The customer dilemma: Your store vs. next door. (eTail Insights #1)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 6:11PM When was the last time you actually gave your customers a crisp, clear reason to shop in your store?
I don’t mean a logo and tagline, I mean explicitly spelling out what you offer that’s special and different, telling your customers exactly why they should shop with you instead of next door.
I looked at the homepages of Zappos, DSW, shoes.com, Piperlime/Banana Republic, Payless, and Endless to see how they were sending the message of difference. Only Piperlime (see image) and Endless actually give customers an obvious reason to shop with them.
Banana Republic comes out of the closet with panache, trumpeting to customers about how their shopping experience is easier and just plain better.
All of the stores sell shoes, offer a huge selection and tempt with an assortment of freebies like free shipping and free returns. But not all of them deliver a clear value proposition as to why shopping in their store is different and better than shopping next door. If they all offer free shipping and returns and have similarly low prices (which, at this point, aren’t really differentiators anymore. They’re expected parts of the experience), how do you convince a customer to buy at one versus the other? Only two of the five stores give customers unique reasons to shop at their sites: Endless and Piperlime. Endless with free overnight shipping and Piperlime because with a combined shopping experience and shipping for Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Piperlime. And they don’t make you guess. Instead, they actually tell their customers in plain English with a big splash screen.
There’s got to be some reason all of these online shoe stores exist. There’s got to be something each business team thought they could do better or differently when they created these businesses (there’s a big difference between Payless and Zappos, right?) But to customers, the company’s differentiators aren’t clear. In the absence of a clear differentiator and value proposition-and by clear, I mean spelled out, in plain and simple language-it’s just about price, availability, shipping, and selection. Is that really all there is?
Nope. Take a look at the ‘about us’ pages for each of the stores. Long story short, Endless is about cool ways to shop and the free overnight shipping thing. Shoes.com is about being in the shoe business for 125 years and having really popular brands. Zappos is about personality-and yes, personality and can be a major differentiator. DSW is about designer discounts, at least that’s what I think I remember. I can’t even find the words “Designer Shoe Warehouse” on the site. Maybe they feel like their brand tells the whole story but they’re passing up an opportunity to tell customers what makes shopping with them unique and interesting.
C’mon. There’s got to be SOMETHING that makes you really different and better. Just remember, if you don’t tell me what it is, then I’ll just assume you’re basically the same as everybody else.
How does your site differentiate? Email your customer experience questions and ideas to tamara@fellswoop.com. I will publish replies in future versions of the newsletter.