Rue La La & Forester (Shop.org Keynote)
Rue La La & Forester
Shop.org Keynote on Wednesday
Forester
What is the role of social commerce and eCommerce?
Social is about small wins
Winners in using social to drive ecommerce:
- To engage in product sharing through “Like” and “Recommendations”
- Consumers say they like to read what their friends recommend
o New products, brands
o Sales promotions
o Want to know and do what their friends are doing
Yet still, email and direct site tactics drive >50% of business. Social <10%.
Rue La La (Flash Sales / Daily Deals) – CEO of Rue La La
400 Employees & $200m in sales
Usage: 14% of online shoppers receive emails from sites like Gilt Groupe, 27% of online shoppers receive emails from sites like Groupon
eCommerce V1.0
- Convenience
- Efficiency
- But, not thrilling
eCommerce V2.0
- Great theatre to sell product
- Get the blood flowing of the consumers
- It is about the thrilling experience
- Engage the customer other than a vast category of goods
- When the box arrives, the consumer needs to be blown away… Drives supplier strategy
Rue La La buys/owns about 60% of inventory and drop ships the other 40%.
General Notes:
- Flash sales (Rue La La) is about selling things you “want to have” not “need to have”.
- Care must be taken to ensure you are a channel that the brands need and want.
- Mobile has been an amaizing growth experience. From 3% in 2010 to 28% in 2011 (of total sales) – 55% of mobile sales are iPhone/iPad. 50% of mobile sales are through iPad (much higher than expected).
- Social is not a bolted on piece of the business. It needs to be fully integrated into the business. “There is no Social Commerce”. The buying experience is all about Social.
o New product launches and features “Have to work across all channels”. Social, Twitter, Mobile, Web
- Credential memory is CRITICAL to the experience.
o Checkout loss is less than 12% (industry average is >50%). Reason: you are already logged in! You cannot enter the site without being logged in already.
- Brand management is also CRITICAL to the experience.
o Care must be taken to ensure exclusivity, scarcity, etc.
o For instance: if there is a Tumi sale, you need to make sure the customer knows that Tumi wont show up for another 3 plus moths.
- Brands need to think of you as a “media company” as much as a sell through commerce channel.