A brand asked me today a few questions about the Bridge. My response is below.
How will the brand make more money with the Bridge? 1) A brand makes money by making more online sales via retailers' websites. Instead of a retailer having few items from a brand for sale on its site, the retailer will have 100s or 1,000s. The home goods industry is very reliant on bridal and gift registries. If a brand is not on a retailer's website, it's not on the bridal registry, and sales ...
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June 1, 2010
June 1, 2010
Predictive marketing based upon past purchases
Below is a New York Times article from this past weekend. The article shares how major retailers are dynamically customizing their promotions based upon past customer purchases. Luxury home goods retailers could likely customize their offerings in a similar fashion. The strategy is akin to how election marketing is done. If someone drives a Prius, then they are likely to be a Democrat. As such, Democratic candidates are marketed to that person. What ...
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March 9, 2010
March 9, 2010
Home goods mobile shopping website for iPhone
This is a concept for mobile shopping site. We are expanding the fixed investment in the website by migrating the data to a mobile device. With little additional cost, the site's information and functionality are now accessible practically anywhere.
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January 27, 2010
January 27, 2010
New free service for retailers by Solarek Studio We are launching a new service today that helps retailers find hard to locate items, or unload excess product. For example, if a retailer can sell four placesettings, but only has three, the retailer would create a FREE posting on the Retailers Exchange saying it needs this fourth placesetting.
Likewise, a retailer could have four vases, and wish to sell them. It could post for free these items on the website.
The person that makes the post lists ...
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November 11, 2009
November 11, 2009
Luxury website design for Connecticut store
I recently designed and coded a new website for a home goods store in Westport, Connecticut. In the attached image, I show my strategy behind the site design. I'd be happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions. Thank you.
You're invited to view the live website here: www.lcrwestport.com
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October 24, 2009
October 24, 2009
New Yorker article suggests economy is bound to rebound
This New Yorker article by James Surowiecki suggests that in just a few years Americans (and the world) will be consuming like its 1999. And I think there is some truth to this. If one adds to this information from another recent New Yorker article about cycles (one theorist says a bust comes every 8.6 years), then we do seem destined to recover. Aka: more people will be buying home goods soon.
INCONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION by James Surowiecki ...
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August 26, 2009
August 26, 2009
Our clients' sales are up +22% while the industry is down -35%
Sales for the overall home goods industry are down by 35%, but for our Bridge partners they are up. Please see the accompanying chart. This shows a distributor's average retailer sales. Most of the distributor's retailers are down 35%, whereas our Bridge retailers' sales are up from 22% to 98%. These numbers are based on the first seven months of 2008 vs. the first seven months of 2009.
About the Solarek Studio Bridge Solarek Studio ...
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August 15, 2009
August 15, 2009
iPhone website to browse and sell home goods
This is a magazine's web site is that is formatted for the iPhone: http://iphone.newyorker.com The nice thing about this site is that it takes all pre-existing web content and formats it for the iPhone. This is good because: - this approach reduces the cost of developing content for the iPhone. Usually, one would pay $20k to build an iPhone app. - this keeps all info on the web, thereby keeping the information in the same medium. In contrast, if you had an...
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August 15, 2009
August 15, 2009
Tracking abandoned shopping carts and retrieving lost sales
Below is a good article from Inc. magazine about tracking abandoned shopping carts. How can the home goods industry get sales from this area?
Excerpt: The median abandonment rate is 40 percent for consumer-products companies and 58 percent for service companies, according to a recent survey by MarketingSherpa, a research firm based in Warren, Rhode Island. During periods of economic decline, shopping cart abandonment tends to spike, ...
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August 2, 2009
August 2, 2009
Website design comparison: before and after pictures
Results page:
Shopping cart page:
Please click on the images above. They show the comparison of our clients website before and after we redesigned their retail home goods website.
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June 8, 2009
June 8, 2009
Giving tableware and home good products green ratings and labels
The Ad Age article below describes how the European Commission may propose a system to put color-coded labels on cars designating how 'green' they are. What if this was done for home goods brands? For individual products?
