Evolving Shift

Love What You Do

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:25:00 +0000

Sitting at a cottage today and everyone is inside because it is raining, people were either taking a nap or reading that latest novel - me I'm reading a book on Site Experience and sketching ideas in my trusty book. Why? Because I truly love what I do.

Great slogan on a hat I have from Life is Good: Do what you like and like what you do! These are true words to live by and it should help guide your career no matter what you do.

Easy Ways to Access the Voice of the Customer

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:58:00 +0000

My wife and I had an interesting experience over the last couple of weeks. We purchased some really nice bed sheets (Egyptian Cotton Warehouse) that had to be shipped up from the US. The company uses UPS and delivery was really fast (about 4 days - which is better than most times when we order from Canadian based sites - but that is another topic) but with our busy schedules we never seemed to be around when the UPS truck came to make the delivery and, as we had to pay duty, we couldn't sign to leave it at the door or have it dropped off at a neighbour. We order a lot online and have a really good UPS guy so he went the extra step and drew a map of where we could pickup the product before it went out for delivery the next day at the sorting station, needless to say we didn't get a chance to pick it up (and we don't have a formal pick-up location in our area).

So now we have missed three pickups and received the dreaded the finally delivery notice, we are at a loss to what happens next so a call is made to UPS - its easy! They indicate on the call that you can pay the duty over the phone and we can have it left at the door or another location. Great! We make the arrangements and get the product delivered.

A very simple solution existed here - let us know that we could call (or even go online) to pay the duty and then the drop-off is a simple process again. We were even more shocked when the customer service agent says that this happens all the time as the delivery notice doesn't have the info, nor do the drivers know this process exists, in fact they keep trying to raise the issue internally but no one is listening.

Now this could be an issue with UPS or the fact that the retailers are not exposed to the pain in the supply chain but I think this points to a more core issue that many of us experience in our organizations today. Do we really leverage the experience of the front line employees in improving the customer experience? How are we collecting the information and using it to really address the customer pain points? The good news is that we all have a great source for the voice of the customer but it is rarely if ever fully leveraged.

A couple of quick steps that will turn into quick wins:

Setup regular town halls for the front line associates so that they can communicate customer pain points, likes and dislikes of your processes, site, business, products etc.
Have a formalized process for ideas to flow into the business, this could be as simple as sharing the email of key people in the company with the front line to formalized monthly roll-ups from the customer service teams.
Action the issue and recognize the people that called out the opportunity, not only will this encourage more sharing but it will improve the moral of the customer service organization as they know everyone is working to make it better for the consumer.

In the end you have to remember that everyone wants to make every customer experience as good as possible. Listening to the voice of the customer through your front line associates is a great way to start to leverage this and will improve your customer experience. Plus you never know - that idea of adding a line of text to the UPS delivery notice that you can call to pay your duty might not only improve the customer experience but also save multiple delivery attempt costs improving both the customer perception of the brand and the bottom line...

Going Viral Doesn't Always Make Things Better - Why You Still Need to be Smart with Social Media

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:45:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Everyone has seen that the very successful viral campaign for Old Spice has been a bust where it counts - the bottom line. Sales for the targeted product- Red Zone body wash are down 7% over the last 52 weeks but this doesn't seem to match with the unbelievable viral success of the Old Spice Guy campaign and it's engagement within the social media networks.

Anyone in the marketing profession can learn from this. In the end we all have to remember we are selling something and that for advertising to be effective it needs to, at a base level, A. reach the target group and B. engage this group.

To me the Old Spice Guy campaign was a success at reaching the 25 - 40 demographic, but this isn't the demogrpahic that wants to be assocaited with the Old Spice Brand. I remember getting the Old Spice bottle in my stocking when I was 12 years old, it was the after-shave of my father who still used the Old Spice soap as his shaving cream. It was a very exciting time for me but today I would be caught dead with that scent.

In the end the product didn't match what consumers were looking for, especially the consumers that were engaged with the Old Spice Guy. In the end it might have been better for the people at P&G to come up with a new product that fits in right after you grow out of the Axe family of products. The campaign would have still worked and the product could have been matched to the demographic that fell in love with the campaign.

So in the end two key learnings- 1. Make sure your product targets the demographic your advertising is targeting (and that you have a good product, great advertising doesn't make up for a poor product) and 2. Next time your agency, marketing team, or anyone else comes in with that killer viral integrated strategy ask this one question - How will this engage my target consumer to sell more products? - If they don't already have this fully mapped out (and it can't be - we will generate tens of millions of impressions on Youtube!) then it probably is more about becoming viral then about selling products...

