Web 2.0: Make Your Site Like a Main Street Store

With Web 2.0 tools in multichannel marketers’ grasp, Web marketing is ready to become as personable as old-fashioned Main Street stores, said Cliff Conneighton, senior vice president of marketing for Web software solutions provider ATG, during a session at last week’s e-Tail conference in Washington, D.C.

“If we can make online shopping as personal and relevant as the best local shops,” he said, “that’s best for the customer and you. Present a more relevant offer and she’s more likely to buy.”

Feeding off a common theme — to pay attention to what shoppers want and present choices most relevant to what they want — Conneighton illustrated several ways in which he recommends marketers can better personalize the online shopping experience.

* If customers go to a sporting goods site, for example, and browse through bikes, if they return to your homepage, offer a bike promotion rather than some daily sale for, say, running shoes, Conneighton said.

* Also referring to a sporting goods site example, Conneighton noted that marketers should treat the customer who comes from, say, a boating site differently than one who finds the site from a search.

* Forty percent of shoppers will type something in your search box, he pointed out. If you have data on someone who types “sweaters,” and know she’s more fashion conscious, you’ll want to list designer sweaters first. On the other hand, if you know she’s more of a bargain hunter, you should list sale sweaters first, he said.

* These days, many marketers have caught on to Amazon.com’s technique of showing shoppers, “Other customers who bought this, have also bought these. ...” Conneighton said that marketers can take that practice one step further, pointing to a customer from, say, the Northeast, who’s looking for gardening books. Don’t just list all gardening books; list those relevant to gardeners in the Northeast, as opposed to different climates, such as Florida, he pointed out.

* Conneighton tossed out a way to keep customers who may choose expensive products and place them in their shopping cart, but then don’t immediately place the order. He suggested having a pop-up that says, “Can I help you?” and enabling customers to click on it to make a live connection to an order taker. He said that conversion rates increase 62 percent by doing this.