Europe May Put Green Grades on Car Ads Proposed Rating System Would Color-Code Brands by Their Carbon Footprints
By Emma Hall Published: June 23, 2008
LONDON (AdAge.com) -- In a move that could have ...
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May 11, 2009
May 11, 2009
Offer your customers perks for visiting your website often
This article below from Ad Age tells about a mall that gives points to people for visiting it. Accrue enough points, and the person get perks, such as valet parking. We heave heard about giving points after making a purchase. The idea of offering them just for visiting seems novel, and worthy of considering for websites. I'd like to see some home goods companies offer a similar arrangement to the general public and retailers. For example,...
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May 10, 2009
May 10, 2009
Website design comparison example
We are working on this design for a home goods company. The current website is at left; our proposed updated design is on the right. Notes about the design: - I updated logo to be clean, contemporary, and fresh. - I put the hyperlinks to the categories and the brands directly on the home page. This is good for ranking well in Google. - I was sure to put lots of smiling faces on the home page, and in the top banner. This builds trust with shoppers. - The phone number ...
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April 8, 2009
April 8, 2009
Ticketmaster: master of extra fees?
This blog's purpose is to help the home good industry better market and conduct business online. We can often learn from other industries. Please see attached screenshots. I was buying tickets to a concert, and Ticketmaster is charging fee upon fee, and even wants to charge you extra for printing your tickets. They charge a convenience fee AND a processing fee. Aren't those the same? I hope the artist Neko Case whom I bought tickets to see will pick a new ...
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March 11, 2009
March 11, 2009
High Google Ranking for Tableware and Home Goods Brands
Last week we did an assessment of how a client's web site is ranking in Google. We are pleased with the results for www.SallieHome.com.
On Sallie's site, we offer 54 brands for sale. Eighteen of these brands (that link to her site) appear on Google's first page of results. That is a 33.3% first page ranking.
Nine brands appear on page two. That is 16.5%.
Thus, the 50% of Sallie's brands when Googled appear on page 1 or 2 of Google and create ...
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December 28, 2008
December 28, 2008
If Video Games Have to Abide by MAP, So May Tableware Brands
The ruling by the Supreme Court last year on MAP (or MSRP) has left some scratching their heads about whether they can set minimum prices on home goods and tableware. According to the article below, it appears so.
Excerpt: But in a controversial decision last year, the Supreme Court opened the door for manufacturers to set minimum prices as a means to enhance a brand's image and for retailers to make enough profit on their merchandise to ...
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December 21, 2008
December 21, 2008
Pizza Hut sells more than $1 billion in pizzas online
The Ad Age excerpt below states that Pizza Hut has sold more $1 billion in pizzas online. All those college kids that buy pizza online will soon move on to to buying other items online, such as home goods. What can we learn from Pizza Hut's tactics?
"Pizza Hut, which recently crossed the $1 billion benchmark in online sales, is launching a Facebook application that allows fans to place orders without leaving their profiles. Although online ...
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November 30, 2008
November 30, 2008
Online Shoe Seller Can Help Luxury Home Goods Get Leg Up
The article below about Zappos.com offers ideas to help online stores increase their sales. These strategies include: - free shipping - free returns - a more generous return policy - free upgrades on shipping
Do these services above cost $ to offer? Yes, however, for a $1 spent, they may give back $5 in sales. That is how Zappos.com sees it. And they do almost $1 billion in sales. Also, check out their website: http://www.zappos.com/ The design is...
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November 20, 2008
November 20, 2008
LCR in Connecticut chooses Solarek to design retail website selling home goods
LCR Collection, which has two stores in Connecticut (Westport and West Hartford), selected us to design, build, and maintain their website. The two images above are the initial design choices. LCR chose the design to the right.. Please visit their website as we continue to update it: www.lcrcollection.com/
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October 23, 2008
October 23, 2008
Manufacturers and retailers seem to be able to set minimum prices (MAP / MSRP)
An article in today's Wall St. Journal sheds light on home goods manufacturers' ability to fight discounting.
Excerpt: Blocking discounting used to be clearly an anticompetitive practice, but a Supreme Court ruling last year changed things. The court said it wasn't illegal for manufacturers and retailers to agree to minimum prices, but that such agreements must be examined case by case for possible antitrust violations. ...
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