Sunday, March 09, 2008
Are Women The Answer For Ask.com?
Ask.com is looking to women for answers. The 12-year-old search engine is reportedly narrowing its focus to appeal to married women, mostly in the South and Midwest, in its first major move under the direction of new CEO Jim Safka. Ask.com is trimming 40 jobs, according to published reports, as its shifts emphasis from the broader model it featured since its launch.
The Oakland, Calif.-based company, a property of InterActiveCorp since 2005, has earned praise for numerous innovations over the years. Indeed, just in the last year, Ask.com grabbed kudos for its privacy-guarding AskEraser and search tool Ask3D.
Ask.com did not respond to requests for comment.
However, Ask hasn't been able to make gains on market leader Google and Yahoo, which has had struggles of its own. "It's the final recognition that [they're] spending a lot of money taking on Google, which had introduced simplicity in the search engine market, and the already displaced Yahoo," Gene Alvarez, Gartner's vice president of e-commerce said. "The simplicity of Google, the addition of all the other things Google offers, when you bring all those together, Ask had to take on a giant with not enough tools in their portfolio. Now, it's a retreat back to where they came from."
At midday, IAC shares were trading at US$19.68 -- near the bottom of their 52-week range of $19.50 and $39.06 -- on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Even retreating to a narrower market segment is no guarantee of success for Ask.com, Alvarez added. "They're still going to have a challenge, because Google has become -- in terms of recognition -- a household name. So, it's not like working mothers don't know about Google, and Ask.com can capture them. It's still a highly competitive market -- even within the segment -- and it's going to remain competitive."
Google holds a market share of 58.4 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix's January ratings. Yahoo's 22.9 percent is a distant second, and Ask.com has a 4.3 percent share.
Ask.com is "throwing in half the towel if they're pursuing a gender strategy," Scott Cleland, president of Washington-based Precursor said. The strategy, in effect, cedes the general search category to the market leader.
Ask.com will still have to operate in the shadow of a "network effect" that Google generates, he noted. "It's the strong getting stronger. Google can add more material in their search database, so more people seek them out."
That dynamic feeds on itself, Cleland added. "One of the big myths is it's all the search algorithm. While that's important, it's one piece of what matters. The big piece of what matters is how comprehensive is your search and how many people you have searching, so you can learn from their behavior so you can further hone your algorithm.
"Google has 15 times more users and many more times that of publishers and advertisers that use them, so Google has the advantage of seeing the whole search marketplace and benefiting from all that intelligence," he continued.
Ask.com's strategy could work, but it will take a major commitment of resources, Greg Sterling, principal analyst for Sterling Market Intelligence said. "They've tried to go straight at Google and have been basically unsuccessful, but they've been very good at some of what they've done. They've been very innovative with products, like Ask3D. In many respects, they've led the industry in certain ways."
Now, Ask.com may be looking to play to its strength in a core female audience, he added. The question is: Can they pull it off? Sterling has doubts. "I think they may launch some products, but this is the beginning of either a rapid or moderately fast decline. I could be wrong, certainly, but I don't think they're going to execute well on this female audience strategy. They're too concerned about making money at this point. I don't see them investing a lot of resources in the product to develop it all that much."
Some sort of change in strategy appeared inevitable, Forrester analyst Charlene Li said. "I think that Ask.com saw the writing on the wall -- that it had virtually no chance to succeed in the general search space. That said, they have picked a potentially lucrative space to focus on. Women make most of the spending decisions in a household, and all the more if they have children at home."
Site Credibility Pays At Guardian eCommerce.
The Oakland, Calif.-based company, a property of InterActiveCorp since 2005, has earned praise for numerous innovations over the years. Indeed, just in the last year, Ask.com grabbed kudos for its privacy-guarding AskEraser and search tool Ask3D.
Ask.com did not respond to requests for comment.
However, Ask hasn't been able to make gains on market leader Google and Yahoo, which has had struggles of its own. "It's the final recognition that [they're] spending a lot of money taking on Google, which had introduced simplicity in the search engine market, and the already displaced Yahoo," Gene Alvarez, Gartner's vice president of e-commerce said. "The simplicity of Google, the addition of all the other things Google offers, when you bring all those together, Ask had to take on a giant with not enough tools in their portfolio. Now, it's a retreat back to where they came from."
