Evolving Shift

This I Believe (A Manifesto for eCommerce)

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:14:00 +0000

A few weeks back Avinash wrote a post called 'This I Believe [A Manifesto for Web Marketing and Analysts]' and it really struck a chord with me. The Internet is still continuing to evolve, especially in eCommerce (and more so in Canada), where retailers are really starting to understand the power of the internet - not as another advertising medium, not as a sales channel but as a true means of engagement.

So here is what I believe is key to building a successful business online:

1. I believe that talent is more important than technology. eCommerce is a technology based business but it is the great teams that separate themselves from the rest of the field. When building a business or team focus on people first then process and technology. What makes a star? It is someone who is passionate about their role, is always looking for the next thing and doesn't mind getting their hands dirty. The best people and teams win, it isn't about the latest and greatest technologies.

2. I believe you need to fail to be successful but you need to fail fast. Fast failure is key to any growth business and if you are not failing you are not taking chances and you are not pushing the boundaries to truly learn where you or your business can go. Build a culture that encourages taking smart risks and rewards people that are working to take the business forward. I am passionate about this and spend more time on this with my leaders in building a culture that supports fast failure than anything else. Failure is a good thing - fail fast, learn and try again.

3. I believe that you always need to be thinking about the customer. Everything you do should be focused on improving the experience for them. In the end we make money by delighting the customer. It isn't about clever tools or functionality to find additional sales or profits but about making customers want to further engage with your brand if that be with a larger wallet share or them becoming a brand evangelist. To do this you need to always be listening and talking to your customer and it can't just be a few people in the organization that are doing this, everyone needs to understand how their roles will impact and improve the customer's interactions.

4. I believe that the internet is the worlds best engagement tool. As mentioned before it is more than sales or a marketing platform. It is a place where you can engage your customers (or prospects) and allow them to choose how and when they want to interact with your brand. As eCommerce, and the internet, continues to play a larger role in the overall success of the business you need to treat your website and its extensions through the Internet as the hub for the business were consumers can access the full breadth and depth of information on your products and / or services.

5. I believe there is a story in everything we do. It isn't just about reports, plans and numbers it is about the core reason why you are doing what you are doing and this needs to be actionable and marketable. Stories are great ways to build a business they can be understood by all - both business and technical and are built around a who, what and why (In the simplest - As X I want to be able to do Y to achieve Z...). Stories are easier to understand and remember than a detailed plan or report and can be repeated with ease. A good story can drive an organization and allow you to move faster than every before.

So these are my top 5 beliefs that I drive everyday. I know and believe that by putting these in place you can transform any organization and quickly deliver success.

Growing at Sears.ca - Are you a Superstar?

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:07:00 +0000

We are continuing to grow at Sears.ca. If you are a star in eCommerce and are looking to work with, in my opinion, the top team in Canada take a look at the positions below to see if you are a fit.

We are looking for great people who are passionate about eCommerce and get excited about making the businesses grow.

Director of Online Merchandising and Business Development: As a Director of Online Merchandising & Business Development you direct the site merchandising strategy for Sears Canada's online businesses focusing on new vendor and category growth through vendor to customer and cart to cart opportunities as well as partnering with the retail business teams to ensure alignment among programs.

Online Merchant: As an Online Merchant you will source new products, categories and vendors to grow Sears Canada's business online. A strong analytical focus coupled with experience in online merchandising and vendor negotiations the online merchant drives sales and product breadth / depth through development of the vendor to customer, cart to cart and support of One Sears.

Senior Onboarding Specialist: As a Senior On Boarding Specialist you will identify and prioritize training requirements for the on boarding team including, prioritizing requests for enhancements of the Content system. As well, this role will drive the execution of the online product content creation and enrichment process by partnering with internal and external business teams to help ensure a positive customer shopping experience through product information pages.

Onboarding Specialist: The Onboarding Specialist will drive execution of the online product content creation and enrichment process by partnering with internal and external business teams to help ensure a positive customer shopping experience through product information pages. Understanding that the key to online shopping is a positive customer experience, the Onboarding Specialist will work to customize their categories to specific customer needs. The goal of the Onboarding Specialist is to create high volumes of product data with accurate, rich content to Sears Canada's web properties.

Vendor to Customer Compliance Manager: As a Vendor to Customer (V2C) Compliance Manager you will drive excellence in Sears Canada's Online Vendor to Customer merchandising program. Working with vendors through the onboarding process the V2C Compliance Manager ensures a clean execution and launch of each new program as well as adherence to SLAs post launch.

