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Kidrobot Makes More MUNNY with Social Content in its Search

Posted by Dawn MortensenMarch 18, 2014Site Search, Social Media, Success Stories, User Experience

Kidrobot is one of those brands that people love to Like – it’s common for a single Kidrobot post to receive more than 1,000 Likes on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. As the retailer’s popularity has expanded for its mustache-sporting Labbits, paint-it-yourself MUNNYs and other popular art toys, so has the company’s need to connect its online shoppers with its wealth of social media and blog content.

Such rich non-product content can be the catalyst that transforms a browser to a buyer – or drives up order values.

Case in point: While researching Kidrobot for this blog, I searched the company’s site for Yummy brand toys and enjoyed looking at Yummy’s plush pizza, hot chocolate and ice cream sandwich… but it wasn’t until I clicked on the Instagram tab and saw the adorable photos of these stuffed toys that I experienced the overwhelming need to own more than one Yummy plush of my own (#truth – I now own nine).

Six months ago, Kidrobot did not yet have this valuable social media content available on the site’s product pages. A fan searching Kidrobot for Marvel MUNNY toys would not have learned from the search results that Kidrobot also has Marvel Labbits, or that Marvel Labbit artist Frank Kozik would be signing products at certain Kidrobot store locations. In fact, six months ago it was challenging for shoppers even to find the products they wanted on Kidrobot.com.

“We give our products unique names, and it used to be that if you didn’t get the spelling correct for an on-site search, you wouldn’t find the product you were looking for,” Kelsey Vendetti, Kidrobot e-commerce & digital marketing manager, said in a case study and press release published today. “Visitors would search for something as simple as a t-shirt and get one result when in fact we offer over 20 t-shirt styles.”

To resolve these challenges and others, Kidrobot turned to SLI Systems. We made their products easily findable with technology that produces the most relevant search results, and we brought in the social, blog and video content that could help shoppers decide to buy. We also increased their site traffic through our Site Champion SEO solution.

The results tell the rest of the story: a 13% increase in orders, a 4x increase in conversions for visitors using the search box and a very happy customer.

“From the capabilities of their technology to the helpfulness of their support, the whole package of working with SLI is a huge improvement from what we had before,” Vendetti said.

Take a closer look at this and other SLI customer success stories by browsing our case studies.

What Do Young Consumers Want from eCommerce?

Posted by Erika StasiSeptember 23, 2013eCommerce, Navigation, Navigation Tips, Site Search, Site Search Tips, Social Media, User Experience

In my last blog regarding usability, I detailed some of the design features and functionality that make eCommerce user-friendly for an older demographic. The important features to optimize site search and navigation for the 65 and older user contrasts considerably with today’s youngest set of shoppers. These digital natives, ages 12-17 years old, are comfortable with evolving technologies, new features, and shopping concepts that take shopping online to a whole new level.

Investment firm Piper Jaffray, in its 25^th semi-annual study, found that 79 percent of teen females and 76 percent of males shopped online, with 70 percent of those teens shopping online at their favorite stores. Creating an engaging and valuable website is crucial in capturing the attention of young shoppers, who have never experienced a time in their lives without technology.

Important Features for the Young Online Shopper

Jakob Nielsen, a pioneer in the user experience field, has researched the usability features most important for the teen online shopper in his article, “Teenage Usability: Designing Teen-Targeted Websites.” Nielsen says sites geared toward the teen market should use less text and adhere to standard design layouts. Examples of such sites are HotTopic.com, KidRobot.com, and SpencersOnline.com. Nielsen points out some specific design features that are important for teens: use of bright color, high quality images, integrated media such as videos and music, interactive games, and links to social media.

The Influence of Social Media

Social media has become an integral part of the teen market online shopping experience. The 2013 Piper Jaffray survey confirms that Facebook and YouTube are still the favorite social media sites for teens, with 53 percent of females and 52 of males indicating that social media influences their purchases (especially Facebook).

Other non-conventional social media platforms such as Pinterest and Polyvore have created innovative ways for teenagers to connect with their friends, see what their friends are interested in, and link them directly to eCommerce sites where purchases can be made.

Polyvore, for instance, is a community-driven social commerce site where members pick and choose from a variety of clothing, shoes and accessories to create fashion collages. Users can see other community members’ and friends’ fashion boards. Below these completed fashion boards are links to external retail websites, where users can complete any online transactions.

