Niche retailers give shoppers just what they want
Mass merchants have customers with wide-ranging tastes looking for any number of products. Specialty retailers, however, are filling a niche. And in niche retailing, it’s critical that merchants know their customers very well.
The 27 retailers in the specialty/non-apparel category of this year’s Hot 100 know their customers, and show that in the ways they present and market themselves and communicate with their consumers.
Muttropolis, for example, has gotten to know its customers through countless interactions over the years in its five stores. This year, the retailer decided to bring the highly social and crazy atmosphere of its stores to its e-commerce operation by launching its own social network, the Online Pet Park. In the realm of Internet retailing and community, Muttropolis is way ahead of the pack—only a handful of e-retailers host their own social network.
It’s hard to imagine people more enthusiastic about anything than pet owners, but trading card collectors must come close. Beckett Media LP knows this very well, and this year redesigned its web site in a way that specifically addresses the needs and desires of its customers.
Arranged in four sections—Learn, Discuss, Organize and Shop—the new Beckett.com enables a customer to bring together elements from any of the sections to create a personalized home page. The Organize section allows customers to list and display all their cards—from the worlds of sports and entertainment—showing what they have, what they’re looking for and what they’d like to trade. That new feature is integral to a site that helps the e-retailer sell its primary product, trading card pricing guides.
And just because its products may not be the sexiest on the block doesn’t stop Tool King from serving its customers more and more of the information and features they want.
Its Toologics site, a companion to the Tool King online store, features tool reviews, tool news (including product recalls and trade show coverage), a resident expert (“Ask Rick!”) and how-to videos. The videos are available through a dedicated site, ToolKing.tv, as well as at Toologics. Tool King is also starting to use YouTube and Facebook to extend its brand via the realm of social media. Back to top
Sealing the deal
ActionEnvelope.com tries to make it easy to find the right combination of style, color and price in its large assortment of paper and envelopes.
Mousing over a top navigation tab for paper or envelopes pops up a box offering several ways to shop. Someone looking for magenta envelopes would click on Shop by Color, move a horizontal scroll bar to view the nearly 100 colors the e-retailer offers, and click on just the shade of magenta he wants. The next page shows all the envelopes available in that color.
Someone who needs an envelope for a special purpose, such as fundraising or to hold small parts such as nuts and bolts, can Shop by Use and see all the specialty envelopes available. Want sparkly envelopes? Shop by Collection.
“People come to the site with something in mind and we give them multiple ways to find it,” says Seth Newman, chief operating officer of the web-only retailer that mainly serves small businesses. “Some people know exactly what they want, and others don’t.”
These features are part of ActionEnvelope.com’s latest redesign, which went live in January 2008 after a 15-month collaboration with design firm Alexander Interactive. Other new features include a more streamlined one-page checkout and a reorder function that lets customers see their last five orders and quickly reorder—a big time-saver for a customer that has previously spent time on the site providing the details for customized envelopes or stationery.
The product page lets visitors enter a quantity and immediately see the price. That’s important because prices go down significantly as the quantity increases.
“We don’t have a sales force; our web site is our sales force,” Newman says. “Everything a customer needs to know should be there.”
“ActionEnvelope.com is an all-around class act,” says Ethan Giffin, founder of e-commerce consulting firm Groove Commerce. He likes the category pages and Shop by Use area, and adds, “Their one-page checkout is very slick and contains visual elements to help drive visitors to the next step, and turn them into customers.” Back to top
Your own home page
Back in the day, kids would get their allowance and run down to the dime store to buy a pack of baseball cards. They’d sort through the cards to see if they were lucky enough to land a treasured card, as well as to figure out which cards they already had. Then they’d get together with other kids on the block to swap cards.
Recreating this ancient practice online, but on a worldwide basis, was one of the goals of Beckett Media LP’s 2008 site redesign. The e-retailer started from scratch, transforming its longstanding staid site into a build-your-own Beckett.com inspired by the likes of MyYahoo and iGoogle.
Arranged in four sections—Learn, Discuss, Organize and Shop—the new Beckett.com enables customers to bring together elements from any of the sections to create their own home pages. The Organize section allows customers to list and display all their cards—from the worlds of sports and entertainment—showing what they have, what they’re looking for and what they’d like to trade, a feature new and integral to the site that helps the e-retailer sell its primary product, trading card pricing guides.
“Trading is one of the fundamentals, and we wanted to add it because that is what is fun about the hobby,” says Shawn Schietroma, senior manager of e-commerce. “By buying our pricing guides, it narrows down the trade to where you can get a one-for-one value. And if a customer can’t find a card to trade, he can go to our Marketplace and Shop sections to buy it.”
Customers also can read the latest trading card news and views in the vast Learn section, and chat about the subject and sports in the e-retailer’s extensive social section, Discuss. It’s all designed to create the one-stop online destination for trading card enthusiasts, Schietroma says.
“This site is exciting,” comments Maris Daugherty, a senior consultant at retail consulting firm J.C. Williams Group Ltd. “The Beckett team has really turned web technology into the friend of an online collector.” Back to top
Mom’s online helper
The philosophy of 1800Diapers Inc. has been to give busy parents easy and quick access to diapers, wipes, formula and other consumable baby products. So when the company began adding thousands of new products to its online store, Diapers.com, it redesigned the site to ensure that it didn’t sacrifice customer convenience as it added such products as baby clothing and shoes, car seats, and strollers.
“The web site before really didn’t allow for easy navigation of the breadth of products, so as we added products, we needed to change the structure of the site so the customer can find these products much easier,” says chief operating officer Vinit Bharara.
On the original site, customers scrolled down a navigation bar on the left side of the home page, which listed every product sold on the site, Bharara says. “As we added hundreds of products, we couldn’t have a scroll-down function that goes down basically miles,” he says.
On the redesigned site, customers can search for items by brands, by essentials (such as diapering or baby-proofing) or by top ratings. A bar across the top of the home page offers drop-down menus under broad categories such as Diapering, Feeding & Nursing, Playtime & Books, and Clothing & Shoes.
