Every store at your fingertips...

Now, more than ever, is the world at our fingertips. You can literally buy anything you could ever want from the corners of the world. The convenience of shopping on-line has changed the face of the retail game but with increased accessibility there is increased competition. With so many options how will consumers stay loyal? What do companies need to do to attract and retain a customer? That is a complicated question with many layers but the simplest thing a company can do to get and keep customers is maintain a well-run online shop.

I personally, am bad at shopping online. I for one need to see the product in person, touch it, get a sense for the size and color in person but since moving to Milwaukee permanently, I have longed for the likes of Nordstroms. Luckily, Milwaukee will soon be adding one to its repertoire of fine brick and mortar retail establishments but presently I have to settle for its on-line option. Luckily for me I know the quality of their products first hand otherwise I am unsure how readily I would choose to purchase from them.

For a non-online shopper like me the website functionality is a must. For this week’s assignment I ventured to the site and the first thing to pop up when I went to the women's section was a survey asking for feedback about the site. My first thought was one of surprise that they would direct potential buyers away but after reading the picture I noticed that if you click yes it asks you complete the survey at the conclusion of your visit.
 

Moving on to a purchase... I decided to take full advantage of this opportunity and scoped out a Tory Burch bag (a girl can dream)

The good:

• The various departments are all present for one click on the side of the page - makes navigating a breeze

• along with departments are quick links for trends or recommendations - good for those looking for advice on what to purchase

• Once in to an item, there are a number of photos showing every angle of the bag as well as the various ways a person could want to sport it.

• Detailed descriptions of the product; including height, width, and strap length.

• Hitting add to bag brings a pop-up that allows me to keep shopping

• Free Shipping, Free returns, All the time (advertised big and bold on the checkout page)

• Pick it up instead option

The bad:

• Hitting add to bag allows me to keep shopping. As a buyer this is good but as a website this could be bad - shoppers may forget about their bags before leaving the site.

•  Too many options - a visitor to the site could get pretty distracted

 I mentioned above they offer free shipping which I think is a huge incentive to order online. Shipping costs are usually something that causes me personally to opt for an in-store purchase. Nordstroms also has a promo code option. Unlike other sites, they do not have a promo code running accross the top of the page so I did have to leave the page to find one. A quick google search doesnt turn up much except for suggestions to visit their sales so I wonder how often they have a promo code running. They dont necessarily require you to register but you do have to give an e-mail address.

The survey I mentioned before asks the questions that I am trying to answer on this page. They clearly want to know what people think of their site and how they can make it better.

Nordstrom has my loyalty because of the quality of their products and their customer service as a whole. I would recommend that they simplify the site slightly. As mentioned above, there are almost too many options. There are too many links and avenues to go down and there could be loss of interest and too much distraction.
 

A bloggers blog part 2

demographics can give you the answer

I cited Little Green Notebook as my favorite blog last week for a number of reasons... mostly the author's fabulous taste in all things. If my opinion counts for anything, I would assume the blog is highly popular among all demographics and is a favorite of anyone that visits. That said, we are lucky to have new technology that helps bloggers find out just how popular their site is and if people are leaving how/when/ and maybe even why. This week to get some practice for myself I will run some of the numbers on Little Green Notebook as a test.

What are her primary demographics?

• we start with 183 females to only 13 males. I would say the demographic is overwhelmingly female - no surprise here
• Age has a little more range but the primary is 25-34 with 35-44 shortly behind.
• Its also attracts a highly educated crowd with most readers completing grad school. Smart group!
• 97% of the more than 112k people that visit monthly are located in the US

Do the demographics match the content? You bet they do. Most of the content revolves around decorating a new home. I would have guessed most followers were young, female, professionals looking for advice from someone about how to decorate a home and/or balance home and life with young children. Looking above quantcast agreed wholeheartedly with these assumptions.

The bounce rate according to Alexa is 61.3%. At first glance this number seems high but the average visitor stays on the page for about 2 and a half minutes which should be more than enough time to read some content. It does make me think that most readers aren't necessarily following the posts through to their end. But amazingly she had 146,948 unique visitors over the last month so almost 58,000 people stayed on the site and clicked on additional content.

Visitors to the page uptick and downtick but looking below it follows a steady pace from day to day. Over the course of the month however the trend turns flat with almost double the viewers visiting online rather than from a mobile device.

Overall Little Green Notebook has strong numbers - lots of people with very good taste :) Whats most promising for the site, and whats not clear per-say in the numbers cited above, is most of January the blog was on hiatus due to some health/personal concerns the author was dealing with. She clearly has a loyal following of folks checking in for new posts on a regular basis and I think it is the hiatus that makes the bounce rate more understandable. Jenny is on a roll and hopefully a hiatus doesn't come back because she will likely disappoint a lot of people.

