When looking for someone from Etsy to profile, company CEO Maria Thomas directed us to Matt Stinchcomb, Etsy’s Vice President of Community. Here’s what Matt has to say about the importance of products that connect with customers, how the Etsy community differs from many e-commerce sites, and why space is set aside at the office for employees to get their hands dirty.

Tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up at Etsy.

I am 33 years old, married to a delightful German gal, and a native Washingtonian who has been living in Brooklyn for the last 12 years. After the Internet imploded around 2000, I devoted my time to pursuing the rock ‘n’ roll dream for about five years. During that time I also started a little screen print and design shop with my housemate, Robert Kalin, Etsy’s creator. Though I had a good amount of professional experience in digital media, it was the years spent successfully building a following for my rock band that prompted Rob to get me to work on Etsy with him.

How did the concept of Etsy come about?

Rob was looking for a place to sell his art, and realized that there was no place special enough for artists to sell online.

Give us your best elevator speech about the company.

When you buy on Etsy you are dealing directly with the maker of any given product, and people want to have a special connection to the goods in their lives. These connections make the stories behind every product and artist on Etsy, and it is our job to help tell them.

I think globally there is a movement away from the mass-produced items that seem to inundate our lives these days. From Topeka, KS to Torino, Italy we are being offered carbon-copy items and have no connection to where it is produced or who is making it. To put it another way, If your house were on fire, would you grab your plasma screen television, or the quilt your great-grandmother handmade for you?

Also, there is amazingly creative and beautiful stuff you will find nowhere else.

How does the Etsy community differ from that of a traditional pure-play internet retailer selling arts and crafts merchandise?

Etsy was built by artists, for artists. I think it’s a beautiful site. More importantly, we are entirely committed to being transparent, honest, and engaged with our community. Our community is diverse in their product range, backgrounds, and interests, but they are fun, energetic, and active.

You have sellers listing everything from candles to felt-tipped mushrooms to customized dog collars. What are some of your favorite things being sold these days?

Feltidermy and dissection.

Tell us about a typical day at the office

In general, we work hard, but we have fun. We make sure we stock the office with groceries and make big communal salads. We also have a whole part of our office called the Etsy Labs that is devoted to handmaking. We make all of our own promo items here, but we also let any employee go nuts in there and make whatever they want. We think the connection to the handmade is very important.

How does Etsy utilize social media to reach current and potential customers?

Social media is vastly important. From maintaining our own profiles (we just added our 400,000th follower on Twitter), to making sure that we are giving our artists the tools they need to grow their businesses via Facebook etc., we devote a great deal of resources to social media. For example, we have one person who does social media full-time. It is very important to have a real person there interacting with people like a human.

Tell me about Etsy’s “virtual sidewalk sale.”

We host live shopping events in our multi-user AV environment, where we get well known and interesting people to talk about their favorite products on Etsy. Anyone in the room can buy the product “live”. I think it is more about fun than sales, and that, to me, is very important.

And what do you like to do for fun?

I love to garden and play music. Although, I would also say my work is fun.

What are you currently reading?

On Beauty by Zadie Smith and Creative Code by John Maeda

If someone were to get a hold of your iPod, what type of music would they find?

Lots of Bob Dylan, Andrew Bird, Tom Waits, and The Kinks.

As part of our ongoing consumer research series, this month we asked consumers quite simply, “What do you do on social media sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Kaboodle, or others)?”  A total of 4,034 adults over the age of 18 in the U.S. told us just that in a survey conducted in June 2009 by BIGresearch on behalf of NRF and Shop.org. 

Judging from the results, social media appears to be on the path to becoming increasingly mainstream media.  While there is much growth ahead yet, social media is by now woven into the lives of adults across age, sex, household income, marital and parental status, and region.  And while much of that activity to date centers on connecting with friends (both old and new), chatting, and sharing photos, consumers do recognize that social media is helpful for a number of shopping related activities as well. 

BIGresearch broke out the responses to this question into the overall respondent group (adults over the age of 18), as well as a second group, dubbed “social media users”.  A “social media user” is defined as any respondent who indicated that they did two or more things on the list of answer options provided.   