Under the essentials category, customers find not only a checklist for items, a feature found on other sites, but also recommended products, such as the top-rated diaper bags and creams. “Diapers.com is showcasing the product. It’s integrated,” says Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group inc.
Shoppers also can search by the baby’s age or due date, or use a quick-shop function for repeat purchases, such as of formula or diapers.
The redesigned site also features scrolling merchandising zones, pop-up shopping pages and carts, and zoom. “We wanted to refresh the site and give it a look and feel which was reflective of our audience and what we were trying to do,” Bharara says.
Diapers.com also allows customers to navigate by brand in each product category. “That’s very smart,” Freedman says. “People in this category relate to the brand.” Back to top
Helping pet parents
Pet owners can be nervous about giving their dogs and cats shots, and written instructions rarely help soothe nerves. This is why Drs. Foster and Smith Inc. produced an online video of a pet parent administering an injection, showing how to do it in a way that causes a pet no discomfort. The customer is comforted, and more likely to buy pet supplies from the retailer and be more loyal to the brand, says Gordon Magee, Internet marketing and analysis manager.
Drs. Foster and Smith is showing other retailers the power of online video and educational content. It also is pioneering mobile commerce.
The retailer set up a studio in house and shoots videos in high definition. This year, the retailer added almost 150 videos to its library, including everything from the antics of cats playing with toys it sells to instructional clips on how to set up dog crates to a daily dog-walking forecast it co-sponsors with AccuWeather.
And it redesigned its sister site, PetEducation.com, enabling readers to search through more than 3,000 articles. Another feature puts links to the e-commerce site alongside articles in which experts recommend solutions to pet-related problems.
“It’s not screaming in your face; we’ve added this in a low-key way,” Magee explains. “Readers can click through over to DrsFosterSmith.com so PetEducation.com remains a non-commercial site.”
DrsFosterSmith.com boasts good design features, though in general the type size may be a bit too small, says Craig Smith, founder and managing director of consulting firm Trinity Insight LLC. A feature alongside the central image on the home page lets the visitor click on a dozen categories, bringing up a new image for each category, “something you don’t often see,” Smith says. “And the product pages are well designed.”
The retailer also is leading the way in m-commerce, putting the final touches on a downloadable application for iPhones. The application, for which a patent has been applied, offers an interface to the Drs. Foster and Smith catalog of products, Magee explains, providing a rich, custom experience that’s easier than browsing the full site on the smartphone. Back to top
It’s all in the bag
If online retailer eBags.com had a mantra it would be “More, more, more.”
EBags’ mission is to never leave consumers feeling they lack the information they need to make a purchase. From pictures of every handbag, laptop case and backpack in every hue available, to more than 1.5 million customer-generated reviews (there are 4,000 reviews for one product alone) to a range of videos, the site is ablaze with content.
“At first this site can be overwhelming—they offer so many products,” says Mara Devitt, a partner at retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle LLP. “But once you spend a moment on the home page you quickly discover that this is the destination site for bags—there is so much help for the customer to ensure that they make the right choice for their needs whether fashion or function is their primary concern.”
Indeed, 580 brands, 38,000 SKUs and pictures, reviews and videos to accompany many products can make for a dizzying experience. But, it’s a rich experience.
For example, customers reviewing products are not just asked whether they liked it, but how they used the bag and what they do for a living. A “Bagopedia” offers shopping tips for bags suggesting, for example, what parents should look for when purchasing a backpack for a child or the best gym bags for various sports.
Videos on the site range from functional—how to zip, pack and pull a luggage bag for example—to fun. A section called Emerging Designers features clips of up-and-coming designers from New York to Denver. EBag employees interview the artists and the retailer sells the designers’ products on the site.
“It’s all about freshness and spontaneity,” says Peter Cobb co-founder and senior vice president.
Cobb says eBags is planning more enhancements in the near future including a Shop By Color tool. It also plans to focus on offering and promoting more moderately priced products in the $50 to $100 range during the economic downturn.
After all, even those on a budget should be able to sport a matching handbag. Back to top
Express yourself
On the Internet, shoppers have countless ways to send birthday wishes or congratulatory notes.
Expressionery.com strives to provide even more options with personalization tools that allow consumers to customize notes and cards with their own touches. The web site offers social stationery and accessories, such as note cards and note pads, address labels and photo cards. Visitors can add their names or messages, choose font and size, then click on a preview button to see how the finished product will look. The aim is to reassure customers that their missives will look the way they intended.
“We endeavor to ‘wow’ our customers by enabling them to uniquely express themselves with our outstanding designs and wide assortment of exclusive products,” says Van Leigh, director of electronic commerce at Expressionery, a brand of bank check and checkbook cover supplier Checks in the Mail Inc.
Personalized touches aren’t limited to text. In a collection called Little Picassos, customers can turn children’s artwork into notes and cards by uploading digitized versions of the kids’ creations. In its Paper People collection, customers can choose from a variety of sassy cartoon characters to decorate their stationery. These include doctors, nurses, teachers, chefs or policemen. The web site features other tools that encourage repeat visits, such as reminders, saved address information and quick checkout.
“The intrinsically sticky features such as the card customizer should translate into longer page views and more per-visit purchases by Expressionery.com customers,” says Brandon Merritt, senior experience design specialist at Internet marketing company Molecular Inc.
Expressionery.com also boasts a clean, organized layout with top-of-page tab navigation. Mousing over main tabs reveals drop-down menus of sub-categories, making it easy for visitors to find just what they want.
“Our team is constantly exploring new avenues of simplifying the web site to provide the most personalized shopping experience possible,” Leigh says. “One of the biggest initiatives this year was to make browsing our product line easier for our customers. We created category-landing pages that visually organize different type fonts, designs and artists for ease of navigation.” Back to top
Eyeing an opportunity
Eyeglasses can be a tough sell online. Unlike a sweater or pair of jeans, many people wear their specs all day every day. That means look and fit are especially important, and many consumers want to try glasses on before they hand over their credit card.
