Posts by kmilliorn
The buzz about Facebook’s storefronts, known as f-commerce, has been hot over the last few years. Recently, the temperature toward storefronts on Facebook has turned decidedly cooler, with retail giants like JCPenney, Nordstrom, The Gap and GameStop all closing their Facebook shops. Does this signal the end of social e-commerce? Absolutely not.
First, we must analyze why f-commerce did not pan out as expected. With too many unauthorized wall posts, unwanted messages and sudden terms of service changes, users are increasingly wary of trusting Facebook. Couple that distrust with the fact that it is a “sharing” site, and consumers are resistant to entering their credit card information on Facebook.
From a usability standpoint, viewing scads of products in a confined viewing area crammed between Facebook navigation and Facebook ads is not a particularly pleasant experience. Additionally, the browser back button returns the user to the previous Facebook page, not the previous shopping page. Companies can spend millions to create an online storefront, so why wouldn’t customers prefer to shop within the much more robust experience of a true e-commerce site?
Despite these challenges, there are terrific avenues for the savvy brand to leverage Facebook for e-commerce. And since one out of every seven minutes spent online is spent on Facebook (think about that!), it is only smart for brands to meet their customers where they spend the most time.
Rethinking F-Commerce
Developing a full Facebook storefront is probably not the most effective allocation of marketing dollars for most brands at this point. Using Facebook to leverage and enhance existing assets is the smart play.
Because consumers connect with and publicly declare that they “like” a particular brand or product, your company can benefit from powerful affinity marketing on Facebook. Allow users to comment on specific products, and friends of that user can see the product in their newsfeed, both exposing them to the product and letting them know what their friend thinks of it. Most consumers are more inclined to trust the uncensored reviews of friends or other consumers. Positive reviews can tip the scale in favor of purchase. Conversely, if the product is unfavorably reviewed, it can destroy sales.
Simplify Your Offering
To counter the crowded Facebook space, consider a limited product offering, like Starbucks. The only f-commerce they offer is the gift card. Starbucks is in a strong position for selling via Facebook since their customers tend to be passionately loyal and frequently online socially. Users may purchase a gift card and then send it to their friend, all within Facebook. Purchases under $25 may encourage users to sample Facebook f-commerce and directly share a gift with tangible physical value.
Traditional E-Commerce Support
Perhaps f-commerce in its literal sense is not right for your brand. Use your social network to support and spread your brand’s traditional e-commerce site. For instance, Scottevest Travel Clothing promotes current sales on their Facebook profile picture and offers a “Daily Sale!” section on their Facebook page so fans can easily find their specials and link directly to their e-commerce site. Scottevest responds quickly to consumer feedback on their Facebook page and Twitter feed (Twitter responses are directly from the CEO) and takes care of any issues that arise, building a loyal customer base that feels the brand truly cares for them.
The Home Depot has taken f-commerce in a more natural direction. Seasonal Facebook apps encourage different projects and, at the end of the how-to, offer a list of products that support the project. This very simplified product offering is far more palatable in Facebook’s limited space than a full product line. If a user chooses to purchase via a “buy now” button on Facebook, they are redirected to The Home Depot site and the product is placed in their shopping cart. Users can then take advantage of the robust offerings of The Home Depot e-commerce site, including product previews, multiple product views, specifications, extensive filtering and search, coordinating items and more. Instead of attempting to duplicate this cart on Facebook, The Home Depot may allocate those dollars to brand engagement and relationship building with their consumers.
Exclusivity and Limited Product Sales
Exclusivity is a powerful purchasing motivation, and Facebook can provide the perfect channel. Take Oscar de la Renta: the brand offers a monthly Facebook-exclusive product as the only item available to purchase through their Facebook store. Users may still click through to the main Oscar de la Renta e-commerce site to purchase other products, but this one product is only available to their Facebook fans. Or consider Gilt, which offers an hour-early preview of its sales. Not only do the fans feel as if they are insiders, they are reminded of the Gilt sale when they check their newsfeed.
Facebook is a viable nontraditional sales channel, but brands must treat their Facebook fans differently than they do their website visitors. Facebook is considered personal space by its users, and brands can build affinity with their products as long as they remain respectful of that space. Brands should use caution so as not to become the ugly relative who is always asking for money or pushing products they don’t want. Any f-commerce engagement must therefore tread gently to help brands build a trusted relationship with their consumers.
The Grid System in action
Most everyone who ever went to school for commercial advertising learned the Grid System, a basic design convention where all elements on a page line up with each other on an invisible grid, much like a newspaper layout. Of course, designing completely on a grid was not a hard-and-fast rule, so it was easy to break out of, and with a static delivery system (like print), it was simple to do.
