20 Feb 2007 0840H

More hindsight on Sears, Brulant’s Conquering E-marketing Event in Chicago

Say, I saw a while back that Sears Holdings was hiring IAs to fill out their capabilities downtown at their new e-commerce operation, about a mile or two away from here, or in northwest suburban Hoffman Estates, about 32 long miles away from downtown Chicago. That’s admirable, and I’m cautiously optimistic about this, but I really wonder how successful they will be, considering the management hurdles to be overcome, the backend problems in the shopping process and issues integrating various systems with their fulfillment that need to be handled, to say nothing of the back and forth commute between Hoffman and downtown. It’s true we have access now to tools and capabilities we didn’t have back in 1999-2001 when we were designing that shopping experience. But the painful experience I had with Sears.com at Christmas just getting a fridge delivered, and all the traffic I’m getting off Digg from independent florists is really underlining for me how user experience is a relatively small but important part of a larger value proposition, and how bad fulfillment can really just sink an otherwise decent experience. Particularly now, I think, because as various products become commoditized, service becomes a more important key differentiator. After all, you can zip through placing an order, but, if your order network goes down or doesn’t talk to other parts of your supply chain, you’re pretty much screwed.

I would be amiss if I did not promote on my blog that my colleague, Paul Elliott, a great, great speaker on the topic of SEO/SEM and the whole user experience ROI angle, will be in Chicago to talk about how a firm like Sears or any business really could benefit from Brulant’s capabilities in technology, creative, and strategy. We’re calling the talk Conquering E-marketing, Coremetrics and Exact Target will also be there. It’s this Thursday, the 22nd, at the Renaissance Hotel, downtown Chicago, 7:30AM to 11:30AM, and it’s free. Registration is required though, so we know who’s coming.

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