Cross-selling is an important tactic used to increase average cart sizes and hopefully average order values, but sometimes cross-selling goes bad.

The Sharper Image is struggling as a company. I see press release after press release citing declining revenue across the board - now I have a good idea why. I’m not sure they understand ecommerce or their customers, especially after seeing the recommended accessories for a product I was curious about.

So, I see this neat toy called the RipStik Caster Board. Not that I’d ever purchase it, I just like new fun ideas. I was curious what kind of accessories they could possibly pitch (and why in the world would you force a user to click AWAY from the product to see related accessories is beyond me).

Now, I don’t think Bose In-Ear Headphones is too far of a stretch - a skater may want nice headphones to listen to music as they mess around (maybe not the optimal cross-sell, but understandable).

Here is the fun stuff. For all you active teenage RipStik Caster Boarders out there, get your ladies’ Wet/Dry leg shaver to enjoy stubble free legs for up to four weeks! Oh I know, it is to help prevent infections if boarders get road rash. We don’t want hair in the cuts. But wait, there is more. After your big day out on the board, why don’t you sleep on a comfy pillow for 50% off.

Now I understand it takes a lot of work to create good personas and relevant and personalized merchandising offers, but this is way off. I now fully and completely understand where the root of The Sharper Image’s troubles stem. My advice is to automate the commerce platform’s merchandising with automation tools that adjust offers based on analytics, or hire better merchandisers. This is inexcusable for a Top 100 retailer. But then again, that pillow does look inviting.

DM News published an article about the crew over at Power Reviews concerning the announcement of a multi-language platform being used by none other than our Vancouver neighbours Mountain Equipment Co-Op whose flagship store is just around the corner.

Anyhow, in the March 8, 2007 article “Voila! PowerReviews lets users review in French, Spanish, Italian and German” by Dianna Dilworth, we are grouped in with PR other partners who are a heavy hitting list of ecommerce vendors.

As regular readers likely know, Elastic Path customers are spread around the globe and many more sell goods internationally - as such, we enthusiastically support cool tools which combine global mindedness and the openness user customer generated content.

Already ready to go along with the French and English used by MEC are Italian and German (apologies to our Icelandic friends) with Chinese, Japanese and Korean coming later this year.

Article snippet after the break to get you started:

Continue Reading:
Multi-language Customer Reviews in DM News »

Elastic Path VP of Marketing Jason Billingsley explains how smart search engine optimization and parametric site indexing help retailers profitably capture the “Long Tail” market by positioning their ecommerce shop as a big fish in many small ponds.

MP3 File

[Photo of Jason Billingsley by Kris Krug]

See also:

• Chris Anderson’s Long Tail blog
• StomperNetwork blog

Another Elastic Path powered ecommerce site launched today, this time the retailer is Cotswold Collections, a UK-based seller of “Unique Classic Clothing.” Certainly, you want to tailor both the aesthetics and processes of the store to suit your users’ tastes and indeed the site’s design reflects a refined elegance with understated elements and a calming color scheme.

The site, built by Marketing Integrator Agency Leftfield Digital, makes excellent use of cross-selling by prompting the shopper to purchase coordinated items to complete an outfit, i.e.: select a blouse and be presented with the skirt and scarf worn by the model to complete the “look.”

Also notable is the use of size/color swatches as the “add to cart” action button making for a more casual, boutique-style shopping experience for the discerning shopper. Plus, I noticed a special offer for first time shoppers.

The search engine optimized title tags and URLs are an Elastic Path calling card and should reap tremendous rewards for Cotswold who will likely discover significantly higher conversion rates due to more specific searches.

For example, a URL ending with “knitwear/34-sleeved-top-with-whipstitch-trim” will not only reap customers who know what they seek and are ready to purchase, but will also appear higher in search results organically than a URL ending with a string of indiscernible characters.

And you should also try the dynamic zoom-in photo viewer. Want to see the detail on that button? Drag the wee viewer window to see close-up view without a big download wait. Slick!

Overall, they’ve created a compelling and well-crafted site.

Cheers and best wishes to Cotswold and Leftfield Digital!