Net-a-Porter launch their own social platform, The NET SET, and we’ve reviewed it!

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• Net-a-Porter launch their own social platform, The NET SET, and we’ve reviewed it!
• Why isn’t my mobile website converting?
• Your Competitors Are Optimised For Mobile Devices – Are You?

Net-a-Porter launch their own social platform, The NET SET, and we’ve reviewed it! Posted: 14 May 2015 02:00 AM PDT Online designer clothing retail behemoth Net-a-Porter, not content with 6 million unique visits a month to its desktop site, yesterday launched its new app, the Net Set. Having been impressed with their content strategy in the past year, which included the expansion of its online magazine and the creation of a dedicated print magazine, I decided to take a look at this new platform, dubbed in the invitational email, The social shopping network we have all been waiting for. Fortune Magazine this week called it Net-a-Porter’s ‘new weapon in [the] luxury eCommerce battle’ setting the tone for a new era of mobile device targeted platforms. The focus of my blog post in September last year was the way in which online retailers were utilising magazine-style and ‘curated’ or editorial content in order to improve the customer experience and blur boundaries between content and commerce. In many ways, the Net Set app, launched this past week, is simply an extension of this vision, which seeks to interfere with the traditional retail model, further creating an interactive, inspirational experience; the ultimate commerce/content hybrid. Knowing from the start that Net-a-Porter as a brand could not be seen to be devaluing its designers wares by offering discounts and offers, Net-a-Porter has focused on the customer experience. Reaching-out, addressing and hugging those consumers who have become advocates of the brand over the years has been an important focus of Net-a-Porter’s strategy. The fact that Net-a-Porter would bring out an app is not surprising given its standing as the go-to online retailer of designer brands. That it would seek to create its own social platform is a novel idea and little tested in the fashion, let alone the eCommerce world. Knowing that the likes of ASOS still have separate apps for their magazine content and shopping function, the Net Set may be a venture into a new platform, but knowing their content approach works as well as it has done, Net-a-Porter must be confident that this strategy is the right one. Natalie Massenet, founder of the Net-a-Porter group seemed confident upon launch that the app will be a success; "A lot of people are trying to create social shopping destinations, but they're missing some of the ingredients. Either they don't have the scale and reach and audience already, they don't have the relationship with the brands, or they don't have the logistics or in-house tech team we have," she told Fortune. Essentially the app creates a further touch-point for consumers who already browse on retail website, read the online magazine the Edit, and purchase the offline publication Porter. Research from Crowdtap and Ipsos found that user-generated content is 20% more influential than any other type of media when it comes to purchasing, and 50% more trusted. So lets look at how Net-a-Porter have utilised this kind of content in their new offering. Creating an app that will inspire The Net Set user journey asks users to complete their profile with 6 quick steps. These choices inform the content that users will receive in the app, through joining different ‘style tribes’, choosing  favourite designers, and selecting specific Style Council members (such as the likes of Laura Bailey and Poppy Delevigne, but strangely, no Paul Weller) to follow. Once registered, users are treated to a platform that is a mixture of Vogue-like features, trendy Instagram accounts and a an eCommerce platform. What is most astonishing is that this app seems to blend the three seamlessly. The look of the app will be familiar to Net-a-Porter’s following, especially anyone who has read their online magazine, The Edit. The interface is decidedly trendy and echoes the feeling you get in those really designer stores with plenty of shiny white walls and a few rails of stock. Simplicity and clean lines are key features here. The user interface is slick, with gorgeous imagery, and set out rather intuitively into 5 main navigation options: Browse, Find, Upload, Alerts and Profile. Most importantly, that little shopping bag icon reminds you that you can purchase so easily from inside the app. The idea of curated content that Net-a-Porter introduced in The Edit flows seamlessly into the app. The main content feed (Browse) is a mixture of popular products (measured in ‘loves’), instagram-style posts by Style Council members (which utilise hashtags, emoticons and the ability to tag other users) and new products from favoured designers or Style Tribes. According to one media report, the app has built-in visual recognition technology (presumably to recognise products and tag them to their designer/brand), however, I haven’t used this yet so I can’t comment on how effective it is. Find Find  is essentially a beautiful search feature. It includes 350 designer collections, and you can search products, people, brands, photos and Style Tribes within the same feature and most importantly, it displays instant search results, a function which seem to work well even on a 3G connection. Upload