The Pre-Xmas Ecommerce Tune-Up

Now is the time that multi-channel retailers rush to tweak their websites,to optimize holiday sales. From now till October 20th, e-tailers are making pinpoint investments in technology,messaging, functionality and applications desperately hoping that a dime spent now will pay off in a torrent of dollars after Cyber Monday 2008.

Shopping for my nephew on PacSun and SkateAmerica gave me some good insights into the things online merchants need to address. In some cases these sites have built-in sales prevention mechanisms that need to be fixed quickly. Consider this Fix-it list:

1. Don't Bury the Goods. Both sites allow you to search by SKU number. That's the good news. The bad news is that probably as a result of their search engine tool choice the search returns a page that you cannot buy from. It's some geek's idea of confirming the search. But its a bad idea because it forces an added excruciating click to get to a page that you can actually buy from. Imagine my torment. I had SKU numbers. The kid tells me what he wants. The search works. But I can't buy in one-click! And in the case of SkateAmerica, I have to guess which store the stuff might be in and then hunt for the search by SKU box which is buried at the fold and appears in 8 point white type on black -- hard to find and easy to miss. Not everybody is so intrepid in making good shopping promises.

2. Serve Your Customers. Shopping online is much harder and much less intuitive than you think. Customers, even veteran shoppers, need much more reinforcement and help than most retailers plan for. Staff the site at least 18 hours a day. Anticipate all the glitches that a customer can encounter on the way to your site. For example, Paxon's form kept telling me that my e-mail address was already in use. They didn't accept or process my $314 order which I ultimately abandoned. But somehow  they managed to capture 3 separate e-mail addresses I tried to use and sent me 3 welcome e-mails.   

PacSun offers live chat -- good news. But -- bad news -- only 7a-4p PT. Maybe they handle this in the backroom at some of their West Coast stores. I guess the dudes are out hanging ten the rest of the time. It was called out in tiny text type maybe to signal how lame these guys are. But in general if you go to the trouble of licensing and installing live chat you ought to call it out with a LARGE button and you oughta be there there when customers want to engage you.

When you send customer service an e-mail they promise to get back to you in 2 business days! For this target audience you might as well advertise response in two millenia.

The 800 number exists but is buried on internal pages. And guess what? The phone folks also only hit the air waves from 10a-7p ET.Kind of funny hours for a brand squarely aimed at the 15-25 crowd who are likely to be busy at school, work or texting from 7a-3p across all time zones. The 800 number, preferably one dedicated just to your website, should appear consistently on every page.

3. Reinforce Customers By Channel. I signed up for the e-mail newsletter to get a 15% new buyer discount. Instead I got an e-mail inducing me to shop with a prominent orange button but only offering me a discount at the store. Its a shame because they don't have stores on my coast. So in an instant they raise my expectations and dash them. The welcome message is deceptive and annoying.

Either drive the copy by geography or reinforce customers in the channel you acquired them. While retailers fantasize about cross pollination, most buyers have a dominant buying channel. Its usually the first one they used to initially find you.

4. Cross-Sell. Both sites displayed standard cross sell items. Neither were memorable. Neither site dynamically understood what I was doing. Nobody noticed size, color or merchandise preferences.

In my e-tail fantasy, the site does what my Mom used to do in her store -- recognizes what I'm buying and hooks me up. If I'm buying medium sized goods a site should dynamically point out and serve up discounts and deals on my size. Or the site should notice I'm loading up on black and red items and offer me either more of the same or matching colors and brands. Or imagine a site that noticed I was buying t-shirts and hoodies, based on SKU numbers, and dynamically offer me jeans, cords, belts or sweats that compliment the stuff I'm buying. The technology isn't all that complex, Its the investment in time and thinking that retailers skimp on.