Fashion at Your Fingertips!

It’s About the Experience

The new paradigm of eCommerce is moving away from a product-centric approach and towards a customer-centric approach. What Rue La La has done is create interest, excitement, and nearly “theatrical” show around the shopping experience on their site. Engaging consumers is more than having a basket of products, its creating excitement and interest and, when Rue La La consumers find something interesting and exciting they share it with their social network. That’s why Rue La La views social, not as a separate channel or initiative, but as an integral part of their business. As it is structured as a “members only” shopping site, most of their members have come from being invited by other members. Because of this, all new innovations that the company launches are done via social channels as it is the most valuable and productive way to get the word out.

Given their values and business methods it should be of no surprise that Rue La La has been very successful in building a very active and passionate community around the brand and its products. The key factor to this success is the fact that Rue La La customers are not only thrilled about the quality of the products but are also very passionate about Rue La La’s customer service standards and have built a community on these overwhelmingly positive experiences with this company. As one could guess social media marketing plays a significant role in building this customer community. Compared to its competitors, Rue La La is an extremely involved company when it comes to social media. They run a page on Facebook, an account on Twitter, several Tumblr pages, have a YouTube channel, and even display a live Twitter feed of customer mentions at the bottom of their online site.

Given their target demographic, which skews heavily towards fashion conscious female internet users, this social presence appears to be the right approach. As we have learned from Groundswell, young people are more likely to be Producers and/or Engagers making social media websites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. excellent places for Rue La La to reach their audience. A smaller but potentially equally important demographic that Rue La La doesn’t appear to explicitly target through its social media marketing strategy would be less online present “moms”, as they are both female and more likely to be fashion consumers who are looking for  curated content and handpicked product selections. From a consumer engagement standpoint, what could be better than providing shoppers with the opportunity to curate an eCommerce boutique full of items they love?

After launching a blog on Tumblr, Rue La La decided that they would give their Facebook fans the opportunity to vote on their favorite items which would then be featured in an upcoming Rue La La Boutique. The voting took place via the “Vote For Style” tab found on Rue La La’s Facebook page.

Only a few hours after the curated boutique opened, 8 of the 24 items had sold out. 

While some brands are uploading their entire product catalogs to Facebook, companies like Rue La La prove that that’s not necessary.  With a little creativity, you can get your customers excited about your products and shopping on your eCommerce site. People love deals and a little entertainment, and Rue La La smartly took note of that and gave its customers what they wanted—even after it sells out! 

Sold Out, Still Want It?

Say there’s an item you love, but it sells out. Total bummer! But wait, on July 21, 2011, Rue La La came up with the ultimate solution that’s different from its competitor Gilt Groupe’s waitlist feature. With Rue La La’s “Still Want It”, the customer is able to tell Rue La La just what they’re looking for, and if they can get it for you, they’ll charge your credit card and send it.

Most Rue La La events last just two days, but a “Still Want It” request remains active for much longer.  Say you really wanted those black suede Puma sneakers, but you didn’t have time to buy them before they sold out. Previously you’d just have to wait and hope we’d run another Puma sale event.  But now you can use the “Still Want It” popup and place a request for those sneakers in your size.  The site collects payment information, shipping address and place a back order in their system for the item. This is just one of the small changes along with a new logo, new shipping boxes, free shipping for 30 days after a purchase, new site navigation and better product photography to “make shopping more social” and ultimately responding to their customers wants and needs via the groundswell. Along with these major site changes, Rue La La’s expansive and diverse social presence has only boosted its groundswell presence.

Rue La La’s Blog: The (Style) Guide

Rue La La itself has an extremely well-maintained and comprehensive blog which is easily accessible from its homepage. It has a host of information on topics ranging from product description/questions and user reviews to fashion trends and site changes. One of the greatest things about the forum in my opinion is that it is completely immersed in the fashion world and gives all sorts of perspectives on today’s fashion for women, men and children. Such a diverse approach gives Rue La La’s blog a true sense of a community, where everyone can find something that interest/pertains to them and better yet, everything is well laid out and beautiful!

A simple search on blogsearch.google.com for “Rue La La” yielded over 561K mentions in the past month! For a fairly niche-market high fashion members-only shopping site, Rue La La appears to be fairing pretty well in the blogosphere. One of the things that struck me while looking through the blogs was that there were virtually no negative mentions or feedback and when there were average users, not Rue La La employees, stood up to defend the site – that’s the power of the groundswell at work. 

Facebook  

Rue La La has one main Facebook fan page. The overall tone for Lush’s Facebook page is very informal and conversational, making people feel that they really are connecting with fellow friends and Rue La La enthusiasts. The page is easily accessible from the Rue La La homepage as well as The (Style) Guide, Rue La La’s blog. Just becoming a fan of their Facebook Pages not only gets you in, but provides you with insider tips on how to best shop their sales and advance notice of upcoming designer deals—important information when people can swipe items out of your cart up until the last second.

The page is very well-maintained, organized and updated frequently. It serves a dual function of the central hub for Rue La La fans to express their love as well as the place to learn about the latest fashion trends and Rue La La fashion events.

In my opinion the key accessory to Rue La La’s success are their extremely prompt response and a friendly and informal conversational tone. In the examples below not only was the question addressed within an hour of it being posted but the administrator also took time and effort to provide a comprehensive and thorough response.  

High engagement level, informal/friendly tone and of course great content is what makes Rue La La’s Facebook fan base feel that they are heard and appreciated, providing all that’s necessary for an active and passionate community.

