Flowers/Gifts/Jewelry
Shoppers buying bouquets and diamonds need help

Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide

Flowers/Gifts/Jewelry 1-800-Flowers.com AmericanGreetings.com BlueNile.com DelightfulDeliveries.com GiftTree.com JTV.com

Flowers, gifts and jewelry shoppers need all the help they can get. The majority of shoppers in this merchandise category are not shopping for themselves—they`re looking to find just the right item for someone else. And navigating the realm of gemstones, bouquets, and myriad novelty and other items requires savvy.

Market leaders selling flowers, gifts and jewelry know this about their customers and innovate in ways that guide and support shoppers trying hard to select just the right thing.

BlueNile.com deals in a product particularly difficult for even seasoned shoppers to wrap their hands around: jewelry. This year the e-retailer redesigned its site with a major emphasis on helping shoppers understand the details and intricacies of diamonds, gemstones and precious metals. The banner across the top of the site says it all: "Education. Guidance. Diamonds and Fine Jewelry."

An Education tab appears atop every page of the site. Shoppers can click on an array of topics, including not just products but financing and insurance, to access a comprehensive library of information and tips.

Men make up the majority of BlueNile.com customers. And frankly, men need more help than women when buying jewelry. This was top of mind when BlueNile.com did its redesign. This was also the case when fellow online jeweler JewelryTV.com redesigned its site this year.

The number of men shopping at JewelryTV.com has been on the rise, as has the number of twentysomethings, a group with much less experience than others buying diamonds and gold. So the retailer went all out with its revamped e-commerce site. The site now includes customer reviews, product videos and product blogs written by experts in the field to help guide the uncertain and the uninitiated in their purchasing.

And yet another e-retailer launched a redesigned site this year with new tools to serve those in need of assistance. DelightfulDeliveries.com, which specializes in food gift baskets, introduced customer reviews, but with a twist: Reviews are written by gift-givers and recipients. And the reviews have aided not just the customers but the e-retailer, which has realized a 20% increase in conversion for products rated four and five stars.

A blooming business

That`s one reason that as one of the web`s early retailers, the Carle Place, NY-based 1-800-Flowers.com has not only survived, but thrived. Starting with its initial move online as a merchant on CompuServe in 1992 and its decision to become the first online retailer on AOL two years later, the company has consistently pursued new opportunities and technologies.

This year, those initiatives include a move into leading-edge online marketing and shopping arenas. This summer, 1-800-Flowers became one of a small but growing group of retailers to set up shop in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life. It`s using the experiment to learn about the phenomenon of online social networking and to interact with customers in a new way. "We look for all possible ways to get into a dialogue with our customers and Second Life provides us with a great way to do that," says president Chris McCann.

1-800-Flowers.com also ventured into mobile commerce this spring with the launch of a mobile-dedicated site. The site sidesteps common challenges of m-commerce, including limited real estate on users` screens and download speed issues, by limiting the assortment to what time-crunched mobile shoppers are mostly likely to want: flowers or other gifts for same-day delivery.

The fast turnaround on the mobile site mirrors key get-it-done-now features on the larger site. There, Lauren Freedman, president of The E-Tailing Group, has praise for functionality that lets shoppers know what can ship the same say and allows them to save time at checkout and find gifts fast. "Everything plays to a sense of urgency," she says. Back to Top

Greetings the fun way

AmericanGreetings.com has done its homework on helping consumers stay connected and putting their personal stamp on their greetings. Besides offering an array of colorful, animated greetings, the Cleveland-based card manufacturer has moved into m-commerce, enabling shoppers to send e-cards to mobile devices. The service, launched in August, leverages technology from Image Semantics Ltd., a Cambridge, England-based provider of applications for mobile messaging.

The move into m-commerce was driven in part by the growing population of mobile phones with color screens, which offer the best viewing capabilities for e-cards. About 80% of consumer mobile phones in the United States have color screens.

Other technical innovations include the ability to add photos and videos and allowing shoppers to mouse over the card and view a pop-up window of the greeting on the inside. Shoppers can also edit the greeting that appears in the body of select cards using the "Say it Your Way" feature to create a personalized greeting. Customer reviews of the feature are available on the cards that can be edited.

"Mobile e-cards and the options to upload photos or videos and edit messages to personalize them will put a smile on the face of the technically savvy shopper," says Maris Daugherty, senior consultant for J.C. Williams Group. "Plus, not having to click through on the thumbnail to see the greeting is a real timesaver."

On the customer service side, AmericanGreetings.com outlines steps for shoppers on how to identify and protect their computers from e-card spam that contain links to illegitimate sites.

Overall, AmericanGreetings.com provides something for everyone. "There is so much going on that grabs the shopper`s attention," says Lanae Paaverud, a board member of the Internet Merchants Association, a Wellington, Fla.-based non-profit trade association for e-commerce companies. "It`s always fun to shop there." Back to Top

Shines like a jewel

Sales at the fine jewelry web site increased 24% last year to more than $250 million. Seattle-based Blue Nile Inc. has become such a force in the online jewelry industry that it might even be affecting the way bricks-and-mortar jewelers conduct their business.

"They`ve single-handedly revolutionized the jewelry business," says Jim Okamura, senior partner with Chicago-based retail consultants J.C. Williams Group Ltd. "They are one of the best models of how an electronic retailer has really made the traditional retailer sit up and take notice. They have developed a strong brand and an efficient operation that has been able to build upon their growth and momentum."

The company says it surpassed Tiffany this year in bridal and engagement sales.

