Ecommerce

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  Exciting Commerce // Unlimited

• Social Shopping Strategies: ThisNext, Stylehive, Stylefeeder, Kaboodle, Etsy

  Jason Soo

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:37 pm

  After sleeping through some important developments the last couple of years, the social shopping segment is now bustling with hectic activity. The former pioneers are re-orienting themselves and are in part rolling out completely new strategies: The boldest plans are most definitely being nurtured by Etsy. We’ve reported on them several times already. ThisNext and Stylehive are coupling together as Curatemedia (“to dominate social shopping”) and want to run a bundle of niche sites. “What should I buy?” is the motto here (and not only for the users). Stylefeeder gets bought out and…

• From Social Shopping to Personal Shopping Network

  Jason Soo

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:01 am

  Social networks and personal networks are in principle two sides of the same coin. One sees the network from the point of view of “the masses” and the other from the point of view of the individual.In the social web, the pendulum has swung back and forth over the last five years, from MySpace to blogs to Facebook to Twitter (and naturally the ubiquitous iPhone :-).At the moment, partially due to mobile applications, development is tending away from the big social networks and more towards the smaller, personal helper apps which assist the user to link into their personal network and thus…

• Media Momentum Looking for the E-commerce Growth Drivers

  Jason Soo

  3 Feb 2010 | 1:20 pm

  Media Momentum is this year again looking for Europe’s strongest growing online businesses.Whoever managed to generate revenues of at least 1.5 million euro in 2009 can apply for the 2010 award. Entry deadline is March 1, 2010. Last year, e-commerce companies such as BuyVIP, Net-a-Porter, Private Outlet, Spartoo and Zooplus made it to the top 50 list of growth drivers.Here the video from the Media Momentum Awards 2009: Exciting Commerce is a media partner of the Media Momentum Awards and will report from the awards ceremony in London on May 12, 2010.Originally posted in German by Jochen…

• The Hipstery and The Rise of Mystery

  Jason Soo

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:46 am

  Surprise packages have always been a popular attraction in the live shopping scene.The Hipstery ("Home of the famous Mystery Shirt") has made it their mission to step-up the surprise effect using a scientific and mysterious method of finding a suitable t-shirt for every person: The creators pay particular attention to the entertainment factor, or “The Hipstery Experience”. Although just a few months old, this small but well thought out model has generated astonishingly good resonance and word of mouth is travelling faster than previously expected.This is another example of how…

• Exceed Program To Support Young Entrepreneurs in Germany

  Jason Soo

  31 Jan 2010 | 4:12 pm

  After the successful launch of Exciting Commerce’s new Exceed Program a few days ago, the first workshop has now been set for February 12 in Frankfurt. The Exceed Program, short for “Exciting Commerce Seed Program” was launched on the first day of the Live Shopping Days 2010 conference and involved 50 or so young entrepreneurs, coaches and industry experts.Together with an existing startup team, we will be using the workshop to take a rather average business idea and develop it into a future oriented business model with true disruptive potential.The Exceed Program supports innovative…

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  E-Commerce Times

• The Year of the Customer: Balancing Service and Efficiency

  Dan Yalon

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  The big question as we move through 2010 may be, "What does the future hold?" But really, the past year will give us a clearer glimpse into the future than any crystal ball possibly could. 2010 is the year of the customer. December 31st, 2009, marked the end of one of the toughest years companies have faced in decades, both in terms of the challenges of a major economic downturn, and a major shift in how companies interact with their customers -- the customers who are increasingly more demanding and can change providers easily.

• Understanding the Pre-Shopping ROBO Mentality

  Carl Prindle

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  The term "ROBO" -- Research Online, Buy Offline -- was coined by Yahoo to describe the growing number of consumers who research online but buy offline. Online "pre-shopping" has become a common activity prior to a variety of purchases. According to Forrester, online research will influence $1 trillion in offline sales by 2012, making it imperative that retailers understand the full impact that their online presence -- as well as those of their competitors -- may have on consumer in-store behavior.

• Report: iPad Will Propel Tablets Into Mainstream Use

  Erika Morphy

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:44 pm

  The tablet computer market will see 50 million units shipped in 2014, according to a new In-Stat report -- and if Apple plays its cards right, a significant portion of them could be iPads. In-Stat took several factors into account as it made its calculations, said Jim McGregor, analyst and report author. "Right now, Apple can build these devices for $400 and still make a profit off of them. But the cost will eventually come down -- and so will the price for consumers."

• China Plays Up Hacker Crackdown

  Renay San Miguel

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:10 pm

  Two Monday technology stories, both involving China: Call them the yin and yang of that country's attempts to repair its image following Google's recent hacking allegations and the search giant's subsequent threats to end its business dealings in the country. Chinese police are trumpeting their shutdown of a major hacker training Web site and three related arrests. However, on the same day, Google claimed that the logo of a copycat Web site based in China looks a little too much like its now-familiar brand and wants something done about it.

• Ripping the Wrong Page From Apple's E-Playbook

  Andrea Belz

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  On January 27, a major speech took place: No, it was not the State of the Union address, but Steve Jobs' announcement of the release of the iPad. The iPad has already started to change the landscape of digital publishing: After a few days of a public battle, Amazon was forced to capitulate to a new deal with Macmillan, one of the six largest publishers; on Friday, Hachette started to make noise too. Previously, Amazon set the prices -- typically a default of $9.99. This scheme lost money for the e-tailer but promoted the sales of the Kindle reader.

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  The Truth About E-Commerce

• Website Review: ScanCafe.com ****

  Daniel J. Stern

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:41 am

  It’s funny how quickly a commonplace technology can quickly and irrevocably pass into obscurity and obsolescence. Consider the 45 record adaptor, rotary-dial telephone, stamps that have to be licked…and photographic slides and negatives. Most of us, with the possible exception of those who’ve burnt all familial bridges, have boxloads of the damn things. Whether neatly categorized and stored in Carousel trays or haphazardly heaped in random envelopes and piles, their bulk is as much mental as it is physical. We can’t discard the images knowing they contain rich troves of…

• Lies, Damned Lies and E-Commerce Myths

  Brad Kozak

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:15 am

  We’ve just finished another e-commerce holiday season, and the world survived. No thanks to the all-news cable channels and their broadcast brethren. If you listened to their coverage of Internet shopping, you heard horror story after horror story about rip-offs, identity thefts and scams. To hear them tell it, the online world is the e-Wild, West, a virtual landscape filled with thugs, mugs, and various and sundry unsavory character just waiting to slaughter the sheeple brave or stupid enough to enter their credit card details online. The media does the public a disservice by publishing…

• Time for E-Commerce to Get Siri-ous?

  Robert Farago

  7 Feb 2010 | 4:40 am

  Click here to view the embedded video. I love talking to voice recognition systems. My Honda was a hoot. “What is the meaning of life?” I’d ask. To which the minivan would reply, “Sirius XM Channel 150 on.” True story. Also true: this demo. The odds that the Siri personal assistant app would work this seamlessly on an iPhone are about as high as The New England Patriots winning Superbowl XLIV. And yet, there it is. Unfortunately, as with Apple’s iPad, Siri’s set-up for slacking, not buying actual stuff. But the option—and potential—are…

• All’s Fair in Love Online: Match.com & eHarmony.com

  Brad Kozak

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:27 pm

  It’s a jungle out there. Dating, I mean. Having recently left the married life, I am currently footloose and fiancé-free. I’m living in a city where I’m sans-support groups/friends/wingmen and I’m a member of a really, really tiny church So most of my normal avenues of acquiring dates are cut off. I’ve never been into the bar scene (“I dunno . . . what’s YOUR sign?”). Nor have I had a lot of good luck with personals ads. I met my ex- that way. ‘Nuff said. So it seemed like a good time to turn to one of the perennial bright spots in…

• How Amazon’s Kindle Can Kick the Apple iPad’s NSFW

  Robert Farago

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:29 am

  Never let it be said that I dwell exclusively on the negative side of an e-commerce story. I am fully capable of finding the silver lining inside Elvis’ gold lame suit. Yes, we’re running an Amazon Death Watch. But it’s a watch, not a dead cert. The company could still get its NFSW together. They enjoy a big lead over their natural competitors, including a robust website, top-notch fulfillment, pleasant customer service reps and money, money, money! And now’s the time to spend it on their book biz, what with Apple’s iPad and iBook Store threatening to douse…

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  Shop.org Blog

• Research: Which big dollar purchases consumers are delaying

  Fiona Swerdlow, Head of Research, Shop.org

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:49 am

  In an ongoing effort to understand how consumers continue to adapt to the recession, we recently asked BIGresearch to explore with consumers what “big ticket” purchases they have either put off – or may never make at all. While tighter purse strings are a given these days, the results illustrate how priorities differ across consumer segments. The overall good news: retailers in the business of selling big ticket items can take heart, even if they have to be patient as some consumers delay some of those purchases for now. A side note: unlike many of the studies that Shop.org…

• Racie Award Finalists Announced!

  Larry Joseloff, VP, Content, Shop.org

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:53 am

  Greetings We are doing a ton of new things at our upcoming Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference in San Francisco.   We have a mobile boot camp, we are bringing two groups of the NRF community together, but we are also very excited to be involved with The Racie  Awards.  The Racie Awards, distributed by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) are given each year to honor the very best campaigns for advertising in the retail industry.  This year in honor of our new event we have included a variety of online and digital category awards.  You can find out the winners…

• Know your Member Benefits: Regional Dinners

  Mike May, Membership Communications, Shop.org

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:58 am

  We’re unswerving advocates of all things digital, and fancy ourselves as rather forward-thinking in social media and online communications of all flavors. But we’re also people. And as people, we like to see other people – in person. Sure, technology can offer a substitute for some face-to-face interaction, just as Tofurkey is served on many Thanksgiving tables. Much of the same nutritional content is there, and it’s a laudable effort. But compared to the real thing, it doesn’t pair nearly as well with chardonnay. Shop.org Regional Dinners, on the other hand,…

• Valentine’s Day — Online Shoppers Look Promising

  Fiona Swerdlow, Head of Research, Shop.org

  1 Feb 2010 | 9:42 am

  With all eyes trained on the quarter in progress and the full year ahead, the first of the new year’s bigger shopping holidays – Valentine’s Day – is a scant two weeks away. While many consumers are still recovering from recent Holiday expenditures, this occasion’s appeal to love and friendship is proving hard for consumers ignore entirely — and online shoppers look like a particularly promising segment.  According to an NRF survey conducted in early to mid-January by BIGresearch: 60% of US consumers aged 18 and older plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day in some way this…

• Online Retail Boot Camp Webinar: No Push Ups Required

  Artemis Berry, Content Manager, Shop.org

  1 Feb 2010 | 9:33 am

  In September over 300 of you attended an all-day Shop.org Online Boot Camp which was an intense and tactical look at some of the core concepts in the world of online marketing and merchandising. The event provided “Tips for Success” on some of the most important topics in eCommerce. 6 topics, 7+ hours, 9 speakers, 12 roundtables, 300+ attendees = It was a hit. Since we received such great feedback we put together a “Playbook” with more information on the same topics and from the same speakers and brought back a few of our experts for a webinar on February 3rd(FREE for Shop.org…

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  Web Marketing with Ed Rivis

• Clear the Tumbleweed & Get Massive Traffic

  Ed

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:28 am

  One of the most common complaints with small business web sites is that they don’t get any traffic. Some business owners I spoke with over the last few months have told me their web site has NEVER seen any significant amount of traffic, and they don’t know what to do about it. Well I’ve spoken at length about using Google Adwords and other forms of online advertising, but there’s one tactic I haven’t covered much — certainly not in enough detail to do it justice. So in this article I’m going to give you my number one strategy for getting massive…

• My first really BAD book review.

  Ed

  29 Jan 2010 | 1:29 am

  Here’s a story that not only highlights how incredibly effective e-mail marketing is, but also the inherent dangers of it working too well. My new book E-Mail Marketing Dynamite has been on Amazon a while, but until a few weeks ago didn’t have any reviews. That was a problem for me, because at the beginning of January I signed a contract to promote my new book to around 213,000 small business owners here in the UK. I was therefore concerned that if any of those 213,000 business owners decided to see what the reviews are like on Amazon, they would see there weren’t any! That…

• Dynamite book launch.

  Ed

  10 Dec 2009 | 7:25 am

  My new book E-Mail Marketing Dynamite launched yestersday. At the moment I’m giving it away FREE! If you want a copy all you have to pay is a few pounds to cover the cost of postage and packing to anywhere in the United Kingdom. (Overseas costs a little bit more but the book is essentially still free.) As the name implies this one’s all about e-mail marketing - how any small business can get massive leverage on the incredible power this medium provides to boost sales and profits. Click here to grab a free copy of E-Mail Marketing Dynamite — but do it now before I regain my…

• Paging David Watson!

  Ed

  5 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am

  I’m trying to contact a U.K. based software developer and Internet Marketer by the name of David Watson, creator of Website Headline Wizard Software. If you know David and can put me in touch with him, please contact me. Or, if you ARE David Watson then please get in touch a.s.a.p. - I’ve got a business proposition for you! Thanks, Ed.

• My first ever Workshop - delegates speak!

