In this world where “flat is the new up,” it is critical to make each visit of every shopper count. With fewer shoppers coming to your site, you have to be instantly engaging, catering to your shopper, making your site a destination. And, you have to get your shoppers to put as much as possible into their cart and then actually check out.
The question is - how can you take the flat or even decreased traffic and turn it into profit? Here are eight tips to help you entice your shoppers to buy more.
1. Shipping Offers - Lets start with getting people to your site. Shipping is something that shoppers are always concerned with. Free shipping, if you can afford it, always moves people to buy more. If your model does not support free, shoppers are also happy with flat fee shipping or even shipping with a minimum purchase (they will buy just one more product to qualify).
2. Incentives and Bundles - So, you got them to your site with a shipping offer, next, motivate them to buy more with incentives. Who doesn’t like getting a gift with a purchase or a special bundle of products for an extra discount? The shopper feels like they’re getting a bargain while you get to move more products.
3. Rebates - If you can’t offer discounts, another tactic to entice shoppers is to offer rebates. People get wide-eyed about rebates and will buy more to get them. Even if they do not actually redeem the rebate, they will be more loyal to your site for the service.
4. Personalized Product Recommendations - Next, lets turn to the customer experience. Today’s savvy shopper expects merchants to know them. Serving personalized product recommendations helps customers find what they’re looking for (and sometimes things they did not even know they wanted). The product detail page is the most logical location, but place recommendations throughout your site and most importantly in the shopping cart - it is a good place to put those impulse purchases - just like candy at the store check out.
5. Video - Another way to enhance the customer experience is to tantalize and engage your shopper with video. This medium can be used to demonstrate how a product works, show how apparel fits, or even do a virtual wine tasting. Video can answer questions shoppers have so that they buy even more than expected.
6. Ratings and Reviews - Lets face it, shoppers are social creatures, and love to talk and get advice from one another. Rating and reviews helps people get feedback from each other. Some shoppers can’t resist the temptation; they have to buy top rated items and will fill their cart.
7. Customer Service - Speaking of people talking , another thing that really helps is something just so simple - offer stellar customer service, and you will not believe how far that will get you. People talk and when they have a great experience, they will tell everyone they know. I do all the time!
8. Alternative Payment Methods - Okay, you have used tips 1-7 on your site and the shopper has stuffed their cart - this is when you are at risk for the dreaded cart abandonment. There are many things you should do to motivate your shoppers to click submit, maybe that is for a dedicated article. Suffice it to say, make it easy to check out. Alternative payment methods make it easier for anyone to check out - so make sure you offer them.
The bottom line is that you need to employ many different tactics to boost your average order value; it is the only way to take flat traffic and turn it up!
Lisa Joy Rosner is MyBuys‘ vice president of marketing.
I just returned from New Zealand—a land known for its geographic isolation—where I met with one of the nation’s premier web development firms. While the work done in New Zealand is on par with the best in the world, the price based upon current currency disparity makes it anywhere from 35- to 40-percent less expensive. Savvy e-marketers should look beyond the proximity of any opportunity when making any cost-benefit decisions. Prior to my voyage I attended the sixth annual E-Commerce Best Practices Conference.
As usual, this year’s program addressed a wide array of current issues facing the e-commerce industry, an industry that has shattered any remaining business barriers caused by geographic isolation. They covered user-generated content, and the monetization of both that and other social media. On the legal front, we learned about the issues surrounding minors’ online activities, e-commerce patents, content aggregation and trespass issues, new threats to cybersecurity, as well as cutting-edge litigation strategies for online businesses. E-commerce companies were advised about affiliate marketing over the Internet, doing business in China. We were educated about best practices for U.S. Internet companies establishing online stores in other jurisdictions.
My general impressions were that the world we are living in is indeed flat. E-tailers are no longer constrained by geographic locations. Rather, a reasoned analysis could open a plethora of money-making opportunities based upon a number of factors.
