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5 Must Steals From REI
Here re five easy steals from http://www.rei.com that will increase your Holiday sales:

* Red DEAL or SALE button Far Right.

* Deal of the Day (you can put this anywhere).

* Loyalty Program (there are canned ones you can install).

* Trigger Point Free Shipping (below Login).

* BIG Search Box Next to logo.

Red Deals Button
REI.com is aware that the right side of a website can be a gutter. If you use the F design idea, and they do, and watch eyetracking you know you can manipulate a visitors eyes with things like a long horizontal menu bar. Since everyone clicks on DEALS REI.com puts it far right and in a somber red (to match their black menu bar).

Deal of the Day
REI.com's is above their footer in the middle (another potential gutter). DEAL shoppers will find that link no matter where you put it, so put it in a potential gutter and you convert "dead space" to ROI positive with a simple graphic and idea. At this time of year and with social media being so HUGE if you don't have a great Deal of the Day lined up you will suffer at the hands of the REI.com's.

Loyalty Program
I hesitated to put this in since installing a loyalty program can feel like invading Russia in the winter. Don't let it get that way. Buy a canned and simple loyalty program or create some easy way to reward your most loyal shoppers. If you can't get your website loyalty together by the holidays use your "Multi-Buyer" segment and serendipitous give them something no one else gets (via an email). Find your 80/20 rule (20% of your customers will do 80% of your sales) and REWARD the 20%.

Free Shipping Trigger
When I was a Director of Ecommerce my boss was so skeptical and worried about Free Shipping I had to do extensive analysis and tests. Here is what we found:

* Free Shipping Triggers are always exceeded by 40% or more.
* Free Shipping beats no Free Shipping every time.
* Make sure your Shipping Schedule is PRESENT and easy to understand.

REI.com's $50 Free Shipping probably produces an Average Order Value (AOV) of just under $100 (or more). Remove the objection (shipping costs are seen as a "don't buy" objection) and your buyers will buy. Interestingly all orders, all shipments FREE SHIPPING didn't always win. Seems Free Shipping is related to BUYER PSYCHOLOGY so some friction actually helps, some hurdle may help buyers feel special.

Big Search Box
My theory is REI.com's menu system is so complex they have to have great internal search. Even if your navigation is perfect expect half of your customers to want it their way (by using search). If you want to get really cool make sure you are merchandising your search sets with either faceted search or dynamic zones (zones you fill with content based on behavior or modeled analytics).

SoLoMo Nightmare

I came home to see water seeping into my garage from my house. A leak in a downstairs half bath has done some serious damage and may be doing more now (if it is in the wall). 

I look for a plumber stating with Angie's list. Bad Experience because the search algorithm is stiff and pitching a strange set (probably those paying the freight to be at the top). Every plumber has an A review and putting in people I know about was only a fifty fifty shot to find anything at all. 

 Where Is The BEAUTY? FUN?
 I'm confused. We've got Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook and looking for a plumber is a hair's difference from using the yellow pages. I moved from Angie's LOST List to Google and Yelp reviews. 

If Angie's LOST List seems rigged and inauthentic Yelp and Google have no scale. I tweeted and asked friends on Facebook if anyone knew of a good plumber. My friend Kate saved the day with a great recommendation.

I Want A New Drug!

Here is the problem in my head we are already working in the predictive real time of Web 3.0, but the reality of this brutal plumber search makes me wonder why an army of startups isn't thinking about social reviews like the one Kate just provided. 

Social reviews can be very brief because they come from such trusted sources (friends). Kate should have been rewarded for her immediate and high quality thought. Instead her great idea disappeared into Facebook's either. Where is the tag cloud when you need it? 

I Want A New Drug!

Call me crazy but the process of finding a plumber should be beautiful. I'm using this beautiful Tumblr feed again, the Poetry Of Material Things to point out that a sad truth.

The problem is US. We lack the imagination to mashup scaled systems to produce, reward and scale a reviews / recommendation engine that provides beauty, immediacy and support. Why? Because we can, because we HAVE a new drug called the Internet. 

If you are a startup or so inclined and have already spent some mental cycles on this let's grab lunch. If I can't fund you I know people who can. Tell me the story of how looking for a plumber can be beautiful and fun and you have the proverbial million-dollar idea.