STORES Magazine - December 2008 - (Page 56)

NUTS AND BOLTS / ONLINE MERCHANDISING best practices. That can include swapping out an entire new homepage with templates or creating new ways to display the products so that every time a shopper returns to the site, there is something different to entice and engage her. “We recommend that people actually make changes to their promotions or merchandising on a weekly basis,” Riley says. “Part of our product set is designed to allow merchants to make those changes.” Intermix stocks a variety of designers from around the world, and fits and body shapes can vary drastically from one line to another. As a result, the company takes great care to provide comprehensive product copy that specifically describes the cut of every garment, along with precise measurements and how they will match up with body types. Updated content With a constantly-evolving assortment, Intermix’s content must be frequently updated with precise measurements and detailed information. Keeping customers abreast of new trends and styles is important also, and the website uses various elements to tell a story that 56 STORES / DECEMBER 2008 resonates with customers. “We get a lot of customers who are looking for more functionally-rich sites that will allow them to merchandise their products in better ways,” Riley says. “They’re looking for the flexibility to be able to present their offerings and collections.” Intermix customers can shop by trends such as “Black Magic,” “Socialista” and “Style U,” each catering to different market segments and offering the ability to mix and match tops, bottoms and accessories. Fashion is all about the look, and the visual elements of Intermix’s website are critical. It spends a significant amount of time on photography to make sure that the zooming elements allow shoppers to get a feel for every detail in a piece. Each trends page features a captivating layout with up to a dozen products. Shoppers can navigate the page, click on their favorite pieces and be brought directly to a new page to learn more about that product. MarketLive’s Intelligent Selling methodology enables merchants to enhance their customers’ experiences online while dramatically improving acquisition, conversion and retention rates. It has developed sets of best practices and consults with all of its clients to determine how to market most effectively to their target audiences. Intermix has embraced many of those best practices, Riley says, and it is paying off. “They have a very interactive and engaging site and they understand their target market and what appeals to it,” she says. “How they use their navigation has been specifically designed to appeal to that market. They highlight trends and educate consumers on what they are.” Multi-site, multi-language MarketLive v5.5 allows retailers to create shopping experiences that use market, audience and demographic-specific marketing and merchandising strategies. The multi-site, multi-language capabilities enable merchants to drive revenue and grow their brands by delivering web experiences that are targeted to the shopper’s lifestyle, language and location. The Intelligent Selling toolkit features dynamic merchandise imaging capabilities, e-mail campaign management, search engine visibility and intelligent cataloging, which promotes cross-channel selling by putting interactive versions of print catalogs online. Every quarter, MarketLive produces a performance index that tracks, in aggregate, the traffic, conversion and abandonment rates of all its customers. That report provides valuable information that allows retailers to analyze their metrics and compare their results against a broader sample. “It gives us a sense of what strategies and tactics are actually driving real performance,” Riley says. “We can take that and, on a merchant-by-merchant basis, see how everyone else is doing and map that to new customers.” McNichol said that visibility of the data has allowed Intermix to focus on the behavior of customers — why some shop online and why some shop in stores. Tracking customer behavior and patterns online also highlights what they are purchasing and the brands they prefer. As a result, Intermix can now deliver specific web pages to repeat customers based on their past behavior. “Instead of coming to the homepage and seeing the latest trend that we put up this week, I may substitute that for all brand new must-have arrivals for the fall,” McNichol says. “It may also give me an ability to cross reference to new designers they may have an affinity StORES for.” Craig Guillot is a New Orleans-based writer and photographer. WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

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

STORES Magazine - December 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Wrap Rage Unraveled What Shoppers Think Courting a Comeback 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Navigating the Road Ahead Website Strategy Concept2Watch Online Customer Service International Marketing Green Retailing Online Merchandising Signage Operations Online Strategies Pricing Strategy Kiosks RFID Human Resources Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - December 2008

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