How information---not just shopping---boosts sales and keeps consumers coming back
By Sidney Hill Jr.
When it decided three years ago to extend its catalog business to the Internet, TravelSmith Outfitters Inc. was surprised to find this new-age business environment confining. “We always presented our products in the catalog with as much detail as possible, but the web limits us,” says Daniel P. Reardon, e-commerce director for TravelSmith Outfitters, a Novato, Calif., company that sells clothing and accessories for business and leisure travelers. “In the catalog, you can present products with big spreads and lots of background photos. But if you do that on the web, the page takes too long to download.”
TravelSmith also found that people don’t spend as much time browsing web sites as they do catalogs. That fact caused TravelSmith to alter its practice of placing feature articles offering interesting tidbits of information—such as the history of various fabrics—alongside products. “We don’t do that online because it is too easy for people to jump to an interesting link and never come back to the product,” Reardon explains.
TravelSmith was forced to compartmentalize the information it provides online, creating separate sections for product- and non-product-related content. Industry experts are advising all Internet retailers to begin mastering such content-management techniques as their markets become more competitive.
No one has hard numbers to support their claims, but retailers and industry analysts are convinced that content—when deployed properly—can ignite commerce. In a recent survey by Forrester Research, online retail executives identified content as the most effective selling technique. That sentiment undoubtedly contributes to another fact uncovered by Forrester: the average online retailer budgets $1.7 million a year for content.
Forrester defines content as any form of text, pictures, sound or video that either describes or enhances a consumer’s impression of a product. Some industry analysts, and most retailers, say content also includes non-product-related information such as feature articles, newsletters and interactive tools that can help an online retailer build relationships with consumers.
Under these definitions, virtually every business that sells goods or services online has some form of content. But most industry analysts agree that the majority of Internet retailers have not yet learned to use content as an effective selling tool.
In general, analysts advise Internet retailers to design their sites to make it easy for consumers to find content when they need it, without inhibiting them from initiating a purchase once they have decided to do so. Charles L. Gerlach, vice president with Mainspring Communications, an Internet strategy consulting firm based in Cambridge, Mass., believes content should target specific groups of customers, and that it should always be directly related to products or services. “Most web site content is too general,” Gerlach says. “We see sites with fluffy articles that don’t even mention products. I don’t see that as being effective at all.”
Content supports commerce
Retailers experienced in using content say the right type of content—which means high-quality content updated regularly—can boost a company’s overall image as well as revenues. They also contend that merchants cannot create the right type of content without an in-house content department. “You need content to support commerce,” says Jennifer C. Lind, an associate with REI.com, the Internet business unit of Recreational Equipment Inc., a Seattle-based co-op with a worldwide chain of stores that offers clothing and equipment for outdoor enthusiasts. “It provides value above and beyond what you can offer in a traditional retail store.” REI’s Internet business unit operates three web sites.
REI.com recorded $41 million in sales in fiscal year 1999, a 237% increase over the previous year. Lind says those numbers make REI.com the leading online seller of outdoor gear. She also argues that the 45,000 pages of content that REI.com has generated since its launch in September 1996 has helped in achieving that status. “We see content as a customer service,” Lind says. “It is part of helping our customers get both the products and information they need to enjoy the outdoors.
Keep ‘em coming back
Like REI, Garden.com cites the integration of content and commerce as a major contributor to the continuing growth in both site traffic and repeat orders. Garden.com racked up 165.4 million page views in fiscal 1999, 61% more than 1998. The company also says that repeat customers accounted for 41% of orders in the fourth quarter of 1999.
“We have completely integrated content and commerce,” says Lisa W. Sharples, Garden.com chief marketing officer and co-founder. Visitors to the site can go directly to a shopping area, where most of the content consists of product descriptions, or to a separate area that holds an online version of Garden.com’s quarterly Garden Escape magazine.
Although the magazine is primarily an information-sharing tool, Sharples says, “Commerce is integrated into all of our articles.” A recent article on decorating garden entryways contained links to lists of a variety of products—including doorknockers, doorbells, wreaths and birdseed bouquets. Each product description has two additional links inviting customers to purchase that item or seek additional information.
Garden.com also has incorporated Gerlach’s suggestion of targeting content at specific customer groups. “We narrow cast the best varieties of plants based on where people live,” Sharples says. That feature is embedded in a section of the site in which users can design their own dream garden. They also can stop at any time during the design process to purchase any of the items they have selected.
“Our content is creating a relationship with customers that is pulling them back,” Sharples declares. “We change the articles on the site every week, but we can’t change the products every week. So it must be the content that keeps people coming back.”
Both Garden.com and REI.com maintain their own in-house content departments. REI.com employs 20 writers, editors and web specialists who are part of its marketing department. This staff produces all of the product descriptions on three REI.com sites. It also produces and maintains the feature articles and interactive tools, such as the boot-fitting guide, in the “Learn and Share” section of the site. The primary qualifications for positions on REI.com’s content staff are experience either as a journalist or an advertising copywriter and an enthusiasm for outdoor activities.
Garden.com put its money where its mouth is by hiring Doug Jimerson, former senior editor at Better Homes and Gardens, to head its content department. Jimerson, whose title is editor-in-chief/vice president of publishing, directs a staff of three writers and three editors. This team works closely with Garden.com’s merchandising department to produce all of the product descriptions on the site, in addition to generating articles for Garden Escape as well as a series of both electronic and print newsletters.
