eCommerce Competitive and Comparative Analysis

David’s Bridal
Comparative Analysis

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Table of Contents
1. Project Goals and Research Methodology
2. Addressing the Needs of the Bride
3. Websites Researched
4. Online Sales Analysis and Recommendations
5. Registration Analysis and Recommendations
6. Vendor Relationship Analysis and Recommendations
7. Recommendations Summary
8. Conclusion and Next Steps

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Project Goals and
Research Methodology

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Project and Comparative Analysis Goals
Project Goals
 Increase registration rates
 Increase online sales
 Increase engagement with vendors through content &
placement
Comparative Analysis Goals
 Identify industry best practices
 Recommend changes that can be implemented by start of
2010

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Research Methodology
Determine Core
Needs of the Bride
Develop Mission
Statement for
DavidsBridal.com
Identify Websites To
Be Researched
Conduct Research
and Develop
Strategic
Recommendations
for Online Sales,
Registration and
Vendors
Evaluate
Impact vs. Effort of
Recommendations

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Addressing the Needs of
the Bride

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 Certainty that she is at a website that specializes in wedding
gowns
 A clear and focused online experience that will help her
purchase a gown
 To not be overwhelmed by ancillary wedding products and
services
 Faith in the site’s helpfulness
A Bride Visiting DavidsBridal.com Needs

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 By creating a website mission statement which will guide
all recommended strategies and tactics
 By developing recommendations for tactics that align
with the website mission statement
How We Address the Bride’s Needs

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Outcomes of a Website Mission Statement
 The website mission statement will reduce “noise” on the
site by helping the bride find what she needs quickly and
easily
 Because the bride is not overwhelmed by the options
available to her, she will be more receptive to other
product and service promotions therefore increasing sales
in these areas

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Working Website Mission Statement
DavidsBridal.com offers a full assortment of high-value wedding
gowns as its primary focus.
As a secondary focus, DavidsBridal.com offers a wide range of
wedding products and services that support a bride’s personal
vision for her wedding.
DavidsBridal.com offers the same knowledgeable and respectful
customer service that a bride can find in her local store.

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Website Selection
 No site serves as a simple 1:1 comparison because of the
breadth of David’s Bridal’s offerings
 We identified websites that offer insights into Online Sales,
Registration and Vendors

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Final Websites Chosen
Registration
• David's Bridal
• Martha Stewart Weddings
• The Knot
• Eden Bridals
• Baby Center
Online Sales
• David's Bridal
• House of Brides
• The Knot
• Dessy
• Cold Water Creek
Vendors
• David's Bridal
• Martha Stewart Weddings
• The Knot
• WebMD
• Baby Center
The following sites were reviewed but not included in our final comparison:
Anthropologie, Alfred Angelo, Allure Bridals, Best Bridal, Bridal Guide, Bridal Online Store, Brides.com,
Facebook, Home Depot, iVillage, J Crew, Jordan Fashions, Land's End, Macy’s, Michael’s, OneWed.com
OneStopWeddingPlanner.com, PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com, Priscilla of Boston, Style Me Pretty,
Target, Things Remembered, Wal-Mart, Wedding Channel, Wedding Solutions, Lowes

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Online Sales Analysis and
Recommendations

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When Purchasing Online, a Bride Needs
 To be able to search for a gown using the terms that are
important to her (i.e. color, size, shape, etc.)
 An easy to use and intuitive experience from initial search
to order confirmation
 Certainty that she will find all of the information she needs
before making a final purchasing decision

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Online Sales Process
 The online sales process involves four steps
 We have focused on the bride’s needs within three steps of
this four step process
Search
Product
Evaluation
Decision to
Buy
Purchasing
Process –
Shopping
Cart

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Our Focus Within the Online Sales Process
 We have not included the shopping cart in our analysis
because changes to that area will not be possible within our
project timeline
 Our recommendations focus on improving the wedding gown
buying experience
 We think this focus will yield the greatest impact within our
project timeline
 The bride’s success purchasing a wedding gown will positively
affect her decision to continue purchasing other products
online

