I've been a review junkie since I was about 11 years old, when I picked up my first issue of the long-departed ELECTRONIC GAMES and laughed my way through their scathing reviews of lousy Atari 2600 arcade translations. I can still remember reading the words, "the fireballs look like fireballs and not lint" in reference to the alleged superiority of the Intellivision version of Donkey Kong. I still have an Intellivision and that version of Donkey Kong.
When I was young, reviews sparked my interest in comedy and the written word. Now that I'm older, I use them to make buying decisions, and I'm not alone. A just-released study in England found that 19% of online customers were unhappy with "inadequate" reviews. They don't define inadequate, but I'm guessing those customers spent some time over at EB Games, where phrases like "u should buy this best game ever" still dominate.
I get my game reviews from GameFAQs, which has an editorial process for its reviews. For everything else, I head over to Amazon, which does a nice job raising the best reviews to the top.
But a review alone doesn't cut it for me. I like to know specifics, and I like to know who's writing it. After reading this, for example, you likely trust me to review a video game. Unfortunately, I sell cakes, and "Galaxy's Chocolate Lava Cake is as delicious to eat as Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic is fun to play" won't cut it.
So I thought I'd tell you a little about what I like, so when you read about things on the site, you'll know where I'm coming from. I also encourage our customers to share a detail or two about things they like when they post their own reviews.
The surest way to my heart is with a continual supply of Godiva chocolates. Any of their delectable treasures will do, but bonus points are added for dark-chocolate truffles. I also adore Albertson's chocolate chip cookies, which top the list of things I miss since leaving Los Angeles, along with In-N-Out burgers.
Like a lot of New England natives, I'm crazy about lobster. I'll raise a glass of Sam Adams when I'm out of town, but locally I always reach for a Harpoon IPA.
I have one of our croissants for lunch every day but Monday, when the bakery is closed. If you ever find yourself in Winchester, Massachusetts, drop by and try one of our spinach and cheese croissants. Just be sure to get here early, as they're often gone by 12:30.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
You're losing customers! Panic!
Got an e-mail today from the nice folks over at NetMechanic asking me if I was ready for Firefox. Here's the first couple of lines:
CNN reports that downloads of the Firefox browser have passed the 50 million mark. Have you seen what your Web site looks like using browsers other than Internet Explorer?
Different combinations of browsers and operating systems can have unexpected-and sometimes drastic-effects on your content. Don't let it happen to you!
Coffee sprayed across my monitor as the alarm bells went off. We're losing customers! I'd better buy this product now before I get fired! I mean, there's bold and italic text in those sentences! That's botalic, and that must be bad.
After I cleaned off the monitor, I wandered over to Web Side Story so I could begin to calculate the billions we're losing to unhappy Firefox users. As it turns out, Firefox has about a 7% market share in the U.S. and a 22.58% share in Germany. We don't ship to Germany, so I started to calm down. Firefox usage is growing at a rate of about half a percent a month in the U.S., according to Web Side Story.
Even without those stats, I was still curious to see how our site holds up in Firefox. I'd like to think that anyone, anywhere can use our site, and I'm still running Mac OS9 at home, so I'm well aware of browser frustration.
So I went and downloaded Firefox. For free. And after a few minutes of installation, I was on our site, which looked and behaved exactly as it does in Internet Explorer. My only loss was a couple years of life from reading that botalic text.
If you run a site, isn't it better to get the browsers and test yourself, rather than buy some product to do it for you? If you're managing hundreds of sites, I can see the need to save time, but just pass it through the browsers when you've got the design finished.
If you sell products, don't try to scare people into buying them. I'm not running around here saying, "Nobody will love you if you don't send them a cake." I think most of us get enough scares reading the newspaper and trying to get back and forth to work.
Monday, May 16, 2005
It costs what?
I like to keep tabs on the competition, just to make sure we're doing things right. The more I look around, the more I see how our customer experience is better than some places.
For example, Cakes Across America has a nice looking site. Too much stuff moving around--what is the point of those sliding categories?--but once you're off the home page it settles down and becomes usable.