At midday, IAC shares were trading at US$19.68 -- near the bottom of their 52-week range of $19.50 and $39.06 -- on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Even retreating to a narrower market segment is no guarantee of success for Ask.com, Alvarez added. "They're still going to have a challenge, because Google has become -- in terms of recognition -- a household name. So, it's not like working mothers don't know about Google, and Ask.com can capture them. It's still a highly competitive market -- even within the segment -- and it's going to remain competitive."
Google holds a market share of 58.4 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix's January ratings. Yahoo's 22.9 percent is a distant second, and Ask.com has a 4.3 percent share.
Ask.com is "throwing in half the towel if they're pursuing a gender strategy," Scott Cleland, president of Washington-based Precursor said. The strategy, in effect, cedes the general search category to the market leader.
Ask.com will still have to operate in the shadow of a "network effect" that Google generates, he noted. "It's the strong getting stronger. Google can add more material in their search database, so more people seek them out."
That dynamic feeds on itself, Cleland added. "One of the big myths is it's all the search algorithm. While that's important, it's one piece of what matters. The big piece of what matters is how comprehensive is your search and how many people you have searching, so you can learn from their behavior so you can further hone your algorithm.
"Google has 15 times more users and many more times that of publishers and advertisers that use them, so Google has the advantage of seeing the whole search marketplace and benefiting from all that intelligence," he continued.
Ask.com's strategy could work, but it will take a major commitment of resources, Greg Sterling, principal analyst for Sterling Market Intelligence said. "They've tried to go straight at Google and have been basically unsuccessful, but they've been very good at some of what they've done. They've been very innovative with products, like Ask3D. In many respects, they've led the industry in certain ways."
Now, Ask.com may be looking to play to its strength in a core female audience, he added. The question is: Can they pull it off? Sterling has doubts. "I think they may launch some products, but this is the beginning of either a rapid or moderately fast decline. I could be wrong, certainly, but I don't think they're going to execute well on this female audience strategy. They're too concerned about making money at this point. I don't see them investing a lot of resources in the product to develop it all that much."
Some sort of change in strategy appeared inevitable, Forrester analyst Charlene Li said. "I think that Ask.com saw the writing on the wall -- that it had virtually no chance to succeed in the general search space. That said, they have picked a potentially lucrative space to focus on. Women make most of the spending decisions in a household, and all the more if they have children at home."
Site Credibility Pays At Guardian eCommerce.
Convert Visitors To Your Web Site
The following details explain how to get visitors to your site and convert them to sales. The following five rules also outline how to submit your Web site to the search engines and directories, how to use Google's PageRank, and how to use keyword spelling to your advantage.
1. Search Engine Submission
The best way to achieve high search engine rankings for new Web sites may not be what you expect. You should not submit your site directly to the search engines, as this process can take weeks or even months to get your site listed. Instead, you need to get listed on top ranking pages that are relevant to your Web sites' content. These high ranking pages are often optimized on a weekly or even daily basis. Every time the site is indexed, your link will appear and the search engines will automatically list your site in its index. It is as simple as that to get listed on top search engines in only a few days.
To do this, we need to search for Web sites that that are indexed by search engines and get them to link to us. This can be difficult to do -- unless you give the site some incentive to do so. The incentive you need to give them is to write some sort of article that is relevant to your line of business. At the bottom of the article you include your Web page URL (uniform resource locator) to get picked up by the search engines. You submit the article to popular article directories on the Web and you will be indexed by the search engines in a matter of days rather than months.
