4 Ecommerce Experiences to Learn From

Online shopping still hasn’t overtaken the traditional brick-and-mortar retail store, but according to eMarketer it’s projected that U.S. online shoppers will spend a total of $224.2 billion by the end of 2012. That’s a huge opportunity for online retailers. The fundamental problem is that almost every major brand has an online shopping experience in place, and with growing competition it’s hard to stand out from the crowd.
If you’re wondering how your company can stand out, here are four instances of innovative ecommerce experiences worth exploring.

1. The Hashtag Photo Feed

The Australian-based women’s retailer, Black Milk Clothing, motivates its customers to become active members of their community by allowing fan photos to be featured on the company’s website, marketing materials, and social media profiles.


Each Black Milk product, whether it’s leggings or rainbow shoes, has a unique hashtag associated with it that’s listed on each product page. Customers upload photos of Black Milk items they’re wearing on either Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook with the product-specific hashtag. This ensures their photos are featured on the website below the product or used on Black Milk’s social profiles. It’s assumed that these photos are sent through a filter to ensure they’re quality and relevant images.

This is a truly engaging experience in ecommerce for a few reasons. The biggest being that it gives Black Milk free content to work with to help promote and support their online business. More and more companies are required to be content creators, whether they’re creating content for their blog or their Facebook page. Black Milk helped simplify the process by having their customers create engaging, branded content for them. For customers, the Black Milk website and social profiles allow them to feel like they are part of a community with a similar interest in fashion. With the rise of Pinterest and Instagram, it’s quite apparent that visual experiences resonate well with an online audience and this is merely Black Milk’s way of incorporating this trend into their shopping experience.

2. Product-Driven Contests

Contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways have proven to be quite successful for a business looking to drive engagement on their social media profiles. These interactive promotions should also occur on your online store in a creative and social way.


The clothing company ASOS hosts Fashion Finder Competitions on their website twice a month, using Facebook Connect to log users on to their website to participate. Each competition is based on a theme like “trend blend,” and includes enticing prizes like free Starbucks for life. Each person creates a board with product images provided by ASOS as well as images a user chooses to upload. These contests drive people to the website who want to participate, create, vote, and view these highly-visual entries during the shopping process. The more time a potential customer stays on your website and engages with this kind of content, the more likely they are to purchase and influence the purchases of others. Since these competitions are recurring, ASOS fans know to return to the website monthly to check out the latest competition that’s running. Participation is high because the prizes are relevant and exciting for the audience.
The key takeaway from this innovation in ecommerce is to make the shopping experience fun and exciting for all. If you can achieve this experience on your website, you’re far ahead of your competitors.

3. Shoppable Videos

Video has long influenced online shoppers to make a purchase, but there’s often a disconnect between watching the video and buying the item on the screen.


Burberry’s fall campaign is featured in a video series entitled “Experiences” that focuses on promoting the collection. This is effective because the videos and music play front and center, while the items for sale appear in the navigation to the left of the video. These videos give Burberry’s audience a set of imagery, music, and movement to associate with each clothing line. When there’s a brand story for a consumer to connect with, your company is making a deeper connection with them. Burberry is connecting with their online audience through the use of videos that trigger an emotion, helping their brand and product offerings stand out.

4. A Virtual Try-On Program

Warby Parker is an eye-wear company that’s revolutionizing the industry with its affordable, quality frames and focus on social good. One of the many limitations to shopping online is the inability to try on clothing or accessories, but Warby Parker has created the Virtual Try-On program to get around this issue and build a better online shopping experience.
Shoppers can basically try the frames on photos of different models or upload photos of themselves to virtually wear the glasses. You can save images of the experience to your computer or share them on Facebook. The Virtual Try-On program works well in tandem with their Home Try-On program that allow shoppers to order five frames to try on at home for five days at the cost of a dollar. Once a person selects the frames they like, the package of frames is shipped back to the company and all that is needed is payment and a prescription to begin processing the order.
By giving customers the opportunity to try on their products online and almost for free at home, customers are more likely to purchase without the fear that their eye wear won’t fit or look right. After completing this process once, it’s highly likely customers will return to get more eye wear in the future. The better the experience your company provides your online customer, the more comfortable they’ll feel connecting and spending money with you again.

Brian Honigman is the digital marketing manager at Marc Ecko Enterprises. He ensures a polished brand experience across all channels. Follow Brian @BrianHonigman and on Google+.



Source: 4 Ecommerce Experiences to Learn From