Update July 27th: Seems that over the last month sales of Old Spice have increased by 107% according to a brand manager at P&G sharing Nielson Data. I guess that I was wrong on matching the Old Spice product to the market that was engaging the campaign online. But I still think the gist of the post is still valid - just don't use Old Spice as the example...;-)

Taking Time for Yourself - Being a Better Leader

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:02:00 +0000

I just got back from an amazing trip taking a tour around the ring road in Iceland, it was an incredible time of exploring landscapes that you just can't see anywhere else in the world. Not only was this an experience of a lifetime but it was amazing how you reset during a trip like this. It isn't about getting away from the "job" but moving into an environment where you are free from the day to day grind, as you know, many people say their best thoughts and solutions to those impossible problems are found when away from the office - now imagine an extended period of this free thinking and exploration. You come back not only completely refreshed but with different perspectives and with potential solutions / ideas to drive the business.

In a past role I was told by a senior executive that you shouldn't be taking vacations or time off if you want to get ahead. To be successful you needed to be in the office and visible for 52 weeks of the year. To me this is wrong for a couple of key reasons:

If your team, group, company can't survive for a short period of time without your input then you have failed as a leader either through building out your talent or paralyzing the organization with micro management. The true measurement of you as a team builder and leader should be that the business continues to run and when you get back it should be as simple as here are the updates and what we did vs here are x number of decisions that need to be made
This isn't a case of live to work vs work to live. To be a complete person you need to experience more than your day to day job and those eureka moments will come faster and more often when you have a balanced environment and experiences.

I'm not suggesting that you need to go adventuring off to far off lands for weeks at a time but you will be a more complete leader and provide more value for your business if you take time for yourself to reset. If you want to see what Iceland was to me check out OurIcelandAdventure.com

Shop.org Retailers Dinner - May 19th - Toronto

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:05:00 +0000

Great news for all of us in the Canadian eCommerce Industry, on May 19th Shop.org is (finally- thanks Scott) having their first event in Canada. This retailers only dinner will be a great chance for us to network as an industry and talk about how we can continue to grow our businesses but even more importantly our voice in the Canadian marketplace.

So if you are a leader in the eCommerce space in Canada you pretty much need to attend this event. I look forward to seeing you all there.

For more details and to register you can click here. Update May 2nd - the link off this page for registration is down - shop.org is working to fix the issue but you can also use this link to register

Thanks to Brightcove for sponsoring the event

We are Hiring at Travelocity.ca

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:12:00 +0000

It is exciting times at Travelocity.ca where we are looking to take the business to the next level. To help do this we are looking for 3 superstars to join the team. If you have a passion for eCommmerce and travel plus a drive to build a business to number 1 in the industry then this is the place for you.

Product Manager - Travelocity.ca

Under general direction, responsible for a complex product or product line, including interfacing with development teams, roll-out, and testing. Compiles reports on revenue, site analytics and profitability. Conducts comparative analysis against competitors and provides strategic planning of product direction and features. A person passionate about making Travelocity.ca the #1 travel site in Canada.

Major Tasks

Working with the vertical and line of business product managers to define and execute the ongoing product development path for Travelocity.ca to ensure that it is the #1 travel site in Canada
Ensure that the site is 100% error free and provides the consumer with the best possible experience possible
Interface with Product Marketing and Business teams to ensure all assets on the site deliver on the Travelocity.ca experience
Work with global customer experience team to ensure that Travelocity.ca is aligned with brand guidelines
Develop business cases and investments plans for future projects and initiatives

Merchandising Manager - Travelocity.ca

Under general direction, develops specific complex marketing plans and activities for specific product(s) or product line(s) to establish, enhance or distinguish product placement within the competitive arena. Develops complex business plans and product positioning in the marketplace. Oversees market research, monitors competitive activity and identifies customer needs. Establishes pricing strategies. Works with engineering, manufacturing and sales to develop new products or enhance existing product(s) or product line(s). A person passionate about making Travelocity.ca the #1 travel site in Canada.

Major Tasks

Develop product promotional strategies working with the individual lines of business and ensure on-time & best in class execution of the programs
Manage the Travelocity.ca Social Media programs including twitter and Facebook
Work with the Product Manager - Travelocity.ca to determine ongoing development needs for Travelocity.ca
Understand consumers interests and develop content pages and programs to enrich their shopping experience

Search Marketing Manager - Travelocity.ca

Responsible for the planning and implementation of highly complex paid search campaigns for Travelocity.ca. Day to day management of search campaigns through optimization and expansion. Interacts directly with Merchandising Managers to identify new marketing opportunities, prepares regular search performance reports and drives incremental revenue and profitability for the business through advancement of the search program. Works individually scheduling, planning and executing improvements to multiple campaigns on a ongoing basis, while managing towards budgetary and business goals. Passionate about the art and science of search with a keen understanding of how to leverage search to make Travelocity.ca the number #1 travel site in Canada.

Major Tasks

Day to day management of all paid search campaigns for Travelocity.ca including optimization of program, budget and profitability
Integration with the overall marketing plan to ensure search campaigns align with key messages
Detailed analysis of programs to provide recommendations to the overall business on how to improve sales and customer interaction
A subject matter expert for search in the Canadian operations
Work as part of the global team sharing best practices and executing localized test

Managing Contacts Across your Social Graph - Gist.com Gets it Right

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:21:00 +0000

It seems that everyday a new social platform is coming out and with it comes the connections, followers and the unwieldy task of managing this across all of different ways we now have to communicate.

