Greetings from sweltering Boston, where the proverbial egg has been frying sunny-side up on the sidewalks. Thinking I could escape the heat, I headed out to Shop.org's Online Merchandising Workshop in San Diego last week. Turns out that the humidity had jumped into my suitcase, enjoyed a ride through the friendly skies, and greeted me with a moist hug when I landed in San Diego.

The more than 200 merchandising executives at the event made it worth braving the weather, though. While I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked, the event highlighted some trends in online merchandising that we've been mulling over here at Forrester, all revolving around blending art and science to make online selling experiences more relevant, profitable, and personal. Here are a few interesting approaches to designing personalized site experiences that had attendees talking and that we've noticed here:

• A/B testing. What started as a simple direct mailing tactic has evolved into a must-have for online retailers: 38% of the retailers we surveyed for The State of Retailing Online report use A/B testing of offers and promotions, and 100% of those that use it rank it effective at closing sales. While most retailers test five or so offers at a time, Jeff Zwelling, founder and CEO of YLighting, suggested at the workshop that YLighting will someday run its entire site off of A/B and multivariate tests, essentially personalizing experiences for each user -- but with business goals in mind as well. The idea has legs, although most retailers can't handle the technical or procedural changes required to take on such an endeavor. For now, retailers looking to optimize a few site elements can write custom software, use a commerce platform like ATG, alter pages to add scripts for vendors like Offermatica or Optimost, or test out SiteSpect, which relies on packet sniffing technology.

• Scenario Design. Bryan Eisenberg, of the Future Now Eisenberg brothers, gave a passionate speech at the workshop about the user. "Where," he barked as only a Brooklyn-ite can, "has the user's voice gone in site design?" Forrester calls this discipline of evaluating and designing online experiences around the user Scenario Design, which asks three fundamental questions: Who are your target users, what are their key goals, and how can you help them accomplish those goals? Identifying users requires retailers to create personas, which brings back my favorite dirty little word of eCommerce with a spin: persona-lization. The idea is, figure out how your shoppers shop, then create a selling experience -- not just product offers -- that meets their needs through design, layout, help, and product placement.

• Segmentation, segmentation, segmentation. Did I mention segmentation? Both online and offline, we're seeing more and more retailers create micro sites, stores, and brands that appeal to a distinct shopper -- another form of personalization. I've written about this trend of relevance in retailing in the past, and we're seeing more evidence that retailers use this tactic to tailor brands, merchandise assortment, and marketing messages to customers. Examples? Macy's new thisit.com site targeted at teens, Keds' Mischa Barton site targeted at young women, and of course Best Buy's continued rollout of its customer-centric stores.

Research Referenced In This Issue A Primer On A/B Testing (35289) Key Data Pools Consolidate: It's About Time! (37323) Mid-Year Retail Pulse: Still Beating (36931) Profiling Online Drug Sellers' Customers (36912) Retail Kiosks Send Mixed Messages To Customers (37282) Scenario Design: A Disciplined Approach To Customer Experience (35020)    SiteSpect Goal: A/B Testing As Easy As A-B-C (36099) The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Platforms, Q2 2005 (36435)    Vector Capital Gives BroadVision A Second Wind (37483) Which Retailers Do Financial Consumers Use? (37276)

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