This section outlines the things to be wary of in the world of e-commerce promotions. If you read the article on promotional best practices, these are the counter points that you need to consider. There are some serious downsides to…
In our continuing exploration of how operations supports creativity, I wanted to dive into a recent restaurant experience. Here, the food, the experience, the brand itself, are all thought of as creative expressions, but I would propose that operations are…
Promotions are probably the single biggest lever in driving conversion. Showing that deep red price, the discount, the urgency of the countdown – these all motivate customers to buy like nothing else. Researching this article, a couple compelling reports bubbled…
“Within a month you’ll be making your own work.” These words were spoken to me on my first day as an eCommerce manager. With continuous industry change, new technology, new competition, there was never a shortage of projects. The challenge…
There’s a conversation I’ve had more than once. “Hey, order in a pizza for your crew and get them to crush out the last bit of work tonight.”
Let’s get a couple things straight:
Pizza is awesome.
Good will matters.
A little extra work is sometimes needed.
Once upon a time, I thought having a dozen people in a room deciding everything was normal. It starts innocent enough I’m sure. The boss is needed for some important decision, and he just sticks around. Then that one guy from sales had an idea people liked, so he’s in there too. Accounting? Well, at some point people are feeling left out.
Have you ever shopped for a dress shirt? You know, the shirts with a hundred pins, cardboard forms and a 15 minute journey to try it on?
My friend and I needed matching shirts as groomsman (super cute) and not being experts in sizing, we must have tore through a dozen packages before finding the right look and fit.
I tried to find stats about how much of our lives we spend waiting (checkout lines, on hold, etc.) but I couldn’t find one, so I’m making one up. An average North American will spend over 8,000 hours waiting in their lifetime! That’s almost an entire year!
‘Customer Transacts’
That’s where the sticky notes ended on a long wall with an arrayed rainbow of squares. Each had a key feature of our website from the landing pages to the checkout. Beneath the line were all the suggestions for improvements…
You learn best from mistakes, but it’s far more fun when it’s someone else’s mistakes.
One of my earliest lessons in user design occurred while I was still in sales. We bid on a large government project for a registration software. We lost out on a big government deal for a registration software. We pretty much had the thing already built, a great price, expertise, BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS. I was pretty bitter.