E-Commerce

Before you work out an upsell pitch, resolve the original reason for the customer’s call. If possible, use this original impetus or the specifics of your resolution to craft your customized approach. Find out if customers would rather place their orders online. Then the rep will need to get them to clickthrough to the right links. (Or, would customers rather the rep take care of that for them?) Also decide which screens you want customers to see while reps are handling the processing end. Your reps should have experience viewing different browsers’ characteristics and should know what the different browser screens and screen sizes

* This article is very image-heavy. For optimized Web viewing and readability, the images do not appear here. To see the print version, plus images, click on “Refine Your Multichannel Message” PDF under Related Content in the upper-right corner of this page. You must have Adobe Reader 6.0 or above to view this document. As the online channel has settled into the mainstream in recent years, multichannel integration has become more crucial for catalogers. Still, there are plenty of marketers out there who neglect, or simply fail, to maintain one voice and a cohesive visual treatment across the three key channels: catalog, Web

Multichannel Brand Management: Refine Your Message

As you can see, the contents in this month’s issue are quite operations-heavy. We’re always trying to balance our coverage, and with a more general focus for our big double-issue next month, as well as a broadly focused June issue, we’ll turn to technology-related issues in July. Perhaps the most interesting thing we found in putting this month’s issue together was that, although there typically aren’t a lot of drastic changes in the whole area of catalog/multichannel operations, fulfillment and management, there are nevertheless noteworthy changes taking place. For instance, take a look at consultant Liz Kislik’s feature on necessary changes in catalog order takers’ approach

Four years ago, eyeing a niche for upscale designer room furniture and decor for children’s bedrooms, three business veterans with decidedly different backgrounds joined forces to launch the Koo Koo Bears Kids catalog/online business. During a session at last week’s NEMOA conference in Cambridge, Mass., one of the principals, Joe Mediate, shared the lessons he learned in starting up the company and steering it on the road to success. 1. Pool diverse backgrounds. Mediate, with 23 years of experience in the computer business, was approached by two women for the start-up: One with a background in retail merchandising, the other with experience working with Helen

In a recent survey by the Performics performance marketing unit of DoubleClick, most respondents said that customers turned to search engines earlier in the purchase process than in years past. Although the shift indicates a significant shift in shopping behavior, there wasn’t a notable shift in buying behavior, according to companies queried in the Performics 50 Index. Some of the most noteworthy findings include the following: 4 total sales from search engine marketing programs grew as search spend increased 4 total Q4 revenue attributed directly to search increased by 43 percent over Q4 2005 4 overall search-attributed sales for all of 2006 increased by

Reflecting on his past experiences as a database marketing executive with the Lands’ End, Eddie Bauer and Nordstrom catalogs, Kevin Hillstrom, president of Seattle-based MineThatData, discussed ways he learned to adapt company business models to maximize multiple channels during a presentation at last week’s NEMOA conference, held in Cambridge, Mass. While with Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer, “we brought their channels together to come up with a single solution,” he said, noting how Nordstom “basically ended” the old business model of having the catalog function as a viable sales contributor. Instead, it would serve to promote store and Web traffic. “We saw customers were behaving differently,

And trust builds businesses! You can flood your prospects with advertising they don’t want, or you can provide them with insights, information and know-how they can really use. Tips are the bridge that connects prospects to you. By solving their problems and improving their lives, you’ll earn their trust. And trust turns browsers into believers and believers into buyers. —LifeTips, (617) 886-9001, www.lifetips.com

Writing this issue of The Corner View from Cambridge, Mass., during the Spring NEMOA conference this week, I found myself reflecting on the types of people who attend this conference, as well as the types of people in this industry today. Although the catalog business has undergone much consolidation over the years, which has stripped some companies of their entrepreneurial spirit, when you come to a NEMOA, it reinforces the industry’s ages-old character. NEMOA people are warm, caring, entrepreneurial and very social. They share a unique passion for the catalog business. In many respects, they’re indicative of the traditional cataloger. But guess what? They’re

Research shows that most people say they trust the content in e-mails they’ve signed up to receive. The challenge, though, is to build an opt-in list of loyal customers so you can convert those eyeballs into sales and keep them buying. GOT Corp., a Montreal-based e-mail service provider, offers several suggestions in its new white paper, “Growing Opt-In Lists: Turning Web Browsers into Buyers.” • Place multiple opt-in locations on your site. Too many marketers make the mistake of limiting opt-in requests to the home page, the whitepaper states. Include e-mail registration and opt-in requests on every page and at every potential customer interaction