  Ed

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:21 pm

  Last week I ran my first ever live web marketing workshop. I’ve been speaking for other companies at various seminars and live events around the country, and for more than 2 years, but I’ve never put my own event on… until last week that is. Since then, quite a few people have been asking me how my first ever live workshop went. Most people wished me well but I have the sneaky feeling one or two people were secretly wondering if I’d make a right royal mess of it! Well, at the event some of my delegates were given the opportunity to speak openly to the camera that…

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  eCommerce and Entrepreneurship Blog

• From Google Street Views to Google Store Views

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:15 am

  Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz received a tip from New York retailer Oh Nuts that Google had visited their store location to take pictures.  The purpose of these pictures was for their upcoming Google Maps feature “Google Store Views”.  The retailer explained that pictures were taken in six foot increments in all directions from inside the store.  The idea is to provide Google Maps users with the ability to use Google Street views to get to the store and then navigate through the store with Google Store Views.  In addition to the images that were…

• Long Tail Broad Match and Negative Keyword SEM Campaign Experiment

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:12 am

  When I first started creating keywords for my very first campaign, there were signs everywhere on the internet that said "Don't use broad match!"  A little later I learned about negative keywords and how to use those effectively by running a Google search query report.  So it caught me by surprise when Brad Geddes, for Search Engine Land, wrote a column on promoting the idea of using broad match called Broad Match + Negative Keywords = A Profitable Long Tail. The Case for Broad Match Most people have discovered that broad match typically does not have a great conversion rate (many…

• Localizing Twitter Data for Businesses

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:03 am

  While I may be late to the party and still not very engaged, to say the least I am very interested in a new feature Twitter recently rolled out called Local Trends. It's described on their blog:"As Twitter evolves, and more people share what’s happening in their own world, we want to provide another way for people to discover topics that may be relevant to them. Last week we began to slowly roll out a new feature called Local Trends to expose what people are talking about on the state and city level, and today we've fully launched so everyone can use it."So now not only can you see what…

• The Expanding World of Online Video January 2010

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:22 am

  It’s that time again where we review what happened this past month in online video! Embedded Videos on Product Detail Pages First off Get Elastic wrote a great post on whether or not to use YouTube embedded videos on product detail pages. Embedding a video is using YouTube's HTML code to put a video on your web page. A pro to doing this is that YouTube hosts the video for your company for free, and has a huge built in base of people already watching videos on Youtube.com that may also stumble onto yours. A con would be that they can run ads on the bottom of the videos, or provide…

• Vanessa’s Variety for the Week of January 31st, 2010

  1 Feb 2010 | 9:54 am

  It’s always nice to find web applications that make design easier and Rounded CSS Boxes is no exception.  This is a tool that generates images, HTML code, and CSS code to create rounded boxes for web pages.  You can learn more about the tool and its uses here. Copyblogger is starting a Third Tribe project and a course on what smart marketers are doing in 2010. It is difficult to take criticisms about your work, but being defensive about criticisms will only hinder future performance.  It is a situation that comes up more often than not in business, and Miriam Ellis does a…

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  Retail eCommerce Blog

• Meta Description and Keywords: Useful or Obsolete?

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:07 am

  I am often asked by our clients and others about the significance of Meta descriptions and keywords in on-page optimization. Many SEO professionals say that they are almost close to obsolete as they are not considered by search engines to rank websites on search engine result pages. Here’s my view on SEO Meta descriptions and keywords. Meta description has its own value and Google definitely cares about it. Meta descriptions are sometimes used as a snippet in the SERP (the text preview that... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Sell the Vision of Looking Good, and not Apparel

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:05 pm

  From Helen of Troy, the paragon of feminine perfection to the sizzling Angelina Jolie and from Adonis, the best example of male beauty to the irresistible Mel Gibson, the world has always valued beauty. If that wasn’t the case, fashion would have been an obsolete term. In today’s world, the drive towards visual perfection is even more pronounced. Players in the fashion and apparel industry need to cash in on the phrase “the vision of looking good”, if they want to succeed. It is the only way... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and…

• SEO Copywriting for Apparel – What’s the Right Approach!!

  28 Dec 2009 | 5:40 am

  I love fashion…I love clothes but when it comes to writing about apparel and accessories, it is a tough one. I have written about a host of hard category products like cameras, camcorders, televisions, you name it. It is a breeze, as you have a lot of information on their features and specifications, which you can weave into meaningful content. When writing about apparel it is very important that you get into the psyche of your audience. The content should be vibrant, engaging, and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Twitter, a Preferred Social Media Outlet for Top Online Retailers

  11 Dec 2009 | 6:52 am

  A couple of years ago, if you had asked what twitter meant, you would have been called a bird brain. Excuse the pun, but don’t they teach at elementary school that birds twitter, dogs bark and so on!! And if you ask folks what twitter means now, some might still call you a bird brain as who doesn’t know about this burgeoning social tool that has revolutionized the way we communicate. Twitter is a popular service, which combines social networking, instant messaging and micro-blogging... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 10 Expert Tips to Retain Your New Customers on eCommerce Websites

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:38 am

  Successful retailers retain their customers, and that's how they become successful. :) Here, our guest blogger Michelle talks about retaining the customers. Michelle Strassburg heads the sales and marketing at wood and beyond that sells hardwood flooring. Winning new customers is often easier than keeping them! Not too dissimilar to other types of relationships, business or personal, you must work hard to make sure the other party is happy. Retaining customers creates a happy relationship... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

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  E-Commerce Law

• E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 25, 2010

  Jonathan Frieden

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:45 am

  A federal judge has reduced the verdict in the only file-sharing case to have gone to trial in the United States.  The case has now been tried twice.  In 2007, a $222,000 judgment was awarded against a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs over the Internet.  Last year, another judge awarded recording companies $1.92 million.  Now, a judge has reduced that judgment to $2,250 per song, or about $54,000.Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs provides a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.

• E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 18, 2010

  Jonathan Frieden

  25 Jan 2010 | 11:27 am

  We're fairly certain that New York Times Company Chairman Arthur Sulzberger doesn't read E-Commerce Law, especially after hearing the he planned to announce that the New York Times will soon begin charging for its online content.  As we indicated last week, 77 percent of Internet users say they would not pay for online news.  Unless every news outlet makes the same move, the pay-for-content model can't work.One hundred charities were competing for votes on Facebook to win $1 million.And this week's sign of the coming apocalypse:  now your dog can tweet.Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs…

• Website Lauding Defendant's "Worldwide Expertise" and Facilitating One-Way Contact to the Defendant Too Passive to Confer Jurisdiction

  Jonathan Frieden

  24 Jan 2010 | 11:50 am

  In Jensen v. Modern Aero, Inc., 2010 WL 88229 (Minn. App. Jan. 12, 2010), the Court of Appeals of Minnesota held that a defendant's website, which lauded defendant's "worldwide" expertise," listed a toll-free telephone number for defendant, and provided an electronic form for customers to contact the defendant, was insufficient to confer general personal jurisdiction over the defendant.  Accordingly, the Court affirmed the dismissal of negligence claims brought by the estate of a pilot who died in the crash of his small private airplane. In rejecting Jensen's argument in favor of general…

• E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 11, 2010

  Jonathan Frieden

  20 Jan 2010 | 6:47 am

  We have often discussed the future of newspapers in a society that increasingly seeks news and information from the Internet.  Nearly four years ago, we suggested that a "pay-for-online-content model is unlikely to work, given the number of free Internet news sources."  It looks like we were right - in a recent survey of 2,000 adults, 77 percent said they wouldn't pay anything to read a newspaper's stores on the Web. Sitting jurors are using the Internet to research their cases and causing criminal convictions to be overturned. Facebook founder says people no longer expect privacy.  That…

• Happy New Year!

  Jonathan Frieden

  4 Jan 2010 | 8:34 am

  Happy New Year!  E-Commerce Law Briefs will return next weekend.

• 
  Shopify Blog - Home

• Tjallamalla

  Daniel

  5 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

• Foo Fighters Now Rocking Out On Shopify

  Dimitri

  4 Feb 2010 | 7:51 am

  Designed by the awesome Lee Martin, the store features everything from t-shirts to CDs, so have a look. Also until this Monday, enter the code SHOPIFY at checkout for 10% off everything in the store! <object height="344" width="425"><param></param><param></param><param></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1VQ_3sBZEm0&#38;hl=en_US&#38;fs=1&#38;" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>

• Article About Shopify in the New York Times

  Dimitri

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:32 am

  Two Shopify peeps were featured in an awesome New York Times article published yesterday, written by Lora Kolodny. Tobi was interviewed for the article and Daniel got the photo credit. You can read the article here.

• Jaded By Knight

  Daniel

  2 Feb 2010 | 6:01 am

• Gazel

  Daniel

  29 Jan 2010 | 10:30 am

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  Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog

• 15% Off Olympic Gear for Get Elastic Readers

  Linda Bustos

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:11 pm

  As a thank you to our valued Get Elastic readers, we’re offering you our Friends and Family discount code for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Store. The code is good for 15% off any purchase, no minimum! (Excluding Red Mittens, Petro Canada glasses and video games. Ends February 14th.) For our US readers, use the code EPFRIENDS2010US at the US Olympic Store. The rest of the world, use EPFRIENDS2010 at the Olympic Store. Just to clarify, that is the year 2010, not the letter “O” in the code. You may also like these similar posts:QRious About QR Codes? Turn Customer Reviews Into…

• Do Affiliates Make Good Conversion Consultants?

  Linda Bustos

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:05 am

  I recently caught the replay of a web clinic presented by Marketing Experiments titled Affiliate Marketing: Tests and tactics that increased clicks and leads by 165%. The presentation is full of great tips for both retailers and affiliates and I encourage you to watch the whole thing, but there was one point that stood out as a really novel idea: “Solicit advice from your affiliates, many are seasoned online marketers who can offer you valuable insight on what does and does not work.” Improving your landing page is essential when you have an affiliate program. Not only does it…

• A/B Test Case Study: Homepage

  Janis Lanka

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:03 am

  This post is contributed by Janis Lanka (@janislanka, who manages front-end development for Elastic Path Software. This post is a continuation of a series of posts related to conversion optimization for the Official Vancouver 2010 Olympic Store. Following checkout process and product details page optimization, in collaboration with Wider Funnel, we looked at the store’s homepage. Following list of hypotheses were made: Too many banner spaces create high clutter Secondary (left side) navigation doesn’t stand out and is difficult to navigate Product photos are too small with no…

• 9 Quick Tips for Catalog Quick Order

  Linda Bustos

  3 Feb 2010 | 3:02 am

  1. Show visually where to find item numbers. 2. Provide instructions, but keep them short. 3. Allow customer to add extra input fields, or give instructions on how to add more items than your default form provides. 4. Allow customer to input quantity. 5. Watch your error handling. Make it clear when the item no longer exists and provide a search tool or customer service number. Eddie Bauer (above) does this well. 1-800-Flowers unfortunately kicks you out of Catalog Quick Order to the home page if you make a mistake or the product no longer exists. 6. Allow customer to request a catalog. 7. If…

• Bloggers Digest: January 2010

  Linda Bustos

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:04 am

  No shortage of amazing blog posts to link to this month, was tough to narrow it down. Here’s a list of my favorite ecommerce related posts in January. Enjoy. Justin Palmer kicks off our list with 5 Anti-Resolutions for Marketing Success in 2010. All the things you shouldn’t rely on this year. While we’re talking about things to avoid, Kevin Hillstrom has 5 things to avoid in your annual sales forecast. Ever wonder if those “Tweet this” links in emails get used? According to Silverpop research, sadly, the answer is no. Essential reading for anyone involved in…

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  Practical eCommerce

• Google's AdWords Tool Helps with Both Pay-per-click and SEO

  Jeff Muendel

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:18 am

  Keyword research is one of the pillars of both natural and paid search campaigns. By following the keyword choices used by consumers in the search engines, websites can focus on those terms to capture traffic. This tenet of online marketing and search engine optimization is fairly well established, but the tools used in keyword research are ever changing. Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery Are Helpful There have been, to date, two prominent tools for keyword research: Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. Both of these have free versions that offer good, basic information, and both also have paid…

• Ask an Expert: How to Get Better Search Rankings for Major Keywords

  Practical eCommerce Staff

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:53 pm

  "Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about ranking on search engines for major keywords. It comes from Jeramie Westbay, owner operator for Crazy Ed's Roadkill, an online store that sells beef jerky. For the answer, we turn to Andrew Hazen, the founder and CEO of Prime Visibility, a Long Island, New York-based Internet marketing firm that specializes in search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and return on investment analysis. If you’d like to submit a question,…

• The PeC Review: Shotfarm Streamlines Use of Manufacturers' Photography

  Armando Roggio

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:45 am

  Compelling product photography is a must for online merchants. Without a good visual representation of the products a store is selling, customers probably won't buy. Generally speaking, online stores have two basic ways to get product images: (1) take the photos, or (2) use the stock images that many manufacturers or distributors provide. While using your own, professional quality product photography can be a competitive advantage, the reality is that most online stores depend on manufacturer photography for the majority of product images. In spite of this dependence on the manufacturers, no…

• Ecommerce News Around the Web for February 5, 2010

  Paul Chaney

  5 Feb 2010 | 6:42 pm

  "Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants. 11 Outstanding Online Resources for Web Developers - Mashable A web developer's job is almost never done. You are always looking for ways to improve your skills and keep up with the latest in web trends. Mashable provides this list of 11 top resources to help. 21 Ways to Increase Your Conversion Rate - ClickNewz Here is a panoply of tips that can help you increase your site's conversion rate. They include categories such as trust factors, user experience,…

• Cart of the Week: Dextel Ecommerce Manager

  Kate Monteith

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:04 am

  There are more than 500 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. This week, we'll hear from Gad Serruya, president and founder of Dextel.net, a Montreal, Canada-based company that produces Dextel Ecommerce Manager. We'll also hear from a Dextel customer, Morris Herzog, director of online business development for Noble Gift Packaging. PeC: Please provide some general background…

• 
  InternetNews.com Ecommerce News

• Facebook Pulling Microsoft Banner Ads

  The companies' exclusive ad partnership may have fallen short of promise, but Microsoft touts expanded search relationship with the popular social site.

• Why Red Hat Had to Pull the Plug on Exchange

  When Red Hat launched its Red Hat Exchange three years ago, the idea was to provide a market for its partners to sell open source solutions. But things didn't go as well as planned.

• Amazon Yields to Macmillan in Kindle Standoff

  After briefly yanking the mega-publisher's e-books from its library, Amazon has reluctantly capitulated to Macmillan's pricing demands.

• Amazon Earnings Soar in Q4

  The e-commerce giant tops estimates and says fourth-quarter sales were up 42 percent over a year ago.

• New Consumer Privacy Bill In the Works

  Rick Boucher (D-Va.) says he's about to take a bill to the House that would give Internet users greater control over how much information they share with marketers, advertisers.