Here's a list of the most popular article directories you can submit your Web site to:
Go Articles
Ezine Articles
ArticleCity
Free Content
Amazines
Article Dashboard
Article Directory
Submit Your Article
MagPortal
Isnare
ACS Publications
Article Hangout
WebArticles
ArticleCube
Articles 4 Content
Article-Buzz
Free Articles Zone
New Articles Online
Article To Go
ArticleWorld
Impact Articles
Article Alley
DirectoryGold
Salon
ContentArticles
Software Marketing Resource Marketing Article Directory
Niche-Article-Directory
Jogena's
ACC News Directory Article Directory
Article Niche Directory
SuperPublisher
Web Host Industry Review
Article Marketer
Article Emporium
IdeaMarketers
Internet Home Business Articles
Site Reference
The other option is to perform a search of the most generic term that is related to your business. Click through these Web sites looking at the page ranks. Contact the Web site and by sending them an e-mail asking them to link to your site and in return for you linking back to their Web site. Always contact sites that are relevant to your line of work and always offer them something their visitors can benefit from once they add your link.
You can purchase a link in top PageRank sites through link builders. A few of the good Web sites that can do this for you are TextBrokers, Text Link Ads and LinkAdage.
Remember that you only need to purchase a link for one month, since it will take less than one month to get you indexed by the major search engines. Continuing to pay for the link after a month is a waste of your money. Basically, you are paying a one-time fee to instantly get indexed in the major search engines.
2. Off-Page Optimization
This is just as important, if not more important than on page optimization. To do this, we need to study the linking strategies of the top 10 Web sites for your keyword. We want to copy their model, but do things slightly better to achieve the top rankings. First, open up a spreadsheet in Excel and list the following columns: linking Web site, anchor text, PageRank, link popularity page title and number of outbound links. Then we search your keyword on Google and fill in the information for the top 10 Web sites.
To discover the linking Web sites, go to Google and type in the Web sites URL "link:www.thewebsite.com." Then count the number of sites that are listed to get the link popularity.
Anchor text is whatever follows the .com or .org of a Web site URL.
PageRank is the rank Google gives to Web sites. Download the tool here.
Page title is the title of the page that appears on the top left of the screen. If the title does not contain the keywords, then the site is not well optimized and easy to surpass in rankings.
Number of outbound links is the number of links located on the Web page linking to the site you're checking.
Once all this information has been collected, you can see what needs to be done to your site to beat the top ranking sites.
3. Search Engines and Capitalization
Capitalizing different letters in keywords brings up different results in search engines. Search engines are case-sensitive, so it is important how you use capitalization. Listing every variation of a word results in the search engines thinking that you are spam and deleting your URL. This gets worse with singular and plural words.
The solution is to stick with lowercase listings rather than trying different variations. Most people search in all lowercase, and this has the most relevant listings. Not using every other variation means you lose out on about 18 percent of traffic. This is not worth the risk of being banned from the search engines.
Lowercase searching has dominated all the search engines ranging from 85 percent to 90 percent of the total terms used. Now most search engines are not case sensitive anymore.
4. Search Engine Spamming
Spamming does not take well with current search engines, as they have discovered ways to fight keyword stuffing and other search engine tricks. Search engines can detect your spam and will act accordingly by penalizing or banning you from their listings.
Search engine spamming is attempting to achieve top ranks for extremely popular keywords. You can attempt to fight that battle against other sites, but you ought to be ready to fight a long and hard battle defending your ranking. All that wasted effort can be better spent for finding other ways for Internet marketing.
There is no need for search engine spamming if your Web site has been optimized correctly using the above methods. The risks are not worth the temporary rewards. Search engine spam should be considered the same as e-mail spam. Nobody likes or wants spam. We want spammers removed from the Internet, so why would customers want to work with you, a spammer?
5. Professional SEOs
Hiring a professional search engine optimizer is a great idea if your business relies on Internet sales. Search engine optimization is something that is time consuming and requires lots of research.
Most businesses do not have time to optimize their Web sites. They have better things to take care of, like making sure their products are selling and keeping good customer relations. Companies like SEO Optimizers, SEOPerformance and Apex Reach make sure everything is in line at your site and fix any problems that may be holding you back from reaching the top ranks. If you really want to be at the top of any searches you need professionals to come in and help solve the problem.
Guardian eCommerce Exposes Trustworthy Web Sites.