What did we learn about social media users?  Social media users skew somewhat more female than male.  Close to half are married, and another quarter describe themselves as “single, never married.”  They range in age, with a heavier concentration between 18 and 54 years, and heaviest use among 35 to 44 year olds specifically.  If one couples this data point with the knowledge that social media users skew female and that quite a few are married, one could surmise that social media users include a fair number of moms, as well.  Social media users are found in every household income bracket, although with somewhat fewer represented in the $100,000+ bracket. 

How do these social media users specifically spend their time when using social media sites? (Shop.org members may download the full set of data results from the Shop.org Web site.)  A sampling of answers:   

• Connect with friends – 64.5%
• Share photos – 39.5%
• Reconnect with old classmates / friends – 39.1%
• Look for sales / promotions / coupons – 17.9%
• Look for product advice / recommendations – 13.3%
• I like to follow my favorite retailers – 8.4%
• Post ratings or reviews of shopping and dining experiences – 7.0%

So if you – or perhaps your senior management – have been wondering just who wants to engage with you and is looking for your product information via social media, it appears it’s just about everyone one would pass walking down Main Street.  The absolute numbers of course are still growing – but for retailers it’s increasingly an opportunity to connect with both existing and new customers, many of whom have real purchasing power and actively want to engage with you.  As a retailer, it’s up to you to show them that you really want to engage with them as well.  

As always, looking forward to your thoughts and comments on this subject. 

At the 2009 Shop.org Marketing Workshop, John Lazarchic (Petco), John Ardis (ValueClick), Dustin Engle (Range Online Media) and I participated in a panel titled “Measuring What Matters:  The Secret to Online Marketing Channel Attribution.”  In our panel, we explored current online measurement practices (and pitfalls), and discussed the importance of going beyond last-click conversion in determining the true impact of your marketing dollars. 

Our conclusion:  by measuring just the last-click (long the industry standard), marketers are very likely undervaluing the “introducers,” which occur at the beginning of the buying funnel;  overvaluing the “closers,” which occur closest to the conversion point, and largely ignoring the “influencers,” which occur mid-cycle.  As a result, marketers may reduce spending precisely where it is most likely to drive incremental sales.    

Fortunately, many marketers have already evolved to more sophisticated measurement techniques which allocate sales across the buying cycle:  introducers (first click), influencers (non-converting clicks) and closers (converting clicks).  To date, however, there is no common framework for either the tools or the allocation process, and minimal capacity for evaluating the influence of offline media.  As the methodologies and tools emerge to make these sophisticated multi-channel allocation methodologies accessible to all marketers, we need to join together to define the standards for our industry. 

Our call to action:  as marketers and members of the Shop.org community, we are best positioned to define the new allocation standards for the online retailing industry.  Working together, we can develop a set of guidelines for marketing allocation best practices, a requirements list that meets retailer ROI measurement needs, and a directory of non-proprietary tools and techniques.  Our findings can serve as a reference point for e-tailers and vendors—creating a non-proprietary measurement approach which can be tailored to the buying lifecycle for each retailer.     

Members of this SIG will:

• Review current multi-channel allocation methodologies for determining incremental sales, highlighting the pros and cons of various approaches;
• Review available and emerging technologies for tracking and allocation;
• Recommend best practices for retailers to implement in their organizations to effectively measure the incremental impact of their marketing dollars.

I hope you’ll join us!  Leave a comment or email me at anneashbey@jeffnet.org to express your interest in participating.

Join us on Wednesday, June 24, 2009, as we bring you a panel of industry experts from ForeSee Results, Newell Rubbermaid, Sherwin-Williams Paint Stores, and Peet’s Coffee & Tea to share research, case studies, and some key takeaways and answer some specific questions including:

–What are some of the key findings from Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index Spring 2009 report?
–Who has managed to stay in the Top 100 in spite of tough economy?
–Social Media – what was its role as acquisition source?
–How are Sharpie, Graco and Rubbermaid are using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter to deepen relationships with customers?
–How do you measure the success of your social media programs?
–How do you measure the success of your mobile applications?
–What are the key steps retailers can take to measure and maximize the impact of social media and mobile applications on sales and on shopper loyalty.

Register on our website to join us for the members-only webinar on June 24th at 1pm EST and make sure sure share this with teams (your membership gives everyone on your team access to these webinars).

