Micro-Segmentation: The Internet Goes Where Stores and Catalogs Can't

The web creates a national market for retail niches in ways that are virtually impossible using stores or catalogs. Real estate, staffing and distribution make stores too expensive to focus on most niche products. Catalogs have their own set of cost challenges—lists, printing and mailing—that rule out catalogs for highly segmented markets. The Internet overcomes those obstacles by creating national markets for even the smallest of product niches. This session will feature retailers who have segmented their audiences with specialized sites. They will tell how they decided which segments to create, how they researched the appropriate design and product positioning for each site, how the web allows fast segmentation as new markets develop and what results they have achieved with this approach. Our speakers are from Home Depot, which last year launched Paces Trading Co., which sells high-end lighting online, and Backcountry.com, which has created subsites from its original ski equipment site for such interests as trekking and snowboarding.