Personal Creations is the latest retailer to embrace really simple syndication as a marketing tool.
Using technology from publishing and analytics provider SimpleFeed, Personal Creations is launching an RSS program to help promote the retailer’s holiday gifts offerings. “We needed RSS feeds that were easy for our customers to use and easy for us to create and measure," says Tom Denison, director of e-commerce at Personal Creations.
With the new program customers now can create personalized RSS feeds of product information based on criteria such as season, availability and popularity, Denison explains.
Personal Creations, No. 178 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, sees RSS as a better way to inform customers of changes to its online inventory of more than 3,500 products. The company will also use analytics provided by SimpleFeed to measure the effectiveness of its RSS program. “They took the data feeds we already provide to shopping search engines and turned them into RSS feeds that look just like our web site,” says Denison.
Personal Creations is among the early users of new marketing programs and technology to drive online sales. In 2005 Personal Creations implemented live chat with a twist. On many web sites, the live chat button sits passively on a home, product or customer service page waiting for a customer with a question to click on the icon and begin a dialogue. But as part of a stepped up marketing effort to reach its core customers, women 25 to 49 with annual household income of about $78,000, Personal Creations runs a float box across the home page that invites customers to engage in a dialogue.
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