But for me, perhaps the most exciting part of the conference was the panel titled “Best Practices for Drafting Terms of Use.â€Â Not because I have any particular love of or interest in the finer points of contract law and negotiation (I let our lawyers handle that), but because the law firm tasked with moderating this particular panel, DLA Piper, recently did some work for my company, E-Commerce Island and the related UVI Research & Technology Park (RTPark). It was work which could also directly and significantly benefit profitable electronic retailers, such as those who are providing newsletters, SaaS, online games, ringtones and/or music subscription, digital photo hosting and licensing, online education, ad serving for online marketing, online dating, video streaming, customer support and other online products and services.
DLA attorneys analyzed existing federal tax code for guidance relevant to the types of businesses the RTPark is ideally set up to serve and attract (given one of the largest concentrations of global bandwidth and an historical role as a crossroads of commerce). Several business models with standing income sourcing guidance were found, and they approached the Treasury in May and June of 2006 seeking its affirmation that the RTPark interpretation of federal law was correct. The Treasury responded favorably with temporary regulations in September 2006. Then, in April 2008, the Treasury’s permanent regulations were issued. Because USVI is a territory of the U.S, additional benefits of USVI-based e-commerce efforts include FDIC insurance as well as jurisdiction and IP protection under U.S. federal law.
So what does this mean for electronic retailers offering the above-mentioned kinds of online products? Up to 90-percent federal tax savings for income sourced in the (near-shore) USVI. These impressive benefits are all the more valuable given the administration’s recently toughening stance on off-shore corporate tax savings.
As is often the case, identical companies can significantly increase their value simply by the locations they choose to source portions of their activities from.
Steve Rohrlickis the master marketing agent for ECommerce Island, otherwise known as St. Croix, the largest island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where superior infrastructure and tax benefits under the U.S. flag offer an ideal new home for eCommerce businesses.
In my last blog post, I cited a factoid regarding 17 million iPhones having been sold to date. In fact, Apple’s App Store is downloading and/or selling approximately 3 million applications every day. Of course, this is America, and where would be without over-reactive pendulum swings? Some are asking if the App Store paradigm is the wave of the future and if the mobile web is dead? The answer, of course, is a resounding NO.
The App Store is not the future- it’s the present, and only with respect to the iPhone. The appeal of the iPhone is the App Store. To Apple’s credit, they were really smart when the copied their iPod and iTunes template when they launched the iPhone. Further, they were downright brilliant when they made each and every hardware component on that phone i.e. the microphone, speaker, screen, camera and GPS chip available to the developer community via open APIs and a well thought iPhone software development kit. Layer on Apple’s typically brilliant marketing and voila: two years later we have 17 million phones, tens of thousands of apps and another Apple success story.
Ok, so now let’s put this in context. First, while 17 million iPhones have been sold worldwide, there are more than 2 billion non-iPhones out there. Second, let’s be real, the App Store is a walled garden and walls are always salacious targets in the same way that buttons compel pushing. Think AOL… So, as we all think about developing our mobile applications, know that it is imperative to develop a WAP application first and foremost. I would of course, encourage the development of an iPhone app too as iPhone users are rabid consumers of applications and the mobile web. Also, cell phone manufacturers, take note: Start defining standards across your line of handsets. Publish APIs and SDKs that allow developers to write apps and/or mobile web applications. And watch the mobile web tsunami explode!
Don’t be a Gilly! Instead, get to the head of the class and ahead of your competition by attending ERA’s webinars, receptions and meetings. You’ll learn about best practices, new trends and also network with your industry peers in a fun, relaxed setting.
Retailers are facing one of the toughest economies in recent history. Experts predict that the first half 2009 will be dismal in regard to consumer spending. Therefore, retailers need to work even harder to engage their existing customers in order to stay top-of-mind during what is likely to be a difficult first quarter. Now, in the wake of a challenging holiday season, businesses must re-think, revamp and reinvigorate their marketing mix in order to succeed in the coming months.
