Cataloger-Relevant Cherry-Pickin’s From eTail Conference

3. Use Video
Encourage customers to upload video reviews of products using YouTube.com. “It’s moving slowly now for us, but we’re seeing growth and see it as a huge opportunity for users to build hundreds of thousands of ‘commercials’ for [PETCO products].” — John Lazarchic, vice president of e-commerce, PETCO

4. Know When and How to Upgrade Your E-Commerce System and Vendor
When multichannel candle marketer Yankee Candle recently changed its e-commerce solutions system, it went through an extensive evaluation process company wide. Specifically, Yankee Candle went through the following steps in evaluating its choices:

* took stock of its business goals and strategies and the solutions needed to support them;

* built a financial model that was flexible and extendible;

* sought to return control of the business to itself rather than its e-commerce platform;

* found a solution that met the business, technical and customer needs; and

* built a leverageable foundation so it could improve its system in the future rather than constrain its e-commerce capabilities. —Robert Stetzel, vice president, business information services, The Yankee Candle Co.

5. Build Online Communities Based on Customer Desire
If you’re going to build an online community on your site, make sure you have the desire from people who come on the site that they want to sit around and talk to each other. —Finlay Robb, chief marketing officer, LEGO

6. Create a Customer-Focused Shopping Experience
Customers’ attitudes are shaped by cumulative experiences. These are what direct future behavior, loyalty, share of wallet and word-of-mouth. Most of our customers want to shop across various channels. But if they’ve had a bad experience online, it doesn’t only affect how they feel about shopping from a multichannel marketer online — it affects how they feel about that marketer overall. —Craig Stevenson, global multichannel retail solutions leader, IBM