Shop with a friend allows a customer to invite a friend to move through the site with them, look at clothes, and communicate opinions to each other. Live online customer service enables customers to contact a service representative to help them find what they need, help them with sizing, answer quality questions, and any other questions they may have. These features make the Lands End s site particularly impressive because these features increase the customer ability to find what they want and battles the customer s hesitation to buy online. All the apparel sites we analyzed offered the same capability. Price is a very important driver in clothing purchases.
Most customers know what they can afford before they visit the site.
Bluefly has this feature in its search engine and my catalog functionality. Our competitors have links on the home page to a page that lists all the sale items and the discounted prices. Shoppers, by nature, gravitate to sale items first in hopes of getting a good deal. In addition, a sale could drive traffic to the site and increase the sales of full priced goods. Many of our competitors also offer e-mail notification for new sale items and new products.