This is the section where you can create a post/image to upload and share. It’s pretty self explanatory and is kept simple and clean to encourage frequent posting and sharing. Alerts I’m not quite sure what this feature does at the moment – I hope to find out soon – it may be related to a ‘let me know when its back in stock’ type idea. Profile In this section you can edit your vital statistics and find all of the products and images you have ‘loved’. Products Pages Product pages on the app not only let users view a lovely carousel of images of each item from different angles, but also let users: Recommend a product to a Style Tribe View uploads by others users of how they have styled this and similar items The converting appeal of the product pages would always be the money-making aim of the app and thus creating product pages which blend the checkout process with the browsing and wish-list function was imperative. The NetSet seems to have done this rather well, ensuring that the purchase journey is clear, reinforces expectations and guides the user to purchase with as few steps as possible. Is it a seamless purchase journey? Whilst no purchase for £1,600 will be taken lightly (or maybe it will by the uber-wealthy), the checkout journey is reasonable slick and conveys simply an extension of normal app use. The checkout is a guided four step affair, which, in my opinion, could be improved a little bit in terms of the layout and, in particular, the payment screen where buttons are quite small to tap and rather too close together. I think the app should make greater play of the facility to pay by Paypal as this method does ultimately decrease the time it takes to make a purchase on-the-go, and ultimately, is less likely to lead to purchase drop-outs at this stage. I would remark that the summary information on the payment page should be condensed so that the payment form is not pushed below the fold of the average smartphone as the current look of this step of the payment process looks more time consuming than it really is simply due to the amount of words and boxes on the screen.         Conclusions: Net-a-Porter already has 4.1 million fans across its existing social channels and thus knows there is an audience for this app. They have set the bar high in entering the social media app world and I can see this becoming the app to flick through and drool over for followers of fashion and those that enjoy beautiful design. The Net Set has been created with Net-a-Porter regular shoppers and loyal brand advocates in mind, allowing a seamless registration that pulls in information from their existing online account to populate their feed. Net-a-Porter could have just designed a sleek looking shopping app, but it obviously believes this way of shopping, the softly softly approach outlined in my previous blog post, will reap dividends for them in the long term. I believe this app will put pressure on other retailers who have fallen behind in the eCommerce game. What is clear, is that marketing spend on eCommerce will grow immeasurably over the next few years as retailers strive to compete against one another in an increasingly innovative multi-touchpoint landscape. The post Net-a-Porter launch their own social platform, The NET SET, and we’ve reviewed it! appeared first on White.net.

Why isn’t my mobile website converting? Posted: 14 May 2015 12:00 AM PDT There's been a lot of hype over the last couple of months about the latest mobile-friendly algorithms for mobile search. Whilst it's great to see that traffic from mobile devices has been on the increase over the last year, on the whole conversions haven't enjoyed this positive increase. I’ve read a lot of blog posts recently on the new algorithm and it's great to hear that Google will reward mobile friendly websites, but there is little information on why mobile conversions aren’t increasing. We now need to understand why users aren’t converting via mobile devices and what businesses can do to tackle the fundamental issues users are facing when on a mobile device. The first question we need to ask ourselves is why are conversions lower on mobile devices? Although the mobile devices are often the go-to choice of technology, people aren’t purchasing on them. Google's smart shopper survey revealed that 87% of respondents used a computer to make a purchase whilst only 6% used a smartphone. So what are people doing on their mobile devices? It's clear to see just how much of an impact mobile devices are having on our lives, but do we know what actions and activities our customers are performing? It could be argued that smartphones are more of a research or browsing platform rather than a buying platform. Going back to the findings from the Google survey, 83% of respondents used a desktop to conduct research compared to 21% who used a smartphone. But whilst it's great that we’ve identified what people do, we need to find out WHY people are discouraged from purchasing on a mobile device. It could be down to a multitude of reasons; here are some of them: Websites aren’t mobile responsive Website aren’t storing user and payment details Page speed is slower on a mobile device People like to research on a mobile device and purchase on a desktop Depends on the need state- e.g. booking a table at a restaurant is easier and quicker to do than purchasing a camera Low value items are more likely to be made on a mobile device People feel like they are missing out on