Why does buying stuff online still look so similar to buying offline?

First, Web sites still use the whole browsing-shopping basket-checkout metaphor, an approach that even real world shops are trying to get away from. Then you have in-your-face promotions, top 10s, on-sale items, buy-two-get-one-free offers, which to me don't sound that different to your average supermarket gimmicks. Amazon has made some steps forward, such as pointing out that purchasers who bought a certain product have also bought other products, and allowing users to search for text inside books. But these are hardly huge leaps. After all, couldn't we look inside books in a bookstore, or ask an assistant for suggestions about similar books?

U.S. clothing retailer the Gap recently overhauled its online Web site. The changes amounted to being able to see more quickly what other colors were available of an item, or reducing the number of mouse clicks between selecting items and checking out.

While I guess this is all innovative, isn't this the wrong way around? Shouldn't retailers be thinking about using what the Internet offers to make buying online a completely different experience?

Like how? I hear you ask. Well, take a look at one online retailer, Etsy.com, a Web site where people can sell their handmade products. It's only been going since July but it's racked up almost 30,000 listings, and nearly $100,000 worth of items have been sold.

What is interesting about Etsy is the way Robert Kalin and his three co-founders have introduced some new ideas to the way shoppers can look for things. Don't know what you're looking for exactly, but know what color you're after? Move your mouse over a "Shop by Color" grid and see dozens of bubbles of color float under the cursor. Click on a color you like and small boxes will appear, each one a different product that matches your chosen color. Click on the box you like the look of and details of the product will pop up including price tag, the retailer in question, and a link where you can get more information. It isn't a revolution, but it's different -- and an improvement on bricks and mortar. Ever tried saying to a shop assistant "I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but please line up all the products that are this shade of turquoise?" Expect a blank look at best, a surly brushoff, or a "We're closing now. Bye!"

Remedial shopping

This innovation is well suited to the kind of things Etsy is selling (from a customized computer joystick shaped like Pac man to amigurumi dolls -- Japanese crocheted dolls that are, according to Mr. Kalin, the site's biggest selling item). But it could just as easily apply to Amazon. I know: I worked in a bookstore for a few years and if you gave me a dollar for the number of times people came in looking for a book identified only by the color of its dust jacket, I wouldn't have had to work in bookshops quite as long as I did. Of course, it could be some time before someone comes up with the innovation that would help customers who know only that the author sported a hairpiece, or the cover had a picture of a cheese slicer on it, but I leave that to the guys at Amazon to figure out.

It isn't the only innovation Etsy has. You can browse via a sampler of random colors, each of which throws up a gallery of products -- nice if you aren't quite sure what color you're looking for, or want to randomize your browsing. You also can search via a cute chronological spiral of recent purchases by other visitors, clicking on little boxes that recede into the distance, each box a product that has recently been bought.

Mr. Kalin walks me through an innovation the site is planning in coming weeks, where friends can browse the Web site together, collecting items they like the look of and showing them to each other as they browse. Useful if you're shopping for a present for a mutual friend, say, or you just hate shopping alone. You also can search via geographical location of sellers on a globe that, despite a bias toward North America, illustrates the site is catching on overseas, too.

Edge for sellers

Indeed, while some of these features may be more cute than functional, they highlight how staid the bigger online selling sites seem to have become in recent years. Nowadays, reckons Mr. Kalin, it is more about being responsive to users and experimenting with new ideas that draw shoppers, as well as helping sellers gain an edge. Take Lee Chu Ling of Singapore, for example, who is making $50 a day from selling her homemade stained-glass pendants online at Etsy. "Each time I thought of something they could improve on, they had already found a better solution that I would never have thought of," she says.

Of course, it isn't just Etsy that is trying to innovate. Wists (www.wists.com) allows users to bookmark pages visually via a small image and summary, which can then be shared with other users. This sort of thing makes sharing wish lists of goodies with others easier, for example. Kaboodle (www.kaboodle.com), launched last month, does something similar, allowing users to share bookmarks via small icons, and appears aimed primarily at anyone browsing shopping or auction sites. Both these approaches have merits, but suggest that innovation has tipped toward the consumer end rather than the outlet side. Sites such as eBay and Amazon, meanwhile, haven't changed a lot since we entered the 21st century.

I wish Etsy luck. I'm not a great buyer of amigurumi dolls or customized joysticks, but that isn't the point. For one thing, Etsy sees the world of crocheted dolls as a beachhead into a larger market. For another thing, the more innovation we see by smaller players in this sphere, the more we're likely to see the bigger players forced to compete by lowering their charges and raising their game. Now, Amazon, can you help me locate a yellow-spined book with an orange dog on the cover written by a guy with a Starsky afro?



