Market segmentation in an age of e-commerce

Scholastic.com, one of the 50 largest online retailers, is constantly re-inventing how it markets to and relates to customers. Seth Radwell, president of the e-Scholastic Division of Scholastic, will discuss how Scholastic approaches the market by segmenting its audience into three groups and addressing each one in ways appropriate to that group.

“In an age of e-commerce, traditional segmentation and direct marketing models, while necessary, need to be further extended and adapted to leverage the unique relationship-building capabilities of the online environment,” says Radwell, Day Two Keynote Speaker at the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference & Exhibition. “We need to reinvent how we engage consumers initially and how we serve their needs and deepen our relationship with them.”

Scholastic sees its three audiences as children who are learning by using Scholastic material, their parents and teachers.

The Internet fundamentally changes the customer relationship, Radwell says. “Key to this reinvention is providing more transparency and control to the consumer and using the computer-mediated conversation to learn more efficiently,” he says. “ In the case of Scholastic, our products ands services have one mission: to help children read and learn. But our marketing context differs significantly across our different audiences.”