Breaking News Story
Assignment
Article:
Web-Savvy Retailers
Topic:
Delivering the online customer experience
Jeleann Pallarca 0270231
E-Commerce BADM 4040_01
Hanadi Alnawab
Summary of Web-Savvy Retailers
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Retailers are feeling
pressured by some customers negative impression of online retailing.
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Retailers are
raising the bar for the website and creating a more user friendly website for
customers to visit, regardless of their age.
This is especially important during this time of year with
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Foster Research
conducted a survey (“The State of Retailing Online 2007”) regarding
the top priorities of 150 surveyed retailers.
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Among the
priorities retailers feel they need to improve are of the following:
·
Fixing website
design and performance:
§
They want to add
additional feature which they feel will benefit the customers. It will be easier for the customers to find
what they are looking for and eliminate the frustration of searching for a
particular product or service. That
frustration should be left in the malls.
The type of features they want to include to their current website are:
·
Adding
alternative images
·
Incorporating lifestyle
images
·
Customer ratings
and reviews
·
Adding “What’s
new” link to homepage
·
Create a
sophisticated feel to the site by incorporating drop-down menus and rollover
lists
§
Changing the
overall layout of the webpage is another element retailer’s feel they need to
improve (88% of retailers).
·
Improve the
efficiency of online marketing
§
They will create
more emphasis on customer service, since this is a large part of any
company. Having a friendly and helpful
customer service team will surely create more loyalty customers to the company,
which will in turn increase sales. Some
of the features of customer service they hope to add to the website are:
·
Invest more into
the live chat sessions with company representatives
·
Enhance the
checkout processes (will take about a year)
§
Marketing
strategies will be used to retain and acquire more customers through retention
programs.
·
Paid research is
used to acquire customers and has been working.
·
Sending emails
about new products to current customers is how retailers retain their
customers. It is an effective and
inexpensive way to keep customers interested.
·
Enhance
cross-channel integration:
§
There are an
increasing number of brick-and-mortar retailers who are adding websites as an
additional channel of business. Retailers
are investing more money each year into merging their retail stores and
website, but also marketing their new websites.
This is necessary since there are also an increasing number of customers
who make purchases on the retailer’s website.
Implications &
Relevance to E-Commerce
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Web-Savvy Retailers touches base on many elements of designing the user experience.
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All the content
from the article was derived from a survey 150 retailers completed regarding the
improvements they are making to their business through their website.
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In the article,
the retailers were improving the designing phase. They were improving the layout, design and
navigations of the website by adding drop-down menus, redesigning the layout
and adding mire features to the homepage.
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User-centred
design was used as retailers were putting themselves in their customer’s shoes
to try to make their website more form-fitting to the customers needs. They conducted research regarding the type of
customers they are targeting through the paid research for acquiring customers.
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Marketing-led
site design was used as retailers utilize the internet to market to current
customers and acquired new ones. Retaining customers through emailing updates
and having retention programs will definitely lead the customers to the
website. They are intrigued by new
products and want to see them or want to collect more points for their club
card.
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Conducting
research on potential customers of the business is another form to reach out
the customers. Companies can draw
customers into the site by showing them what they can offer. Using websites to attract new customers is
more affective than asking them to drive to the actual store. They can see what the retailer carries in the
comfort of their own home. Also,
customers may like the fact that this retailer has an online store which
enhances the use of cross-channel integration of brick-and-mortar and online
stores.
Personal Opinion
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I think it is
great that retailers are taking the initiative to improve their website.
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Many of the
issues that are listed in the article were reasons why I refuse to shop
online.
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Not only should
they create a great online experience for customers they should also reassure
customers that their site is secured from credit card fraud.
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Using systems
with a good reputation might ease a customer’s doubts (paypal).
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Make their return
policy and process easier for customers.
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Having longer
terms for international customers, instead of 30 days make it 40 days. Take the shipping distance into
consideration.
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I think a great
feature that many clothing retailers have is zoom feature which allows you to
see the item up close, the fabric and quality.
Having additional images of the item in different angles and really
emphasizing the specialties of the item (nice buttons, special designs on the
clothing, etc.) This feature is very
helpful and will attract more fussy shoppers like to myself to use websites as
a form of shopping.
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Layout design is
another important factor to consider when designing a website. During the holiday seasons I try to shop
online more to avoid the malls. I can
recall a couple of times when I have left a site because I could not find what
I was looking for. I know the company
carries it, but it is nowhere to be found on the sites.
Reference:
Beasty, Colin. Web-Savvy Retailers. Friday, October 5, 2007. destinationDRM.com.
November 15, 2007.
[http://www.destinationcrm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=7272&KeyWords=online++AND+customer++AND+experience]