eMarketer: Are you finding certain online marketing areas more effective than others?
Nick Bomberbach: It depends on who you want to reach.
During the back-to-school season, we focus a lot more on nontraditional
elements—online stuff, creating microsites, virtual games and doing
mobile marketing techniques. Every now and then, we’ll do fun one-off
campaigns.
Over the holiday season, we did a viral campaign for the JCPenney jewelry department called “Beware of the Doghouse,” in which husbands and boyfriends could be banished to the doghouse for bad gift giving.
The campaign had over 7 million visitors. More than 7,000 people were banished and another 9,000 people were sent warnings. One response we kept getting was, “Oh,
I’d never think that JCPenney would do something like this!”
In this economy, people want to buy nice gifts for loved ones, but are looking for
more value.
eMarketer: What about online coupons?
Mr. Bomberbach: Free shipping offers on JCP.com definitely enhance sales.
“Free shipping offers on JCP.com definitely enhance sales.”
We’ve been doing the ship-to-store option for over 40 years with our catalog business. All of our weekly circulars in newspapers are also available on JCP.com.
This was the first year that a lot of people that were traveling home for the holidays had to pay a checked baggage fee. It was easier for them to go on JCP.com, purchase all their gifts, get free shipping to the local store in their hometown, then pick up the gifts wrapped and ready to go.
eMarketer: Do you approach the online and offline JCPenney experiences differently?
Mr. Bomberbach: We used to look at JCPenney as three different channels—the store, the site and the catalog. But that’s not how our customer sees us. They see us as one
entity.
With “Know Before You Go,” you can go on JCP.com. Let’s say you’re looking for a red sweater. You find a red sweater that you like and your size and then you can
put in your local ZIP code and find out if your local store is carrying it. It’s updated every hour.
“People are looking to shop smarter.”
People are looking to shop smarter now more than ever. They don’t want to drive all around town trying to find something.
On JCP.com, we added customer reviews to products late last year. We’ve had personalized product recommendations for about a year and a half. If you view a dress, it recommends
a pair of shoes or a wrap that would go with it. That increases the chance people may purchase another item.
We have a weekly online video called “What’s in Store,” hosted by actresses who are store shoppers. They highlight trends for the week. During the holiday season,
it might be gift ideas. That’s another way of just trying to create a seamless transition between JCP.com and our stores.
Our spring campaign is focused on our new exclusive designer brands, so now when you
go to the women’s department at JCP.com, there’s an online runway show going
on. You can see all the items head to toe, what the trends are, and there are videos of the designers talking about the selections. The commercials are up there, too.
eMarketer: What would you say are the key differences in the online versus the offline shopping experience?
“We’re always going to have things online that you can’t find in the store.”
Mr. Bomberbach: We’re always going to have things online that you can’t find
in the store. One of our biggest businesses on JCP.com is our [baby] and
nursery items. That’s not something that we carry in the store, but it was a
huge business for us through JCP.com. Online we have seasonal items, like coats
and swimsuits, available year-round, but that’s not the case in stores.
Sometimes there are special offers just on JCP.com or just in-store. But a lot of the
time, coupons are good in the store, catalog and JCP.com.