And remember, for Shop.org members that that can’t make it - you can register anytime after the webinar for a full playback.

Prior to the hearing, Shop.org and numerous other associations signed a letter to the Subcommittee calling for “…extreme caution when contemplating any legislative proposals or regulatory changes in this arena.”

Coverage of the hearing:

WSJ: Lawmakers Blast Internet Data Collection

Business Week: Internet Marketing: Is Regulation Coming?

PC World: U.S. Lawmakers Call for Online Ad Privacy Rules

NY Times: Congress Questions How Web Sites Use Personal Data

If you’ve recently lost a job with an online retailer, we will:

• Set up an individual account for access to the Shop.org member website – extremely useful for industry contacts and research as you prepare for your next opportunity.
• Blogging opportunities – If you have a subject you’re passionate on, participate in and be seen on one of the industries leading blogs.
• Positions wanted – leverage our social networks on the Shop.org website, LinkedIn and Facebook.  If you’d like to post anonymously, our Member Services team will post on your behalf.
• Free conference attendance –  Starting with the Merchandising Workshop in July, we’ll have a limited number of slots available at no charge, allowing you to network with your colleagues
• Introductions -  Need an introduction to someone in the Shop.org community?  We’ll do our best to make it happen.

Ping Josh Greene in our Member Services department to get started.

The caveat that I always note when reporting on blog results is that this is very much a snapshot in time, and it is by no means statistically valid research in the traditional sense.  That said, the results are always a fascinating window into a given topic — and this one no less so.  Out of 25 total votes for this poll, five noted that mobile features of any kind were simply not yet significant enough for online retail.  Other poll takers, however, thought that some applications are poised to take off in the near term, including:

• Accessing price comparison info for a product either photographed or scanned in store — 8 votes
• Customer ratings and reviews accessible via mobile phone — 6 votes

Additionally, a few deemed shopping list related features as holding potential, whether scanning a bar code to add something to a shopping cart (3 votes) or storing a shopping list on a mobile phone at all (2 votes).

Clearly, there is still much debate, discussion and exploration going on when it comes to mobile and its role in online retail.  I thought I’d mention a few mobile-related resources on the Shop.org Web site for Shop.org Members (please use your Shop.org Member log in), among those: 

• Webinar playback.  Evolving Retail Trends Regarding Social Media and Mobile Shopping. Featuring Newell Rubbermaid, Sherwin-Williams Paint Stores, and Peet’s Coffee and Tea.  (June 2009)
• Article.  Sephora establishes foundation for mobile customer reviews.  By Fiona Soltes, STORES Magazine.  (April 2009)
• White paper.  Powering Any Time, Any Place Communications:  Why Integrating Mobile is Imperative Now.  By Resource Interactive.  (March 2009)
• Event presentation.  Mobile Marketing:  Opportunities for Driving In-Store Purchasing.  By Scott Dunlap, CEO, NearByNow, Inc.  (See slides 19 through 25.)   (Shop.org Annual Summit — September 2008)

What do you think about the role of mobile in online retail in the coming months?  If you’ve been looking into mobile at all of late, which resources have you found helpful? 

Looking forward to continued discussion on this topic!

All this to say – the 2009 Shop.org Retail Member Survey is upon us now.  Notice that slight difference in survey titles?  In large part based on feedback we got in last year’s member survey, this year we’re conducting two separate member surveys, one for Retail Members and, coming later this summer (I did say we’re in high gear) a separate Associate Member survey.  If you are a current or former Retail Member of Shop.org, we need your feedback and thoughts now!  

If you haven’t yet received your survey invitation from us via email, please let me know immediately and I will get that information to you. 

This survey is open for one more week (deadline is Wednesday, June 24), so, yes, you have time – but why wait?  This anonymous, mostly multiple choice survey should take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete… maybe 5 minutes more if you spend a little more time on the open ended questions.  Your brutal honesty with us is a crucial part of how we plan programs and associated budgets that are all designed to benefit you – so be heard now and help us shape those. 

Let me know if you have any questions, and mostly importantly, please complete the survey. We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!   