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Who Is Doing Online Sales Right?
We went to over 20 fashion related sites and found ten that do
online sales well. At these ten sites we bought gowns and
tested all features.
From this set we selected four sites that offer insights for
David’s Bridal:
 House of Brides
 The Knot
 Dessy
 Cold Water Creek

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Online Sales Feature Comparison
David's Bridal House of Brides The Knot Dessy Cold Water Creek
Navigation and Search
Integration of Sitemap 2 5 2 2 1
Product Search 5 3 2 0 0
Shop by Color 4 0 0 5 5
Shop by Style 4 5 5 5 0
Shop by Newest 2 0 2 0 4
Shop by Size 2 3 4 5 3
Shop by Popularity 0 0 1 0 0
Product Evaluation
Film Clip 4 0 0 0 0
Community Reviews within eCom 4 0 2 0 0
Designer Microsites 1 0 4 0 0
Multiple Views and Zoom 3 3 2 4 4
Decision to Buy
Send to Friend 3 3 5 0 5
Send to Social Media Site 5 0 0 2 5
Size Guide 2 4 2 0 0
Workflow Alignment 2 4 3 4 5
0 5
Feature Not Implemented Feature Fully Implemented
KEY:

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Areas We Focused On
1. Online Gown Purchasing
2. Relevant Promotions
3. Gown Identification
4. Sizing Guide
5. Site Map
6. Product Search

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Weakness: It is difficult to quickly determine how to buy a
gown online at DavidsBridal.com. On the homepage and
subpages, the link to online sales is hard to find.
Implications: The bride needs to move quickly from the home
page to buying a gown online. If the bride has difficulty
finding online sales, she may decide to leave the site.

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The link to online sales on
DavidsBridal.com is not on
the home page.
On pages where it does
appear, it is difficult to find.
It is included among
product categories instead
of on its own level.
David’s Bridal has the unique challenge of
offering both in-store and online only gowns.
Purchasing will be easier for the bride when it
is clear which gowns are available online and
which gowns are only available in stores.

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If gown sales are of primary
importance to online sales,
then the link for “Bridal
Gowns” should be moved to
the top of the list.

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House of Brides makes online
sales very clear by integrating
it into its home page and
tagline.

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On The Knot, every significant
category has its own label.
The Knot also accommodates
users who think of their wedding
gown as a subset of wedding
attire.

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 Make it clear to the bride how she can buy a gown online.
Place a link to online sales on the home page.
 At the highest level of site organization, make online sales a
distinct category. It should not fall within any other
category.
 Clarify which gowns are available online only, in-stores only,
and in both places.
Recommendations

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Weakness: David’s Bridal distracts brides with non relevant
promotions during the online buying process.
Implications: Non relevant promotions may confuse and
overwhelm the bride. Many brides are daunted by the
challenge of finding and purchasing their gown before they
even come to the site. Do not overwhelm them further.
They may leave the site or get diverted from the purchasing
process.

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David's Bridal includes too
many non relevant
promotions throughout the
online sales process.
David's Bridal tries
to take the bride off
of the product page
when she should be
putting a gown in her
shopping cart.

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House of Brides limits non
relevant promotions

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Make everything within the online sales workflow relevant to
buying a gown. The content on each page must keep a bride
focused on purchasing her gown.
2. Relevant Promotions Recommendation

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Weakness: A bride needs to search for a gown based on
categories and features that are important to her (i.e. cut,
color, size, cost, etc.)
Implications: A bride will have difficulty finding her gown if the
gowns are defined by a limited set of attributes or given
unusual names. These things will slow down her search and
make buying decisions difficult.

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The categorization of gowns
in the David's Bridal
navigation is confusing.
It is does not allow the bride
to search based on features
that are important to her.

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Dessy presents a range of
parameters in order to
capture the wide variety of
ways that brides think about
their gowns.

