I’ve been learning the results of Olympic events via Facebook. Unintentionally. But it is happening.
I wonder how NBC feels about that? They (and everyone else) better figure something out because timezone delay is doomed.
The definition of prescient from the definitive source of everything, Wikipedia:
“Having knowledge of events before they take place; possessing or exhibiting prescience.”
While he steadfastly claims not to have had inside information, with Google naming a VP of Commerce today, kudos go out to our Chief Experience Officer, Andrew Sirotnik, for predicting this in a blog post several weeks ago.
Since Andrew’s post built an interesting case for the move, I won’t elaborate except to say it is clear the stakes are rising on ecommerce in general and, more specifically, distributed commerce, where consumers are able to interact with brands and products from wherever they spend their time. It will be interesting to see where things evolve from here.
Nice prediction, Andrew. What do you have for us next?
Josh Himwich, Director of Ecommerce Solutions at Fluid client Diapers.com, will be speaking on getting the most out of the agency/client relationship at the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference next week in Orlando, Florida. The Diapers.com team is an incredibly sophisticated group that knows their business inside and out. Certainly their results speak for themselves. We couldn’t agree more when Josh says “good design firm management begins with having specific business goals and expectations in place even during preliminary meetings.” If you are at the show we highly encourage you to attend the session, which is on Monday at 10 am.
More info on Josh’s session here.
And a related article here.
Hard work met celebratory fun for Fluid last Wednesday. And one of us ended up bald because of it. Channel 5 News was there to share our exciting news with the whole Bay Area.
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Fluid is excited to announce the launch or new site for Calvin Klein Fragrances, http://www.calvinkleinfragrances.com/. Fluid has been working with the Calvin Klein Fragrances team for several months to develop a new site that integrates the entire Calvin Klein fragrance line into a single, unified site experience while allowing each brand to express its own individuality. Individual fragrances include ck one, eternity, obsession, euphoria, escape and the latest addition to the line, ck free.
Synergy, forethought, planning, and commitment are commonplace words thrown around in the sales cycle for agencies pitching products and services the world over, industry-wide. Fortunately, these buzz words are not isolated to direct revenue-generating activities.
Team building can be traced back to the late 1920s when researchers conducted studies and observed worker productivity in a mid-West industrial facility outside Chicago called Hawthorne Works. Behaviorists studied groups of industrial workers in various conditions and determined that the most compelling evidence was observed in the building of a sense of group identity, a feeling of social support and cohesion that came with increased worker interaction. The study also demonstrated that workers had a tendency to perform at higher productivity at work-related tasks, most notably after performing non-work-related tasks. Shortly thereafter, the onset of company sponsored team building activities was born.
Social Design Principle 2: Encourage Authentic Conversations
Previously we identified how important it is to deliver unbiased information to consumers and cited the Amazon Effect as evidence. Authentic conversations promote products, get valuable customer feedback, and establish a presence and a voice for your brand. There are many methods, but the two most common are:
Start a Blog
How can a company initiate authentic conversations? First, start and maintain a blog. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it’s familiar to customers as a way to interact and communicate with both the blog authors (the company) and other blog readers (the community)! Make your blog a window on your company and reach out to customers. Engage them, and ask them about both their good and bad experiences with your products and services.
“When you have authentic conversations with people, you learn enough to actually improve your product with them, freeing you from the need for the hard sell. No longer will you have to convince people your software is worth it, because by working with the very people you’re selling to, you’re guaranteeing a valuable product.” – Joshua Porter, Designing for the Social Web
Some retail web sites place their blog on the homepage of their store. Woot.com, an online retail web site features one discounted product per day on their homepage, and they present it in the context of a blog post. This product is then advertised via RSS and Twitter feeds, and the blog post attracts hundreds of customer comments and even more exposure every day. This daily blog guarantees a constant stream of fresh, new content and drives return visits.
As a Netflix customer with a slow home connection, I am a big fan of the “Quick View” roll-over used in ecommerce sites, allowing a user to see information prior to clicking to the product detail page. It is useful and efficient to…
Without waiting for a page to load, presumably a user can get to most of the information needed to make a purchase.
I spent some time reviewing the Hot 100 Internet Retailer Sites, some of the Top 500, and other interesting apparel sites. The Quick View information varied in format, presentation and placement:
For sites without Quick View, often times it was logical not to offer it, as most of the pertinent information was on the sub-category page. Along with add to cart, some sub-cats also include reviews, colors offered (and sometimes color changes), shipping information, availability, etc. The only issue with this method is a page overloaded with information and choices. Walmart.com is an example of a rather cluttered page, albeit for fairly practical purchases where information is important.
On the other end of the spectrum, Sunglass hut elegantly shows only a picture of the product (without price or product name) on the sub-category page, and upon roll-over, the price and name appear, including very subtle add to cart, compare or wishlist icons.
No matter what the presentation, information offered prior to the page load of the product detail page enables and speeds the purchase process for a consumer.
With all the bad financial news in the press, its nice to read an article about IDC analysts revising upward its projects for SAAS growth in 2009.
“SaaS’s counter-cyclical boom is entirely due to the enhanced attractions of the model when times are bad, says IDC:… the harsh economic climate will actually accelerate the growth prospects for the software as a service (SaaS) model as vendors position offerings as right-sized, zero-CAPEX alternatives to on-premise applications. Buyers will opt for easy-to-use subscription services which meter current use, not future capacity, and vendors and partners will look for new products and recurring revenue streams.”
As with any boom, there are some things to be cautious about. In my own buy-side experience, I have encountered a number of SAAS solutions where the SAAS turned out to be a marketing buzzword more than software design. Common among the masquerading solutions were the lack of free trials, high implementation costs and mandatory paid training.
My buying advice would be to spend time with a trial.
Be skeptical if there isnt a free trial. SAAS solutions should be relatively easy to deploy and manage. High implementation fees and mandatory paid training are signs that the solution will not be easy for you to use. Talk with existing customers and find out what percent of customers are renewing.