EyeBuyDirect.com has come up with an innovative online alternative. The site’s Eye Try tool allows users to upload photos of themselves and virtually try on various makes and models of eyewear. They can also post pictures of what they look like wearing various frames to the e-retailer’s Wall of Frame social community, allowing friends—and strangers—to offer comments.
“It’s a handy way to see how the glasses will look and to invite feedback from friends,” says Anne Brouwer, senior partner at retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle, LLP. “This is a great way to shop for eyeglasses, especially in areas with limited retail options or for time-stressed shoppers.”
Traffic to the site, which launched in March 2006, went up 10% to 15% in the months after the launch of the Wall of Frame in late 2007, says CEO Roy Hessel. As of March, about 20,000 consumers had added pictures of themselves sporting nearly 500 different styles of eyewear to the Wall of Frame section of the site.
Users also can search pictures of consumers wearing frames within the social community by several attributes, including gender, frame material (plastic vs. metal, for instance), and other features, such as rimless glasses or sports models. Visitors also can choose how they want to sort the Wall of Frame photos for viewing, such as seeing first the highest rated, the most recently posted or those photos that have generated the most comments. A scrolling box updates continually with the most recent comments by Wall of Frame members.
Having gained in both sales and press coverage for its innovative approach to marketing eyeglasses, Hessel has many more plans in the works, include a mobile application and a partnership with a leading fashion magazine.
After all, Hessel says, why not set your sights high? Back to top
Smart tools, smart toys
It’s not always easy to pick a toy a child will like. And it’s harder to find one that will light up a child’s face while simultaneously challenging her intellectually. Helping buyers find that perfect educational toy is the specialty of online retailer Fat Brain Toys.
Fatbraintoys.com gives parents as many tools as possible to find just the right gift from among its 5,000 offerings. It does not just break down gift suggestions based on a few simple criteria, such as gender and age. Rather, it offers 27 product categories to begin an internal search. And it offers the “Gift Wizard” where shoppers can describe a child’s interests and get suggestions. There are even categories for children with special needs, toys for teachers and toys for home schools.
And it’s not just enough to have a lot of categories. They must be useful ones. “Fatbrain’s categories are relevant and they don’t overlap very often,” says Jessica Jourdan, senior research scientist for Perspective Sciences, which specializes in user experience testing.
Fatbraintoys.com provides lots of other helpful information, such as showing the country of origin to satisfy parents’ concerns about product safety and environmental impact. Shoppers are also told how many items remain in stock so that they know if they need to buy an item right away.
“We are the toy store that customers come to if they want something unique,” says Mark Carson, CEO. “But there is hesitancy by customers to shop online. We try to set our customers’ minds at ease.”
Jourdan was also impressed with the site’s product ratings services. While many web sites put customer ratings averages on product pages, Fatbraintoys.com also includes them on the product category pages so shoppers can quickly compare the popularity of items within each category. On the product page, they get the specifics of what makes a product so popular.
Additionally, Jourdan says Fatbraintoys.com makes good use of video to show children actually playing with toys, a valuable feature to help parents to understand the appeal of a toy and see firsthand how it works. Back to top
Stick ‘em up
Is it wall art? Is it a way to make a personal statement? Either way, Fathead.com’s flagship product—life-sized, stick-on photo images of sports figures and celebrities—is a new-to-many concept that can take some explaining. The site accomplishes that with strong product imagery and rich media applications that answer shoppers’ questions by essentially bringing the product to life, with a concept video showing images leaping out of a photograph and onto a wall in a room setting.
An installation video shows how the product is best applied to the wall, while FAQs address anything else the videos don’t cover. It’s all key to the fact that while the life-sized wall graphics are many customers’ idea of fun, others who may figure into the purchase decision—moms and wives with ideas about bedroom or family room décor, for instance—might need convincing.
“It may be that some of the people interested in the product aren’t always the buyers,” says Mary Brett Whitfield, TNS Retail Forward senior vice president and Fathead customer. “The web site does a good job of overcoming some of the objections those individuals might have—it explains that it’s easy to put up, easy to take down. Being able to see it in a room environment in the video really helps.”
In fact, Whitfield believes the web site likely excels at such explanation over the presentation of the product in retail stores where it’s also available.
This year Fathead extended the franchise with the introduction of Fathead Tradeables, packs of 5” x 7” peel-and-stick sports and celebrity figures, and a customizable, team-themed recliner dubbed “furniture for fans.” It’s also added dynamic imaging technology from Adobe Scene7 to further improve product imaging capacity.
“Many shoppers don’t fully grasp the Fathead concept until they physically receive the merchandise,” says Michael Layne, director of Internet marketing at Fathead. “We wanted to present our products to give scale so our customers could visualize how their selections would look in the context of their work or living space.” Back to top
Just your style
How often does a homeowner renovate a bathroom or kitchen? Not very often, which means they rarely know the technical terms manufacturers use to describe faucets, or the jargon of interior designers.
But oftentimes the consumer has a picture in her head of what she wants her bathroom or kitchen to look like. At Faucet.com, she can find the hardware and lighting that fit into that picture.
A click on the “Shop By Style” tab on the top navigation bar takes her to a page that features eight home décor looks, such as traditional, contemporary, Victorian and rustic. For each term, there is a photo of a kitchen or bathroom done in that style, along with thumbnails of appropriate faucets, door hardware, lighting fixtures and sinks. There are also links to all faucets or sinks of that description, or all plumbing, hardware or lighting products of that style.
The concept came from the experience Daniel Auer and his partner David Berman gained running a bricks-and-mortar plumbing showroom. “A lot of people had no idea what they needed, but they knew what they wanted it to look like when it’s done,” says Auer. Often they just wanted to see products that fit that look.