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3. Gown Identification Recommendation
Offer a wider and more relevant range of parameters (i.e. cut,
color, size, cost, etc.) that a bride can use to search for her
gown. These parameters should be included in the left side
navigation.

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4. Sizing Guide
Weakness: The DavidsBridal.com sizing guide is not easy to
find. Some users say the sizing guide is easier to find
through Google than David's Bridal navigation.
Implications: A bride needs sizing information in order to begin
her online gown search. She may leave the site if she can’t
easily find this information.

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4. Sizing Guide
David’s Bridal waits to introduce the
sizing guide too late in the Online Sales
process -- at the product page.

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4. Sizing Guide
House of Brides makes it easy to find their sizing guide.
House of Brides presents its
sizing guide in the navigation
throughout the Online Sales
process.

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4. Sizing Guide Recommendation
Offer clear access to the sizing guide before the bride arrives at
the product page. Brides need this information before they
start their gown search.

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Weakness: Not all brides think the same way. The traditional
left side navigation schema is not the easiest way for
everyone to search for their gown.
Implications: If a bride cannot easily search for her gown, she
may go elsewhere.
5. Site Map

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5. Site Map
David’s Bridal’s site map link
is at the bottom of every page
and is easy to miss.

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House of Brides places its site
map link prominently at the
top of every page.
5. Site Map

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 Brides need many ways to navigate. Promote the site map
as an alternate tool for quickly finding gowns and
understanding the overall site.
 Place the site map link in the navigation on every page.
Make it prominent and easy to find.
5. Site Map Recommendation

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6. Product Search
Weakness: Because they all think differently, brides need a
variety of ways to navigate. Offering a variety of navigation
strategies is ideal. DavidsBridal.com offers a strong product
search feature, but its unique benefits are not obvious to
the user.
Implication: Davidsbridal.com is missing a great opportunity to
help a bride find her gown using this existing search feature.
Brides looking to search by multiple criteria may decide to
shop elsewhere if they cannot find this tool.

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When a bride uses The Knot’s search
feature she cannot refine her results with
additional criteria.
The Knot also does not help the bride
understand why the results are valid.
This is typical of most wedding sites.
6. Product Search

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DavidsBridal.com helps the bride
understand why gowns are included
in her results (i.e. a search for
“strapless” shows results with the
word “strapless” in the description).
Unlike the Knot, DavidsBridal.com allows a bride
to refine her search results with additional criteria
(i.e. color, price, collection, etc.).
6. Product Search

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6. Product Search
On the negative
side, the David’s
Bridal search
function hides the
“narrowing” feature
within the
categories.
The bride will not
see the “narrowing”
feature until she
clicks on the “Bridal
Gowns” category.

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6. Product Search Recommendation
 The bride needs a variety of ways to search for her gown.
Promote search as a helpful tool for finding a gown.
 Revise the search results to show the narrowing feature
immediately.
DavidsBridal.com’s search
functionality needs to be modified
so that the extensive narrowing
parameters within the category
are seen immediately with the
search results

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Online Sales Recommendations
Impact vs. Effort
Recommendation Impact Effort
1. Online Gown Purchasing 4 1
2. Relevant Promotions 4 2
3. Gown Identification 4 3
4. Sizing Guide 2 1
5. Site Map 2 1
6. Product Search 2 1
1 5
Low High
KEY:

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Registration Analysis and
Recommendations

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When Registering, a Bride Needs
 To understand the benefits of registering
 To understand the conditions of this new relationship
 The ability to control her privacy

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 We are focusing on the first three steps of a four step
process.
 The engagement step occurs after submission of user
information. It is not part of our analysis.
Awareness Consideration Conversion Engagement
Our Focus For Registration

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Who Is Doing Registration Right?
We went to over 20 fashion related sites and found eight that
do registration well. At these eight sites we registered, gave
them our email address, and accessed privileged content and
tools.
From this set we selected four sites that offer insights for
David’s Bridal:
 Martha Stewart Weddings
 The Knot
 Eden Bridals
 Baby Center

