Multichannel Surfing

Something stood out in my mind Saturday as I stood alone in an aisle at my local Home Depot. Merchants with mobile sites are discovering that customers are actually surfing for product information while they are in the store. So with no one to help me find the right submersible pump to replace my old and burnt-out pal, I figured I’d surf for product specs on my smartphone.

The good news was Home Depot did a great job optimizing its Website for m-commerce. The bad news is the optimization was pure aesthetic. While the fonts were clear and simple to read (and there was an option to make the fonts larger or smaller), the product selection on my search for submersible pumps brought me a bunch of items that were not on the rack in front of me. more

I’m the lonely MCM Awards guy, and I’m waiting for your entries. I kind of feel like Charlie Brown, camped out at the mail box, hoping the Little Red-Haired Girl will send him a Valentine.

Maybe I’m just being wishy-washy. I know there were a lot of great catalogs and e-commerce sites that are worthy of getting Gold or Silver in the 2010 MCM Awards. And I’m sure those merchants are just waiting until the last minute to get their entries done.

Some merchants be afraid to enter, thinking they will have to compete against titans like Orvis, L.L. Bean and Harry & David. But we made some changes in categories that we hope help the Daveys of multichannel retail compete with the Goliaths. more

Give Sears an “A” for targeting me with this e-mail based on my zip code, but the offer is a bust… unless they think I’ve wasted precious time at the gym.

Sears says my bra may not fit right. I can register to go to a custom fitting at the Danbury, CT store (about 20 miles from by house, as the bird flies). The problem is, it’s a “girls-only gathering.”

I don’t even wear a “manziere” (or a “bro”). more

Score one for e-commerce over bricks and mortar.

I managed to short out my Samsung BlackJack II PDA last week, getting out of my car and heading into a meeting. I scraped my car keys against the keyboard and after a quick flash, it was history.

So as an AT&T subscriber, I knew I could go online and check out which upgrade I was eligible for, and how much it would cost. Knowing my wife wanted an iPhone for herself, I was fine with the free PDA AT&T offered me: The Nokia E71x. The reviews and ratings were great, and the phone had everything I wanted and needed, but I wanted to physically test it out before I bought it. more

In my November editor’s note, The power of interruption, I advise catalogers to start mailing again to grow via prospecting and reactivating lapsed customers.

Little did I know I when I wrote the column, I was about to be reactivated by a catalog mailing myself. Here’s how it happened. more

Every now and then we write about a promotion or a deal that gauges our interest. And sometimes we want to just go Elf ourselves… This one is both.

I’m awaiting a follow-up call with Bob Thacker, the senior vice president of marketing and advertising for OfficeMax, about ElfYourself 4.0. The 4.0 we’re just throwing in because, really, it’s the fourth year Office Max is allowing users to turn themselves into elves for the sole purpose of entertaining yourselves (and your friends). more