Housewares/Home Furnishings
E-commerce sites as diverse as decorating tastes

Housewares/ Home Furnishings CrateandBarrel.com LillianVernon.com Oneida.com RestorationHardware.com StacksandStacks.com Vivaterra Williams-Sonoma.com

Tastes in housewares and home furnishings run the gamut. People want different form and function when it comes to their homes. Personal style can be rather unique.

The same can be said for the housewares and home furnishings Internet retailers named to this year's Hot 100. Each has been working on very different content and aspects of its site.

At LillianVernon.com, it's all about adding services that ease shopping for customers. The e-retailer introduced a reminder service that notifies customers when birthdays, holidays, anniversaries and other special events are approaching. When a reminder brings a customer back to the site, the site displays suggestions for products appropriate, for example, for a holiday. The site also added customer reviews, and a tool that enables shoppers to see how a name would look on a personalized product.

Crate & Barrel this year has added features to its e-commerce site to bring the online and store realms closer together. It built out its store locator section by adding photography of individual stores on their respective pages. It also made maps more interactive, and now includes details of promotions and in-store events for each store.

Oneida.com has used technology to aid shoppers trying to identify the right products without being in a store to handle and inspect them. Its interactive Virtual Table Setting tool displays different combinations of dishes and silverware on a variety of table backgrounds. Its Pattern Identifier helps customers identify their existing silverware pattern to order replacements for missing pieces.

Over at RestorationHardware.com, the e-retailer added an interactive catalog. The new tool allows shoppers to flip through the pages, apply virtual sticky notes and include comments about items on the pages.

Focusing on individual shoppers, StacksandStacks.com brought customer reviews onboard, and added a feature not widely seen: personas. Reviewers place themselves in a category of shopper--bargain hunter, for example--so other customers can best identify with like-minded shoppers to get ideas on products. And the Stacks and Stacks Clutter Control Freak blog lets customers post achievements in organizing, and even upload before-and-after videos.

Gotta have it

"Our focus has been to create a well merchandized, easy-to-use site that is uniquely Crate and Barrel. Our goal is to translate the store strengths of customer-friendly service, associate knowledge and engaging presentation to the online store," says Dave Widmer, senior Internet manager.

For CrateandBarrel.com, that has meant improving merchandising, streamlining checkout and order tracking, and increasing integration with stores. It has updated merchandising features to better leverage the product photography that's so much a part of the brand's appeal. Alternate views, room views, color changes on upholstered products all give shoppers more and easier access to product imagery.

New merchandising features such as Best Sellers and Top Gift Registry items give shoppers different entry points to the product mix, and something more. "Our merchandising team is populating them based on customer behavior," Widmer says. "It's what customers are buying and responding to that is driving them."

Updated checkout now shows shipping charges earlier; and a new option allows customers to group multiple gift boxes into a single box for a single shipping charge. The site also offers threshold-based, rather than SKU-based, free shipping across a broad product assortment on select orders.

The site has tightened integration with the stores by building out the store pages in its store locator with vibrant photography of store exteriors, more interactive maps, and more promotion of local in-store events.

"We've been focusing this year on the fundamentals," Widmer says. "It's setting the stage for some really exciting changes being developed for next year."

In the meantime, Lauren Freedman, president of The E-Tailing Group, has praise for the cross-channel consistency of new features such as the site's trends merchandising area, the robust functionality powering its gift registry and that compelling product imagery. "The photography is so enticing," she says. "You want everything." Back to Top

Loyal to Lillian

"We wanted to offer more than just products for sale," Montella says.

Among the new features is a reminder service that notifies customers when a holiday, birthday or other personal holiday is approaching and suggests gifts that would be appropriate for the occasion. Free e-cards also are a part of the service.

"The reminder service is something we wanted to do as a special service for our customers," Montella says. "And then, of course, it gives us the ability to show them gifts that would make sense for that particular holiday."

LillianVernon.com also took what Montella terms its first foray into social marketing--the introduction of customer product reviews. "We stand by the quality of our products, and wanted our customers to learn from each other," she says.

