Case Study-Park Seed's Web Site (1,707 words)
By Katie Haegele
For 132 years the Park Seed Co. has been a mainstay for expert and novice gardeners alike. The marriage between its trusted print catalog and its snazzy new Web site is a model relationship worth studying
In the next year, Park will have one of the top five sites, usability-wise, in the United States," says Amy Africa, e-commerce consultant and president of Creative Results.
A veteran of the catalog-selling business, Park Seed had lots of compelling reasons to get online—and to do it right.
"I've studied gardening e-business since Garden.com started," says Africa. "That was a great site with a lot of bells and whistles but they didn't have a good balance of content, community and commerce. Park's got the things I tell all my clients they simply have to have: Easy navigation, the terrific sales experience, a streamlined shopping cart and a really strong homepage."
The Park Co. comes by its first-rate business sense pretty naturally. In 1868 George W. Park, who had loved horticulture since childhood, bought a hand press and printed a list of seeds when he was only 16. He distributed the list among family and friends, and a demand—and a new company—was born. Present-day President and CEO Karen Park Jennings carries on the family tradition with aplomb—she is a third generation Park.
When the company launched parkseed.com on Dec. 5, 2000, it knew it had a reputation to maintain. Internet Directors Christa Hanson and Mark Hyatt share the inside story on why their Web site is about to become an online powerhouse.
Something Old
Hyatt, a former designer in the print catalog department, says Park Seed wanted to ramp up its e-commerce effort for several reasons, not the least of which was to improve trackability and, consequently, customer service.
The company had a local site that was content-oriented (static HTML) with a link to a pre-packaged storefront. "That in itself was very limiting," Hyatt says. He explains that a pre-fab site is great for a down-and-dirty launch but it simply couldn't measure up to Park customers' high expectations.
The site was built on frames, a format Hanson says did not lend itself to log analysis and made detailed reporting a real headache. She says the old version made it appear as though visitors spent much more time on the front page than they actually did. More importantly, says Hanson, the crucial bridge between what content a visitor was reading and what she consequently decided to buy didn't exist on the frames site.
"One of our other big frustrations with the storefront was that when you placed an order online in this setup, it had to be downloaded every evening and keyed in every morning," says Hyatt.
Now orders and inventory are all tied in to the back-end.
Although there was a lot of work to be done, Park Seed spent more time on the planning stages than any other aspect of the redesign.
"You'd be amazed—the Web site was done almost entirely in-house. So much took place even before [the] first drawing of the layout," says Hyatt.
Now everything is handled internally, but the company laid solid groundwork by using experts and looking extensively at current customer demographics and marketing information.
Something New
The new Park Seed site simply bursts with exciting offers and strong content. Such features as incentives and discounts, and helpful, cheery tips give customers a reason to stay a while.
"One thing that may not be readily apparent is that all the things on the site are working together in a coordinated way," says Hyatt.
All sales deals, banners, content and featured items are tied into a seasonal theme, giving the site a "sales experience," central to the company's personality.
Hyatt says the site's continuous upkeep depends upon a strong team spirit.
"Some companies have the perception that you can have an isolated Internet venture apart from the rest of the company. Here, the Internet is part of what everybody does," says Hyatt.
Park Seed's holistic, company-wide approach to marketing also shows in the informational nature of its content. Africa says, Park Seed President Karen Park Jennings takes her role as advisor to all levels of gardeners very seriously.
For instance, new visitors are given the option of personalizing the site by entering their ZIP code, a feature unique to a cataloger that sells live plants.
Hyatt explains: "The whole country is divided into six 'growing' or 'heat' zones. In order to make sure we're selling the proper material and tell people when it's going ship to them, we ask for their ZIP code."
Hyatt and Hanson created a database that matches zones with ZIP codes—a huge undertaking—and linked it to an automated warning that pops up when customers try to put something that's incompatible with their growing zone into the shopping cart. Hanson says she has big plans for even more sophisticated personalization in the near future.
Something Borrowed
Parkseed.com's most valuable features are probably the ones borrowed from the company's accumulated off-line wisdom.