Kind regards.  –Fiona

Fiona S. Swerdlow, Head of Research, Shop.org

[The list of speakers is now updated on the Committee's site]

Additionally, in our ongoing effort to provide research and resources to help retailers run their businesses most effectively, Forrester Research is generously providing Shop.org Members an exclusive copy of Patti Freeman-Evans’ summary of current e-commerce related legislative issues (a $749 value). The topics at hand lie at the very heart of online retail:
· Privacy policy and behavioral targeting
· Domain name registration
· Tax
· Credit
· Gift card rules

Read Patti’s summary as your first step, then get involved to be heard and shape these business-critical issues – whether by talking directly with your legislators and/or getting involved with the Shop.org Policy Committee. With some issues – e.g. ICANN top level domain names and behavioral targeting – currently the focus of hearings on the Hill, online retailers must be aware of and participate in the current legislative activity.

The Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing titled, “Oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)” on Thursday, June 4, 2009.  The hearing  examined issues related to ICANN, including the expiring Joint Project Agreement between the Department of Commerce and ICANN, as well as ICANN’s proposed introduction of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).  A summary of the hearing is at the Subcommittee’s website.

The House hearing was a good first step towards shining light on this important issue and the Senate is scheduled to follow-up with a hearing in mid-July.

Press coverage: WSJ: Verizon Urges Caution In Expanding Names Of Web Site Domains

Web Hosting Review: ICANN Hearing Focuses on Security

PC World: Lawmakers: Keep ICANN Oversight With US

If you are interested in being updated on policy developments, or becoming involved, please visit http://www.shop.org/policy

The highest ranked session at last year’s Annual Summit was a unique presentation titled “24+ Things You Can Do To Make More Money Next Week”  This was a no holds barred session where speakers presented their most tactical ideas that are instant money-makers for retailers in no more than 8 minutes.  It was fast, diverse, even chaotic at times, but based on user feedback the most valuable session of the entire Annual Summit.

This year we are expanding this same idea into a two-session track for the Annual Summit. We want even more speakers who can talk about SPECIFIC and EASY-TO-IMPLEMENT ecommerce tactics. We don’t care if you are a retailer, researcher, educator or vendor – if you think you have got some killer tips to share, we want to hear from you! Here are the details:

1)      Session title and description:

Session Title: 40+ Specific Things You Can Do To Make More Money Next Week (Parts 1 and 2).

Description: Last year’s highest rated session is back with a vengeance! Forget the grand strategy talks; ignore the expensive, time-consuming software implementations; discard the hard-to-measure long-term plans - this session is about specific, actionable tactics you can use to make money NOW. Our panel of experts is going to give you killer tips to improve your Paid Search, Natural Search, Affiliate Marketing, Social Marketing, Email Marketing, Web 2.0, Shopping Feeds, Technology Issues, and Site Optimization. We’re going to be moving fast so we will have a handout for session attendees with all of the gory details. This is the session you want to attend if you want to get your hands dirty and improve the bottom line. It will also help you convince your boss that you came to the Summit to make money – not just party in Vegas.

2)      To Be Considered as a Speaker:

a.       This session is a real meat and potatoes, get your hands dirty, down in the trenches (pick your favorite analogy) kind of session. There is no room for generalities or non-specific corporate jargon. The only points you want to talk about are things that people can make money with within 7 -14 days of them returning to the office. These tactics must not cost a huge amount of money and be realistic for the attendees to implement.   Tactics, tactics, tactics!  

b.      We are going to have six speakers and an alternate for each session (a total of 12 speakers and 2 alternates). Alternates will be placed on the panel in the event a scheduled speaker drops out or does not have their materials in on time (see below).

c.       Your presentation cannot run over 8 minutes. At EXACTLY the 8 minute mark, the moderator will use an air horn to stop your presentation.  Your presentation will also be limited to 12 slides.  This session is not for speakers that cannot stay within their time limit.

d.      Forget a long personal and corporate introduction – you won’t have time. The moderator will introduce you and we cover your bio and services in the handout. Let the quality of your presentation speak to the value of knowing you and your company.

e.      Speaking of Handouts: This session will be moving at a brisk pace. Therefore, we will be giving the session attendees a DETAILED handout so they can listen to you instead of taking notes. The deliverables for this session will be:

                                                              i.      A personal biography (150 word max). Bios longer than 150 words will be truncated at the 150 word mark.

                                                            ii.      A brief description of the company you work for (100 word max). Bios longer than 100 words will be truncated at the 100 word mark.

