What’s in stock at Pier 1 anyway?

Summer means spending time outdoors, so lots of people are shopping for outdoor furniture. There’s nothing quite like wicker, and it was a search for this that brought me to the Pier 1 Imports ecommerce site. I found that browsing for furniture on this site is fine, but buying it? Well, that’s another story. Take a look.

When I first arrived on the home page, I immediately noticed the large “Let’s Shop” tab on the top. Mousing over this opens a huge drop-down menu that provides different ways to shop and categories to choose from. One feature of this menu I found to be really cool was in the Category tab. As you move your mouse over the different main categories, like Dining & Entertaining or Furniture & Living, the product image at the bottom changes to match. There is also a little message at the bottom that highlights a particular offer or product line within that category. Nice touch!

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Within the Furniture & Living category, I selected Papasan & Wicker. On this category page, I found another cool feature. As you mouse over a product image, a small expanded window opens that gives you a little more information about the product, which is pretty nice. However, I noticed that one of the things this window tells you is whether or not the product is in stock. As I scrolled around within this category, I found that many of these items were out of stock or unavailable online. It would be nice to be able to filter these products out… But I can’t. I would suggest Pier 1 add a sorting or filtering option so that shoppers can view only the items that are actually available for purchase online! Read More »

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 // 12:42PM Leave a comment

Ecommerce News

Online Shoppers Need to be Nudged [Video] (MultiChannel Merchant)
“On average, seven out of 10 visitors who place an item in their cart do not complete the transaction. Timing of the transaction is a key element, as is pricing (does the consumer want to pay for shipping and handling?) and device (if the transaction begins on a smartphone, done the consumer want to finish it on a small screen? In this video taken at IRCE 2013, Nicholls talks about how proper remarketing can nudge the customer, and remind her to complete the transaction.”

Fab Grabs $150M at $1B Valuation (And is Raising Another $100M+ More) (Tech Crunch)
“Fab is announcing today that it has raised $150 million in the first tranche of the company’s Series D round of financing. We’re told that $150 million is the first part of a larger Series D round that Fab expects to complete over the next few months. New to this round is Chinese Internet giant Tencent, who will also have a board seat at Fab; and Japanese conglomerate Itochu. Previous investors Atomico, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, RTP Capital, Pinnacle Ventures, Lars Hinrichs, and Docomo Capital also participated in this latest round of financing.”

Amazon Wants to be a Part of your Birthday (Internet Retailer)
“Amazon Birthday Gift allows a consumer while on Facebook to purchase a gift card for a friend who has an upcoming birthday and invite her Facebook friends to contribute to it. On the recipient’s birthday, Amazonposts an image of the gift card on her Facebook timeline with links and instructions for how to redeem it, Amazon says. Any messages to the recipient also appear on the timeline with the gift card.

A customer selects $1, $5, $10 or $25 to start a birthday gift card, Amazon says. Other friends may contribute in those increments. Customers can send gift cards from any web-enabled device, including mobile phones, the retailer says.”

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 // 10:37AM Leave a comment

Too much text, Seagull Lighting!

Keeping pages visually clean and simple is always a good rule of thumb to follow in ecommerce. Drawing the shopper’s eye with big graphics and visual elements is a nice way to keep a site from being overwhelming or complicated. So when I came across an example of an ecommerce site that relies heavily on text, I just had to highlight it for an outtake. Check out what Sea Gull Lighting, a retailer of lighting fixtures, is doing with their site.

When I arrived on the Seagull Lighting website, I actually found the home page to be pretty nice. It was when I used the left navigation menu and chose a category, Recessed Lighting, that I started to come across some issues. Look at how much text is on this category page. That’s a lot of reading! It even goes below the fold, meaning people would have to scroll down to read it all.

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I tried another category, and clicked on Indoor Lighting in the left menu. Again, lots of text underneath the subcategories, and again, it goes below the fold…

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Read More »

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 // 12:45PM 1 Comment

Music Monday (but it’s really Tuesday)

Ok, so we missed it, but we are still jammin’ in the office even though it’s Tuesday!

**if you are viewing this in an email, visit the blog to have an Ecommerce Outtakes listening experience!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 // 12:24PM Leave a comment

Ecommerce News

The Rise of Social Commerce: How Tweets, Pins and Likes can Turn into Sales (Business Insider)
“Overall usage on social media platforms is exploding. Millions and millions of consumers are expressing likes on Facebook, tweeting about products on Twitter, and pinning on Pinterest every single day. Retailers and brands are therefore increasingly focusing their attention on social commerce. But, many struggle with the question: how do you convert a “like,” a “tweet,” or “pin” into a sale? In a new report from BI Intelligence, we look at successful examples of businesses and business models for generating commerce via social media-based strategies, analyze Pinterest’s success as a social commerce platform, look at Facebook’s potential as a social commerce contender, and examine the e-commerce conversion and order value gap.”

