Retail Executive Survey, 2008: Using Maslow To Set Site Investment Priorities

The current economic environment puts heightened pressure on retailers that in turn must adjust their practices and strategies. Despite being painful, this experience is somewhat analogous to issues online retailers will face as the eCommerce market begins to mature over the next five years. Even more important, retailers will need to be smarter, more flexible, and more able to quickly respond to competitive threats and opportunities. By using a strategic framework for making site investment decisions — one that focuses on better understanding what customers are trying to accomplish on the Web site — online retailers can set themselves up to formalize a challenging decision-making process. To reach this level of customer understanding and ensure a consistent focus on customer needs in the decision-making process, retailers can use a framework such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a starting point for setting investment priorities.