Internet CRM - Six Basic Rules of Engagement With Furniture Shoppers

by David Berger, STORIS Management Systems

It amazes me.  Why do so many home furnishing retailers still not see the investment value of a sophisticated website?  From a CRM/customer service perspective it is becoming the number one way to engage consumers and convert them to loyal customers. 

Even with our accelerated techno-evolutionary environment there currently is no cost effective way to artificially and synthetically replicate the act of coming into a showroom to touch and feel the product.  But the home furnisher should offer to make that the only reason the consumer needs to come into the showroom.   Especially since more consumers are choosing the web as a preferred method of shopping. 

Did you know that although consumer in-store comparison shopping and purchases have drastically decreased, 94% of online consumers are still spending more or the same amount of time doing comparison shopping and 93% are spending more or the same amount of time purchasing online?  It is not only the online comparison shopping that is increasing, but actual online sales as well.  In 2009, projected total sales of goods and services procured online will reach $235 billion, which is a 15% increase from 2008.   Yet 70% of all furniture retailers still do not provide the ability for a consumer to make a purchase via an online e-store. 

I think what makes this more surprising is that 40% (single store) and 20% (multi-store) of home furnishings retailers still do not have websites.  Even though the top 5 e-commerce category increases in 2008 were:

• 29% - video games, consoles, and accessories
• 25% - Home, Garden, and Furniture
• 25% - sports and fitness
• 13% - event tickets
• 9% - consumer electronics

And having a website with location, directions, phone number, and a select few products listed with minimal information, will not necessarily translate into a viable revenue generator.  If your business has a website, but is not that unique, you are probably offering an e-store that is not maximizing its potential. 

Interestingly, although 51% of online shoppers prefer a unique, interactive shopping experience because they find it gives them more information and a better sense of the merchandise, 45% say that all sites seem the same, with price and availability of merchandise the only main differentiators.  This is indicative of e-commerce “me-too”, with many websites lacking individual personality, sophistication, and brand awareness.

Now, you may have already realized that your business needs to launch a site or improve the one you have, but it is not a high priority.  Maybe you’re a proponent of the theory that although online shopping is a growing trend, it is not something a large enough percentage of the population has embraced.  Or, online purchasing is mostly used by “kids” downloading video games, music, and ringtones.  In fact, 80% Gen-X (33-44 yrs old) and 70% Gen-Y (20-32 yrs old) purchase online, while only 38% of the Millennials (teens) do.  Although Baby Boomers (55-64 yrs old) are currently the least likely to purchase online (it is increasing), they do represent 33% of the total web surfing population.  More importantly, they are the population’s wealthiest demographic.  The market for their online business is wide open.

Some say big ticket consumers’ work/family commitments do not leave them much personal time to spend on a PC shopping via the internet, and instead use it for email.  If that is true then consumers have less time to travel to the store to shop.  Factually, more people are using their mobile phones for texting and emailing anyway.
 
So, how much time are people spending on the web?  In April 2009, the average monthly home web user dedicated over 38 hours surfing online, averaging over 1 hour per surfing session.  During the course of a browse session, users spent less than 1 minute per webpage.  This could indicate users found the information they wanted quickly and moved on to the next page, or did not find what they were expecting and most likely moved to another site/page.  That is the difference between a good website and a bad one.   

One can presume that a business without a quality e-store solution is less likely to engage consumers who are making the time to shop online and make purchase decisions over the internet.  I suggest six basic rules of what an e-store should offer to ensure maximized potential of engagement with consumers.

First, a website is an actual showroom location - not an information desk - with the benefit of being open 24-7 and with minimal overhead.  Every positive aspect incorporated into the professional presentation of a brick-and-mortar location should be considered.  Utilize the same graphics and color schemes within the store (including promotions/ ad campaigns) and on the site.  The presentation stakes are a bit higher for furniture retailers in this respect.  Human tendency is to expect a more enriched understanding of colors, design, and form/function from a home furnisher than an automotive accessories or hardware retailer.  It is important that the presentation of the e-store is of a high quality, with a consistent awareness of the home furnisher’s brand.

Secondly, ensure the site is easy for consumers to navigate and way find through information.  This includes such things as proper placement of icons or images, menu structure, homepage topics, screens/tabs, and the actual information itself.  Site features and services should be easily accessible and easy to use.  There may be a need to offer lots of services, but if the consumer cannot figure out how to access them or find information, then it is a lost cause.  Since the average surfer views a web page in less than one minute, there is little time to make a positive impression on the consumer.  With previous experience in web designing software, knowledge of XHTML, Java, etc., one can create and publish a site.  But if not an expert in this field, I believe a business should hire the services of a professional web designer.  There are many form and function design principles such as the Gutenberg Diagram, Fitts’ and Hick’s Laws, that should be adhered to in the creation of the site.  

This brings me to the third thing your site should offer: plenty of detailed information.  With a website, detailed information can be presented easily.  Using images of products represents a big piece of this solution.  It is nice when consumers can view an image of the product, but even better when the image can be enlarged on the fly and shown at varying angles for a better visualization of the finer details of the product’s craftsmanship. Make sure details such as the dimensions of the product are also displayed.  Let the consumer know if it is in stock.  Display the actual images of the color swatches that the product can be ordered in, if the manufacturer does not have an image of the product in differing colors.   Provide shipping lead times.  Ensure that promotion pricing is being properly displayed. 

