Staples Gives Website a Holiday Upgrade

Staples overhauled its website and introduced a "Price Match Guarantee" to drive transactions during the 2013 holiday season and beyond.The upgraded staples.com boasts a simple design presenting less text and larger images, makes the search box front-and-center, and utilizes the tile-based grid layout made popular by social media sites such as Pinterest. The impact of social media on commerce led the company to also incorporate asymmetrical merchandising — showcasing dissimilar products together to tell "stories" — when designing the site, senior vice president and general manager of global e-commerce Arun Arora said at the National Retail Federation’s annual "Big Show" this month.Staples embraced the strategy for Black Friday by giving the most exposure to exactly what was selling best on the site, and saw a sales lift in the paper category as a result, Arora explained. Black Friday promotions also included weekly deals, online daily deals, trade-in/trade-up technology recycling programs awarding cash for a new-product purchase, flash sales via the chain's mobile app, and free shipping for Staples Rewards members on receipts of $45. For the first time, Staples opened stores on Thanksgiving evening.The website also encompasses a multitude of behind-the-scenes improvements. “We made the site 40% faster and much simpler to navigate. We enhanced the search experience with improved speed and relevance of results, and we integrated Staples Rewards — which resulted in a much more simplified checkout process,” chief executive officer Ronald Sargent said during the company's third-quarter earnings call.The Staples Rewards integration delivers more personally relevant deals and tailored pricing, and was made possible when Staples acquired Silicon Valley data sciences expert Runa last fall. “The team at Runa will help drive increased customer engagement by delivering personalized offers in real time,” Sargent said. The company also is upgrading its mobile website and application to fully align all channels as one seamless experience.The digital efforts benefit from last November's hiring of Tom Conophy as chief information officer. Conophy previously served as cio for InterContinental Hotels, and has experience in the hospitality and airline industries. “His technical expertise and history of success driving online transformations and customer engagement will be extremely valuable as we reinvent Staples,” Sargent said.During the third quarter, Staples added 70,000 SKUs to its online inventory (including electronics such as Apple iPads and products in categories including furniture and office decor) and was on track to add another 100,000 by the end of 2013 for a total tally of 300,000, Sargent said. The company is expanding assortment beyond office supplies to areas like retailer and restaurant supplies as it seeks to become “the destination for every product that businesses need to succeed,” Sargent said.In stores, the retailer deployed kiosks to facilitate ordering from staples.com. Holiday window posters promised “Free shipping from our in-store kiosk.” Aisle violators continue to tout “More cleaning and breakroom supplies available online.” Meanwhile, seasonal window signs, stanchions and endcap headers promoted the new “Price Match Guarantee,” which lets shoppers match prices from Amazon.com along with any retailer that sells products in both bricks-and-mortar stores and online under the same name. Shoppers must request the lower price at the time of purchase. Introduced last November, the policy excludes special events such as Black Friday. Circular features supported at launch.Other holiday P-O-P materials included floorstands and stanchions plugging customized offerings from the in-store Copy & Print center. Racks merchandising third-party gift cards and floorstands stocking Martha Stewart Home Office labels were outfitted with seasonal signs. (See “Staples Jumps …” in Related Articles.) Among account-specific materials, 3M dominated with a counter unit, pallet display, floorstand and dump bin. Hewlett-Packard's HP also provided custom floorstands. The overall sign package included ceiling banners and A-boards.In deference to the record cold weather across the U.S., the retailer deployed a “Winter Storm Center” display stocking mittens, shovels and car scrapers. Meanwhile, a “Flu Prevention Center” endcap outfitted with a header and shelf inserts merchandised products such as Reckitt Benckiser’s Lysol disinfecting wipes, Colgate-Palmolive’s SoftSoap hand soap and Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex tissues. In advance of the new year, Staples also deployed racks merchandising tax forms and an At-A-Glance endcap stocking 2014 planners and calendars benefitting City of Hope and the Wounded Warrior Project.The retailer’s seasonal TV spots focused on technology, spotlighting brands such as Acer Aspire and Ontop Nugget. The marketing plan also spanned circular features, email blasts, and online display ads on websites such as babynamesworld.com and weatherbug.com. Social media activity included a “World’s Largest Gift Swapstakes” held on the chain’s Facebook page from Dec. 4-31 that awarded products from brands such as Soda Stream, Samsung, Microsoft Surface, Ghirardelli and Keurig via weekly drawings. Melville, NY-based Don Jagoda Associates handled.

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