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Registration Feature Comparison
David's Bridal Martha Stewart The Knot Eden Bridals Baby Center
Awareness
Email Sign Up Process 5 5 5 n/a 5
Interruptive 3 5 5 1 1
Promotions 5 2 2 1 3
Store Appointment 5 n/a n/a n/a n/a
Wish List / Hanger 5 n/a 3 5 n/a
Consideration
Clear Benefit in Call to Action 2 5 5 2 5
Helpful Tools 1 5 5 2 5
Conversion
Communication Preferences 2 5 5 5 5
Opt-Outs in Form 1 5 5 4 5
Privacy Notice 1 5 4 4 5
Awareness
Registration has many moving parts. The underlying parameters are
common across a variety of businesses.
0 5
KEY:

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Areas We Focused On
1. Benefits
2. Opt-Outs
3. Registration Requests
4. Resources
5. Privacy Notice

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Weakness: A bride needs to understand the benefits of
registration.
Implication: If a bride does not understand the benefits of
registration, she will not register. David’s Bridal will lose the
ability to contact her and retain an ongoing relationship.
1. Benefits

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The Knot puts registration in terms that are appealing to the bride.
The Knot doesn’t want you to
“register”. They want you to
“Join”! It’s a party. It’s fun.
1. Benefits

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 Find every opportunity to replace the word “Register” with
language that describes the benefits of registration to the
bride.
 Remember that David’s Bridal needs the bride to register. The
bride does not. The bride needs information, updates, tools, a
community, and more. Help her understand that this is what
she will get by registering.
1. Benefits Recommendation

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2. Opt-Outs
Opportunity: The bride needs a sense of control.
Implication: If the bride does not have a clear sense of control
when she is registering, she may not register.

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2. Opt-Outs
Martha turns opt-outs into a
menu of opportunities.

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2. Opt-Outs Recommendation
 Take the opportunity to reinforce the message that
DavidsBridal.com respects the bride and is at her service.
 Create opt-outs that allow her to opt out of emails and
vendor communications.

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Weakness: A bride does not want to be confused by multiple
requests to register.
Implication: If there are too many ways to register, a bride may
not know which way is right and may not register at all. She
also may become numb to the registration call to action if it is
made too many times.

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After a set period of time, Martha Stewart Weddings stops everyone with an
interruptive invitation to register.
Martha is successful at
earning the respect of her
brides. She is in-your-face-
aggressive but also polite.
She makes it clear when
and where a bride should
register.

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Baby Center uses contextually based pop-ups to drive registration.
Baby Center pushes pop-up
windows on top of its pages.
Content is based on the
context of the page it springs
from.
It is not clear though if
signing up here leads to
registering overall…

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A bride needs to be clear about when to register and what it
will do for her. Reduce the number of requests for registration.
In exchange for reducing the number of requests, consider a
one time full page take-over triggered by a number of clicks or
time on the site.
3. Registration Request Recommendation

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Opportunity: A bride needs help with her wedding tasks. She is
often willing to give up personal information in exchange for
something in return.
Implication: A bride may not register if the benefits of registering
are not significant enough.
4. Resources

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The Knot delivers helpful tools in exchange for registering.
Clear Benefits
Clear Call to Action
4. Resources

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 Offer the bride resources in exchange for registering.
 Offer things other than content. Content is readily available on
other sites (i.e. The Knot) and will not be seen as a unique
benefit.
 Instead, provide unique tools to help the bride plan her
wedding.
4. Resource Recommendations

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Weakness: A bride needs to know what you are doing with her
information. Most likely she has registered elsewhere and has
seen the privacy notice before. She may not have read it, but
assume that she may want to.
Implication: If the bride does not have faith that you will handle
her personal information respectfully and are transparent
about your intentions, she may decide not to register or may
give false information.
5. Privacy Notice

