FM 323 E-Commerce Merchandising

Value Proposition

Denim company that is a worldwide leader has built its story on clothing but also on brand image. Diesel was one of the first clothing companies on the Internet, and they have been evolving its website ever since. Diesel’s identity is greatly communicated with the consumer through its e-commerce. Diesel differentiates its brand by telling a consistent story of a desired youthful, care-free, and risk taking lifestyle. They take pride in producing unusual yet chic men's and women's casual wear while being environmentally sustainable. They have a well known brand personality that is courageous, creative, and provocative and customers make a statement when wearing Diesel brand.

Marketing Campaign

This marketing campaign will focus on Diesel’s dresses. They have some really great styles but most of their ads depict their jeans and tops. Ad will be placed on their home page and it will be linked directly with their social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, and Flickr. On social media websites underneath the links assortments and products will be shown that customers can purchase. Theme of the campaign will illustrate humor and creativeness of unique Diesel brand and will target and relate to the lovers of Diesel lifestyle philosophy. The campaign will debut before the summer months. It will be in collaboration with celebrity Pink and it will depict her on a video shoot wearing the dress while getting ready to do a dangerous scene without a stunt. Message of the campaign will be to make consumers aware that all of Diesel’s merchandise is of high quality and durable just like their popular jeans, while being pretty and fashionable. 

SWOT Analysis of the Six Variables

Digitalization

Strength – Website has high speed of loading content including visuals, audio, and graphics

Weaknesses – not a lot of videos of products

Opportunities – could do things like try it virtually, so their customer would be more willing to purchase

Threats – competitor companies offer more videos of the product 

Accessibility 

Strength – a customer can easily find all the information needed about the product when you click on it and about the company in the “about us” tab. The tab is at the top of the page, so customers can easily find it. Social media options at the top of the screen.

Weaknesses – difficult to access their customer service, except for calling them

Opportunities – do the live chat with customer service

Threats – Major competitors already have live chat with customer service

Addressability

Strength-Diesel website saves the information of registered users so customers don’t have to spend time every time putting in their log in information

Weakness-For unregistered users there will no browsing or purchasing history saved

Opportunities-By saving previous browsing history and have it recommend to customer next time when they visit the website it can drive more traffic and sales because of personalization

Threats-Personal information could be stolen and misused

Interactivity

Strength-Content is presented in an attractive way and makes consumers want to explore every aspect of the website. Option to call customer service and to share products through customer’s social media

Weakness-Customers can’t do a live chat with customer service if they have a question about product and want an instant answer

Opportunities-By providing better customer service consumer will have more confidence when shopping and sales could increase

Threats-Competitors are already providing live chats with consumer

Control

Strength-Website has easy navigation and provides links throughout the site for their social media

Weakness-There is no “search option” on the main page, only when directed to the e-shop

Opportunities-It is important for the brand to have their customers aware of their campaigns and lifestyle so it would be easier for customers to have an option to search faster their campaigns

Threats-All major competitors have an easy to locate search option on the main page

Memory

Strength - Keeps track of recently viewed items and provides suggestions based on pages customer has visited. Website memorizes abandoned cart even after coming back in few days.

Weaknesses – doesn’t suggest items in all categories, suggests items only within one category

Opportunities - a chance to make customers to look within all categories, not just one

Threats – customers might be overwhelmed by suggested items and go to a different website

Supply Chain

Supply chain management for their online store includes a warehouse they ship from.. They also explain everything about their policy in the return section. Diesel utilizes supply from Supplier to Company to Consumer chain. When observing JIT I haven’t found any styles that were out of stock, however I did notice some of the sizes were sold out within a product category. Biggest portion of the brand awareness comes from their bold and unique advertisement campaigns. Recently social media started to play an important role in making sure the customer options to utilize their Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, and Flickr account. Customer behavior and attitude has always been strong for the Diesel customer. It is part of their brand for their consumers to wear their clothes and act accoding to their philosophy which many consumers do. Diesel’s CRM shows strong relationship with their customer. They send regular emails regarding the promotions and latest campaigns on their website or in stores.  Diesel’s segmenting the market strategy includes targeting of the fun, courageous and optimistic young females and males who love bold colors and are not afraid to express themselves.

Aesthetics

Overall website has a strong presentation of the distinct Diesel lifestyle, it relates to who they are by having visuals that stay true to the brand. When first logged on it has an editorial feel, images are really large and clear. Everything on a site is really interactive it is not just a plain picture of a product. The main information listed on the home page is a reflection of the trends, and latest campaigns. It is very clean and professional while being highly interactive and amusing. Bold, inspirational colors, engaging videos, and impressing images all make the website highly competitive in the e-commerce fashion industry.  

Besides the great presentation of its latest collections, website’s main page shows visuals that clearly target its customers to build their own personality through Diesel lifestyle philosophy. Invitation to explore women’s denim is called “fit your attitude” while men’s collection is named a “5 pocket DNA”, both standing out in bold colors that change interactively. Visuals and links of their latest campaigns such as “Days to Live” where customers are invited to calculate how many days to live they have left, options to engage in their “Talent Support” and “Only the Brave” foundations, all tell the same story of Diesel being more than just a clothing brand that and their customers feel that as if they were shopping in brick-and-mortar.