Blue Nile officials keep tweaking the site to make it better. They recently launched a redesign emphasizing education and guidance, according to Darrell Cavens, the online retailer`s senior vice president.

"We`re trying to mesh shopping and education together more," Cavens explains. "We want to make sure that we provide guidance to help customers really understand the purchasing experience around this product."

Education is particularly important because most of Blue Nile`s customers are men. "The traditional jewelry-buying experience is really pretty intimidating," says Cavens. "They want to make a smart decision and not just plop their money down on the first thing on the shelf."

Blue Nile makes the experience less intimidating by presenting a clean home page that lets users select the jewelry or gemstone they want through a scroll-down pad. One of six tabs atop the page is "Education" where visitors can a find primer on whatever jewel or stone piques their shopping curiosity. That education tab also appears on every page a shopper visits.

The site lets shoppers personalize and build their own rings and recently began offering free overnight delivery on all purchases.

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"They have to be wowed," Cavens says of the Blue Nile`s customers. "We`re trying to create those `wow` moments." Back to Top

Delighting shoppers

The company improved site navigation and added customer reviews as part of a redesigned site launched in September. The new site features wider pages allowing for more room to showcase the variety of products and price ranges. Shoppers can also drill down within categories by price, dietary restrictions, brand or occasion.

"Showing a wide variety of products and price points makes shoppers feel more comfortable that there is something on the site for them," says Lanae Paaverud, a board member of the Internet Merchants Association, a Wellington, Fla.-based non-profit trade association for e-commerce companies.

Other improvements include a more intuitive checkout page that shows arrival times and the cost for items to be shipped immediately or on a future date. Plans are in the works to enhance the feature by linking shipping specials for orders that ship locally out of one of the company`s three distribution centers. "If the product can be shipped locally next day, we want people to know so they can save on next day shipping costs," says Eric Lituchy, CEO of Delightful Deliveries Inc.

Adding customer reviews has generated a 20% increase in conversion rates for items rated with four or five stars, the latter being the highest rating. Products are rated on appearance, flavor, freshness, quality and value. Reviews are solicited from the gift giver and the gift recipient. "We`ve removed products because of bad reviews," says Lituchy.

To further differentiate itself, DelightfulDeliveries.com is preparing an m-commerce site. "M-commerce is where e-retailing is moving for young adults and retailers that want to successfully reach this demographic ought to be running to this technology, because the phone is their technology of choice," says Pat Johnson, partner with Seattle-based Outcalt & Johnson Retail Strategists LLC.

When it comes to offering shoppers something extra, Delightful Deliveries has shown it has hit its stride. Back to Top

Gifts under the tree

GiftTree.com has combined detailed notes on the wines in its gift basket with rich media images of the bottles to create an environment that captures the spirit of a wine tasting.

The approach is rooted in the concept that shoppers want high quality information and presentation of gift items for which they are paying a premium. That is important since GiftTree.com`s customers tend to be busy, affluent, image-conscious individuals. As a result, Vancouver, Wash.-based GiftTree.com emphasizes style and sophistication in its site design.

"Wine enthusiasts shopping online want a description of the flavors they can expect to taste," says Lanae Paaverud, a board member of the Internet Merchants Association, a Wellington, Fla.-based non-profit trade association for e-commerce companies. "If the description says the wine has a hint of pepper and the shopper is familiar with that taste they are liable to be more inclined to buy it."

The depiction of high quality magnified product images against a layered gray background enhances the presentation of the items and speaks to the style and sophistication of GiftTree.com`s customers.

The e-retailer hit on the concept after opening a dialog with customers through surveys and focus groups. Shoppers told GiftTree.com they wanted a richer shopping experience and more of the bells and whistles that accompany Web 2.0 technology.

"Web 2.0 technologies are something our shoppers wanted to see and that convinced us to move away from the static and rigid design we had for many years," says Craig Bowen, president and CEO of GiftTree.com. "Without this dialog, we were only guessing at what our customers wanted to see."

By listening to its customers, GiftTree.com has brought the art of wine to e-retailing. Back to Top

Beyond the airwaves

With more than 40,000 unique products on the site, split about 50/50 between gemstones and jewelry, the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Internet jeweler has a vaster inventory than its broadcast sister. It also is trying to appeal to a much broader demographic than the predominant audience of 45-year-old and up females who tune into the TV show.

"Everything about the web site is broader than the TV broadcast," says James Thome, senior vice president of e-commerce and strategic business development for JTV.com. The web site, he says, is attracting males and shoppers in their 20s.

That broader appeal has been enhanced by a comprehensive redesign of the site. For instance, a new "learning library" helps customers find what they want and better understand jewelry and gemstones. The site includes impressive product videos, along with customer ratings and reviews of products. Experts contribute product blogs.

And JTV.com has redesigned the home page and each category page to help shoppers navigate through such a huge wealth of merchandise.

"We wanted to refresh the web experience, because it had gone static," says Thome.

The site directs visitors, with a click of the mouse, to live video of the TV broadcast, while TV hosts constantly refer viewers to the web site.

"The web site integrates well with their TV channel," says Jim Okamura, senior partner with Canadian-based retail consultant, J.C. Williams Group Ltd. "The customer can move seamlessly between the web site, TV, call centers, and 24-hour customer care."

JTV.com diversifies its product offerings on a daily basis. "We add to the web site 800 new SKUs a day," says Thome.

The site also has begun promoting more exclusive jewelry like $65,000 rings and $40,000 bracelets. "We can`t do it as well on TV," Thome says of the high-end items, "but we can do it on the web site." Back to Top