Using A/B Testing to Optimize an Online Store (Practical eCommerce)
“The days of these types of decisions made by graphic designers are long gone. Today, extensive A/B and multivariate experiments using thousands of variables are performed by leading online retailers each day. Companies make decisions based on the results of the testing. If Page A delivers a higher conversion rate than Page B, use Page A regardless of one’s graphic design intuition. Increasing a purchase conversion rate by even one-tenth of one percent may dramatically improve profits. So companies test everything that could influence shopping behaviors.

Unfortunately, most small online retailers do not have the staff or resources to outsource the design of multiple versions of their web pages. The actual hosting and serving of multiple pages may be technically challenging as well, depending on their shopping carts. This puts them at a huge disadvantage to large retailers who can justify enormous investments in optimizing their stores.”

E-retailers burn the midnight oil–and are still working at noon and 3 a.m. (Internet Retailer)
“When the work day ends, the real work often begins for e-commerce operators, suggest new survey data from Bigcommerce. The e-commerce software provider earlier this year analyzed activity for about 20,000 U.S. stores that use its technology and found that up to 35% of site-operation activity took place between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. Central time.”

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 // 11:33AM 1 Comment

A few ecommerce missteps on BodyJewelry.com

I got a tip to check out ecommerce retailer BodyJewelry.com, a site selling body jewelry and accessories. Right away, I came across a few missteps that I feel were drawbacks to the overall shopping experience of the site. Sometimes, all those little things can really add up to one frustrating user experience! Below are the issues I found with BodyJewelry.com. Let’s take a look.

When you first start browsing, there are some category menus at the top of the page to help you out. One thing I noticed was when I chose the Shop by Categories tab, there were a lot of options… I would say this is bordering on too many, actually! And in fact, some of the categories here are repeats. See how there’s Titanium Body Jewelry and Gold Body Jewelry? These are also included in the Shop by Materials tab. Also, categories like Testimonials, Wallpaper and Blog aren’t really sections where people would be shopping for products, so they’re not relevant here. I would suggest eliminating the repeats and miscellaneous items in order to make this list more manageable and less overwhelming.

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Read More »

Monday, June 17, 2013 // 01:42PM 2 Comments

Ecommerce News

The European e-commerce sun also rises for U.S. web merchants (Internet Retailer)
“The 40 U.S. companies ranked among Europe 500 retailers increased their combined sales about 14.0% to $27.13 billion in 2012 from $23.80 billion in 2011. But that increase is below the growth rate of all Europe 500 merchants, whose sales increased year over year 17.0% to $122.74 billion from $104.89 billion. U.S. web merchants ranked in the Europe 500 also didn’t grow as much as total European e-commerce sales, which increased 16.0% to an estimated $302.20 billion (232.17 billion euros), says research firm Centre for Retail Research.”

iOS Platform of Choice for Shoppers, all but Biggest Companies Focus on iOS and Android (TechCrunch)
“Apple retains the top spot when it comes for uses making actual purchases on their mobile devices, according to a new Forrester report. iOS shoppers are around 30 percent more likely to make a purchase on their device, and about 15 percent more likely to do product research on their smartphones and tablets than Android users, the survey of 58,000 U.S. respondents found.

But despite the discrepancy, companies are still targeting both platforms en masse. The survey also found that 99 percent of ebusiness professionals surveyed during the study intended to launch either a native or hybrid iOS app by the end of 2013, and 96 percent were also targeting the same for Android. Beyond Goole and Apple, however, there’s a very steep drop off in interest, and only larger companies with big budgets are really looking further afield at companies and platforms like BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.”

With 3,000 SMBs using its e-commerce platform already, SEOshop lands $1.5m to conquer Europe (The Next Web)
“As small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) increasingly look for ways to start selling their wares on the Web and on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, the opportunity for online store building platforms to capitalize on the trend is clear. Enter Dutch startup SEOshop, which is today announcing the closing of a $1.5 million financing round that should help it become one of the leaders in Europe. The capital, provided by HENQ, is meant to help SEOshop expand beyond the 3,000 customers it has already signed up to use its SaaS e-commerce platform.
…

What SEOshop brings to the table is a localized, multi-lingual, multi-tax and multi-currency platform that offers over 150 integrations for payment providers and shopping networks in Europe, including Klarna, Paypal, Ogone and Adyen. The company also offers an ‘App & Theme’ store to deliver more content and functionalities to the online merchants using the SEOshop e-commerce software.”

Monday, June 17, 2013 // 11:36AM Leave a comment

Ecommerce Weekly Roundup

Here’s your weekend dose of ecommerce news and outtakes, all right here in the Ecommerce Weekly Roundup. Enjoy!

News Headlines

Spreading your E-Commerce Wings (E-Commerce Times)
“Much has been said recently of the opportunities that lie in emerging retail markets, especially in countries or regions that have been less affected by recession or economic slowdown. For many Western companies, however, a lack of confidence and basic local knowledge is stifling opportunity for international expansion. There are two key markets that I consider to be low-hanging fruit for U.S. merchants: Russia and China.

