New York Times

More E-Commerce Sites Aim to Add Sticky Content
By BOB TEDESCHI

Published: August 9, 2004

If it is taking longer to shop online, there is a reason: stickiness, the notion of gluing customers to sites with product information like consumer reviews and stories, is back.

Stickiness was heralded during the dot-com boom, and ridiculed during the bust. But now a confluence of technological and consumer trends is prompting e-commerce executives to again think of their online stores as multimedia shopping extravaganzas.

The trend could be seen as yet another byproduct of high-speed Internet access, which is affording online users the luxury of clicking onto pages they might have avoided in their slow-motion surfing days. And like most Internet business trends, this one is being played out against a backdrop of fiscal restraint not always seen in the smoke-and-mirrors Internet economy.

Take Vegas.com, which sells airline tickets, hotel rooms and other travel products to Las Vegas visitors. The site’s president, Howard Lefkowitz, who took the job in 2001, was reviewing employee expense reports when he happened upon an invoice for $3,000 - half for alcohol expenses, half for cash outlays.

The employee, it turns out, was the site’s strip club reviewer. "I said, 'We pay a guy, and we liquor him up and line his pockets with 20’s to review strip clubs?' " Mr. Lefkowitz recalls telling a manager. "Not anymore we don't."

His objections were financial, not moral. Vegas.com still offers strip club reviews, but Mr. Lefkowitz said he arranges free entry for his new reviewer, Dan Hippler, whose job duties also include data analysis. "He brings a bottle of water to the clubs, and if he does use 20’s, they're his own," Mr. Lefkowitz said. "But that’s information I frankly don't want to know."

Mr. Lefkowitz said the Web site’s editorial team had tripled, to 10 to 12 people, as the site built more informational features around its travel products. This fall, Mr. Lefkowitz said, the company intends to introduce, in partnership with Nextel Communications, a feature called the Nextel Business Center, an online concierge service of sorts, that will give travelers lists of activities near Las Vegas hotels. He said the site had in the past year created editorial sections devoted to bachelors, couples, families and others groups.

"And we'll continue to expand," he said. "But there’s a fine line. If people are reading too much, they're not buying stuff."

Vegas.com has walked that line well, Mr. Lefkowitz said, by ensuring that most of the editorial features are relevant to a transaction. He would not disclose the site’s sales, but he said that since 2001, the number of visitors who purchased a product had increased thirtyfold.

"That’s not just because of our content," Mr. Lefkowitz said. "But it’s a piece."

It is not surprising that travel sites would be at the vanguard of the stickiness revival, given that travel tales focusing on a certain destination are critical to inspiring travelers. And since travel sites also occupy by far the most lucrative niche of the e-commerce realm, the biggest sites can afford to invest in features that smaller e-tailers cannot.

InterActiveCorp’s Expedia, for example, recently introduced a redesigned Web site with more editorial features, like virtual tours, which offer visitors panoramic views of hotel rooms, beaches and such. Users can direct the view aspect with the mouse.

"We've always seen content as very important, but recently we've taken it to the next level," said Stuart MacDonald, a senior vice president at Expedia. "For a lot of people, the trip almost starts when they start to plan. To the extent we can make that easier and more fun, it’s good for business."

Mr. MacDonald would not disclose specifics about the cost or benefits of the company’s editorial expansion. "It’s a significant investment but the reason we do it is that we get the return," he said.

As for why Expedia and others have chosen to expand their editorial offerings now, Mr. MacDonald said, "Broadband is absolutely a part of it." Broadband, meaning a high-speed Internet connection, he said, encourages more Web browsing. "But people’s expectations have also increased."

Indeed, as more media sites experiment with video clips, customers could be looking for the same from commerce sites. That is partly why Expedia recently began testing a feature that allows users to view live video from SeaWorld. "This is a first step for us," Mr. MacDonald said. "We'll see what the future holds."