Another new feature added to the site enables customers to see how their names will look on 150 personalized products. "We're going to expand that more and basically add more imagery, and try to give the customer a little more than they can get in a paper catalog," Montella says.

Lillian Vernon online customers also can use the retailer's holiday "Build a Stocking" gift selector to create and personalize entire collections of gifts for each recipient on their list.

The web site targets basically anyone who wants to make their life easier and wants great value, Montella says.

But the focus on price may not appeal to many consumers, especially those shopping for special gifts for the holidays, says Roseanne Morrison, fashion director, Doneger Consulting.

"Everything is by price range and under what price, and that's a turn off," Morrison says.

Nevertheless, the web site is expected to account for well over 50% of Lillian Vernon sales. Back to Top

Cutting edge

"How we manage our brands is as important, if not more important, than the commerce piece," Gebhardt says. "If someone can find something on the Oneida site and go into a retail store and purchase it, great."

To help customers decide what they want, Oneida.com has created an interactive tool called Virtual Table Setting that lets a visitor see different combinations of dishes and silverware on a variety of table backgrounds. That's especially useful for brides trying to decide which patterns to register for, Gebhardt says.

Another tool, Pattern Identifier, helps customers identify their silverware pattern, a big help to anyone who has inherited a treasured set of cutlery that's missing pieces. Since few consumers know the name of the pattern, the tool provides menus that narrow the search by the name stamped on the back of the flatware, the type of metal and design (floral/plain/other), where it was purchased and finish.

To make the tool more useful, Oneida photographed all 650 of its styles, of which 150 are current, so visitors can see pictures of forks, knives and spoons that fit the criteria they select. If a style is discontinued, the site suggests similar patterns and presents a link to a partner, Replacements.com, which may have the item.

The Virtual Table Setting and Pattern Identifier tools are both useful and intuitive, says Steve Rowen, a partner at research firm RSR Research. He also likes the way both the Flatware and Dinnerware categories can be sorted by the same three basic styles: classic, decorative and modern. "If someone doesn't have a lot of time and knows they're only interested in modern or classic, it's neat that it stays homogenous across products," he says. Back to Top

Focus on furnishings

RestorationHardware.com meets this challenge head on by creating a homey and inviting site that brings to life the traditional basics of home furnishings. "There's no foo-foo stuff in the product photos that distract the shopper," says Lanae Paaverud, a board member of the Internet Merchants Association, a Wellington, Fla.-based non-profit trade association for e-commerce companies. "The focus is on the item, not the room setting and that allows the item to be beautifully displayed."

Corte Madera, Calif.-based Restoration Hardware Inc. applies the same uncluttered approach to product descriptions, which appear as bullet points, thereby allowing the product photo to speak more loudly.

Where appropriate, products change colors when shoppers click on a color swatch and shoppers can order color swatches on select items to aid with the purchasing decision at a later date. "It's a very clean, lifestyle design," says Mark Lee, founder of The Mark Lee Group, a Charlottesville, Va.-based retail consulting firm. "They let the photos do the talking."

Navigation is made simple as customers can shop by category, collection, purpose, and in the case of lampshades, by shape. "Restoration Hardware has thought out where each product fits into the bigger picture and has even included breadcrumb navigation," adds Lee.

While the site has little Web 2.0 technology, which is fast becoming a favorite of site designers, it does include one interactive feature, an interactive catalog. Shoppers can flip the pages and apply sticky notes to bookmark pages and include comments on the items on the page.

Despite its uncluttered, back-to-basics design, RestorationHardware.com elegantly serves up the stylish in-store experience that consumers seek when shopping online for home furnishings. Back to Top

Stacking it on

The e-retailer's Clutter Control Freak blog includes an assortment of regular contributors, many who are professional organizers. It also solicits tips from customers and invites them to upload before-and-after videos or photos of their newly organized spaces. Tipsters vie for prizes. "The blog has given us a lot of credibility with people who are into organizing," says Stacks and Stacks founder Mel Ronick.

