It's A Monkey Thinks About Work

Hey Now - I've Started A New Blog

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:00:26 -0500

Come on over!

www.melissabernais.com/blog

Bergdorf Goodman Doesn't You To Buy Clothes

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:20:00 -0400

Or, they’re making it a harder for you to give them your money then it should be. Bergdorf’s site structure makes use of the old school trick of using a non-web experience to organize and present content online (ie. the omni-present tabs in a notebook structure), thinking that it will be relatable, and easy to use.

In this case, BergdorfGoodman.com’s navigation/organization structure alludes to their physical stores.

Major sections on this site fall under labels like “Shop by Floor”, “Designer Collections”, and “5F”. While ensuring that the offline and online brand experience are connect is a good thing, making such a literal translation of the offline into the online space can be problematic. For instance, for a neophyte Bergdorf Goodman shopper, who has never set foot inside a store, this kind of site structure can really be a barrier to purchase. They may not know where to find what they’re looking for without working for it: What’s sold on each floor? What’s the difference between Designer Collections and 5F?

Let’s take a look at what’s behind the Shop by Floor option.

Each floor is labeled by number only. There are no cues as to what a customer will encounter if they make the decision to invest in a click on any of these options; there is no on-screen indication of the kinds of product offered by a ‘floor’, either on first glance, or on hover or roll-state over one of the floor numbers. This kind of access point to the shopping flow calls for an investment in exploration by possible customers, and investment in time and interest that they just may not want to take.

The more you make a customer work for something, the less likely it is they’ll stick around to find it, or come back and become a loyal, repeat customer.

How does your customer really think about your offerings? Make it easy for them and structure your site to meet their mental model instead of throwing your internal structure up there for all to see.

Yes, your site should be a way to relate your brand offering, but what you think about your brand can be completely different from the experience that your customer is familiar with. Don’t talk at your customer; talk with them, using the language - navigation labels and structural organization - that they use.

RevolveClothing.com And Images on their Shelf Pages

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:34:00 -0400

Revolve uses shelf pages as resourceful and powerful work horses; like a lot of retail sites, they provide filters for sizing and colour, and sorts for price, category, popularity and newest item added.

A really interesting point of difference, however, is they way they’re elevating the multiple product shot image collection from the product page to the shelf. Though the controls for viewing multiple images may be a little hard to initially locate, once you find and start using them, they’re a brilliant, brilliant tool for comparison shopping and finding out information before commiting to a click to the product page.

Here, let me show you.

The shelf page’s default presentation is the product’s front view. But see that pulldown defaulted to “front”, sandwiched beside the choice for how many products to see on a page and that page count?

If you select that with that pulldown, you’ll see options for “back” and “detail”, like so.

Additionally, if you hover over a product, an enlarged image appears onscreen, as do control arrows on the shelf page image. When you click on the arrows, you’re given a little slide show of all of the image assets for the product, including the three available through the image angle pulldown.

To go down this route, a lot of planning between sometimes disparate groups is needed - think about the investment in ensuring that each product has the same three angle shots, as well as the additional images that appear in the enlarged roll-state view.

So, what do you think? Is it worth the investment? That’s a question best answered by thinking about your customers: What do they need? What do they want? What do they expect? What can you give them that will really delight them as they spend time on your site?

Top Level Domains Expanding

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:38:38 -0400

Via One Degree (http://www.onedegree.ca/2008/06/yournamehere-ch.html).

“ICANN, the international body that regulates domain naming, announced their unanimous vote to open up restrictions on top level domains (TLDs). Starting in Q2 2009, it will be possible to apply to have just about anything as a TLD.

…

Brand names can be used as extensions. Think of .coke .nike .ebay
You can more narrowly target geography. Imagine .london .nyc .hongkong
Be more specific with what you offer. Appearing soon .sport .news .sex

…

Although cnet and others are reporting that the applications for new TLDs will cost $50,000 to $100,000, ICANN has said it will be “in the low six figure dollar amounts,” according to Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of the non-profit organization.”

What does this mean for our clients? Just how many websites will a company have to claim, if not develop? Where will their clients look to in order to complete their goals online?

Can, meet worms.