• 
  eMarketer Articles

• Measuring Return on Social Investment

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Marketers must connect business goals to social media objectives

• What Works in Online Video

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Shorter spots see higher completion rates

• Social Media Marketing Best Practices

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Debra Aho Williamson eMarketer Senior Analyst

• Mobile Marketers Demand ROI

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Quantifying returns needs most improvement

• At Container Store, Mothers Get Royal Treatment

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Catherine Davis Direct Marketing Director The Container Store

• 
  Practical eCommerce Podcasts

• Conversion-Optimize Your Shopping Cart

  Practical eCommerce

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:05 pm

  A conversion-optimized shopping cart has the minimum number of fields and pages possible to complete the sale. Trust badges and certifications are in plain sight and support info is easy to find. Multi-language and multi-currency functionality also offer great benefits for expanding into international markets and growing your online revenue.

• PowerReviews CEO on Product-review Strategy

  Practical eCommerce

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:53 pm

  Product reviews on ecommerce sites improve conversions. But they also help with customer relations and, recently, even physical-store merchants have used them. But merchants, both online and in physical stores, should carefully plan the use of product reviews, and develop ideas for soliciting valid ones. To help us sort through the use of product reviews, we welcome Pehr Luedtke, the CEO of PowerReviews, a leading product-review provider. He joins Practical eCommerce's Kerry Murdock.

• Beat Those Bots

  Practical eCommerce

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:24 pm

  Upgrade your security solution to include behavioral analysis technology. It can be deployed to help prevent misuse of ecommerce applications by detecting and preventing bot-based, artificial user attacks that cannot be detected using standard signature-based network security solutions.

• Stay in Contact With Customers and Visitors

  Practical eCommerce

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:01 pm

  It pays to stay in contact with shoppers. Send a monthly newsletter to build and maintain a business relationship with your customers and visitors, and keep them coming back. Also, offer your customers an easy way of contacting your company, whether it is by email, telephone, live chat or a combination of those.

• Gad Serruya of Dextel Ecommerce Manager

  Practical eCommerce

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:05 am

  Gad Serruya is president and founder of Dextel.net, producers of the Dextel Ecommerce Manager. In this Cart of the Week supplement, Serruya explains how Dextel was initially conceived as a marketing and branding company, but then became primarily an ecommerce software provider.

• 
  The Ecommerce Blog

• Open Source Firewall Appliance Round 2

  jestep

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:58 am

  A few years ago I blogged about using the Untangle firewall to replace a Sonicwall or similar firewall appliance. Since then, Untangle has come a long way. I would like to revisit the untangle appliance as it has undergone numerous improvements, and in my opinion is now a fully capable replacement for an off-the-shelf firewall appliance. Hardware update… For a solid, and completely silent firewall for a business environment, here’s my current recommendation (Prices are for new components. Refurbished or used could result in a 30% – 50% reduction in price). Server –…

• Business seasonality, and search trends for your marketing

  jestep

  24 Dec 2009 | 9:17 am

  Chances are if you are an online retailer your have some seasonality to your business. This mainly depends on the type of products you sell, and the general type of people that purchase your products. As a B2B’ish industry we see major volume decreases near every holiday. Where does your business fit-in? The once a year rush… The every holiday surge… The B2B… Or the product launch… With Google’s and others’ free tools on the internet, a small business owner can get very good insight into business seasonality, and shopping search trends. If you have…

• MySQL 5.1 now supported on Cpanel / WHM

  jestep

  23 Dec 2009 | 7:46 am

  Just found out this morning that MySQL 5.1 is now officially supported on cpanel. MySQL 5.1 offers some major improvements in some areas to MySQL 5.0. MySQL 5.1 was released over a year ago and it’s been a long wait for those cpanel users needing 5.1 features. Upgrading is not as easy as the 4.0 – 5.0 upgrade but looks to be a reasonable procedure.

• Having a SUNny day without Microsoft

  jestep

  6 Oct 2009 | 7:42 am

  If you’re another person who is constantly fed up with Microsoft products and the cost that comes with them, you’re not alone. I still stand by my recommendation of avoiding Microsoft products before you become their slave, but I must admit, there’s still a number of them that I use. Since I wrote that article about 2 years ago, not much has changed with Microsoft. I will say that their new online version of Office looks to be a vast improvement over Google docs or any other online based office software. Nevertheless, I think it’s time to take a serious look at dumping…

• Framework for a Good Product Page

  jestep

  25 Sep 2009 | 11:45 am

  I was inspired by the Anatomy of a Usable Website, and decided to make a similar guide for a product page. I had previously written a post regarding product descriptions, which still apply here as well. Download the full PDF version » This is meant to be a framework for creating an ecommerce product page. There are of course many additional things that could be put on a product page, but these are the essentials that every page should have. The more features that a product page has, the more likely a user won’t notice them. In the end, websites benefit from clean and well…

• 
  ComparisonEngines

• Affiliate Summit & Data Feeds

  Brian Smith

  18 Jan 2010 | 8:58 am

  I’ve had lots of great conversations about data feeds in the last 24 hours. Advertisers (merchants) and publishers (affiliates) recognize the value of data feeds, but it seems they’re just getting going. If merchants are submitting data feeds to CJ, Linkshare, ShareASale, or Google Affiliate Network, the feeds are very basic. If affiliates are using data feeds, they’re more advanced than most. So there’s some great potential, but data feeds just seem to be an alternative marketing tool in the affiliate space. In fact, I actually talked with a representative from a well…

• @ Affiliate Summit West – Data Feeds

  Brian Smith

  17 Jan 2010 | 1:52 pm

  If you’re not at the conference, check out the #asw10 on twitter. So far, so good. I was here 2 years back and wasn’t that impressed. This conference seems to be much more professional, organized. Love that the first two sessions I’ve attended have already mentioned data feeds: Merchant Challenges in the Affiliate Space & Affiliate Program Case Studies: Strategies and Practices (see agenda) The importance of data feeds in the affiliate industry has definitely grown over the last couple. I know that super affiliates thrive off of high quality data feeds, but it seems that…

• Meet at Affiliate Summit West Next Week

  Brian Smith

  12 Jan 2010 | 1:21 pm

  I’ll be speaking at Affiliate Summit West next week in Vegas. Arriving Sunday afternoon and leaving Tuesday evening. On a panel Monday @ 11:30am Monday. Will be talking about data feeds with Scott Jangro (MechMedia), Larry Adams (Google Affiliate Network), and Shergul Arshad (StyleFeeder). We’ll discuss “the current state of datafeeds and industry progress, best practices, and moving toward standards.” Should be a solid interactive session. My schedule is a little tight, but if any merchants want to get together during the conference to discuss data feeds or…

• Yahoo! Product Submit Replaced by PriceGrabber

  Brian Smith

  11 Jan 2010 | 11:51 am

  This morning, Yahoo! Product Submit merchants were notified that as of March 11, 2010, Yahoo! Shopping is partnering with PriceGrabber. At that time, merchants will no longer be able to submit to Yahoo! Product Submit to list products on Yahoo! Shopping, but must submit through PriceGrabber. If merchants don’t have an account with PriceGrabber and want to make sure their listings remain live on Yahoo! Shopping after March 11, they should sign up with PriceGrabber ASAP. View the email notification. Yahoo! has released this help page that will answer most questions. This is a bittersweet…

• Strong Close to Online Holiday Shopping 2009

  Brian Smith

  22 Dec 2009 | 11:31 am

  In this morning’s industry note, Piper Jaffray feels confident with its prediction of 5% year over year growth for eCommerce sales during the 2009 holiday shopping season based on easy y/y comparisons, the snow storm, comScore’s 4% Holiday Shopping 2009 growth numbers, and Coremetrics’ 6% Holiday Shopping 2009 growth numbers. Coremetrics also reported extremely strong numbers for late last week: -Online retail sales from Mon., Dec. 14 – Sun., Dec. 20, 2009 were up 14.6 percent compared to Mon., Dec. 15 – Sun., Dec. 21, 2008 (year-over-year). -Online retail sales for…

• 
  Groove Commerce eCommerce Blog

• Design 1, 2, 3: A Valentine Paid Link = Chain Pharmacy Fail

  Of all the things that February represents in America: Black History Month, American History Month, Heart Month, Snack Food Month, Children’s Dental Health Month, International Friendship Month; February is widely known for being the month of loooooove, by which I mean artificial hearts and gift exchanges. Yup, Valentine’s Day. The ...

• How’s Your Online Consistency?

  We all know that brand consistency is necessary between your different print marketing efforts. When you get your business card redesigned, you know it's time to revisit your letterhead and collateral as well. Consistency online. The consistency in your branding online is often just as (or sometimes more) important than your ...

• Design 1, 2, 3: Discount Perfume eTailer – It’s in the Details

  Overall, the discount perfume website that I’ve chosen for this month’s Design 1, 2, 3 isn’t actually too bad. I don’t love the aesthetic of the site, but it’s nice for what it is: pastel hues and simple text links all fairly well organized to create a visual hierarchy. The ...

• Win Free Shipping Supplies for a Year

  Groove Commerce client Shipping Supply worked up a pretty spiffy contest that's getting some cool press. Shipping Supply is giving away free shipping supplies for one whole year to one lucky fan...Facebook Fan, that is. Groove Commerce was thrilled to design the landing page and email for this contest, so ...

• GoBeyondIT Gets a Groove Commerce Site Design

  Amidst the hustle and bustle of the holidays, Groove Commerce and GoBeyondIT worked tirelessly to launch GoBeyond's brand new website. So we're happy to announce the new website is now live! Maryland-based GoBeyondIT specializes in managed IT services for small businesses that are looking to focus on running their business, ...

• 
  Comparison Shopping Engine Strategies

• SELL MORE Tip Video: Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber

  scot wingo

  18 Jan 2010 | 11:36 am

  ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo sheds some light on the recent partnership announcement between Yahoo! Shopping and PriceGrabber in this short video. For further details and to learn how this deal will affect your comparison shopping engine strategy, join ChannelAdvisor's webinar taking place January 19, 2010 at 2:00 pm ET. If you can't make it, the webinar will be archived at www.channeladvisor.com/webinars.

• CSE Webinar next week - strategies for the controversial Pricegrabber/Y! Shopping change

  scot wingo

  15 Jan 2010 | 6:34 am

  We're receiving a LOT of questions from customers and retailers in general about the just announced / rapidly rolling out sunset of Y! Shopping to be replaced by PriceGrabber.  Y! Shopping merchants are confused by the options they now have PriceGrabber merchants are concerned about the impact from a bunch of Y! traffic that possibly won't convert as well as PG Y! Store owners are particularly confused and upset about their situation. We decided the best way to get information out to folks both around what is happening, why and what to expect and most importantly - strategies for how to…

• Yahoo Shopping Announces Partnership with PriceGrabber

  Mark Vandegrift

  11 Jan 2010 | 11:02 am

  Yahoo sent emails to their merchants today indicating that the Yahoo Product Submit program will close March 11, 2010.  Yahoo Shopping as a destination will continue to exist but will be powered by PriceGrabber. This means if you are advertising on Yahoo Shopping via the Product Submit interface right now, but not on PriceGrabber, and you want your offers to stay live on Yahoo Shopping, you should begin advertising with PriceGrabber to ensure your offers will continue to appear on Yahoo Shopping after March 11.This is definitely big news in that Yahoo Shopping consistently sits at or…

• 2009 CSE Wishlist Review

  Mark Vandegrift

  6 Jan 2010 | 9:57 pm

  This time last year, I wrote a series of posts about features and improvements that retailers would benefit from most. Let's take a look back and see to what degree my dreams were realized/crushed. More budgeting options: Unfortunately, there weren’t any steps forward here. I think this is something at least some engines would like to offer but it doesn’t get legs internally because (a) it’s probably not all that easy to enable this sort of throttling/removal mechanism and (b) it is probably seen as a revenue limiter. I still think that though it may be a short-term revenue…

• Webinar - tomorrow 11/10 @ 2pm EDT - 10 last-minute strategies and Q3 results

  scot wingo

  9 Nov 2009 | 11:27 am

  I'm hosting a webinar tomorrow where we'll go over the Q3 results for various companies (eBay, Amazon, Google, etc.) as well as look at the various Q4 forecasts and reveal ChannelAdvisor's October data.We'll wrap with 10 last-minute strategies that you can implement BEFORE BLACK FRIDAY / CYBERMONDAY and get that last little bit of juice out of your holiday sales.For you CSE Strategies readers, we're going to update you on some new CSE stats that we have and we have some CSE-specific last minute strategies to consider in the mix.I hope you are able to make it,…

• 
  BIA/Kelsey Blog

• Zvents Sees 35% Growth; Touts Power of Newspaper Network

  Peter Krasilovsky

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:45 pm

  Zvents, the events lister, is reporting 35 percent year over year growth with over eight million unique visitors, largely due to its powering events for 285 local media brands, including  major newspapers and the NBC owned-and-operated TV stations. CEO Ethan Stock cites Quantcast data showing Zvents Media Network as the 250th most used net on the Web, ahead of Citysearch (#267) and Local.com (#291). “We’re a very large local property by any measure,” he says. The company, which has raised $32 million over its five year history, also claims it has been averaging 12,000…

• Yelp Reaching Out to Apartment Managers

  Peter Krasilovsky

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:00 pm

  Yelp has been on a roll, and is now reporting that it gets 29 million unique visitors a month. Given that, the company’s immediate challenge is to move beyond its core base of restaurant and shopping reviews and dive deep for Yellow Pages-arena services reviews, as well as reviews for classified categories, such as autos and real estate/apartments. Restaurants currently make up 29 percent of reviews, while shopping constitutes 23 percent. Other major categories include beauty and fitness (9 percent), arts & entertainment (8 percent), home and local services (7 percent),…

• Siri Makes a Run at Mobile Local Uber-App

  Mike Boland

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am

  One of the success factors for apps joining the crowded fray (140,000 iPhone apps) is elegant melding with the hardware and general mobile “use case.” This is contrasted with Web-based products that shove themselves onto a smaller screen. Bar code scanning apps and voice search are a few examples we’ve explored here recently. Siri launched today in the latter category with an iPhone app that has a voice controlled interface to find and discover items and events around you. After $24 million in funding and years of Darpa-supported underlying research at SRI, it carries a…

• Mark Your Calendar for Clean Out Your Computer Day

  Mike Boland

  5 Feb 2010 | 12:09 am

  If you’re like me, your computer is weighed down with way too many files, e-mails and spyware. And if you’re really like me, you don’t have any time to do a system purge. Short of throwing a party whose theme is just a ruse to have friends do it for you, there’s a national day to band together in commiseration around much needed system cleansing. Yes, this really exists; Feb. 8 (this Monday). It was started in 2000 by Institute for Business Technology, with the idea that slow machines aren’t just aggravating, but can dig into productivity and thus profitability.