Unless, of course, you want to place an order. Get halfway through the process--and before you know how much that cake will cost, mind you--and you'll have to register to proceed. Don't expect your registered address to be your default shipping address, either. You need to edit that, not that the Delivery Options screen is going to tell you that.
Our birthday cakes cost less than theirs, incidentally, and we don't charge extra for the candles, plates, forks, and server.
Wireacake.com beats us on price but not on design. Scroll around a bit and you'll find the order forms. That's forms--there's three of them on the page, arranged in a bewildering manner evocative of Internet '96.
Say it With Cheesecake almost gets it right. Nice design and a simple ordering process, until they forced me to stop ordering and worry about a gift card. I like the way they've set up the gift card customizer, but I'd like know how much this is going to cost before I start penning prose to my intended recipient. To answer that last question, about the same as you'd pay here.
I like that we tell you everything you need to know about cost before you start giving us your information. That lets you comparison shop easily and decide if we're what you want.
For example, Cakes Across America has a nice looking site. Too much stuff moving around--what is the point of those sliding categories?--but once you're off the home page it settles down and becomes usable.
Unless, of course, you want to place an order. Get halfway through the process--and before you know how much that cake will cost, mind you--and you'll have to register to proceed. Don't expect your registered address to be your default shipping address, either. You need to edit that, not that the Delivery Options screen is going to tell you that.
Our birthday cakes cost less than theirs, incidentally, and we don't charge extra for the candles, plates, forks, and server.
Wireacake.com beats us on price but not on design. Scroll around a bit and you'll find the order forms. That's forms--there's three of them on the page, arranged in a bewildering manner evocative of Internet '96.
Say it With Cheesecake almost gets it right. Nice design and a simple ordering process, until they forced me to stop ordering and worry about a gift card. I like the way they've set up the gift card customizer, but I'd like know how much this is going to cost before I start penning prose to my intended recipient. To answer that last question, about the same as you'd pay here.
I like that we tell you everything you need to know about cost before you start giving us your information. That lets you comparison shop easily and decide if we're what you want.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
What's in a name?
A comedy booker I know was grousing about a domain-name registrar looking to make $3,000 for a domain he wanted to register. That sent me over to the alphabetical list of InterNic registrars, where I had a good laugh. As you scroll down the top of the list, you get to see the evolution of list-topping tactics.
I don't like exclamation points. I'd never do business with a company that puts them in its name. That's not the sort of fundamental approach to brand identity that builds confidence. I put it in the same category as people who put L@@K in their eBay listings.
As I watch the traffic flow around our site, I see people visiting, but not buying, even though their entry point suggests that they're here on a mission. Could the site name be an issue? There's plenty of reputable merchants online with 1-800 names, but I can't help but wonder if people have a negative reaction to the concept.
We're not changing the name, but I'd love to know if it turns anyone off, or if you think it's just that our prices are high.
I don't like exclamation points. I'd never do business with a company that puts them in its name. That's not the sort of fundamental approach to brand identity that builds confidence. I put it in the same category as people who put L@@K in their eBay listings.
As I watch the traffic flow around our site, I see people visiting, but not buying, even though their entry point suggests that they're here on a mission. Could the site name be an issue? There's plenty of reputable merchants online with 1-800 names, but I can't help but wonder if people have a negative reaction to the concept.
We're not changing the name, but I'd love to know if it turns anyone off, or if you think it's just that our prices are high.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
The Value Proposition
I'm a big fan of The Apprentice, even though I was hoping that Bren would win. And I doubt the Donald would have the default home page for his show linking to Season One, with only a tiny link pointing to the site for the current season. NBC Webmaster: You're fired.
What I love about the show is the focus on marketing and the creative process that drives product promotion. The show strips away the months of research and focus groups that result in the presence of a company like The Gap and cuts to the heart of selling, proving that a good product poorly presented can lose out to an inferior product that connects with buyers' needs.
The difference lies in the value proposition for the customer. I spend a fair amount of each day trying to find ways to demonstrate the value of our products without resorting to such phrases as "rich buttery goodness." Take our birthday cake, for example. It's expensive, but it feeds 16 people and comes with paper plates, candles, forks, and a serving knife. Add the overnight shipping and it's more expensive, but for somebody who almost forgot a loved one's birthday, the cost is less of a concern. That customer can see the value in the product more than someone who's got weeks to plan.