YouTube

Rue La La even has it’s own YouTube channel. It’s full of videos about the company, its products, what are Rue La La staff’s fashion styles, favorite brands, best buys etc., but also quite a few on the company’s business philosophy, its charitable work and social events.

Rue La La’s YouTube channel is good, very good in fact but I do feel that Rue La La could benefit from better organization: for example they could do a better job with grouping the videos into playlists with more comprehensive names like “About Rue La La”, “How we choose what we sell”, etc. Additionally I’d suggest creating a playlist with videos on how best to use Rue La La as a shopping site, especially considering that shopping on Rue La La can at times seem like a fine art form

There’s an App for That!
It is no secret mobile usage among consumers is growing. And for private-sale retailers, mobile is even more important. Many industry experts have been skeptical about the long-term and sustainable growth companies such as these can maintain. But, as Rue La La is seeing, brands and consumers alike are continuing to vote yes to private-sale sites.

Rue La La's Mcommerce site (mobile phone screenshot to the left)  helps members stay on top of daily deals, as consumers may not know where they’re going to be at 11 a.m. every day when Rue La La posts the products of the day. And because the deals are limited-time and limited-quantity, a consumer will want to get there fast. Rue La La wants to ensure its customers can get to deals anytime, anywhere. Stephanie Brocoum, vice president of member marketing stated,
 “We believed early on that we needed to have a strong mobile offering,” Brocoum told attendees at the Mobile Shopping Summit this week in New York. “In the beginning there was a lot of hype, and a lot of pressure from the CEO’s office, and there were a lot of fun and gimmicky apps out there. We understood if we could focus on members’ core needs and develop an app that would be useful, it would create value for them and fill their needs and they would share it virally.” 

Right Here, “Right Now”

Another change to the Rue La La site hasn’t even been in place for more than four months, yet it’s changed the way customers are shopping already! Rue La La mobile users can now watch product movement in real time. In October, Rue La La introduced it’s new mobile-only feature called, “Right Now” that lets members watch the movement of products in real-time so they can see which items are selling quickly and which sizes are sold out.

With “Right Now”s Rue La La sessions between 1 and 3 minutes in length increased 514 percent in the week following the soft launch, 3-to-10-minute sessions increased 444 percent and 10-to-30-minute sessions increased 261 percent (mobilecommercedaily.com, 2011) Rue La La also reports that 60 percent of users are coming back to its app within two days. Mobile is a quickly growing channel for Rue La La, with up to 20 percent of sales coming in via mobile on week days and up to 30 percent on the weekend. In comparison, mobile accounted for 2 percent of sales back in January 2010.

 Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

Social Mention

To further illustrate a progression of how Rue La La’s online presence has increased with the help of its mobile site, it is helpful to look at the metric site Social Mention.

SocialMention snapshot comparisons of “Rue La La” (March 8, March 15, and March 22)

According to Social Mention, Rue La La seems to have an overwhelmingly positive presence on the web. Based on the data from Social Mention Rue La La’s average Sentiment stands at 18:1, meaning that for every 18 positive comments they only receive 1 negative comment. There also seems to be a consistently high passion score ranging from 27%-30% meaning that customers not only talk about the brand, but do so repeatedly. On average, Rue La La is mentioned every 29 minutes! That’s crazy!

By looking at the progression from three different weeks, we can see that Rue La La is mentioned pretty often (strength), the general tone is positive with every one comment being negative (sentiment), users are sometimes really talking about the site repeatedly due to a steady decline (passion), and Rue La La is reaching a decent amount of users (reach).

The Future of Rue

All in all Rue La La seems to have a very good handle on their social marketing strategy. They are actively engaged in several types of online social media and have used it successfully to promote its products and brand. Rue La La does have outstanding products, positive corporate image and has effectively succeeded in promoting both through the groundswell by creating a strong and passionate online community. That said, I would offer a few suggestions to further build on their existing success: 

Create a loyalty program (and/or a more lucrative referral program)

A few customers noted the lack of a loyalty program as surprising, especially considering that Rue La La products aren’t always cheap and also noted that Rue La La only offers a $10 referral fee for every member recruited as opposed to Gilt which offers a $25 referral gift. The call for a boost in cash and the start of a loyalty program further indicates that Rue La La users view their relationship with Rue La La as something different from their relationship with other shopping sites. This suggests that Rue La La should not discount this opportunity to further strengthen their brand and continue to strengthen their community’s passion. 

Better organization of YouTube channels

While Rue La La’s YouTube channel has a lot of great information it appears to be slightly disorganized. Better organization could help improve user experience and eliminate potential frustration; it could also help shoppers easily distinguish between Rue La La-produced and non-professional videos, minimizing the possibility of a bad experience with a Rue La La product based on a misinformed video. 

Add playlists with Rue La La buying trends and practices

While most of this information is already available on the Frequently Asked Questions, adding a playlist with “how-to” videos could help further engage existing customers as well as acquire new ones. 

Engage the “mom” demographic

In my opinion the “mom” demographic could carry a lot of potential for Rue La La. As we learned from Groundswell moms are a bit less likely to be “creators” of content, however they are actively engaged online as consumers. Rue La La could engage this population by creating content (through already existing social media channels like Facebook and YouTube) that specifically targets moms (e.g. a video featuring a dermatologist that explains why Rue La La’s featured Dermatologica products are not only suitable for them but also beneficial for young kids)