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PLMA 2014: Curated commerce

Retailers need to give shoppers the tools to speed up the path to purchase.

“This is what’s going to set apart retailers that win,” Stephen Mader, digital retailing director for Kantar Retail, said in his Tuesday keynote at PLMA's store brands trade show.

Stephen Mader
Stephen Mader

While Mader gave many examples on how to use technology to remove path-to-purchase friction, I’ll highlight what he said about the importance of curation.

Retailers are beginning to build special displays featuring products that get good reviews from industry experts and social media sites.

Third party endorsements are smart at a time when nearly half of consumers read product reviews online before making a purchase, Mader said.


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“Retailers are bringing in trusted sources to help consumers make a decision,” he said.

Take Target. Last year, it partnered with Wired magazine to offer Wired Editors’ Picks for Target, a custom-curated assortment of consumer electronics and gadgets.

It also partnered with consumer electronics site CNET to provide shoppers with CNET Editors’ Picks for Target for the 2012 holiday season. CNET Editors’ Picks for Target featured 25 product reviews across Target’s electronics department. CNET editors rated products based on ease of use, style and value.

Pinterest is another curation tool. Nordstrom, for instance, tested a program in which popular Pinterest items were displayed in-store with a red Pinterest tag.

 

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