Why does buying stuff online still look so similar to buying offline?

First, Web sites still use the whole browsing-shopping basket-checkout metaphor, an approach that even real world shops are trying to get away from. Then you have in-your-face promotions, top 10s, on-sale items, buy-two-get-one-free offers, which to me don't sound that different to your average supermarket gimmicks. Amazon has made some steps forward, such as pointing out that purchasers who bought a certain product have also bought other products, and allowing users to search for text inside books. But these are hardly huge leaps. After all, couldn't we look inside books in a bookstore, or ask an assistant for suggestions about similar books?

U.S. clothing retailer the Gap recently overhauled its online Web site. The changes amounted to being able to see more quickly what other colors were available of an item, or reducing the number of mouse clicks between selecting items and checking out.

While I guess this is all innovative, isn't this the wrong way around? Shouldn't retailers be thinking about using what the Internet offers to make buying online a completely different experience?

Like how? I hear you ask. Well, take a look at one online retailer, Etsy.com, a Web site where people can sell their handmade products. It's only been going since July but it's racked up almost 30,000 listings, and nearly $100,000 worth of items have been sold.

What is interesting about Etsy is the way Robert Kalin and his three co-founders have introduced some new ideas to the way shoppers can look for things. Don't know what you're looking for exactly, but know what color you're after? Move your mouse over a "Shop by Color" grid and see dozens of bubbles of color float under the cursor. Click on a color you like and small boxes will appear, each one a different product that matches your chosen color. Click on the box you like the look of and details of the product will pop up including price tag, the retailer in question, and a link where you can get more information. It isn't a revolution, but it's different -- and an improvement on bricks and mortar. Ever tried saying to a shop assistant "I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but please line up all the products that are this shade of turquoise?" Expect a blank look at best, a surly brushoff, or a "We're closing now. Bye!"

Remedial shopping

This innovation is well suited to the kind of things Etsy is selling (from a customized computer joystick shaped like Pac man to amigurumi dolls -- Japanese crocheted dolls that are, according to Mr. Kalin, the site's biggest selling item). But it could just as easily apply to Amazon. I know: I worked in a bookstore for a few years and if you gave me a dollar for the number of times people came in looking for a book identified only by the color of its dust jacket, I wouldn't have had to work in bookshops quite as long as I did. Of course, it could be some time before someone comes up with the innovation that would help customers who know only that the author sported a hairpiece, or the cover had a picture of a cheese slicer on it, but I leave that to the guys at Amazon to figure out.

It isn't the only innovation Etsy has. You can browse via a sampler of random colors, each of which throws up a gallery of products -- nice if you aren't quite sure what color you're looking for, or want to randomize your browsing. You also can search via a cute chronological spiral of recent purchases by other visitors, clicking on little boxes that recede into the distance, each box a product that has recently been bought.

Mr. Kalin walks me through an innovation the site is planning in coming weeks, where friends can browse the Web site together, collecting items they like the look of and showing them to each other as they browse. Useful if you're shopping for a present for a mutual friend, say, or you just hate shopping alone. You also can search via geographical location of sellers on a globe that, despite a bias toward North America, illustrates the site is catching on overseas, too.

Edge for sellers

Indeed, while some of these features may be more cute than functional, they highlight how staid the bigger online selling sites seem to have become in recent years. Nowadays, reckons Mr. Kalin, it is more about being responsive to users and experimenting with new ideas that draw shoppers, as well as helping sellers gain an edge. Take Lee Chu Ling of Singapore, for example, who is making $50 a day from selling her homemade stained-glass pendants online at Etsy. "Each time I thought of something they could improve on, they had already found a better solution that I would never have thought of," she says.

Of course, it isn't just Etsy that is trying to innovate. Wists (www.wists.com) allows users to bookmark pages visually via a small image and summary, which can then be shared with other users. This sort of thing makes sharing wish lists of goodies with others easier, for example. Kaboodle (www.kaboodle.com), launched last month, does something similar, allowing users to share bookmarks via small icons, and appears aimed primarily at anyone browsing shopping or auction sites. Both these approaches have merits, but suggest that innovation has tipped toward the consumer end rather than the outlet side. Sites such as eBay and Amazon, meanwhile, haven't changed a lot since we entered the 21st century.

I wish Etsy luck. I'm not a great buyer of amigurumi dolls or customized joysticks, but that isn't the point. For one thing, Etsy sees the world of crocheted dolls as a beachhead into a larger market. For another thing, the more innovation we see by smaller players in this sphere, the more we're likely to see the bigger players forced to compete by lowering their charges and raising their game. Now, Amazon, can you help me locate a yellow-spined book with an orange dog on the cover written by a guy with a Starsky afro?