The other day Bryan Eisenberg suggested I try out a new tool call Gist and all I can say is that this is a game changer (Thanks Bryan!). Gist goes where all of the other contact social networks/tools have failed and that is taking the information you have gathered and pulling it all together to build a profile (or dossier as they call it) on each of your connections. From this the Gist platform becomes a powerful contact management tool providing real-time information from across the Internet (blogs, updates, news, twitter, status updates, etc) as well as promoting the contacts that are most important delivering a dashboard on your social graph in real time.

Gist currently has integrations with Outlook, Gmail, Google Contacts, Linkedin, Salesforce, Facebook and Twitter plus the ability to import through CSV, vCard as well as IMAP integration. They have an iPhone app and just announced today an Outlook plugin.

They have only been around since Sept and I am very excited to see where they take this, it still has some improvements / tweaking required but I have seen change over the couple of weeks I have been using it. Plus they really care about the end user, I've had multiple conversations with Greg Meyer, their Customer Experience manager, where he was soliciting feedback on what they need to focus on next.

I would strongly suggest that everyone try Gist out - it only took me about 10 mins to start and it was well worth it.

Google's Play for Control of the Business App Market - Launches Google Apps Marketplace

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:02:00 +0000

We all know of Apple's success in selling apps, but many don't know of Google's focus on taking control of the application market for business. Google Apps has been around for a while and, according to Google, now has over 25 million users in over 2 million business and universities as well as 1000 plus resellers. This amounts to a pretty attractive and captive base, one that if offered additional services that integrates with ease (remember they were already sold on the conversion to Google Apps) could be commoditized at an attractive return for both Google and the 3rd parties.

So last night Google announced the launch of the Google Apps Marketplace, it seems to be a very solid launch with very deep integration into the Apps platform - single sign-on, API and placement in the overall Google App navigation. The App Marketplace already has over 50 partners who will be given access to selling in the marketplace for the low fee of a $100 sign-up and 20% rev share. The important point here is these are not $.99 apps, but enterprise level agreements with some having recurring fees based on the number of users. The benefit will be with the easy integration / role-out across the organization that already has Google Apps but may also become a factor to switch to it when making those costly upgrade decisions in the larger enterprises.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out and how it postions Google Apps at the forefront of future of business software / online services.

Here are a few videos with some additional details:

Overview of Google Apps Marketplace

The announcement from Google Campfire One:

What Every Business Needs to be Doing on Twitter - Listen and Participate

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:43:00 +0000

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter - for the last 18 months almost everyone has talked about the power that twitter can bring to the consumer yet many, if not most, Canadian businesses have not embraced this communication medium. I truly believe this has to do with the perception that creating a new marketing channel will take effort and resources that don't currently exist within the organization. But, marketing shouldn't be the first reason you use Twitter. Twitter is a communication channel and allows you to see, in real time, what consumers are saying and experiencing with your brand.

So what does this mean to a business or brand? It means that, at least, you need to be listening. The good thing is that many tools exist to make this an easy task - Twitter Search, TweetDeck, HootSuite for example - and you will have no problem setting up a search to see what people are saying about your firm and brand.

The next step will be to start having conversations with these consumers and either thanking them for the comments or trying to address the issue they may be having. Only once you have listened and then participated would I suggest setting up an account for marketing purposes, taking these steps first will allow you to ensure you are engaging the consumers that are already talking about your brand and it will become another customer relationship tool in your chest. As with many of the interactive medias the expectation is that it is a bi-directional communication channel not just a push of marketing content.

Twitter can and will continue to be a powerful tool so if you are not embracing it yet, setup your account today, start listening and begin to engage your customer base. The conversation is going on and your participation will only elevate and build your brand.

The best test to do for eCommerce sites

simonrodrigue@evolvingshift.com (Simon Rodrigue) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:30:00 +0000

I don't think we do enough of this as we are often caught up in the newest technologies, product launches or interesting creative but it is important to look at the basic ease of use of the site.

In the end the overall user experience is simple to define and at its base it is how easy is it for the user to complete their task (B) from where they start (A) (here is a post that goes into more details - http://www.evolvingshift.com/2008/07/simplest-way-to-define-user-experience.html).

So do this today - try and place an order on your site but do it as a new customer or even better yet have your spouse, partner, sibling or parent try to place an order and get their honest feedback (and the great thing about family is honesty comes easy!)

I think you will be surprised with the results and it will give you a great head start for 2010 were we can all focus on making online shopping easier, faster, more relevant and a better overall experience for the consumer.

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.

Evolving Shift

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Easy Ways to Access the Voice of the Customer

Going Viral Doesn't Always Make Things Better - Why You Still Need to be Smart with Social Media

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Analytics in a Retail World - eMetrics Presentation

Building a Dynamic eCommerce Team

Building up the Sears.ca Team

The Best Job in the World Contest

What Makes A Website Great?

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

Google's Friend Connect Beta