Neither Garden.com nor REI.com would say how much they spend on content. However, in its content study, Forrester pegged the average salary for a web site content writer at $60,000. Junior writers responsible for drafting product descriptions and editing content from outside sources make slightly less. Senior writers, who typically create more magazine-style content, command slightly more. At those rates, REI.com and Garden.com are devoting close to $1 million and $500,000, respectively, to the generation of content, without even counting production and maintenance costs. And both retailers say the expense is warranted.
“If you really want to integrate content with commerce, you have to have an in-house staff,” Garden.com’s Sharples contends. “Our original idea was to partner with an existing gardening magazine. But if someone reads an article on peonies in Martha Stewart Living, or some other magazine, we might not offer the exact variety that they wrote about. We couldn’t ask an outside magazine to change their editorial to match our product line, and we wouldn’t want to change our product line to match their editorial.”
Don’t get in the way
Duif Calvin, director of retail merchandising strategy in the San Francisco office of iXL, an international e-business strategy and services firm, argues that web site content should be designed to take advantage of each shopper’s state of mind. “We don’t believe people can be classified simply as a particular kind of shopper,” Calvin says.
iXL has identified four modes that shoppers can be in when they arrive at a web site: pre-qualified, surgical, functional and recreational. “Content can be helpful in some of these modes and detrimental in others,” Calvin says.
“People move in and out of different shopping modes, depending on what they are doing at a particular time,” Calvin adds, “and their modes can change during a single shopping session. So web sites have to be designed to accommodate all of these modes.”
Put it in compartments
Pre-qualified shoppers know what they want when they come to a site, and they know the site has it. Surgical shoppers know what they want, but they don’t know if it is available at a particular site. Functional shoppers need to purchase something, such as a wedding gift, but don’t know what to buy. Finally, the recreational shopper, Calvin says, “enjoys shopping and wants to see what’s new on a web site.”
The biggest mistake most Internet retailers make in deploying content, according to Calvin, is putting too much content for the recreational shopper on the front page. That frustrates buyers who come to the site in other modes, and can be particularly annoying to pre-qualified buyers who Calvin says, “just want to make a purchase and get on with their lives.”
In general, Calvin says, content helps most with functional and recreational shoppers, although surgical shoppers can find it useful as well. “Surgical shoppers might want information to compare several items before making a decision,” Calvin explains. “For instance, if they are looking for a color printer, they may want to compare the features of two brands in order to determine the best value.”
Calvin says functional shoppers provide the best selling opportunities, because they are open to suggestions about products, and they often can be persuaded to purchase additional items, such as accessories, to complement their primary purchase. “But, you have to give the information they need to make a purchase quickly,” she advises.
The sites that analysts identify as using content well generally have followed the TravelSmith example of compartmentalizing content so shoppers can find the exact information they are seeking at any given moment. Calvin cites REI.com, Garden.com and Checkout.com (a site that sells music, videos and other entertainment items) as other good examples.
Each week, Garden.com highlights a new feature article from its Garden Escape magazine. But as Calvin points out, “When you enter the site, there is no question that you are in a shopping site.” That is because a link labeled “shop” is in the upper left corner of the page, and just below that is a search engine that lists products as the first category available for searching.
Scanning across the top of the page from the search link, site visitors see links labeled “design a garden,” “our community,” and “magazine.” The rest of the page contains products and their descriptions. There also is a headline that doubles as a link for that week’s featured article, along with a separate link to Garden.com’s chat rooms and message boards.
Calvin says this design works because it allows visitors to begin shopping immediately, while providing an easy entree to detailed content. “People interested in magazine content will take the time to find that content within a shopping area, those ready to buy will not take the time to pick through content to find the checkout stand,” she says.
The real value in offering content to recreational shoppers is building brand loyalty. “Recreational shoppers almost never buy,” Calvin says, “but they are deepening their relationships with a brand. And as they become functional shoppers, they will trust your brand more because you have established your site as a source of expert information.”
Sharples says the ability to exploit content for competitive advantage was a primary reason the founders of Garden.com chose to launch a business in that market. “You need to provide a lot of information at the point of sale, such as how tall a plant grows, the amount of sun it needs and what companion plants you can grow along with it,” she says. “People need that information to make sure they are buying the right things.”
Keeping the checkout nearby
TravelSmith solved its content issues by creating the Travel Center, a special section that provides travel-related information ranging from suggested packing lists for specific types of trips to the wonders and hazards of various travel destinations. Reardon says the Travel Center—along with another feature called Ask an Outfitter—helps Travel-Smith maintain the reputation as travel experts that its catalog established. These features also provide additional opportunities for selling products through the strategic placement of product links within the content.
In developing a content strategy, Calvin says it is crucial to keep a checkout link close at hand, so consumers can switch to buying mode whenever they wish. “Even though you are operating online, you are still running a retail business,” she says. “So you have to make sure that your customers understand that they are in a store, and not in a museum or a circus that happens to sell a few things.”
Sidney Hill Jr. is an Albuquerque, N.M.-based freelance business writer.
The Keys to Successful Content
— Don’t get in the way of buying
— Be specific to products the site sells
— Hire an in-house staff
— Target content to various audiences
— Compartmentalize information
— Keep the checkout link close at hand
