Crutchfield

A Friend in the Electronics Business

* Organization

Crutchfield Corporation

www.crutchfield.com, www.crutchfieldadvisor.com

* Interviewed

Lawrence Becker, Vice President, E-Commerce

What's For Sale

Crutchfield sells millions of electronic devices to aficionados and beginners alike.

What's So Interesting

Crutchfield stands out in the crowded consumer electronics marketplace by focusing on providing superior service; a major service component is the provision of excellent content. While many e-commerce sites (think Best Buy or Amazon.com) can sell you a car stereo system, Crutchfield.com walks you through the entire process — from choosing the right system for your make, model, and year of car to installing it yourself. Started 30 years ago as a print "magalog," Crutchfield has successfully extended its high-quality educational content model to the Internet. With the Crutchfield.com e-commerce site and its educational companion site, CrutchfieldAdvisor.com, content successfully drives commerce.

Why You Should Care

Crutchfield has built one of the most successful consumer electronics stores online by providing more informative content than its competition. In particular, useful content is written for novices and audiophiles alike, so everyone is empowered to make the right selection. The company employs a team of editorial professionals who write about the products they love. By continually optimizing the site around content tailored to buyer behavior, Crutchfield takes the sometimes daunting task of purchasing a gizmo or gadget online and makes it fun for consumers. E-commerce sites in virtually any category can learn from the tried-and-tested Crutchfield approach.

Crutchfield Corporation began 30 years ago when Bill Crutchfield founded the company in his basement with a $1,000 investment. Initially, he focused on car stereo equipment, selling through a catalog he wrote himself. But the initial catalog was a failure, producing hardly any sales. In a tradition that continues to this day, Bill wanted to find out why people weren't buying, so he conducted some basic market research by contacting customers and asking them what they thought of his catalog. He quickly learned a valuable lesson: The public was confused about car stereo equipment and intimidated by its installation. The result was the launch in 1975 of a "magalog" — a cross between a magazine and a catalog — for car stereos. As soon as Bill provided customers with not only catalog information but also articles he wrote (for example, "How I Evaluate and Install Quality Car Stereo"), he created a business selling consumer electronics.

Soon Bill was running a rapidly expanding company. He hired staff, moved out of his basement to a much larger space, and diversified his product line beyond car stereos. Today the company distributes about 30 million Crutchfield magalogs each year. Crutchfield launched its Web site in 1995 with the same strategy as its magalog: To provide high-quality content that helps consumers choose and purchase electronic equipment.

The Crutchfield site sells what Lawrence Becker, Vice President of E-Commerce for Crutchfield Corporation, calls "information-rich products" — those things that need to be explained, described, and specified to help consumers make intelligent purchases. Crutchfield even seeks to enhance the customer experience with content addressing something as seemingly self-explanatory as instructions. Becker says that the often complex products sold by Crutchfield are assembled by Crutchfield staff just as a customer would be required to do. The Crutchfield team follows the directions and uses the products to see how they work, and then they write content that helps consumers understand what they will get and what to expect if they buy.

Turning Complexity into Opportunity

Many of Crutchfield's customers are electronics enthusiasts who are looking for specific products; Crutchfield.com delivers distinct content for this type of consumer. These customers can sort by brand, price, top sellers, new products, or specials within individual product sections on Crutchfield.com. Thus, if you're already knowledgeable and know you want a flat panel HDTV in a certain price range, you can easily comparison shop online.

Clicking on a product leads to an individual product specification page. From there, users can drill down through a series of tabs on the essential information page to more detailed pages, photos, or features and specs. In addition, details about what's included in the package and recommended accessories are listed on other tabs. Because the information is written by Crutchfield people and organized around the Crutchfield product and feature taxonomy, users are guaranteed consistently valuable content that allows them to compare products across multiple brands and price ranges.

A Little Friendly Advice

Professionals at Crutchfield also recognize that visitors come to the site at various stages of a purchase decision with a wide range of product understanding. While some customers are highly knowledgeable enthusiasts who jump right to the product pages, many others know next to nothing about a particular product category. Crutchfield has developed compelling content for both audiences (and anyone in between).

If you're considering an electronics purchase, but are a...