We’re committed to changing the way we do things around here. A lot.
One of the changes on the horizon is to push our design services in a direction closer to a human-centered approach. That’s a tall order when we practice a medium that is roundly criticized for doing more to make people anti-social than anything else. Adopting design methods historically reserved for industrial design and product development won’t be easy in interactive design, but we’re committed to it as a path for Gorilla.
Aren’t you just talking about user-centered design?
I get that question a lot. In some ways yes, but Chad Camara has a post on his blog that encapsulates the differences very well in my opinon. We’re striving to focus on real, human improvement in our offering, not just improving efficiency. I will be challenging all of Gorilla’s clients to consider how their product or service improves the lives of their customers. Focusing on holistic design concerns in addition to efficiency is something we’re seeing as critical to the mutli-channel environment. People are smart enough these days to know when you’re trying to sell to them versus have a relationship with them. For a lot of our clients, user-centered just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
We’ve got a lot of work to do in this respect. The ephemeral nature of digital media is going to be an advantage and a drawback. The technology moves far too quickly to be mired in research for too long, but the relative ease of deployment means when you consider the long view, you can take a cyclic approach that will put human concerns first.
It will be interesting and challenging no doubt to see where this direction takes us in the years to come.
Read More
Part 1 of a 2 part series on ecommerce personalization.
At Gorilla, we see ecommerce is quickly shifting away from one-to-many conversations where retailers can submit massive communications to all customers and expect the best results. Customers today expect personal one-to-one conversations between consumers and retailers like they receive in brick-and-mortar stores. Your business and customers are unique. Your shopping experience should be too. One of our driving mantras is to create authentic shopping experiences that connect brands to the right customers. Ecommerce personalization can be a powerful tool to help retailers speak more relevantly to their customers.
Until recently, ecommerce personalization was only accessible to big retailers who could create their own personalization algorithms in their R&D facilities. What ultimately drove Amazon to the top of the internet retail hill was its ability to recommend products that users would find interesting in dynamic ways across their site. If you searched for a book on traveling to Italy, you might also see other books on Italian cuisine or lightweight travel backpacks. Ecommerce personalization is quickly becoming accessible to mid-market retailers as companies learn to scale complex algorithms into usable elements that make sense for the mid-market, both from an implementation and financial perspective. If you are unfamiliar with personalization, here is a quick overview of what it is and how it can impact your business’ bottom line.
What Is Ecommerce Personalization?
Ecommerce Personalization is a one-to-one interaction or one-to-one many interactions (site versioning for different visitor segments). A one-to-one personalization is custom web pages delivered to individuals based on explicit or inferred inputs. A one-to-many personalization is a finite set of web pages delivered to customers based on how these customers map to predetermined segments. Generalization – or one-to-all – is a single clickstream path or set of items appearing to all customers, regardless of their previously exhibited behavior or intent. 52% of consumers who experienced personalization like it according to a recent Forrester Report.
Personalization matters because shoppers value recommendations. Shoppers are often persuaded by recommendations because it helps them discover products and solutions they might not be familiar with otherwise. 77% of customers say they find recommendations in general extremely useful and 1/3 of consumers report having purchased products based on recommendations they were shown.
Personalization tools are able to drive key metrics such as revenue, conversion, average transaction value, time on site or margins, providing measurable ROI for marketers who have to fight for their marketing budgets.
How Personalization Works
Ecommerce Personalization is driven by shopper inputs, the engine algorithm and the resulting outputs.
• Shopper Inputs are data points implicitly gathered about the customer during their browsing session by observing customer behavior and then evaluated to extract commonalities, associations and cause-effect relationships. Common inputs are the time spent on site, keyword searches, customer reviews, location ID, product attributes, merchant-driven rules, clicks, sales and margin.
• The Engine Algorithm is a separate formula for determining which recommendations are most appropriate in a specific scenario. Common approaches include collaborative filtering, Bayesian reasoning, choice modeling, and simple data mining.
• Resulting Outputs are how marketing efforts are displayed onsite. Simple outputs can be cross-sells, upsells or mboxes (targeted marketing info) appearing on product details pages. Whereas a more complex result will come from landing pages or home pages changing, dependent upon the creation of different experiences retailers create for each cluster of shoppers.
But this is only the beginning of a topic that deserves some deep exploration. In part II of this post, we’ll go into detail about the functional requirements for personalization, the challenges common to retailers and the potential ROI for merchants who get it right.
Read More
For small merchants, starting a new online business is full of major strategic decisions. Of these, one of the most important is the ecommerce platform that will power the business.
While Gorilla is focused on being the leading ecommerce solutions provider for mid-size business, we spend a lot of time thinking about ecommerce in all its forms. To that end, Brian Grady, Principal at Gorilla, has written an article for eCommerce for Beginners on factors small businesses should consider when choosing a hosted ecommerce platform. With online sales growing and taking market share from every other sales channel, getting in the game has never been more important. So, take a minute and read the article.
The Small Merchant Forecast: Profitably Cloudy
Read More
I’ve been asking myself that question for years now. Combine that with the annoyance of having 10lbs. worth of phone book at my front door every few months, and I’ve really come to wish for the demise of the Yellow Pages, at least for the most part. I understand that there are people out there (see also: most of my extended family) that don’t have a computer or aren’t as comfortable finding the information they need from Google as they are with finding it from Ye Olde Phone Book. However, in an age in which between 80 and 90 percent of home sales start on the Internet, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that 80 to 90 percent of people aren’t flocking to the Yellow Pages to find your goods and services. Continue reading →
Read More
Let’s talk about merchandising.
“At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to the variety of products available for sale and the display of those products in such a way that it stimulates interest and entices customers to make a purchase.” – Wikipedia
A very simple definition, and yet it touches on so many key points. Magento Enterprise (a wondrous ecommerce platform) goes above and beyond common expectations to exemplify an ideal online shopping experience. How does Magento Enterprise manage to stand above the crowded web of competing ecommerce platforms in the world of online merchandising? Through dedication to established best practices that are geared to accommodate both the seller and buyer; everyone wins. Continue reading →
Read More