1. Search Engine Submission
The best way to achieve high search engine rankings for new Web sites may not be what you expect. You should not submit your site directly to the search engines, as this process can take weeks or even months to get your site listed. Instead, you need to get listed on top ranking pages that are relevant to your Web sites' content. These high ranking pages are often optimized on a weekly or even daily basis. Every time the site is indexed, your link will appear and the search engines will automatically list your site in its index. It is as simple as that to get listed on top search engines in only a few days.
To do this, we need to search for Web sites that that are indexed by search engines and get them to link to us. This can be difficult to do -- unless you give the site some incentive to do so. The incentive you need to give them is to write some sort of article that is relevant to your line of business. At the bottom of the article you include your Web page URL (uniform resource locator) to get picked up by the search engines. You submit the article to popular article directories on the Web and you will be indexed by the search engines in a matter of days rather than months.
Here's a list of the most popular article directories you can submit your Web site to:
Go Articles
Ezine Articles
ArticleCity
Free Content
Amazines
Article Dashboard
Article Directory
Submit Your Article
MagPortal
Isnare
ACS Publications
Article Hangout
WebArticles
ArticleCube
Articles 4 Content
Article-Buzz
Free Articles Zone
New Articles Online
Article To Go
ArticleWorld
Impact Articles
Article Alley
DirectoryGold
Salon
ContentArticles
Software Marketing Resource Marketing Article Directory
Niche-Article-Directory
Jogena's
ACC News Directory Article Directory
Article Niche Directory
SuperPublisher
Web Host Industry Review
Article Marketer
Article Emporium
IdeaMarketers
Internet Home Business Articles
Site Reference
The other option is to perform a search of the most generic term that is related to your business. Click through these Web sites looking at the page ranks. Contact the Web site and by sending them an e-mail asking them to link to your site and in return for you linking back to their Web site. Always contact sites that are relevant to your line of work and always offer them something their visitors can benefit from once they add your link.
You can purchase a link in top PageRank sites through link builders. A few of the good Web sites that can do this for you are TextBrokers, Text Link Ads and LinkAdage.
Remember that you only need to purchase a link for one month, since it will take less than one month to get you indexed by the major search engines. Continuing to pay for the link after a month is a waste of your money. Basically, you are paying a one-time fee to instantly get indexed in the major search engines.
2. Off-Page Optimization
This is just as important, if not more important than on page optimization. To do this, we need to study the linking strategies of the top 10 Web sites for your keyword. We want to copy their model, but do things slightly better to achieve the top rankings. First, open up a spreadsheet in Excel and list the following columns: linking Web site, anchor text, PageRank, link popularity page title and number of outbound links. Then we search your keyword on Google and fill in the information for the top 10 Web sites.
To discover the linking Web sites, go to Google and type in the Web sites URL "link:www.thewebsite.com." Then count the number of sites that are listed to get the link popularity.
Anchor text is whatever follows the .com or .org of a Web site URL.
PageRank is the rank Google gives to Web sites. Download the tool here.
Page title is the title of the page that appears on the top left of the screen. If the title does not contain the keywords, then the site is not well optimized and easy to surpass in rankings.
Number of outbound links is the number of links located on the Web page linking to the site you're checking.
Once all this information has been collected, you can see what needs to be done to your site to beat the top ranking sites.
3. Search Engines and Capitalization
Capitalizing different letters in keywords brings up different results in search engines. Search engines are case-sensitive, so it is important how you use capitalization. Listing every variation of a word results in the search engines thinking that you are spam and deleting your URL. This gets worse with singular and plural words.
The solution is to stick with lowercase listings rather than trying different variations. Most people search in all lowercase, and this has the most relevant listings. Not using every other variation means you lose out on about 18 percent of traffic. This is not worth the risk of being banned from the search engines.
Lowercase searching has dominated all the search engines ranging from 85 percent to 90 percent of the total terms used. Now most search engines are not case sensitive anymore.
4. Search Engine Spamming
Spamming does not take well with current search engines, as they have discovered ways to fight keyword stuffing and other search engine tricks. Search engines can detect your spam and will act accordingly by penalizing or banning you from their listings.
Search engine spamming is attempting to achieve top ranks for extremely popular keywords. You can attempt to fight that battle against other sites, but you ought to be ready to fight a long and hard battle defending your ranking. All that wasted effort can be better spent for finding other ways for Internet marketing.
