I’m wondering, your e-Com business is doing so well. Have you been able to use that to test product, and is that something that you can react quickly enough of certain things that you have on the internet only, like the Epic product you’re selling, and maybe getting it into different locations?
Mike Jeffries
The direct-to-consumer business, we have been experimenting with that; we have been testing categories of direct-to-consumer. And the direct-to-consumer results are proving to be pretty predictive of what happens in store. We’re fascinated with the potential of direct-to-consumer; are in fact, expanding our assortments. We have a major goal for that business and what you’re describing is very definitely a part of where we’re taking it.
Leveraging the e-commerce division to test new ideas, categories, and merchandise assortments is a fantastic way to drive in-store sales with less risk and overhead. A mass market retailer can roll out pilot programs to brick and mortar locations around the country, but not in the time (or without the cost) that they can do it online. With a targeted buying, marketing, and social media strategy, a retailer can measure the success of new categories faster than ever. Measure sales and social media feedback and learn what your customers like, or don’t like, about new categories.
I imagine that Abercrombie, with a rough few quarters behind them, is going to lean heavily on the e-comm business to drive growth and look for more predictions on in-store over the next 18 months.
The Bronto Blog dissects a H&R Block e-mail campaign, talks about the season life cycle of an e-mail campaign, and illustrates the dangers of overmailing. If you are an e-mail marketer, there is good insight to be read there.
Want to write better blog posts? If you are just joining the blogging game or someone who has been at it for a while, the always insightful Copyblogger has a great post worth reviewing: 17 Easy Steps to Brillian Blog Posts.
A daily digest of some items that I’m finding interesting on the web:
Get Elastic tells us about surprising results that are found in an A/B test where the Add To Cart button is on the left hand side of the page. This higher conversion rate seems to go against the supposed fundamentals of product detail page layout, but maybe they are on to something. Another reason why A/B testing is so crucial to maximize individual site conversions.
Color Contrast in Web Typography: Designing Interactive shows us why your site’s black text can actually be dark gray and how contrast helps drive attention.
Return Customer, an excellent blog about customer service and how businesses can learn from everyday experiences, celebrates it’s fifth anniversary. Congratulations to them, they’ve been a constant entry in every RSS reader that I’ve had over the past few years, always providing valuable content.
Sapient Corp., based in Boston, as the lead partner and integrator,
International Business Machines Corp., based in Armon, NY, which will provide the multichannel e-commerce platform,
Oracle, based in Redwood City, Calif., which will provide the database platform,
Endeca Technologies Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass., which will provide search and navigation functionality,
Autonomy Corp., based in San Francisco, which will provide content and digital asset-management functionality,
Sterling Commerce Inc., Dublin, Ohio, which will provide global inventory visibility and cross-channel order-management functionality, and
Huge Inc.,based in Brooklyn, NY, will provide visual and interaction design.
This is going to be an interesting project to watch and I can’t wait to see what Target and their vendors come up with. A highly visible, successful brand that is already known for a pleasant in-store shopping experience will have a very high bar to meet as re-platform their e-commerce offering.
Augmented reality is one of the biggest buzzwords right now and people are looking for ways to bring this technology to every industry. As much as I love e-commerce, there is still a (purposeful) disconnect from the brick and mortar shopping experience, especially with apparel. I feel that when technology can bridge this gap, e-commerce sales can only grow as shoppers continue to turn online. Augmented reality is one of the technologies that, when used effectively, could do a lot to bridge this disconnect.
One of the coolest demos that I saw at this year’s shop.org was the augmented reality dressing room tool that was developed by Zugara in partnership with Richrelevance. This tool allows shoppers to “virtually” try on clothes, put together outfits, and share these items with their friends on Facebook. This is all made possible through the use of Flash, a web cam, and hand gestures from the shopper. Really awesome stuff.
This week, Zugara and Richrelevance have announced that this technology has been brought to online boutique Tobi.com. Through the application, called Fashionista, shoppers can now shop the catalog using their web cam and interact with their friends. It’s really great to see this technology go live.
How are shoppers going to react? Tough to say. This is still emerging technology but with a very long life cycle ahead of it. Augmented reality may just be entering the e-commerce arena, but expect many more of these applications in the future. For now, the Fashionista application is a great first step in implementing augmented reality in e-commerce. I can’t wait to see this app grow.
I’ve embedded a video, below, showing the Zugara demo at the Richrelevance booth from shop.org. Above is a screenshot showing the application being used on Tobi.com.
