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This summer I had the pleasure of taking ShoeMe.ca President and e-commerce guru – Sean Clark – for coffee.

ShoeMe.ca is an online retailer of over 100 brands of shoes and accessories.  Since launching their business in 2012, ShoeMe.ca has grown to be Canada’s leading online retail store.

At this point, I was considering adding a concentration in e-commerce to my Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Marketing, and I let Sean know that I wanted to learn more about the world of e-commerce.

I lucked out taking this genius for coffee.

When I got to his office, his entire team was in great spirits after a company party that took place at the Whitecaps game the previous night.  It definitely came across as a place where people loved coming to work.

As we sipped on our coffees, Sean walked me through 5 channels of e-commerce/e-marketing that he wanted to introduce me to.

1. SEM – Search Engine Marketing is all about new customer acquisitions and heavily reliant on metrics and conversions.
2. SEO – Search Engine Optimization which focuses on coding, keywords, and relevancy –  but is more truly a programmers job.
3. Display Networks – This approach is a tactic for both re-targeting and media buying strategies.
4. Affiliated Marketing –  This drives traffic to websites, and the tracking pixels are view based conversions and click based conversion.  This is really big in USA & the UK.
5. Email Marketing – This approach proved to have the best ROI for ShoeMe.ca.  Sean explained that if they already showed interest in your company and signed up their email, then the customers WANT to hear from you.

We also touched on ShoeME.ca’s Google Adwords strategy and he gave me insight on their budget and strategy for that – but I am not going to post any details online for Sean’s competitors to see.

Sean started ShoeMe.ca after working for Coastal Contacts (Clearly Contacts), the leading direct to consumer retailer of contact lenses.  Coastal Contacts business model made them the largest seller of glasses and contact lenses in the world.

Roger Hard, the head of Coastal Contacts, has recently invested in ShoeMe.ca to support Sean’s entrepreneurial endeavor as I am sure he will take over the online Canadian shoe market.

Thanks to Sean, I was inspired to dive into the study of e-marketing and I will graduate with my e-commerce concentration when I graduate in April.  I look forward to all of Sean’s success as ShoeMe.ca continues to grow.

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Frank & Oak is one of the most exciting ecommerce companies in Canada today.  When the launch on February 15, 2012, they sold 145  on their first day of business.  Six months later on November 1^st 2012, they sold over 10,000 items.  How did Frank & Oak become a Canadian ecommerce success story?

Frank & Oak was a second attempt at launching an ecommerce site for the young energetic business partners, after they realized their business ModaSuite wasn’t going to take off.  They suggest that if you try a online business and it doesn’t take off in the first 6 months – that it won’t and that investors wont want to invest.  The pillars of ModaSuite were Create, Personalize, and Enhance.  But as they continued to pitch their dream business to investors, they realized the business that they were pitching was not the business they were running.  They convinced their board of directors that with a small shift, their new products would satisfy a sizeable market share, and they would do this under a new company name.  And Frank & Oak was born.

Companies like Groupon, Twitter, and Fab were also sites that relaunched after realizing their core competencies of their respective companies were not adequate.

Frank & Oak considers themselves to be a clothing, technology, lifestyle brand; a brand of the 20-30 year old generation.  Applied technology is an element of their marketing, logistics, and design.  Their life cycle management links back all the way to be integrated with their suppliers.  Because of so much data at their hand, they are able to determine right away whether or not something is a success and react quickly.  This allows them to take on a lot more risks.  Their competitive advantage is their technology driven business model.

They like to compare their approach to business to Apple.  They explain that it is very different purchasing a computer at Apple rather than Futureshop.  This online clothing store caters to men, and how men of this generation like to shop.  Most stores are catered towards women, and Frank & Oak has created the platform and experience that young men want.

Ethan Song, CEO of Frank & Oak, emphasizes how important Personalized Selection is for their business.  Because the merchandising, content, products change for the consumers preferences, it really connects the brand with the client.  Digital media allows for these changes to happen seamlessly in a way that traditional media never could do.  Because of this strategy, the customers become attached and brand loyal.

Frank & Oak thought through the voice and tone of how their brand was illustrated online in order to effectively communicate their philosophy to consumers.  They did not want a cold ecommerce experience, so they brought in very humane elements to their business.  For example, they offer a service called “The Hunt Club” which sends out 5 items of close to members in a crate.  The member then tries them on at home, and can return any free of cost.  Some members compare the excitement and feeling of receiving the crate to Christmas – except The Hunt Club comes every month.  Frank & Oak focuses on the details, right down to hand written cards for each shipment.

Specific digital tactics they use include a mobile app (which currently accounts for 20% of their total sales), pop-up invitations to join when you visit their site, a well strategized referral program, and aggressive email marketing strategies.

How did Frank & Oak get to this level of success? They took risks, used technology, focused on details, and the disintermediation of the supply chain.

Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5. 

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Marketing in a digital world is all about cultivating the experience in the Consumer Decision Journey to turn customers and potential customers into loyal brand advocates.

The business savvy owners of Cavalier: The Fine Jewelry Shoppe thought all about their customers behaviors and the opportune time to influence them.

How does this brick and mortar shoppe influence people in the store to get engaged with them online? When the shoppers are on their phones.  And when is it most probable that shoppers will be on their phones? On the toilet.

When a shopper sits on the toilet in this fine jewelry shoppe, the message is explicit and concise.  At four feet off the ground, it’s eye level, and it communicates and resonates.

Effective.

And this is more than a hunch.  A recent study by Sony and 02 polled 2,000 people and concluded that 75% of people use their phones while on the toilet.  Further more, approximately one quarter of men choose to sit on the loo rather than stand, for the sole reason that they will have both hands free to play with their phones.

Why people use their phones on the toilet?  Well, they have nothing better to do.  Why not check your emails texts, tweets, and follow the Cavalier?

Its like the walls really can talk.  And if Cavalier’s communication is clever enough in the bathroom, they set the bar high for a clever communication strategy via social media.  And their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter delivers equally engaging content.  When exposed to this message, why wouldn’t a customer follow them?  That way they can check out their photos, tweets, and stay connected with Cavalier every time they gotta-go.

Partially due to this clever bathroom signage, Cavalier has earned 1,524 followers on Instagram, 389 Followers on Twitter, and 2,660 Facebook Page likes, since opening their business in Gastown this summer. 

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Creating content that is dependant on the strategy of going viral is just silly.

You cannot count on content going viral, it needs to earn the momentum to get to that point.  Digital agencies cannot garuntee virality to their clients, and neither can their clients expect this result.

However, bloggers still offer their advice.  Although it isn’t a formula for the success, bloggers still offers their recipe for success. Lets discuss this list of ten steps to go viral online. 

1)      Focus on Current Events and Trends.

2)  Make a Video.

3)  Pay Attention to Keywords and Tags.

4) Get Noticed by Someone Big.

5)  Start a Contest.

6)  Use Humor.

7)   Be Shocking and Controversial.

8)  Use Photos and Visuals Content.

9)   Submit to Reddit.

10)  Don’t be boring.

Hmm.  I think we see the need to take that advice with a grain of salt.

Tailoring content to relevant, engaging, and relatable to specific segmentations of the target market will much more effective resonated with that group and having them act the way that you want to.

Content cannot count on going viral, it must earn it.

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