There is no need for search engine spamming if your Web site has been optimized correctly using the above methods. The risks are not worth the temporary rewards. Search engine spam should be considered the same as e-mail spam. Nobody likes or wants spam. We want spammers removed from the Internet, so why would customers want to work with you, a spammer?
5. Professional SEOs
Hiring a professional search engine optimizer is a great idea if your business relies on Internet sales. Search engine optimization is something that is time consuming and requires lots of research.
Most businesses do not have time to optimize their Web sites. They have better things to take care of, like making sure their products are selling and keeping good customer relations. Companies like SEO Optimizers, SEOPerformance and Apex Reach make sure everything is in line at your site and fix any problems that may be holding you back from reaching the top ranks. If you really want to be at the top of any searches you need professionals to come in and help solve the problem.
Guardian eCommerce Exposes Trustworthy Web Sites.
Gaining In The Domain Name Market
Most of us are painfully aware that the real estate market has been on the decline for some time. In fact, some experts feel that it might take at least two years for prices to hit bottom. However, an interesting twist is bringing good news: Virtual real estate prices (domain names) are on the rise! In fact, we now have active trading in domain names.
In real estate, the old saying as to what drives value is "location, location, location." However, in virtual real estate, location isn't really applicable. What drives prices is the vehicle (domain name) that will get you to the right location --the right placement for search engines.
Entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for domain names that will create value based upon a catchy word or phrase in the Web site name. There is intense interest in the type of domain names that will push upwards the potential number of viewers, thus the location in a search engine.
Creating or finding such a domain name is not as easy as it might sound. Yet entrepreneurs are continually registering what they regard as killer domain names that might have some value in the near future. They are watching trends, emerging industries and new applications.
What they are on the lookout for is any new product or service that might have a mass audience. If they can attach a catchy name for that product or service, the chances are good that the people running such a company would pay substantially for a domain name that will give them a vast audience.
Prices of domain names actually are being driven upwards through auctions. Regarding this type of trading, The New York Times recently ran an article titled "Coins in the New Realm." Brad Stone, the writer of that article, said: "The practitioners' fundamental assertion -- that names of Web sites can be valuable, cash-generating assets just like stocks, bonds or property -- appears to be gaining a broader acceptance that veteran domainers are not accustomed to and may not be totally comfortable with."
My feeling is that the virtual real estate craze is not going to go away anytime soon. Any commercial enterprise ignores the power of the Internet at its peril. In this day and age, I can't imagine a business of any considerable size without an Internet presence -- a domain name. This being the case, smart money is on the lookout for catchy names.
A good site for a listing of domain name offerings is Sedo.com, a German-based company with offices in the U.S. A Boston Globe article last year stated that Sedo is as a sort of eBay for domain names and handles more than US$3 million in transactions each month.
I recently looked at the Sedo site and found a plethora of domain names listed -- some for as little as $60, others going into the thousands. Additionally, there was quite a broad spectrum of sites available.
Another interesting site that I recently visited was Afternic.com. I found this site different than Sedo in that there were many domain names listed with prices going well into the thousands. In fact, this company styles itself as the "world's leading premium domain marketplace."
Afternic, like some other sites, allows you to actively bid for a domain name. Believe it or not, there is actually a link to order an appraisal for a domain name. Isn't this starting to sound like actual real estate activity? In many ways, it is. The difference here is that we are talking about virtual real estate.
With the Internet not only here to stay but an absolute necessity for a business of any size, there is no doubt in my mind that domain names will continue to be created and sought after. In fact, when I made a Google search titled "domain name auctions," I got more than 230,000 hits!
In addition, we now have the equivalent of domain name real estate agents -- that is, people and companies that assist you in searching for and acquiring an appropriate domain name. Some of these companies, for a price, will even provide you with domain name appraisals -- just like the real-life appraisers in the real estate market.
Domain name appraisers in fact have become quite prominent. If you go to Google, for example, and search for "domain name appraisers," you will get about the same number of hits as for "domain name auctions" -- over 200,000. It seems to me that virtual real estate has created a new profession: domain name appraiser.
