Sales or Communication ?

One of the big debate in the luxury Company is to arbitrate on the purpose of their Web site : is it an e-commerce site or is it a communication Web site ? How to conciliate the 2 which use different rules. Here is the solution...

First of all, why do we ask this question ? What is the difference between an e-commerce Web site and a Communication Web site.

An e-commerce Web site caracteristics is:

• Easy to browse: customer have to find the right product very fast and be able to purchase very easily. We know that having a customer lost on a Web site is the first cause of a bad conversion rate (number of orders/number of visits).
• Fast to download: you know why you came for on this site, you want this product quickly, now !
• Display only selling products: even if there is a debate on do we have to show or not a product which is out of stock (and if yes do we have the technical and logistic capacity to propose reservation), at least you show only the product you sell
• Merchandising sections: to promote a product and increase its sales

A communication Website caracteristics is:

• A navigation based on discovery: you don't know necesseraly where you are on the Web site or the meaning of each title, you want to be surprised, to make a ballad on the site.
• Beautiful images/videos/animation which are heavy to download and you will have to wait a little bit.
• Show all your products to make people discover your wide product offer. You can even want to show the products online before they reach your stores or want to show some very limited editions available in a few pieces around the world: one of the ultimate desire is to have a product that nobody has, rarety is part of luxury. So you will diplay your limited edition product on your Communication Website to create desire for your Brand and then for your other products which are not allocated.
• And of course on a Communciation Web site you want to show and explain your History, the craftmanship, the sponsoring of your Company. Unfortunately you will see that it is a very smal l part of your visits as people come on your Website, as any other Website, to have information on....your products. Yet, these sections are expensive to create and maintain as the quality must be perfect because you show the DNA of your Brand.

So we see here that there is an issue: how to conciliate a Communication Website of which ultimate goal is to make us dream and which uses a "not straight to the point" navigation, beautiful but heavy images to load and an e-commerce Website which must be more focus.

First of all, I am not for having 2 Websites: a communication one and an e-commerce one. Even if you create some bridges between the 2 the only thing you will have at the end is a lost Websurfer or a frustrated one because he will not have access to everything.

My position is to try to create the good balance between Communication and E-shopping on your unique Web site. It is not easy but we are on the luxury industry and we are here to demonstrate that what seems not to be possible, we do it. When you see luxury Website on the Web now, I think I am almost the only one to think that it is worthwile trying to conciliate the 2.

How to do it ?

You can create a catalog section where you will have all your products, the one you sell and the one you do not sell. The only thing you have to be care of is to make your customer understand immediately if the product can be purchased online or not. If it is at the Product Category level, put a text or icon beside the title to explain the category cannot be purchased online. If it is at the product category level, indicate clearly that the product cannot be purchased online. In any case, put a Customer Service Center telephone number to invite your customer to call your agent to know in which store they can buy the product.

In your animations, you could have the idea to mix sellable and non sellable products online. But the customer will be frustrated and will not understand why he can buy some products and not the other ones, he does not know about your logistic issue or online merchandising policy, and he does not care of. So I suggest you to make animation with product you sell and other animation to show product which are not sellable online. After all, if you decide not to sell some products online there is a reason, and you should be able to explain this reason. For example you can tell your customer that this product is so special that you need a one to one physical ceremony to explain all the specificity of the products. T hen you can make people understand why you have 2 animations even if products belongs to the same collection (you can create a separate section within the animation if you don't want to have a separation at a higher level).

Even if you also present your History, Sponsoring Activity etc on other sections of the site, you should create links from the Catalog section (it can be from the product sheet for example) to the communication section of your site and invite your customer to get a part of the dream. But you need to play the animation within the product sheet frame otherwise, if your customer is leaving the product sheet you have good chance that he will have trouble to come back to the product sheet. Worse, he can get lost on your site and decides not to purchase the product anymore. And he will also be upset by your Website meaning by your Brand of having doing such a poor Web site.

It is a difficult exercice to achieve, but, by experience, I can tell it is doeable.