Retailers get personal with blogs from inside

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The most desirable up-and-coming retail space isn't necessarily in the mall. It's in your list of favorite Web sites, right between your best friends' blogs.

A growing number of retailers have started blogs, or Web logs, this year, hoping that an account of the company's newest ideas, explanations of big decisions and stories of employees' lives will show the human side of their shops and create some buzz.

"For any company, blogs are the most efficient way to get people talking about your Web site," said Andrew Sernovitz, chief executive officer of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, a Chicago trade group.

While blogs have been around for years, it wasn't until this year that retailers really got interested. This Christmas season, about 42 percent of retailers are using blogs or RSS feeds -- a feed of constantly updated information sent to blogs, podcasts or Web sites -- according to a recent study by Shopzilla and Shop.org, the online division of the National Retail Federation.

Blogs are mostly the domain of neighborhood stores such as Garden District (gardendistrict-dc.com/blog), where owner Joe Carmack posts gardening tips, and Olsson's Books and Records, which offers a variety of blogs.

But a few large companies publish blogs, too. General Motors Corp.'s top executives write about topics such as why the minivan is no longer popular at gmblogs.com. Kodak employees post photos and personal stories at 1000words.kodak.com.

Other retail companies with blogs include Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (walmartfacts.com/lifeatwalmart), Lands' End Inc. (hisanta.landsend.com), Neiman Marcus' Cusp chain (blogonthecusp.com), Gap's Piperlime (piperlime.com) and Ice (blog.ice.com)

Each blog has a different objective: Wal-Mart's, for example, is a listing of comments from employees about how Wal-Mart has helped them out -- presumably to counteract negative press about how the retailer treats its employees. Lands' End's holiday blog comes from Santa Claus himself, and Cusp's blog is about fashion.

"It's definitely an opportunity to hear from customers who do want to communicate with you ... and it's just another link to [the retailer's] Web site to drive some more traffic," said Sucharita Mulpuru, a senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in New York.

Some retailers see their blogs as similar to walking into the store and asking questions.