Additionally, any recommended accessories, associated merchandise collections, or other add-on items should be automatically displayed on screen in a way that lets the consumer know they are there, but not so that the consumer is prevented from easily clicking a link.  A variation could be to display images of the most popular add-on items purchased for a specific product or suggest other products that are similar in style.  This streamlines the consumer’s research time and makes it easier to shop an e-location.  85% of online consumers stated they purchased items that they were previously unaware of on a particular site.  So, add-on/impulse online purchases do exist.            

I think it is important to say that manually maintaining a website can be very labor intensive.  However, a retail management system should be able to seamlessly integrate with your website to reduce the maintenance of a site with automation, thus requiring less IT resources.  A fully integrated RMS can feed the site to display information such as accurate pricing, quantity available, images, etc., in real time.  Conversely, any information entered by the consumer on the website should be fed into the RMS in real time. 

Remember, a site is the same as a store.  A consumer physically walks into a store, looks at a product, sees a price tag, wants to know if the product is in stock, and expects answers quickly. That is exactly what a website should be able to do: give immediate answers. 

It is amazing how real-time information empowers human beings when making decisions.  In fact 91% of online consumers are more confident about their purchases after researching the product online, and feel reassured that they are getting the best deal.  So if a consumer has shopped a home furnisher’s e-store and then comes in to their showroom, there is a high percentage of converting them into a customer.

When a consumer cannot find information, or needs a specific question answered, having a fail-safe like a ‘live-chat’ feature is huge.  Throughout your website there should be several opportunities for the consumer to click a link and chat via instant messaging with an actual person.  Whether that is available from an icon next to the product details, or in the order entry section, the more opportunity to use this, the better the online shopping experience is for the consumer.  This leads to the fourth rule of what a website needs: the ability to enter a transaction. 

Remember consumers will do some research first, so they may want to create a shopping cart that can be saved and reviewed later.  This should require minimal information from the consumer so the process can be expedited.  If that consumer decides to become a customer, the ability to convert the cart to an order must be available.  Additionally, the capability to enter a repair/service order should be provided.  Again, this must be done in real time, with your RMS integrated 100% with the website. This should allow for entry of e-orders with encrypted credit card payments and pre-authorizations, as well as a service for consumers to apply and receive approval for financed credit.  Another great convenience for a consumer is to not have to walk into the store to buy a gift card for someone; they can buy the gift card and have it emailed to them, all from their PC.  Both site and store must provide the same level of informative services, like checking order status, regardless of whether the order was created on the site or in the store.

Real-time detailed information is not only a benefit to the consumer, but to the retailer as well, which leads to the fifth function an e-store must have: analysis of detailed shopping to conversion stats to spot trends, identify top performing products, and capture crucial CRM data.  There should be plenty of opportunity for a consumer/customer to register an email address for things such as membership/customer loyalty rewards programs, special promotions, monthly/weekly advertising sales, clicking to exit a site, and surveys.  The site should ask for their information.  A sales associate/designer should ask for a person’s name when they are actually in the store, so the expectation should be the same from the website.  The site should not come off as intrusive or outright pushy.  But make sure it is somewhat aggressive, since being aggressive is a good thing on the internet.  Remember, a main reason consumers use the web is to perform research and comparison shop.  So they are aggressively looking for deals.  Consider that when asked if aggressive online sales of big ticket items made them more likely to make a big ticket purchase via the internet, online consumers said they had or were planning to buy the following top three items:

• 30% TVs and Home Entertainment
• 20% Home Improvement Products
• 12% Indoor Furniture

Even though Indoor Furniture was only the third best, all three of these categories revolve around each other, so the other top two reflect very positively on the third. 

This sets up my sixth rule: people need to be able to easily locate a website.  The internet offers search engines to make it easier to research and surf.  There are keywords that search engines use to reference a website, but unless one is an expert in creating websites, there may be some difficulty implementing this correctly.

Additionally, a site should allow users to recommend it to others via hyperlinks, automatically emailing a URL or specific product links to other individuals.  That is a great way to foster electronic WOM (word-of-mouth) and ensure new prospective customers can locate the site.

The internet has become the way in which consumers want to engage a business more than they have done ever before. Having a 100% fully integrated sophisticated website/RMS provides a foundation of engagement opportunities to convert consumers into loyal customers.   

http://hwhome.com/home.asp
This homepage (image above) illustrates this retailer has maximized their exposure with easy to find menu links to products, newsletters, charitable causes, and other customer services.  Taking in all the aspects of the page, including logos, colors, graphics, and a quality image of the owners with a personal message to the consumer does an excellent job of exhibiting brand-parallization.   

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(Table of Contents image above)
http://hwhome.com/ic498frm.asp?COMBO1=2A&SELECTEDPRODCAT=LIVING&hid_sid=297492614
Maximizing space, the retailer offers consumers the ability to view the product line using images that can be clicked for more details.  The page displays a table of contents so the user can easily shop this virtual store.  The conceptual design layout of this page is consistent with the branding approach presented on the homepage.

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(Product Collections image above)
http://hwhome.com/ic498frm.asp?COMBO1=9d&SELECTEDPRODCAT=HWCOLL&hid_sid=297492614
This page shows the retailer has presented an array of home furnishings that are offered as part of various collections.  In this example, there is a reinforcement that this product collection is the one featured on a specific television program.  This not only works as an indirect advertising campaign, but also allows a consumer who saw the program to easily search for that particularly featured merchandise.