                                                          iii.      A PowerPoint presentation (remember 12 slides maximum)

                                                           iv.      You may, if you wish, provide limited additional material for inclusion in the handout as long as it DIRECTLY relates to the topics you discussed. Shop.org reserves the right to determine to include this material or not.

                                                             v.      All deliverables are due by 5:00 pm EST, Monday August 17^th.  We will remove speakers from the panel that do not have their FINAL Power Point presentation in on time.

3)      How to Apply: Send us the three (or more) tactical tips you want to discuss. Please briefly describe each tip and how it works. If we like what we are hearing, we will contact you and ask you to further define the tips. The deadline for application is Friday, June 26.

4)      There are three reasons why Shop.org is being so draconian with our session preparation requirements:

a.       We want to provide the absolute best quality content for our members. Speakers who pay attention to details tend to provide the best tactical presentations.

b.      The rapid-fire format of these sessions makes having a handout critical. We must have your materials in to us well ahead of the conference so we can get those handouts printed.

c.       We have 12 speakers and 2 alternate speakers for this track. We simply do not have the time to chase down speakers who are unable to stick to the format and deadlines associated with this program.

Send your ideas or questions to Larry Joseloff at joseloffl@shop.org.  We will be selecting the speakers soon after the June 26  deadline.

Overall.

• Three-quarters (75.4%) of all US consumers over age 18 plan to celebrate Father’s Day this year, with half focusing on their father or stepfather and over one quarter buying for their husband. 
• These consumers each plan to spend a combined average of $90.89 – with fully two thirds expecting to spend much the same amount as in 2008. 
• Consumers anticipate shopping in a variety of retail venues, including department stores, discount stores, and, to lesser extent, specialty stores such as greeting card or electronics stores.  Just under one fifth anticipate shopping online for Father’s Day, the same as in 2008. 

Online.

• While the group shopping online for Father’s Day is just 17.9% of the total, this segment packs a punch:  in terms of actual dollars, online shoppers each expect to spend a combined average of $136.31.  While that anticipated spend is down a bit from last year, it is still a hefty 50% more than offline-only consumers anticipate spending.
• Fully 14.2% of online consumers (i.e. twice the number of overall consumers) expect to spend more for Father’s Day this year, with another two-thirds spending approximately the same as last year. 
• Online shoppers will treat the dads in their lives to greeting cards and special outings, even a little bit more so than consumers who aren’t planning to buy online for Father’s Day.  Online shoppers also expect to purchase gifts ranging from books and CDs (40.5% - or nearly the twice the number as consumers overall), to clothing (38.2%), gift certificates (36.3%) and consumer electronics (29.1%).  They also appear more inclined than offline-only shoppers to buy gifts such as personal care items, sporting goods, tools or appliances, home improvement or gardening tools, and automotive goods. 
• Online shoppers will purchase some of their Father’s Day gifts online, but plan to do some of their shopping offline as well.  Online shoppers expect to use catalogs somewhat more heavily than consumers who only buy offline, and will also buy in department and discount stores, albeit to somewhat less extent than offline-only shoppers. 

Clearly, online shoppers continue to be a lucrative segment to target.  Since they will shop in multiple channels, the key will be *marketing online* to this high potential segment of customers to get them to purchase — in any venue.  In addition to executing well on tried and true email, affiliate and search tactics, retailers may also consider experimenting with a Twitter or Facebook campaign centered on Father’s Day.  If nothing else, more online consumers will learn about one’s products and gift ideas (regardless of which channel they ultimately purchase in), and the organization itself will learn from this experience in preparation for the all-important 2009 holiday season. 

For more information, please see the full data results of this study available to Shop.org Members, as well as the NRF press release.

The 2009 Shop.org Board of Director election is underway.  At the end of the process, the Shop.org membership will elect 6 retailers and 2 non-retailers.  Shop.org is a member-driven organization.  The annual election of Board members, therefore, is critical to our ”by the member, for the member” ethic.   This is an opportunity to apply your ideas, experience and passion to help Shop.org realize its vision of being the world’s leading membership community for digital retail.

Over the years, the annual election process has produced amazing Board members who share a committment to the growth and success of Shop.org and the digital retail community.  Each year I look forward to the election and seeing the different members of the community who step up to contribute their experience and talent to Shop.org. 

