The wick has been lit on RSS feeds
When it comes to marketing opportunities and fostering closer relationships with customers, really simple syndication (RSS) feeds offer a lot of potential for web retailers. The potential, many experts say, comes from RSS being a pull technology as opposed to a push technology, like e-mail; basically, web shoppers are getting tired of being pushed around.
Next year, growth of the use of RSS feeds is going to be explosive, predicts Ryan DeLuca, CEO of Bodybuilding.com, a pure-play web retailer of fitness products and services. The company, which offers customers RSS feeds on fitness and other subjects, is No. 163 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites.
“The next version of Microsoft Office will have RSS functionality, and the new Internet Explorer 7 has a built-in RSS reader,” he says. “These kinds of developments will make RSS much easier for the average web user and take the technology to the next level. The whole idea of the Internet is finding things you want, not someone giving you things they think you need. It’s like TiVo: Give me what I want and let me skip over the other stuff.”
E-retailers need to keep a sharp eye on RSS and ensure they understand exactly what people want from the technology, he adds.
“People subscribe to RSS for content, not coupons or specials. E-retailers need to create content that is so useful and desirable to shoppers that the shoppers are compelled to subscribe,” DeLuca advises. “Once they develop that relationship, they can weave in occasional coupons and specials. Retail executives, though, have to be careful so that RSS does not go the route of e-mail and become one big spam-fest.”
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