• Gannett’s Planet Discover Launches FindItNow

  Peter Krasilovsky

  4 Feb 2010 | 2:22 pm

  Gannett has always seemed to be a likely directory player. In fact, the world’s largest newspaper publisher owns a small group of print directories. It also provides a white-labeled online directory product to its media properties. But as directories, search and user-generated content have become more commingled, Gannett has gone a step further with the launch of FindItNow.com, a new directory product from its Planet Discover division. FindItNow.com is national, but has been localized for specific markets.  It is currently live in three markets: Rochester, Nashville and Burlington,…

• 
  eCP's blog

• Email Segmentation: Tips to Improve Conversion

  Dennis Consorte

  2 Feb 2010 | 3:44 pm

  According to Internet Retailer, 4 of the top 20 websites grossing between $25MM & $100MM online send out 20 or more emails per month in 2009. This seems counter-intuitive as sending a mass email to your entire list will surely burn leads. How is it done? Related posts:Time is the EnemyValentine’s Day Sales TipsGoogle AdWords Changes You Need to Understand NOW

• Valentine’s Day Sales Tips

  Josh Zizmor

  4 Jan 2010 | 8:57 am

  Prepare now for the second largest retail season Valentine’s Day 2010: Sunday, February 14 Valentine’s Day, while often overshadowed by its gargantuan cousin the Christmas Season, is the second largest retail season of the year. Luckily, this holiday comes just in time to give a bump in sales after December’s spending frenzy comes to a halt. If you [...] Related posts:Boost Holiday SalesJewelry Sales Shine OnlineReady, Set, Shop!

• New Year’s Eve 2009: Reflections of a Blue Moon

  Dennis Consorte

  31 Dec 2009 | 10:45 am

  Illuminated by the light of a blue moon, we can take time out to reflect on the past as we plan for a successful 2010 personally, professionally and as a society. Related posts:Boost Holiday SalesDespite Economic Downturn, Outlook for ECommerce in 2009 Still BrightGearing Up For Christmas 2009

• Site Speed and Your Bottom Line

  Mark Matsebeker

  30 Dec 2009 | 1:08 pm

  Increase sales over 12% with faster loading pages Google has recently announced that they may start using site speed in ranking a website. How quick does your site load? Is it under a minute, a minute, too late! Users are becoming impatient with slow loading sites. If your site is slow, you are actively giving away [...] Related posts:Real People Visit Your E-commerce Store – Ask Them What They Think of Your SiteThe Times They Are A’ ChangingMake Link Text Color Different from the Link Underline Color

• Gil Levy, Founder: Presentation on ERP Integration In Fashion

  Josh Zizmor

  17 Dec 2009 | 12:52 pm

  GCS Software has selected ECommerce Partners as their preferred e-commerce vendor for their Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP Software. ERP software is used to integrate the data and processes of an organization into one single system. Gil Levy, Founder and Managing Director of ECP gave a presentation to 60 clients of GCS on integrating online [...] Related posts:Introducing R&S Avenue – The new address for kid fashionGoogle AnalyticsECommerce Partners Nominated for 2008 Ad Tech Limelight Award

• 
  Digital Money Forum

• Vote for "Zits"

  Dave Birch

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:48 am

  [Dave Birch] In 1660, the English Parliament passed an act forbidding the export of gold or sliver, mistakenly thinking that exporting bullion made the nation poorer. After six months, His Majesties Council of Trade were petitioning the KIng and parliament to revoke the law, since not exporting bullion had, far from making the nation richer, made the nation considerably poorer. Such is the law of unintended consequences when it comes to politicians mucking up commerce. The effect of the law had been to persuade international trade to abandon London for various continental destinations: no…

• Victor Dostov, Russian Electronic Money Association

  Dave Birch

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:14 am

  [Dave Birch] Victor Dostov is the Director for Retail Payment Services at Tavricnesky Bank in St. Petersburg and is also Chair of the Russian Electronic Money Association. In this podcast, he draws on his long background in the developing Russian e-money marketplace to explain some of the unique aspects of their market and the mission of the recently-founded Association. Listen here in either [Podcast MPEG4] or [Sound-only MP3] format. cashless, emerging markets, podcastYou can download this and other podcasts in both podcast (MPEG4) and sound-only (MP3) format from the Consult Hyperion…

• Taking a Long View

  Dave Birch

  1 Feb 2010 | 12:14 pm

  [Dave Birch] The always interesting Michael Mainelli of Z/Yen invited me along to the Long Finance Institute "do" in the City, where a number of people were talking about the long view of finance, another perspective on the "Long Now". I have to say first of all that it was a thoroughly enjoyable event. The basic question behind the long finance agenda is "how will we know when the financial system is working?". I know this sounds a bit vague, but the conversation, discussion and debate that it enables are very valuable, and it caused me to think about a number of the innovation-related…

• They're easy, predictions

  Dave Birch

  28 Jan 2010 | 12:39 am

  [Dave Birch] We had a very pleasant evening at Olswang's digtial money event this week, part of their "Plus Technology" series, and they asked me to write a short piece on the next three to five years in payments for their event handout. I thought that if we want to look across that period and make some reasonable predictions that are of value in developing practical strategies for organisations, then we might decide to look at three axes of development: technology, business and social (this is how I organise our annual Digital Money Reader!). First comes the social axis. Here there seems to…

• Thaer Sabri, Electronic Money Assocation

  Dave Birch

  27 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am

  [Dave Birch] Dr. Thaer Sabri is the Managing Director of Flawless Money and has spent more than a decade in the electronic money industry in a regulatory capacity as well as product management and business development. Thaer worked at Mondex International and beenz.com before founding Flawless Money. He is Chief Executive of the Electronic Money Association, and leads industry regulatory interface with regulators. In this podcast, he reflects on the Payment Services Directive and the upcoming revision to the Electronic Money Directive. Listen here in either [Podcast MPEG4] or [Sound-only MP3]…

• 
  Blue Acorn eCommerce Consulting

• 3 Ways to Use Your Facebook Fan Base for Marketing Research

  Robyn

  26 Jan 2010 | 8:00 am

  One of the big, obvious differences between eCommerce enterprises and traditional bricks and mortar set-ups is this: the bricks & mortar shops can “see” their customers, talk to them, and develop a stronger profile on them. Sure, if you’re an eCommerce company with strong analytics, you can analyze keywords, bounce rates, referring links, etc. But [...]Post from: Blue Acorn eCommerce Consulting

• War, the Long Tail SKU Search Domination

  Scott Buck

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:20 am

  For mortal ecommerce merchants involved in search marketing- on a budget- this means adroitly picking the right search terms and channels to market your wares and then fully vesting them to ensure their don’t just appear in those search results but appear, appear and reappear yet again not only across multiple SKUs but again and again for a single SKU. Don’t just show up for the first page search results party. Own it. Post from: Blue Acorn eCommerce Consulting

• How to Use Twitter Effectively – What Twitter Type are You?

  Robyn

  14 Dec 2009 | 6:24 am

  Back in December, I wrote this post about Twitter. A lot has happened to this Internet microblogging company in the ten months since then, including its recent reception of 100 million dollars in funding and its valuation at one billion dollars. This past June, 44.5 million worldwide visitors checked out Twitter, which was up 15 [...]Post from: Blue Acorn eCommerce Consulting

• eCommerce Goes Cinematic

  Melissa

  30 Nov 2009 | 7:31 am

  They say a picture’s worth a thousand words—but with the rising popularity of multimedia on the web, a high-impact video can be worth a whole lot more than that. According to a study by ComScore, more than 168 million American web shoppers watched online videos during September of 2009, representing an invaluable opportunity to create [...]Post from: Blue Acorn eCommerce Consulting

• Hitting a Moving Target: Tips for Success in Mobile Marketing

  Melissa

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am

  If you could get your hands on footage of 10 of your target consumers right now, 9 of them would probably be on the move. In today’s fast-paced, frenzied world, a majority of buyers are relying on their cell phones and hand-held devices as a primary means of receiving information. So it makes sense that more [...]Post from: Blue Acorn eCommerce Consulting

• 
  Channel Dollars

• Why 2010 Comparison Shopping Can Look Forward To The Past

  Kevin Packler

  13 Jan 2010 | 11:32 pm

  There have been some recent changes in the industry (not Yahoo Shopping news), which may signal the window closing on the old way of doing comparison shopping. In the beginning portions of 2009, there was seemingly little innovation on the horizon. Since around 2004, online shopping had been done in relatively the same fashion. Consumers typically used different search engines to initiate the purchasing funnel, and many times consumers would find themselves funneled into a comparison shopping engine based experience through paid and natural search listings. Now the patterns are changing, and…

• The Demise of Yahoo Shopping

  Kevin Packler

  11 Jan 2010 | 9:25 pm

  Yahoo continues to be gutted and reorganized, creating the latest casualty, Yahoo Shopping. As reported by many today, Yahoo Shopping is not technically disappearing, but changing completely. PriceGrabber product listings will instead populate Yahoo Shopping listings beginning in March, so consumers will continue to see product results. However, make no mistake, this will make Yahoo essentially a glorified affiliate for PriceGrabber and will be the end of Yahoo Shopping as it has been. The makeover at Yahoo has been nothing short of dramatic. As written about here at ChannelDollars back in…

• Shopping.com and PayPal

  Kevin Packler

  26 Oct 2009 | 10:41 pm

  As all Shopping.com users should know by now, Shopping.com is changing over to PayPal as their payment processor. This has nothing to do with B2C transactions or a return to the Shopping Cart model. This does have everything to do with how Shopping.com takes payments from merchants. Since both companies are owned by eBay, I can only assume someone in the accounting and cost cutting department took a look at the big picture in early 2009, and realized the company was giving away a lot of money to card processors (yes, gas stations all over the country are accutely aware of this). I bring this…

• MSN Cashback Jellyfish Bing Thing

  Kevin Packler

  28 Jul 2009 | 7:42 pm

  So it’s been a while since my last post. I have been figuring out what to do with my site layout while I investigate new hosting, upgrading to a newer Wordpress version, and redesigning the site in general. The problem with doing a lot of things at once, or finding how to undertake these things, is that a small block can turn into a major damn in the river. So, perhaps the best way to unblock the river is to begin with a trickle of thought - So what is happening with MSN Shopping, um, I mean JellyFish, I mean Cashback, no…I actually mean Bing Cashback? Of coarse some people still…

• Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2009

  Kevin Packler

  15 Jun 2009 | 11:49 am

  If anyone would like to talk shop this week in Boston at IRCE, then let me know. I will be at the Mercent booth #645. Feel free to stop by and talk about CSEs, Amazon, or the Red Sox.

• 
  A blog for web developers about all things ecommerce.

• IE6 The wicked 6 is dead - Goodbye, and good riddance!

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  One universal thorn in the side of developers the world over in adopting AJAX, jQuery (and other cool JavaScript frameworks) and more complex CSS, not to mention looking ahead to HTML 5 is the abomination called IE6. This Microsoft non-standards-compliant train wreck of a browser has been the unwelcome guest that has just refused to leave the party.Dumbing down our sites and applications to support for this blemish on the web has been the bain of the web developers/designers existance for far too long. At last! Let's have a good Ol' Irish wake and party it's passing! Recently Google announced…

• Dang! My session timed out!

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  A Heartbeat script may be the end of your session time-out frustrations. We have all been there. Updating a web form and after working on it for quite a while the phone rings or somebody need our attention. You go back to you web form and finish it, then submit it only to find that your log in session has expired and you lose all your work!!! (insert explicative here). "I can hear your heartbeat" There is a way around this with AJAX / jQuery. There are several variations available of what has become to be known as a "Heartbeat" script. The purpose of this script is to…

• FWIW - My take on the new Apple iPad

  28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  iPad, from a developer's perspective When I watched Steve Jobs introduce the Apple iPad on Wednesday, my first reaction was, this is cool, but it really didn't move me. Like the MacBook Air, it impressed me as innovative and kind of "wiz-bang" but it doesn't have the horse power to replace my laptop nor does it have the communications ability of my smart phone, it just didn't seem to fit. "Walk a mile in my shoes." Then it struck me, I am looking at this from a developer's perspective. Face it were are not a mainstream lot. So I stepped out of my own perspective for a bit…

• Don't go public with your site before you're ready!

