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WEBSITE: LESSNIK; STOREFRONT: FILBORG CUSTOMER SERVICE & CHECKLIST: JANE KELLY - STOCK.ADOBE.COMA
dding e-commerce to a website can be a daunting task. We
spoke to two retailers in the infancy of their e-commerce expe-
rience to see what lessons they’ve learned since starting up.
Filament Home in Brookfield, WI, added e-commerce to
their website as part of a complete rebrand three years ago.
“We had a new name, new logo and new website, and that is the time
that we thought it made sense to add an e-commerce piece,” says Donna
Johnson, General Manager of Filament. “We felt like it qualifies you as a
player in the market.”
Crest Lighting, a division of Paramont EO, in Woodridge, IL, felt that
evolving its website’s existing wish list feature to full e-commerce was the
next natural step. Crest has offered online shopping for more than a year.
“Customers are sitting there looking online and they’re building the
wish list anyway,” says Erica Gallagher, Chief Technology Officer and Chief
Marketing Officer for Paramont EO. “Why not enable them to actually just
check out?”
Below are four lessons these retailers have learned from their e-com-
merce journeys so far. FLDBy Amy McIntoshE-COMMERCE LESSONS LEARNED
PICK A PLATFORM
Adding an e-commerce feature to a website doesn’t
have to mean building it yourself. Platforms such as
XOLogic and LightsAmerica partner with lighting
manufacturers to help retailers build easy-to-use online
databases. However, these offer fewer customization
options and less control over content than a DIY approach.
Crest Lighting uses a third-party service. There was an initial setup
process in which Gallagher was able to customize the user experience to
her liking, but the platform host does most of the work.
“We’re at their mercy,” Gallagher said. “The nice part about working
with a third party is that all the work is on them. The bad part is we’re
limited by what they can offer us.”
At Filament, student interns helped design a new logo and website
to keep costs manageable. The staff edits their own photos and has full
control over their website’s content. This is labor intensive, but Johnson
believes this customization sets Filament apart from local competitors and
big box stores.EXPECT MORE FOOT TRAFFIC
An unexpected benefit of adding e-commerce to
Filament’s website was an increase in visits to the brick-
and-mortar store. Johnson suggests that this could be
due to a combination of the unique site design and the
extra keywords on the site from the added products.
“I would say our traffic through the door has doubled since
we’ve added an e-commerce site, so it’s surprising,” she says. “There’s
something visually about the look of our site and then we also have built so
many SEO terms into the back of our pages that it just pulls us up.”
Though the SEO impacts may not be the same for Crest Lighting, whose
products already lived on their site via the wish list, Fimbianti says some
customers do come in to see the items in person.
“We have had people who have said, ‘In doing the research now we
realize that they’re actually local to us. We can go in there and potentially
see the product, something similar from the manufacturer, even if it’s not
the exact piece,’” she says.DON’T EXPECT A REPLICATED
SHOWROOM EXPERIENCE
E-commerce offers convenience but doesn’t provide the
human element that can be important when shopping
for home furnishings. Having experienced consultants
at the ready is an asset for brick-and-mortar stores to
help guide customers toward preferred manufacturers,
higher-quality products or better warranties.
“A lot of the fixtures come with lightbulbs, but there’s a good majority
that don’t. That’s something that is an oversight if you don’t have a conver-
sation with your client,” Fimbianti says. “You can talk to them about other
things in their homes that might interact with [the fixture] that you miss out a
little bit on when it comes to them just placing the order and moving on.”
For Gallagher, the perfect platform would offer the convenience of online
shopping with the experience and expertise customers get in a showroom.
“I would like to see a world in which we kind of have this more hybridized
approach to e-commerce where it’s almost a virtual showroom, and as
you’re going through the shopping process, you can engage with a human
and an expert and get your advice and that becomes more of a personalized
experience,” Gallagher says. “I don’t know that anybody’s doing that.”JUST DO IT (BUT HAVE A PLAN)
As with any new business venture, having a detailed
plan is key. Gallagher proposed questions for retailers
to consider.
“What are their priorities? What’s their budget?” she
says. “What’s their bandwidth to support a solution if
they’re going to host it themselves? What are they looking to
gain, and how are they going to promote it and support it?”
Johnson takes a “What’s the worst that could happen?” approach
when trying new things on Filament’s website. She says so often small
businesses stick to what they’re familiar with and are afraid to try new
things, but the internet makes experimenting easy.
“As long as I don’t have to sign a long-term contract, I’m comfortable
enough now to experiment,” she says. “And if I hate it and our customers
are complaining, you can pretty instantly hide a product, hide an entire
category or you can create things without publishing them.”
Fimbianti said to keep up with the market, retailers should be
selling online.
“Online buying is definitely here to stay and I believe that it’s only
getting stronger. If you don’t do it, you will miss out,” Fimbianti says. “You
have to have the exposure on every level.“