When Ecommerce Sites Become Destination Sites
Remember the days when "surfing the Web" was all the rage? Normally today people have a set of "trusted sites" they visit often, with occasional forays into unknown territory. While the headlines remind us about Facebook's popularity, a number of retail sites are building strong communities of their own. Perceptions are changing. Is Netflix.com a place to sign up for DVD deliveries, or is it a place to get movie reviews written by people who like what I like? Is Zappos.com a place to buy shoes, or a fun site, where even if you don't care much about shoes, you want to read their wild and crazy blogs? And even though I have never ordered anything from this site, I have to say that I'm fascinated with the neat things you can do on the Republic of Tea's site. Try getting your fortune from Madame Oolong here.
So have these sites failed if, after I've visited their communities and tried their cool tools, I don't end up buying anything? Not at all. Word of mouth is still a very powerful thing. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, people have a natural desire to share their experiences with friends and family. They may choose to do that offline; like how I'm going to tell my friend to go check out that funny guy in the pink gorilla suit over on the Zappos blog. So maybe I won't buy shoes from Zappos, but my friend might. And we both get to contemplate why a guy would want to ride in a golf cart in a pink gorilla suit anyway...