  18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Clients like to see what we are up to, right? As web developers we need share our progress with our clients as we wok on their new sites, but we only want to share our work with them or a select group users. That being said you'd be amazed how often the ever busy Google bots crawl their way to one of these staging sites and then, as they were designed to do, index it and then share it with the world! What brought this thought to mind was, I have a Google Alert set up for the term "Cartweaver" as well as several eCommerce related search terms and frequently I'll get an alert that…

• Continuing participation in Adobe Community Professionals

  17 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  I'm very pleased to have been selected to continue my participation in the Adobe Community Professionals program! This program affords me the opportunity to give back to a community that has been such a large part of my career! It also gives me a chance to stay on the inside track of where Adobe and the web development industry as a whole is headed. A BIG thank you to Adobe for asking me back - it's an honor and a privilege to be part of such a dynamic community! Find the list of ACPs here - http://tinyurl.com/yh47gp8

• 
  e-commerce Blog

• Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 Code Name “R2” January CTP is Now Available For Download

  Lynnette McL

  26 Jan 2010 | 2:57 pm

  The Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 code name “R2” January Community Technology Preview (CTP) is now available on the Download Center . We invite you to install this pre-release of the next version of Commerce Server 2009 “R2” into a non-production environment...(read more)

• Upcoming Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 Training

  Lynnette McL

  18 Jan 2010 | 7:42 am

  Microsoft Dallas is holding a 3-day Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 Bootcamp course for customers, Microsoft employees, and Microsoft partners from February 23-25, 2010 in Dallas, Texas . Endorsed by the Microsoft Commerce Server Product Unit, Cactus Commerce...(read more)

• Video Game Retailer Improves Online Experience, Store Traffic with E-Commerce Upgrade

  Lynnette McL

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:39 pm

  With more than 6,000 stores worldwide plus two popular Web sites, GameStop.com and EBGames.com , GameStop is already one of the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailers—but the company’s goal is to become an essential part of the...(read more)

• Commerce Server MVP - Lewis Benge

  Lynnette McL

  5 Jan 2010 | 12:46 pm

  We are pleased to announce Lewis Benge has been awarded MVP status. The MVP Award is given in recognition of a recipient's technical expertise, spirit of community, and their willingness to help their peers by providing reliable and accurate information...(read more)

• Commerce Server 2009 Evaluation VPC (December 2009 update) is Available for Download

  Lynnette McL

  22 Dec 2009 | 1:59 pm

  The Commerce Server 2009 Evaluation VPC (December 2009 update) is now available for download to partners and customers. This VPC has Commerce Server 2009 and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 fully installed and configured (Core Systems, Multi-Channel...(read more)

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  Retail, in the eyes of the everyday customer

• SeeCommerce

  betterretail

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:27 pm

  If you are considering buying a toy at thinkfasttoys.com but unsure about how it really looks (or want to make sure they have it in stock) just call their toll free number and visit this page: http://www.thinkfasttoys.com/cam.php, they’ll hold it up for you. Related article: Innovation On The Cheap

• EMO (Email Marketing Optimization)

  betterretail

  26 Jan 2010 | 3:44 am

  As I start this post I must confess my SEO knowledge is limited so if you see any gaping holes please point them out.  Ok.  For this example let’s consider a gourmet popcorn e-tailer called kukuruza.com.  Here is the situation (all made up)–  The key phrase gourmet chocolate popcorn is important for KuKuRuZa.  It has a high conversion rate and isn’t part of their PPC.  Googling gourmet chocolate popcorn lists kukuruza.com as the first result on page two.  Problem is that while this phrase has has high click-to-conversion ratio majority of potential customers simply…

• Nice Landing Page Part II

  betterretail

  15 Jan 2010 | 7:25 am

  The Ad: The Landing Page (notes in red): The Results Page:  Observe numbered underlined sections- 1. Roll over with detailed info for methodical shoppers. 2. Excellent persuasive copy.  Headings start by addressing biggest questions in customers’ minds: Are you surprised by the results?  Why choose Blue?  How does your brand compare? 3. Instant off coupon for impulsive shoppers. 4. Store locator for people preferring to touch and feel the product.

• Why This Is Such A Good Idea

  betterretail

  24 Dec 2009 | 6:29 am

  Chegg.com’s sales pitch: A potential customer goes through steps 1-2-3 and says “ah, sounds interesting, pretty similar to other local services.”  So far the comparison is fairly straightforward.  One can rank competing services and grade them using: – Text book selection – Price – What their friends use – Shipping times Enter point 4.  Suddenly, there is no real way to compare Chegg.com with the competition.  Let’s say Chegg’s competitor has quicker shipping time, how do you compare planting a tree with better shipping? But here is…

• Early Stage Leads

  betterretail

  12 Dec 2009 | 9:35 am

  I’m considering buying a printer so I started by entering this search phrase on Google: Here are the paid ads that showed up: The Xerox ad is better than Epson’s but neither truly capitalize on the opportunity.  An ad copy like “Learn how Xerox laser printers compare to inkjets” might have worked better.

• 
  Rekon

• Tokyo Sky Drive

  howdy@reckon.ws (C/W)

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:47 am

  MUSIC —- A Furrow Dub / Sugar Plant CAM ——- SONY XR500V BLOG —– http://d.hatena.ne.jp/cat2525jp Posted via email from Reckon

• Jack Kerouac’s Literary Estate in Limbo

  howdy@reckon.ws (C/W)

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:02 am

  And The Beat Goes On A forged will sends Jack Kerouac scholars, fans, collectors, literary executors, and lawyers on the warpath. By Stephen Maughan When Jack Kerouac wrote his will shortly before his death in 1969, he was broke. Forty years later, a ferocious battle rages over his multi-million dollar literary estate. Kerouac, at odds with his third wife, Stella Sampas, had left everything to his mother, Gabrielle Kerouac. But when Gabrielle Kerouac passed away in 1973, her will indicated that the entire estate would go to Sampas, news that had shocked Kerouac’s remaining blood…

• She thought society had run out of poems

  howdy@reckon.ws (C/W)

  14 Jan 2010 | 10:32 pm

  Photo:  2nd Avenue F Line: Time Travel by John Snyder Poetry returns to N.Y. Transit The Poetry in Motion campaign, which places poetry in New York buses and subways, is returning this month after a two-year absence. In 2008, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority decided to suspend free access to ad space for the short poems selected by the Poetry Society of America. So now the Poetry Society is paying for ad space, says the group’s executive director Alice Quinn, who is poetry editor for the New Yorker. Quinn told CBC Radio’s Q cultural affairs show the society felt…

• ... [Flickr]

  Reckon

  2 Dec 2009 | 3:28 am

  Reckon posted a photo:

• ... [Flickr]

  Reckon

  2 Dec 2009 | 3:28 am

  Reckon posted a photo:

• 
  Retailer Daily

• Blockbuster Eliminates Corporate Jobs - Update

  daniel@watershed-publishing.com

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:47 am

  Troubled media entertainment retailer Blockbuster Inc. has eliminated corporate positions in a restructuring effort.

• Employment Trends Index Rises 5th Straight Month – Update

  daniel@watershed-publishing.com

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

  The Conference Board Employment Trends Index rose 1% [pdf] in January 2010, from 92.3 to 93.2. This marks the fifth straight month the Employment Trends Index has risen, signifying job growth.

• ‘The Daily Wrap:’ U.S./Canada Trade; Macy’s; Boot Town

  daniel@watershed-publishing.com

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:55 am

  U.S., Canada Settle ‘Buy American’ Dispute The U.S. and Canada have reached a preliminary deal to settle disagreements regarding “Buy American” provisions in the U.S. economic stimulus package. Both U.S. and Canadian manufacturers and exporters would have broader access to cross-border procurement contracts under the proposed agreement. Source: Wall Street Journal

• P&G Launches eStore, Tests Marketing Concepts

  daniel@watershed-publishing.com

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:40 am

  Procter & Gamble, maker of Head & Shoulders and Pampers, is launching a new ecommerce “learning lab” that the packaged goods giant says will test concepts and programs that, when successful, can be reapplied across P&G’s retail partners in the hopes of growing consumer affinity for P&G brands and ultimately increasing sales.

• Lowe’s Opens Mexican Stores

  daniel@watershed-publishing.com

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:02 am

  Home improvement retailer Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is scheduled to open its first two Mexican stores in Monterrey, Mexico today. Lowe’s initially planned to expand store operations into Mexico during 2009.

• 
  Netpreneur

• How to use social media and Web 2.0 in event management

  Netpreneur

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:03 am

  On 21 January 2010 I delivered a presentation to the Adelaide chapter of Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) at the Adelaide Convention Centre.  The presentation was entitled ‘ How to use social media and other Web 2.0 tools in event management’.  The presentation contained a case study of an event that I ran last year, RecruitTECH 2009, that used social media and Web 2.0. Here are the slides: How to use social media and other Web 2.0 tools in event management View more presentations from Clayton Wehner. socd Related posts:Action List: Use Slideshare to share your Powerpoint…

• The secret to making money in your sleep - 7 steps

  Netpreneur

  2 Dec 2009 | 4:22 pm

  I’ve recently been talking to a local businessman who is interested in transforming his existing business into a ‘internet marketing’ business.  He has developed some great experience in retail circles over his career and he wants to ‘productise’ his knowledge and sell it via the web. He asked me for my thoughts on how he might achieve this and I provided him with the following 7 step plan to make money selling his information products online: 1) FIND A NICHE - Find a market niche with minimal online competition - a niche that you can dominate in the…

• New Australian SaaS shopping cart product - BigCommerce

  Netpreneur

  29 Sep 2009 | 4:15 pm

  I am a big fan of Interspire’s Email Marketer software.  This Australian-based company has just released a new subscription-based Software-as-a-Service shopping cart system called BigCommerce.  SaaS is the future of the web and the guys at Interspire have done a great job converting their existing product, Interspire Shopping Cart, into a SaaS offering.  I think that the product will be very successful because the product fills a bit of a niche in the market.  Here’s some more info… BigCommerce is a hosted, fully managed ecommerce platform which includes everything you…

• How to Rank Number One on Google

  Netpreneur

  12 Aug 2009 | 8:49 pm

  I’ve recently started delivering training to small groups of website owners about how to take their websites to Number One on Google.  Here’s the presentation slides that I have been using: How To Rank No 1 On Google View more presentations from Clayton Wehner. Related posts:Action List: Use Slideshare to share your Powerpoint presentations I’ve recently opened a Slideshare account and uploaded my...How to use social media and Web 2.0 in event management On 21 January 2010 I delivered a presentation to...Action List: Avoid duplicate content Search engines exist to provide…

• Calls to Action: How to Motivate Your Website Visitors Out of Inactivity

  melissanorfolk

  8 Jul 2009 | 3:42 pm

  Firstly, what is a call to action? Well it is the action, response or activity you most want visitors to your website to take. You should have a desired call to action for every page on your website. Depending on your site you may just want people to make contact with you (whether by email, contact form or phone), subscribe to your newsletter, buy something, download your free ebook or white paper or comment on your latest blog post. If you have ever looked closely at your website statistics it is common for around 80% of visitors never to go past the front page or to abandon a website from…

• 
  ColderICE eCommerce Video Blog

• eBay 2010: A Change Gonna Come…With or Without You

  John

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:16 am

  It’s 2010 and things have changed, I remember back to 1997 when I sold my very first item on eBay long ago. It was a pair of tickets to see Elton John at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I scored some sweet lower level seats that cost me $300 bucks and then I could not get the time off to fly from Atlanta to New York so I had to sell them. I put them on eBay and started the auction at $99.00. Those tickets ended at $800 for the pair, and I was instantly HOOKED on eBay. Of course it was years later in 2001 that we created the company that is now one of the more successful 3rd…

• Saints WIN The Super Bowl And Here Are My Commercial Favorites

  John

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:02 pm

  Hands down this is by far my favorite! I grew up with a single Mom and I wanted to do this SOOOO bad, LMAO   My Runner up is the Golden Girl Betty White   Wow these two just bring the funny!   Hey look like there is a new search thingy for the web called Google … ummm WTH? Bing got you scared, LOL   The one I HATED most would have to be replacing the Chihuahua with Charles Barkley…BOO! Post from: ColderICE eCommerce Video BlogSaints WIN The Super Bowl And Here Are My Commercial Favorites Related posts:Is Bing.com REALLY Bigger than Twitter and Digg Mythbuster…

• Will This Vintage Seller De-Clutter? How I’m Dealing with eBay’s Latest Changes

  Cliff

  7 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  In John’s recent eBay Price Change Challenge Mythbusters post he remarked in the comments section: I believe eBay knows that some of those 62 million (Note: Refers to the number of current eBay Store Inventory format listings) will NOT move to core, cause it was the low .03 cents that allowed many to keep them on the site. I think eBay is charging MORE to actually "de-clutter" the system. Raising the price will action make people either SELL the stuff or get it OFF the platform. Currently I have a Basic eBay Store with about 4,500 items listed on the site. Many hundreds of my…

• Your Business Need a Tune Up? Check The Mechanics Fingernails First!

  John

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:04 am

    As many of you know I shoot my videos in my crowded office space. A while ago I had a very talented videographer suggest to my that I should get a backdrop so I could remove the "clutter" in my video backgrounds. LinkedTube Please Follow Our YouTube Channel I gave it some serious consideration and then rejected the idea for 2 reasons. The first reason was because I felt it added validity to the fact that I not only "talk the game, but I walk the talk" and 2nd was selfish in that I did not want all the hassle of setting up my video screens each time I wanted to talk.

• iPad Tech Reviews: The iGood, The iBad And The iUgly

  JB Brathwaite

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:01 am

  Ok the reviews are all in and the iPad has impressed us all when it was finally unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on January 27th. All the hype finally came to an end when Mr. Jobs gave a run down of all the great features the iPad has to offer its users. I was just as impressed with many of the specs of this long awaited device.  I have read many reviews that were Good, Bad and even down right Ugly when it comes to the iPad, so here is my take on those reviews. The iGood iPad reviewed by Ben Parr of Mashable. Apple iPad: A Comprehensive Guide This review is the most comprehensive of the…

• 
  THINKBIGBEBIG ENTREPRENEURS

• HUGE: Google Set to Make Gmail Social With Status Update Features

  Timothy Bosworth

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:32 pm

  Story breaking from mashable: Gmail is set to become Google’s next major push into social media. According to The Wall Street Journal, the popular webmail service will soon launch a new feature for sharing content and status updates with friends. [Update: We think Google might announce these features on Tuesday] As WSJ points out, Gmail users can already update their statuses — sort of — through Gmail’s chat feature. Currently, this feature is more akin to the traditional IM “away message.” However, with this new social push, Gmail will offer a…

• Socialmator. Schedule your messages to Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed!