When Does Making a Customer Feel Special Turn into an Issue of Exclusivity?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:51:00 -0400

When you create a combined online shop / social network that requires (a) registration in order to see the products in the shop half of things, and (b) is invite only.

Welcome to Totokaelo.

For Totokaelo, creating this air of exclusivity may be right in line with their business model. Before walking down this kind of road, however, I would caution that you make sure that it really does match your guiding philosophy and purpose statement; placing a barrier between you and your customers may do nothing but drive them away, and, more worrisome, inspire feelings that can be damaging to the reputation of your brand.

Engaging the Bloggers

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:10:00 -0400

Loud Truck Energy Gummies has an interesting on-going social media campaign; blog about your love for their Loud Truck, tell them about it, and they send you free product.

While blogging has been the go-to user-generated testimonial space for the past couple of years, I’d love to see companies like Loud Truck embrace other spaces as well; Facebook, Twitter, they’re all quite viable communication tools, and they’re where the people currently are. Get the people to take your message back to the social spaces they’re using, and everyone is happy (and hopped up on energy gummies).

American Apparel takes to EBay to Hawk Vintage Pieces

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:08:00 -0400

It’s true!

American Apparel - California Select, Vintage and More

These vintage and one of a kind pieces can only be purchased at select retail locations, or via their EBay store.

What an interesting way to address possible stock and one-of-a-kind item issues! As well, using the EBay storefront model allows for a PayPal-based e-commerce experience; for a demographic where credit cards may not have yet made a home in their wallets, this is a great way to demolish a barrier between retailer and customer.

So, Nylon and MySpace Go on a Date

Tue, 20 May 2008 14:47:46 -0400

To a rockshow, of course. It is the music issue, after all. The result?

From the cover:

Inside, each article ends with a MySpace link, or three, leading to pages of the musician or artist or store mentioned in the article, and, sometimes, more interestingly, the musician that served as inspiration.

Iggy and the Stooges lead to shimmery jeans. It’s true!

Finally, Nylon has a pretty good handle on the idea of value added content. Here’s a callout to what you can do on their site, related to the most current issue.

YourSole.com Follows Up

Tue, 20 May 2008 09:08:00 -0400

This was in my inbox this morning. From my initial purchase experience to the online follow-up by Andrew on the posting, to this? It may just be an insole company, but they’re thinking about their online and offline presence in a way that a lot of retailers can’t even imagine.

Hey, Give Us Some of that Social Network Stuff!

Tue, 20 May 2008 09:05:00 -0400

Wet Seal is getting in on the game by creating their own Wet Seal Community.

When do you think the Interwebs will finally reach it’s breaking point? How many communities can be created, flourish and become sustainable?

Before commiting to creating your own social network, think about what value-add you’re giving your customers by building something from scratch. Will they appreciate coming to a new site to engage with others and with your brand? Or will they be better served if you create a presence in a social network they already use?

Mobile and Social Networking

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:51:48 -0400

eMarketer, taking stats from Nielson Mobile, published Mobile Social Networking Big in US, UK today.

In the article, they publish percentages for the number of mobile subscribers that have accessed a social network from their device. I think the more interesting number would be how many social network subscribers have accessed their SNs from a mobile device.

The Girlification of the Interwebs

Tue, 13 May 2008 12:51:00 -0400

Sometimes, I don’t know whether to feel empowered (see Jezebel, thought I have an equal love for Gawker) or suckerpunched (see Shine) by sites and services made specifically for women. So let’s turn our attention to the latest that’s come to my attention: Kirtsy (nee Sk*rt before being sued by Skirt Magazine) perports to be a more female friendly Digg-like service.

Now, I’m not denying that there are a number of sites, services and social networks where being a women puts you at a distinct disadvantage, and I feel that competition is a healthy thing. But I guess the question really is this: is there a need in the online community for these kinds of gender-specific/leaning sites? Do our customers want that kind of attention and choice?

I’m really not sure. Personally, as long as service and content are excellent, I don’t really care what the gender a site is supposed to serve. I have a feeling, though, that online visitors with less of a history of internet usage may find such things beneficial. People like to feel like they’re being spoken to directly, and they like to see themselves in the places they frequent. Do we need to start paying more even attention to gender and social lines when we’re working on client projects? Do we need to start searching out these services for inclusion on pages - if there’s a Digg option, should there be a Kirtsy?