Again, June 26 is the deadline for members to submit nomination applications.  The nominating committee will review all the submissions and select a ballot.  The final step is a vote by the members in August.  Each member company can cast a ballot for 6 new retail directors and 2 new non-retail directors. 

Everything you’d ever want to know about the election process can be found in the FAQs.  And, if you have any questions about the election process, please feel free to contact me.

Last week Scott Silverman and I had the pleasure of attending our Chicago and Columbus Regional Dinners.  It was truly an inspiring experience to see the power of the Shop.org community at work and doing what it does best — allowing our members to help each other improve their business and achieve their goals.

At both dinners the conversation never lapsed and we had a great diversity of eCommerce “newbies” and seasoned veterans who shared with the group the wisdom of their experience.  If I may risk jinxing it, I felt the general mood of the dinners to be a lot more optimistic then in recent memory.  Things are obviously still challenging, but our members were not wallowing in misery — instead they were sharing how they are succeeding and finding opportunity through adversity even in a recession.  

I would like to thank our sponsors at the dinners (Right Now Technologies in Chicago and eBillme in Columbus) and invite everyone to check out our list of Regional Dinners for one near you.  I will see everyone in Boston on June 15! 

Larry Joseloff
VP, Content
Shop.org

Join us tomorrow, Thursday, May 28th from 1-2pm EST as Sucharita Mulpuru, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research highlights benchmarks and key findings from the recently released 2009 State of Retailing Online (SORO) Marketing Report .

The heart of this webinar (which is free for Shop.org and NRF members) will center on strategies and tactics that confront marketers this year - but we plan to spend a large amount of time answering your questions like the ones we have already received below:

• What should we (retailers) think about as they ponder whether they need to invest in this area in the next 12 or 18 months? Where should they start? What do consumers expect?
• Are there any best practices you’ve seen out there in managing paid search?
• Do we (retailers) need to rethinking email for 2009 / 2010 purposes, vs. doing the same old, same old from years ago?
• Who are some of the companies that are noteworthy in their approach to social media and what are they doing?

To submit your own questions to Sucharita please email us at webinars @ shop.org and we will do our best to get to your question on the webinar tomorrow.

You’ve made a business at, and written several successful books about, helping retailers and consumer product companies leverage the Internet and social media to tell their stories. Tell me a few really cool things happening right now at your company.

One of our main tenets is that social media is the new gateway to the brand. We’re continually researching, innovating, beta testing—all in the interest of innovating and pushing our work. We’ve created the RI:Lab, which is our R&D laboratory that’s focused in innovation, futuring and emerging platforms. We’re amidst a big push into mobile—WAP sites, couponing, etc. and our first iPhone app is launching any day now, with many more in the works. And soon we’ll begin testing The OPEN Hub, a private and secure social network for our clients. 2009 has been very good to us—not just through internal innovations; we’ve also had the great fortune of adding some really exciting new brands to our client roster.

You talk frequently about “open brands.” How can a retailer open its brand and why would they want to?

Open brands are strategically opened, emphasizing one or two consumer experiences that represent the most value. O.P.E.N. (On-demand, Personal, Engaging and Networked) is a framework for creating such experiences. Ultimately, an open brand is relevant and participatory—driven by consumer expectations and unmet needs and desires.

Brands have to find their sweet spot through a careful assessment to determine what’s right for them. For example, one retailer may highlight the Engaging experience (ENOP) and another might call out the Personal experience (PONE). We use an Open Brand Scorecard to evaluate brands and determine the best approach.

As for why brands should open up—there are 5 simple reasons, that we refer to as the “5 R’s”: Revenue, ROI, R&D, Relevance and Relationships. Recruiting is a bonus.

What recommendation would you give to a company trying to understand how to use Facebook or Twitter to communicate with customers?

There’s no one-size-fits-all prescription. Do your homework. Understand how your customers want to communicate. Look for opportunities to support, connect or delight consumers. There are lots of great case studies emerging. Use your agencies to get smart or network with peers to share…experiment, test and learn.

You talk a lot with consumers to try to get their insights on shopping and understand their behaviors. Based on those conversations, how you think customers have changed since the recession and when will retailers start to see spending rebound?

