Evolving Shift

Analytics in the Retail World: It is more than just numbers and reports

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:11:00 +0000

I have the privilege of being the closing keynote speaker at emetrics Toronto this upcoming March. I was really impressed with this conference last year and the quality of the discussion that takes place. Analytics is really more than the numbers behind the business but the complex understanding of how your business is evolving and how consumers are interacting with it.

Here is what I plan to talk about:

Analytics in the Retail World: It is more than just numbers and reports

OK so now you have a bunch of different data sources and a few people
dedicated to be analysts but the business doesn't seem to change,
what's wrong?. In this presentation Simon will talk about the
challenges of driving true analytic change in the traditional report
based retail organization. During this presentation he will address
the normal hurdles of transforming the organization into a true
analytics based business. Analytics needs to be part of everyone's
role with the tools being just that - tools to drive rich insights
that help the business move forward.

The agenda and list of speakers (Mitch Joel, June Li and Jim Sterne to name a few) looks like it will be a great place to be and as dollars continue to shift into interactive marketing and eCommerce it will be more important than ever that we move beyond the reporting and into the deep insights we can provide for the business.

I look forward to seeing everyone there and if you haven't already registered here is the link.

Google's Friend Connect Beta

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:32:00 +0000

Today I received an invite to join Google's Friend Connect, a new feature built on OpenSocial that allows for anyone to quickly add social applications to their site. It is pretty neat and very easy to setup so it will be interesting to watch over the coming weeks and months how this is adopted across the web. It will also be interesting to see which connect tools wins out - Facebook's Connect or Google's Friend Connect.

Take a look at the video below and I've also added a review and friend widget to the blog if you want to play around with they are ready to go.

The bottom line is that you really don't have an excuse anymore on why you won't start testing social media / commerce or your site - so get testing.

Think Like a Customer - Making it easier to navigate your site

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:31:00 +0000

I think we all find it difficult at times because of the speed we move at in eCommerce. Often the first element that falls off is the simplification of the creative assets on our site. Consumers are looking for quick navigation and need to understand what they are getting in return for continuing their journey through the site.

Try and keep everything at a basic level and remove your understanding of the event / promo or site when designing your site assets. If you want a consumer to click on an ad unit in your site you need to give them a reason why, but at the same time not provide too much information, decisions are made in seconds and landing pages can be used to continue the conversation.

By no means is this an easy task but it is essential if you want to improve your site conversion, sales and consumer engagement. The easiest way to start is to take a step back and ask the question "If I was new to this site what am I expecting to get if I click on this link or ad?" If you can't answer this question by looking at the creative assets / message or the answer is I'm not sure then go back to the drawing board and make some changes. Remember consumers don't need to use your site so make it a positive experience for them.

I've Been Blogged

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:21:00 +0000

I received an email the other day as Blogged.com rated my blog and gave me a score of very good. After logging onto the site it seems like I have a bit of work to do but I was pretty excited as I found a couple of other interesting blogs I am going to follow after playing around with the related blogs listing.

If you have a blog the marketing can't hurt so you might as well submit it to Blogged.com

You can also become a member and review other blogs as well. Not sure if you can get any more social with blogs but this would be a social media/commerce angle to blogging.

Continuing the Mobile Discussion - The Importance of Mobile in Retail

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:29:00 +0000

The recent post about mobile and how it will impact online business generated some interesting conversations.

More than one person commented that they are almost always using their phone in the store to validate their purchase and when I started thinking it was true for me as well. Even before my iPhone I was using my Blackberry to search for additional info on the product.

This brings up and interesting point. Mobile may push search to even higher levels of importance in the future. If consumers are searching for info just before they make a purchase the question to ask is are you positioning yourself, either through paid or organic, to ensure you are entering into the conversation - to seal the deal or steal someone away from your competitor?

Parth also brings up a great point in his comment, mobile browsing will mean that more content needs to be brought up to the front, to reduce clicks, path length and browse time. In the end this will be a great exercise for all of us to clean up our paths to conversion and deliver an even better experience to both the mobile and computer based consumer.

Online Marketing Conference for Free!

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:41:00 +0000

Bryan Eisenberg, author of Always be Testing, came up with a great idea of mashing up a bunch of the best content on Online Marketing on his blog grokdotcom.

Mitch Joel took up the torch as well at Six Pixels of Separation with his take on the virtual conference called Pixelated.

Both are great mashups and I would encourage you, and anyone in the eCom space, to take the time to go through them, it is well worth it. Thanks guys for putting this together.

Here are a couple of more (Mitch you need to get a video of you speaking online - I couldn't find anything to post from you).