Positioning of E-Commerce vs. Brick and Mortar

Customers that love Diesel take great pride in wearing its clothes because they feel like they are making a lifestyle statement, and its e-commerce has been successful in making sure they have the same feeling when navigating through Diesel.com as they have while being in the stores. In the brick and mortar there is a great customer service. Sales associate are all dressed in typical Diesel outfits with usually eccentric hair styles and tattoos where you can conclude they are true representatives of the Diesel lifestyle. The advantage of the stores is that a customer would get a great shopping experience and he/she could try on the product right away but the customers who prefer online shopping usually get better deals. Positioning for the website and stores includes the same target market and consists of same competitors. Competitors are offering only merchandise assortments but Diesel focuses on presenting its product in a creative and user friendly manner while making sure their customers are aware of the brand’s image. 

Merchandise Assortment

Both Diesel stores and their website offer a great shopping experience and are very similar by offering consistency through merchandising, price points, and product selection. Diesel stores are usually big enough to carry large amounts of assortments. However past season items are first to be withdrawn from the stores and they stay available longer to purchase them at the discount prices so the selection of sale items is greater than in stores. Almost all categories are sold both online and in store. Lifestyle products are the only category that can be found only online and those include helmets, lighting, and headphones. Website has slightly higher selection of sizes of jeans and colors but the store is well stocked up. If they are out of a particular style or color they offer free shipping to your home while e-commerce offers free shipping if over $200 spent. Their merchandising is focused on product selections and then by color for both website and stores. Disadvantage of the online shop is the lack of option to check if merchandise is available in a store nearby for those customers who don’t want to opt out for immediate purchase yet they want to touch and try the product first before making a purchasing decision. Diesel’s website has a great opportunity to add that option and attract more traffic and generate sales. Price points are starting from $25 to $1,555. 

Editorial and Descriptive Writing

Customers will find very plain and straight to the point descriptions of the product. Every style has three information tabs that include details; size and fit; and shipping and returns options. Product descriptions are minimal and given in bullet points. They use their pictures and catwalk videos to sell the merchandise. They do not focus on descriptions like many other retailers do; their strategy is to sell the product by having great visuals. Any sort of editorial would be focused on the blogs, and Diesel lifestyle. There is not much writing other than information on, sales, shipping, and trends.

Fraud and Security

Within the Legal Notice link customers can find extensive descriptions on their security, privacy, return policy and many others. They explain in further details how they collect information and use of it. For example, there is a list of personal information that they gather such as e-mail addresses, gender, country, and only on voluntary basis, name, surname, age and, addresses. They don’t use your information without your consent to send you any direct marketing and commercial offers. Overall they guarantee safe shopping experience.

Globalization

The site is available across the world and they are currently shipping to 34 countries worldwide. The product offering are different from the country focused sites, as well as the pricing, as it is done based on exchange rates. As a global site they need to price with exchange rates in mind, as well as additional costs for customs and extra shipping. Offering a selection of products and merchandise that is consistent with the laws and society of the given country also plays a role in their willingness to enter another market. 

Functionality of the Website to Ethical Issues

The company has not been known for any legal troubles regarding ethical issues nor have I found any in the context of website. In operation of the e-commerce they must be extra careful when handling personal information of customers that can be easily abused especially for those who choose not to share their information willingly.  As a site they must be able to follow the laws and restriction of an organization within the country they sell to and operate within. 

Innovation

There is a unique description of the product that includes “size and fit” tab which actually tells the customers what is the height of the model so customers can know understand better how does the picture relates to their body dimensions and comprehend how it will fit them. This is a unique way to view the merchandise and provides a trustworthy presentation of the product online. Innovation is strong in all visuals segments; everything on a site presented is in a highly interactive manner.

According to Compete’s website their main competitors are replay.it and 7forallmankind.com. In comparison to Diesel, Replay’s website lacks the collection and campaign overview but rather takes the customer directly to shop the merchandise. Its assortment is fairly large, similar to Diesel’s but presentation and visuals of the product are not as appealing to the customer in terms of clarity and background options such as ideas how to wear the merchandise. Second top competitor is the least innovative. It does have a clean and professional appeal because of its all white and black use of color but lacks creativity. Assortment selection looks too simple and does not tell a story of the brand compared to Diesel’s website. Both competitors are using runway models to present merchandise as opposed to Diesel’s strategy to use real-life models with more average body figures which is a great approach for customers to relate to the products better.

Diesel.com lacks on option to provide their customers a Wishlist where they could place items they want to buy eventually. It is an important tool that can drive more sales and prevents consumers of forgetting what they were browsing and wished for. 

Plan of Action

As part of the creative team, I would continue to focus on having strong innovation aspects. Customers are already amused with creative visuals, changing of the colors, lifestyle stories but it would be great if website introduced the idea of a wish list in order to prolong customers’ stay on the website and eventually turn those clicks into sales. Increased level of personalization can give customer the feel of being privileged shopper and make him/her want to come back even faster. 

Blogs, Advertorials, and Trend Information

Trend information is focused more on a global events such as concerts, art shows, and similar and for those they have assembled a lookbook of outfits suggested to wear while attending. Key events of the season are highlighted on the main page assembled with the presentation of Diesel’s hottest looks that would go perfect with that occasion. It is a great idea to cut people’s time finding inspiration and dress codes for such events. Diesel doesn't have an established blog linked to the website, however there are many outside fashion blogs that talk about the brand. For advertorials Diesel uses “gifting” and linkage agreements to market to different segments of business.