  Timothy Bosworth

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:32 am

  Schedule your messages to Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed!  Simplicity: Write one message, update Twitter & Facebook at the same time!  Scheduling: Send now or schedule a bunch in advance! Quick Demo from steve Mallett on Vimeo. Check it out at www.socialmator.com

• Mobile Audience Mirrors Total Internet as Search, Email, Social Networking Driving Traffic

  Timothy Bosworth

  3 Feb 2010 | 3:15 pm

  According to The Nielsen Company, mobile Internet traffic in December 2009 was similar to total Internet use, with the largest audiences being seen for search, e-mail and social networking. Source: http://blog.nielsen.com

• Economy and Internet Trends

  Timothy Bosworth

  22 Jan 2010 | 4:24 am

  Great presentation on from Mary Meeker (Morgan Stanley) about the Economy and Internet Trends.

• Activity Streams

  Timothy Bosworth

  22 Jan 2010 | 4:00 am

  Haven’t heard of them?  You will soon.  Here’s a presentation on the subject Activity Streams View more documents from Chris Messina. You can also read more at http://activitystrea.ms/

• 
  VideoRetailer.org

• Refeshing key factors of video SEO strategy

  Doris Obermair

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:48 pm

  I have just disconnected from my first live webinar on video SEO strategy, organized by Reel SEO, Truveo and Ooyala. The experience itself was good, I connected through a site called Go2Webinar to follow the presentation; I started Skype, dialed a number and entered my personal code. Image was ok, sound was fine. So that’s for the webinar experience. The content itself was a bit commercial (especially the Ooyala part) but nevertheless there were interesting points worth sharing with you: 1. Video search engines and general search engines work different. 2. 85% of all video search…

• How video players could (or should) look like to deliver great user experience.

  Doris Obermair

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:01 pm

  Video works for e-retailers. In 2010, we already know that landing pages and product sites with video convert better than those without. But the mayority of thoses sites follow a simple presentation formula: product pages including a (more or less sophisticated) video player that reproduces relevant content about the product in question. In the service sector (banking, education, telecoms, etc.) we are starting to see different techniques of integrating video, with navigation concepts entirely based on and around video content. That means that the core elements of the site’s…

• 2010: not without video marketing (Part 2.)

  Doris Obermair

  29 Jan 2010 | 6:31 pm

  Part 2 of what I think will be happening in the field of video marketing in 2010. 6. Live streaming and live video presentations online. Live streaming of company’s events and online product launches will become part of digital marketing and communication strategies. 7. Video SEM and SEO will become relevant disciplines. This year marketers will discover the relevance of video SEM and SEO as part of their overall strategy since video contents helps to get better page rankings results. 8.  Evolution of video user experience. We will see an evolution of what we called…

• 2010: not without video marketing (Part 1.)

  Doris Obermair

  20 Jan 2010 | 9:33 am

  2009 was a good year for practitioners of video marketing. We saw some really encouraging results -better performance of landing and product pages that include video than those that don’t- especially from e-retailers, like e-bags, Zappos or Pool Tables . I am looking forward to 2010 because as video marketing gets mainstream for commercial websites we will hear more success stories and we will have more metrics to analyze and to compare, most important how do sites that use video content perform compared to those who don’t in terms of conversion rate and ROI. This is what I think…

• Trends for 2010. Video-based geolocalization: yes. Mobile video commerce: not yet.

  Doris Obermair

  2 Jan 2010 | 7:22 am

  Reading through European and North American blogs about digital marketing these days, one gets a rough idea where marketing budgets and efforts will go to next year. Most experts share the opinion that two areas will see a huge growth: 1. mobile marketing, pushed by the rapid adaptation of smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry and cell phones that run on Android, including Google’s Nexus One) especially in Europe and 2. geolocalization. (For more info on 2010 digital marketing trends I recommend reading “Where Digital Marketing Is Heading in 2010 (Part 1)” published at…

• 
  The Forrester Blog For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

• 2010: The Year The Web Comes Into Its Own In Retail Banking

  Brad Strothkamp

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:18 pm

  [Posted by Brad Strothkamp] --- [Follow Me on Twitter] 2010 marks my fifth year with Forrester Research. Over the last five years, I have had a chance to work with many, many financial service firms. While I will openly admit that I am biased towards the Web, the past year provided more evidence than ever about the  growing importance of the Web channel.  Conversations with clients these days are equally weighted around sales and service - a change from five years ago when it was almost always about service. This shift is important because it changes the…

• Seniors are a unique segment for online customer service

  Diane Clarkson

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:56 pm

  [Posted by Diane Clarkson]Using consumer data to challenge assumptions about how consumer segments will respond to various online customer service touch points is always interesting to me. I’ve recently had an opportunity to the seniors (age 65+) and online customer service and found some interesting characteristics of the segment: • Seniors are the most impatient segment when it comes to wanting a fast online answer. While 57% of all online consumers say they will abandon their purchase online if they can’t get a fast answer, 66% of seniors will click away if their needs aren’t…

• Participate In Our First Ever Australian Online Retailing Study!

  Kate van Geldern

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:53 am

    By Patti Freeman Evans Forrester just kicked-off our first-ever Australian Online Retailing Study. This survey looks at Australian online and multichannel retailers' organizations and topics relevant to the challenges currently facing their roles including:   eBusiness technology decisions Social media and mobile trends Online merchandizing tactics And more! The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and all of the data will be used anonymously and in aggregate. And as a thank you for completing this survey, you will be able to access the data to help benchmark against…

• The Global eCommerce Adoption Cycle

  Zia Daniell Wigder

  27 Jan 2010 | 9:46 am

  By Zia Daniell Wigder One of the great things we can do with our Consumer Technographics data is compare user behavior and technology adoption in different international markets. Our recently published report The Global eCommerce Adoption Cycle uses data from four continents to provide a snapshot of eCommerce around the globe. In the report, we look at how 18 different markets in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America have evolved from an online shopping perspective. In our first analysis, we compare online penetration and the percent of online shoppers in each market. Our second…

• NRF Key Takeaways

  Brendan McGowan

  19 Jan 2010 | 8:51 am

  by Patti Freeman Evans A few key thoughts about the recent NRF Big Show in NYC last week: 1.  It was big – over 15,000 attendees, which puts it back in the realm of record years of 2007 and 2008. 2. It was optimistic – conversations were rampant about "How can I get up and running on the projects I put on hold last year?" Attendees were very interested in making investments to grow their businesses, not just get through the slowdown. 3. It was forward-looking – attendees and presentations talked about the future, not about the past (very typical of retail in my…

• 
  The Interspire Blog

• Interspire Podcast #2: How to hire super stars and how to formulate your market

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  Length: 26:56Overview: A look into the strategies we use for recruiting the best people and tips to formulate your market when selling any sort of product.Description: In this, episode 2 of the Interspire podcast, I take a look at some of the strategies we've developed over the last 6 years to identify the best candidates during the interview process. At the surface level you might think it's easy to recruit based on a candidates past experience, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I'll also touch on identifying your market and formulating a business plan that focuses specifically on…

• The Interspire Shopping Cart 6.0 Roadmap

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  IntroductionLast week I posted the upcoming BigCommerce 6 feature list on the BigCommerce blog, so today we'll look at the features coming up in Interspire Shopping Cart 6.While some of the features are the same, other features only lend themselves to the BigCommerce product (such as setting DNS records) and as such aren't discussed here.Our Thoughts About the E-Commerce SpaceThere are 1,0001 pieces of software which will let you setup an online store. That's not the difficult part though. The difficult part is getting people to your online store once it's built - and this is the part of the…

• Interspire Podcast #1: Our email marketing strategy for 250,000+ contacts

  19 Jan 2010 | 10:00 pm

  Length: 26:40Overview: A look into the strategies we've used to grow our various email lists to over 250,000 people.Description: In this, our first podcast in a series of many, I discuss the specific strategies we've used over the last 6 years to build our list of contacts to over 250,000 people. I talk about the design ideas behind our newsletters as well as how to write content which allows you to relate to your subscribers. I'll also share a few tricks relating to email compatibility, buyer psychology and company positioning.Like this podcast? Share it on FaceBook or Twitter.

• Interspire Shopping Cart 5.5 Released - Includes Photo Zoom, Google Website Optimizer Integration and More

  18 Jan 2010 | 10:00 pm

  IntroductionAfter 3 months of development, 6 weeks in beta and dozens of resolved features and bugs, Interspire Shopping Cart 5.5 is finally available for purchase and upgrade from our web site and client area.What's New?Where do I start? This is a major upgrade with a big focus on merchandising - features which help increase your conversion rate and the average time someone spends shopping in your online store.Here's a list of the new features: Google Website Optimizer Support - Test different versions of site-wide items to see which results in more sales. For example, test different "Add to…

• Quick Update: Interspire Shopping Cart 5.5 Coming Next Week

  12 Jan 2010 | 10:00 pm

  Hi everyone. Just a quick update to let you know that Interspire Shopping Cart 5.5 will be available for download (for existing clients) and purchase (for new clients) next week. As you may know, we released the 5.5 beta about 4 weeks ago and we're just about ready for the final release.A big thank all of our beta testers for their contribution towards testing  and we're looking forward to getting 5.5 into your hands because it's one of our biggest updates yet. All existing clients will of course be emailed next week when the release is available for download. We will also post to our…

• 
  AuctionBytes

• Colorado Kills Affiliate/Ad Tax Legislation, Other State Bills Pending

  The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) said on Monday that proposed advertising-tax legislation in Colorado was dead. Legislators changed a proposed law (HB 1193) to remove a provision that would have required online retailers and marketplaces with affiliates in the state to collect Colorado sales tax.

• New eBay Diamond Ring Promotion Encourages Social Networking

  eBay and Brides magazine are running a "Build Your Bling" contest that encourages viral marketing through social networking and offers a chance to win a diamond ring worth up to $25,000.

• eBay Search Goes Down Briefly at Midnight

  eBay experienced a search outage Monday night that it resolved in under an hour.

• Etsy Blog Goes International, Adds Euro-Bloggers

  Etsy's UK Blogger introduced herself on the Etsy "Storque" blog on Monday, and will be joined by bloggers in France and Germany as the online marketplace tries to penetrate Europe.

• eBay Runs Sale on Auction Listings

  eBay is running a 2-day sale on auction listings on February 9 - 10, 2010.

• 
  The Return on Investment (ROI) Blog by BigCommerce

• Interspire Podcast #2: How to hire super stars and how to formulate your market

  Mitchell Harper

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:14 pm

  Length: 26:56 Overview: A look into the strategies we use for recruiting the best people and tips to formulate your market when selling any sort of product. Description: In this, episode 2 of the Interspire podcast, I take a look at some of the strategies we’ve developed over the last 6 years to identify the best candidates during the interview process. At the surface level you might think it’s easy to recruit based on a candidates past experience, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ll also touch on identifying your market and formulating a business plan…

• Hold onto your hats! Here’s what’s coming in BigCommerce version 6…

  Mitchell Harper

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:49 pm

  Introduction After releasing version 5.5 of BigCommerce in November last year (which did even better than we expected), we’re well under way developing the next major release: version 6. After talking with dozens of customers and partners via our GetSatisfaction page, in person and on the phones, I’ve locked in what I think is a release full of killer features which will help make you more money as a BigCommerce merchant. More Innovation, Frequent Releases Some say the e-commerce space is boring or stagnant. We laugh at that and don’t believe it for a second. Our goal with…

• New “Store Login” Link Makes it Easier to Login to Your Store

  Mitchell Harper

  20 Jan 2010 | 10:14 pm

  Just a quick update to let you know we’ve added a new “Store Login” link to the top menu on the BigCommerce website. Clicking the link takes you to a login page for your store. After you’ve logged in once, you can come back to the same page (bookmarking the login page is recommended) and your store URL and username will be remembered. Simply type in your password and you’ll be logged into your store’s control panel.

• Interspire Podcast #1: Our email marketing strategy for 250,000+ contacts

  Mitchell Harper

  20 Jan 2010 | 4:44 pm

  Length: 26:40 Overview: A look into the strategies we’ve used to grow our various email lists to over 250,000 people. Description: In this, our first podcast in a series of many, I discuss the specific strategies we’ve used over the last 6 years to build our list of contacts to over 250,000 people. I talk about the design ideas behind our newsletters as well as how to write content which allows you to relate to your subscribers. I’ll also share a few tricks relating to email compatibility, buyer psychology and company positioning. Like this podcast? Share it on FaceBook or…

• BigCommerce 5.5 Upgrade Available to All Stores

  Mitchell Harper

  19 Jan 2010 | 6:42 pm

  Please note: If you created your BigCommerce store on or after 16th December 2009 then you’re already running version 5.5 so please ignore this post. It only applies to stores which were setup before 16th December 2009. Hi everyone. Over the last few days we’ve been rolling out the BigCommerce 5.5 software update to all existing stores. If you login to your store’s control panel you’ll see a notice at the top of the page which looks something like this: When you click the link you’ll be asked to schedule a date for when the upgrade will take place: The upgrade…

• 
  Elias Interactive » Blog

• Virtual Work: 3 tips, 3 reasons, 3 pros, and 2 cons for NOT having an office

  Josh Colter

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:35 am

  When people ask me about Elias, it is our team’s virtual setup that usually generates the most interest. I realized the world is different one day while driving down US 135 in Greenwood, Indiana. I was using my iphone to chat on skype with a teammate in New Zealand and business partner in Uruguay about a client in New York. Inc magazine is using the month of February to conduct an experiment whereby their staff abandons plush office space for the freedom of home workspaces and the occasional noisy coffee shop (sidenote: I am writing this post from a starbucks). The magazine’s blog…

• Friday Video Fun: SoundRacer

  Josh Colter

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:09 pm

  Our project management wiz, Eric, just had his first kid a few months ago and is already busy carting the family around in a new SUV. How domesticated can you get? So you can imagine his delight when he came across this product for SoundRacer, the gizmo that turns your boring family automobile into a muscle car. Share/Save