Just as in the stock market, there is money to be made -- and lost -- in domain name trading. From a seller's point of view, the objective is to get the highest price as possible. From the buyer's point of view, it's still caveat emptor -- buyer beware! Good luck!
Site Credibility Pays! Get Site Certified Today!
In real estate, the old saying as to what drives value is "location, location, location." However, in virtual real estate, location isn't really applicable. What drives prices is the vehicle (domain name) that will get you to the right location --the right placement for search engines.
Entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for domain names that will create value based upon a catchy word or phrase in the Web site name. There is intense interest in the type of domain names that will push upwards the potential number of viewers, thus the location in a search engine.
Creating or finding such a domain name is not as easy as it might sound. Yet entrepreneurs are continually registering what they regard as killer domain names that might have some value in the near future. They are watching trends, emerging industries and new applications.
What they are on the lookout for is any new product or service that might have a mass audience. If they can attach a catchy name for that product or service, the chances are good that the people running such a company would pay substantially for a domain name that will give them a vast audience.
Prices of domain names actually are being driven upwards through auctions. Regarding this type of trading, The New York Times recently ran an article titled "Coins in the New Realm." Brad Stone, the writer of that article, said: "The practitioners' fundamental assertion -- that names of Web sites can be valuable, cash-generating assets just like stocks, bonds or property -- appears to be gaining a broader acceptance that veteran domainers are not accustomed to and may not be totally comfortable with."
My feeling is that the virtual real estate craze is not going to go away anytime soon. Any commercial enterprise ignores the power of the Internet at its peril. In this day and age, I can't imagine a business of any considerable size without an Internet presence -- a domain name. This being the case, smart money is on the lookout for catchy names.
A good site for a listing of domain name offerings is Sedo.com, a German-based company with offices in the U.S. A Boston Globe article last year stated that Sedo is as a sort of eBay for domain names and handles more than US$3 million in transactions each month.
I recently looked at the Sedo site and found a plethora of domain names listed -- some for as little as $60, others going into the thousands. Additionally, there was quite a broad spectrum of sites available.
Another interesting site that I recently visited was Afternic.com. I found this site different than Sedo in that there were many domain names listed with prices going well into the thousands. In fact, this company styles itself as the "world's leading premium domain marketplace."
Afternic, like some other sites, allows you to actively bid for a domain name. Believe it or not, there is actually a link to order an appraisal for a domain name. Isn't this starting to sound like actual real estate activity? In many ways, it is. The difference here is that we are talking about virtual real estate.
With the Internet not only here to stay but an absolute necessity for a business of any size, there is no doubt in my mind that domain names will continue to be created and sought after. In fact, when I made a Google search titled "domain name auctions," I got more than 230,000 hits!
In addition, we now have the equivalent of domain name real estate agents -- that is, people and companies that assist you in searching for and acquiring an appropriate domain name. Some of these companies, for a price, will even provide you with domain name appraisals -- just like the real-life appraisers in the real estate market.
Domain name appraisers in fact have become quite prominent. If you go to Google, for example, and search for "domain name appraisers," you will get about the same number of hits as for "domain name auctions" -- over 200,000. It seems to me that virtual real estate has created a new profession: domain name appraiser.
Just as in the stock market, there is money to be made -- and lost -- in domain name trading. From a seller's point of view, the objective is to get the highest price as possible. From the buyer's point of view, it's still caveat emptor -- buyer beware! Good luck!
Site Credibility Pays! Get Site Certified Today!
Embracing The E-Shopper
E-commerce suppliers face a difficult challenge. They must cultivate loyal customers, but that is becoming more difficult as the Internet enables consumers to roam freely from retailer to retailer. Now more than ever, the customer is in control, and that change is forcing many e-tailers to turn to customized shopping experiences to build brand loyalty.
The Internet is having a dramatic impact on how individuals shop. "Nowadays, fewer and fewer consumers feel compelled to stay with a particular brand," said Patti Freeman Evans, lead analyst at JupiterResearch. That's because they are now able to find what they desire at a plethora of stores.
