I got to know the website from a friend last year and did not pay much attention to it at first. After becoming a member, I constantly received emails that remind me of new daily special sales, and I was gradually drawn to this website which features sales of luxury products at discount prices. Now, browsing the website from time to time has become one of my rituals. In fact, Gilt.com is becoming increasingly popular these days and is estimated to pull in $400 million in sales for the year 2010. As I am taking marketing right now, I guess there can be a good marketing lesson to take from the success of Gilt.com.
1. Imagery leads to effective positioning
Gilt.com is clearly not a website that sells average products, and the imagery they use on their website effectively conveys this message to their target customers. The imagery is usually carefully selected and changed everyday to indicate a premium experience and a fresh website content that is worth seeing everyday. The technique strongly reinforces their brand image and this positioning effectively helps them to differentiate themselves from websites that sell average products. Chances are that people tend to think of and want to visit Gilt.com when it comes to luxury products, which is a good start for Gilt.com.
2. Backstory adds to value
Why do people buy luxury products? High quality may be part of the reasons, but more importantly, a shareable story that the purchasers can tell to others along with the product they purchase adds tremendous value to the product itself, because telling the story is considered by purchasers as a good way to affiliate himself to an idea/belief or a group of people he sets as a reference group to build a disirable self-image. To differentiate itself from other websites selling luxury goods, Gilt.com has always been focusing on and succeeding in offering such stories for purchasers to tell in order to further make their puchasing experience more enjoyable.
3. Urgency to purchase increases conversion rates
For most e-commerce sites, conversion rate is always a big headache. How does Gilt.com tackle this problem? What they do is to set a time limit for the purchase which means the product you put in your shopping cart would expire after 10 minutes. The limited amount of time you can hold on to the product, along with a relatively easy return policy, Gilt.com is more effective than most other e-commerce sites in terms of converting viewers to purchasers in a timespan as short as 10 minutes.
4. Daily email marketing creates a ritual
Rituals such as going to Starbucks for a coffee or brushing your teeth with Crest are disirable consumer behavior for companys because this kind of buying pattern usually guarantees stable sales and solidify customer loyalty. Companies try hard to encourage such behavior and Gilt.com is no exception. It sends an email noting the sales for the day every day at noon EST, a time conveniently scheduled when many office professionals are taking their luch break. By doing this, Gilt.com is capable in creating a ritual for its customers to browse the website at a convenient and determined time everyday which would increase the posibility that they would make a purchase.
If someone is considering incorporating an e-commerce component to your business, I guess Gilt.com has offered good reference and there is a lot to learn from their various marketing techniques.
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