Swallowtail Solutions

The NYT Oversimplifies eCommerce for Manufacturers

2008-03-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

The New York Times ran an article today titled “E-Commerce 101 for Manufacturers” today which dramatically over-simplifies what it takes to create and drive an eCommerce business.

While I greatly appreciate the basic tenor of the article, encouraging manufacturers to get online and go direct in order to take advantage of a wider market and reap higher margins as a result, the over simplification of what it takes to be successful is symptomatic of why there are so many very disappointing manufacturers sites out there.

The article states, “Instead of spending time and money setting up bricks-and-mortar stores and training salespeople, you can get started with nothing more than an e-commerce Web site and some inventory to sell. Since much of your e-commerce site will be handling standard online shopping transactions, you'll find e-commerce templates are readily available. Or you can use a complete solution like eBay, which requires no online expertise at all.”

Basically, yes, it is true that a manufacturer can prop up a site quickly using a hosted SaaS commerce solution or find a junior developer to hack at OS Commerce to get a store up and running with nothing more than some “inventory to sell”, but honestly it will require much more than that if your goals are broader than just selling some stuff.

Goals a manufacturer should target when beginning online include:

Articulating the brand and delivering an experience consistent with its promise to consumers
Being the principal source online for information about the manufacturer’s products
Acquiring new customers to the brand, and becoming a direct communication tool
Driving new direct sales, at high margin (compared with wholesale)
Driving traffic to online retailers selling the manufacturer’s products online
Being a source for important product content to retail customers - you want your products to be well represented wherever they are sold

In order to accomplish these goals the manufacturer needs to commit to the site’s success. Putting up a basic site with little or no motivation to nurture and invest in the content, merchandising, and marketing is going to lead to disappointing results and to the wrong conclusions - “we tried that eCommerce thing, it didn’t work for us”, while competitors who do commit and invest will take advantage of all the web has to offer.

Here is a quick list of things to consider when making this commitment to this new channel:

Commit to deep and rich product content, with freelance or staff copywriters, photographers, and graphic designers focused on product content for the web. Leveraging advertising or wholesale marketing assets makes sense, but these often will not suffice when trying to sell a product online
Commit to driving the online experience and designing a well architected and on-brand site. Hire a great design team with experience in online retail, information architecture, usability, and great design aesthetics proven online.. A team that has done a bunch of flashy marketing sites may claim that eCommerce is no big deal for them, but they may be unprepared to understand the needs and best-practices of an eCommerce site. If you need help with your branding, now is the time to invest as you build your site experience, but that may or may not be the same design team.
Commit to investing in a well developed site. Make sure your development team has to prove itself with other sites they have worked on. Check them out, use the sites, and see the tools you will be using - content management, analytics, CRM, order management - and make sure they meet your needs. If you plan to give the design work to one team, and the development to another, insist they work very, very closely together. Best case, find a shop that is great at both design and development. [Yes, we think Swallowtail fills that bill - with proven online design and development core-competencies.]
Commit to online marketing - driving email campaigns, SEM, SEO, viral - by allocating budget and resources. Hire a small agency or freelancers to support this if you can’t bring on experienced online marketing staff. Include your brand marketers in this effort, but they will have a lot to learn to drive marketing online
Commit to a great fulfillment experience - make sure your warehouse can really handle direct-to-consumer fulfillment and can deliver quick error free fulfillment consistently. Nothing sours am online customer more than a horrible fulfillment process. And don’t forget about returns, no matter your category you will get them, though the degree will vary. Being able to process returns and restock efficiently can be a huge cost savings.
Commit to excellent customer service - even a problem can win a customer’s loyalty if you handle it right. Prompt and effective customer service is critical to building your brand and winning customers for the long haul.

Done well, and with commitment, an online channel can be a huge win and a great asset for the manufacturer and their customers. The benefits to your brand, business, and customer engagement and loyalty can be very, very beneficial.

Just don’t make the mistake of oversimplifying and under committing. No one wins and if anything more harm may come of it than good in wasted money, customer equity, damage to your brand, and resources.

