This is the first in a new feature we’re going to start on the blog. A light hearted way to begin the week and start thinking about ecommerce while critiquing the companies either owned or endorsed by celebrities. So, without further ado, let’s start looking at CelebriteCommerce.

This idea arose back in February when GoTrump.com went live. The idea of the Donald entering the online business world seemed too funny to be true, but alas he did and the site is real. So, for the first in this series we decided to start with the woman whose TV performance Donald Trump declared to be “terrible,” Martha Stewart. Let’s see how she does in the e-retailing business.

The Good
Martha Stewart’s online store has the highest Internet Retailer ranking of any celebrity owned business, sitting in position no. 245. Fantastic, right? $11.2 million in sales for 2005 may not seem shabby, but in reality it is. That’s because…

The Bad
Sales in 2004 were $14.4 million. That’s a 23.9 percent drop! I never use exclamation points, but that figure is incredible. As in so deliriously bad I can’t really believe it. Apparently Martha couldn’t believe it either so she’s pulling out of ecommerce, a move that has been underway for almost two years now. The ecommerce division of her company lost $2.5 million in 2005 and $7.8 million in 2004. No wonder she was working so hard at the stock market.

The Why
Where we find out that CelebriteCommerce sites operate under different principles than other sites. As in, if you go to prison for insider trading your image will suffer and so will your ecommerce business. The site is nicely laid out, with clear buttons and an easily navigated format, but this could not save the company from a PR fiasco.

The simplicity of the product pages seems to fit nicely with the business model. These are products that customers likely know about from the TV show or magazine and go online to buy. They know what they want and want a clear way to buy it.

The clarity begins to suffer as you enter the shopping cart. The site smartly offers the option to shop as a registered user, new customer or guest. But offering them side-by-side and making customers read through to find the option that best fits them only serves to confuse shoppers. I can easily imagine my mom, and many other women who are computer literate, getting confused. Am I a new customer or am I a guest? What is the difference?

Time and time again we see poorly thought out design at the beginning of checkout, a page that is frequently the largest exit point for a site. I don’t think the checkout page design was responsible for the demise of MarthaStewart.com/shop, that was just a good old-fashioned public relations problem. Although it does nicely illustrate the importance of customer confidence in your brand.