Earlier this year the Amerock.com website become another branded site that our E-Business team was to manage. The challenge that came with this responsibility was migrating the “look and feel” of the existing site to a different platform. What entailed was about a week of work to craft a new set of stylesheets that essentially made the “new” site look nearly identical to the old site.

We did however take liberties in updating products based on new product rollouts and added functionality that didn’t previous exist. Here are some before and after screen shots:

Product Navigation (Old)

Old site consisted of a 4-layer navigation schema:

1. Choose Product Category
2. Choose Product Type
3. Filter Product List (Choose 1 Finish, Style, and/or Collection)
4. View Product (See details, finishes, etc.)

The problem with this style of navigation is it forced the end-user to make too narrow their product selection too soon in the process just to see a product list. Finish coordination across product types is important in cabinet hardware, so the desire to see “all products with a satin nickel finish” needed to be possible. With the old site, this could not be done.

Above we see Decorative Hardware product types.

Here we see a product listing, but we can only choose from thedrop-down menus for further filtering options.

And here we see product details with finishes. Lots of unused real estate.

Product Navigation (new)

A simple 2-step process exists:

1. Choose Product Category (from the main navigation of the site)
2. Select multiple filters and see your product results

Select multiple filters across multiple filter types. An additional bonus is seeing the filter “counts” so there’s no guesswork when you’re clicking on options wondering if you will see any additional product results or not.

Clear visibility in the left-hand navigation of what filters are selected and which product results you’re viewing. Additionally, there are “results per page” options as well.

Product comparison also didn’t exist on the old site. It is now available on the new site.

Image zooming was also unavailable on the old site. Thanks to Adobe Scene7’s dynamic image zooming technology, we use it on all product pages to enable the end-user to zoom in on-the-fly on the product image.

Table Stakes

It seems odd to be showing some of the above features as they are mostly “table stakes” features these days. However, there are many large e-commerce sites that still do not offer simple things like product image zooming, unlimited product comparison functionality (do I really need to be limited to comparing 3 products at a time so the site design stays scaled proportionately?), and “results per page” customizations. Amerock.com is now fairly level-set with these “table stakes” features an we begin the continuous improvement with repeatable processes.

Earlier this year, the Amerock Cabinet Hardware brand within our corporation was merged into our business unit already consisting of Levolor and Kirsch to create a combined Global Business Unit called “Decor”. The Decor Business Unit rolls up under the Home and Family Group of Newell Rubbermaid as outlined here.

What’s exposed when businesses merge

Previously, Amerock was grouped under a different Global Business Unit and run independently of operations at Levolor and Kirsch. The merging of these business units has presented an interesting challenge from a website strategy perspective. The challenges are not unique to us and the purpose of this post is to not outline the specific challenges we faced but rather to focus on the high-level areas that mergers and acquisitions will eventually uncover:

Business processes, software platforms, job responsibilities, and online strategy must adapt to the new environment.

Enterprise E-Business must be scalable

I am fortunate to manage a team of people who are eager to take on new challenges and responsibilities. What we quickly discovered as it related to our Online Platform was that it had all been built around a single business (blinds & shades). This meant some of the software was specific to business processes unique to Levolor and Kirsch but more specifically, our business processes were very tied to Levolor and Kirsch.

When Amerock was infused into the mix, we had to re-engineer several areas (listed below). I won’t go into how we modified these processes but at a high level, these were the core areas impacted:

Enterprise E-Business must function on repeatable processes

I cannot stress this enough particularly in the past few years in working in a Fortune 500 environment after coming from a small business of 20-25 employees. The enterprise is too massive for any one person to “know it all” so processes must be rigid, repeatable, with good people employed to manage through the processes and modify the processes when they identify deficiencies.

Tribal knowledge is acceptable in small business and is what enables small business to be agile. Tribal knowledge contaminates the enterprise, especially in the E-business arena. If an enterprise process cannot be repeated by more than one person without significant “hand holding,” then it is not a repeatable process. A merger or acquisition will quickly expose deficiencies in processes.

Scalable, repeatable processes does NOT equal inflexible online experience

Perhaps one area where IT folks get it wrong most often is deploying a scalable, repeatable process that limits creativity (particularly as it relates to an online experience). Scalable and repeatable processes must inherently have a mechanism for dealing with unique business requirements and the ongoing management of these “exceptions.” This is all the more reason why the E-Business/IT group needs a seat at the (business strategy) table. Without knowing the direction of the business, it is impossible to anticipate every possible scenario and build scalable, repeatable processes that will last.

