Retail Community Sites: A sink or swim proposition for retailers

Pfreemanevans | April 11, 2007, 08:08 PM

In an effort to capitalize on the current growth of “social” sites online, Lands’ End launched a site that focuses on swimwear and features places where people can post their stories of wearing swimsuits. It seems like some people might share that their suit fit and they felt good in it. But will they share that they wore it a second time, or will they buy another next week, and the next week, etc. For people to share on an ongoing basis - not just one off – the content has to be a compelling, repeat topic. And, from the content user perspective, I wonder how often an individual will return to a swimwear community site and how interested they might be about how a woman decides she doesn't care so much about her swimsuit look because she is surrounded by lots of cute frolicking kids and no one is looking at her.

Yes fit is a very, very difficult issue to solve - particularly acute in swim- and I think the tools are good and the advice and the live help are all good. They take advice further by recommending suit styles by body type. But this is an information push more than a community pull; a branding effort. This seems more like a forum for Lands' End to post customer feedback than it does a place where people are going to engage on an ongoing basis. And, wouldn’t it make sense to have this information right on the product detail pages along with sort-able reviews where a customer is trying to decide what suit to buy? Perhaps live interaction forums where suit buyers can share directly how the item they bought REALLY fits might be of value here. Also, maybe Lands’ End would want to solicit specific fit comments from those customers who are willing to participate in the community so that the one key pain point can be more specifically addressed.