In Russia, for instance, e-commerce will triple in volume over the next three years from US$12 billion in 2012 to $36 billion by 2015, according to Morgan Stanley in its Russian e-commerce market overview from January 2013. This year will actually be a turning point for Russian e-commerce, which has been rapidly growing in recent years, the firm says. In 2012, online retail in Russia made up $12 billion and accounted for 1.9 percent of the total $670 billion retail trade in the country.”

34% of U.S. adults own tablets and 56% own smartphones (Internet Retailer)
“As has consistently been the case since Pew began measuring smartphone adoption two years ago, ownership is particularly high among younger adults, especially those in their twenties and thirties (although a majority of Americans in their mid-forties through mid-fifties now own smartphones) and those with relatively high levels of household income and education, Pew says. Every major demographic group experienced significant year-over-year growth in smartphone ownership between 2012 and 2013, although seniors—defined as those 65 and older—remain far less likely to own a smartphone than other demographic groups, Pew says.”

5 Advantages of Small Merchants over Industry Giants (Practical eCommerce)
“Large online retailers may have the technology, marketing budget, and resources to automatically generate personalized websites or to build sophisticated marketing campaigns, but smaller merchants also have strengths. One of those is the ability to create more personal encounters for customers and provide better experiences for them.

When I sold video games online, I saw first-hand the advantages of being a small merchant. In this post, I will discuss some of the reasons why smaller retailers have an edge over the Goliaths in the world of ecommerce.”

Outtakes

Ecommerce Snapshot: DSW email

BeautyHabit’s confusing ecommerce

Mobile Outtake: Open Sky

 

Saturday, June 15, 2013 // 10:00AM 1 Comment

Badge of Honor: J. Crew In Good Company

It’s Friday, and that means another ecommerce retailer is getting their eCO Badge of Honor! Today, our little award goes to J. Crew. Now, the J. Crew site as a whole is nice, and personally I dig the clean, minimal feel it has overall. But this clothing retailer earns the Badge of Honor for the partnerships that go outside their brand. Let’s take a look at the J. Crew In Good Company section of the website, and see why it’s so awesome.

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J. Crew offers an “In Good Company” section for both men and women, and even for girls and boys. Basically, it’s a section of the ecommerce site where you can browse through a curated selection of products that aren’t made by J. Crew. This is an awesome addition to the site because it demonstrates how J. Crew is more than just a brand; it’s a lifestyle. By showcasing other brands that they partner with, J. Crew solidifies its position as an authority on what’s cool in fashion.

When you select the In Good Company category from the left navigation menu, you will automatically see all the brands available in alphabetical order. However, the list of brands also appears in the left menu, so you can skip to certain brands if you like, rather than scrolling through them all. At the top of the page, it explains what In Good Company is all about. Also, one particular brand is highlighted, like Pret-a-Surf in the women’s department.

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Read More »

Friday, June 14, 2013 // 12:52PM Leave a comment

Ecommerce News

Google cracks down on mobile laggards (Internet Retailer)
“Google Inc. has offered best practice recommendations for mobile search engine optimization for some time. Soon those practices will become mandatory for retailers that want to ensure their mobile web pages are not penalized by Google’s search algorithm and dropped from search engine results pages.

“To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users,” write Yoshikiyo Kato, software engineer, and Pierre Far, webmaster trends analyst, on Google’s official blog.

The primary change concerns what Google calls faulty redirects. A redirect occurs when a site detects that the device making a desktop site URL page request (for example, Retailer.com)  is a smartphone and therefore changes the path and instead sends the smartphone to the mobile site URL page (for example, m.Retailer.com).”

Online grocery business heats up but does anyone care? (Consumer Affairs)
“The news that Amazon is about to spring its online grocery service, AmazonFresh, on a waiting world may not have sent consumers dashing to their keyboards to order a quart of milk but it certainly got the attention of supermarkets and big box retailers.

Costco and Walmart both said they’ll be watching how the AmazonFresh roll-out progresses but claimed to find little consumer interest in online grocery shopping. But Relay Foods, a small, Virginia-based online grocery service said Amazon’s rising tide would lift all boats.”

Are Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode Conversion Killers? (Practical eCommerce)
“No merchant wants to add extra steps in the checkout process that reduce conversion. However, merchants often don’t have a choice about 3D Secure, the payment industry program behind “Verified by Visa,” “MasterCard SecureCode,” and “Amex SafeKey.” … When these programs were first introduced, many merchants saw significant negative impact on conversion rates in the payment process. Shoppers were spooked by an extra step, where a pop-up required they set up an additional password, and then remember it. This caused shoppers to abandon at the last step in the checkout process, and encouraged some merchants to offer PayPal as an alternative. However, as consumers have become more accustomed to these pop-up boxes asking them for additional passwords, abandonment rates have declined to under 10 percent for most merchants.”

 

Friday, June 14, 2013 // 11:07AM Leave a comment