In a time when retailers
are struggling such as Toys ‘R’ Us. “Toys “R” Us Inc., the ultimate toyland for
a generation of postwar baby boomers, filed for bankruptcy thanks to a crushing
debt load from a buyout and relentless competition from warehouse and online
retailers.” (McCArty, Kary, & Wei, 2017). In addition, heavy hitters such
as Macy’s and JCPenney are closing brick and mortar doors due to dwindling
sales and e-tailers gobbling up much of business to be had. “It’s the age of
the super-sized e-tailer (e.g., Amazon), and brick-and-mortar retailers are
having trouble competing. The dominance of these mega online outlets is based
on lower prices, many more options and the convenience factor - sit at home on
the couch and surf. Thus, many national and chain retailers must cut-back or
close-up.” (Farfan, 2017).
“Knowing why visitors on your site are purchasing or not
purchasing your products could literally mean the difference between staying
alive as a business and growing, or dying an early death with no sales to your
name. Analytics (for short) will show you what your customers are doing on your
site, on which web pages they leave your site, and in some cases how long they
have been a customer.” (Learn from Web Analytics, n.d.). Belk has built a great
business based on private brands with one of the most successful private brands
being Crown & Ivy. As you can see in the example below through searching
google Belk has utilized Google AdWords to create traffic to the Belk website. Note
that I also spelled out the & in Crown & Ivy while preforming my search
like an average new customer may do. I have learned that the word “and” and
‘’&” can be considered stop words and are not paid for when bidding for
Google AdWords.
Crown & Ivy Google Search
Also note Belk not only
shows Crown & Ivy as a whole it lists out each specific area of business
that may be of interest to the shopper to ease them into a potential purchase. In
addition to utilizing Google AdWords Belk can utilize Google Analytics to learn
exactly who their specific Crown & Ivy customer is. Google Analytics can
tell them what city their customers shop from, how they enter and exit the
site, the average duration of time spent on a specific page, and where all
specific website traffic comes from being it social media, search engines, or referring
websites. Now that Belk has collected all this data on its Crown & Ivy
customer what should they do with it! Analyze the customer, segment, target,
and sale! As easy as that may seem it is not that easy to implement. Belk can
utilize this data to segment its customer to send specific direct mailers,
email blasts, special coupons, and special online deals.
We were asked in our lesson this week – Is on-page SEO
setup to facilitate better data collection? Let us first start by understanding
what on-page SEO is. “On-page factors all have to do with elements of your own
website. On-page factors include technical set-up – the quality of your code –
textual and visual content and user-friendliness of your site.” (Van de Rakt,
2017). I assume with Belk being a large retail corporation their technical
set-up and the quality of their code would be on point as they want to gather
as much information as possible. What I can comment on are other aspects of
their website including content and user experience. In the past few months I
have noticed Belk has made some minor esthetic changes to its website including
the font, layout, and check out process easing the consumer shopping experience
in the checkout section. In the past, the user had to search for a coupon code
online while making a purchase whereas now you can drop to the bottom of the
page and apply a coupon code. Belk has also streamlined the shopping experience
by notating what items are Bonus Buys helping the customer understand what is
on sale and coupon eligible. This comes into play with the content and user
experience part of SEO. User experience in my opinion should be a priority for Belk
as customers want an easy shopping experience. “Users need to easily understand
your website. They should be able to find what they want in a heartbeat. They
should know where to click and how to navigate through your site. And it should
be fast! A beautifully designed website is nice, but you should definitely make
it your top priority to create a user-friendly website first!” (Van de Rakt, 2017).
As you can see below Belk has made a seamless transition from our Google search
to the landing page of Crown & Ivy while highlighting all the items they offer
with the newest item being listed in the first position. Once there you can filter
specifically to the items you are seeking. I think this is a great way to transition
to the brand as it allows Belk to show the customer all the types of items they
have to offer.
Belk Crown & Ivy Landing Page
In conclusion, I would say
Belk has come a very long way in the past years. They have revamped their website
and marketing efforts. Belk is focusing more on their ecommerce now than ever and
that is the right move in this market.
References
Crown & Ivy. Belk. Google
Search. (2017). Retrieved September 25, 2017 from
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&q=crown+and+ivy&oq=crown+and+ivy&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i20i264k1j0l2.1262.3584.0.3840.15.13.0.0.0.0.223.1955.0j11j1.13.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..2.13.2109.6..46j35i39k1j0i131k1j0i46k1j0i131i46k1j46i131k1.163.-rmFFItqzLI Crown & Ivy. Belk. Landing Page. (2017). Retrieved September 25, 2017 from
Farfan, B. (2017). Why Retail Chain
Store Locations Are Being Closed. the
balance. Retrieved
September 25, 2017 from https://www.thebalance.com/all-us-store-closings-2891888
Learn from Web Analytics. (n.d.) In
Shopify 50 Ways to Make Your First Sale.
Retrieved
September 25, 2017 from https://www.shopify.com/guides/make-your-first-ecommerce-sale/web-analytics
McCarty, D., Karey, T., & Wei,
D. (2017). Toys ‘R’ Us Collapses Into Bankruptcy Thanks to
Crushing Debt. Bloomberg. Retrieved September 25, 2017 from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-19/toys-r-us-files-for-bankruptcy-crushed-by-online-competition
Van de Rakt, M. (2017). SEO Basics.
What Is On Page SEO? Yoast. SEO for
Everyone.
Retrieved September 25, 2017 from https://yoast.com/what-is-onpage-seo/
