Faster, Better, Cheaper. This has been the mantra of the Internet since the late 1990s to save us time and money by shopping online versus in-store. And for over a decade, this mantra has held true. Consumers are hooked on online shopping. Despite the economic downturn in 2008, and leading into 2009, sales among the Top 500 online retailers continued to grow - increasing 11.7% - while total in-store retail sales only grew 1.4% according to Internet Retailer. In addition, among 41 of the 50 biggest retail chains, e-commerce revenue increased, while in-store revenue declined.

While online retailers are not immune to the economic downturn, they are somewhat protected compared to their brick-and-mortar counterparts. The costs to maintain a Website are significantly lower than the costs to manage, stock, and staff a retail store. As a result, some retailers have not weathered the storm, most notably Circuit City who declared bankruptcy last year. However, savvy online retailers continue to survive.

Amazon.com reigns as the leading online retailer, showing a 30% increase in Web sales last year to $19.2 billion. Amazon is king because it continues to expand and add new retail categories year over year. Amazon also has the benefit of carrying and cross-selling multiple products and multiple brands. Amazon is the one-stop-shop e-tailer for you name it: books, clothing, electronics, sporting equipment, garden supplies, etc. Amazon represents products and brands in over 75 retail categories and is continuing to expand with its recent acquisition of Zappos.

Other brick-and-mortar retailers have been working every angle to increase Web sales through Internet exclusives, daily deals, 2-for-1 promotions, free shipping, and loyalty programs. While these perks may offer some short-term gains, they do not guarantee long-term stability. The retail leaders that will withstand the test of time are those that are thinking Faster, Better, Cheaper for a new generation.

Amazon is obviously on to something = one-stop-shopping. Are brick-and-mortar retailers up to the challenge? Who will survive in this marketplace and still deliver a Faster, Better, Cheaper Web experience for the next generation?

Gap Inc. has taken on this challenge. Internet shoppers are tired of multiple usernames, multiple passwords, multiple emails, and now multiple credit cards to avoid spam and identify theft when shopping online. Gap has responded to this pain and consolidated its Web presence across its 5 major brands, including Gap, Old Navy, BananaRepublic, Piperlime, and Atletica under one umbrella site, Gap.com. This consolidated Website not only allows users to browse all Gap Inc. brands within one single user session, but also leverages one global shopping cart for all brands. This offers a significant improvement for the customer experience by eliminating the need for multiple usernames and passwords, with one universal login, and offers a seemless checkout process with one flat shipping rate.

In addition, this consolidation offers a significant opportunity for Gap Inc. to diversify its audience and cross-sell brands to all visitors, for example introducing Old Navy to Banana Republic shoppers and vice versa. Moreover, the company can leverage cross-promotion of deals across brands, benefiting from larger transaction sizes, such as offering free shipping for all brands if a Piperlime product is added to the shopping cart.

With Gap Inc.’s e-commerce revenue increasing 15% in the first half of ‘09 to $491 million from $427 million in ‘08, while offline sales declined, Gap understands the power of online. Gap’s brick-and-mortar counterparts can benefit from this lesson on Website consolidation. Williams-Sonoma’s e-commerce revenue decreased by 21.9% in the first half of ‘09, from $507 million in ‘08 to $404 million in ‘09. Opportunity exists for Williams-Sonoma’s brands including Williams-Sonoma, PotteryBarn, PotteryBarn Kids, PB teens, and Williams-Sonoma Home, to follow Gap Inc.’s lead.

So Gap Inc. is on to something = consolidated-shopping (aka one-stop-shopping). This evolution may not become the new mantra for the Internet, but it will be the foundation for delivering a Faster, Better, Cheaper Web experience for both consumers and businesses alike in the next generation.

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Last week, Skittles launched a radical new marketing campaign designed to take advantage of social media and harness user-generated content in a way not done before by a consumer brand.  The company replaced its Website, almost exclusively, with user-generated content.  Initially, Twitter became the site’s home page, but the company had to shift strategy after some “tweets” became profane and inappropriate.  The company has been changing the site it uses as its home page, first Facebook, then the Wikipedia entry dedicated to Skittles and, now, YouTube.  Skittles provides the information architecture for the site, but the majority of the links head to user-generated content.

This strategy took to an extreme the type of idea Aaron addressed in his blog post on the necessity of a home page, by asking, “Does a consumer products company need to generate its own content?”  While the final analysis has yet to be done on this campaign and its success, it is an interesting and in my opinion, a worthwhile experiment.

The site has certainly gotten people all over the Web talking about Skittles!  As CPG companies contemplate how to make their Websites relevant, I think the Skittles experiment can serve as a reminder to be thinking about the Web in a different way – to create brand ambassadors by incorporating user-generated content and collecting feedback in any form in which they choose to offer it.  This method, unfortunately, can backfire if the supposed brand ambassadors are not actually proponents. That said, one wonders if negative buzz is ever really negative. Even if I say that I don’t like Skittles, someone else may fervently disagree and go out and buy 20 packages!

I think Skittles has provided an interesting glimpse into the next generation of Websites, but has also demonstrated that there is still a lot of work to be done to determine how best to capture and employ the on-going online conversation about a brand in a meaningful and powerful way.

We want to know - what do you think about the campaign?  Tell us in your comments below!

eVOC Home Page

These days the chances are very high that users will not first experience your site on your home page. Any page that a search crawler can find is up for grabs. It’s a bit like having a supermarket with no walls. A shopper can walk in at any aisle to pick up the milk or eggs then walk right back out without ever bothering with the rest of your store. So what’s the point of having a front door?

Bleeding edge design gurus and product managers have started making the argument that home pages are now much less relevant in relation to the rest of your site design. Because you can’t control the point of entry, all landing pages need to serve the basic functions of a home page. They contend that the days of the home page being the most valuable real estate in the world are fading fast.

Traditionally a home page has 3 primary functions.

1. Identify to the user who you are
2. Explain what content the site offers
3. Point users in the right direction to get what they want

Can other pages achieve this? Sure. Does that fact make home pages irrelevant? No. A home page does one thing that other pages can’t do: it lets users compare the possibilities on your site in a way that is difficult to replicate on specific content pages. A home page is your user’s way of “zooming out” to get a 30,000 ft view of what’s on your site. Not having this capability means users would be at the mercy of your site’s search engine; if the results don’t deliver, the user is gone because there’s no alternative.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has found through his research that people still look for and expect a home page.

“A website is like a house in which every window is also a door: People can follow links from search engines and other websites that reach deep inside your site. However, one of the first things these users do after arriving at a new site is go to the homepage.”

–Alertbox Column

Google’s not perfect. Depending on site structure, users can end up close, but not exactly where they want to be. If you’ve done a good job representing who you are and what the site offers on any given page, users will be encouraged to engage your site. The user’s thought process should go, “Ok, this isn’t exactly right, but this site is promising. I’ll browse a bit. What else is here?”

Most major online brands such as Amazon and eBay still have pages that serve these functions, even if they might not call them home pages anymore. Ultimately, you can’t afford to neglect your home page because most users expect something that lets them step back and get oriented.

Rather than thinking of home pages as being less relevant, we suggest giving the home page and landing pages equal treatment when planning a site. As you go through the process of evaluating your users’ experience on your site, here are few things to keep in mind:

This will help make sure that no matter the entry point, you are delivering a consistent unified experience.