But not everyone is the same, says Auer, a partner in Decorative Product Source, which operates Faucet.com. That’s why visitors also can shop the site’s assortment of 100,000 SKUs by product category, brand and price.
“With a significant number of SKUs, it is often hard to present the right merchandise to your visitors,” says Ethan E. Giffin, founder of e-commerce consulting firm Groove Commerce. He likes the way Faucet.com category pages let consumers narrow choices by finish, style, price or application. Such guided navigation can improve conversion rate and average order value, Giffin says.
Even though he sells functional items like faucets and sinks, Auer pays attention to presentation, avoiding the clutter that he calls “the Times Square look.” “If you’re going to spend thousands of dollars,” Auer says, “you’d like to feel you’re in a more upscale store.” Back to top
Being well, doing good
Gaiam Inc. is a socially and environmentally conscious “lifestyle company” devoted to eco-friendly products, Eastern values, wellness, and personal growth. Its e-commerce site, Gaiam.com, offers products that appeal to consumers’ aspirations to improve themselves and the world around them—from yoga and fitness DVDs and accessories to non-toxic cleansers and solar power kits.
“We have a very strong, very loyal, passionate core group of customers,” says Jason Marshall, vice president of direct and Internet business. “They can buy most of these products anywhere but come to us because we think about the entire lifecycle of a product.” He estimates that 95% of the products offered are organic.
Last year Gaiam launched its “Fair Trade” program, partnering with several organizations to purchase crafts from artisans in communities from 10 regions around the world. “Fair trade” merchants commit to paying what they deem to be fair prices to producers in less-developed countries. “The ‘Fair Trade’ tab,” says Mark Lee, principal at consulting firm Mark Lee Group, “takes you to a page where, in addition to links and a video on the subject, you can see Fair Trade products sorted by category, region or the organization that makes them available.”
Customers are willing to spend a little more on a product knowing that they are contributing to the well-being of impoverished communities, Marshall says.
The site itself is easy to navigate and full of appealing images of the products and the people who make them. “My wife, the true web shopper in the family, reviewed the site and found it informative, eye-appealing, intuitive to use,” Lee says, “and it passed her litmus test: shipping and handling charges were easy to find.”
An example of the site’s helpful features is the Q&A section on product pages. It functions both as forum and a place to get more information. Customers’ questions are reviewed and answered by the staff, while other customers can view the conversations and participate themselves. It allows the company to learn from their customers and use that information to improve the site. Back to top
Neighbor to neighbor
Gardening inspires passion, and Gardeners.com, the web arm of employee-owned Gardener’s Supply Company of Burlington, Vt., inspires its users to share that passion.
“Gardening happens neighbor to neighbor over the fence,” says e-commerce director Max Harris. “We want to facilitate that conversation.”
The site launched a customer review feature in July and amassed more than 15,000 product reviews in no time. The “community” area includes videos and photos of customers’ gardens, and profiles of gardeners who’ve tackled challenges like growing heirloom vegetables or keeping their gardens healthy in dry climates.
A blog, “Gardener’s Journal,” lets the enthusiasts who work for the company communicate with the enthusiasts who buy its products, on such subjects as planting bulbs or finding tree and shrub bargains at the local garden center.
Those local garden centers, plus big-box stores like Home Depot, are the company’s main competition, and Harris says it can’t compete with the impulse purchase opportunities they offer, or their low prices. So Gardeners.com thrives on offering its own products for particular needs: composting, or container gardening, or tools and gadgets for the aging gardener.
It also competes with above-and-beyond customer service: staffers read each product review as it comes in, and make personal contact with anyone unhappy about a product or the company. And its “Learning” section includes more than 400 how-to articles for all levels of gardener from beginner to master, plus an “ask the expert” feature.
Gardeners.com hired a search-engine optimization specialist in 2007—one of its smartest hires, Harris says—and will sharpen up its use of site analytics in 2009 to make e-mail and site offers more targeted.
Appropriately enough, Gardeners.com nurtures a “green” image, giving 8% of its pretax profit to charities that support sustainable agriculture. “Gardeners.com does a great job of being a responsible corporate citizen with its environmental efforts,” says Keven Wilder, a Chicago-based retail consultant. She points to the company’s “Garden Crusader” awards, which spotlight gardeners whose activities, like feeding the hungry or renewing urban neighborhoods, have made an impact beyond their flower and vegetable beds. Back to top
Knitting a community
For a 130-year-old retailer, Lion Brand Yarn Co. has a decidedly 21st-century e-commerce site, complete with podcasts, blogs and an online forum. The site, which carries more than 600 yarn colors as well as kits, accessories and related knitting, crocheting and free craft items, aims to be all things knitting.
“We’re a company that’s been involved in hand knitting for many years,” says Ilana Rabinowitz, vice president of marketing. “But once we set up the web site, we learned more and more.”
In addition to being a shopping site, LionBrand.com offers education and information. “We knew that we had a responsibility to teach people to do crafts, so we have a lot of teaching explanations,” Rabinowitz says. The site also offers a locator for charity-related knitting clubs, a gallery for customers to display their projects and a weekly e-mail newsletter. LionBrand.com typically receives 12,000 e-mails or more a month. “We have a whole system whereby about eight people—one of whom is full-time—actually are able to answer all those e-mails within 24 to 48 hours,” she says.
LionBrand.com does a good job of fully utilizing the three Cs of e-commerce—community, content and commerce—says Mary Brett Whitfield, senior vice president of TNS Retail Forward, a consulting firm. “The web is really suited to aggregate consumers who share the same passion in a way you couldn’t do in a store environment,” she says. “I doubt that passionate knitters had any source prior to the Lion Brand site to get a regular 30-minute podcast on what’s new in knitting and crocheting.”
But Lion Brand’s focus on being a resource center for its consumers may be overshadowing the retail side of the site, says Jim Okamura, senior partner at retail consulting firm J.C. Williams Group Ltd.
