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Posts with Kidrobot Tag

E-Commerce Sites Fend Off Firefly with Social, Search & Video

Posted by Tim CallaneCommerce, Success Stories, User Experience

Think again, Amazon. The Fire Phone’s new Firefly feature – an alleged “showrooming on steroids” – may be one more way you drive more shoppers to your site, but it can’t beat the hundreds of thousands of e-commerce sites in the U.S. that are driving visitors to their own websites with incredibly creative content. In fact, more than 40% of marketers report that inbound marketing, such as blogs and social media, demonstrates a positive return on investment for their company.

Using compelling content, smart online retailers like Kidrobot, ReNew Life and Artbeads give customers unique and memorable shopping experiences that create powerful brand loyalty and convince customers to buy. Here’s a peek into how they do it:

1. Kidrobot Goes Social

Designer art toy retailer Kidrobot regularly sees its Instagram posts receive 1,000+ Likes, and many of its YouTube videos have received 10,000+ views. So Kidrobot brought its videos, Instagram photos, Twitter feeds and Facebook content into easy view on the search results pages of its site. Now when shoppers search Kidrobot for a product, they’ll also see Tweets, Instagram posts and other social content related to the product searched.

Social content can certainly motivate shoppers to buy. When Kidrobot integrated its social media content into its search result pages, online orders increased 13%.

When going social, the most important consideration is to leverage it in a way that aligns with the way your customers use it. If you have more fans on Pinterest than Twitter, cater to those users with high-quality photos perfect for pinning.

2. ReNew Life Uses Standout Site Search

One of the latest best practices for site search is an advanced autocomplete function that can suggest search terms, categories and specific products – as soon as shoppers type in the first couple letters of their searches. This type of autocomplete is especially powerful for retailers with products that don’t lend themselves to very specific searches, such as health and wellness retailers that often have users searching for conditions rather than specific products. ReNew Life is a great example. A search for “cleanse” offers up product suggestions for a variety of types of cleanses, along with other popular search terms.

Optimized site search has allowed ReNew Life to grow sales in a big way.  The conversion rate for ReNew Life customers who use site search is nearly 10%, more than 4x higher than non-search users.

Implementing content-rich site search is a great way to improve conversions on your e-commerce site. A standout site search can go above and beyond customers’ expectations, building loyalty and driving sales.

Capture3. Artbeads Offers How-To Articles and Videos

Retailer StacksandStacks.com found that a customer who viewed a product video was up to 144% more likely to buy the product.​ Online shop for beads and jewelry supplies Artbeads.com truly exemplifies the power of how-to videos by showing shoppers exactly how to create stylish jewelry looks with their products. In addition to more than 125 videos on its YouTube channel, Artbeads also incorporates these how-to’s into its e-commerce site, displaying links to the exact products viewers need to purchase to make the pieces shown in the videos.

With rich content integrated into its site search, Artbeads’ conversions from search increased 30% (over a 4-week promo period), while overall site conversions rose 8.6%.

Offering how-to articles, particularly in the form of nicely edited videos, displays your brand’s expert knowledge to users. When shoppers see that your company is an authority in the field, they will return to your site as a reliable resource again and again.

To learn more about how e-commerce sites can increase conversions by creating remarkable content, watch a recorded webinar on this subject or download our free e-book, Use Creative Content to Turn Online Shoppers into Buyers.

Learn to Entice Shoppers with Great Content

Posted by Dawn MortenseneCommerce, Site Search, Site Search Tips, Success Stories

Want to drive e-commerce sales, plus bring customers to your site instead of going to competitors’ sites or Amazon? Think content. The creative use of content can give your customers a unique and memorable shopping experience – one that creates powerful brand loyalty and moves customers along the path to purchase.

ContentWPscreengrabIn our new e-book, “Use Creative Content to Convince Online Shoppers to Buy,” you’ll learn how e-commerce sites can increase conversions by creating remarkable content – social media posts, videos, blogs, infographics and more – and then bringing that content into their search results.

As I explain in today’s post on Ecommerce Outtakes, some online shopping decisions are easy, like finding a new water filter using the replacement number. But many online purchasing decisions – buying clothes, shoes, electronics, toys, etc. – are made through closer scrutiny of product details and non-product content, like Instagram photos of real product users or a how-to video showing what can be done with the product.

Such content can really help convince a browser to click the “Add to Cart” button. Consider this sampling of advice from the e-book:

  • Always add photos to your blog or social media post to catch readers’ attention through visuals as well as content.
  • If you’re an online retailer that sells any kind of food or kitchen product, it is a no-brainer to add a recipe section to your e-commerce site.
  • A standout site search is especially critical for retailers with products that don’t lend themselves to very specific searches.

The new e-book features many more tips, along with success stories of companies who have used content to increase conversions, including e.l.f. Cosmetics, FTD, King Arthur Flour, Kidrobot and others. Click here for a free download.

2014 Could Be the Year that Online Retailers Outsmart Amazon

Posted by Shaun RyaneCommerce, Site Search

As I look through articles on trends and business strategies for 2014, it’s clear that Amazon is driving many online retailers’ business decisions this year. With Amazon’s advantages in fulfillment speed, pricing, inventory, and the sophistication of its e-commerce engine, I imagine the question of how to effectively compete with the behemoth keeps many online retailers up at night.

However, there is a category of savvy online business owners – many of whom we have the pleasure of working with – who are keeping the Amazons, eBays and Walmart.com’s of the world at bay by finding their own niches.

These retailers are discovering that they can maintain dominance on their home turf and draw new shoppers to their sites by showcasing their domain expertise and augmenting their unique assets with services from third-party providers. For example, a merchant can use videos and social media marketing to effectively emphasize its unique specialty.

Additionally, retailers are looking to service providers to handle critical areas of their website like search, shopping cart and check-out, mobile design, personalization, and more. When a service provider has a single best-of-breed offering and leverages it across hundreds of retailers, it’s possible for that service provider to surpass Amazon’s own offered capabilities in these areas.

The key for retailers of any size is to maintain a solid focus on delivering the best overall shopping experience possible – through both technology and easy access to great customer service. In other words, don’t worry so much about what Amazon is doing, just worry about making sure you’re doing the best you can at what you do well, and look to your technology service partners to optimize performance for your website, which is what we do well.

Kidrobot_MUNNY_21Jan14As an example, look at Kidrobot, whose pop art and designer toys are constantly shared over Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites. SLI incorporated social media content into Kidrobot’s on-site search. Now, when you search for MUNNY (see screen shot below), not only can you easily find a MUNNY product, but you can click on the Instagram tab to view photos of MUNNY toys, click on the Video tab to view videos of MUNNYs, and so on. Even though you can buy MUNNY toys and other Kidrobot products on Amazon, many shoppers still want to buy directly from Kidrobot’s site because they enjoy the delightful user experience that Kidrobot has created for shoppers.

So if you’re looking to beat Amazon at its own game, leverage the assets you have that they don’t. It may be your physical stores, unique access to products, a deep knowledge of your niche, or something else. Also ensure they know that your service and responsiveness is the best around. I wrote more about how we do this in the recent blog, A Unique Approach to Customer Service.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what retailers should focus on in the coming year to compete effectively with the online giants. Please comment below to start a conversation.