• Day I’ll Never Forget: Discovery with Marcus from CREO

  Josh Colter

  4 Feb 2010 | 7:05 am

  The client wasn’t happy.  We’d worked with her for a number of weeks now, and this was the second time she felt we “just didn’t get it” and she was getting frustrated.  We felt we “got it”, but each time we met with her our presentation didn’t live up to her expectations. “She’s difficult,” we said to one another while working on the project.  As the next meeting approached a growing sense of dread loomed over us, curdling our creativity and eroding our confidence.  When the day came to present, the design fell flat. She compared our work to a “doodle on a…

• Pricing Strategy Matrix

  Josh Colter

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:01 pm

  Working on pricing for something new. Sometimes a simple drawing can help process ideas and determine where to focus your time. Share/Save

• Magento Issue: Checkout Redirect With SSL Installation And Sub-Domain

  Lee Taylor

  27 Jan 2010 | 12:33 pm

  Considering the woes that can come with installing a SSL certificate. Yesterday, we ran into an issue with a client that I wanted to note, just in case anyone else may benefit from the scenario and solution. Scenario We had the Magento integrated with SVN and have a post-commit hook that auto-deploys into our root directory on the server. We originally had the httpdocs folder and the httpsdocs folder mirroring each other so that the httpsdocs folder would handle SSL (https) requests and the httpdocs would handle all other non-SSL requests. As we were installing our SSL certificate, we changed…

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  E-Commerce and Shopping Cart Blog | 3dCart

• Featured Client – Candy.com

  Robert Muise

  29 Jan 2010 | 11:36 am

  Candy.com Finds Sweet Success With 3dCart Candy.com is the brainchild of cousins Greg Balestrieri and Joe Melville, who represent the 3rd generation of success for the family owned and operated, Melville Candy Company. After witnessing the 400%  growth of Melville Candy’s online store, they realized they could take a bite out of the $30 billion dollar candy industry. “This is a new business with the same passion and some of the same family,” Balestrieri said.  “We’re going to revolutionize the candy industry by creating a fun and exciting candy community for…

• Mashable Mashup – 5 Lists To Help Your Small Business

  Robert Muise

  22 Jan 2010 | 1:38 pm

  If you’re not familiar with mashable.com, you’re missing out. They have some of the most informative lists of tips and tools to help anyone, including the small business owner. Here’s a sampling: 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Avoid Social Media Panic The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration 10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook 5 Tips for Creating a Successful Social Media Contest HOW TO: Use a Start Page to Stay Organized

• Analysis of a Lie – 3dCart Vs Volusion

  Robert Muise

  21 Jan 2010 | 8:27 am

  We appreciate healthycompetition between companies. However, when deceptive marketing practices are being  used to mislead the consumer, we have to draw attention to them. Our company values dictate that we do not speak negatively about our competition. Our sales team is fantastic. They’ve got a combined total of over 70 years in e-commerce design, consultation, and support. These are not simply a group of people who are here to sell you the best account, these are people who know e-commerce software, design, and have helped launch thousands of online stores. They take pride in…

• How to Price Your Products

  Robert Muise

  19 Jan 2010 | 8:49 am

  The price of your products will play an important role in how well it sells. You’ll need to consider who your target consumer is, how much your competitors are charging and which price will show that your product is the best value. There is a distinct trade off between quality and price. When something is too good to be true, it usually is. Say you have a widget that is worth $100.00. If you were to sell it for $1.00, it would be a fantastic deal. Your shoppers would think that it was cheap and shop elsewhere. This is why you need to price your products accordingly and in order to do…

• Turn your iPhone Into a Credit Cart Terminal

  Robert Muise

  18 Jan 2010 | 1:17 pm

  Square is hopeful that merchants will want to turn their iPhone into a credit card swiper. Through its app, Square will process a credit card, accept a signature and email your customer a receipt. It will even geotag the transaction with the exact location of where the transaction took place! They’re not the only company coming up with t his concept. Mophie has recently announced credit card scanner. [Kevin Rose via Ubergizmo]

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  The Official LexiConn Blog

• Ecommerce Holiday Trends From The Small Merchant Perspective

  Rob Mangiafico

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:56 am

  A lot of studies and reports came out after the holidays looking at how the overall online retailers fared this past Christmas season. In most cases, these studies were looking at the big box retailers. Little was focused on how the small e-merchants did during this timeframe. Here’s our data to add to the mix… What we measured We took a random sampling of around 300 ShopSite stores run by small merchants that we host. These stores had to have more than 5 orders per day in order to be included in the data. We recorded the number of stores sampled, the number of orders each store…

• ShopSite Is Lightweight and Fast, Just Like Facebook

  Rob Mangiafico

  4 Feb 2010 | 5:31 am

  I was reading a recent article at Ecommerce Developer that discussed how Facebook drastically reduced CPU usage and memory requirements, and sped up performance by converting much of their PHP based code to compiled C++ programs. Translated, Facebook optimized their programming to be faster and less resource intensive by using a better language (C++). If it’s good enough for the largest application on the planet, then it stands to reason it’s a good idea for ecommerce software as well. ShopSite is written in C ShopSite, our favorite ecommerce application, is actually written in C,…

• Getting the Most Out of the Oprah Effect – How LexiConn Helped Cosabella Increase Sales 2000%

  Rob Mangiafico

  2 Feb 2010 | 4:29 am

  Being on the Oprah Winfrey Show is a big deal. Some would say it’s the ultimate advertising opportunity. Just being mentioned by Oprah can generate thousands of website visitors. How about if some your products are featured, and even modeled on the show? For one of our hosting clients, Cosabella, they found out what’s it like to be featured on Oprah. “We’re going to be on Oprah in two weeks!” That was the phone call we first fielded with Cosabella. They found out they were going to be featured on Oprah, and it could be as soon as two weeks. Needless to say, they…

• Top Ecommerce Blog Posts and Articles for January

  Rob Mangiafico

  28 Jan 2010 | 5:09 am

  Here are a few ecommerce related posts and articles from January that stood out from the crowd… Enjoy! … Beat Wal-Mart Bloody with a Blog in Five Steps – A great blog post at Remarkablogger that details a few simple ideas for beating the big box retailers at their own game. A mix of humor and real-world examples that every small business owner should read. Best Practices Review – Five things to look out for on your ecommerce website. Don’t be the one that violates these simple rules. Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do – A robust…

• Tax and Shipping Before Checkout – ShopSite Does It Right!

  Rob Mangiafico

  26 Jan 2010 | 5:03 am

  It’s no secret shoppers want as much information about their intended purchases before actually completing a sale. Yet many online stores continue to hide all the costs such as shipping and tax, or make the customer wade through a number of screens before revealing this information. Why? To frustrate and turn away potentials buyers? First, the stats A recent Forrester study found that 36% of shoppers that abandoned a cart did so because the shipping was unclear. A 2009 iforce survey concluded that consumers want shipping options upfront and early on in the online process. A November…

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  eCommerceCircle

• Top 5 Tips For Running A Successful eCommerce Promotion Campaign

  Guest Author

  27 Jan 2010 | 1:04 pm

  Kerrin Hardy writes a blog (kerrinhardy.com) for online store owners on the practicalities of ecommerce for small business. Join Kerrin for her free workshop ‘How to run a Valentine’s Day Promotion Campaign’ – a series of daily tasks to guide you through running a successful campaign this Valentine’s Day holiday. It’s holiday season again already! Just when you thought you could put your feet up after the Christmas rush and New Year madness, you realise you should have already started your next promotion campaign. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and according to the US…

• Trust: SSL Extended Validation & Hacker Safe

  Michael J. Kaye

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:33 am

  Trust. It’s a big word. It can mean the difference of thousands of dollars in revenue. How do you convey a message of trust to your site visitors? How can you turn them into customers? We touched on this topic in the past: “Maximize Trust Level By Displaying Affiliated Third Party Logos“. Here is some more info that can make or break the bank. McAfee Secure / Hacker  Safe If you sign up with McAfee Secure (formerly HackerSafe/ScanAlert), they will give you a logo to display on your site that shows your compliance with their policies. The logo includes the date of the scan,…

• How To Use Day Parting To Trim Wasteful Spend In AdWords

  Michael J. Kaye

  30 Dec 2009 | 10:54 am

  Simple logic would dictate that if someone searched for your keywords, show them an ad. Sometimes hard facts are completely different from what you would expect. In most AdWords accounts that I have dealt with, I have seen much lower conversion rates and revenue in between the hours of 2AM and 7AM. Here’s how to check if this is the case on your eCommerce site with Google Analytics. How Do I Check? In Google Analytics, go to Ecommerce –> Conversion Rate. Select a 3 month date range, last 90 days is the best. The click on the little clock icon where it says “Graph…

• 4 Quick Tips On How To Boost Magento’s Speed

  Michael J. Kaye

  10 Dec 2009 | 7:35 am

  Magento is a great open source eCommerce platform. Merchants love it for it’s full feature set as well as it’s ability to add-on features via extensions. One issue that a lot of people run into is the page load speed. Magento is very picky about the server set up. Here are some tips to help boost the performance and speed of your Magento store. 1 — Query Cache Size Change the default Query Cache Size, it should be 32 or 64mb. Magento Blog: Modify the configuration for your MySQL server to take better advantage of your server’s RAM. Most Linux distributions provide a…

• How To Track Magento eCommerce Sales In Google Anayltics

  Michael J. Kaye

  9 Dec 2009 | 8:36 am

  In a previous post we covered how to set up 3rd party tracking pixels in Magento. Setting up Google Analytics eCommerce tracking is much easier. There are two steps to this process: Magento Configuration In Magento, navigate to System –> Configuration –> Google API –> Google Analytics. Select “Enabled” and enter your Google Analytics account number. (The account number can be found when you login to Google Analytics on the main page, right next to the site URL. Google Analytics Configuration In Google Analytics, navigate to Analytics Settings –>…

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  Groove Commerce eCommerce Blog

• Design 1, 2, 3: A Valentine Paid Link = Chain Pharmacy Fail

  Of all the things that February represents in America: Black History Month, American History Month, Heart Month, Snack Food Month, Children’s Dental Health Month, International Friendship Month; February is widely known for being the month of loooooove, by which I mean artificial hearts and gift exchanges. Yup, Valentine’s Day. The ...

• How’s Your Online Consistency?

  We all know that brand consistency is necessary between your different print marketing efforts. When you get your business card redesigned, you know it's time to revisit your letterhead and collateral as well. Consistency online. The consistency in your branding online is often just as (or sometimes more) important than your ...

• Design 1, 2, 3: Discount Perfume eTailer – It’s in the Details

  Overall, the discount perfume website that I’ve chosen for this month’s Design 1, 2, 3 isn’t actually too bad. I don’t love the aesthetic of the site, but it’s nice for what it is: pastel hues and simple text links all fairly well organized to create a visual hierarchy. The ...

• Win Free Shipping Supplies for a Year

  Groove Commerce client Shipping Supply worked up a pretty spiffy contest that's getting some cool press. Shipping Supply is giving away free shipping supplies for one whole year to one lucky fan...Facebook Fan, that is. Groove Commerce was thrilled to design the landing page and email for this contest, so ...

• GoBeyondIT Gets a Groove Commerce Site Design

  Amidst the hustle and bustle of the holidays, Groove Commerce and GoBeyondIT worked tirelessly to launch GoBeyond's brand new website. So we're happy to announce the new website is now live! Maryland-based GoBeyondIT specializes in managed IT services for small businesses that are looking to focus on running their business, ...

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  eCommerce News

• Google Adds Designer Products to Their Ecommerce Store

• The Downfalls of Google Suggest for Ecommerce

• Top Online Deals for Valentines Day 2010

• Malaysia: An Untapped Ecommerce Opportunity?

• Dynamic Pricing Leaves Some Consumers Spending More Than Others

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  Addy Kho The 9-Hour WorkWeek, Guide You to Make Money Online, Successful Internet Marketing Revealed

• Addy Takes Up the HAHD Ezine Marathon Challenge from Christopher Knight

  addy

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:08 am

  100 Articles in 100 Days I have decided to take up the challenge of Hundred Articles in Hundred Days (HAHD) marathon from Christopher Knight, the CEO of Ezine Articles. For those who do not know what is Ezine Articles, it is an article directory where people can post their articles online. Each article is normally of 400-6oo words. I know I have posted before that article writing is not a good way to attract traffics to your website, unless you have hundreds of articles written to make it a significant traffic source to your website. There are many  other ways online which are more effective…

• Fire at Wayang Street, Kuching- 2nd Fire in Two Months at Kuching Old Town

  addy

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:37 pm

  Fire at Wayang Street, the Historical Area of Kuching In less than 2 months time, another fire broke out at the old town of Kuching. This time it was at the Wayang Street, right opposite the Star Cineplex. It is believed that the fire started at the Tattoo Parlour at around 10:30pm on Saturday night (6th Feb) and spread to the hardware shop on the left. It was noticed that the roofing of the shop on the right also caught fire at around midnight before the 2nd fire engine arrived on the fire scene. The fire was put out before it spread to the 4th shop. So what was the cause of the fire? I…

• How Much is Each Customer Worth for your Ecommerce Sites

  addy

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:55 am

  How much is each customer worth for your online ecommerce business? I am sure you always hear people saying that those who bought from you before will always buy from you again. They are more likely to become your returning customers, be it buying the same product or other products that you are promoting. Before you start an online business, please make sure that you do not fall into the low end of any market and compete on the price with many others. Imaging if I am selling a product costs USD49 as compared to you selling a product costs only USD4.90. You may have to sell 10 products to make…

• Search Engine Optimisation- Effect By Google Search Personalisation

  addy

  26 Jan 2010 | 6:42 pm

  Search Engine Optimisation It seems like I have not been updating my blog for long even though my last post was on the 18th Jan. It shows that there is some sort of attachment between me and addykho.com, and of course with my readers too. I was in fact away for few days to enhance my own Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) knowledge. I may be the only one in East Malaysia with the Advance SEO qualification (or one of the very few in Malaysia), I must say that SEO  for me is  still a really fascinating subject and for many others may consider it as the ‘Black Box’ of internet…

• For The Haiti- They Need Help

  addy

  17 Jan 2010 | 6:20 pm

  Do Your Bit To  The People Of Haiti Yesterday a friend of mine, Alger woke me up by sending me a link of his blog and told me it is ‘URGENT”. At first I thought what is so urgent. When his blog appeared right in front of me, then I realised it is a call for people to donate to the people of Haiti. I also saw a lot of volunteers from Tzu Chi (http://english.tzuchi.my/) walking around in town raising fund for the victims of Haiti earthquake, especially the elderly. Salute to them. So what is it we all can do when we are sitting infront of the computer? Of course there are things we…

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  Optimizing E-Commerce

• TrialPay’s New Features – February 2010

  Chris Heggem

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:41 pm

  Every month we release new products and features to improve the experience for our partners and shoppers. The latest Valentine’s Day promotions are a huge part of what we released in February, but we didn’t stop there. Order Confirmation Promotion During the Valentine’s push, we’re giving complimentary flower coupons to customers who complete a non-Valentine’s offer. Customer Support: Facebook Connect Sign-In Thanks to Facebook Connect, we’ve simplified the customer support process by allowing customers to sign in with a single click.