Consumer confidence is paramount in any downturn. They are weighing their options a little more heavily, searching harder for the best prices. Ultimately, they need more decision support. Retailers will surely see spending rebound, but if they really want to move the consumer off the dime, it’s time for true innovation.

The real question on everyone’s mind is whether consumer behavior has changed for good. We’re actually further researching this topic for the Annual Summit—are consumers recession-rewired or is their frugality temporary?—so stay tuned. My Shop.org Summit keynote will shine a spotlight on how urgently retailers need innovative new solutions that lower barriers to buying.

Do you see retailers missing any opportunities online? If so, what are they?

Well, we need to start viewing the destination website as akin to the flagship store for a brand. It’s the dispersed experiences that do the heavy lifting. Think about how digital can enable, create and connect the consumer journey.

That being said, I think retailers haven’t even scratched the surface of the potential social networks or mobile. Both channels are claiming their share of consumers’ time and no one has truly tapped into their power…yet.

If you had to make a list of three “retailers to watch,” what companies would you list?

As I mentioned before, it’s about social media and mobile integration. The ones to watch are the ones who are beginning to unravel the secrets…Apple, QVC, Amazon, and Victoria’s Secret PINK.

I also like how outdoor retailers like REI and Backcountry.com are integrating social media into their online experiences. I just received a printed “catalog-like” publication from Backcountry.com that was highlighting some of their most popular products, but all content, ratings and reviews, articles, etc. were repurposed from ONLINE community members.

In a recent blog post you wrote about paying attention, not only to what you do in a given workday but who you’re surrounded by. It seems you’ve worked with some pretty incredible people throughout your career. What can potential employees look for that will provide insight on “who” a company really is? On the flip side, how can people and hiring managers get it “right”?

Potential employees should really seek to understand the culture, the values, of an organization and how decisions are made (and empowered). Does the company have an ambitious vision—beyond revenue growth? Is there passion in the ranks?

Hiring managers need to look way beyond the resume. Seek attitude over aptitude. Is this person a self starter, leader AND a team player and can I learn from him or her? At the end of the day, can I trust this person, can I travel with this person, can I be confident that he/she will care about doing great work?

To have incredible people around you, you have to seek them out and always raise the bar–-and you will continue to upgrade talent naturally.

Tell me three goals you have over the next twelve months.

-More deeply understand the new (frugal) consumer—globally
-Strengthen our agency’s long-term competitive advantage
-Continue to find ways to uniquely connect with my kids, Luke (he’s 13) and my daughter Riley. She’s 10.

Several months ago, USA Today featured photos from the Resource Interactive headquarters in a story about pet-friendly workplaces. Can you talk about how this culture got started and your philosophies about pets at work?

We have always had a culture of inclusion, and that includes associates’ pets…I can’t remember a time we didn’t have them in the office. Pets are an important part of people’s lives – we respect that. Not to mention, they bring such a lively dimension to the workplace. Interestingly, we’ve never had issues with barking or messes or major distractions—it all just works out.

You always seem to be going a mile a minute. How do you unwind?

I’ve learned to compartmentalize, to draw boundaries. When Friday comes to a close, you have to claim your weekend for yourself and your family. Step away from the email, and close the door to work for awhile.

During the week, I run in the morning when my family is sleeping. It clears my head and psyches me up for the day. I also go to bed by 9:30 on Friday night, and wake up for yoga on Saturday morning. I typically nap on Sunday afternoon or flip through mindless magazines. It’s great.

Connect with Kelly:

• LinkedIn
• Blog

The conference opened with a keynote address from Transportation secretary Ray LaHood, covered in the NRF’s Blog. Wednesday morning, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Senate Finance Committee member Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, outlined issues pending in Congress that will affect the retail industry.

Two key issues that were highlighted during the conference:

• Behavioral targeting - As pointed out in Scott Silverman’s March 12th blog post, this is an issue that’s on the radar of the FTC.  There’s an opportunity now for industry to lead the way, prior to greater government involvement.
• New global Top Level Domains from ICANN - ICANN is on a path to potentially add over 1,000 new gTLDs (to an existing universe of 240, including familiar TLDs, such as .com, .gov.mil) in the next few years, with application fees starting at $190,000.  This is of significant concern to businesses, especially those with well known brands, due to substantially increased financial burdens in fighting trademark infringement and the promotion of trademark confusion and dilution.

