NETTING IT OUT

In this test-drive report, we apply the Product Select and Buy Customer Scenario pattern and its “I want to find the product or service that best addresses my requirements” Moment of Truth to retail for a customer’s research, comparison, and selection activities for a pair of running shoes. More specifically, our customer persona, Hardy Rhodes, wants to use the self-service facilities of running shoe retailers to Select and Buy a pair of running shoes.

His Moment of Truth is to be able to select the shoes from any provider that meets his requirements for fit, price, and brand. He has four Metrics around this Moment of Truth for time, ease of use, self-service, and selection.

Hardy visits the Web sites of:

• Dick’s Sporting Goods
• Road Runner Sports
• RunningShoes.com
• Running Warehouse

The Bottom Line

Three Key Issues

Shopping for running shoes was quite frustrating for Hardy. There are many manufacturers of running shoes and many models of every running shoe type offered by each manufacturer. Retailers don’t do a very good job of narrowing the selection. We found three key issues:

• Limited search and selection tools
• Lack of product detail
• Lack of advice and recommendations

Search and selection tools don’t help the process. Some search tools, like those at RunningShoes.com and Road Runner Sports generated too many undifferentiated results. In addition, they don’t give shoppers facilities to compare results or drill into product details.

In Hardy’s research, only Running Warehouse presented good product detail. We know the manufacturers have lots of product content. We’ve seen it on their sites. We hope that this is not an issue of retailers being unable or unwilling to import manufacturers’ content.

Runners need help selecting a shoe model from the hundreds of models that are available. They want advice. They need recommendations. Online retailers should offer advice based on their expertise and experience and the experience of their customers. For example, the customer service information that they have about returns, defects, and complaints could be very helpful to shoppers, even after sanitization. Retailers should consider providing links to published shoe reviews. They should conduct customer surveys and offer the results within the shopping experience.

Note that these issues are not unique to the online retailers in this test-drive report. We also looked at the ecommerce sites for:

• City Sports
• Finish Line
• Holabird Sports
• Running Center

The bottom line is that running shoe retailers have to do a better job supporting their customers’ Moments of Truth. Their sites are full of interesting content about running. They foster running communities. They appear to offer good customer service facilities. But they miss the mark in helping their customers find the shoes that they want to buy...