Shop.org Round Up
Wow, Shop.org was full of creative people and creative ideas this year. We got a chance to meet everyone from folks setting up Facebook storefronts to the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders!
There were three key trends I picked out, and fortunately, {rr} gets to be a part of each of them:
- Interest in Mobile is accelerating: Every retailer was interested to learn how things are progressing and every vendor seemed to have a mobile strategy. {rr} even got headlines in the local press for the personalized mobile app we built in partnership with Sprella for Patagonia. Numerous retailers are seeing significant sales from mobile web, iPhone and iPad applications.
- Multi-Channel Consistency is challenging: For those of us working at or with multi-channel retailers, the consistency challenge is being tackled organizationally, strategically and tactically—and every approach at every level has trade-offs. A number of big-box retailers even have a director/VP whose title is “Multi-Channel”. The consistent thread of all of the success stories is not surprising: Put the customer first, and she will thank you.
- Social, Social, Social. Whether you play Facebook games or not, it’s very likely that your customers spend more time playing Facebook games than shopping your site (darnit!). Integrating this element of your customer’s life into our sales and marketing strategies is top of mind—and very few of us have “figured it out.” While we all have fan pages, and followers, and maybe even “Like” buttons, the “OMG THAT’S IT—THAT’S AWESOME” moment is yet to occur for all of us, but we’re all thinking about it and trying new things. I feel it coming in the next 18 months.
Thanks to the Shop.org team for putting on a great show. Let’s get ready for Q4—and if we’ve planned correctly, we’ll even get to test some of these great ideas this holiday.
–Selly