Need help with your site or thinking through your online merchandising, content strategy or marketing? Contact us today to discuss.

Our latest project is live! Toyota & All Recipes CorollaSocialDriver.com

2008-03-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

I am proud to announce the latest Swallowtail project is live. CorollaSocialDriver is a project done in collaboration with a local Seattle design studio, Perfect Pixels, for Toyota and All Recipes.

This project is a party planner which serves as a marketing sweepstakes vehicle. It also contains social networking elements for the web and mobile devices.

Some interesting characteristics of this project are:

Full web-based party invite capabilities
SMS integration with Cellit, enabling invites, reminders, and shopping lists via SMS
Blogging for party planners, tips, and attendees to report on their parties
Recipe suggestions and shopping lists
Webservices integration for a Flash party planner UI to work with the back-end secure databases
Integration with iTunes for music playlist purchases
Automated entry tally based on interactivity with the site and SMS
Reporting and monitoring for marketers

This project was done in record time, and we are very pleased and impressed with all the good people we had a chance to work with at Perfect Pixels and All Recipes.

But don't worry, you can join the fun - you too have a chance to win a $10,000 party catered by Rachel Ray! Just hop over to register now.

Passing on a great post from Sally

2008-01-31T21:56:00.000-08:00

I encourage you to read this insightful post from Sally McKenzie in part reflecting on what has happened to so many of our friends and former colleagues at Eddie Bauer this week. The evolution of the eCommerce channel inside many retailers is having some unfortunate effects and by-products of it's success.

- Brian

Synchronicity: The importance of multi-channel to retailers

2008-01-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

Great post at the Center for Media Research blog about the importance of multi-channel coordination and synchronization which is going to be covered in more detail in the DMA report "Channel Integration and Benchmarks in the Retail Industry”.

Here is a good snippet from Eugenia Steingold, Ph.D., DMA senior research manager and the report's chief author, "To be successful, retailers need to merge and synchronize all channels in terms of consistent brand message, timing, creativity of promotions, loyalty programs, and fulfillment.”

She also concludes that, “To achieve such a level of integration, organizational support and restructuring might be necessary." I agree this is the case in a larger retail organization, having seen this first hand. But for many of our clients it a matter of planning and having the right content support, which can be just as hard.

Another interesting point made in the report is the importance of the web-site as a direct marketing channel, not just a sales channel, for multi-channel retailers. While intuitive, since this is so hard to measure this is often overlooked.

- Brian

(And yes, I did go back and look at The Police’s 1983 Album to see if there was a clever way to include that, but I decided to spare you...)

The feedback you love to hear

2008-01-22T10:59:00.000-08:00

This is the kind of feedback from customers we just love. Thought we would pass this email along from Nick at Claude Lakey Mouthpieces:

“Hi guys,
Just wanted to say Hi and let you know that things are going great at the trade show. I have had many people complement me on the new Web-Site, even competitors! Everybody loves the legacy page and I know that the history really helps sell mouthpieces. I really am happy with the response and tell everyone that I know of a great company in Seattle that can build a great site!
Talk to you soon, Nick”

Nick has had a great jump in business with the site, and we’re really pleased the site is also helping convey the legacy and rich brand that accompanies his great products - both online and with his offline business. A great site should bring benefit not only in creating a new channel, but in lifting the overall profile of a brand and company.

But it still comes down to a great product and customer expereince, something Nick does so well for his passionate clientele. No anyone into jazz saxophone or clarinet? These are the mouthpieces to have.

Go get 'em Nick!

-Brian

Findability: Enterprise Initiative #1 for 2008?

2008-01-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed Patti Seybold’s recent post on findability, and I have to agree that this, if not the top priority, should be in the top three for large companies in 2008.

Her view is that companies that excel online typically:

1. Prioritize search, navigation, and findability as a core competency.

2. Invest in people, skills, and technology to continually improve the quality and reach of search and navigation for their company’s Web presence and cross-channel customer experience.