“They’re doing an excellent job of being a resource center for their target customers,” he says. “But I almost feel like the e-commerce portion, the shopping part, gets a little bit lost in all of this great community and extensive content and information.” Back to top
A modern site
When merchandise is selected by museum curators, a site’s assortment is bound to be out of the ordinary. And when the defining criterion is modern and the shopping experience wrapped around it all is served up in spare, crisp and responsive web pages, it’s clear that less can be more. Such is the case with MoMAStore.org, the online store of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
It’s a formula that has helped spark double-digit revenue growth for the site since it launched in 1999; what’s more, sales have quadrupled annually in recent years, says Kathy Thornton-Bias, general manager of MoMA Retail.
“Our buyers go all over the world, but all the products are approved by a curator,” she says. While the distinctive merchandise may help draw people to the site, the site works hard to guarantee them a good experience once they arrive.
For seamless shopping and browsing at MoMAStore.org, Thornton-Bias hands a measure of credit to the IBM WebSphere e-commerce platform that the store migrated to in 2004 after struggling with stability issues on two earlier platforms. “WebSphere gave us the platform functionality that would normally be available only to larger enterprises,” she says.
In terms of advanced functionalities, the site may have fewer bells and whistles than others, but its streamlined, modern interface and sensibilities are reflective of the core shopping base, says Mary Brett Whitfield, senior vice president at consulting firm TNS Retail Forward. The Designer link in the top navigation bar that leads to text bios of designers whose work is featured in the store is noteworthy from multiple perspectives, as it not only educates in keeping with the museum’s mission but also groups products from each designer with the bio for more effective merchandising, Whitfield adds.
With three U.S. stores and a number of international locations, MoMA Retail gets about 55% of its sales from the stores and 10% from its wholesale channel, according to Thornton-Bias. The rest are from the direct channel, where e-commerce sales are the fastest-growing segment. “This little machine,” she says, “is just getting started.” Back to top
Sheet music hero
In order to move sheet music retailing into the age of e-commerce, Musicnotes, Inc. became a master of improvisation. Using file compression and encryption technology, the sheet music e-retailer has developed software that enables visitors to download sheet music samples, see how the notes to the song are played, and then purchase the sheet music along with an extended lesson.
“It builds on the iTunes concept of listening to the music before making the purchase to make sure you get the version you want,” says Chris Vicente, senior manager, Products Consumer Markets Group, for consulting firm BearingPoint. “Shoppers want to interact with digital music before they purchase it and Musicnotes.com has enhanced the interaction with sheet music.”
Shoppers can access sample passages of songs in the Musicnotes.com’s library and play them on the Guitar Guru application, which displays the notes for each guitar tab in sequence, at no charge. A read-out of the sequence is displayed for each section of the song, and users can sync the speed of Guitar Guru to their ability. The fret board where players place their fingers can be minimized, enlarged or sized to the available screen. Visitors can learn the fret sequences for acoustic, electric and bass guitars. In some cases, users can view more than one sample passage of a song.
To speed browsing, Musicnotes serves up sample pages of the song. Full files are pushed to the customer after the purchase.
“We view ourselves as more of a platform company that has taken sheet music retailing from its inception during the days of buggy whips to digital riffs,” says Tim Reiland, chairman and chief financial officer for Musicnotes Inc., which downloads 5,000 songs per day.
The attention to the guitar is timely because more people are taking up the guitar, in large part because of video games like Guitar Hero, says Lee Diercks, managing director of Clear Thinking Group LLC, a consulting firm. “Sheet music retailers have pretty much faded away,” Diercks says, “but Musicnotes offers a great song library and a visually appealing site. It creates a lot of possibilities.” Back to top
A fetching site
The About Us page on Muttropolis.com says it all: Its “Bored” of Directors includes chief mischief officer Lulu, public nuisance officer Zoltan, chief eating officer Arthur and chief sniffing officer Harry. This is just one small example that shows how keenly Muttropolis knows it customers, who are all about their pets.
This year, the retailer decided to bring the highly social and crazy atmosphere in its five stores to its e-commerce operation by launching its own social network, the Online Pet Park. When it comes to community, Muttropolis is far ahead of the pack—only a handful of e-retailers host their own social network.
After completing free registration and creating a profile, members can chat in forums, upload images of their pooches (and kitties), share videos of their pets in action and meet other pet parents. And any visitor, whether registered with the Online Pet Park or not, can view photos and videos and read the Muttropolis blog.
“Community is important because pet parents have a sense of immediate belonging. It doesn’t matter what your socioeconomic background is—if you have a pet, you feel a connection to fellow pet parents,” says Janet McCulley, co-founder and chief barketing officer. “In our stores that community exists as soon as you walk in the door, so it was a natural transition to get that online and connect our Muttropolis loyalists from all over the nation.”
Muttropolis extends its razor-sharp knowledge of its customers throughout its online operation, creating a shopping experience that matches the enthusiasm of dog and cat owners, says Maris Daugherty, a senior consultant at retail consulting firm J.C. Williams Group Ltd.
“If I were a dog or cat, this would be my home page. This site has personality and a social conscience, and uses knowledge of trends to help pet lovers feel good about buying products,” Daugherty says. “Muttropolis does an exceptional job of enticing shoppers of paw products by using photos that show scale while tugging at your heartstrings. And the Online Pet Park and blog help make you feel part of a worldwide community.” Back to top
A personal connection
As youngsters Charles Hachtmann and his friends, Roberto and Andy Milk, traveled together and marveled at artwork and crafts produced by artisans in remote corners of the world. As adults, they wanted to start a business that would help these artisans reach a wider market.
The Internet made that possible.
Almost a decade ago they founded Novica United Inc., a retail site that links far-off artisans with lovers of art and crafts in developed nations.
To make the connection come to life, the site introduces the artisans through photographs, videos, biographies and the artisans’ own words. Customers can offer reviews and send messages to the craftspeople.