Bryan talking about the importance of testing (and his new book) at SES:

A/B Split Testing with Bryan Eisenberg - Click here for more home videos

Information R/Evoultion (A video take of the book by David Weinberger - Everything is Miscellaneous:

And a few of my favorite videos that make you think:

Video Highlights from the Bazaarvocie Social Commerce Summit

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:45:00 +0000

I had to add this as I'm featured in the video from the 2008 Social Commerce Summit....

But seriously if you are in eCommerce or sell products in any channel you need to attend this summit next year. Bazaarvoice is by far the leader is social commerce and the learnings you can get are incredible.

I can't live without my iPhone - 5 tips for website owners

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Ok so I broke down about 24 hours after they launched and purchased an iPhone, I really didn't think it would change my view of the online world but it really has!

The iPhone interface and easy access to the Internet has greatly impacted my browsing behaviour. So much so that it is starting to get me thinking about how website owners need to think about how consumer’s browsing behaviours will be changing.

I really do believe this is something that we all need to be looking at in the short term; this will not be something that is going to generate an ROI anytime soon but will ensure you are properly positioned and will be critical to your success going forward. This isn't a .mobi or WAP play but understanding how your site and online business will be interfacing with the iPhone and other smart phones.

1. First if you don't have an iPhone (or other smart phone) you need to go get one this week, by having the phone you will gain a much better appreciation of how it changes your browsing behaviours.

2. Ensure you site is optimized for mobile (and safari for the real laggards our there). Can you register for your site, place an order, find store locations, etc?

3. Start tracking how consumers are interacting with your site through mobile devices using your analytics package. Understand where they are going, what they are doing, where they are coming from and where they leave the site.

4. Make sure it is easy to access the content consumers are looking for. CNN and CBC do a great job, Canoe and Report on Business are not doing anything (or I can't find it, which is pretty much not doing anything in my eyes). I use CNN and CBC way more than I did before and I can't remember since getting my iPhone when I have visited ROB.

5. If you are starting to see engagement from your customers look at building a mobile app. I love the Bloomberg and Score Mobile app and my engagement with these brands is much higher than ever before.

Some easy steps we all need to be looking at. I’d love to hear what everyone else is thinking, mobile seems to be that topic that everyone has talked about for the last couple of years but nobody really figured out how to be a real success. Now it looks like our consumers may drag us along with them.

Looking for a few great people...

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:20:00 +0000

Wow, I certainly have fallen behind in my postings to the blog and I will be getting on with my random rants soon - promise. It is very busy with my new role at sears.ca and it has been even more exciting than I had expected, the team is incredible and committed to taking us to the next level.

The reason for this post is that I am looking for a couple of great people to join the sears.ca team. We already have one of the best in the business and if you are looking for that next great challenge this would be it.

Director of User Experience and Analytics
Are you ready to lead the creative direction for Canada’s favorite site www.sears.ca? Apply for the role of Director of User Experience today.

Call, Click or Come In!

Reporting to the AVP E-Commerce, Director of User Experience will work to define the future strategy for Sears Canada’s sites, creative direction, reporting and the overall business in partnership with the AVP to ensure that the future goals of Sears Canada are met and exceeded.

This position is responsible for defining and optimizing the online customer experience and maximizing the revenue potential of Sears Canada’s web properties. The person in this position will play a key role developing Sears Canada’s web properties’ strategy, defining and prioritizing new site features/functionality, maximizing the site usability, increasing conversion rate (as well as other key metrics), and identifying and executing revenue enhancing programs. Key objectives include driving "Call, Click, or Visit" sales and increasing online customer satisfaction.

The director User Experience manages the technology strategy in conjunction with the IT team for Sears Canada’s web properties to ensure a stable, secure and cost optimized platform that provides the level of functionality that keeps Sears Canada’s websites at the forefront of our customers’ online shopping experiences. The director User Experience will work closely with the eCommerce business, merchandising, marketing and operations teams to ensure that Sears provides the number experience for consumers online.

This is an excellent opportunity to leverage your highly attuned business acumen, extensive analytical skills, demonstrated organizational skills and the knowledge base rich in retail industry practices and current trends.

Director Interactive Marketing and Community
Take your leadership and web based marketing skills to a new level today and apply for the Director of Interactive Marketing!

The Director – Interactive Marketing – Sears Canada acts as the thought and execution focused leader for all interactive marketing programs as it pertains to Sears Canada’s web properties while also providing input, supporting and executing, where needed, the online marketing plans for the greater company.

An advocate for the power of the web in creating conversations with the consumer the director owns and executes on the online social commerce / media strategies for Sears Canada’s web properties.

