Fashion Shopping Tries On the ROPO Effect
Econsultancy has provided a valuable analysis of a GSI Commerce survey about the ROPO effect (research online, purchase offline), specifically related to fashion retail. Well over half of fashion shoppers have researched purchases online. What are the most important factors to consumers? Filtering by color, price, and other features, and high-quality product images that provide multiple ways to view a product. Also of note: 54% of shoppers that had interacted with a retailer’s social media platform (mainly Facebook or Twitter) said that process changed their perception of the brand. Furthermore, roughly half of that group most enjoyed hearing about deals and competitions. In other words, they preferred direct interaction with a retailer through social media, rather than simply connecting with other shoppers. This is important stuff, people.
Read the rest at econsultancy.com.
Finally, a Clear M-Commerce Strategy
I guess it’s time to quit trying to not be obsessed with mobile. The retail industry is. We are. Get Elastic provides a welcome beacon of light in the relentless deluge of articles amounting to “Hey! Mobile is important!” with an excellent detailed outline of how to develop a clear mobile strategy. They say it best: “The most direct and effective way to provide a unified multi-channel view including mobile phone/tablet/PC and other devices is to leverage existing ecommerce functionality, exposing it through an open architecture, stable integration framework, and documented APIs.”
Take advantage of their guidance at getelastic.com.
When Google Asks, You Answer
And now, a public service announcement. In preparation for changes to their product search feed policies, Google reminds online merchants to update their product feeds by September 22, 2011. They outline the new requirements; I’d add that this seems like a perfect opportunity to evaluate and update your content to take full advantage of your other changes.
Find out what you need to do at googlemerchantblog.blogspot.com.