As a user/subscriber of Plaxo services, one thing missing from their arsenal is 2-way syncing with Google (as of this writing, Plaxo only supports a 1-way download from Gmail — it won’t update Gmail contacts with my information on Plaxo). Today in my inbox I had an email from the Google App team announcing Google Sync for Blackberry:

As someone with a MacBook Pro (for business) running OS X and VMWare Fusion for Windows XP & Windows 2000, an iMac (for home), Blackberry (Business & Gmail access), and random access to the Internet anywhere else I go, it only takes one instance where you’re on a device without your latest and greatest contact information. My Gmail contact list was the last missing link in the plethora of address books spread across all of these devices.

Today we launched an updated look and feel to SuperMotors.net (a site which I’m one of three owners of and work on in my spare time as a hobby):

New ad size: 300×250

In addition to new features and functionality added to the site, we’ve also incorporated 300×250 banner ads. Since I run this site as a hobby-based business, it’s important that we generate revenue from as many different sources as possible in order to pay for operational costs.

How will the economy impact banner ad revenue?

With the economy going the way it is, we’ve seen a text link-based company (ZTMC Marketing) pull ads from our site due to client cut backs. Fortunately, we are diverse in our implementation of ad networks. We run ads from Tribal Fusion, ADSDAQ, Casale Media, Google AdSense, ShoppingAds, and Text-Link-Ads.

This is part of the reason we’ve expanded to offering the 300×250 banner ad size (in addition to 728×90 and 160×600). We now have additional inventory heading into the first of the year when our traffic typically peaks (due to enthusiasts staying indoors during the winter months).

Congratulations go out to Foodzie.com for receiving $1M in seed financing to support the startup’s business in building an online marketplace for artisan food producers. This is very good news for the startup, particularly in this economy.

Back in April, I posted an entry about Foodzie before Rob and Emily (founders of Foodzie & friends of mine) headed off to Colorado to start the venture as part of the TechStars program.

Foodzie recently launched with 25 artisan producers and is offering 20% off all food products on orders placed by 12/31/2008. For the latest on Foodzie’s adventure, visit their blog at http://blog.foodzie.com.

When calling the DMV today for questions about transferring the title of a vehicle, I was greeted with the following message once I navigated through the automated phone tree:

“May I have your attention. We are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls. Your wait time may be excessive.”

Excessive? Did they really say that? On the heels of a similar post by Yabia, I couldn’t help but post my own reminder that viewing your business through the eyes of your customer or a consumer is critical to providing satisfying service.

“Excessive” implies an amount or degree too great to be reasonable or acceptable

My beef with the above recorded message is the use of the word “excessive.” Excessive is so often used in conjunction with something overly negative (excessive speeding, excessive drinking, etc.), why on earth would you use this language with your customers?

Now, granted, this is local government — generally an area where I rarely find customer service going above and beyond the call of duty. This automated message is either a complete stroke of genius by realistically acknowledging that the wait time is totally unacceptable…or a sobering realization of the lack of awareness. My vote is for the latter.

Soften the blow

If your phone system doesn’t support the ability to tell a caller how long they will wait, then don’t mention anything about the wait time being excessive. At the very least, choose different wording if transparency is your objective.

It makes me wonder: what would life be like if we lived in a world where there was only one supplier for each product we used in our day-to-day lives? Would you also have “excessive” wait times?

My media consumption is transitioning more and more to RSS feeds. From the latest online & web marketing industry news, to sports updates, to friends & family blog postings, RSS is an everyday part of my life where I pick and choose what I want to read/consume and when.

TV needs its own version of the RSS feed

It then dawned on me: TV needs to be like this. Essentially, it’s what all of our DVRs are striving to be. In our house, we have DIRECTV HD which means we are locked in to the underwhelming DIRECTV HD DVR. DIRECTV is taking a step in the right direction with the ability to schedule your DVR online. The problem is that it differs from Tivo’s implementation of online scheduling (we have Tivo in another room in the house).

Proprietary DVR scheduling “protocol” limits potential

If I visit ABC.com (or any television station’s website), there’s no standard way for me to subscribe to a show. I have to separately go to my provider’s website to use their proprietary method of scheduling the DVR to record a show. This is the beauty of RSS feeds — they are the same no matter which client you read the feeds from.

