“Women? Use the internet?! Are you sure?”…

I kid you not, this was the reaction of many retailers in 2005 when I pitched my idea of the Internet Shoppers’ Guides, a dinky little square book covering different themes, aimed (for the first time) at a female audience… and an eventual UK best-seller. A strange reaction? It seems so dated now, but, actually, of those who were regularly online, only 17% were women - a worrying fact confirmed when a head of ecommerce for one of our largest music retailers told me she got her boyfriend to buy CDs for her online! For many people, the Internet was accessed through a big box in the corner of the room - often the preserve of adolescent boys - not an inviting (or safe?) space for women, who had rapidly adopted texting as their preserve (I remember the speed my female friends could type using the number-pad on their ‘pre-smart’ mobile phones). Ecommerce was growing significantly, but the concept of buying clothes online, for example, was seen by the industry as a specialist and challenging category (how could you buy clothes online when you couldn’t try them on first?)

Nonetheless, the Internet was seen as the future and I secured inclusivity for the first book from a well-known UK national retailer and “The Guide to Surviving Christmas using the Internet” for Christmas 2005 was born. I came up with the idea whilst I was consulting at SeeK.net, a media house in South London who had been publishing a kind of ‘Yellow Pages’ local directory of websites to complement their online directory - they were small, but hard working, and so I also thought it would be great to capture that ‘cool club’ feel to the Guides too. On the back of its success, we realised we could develop books across many themes: The Internet Shoppers Guide to… Home, Garden, Parenting, Going Green, Travel, Weddings… and, yes, even ‘Love’??- a ‘tasteful’ edition sponsored by the UK Adult industry (and, of course, on the coat-tails of #jacquelinegold, who managed to turn her father’s adult brand - frankly, then perceived as somewhat seedy - into the female-focussed Ann Summers chain we know today.)

The Guides were practical books - they listed websites with descriptions to solve all sorts of issues and problems and also, with support from the wonderful James Roper from the #IMRG, UK’s trade body for ecommerce, helped disseminate a message of internet safety and reliability. We partnered with many experts including Jamie Oliver (remember his School Dinners campaign), Changing Rooms’ Oliver Heath, Gardener of the Year Andrew Fisher Tomlin, The Ecologist and even the Chief of the Passport Office contributed! But, I have to admit, my most enjoyable joint venture was the special edition cover mount we did for She Magazine - thanks to the inspirational and uber-sharp Justine Southall - I was happy to be Ugly Betty (remember that show :) ) in and amongst the glam and style of Women’s Magazines (funny - Justine says they all wanted to leave trad publishing and go into, ahem, glam ecommerce ha ha!)

Glam is one thing, but what also gave us such momentum was the unique way I arranged their distribution - they were defined as ‘books’ (search my name in Amazon, and there’s still a few remnants of the guides after all these years), but also as a ‘bookazine’, which meant we could use the magazine network to distribute them fast to over 1000 retail stores and supermarkets over a period of 24 hours (books sell in 10’s, magazines 1000’s.) I remember James Roper FRSA taking a flight from London up to Aberdeen and calling me to tell me the books we printed only the day before were on sale in the airport! Through clever distribution, barcoding and data, we were even able to also create displays of multiple editions in-store. Yes, even then, smart tech was at the heart of it!

Since then, clearly, online shopping has improved significantly - more accurate and enticing product presentation, easier payments, reliable and flexible delivery options and a focus on making returns easy, kick-started the now biggest category in ecommerce – Fashion and Beauty. The advent of smartphones also heralded a personal ‘safe’ space to access the cloud (especially welcomed by women) and gave rise to social networking. Almost 20 years after the first Internet Shoppers’ Guide, it’s now female shoppers who power ecommerce and it’s great to see so many female entrepreneurs owning the space and innovating…

…and me, well, I went on to innovate in the post-purchase world (a great delivery experience means loyal customers and, importantly, repeat sales), where the electronic and real worlds collide, but that’s another (and still continuing) story :)

#ukecommerce?#shiran #innovation #pioneers?#InternationalWomensDay