為什麼網上購物與現實中似乎沒有多大區別？

首先，網站使用的還是瀏覽－購物車－付款台的模式，這是連現實中的店鋪也想要擺脫的方式。然後，你可以看到琳琅滿目的促銷信息，如十大熱賣商品、特價品、買二送一等，這些對我來說和日常的超市購物沒有什麼不同。亞馬遜(Amazon)已經有了一些進步，比如說指出購買過某種產品的消費者還購買了其他哪些商品，允許用戶查詢圖書內的文章。不過，這些還不算是什麼質的飛躍。畢竟，我們在書店中不是也能看到書裡的內容嗎，或者可以讓店員給出相似書目的建議？

美國服裝零售商Gap最近對其網站進行了調整。其內容無外乎能夠更快地看到同一種商品還有什麼其他顏色、在選擇商品和付款之間減少鼠標點擊次數等等。

雖然我覺得這些也算得上創新之舉，不過這種方向不太對吧？零售商們為什麼不想利用互聯網的優勢讓在線購物變成一種截然不同的全新體驗呢？

要變成什麼樣呢？我聽到你在問。好吧，我們來看一個網上零售商Etsy.com的經營模式。在這個網站上，人們可以出售他們手工製作的產品。它從今年7月才開始運行，到現在已經有近3萬件上架商品，所售出的商品總值接近10萬美元。

在Etsy上的商品查詢方式比較有意思，凱林(Robert Kalin)和他的三個共同創始人想出了一些新點子。如果你不知道想要商品的確切名稱，但是知道所希望的商品顏色呢？輕點“以顏色購物”的提示欄，你會看到幾十個飛舞的顏色泡泡。選擇一種你喜歡的顏色，然後會出現各種小方框，代表同種顏色的不同商品。點擊你喜歡的商品方框，商品的照片和價格、相關零售商和獲得更多信息的鏈接等細節就會赫然在目。這不是一場革命，但它確實完全有別於傳統的店鋪，而且在它們的基礎上有所改進。有沒有試過對一個店員說，“我也不知道具體想要買什麼，能把所有天藍色的商品都擺到這兒來嗎？”，想必店員會一臉茫然地看著你，或遭遇白眼，甚至人家會說，“我們現在要關門了，再見！”

這種革新十分適合Etsy所銷售的商品──從形似Pac man的定製電腦操縱杆到amigurumi玩偶（凱林說這種日本的鉤針玩偶是Etsy上最暢銷的商品）等不一而足。不過，這種方式亞馬遜也同樣適用。我知道：我曾在一家書店裡工作過幾年，如果當初整天讓我接待那些只憑圖書封面的顏色來尋找圖書的顧客，我決不會在這個行業工作那麼長的時間。當然，如果希望能幫助只知道作者戴著假發或者封面上有乳酪刮片刀圖片的顧客找出他們想要的書，可能還得等上一段時間，不過這些要留給亞馬遜的工作人員來完成了。

Etsy的創新還不止於此。你可以瀏覽一個隨機顏色的樣本，每個顏色的樣本裡有一連串的商品。如果你不是確切知道你要找的顏色，或者希望隨機瀏覽的話，這項功能就會很實用。你也可以通過一個關於其他訪問者最近購買紀錄的時間螺旋來進行搜索，點擊那些漸行漸遠的小方框，每個方框裡都顯示著最近售出的一種商品。

凱林向我展示了將於幾周內推出的一項創新之舉。它可以讓朋友們一起瀏覽網站，選擇他們喜歡的商品，並把這些商品展示給其他人。如果你們在為一個共同的朋友選購禮物，或者你就是不願意一個人購物，那麼這個功能就很有用了。你還可以通過賣家的所在地進行選擇，雖然目前這個網站以北美賣家為主，但也開始吸引越來越多的海外賣家。

雖然其中一些功能或許變得更可愛，但也凸顯出更大規模的購物網站最近幾年來如何固守陳規。凱林認為，如今更重要的是適應購物者的需求，采用更多吸引他們的創意，同時幫助賣家確立優勢。以新加坡的Lee Chu Ling為例，她通過在Etsy上出售自製的不銹鋼飾物每天可以賺到50美元。她說，“每當我想到某些他們需要改進的地方，他們就已經找到了讓我意想不到的更好的解決方案。”

當然，不止是Etsy一家在努力創新。Wists(www.wists.com)允許用戶通過一個小的圖像和概述來創建網絡書簽頁面，這樣其他的用戶可以共享他的收藏。比如，人們可以更輕松地與他人分享希望購買的商品清單。去年推出的Kaboodle (www.kaboodle.com)的舉動與之類似，它允許用戶通過小符號來分享網絡書簽，主要針對所有瀏覽購物或拍賣網站的人。這些舉措都比較有意義，不過它表明，創新方向已經向消費者一方邁進，而不是商店自己。與此同時，像eBay和亞馬遜這樣的網站從我們進入21世紀以來就沒有過多大改變。

我希望Etsy好運。我並不是amigurumi玩偶或定製操縱杆的大買家，但這並不重要。首先，Etsy藉玩偶進入了一個更大的市場；其次，這個領域的小競爭者采取的創新手段越多，大競爭者被迫通過降低收費等方式求勝的可能性就越大。那麼，亞馬遜，你能幫我找到一本一個有著思塔斯基(Starsky)的非洲式發型的家夥所寫的，封面上有一只橙色的狗、書脊為黃色的書嗎？


來源：英語直通車