Stay tuned to the blog for more developments.  If you’re interested in being involved, signup for Policy information.

NY Times: Companies object to Google policy on Trademarks
Official Google blog:
Good overview at SearchEngine Land.

Regardless of how one ships internationally (freight forwarder, International cart, or do-it- yourself with a leading transportation carrier), pushing unexpectedly high international shipping costs onto the consumer can dramatically reduce conversion and repeat orders.

No real surprise there. High shipping costs are clearly a common pain point in the international customer experience, especially when commonly-used shipping calculators tabulate a much lower landed cost estimate for the end-consumer.

The day-to-day variance in the actual costs that domestic shippers (UPS, DHL, FedEx, USPS, Pitney Bowes, etc.) charge companies that ship direct to consumers can be startling. Ask around and you’ll hear horror stories about how the very same product arriving at the very same international destination costs $30 one-day and $109 the next ― for no apparent reason.

Nothing degrades the post-purchase experience quicker than duties and shipping /handling charges costing equal to or more than the cost of the product itself.

This frustrating variance in taxes, duties, customs clearance and related handling costs results in unhappy customers (when costs are passed on to recipients) and wasted resources spent by retailers (and their shipping partners) investigating the unexplained daily cost swings.

These costs may also be absorbed by international ecommerce solution providers who are using major commercial shippers for logistics instead of developing in-country solutions with regional players. Absorbing these costs makes their business model difficult to maintain. In the case of Comerxia, this contributed to a rapid and painful exit from the marketplace with more than a few unhappy retailers left in their wake.

What Works?

International shipping/logistics solutions where the customs clearing process offers shippers a competitive advantage instead of a costly headache can offer a win-win-win. International online shoppers buy more due to significantly lower landed costs, online retailers sell more products (and can trust that their customers receive a reasonable shipping rate and a good overall experience) and international ecommerce solution providers can run a long-term, profitable business.

The lessons today for online retailers and consumer brands shipping product internationally?

1. International e-commerce requires a lot more than just “flipping on the shipping switch” with their established domestic transportation partner. Even when these shipping partners can point to a global footprint, don’t assume this means they can deliver the same value (and operational focus) they deliver within the 48 states.

Relative to their domestic business, most domestic shippers aren’t yet shipping enough volume globally to justify the time and effort required to develop and maintain in-country, custom clearing partnerships in developing global ecommerce markets.

2. Make sure your shipping partner has built or is building dedicated distribution channels into global markets. As international ecommerce growth drives up international order volume, unbilled cost variances will cut painfully into the margins of shipping/logistics partners that simply outsource shipping to the major domestic carriers and rely on the “pre-bill” model (where the shipper has to absorb unexpected shipping variances).

It is true that building shipping and distribution channels into global markets from the ground up takes time and resources. But by establishing on-the -ground relationships with in-country custom clearing partners in global markets, international ecommerce solution providers and shipping/logistics partners can dramatically reduce costs and eliminate the unexplained ─ and unexpected ─ variances in shipping charges that drive international online shoppers crazy.

An added plus is that investing in these distribution and final mile relationships often leads to similar relationships in adjacent international markets that open new and cost effective trade routes to global consumers.

3. Shipping e-commerce and direct orders internationally doesn’t have to be expensive! Providing a total landed cost estimate is a very different from executing on that estimate. Today, control of the customs clearance process at the local level is poor at best. As the volume of international ecommerce shipping grows, online retailers that can tightly control the customs clearance process in their targeted global markets will emerge as the next engines of retail growth.

E-commerce sites and direct marketers that work with shipping/distribution partners that “own” direct channels into global markets will find that their landed costs drop dramatically, especially compared to what the major domestic carriers charge. Even when third party shipping partners receive volume discounts from these carriers, the landed costs charged by other shippers with proprietary distribution channels are still substantially lower.

On-the-ground relationships that smooth out the variances in the customs clearance process improve delivery times significantly and can dramatically lower costs.

Most importantly, by surpassing the expectations of the global consumer, the international e-commerce experience is vastly improved.

What has your international shipping experience been like to date? Let us know.

Thanks all,

The J C Williams Team