Published in Furniture World Magazine - Jan/Feb 2011 Issue
Operations Management by David McMahon
About a year ago, my wife decided that she wanted to redo our kitchen. The first stage was dreaming and visualization. To get help, she googled “kitchen planning”. She chose to use Ikea’s Home Planner as it seemed the best for her needs. As her design progressed, she started to source specific items. These included appliances, cabinets, flooring, lighting, wall tile, furniture, countertops, and trades people. She googled many hours into the night.
Her product search worked basically like this, she started general and then got specific. At first she browsed broad categories of merchandise (online and then in-store). Then she narrowed it down to specific vendors and exact models or styles. Once she found her favorite items, she googled vendor model numbers. Local lists of retailers that carried these items appeared on Google. She visited these sites and signed up to receive their e-newsletters. She then checked each piece to determine the best price and availability of merchandise. When she needed more information, she either used live chat or called the retailer’s customer service number.
Now she was ready to buy. She bought from several different retailers. In some cases, she visited their physical stores to make some purchases. In other cases, she bought directly from the web site for convenience. The majority of her purchases came from local retailers where both their merchandise and prices were listed on their web site. However, two appliance purchases were made from a retailer based in New York. All items shipped directly to our home in San Diego for a total of $59 in delivery charges.
This example is typical of the shopping behaviors of 30-something home goods consumers. It illustrates why your web inventory strategy should be the most important part of your overall advertising program because it will determine your future traffic and sales success.
- Google should be your most important advertising network.
- Getting your product listed on Google quickly is vital. It increases the chance that consumers will visit you when they are ready to buy, increasing your traffic.
- Consumers know how to use room planners. You need one and you need to learn how to use it.
- Consumers do shop online before they visit a store.
- Consumers search for specific vendors, models, features, and styles. An up-to-date catalog of the merchandise you carry needs to be on your e-tail site. Your customers may get lost on your site (and disappointed) if you display merchandise that you no longer carry.
- Your customer will be comparing you to your competitors who carry the same models.
- Consumers will buy online and offline. However, in many cases, they will find you first online.
- There is little loyalty to brands or retailers. Top customer service, availability of product on your site, fast delivery, and great prices are all expected. If you do not deliver that, consumers will use Google to find someone that does.
So, how can you take advantage of these lessons, beat your competition, and capitalize on higher traffic that leads to better sales? By executing the 5 SMART steps.
