EP017 - JCP, Gap, CostCo, URBN News, February Same Store Sales, Search & Category Page Usability, and Upcoming Events
JCP does not plan to close stores
Marvin Ellison, JCP CEO:
“What’s more, Penney has noticed that when it closes a store, online sales in the surrounding area also fall because awareness of the J.C. Penney brand falters”
“Ellison last month told investors that shoppers coming in to pick up an online order typically end up spending another 35% on that trip”
Was Ron Johnson right? Scot thinks he didn't have enough time, but that his experiential strategy was right on. Jason thinks trying to transition from promotional pricing to everyday low prices too quickly was a big mistake.
Dicks is finally transitioning from their outsourced e-commerce site to their own site. They previously outsourced it to GSI (now E-Bay Enterprises) with a very long contract. Jason mentioned that most GSI clients are finally bringing their web experiences in house.
There is a funny easter egg in the last GSI sites. They all have a few "Test SKUs" which are actually for sale on the site, such as the “Norm M TEST PID - DO NOT TOUCH EVER!!!” T-Shirt. You can do a google search, and see all the sites that have this particular test product.
Costco Earnings
What's keeping Costco CFO Richard Galanti up at night:
"Everybody in the world never wanting to leave their house and only typing stuff to order and get it at the front door”
He went on to say:
"We want to do everything possible to get them in the store and not just come and pick something up," Galanti told analysts, explaining why he didn't expect to roll out in-store pickup anytime soon. About e-commerce is general, he said, "some out there would argue it's about time. But we're getting to it."
Jason and Scot agree that Costco is way behind on omni-channel e-commerce and it's likely to catch up with them.
Gap same store sales were down 4%, but E-Commerce was only up 1%!?!?! (vs an industry average 15%). Gap CEO Art Peck ran e-commerce until February of 2015, but now they seem to really be struggling.
February ChannelAdvisor Same Store Sales
Amazon “Style Code Live” is a new daily 30 minute fashion/style show distributed via the web featuring shoppable products. Is this a threat to QVC/HSN?
Scot and Jason have a discussion about usability on e-commerce search result pages and category pages. How many results should you show per page for search and category pages?
Upcoming Events:
Bronto Summit, Miami 3/16 - Scot will be speaking
Adobe Summit, Las Vegas 3/21-3/24 - Jason will be attending
ConversionXL Live, Austin 3/30-4/1 - Jason will be attending
Demandware XChange,Hollywood FL, April 4 - Jason will be attending
Channel Advisor Catalyst Las Vegas, April 11 - Jason will be speaking
ShopTalk, Las Vegas, May 16 - Scot and Jason will both be speaking
IRCE Chicago, June 6 - Scot will be speaking
Episode 17 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday, March 9th, 2016.
Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at Razorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.