As I try to build a broader customer base, I'm always looking for markets that we might not be talking to effectively. I think the home page banner is a step in the right direction, but as always, I'd love to hear from everyone out there.
What I love about the show is the focus on marketing and the creative process that drives product promotion. The show strips away the months of research and focus groups that result in the presence of a company like The Gap and cuts to the heart of selling, proving that a good product poorly presented can lose out to an inferior product that connects with buyers' needs.
The difference lies in the value proposition for the customer. I spend a fair amount of each day trying to find ways to demonstrate the value of our products without resorting to such phrases as "rich buttery goodness." Take our birthday cake, for example. It's expensive, but it feeds 16 people and comes with paper plates, candles, forks, and a serving knife. Add the overnight shipping and it's more expensive, but for somebody who almost forgot a loved one's birthday, the cost is less of a concern. That customer can see the value in the product more than someone who's got weeks to plan.
As I try to build a broader customer base, I'm always looking for markets that we might not be talking to effectively. I think the home page banner is a step in the right direction, but as always, I'd love to hear from everyone out there.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Eat With Your Eyes
There's a site redesign in the works, in part because I think the site is too cold, and more practically because it turns out that blue is an appetite suppressant. I didn't design the site, and it's better than most of our competitors, but when I think about sales, I see a lot that should be done.
There's a lot of dead real estate on top of the home page, including those animated pictures beneath the logo. Did you know that clicking on them will take you to category pages? Does that make you any more likely to click on them? I didn't think so.
I'm thinking of hiring Designbus to handle the redesign. I've worked with them before and they're very good. I don't plan to throw Flash all over the site, but I do wonder if there is an effective way to use it.
I can't sell taste online or have that fresh bread smell waft out of your monitor like it would if you walked into a neighborhood bakery. Those are important motivating factors in food sales. I'm glad we've got reviews for our products, but I'd like to see a lot more.
That puts a big sales burden on our product images. We all eat with our eyes, but in the online world it can be hard to tell what it is we're looking at.
I think the biggest thing missing is scale. Most regular bakery customers can't tell whether a cake is 8 inches or 10 inches, they just know that one is bigger than the other. If I told you that our English Muffins are huge, you'd probably think of the double-size Thomases in your grocer's baked goods aisle, even though I want you to think hamburger bun.
If anyone's got any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them. I'm leaning toward putting something in the pictures that would show some sense of scale.
That--and Mother's Day--will keep me busy this weekend. Don't forget to send Mom a card.
There's a lot of dead real estate on top of the home page, including those animated pictures beneath the logo. Did you know that clicking on them will take you to category pages? Does that make you any more likely to click on them? I didn't think so.
I'm thinking of hiring Designbus to handle the redesign. I've worked with them before and they're very good. I don't plan to throw Flash all over the site, but I do wonder if there is an effective way to use it.
I can't sell taste online or have that fresh bread smell waft out of your monitor like it would if you walked into a neighborhood bakery. Those are important motivating factors in food sales. I'm glad we've got reviews for our products, but I'd like to see a lot more.
That puts a big sales burden on our product images. We all eat with our eyes, but in the online world it can be hard to tell what it is we're looking at.
I think the biggest thing missing is scale. Most regular bakery customers can't tell whether a cake is 8 inches or 10 inches, they just know that one is bigger than the other. If I told you that our English Muffins are huge, you'd probably think of the double-size Thomases in your grocer's baked goods aisle, even though I want you to think hamburger bun.
If anyone's got any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them. I'm leaning toward putting something in the pictures that would show some sense of scale.
That--and Mother's Day--will keep me busy this weekend. Don't forget to send Mom a card.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
The Cake Is in the Mail, Part 2
I got a phone call today from a customer who needed a cake next week and was disappointed that we only offer next-day shipping. She was hoping to pick a shipping date and have the cake arrive, and there are some sites, like 1-800-flowers, that let you order ahead and pick your delivery date.
