PAW PAW SEEKING CUSTOMERS' INPUT ON WEB EXPANSION

ADAM BLAIR

PAW PAW, Mich. -- Paw Paw Shopping Center's web site will be the primary path this retailer takes in its move from traditional mass marketing to its eventual goal of one-to-one communications with its customers.

Paw Paw here plans to hold focus groups in April seeking customer input on the best ways to integrate Internet technology into the shopping experience. Owner Marvin Imus will include as many as 50 consumers in the research, ranging from those already active on the Internet to those who are "non-Internet aware."

Ambitious plans to link the single-store retailer's web site to individual shopper databases are proceeding, and could eventually include providing targeted, non-time-sensitive promotions to customers. "We're analyzing the shopper data segment first by demographics, then by purchase preferences," Imus noted.

An intermediate step will be the creation of subpages on the web site that will be specific enough so that "two or three pages might apply to an individual customer," Imus said.

Eventually, shoppers' own purchase history, collected via Paw Paw's Super 1 Card frequent-shopper program, would help customize their use of Paw Paw's World Wide Web site, http://webstop.com/PawPawShop. A user would enter his or her frequent-shopper card number as a password and would then have access to information and promotions targeted specifically at him or her.

Achieving this goal will require both careful database analysis and ensuring the security of both purchase information and Internet activity, noted Imus.

Currently, the Paw Paw web site contains general information about the supermarket, sweepstakes and other promotional offers, and ongoing service programs such as recipes and meal solutions.

Paw Paw's exploitation of the Internet will be an "ongoing rollout, as the bits and pieces fit together," said Imus. One key area will be linking the web page to the supermarket's front-end point-of-sale system, so that it is truly interactive.

For example, if a manufacturer offered a promotion on a specific item via the web site and a user chose to take advantage of it,

"The system would have to inform the front end that when this customer's frequent-shopper number comes up, she gets this offer. And once it's been used it has to be taken off the web for that user. The pieces of the puzzle are all there, but achieving this requires partnering among the store, my wholesaler, the manufacturers and the various software developers," said Imus.

He is confident that web-based technology can meet shoppers' needs. "The beauty of a web site is that it doesn't have to be accessed from a person's home computer," noted Imus. "Users can access it at work, from a friend's house or a library, or in the store itself.

"The system needs to be designed around the customer's preferences," Imus added. "At different times, a customer will want to do home shopping vs. in-store shopping. By keying technology to the customer's needs, we can make all avenues of the shopping pattern available to her. Whether the products are picked up, delivered or self-shopped, the store needs to meet the customer's needs."