“We’ve built an infrastructure that enables artisans in developing countries to display their works online,” says Hachtmann, Novica’s chief technology officer. “We’re reaching out to areas that didn’t have access, and we’ve created a platform for them.”
The site offers product information not often found in crafts stores or art galleries. Visitors can view images of artisans in their workshops and learn about their goals, philosophies and lifestyles.
“Showing the history of a product is fantastic,” says analyst Scott Kincaid, vice president of usability practice for Usability Sciences Inc., which advises web site operators on customer experience. “It’s a very good way of standing out from the crowd and making people aware of not just the product, but the story behind it.”
Novica.com features a map highlighting the regions where items are produced, and site visitors can search by region or craft category. Products include jewelry, home décor items, paintings, musical instruments, furniture, sculpture, tapestry and wall hangings.
The company has offices in seven countries. In many cases the artisans do not have access to the Internet where they live and come into the local offices to see how their products look online and to learn more about what consumers want. Each item is shipped from its country of origin, eliminating warehousing costs.
Rotating images of artisans top the home page. “We want to provide people with a feel of travel and connectivity with artisans,” says Hachtmann. Back to top
Setting its sights
Oakley Inc.’s vision for its web site has evolved from a focus on strictly selling products to making Oakley.com a key piece of promoting the brand.
“It absolutely is the epicenter of the Oakley brand. Everything you could possibly know about Oakley or want to know is on the web site,” says Ken Loh, web director of Oakley Inc. “Previously it was purely e-commerce, but we didn’t have anything about the athletes who represent us or stories that are important to the brand.”
Redesigned in 2007, Oakley.com now boasts a deep web site that features bold images and updates about the competitive athletes, including swimmers, skiers, surfers and cyclists, who use Oakley sunglasses, goggles or other equipment. “The site uses high-quality video and graphics that create a slick and sleek style that’s in keeping with their brand experience,” says Manivone Phommahaxay, senior experience design consultant at Internet marketing firm Molecular Inc.
The site is also loaded with product information. “We think that it’s important,” Loh says. “We hope a casual browser would say these guys are pretty serious about the technology.”
So serious is the company about how customers will see things that Oakley uses a lens widget on product pages to put shoppers behind the lens. Shoppers can change tints on various models of glasses, see what the world looks like through each lens, and how that compares to the view of the naked eye. Customers can choose among various settings, such as a golf course, football field, forest or desert trail, or a snowy half pipe. 3-D spins let customers see eyewear from all sides.
The web site also allows shoppers to build custom eyewear. They can choose model, frame color, lens color and personalized text for etching on the glass lens. They then can preview how the eyewear will look and see it from several angles.
Customers can post their own experiences with Oakley products in the community section of the site. To further its sporting image, Oakley recently announced a partnership with surfing site Surfline.com to deliver surf condition reports to Apple iPhones. Back to top
Lives up to its name
If your name is Organize.com, your own web site had better be well organized.
That’s one of the highlights of this site. Despite the fact that Organize.com grew from 6,000 products to 10,000 in the first nine months of 2008, customers can still easily find their way around the site and locate the products they want.
That’s partly due to a redesign late last year that created more user-friendly landing pages, says Kevin Watts, director of e-commerce. The result is increased ease of use for customers.
“This is an excellent site in that it has kept its assortment appropriately sized and well organized so that it is easy to shop and customers are helped throughout the process,” says Lee Diercks, partner and managing director of consulting firm Clear Thinking Group LLC. “A lot of other retailers try to cram in too much product and make it difficult to shift through all the options.”
Along with that emphasis on organization are some nifty features, such as the site’s new dorm room registry. Not only can recent high school graduates select items they want for their college dorm rooms, but they can e-mail the list to those contemplating graduation gifts. Purchases are saved and shipped later directly to the dorm room, rather than immediately shipped to the student’s home for later transport.
Organize.com also offers an online closet design tool. Visitors provide the dimensions of a closet and suggested products appear on the screen. Users can click on specific elements to modify the design. They can also click to specify whether they want baskets or drawers or whether shelves should be made of wood or cloth. The cost of the items, including estimated shipping, is tallied on the side. As customers change the specifications, the cost is updated automatically.
As part of its commitment to helping customers, the site provides videos that show assembly instructions of products it sells. If those videos don’t do the trick, the site provides a toll-free number where customers can get personal advice on assembly. Back to top
A video menagerie
Much has been said about what the online retail channel can’t do, such as allow customers to touch or try a product before buying it. The web sites of PetsUnited LLC are instead focusing on an area where e-commerce excels over stores: its ability to serve up video on demand to entertain and educate. And it’s leveraging video in abundance to distinguish itself from other online pet supply stores.
PetsUnited this year has added some 1,200 videos to an initial three of its sites—Dog.com, Horse.com and Statelinetack.com—with plans to launch more across all off of its nine sites at the rate of about 100 per month. CEO Alex Tabibi understood the power of video through earlier online projects, a lesson he didn’t forget for the sites of PetsUnited.
The videos range from as long as 10 minutes for an instructional video on horse training to about two minutes for product videos. PetsUnited has resolved the technical challenge of serving up a large volume of videos without slowing its site by using a custom file compression formula developed by its video producer, and by using a content delivery network to
speed up delivery to customers’
browsers.
Tabibi says PetsUnited briefly experimented with paid video before making all video content free. Now, some videos get hundreds of thousands of views. And while the company is still working on associating a marketing expense with each video to more precisely determine the effect on sales and return on investment, Tabibi sees positive signs.
“It appears that a general rule is if a consumer views a video on a product, that improves the sale of that product by about 50%,” he says.
Gene Alvarez, vice president of Gartner Inc., praises the clean page design templates across PetsUnited and their eye-pleasing balance of useful content and white space, as well as the brand’s commitment to video. “From Gartner’s perspective, video is one of the best communication tools,” he says, “especially when you are trying to educate or instruct customers.” Back to top
A sound strategy
Pictures show what a product looks like, but they can’t tell a consumer what a musical instrument sounds like.
