STORES Magazine - September 2008 - (Page 38)

WORTH WATCHING / E-COMMERCE Comfortable Fit DSW’s new website a hit right out of the box BY KAREN M. KROLL D SW was intent on providing its customers exactly the online experience they wanted when it launched its e-commerce site (www.dsw.com) in early June. To reach this goal, Jon Ricker, executive vice president of strategic business development and chief technology officer for the $1.4 billion footwear retailer, and his team spent the better part of a year “really going to school” to identify the features that the company’s customers found most appealing on other e-commerce sites. “We wanted to cap- tomer reviews. For instance, customers can let others know whether the shoes were comfortable right out of the box, or if they’re appropriate for work. They also can indicate whether a particular shoe runs shorter or longer, or wider or narrower, than average. This information then appears within a graph on the shoe’s page within the site. goal, Ricker says, was to replicate as closely as possible the experience of shopping in a bricks-and-mortar store. Moreover, customers can check out an embellishment or examine the grain of the leather by viewing the shoe in high definition, which allows the image to remain sharp when zooming in. For customers whose feet fall outside the normal range, DSW’s online store carries a greater variety of styles in small and large sizes than its bricks-and-mortar counterparts. And the nine million members of DSW’s loyalty program can use the program online as well as in the stores. Latest and greatest To create the site, DSW turned to its internal development team and some well-known names in the e-commerce field. Art Technology Group provided the e-commerce platform; Sterling Commerce is behind the order management system, and the call center is run by Genesis. “We wanted to come out of the gate with the latest and greatest,” Ricker says. The cost for developing and launching the site was approximately $26 million, and the investment seems to be paying off. “Conversion and traffic are building very nicely,” Ricker says. At the same time, returns are running below industry average. Ricker attributes this to customers’ ability to get clear, detailed images of the styles and colors of the shoes they’re purchasing, as well as first-hand information on sizing. And benefits appear to be accruing to the company’s 270 store locations, as well. It’s not unusual for customers to use the site as a research tool, and then head to their local store to complete the purchase. As a result, rather than cannibalizing sales from the store channel, the site is increasing overall sales, Ricker says. “We’re looking at a pretty substantial StORES return for the first year.” Karen M. Kroll is a business writer based in Minnetonka, Minn. WWW.STORES.ORG DSW.com’s goal was to replicate as closely as possible the experience of shopping in a bricks-and-mortar store, says Jon Ricker. ture the best of the best, and weed out what they didn’t like,” Ricker says. Simplicity was deemed critical: Customers want to be able to spend just a few minutes on the site and still accomplish what it was they set out to do. Toward that goal, the site allows users to search for shoes by a number of features, including style and brand. They also can narrow their search of some 2,000 styles to include only shoes of a certain size, color, heel height or material, and can sort the results by price or customer rating. To reassure customers leery of purchasing footwear online, the site includes an ever-increasing number of cus38 STORES / SEPTEMBER 2008 DSW’s site also provides step-by-step information on accurately measuring for correct shoe size. DSW.com allows shoppers to rotate the picture of each shoe 360 degrees. They also can view it from above or below, and see exactly what the heel is made of or what a buckle looks like. The http://www.dsw.com http://DSW.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - September 2008

STORES Magazine - September 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Office Depot Unveils First Green Store Dunkin’ Donuts Debuts DDSMART What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Are You a Facebook Fan? RFID Concept2Watch E-commerce Supply Chain Marketing ERP Credit Web Optimization LP Vantage Point Newsbeat Cover Story LP Program Building Biometrics Industry Perspective Customer Service Site Selection E-Commerce LOEB Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - September 2008

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