The Official Fluid Blog

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…

• see a larger picture and different views of the product
• get easy access to your next action (i.e. check shipping, see sizing chart, add to cart)
• see more detailed information

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:

• Roll-over vs. Click: Some sites offer the Quick View upon roll-over, some upon click. Those with the click version usually show much more comprehensive and important information for a purchase decision, as the format allows for tabs, buttons and links to further information. For instance, Borders.com offers a detailed description, list price, your price, shipping info, customer ratings, a browsing function to other products, and links to add to cart, reserve in-store, or add to wish list.  For most products, more information is better for decision-making, but for some sites such as Ace Hardware, simple bulleted information upon roll-over feels fine, as it offers what I need to know (a bigger image is seemingly not as important for insect repellent or paint thinner).

• Quick View vs. Sub-category Add-to-Cart: One advantage of Quick View functionality is the ability to access an action (buying) without the extra step of opening the product detail page. Of the 150 sites I reviewed, 29 offer some sort of Quick View option. Of those, 16 offer the ability to add to cart (55%). But as an alternative, about 20% of those sites without Quick View have add to cart directly on the sub-category page, mostly in the food, electronics, or pharmacy categories, which can be as useful for simpler purchases (i.e. Bulbs.com).

• Quick View Larger Image: For apparel, fashion, or any product category where what it looks like is a key selling factor, a bigger image in Quick View is imperative. It is disappointing to click on Wetseal or Meijer.com’s Quick View only to get an image practically the same size, with only a bit more information about the product and no mechanism to view larger. The North Face’s Quick View not only gives 3 tabs of information about the product (options, features, specifications), the ability to add to cart, but it also gives several views of the product and a magnified view upon roll-over. Gap.com’s Quick View also offers a larger image through a view larger button which launches a pop-up window with a very large image.

• Larger Images Only: Some Quick Views only offer larger images (pseudo-Quick Views, really). This is helpful to gauge product interest, but if there is no add to cart functionality from the Quick View, to purchase the user has to close the larger view, click to the product detail page, and then click add to cart to purchase, so although helpful, it’s overall not as streamlined for purchase. Novica.com offers a gigantic pop-up image, but no additional info or add to cart. The Runningwarehouse.com offers more detailed information on the sub-catgory page, and the pop-up view is a 360-rotation view of the product; again, helpful, but not an ideal workflow. (As a side note, Levi.com offers a visually inefficient version of the larger view; on roll-over an image shows larger, but it is in a set white space on the right of the page. When there is no larger image, that white space is strangely blank.)

• Sub-Category Alt Views: Another interesting presentation in lieu of a Quick View is to offer a alternate or magnified view upon roll-over on the sub-category page. It is an active, interesting way to present pertinent buying information. As I was browsing bathing suits on EddieBauer.com, I found it very useful to see both the back and the front views just by running my mouse across the page. The execution could be improved overall, as some other categories (sweaters) do not consistently show the back view; views are interspersed with color choices, larger views, which is more of a less elegant presentation.

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.

Fluid is pleased to announce the launch of a new site design for Diapers.com. The new site, designed by the Fluid team, also leverages the Fluid Experience merchandising suite to create a compelling brand and shopping experience. The redesign enables Diapers.com to scale into thousands of new products while continuing to provide a convenient, helpful and fun place to shop for moms and dads of young children.
You can read more about the site in this article on Internet Retailer.

Fluid client Diapers.com (a fresh new redesign will be launching soon) has been running a great little television ad capitalizing on election fever. Needless to say, it takes potty humor to the max. No word yet on whether an investment in traditional TV media like this is returning a positive ROI, but it is starting to get some mentions in the blogosphere and some momentum on You Tube. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ofap_vT_Q

Turns out RBKCustom.com has a loyal customer in comedian Seth Rogen. He’s got several pairs of custom Reebok’s and is a big fan of the text personalization feature. As hilariously described in a recent appearance on Conan O’ Brien he has a particular knack for getting creative with the offensive language filter. When Fluid built the site we spent a lot of time on realtime, true-to-life visualization of the sneaker personalization to ensure end-users see exactly what they are getting as they design their shoes. We also spent a lot of time brainstorming the dirty words list. Kudos to Mr. Rogen for sneaking a few by!

