Melissa SalasDirector of Marketing,Rakuten Buy.com

@melissadsalas | Facebook.com/Melissa.Salas | Linkedin.com/in/Melissadsalas

* 90 million skus* 38,500 merchants* Third largest ecommerce company by sales

What’s wrong with ecommerce?

Redesigning our site to be an online reflection of the offline world.

1 // Online is Visual

Text doesn’t inspire shopping, visual images do

Showroom / window shopping

In-Store experience of someone helping you find what you are looking for.

Imagery = Discovery

Omotenashi = Commitment to Personalized Service

Conversion will increase with an in store environment – plus the value add of those images being pinned.

Greater social influence and receive more traffic to those pages from SNS like Pinterest.

2 // It’s not just about a “deal”

Price Conscious Quality Conscious

Occupy Wall Street

Deal Hunters

Fair Wage Laws

The Recession

Child Labor Laws

Union-Busting

Organic

Free range

Green

Cruelty-Free

Hand-Crafted

Conscious

The opportunity

Homemade

“Shop Local”

One-of-a-Kind

Limited Edition

?

Personalization in a simple manner

3 // Customers still want a human touch

Long Page = InStore

4 // It can’t feel impersonal

Cultural Nostalgia

Shopping Nostalgia

Product Nostalgia

“The way we used to shop”“The things we used to buy”“The way we used to live”

Cultural Nostalgia

Shopping Nostalgia

Product Nostalgia

“The way we used to shop”“The things we used to buy”“The way we used to live”

Buy from people, not the internet.

1 // Make it simple

Simple process

• A small core team drives the entire process from start to finish.

• Include the CEO – no surprises.

• Test. Let the numbers talk versus trying to achieve consensus.

Simple result

New website Old website

2 // Keep it connected

Connected process

• Focus groups and UX testing with merchants and customers are key.

• Never design a single page by itself. Consider relationships and flow.

• Connect with your past to understand your future.

Connected resultDepartment PageHome Page

Product Page

3 // Be Human

Human process

• Brand personality, tone and look and feel impact real business metrics.

• Even gut instincts can be wrong.

• Let your customers drive the design. Buyers and sellers.

Shop Together

Human result

Buy from people, not the internet.

Melissa Salasmelissas@buy.comwww.buy.com

@melissadsalas | Facebook.com/Melissa.Salas