A Bloggers Kind of Blog

My blog of choice changes by the day and typically is dictated by my mood. I love a good celebrity dirt blog on days when the hours seem to be ticking by slowly. I enjoy looking at various food blogs when I am in the mood to try something new or feel like I need a healthy kick. My most consistent go-to-blog lately though is Little Green Notebook.

The blog has caught my attention mostly for its DIY approachability but slowly I have found that I also love the author's (Jenny) taste for almost everything. From the header she has at the top of the home page 

to the projects she completes on her home, I find myself drawn to and inspired by her ideas. In particular, now that I own my own home and am lacking in the "natural eye for decor" department, I am constantly on the hunt for the best ideas to decorate and coordinate a room. She gives do-able tips for major projects but also has color combinations that can be scaled down to a more manageable project that fits my limited abilities.

The best part is the site is super user friendly. For her (almost) daily posts she gives a portion of the post on her homepage that then links to the full post. This allows the user to pick and choose what topics are most relevant without having to endure too much added detail for uninteresting projects. Its also formatted so that when you follow the jump it picks up the post where you left off and doesnt make you re-read/re-scroll through something you have already seen.

Little Green Notebook has a range of advertisers present on the right side of the blog and she periodically will do sponsored posts highlighting the benefits of certain products that align with her "lifestyle" category. Before Christmas she was asked, along with a number of other bloggers, to show how she would decorate a foyer space for Christmas using all products from Lowe's. Not only was it was a promotional event for Lowes and Little Green Notebook got some press as well but also it gave her built in material for a post.

I found Little Green Notebook through a pinterest post about stair runners

and it successfully sucked me in. She maintains a presence on pinterest through boards with ideas either she is using as inspiration or things she has done. She recently added her other social media links front and center on the page although candidly they get a little lost amongst the advertisements. The one thing I wish she would do is allow to directly pin from her blog. It was the topic of my tweet at her and I will update this post if I hear back. She has a treasure trove of good ideas and I wish I could store them in one place with the other ideas I find.

Keep it up Little Green Notebook - because of you I aspire to be a better "home keeper" and blogger.

A Snore of a Sunday

The buzz around Sunday's Super Bowl was high. The match-up would be one for the ages. The best offense vs the best defense. The weather was unpredictable and a storm could be headed New Jersey's way. Advertisers were going to make their mark with the most expensive commercial spots in history.

In reality Sunday's Super Bowl was a huge disappointment both on the field and off. The game was a blow out that no one saw coming (see the first snap)

The inclement weather held off and the commercials lacked the luster that typically accompanies the big day. A large number of the commercials revolved around a similar patriotic theme. Others played to winning trends by using animals and humor while Radio Shack took a tested approach using nostalgia and poking fun at themselves.Interestingly, the most memorable commercials and the spots most people are talking about still today were all ads that were aired prior to Sunday's game. Budweiser had a hit with their Puppy/Clydesdale connection released the Wednesday before and Doritos scored big with their customer submitted Time Machine and Cowboy Kid which viewers were allowed to vote for for weeks leading up to Sunday.

H&M's ad that I highlighted last week, ended up with #uncovered taking the viewers' vote. With a search of the hashtag, H&M is dominating the trend and, unlike some other companies in the past who missed the mark with their hastag,s they have definitely used it to their advantage. The ad is being toted as one of the most revealing and racy commercials which is in some peoples eyes is "progress" since it features a man. Definitely a memorable spot for the retailer that garnered a good amount of attention on a slow Sunday.

I think the best use of commercial time to incorporate social media came late in the game when likely, due to the poor play, most viewers had tuned out. The first ad following the game was purchased by Esurance and it claimed their costs were $1.5 million less than the typical slot. Esurance used this to their advantage by encouraging viewers to tweet in their #esurancesavesthirty for a chance to win that saved money. The key here was not only a trending hastag but they required users to follow Esurance online to qualify to win. I also was impressed with the Seinfeld spot. Jerry Seinfeld had been making rounds in traditional media to promote his online show but dismissed the idea he was doing a Super Bowl ad. He didn't necessarily use the expected social media outreach but what I think was most interesting about the approach was incorporating a longer version of the commercial that mirrors an episode of the show. The purpose of the commercial was to drive attention to the show, by taking a winning combination - Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza - it creates buzz around the commercial and directly points people to the corresponding "episode".

While the commercials were not as buzz worthy this year as in years past they were more exciting than the game itself and overall were the winners on Sunday.