Budgets are tight, so begin by finding free or low-cost ways to engage new customers (particularly those acquired over the holiday season) and give them incentive to return again and again. Among the freshest new tactics are social networks, gadgets/widgets, and community toolbars, which can be used to distribute coupons, release “how-to†videos, announce sales, deploy online surveys and more.
The key to success with this “Web 2.0 marketing†is to increase the amount of interaction you have with your customers and they with each other. For example, one retailer, Incredible Technologies (makers of the Golden Tee golf game), is using a branded community toolbar to activate community building by sharing specials and promotions that they think will appeal to their customer’s interests. They also showcase their customer forum, user international tournament stats, and their Golden Tee YouTube channel where users can post video of their best golf shots. Golden Tee did all of this for no cost.
Not a techie? Don’t worry about it. All this stuff is really easy to use. Give it try? What have you got to lose but customers?
We’ve heard the reports, seen the numbers and heard the ba humbug! This past holiday season was one of the most dismal for retailers in years. Stores were slashing their prices to get rid of merchandise and still weren’t seeing the sales of years past. So how does a company compete and distinguish itself in such a tough economy? Obviously, red-lined prices aren’t making an impact, but great customer service leaves a lasting impression.
Take in point one of our customers, Drugstore.com, an online drugstore. This holiday season it decided to launch a chat feature for a subsidiary site Beauty.com. Not just a place to sell beauty products, Beauty.com features what’s hot this season, a video library with demonstrations and now with the new chat feature, Beauty.com is replicating the beauty experience consumers have at the makeup counter in their local department store. Trained beauty experts, all with esthetician or beauty counter experience, can now engage in chat sessions with online shoppers to share immediate advice on the best products for their needs from the convenience and privacy of their homes. For example, experts provide specific recommendations regarding budget, skin tone, color coordination or new products.
And what’s interesting is that Beauty.com is converting approximately 40 percent of chat sessions into product orders. Drugstore.com is depending on excellent, personalized customer service to keep sales up as opposed to brand or price. For me, a big online shopper, it was great. It gave me the personalized attention to help me find the perfect shade of red for the big holiday party all from the comfort of my home.
You can meet withSuzy Meriwetherof RighNow Technologies at the eRetailer Summit’s Solution Zone on Sunday, March 1, from 12:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m. and hear her speak on Monday, March 2, from 9:00 a.m.—10:00 a.m. Register here!
There is no question about it—the world is going through an economic downturn. Consumers are cutting back on their spending and businesses are facing tough decisions, perhaps the strongest signal for a stormy period to come. According to Forrester, a leading technology analyst, “Risks have grown that the U.S. and other major countries will experience a longer and deeper recession than we had expected. If so, the hi-tech market would see several quarters of declines in purchases, not just two or three quarters with little or no growth in late 2008 and the first half 2009.â€
With these findings in mind, what can e-commerce merchants do to keep their e-business boat afloat during times when budget cuts and financial declines are the daily routine? What should they particularly focus on to keep sales revenues at a decent level? The following are five navigation rules by a payment service provider for sailing in the e-commerce world in 2009.
Rule 1 – Increase your customers’ loyalty
This is the time when customer loyalty becomes more crucial than ever, as end-users will be acting very cautiously in regards to their spending and will most likely prefer to go back to a website with which they feel familiar and comfortable rather than to a new vendor. Knowing your customers and monitoring their purchasing behavior can turn your online business into a highly profitable operation.
VIP customer tools for merchants are able to differentiate between their “good†customers that should preferably be allowed higher purchase amounts and small, occasional or new end-users who should be limited to only certain purchase amounts. Having a VIP customer tool is a highly beneficial decision—it acts as a supporting device, allowing you to define the profitable customers VIPs and increase costumer loyalty.