Then came a new medium with its nonstandardized viewing platform: the Internet. The first commercially viable programming language required that everything be placed in tables – essentially a grid – and designers spent a great deal of energy trying to create sites that did not reflect their boxy underpinnings. Viewing variables became a consideration, mainly how different browsers would display a site and what size monitor the majority of viewers had. A maximum build size was adopted and ad units became standardized. Site design became more complex and, in some cases, convoluted.
There has been a resurgence of late to simpler design with clear messaging. From a user’s perspective, this simplicity prevents a bombardment of messages and competing links. Used correctly, a grid design can be calming and self-assured. Navigation is clear and users can easily find their way around the site without feeling overwhelmed. Images can take center stage and users quickly receive the site’s message.
Now marketers are confronted with an even more varied viewing platform. Monitors, laptops, tablets and smartphones guarantee no standard size will accommodate all audiences. Many companies are building separate sites for each major platform, which may not be a viable solution for all.
A modern grid system has been re-created and updated to solve this dilemma.
A site built in boxes that can be fixed or flexible is often referred to as a fluid grid, and the practice itself is called reactive design. As different devices access the site, it resizes or reorganizes to fit the available space. In some cases, the boxes will change size. In others, the boxes will shift in layout with each box assigned an order of priority for display so the content is always positioned 
in priority of importance. See the two figures at right for an example of the same site displayed at different browser sizes.
A site built on the flexible fluid grid will display properly on almost any screen resolution without plug-ins, subdomains or mobile-specific URLs, giving the experience consistency and cohesion without requiring the building of multiple sites. Sites are created in a framework using variable boxes that can reorganize or resize based on the size of the browser window. This grid layout can be quite complex or deceptively simple.
This evolution in web design is because of the new CSS3 specifications that allow designers to take advantage of media queries. This effectively allows browsers to detect both the screen resolution of the user and the maximum screen width to determine if the user is viewing in landscape or portrait, and then apply the appropriate style sheet. The same single site for mobile, tablet and web devices means that when a user shares a page with a friend, they are seeing the same content, rather than a filtered, watered-down mobile version of the website.
No matter how the Grid System is implemented – flexible or fixed – it imparts a sense of order to the user. In what can be the Wild West, a harmonious structure with intuitive navigation can be a welcome respite.
Image References
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Since you’re probably either still hunkering down to avoid the lingering effects of this year’s extreme August weather or basking in the glow of your summer vacation, it’s hard to muster more than lackluster holiday spirit. Regardless of your spirit, it’s never too early to begin considering an e-commerce strategy for the holidays.
All indicators predict that this year will be the biggest for e-commerce thus far. It follows a trend that sees online sales increasing from year to year and outpacing non-e-commerce growth (see chart below). The 2010 holiday season brought forth the singularly biggest day for online sales yet, topping $1 billion in online sales on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving). Consumers are also beginning to do their Black Friday shopping from the comfort of their couch, frustrated by jostling through crowds and waiting in long lines, only to find that what they wanted is already sold out.
In general, e-commerce outperforms same-store sales at many chains, thanks to shoppers choosing to research products online and then using the convenience of online shopping to complete the transaction. This trend holds for both business goods and consumer goods. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses such as Williams-Sonoma have online sales accounting for 33% of total sales, and Staples counts online as 40% of their total sales.
So how do you capitalize on this trend? You may be concerned an e-commerce presence will snipe traffic from your brick-and-mortar stores. But if you embrace both, the two venues can provide your customers the choice they demand while providing you sales traffic between the channels.
For instance, in-store pickup of products ordered online increases impulse add-on purchases in-store. Consumers who can’t find the options they want in-store can go online to order exactly what they want, ensuring that your brand gets the sale. As long as salespeople are well trained and there’s perhaps a kiosk in-store, brick-and-mortars may even be able to stock less inventory on shelves.
Simply put, ignore digital channels at the cost to your bottom line.
An article aptly titled “Online back-to-school shoppers to spend 40% more than those who only shop in stores” from July 28, 2011, offers, “Specifically, online back-to-school shoppers will spend a third more than all shoppers for shoes and school supplies, and fully 68% more for electronics and computer related goods. Like most everyone, online back-to-school shoppers have felt the economic pinch, and to that end plan to shop for sales more often, comparison shop online, find and use coupons, and buy more generic or store brands, among other money-saving strategies. Much of that research will be facilitated by smartphones and/or tablet devices that many online back-to-school shoppers already own.”
What Features Do Consumers Want in Their Online Shopping Experience?
- Free Shipping – comScore’s postmortem of the 2010 holiday season reports that free shipping was used in more than half of all 2010 holiday e-commerce transactions, up significantly from 2009.
