

Most shoppers click in and out of search results quickly, making it a challenge for the e-tailer to tell their story.  We already know landing pages, content and site design play a role in slowing shoppers but I think retailers can do a better job using their anchor products.

An anchor product is a product that does a really good job grabbing the browser’s attention.  This is not to be confused with a top seller, which both grabs attention and gets purchased.  An anchor product is like a great assist, it lifts the team’s performance.  In Google Analytics terms an anchor product would be a product page that has a relatively low conversion rate with a relatively high $ Index.

Harry and David is famous for the distinctive way in which they cut their pears:

This would be their anchor product.

But even a site like umbrellasusa.com can use an anchor product:

Typetees.com has figured out a way to maximize screen real estate.  To enjoy their cool interface head over to www.typetees.com.  Here are two screenshots:

Typetees.com before mouse over

Typetees.com on mouse over

Will this make me convert the moment I land on their site? No.  Will it improve the odds of my remembering the site when considering buying a tee shirt in the future? quite possibly, and in a world made or broken by fractional percentage points that’s a big deal.

Related article: The Immersive Store

As technology gets better retailers will increasingly try virtualization in the belief that it’ll make customers happy. While I think this is a false assumption the bigger problem is poor execution. Retailers like Sears and Brookstone have horrible implementations:

Others make a valiant effort but fail, Clerkandteller.com is an example:

Here is an awesome ‘concept’ developed by RED Interactive Agency: http://amadeo.ff0000.com/