“Fashion changes, but style endures.” – Coco Chanel
In the last couple of years, online retail has skyrocketed to outpace that of physical retail locations. Free shipping is table stakes. Ratings and reviews are ubiquitous. And now, pioneers are dipping their toes into social commerce as a way to capture more wallet share. In fact, according to a Forrester report, “The State of Retailing Online: Marketing, Social and Mobile,” seventy-two percent of retailers say they’ll increase social networking spend in 2011.
Instead of bricks or clicks, innovative retailers are working towards connecting bricks with clicks by integrating offline and online channels and creating multiple touchpoints for customers. One such retailer at the forefront – bringing the traditional storefront to life on social channels – is Express. On Tuesday, Express became one of the first fashion retailers in the U.S. to sell merchandise on Facebook. By visiting the Shop Express tab on their Facebook page, potential customers can browse the entire Express catalogue for men and women and purchase merchandise. What’s more, visiters can “Like” the clothing and accessories, post comments, rate the items and share purchases with their friends by posting new buys onto their Facebook walls.
Express recognized early on that Facebook was a valuable tool in their arsenal in creating an engaged community. In the past, Express primarily used Facebook to highlight sales and promotions, but it learned through experiences with their mobile store that customers often ask friends and family for fashion advice. According to Jim Wright Sr., senior vice-president of e-commerce and CRM, Express launched its Facebook store so that customers could “talk about [products] with friends across the country.”
I see five really smart things Express did that might provide food for thought to other retailers hoping to hone their multichannel social engagement strategies:
- Ensure cross-channel coordination and consistency. Express made the shopping experience consistent with their other channels – price, overall layout, inventory, pricing, wishlists and comments are all automatically synced with their other web and mobile properties.
- Write strong calls-to-action. Determine what you want visitors to do, and then tell them. Make copy easy to understand and easy to follow.
- Make it opt-in. Don’t force potential online shoppers to “like” your page in order to use all the shopping functionality. Don’t create barriers to participation — instead make it easy for potential customers to browse merchandise and give them the opportunity to “like” the page if they enjoy their shopping experience.
- Create an easy purchase experience. For Express, purchasing on Facebook was just as easy as purchasing online. It took me five clicks to proceed to check out, similar to their online store.
- Leverage ratings and reviews sharing capabilities. Without a physical dressing room, it’s hard to know what merchandise really looks like, feels like, etc. Reviews and ratings from other customers can help in the decision making process. Express created an opportunity for friends to share their ratings and reviews on Facebook — a site where friends and family are already gathered for social information sharing.
Like Fashion, technology might change, tools might come and go — but one thing remains constant. In order to stay ahead of the game, it’s not so much about the newest tools, but how well the tool can be used to satisfy customer needs. Express did just that.
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