information, products etc. when purchasing on a mobile device. Why first impressions count How many times have you bounced off a website because you can't read the text on your phone? Or if the page takes forever to load? Frustrating huh? You're not alone; when it comes to mobile every second counts. Loading time can affect your bottom line for a number of reasons, so ensuring that your website loads fast, doesn’t crash or send a 404 error is now more important than ever. Google's survey revealed that 26% of respondents claimed that they sometimes experienced problems and 8% said they often experienced issues. Most users, including myself, don't have the time nor the patience to wait for a site to respond, we just expect it to work and when it doesn’t it can leave a lasting impression. Whilst it's important to find out how many people experienced problems, it's what users do after they’ve experienced problems that can help us. Findings from the Google survey concluded that: 50% use the same site on another device 15% use the same site despite the problem 24% use another site that works better on a smart phone 25% try the same site via smartphone again or at a later time Whilst it's great that 50% of the respondents went back and visited the same site on another device, the question is, how long will people put up with these issues and start expecting more? A large proportion, 24% in fact, bounced straight to another site, most likely to a competitor. And guess what? If your competitor's site is mobile friendly, they are more likely going to purchase through them. What makes a site mobile friendly? So the most important question is, "what makes a site mobile friendly?" And "what things can I do to make the user journey quick and easy for its visitors?" Having a mobile friendly website has become a necessity rather than a nice-to-have option. Design and development teams are now having to rethink and refine the process to incorporate the variety of screen sizes whilst taking into account the needs of the user. Understanding the basics of having a mobile friendly website is paramount to the future success of your site. I have put together a list of the top features I think are a must have for every website, as seen below. Checklist of essential requirements for mobile websites: Present your navigation horizontally, in the burger format Ensure the content fits the screen Not too much scrolling, tapping or pinching required Site that loads quickly Have the most important content above the fold Search facility within the site Content that is easy to read without needing to zoom in Keep your copy simple and concise Don't overcrowd the page Click-to-call functionality Maps of your locations/stores Links that aren't close together Large call-to-actions that are easily clickable Input fields that have large touch areas Ability to store user and payment details to speed up the purchase Mobile websites: saints and sinners To make this a little more interesting and relatable, I have chosen 5 features from the list above that I think are the most important, and found saints and sinners for each category. You will notice I didn’t need to navigate further than a brand's homepage before noticing problems!   1) Have the most important content above the fold SINNER – ALTON TOWERS Alton Towers mobile website focuses on a promotion rather than important areas such as ticket purchase. SAINT – PIZZA EXPRESS Pizza Express have provided links to the core areas their customers will want to go to.    2) Links that aren’t close together SINNER – PETS AT HOME The links within Pets at Home's drop down navigation are far too close together making it almost impossible for users to select one link. SAINT – OASIS Oasis have created enough space between each call to action button.   3) Ensure the content fits the screen SINNER – STAPLES Staples haven't set the mobile view port so the page doesn’t fit on a mobile device. SAINT – WATERSTONES Waterstones have set the view port so that the page fits within a mobiles frame.   4) Content that is easy to read without needing to zoom in SINNER – FUDGE KITCHEN The text on Fudge Kitchen's homepage is far too small to read on a mobile device. SAINT – STARBUCKS The font on Starbucks's homepage is easy to read on a mobile device without the need for zooming in.   5) Don’t overcrowd the page SINNER – ANIMAL Animal have too much information on the homepage making it harder for customers to find what they need. SAINT – AO AO's 'shop by' options make it easy for customers to find what they need. So what's next? Where do we go from here? Firstly, don't give up. The biggest mistake to make is to become complacent and accept that things won't change. But we all know that approach won't work. It's important to ask yourself what your customer's intentions are when visiting your site, what information would they want to see, how could you make their time on the site more enjoyable and simple. Then once you've answered these types of questions you can identify the best ways to optimise the site so we can make it easier for them to convert on their mobiles. Just remember that the easier you make a customer's journey the more likely they are to convert! Do you have any other mobile friendly features that I should add to my list? If so, please leave me a comment below with your recommendation.  I look forward to hearing from you. The post Why isn't my mobile website converting? appeared first on White.net.