Rule 2 – Expand your sales reach
Targeting new end-user markets is always significant when trying to keep revenue growing. The ideal payment processor should provide you with all major currencies; while at the same time allowing processing and settlement currencies to be kept identical, allowing you maximum processing flexibility. A payment service provider that provides all major currencies—while keeping processing and settlement currencies identical—allows you maximum processing flexibility. In addition, your PSP should have sophisticated risk management, enabling traffic from high-risk countries typically blocked by acquiring banks.
Rule 3 – Secure your online payments
As you enter 2009, you should be aware of the risks involved with acquiring a bank, no matter if your traffic is local or international. Finding the connected payment-service provider that has an array of acquiring banks in its portfolio and matching it with the specific processing needs of e-commerce operators is what makes the crucial difference. Any payment processor that offers you a solution with more than one merchant account with several acquiring banks under one roof spreads your online risks.
Rule 4 – Reduce payment processing costs
Your payment service provider can help you identify specific activities that can lower costs. They should offer direct merchant accounts with solutions that focus on accurate fraud prevention. In other words, they need to differentiate between suspicious transactions that will eventually lead to profitable sales and those that will lead to fraud and loss.
Thorough and accurate fraud prevention is a crucial factor in achieving high sales goals. Blocking fraudulent transactions and approving legitimate transactions while converting them to profit is an example of this. At the end of a processing day, the fraud prevention tools aim not only to increase sales, but also to prevent unnecessary chargeback fees and fines.
Rule 5 – Increase your traffic conversion
With an active online operation, every e-merchant seeks tactics to increase traffic. Your online payment service provider can play a crucial role in increasing online traffic conversion. Instead of employing a rough scrubbing system, which in most cases, cuts down valuable traffic due to a resolute filtering policy, a “Traffic Management†tool analyzes the traffic most accurately and improves the approval ratio of profitable transactions.
Well-established partnerships with leading acquiring banks allow your PSP to control incoming transactions by splitting them between the banks according to pre-configured ratio parameters and country attribution. This assists you, as online operators, in receiving higher approval ratio, thus in receiving higher sales conversion.
Sharon Gal Franko is SafeCharge’s director of marketing and sales.
Recently, I opened up my community newspaper to learn that my favorite shoe store was going out of business—another victim of the economic meltdown. Another blow came a few days later when my husband and I drove to one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants only to be greeted by a sign on the door that read: Thank you for allowing us to serve you these past few years. Unfortunately, we have closed our doors.
Although for several months, we’ve all heard the news reports about companies and industries in dire straits, the reality is much more sobering when you literally see the signs in your own backyard. And while some companies are bracing themselves for rough seas ahead, it’s refreshing to hear about companies that have been able to prosper despite such difficult times.
Take, for example, the company featured on this month’s cover, Zappos.com. This online shoe store reached the $1 billion mark in sales for the year. How has this nine-year-old company been able to do it? According to CEO Tony Hsieh, by focusing on building an enjoyable corporate culture and enhancing the online customer experience—whether it’s through free shipping or complimentary upgrades.
However, Zappos isn’t the only e-tailer to pull out all the stops for customers. Retailers plan to make online shopping more appealing to Christmas shoppers. In fact, a 2008 eHoliday Study conducted by Shop.org shows that 78 percent of retailers plan to offer free shipping with conditions. What’s more, to attract holiday customers, they have invested in new site features to augment their purchasing experience. Such features include:
• 42.9 percent of retailers have added improved site search to help customers navigate sites more easily;
• 24.6 percent added product video; and
• 32.7 percent offered customer reviews.
These online retailers are well aware that tight budgets will force people to hold out for the best deals. Perks like free shipping with conditions is just a snippet of what e-tailers are doing to entice budget-focused shoppers. According to the Shop.org study:
• 27.1 percent of retailers have added and enhanced clearance sale pages;
• 31.3 percent added featured sale pages; and
• 25 percent of online retailers added a Facebook page.
