Techniques to Engage, Retain and Entice Customers

Because it is a web site, Attitude has to f ocus a lot on enticing customers. This is because it is different to having a high street shop in that people will not just 'pop in' on the way past if they like the look of it, they have to go their specifically. Most people do not just find transactional web sites by chance like they would a shop. It also needs to make up for the lack of human interaction - for example there are no salespeople to convince people to buy the products, therefore extra effort needs to be put into making them sound good.

Attitude does quite a lot of advertising. One method of advertising is the free catelogue that is given away with music magazines such as 'Kerrang!' every season. This is a good idea because the people who read magaszines like this are the ones who are most likely to like the sorts of clothes that are sold on attitude in the first place. It also gives people an alternative method of buying the items other than on the Internet - they can order them by post instead of online. Another good thing about giving away the catelogue is that the web address is given at the bottom and the catelogue does not contain all of the products that Attitude sell, it just gives an idea of the type of clothing available to the customer on Attitude. This means that the customer is more likely to want to visit the web site to see more of what they have to offer. Attitude also often advertises in the actual magazine, the advertisment always has a link to the web site and pictures of some of the clothes available which encourages people to visit the site.

Attitude is also a 'sponsored link' on Google - this means that they pay the search engine Google to advertise the company and pay them depending on how effective this is (the more people that click on the advertisment, the more they pay). This is good because it means that if the user types in search criteria such as 'Alternative clothing' on google, Attitude is the first web site that appears on the page. People are more likely to visit the sites that are closest to the top of the page because they are generally the more popular ones and often people do not want to scroll through all of the other web sites, reading all of the captions until they find the right one. This method is very successful because more people can find out about the web site and they will therefore have more customers as a result.

Once the customer is on the web site - Attitude need ways to keep them intersted. This is why the page is so busy and colourful with so many pictures. If a web site is not attractive customers are less likely to stay on them, it is also important that the navigation is easy (it is reasonably on Attitude) as if the customer cannot find any of the right products they are not likely to continue trying to find them on the site. This is no different to a traditional shop - if a customer thought it was untidy, didn't like the layout or could not find what they wanted they would leave.

Another method Attitude use to encourage customers to buy things on the web site is through special offers and competitions. For example, at the top of the screen on the home page as part of the same banner as the logo it says 'FREE UK standard delivery when you spend over £50 onlin' and 'HURRY! Only (_) shopping days left til Xmas!' The first offer shown in this banner encourages people to spend over £50 so that they can get free delivery, although this does not convince people to spend much more money for the sake of it, it makes them buy more from the site. For example, if somebody bought a jacket on the web site that cost £30 and there was also a pair of shoes on the web site that they wanted but they were available in a highstreet shop, they may choose to buy the jacket online and the shoes in the high street because it is easier and more reliable. However, with this offer they are more likely to buy both on the web site. The idea of the Christmas countdown puts the customer under pressure and makes them feel like they need to hurry up and buy their Christmas presents from the site.

There are also competitions that encourage the customer to buy certain items, for example advertised on the home page is a competition to win an 'Emily the Strange' electric guitar when you buy any other 'Emily the Strange' merchandise. This encourages people who may not have thought about buying the merchandise before buy it because they want to be in with a chance of winning the guitar. This is very effective because it encourages people to buy items they may not have thought about buying before and therefore the company gets more money.

To buy a product on Attitude you must be a member. Once someone has become a member their personal details such as name and address are remembered because they are stored on a customer database. This means that in future it is easier for them to order goods because they do not have to enter all of these details again so the process is sped up. This is a good idea because it means people are more likely to return to the web site to buy other products in the future. For example somebody may want a T-shirt that they have seen on a different web site, however they may check if Attitude sells it or not before ordering it because it would be much easier to order it from there.

Down the left hand side of the page there is a section with links to other web sites the user may be interested in. This encourages users to come back to the web site because if they forget the URL of one of the web sites that are advertised they might come back to Attitude in order to find the web site - it is likely that they will have a look around the site first rathern than then going to straight to the link - especially with the eye catching offers advertised on the home page.