Vendor to Customer Specialist: As a Vendor to Customer (V2C) Specialist you will ensure that Sears Canada's V2C program is delivering operational excellence to our customers through vendor engagement and issue resolution. The specialist works with vendors pre and post launch to ensure compliance with timelines, service level agreements and program requirements.

Good Data is Good Business! Five Crucial Steps to Successful Data Integration

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:48:00 +0000

Wow - crazy busy of late and I haven't had a chance to blog much. I will be talking on Wednesday about a topic that is near and dear to my heart - Product data and how it is an competitive differentiator. Here is some info, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

• Presented By: All About ROI
• Sponsored By: Stibo Systems
• Duration: On hour

Speakers: Simon Rodrigue, AVP of eCommerce - Sears Canada; Tim Holody, COO, Seta Corp.

Moderator: Paul Miller, Editor in Chief, All About ROI

In the process of receiving product data from vendors for use with product displays and descriptions across channels, many details can get lost in the shuffle. But the proper integration of data saves time and money and will make you more money.

Register today to learn how efficient data management will:
- impact your bottom line positively
- reduce merchandise returns
- decrease business risks
- expedite product delivery
- improve internal and external communications

In this webinar, All About ROI, industry leader Sears and database marketing expert Tim Holody will show retailers of all kinds - brick and mortar, catalog, online - the importance behind making sure the data for your inventory is accurate and primed for communication to the consumer, as soon as new stock is available.

Come to this session armed with your questions about successful data integration. You'll be able to submit questions directly to our panelist for a live Q&A session during the hour.

For more info click here.

Google Chrome Address Bar Search Generates Internal Site Search Queries

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:50:00 +0000

I stumbled across a feature in Google Chrome today that I wasn't aware of. First off you can use the address bar for search, everyone knows this, type something in and it displays a Google search results. Today I was doing some SEO testing and typed in - Sears.ca Lawn Tractor - to see where we ranked. To my surprise the result was the Sears.ca search results page not the Google Search results. It seems that when you type in a URL and a keyword after it Google then executes a search query on that site. A great user experience but I wonder how, if and when Google will monetize this. It takes queries away from the auction and, for us retailers, it dives the customer into a deep relevant landing page - the internal search results for the query. Maybe in the long run it will be treated like a brand term but for now this is a very interesting advancement for Chrome and the overall browser experience.

Here is an example:

Starting a search in the address bar on Google Chrome - notice that the second option is an internal search query.

When I add the keyword, in this case lawn tractor, the sears.ca keyword turns into a "Search sears.ca" icon:

I complete the search and instead of the expected Google search results page I am delivered the internal search results for the lawn tractor query just if I had done it on the site:

So far it seems to work on most of the major sites but not all are included. In Canada, from an eCommerce perspective, it seems to only work on a few sites - Sears, Amazon & eBay. Not sure what triggers it to work and I haven't found any info about this online, yet, so we will have to keep our eyes open. All in, it is an interesting browser addition, improves the user experience and helps drive relevant results to the consumer.

Failure is a Good Thing - Fail Fast, Learn and Try Again

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:55:00 +0000

One of the stumbling blocks that many retailers have when growing their online channel is the fear of failure. The idea of this post is not push the idea that you should not fear failure, but that fear keeps you sharp and we need to challenge the idea of failure within an organization. In the end what we all want to do is fear and avoid total failure but small failures can be good. In fact by encouraging the small failures you may be reducing the overall risk of the business / project failing.

First off you need learn from failures, it means you are pushing the envelope, trying new things out and driving the business at a fast pace. Things happen, even the best laid plans, the deepest analytical model or the most detailed project plan will see unexpected change. Analysis paralysis is the enemy here, best is to understand the opportunity, have the talent in place to understand how to take advantage of it and get an execution plan that makes sense for the business. If this fails then learn from it so that: A. You don't fail again in the same manner, and B. The learnings are applied to drive the business forward.

Secondly, if you fail you need to fail fast. Ensure that you have built an agile model and organization that can support fast failure. This means than you are willing to walk from projects that are not showing the expected results. Failing fast reduces the overall organization risk and ensures that good dollars are not thrown after bad. It is much harder than you think to build an organizational culture to support this and I'm sure we all have experiences where a dead project was kept on life support.

Thirdly, you need to ensure that the team understands it is OK to fail if the first two points are embraced. A team that is afraid of failure becomes bureaucratic, slow and not willing to take chances or ownership of initiatives. This will hurt your business. To avoid this you need to champion fast failure and call out the success of what was learned and applied. A failure shouldn't be treated like the plague or swept under the carpet, it should be openly talked about, the learnings shared and the team involved acknowledge for their drive to grow the business.