I really hope the future of DVR scheduling moves towards a standard which allows all networks to use a common syndication interface which can communicate with a network-connected DVR or computer. At the end of the day, there’d be a standard way to subscribe to an episode, series, and set it to record new episodes and/or repeats.

Advertising opportunities

If there were a standard DVR scheduling protocol, just think of how this could be leveraged through online advertising. A few ideas:

1. A call-to-action could be included within a link or a banner ad to “schedule this show to record” by simply clicking on it and adding the “feed” to your TV scheduler. You could then directly measure campaign effectiveness to new “subscribers.”
2. Similar to FeedBurner, a measurement service could be provided so networks could understand total subscribers.
3. Standardizing on a protocol would also allow online video sharing sites (Hulu, YouTube, etc.) to provide feeds to a DVR when a new episode/show/clip is available from your favorite show/contributor. I’d love to see YouTube feeds in my DVR list — when I’m sitting at the couch is when I have free time to check out online videos in longer sessions.
4. Viral marketing would be much easier — forward an email to a friend: “Hey, record this one episode, it’s hilarious.” Recipient clicks and they’re done.

Hulu is a step in the right direction

I can subscribe to an RSS feed for new episodes posted for a show or channel on Hulu. The missing link is the ability to play this content through the television. It’s still not quite convenient (or comfortable) to huddle around a MacBook Pro 15″ or a 20″ iMac — but good enough for catching an episode you missed or while on the road.

Yes, this is vastly over-simplified

I realize there are technical considerations that need to be accounted for, however my ignorance to DVR and TV-scheduling technology allows me to demand features like this.

I was recently interviewed for a series of articles published both online and in print for Internet Retailer. I always find it interesting to see which quotes are chosen by the writer and how comments are represented when an article is finally published. The two articles in which my comments were featured were:

Laying the Groundwork

Rich media wows shoppers, boosts sales and builds brands—if e-retailers build it right.

Consumer insights refine early version of Levolor.com product configurator

This article is specific to our site in which more of my comments about launching a product configurator were used from the original interview below.

Original Interview

The article was published as a result of the effort of Adobe Scene7’s PR firm which is why you’ll see a few of the questions below specific to Adobe’s Scene7 product which we use for the interactive imagery in our product configurator.

In the spirit of full disclosure, and because I think the information in the answers below provides good background for companies considering product configurators, here is the full Q&A from the interview with additional links:

Q: When was the site launched? How long has the product configurator been on the site?

The product configurator was launched in June 2007.

Q: Please describe the product configuration capacity on your site and the underlying technology that powers it.

The product configurator is designed specifically for window treatments and supports 100s of billions of product combinations that are unique to the window covering industry. Technology used:  PHP for the application layer, MySQL for the database layer, and Ajax for much of the real-time calls to the server throughout the configuration process. Scene7’s dynamic imaging component is used to visualize window treatments as they are built throughout the configuration process.

Q: Why is rich media and this tool in particular important to selling at Levolor.com? What does this interactive capacity add to the proposition that text and static images can’t accomplish?

Since we deal with a home décor product, the ability to visualize the custom-order product prior to ordering is important to our customers. The interactive capability allows for the many billions of combinations of our product to be visualized on-the-fly without having to individually create the accompanying static images. Scene7’s dynamic imaging technology enables us to dynamically call the visual components of a configured product.

Q: In choosing across the standard and custom options – and the different product categories (blinds, drapes, etc.) – how many combinations are possible? If that number isn’t available, how many options are there to choose from?

There are over 100 billion combinations for ordering our custom blinds and shades. This doesn’t mean there are 100 billion questions to answer in a single configuration, but rather the combination of product options, colors, and sizes equate to over 100 billion different ways our products can be ordered. For a consumer, custom blinds and shades are an investment in their home and the ability to see a visual representation of the product before it is ordered adds peace of mind.

Q: What were the challenges associated with getting this many images up online? How did you resolve the challenges?

The need for dynamic imaging was obvious. There was no way it was financially feasible to maintain billions of image combinations. By leveraging Scene7’s dynamic imaging technology, we were able to resolve this product data challenge.

Q: What are the challenges associated with making sure this many images are served in a timely way in response to site visitor requests?  Could you have handled this on your own servers, do you use a content delivery network, or is this something Scene7 provides?

Scene7 provides the necessary capacity and delivery requirements to meet the needs of our end-users. Scene7’s technology was more of a foregone conclusion than it was for us to try and solve the “challenges associated with making sure this many images are served in a timely way in response to site visitor requests.”