But the big changes have been on the back end: a new enterprise resource planning system, improved site search, enhanced analytics, experiments with multivariate testing on new features, and an increased product assortment (now 19,000 SKUs and growing). "This year we have consolidated and strengthened our assets in a significant way," Ronick says. And the site's consistent profitability has provided him with a war chest to fund the improvements.

While the Stacks and Stacks site may be a bit standard, it's quite shrewd, for example, when it comes to search engine optimization, says Craig Smith, founder of consulting firm Trinity Insight. "The URLs include key search terms as opposed to query parameters found in many e-commerce systems," he says. For example, the URL for a magazine stand/toilet paper holder includes the descriptive phrase "chrome-brushed-magazine-and-toilet-paper-stand." "This practice helps their ranking for those terms because URL content is vital within search algorithms."

Next up for Stacks and Stacks is a full site redesign, scheduled to debut during the first quarter of 2008. "The new platform will give us more functionality, like recently viewed products and side-by-side comparisons," Ronick says, "and more personalization, where we keep track of what people have purchased and do more targeted selling." Back to Top

Going green online

VivaTerra first came out with a catalog and e-commerce site in 2004. While its product line is small--it sells women's fashions and home furnishings--the common thread is that every item is environmentally friendly as well as stylish. "We call it taking the granola out of green," says Robert Perkowitz, co-founder. "It's making green sexy like Prius hybrid cars."

Perkowitz, former president of Cornerstone Brands, joined with four former merchandising and marketing executives from The Bombay Co. and Smith & Hawken to launch the e-commerce site.

"We wanted to start a business and identify a large market whose needs were unfulfilled," he says. "We wanted a differentiated brand and offering, positioned to be successful. We're not really in a products business, we're a lifestyle business in homes and women's fashions."

The site's visuals and page layout support the theme of green fashions, while a newsletter on how its eco-friendly styles contribute to conservation efforts addresses customers' concerns for the environment.

"They have a beautiful assortment that is well-merchandised, and is easy to navigate," says Nikki Baird, managing partner at retail consultants RSR Research.

However, VivaTerra.com doesn't always play up the eco-friendly nature of the company in product descriptions, Baird says. "Was that birch tree decoration created through renewable resources or recycled materials or something?" she says.

To maintain a high profile as an environmentally friendly company as other retailers get into green marketing, VivaTerra will have to be more explicit in connecting the eco-friendly attribute to the product, Baird says.

But Perkowitz says that the web site's recent redesign enables it to have eco-friendly details in each product description, and that product descriptions will reflect the environmental connection in the future. Back to Top

Something's cooking

In early November, for instance, a Thanksgiving page featured selections of Thanksgiving-related food, baking tools, cookware, tableware and home décor. There were checklists of kitchen tools and food, each with images and an easy way to add one item--or all of them--to a shopping cart.

"I can't think of a better way to drive sales for a deluxe angled potato ricer at $29.95 a pop," says Steve Rowen, a partner at RSR Research.

"Seasonality's a big deal for us," says Rich Siefert, vice president of the Williams-Sonoma Direct To Consumer unit responsible for catalog and web sales. "Cooking and entertaining are inherently seasonal and merchandising by the season is something our customers expect."

While San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma has long promoted seasonal items online, Siefert says it does so even more heavily today on the site's home page and recipe and gift sections. The web is especially important for certain holidays, such as Valentine's Day, where the short shopping season makes the web a more effective way to promote seasonal items than catalogs or stores.

The gift section of the site also has been built out with suggestions for chocolate and cheese lovers, wine enthusiasts, entertainers, and business associates. And in the past year the site has enabled customers to both buy and redeem gift cards online; in the past, it only offered gift certificates.

Another section added to the site in the past year is WSKids, which, as the site explains, "offers young cooks the tools, techniques and inspiration to make their time in the kitchen enjoyable and educational." That's aimed at families that cook together, Siefert says.

RSR's Rowen, who admits he's not much of a cook, was impressed nonetheless. "I typed in sweet potatoes and it brought up more ideas of what to do with sweet potatoes than I would have thought possible," he says. "And they all look really good." Back to Top