- Gift Ideas – Help consumers figure out the perfect gift for a hard-to-buy-for person. See Amazon’s best-in-class gift ideas.
- Comparison Shopping – Users want to feel that they are getting the most bang for their buck. Review Forbes’ best in class.
- Research – Consumers want to know more about the products they’re considering. Specifications and trade write-ups help consumers understand what the professionals think, but ratings and reviews from other consumers also strongly influence purchasing decisions. In a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, shoppers were asked about how the economy was changing their behavior: 30.7% planned to do more comparison shopping online and 12.3% planned to shop more online in general.
- Pick Up In-Store – Consumers who have waited until the last minute to purchase gifts appreciate the convenience of shopping online, but with the option to pick it up in-store so shipping isn’t a factor.
- Coupons – Budget-conscious consumers who are trying to save money can be driven to make a purchase, given digital coupon incentives delivered though the website, email or mobile channels. In the same NRF survey, over 36% of respondents were likely to use more coupons. According to an article in eMarketer about 2011 back-to-school shopping (a good predictor of holiday sales,) “…the internet is viewed as a valuable source for saving money. The leading reason why shoppers…planned to shop online was because they expected to find better discounts (70%), were able to research prices and products (63%) and avoid potential out-of-stock items in-store (40%).”
Create a Positive User Experience
Your user experience is the digital reflection of your brick-and-mortar; keep it friendly, stocked and easy to use.
To deliver the most impact to your busy holiday shoppers, simply maintaining an e-commerce site just isn’t enough. Usability is key.
- Users must be able to quickly find a specific item (like using an intelligent search), but the site itself must facilitate browsing with clearly defined categories and hierarchies.
- Upselling or cross-selling is also important, using “products like this” or “customers who bought this also bought this.”
- Clear product images with multiple views and the ability to enlarge the image give consumers the confidence to click the buy button.
- A detailed description of the product, including dimensions, colors and other key attributes, must be readily available.
- Lastly, a site must instill consumer trust by displaying guarantees, return policies and accurate shipping dates.
Promotional Channels
The more touchpoints that are available to consumers, the more likely they’ll find you and purchase from you.
An important factor to a successful e-commerce holiday season is driving high traffic to your online product offerings. Money is being left on the table if you don’t consider using multiple channels to deliver the most impact to your busy holiday shoppers:
- Mobile – Mobile couponing or QR codes to provide more detailed descriptions and/or ratings and reviews. It’s particularly helpful for on-the-go consumers to find your location.
- Geolocating – Offer specials for check-in with Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Locations.
- Facebook – Integrated shopping, sales alerts, specials, recommendations, single sign-on to reduce cart abandonment.
- Twitter – An ideal channel for promoting sales alerts, specials, recommendations that can generate social media buzz.
- Online – Sales, free shipping, printable/online coupons, product comparisons, consumer ratings and reviews, in-store pickup (to increase impulse purchases), adequate inventory, callouts and/or billboards.
- Email – Hold “secret sales” or a “deal of the day” and offer other incentives for email sign-up.
Test It for Success
Unavailable or broken sites are like locking your doors on Black Friday.
By far, the single most important preparation for a successful holiday season is testing to ensure your servers and e-commerce engines can handle the huge volume. Nothing frustrates a consumer more than getting a busy server error or spending time browsing and shopping only to discover they cannot check out. All your investments and innovations for successful online holiday sales can be ruined by poor server performance. Make it a priority to ensure your technical infrastructure is in place to support the demand from your varied advertising channels.
A personal anecdote: There is a certain big-box retailer that offers fantastic Black Friday deals. I’ve been at their doors at 6 a.m. twice, shopped their sales, only to discover the slow-moving checkout line extends all the way around the store, guaranteeing a two-hour wait. I abandoned my basket the first year, and the second year, I checked the state of the impossible checkout line before even bothering to shop. I never returned to that retailer to purchase holiday gifts. Last year, I decided to try their online shop and see if I could get some of those amazing deals. Their site was incredibly slow, but I persevered, only to have my cart time out and empty at checkout. At this point, I won’t shop that retailer ever again. And yes, I tell my friends about those experiences, increasing the probability that they also will not shop that retailer during the holidays.
Remember, when your eye is on the bottom line, online and offline shopping can be complementary experiences providing great service to your consumers. Do you want happy brand advocates or vocal brand dissenters?
So while the leaves may not yet have begun to change, it’s time to plan your e-commerce strategy and spiff up your online store for the holidays. Your brick-and-mortar stores would never advance into the holiday season without adequate preparation. Your online presence should be no different.
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