eCommerce camp Online Merchandising

Source: My personal notes from eCommerce camp Online Merchandising on Jan 31 2011

Multi channel commerce changes

• people, technology (customer centric), process (rapid change), global competition
• Dropship inventory - no inventory ownership, reduce risk and touchpoints (inter mediation)

Marketplace

• targeted niche marketplaces, buy.sell focused, content. templates.education focus on niche,

Merchandising trends

• stat: Canadians are comfortable online but not as buyers v US, see US for trending > issues are shipping and trust
• product attractiveness. Maximise content: detailed descriptions, pictures, reviews - bridge online to physical, video reviews and tutorials

Price

• shipping costs, return in store to make it easy, online could be used for price discrimination and segmentation

Content

• measure bad content with reviews and returns
• educate sellers about SEO, richness
• need content to help clients choose (e.g. Sizing charts, personalization)
• “m” (mobile) commerce - transactional or research based

Trends on merchandising

• diversity of inventory
• multi channel content
• single experience across channels

Metrics

• traffic, returns, conversions, usage of data