Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

…from my “Why we don’t want to spend much money on our web site” real quote file.

There are a lot of ecommerce sites that are part of a larger company with real-world retail outlets. And, many of those sites are terrible. Why? Shouldn’t the companies want to sell as much as they can, regardless of where? And, why do they somehow think of their web site as something separate from their “real” business? They spend millions on store design, advertising, merchandising, and direct mail…plaster their Web address all over the place…then they almost dare people to buy something from them online.

My personal pet peeve - Target. I (usually) love the store, but the site needs a LOT of work, including not-so-little things like inventory management. The site doesn’t sync with the stores. I can get some things online that I can’t buy at the store…and things at the store that aren’t online. (a while back I was looking for some specific drapes and rods…I ended up driving to three different stores to check stock and pick up bits and pieces….and the site had some of it, in different colors…and none of it in other cases, including drapes that were - according to the stores - “available online.” So, I ended up spending more money elsewhere.)

Then - Duh & Ta-Da! - I read this Consumers Looking for a Seamless Shopping Experience (free registration required to read full article):

When a customer is unhappy with an experience on a retailer’s website, then she is unhappy with the retailer. If the same consumer has a bad experience ordering from a catalog or in a company’s store, she’s unhappy with the retailer. The fact is that no matter how many different shopping venues consumers are given, when they are unhappy, that dissatisfaction extends to every part of the company.

A new report by Sterling Commerce concludes that consumers are looking for seamless shopping experiences and retailers are getting closer to giving them what they want.

“Shoppers see retailers as one brand - they don’t think in terms of multiple channels,” Jim Bengier, global retail industry executive for Sterling Commerce, said in a press release. “Shoppers don’t care how difficult or challenging it is for retailers to organize their companies to meet their needs.

So, as a customer - no, I don’t care what the company’s “channel strategy” is (Tip: Many people will give you a blank look when you start talking about “multi-tiered, multi-channel strategy” And they don’t care to learn, thank you.)

I also don’t care how much it costs for you to make your product; how difficult it is to ship it; how hard it is to generate invoices for web sales; how much you’ve already wasted on your web site design; or how your “multi-tiered, multi-channel strategy” is “impacting the bottom line.” I want to BUY SOMETHING FROM YOU. Shouldn’t that be the real bottom line?

Related Posts:
Special K Web Site - Not So Special
I’d Buy More But I Can’t Find The *&^%$ Cart!
Calling The Web Doctor!

Want to browse through all my posts? Go to The Idea Pool. Everything I’ve written since I started blogging (in April 2005).

Tags: marketing, small business marketing, marketing troubleshooting, web sites, web design, web development, web marketing, emarketing, Target, retail marketing