3. Invest personal time and energy in ensuring high-quality search and navigation results on all their companies’ Web properties and e-enabled products (software, services, content).

I would like to tag on to Patti’s thinking by adding that these initiatives are not only beneficial inside a site, but search and navigation done right will drive traffic to your site [SEO], engage customers, and lead to viral benefits through great experiences.

- Brian

What if products could talk?

2008-01-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

I want to pass on a great eCard dealing with usability and New Year's resolutions. This eCard from Cooper Design expresses common usability issues and the New Year's resolutions of common product's. I especially loved the mobile phones. Enjoy.

- Brian

Swallowtail & Clutch: Shop of the Day on Shopify

2008-01-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

Clutch, a site recently launched by Swallowtail, was named "shop of the day" by Jaded Pixels January 9th. Jaded Pixels is the company behind the innovative Shopify hosted eCommerce platform. This is an honor they bestow on the top sites that showcase and leverage the capabilities of customization and design that Shopify offers. Thought we would share the good news...

We have some additional clients we will be creating great branded sites for on Shopify. We will let you know as those launch. Stay tuned.

- brian

Clutch is Live with eCommerce

2007-12-20T18:38:00.000-08:00

We are very pleased to announce the launch today of Clutch's new eCommerce website. It is one of the few high-end handbag commerce sites out there, and we think it is a great extension of their great store in downtown Seattle. The site is a custom interface built on top of the Shopify platform with Google Checkout and Google Analytics. We think it stacks up with the best Shopify and of hosted web-stores in general.

I want to compliment Leonard on his outstanding technical approach and Shopify customizations, DG on his great design and IA work, and Ryan on terrific project management. And of coarse I would like to thank Kimberly and Carrie for being terrific clients. Here's to some great business in the New Year!

Please let us know what you think.

- brian

eCommerce Holiday Survival Tips

2007-11-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

Well here we are, Thanksgiving. Is it me, or does Thanksgiving come around faster every year? Retailers everywhere are facing this holiday with a blend of excitement, anxiety, exhaustion, and adrenaline as they await the holiday shopping deluge. For the retailer this means final floor-sets, operations run-through such as Best Buys store rehearsals, and getting schedules in-place. Everyone’s business is different, but the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas will make or break most retailers. It will typically account for somewhere between 20-35% of sales for the year, and a much higher percent of margin and profit. This is a can’t miss time of year. For the eCommerce site it in many ways is a very similar set of activities, but obviously with a twist. Here is a run-down on many of the key things you can do right now to make sure you maximize your holiday sales.

Ten things to do right now:

1 - Create a gift category focused on the holidays - critical for the spear-fishing shopper [me!] to quickly find unique gifts. Here is a good example from eddieb auer.com with gifts for all their key categories. Notice also how the navigation highlights the gift category and how the overall site design reflects the holidays. When merchandising put yourself in a customers shoes, how can you help them find your products easily through good categorization. Are there various scenarios that you need to think about? [BTW - this is a golden rule, not just this time of year.]

2 - Does your homepage and navigation address key customer needs and outcomes? Key items featured, promotions clear, shipping deadlines clear? Customers short attention spans will amplify with the long lists and short time frames. Make sure they can quickly and easily find you info. Lands End are pros at this. A nice blend of holiday messaging, imagery, products, categories, and quick-links to key information.

3 - Search - Are your key products indexed on Google, Yahoo, and Live Search? If not, what can you do right now to fix that? What about Search marketing? Spend some money on your key products or categories. Depending on what you sell this might be a lot, so if you can’t rank top 5, it may not be worth it. What about your store name, can people find you? Are your competitors bidding on your name [if so , you can make them stop]? Here is a great example - need a lunch-lady action figure? Archie McPhee, Seattle legend for stocking stuffers makes sure they show up first in the results. Notice Amazon is doing some SEM on these long-tail terms, nice.