The director has a strong analytic approach to online advertising and is focused on driving sales to Sears Canada’s web properties through a mix of marketing strategies that include Search, Email, Affiliate, Display and Social Media. A strong understanding of the Canadian landscape with an ability to execute on programs with minimal input from agencies by leading a in-house execution and results oriented team.

The Director works closely with the Director – Sears.ca as well as the other web property business owners and the retail marketing team to develop budget, strategies and long terms plans to insert online as a key media for Sears Canada.

Reporting to the AVP – eCommerce – Sears Canada, the director works to define the future strategy for online marketing, community and the overall business in partnership with the AVP to ensure that the future goals of Sears Canada are met and exceeded.

A strong executer with an attention to detail, the director is a natural leader able to lead a medium sized team in a high paced environment that requires input from multiple groups not under their control.

Discovery Channels New Ad

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:53:00 +0000

It will be interesting to see how viral this one goes. It is a fun video to watch.

The Simplest Way to Define User Experience

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:01:00 +0000

I was thinking about this the other day when someone asked me what user expereince was. I'm sure we could all go on for days about many things but it really boils down to two simple things:

1. When a consumer does A on your site expecting B are you delivering on that promise?

2. Do you delight your customer in the process of getting from A to B?

Pretty much everything we do in the web development and user expereince fields can be covered by those two questions. But the question for us is how often do we get distracted and lose site of the above?

Google Audio Ads

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:48:00 +0000

I've talked about Google Audio Ads a couple of times, but it is pretty scary how Google is attempting to transform the advertising marketplace. Take a look at the video below and remember they have TV and Print on the way as well. Maybe one day we will even be lucky enough to see it in the Canadian marketplace!

If you work in a firm that does traditional media, you need to talk to your media buying team about this. Not only will it allow you to demonstrate the ease in which you can target and establish campaigns, but as I'm sure there are not a lot of people participating in the auction right now so you could be a hero showing your company a great way to lower media costs.

Assuming that this takes on it will only speed up the transition of the media mix as firms that embrace the auction system will be able to plan across medias in the most efficient manner.

Negative Word of Mouth - A Rogers' iPhone Case Study in The Making

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:53:00 +0000

I'm sure everyone has either heard of or had been following the negative sediment surrounding Rogers' iPhone pricing plans for the upcoming launch on July 11th. To me Rogers seems to be greatly taking advantage of the monopoly they have on the iPhone and didn't think about the longer term impacts on their brand and company or the opportunity they had.

Everyone talks about how WOM can work in both directions and this along with so many others we have seen will probably end up being another case study on "How NOT to do things". The best example of the negative sediment surrounding the Rogers rate plans for the iPhone and how it has polarized a fairly passionate and, I would assume, high value customer is RuinediPhone.com. (Fixed the Link - Thanks Nick!) This site is acting as the hub for 43,258 and counting consumers of which many will no longer purchase the iPhone and will probably start looking for other alternatives. If Bell and Telus were smart (and listening) they should swoop in and start talking to this group trying to win them over. I also can't imagine that Apple is very happy with all of this negative grassroots level publicity, given that the launch happening in less than a week. I was in the US over the weekend and almost everyone I talked with was aware of what was happening in Canada with Rogers and the iPhone. Word travels fast when people are passionate about something, love it or hate it. To have such a negative pricing strategy and term commitment over a product that the Canadian consumer and die hard apple devotees have been waiting for is not a good move - Rogers you now may be in trouble.

So the moral here is that Rogers potential lost an opportunity to drive a postive WOM campagin that could have helped position them as leaders in Canada for years to come. Now, because they didn't understand how the message would be percieved and re-communicated by the larger community, they have a disater in their hands that will require clean-up.

From my point, I'm pretty annoyed with the pricing. I won't be getting an iPhone when it comes out on July 11th and will be looking for other options, either Bell (maybe this one) or Telus. I'm also going to be signing the petition as soon as I'm finished with this post! Sorry Rogers but it looks like you didn't win me over from Bell.

A Quote to Live By

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:17:00 +0000

This is a quote that has really shaped my thoughts and actions - I actually keep a copy of it in my wallet and sometimes use it at the end of presentations as a reflection point for next steps.

It is not the critic that counts...
the credit actually belongs to the man/woman
who is actually in the arena...
who strives valiantly, who errs and often comes
up short again and again...
who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of
high achievement and,
who at worst, if he/she fails, at least fails while
daring greatly
so that his/her place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who know neither victory
nor defeat.

