Monitor Your Vendors’ Websites

When you carry products produced by someone else or supply services under a name licensed to you by someone else, that someone else often maintains a website shoppers can use to locate you. The shopper enters their ZIP code or other locale identifier, or a search engine recognizes where the shopper is. Then the name of your store along with your address and phone number appear.
     This is an excellent way to build referral business. All else being equal, do your purchasing from vendors who provide this for you. However, be aware that the characteristics of the vendor’s website influence how a consumer perceives your business. Research at Stanford University finds that consumers tend to perceive a retail business along five major dimensions:

• Sincere or witty. In what ways are you honest? Wholesome? Cheerful? Teasing?
• Exciting or predictable. To what degree are you daring? Spirited? Imaginative? Trendy? Responsible? Dependable? Persistent?
• Expert or inquisitive. In what ways are you knowledgeable? Successful? Calm? Confident? Secure? Stimulating? Curious?
• Sophisticated or approachable. To what degree are you formal? Assertive? Ambitious? Casual? Sociable?
• Rugged or luxurious. In what ways are you gruff? Challenging? Cooperative? Trusting? Considerate? Indulgent?

     The personality of the vendor’s website can muddy the image you’re aiming for if the website’s personality differs greatly from that intended image. If the vendor’s website is overly exciting at the expense of predictability, it might even turn away prospective customers.
     For example, the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study®—Wave2 ranks the Cadillac and the Scion websites as lowest among the 33 automobile manufacturers they rated, based on responses from more than 10,600 prospective new car shoppers. The best of the sites—Honda’s and Kia’s—were distinguished by an uncluttered appearance and easy-to-understand site navigation tools. The result was speedy retrieval of the information the shopper was seeking.
     Research results from University of Alberta and University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana suggest that Cadillac would have been wise to have a simpler website design for another reason as well: Absence of clutter subtly signals elegance to shoppers.
     Monitor your vendors’ websites to be sure information is not only correct, but also presented in a way that enhances your store’s marketability. If the site falls short, work with the vendor to resolve the problems and recognize that the site may not be as valuable to your profitability as you’d thought.

Click below for more:
Project Your Store’s Personality
Know the Tradeoffs in Being Sincere
Manage Store Clutter Strategically
Offer Aspirational Shoppers Subtle Signals