4 - Product Content - its not too late to make sure your key products have great product information. Make sure your customers can make well informed purchase decisions from your product detail page. Not only will this drive sales and conversions, it will reduce returns later. The gold-standard? Amazon. See their product page for the iPod Touch. Now is a also a good time for a once-again content audit to make sure you don’t having any missing images or other content you can take quick action on.

5 - Accessories - a good time to focus on cross sells and accessories. What is that something extra that will really round out the gift and say “I really thought about this” for your customers when they give that gift? Best Buy does a good job of serving up relevant accessories and service plans, though they can improve making this easier from the cart.

6 - Shipping options, deadlines, and gift-wrap policies - What ever they are, make sure they are really clear and that customers can find them easily. This includes from the homepage, product detail pages, checkout, and customer service & FAQ pages. I think the Lands End example above is a good one.

7 - Staff the phones and email contacts - Make sure you have coverage for the customer service issues that are going to come up as panicked customers limit their credit cards, your site has a blip [see #10], they got their sister’s address wrong, and so on. The urgency is going to ramp as the deadlines approach. If you have retail stores, make sure your associates know what to do if they get a call or someone comes in with a problem.

8 - Gift Cards - If you have them, market ‘em. These have really come into play as an increasingly popular alternative for the gift giver. And when those shipping deadlines hit, if you can crank these out, create a virtual representation, and get these into envelopes, offer free shipping and away you go.

9 - Email Marketing - Don’t forget to get those key email messages out this time of year. Its a good time of year to double down on your email frequency, communicating shipping deadlines, promotions, product specials, unique gift items, and those gift cards! And if you are segmenting, remember this is a time of year people cross category segments and are looking for gifts.

10 - Staffing for support and quick site updates - Make sure you have coverage on the site operations, site development, merchandising, and content functions. Have a schedule of when people are “on-call” and have all the various ways you need to reach them identified - personal email, IM, mobile phone, home phone, and the phone of Aunt Mildred’s where they are having Thanksgiving. Make sure your critical staff have their lap-tops with them when they are out. I have always just used a simple spreadsheet. A Google-doc may be a good way to go for this, allowing collaboration and a single source.

OK, but aren’t there a few things missing? YES!, but honestly it is too late to worry about these now. I will cover planning for next year in a week or so, when the turkey and sweet-potato hang-over wears off and I recover from the touch-football...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy your friends and family, and give thanks for life, opportunity, and the inevitable challenges we all face - remember we can always get better.

Now, onto my pies.

- Brian

Nuggets from the week around the web

2007-11-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

UGC in the Context of History
This is a really interesting video on User-Generated content recently posted to the TED site Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law. It gives me a historical perspective on the times we are living in. The natural laws of content are definitely changing. And, there are some hilarious bonus mash-up treats Lessing shows worth getting through some slow middle bits. Want inspiration? Visit TED Talks.

How to Hire a Design Agency: wow that's a lot of work
Forrester put out an interesting report on How to Hire an Interactive Design Agency [subscription required] by Kerry Bodine. It is a very in-depth review of how broken the process is and how hard it can be for someone to find the right fit. Wow, looks more complicated when I read this. But let’s face it, the skills and experience required to do this work well are in short supply. Finding the right agency can be very hard. Where do you start? This may be complicated by a lack of experience on the client side and in larger organizations - let’s face it - politics. Hear the words “website” or “site redesign” and watch the seagulls gather. And where there are lots of seagulls? Yep, lots of poop. In either case - clients large and small I believe a combination of a good solid methodology founded on real users along with strong project and account management can make a huge difference. Oh, and don’t forget, someone needs to develop and launch the design, something which can be very easily overlooked and if you want to design externally and design in house the transition can be very rocky.

Speaking of Forrester… Has anyone else noticed Forrester is starting to take the glove offs? This is a very good article on the Online Travel space by Harvey Manning. He’s calling all the players in online travel to task around the customer experience. He rightly points out that OLTA and supplier sites really just expose back-end tools and interfaces. No one is yet delivering a travel planning experience that improves on the kitchen table.