Your Competitors Are Optimised For Mobile Devices – Are You? Posted: 12 May 2015 04:08 AM PDT We’ve all heard of #Mobilegeddon in the digital news of late… if you haven’t where have you been!? It was deemed that the Google organic sky was blackening for those businesses whose site was not optimised for mobile devices, or deemed mobile friendly, with the fear of being dropped from Google SERP altogether. This begs the question, Your Competitors Are Optimised For Mobile Devices – Are You? And do you need to be for PPC? In this post I will look at what it is to be mobile ‘friendly’, or optimised. There are examples of what is and what is not, along with my tips on how to approach optimisation for mobile from a organic and paid POV. I will say at this stage that I had a decision as to whether to use stats from Bing or Google…. I decided on Bing for the sole reason that they seem to receive far lower coverage in the media than the giant that is Google. So, the figures you’ll see displayed throughout the post are taken from Bing on-line publications. So… the first question. Why invest in mobile? Well to start with, CPCs on mobile are typically 30% cheaper than desktop/laptop CPCs with 3 out of 10 searches on the Yahoo Bing Network undertaken on a mobile device(1). We’ve seen search become more intuitive on mobile devices of late than desktop, and the recent(ish) introduction of Siri and Cortana has enabled us as a user to find the information we desire via voice command (is it me or are those keyboards on mobiles devices getting smaller? That or my fingers are getting fatter!) Customers are spending more and more time on mobile devices, with average time on device increasing by some 5 times from 2011 to 2014. Consumers in general are spending more time on their mobile devices than watching TV or reading a book (OK so they could be reading a book on their mobile device, but you get my drift). As smartphones become more and more the norm to own, over 82%(2) of owners search on and browse the web using their mobile device during the day. Search is shifting to mobile; over 40%(3) of internet searches on the Yahoo Bing Network are through smartphone devices and it’s estimated by 2017 that searches from mobile devices will outpace those via PCs and laptops. Smartphone searches drive conversions at home, in-store and on the go with 70%(4) of mobile conversions occurring within five hours of a mobile search. This does vary by sector but this is very true for online shopping. Sectors such as travel see a very different conversion path with mobile/tablet searches being undertaken for research purposes and generally conversions following on a desktop/laptop device. So, we have looked at some impressive stats, but before you consider mobile advertising, ask yourself, ‘Is my site mobile optimised?’ What is a mobile optimised website and why do I need one? In plain English, a mobile optimised website is a simplified version of a site, designed for smartphones and tablet devices for ease of navigation and readability. The whittard.co.uk site is mobile optimised, and is shown below on the left. TheMissingBean.co.uk website is not optimised for mobile, and is shown on the right: As you can see, the site with a desktop optimised layout is more difficult to navigate than the mobile optimised version. Mobile users need, no demand, a suitable experience on your site; it needs to be: East to load Easy to read Easy to interact with The benefit? Users are more likely to convert on sites optimised for mobile devices; Bing Ads reported that the smartphone conversion rate was 23% for those not optimised for mobile and 60% for mobile optimised sites(5)… the stats speak for themselves right? If your site is not optimised for mobile you’re losing customers! 30% of users will abandon a purchase from your site if the shopping cart is not optimised for mobile. I’m part of that 30%. There is nothing more frustrating that attempting to make a purchase and constantly having to zoom in/out of fields within the cart or hit the wrong field as they’re so so small to read, I would much rather skip to a competitor and pay that extra £1.00 if it meant that the shopping experience was optimised for me and my purchase. Have you done similar? Now, when I say ‘mobile-optimised site’ I do not necessarily mean you need to rush out to your developers and design a new site, you have two options really. Either create a separate site for mobile screens (m.example.com) or create a mobile-friendly responsive design. Option 1: A separate site for mobile screens Typically a separate site served on an alternate URL, m.example.com for mobile users. Pros: A design that is fully optimised to work on smaller screens You have the ability to adjust content to respond to top ranking mobile search queries or products purchased more often on mobile tan desktop Faster load time for the user Cons: Cost and management time required to monitor and optimise two separate sites SEO is managed seperately on a mobile site Can lack flexibility to adapt to new screen sizes as they’re released Option 2: A responsive web design (Like the one you’re on now ) A responsive design automatically adjusts to different viewing conditions, such as screen size and orientation. Try viewing this post on your tablet and switch between portrait and landscape orientation. Pros: Management time and costs are lower due to a single URL, sitemap that adapts to all device types automatically and updates apply to all device types Cons: The site will require a complete overhaul in-terms of architecture and design – a one-off investment How can I make the most of