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DavidsBridal.com’s privacy
policy is at the bottom of the
page and is not contextual
to registration.
It will not be obvious to a
registering bride that this
privacy policy concerns
registration.
5. Privacy Notice

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Both The Knot and Martha Stewart offer clear links to their privacy policies.
Martha, ever polite, makes
sure the bride accepts her
privacy policy by requiring
acceptance of it before the
registration process can be
complete.
The Knot gives a link and
says what the bride will find
there.
5. Privacy Notice

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 Make the privacy policy easy to access
 Add the privacy policy to the registration process
5. Privacy Notice Recommendation

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Registration Recommendations
Impact vs. Effort
1. Benefits 4 1
2. Opt-Outs 3 2
3. Registration Requests 3 4
4. Resources 3 4
5. Privacy Notice 2 1
1 5
Low High
KEY:

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Vendor Relationship Analysis
and Recommendations

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What the Bride Needs From Other Vendors
 To learn about other wedding-related products and services
 A sense that David's Bridal is overseeing the introduction
 Trust that David's Bridal is being transparent about how her
information is being used

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Our Focus For Vendors
We focus on the first three steps in a four step process
Awareness Consideration Conversion Engagement

- 76 -
Who Is Managing Their Vendors
Successfully?We went to over 20 fashion related web sites and found four
that we think do a good job integrating vendors into their
service offering. We followed these vendors, linked to their
websites, lined them up for our wedding, and read what they
had to say.
From this set we selected four sites that offer fresh insights for
David’s Bridal:
 Martha Stewart Weddings
 The Knot
 Web MD
 Baby Center

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Vendors Feature Comparison
David's
Bridal
Martha
Stewart
The Knot WebMD Baby Center
Awareness
Contextual Ad Placement 3 4 3 5 4
Clear Organization of Vendors 1 3 4 2 3
Brand Exposure Through Ad Takes Customer Out of Market 5 2 2 3 2
Integration In Registration Confirmation Email 0 5 5 1 4
Links In Side Bars 5 2 2 2 2
Consideration
Co-sponsored Resources/Content 1 2 2 5 1
Vendors Within Planning Process 4 5 5 n/a n/a
Host Vendor Homepage 2 5 5 0 0
Co-branding 2 2 2 5 2
Conversion
Opt-outs at Registration 0 5 5 4 5
0 5
KEY:

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Areas We Focused On
1. Vendor Organization
2. Ads
3. Co-Sponsored Content
4. Vendor Information

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Weakness: The bride needs vendor listings to be clearly
organized. The first listing she sees is a matrix that is neither
clear nor properly labeled.
Implication: If information on the vendors listing page is
difficult to review or understand, the bride will overlook
important vendors.

- 80 -
DavidsBridal.com’s
vendor page is not easy
for the bride to use.
1. Vendor Organization The title “Planning
Categories” is confusing. It
does not convey that this
page is a listing of vendors
who offer these products and
services.

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The Knot organizes
vendors by categories in
a column format. It
provides tools to help the
bride find the right
vendors for her needs.
The Knot is clear. It
tells the bride that this
section is for vendors.

- 82 -
She too organizes vendors
in a column format by
category and she provides
tools to help the bride find
vendors that are right for
her.
Martha Stewart is
also clear that this
section is for
vendors.

- 83 -
Provide a clearly labeled list of vendors and organize it by
category
1. Vendor Organization Recommendation

- 84 -
2. Ads
Weakness: With so much to do, the bride needs to focus on
one thing at a time. Vendor ads in the middle of the online
sales workflow detract from the bride’s focus on buying a
gown.
Implication: Brides need to stay focused on finding and buying
their gown. Otherwise they will be diverted and the sale
lost.

- 85 -
2. Ads
David's Bridal places too many
ads in the online sales process.
They compete for the bride’s
attention.
This ad for a wedding website
takes the bride’s focus away
from buying a gown.

