06-20-2007, 09:53 AM
Quote:My suggestion is for online retailers to bridge the experience gap in order to remain on the growth train. In fact, they need to start adding some "experience" focus within the next year if they want to beat the reduced overall projections for online retail.
When I talk about experience, I am not necessarily saying that your website should do whatever it takes to mimic the offline world. I would be a bad marketer to say that an approach like that would work for everyone. What I am saying is that online retailers need to consider what kind of experience they should deliver to their customer and prospective customer and focus on doing that well. Each retailer, now that the market is as competitive as ever, should learn to differentiate. It is no longer enough to put products on a website and execute your search marketing tactics. One must deliver a consistent, differentiated offering focused on your strengths rather than just "showing up" and being cheaper than the next guy.
Many online marketers now treat their online shopping sites as "task-oriented" conversion funnels rather than spending the time to get to know their customers and what they want and delivering something unique, as many of the offline retailers do...
full article: http://imediaconnection.com/content/15445.asp