Online footwear retailer Shoes.com, a subsidiary of Brown Shoe, is revamping its Web site as part of an ongoing initiative to enhance the customer experience on the site.
After a one-year partnership with Bazaarvoice, Shoes.com is now tapping into user-generated potential by using Bazaarvoice’s Ask & Answer tool, a social commerce service that lets shoppers post and respond to specific product questions on e-commerce sites. These Q&A conversations run alongside standard product information.
“When customers are shopping for shoes they want to know how they are going to fit and what other customers have to say about them,” said Meg Armstrong, VP, direct-to-consumer at Brown Shoe. “This gives consumers a voice and a community.”
The service is available for every product. Customers are encouraged to participate via an e-mail that thanks them for the purchase and includes a link to write comments about the shoes, and answer other customer questions.
According to Armstrong, some example questions include “Do they run wide or small?”; “What is the material like?”; or “Would these heels look good with a cocktail dress at a wedding?”
This is one of a number of upgrades to the site that Shoes.com is doing over the next year. While she declined to go into detail about specific campaigns, Armstrong said that Shoes.com has updated its product search feature and enhanced product descriptions and is trying to make the site overall more customer friendly.
“Our strategy is to encourage a sense of community and interaction for people that are passionate about shoes,” Armstrong said.