We're not that sophisticated yet, but I can understand the frustration. If I walked into a neighborhood bakery and said, "Can I order a cake for next week?" and they said, "No, you have to take it tomorrow," I'd find another bakery.
Ordering ahead is one of those simple real-world things that gets very compicated in the e-commerce realm. Our ordering system is designed to minimize the travel time from the bakery to the customer's door, which distresses the pastries as little as possible. That system can't cope with the idea that someone would place an order on Tuesday for delivery three weeks from Friday. We're looking into ways to make ordering ahead work, and we hope to have the system updated by this autumn.
We're also looking at the nifty flat-rate small video boxes that the U.S. Postal service will ship anywhere for $5. I'd link to them, but they're not on anywhere on the Postal Service site.
And one final note on shipping before I leave this subject alone for a good long while: There is no such thing as "free shipping." Every business pays for shipping, and every business pays the same rates, which are calculated either by package size or package weight. If you see someone offering free shipping or discounted shipping when you spend more than X dollars, then they're including shipping in the price of their products. We don't do that, and we don't mark up our shipping costs, though we do round off to the nearest dollar on fixed rates. I think it's important that our customers know what things really cost, and by breaking out shipping, we don't penalize people who place smaller orders.
New Products
Just in time for spring, we've got Baseball, Golf, Retro, and Spring cookie assortments from our friends at Supercookie. Call me biased, but I love their products. The cookies are soft and buttery, and the decorations are bright and cheerful. I had an open tub in the office two weeks ago and everyone was talking about how great these cookies are.
SEO Geek's Corner
I was happy to see that I landed on page two of Google for the word croissants, which isn't easy given Google's emphasis on content instead of commerce. Time and again I hear SEO experts emphasizing the importance of content in search-engine rankings. For Google, at least, I'm happy to report that this is true. There's no keyword stuffing at work, and the only meta tags in use are the TITLE and ALT tags.
If only MSN Search loved my pages this much. I don't feel too bad, because their results are all over the place. The fourth link is a redirect, the sixth is a newspaper article, and the tenth apparently has something to do with soccer. I'm on page two for "croissants online," but looking at the wild variety of results that MSN generates, I've got to wonder if their algo is working right.
We're not that sophisticated yet, but I can understand the frustration. If I walked into a neighborhood bakery and said, "Can I order a cake for next week?" and they said, "No, you have to take it tomorrow," I'd find another bakery.
Ordering ahead is one of those simple real-world things that gets very compicated in the e-commerce realm. Our ordering system is designed to minimize the travel time from the bakery to the customer's door, which distresses the pastries as little as possible. That system can't cope with the idea that someone would place an order on Tuesday for delivery three weeks from Friday. We're looking into ways to make ordering ahead work, and we hope to have the system updated by this autumn.
We're also looking at the nifty flat-rate small video boxes that the U.S. Postal service will ship anywhere for $5. I'd link to them, but they're not on anywhere on the Postal Service site.
And one final note on shipping before I leave this subject alone for a good long while: There is no such thing as "free shipping." Every business pays for shipping, and every business pays the same rates, which are calculated either by package size or package weight. If you see someone offering free shipping or discounted shipping when you spend more than X dollars, then they're including shipping in the price of their products. We don't do that, and we don't mark up our shipping costs, though we do round off to the nearest dollar on fixed rates. I think it's important that our customers know what things really cost, and by breaking out shipping, we don't penalize people who place smaller orders.
New Products
Just in time for spring, we've got Baseball, Golf, Retro, and Spring cookie assortments from our friends at Supercookie. Call me biased, but I love their products. The cookies are soft and buttery, and the decorations are bright and cheerful. I had an open tub in the office two weeks ago and everyone was talking about how great these cookies are.
SEO Geek's Corner
I was happy to see that I landed on page two of Google for the word croissants, which isn't easy given Google's emphasis on content instead of commerce. Time and again I hear SEO experts emphasizing the importance of content in search-engine rankings. For Google, at least, I'm happy to report that this is true. There's no keyword stuffing at work, and the only meta tags in use are the TITLE and ALT tags.
