Are blogs from e-tailers increasing their sales?
The New York Times asked the question to several online merchants in North America and gives their answers in this article, “Blogging while browsing, but not buying.” First, most of these online shops are afraid that customers follow outside links on their blogs and don’t come back to their shops. But they’re still trying and the newspaper asked several companies involved in different activities what they thought about their blogs. In this note, I decided to focus on the experience of Bluefly, a discount apparel e-tailer of brands such as Prada, Fendi or Gucci.
Here are some short excerpts from this article.
Executives at Bluefly.com, the discount apparel e-tailer, credit their blog, Flypaper with bringing in new customers. Flypaper, which was introduced in April and features postings — sometimes more than one a day — on anything fashion-related, “is bringing some very positive things,” said Melissa Payner, the chief executive.
Among other things, Payner said, Flypaper visitors who click to Bluefly have been more likely to make a purchase than those who visit Bluefly directly.
The company doesn’t say if its sales have increased after the introduction of its blog. And other retailers are also pretty vague. For example, here is a quote by Shmuel Gniwisch, the CEO of an online jeweler based in Montreal, Ice.com, which also has a blog, Ice Blog.
Gniwisch said the blogs attracted “thousands of visitors” a week, but the effect on sales was unclear. “Technically, this is a very soft sell,” he said. “We’re intending to build awareness of our product, so if sales come, great. If not, it’s also good.”
Apparently, e-tailers don’t know if their blogs have a positive ROI, even in the U.S. If you know about similar experiences in France or in Europe, please leave a comment below.