Where do we draw the line?

Google Friend Connect

Tue, 13 May 2008 10:49:32 -0400

With so much being made of data portability and social networking in the last couple of weeks, is anyone surprised the Google is also on the case?

Google Friend Connect:

“Websites that are not social networks may still want to be social. But the barriers to offering social applications on the site have been considerable. Google Friend Connect changes this by enabling any site to offer dozens of social gadgets created by Google and OpenSocial developers to their visitors. This means more visitors spending more time on a more engaging website — with absolutely no programming required to make it happen.”

“Google Friend Connect provides a core set of social gadgets such as member management, message board, reviews, and picture-sharing. The key gadget is the members gadget. This gadget provides core social features for your visitors:

sign-in with their existing Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID account
invite and show activity to existing friends from social networks such as Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more
browse member profiles across social networks
connect with new friends on your site”

Brandtags.net and Coolspotters.com

Tue, 13 May 2008 10:15:57 -0400

Both of these sites were brought to my attention by Andrea Hill.

Brandtags.net is an interesting experiement / look into how people have tagged a number of brands. You can either contribute, or look at tag summaries for brands the site has collected.

Oh, tag clouds.

Coolspotters.com is a social network of a sort. Members take images of celebrities and identify the stuff that they’re wearing or using. Not such a hot idea right now, but just think of what this site could be if they begin partnering with online retail outlets to start selling some of the “stuff”.

MySpace Begins to Open Up

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:29:17 -0400

Excerpts from the Globe & Mail article: MySpace, Partner Sites form Greater Links

…Users looking to update personal information on their MySpace profile will now be able to dynamically share that data with other websites, including Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket and Twitter.

…Once the service is up and running, users will be able to update information on their MySpace profile pictures, interests or favourite movies and immediately share that content with the other partner sites.

…Even rival Facebook Inc. is welcome to sign on to the partnership, Mr. DeWolfe said.

“This project is open to any site out there that wants to work with us, so we’re happy to work with Facebook if they want to join up with us on that project, and that goes for any other site out there as well,” he said.

Lovely, Arty Interaction on a Landing Page

Sat, 03 May 2008 17:36:00 -0400

Link: The Art of David Flores

Visit and see if I was lying.

This One is Going Out to All the Beautiful Strategists In the House

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:21:20 -0400

Trendpedia - http://trendpedia.com/

“ABOUT TRENDPEDIA

Trendpedia is your free entry in to what’s Buzz in the Blog-o-sphere.

Search blogs — discover who’s discussing what, where, when and how. Trendpedia finds trends in social media. You choose the topics, enter the keywords, and click “Search Trend”.

Trendpedia finds the articles online that talk about your topics. Trendpedia organizes the articles in a trendline that shows the popularity of the topic over time — you can track a topic’s trendline from three months ago up to today.

Trendpedia collects posts about your topic per day. Click on the trendlines to find the articles about your topic posted on the date of choice. Watch the articles appear in the tabs below, organised according to topic and date.”

Retail Add-On Services, a la FashionChateau.com

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:15:33 -0400

Interesting how service is returning as a differentiator, isn’t it?

http://www.fashionchateau.com

Mobile Devices Save Money

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:51:00 -0400

I don’t know how many of you were the recipeint of my monologue about how awesome it would be to take along a mobile device to price check in stores. Well, someone else has done just that, and blogged about it.

http://www.geeksugar.com/

How My iPhone Saved Me Money on Shoes

Do you remember those reports last year of certain stores using a secret intranet that reflected different prices in the store, even though the real Internet site showed lower, “real” prices? I’ve always thought how great an iPhone would be in that situation. No quibbling about what’s right and wrong, just the indisputable information, right in your hand.

Well, the other day, I got to take advantage of this! I had bought a pair of shoes last weekend for full price in a store that also has a website. The next day I showed one of my friends the shoes over iChat — to find that they were actually $20 cheaper online. Not one to let 20 bucks go to waste (that’s like 12 cups of coffee!), I decided to take my shoes and my receipt to the store to see if I could get a price adjustment…

Singer22 Wants You to Share Too

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:12:16 -0400