I don’t even know how they could do it, but I always tend to say that sometimes when I’ve been doing a lot of my shopping online, sometimes I’m maybe looking for… I don’t know if inspiration is the right word… but I’m not quite sure what all is available, sometimes I feel like, oh maybe there is some new things available and I’ve missed out on them because I am used to my routines of shopping online.
And that’s one of those times when I might just go into a couple stores, walk around the aisle. So I wish that there was some type of a browsing experience or a way to come across new items or new things, or just, you know… shopping online is really easy when you know what you want, sometimes you can browse, but a good example would be toy shopping at Christmas.
I do a lot of my toy shopping online for my daughters, they’re 7 and 5. It’s great when I can find the things that I already know that they want, but if I’m looking for maybe some new ideas, and coming across things that they aren’t aware of but that they’ll love, I find it easier to do that shopping down an aisle in Walmart or Target because it is sometimes hard to discover those new things online. So kind of, yeah, again, I’ve thought of that before. I’ve thought, I wonder if there is a cool way to do that but I’m not sure how they could, just to make a browsing experience, kind of like window shopping but online.- Alyssa, Pennsylvania
It strikes me how good we are these days at building websites. It shouldn’t be a surprise. We have a lot of great designers and developers on the job. So even though ecommerce is relatively new, people, like Alyssa, find that shopping online is really easy when you know what you want. Which is what every one of us is always trying to improve, right?
Right. It is easy to find what you know you want. So where does discovery come into play. Fashion has that down with Instagram and look-books, but what about everyone else. What about the toy stores. If you are a mom shopping for your daughter, you might know what they might like, but do you have time to search up and down every category? Doubtfully.
It reminds me of a company I used to work with. They had really innovative products. So much so that their products would not show up in a Google Shopping Ads. The website was nice, but without scrolling through the collection pages, you wouldn’t ever discover some of the things you would definitely love.
Alyssa is hitting up Walmart to get ideas and discover new items. And if she finds them there, I will confidently assume she will just add it to her non-virtual cart and thank you Walmart.
So if you were a customer, landing on your homepage, would you be able to discover new things, in a fun, interactive way? Or are your customers like Alyssa, at the mercy of whatever Google and Walmart serves up.