o expose him or herself to criticism on their own site. Loyalty programs and live chat are two other marketing and merchandising elements where customer needs and merchants' perceptions diverge. Customers wanted to be treated differentially, rewarded for frequent purchases, engaged individually and access real-time help. Merchants probably can't find ways to justify the investment necessary to supply these functionalities.

Bottom line -- it’s a customer centric online world. If you don't cater to what customers want, they won't be your customers anymore.

Danny Flamberg is a veteran marketing consultant and author of the www.manhattanmarketi

Lauren Freedman compared two sets of surveys and found some "surprising variances" and striking differences between what e-tailers and their best customers want. Given the huge run up in holiday sales, it is remarkable that buyers' and sellers' expectations are so out of synch. Lauren, my old friend and colleague, is the premiere e-tailing consultant on the planet. She surveyed 2472 online shoppers of which 2000 bought an average of $488 in merchandise ( 2-10 items) during the last six months; clearly the heavy user segment. She compared her results from customers with data from the 5th annual merchant study that she conducted in Q4 of 2005 and wrote it all up in the January edition of Internet Retailer.

Free shipping still reigns as customers' favorite incentive, though far fewer merchants can figure out how to make this strong incentive pay-off without eating into margins. The same holds true for product discounts. They motivate customers while eroding profits. Striking the right balance is a continuing challenge for merchants.

Most merchants think that shoppers have a herd instinct and that they can be given cues to catalyse collective action. Many display "What's New", "Top Sellers" and "Gift Suggestions" in the hope of provoking monkey-see monkey-do behavior. According to the surveys, merchants care about these things on average almost 30 percent more than customers do. On the flip side many merchants don't think about hybrid online and off-line shopping patterns so they don't list their store locations and haven't spend time or money to figure out how shoppers use or link purchasing venues. Yet 2/3rds of customers find the store locater extremely useful suggesting that web sites play a much stronger merchandising role in the off-line world than previously thought. This data point is a ready-made rationale to test a promotion that might require a combination of behaviors.

Product comparison is another area where expectations are out of alignment. Sixty-four percent of customers noted the importance of this feature versus just 1/3 of merchants. For many shoppers the mere existence of comparative information signals a merchant's confidence in his or her product line and pricing strategy. For others this feature is a testament to full disclosure and a bedrock element of a customer engagement strategy that respects and understands likely shoppers.

A similar gap exists on the topic of customer reviews. Customers want to know about peer experiences and peer assessments of products, services, prices and service. In contrast it takes a very confident and secure merchant to expose him or herself to criticism on their own site. Loyalty programs and live chat are two other marketing and merchandising elements where customer needs and merchants' perceptions diverge. Customers wanted to be treated differentially, rewarded for frequent purchases, engaged individually and access real-time help. Merchants probably can't find ways to justify the investment necessary to supply these functionalities.

Bottom line -- it’s a customer centric online world. If you don't cater to what customers want, they won't be your customers anymore.

Danny Flamberg is a veteran marketing consultant and author of the www.manhattanmarketin

it all up in the January edition of Internet Retailer.

Free shipping still reigns as customers' favorite incentive, though far fewer merchants can figure out how to make this strong incentive pay-off without eating into margins. The same holds true for product discounts. They motivate customers while eroding profits. Striking the right balance is a continuing challenge for merchants.

Most merchants think that shoppers have a herd instinct and that they can be given cues to catalyse collective action. Many display "What's New", "Top Sellers" and "Gift Suggestions" in the hope of provoking monkey-see monkey-do behavior. According to the surveys, merchants care about these things on average almost 30 percent more than customers do. On the flip side many merchants don't think about hybrid online and off-line shopping patterns so they don't list their store locations and haven't spend time or money to figure out how shoppers use or link purchasing venues. Yet 2/3rds of customers find the store locater extremely useful suggesting that web sites play a much stronger merchandising role in the off-line world than previously thought. This data point is a ready-made rationale to test a promotion that might require a combination of behaviors.

Product comparison is another area where expectations are out of alignment. Sixty-four percent of customers noted the importance of this feature versus just 1/3 of merchants. For many shoppers the mere existence of comparative information signals a merchant's confidence in his or her product line and pricing strategy. For others this feature is a testament to full disclosure and a bedrock element of a customer engagement strategy that respects and understands likely shoppers.

A similar gap exists on the topic of customer reviews. Customers want to know about peer experiences and peer assessments of products, services, prices and service. In contrast it takes a very confident and secure merchant to expose him or herself to criticism on their own site. Loyalty programs and live chat are two other marketing and merchandising elements where customer needs and merchants' perceptions diverge. Customers wanted to be treated differentially, rewarded for frequent purchases, engaged individually and access real-time help. Merchants probably can't find ways to justify the investment necessary to supply these functionalities.

Bottom line -- it’s a customer centric online world. If you don't cater to what customers want, they won't be your customers anymore.

Danny Flamberg is a veteran marketing consultant and author of the www.manhattanmarketi

s, merchants care about these things on average almost 30 percent more than customers do. On the flip side many merchants don't think about hybrid online and off-line shopping patterns so they don't list their store locations and haven't spend time or money to figure out how shoppers use or link purchasing venues. Yet 2/3rds of customers find the store locater extremely useful suggesting that web sites play a much stronger merchandising role in the off-line world than previously thought. This data point is a ready-made rationale to test a promotion that might require a combination of behaviors.

Product comparison is another area where expectations are out of alignment. Sixty-four percent of customers noted the importance of this feature versus just 1/3 of merchants. For many shoppers the mere existence of comparative information signals a merchant's confidence in his or her product line and pricing strategy. For others this feature is a testament to full disclosure and a bedrock element of a customer engagement strategy that respects and understands likely shoppers.

A similar gap exists on the topic of customer reviews. Customers want to know about peer experiences and peer assessments of products, services, prices and service. In contrast it takes a very confident and secure merchant to expose him or herself to criticism on their own site. Loyalty programs and live chat are two other marketing and merchandising elements where customer needs and merchants' perceptions diverge. Customers wanted to be treated differentially, rewarded for frequent purchases, engaged individually and access real-time help. Merchants probably can't find ways to justify the investment necessary to supply these functionalities.

Bottom line -- it’s a customer centric online world. If you don't cater to what customers want, they won't be your customers anymore.

Danny Flamberg is a veteran marketing consultant and author of the www.manhattanmarketi

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