Pinterest, like Polyvore, is community-powered and allows members to follow friends’ and like-minded individuals’ pinboards. Pinterest users can re-pin rich images of home design, nature, fashion, food and beverages, and an assortment of other items for their followers to see. Each image or “pin” links directly to an online retailer’s site, essentially sharing that link with a huge network of followers.

Surprising Findings on Usability for Teens

Compared to other demographics, the teen market is actually less affected by poor usability features such as errors (their own or at the fault of the site). In the case of negative usability, such as slower loading time, the teen market has been shown to forgive and forget more easily than the senior market. Longer load times can still be frustrating for any user demographic, and may seem even more so for a group that craves instant gratification. However, patience is something that the youth market has practiced because of all types of technology mishaps they experience on a daily basis. This is unlike the senior market, which isn’t completely absorbed by the tech craze of smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Why the Teen Market Matters

Although some will argue that tailoring eCommerce sites to attract the teen market isn’t as valuable because teens don’t have direct buying power when it comes to online shopping, they are extremely influential when it comes to the consumption levels of their parents. According to the 2012 Harris Poll YouthPulse, teen-influenced purchases account for over $211 billion worth of purchasing power! With 23 million teens in the U.S. alone, teens are making a huge impact to the economy and their parents’ wallets.

When considering the teen demographic in their site design and usability, internet retailers should implement those site search tips listed above as a starting point to capture their target market. Including non-product content such as social media links and interactive content such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Polyvore is a way to stay relevant and exciting to this young group. The key to engaging these Gen Z consumers is to keep it simple, avoid boring content, and consider using responsive website designs for multiple interfaces to keep your site fresh and fun.

Contact SLI Systems for a free site critique to learn how you can optimize your eCommerce site for this emerging youth market and other key market segments.

Can Facebook’s Graph Search Learn from E-commerce?

Posted by Terry CostaFebruary 4, 2013eCommerce, Social Media

There’s been a lot of talk the past couple of week’s about Facebook’s new Graph Search which most think is long overdue. While Graph Search – currently still in limited beta – has an interesting and perhaps compelling approach to search, we in the e-commerce search sphere got the end-user experience down a long time ago. You can even say that e-commerce search has been at the forefront of many of today’s search “revolutions” and is a key driver in developing trends around how people search the web.

In fact, a social-oriented search experience already exists on many e-commerce sites, where visitors can filter search results by user reviews to find products that are most highly rated by previous purchasers. SLI also applies this ‘wisdom of crowds’ approach to our own search by delivering results based on items that get clicked on the most for each keyword. Many sites also allow visitors to filter results by the number of Facebook “likes” or Pinterest “pins.” And when integrated with either of these sites, visitors can even see what items their social connections have given the thumbs-up to.

While Facebook users may start to flock to Graph Search to find photos, restaurants, music and other cultural events – and see what their friends have been posting on a given topic – Facebook can still enhance the experience quite a bit by adding features that are prevalent on many e-commerce sites.

The ability to refine searches by attributes like color (red dress or blue shirt), sizes, price, location, etc. is also critical. If a search returns hundreds or thousands of results (which would likely be the case with a Facebook search), people want mechanisms to narrow down those results and get closer to what they want. Mouse-over pop-ups, which provide all the detail of a specific result when the user rolls their cursor over the image, is also a great way to streamline the experience, as are Quick View Windows.

The team here are all very excited to see Facebook taking search to the next level. It validates the importance of good search, no matter what type of site, and also helps people experience search in a new and innovative way. As search continues to evolve and advance in new directions, it’s intriguing to see how different types of search – web search, e-commerce search, social search – can all borrow from each other.

Boost Views and Repeat Visits with High-Engagement Content – Part 2

Posted by Shaun RyanJanuary 9, 2013eCommerce, Social Media

In my last blog, I mentioned that creating content that drives high user engagement is essential to compete in the new online commerce landscape. Online shopping is more social than ever before. I’m not just talking about “Like” or “Pin It” buttons for easy sharing (though they definitely help), but also features that create an impact for customers by providing relevant information and second opinions to ease decision making.

First, online retailers are encouraging users to upload their own video reviews and testimonials to their website through online video sharing sites like YouTube. Folica does this extraordinarily well, harnessing the opinions of thousands of customers who buy, test and share video reviews and tutorials of products on their site, even though they’re not getting paid to do so.

