STORES Magazine - January 2009 - (Page 38)

WORTH WATCHING / E-COMMERCE It’s Magic Application takes browsing to a new level at Borders.com BY ED McKINLEY M agic Shelf is an online presentation tool that makes shopping an e-commerce site seem a lot like browsing the shelves in one of Borders’ bricks-and-mortar stores. What’s so magic about it? Borders.com shoppers who use it view an average of 41 percent more books, music or DVDs and buy 62 percent more merchandise than those who don’t, says Kevin Ertell, senior vice president of e-business for Borders Group. “We tried to create a site that’s innovative and intuitive, and the Magic Shelf exemplifies that experience,” he says. “The site’s very comfortable because it feels like or a downward-pointing arrow to see the lower shelves. The images inside the Magic Shelf scroll appropriately. Clicking on a shelf scrolls it to the right or left. The technology underlying the Magic Shelf makes navigation seamless, without the “click, white screen, refresh” of html, says Graeme Grant, COO of Allurent, the Cambridge, Mass.-based vendor that helped Borders create the Magic Shelf. Users’ choice Merchandisers base “Picked for You” selections solely on the topics users choose, not on users’ past purchases, because customers sometimes buy gifts that don’t reflect their own interests. For example, a vegetarian could buy a single meat-oriented cookbook for an uncle and then receive years of recommendations for books on grilling steaks. In addition, creating personal offerings for each shopper requires an “immense” assemblage of data, Ertell says, but the site may begin providing them “in the near future.” Borders merchandisers drag and drop products from the company’s inventory of two million titles into the Magic Shelf application. They require no coding or technical assistance to manage the site, Ertell says. Allurent’s founders used to develop ecommerce platforms, but saw their products becoming commodities. They decided the future for online retailers — a bookshelf. You understand bookshelves — you feel good about them.” Borders.com greets online shoppers with a full view of a single shelf; consumers can see just the top of the merchandise on the shelf below and lower portions of the goods on the shelf above. The designers confined the entire presentation to the valuable home page real estate “above the fold” so users never need to use a mouse to scroll down the page while using the Magic Shelf. Instead, visitors click on an arrow pointing upward to view the top shelves 38 STORES / JANUARY 2009 MAGIC SHELF SHOPPERS View Buy 41% more 62% more The four-member Borders online merchandising team draws upon the expertise of the much larger corporate merchandising department, Ertell says. The merchandisers determine the number of shelves in the Magic Shelf application and the number of titles per shelf. and vendors to online retailers — lay in splashy differentiation, Grant says. Surveys of Borders.com visitors seem to support Allurent’s conclusion. A study of 6,064 users by Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Foresee Results indicates that Magic Shelf users are 13 percent more likely to purchase online, 9 percent more likely to return and 11 percent more likely to recommend the site than StORES non-users, Ertell says. Ed McKinley is a Chicago-based writer and editor. WWW.STORES.ORG http://www.Borders.com http://www.Borders.com http://www.Borders.com http://www.Borders.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - January 2009

STORES Magazine - Jauary 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Mechanical Marvel P&G Invests in Ocado Now I Remember What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Breaking the Monotony Multi-Channel Concept2Watch E-Commerce Analytics Category Management IT Systems In-Store Technology IT Systems Communications Website Strategy Communications SOA Energy Video Surveillance Employee Theft Online Fraud Industry Perspective Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword End Cap

STORES Magazine - January 2009

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