You can see the Conan bit here:

http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Conan_O%27Brien/video/episodes.shtml

Choose the August 7th episode and then jump to 24:50.
You can also read about it in a few places:

Extract:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/07/seth_rogen_unlikely_spokesman.html

Full quote appears in context on page 2 here:
http://www.elle.com/featurefullstory/14098/seth-rogen-movies-gossip-articles-pineapple-express.html

At Fluid we believe (passionately) in the intermingling of merging of the brand and shopping experience. As a practical matter, this consists of blurring the line between content and commerce so shoppers are not forced to choose between one or the other, but instead have a great experience that (hopefully) leads to a transaction.

Quite aside from the realities of doing this in a seamless manner, there are often organizational issues at play (brand content is often owned by marketing and commerce is owned by either consumer direct or the ecommerce team). But we believe strongly that this convergence is not only good for retailers but is good for consumers, allowing them to navigate to their interests without being blocked by some artificial, vendor created, division.

Thus, the something I saw today really caught my attention.

I am probably not alone in viewing CNN as a content-focused company. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw an icon for a t-shirt next to the news story I was reading. See the screen grab below:

Certainly they couldn’t be featuring apparel on their site?!?! Time Warner is a media company!

Further investigation, as shown below, pretty clearly shows that selling t-shirts is exactly their intention.

Personally, I think this is a brilliant move. Quite aside from the trend toward embracing the ironic in apparel, it should be a wake up call to retailers everywhere: The companies that engage their shoppers, whether with content or product, will carry the day. The line between content providers and retailers is getting fuzzier every day. Given the current upheaval in the media world, if you don’t believe the fashion magazines you advertise in now will be selling your competitors’ goods in the relatively near future you are in for quite a rude awakening.

Of course you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you are a company that makes shoes, your business isn’t going to be based upon writing critiques of Sarah Jessica Parker’s latest pair of  Manolo Blahnik’s over night. But it does encourage you seriously consider to how you can draw shoppers into your store, whether it be through rich interactivity or content, and engage them with your products.

Interesting times we work in…

Today American Airlines announced it would start charging passengers to check baggage.

Read the News

While other company’s businesses are always complex and I try not to judge others, this strikes me as an extreme example of making a problem and making it worse. Traditional carriers like United and American are hemorrhaging money hand over fist while upstarts like Southwest, Jet Blue and Virgin America take market share from them. Their response? Start charging for things that used to be free (food, now bags) while instituting policies that make flying their airlines more unpleasant (crowded cabins just got worse, since everyone will try to carry everything on board). Seems like a recipe for driving customers screaming for the exits.At Fluid we take our responsibility for our customers’ satisfaction seriously and expect to deliver above expectations. It is our sincere hope that when customers are not happy with our delivery rather than charging them more to fix it we offer to increase our delivery to exceed our clients’ needs.

While it is just my opinion, the new policies airlines are instituting to try and squeeze every dime out of customers fly directly in the face of building a long term, successful customer relationship and business.

Hey everyone – Nathan Moody here, Director of Creative Services here at Fluid, Inc. My first post on Flog brings some great news from my recent trip to South by Southwest [SXSW] .

I’m happy to announce that on Sunday, March 12, 2006, Fluid won the SXSW 2006 Web Award in the Business: For Profit category for our work on Timberland.com’s Custom Boot Configurator.

We’re obviously thrilled, and proud to have been recognized by the SXSW judges for creating a usable, fun, and innovative user experience that’s had measurable fiscal success for our client as well (how’s doubling customer conversion sound?). While I accepted the award, the true winners of this award are Fluid’s internal staff that worked on the project: Andrew Sirotnik (Account Manager, C0-Creative Director; Debbie Lefkowitz (Project Manager); Paul Spitzer, Darren David, and Ameet Mehta (Engineers); Brian Cherne (Information Architect); and Marty Kenney, Tom Hirashima and Jesse Gerstein (Interactive Media Engineers). I was the Visual Designer and Co-Creative Director.

We’d also like to thank our client, Timberland, for having the faith in us to take their product offering to the next level. Thanks especially to Troy Brown, Jill Areson-Perkins, and Joshua Deane at Timberland for their help, trust and deep collaboration on this project.

For more information, visit Timberland.com’s Custom Boot Configurator or read our case study on Fluid.com.

I decided to take a bit of time this morning and update to Mozilla Firefox 1.5 and took a look at the latest and greatest extensions. Here is my personal list of must-have extensions for both productivity and fun.

• Foxpose View all of your tabs in one window like in OSX Exposé. Fun!
• Web developer Toolbar The defacto standard plugin if you do any web development.
• IE Tab Open Internet Explorer within a Firefox tab. Very useful for cross-browser testing.
• Dictionary Tooltip Double-click a word to get a popup dictionary definition.
• Foxytunes Control your music apps via your browser toolbar.

Have fun!