That’s why Sam Ash Music Corp. added the Virtual Cymbal Room to its e-commerce site, SamAsh.com. Visitors can view images of cymbals, drag the ones that interest them into a horizontal bar across the bottom of the page and then click on each image in turn to compare the sound of one cymbal to another.
Other music sites may allow visitors to hear the sounds of instruments, but not on the same page, says CEO David Ash. “This gives you a rapid-fire way to play many cymbals at once.” The retailer started with cymbals because major suppliers provide sound files for their products; it plans to extend the concept to other instruments.
David Schofman, a drummer when not working as an e-commerce consultant, likes the concept but found it a bit complex to use. It’s a first try, and the retailer plans to improve it, says David Gusick, chief of direct response at Sam Ash. “We see it as a really cool tool that will improve the customer experience on the site,” Gusick says.
The Virtual Cymbal Room was just one new feature introduced this fall as part of a complete overhaul of SamAsh.com. The guiding principle in the redesign was to provide customers with more information, Ash and Gusick say.
The retailer spent a year and a half adding more data about each product so that product pages can include complete specs about an instrument. That also makes searching for a product easier, because a visitor can find instruments with specific features, Gusick says.
In addition, the site now features articles by the professional musicians who staff the retailer’s call center, and includes the writer’s e-mail address so customers can establish personal contact with the expert. “We want to be more than just a site where you buy,” Ash says. “We want to be the site you come to when you have a question.” That, he’s sure, will lead to sales in the long run. Back to top
Making it easy
Click onto Staples.com and you’ll be greeted with an immense menu of shopping options. Under three broad categories—office supplies, furniture and technology—visitors to the site are given 54 product choices.
On some retail web sites, such an unwieldy list might turn off shoppers. But Staples.com caters primarily to a group of customers who usually know precisely what they want before they reach the retailer’s home page. They are often office managers and small business owners. About one-half of the sales on Staples.com comes from small business.
“You can really tell from the design they’ve done a lot to accommodate the focused shopper,” says Nikki Baird, an analyst and managing director of research and consulting firm Retail Systems Research. “It speaks to the fact that people come here because they have a specific need.”
Staples.com receives lots of feedback from customers who appreciate how easy it is to find what they are looking for on the site, says Pete Howard, senior vice president for Staples Business Delivery and the executive responsible for Staples.com. The site, he explains, “is designed around what our customers want.”
The company strives to make the entire online experience as easy as possible for its core customers. Atop every page, in fact, is the Staples’ white-on-red logo followed by the words, “that was easy.”
The company offers regular customers an “easy reorder” feature that enables them to purchase quickly merchandise that they bought before, without having to remember the product number. Many office managers use “easy reorder” to make regular purchases of items like pens and toner cartridges, says Howard.
The site features special promotions on the right side of the homepage, including a list of 99-cent “hot buys.” Also posted on the right track is an invitation to enroll in Staples’ rewards programs, which features a 10% rebate on many items. Teachers also are offered a 2% reward on products purchased.
A convenient store locator is provided atop the home page. And customer ratings and reviews accompany each product that is sold on the site. Back to top
Getting the picture
Sweetwater.com’s employees don’t just sell musical instruments, they play them as well. And that, says Mike Clem director of e-commerce at Sweetwater Sound Inc., is the major difference between Sweetwater and its competitors.
All product descriptions are penned personally by employees, who receive 13 weeks of training when they join the company. The retailer encourages employees to rent an instrument for a weekend, try it out and then post a review on the site. An Expert Center houses glossaries, buying guides and tech tips from staff and industry professionals. Category forums allow users and employees to exchange tips about complex equipment, such as digital audio workstations.
To put web shoppers at ease when considering guitars that often can cost $5,000, Sweetwater launched the Guitar Gallery, a section that hosts six pictures of each guitar—not the same picture for all of the Gibson Les Paul Classic guitars on offer, for instance, but pictures of the specific guitar the consumer is considering, complete with unique serial number.
“We may have 10 of one type of guitar in stock, but the wood grain patterns and colors are different for each one, and consumers want to choose the exact model they purchase,” Clem says.
Shoppers can find such extra touches throughout the Sweetwater site. “Many retailers will go to the manufacturer’s web site and pull descriptions and copy, but we have an entire team of product specialists that try out the gear and write descriptions themselves,” Clem says.
Anne Brouwer, senior partner at retail consultancy McMillan Doolittle LLP, says information and education separates Sweetwater from the pack. “There is a wealth of easily accessed information about products, from how to shop and select to extensive photo galleries and detailed product information,” she says. “There is more than enough on the site to satisfy anyone from a novice to a pro.”
Sweetwater.com is an e-retailer run by musicians, for musicians. Consumers wanting further proof need only take a trip to Sweetwater’s new headquarters in Fort Wayne, Ind. There, they’ll not only find offices and computers, but a state-of-the art performance theatre as well. Back to top
A bag of one’s own
What sets online retailer Timbuk2 Bags apart? Personalization, the retailer says. And personalization with ease, some would add.
The retailer of messenger and laptop bags, backpacks, and totes was launched by bike messenger Rob Honeycutt 1989 and began selling via the web in 1998. From the get-go, personalization became the key selling point of the merchant’s staple—a three-panel messenger bag. Online the merchant has made that personalization process simple and streamlined.
“The categories are intuitive and product selection is made simple because the full assortment is on one page,” says Alexandra Sotereanos, senior engagement manager at consulting firm McMillan Doolittle LLP.
Users of the build-your-own bag feature can select the size of bag, then choose from a variety of fabrics, colors and designs for each of the three panels on the front of the bag. They can even choose the color of the internal lining and of Timbuk2’s trademark swirl on the outside of the carryall. Rollovers pop up details of fabrics and designs as consumers consider their choices.
Among the fabric options are a range of eco-friendly and ultra-durable materials, says Carolyn Pollock, vice president of direct channels. Those materials include hemp PET fabric, partially made from recycled plastic water bottles.