- 86 -
2. Ads
The Knot integrates vendors
seamlessly into the planning
process.
Their intrusion into other
activities (such as gown
purchasing) is minimized.

- 87 -
2. Ads
Through language, Martha
Stewart makes vendors an
implicit part of the wedding
planning process.
Like The Knot, she
minimizes their presence
elsewhere on the site.

- 88 -
2. Ad Recommendations
 Help the bride focus on her tasks by seamlessly and
holistically integrating vendors into the service offering of
the website.
 Make a place for vendors by including them in wedding
planning resources and tools. Here they will capture the
bride’s attention at the right time. Click through rates will
increase.
 Place fewer ads in the sales process.

- 89 -
Weakness: DavidsBridal.com does not offer its vendors a
program for co-sponsored content.
Implication: Without co-sponsored content, DavidsBridal.com
loses potential revenue as well as specialized content that
brides will value.

- 90 -
WebMD provides a range of co-sponsored content. While WebMD is a media
site, this tactic is relevant to David's Bridal. Co-sponsored content is a way to
seamlessly include vendors in bridal planning tools and resources.

- 91 -
Integrate co-sponsored content (i.e. helpful articles, customized
tools, blog entries, etc.) into DavidsBridal.com.
This will provide:
 additional vendor revenue for DavidsBridal.com.
 opportunities to tap into the knowledge and expertise of
outside vendors. This will increase David’s Bridal’s online
content offering and better serve the needs of brides.
3. Co-Sponsored Content Recommendation

- 92 -
Weakness: Brides want to learn more about vendors they are
considering. DavidsBridal.com does not consistently provide
information on its vendors nor does it bring them together
in a single location.
Implications: If the bride cannot easily learn about a vendor,
she may not want to work with them.

- 93 -
DavidsBridal.com is
inconsistent. Some vendors
have their own vendor page
(i.e. Partner Detail) while
others do not.

- 94 -
Some DavidsBridal.com
vendors link from
DavidsBridal.com to their own
vendor page on
OurWeddingDay.com.
This is confusing to the bride.
Her primary relationship is with
David’s Bridal. She doesn’t know
the vendor or Our Wedding Day.

- 95 -
The Knot provides each of
its vendors with their own
vendor page.
Placed within the site and
easily found in the
navigation, this information
is credible and helpful to the
bride.

- 96 -
 Help the bride learn more about vendors by giving each one
a page on DavidsBridal.com. Make these pages easy to find.
 On-site vendor pages will convey to the bride that these
vendors have David’s Bridal’s stamp of approval.
4. Vendor Information Recommendation

- 97 -
Vendor Recommendations
Impact vs. Effort
1. Vendor Organization 4 1
2. Ads 4 4
3. Co-Sponsored Content 3 3
4. Vendor Information 3 3
1 5
Low High
KEY:

- 98 -
Recommendations
Summary

- 99 -
Summary of Recommendations
Online Sales
4. Sizing Guide
5. Site Map
6. Product Search
Registration
1. Benefits
2. Opt-Outs
4. Resources
5. Privacy Notice
Vendors
2. Ads

- 100 -
All Recommendations: Impact vs. Effort
Online Sales Impact Effort
1. Online Gown Purchasing 4 1
2. Relevant Promotions 4 2
3. Gown Identification 4 3
4. Sizing Guide 2 1
5. Site Map 2 1
6. Product Search 2 1
Registration
1. Benefits 4 1
2. Opt-Outs 3 2
3. Registration Requests 3 4
4. Resources 3 4
5. Privacy Notice 2 1
Vendors
1. Vendor Organization 4 1
2. Ads 4 4
3. Co-Sponsored Content 3 3
4. Vendor Information 3 3
1 5
Low High
KEY:

- 101 -
Conclusion and Next
Steps

- 102 -
Comparative Analysis: Final Observations
If these recommendations are incorporated, we believe that
you will see
 Increased registration rates
 Increased online sales
 Increased engagement with vendors through content &
ad placement

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