President Theodore Roosevelt

Saying Goodbye

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:45:00 +0000

As some of you know I made the decision this week to leave homedepot.ca to take on a new exciting challenge (more on this later) but the hard part was not being able to say goodbye to the team, colleagues and partners that had helped make homedepot.ca into what it is today.

I'm proud to say that I had the chance to lead one of the most innovative eCom / Interactive marketing teams in Canada, in a company that truly understands the value of the web and I was always excited to see how much everyone grew as the business evolved.

I look back only with positive thoughts at the many innovative executions over the past few years (and we all know not everyone was a success or went as planned - but we learned) as well as the great vendor partnerships that were developed. We all pushed the needle, and Home Depot and most importantly the customer are better from it.

The great thing is that as the Canadian eCom scene is so small I know I will have the chance to work with each of you again and I truly look forward to it!

Home Depot's Social Commerce Strategy Featured in Ottawa Citizen

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:37:00 +0000

The Ottawa Citizen did a feature today on Social Commerce titled Savvy retailers letting users do the merchandising.

Take a look, it profiles what Home Depot Canada accomplished with help from Bazaarvoice.

Social Commerce and Bazaarvoice

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:51:00 +0000

Here is one of the highlights from the Bazaarvoice Social Media Summit. It pretty much sums up the why of Social Commerce and UGC and at the same time it really provides a great glimpse into why Bazaarvocie is such an interesting and fun company to work with.

Sorry for those of you that keep asking for a summary of what I talked about, I'm aiming to get it posted this weekend.

Help Pick the Logo for Evolving Shift

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:58:00 +0000

As you may know, I'm attempting to crowd source the logo for the blog using crowdspring, a creative crowd sourcing site I profiled a couple of weeks back.

There are now a bunch of submissions and I need your help. Please go in and vote for the ones you like, or if you are really interested or creative add one yourself. The process ends on June 5th and I'll pick from one of the submissions.

See you at Stores 2008

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:30:00 +0000

On Monday and Tuesday the Retail Council of Canada will be having their annual conference - Stores 2008.

Looks like it is going to be a very interesting one this year and it is exciting to see that online is taking a larger role in retail. 2008 has been a really exciting year for eCommerce and Interactive Marketing in Canada as it seems to be really starting to take hold in the mind of Canadian businesses. We are behind the US but we have made incredible progress over the last year.

I'm going to be speaking on Social Commerce on Tuesday with Bazaarvoice. It should be an interesting talk as this is one area that the Canadian market has quickly adapted to embrace. It seems that almost every large site in Canada has added some type of social commerce functionality and are starting to integrate it throughout the business.

Also don't miss Mitch Joel's opening keynote on Tuesday which is always a thought provoking discussion.

Bazaarvoice's Social Commerce Summit - Day 2

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:23:00 +0000

Day 2 of the Bazaarvoice Social Commerce Summit was just as exciting as day 1. It was a shorter day but it was still packed with great content.

If you haven't already had a chance go take a look at Forrester's Social Technographics and add the book Groundswell to your reading list. It really provides a deep understanding of how to best target your social media and commerce strategies. Just like you target traditional media you can and need to target your overall social media / commerce strategies to hit your target market.

What was also important for all of us to note is that Walmart has fully embraced social commerce and are looking to extend their strategy in the near future. So if you haven't already jumped into the space you need to start to fully understand how you can align with your brand. If all of the big traditional retail brands have bought in, Social Commerce is no longer a fringe activity but a key retailing strategy. Start planning how can you leverage this, not only on your site, but through your whole business. Remember customers trust each other more than they do our advertising so creating a platform for this conversation to take place will be critical to ongoing success.

The last thing to note is that if you want to see a retailer that has fully embraced this take a look at Petco. They won the award at the summit for top Social Commerce Retailer and they fully deserve it, I had the chance to have dinner with John Lazarchick (Petco's VP of eCommerce), Tung Huynh (Bazaarvoice) and Brian Mark (Nurun) and it was one of the more enlightening conversation's I have had in a while.

All in all this was one of the better conferences I have been to this year, and most were echoing this sediment. Bazaarvoice deserves praise for putting this together. Great job and I can't wait until next year.

Bazaarvoice's Social Commerce Summit - Day 1

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:24:00 +0000

Wow pretty much sums up day 1 of the Bazaarvoice Social Commerce Summit. I had the privilege of presenting what we are doing at homedepot.ca with Answer Depot to a who's who of social commerce. It was pretty nerve racking speaking after the slate of speakers today - Brett Hurt and Sam Decker from Bazaarvoice, Kelly Mooney from Resource Interactive, Andy Sernovitz founder of WOMMA, Bryan Eisenberg from FutureNow as well people from Dell, Omniture and Canadiantire (on a side note it is great that two Canadian sites talked about how we are leveraging UGC in our business - yeah Canada!).

