Your online store can be a bit of an impersonal place and the challenge with an ecommerce store is trying to make the experience online as close to the bricks and mortar in store experience as possible.
There are a few ways to provide a more social and humanized experience online that makes the online store and the brand more real and authentic rather than plastic and remote.
1. Online Video Reviews
A lot of web sites still use stock photos of people who look like models that have just stepped out of a Vogue shoot. It is actually better to use real people from your company that can demonstrate the products with the knowledge and passion that no one outside of your brand can bring. Zappos is a very successful online store that has utilised this approach very successfully and as consequence have improved their stores conversion rate from 6-30% through the use of two minute online video reviews of their products which are primarily shoes as well as clothing. Some other examples of this can be found at OnlineShoes.com and Tiger Direct where both incorporate video reviews from staff on product pages. All you need is a Flip video camera and a good tripod, it does not need to be an expensive production.
2. Live Chat
Another strategy to humanize the digital store is using a ‘Live Chat’ feature. Again the objective is to make it ‘real’ rather than fake. A good example of this is Backcoutry’s live chat where they use actual photo of employees. This humanizes the brand
3. Include a Blog
If you have a look at some of the best online stores and how they implement social media to humanize the brand and make it authentic then Zappos again is a great example with a multiple number of blogs. These blogs include videos that are both serious and humourous. Humour is a large part of the human experience so including some fun where appropriate can really make a difference. The other benefit with a blog is that allows people to make comments and so enables two way conversations with customers and provides a transparent feedback loop that provides the company with another channel to listen and modify its store and service to meet the needs of customers.
4. Setup a Facebook Page
Facebook was originally conceived as a personal socializing site for university and college students to connect and has developed into a global social network where companies, groups and individuals can search, conect, share and promote in a media rich environment. Companies are using it in creative ways and are running competitions, providing resources and allowing open updates and feeback from the brands fans. It allows the online store owner to have a platform where they can show the companies human face where its customers are hanging out. Paid promotions can be tightly targetted to the right vertical markets and demographic groups. Dell provides an example of enhancing it’s online store by providing a Facebook presence including tutorials on how to setup social media for SME’s.
5. Create Multiple Twitter Accounts
There are quite a few companies that have multiple Twitter accounts such as one for service another for sales and promotions that are managed by different employees. What this does is that allows the employees personality to shine through even if it is only in 140 characters. Also by having multiple Twitter accounts you can improve your search engine ranking by the sheer volume of your brand being out there because search engines search Twitter in real time especially since the recent evolution of Google’s search engine with Google Caffeine. Companies that are using multiple Twitter accounts include companies such as Starbucks, Dell and Zappos. In fact Zappos encourages the whole gang to tweet.
So how can you humanize and socialize your online store to turn your customers into a raving tribe of fans?
