Early Adopters: Australian market leaders in online retail

Longtail’s occasional look at trends anddevelopments in the digital space.

This week the Online Retail Industry Awards were announced. Here are some highlights from 5 of the nominated sites. These brands have thought about how people research and consume their products and attempted to provide an online experience within this context.

Birdsnest |  http://www.birdsnest.com.au

The innovative approach here is that you don’t just search forclothing by ‘product’ or ‘department’ you can search for clothes bodyshape, occasion, personality and colour.

I find the body shapesearch particularly innovative. This taps into the insight that allwomen have parts of their body they don’t like and we tend to shop foritems which hide this. It has categories like such as ‘cankles’,’voluptuous body’ and ‘big arms’. 

Birdsnest have looked at how we shop for clothes and translated thisexperience online. Any clothes shop retailer would tell you theircustomers don’t always shop by product they might come in and ask “Ineed something to cover my fat arms”, or “I am shopping for a wedding”or “I need something to match a green blouse…” and they’ve worked out away to cater for the many ways we shop for clothes.

What you can do

Apply what you know about how customers are researching and choosingyour products or services to your website experience. Pick the brainsof staff who interface with your customers (shop attendants, callcenter staff, sales representatives) and study how your customers areshopping and researching offline so it can be translated into the waysyou can browse and learn about products online.

Domino’s | http://www.dominos.com.au/

I wish more companies would have their deals and vouchers availableonline instead of killing all those trees just to fill my mailbox! Junkmail is a pet hate of mine and I am glad to see that Domino’s lets youaccess vouchers which can be used in your local store.

You can also register for discounts to be sent to your email via the e-Club. By the way, Domino’s Pizza also released a pizza ordering iPhone app inNovember 09.  It claims to be Australia’s most successful iPhone appreleased by a business, generating $2 million worth of sales in just 12weeks.

What can you do?

Please, please, please save money on printing and save the trees!Enable people to access deals and vouchers online or via email ormobile. We are fast becoming more accustomed to tapping into a keyboard ormobile than picking up the phone. If you don’t already offer online ormobile ordering it’s worth considering.

General Pants | http://www.generalpants.com.au/

I think it’s safe to assume General Pants customers are young and oftenstrapped for cash. That’s why their price based website design works sowell for this market. For those who are living on 2 minute noodlesuntil the next pay-cheque just so they can afford Saturday night on thetown, it’s exciting and comforting to know there are heaps of clotheswithin their price range.

General Pants have introduced a mentoring initiative to help(photographers, writers, artists in all mediums, filmmakers, musicians,designers and anyone else with a great visual or communicative skill)get their work out there and get it produced.

The site states: “Every two months, the creators of the most interesting work, asdetermined by the voting public, are commissioned to produce materialto be displayed in stores, supported to stage their own exhibitions,gigs or readings, as well as being featured in the pages of thebubble’s media partners, Russh and Monster Children. Our Grand Plan? We discover enough talent out there to form a collective whom we canemploy as consultants. And, to kick ’em further along the road towardgainful employment, we fund and promote the group so they’re nailingjobs outside of General Pants Co.”

What you can do

Are there ways your brand can support up and coming talent relating toyour business? It’s a great dipstick into the styles and ideas fromyour audience. This ‘crowd sourced’ inspiration can be translateddirectly into merchandise, marketing approach and store layout, evenproduct innovation.

Sportsgirl has embraced the fashion blog in their website. They havepaid attention to how fashionistas are turning to blogs to get regularfixes of fashion observations from the streets. After all, bloggers arenow amongst front rows at Fashion Week and treated on par with majormagazine editors.

They’ve also cottoned onto the trend of people blogging photos of whatthey are wearing everyday and have recruited celebs and Sportsgirlfriends to show us what they’re wearing every day for a week

What you can do

Understand what influences the decisions of your customers. Do theyfollow trends in your industry? Are there popular blogs and bloggers?Do they follow the advice of peers in reviews and forums? Think abouthow your brand can participate in this. Can you develop relationshipswith influential bloggers? Which useful information support can youprovide which is in line with blogs, forums and reviews?

View all the Online Retail Awards Nominees 2010  here

Emily Ryan – Strategy Director