Under the Hood of Retailer Of The Year Award
Winners’ Websites By Kris Bulla
Al & Eds AutoSound
www.al-eds.com
Al & Ed’s Autosound has a ton of history and claims many in-
dustry ‘firsts’ that its stores have performed. In the web world, they are at the top of their game in many different ways, which is carried over at the storefront level. While the website’s homepage is rather imposing at first, once you adjust to the massive amount of information on it, things become pretty clear of where to go to find the information you need. Features such as the About Us and Press Room tabs along the top allow new customers to research who they are doing business with, and the information here is quite impres- sive. On the Press Room page, you can see magazine articles, web links, and videos of installations they have performed, and some of their high-profile clients and achievements. Links to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are sprinkled on the left
navigation pane throughout the site, which allows visitors quick ac- cess no matter how deep in the site you go. Along with these, a persistent E-Mail Newsletter sign-up link is very prominent, which not only gets potential customers to sign-up, but it also allows Al & Ed’s to keep in touch with specials, promotions, and other informa- tion to encourage visiting the site, the store, or both. Al & Ed’s puts most of the products sold online for customers
to view, and the product viewing is set-up in a catalog of sorts. Many products can be purchased online, but certain lines and models are labeled “for purchase in store only” so they com- ply with any manufacturer-defined distribution rules. One very interesting part of the product viewing experience is the Lowest Price Guarantee button on each product, which searches the Internet for the lowest price from several online retailers to ensure you are getting the lowest price for that product on the web. Once it finds lower prices, it shows you and you can click the button to Match It. However, it doesn’t mark down the price of the product itself, but rather adds the product to your cart and applies an Instant Price-Match Rebate in your subtotal. This may be to comply with MAP pricing set by the manufactur- ers, which is good, but it’s rather confusing because the price you saw on the low price search was not directly relayed to the cart, and once you add more than one product, the rebates combine so you really cannot tell how much you are paying for
48 Mobile Electronics September | October 2011
the individual products.
Tools for shopping abound on the site – there is a “What Fits My Ride” tool to find products that fit the customer’s vehicle, the product categories are organized neatly with recogniz- able names which help the consumer find products quickly, and a store locator for consumers to find a store to physically view the products and get their products installed. With 18 locations, Al & Ed’s handles their website in a pretty cool fashion; the main site is a corporate umbrella and store website, and every location has its own micro-site. This allows each location to feature their own information about hours of operation, contact information, and any specialties they can handle such as exotic vehicles or custom fabrication capabili- ties. However, once the customer is on one of the micro-sites, only the breadcrumb trail leads you back to the main site, which may be a bit confusing. Each micro-site opens a new window, but it may be wise to put the Al & Ed’s logo on the micro-site home page or link the large header logo back to the original site to keep the customer from getting lost. John Haynes shared some operational information with me as I inquired about the staff that makes all of this happen. Although individual time spent on various areas of the site changes through- out the year, there are two full-time employees dedicated to the site, in addition to a graphics designer and himself. As new items arrive, web posts about them go on the social media to get people interested. Email marketing is sent out several times per week. In terms of SEO, Al & Ed’s ranks near the top of searches for car audio products when Google location services are active and you are located nearby. When California or any of their location cities are applied to the search, they appear at or near the top.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68