Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Darren Hill, CEO of WebLinc (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: What are you able to do? What strategies do you follow to make that an instant fit in some sense on the mobile phone?

Darren Hill: If you think about products, products have attributes and tags. The consumer uses those tags to find products on the website. The biggest thing we’re doing is tagging the customer. We look at searches that the customer makes based on past purchases, the last place the customer has been, or even the way they shop. Some shoppers are shopping for something very specific. Some shoppers are shopping to fill their closets. Some shoppers are buying gifts. We’re doing a lot of work to identify what type of shoppers are here. Those shoppers actually respond differently to different page layouts. Someone who’s buying just a pair of jeans is much interested in seeing those jeans as a much larger photo on the screen versus someone who’s looking in a browsing mode and looking to shop for outfits to fill their closets. That customer is going to see many more outfits and multiple product detail pages versus a single product detail page. It’s changing the layout and it’s something we’re experimenting a lot with. It’s actually working wonderfully.

Sramana Mitra: Anything else you want to share?

Darren Hill: There are two big challenges that are not being met very well in the industry right now. Number one is sizing. It is a big challenge for every apparel company with about 50% of the return rates based on sizing. It’s one of the things that we’re excited about solving. I’m sure some new company is going to come out with some fantastic products around the consumer being able to size themselves – using their phone or camera on their computer. That’s something that someone needs to solve. There’s some interesting companies that are solving that around shoe sizing right now, but general apparel sizing is one of the critical pieces.

Sramana Mitra: In the catalog industry, that is true. By and large in the web, that has been true as well. If you buy a piece of merchandise that has fit issues compared to something that is more basic and generic and the fit is not as critical, it’s easier to sell through catalog or online. If it is specific, how does it fall or fit, that is a much harder thing to sell online. The strategy that we followed was much more basic-oriented. Typically given the sizing issue that you’re pointing out, that was and is tackled by merchandising towards more basics.

Darren Hill: We’ve done it from a non-technical point of view. We’re showing the video of a product. It works really well. Your example of how the product falls and moves with the body. The other is showing the measurements of that specific model. That’s helpful.

Sramana Mitra; It’s not easy to do. If you have to show a merchandise piece on multiple models with multiple body statistics, the visual merchandising investment that requires is humongous. It’s really not sustainable.

Darren Hill: No, it’s not. My point was more on if you’re using one model, make sure you indicate what her sizing is. That works to a point. I don’t think anyone has come up with the sizing silver bullet.

Sramana Mitra: What is the second issue besides sizing?

Darren Hill: I think it is slowly getting solved. I’m excited to see what Amazon is up to. It’s incredibly fast shipping—shipping in two or three hours. I think that’s going to make major changes in the industry and how we sell and promote products. I think Amazon is making some neat strides towards that. There’s a company called Shuttle. They’re using bike messengers in major metropolitan areas so they can get quick shipping. I’m interested to see someone conquer that versus having some okay tests in some giant cities.

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Darren Hill, CEO of WebLinc
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