I read an excellent article on Clickz.com written by Hollis Thomases called, “New Optimism for Online Retail Marketing Opportunities.” Her article related some of the insights she gained while attending Shop.org’s Annual Summit. You can read the whole article by visiting http://www.clickz.com/3627098.
The article quoted Forrester senior analyst Ms. Sucharita Mulpuru about the future of e-commerce. A few quotes I found extremely important were:
“She [Ms. Sucharita Mulpuru] sees this growth [in e-commerce] however not from the implementation of “whiz-bag technologies” but from online retailers doing a better job of mastering the basics and making the online shopping experience as easy as the offline one.”
This is a great comment. From my own experience working with web businesses, I find that customers can get hung up in the technology and struggle to understand how to use it to improve their experience.
I recall reading a book “The Inmates are Running the Asylum” by Alan Cooper which spoke something about technology being a bridge for the customer but something else is needed to help them cross it. It’s the basics (the marketing principles) that includes speaking to customers in their own words, presenting relevant call-to-actions and images and developing intuitive navigation among other usability and persuasive.
Although technology can enhance the customer’s web experience, it is through executing the basics that motivates them to buy.
Posted on October 8, 2007