Consequently, companies are trying to tighten the bond to their customers via personalized services. Three personalization techniques have become common: customizing what users see on their screens, offering unique amenities for items that they have purchased, and charging them based on who they are rather than what they are buying.
Vendors are attracted to the personalization features for a few reasons. Those interested in the services are tech-savvy. Eighty-three percent of custom purchasers have been online for five or more years, compared with 66 percent of all online consumers, according to Forrester Research. Similarly, more than half of custom product purchasers have e-commerce tenures of five or more years -- twice the rate of all online consumers, the market research firm determined. Perhaps most importantly, these individuals are not tire-kickers and are more likely to make a purchase than typical online consumers.
The most common method of personalization has been the trend to place targeted advertisements in front of consumers whenever they meander through a retailer's Web site. "Since retailers can build a purchasing history of each customer, they are able to gauge who the person may be and provide them with items that interest them," Toffer Winslow, executive vice president of sales and marketing at ChoiceStream, told the E-Commerce Times. ChoiceStream helps retailers deliver relevant content to potential customers. If a consumer has bought "High School Musical," then the retailer would push "High School Musical 2" as well as similar brands, such as the "Hannah Montana" line.
This technique works when retailers are able to accurately deduce who the person is and what items would interest them. "Retailers have been trying to improve their algorithms, so they can put the most appropriate content in front of potential add-on buyers," JupiterResearch's Freeman Evans said.
Another way to enhance the shopping experience is to make it more store-like. "One of the downsides with virtual shopping is consumers are not able to experience the fun that goes along with shopping when you really don't know what you want to buy," Louise Guay, president of My Virtual Model said. Stores such as H&M and Marie Claire have installed virtual shopping experiences where potential buyers work with 3-D and 2-D models to help visualize how clothing will look on them.
Zafu has another variation on that theme. The company tries to help women find the right pair of jeans or a bra, relying on mathematical calculations, product databases and body shape libraries to match different products to consumers. Customers answer a few questions and the site recommends clothes that will fit a woman best.
Customization is also found with other consumer items. Since the advent of the Motorola Razr, cell phones have become fashion statements as well as tools to exchange information. Companies such as Motorola and Nokia offer their customers a range of elaborate ways to personalize their cell phones, from various carrying cases to fancy jewelry. The iPod and iPhone have become popular in part because of their users' ability to customize the devices. Firms such as Cosmi and Graphic Cling sell products so individuals can add a unique look to their iPods.
Personalization is also found with athletic items. Nike's ID program offers customers a large variety of shoes, bags and accessories that can be custom-made in any number of color and style combinations.
The need for individualisms is expanding beyond simple product purchases. Companies also offer different pricing structures to their customers. While the Internet allows shoppers to easily compare prices across thousands of stores, it also enables businesses to collect detailed information about a customer's purchasing history, preferences and financial resources. This information suggests that a consumer may be willing to pay more -- or less -- than others for a certain item. Retailers are using this information to set their prices accordingly.
This idea is not new. Offline, different customers often pay different prices, but when they do, they usually know it, such as when bartering at a flea market or street bazaar or with an automobile salesperson.
The varying pricing functions can create problems, as not all shoppers feel comfortable with tailored prices. Those who desire anonymity can even go to lengths, such as deleting their cookies, so retailers do not know that they are repeat users.
The move to customization also flies in the face of the basic conventional retailing axiom: produce one item and sell it to many customers. The cost to produce one-off custom products is high because retailers have to customize both their front-end and back-end systems and produce individual rather than mass-market items.
In addition, consumer interest in such services has been tepid to date. The percentage of users taking advantage of personalized services has remained largely flat in the past few years, at about one of every four shoppers, according to Forrester Research.
Building brand loyalty has become a struggle for retailers; however, personalization has the potential to help them to enhance customer allegiance and differentiate their products in highly competitive markets. Though in an early stage of evolution at the moment, customized shopping experiences are expected to become more common as the e-commerce market's ongoing maturation continues.
