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The etail explorer
A look at some of the launches, innovations, ideas, oddities, controversies and debate currently circulating in the ecommerce space.
One of the truly great things about the internet as an instrument of commerce is its capacity to allow tiny one-man band organisations to compete (pretty much) on an even footing with multinational giants. It's a treasure trove hosting million upon million of niche markets to satisfy the limitless diversity of consumers' demands. It is also a working space of constantly updated ideas and approaches, a commercial frontierland with new and ever more inventive ways of presenting products, of reaching, retaining and generating customers.
For retail in particular etail is an exciting, ever more important sector and, at the moment, home to many of what good news stories there are coming out of the industry.
Over the coming months we are going to be looking at etail from a variety of angles: from site launches, product launches, comp shops, research, new site content, marketing methodologies and, of course, recruitment tools. In fact we will be examining pretty much anything we stumble upon that we consider interesting, from all etail businesses great and small.
Viral Marketing:
www.colouredrocks.com
Aiming to generate a "word of mouth" email or internet buzz for goods and services is a tricky business and often fails to yield the extra web traffic or brand exposure that is desired. The viral game Diamond Detonation developed by digital agency Tamba for online jewellery retailer Coloured Rocks has got it right. It's a classic maze format game wherein you have to work your way around a mine avoiding 'Meanie Miners' and their dynamite picking up sufficient jewels to reach the next level. It's very, very addictive.
It is also by all accounts rather successful; Coloured Rocks estimated that more than 132,000 people had played the game since its launch last month with, impressively, an average visit time of four minutes. That's an awful lot of potential customers being encouraged to visit the etailer's site. Certainly Tamba appears to have a satisfied customer. Steve Bennett, Coloured Rocks' MD said: "We have a high customer retention rate, so attracting new customers is always a top priority. Viral games are the ideal solution - we feel Diamond Detonation reflects the accessibility and usability of our website."
If you fancy a go at Diamond Detonation, go to www.theappointment.co.uk/ddgame.htm
New site launch:
www.curvykate.com
Offering "beautiful bras for a fuller bust", the recent launch of CurvyKate.com is interesting on a number of levels (beyond the obvious aesthetic attractions). Whether by accident or by design the timing of the launch worked to the brand's advantage coming, as it did, just weeks after M&S relented under pressure from busts4justice to discontinue charging extra for larger lingerie - thus further underlining the continuing existence of demand for the niche product.
Also interesting, the brand's internet launch hasn't taken the form of a transactional portal for the public to use - you can't buy Curvy Kate lingerie from the site (at least for now). Instead the website is being utilised as a shop window to attract orders from retailers and distributors. Thus rather than going head-to-head with the likes of Bravissimo, SimplyYours or Figleaves, for example, Curvy Kate is clearly looking to attract just these types of companies (it is already listed in international mail order company Simply Yours plus a number of independents).
And they are clearly fairly confident of their prospects. Designer, Adriana Olszewska commented: "Very few brands offer the fashion, the fit and the size range [DD to J and back sizes from 28 to 40"] available from Curvy Kate and the response to the brand has been astounding from independent retailers to larger department stores. Many store owners have even reported back to us saying many customers have tried a Curvy Kate bra and were so impressed they left the shop wearing it - which speaks volumes."