Second, eCommerce sites are creating their own videos and allowing them to be shared via social media and indexed alongside product content. Bulk Reef Supply creates their own educational videos to help those new to building saltwater reefs. These videos can garner more than 40,000 views, proving that content is just as valuable as the products they sell, since they help customers find the exact part or item they need. They have even enabled users to have the ability to grade the helpfulness of the content to increase engagement.

Third, social media interactions, blogs and other media mentions can be indexed into search results, like e.l.f. cosmetics has done. Search for eyeshadow, and you’ll find the most recent magazines that have featured e.l.f. eyeshadows, facebook and twitter mentions, and blog content. When you’re unsure if it’s the right product, seeing other reviews or mentions can help solidify your decision.

Fourth, online retailers are making sure their products can be shared on social media sites – for example, ‘Liked’ on Facebook or “Pinned” on Pinterest. This is a simple addition to any site and quickly becoming a standard feature that customers expect. Village Hat Shop does this well, including a “Like” and “Pin It” button on their search results page.

And lastly, online retailers are the ability creating the ability to shop on their social media pages. Motorcycle Superstore and Boden have both created gateways to their online stores through their Facebook pages.

How else have you seen social media and eCommerce integrated?

Facebook Announces IPO! Learn How Retailers Are Cashing In On Facebook’s Success

Posted by stevegFebruary 6, 2012Site Search, Site Search Tips, Social Media1 comment

The web was buzzing last week with news of the Facebook IPO. Much of the news seemed to focus around Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth and the new crop of millionaires that will be made out of Facebook employees. Silicon Valley exotic car dealers and real estate agents have probably been lined up outside Facebook HQ handing out business cards. With Facebook’s estimated valuation now a staggering $75 to $100 billion you may be wondering how on earth a company with revenues of $3.7 billion could be with that much. I certainly am.

When you look at the stats surrounding Facebook, you realize that their potential to grow revenue is equally as staggering. For instance, Facebook now has 845 million active users which represents a 45 percent increase since 2010. More than half of their users return to the site each day. And these users have produced an average of 2.7 billion “likes” and comments each day in the last three months of 2011. Now, when you consider the wealth of information Facebook has about it’s users and how they enable advertisers to target based on this, you begin to see the potential for a much greater share of advertising dollars. I think it’s only a matter of time before brand advertisers and businesses discover this and start fighting over the ad inventory as they now do on Google.

But what about retailers? How can they cash in on Facebook’s success? To start with, retailers need to have a presence on Facebook by building a page. I know this is obvious and hard to imagine that any retailer has not yet claimed their brand on Facebook but I still come across retailers who have not. Having a page on Facebook enables their massive audience to “Like” your brand and start sharing what they think of you with their friends.

The ability to post comments about your store on Facebook has become a powerful tool for retailers to generate content from their customers. For example, asking a question on your Facebook wall to find out what your fans like most about a particular product is a great way to generate positive feedback and endorsement for that product. Then, what makes this even more powerful is when you have your site search technology crawl these Facebook posts and make them available in your site search results. Retailers can now instantly reach out to their most engaged brand advocates and ask them all sorts of questions. Questions like how they are using products, what advice they have for others for selecting the best product for a particular solution, what tips they have for using your products, and on and on. All of this fantastic content can them be made available to new visitors through site search.

To encourage more sharing, retailers have begun placing Facebook like buttons on the product pages. This practice has exploded in the past year to the point where it feels hard to find retailers who don’t include a Like button. Generating likes for your products shows an even deeper engagement from your customers and is a much more powerful way to drive sales. The challenge is to actually get your customers to click the like button. It seems consumer adoption of this has been relatively low.

One thing retailers like FTD.com have done to grow their product like activity is incorporate the Like button directly into their site search results. This gives it much more visibility and from a usability perspective is much easier for people to click like as they browse products in search results. There’s even a added usability benefit as retailers have incorporated the ability to sort search results by the number of likes. I expect that the desire to sort by likes might actually become more popular than sorting by product star ratings. And, this added functionality will encourage that many more consumers to cast their vote for a product by clicking the like button.

FTD.com Search Includes Facebook Likes

The final tip I would have for cashing in on Facebook’s popularity is to enable those who visit your page on Facebook to initiate a search of your product catalog easily right from within your page. This can be done by adding a tab on your page that includes a search box and incorporating the search functionality into your other custom tabs such as your Facebook default page. Here’s an example from Chaparral Motorsports.

Chaparral Motorsports Enables Search on Facebook

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