为什么网上购物与现实中似乎没有多大区别？

首先，网站使用的还是浏览－购物车－付款台的模式，这是连现实中的店铺也想要摆脱的方式。然后，你可以看到琳琅满目的促销信息，如十大热卖商品、特价品、买二送一等，这些对我来说和日常的超市购物没有什么不同。亚马逊(Amazon)已经有了一些进步，比如说指出购买过某种产品的消费者还购买了其他哪些商品，允许用户查询图书内的文章。不过，这些还不算是什么质的飞跃。毕竟，我们在书店中不是也能看到书里的内容吗，或者可以让店员给出相似书目的建议？

美国服装零售商Gap最近对其网站进行了调整。其内容无外乎能够更快地看到同一种商品还有什么其他颜色、在选择商品和付款之间减少鼠标点击次数等等。

虽然我觉得这些也算得上创新之举，不过这种方向不太对吧？零售商们为什么不想利用互联网的优势让在线购物变成一种截然不同的全新体验呢？

要变成什么样呢？我听到你在问。好吧，我们来看一个网上零售商Etsy.com的经营模式。在这个网站上，人们可以出售他们手工制作的产品。它从今年7月才开始运行，到现在已经有近3万件上架商品，所售出的商品总值接近10万美元。

在Etsy上的商品查询方式比较有意思，凯林(Robert Kalin)和他的三个共同创始人想出了一些新点子。如果你不知道想要商品的确切名称，但是知道所希望的商品颜色呢？轻点“以颜色购物”的提示栏，你会看到几十个飞舞的颜色泡泡。选择一种你喜欢的颜色，然后会出现各种小方框，代表同种颜色的不同商品。点击你喜欢的商品方框，商品的照片和价格、相关零售商和获得更多信息的链接等细节就会赫然在目。这不是一场革命，但它确实完全有别于传统的店铺，而且在它们的基础上有所改进。有没有试过对一个店员说，“我也不知道具体想要买什么，能把所有天蓝色的商品都摆到这儿来吗？”，想必店员会一脸茫然地看著你，或遭遇白眼，甚至人家会说，“我们现在要关门了，再见！”

这种革新十分适合Etsy所销售的商品──从形似Pac man的定制电脑操纵杆到amigurumi玩偶（凯林说这种日本的钩针玩偶是Etsy上最畅销的商品）等不一而足。不过，这种方式亚马逊也同样适用。我知道：我曾在一家书店里工作过几年，如果当初整天让我接待那些只凭图书封面的颜色来寻找图书的顾客，我决不会在这个行业工作那么长的时间。当然，如果希望能帮助只知道作者戴著假发或者封面上有乳酪刮片刀图片的顾客找出他们想要的书，可能还得等上一段时间，不过这些要留给亚马逊的工作人员来完成了。

Etsy的创新还不止于此。你可以浏览一个随机颜色的样本，每个颜色的样本里有一连串的商品。如果你不是确切知道你要找的颜色，或者希望随机浏览的话，这项功能就会很实用。你也可以通过一个关于其他访问者最近购买纪录的时间螺旋来进行搜索，点击那些渐行渐远的小方框，每个方框里都显示著最近售出的一种商品。

凯林向我展示了将于几周内推出的一项创新之举。它可以让朋友们一起浏览网站，选择他们喜欢的商品，并把这些商品展示给其他人。如果你们在为一个共同的朋友选购礼物，或者你就是不愿意一个人购物，那么这个功能就很有用了。你还可以通过卖家的所在地进行选择，虽然目前这个网站以北美卖家为主，但也开始吸引越来越多的海外卖家。

虽然其中一些功能或许变得更可爱，但也凸显出更大规模的购物网站最近几年来如何固守陈规。凯林认为，如今更重要的是适应购物者的需求，采用更多吸引他们的创意，同时帮助卖家确立优势。以新加坡的Lee Chu Ling为例，她通过在Etsy上出售自制的不锈钢饰物每天可以赚到50美元。她说，“每当我想到某些他们需要改进的地方，他们就已经找到了让我意想不到的更好的解决方案。”

当然，不止是Etsy一家在努力创新。Wists(www.wists.com)允许用户通过一个小的图像和概述来创建网络书签页面，这样其他的用户可以共享他的收藏。比如，人们可以更轻松地与他人分享希望购买的商品清单。去年推出的Kaboodle (www.kaboodle.com)的举动与之类似，它允许用户通过小符号来分享网络书签，主要针对所有浏览购物或拍卖网站的人。这些举措都比较有意义，不过它表明，创新方向已经向消费者一方迈进，而不是商店自己。与此同时，像eBay和亚马逊这样的网站从我们进入21世纪以来就没有过多大改变。

我希望Etsy好运。我并不是amigurumi玩偶或定制操纵杆的大买家，但这并不重要。首先，Etsy藉玩偶进入了一个更大的市场；其次，这个领域的小竞争者采取的创新手段越多，大竞争者被迫通过降低收费等方式求胜的可能性就越大。那么，亚马逊，你能帮我找到一本一个有著思塔斯基(Starsky)的非洲式发型的家伙所写的，封面上有一只橙色的狗、书脊为黄色的书吗？


来源：英语直通车