Tuesday 2 December 2008

Personalisation & Publication 2.0

Starting early next month, global banking giant HSBC is offering passengers at Heathrow's Terminal 1 a chance to select magazine articles on topics they're interested in and have them bound into a hardback form they can take on their flight, according to Marketing Week. Through a kiosk located beyond security at Terminal 1, travellers will be greeted with an HSBC-branded hardback magazine cover. They'll then browse the diverse selection of loose-leaf articles arranged on backlit shelving, UTalkMarketing.com reported. Available articles will be sourced from coverage around the globe focusing on four general topic areas: home and abroad, commerce and politics, health and sport, and media and culture. Consumers will also be able to choose from among five writers, including celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, tennis legend Björn Borg and Harrod’s trend forecaster on the future of shopping. Once they've made their selections, travelers will simply take their articles to HSBC's binding bar to be neatly bound inside the hard cover. The two-week pilot effort, which is part of a campaign to promote the HSBC Premier Card, was developed by Cunning with JC Decaux Airport, Kinetic's Aviator division and MindShare. By providing a bespoke, branded experience to Heathrow travellers from around the globe, the custom magazine project will underscore the upscale targeting of HSBC's Premier Card, as well as highlighting the company's global presence. If extended beyond the pilot phase, such an initiative could also be offered as a perk to Premier customers. Either way, it's just one more piece of evidence that the world is becoming thoroughly personalized—let consumers have it their way, or they'll have it somewhere else!
Source:Springwise.com

Think I may have to take a little jaunt just to try this out. It's a great idea and reflects the innovative methods brands need to use in order to get resonance with an increasingly demanding & expectant consumer base...any of you flying during this time, please try it out, I would love to hear your thoughts and see the end results.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

‘Social shopping’ in an economic downturn: Is the cart half empty?

"Four of the past five months have now seen negative like-for-like annual sales growth and in July every sector except food recorded falls. Frivolous shopping is off the agenda as most customers concentrate on value and durability and there are few signs the slowdown has yet bottomed out." 1

- Stephen Robertson, Director General of the British Retail Consortium (August, 2008)

‘News’ of the retail gloom we’re facing is hardly news anymore. So what does this mean for social shopping – long predicted to be the next wave in retail?

Is social shopping ‘frivolous’? Or inevitable? Can retailers capitalise on its positives in a time of tightening budgets and cautious investment? If so, how? And how to navigate the field of aggregator sites like Kaboodle, ThisNext, and Osoyou?

First, let’s define the term, and take a quick look at where social shopping stands this minute. Has anyone got it right yet?

‘Social shopping’ isn’t a new idea.
To many, shopping has always been – and always will be – a highly social activity; social entertainment that’s fuelled by sharing, contemplating and debating with friends.

In the digital space, social shopping is where online shopping and social networking meet. To date, it’s been primarily targeted at women and the net-savvy ‘Digital Class’ (18-24 years old). But its applications are far wider ranging. When it comes down to it, people everywhere, regardless of age or gender, want – and seek – reassurance about their purchasing decisions.

Fine. So should every business with an interest in e-commerce have a social shopping strategy in place? Well, if they’re interested in building a stronger brand, acquiring new customers virally, improving conversion rates from web marketing and selling more – the answer is yes.
Most retailers today are recognising that shopping, online as well as offline, is a discerning process that requires connection; thus, they’re creating richer, more ‘social’ experiences.
But social shopping is an approach to e-commerce that’s yet to be done right. Most social shopping ventures have so far struggled to account for the overall experience. They’ve failed to move forward with a balanced appreciation of business requirements, brand management and user expectations and needs. The result: sites that offer one, two or even several ‘cool’, interesting or useful tools, but don’t create a unified brand experience that spans online and offline; that integrates the real-world and the virtual.

First, let’s take a quick look at the lie of the land.

Who’s doing what? And is anyone even coming close?


Individual retailers

High street retailers are taking online shopping seriously. They’re starting to offer experiences that move beyond simply displaying products in a virtual shop window for customers to select, click and buy. But while various brands are offering interesting functionality, so far the UK high street has been fragmented in terms of delivering on an ‘overall experience’.

