A Darwinian Christmas?
Three mornings ago I stopped at the local Safeway (supermarket) on my way to work and saw the oddest thing. Several people were in the check-out lines, each carrying dozens of packages of Mother’s Cookies. Apparently, the Mother’s Cookies guy was stocking the shelves for possibly the very last time – he had told everyone within earshot that Mother’s was closing their doors after 92 years in business.
Besides being an Oakland, CA based company and just across the bay from PowerReviews, I hold a special fondness for these folks as my earliest childhood memories are of eating those small pink and white glazed animal shaped cookies – a childhood classic. Seeing that rumor become reality as the official news of their demise published in today’s newspaper, filled me with a sense of sadness as well as acceptance and resolve that this holiday is going to be a survival of the fittest for sure!
So how do online merchants survive this holiday season? Well, having been a former merchant myself for the past many years, I’d like to offer a few suggestions that go beyond just providing overall great service:
- Stick to what you do best and do it even better, focusing on those products and services that are essential to your bottom line
- Offer shoppers the simplest, easiest and yet most comprehensive shopping experience possible
- Give access to everything they need to easily find and then decide on those products right for everyone on their shopping list
It is this last one where we here at PowerReviews can help – yes, there is still time, but not much! If you have reviews, then leverage them throughout your shopping experience. Free them from the product page and let their insights help and guide the rest of your shoppers. And if you don’t have reviews yet, get them. Our pricing model, which is pay-per-performance base and risk-free for the merchant, combined with the easiest review solution to implement today, makes including reviews in your shopping experience a great way to become one of the “fittest” merchants this holiday season.
