Eddie Bauer Scores With Online Customers

Once upon a time, all that Web site owners wanted to know was how many people were visiting their sites. But as the Web has grown increasingly sophisticated, so have the methods for evaluating site performance.

So-called Web metrics are a major growth industry for marketing analysts such as Cambridge, Mass.–based Forrester Research Inc. at www.forrester.com, which expects to reach $1 billion in annual revenues within a few years.

Every week, San Mateo, Calif.–based Web site performance analyst Keynote Systems Inc., at www.keynote.com, releases a list of the top-performing Web sites, separating the lightning-fast from the excruciatingly sluggish. “[Our] Transaction Performance Index shows the total execution time and success rate for logging into an account, searching for an item, adding it to the shopping cart and proceeding to checkout on selected Internet retail sites,” the company stated.

The top five in the e-commerce category (based on a 100-point scale) for the week of Aug. 25, 2003, were Eddie Bauer Inc. (100), www.eddiebauer.com; Wal-Mart (99.53), www.walmart.com; J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (98.87), www.jcpenney.com; Target Corp. (98.78), www.target.com; and Office Depot Inc. (98.12), www.officedepot.com.

Eddie Bauer, based in Redmond, Wash., has held the top position for several weeks running. Troy Brown, divisional vice president for e-commerce at Eddie Bauer, recently told the E-Commerce Times, at www.ecommercetimes.com, how the company achieves this site-performance ranking.

“We focus in on the amount of time and effort that’s required to complete a task,” Brown said. “We look at how much effort it takes for [visitors] to complete a task and how many customers enter a pipeline and don’t finish a task or make that purchase.”

Forrester Research analyst Bob Chatham said retailers often know how to analyze store behavior but are just learning how to figure out what customers who use multiple channels are doing and what their behavior tells retailers about satisfaction levels. “A lot of companies will grab at more and more data to try and figure it out,” he said.

For Eddie Bauer, the basic statistics are just a beginning.

“That tells us where we have problems or issues,” said Bauer’s Brown. From there, the retailer turns to its “usability lab” and customer focus groups to help direct its site—an ongoing process.

Much of the focus in refined analysis of Web stats is on smoothing the path from shopping to buying. For example, Eddie Bauer recently built a shortcut designed for multichannel shoppers that enables customers to enter print-catalog item numbers online and immediately view product-detail Web pages.

“The first version of Eddie Bauer’s catalog- number feature took customers straight to a text-based checkout page,” Brown explained. “When the company noticed a lot of dropped purchases, it set out to investigate. Based on raw data and focus group work, we developed and rolled out the revamped feature. Now, when customers key in catalog numbers, they are taken directly to productdetail pages, where they can change colors and other item preferences.”

In addition to providing what Brown calls a “more robust shopping experience,” the shift altered the length of time it took for the average shopper to make a purchase by a dramatic 60 percent. That reduction, in turn, has led to a 90 percent end-to-end completion rate—a metric many retailers would envy.

Eddie Bauer’s ultimate online goal is to provide a hassle-free shopping experience that builds on its well-established reputation.

Site Review: Simple, Sensible and a Snap

Even without the most sophisticated analytical tools and state-of-the-art software, sometimes the simplest Web sites, if they are well-niched, do a great job of e-tailing. Such is the case with www.iemanjaswimwear.com, the Web site created by Jo Yvonne Bragg for Iemanja Swimwear, a Marina del Rey, Calif., importer of Brazilian bikinis with products in three stores on Los Angeles’ Westside (Venice, Marina del Rey and Culver City).

The site perfectly complements the stores by directing viewers to them and—if making a visit is inconvenient—by directing them to that time-honored 20th century technology, the telephone.

This is not a fancy online store with a virtual shopping cart and credit-card processing. You look at the products (lavishly presented on sumptuous models, including the current and past Miss Brazil L.A.), make your choices, and either visit one of the stores or make a phone call to order.

Setting up a full-service store online can be a daunting experience, but establishing an online presence—however simple—can make all the difference in sales, especially if the product is presented well. Seeding a site to the major search engines presents a whole new revenue stream with very little effort and financial outlay.