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Kmart website rates high in customer service study Despite Kmart’s bankruptcy woes, its online arm,
BlueLight.com, ranked among the top 10 online retailers for customer service
in a survey by The E-Tailing Group. The survey ranked 100 major retail sites based on ease
and speed of shopping and the time needed to receive merchandise, receive
a response to an e-mail inquiry and receive a credit. Making a purchase took an average of 5.3 minutes, with
5.36 clicks required to complete an order. On average, the retailers surveyed
took 3.8 days to ship merchandise, just over 21 hours to answer a question
by e-mail and 11.9 days to issue a credit. Other sites in the top 10 were Amazon.com, CDNow, Drugstore.com,
JCPenney, KB Toys, Land’s End, Nordstrom, Smith & Hawken and
The Sports Authority. MRA’s partner in a new plan to help members build
low-cost webstores has backed out of the program. Tasq.com recently informed
MRA that the company will not accept any new participants in its program,
which enables merchants to create their own simple website complete with
selling capabilities. MRA launched the service last month in response to member
requests. “Just as we began promoting the partnership and generating
interest from members, Tasq.com abruptly announced it was discontinuing
the program,” said John Mayleben, MRA’s vice president of sales
and marketing. “That is unfortunate, because MRA members clearly
wanted this service.” The following stores have opened up shop in the Mall of
Michigan (www.mallofmichigan.com),
MRA’s e-commerce website featuring unique Michigan specialty stores: |
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Name: Michaelene Hearn Business: Michaelene’s Gourmet Granola, Clarkston Web address: www.gourmetgranola.com Products: 21 varieties of specialty granola Years on web: 3 Percent of sales from web in 2001: 15% (most other
sales are wholesale) Increase from 2000: Tripled Website developed by: Main method of promoting site: Search engine listings.
“It’s imperative that you list with search engines and keep
the listings updated. If you’re a retailer and want to sell your
wares, you have to break through the clutter.” Advantage for customers: “We can customize
exactly what they want, whereas in a store they are limited to the varieties
the retailer offers.” Advantage for her business: “People can communicate
back with us. They tell us all kinds of interesting things that we would
never know if they just bought in a store.” Best part about web retailing: “It’s
opened up an avenue for the average retailer to get product requests from
all over the world. That’s phenomenal.” Web retailing tip: “Security is really important.
If customers don’t trust you, they’re not going to buy from
you.” Comments: “Most people who are looking for a product will check several places on the web. By the way you creatively present yourself, you can stand out. There may be 100 granola sites on the web, but we have the space and the technology to let everyone know what makes us different.” |