my mobile optimised site? There are three key things to remember here, your site must be easy to load, easy to read and easy to engage with. Optimise the site for speed, I would probably say this is one of very key things to ensure you adhere to at all times. Mobile users want content that is easy to read and engage with yes, but, the very first thing they want is the page to load quickly! Typically if your page takes longer than 5 seconds to load that’s going to be a bounce and possible an exit. Here is a great post by Pauline Jakober on Site Speed & PPC Performance: Why You Can't Ignore A Slow Site Anymore. A great read. Make it easy to read by only using content that is accessible on mobile devices. For example, its no good using Adobe Flash as this is not accessible on iOS devices, instead consider HTML5. Ensure that any plug-ins you are using are also mobile friendly, otherwise you may end up with a mobile site with a lot of inaccessible content which to a user is a reason to bounce/exit right there and then. Typically HTML5, JPG, GIF and jQuery are good formats to stick to. Ensure that the design is easy to navigate, limiting distractions You want your user to follow a sales/conversion path so don’t consider bombarding them with 101 reasons to click elsewhere. Less is more. Keep your content concise  and to the point. Talking of points…. use bullet points to get key messages across. This may sound silly, but consider your font size also, minimise the need for the user to zoom. Make sure that the CTA is clearly visible at all times, having a ‘Menu’ button at the top of the screen makes it visually hard for your user to miss. Make sure your site is touch-friendly, fingers and thumbs, keeping the need to click at a minimum. Buttons are a clear path for users to naturally recognise and follow, so integrate them. Speaking of buttons, make sure these call-to-actions are strong, ‘More info’, ‘Add to cart’ for example. Mobilise Your PPC Activities As above, it is important to signal to users that you recognise that they are searching via a mobile device and that they can expect an optimised experience when visiting your site and converting. Tell potential customers that you are mobile-first. Use keywords and ad text like mobile and smartphone where possible. "Order now from your mobile" for example If you have a mobile-specific URL, be sure to use it… "m.example.com" Utilise mobile-friendly ad extensions such as location, call and app I guess what I am trying to say here is extensions, extensions EXTENSIONS. Help your customers find the pages they’re seeking with sitelink extensions. If you have bricks and mortar stores then utilise location extensions to allow users to locate their nearest store. Get more customers on the phone with call extensions, it is sometimes easier for the user to call than browse your site, and example here would be a user looking to locate a last minute hotel room. It’s quicker to call and ask than fill in mobile forms to only then be told no. If we analyse the Starbucks ad to the right, we see that the ad text fits perfectly for mobile screens, we have the options to click-to-call, click to get direction to the nearest store and also to download the app. All of these options are designed to assist us as a potential customer. The major benefit of engaging the user to download your app is the potential log-term gain of repeat custom. A recommendation here would be optimisation of the sitelinks. "Conversion rates for smartphone shoppers on mobile-optimised sites is 160% higher than on non-optimised sites" – Bing If an ad group has both mobile preferred and regular ads, only mobile preferred ads serve on mobile devices, and only regular ads serve on PCs and tablets. Don't forget to set up mobile-only ads, this will ensure that you can deliver your desired message to searchers rather than potentially losing that message when not all ad text is displayed on a mobile device from a non-mobile preferred ad. Make sure as well that you have both mobile preferred and non-mobile preferred extensions set up correctly to ensure they are displayed on the correct device type. Note: mobile preference cannot be set at the ad group level. If all sitelinks in an ad group are set to 'mobile preferred' some may be displayed on tablet/PC if there are no other sitelinks available to use. As mentioned above, if you have a mobile site (m.xxxxxxxx) ensure that you utilise the {if mobile} destination URL query string so that you direct mobile users to your mobile optimised site. For example {ifmobile:m.thisis-anexample.com}. To re-cap then, I hope the above is enough to encourage you to optimise your site and ad campaigns now. The time we as a user spends on mobile devices is expected to increase even further through 2015 with an estimated 42% of digital media time occurring on smartphones and 12% on tablets(6). Mobile ad performance is accelerating also by 57% growth in year-over-year mobile conversion rates. As always, I’d love to hear your experiences of optimising for mobile. Have you taken the plunge? Has it worked? Get in-touch using the comments section below. *1 - Yahoo Bing Network CTR and CPC, Apr - Sepetember 2014 Internal Data. 2 - Nielsen. "The mobile consumer. A Global Snapshot". 3 - Microsoft Internal Data. 4 - xAd/Telmetrics Study, "Mobile Path to Purchase" and Microsoft research. 5 - NetElixir study of 180M shopping session on 53 retail client's sites. 6 - comScore Media metric Multi-Platform. The post Your Competitors Are Optimised For Mobile Devices – Are You? appeared first on White.net.

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