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The Internet is having a dramatic impact on how individuals shop. "Nowadays, fewer and fewer consumers feel compelled to stay with a particular brand," said Patti Freeman Evans, lead analyst at JupiterResearch. That's because they are now able to find what they desire at a plethora of stores.
Consequently, companies are trying to tighten the bond to their customers via personalized services. Three personalization techniques have become common: customizing what users see on their screens, offering unique amenities for items that they have purchased, and charging them based on who they are rather than what they are buying.
Vendors are attracted to the personalization features for a few reasons. Those interested in the services are tech-savvy. Eighty-three percent of custom purchasers have been online for five or more years, compared with 66 percent of all online consumers, according to Forrester Research. Similarly, more than half of custom product purchasers have e-commerce tenures of five or more years -- twice the rate of all online consumers, the market research firm determined. Perhaps most importantly, these individuals are not tire-kickers and are more likely to make a purchase than typical online consumers.
The most common method of personalization has been the trend to place targeted advertisements in front of consumers whenever they meander through a retailer's Web site. "Since retailers can build a purchasing history of each customer, they are able to gauge who the person may be and provide them with items that interest them," Toffer Winslow, executive vice president of sales and marketing at ChoiceStream, told the E-Commerce Times. ChoiceStream helps retailers deliver relevant content to potential customers. If a consumer has bought "High School Musical," then the retailer would push "High School Musical 2" as well as similar brands, such as the "Hannah Montana" line.
This technique works when retailers are able to accurately deduce who the person is and what items would interest them. "Retailers have been trying to improve their algorithms, so they can put the most appropriate content in front of potential add-on buyers," JupiterResearch's Freeman Evans said.
Another way to enhance the shopping experience is to make it more store-like. "One of the downsides with virtual shopping is consumers are not able to experience the fun that goes along with shopping when you really don't know what you want to buy," Louise Guay, president of My Virtual Model said. Stores such as H&M and Marie Claire have installed virtual shopping experiences where potential buyers work with 3-D and 2-D models to help visualize how clothing will look on them.
Zafu has another variation on that theme. The company tries to help women find the right pair of jeans or a bra, relying on mathematical calculations, product databases and body shape libraries to match different products to consumers. Customers answer a few questions and the site recommends clothes that will fit a woman best.
Customization is also found with other consumer items. Since the advent of the Motorola Razr, cell phones have become fashion statements as well as tools to exchange information. Companies such as Motorola and Nokia offer their customers a range of elaborate ways to personalize their cell phones, from various carrying cases to fancy jewelry. The iPod and iPhone have become popular in part because of their users' ability to customize the devices. Firms such as Cosmi and Graphic Cling sell products so individuals can add a unique look to their iPods.
Personalization is also found with athletic items. Nike's ID program offers customers a large variety of shoes, bags and accessories that can be custom-made in any number of color and style combinations.
The need for individualisms is expanding beyond simple product purchases. Companies also offer different pricing structures to their customers. While the Internet allows shoppers to easily compare prices across thousands of stores, it also enables businesses to collect detailed information about a customer's purchasing history, preferences and financial resources. This information suggests that a consumer may be willing to pay more -- or less -- than others for a certain item. Retailers are using this information to set their prices accordingly.
This idea is not new. Offline, different customers often pay different prices, but when they do, they usually know it, such as when bartering at a flea market or street bazaar or with an automobile salesperson.
The varying pricing functions can create problems, as not all shoppers feel comfortable with tailored prices. Those who desire anonymity can even go to lengths, such as deleting their cookies, so retailers do not know that they are repeat users.
The move to customization also flies in the face of the basic conventional retailing axiom: produce one item and sell it to many customers. The cost to produce one-off custom products is high because retailers have to customize both their front-end and back-end systems and produce individual rather than mass-market items.
In addition, consumer interest in such services has been tepid to date. The percentage of users taking advantage of personalized services has remained largely flat in the past few years, at about one of every four shoppers, according to Forrester Research.
Building brand loyalty has become a struggle for retailers; however, personalization has the potential to help them to enhance customer allegiance and differentiate their products in highly competitive markets. Though in an early stage of evolution at the moment, customized shopping experiences are expected to become more common as the e-commerce market's ongoing maturation continues.
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