Basic Leadership Common Sense, but easy to forget
Good straightforward piece on leadership, The seven secrets of inspiring leaders, makes me reflect on some of the good and bad leaders I have had over the years. 1. Demonstrate enthusiasm. 2. Articulate a compelling course of action. 3. Sell the benefit. 4. Tell more stories. 5. Invite participation. 6. Reinforce an optimistic outlook. 7. Encourage potential. [via 37Signals blog Sunspots]

SEO check-up: say ahhhhh
SEO: The Website Health Check tool give you a quick shortcut to see if you have any major SEO issues. The site queries Google to grab pages you have indexed in Google, and looks for issues amongst the first 1,000 results. Not all the recommendations are easy to act on. This is a good site for SEO, but still can seem like witchcraft on some levels. Let us know if you need help.

Open Social 101
Want to learn more about what all this Open Social hoopla is about? Here is a good video from Ning about Open Social. I think there is room for Facebook to ride the wave, but this move will lead innovation elsewhere IMHO.

7 simple merchandising tips for getting started in eCommerce

2007-11-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

One of the ﬁrst questions often asked by those thinking of starting a eCommerce site is “what products should I sell”? Here are some things to consider when putting together that ﬁrst assortment.

1. Best Sellers

Pretty much a no-brainer I know, but it goes without saying that the ﬁrst place to look in a catalog or store based business going online is what is already selling well in those channels. Your primary customers in your online channel are likely to be those who are shopping your other channels and they are likely to be after the same great product they love in the store or catalog.

For online only business this of coarse not something you will know as you get started. The best strategy is to try to experiment while keeping your inventory risk low, and then try to get into well selling product quickly. Always a good plan, but harder to do that it sounds.

2. Go Deep Instead of Wide

Another tip is to make sure you create categories of products with enough selection to make them shoppable. A category with only a few products is life a store ﬁxture with only a few things on it. It works for Dolce & Gabbana or Coach, but few others.

Experimentation may require only a few products in a natural category. Think about creating gift, lifestyle, or occasion categories for these.

3. Access to Content about the Products

One of the biggest challenges in getting going is pulling together great content about your products. I am using the term content loosely, meaning images, copy, manuals, videos, and other attributes. Having great content is critical to a great customer experience and making your site successful. Are there vendors you work with who already have content they can share with you? Are there other sources of content? Some sites share their content openly. Be careful not to leverage content from other sites if it is clear they created it.

This content will also be important to help you with search engine optimization.

4. Photograph well

Maybe more of a general rule, but items that photograph well will do better online. This is something to consider in selecting an assortment overall, not just beginning.

5. Items over $20 or baskets over $100

This has as much to do with shipping costs as anything. Customers are going to be very reluctant to buy online if the shipping costs are a large percent of the overall transaction This does not necessarily apply to auctions or very unique products, but those are likely to be over $20 anyway.

Another way to think about it is if you can encourage multiple item sales to get basket size up. This can reduce the issues with low cost items, but this can be very hard to do.

6. Building cross-sells and up-sells

A way to encourage customers to browse and discover your great product is to have products that naturally sell in kits, bundles, or as accessories with each other. To get started this may need to be done manually, but over time you can automate these oruse a service to leverage customer sell through or navigation behavior on your site. But keep it simple to start.

7. Unique and differentiating

One of the most important things is going to be to develop a unique assortment is a unique brand and experience. Online it can be hard to rise above the noise, but having a unique set or product in a well designed experience is going to be easier to ﬁnd in search, more relevant to a targeted audience, easier to engage loyalty with, and should see less price-based competition.

8. Measure, measure, measure

Keep experimenting and learning, while managing your inventory risk. Measure, measure, measure page views, search, conversation, sell-through, and click-through in your marketing. Trends will develop and you’ll see natural ways to expand and develop your assortment online. Even simple and free metrics tools like Google Analytics will do a long way toward helping you optimize your assortment. This is one of the great things about online retailing, use it.

Hopefully these help you put together your ﬁrst assortments. We would love to hear what you have learned and what has worked or not for you.