I heard a lot about ecommerce buzz strategies in a workshop at the Internet Retailing show this week. E-commerce at its most sexy, with ‘get the look’ getting intimate on knickerpicker.com, Virtual carpeting with a photo of your house on Shaws Floors and My deco and other “me commerce” strategies from Steven Hampson of e-inbusiness.
As someone with no design experience (and very little creative flair), even the most basic faceted search technology is fascinating to me and, as a keen fashion site frequenter, I am loving the idea that I might be able to choose a little avatar, much like a star doll or mini me version of myself who will virtually try on items and give me a twirl in a cat walk show while I sit in my dressing gown at my kitchen table. It’s here already- well, for the most part only in the US so far, but it is aready a day to day (virtual) reality, and you don’t need to put a super unglamorous headset on to try it out. Unless you really want to…
Likewise, if you want to design a new bathroom, even old B&Q are in on the act with a lovely tool for having a look before you buy.
What really got me interested though was that all this can apparently increase a site’s performance in search. 500% more pages indexed in Google and 80% increase in SEO coverage! That’s according to US super store Sears who have invested heavily in interactive, customised merchandising to engage their customers and make them more likely to buy. Similarly, by including video demos of the experiences buyagift offer, their conversions shot through the roof at 50%.
All goes to show that the consumer knows what they want and they keep telling the e-tailers. With people tweeting their every thought these days, the retailers are pandering to the consumer. Can’t afford to ‘do a Habitat’ so they must continue to tread carefully with social media, but by opening up their sites to allow the youth market to share what they are considering buying and get their friends’ opinions before they buy, they are hopefully securing themselves a loyal customer base… for now.