eRetail Association Newsletter
April 5th 2001
from Nigel Fenwick

Welcome to the April e-newsletter from the International eRetail Association & eRetailNews.

In this month's newsletter:

• Hunters and Gatherers
• Synonym Fog: How retailers are hiding products from shoppers
• News Snippets
• Conferences

Note: All external links will open a new browser window by default

FEATURE STORY: HUNTERS AND GATHERERS

These two distinct modes of shopping behavior can be described as "hunting" and "gathering". Both modes are common to offline and online shopping, although there are differences in the way retailers support hunting and gathering in each environment.

In the latest eRetail Report (available free online), we explore the differences between these two shopping behaviors. We'll consider how websites can be designed to be more satisfying for both hunters and gatherers. We'll look at some examples of website design from leading online retailers and consider some of the tools that can be used in the quest to meet the diverse needs of these shopping modes.

Read more online at
http://www.eretailnews.com/Features/0104hunters.htm

or get your own free copy of the report

http://www.eretailnews.com/secure/2001reports.asp#2001-3

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FEATURE: SYNONYM FOG

When a shopper uses a store's search engine to find a product, it like a shopper in a traditional retail store asking an assistant if they have a specific item in stock. If the search engine says the item is not found, shoppers are given the message that it is not in stock. (This is often not the message the store would want to give simply because the item may be in stock but the shopper has simply entered the wrong description into the search engine).

The problem is that most online stores index products uniquely. Because product databases are all constructed differently, sometimes with variations on product coding standards within the same company, shoppers can find it extremely difficult to locate the merchandise they are seeking by using a search engine.

The 2001-3 eRetail Report on Hunters and Gatherers illustrates just how bad this can be, with some tested sites repeatedly producing no matching products as a result of synonym searches, despite carrying the requested products in the online store.

Even the top ranking store in this test only returned the correct product 55.5% of the time. This still resulted in "not found" messages in 20 out of 45 possible successful search hits.

The results for OfficeDepot.com highlight just how thick Synonym Fog can become. In the tests conducted for the report, the search engine at this site was only able to retrieve the correct product when the manufacturers part number was used as the search entry. Very few hunters will know the correct part number, including the appropriate spacing and hyphens.

Sadly, all the sites tested were very poor at offering possible suggestions when an exact match could not be found.

Online retailers need to overcome synonym fog to avoid sending shoppers to competing sites and to increase overall conversion ratios.

Every time a shopper sees the message "not found" the site may as well be saying "we don't have that item in stock, why don't you try at one of our competitors! After all, they are only just a click away."

To see the results of this test, read the 2001-3 report, available free this month.

http://www.eretailnews.com/secure/2001reports.asp#2001-3

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ERETAIL REPORT SUBSCRIPTION OFFER!

Subscribe online today and we'll immediately send you TWO reports absolutely free! If you change your mind and decide to cancel your subscription within 30 days, the reports are yours to keep with our compliments and we will refund your subscription in full.

As a special bonus, when you subscribe today, we will also provide you
with associate membership to the International eRetail Association
absolutely FREE! (An additional $49 savings).

For details of how to get your savings, use this link:
http://www.eretailnews.com/promo/NL25.htm

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NEWS SNIPPETS

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eRETAIL CONFERENCE DISCOUNTS

eRetail Association members receive discounts to the following events:

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If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, please forward it to a friend.

Be happy,

Nigel Fenwick :)

eRetailNews & the International eRetail Association
 http://www.eretailassociation.org
 http://www.eretailnews.com 

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