"Anything that's not part of its mission is unacceptable for its Web customers," Africa says.
Hyatt says one of the team's goals is staying true to the company heritage.
"The Park Seed brand is one of the most prominent one[s] in the catalog industry. We have a high standard to meet. People have a nostalgic feeling about the company and we take that very seriously," she says.
Providing information and making suggestions are two of Park's core competencies, and being on the Web has made both easier to accomplish.
"If it were my company I'd just upsell and cross-sell aggressively, but Karen [Park Jennings, president and CEO] wants to really help people become good gardeners by taking her suggestions," says Africa.
Furthermore, says Hyatt, Park considers its Web effort part of a multi-channel strategy.
"We think of our customers in two categories—existing customers and new ones we bring in through the Web site," he says.
By pushing paper customers to the site to use the quick-order form or access Web-only exclusives, Park keeps print and fulfillment costs down.
Something...Scary?
Hanson acknowledges that trying for a successful Web venture is fraught with challenges, even for a direct marketing veteran.
"One of the first things people might be worried about is cannibalizing their own business. Park Seed has been around for 130 years. There are whole generations who follow us. We need to meet their expectations online," she says.
Top Picks
The Park Seed site offers a host of interactive elements for shoppers. The site focuses on converting browsers into loyal customers by offering content, discounts, gardening advice and services. Here are a few of the site's most effective features that marketers should consider using, says Africa.
E-newsletter
"The newsletters are so neat. A great deal of thought goes into each and every one. One featured a letter from the president with a picture of her. There are tips and recommendations. It is a perfect place to start with a lot of merchandising. One of the biggest draws is the newsletter specials. We have all sorts of incentives on the site, but people who sign up for the newsletter get pretty significant savings." —Christa Hanson
Fresh Content: The "Sales Experience"
"Every month we have a theme, there is something fresh to do in the garden. Various feature products focus customers' attention to that theme. Tips, links, animated banners, featured products, are all tied in to the theme. It is not an accident that things change a great deal: We need to keep it fresh and interesting and to bring you back." —Mark Hyatt
Refer-A-Friend Program
"Viral marketing has been one of most popular aspects of [the] site. Gardening enthusiasts like to share information with one another." —Mark Hyatt
Cross Selling
"We significantly increase average order by having features like Suggest-an-Item. But we have to prove to people that the order is relevant." —Mark Hyatt
Customer Feedback
"It is extremely important to listen to the customer. We cherish the e-mails we get from customers. We study them, put them in notebooks, share them, talk about them. You may think they go off into Neverland, but not only do we respond to every single one of them but we take suggestions from customers in improving the site." —Mark Hyatt
Customer Questions
"Our customer service people work with Internet customers every single day, answering horticultural questions and e-mail inquiries." —Amy Africa
Become A Member
"This personalizes the experience. If you log in today we see your zone, but we have a lot more in mind in terms of personalizing the experience. We were mindful of the fact that many people are wary of cookies. A log-in was recommended to us; permission is the way to go these days." —Mark Hyatt
Quick-order Form
"The way we try to meet existing catalog customers' needs is with the quick-order form. The quick-order form is essentially a Web replica of the catalog order form. We push people to the site and encourage them to use this—it helps us lower overhead." —Mark Hyatt
Top 10
"We found that customers like to know what is popular. Gardening can be overwhelming if you're a novice. You want to know what other people are having success with. The overall top-10 list of the biggest sellers is very popular." —Mark Hyatt
Imagery
"Mark Hyatt is a great artist because he doesn't complicate the page. A lot of pages out there are beautiful, but the pictures are too slow or too muddy. That's totally distracting for the viewer." —Amy Africa
Discount Code Program
"The discount code program rewards you for participating in various things—when you sign up for [the] newsletter you get a code to use for a discount. Incentives are very important." —Mark Hyatt
First Generation: The old site was built on frames, a format Hyatt says did not lend itself to log analysis and made detailed reporting a real headache.
Personalized Site: "This is an interesting feature and one that is unique to our product. Catalog customers have come to know about this. But the Web site brings such a new dimension to it. We can expand this to cross-selling opportunities as well."