If only MSN Search loved my pages this much. I don't feel too bad, because their results are all over the place. The fourth link is a redirect, the sixth is a newspaper article, and the tenth apparently has something to do with soccer. I'm on page two for "croissants online," but looking at the wild variety of results that MSN generates, I've got to wonder if their algo is working right.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
The Cake Is in the Mail
David Letterman had an old joke about Pop Tarts being "The Amazing Postable Pastry," because you could write an address on them, attach a stamp, and send them through the mail. Don't try this at home, kids, and don't go directly to Poptarts.com unless you want their dynamic redirect to the Promotions page to disable the Back button on your browser. Note to the Kellogg's Webmaster: People don't like it when you break browser functionality.
I wish it was as simple to get our cakes to our customers, but they insist on being fragile, bakery science thus far having failed to create an indestructible cake that is edible. This is one of the big challenges for us and our competitors, and it gets magnified at this time of year.
Most of the American countryside likes to get hot in the summer months; cakes do not. Now that I've put an additional concern in your head before you order, let me assure you that our partner bakeries have a lot of experience in shipping their products. They wouldn't be on our site if they couldn't deliver what they promise.
So to deal with cake's aversion to the summer wind, some of our products can only be shipped next-day between May 1 and September 30. It's more expensive than second-day shipping, but it ensures that the cake will arrive fresh.
Shipping options have been changed for the affected products. And many of our products, like biscotti, can still be shipped second-day.
Finding the balance between cost and value is very important to us. I'd love to know what you think about our prices in general.
I wish it was as simple to get our cakes to our customers, but they insist on being fragile, bakery science thus far having failed to create an indestructible cake that is edible. This is one of the big challenges for us and our competitors, and it gets magnified at this time of year.
Most of the American countryside likes to get hot in the summer months; cakes do not. Now that I've put an additional concern in your head before you order, let me assure you that our partner bakeries have a lot of experience in shipping their products. They wouldn't be on our site if they couldn't deliver what they promise.
So to deal with cake's aversion to the summer wind, some of our products can only be shipped next-day between May 1 and September 30. It's more expensive than second-day shipping, but it ensures that the cake will arrive fresh.
Shipping options have been changed for the affected products. And many of our products, like biscotti, can still be shipped second-day.
Finding the balance between cost and value is very important to us. I'd love to know what you think about our prices in general.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
When Good Sites Go Bad
Welcome to the 1-800-Bakery.com blog, where you'll be treated to an inside view of this adventure in e-commerce. From the good to the bad, I'll let you in on what happens behind the scenes, and hopefully get your help in making the site better.
It's less-than-stellar news to start, as anyone who tried to use our Shopping Cart over the weekend can attest. It seems "someone" was editing some text and left a quotation mark out of the computer code that creates the page. As a result, anyone who tried to buy anything got an error on the Order Confirmation page. It's been fixed now and is ready to meet your purchasing needs, should you have any.
While I was sorting out that problem on Monday, someone posted a dissatisfied review for our Palmiers. For the sake of full disclosure, I'm based out of La Patisserie, so I see their products every day. The reviewer is right--they don't look like the picture, which means we need to get them right, especially since they're one of the products we promote through Google's Adwords.
I'm sorry to see a customer disappointed but glad for the feedback. No business ever gets everything right all the time and mistakes are great teachers. Never be afraid to tell a business owner that you're unhappy, or in our case, post it in our Reviews.
It's less-than-stellar news to start, as anyone who tried to use our Shopping Cart over the weekend can attest. It seems "someone" was editing some text and left a quotation mark out of the computer code that creates the page. As a result, anyone who tried to buy anything got an error on the Order Confirmation page. It's been fixed now and is ready to meet your purchasing needs, should you have any.
While I was sorting out that problem on Monday, someone posted a dissatisfied review for our Palmiers. For the sake of full disclosure, I'm based out of La Patisserie, so I see their products every day. The reviewer is right--they don't look like the picture, which means we need to get them right, especially since they're one of the products we promote through Google's Adwords.
I'm sorry to see a customer disappointed but glad for the feedback. No business ever gets everything right all the time and mistakes are great teachers. Never be afraid to tell a business owner that you're unhappy, or in our case, post it in our Reviews.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