The above three points have limits, but it provides a framework from which you can build and reform your culture for success. Changing the fear of failure can have massive impacts on a organization and the best way to see if your company is setup for success is to ask yourself the question "When was the last time you failed?"

Is Google Wave a Tsunami for Social Media Plays?

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Today Google announced Google Wave - What is a Wave you ask? Google defines it as "A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."

From what I take, from the limited information they have posted on their site / blog, is that Google Wave is a tool from which you can consolidate all of the conversations you have going on and use it as a personal hub online between friends, other social sites / feeds and content. They promote it as a platform which supports real time conversations and allows for injections from other social media platforms.

This is still in the very early stages but this really could be a tsunami on the social media space. Being able have all of your conversations on one dashboard really changes the game and could mean that Google doesn't need to acquire any players in the space (insert today's Twitter rumor here) while still gaining a dominate position in the social media marketplace.

In the end it will all come down to relevance and utility for the user. This is more than just a friend or networking application but potentially a hard core productivity tool. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, like Android this is an open source platform so development could come pretty quick and if we see mass adoption it allows Google to be a very strong hub for social media, and, just think, not long ago Open Social launched making it easier to share between platforms....I wonder if they where thinking ahead .

If you want to sign-up for the pilot you can do it here, but as of now a launch date is not set.

Lesson from Lost Generation Video

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:52:00 +0000

A great video, a great message and something we all need to think about. Change just isn't happening in the world around us but it requires change in how we choose to interact with it.

The creators of the video deserve credit, it is one of the better put

together ads I have seen in a while.

Finished Second place in the AARP U@50 Challenge and was

based on a concept from a political advertisement from Argentina.

Google Profiles - Helping Control Your Brand Online

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:47:00 +0000

We all search our name to see what shows up on Google, now we have the ability to influnece the results with Google Profiles. It is an very interesting play for Google, everyone wants to control their personal brand and this allows Google to continue to get more of a foothold in the Social Media / Networking space. The profile, at this point, is pretty simple. A basic bio, the ability to add images, contact info and links out to all of the other social networks, blogs and / or sites the user is affiliated with. But you can imagine where they can take this.

One interesting feature is that Google, at least with the other Google products, suggest links that help with building your social graph, expanding on this with Open Social and the opening of Facebook Google could continue to evolve profiles as a kind of master dashboard for an individual online. They would be able to drive this by the plain fact that the profile would show up high in search results giving it value to the user, hence answering the question why would I want to build another profile and provide information to Google.

Here is how they are showing profiles in the search results, although I haven't been able to replicate it yet.

Here is my profile http://www.google.ca/profiles/simonrodrigue and as you can tell from the way your name is included in the URL you don't wait to set yours up .

Analytics in a Retail World - eMetrics Presentation

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:38:00 +0000

I've attached the presentation delivered at eMetrics on April 1st in Toronto. The main point is that the role of the analyst is to grow the business, so stop running reports and start telling stories.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Spre analytics emertics toronto

Building a Dynamic eCommerce Team

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:29:00 +0000

Bryan Eisenberg and I had a chat last week regarding building an eCommerce team, take a look we would love to have your comments.

In the end one of the themes that seemed to resonate is that it is about the people and not the positions. Great people make great businesses so you shouldn't be afraid of bringing people onto your team even if you don't have a matching position at the time.

The other side of this is that you need to always be looking and seeing who is on the market, looking to make a change or a star that can help take your business to the next level. Talent is the base of any successful business and this is just as important in our industry as any other.

Building up the Sears.ca Team

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:37:00 +0000

At Sears.ca we are continuing our quest to build the best eCom team in Canada. So if you enjoy working in an innovative fast paced environment where you can make a difference while being part of one of the top eCommerce players in Canada then take a look at the positions we have open below:

French Translator Online Copywriter:Responsible and accountable for translating or writing of online marketing messages, call to actions, and information pages. Must ensure translation or copy provided is consistent, and follows Company brand style guides. Provide guidance and direction on best practices for Marketing in 'French' to ensure that the 'translated' marketing messages provide the optimum customer experience.

Online Copywriter:Responsible and accountable for writing compelling response driven online marketing messages, call to actions, and information pages. Must ensure messages are consistent, follow Company brand style guides and strike the right balance between style and substance.

Web Designer - e-Commerce: Sears Canada websites are updated on a weekly basis based on different marketing objectives and goals. The Designer is responsible for creating assets to be used on the website including assets for (but not limited to) the homepage, category landing pages, product pages, banners, emails etc. These may include photo retouching and enhancements and the design animated GIFs and Flash animated banners.