Just a few examples of the kinds of interactions and experiences standalone retailers are creating:

• Oli’s ‘LookBook’. With it, users can discover, share and compare products, and put together collections which they can send to a friend or buy.

• The Diesel website. It offers a wish list, send to a friend functionality and the ability to embed products in external blogs or websites. It also has a brand blog called ‘The cult’ which serves to strengthen and build cultural significance.

• The Yoox Dreambox. It’s one of the more sophisticated brand ‘share and compare’ functionalities. It lets users collect, send to friends and compare and rate items. It also acts as a profile that allows users to make friends with similar interests.

• Topshop’s Facebook application (called ‘Topshop fashion Fix’) It’s no surprise Topshop has a presence here. However, the company uploads only about three items a week for users to vote on (with a simple yay or nay). Interesting, yes, but what’s the real reward for the consumer?

Some retailers are, at least ostensibly, beginning to bring the in-store and online experiences closer together. Last year, Bloomingdale's in Manhattan tested a ’Magic Mirror’ concept for three days. When shoppers stood in front of the mirror wearing tagged clothing, the mirror displayed other sizes or colours in stock, or recommended suitable accessories. Notably, however, no attempt was made to link this experience to the Bloomingdale's online community.

Leading among fashion retail and social shopping are brands like Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. The latter is currently conducting a pilot of an offline desktop boutique – a computer application that lets users browse the retailer’s catalogue and post orders through a desktop button. It’s an attempt to enhance the brand and tailor offerings to individuals.

But cool tools and interesting applications alone won’t suffice. How does everything link up? Where’s the experiential synergy?

‘Aggregators’


Over the last few years, there’s been a proliferation of social shopping websites that aggregate information about products, prices and deals, and provide a platform where users can communicate about their favourite things. Sites like Kaboodle, ThisNext,, Wists, Osoyou, Shopstyle and StyleHive are spearheading this trend.
These sites don’t sell directly but rather serve as product sharing and recommendation engines. They allow users to create custom shopping lists and share them with friends, reflecting the general trend towards and proliferation of UGC (User Generated Content) online.

Aggregator websites can serve to bridge the gap between shops and their consumers, often providing (at least from the customer’s perspective) a more integrated experience than single-store transactional sites. They provide platforms for shoppers to congregate, communicate and validate each other’s decisions. So why are most products that are socially endorsed online still being purchased offline?

That question aside, there’s no denying the value of these sites, and large and influential ecommerce companies are realising it. Which explains why we’re seeing Microsoft acquiring Jellyfish and Hearst buying Kaboodle.

At the same time, more recently, larger social networks that attempt to cater for everyone are beginning to see a decline in popularity, with an emergence in the shopping realm of more niche networks such as Etsy and Fashionspace.

Capitalising on both worlds (the uber-popular and the ultra-specialised), interior design site MyDeco.com aggregates products from 500 partners, including massive players such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, and Argos – and niche retailers like ’Canvas R Us’. Users can create a furnished room, publish it for other customers, and buy the decorations and furnishings within a matter of clicks.

Where do we go from here?

For retailers right now, it’s time to do some serious soul searching. One of the first questions: How much do you invest in building a community on your site versus creating a strategy around existing social networking sites and aggregators?

The answer: it depends, and it involves a lot more questions. Like:
• How do your customers feel about your products? How good are you at finding out, and staying up on it?
• How transparent are you as a company, and how transparent are you willing to be?
• What kind of social shopping profiles do your customers (and your prospects) have? How deep can you dive to find out how they’re participating in social media?
• How much do you know about what people are saying about your brand? Not as of last month or last week, but as of this morning? Whether or not you’re participating in the conversation, how and where is your offering (and your competition’s) showing up in conversational media?


In the next few months, we’ll see a proliferation of new developments based on the power of community, individualisation within these communities, and new technologies: new approaches to personalised recommendations, better interactive chat, higher quality editorial video and improved access to social shopping across multiple channels and technologies, to name but a few.

How do you know what’s right – for your brand, for your customers, in the current climate?

The answer is in experience planning. Innovating smartly, in a way that balances business requirements, brand management and user expectations and needs.

Want to know how? Experience.Planning@conchango.com

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1 Hall James, “Worst spell in three years for high street sales,” The Telegraph, August 11, 2008,
 
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