Q: As you prepared to implement the product configurator, was there anything you learned in the process that caused you to adjust your initial plans in any way?  How did you resolve that?

Assembling a team of product experts, web development experts, interactive experts, and usability experts proved to be the most challenging. Each functional expert approaches a product configurator from their own point of view and it made identifying the ideal user interface for our end-users a very time-intensive initiative. Having the ability to deliver dynamic imaging is only a fraction of the equation to a successful configurator. For Levolor, the product configurator is an ongoing product which is updated and improved on a daily basis based on changing consumer insights, trends, and technological enhancements.

Q: What advice would you have for other online retailers considering adding this much rich media to their site, from an operational perspective? Is there any different way you would approach this, based on what you learned from you initial experience?

A product configurator is an ongoing commitment and should be treated as a part of your organization’s product offering. It’s easy to launch a functionally-sound configurator online but very difficult to achieve consistently positive customer satisfaction without continuous improvement; particularly if your configurable products change on a yearly basis. All too often we see organizations invest in a product configurator but neglect to plan post-launch improvements. The end result is a product configurator plagued by costly & massive one-time updates because the budgets align with advertising & promotion rather than research & development. A&P budgets fluctuate considerably and having the budget significantly reduced one year (due to economic conditions or otherwise) can single-handedly cripple your product configurator’s effectiveness on your website.  With interactive technology changing as quickly as it does, it’s important to stay on top of interactive and usability trends so you can stay ahead of the curve when it comes to customers interacting with your product configurator.

Q: What does it cost you to have the product configurator up on your site?  Has the return been worth it?

No comment.

A couple weeks back we rolled more changes out on Levolor.com, one in particular included the implementation of Google’s hosted Site Search product: http://www.google.com/sitesearch/.

Considering we had never offered site-based search before and nearly every day we heard from our feedback tool that visitors wanted to be able to search, this was a really straight-forward, quick, and easy implementation that I wish we had done it sooner.

Search can help reveal visitor intent

Google Site Search offers several customization options within their interface. Perhaps the biggest thing we’ve learned thus far is what people are wanting to find on the site based on keyword reports. This offers another slice of valuable data to layer on top of navigation/pathing and conversion analytics to better understand the wants and needs for your visitors.

While search will certainly help search-savvy visitors find the products and content that already exist on your site, perhaps the more interesting piece of data is what they’re searching for that doesn’t exist on your site. This data can assist in providing you the necessary insights on what additional products and features to add to your site.

At a minimum of $100/year, the barrier to entry for site search is extremely low

Google’s pricing methodology is very smart — starting out at just $100/year for indexing up to 5,000 pages and offering 250,000 queries. That is very impressive technology and search sophistication that can be added to virtually any site on a budget. This really lowers the barrier to entry for smart, savvy search tools for websites thereby making it almost completely inexcusable to not have search on your site.

What Google Site Search is not

Google Site Search is not a search merchandising tool like the Fast Search and Omniture Site Searches of the industry. One can only hope that over time Google will integrate new merchandising-related features that make it a viable competitor to give these other industry players good competition. What Google Analytics has done for web analytics I imagine it will do for merchandise-based search optimization as their engineers continue to improve the product features and functionality.

This month we launched an industry first: we have built a custom product configurator API. We have teamed with American Blinds, the largest online retailer of window treatments, to put the API in production with the launch of our previously-mentioned custom draperies program.

The B2B benefit

The API allows American Blinds to effectively “shake hands” with our product configurator enabling online ordering of custom draperies from Levolor without having to do any product programming. This enables us as the manufacturer to focus on effectively managing the hundreds of billions of configuration possibilities with our custom product lines while American Blinds focuses on the marketing of the products to their consumers — essentially the best of both worlds.

Here are screen shots of the experience:

The American Blinds Curtains & Draperies landing page:

The Levolor Draperies landing page on AmericanBlinds.com:

Now entering the Levolor.com product configurator:

The completed configuration passed back to the American Blinds shopping cart via the API:

The American Blinds checkout process with a Levolor configured product sent via the API:

The B2C benefit

The benefit to consumers is a seamless experience as they are passed unknowingly from server-to-server with no interruption in navigation. To them, it is like picking up another product sample book in the store. At the time of purchase, regardless of products they have in their cart, they still go through the same checkout line for a completely seamless purchasing experience.