Internet Business Process Manager: The purpose of this position is to effectively manage team resources to ensure three key areas of excellence. Projects, Quality Assurance (QA) and Site Performance. Direct and coach the team in the co-ordination, planning the execution of all project and business processes driven activities within ecommerce towards the achievement of business goals / objectives. Lead the QA team to ensure issues are identified and addressed as well as certify deployments across all sites and ensure site performance is optimized at all times.

Online Project Manager: Communicate with eCommerce leadership team regarding overall project plan health through an overall project management scoreboard and a weekly PM update. Understand the current progress of all projects from a timeline, deliverable and project perspective. Overcome obstacles to ensure all projects are delivered on time and on budget.

Senior Web Designer:The purpose of this position is to create visual site creative (both flash and static), that address business, brand, market, and user requirements. Participate in user- interface design initiatives and design prototyping including flowcharting, navigation, communication of conceptual ideas, design rational and execution of prototypes. Provide mentoring to other interactive team members who will execute the specific detailed creative elements for the site.

Site Merchandiser: The purpose of this position is to own the product merchandising for Sears.ca, working within the process and systems the Site Merchandiser ensures the site is correctly merchandised, measures results and make changes as required. Assists the producer in the production of the flight / promotions plan for Sears Canada's web businesses. Use analytics to make merchandising decision and works on a daily basis to optimize sales.

E-Mail Deployment Specialist: The purpose of this position is to manage the execution of the sears.ca email marketing program, including but not limited to: email deployment, email deployment testing, database management, list segmentation, multivariate testing, web analytic analysis, reporting and evaluation.

French Search Engine Marketing Analyst: Create and implement Search Marketing campaigns for each marketing campaign that the company is intending to offer in the French Canadian Market. Lead the development, review, analysis, and continuous improvement of the Sears.ca processes / practices to ensure a maximized profitability through improved margins, increased customer satisfaction, and improved market share. Improve ad relevancy through taking anticipated events / promotions into consideration when creating ads. Examine and monitor the Return on Investments / CPA goals and data, media buying cycles, Web site architecture, marketing philosophy, target demographics, etc.

Interactive Marketing Specialist:The purpose of this position is to be responsible for strategic planning, program management and program execution. The Specialist is concentrated within the email marketing and affiliate marketing spheres.

Online Community Specialist:The purpose of this position is to develop and grow the Sears.ca social media environment. The role involves three main objectives: build online communities on Sears.ca, build partnerships with stakeholders to increase participation within the communities and communicate valuable information to internal stakeholders from insights gained from the online community.

Senior Site Deployment Specialist: Work with various business teams to develop and create banners and online advertising in order to maximize the effectiveness of the pages and services that sears.ca offers, which will assist in meeting the business' project deliverables. Review and analyze web site content and determine the appropriate content to be published. Provide facilitation and support, as needed, to ensure the most cost effective programs and processes are utilized.

The Best Job in the World Contest

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Micheal, a friend of mine, has a great chance to win The Best Job in the World Contest that is being put on by Tourism Queensland. The great idea they had was to level social networks to create a viral campaign to garner additional attention for the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Micheal entered this crazy video and quickly gained national attention being on both CBC radio and Television.

This attention then went international when CNBC did a feature on the contest and showed his video.

Michael's blog is following this adventure, which is a great story in itself.

So we are down to five days left and I can't think of a better winner than Michael. Both he and his wife, Fawn, are great bloggers, love adventure (having moved up North) and deserve to go somewhere warm for a year. So let's help a fellow Canadian blogger win.

You can vote for his video here by marking it five stars.

Share the link around, blog about it if you have a blog and get the message out as there are only five days left.

What Makes A Website Great?

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:19:00 +0000

We all have good sites - sites that look nice, have cool features and lots of information but what makes a website great?

I really started thinking about this today after a call from my parents, they had tried to place an order on Sears.ca but couldn't remember their password, they tried multiple times to go through the reset password process but in the end they needed to call to get someone to reset the password for them.

What scares me, with this, is had they not been my parents would they have made the call or would they have given up and went somewhere else?

Sears.ca is a great website having won multiple awards over the past few years and the team we have is one of the best in the business yet we didn't have a site that helped a customer achieve their goal - to complete a purchase. The hard part is that on any given day there can be thousands of different paths that lead to a purchase. What are we doing to ensure that as many as possible are optimized for the user's expereince.

So here is the thought - a great site is one that makes it simple to transact, not only for the power users but for the majority of the population that transacts on your site a few times a year. It doesn't need to be pretty, win awards or be considered on the leading edge but it needs to be an easy process for the consumer to get done what they want to get done as fast and easy (in their eyes) as possible.

We often stray off this path in the quest for something we think is important (awards, a new cool functionailty, etc.) but it is the great websites that understand this and make it the mantra of their business.

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.