Solve Your Ecommerce Problems Like a 6-year Old

Ripener Strategy

When I was a kid, my sister and I built a massive town out of Legos on our bedroom floor. You couldn’t step into the room without almost crushing a mini resort, town bank, or prison. It was intense. But as the building continued, we ran into problems. We didn’t have a giant to crush the bank robbers. There wasn’t rope for a tightrope walker and the Lego people needed pillows. My sister found the solution. We didn’t have to only use Legos. Soon action figures, office supplies, and mini marshmallows all played their part in the construction of Legotopia. We used whatever we needed to solve our creation issues. And it was a masterpiece.

When solving problems in commerce, it’s easy to think like I once did – that you can only used the approved parts. Offline problems should have offline solutions and vice versa. But developers are finding unique fixes in other areas of their field. The toy box is changing.

Here’s one example: ecommerce apparel companies suffer the longest average purchase time (27 days) and claim the lowest portion of total apparel market (only 15% where as books and electronics make up 50%). Apparel also has the highest return rate in ecommerce. Many conjecture this is due to the customer’s inability to try on clothes and evaluate their fit, feel, and appearance.

Fortunately Fits.me and Senseg are two companies forming a solution. Fits.me has created a virtual fitting room using photo accuracy, allowing browsers to try before they buy. Users can input their body measurements and sift through different sizes of apparel, giving them more confidence in their choices.

Senseg, on the other hand, is developing a textured touchscreen which can be used to feel different types of fabric. Both of these are transforming pixels on a screen into wearable, touchable products in our own homes.

Another clever cross-medium quick fix comes from Bauble Bar, an online and offline jewelry boutique that specializes in personalized and monogrammed jewelry. They are able to cater to local and distant shoppers, but while in-store customers have the benefit of touching and trying on an item, they do not have access to the online preview of personalized items. Bauble Bar solved this by investing in an application for iPads so shoppers can see how font and character placement will look before they order. It captures the fun of online shopping, while still being able to hold the item.

In a world where customers are browsing prices and options on their smartphones while standing in brick and mortar stores, you have to monitor every medium of commerce across the board. Define your ideal user experience and consider how that applies to mobile, tablet, desktop, and in-person experiences. If there are problems, it’s time to get creative. Playtime!

Ripen Services:

Our creative and engineering teams work together (like Lego fort architects) to find unique ecommerce solutions for your businesses. We’ll optimize your user experience online and offline, meeting your individual sales goals.