The retailer also hosts a blog that allows Timbuk2 to promote events and new products, and to pass along comments it receives from fans of the brand. For example, a recent post features a letter received from a shopper who describes how his new, durable Timbuk2 messenger bag shielded him from the impact of a vehicle and “saved his life.”
While Pollock says many of Timbuk2’s customers are very loyal, she recognizes that online consumers crave every last detail about products they are considering. With that in mind, the retailer plans to offer more extensive product details—particularly about the composition of fabrics—and a rating and reviews feature. The retailer also is adding luggage and hopes to add more cross-selling capabilities.
“As we build out our accessories, we hope to do more cross-merchandising,” Pollock says. “So if you don’t buy a laptop bag, we will give you the option to buy a removable laptop sleeve.” Back to top
Construction site
Tool King just exudes practicality, from its home page messages—all about low prices and good deals—to clean navigation that quickly narrows the choices for customers who know what they want. One or two clicks get them to their target tool, and then they can narrow by price, brand, and whether it’s new or reconditioned.
“Tool King has a huge inventory and it’s very easily navigable,” says e-commerce consultant Erin Cisney of Ciztek Consulting. “They’ve done a really good job of implementing page-based navigation, which makes it easier to find the information you need. It looks like a construction site—it’s the right look for the people who shop there.”
The tool business, and Tool King in particular, usually goes unscathed through economic downturns, says Don Cohen, the Lakewood, Colo. company’s founder and managing partner. “Our category is a basic necessity, and we’re on the strong side of the business, with opportunistic buys, closeouts, and reconditioned tools. We appeal to the budget-minded consumer.”
Tool King also thrives in selling to businesses, a segment that Cohen says is growing faster than the consumer side. “We have the largest selection of tools online of anyone,” he says. “We’re three to four times stronger in general, and in the ability to special order and drop-ship.”
Even in such a down-to-earth segment, there’s plenty of room for Web 2.0 features. The Toologics site, launched in 2007 as a companion to the Tool King store, features tool reviews, tool news (including product recalls and trade show coverage), a resident expert (“Ask Rick!”) and how-to videos. The videos are available through a dedicated site, ToolKing TV (www.toolking.tv), as well as at Toologics. Tool King is also starting to use YouTube and FaceBook to extend its brand, Cohen says.
A brand-new companion site, “Tooliday,” showcases one special deal a day, which is also promoted through e-mail. Each deal is only up for a limited time, or until it sells out. Cohen says Tooliday will eventually be showing more products as Tool King locates more deals. “It will become the T.J. Maxx of tools,” he predicts. Back to top
Personalized powerhouse
VistaPrint Ltd., like the entrepreneurs and small business owners who frequent its e-commerce site, is constantly figuring how to best serve its customers and help them grow.
“Our customers are small business owners but want to look big and professional, so we enable them to go online and design professional products—and we make it easy and fun for them,” says Wendy Cebula, president of VistaPrint North America.
The strategy has taken the online retailer from a narrow niche player selling personalized business cards eight years ago to a marketer of a broad range of custom-designed business products, which now range from business stationery to lawn signs and personalized pens. Recognizing that its customers are busy and need help to quickly find and personalize tools for business, VistaPrint has empowered its employees to constantly seek ways to improve the online shopping experience.
The result is apparent from the home page and through the easy-to-use process of personalizing products, says David Schofman, an e-commerce consultant and former head of Callaway Golf Interactive. “Product browsing on the home page makes a lot of sense and quickly takes you to what you are looking for,” he says. What’s more, he adds, “the design templates and ordering process are very good—they obviously spent a lot of time and development here. It is very easy to build from scratch or use one of their templates.”
VistaPrint now also enables customers to build their own web sites, using the same business logos they apply to business cards and stationery. When customers design a business card, for example, they can see during the checkout process an image of what their own web site could like using the same logo they placed on the card. Customers can build a 3-page web site within an hour after uploading their own text and images, and also offer the PayPal online payment service to accept online purchases, the retailer says.
“We make it easy to produce a web site that matches the look and feel of our customers’ other personalized products,” Cebula says. Back to top
New ways to customize
Zazzle.com Inc. keeps shoppers coming back to see what’s new with ways to customize products, and not just by printing images on T-shirts, mugs and posters. The web-only retailer added custom shoe design in April, custom skateboards in August and embroidered design services in October.
Adding new products and services isn’t just a marketing ploy, says Bobby Beaver, co-founder and chief technology officer. “It’s blowing away the assumption that customization is just printing on products,” he says.
The custom shoe product line was developed in conjunction with Keds, a division of The Stride Rite Corp. Shoppers can design their own sneakers online from scratch or choose from existing designs and color options. They can build their sneakers at the Keds Studio, located on Keds.com, or at Zazzle.com. Zazzle hosts the software consumers use to design their creations and manufactures the shoes.
The skateboard product line was developed by Zazzle’s engineering team and Andy Howell, a former pro skateboarder and founder of Artsprojekt, a unit of Zazzle. Artsprojekt produces skateboards with Zazzle designs or designs provided by the customer, within 24 hours of ordering.
Zazzle.com also introduced its redesigned web site last summer, using a black and gray color scheme to help color images of products stand out more sharply and grab shoppers’ attention.
The retailer also has partnerships with Walt Disney Co. and LucasFilms Ltd. so that visitors to Zazzle.com can use licensed images of characters like Mickey Mouse and Darth Vader in their designs. A deal with wedding services e-retailer TheKnot.com offers custom wedding postage for announcements and invitations via a tab on Zazzle.com.
“This site is personalization at its best,” says Georgianne Brown, managing partner at Big Couch Media Group and president and CEO of PetStyle.com, a web broadcast and social network for pet lovers. “They use their positioning as infinite and instant, which tells me they have a pretty wide selection and that I’m going to get my order quickly. Zazzle is leveraging the latest on-demand publishing technology and offering a platform for anyone who has content and a design.”
