To the Web And Back!

Retailers everywhere are busily putting all their goodies on the Web. Here is a story about going to the Web and bringing something back.

Fitting Frames was a great store based on a good idea. Fran had been thinking of opening a frame store to sell every sort of ready-made frame. Her friend, Felicia, was planning to open a gift store specializing in posters and wall decor. Fran and Felicia banded together and opened Fitting Frames.

It was a beautiful store. Each of the front windows was rimmed by a big gold frame. The windows looked like framed pictures. Fitting Frames carried almost every type of frame in the world: basic frames, silver frames, mother-of-pearl frames, high-tech frames, jeweled frames, Fabergé frames, slate frames, antique frames. It also carried posters, poster hangers, quilt hangers, small shelving units, and personalized framed names. Felicia had also encouraged two or three local artists to make hand-painted frames for the store. One of Fran's cousins supplied embroidered frames. A wonderful lady in Chicago made decoupage frames using maps of the customer's choice. A fabulous California supplier of decoupage frames would sometimes put old love letters and customers' old postcards on frames. Fitting Frames was seven years old. Its inventory was wonderful, varied, and extensive.

When Fran and Felicia noticed that their customers were talking more and more about shopping online at night, they decided that a Fitting Frames Web site would be a good way to extend their business hours and attract a new audience. Fran and Felicia went into the project with a good attitude. They knew that they were not about to make millions on the Web. They just wanted to increase their business with the help of this new showcase. So they gathered their inventory lists, hired a good Web designer, and set to work.

A Web site must be easy to navigate. When a Web surfer enters a site, she often finds a product by clicking on a category button. When Fran set about categorizing Fitting Frames' inventory, she found the list a little daunting. Seven years of enthusiastically hunting for new and different merchandise had resulted in a fascinating store full of a lot of this and way too many of that. Some categories contained a single product.

The site designer began to sound like one of their favorite retailers. They could even hear Judy's voice saying: "I've got to tell you, Fran and Felicia, you cannot be all things to all people. You have to leave something for someone else to sell."

So Felicia and Fran pruned the list, focusing on their most important categories. They gave their designer a clear picture of what their store was and what they wanted to accomplish. In return, the designer gave them magic. The home page was colorful, simple, and easy to understand. There were eight buttons — one for each category. Each button was labeled with its category and shaped like a small rectangular picture frame.

After a week or two, customers old and new began to find the site. They clicked on the little frames, looked at the products … and ordered them. Felicia and Fran watched the site, read the site reports, evaluated their online sales, and adjusted each page until they were satisfied that it was as organized as possible. FittingFrames.com was a success.

Then one day, Fran overheard a customer say: "Never mind, I'll look for it on their Web site. It's easier to shop than in the store." That made the retailers think!

Building the Web site had forced them to categorize and prune their inventory. The site designer had provided them with clear, easy-to-understand digital signs. The digital Fitting Frames was clear, concise, and inviting. Meanwhile, the bricks-and-mortar Fitting Frames was crammed, disorganized, and difficult to navigate.

Felicia and Fran studied their store as they had studied their Web site. Then they took the following steps:

They had a Saturday sale and got rid of everything that did not fit into a clearly defined category or was in a category by itself. They got rid of the embroidered pillows that "sort of went with" the embroidered frames. They sold the Christmas ornament holders that "sort of looked like" frames. They sold the aromatherapy candles that were only linked by the frame design on the box. They sold the sports posters that they'd gotten just to fill out a special order of movie posters. They offered 28 bear frames that had seemed like a good idea at a trade show, but had not sold in the store. Fran and Felicia were amazed at what could be eliminated.

They redid their purchase order forms to reflect their new, official categories and made a promise to each other to buy to those categories. Each new order would be categorized as it was placed. Fran and Felicia had signs made for each category. The signs were reproductions of the Web site's frame buttons.

They closed the store one weekend and redid all the displays according to category. Each category was displayed as a unit underneath its icon sign. The signs were visible to anyone walking through the front door. Smaller signs depicting the Web page for each category were hung at eye level.

The category departments were arrayed along the walls of the store, freeing up the center of the store for cross-merchandised displays. One collection was arranged by color, another celebrated an upcoming holiday, and another was devoted to housewarming gifts. Fran ordered a theme sign for each cross-category display. Felicia used her computer to make small tent signs indicating which categories the displayed products were from. Fran and Felicia made sure that there was depth to their inventory, so that they could display products in more than one place.

Fran and Felicia knew that when customers came into the store to browse, they always walked in the direction opposite from the cash stand. When customers visited the store with a specific purchase in mind, they went directly to the merchandise they wanted. Fran and Felicia had noticed that, when customers turned to come back toward the front of the store, the first display they came to in the center space was a hot spot. Fran and Felicia sold anything they put in that display space. There was another hot spot in the center of the store, closer to the cash stand. Fran and Felicia decided to use one of these spaces to feature their newest products. They used the other hot spot to give one last chance to items that had not sold elsewhere.

Customers responded to the new look of the store. Sales went up. Felicia's favorite moment was when a customer came to the cash stand with her arms full and said: "This is great. Your store is so easy to use. It's just like a great big Web site."