• Increase Sales During Valentine’s Day

  Chris Heggem

  27 Jan 2010 | 1:21 pm

  We’re coming off record holiday spending, but with Valentine’s Day around the corner it’s already time to prepare for your next holiday promotion. Why? Take a look at this these statistics from the National Retail Federation: Valentine’s Day is the third-largest holiday Last year Americans spent $14.7 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts Over one-third of people said they would buy flowers for Valentine’s Day So why are we telling software and digital goods merchants about flowers? Because you can make a sale for every bouquet your customers buy on your site – we want you to get a…

• A Lesson Learned from 2009: Shopping Cart Abandonment

  TrialPay

  5 Jan 2010 | 6:10 am

  As we begin the New Year, it’s necessary to reflect on the previous year to recognize our successes and shortcomings. While the recent holiday sales boosted e-commerce by 3.6% over last year, there is still room for improvement as we enter 2010. Yes, overall sales did increase, but so did shopping cart abandonment. Shopping cart abandonment averages at about 45% (as high as 60% in some cases), but during the last quarter abandonment jumped to 70% – peaking at 83% in early October. Granted, October’s spike is largely due to customers holding out for holiday sales, but there are…

• Doing Right by the Consumer: Going Beyond Compliance

  TrialPay

  17 Dec 2009 | 9:24 am

  In October of this year, a TechCrunch article exposed questionable advertising practices in the social gaming industry. Since that time, several major changes have taken place: 1.Facebook has begun enforcing its strict ad guidelines for developers and monetization providers, even banning a few players permanently from the Facebook platform. 2.Social gaming publishers—large and small—have pulled offers from their platform altogether while they review the business practices of their monetization partners. 3.Offer companies have issued press releases ranging from additional ad…

• It’s the Season of Giving and Giving Back

  TrialPay

  9 Dec 2009 | 7:00 am

  TrialPay is very proud to be a Mountain View company and we’re always looking for ways to give back to the community. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of families in our area that need assistance and millions across the nation. Through TheBigBundle and assisting with Community Services Agency’s Toy Drive, TrialPay has begun to do its part to help those in need. Here is a brief look at what we were able to accomplish with the Community Services Agency (CSA) for children in our community. What can you do for families in your area?

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  demac media

• How to Choose the Right eCommerce Partner for Your Business

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:10 am

  When you set out in any business, choosing the right vendor for any part of your business that isn’t cared for in house is incredibly difficult.  You have almost limitless possibilities in today’s globalized marketplace.  How do you know who to work with?  Do they need to be local? Can you even trust references?  How much does a design portfolio say (when looking at designers)?  These are just a few of the questions among the dozens you should be asking during the process of selecting any vendor.  However, since we are largely focused on eCommerce,…

• AspDotNetStorefront Migration and 301 Redirects

  8 Jan 2010 | 6:06 pm

  Are you planning on migrating from another eCommerce (or non eCommerce) platform to AspDotNetStorefront?  If the answer to this question is yes, then you need to consider your current site page structure and how the migration is going to affect your search engine result pages (SERPS) within Google/MSN/Yahoo/(insert search engine here). There are a few ways to handle 301 Redirects within AspDotNetStorefront, none of which are out of the box answers (except when version 9 is released – more on that later). Method 1 – eCommerceCartMods.com 301 Redirect Add-On The guys at…

• eCommerce Sales Rise by 5 Percent During 2009 Holiday Shopping Season

  2 Jan 2010 | 7:24 am

  Earlier this week comScore put out the usual end of season press release reporting on their eCommerce spending data from November 1 to Christmas Eve.  Given that last year (2008) actually resulted in a 3% decline, the 2009 numbers are quite refreshing. For the 2009 holiday shopping season, approximately $27 billion was spent online, representing a 5% increase over the same period last year.  Now, there was an extra day this year, so the adjusted increase is still a respectable 3.5%. Have a peak at the eCommerce 2009 Holiday Season vs. 2008 Holiday Season press release for a nice…

• Salesforce.com eCommerce and AspDotNetStorefront Integration

  23 Dec 2009 | 4:13 pm

  If you’re a current Salesforce.com customer and looking for an eCommerce Store Front that integrates nicely with Salesforce.com, look no further!  We’ve successfully linked AspDotNetStorefront, a leading Microsoft ASP.NET based shopping cart platform with Salesforce.com. This was something we received a few inquiries about over the last 12 months and after some internal discussions decided would be a great service to offer the market. We’ve discussed the importance of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and eCommerce with several of our key clients over the last…

• AspDotNetStorefront Twitter Add-On – Give Your Followers Exclusive Offers / Coupons

  21 Dec 2009 | 7:17 pm

  The Request If you’ve been looking for a nice way to utilize Twitter with your AspDotNetStorefront eCommerce site then we may have something for you. Recently, one of our clients requested a feature that allowed him to provide a configurable coupon to the people who followed him on Twitter.  The trick with doing something like this on Twitter is to make it opt-in and not just spam out coupons to Twitter followers randomly. The Solution We decided to build a small add-on for AspDotNetStorefront that creates a page within your site called TwitterPromo.aspx.  The functionality of…

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  QLOG

• Don’t Tap The Tank! You’ll Scare Away The Fish.

  Amy

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:48 pm

  In the past month, I have encountered so many Nutter Butters that I’ve started checking wrists for “if lost, please return to the psychiatric ward” bracelets. Not only have I met too many full-on wackadoodles to count, I have also come across several people where the only thing I can wonder about them is what planet they are from. (And I am not talking Mars and Venus here.) Take the other day for example….   I was not-so-patiently waiting in my dentist’s office.   As always, he was running late and if that wasn’t irritating enough, his big, fat liar assistant said that he…

• Exit Pages: What You Need To Know

  Amy

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:56 am

  Beth Kotowski asks: “Why are you so obsessed with exit pages? No other consultants ever talk about them.  Are you behind the times or do you see value in them that others don’t?” Good question.  I know they are not sexy but exit pages are still one of the very first things I look at before I do a site critique.  Why?  Because they’re often one of the easiest ways you can identify what’s wrong with a site.  Here are 4 things you need to know: 1.  What are your top ten exit pages?   Top five? Top one? Those are the pages you need to look at and/or fix…

• The Mind & Marketing

  Amy

  25 Jan 2010 | 11:25 am

  This is a guest post from Geoff Wolf. There are a lot of multichannel (multi-touch, multi-whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it) consultants out there.  The majority of them couldn’t sell (or give) a hamburger to a hungry man and I am completely convinced they’re only “consultants” because nobody on earth is crazy enough to hire them.   Geoff is one of the very few exceptions I’ve ever met.  (And yes, I mean that quite literally.)   He’s been helping clients overcome their multichannel challenges for a long time and he’s exceptional at…

• The Forgotten Art of Holding Hands…

  Amy

  13 Jan 2010 | 7:19 am

  The other day, while I was debating whether or not to report father-to-be, DJ Waldow, to Child Protective Services for FUTURE neglect*, a funny thing happened.  I was standing in a very busy, noisy, 50-floor, city office building, impatiently waiting for one of the two (out of eight) elevators that were working.  EVERYONE was on their phones  (in fact, most of us had a phone in one hand and a BlackBerry/iPhone in the other) and nobody was paying much attention to anyone else.   We were all grumpy; the one of us who couldn’t find the stairs to bypass this exercise in futility…

• Do You Remember Your First Kiss?

  Amy

  11 Jan 2010 | 10:57 am

  Do you remember the first time you kissed? What about the last time? Ok, now tell me about all the ones in the middle.  Yes, you heard me….  Talk to me about every kiss you’ve ever had. Don’t remember them all?   Hmmm….  Why? In the past couple months, I have started several speeches and webinars with the “kiss” question.  Everyone can tell me about their first and last kisses but after that, folks quickly start drawing blanks. Is it because there are too many?   If I asked you to only tell me about ALL the memorable “middle-kisses” – could you do it?  Probably…

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  E-commerce News

• Online Retailers Falling Short with their Product Recommendations

  ecommercejunkie

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:58 am

  Product recommendations and featured products can be a very effective component of an online shopping portal. Highlighting items for shoppers visiting your site and using their shopping history to pass along other products they may like is an excellent way to boost sales and increase customer retention. But as a new survey indicates, many retailers are not using this feature to its full potential. ChoiceStream, a product recommendations specialist and display ad provider, just released the results of its 2009 Personalization Survey. The company polled nearly 600 adult web users, nearly all of…

• January Retail Data Offers Hope

  ecommercejunkie

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:28 am

  We saw that retailers had a rough December when the Commerce Department released its retail sales figures for the last month of 2009.  While we have to wait a few more weeks for the government to unveil its January retail data, a Thompson Reuters survey on the subject should give the industry something to feel good about moving forward in 2010. According to the report, which polled 29 major retailers, sales rose by a healthy 3.3 percent rate in January.  That’s more than twice what many industry analysts were anticipating and builds on Thompson Reuters’ December report that showed a…

• Merchant Certifications: How they can help your eCommerce operation

  ecommercejunkie

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:36 pm

  There is no doubt that online shopping is growing in popularity.  Every year more and more people are logging on to shop and save money.  As the number of users has grown, the e-commerce industry has itself expanded, incorporating new features, tools and social networking sites to reach even more people. While the increase in popularity is good news for retailers, it also means that competition among merchants to attract consumers and develop customer loyalty is only going to get more fierce. The question you must ask yourself constantly as a retailer these days is simple:  as part of a…

• Site Problems Resulting in Lost Customers for Many E-tailers

  ecommercejunkie

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:27 pm

  As an online retailer, one of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your operation is to have a website and shopping portal that is humming along without any glitches. We’ve stressed the importance of optimization in several posts before, most recently in our 5 Merchant Tips for 2010 and Cyber Monday Merchant Tips blogs to reinforce just howcritical this component of running an online store is. Why are we bringing this up now?  Because we came across a report that substantiates what we’ve said all along—a shopping portal with technology problems more often than…

• Great Companies & People to Follow on Twitter if You Love Ecommerce

  ecommercejunkie

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:13 am

  We did some digging around to see if we could find ecommerce-related companies on Twitter and have started to compile a list of users to follow. If you love ecommerce we recommend adding the following people and companies to your daily tweets. Datafeed companies: Godatafeed Singlefeed Mercent Feedperfect iProspect CPCstrategy Comparison Engines: Become.com SortPrice.com PriceGrabber.com The Find Ecommerce experts: Linda Bustos Shawna Fennell Ina Steiner Scott Wingo Bill Mirabito Brian Walker Feel free to recommend other users for ecommerce related Tweets below. Filed under: ecommerce Tagged:…

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  Green Apple Sales, Inc.

• Yet another marketing powerhouse…

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:32 am

  Green Apple Sales is proud to announce the latest addition to our team… Tom Ness! Tom is a very creative and innovative online marketing expert and has come to our company as our new marketing strategist.  He will plotting and planning edgy new marketing attacks for our clients to give them a unique advantage over their competition. He works from the shear desire to bring exceptional results to clients.  He is a team player and this is why he makes a good fit at Green Apple Sales.  So needless to say the Green Apple Team is excited about this great new addition to our team! Get to…

• Business Help

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:02 am

  Many business owners have enough on their plate already and when things get tough it would be nice to have some help. Give me 2 minutes to tell you how we can help you and your business. Ok depending on what type of business you are in the solution varies.  Lets pick something like an automobile repair shop.  This will be good. Now if there was say a small shop that did automotive repairs and has done well for 20 years.  Things are getting more competitive.  Some corporate chain opens down the street with a fancy facility and a huge sign.  They have a half a million dollar marketing…

• Nothing is Free.

  31 Jan 2010 | 5:49 pm

  Many online business start-ups (ecommerce) struggle the first year or two. The reason many do is they are looking for something for free. Here does this sound familiar? “I will have an ecommerce store built and then I can just use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to market it!” Sounds great in concept. Here is the deal, some people will do it and succeed. Do not be fooled though, it was not free. They spent 60+ hours a week producing content, posting to blogs, updating Twitter and Facebook.  9.5 out of 10 people do not deliver effective marketing messages, thus resulting in sluggish…

• No website…WHAT?! Really?

  28 Jan 2010 | 9:39 pm

  If you have a business and no website it is probably because they never mention websites on your 8-track player! Seriously how does a business expect to keep with the market and stay competitive if they are missing the fastest growing marketing in the world, the internet.  I recently spoke to a business owner who said “If my sales where up I would invest in a website”  I said “If you had a website your sales would be up”. I really think a lot of people still underestimate how powerful the web is for all businesses.  To me not having a website in 2010 is like not…

• Wake Up, Service Matters!

  28 Jan 2010 | 5:34 pm

  I just would like to make a point. In the last decade customer service in the US has tanked. Companies outsourced it to people you can not understand, or they put you on the 5 hour voice mail; “if you wear shoes press 2, thank you,  if you like milk please press 3, if you are happy with your cable service and would like to leave a compliment press….” Ridiculous.  I would like to ban those customer aggravation systems. As much as they cut cost by outsourcing they have felt the loss of customers. This is an opportunity for all the small business owners. You can provide…