I'll go more in-depth on some of the key concepts later but are some of the key takeaways:

1. Your brand is open and we need to be able to understand how to harness this, you can no longer control the message.

2. With everything you do ask the question - Will people talk about this? If the answer is no then you are probably wasting time and money.

3. We all need to test more, and don't feel bad if you are not now as it seems nobody is really doing enough of this.

4. Take the time to measure your UGC efforts and leverage the content throughout your organization - from customer service to product development and everything in between.

5. You need to have a community manager and responsibility in the organization for UGC (this was what my pres was about but Dell also echoed this so I can make it a key takeaway...)

6. Bazaarvoice gets it, it isn't about the technology but about the people, process and content they develop.

I'll follow-up later with more details and outline what I talked about but if you are in eCommerce, Social Media or Interactive Marketing you need to put this summit on your calendar for next year.

Cool SEO site

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:20:00 +0000

Check out xinureturns.com, the site provides a great SEO dashboard that can be used to get a snapshot of your site vs. your competitors and provides a pretty comprehensive set of data that includes not only the pages indexed in the big three search engines but many of the other important variables that make up a successful SEO strategy.

Crowd Sourced Content Continued

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:10:00 +0000

A while back I blogged about Helium and their platform to crowdsource content. From all accounts they seem to be doing very well and continue to evolve the model.

A couple of days back I stumbled across Crowdspring, a new firm that allows you to crowdsource creative.

It works by posting your requirement as well as what you are willing to pay and the community provides ideas that you can then review and then accept.

They added some protection for the buyer that if you don't get at least 25 entries you are able to walk away without having to pay and they have also layered in some basic IP protection as well.

Crowdspring makes a living by bringing people together and providing the platform for the crowdsourcing to take place and for this they add 15% to the bid.

So instead of just talking about it I'm going to jump in and try to crowdsource a logo for the blog. I'll keep everyone up to date on how it goes. The sign-up was easy (it did seem to have a glitch on CC processing - it took multiple requests) so stayed tunned to see what happens.

What is an Online Community?

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:43:00 +0000

A community is a grouping of people with a shared interest, expereince or passion. Online this translates into people getting together and sharing their ideas, thoughts and experiences with each other. When the magic happens and a brand creates a community it become a place were advocates for the brand are born and given the tools to share with others.

An online community is not a bunch of people linking to your brand, viewing a page on a site or interacting with a one way widget.

It is not about quantity of people but a gathering of people with a shared passion.

Something to think about when build your online strategy...

Building for the Experience

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:13:00 +0000

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting "Taking the Online Experience Offline" with Jim Yang from Nurun (As an aside Nurun is a great partner and if you are looking for an agency in the interactive space they are one to seriously consider) at Marketing Mag's Experiential Marketing Symposium.

From my perspective the discussion was a very interesting one that evolved around building your online experience and how to bring this offline. I want to spend some time today talking about how to really develop that online experience.

First you really need to understand your brand. What is it that you stand for and what are customers expecting when they start an interaction with you? If you are lucky enough to have an established brand already most of these questions should already be answered and from this you can start to build what your experience should be online.

What this means, in it's simplest sense, is that you should have solid alignment across channels. If you are known for being able to empower people to deal with a problem, find the hard to find product, being the comprehensive source in providing information or always showcasing the newest innovation your online experience needs to match that. Remember that consumers are often interacting with your brand online before they are anywhere else so ensuring you build a positive and aligned brand experience is critical. Your website isn't just a place for simple information but it is an extensive brand experience.

Secondly, after you have understood how to build brand alignment, you need to address a really key understanding of a successful business and that is the concept of customer delight. Are customers delighted with the experience they get when using your site? Is it easy to use, navigate and fun? This is a broad area that covers everything from performance, design and functionally but if people are not delighted, while using your site, why would they ever come back? Build a site that is fast, available, easy to use and fun.

The third concept to address is that of value. Do your users perceive they are getting value in exchange for interacting with your site? Are you providing them the information, tools and resources that meets or exceeds the needs of the visit? You need to be constantly asking this question and making adjustments to ensure you are always seen in a position of value. The internet is a big place and consumers can quickly change to another brand or site (anywhere in the world) that is providing more value to them.

There are many other components to consider but if you start with these three and drive excellence you will be well on your way to being a success. Just think of the sites you visit / use on a regular basis and you will understand how they have solid alignment with their overall brand, provide delight and value on a regular basis.