Why do more shoppers prefer purchasing online rather than shopping at brick-and-mortar retailers this holiday season? The study reveals that 58 percent of consumers cite 24-hour shopping convenience as one of the primary reasons. Their desire not to battle crowds is another reason consumers give for their online shopping preference.
This year, brick-and mortars like Mervyns and Linens ’N Things have succumbed to the weakening economy. However, other retailers refuse to rely solely on in-store traffic to generate holiday sales. Retail giant Walmart, for instance, integrates its online and retail efforts with its Site-to-Store program, where customers can order their merchandise online and pick up their purchases at a nearby Walmart location. As an added incentive, the retailer offers free shipping. Other retailers like Toys “R†Us and Borders focus on coupon promos and online deals.
Of course, these are challenging times for our industry. But what companies like Zappos teach us is that it’s possible to overcome those obstacles if you remain consistent with your marketing message and stay focused on ways to best serve your customers.
By drawing on the experience of traditional retail, and taking advantage of the unique opportunities presented by the Internet, e-retailers can look brightly at the future in spite of a gloomy economy.
Although Internet sales is one of the few retail channels that is actually growing, plenty of e-retailers are preparing to launch major Christmas sales despite the traditionally generous spirit of the season. The urge for posting flashing sales banners both here and there, of course, stems from the gloomy economic climate and grim prognosis for the future.
But in the face of an economic recession, it takes more than a traditional sale to continue to drive profits while still retaining current customers, as well as recruiting new ones. E-retailers have a unique advantage in the undertaking of this task, but to be successful they must learn from traditional strategies often applied by the brick-and-mortar grocery stores around the world. A typical example is when these stores divide their product ranges into the following categories: traffic drivers, profit drivers and loyalty builders. A traffic driver is a product that the store’s target audience needs to purchase often, and that it perceives as being expensive. Profit drivers are other products that are important to the target audience, but which they do not purchase as often and thus, are not as price sensitive towards. And finally, loyalty builders are the more luxury oriented consumption products.
The logic is simple. By offering a reduced price on the so-called traffic drivers, you can attract more customers to the store, and once they are there, they may as well pick up the profit drivers. During their visit, they will be exposed to the luxury goods—creating a positive experience and thus, urging the customer to revisit that particular store again in the future. This strategy allows the retailer to maximize customer acquisition, whilst only reducing the price of the traffic driving products.
E-retailers can also apply a more sophisticated version of this strategy. By allowing their most popular, top-selling products to act as traffic drivers by exposing them in sales campaigns, they can drive a maximum number of visitors to the site. This is where their advantage over the brick-and-mortar stores comes in. By using behavioral-based marketing, the e-retailer can control the extent to which the customer also picks up those important profit-driving products during his or her visit. By exposing the customer to products that one knows other visitors with similar behavior are interested in, and all the while applying business rules to regulate which products should be presented depending on profit margins, etc., the e-retailer can control exactly which products are exposed to each individual visitor—in real time.
Through the application of old and tested strategies combined with the latest technology, e-retailers can increase turnover and market share while not sacrificing any profit margins. And this during times when most physical stores are struggling with sales banners and red price tags.
During a Black Friday that left a Wal-Mart employee trampled to death on Long Island and two men shot dead in a Palm Desert, Calif. Toys R Us, one has to wonder what the problem is? Is it the economy, our avid consumerism or both? The Los Angeles Times quoted Palm Desert shopper Sara Frahm: “This is horrible. I’m never shopping on Black Friday again.”
Conceivably, it’s incidents such as these that will drive even more consumers to shop on Cyber Monday or other days during the holiday season.
Despite these tragedies, retailers can relish in the fact that sales weren’t abysmal. While it was the smallest gain in Black Friday sales in the last three years, ShopperTrak RCT Corp. found that retail sales were still up three percent over last year. As always, Black Friday and Cyber Monday remain intriguing points of discussion.
One of the most important dilemmas facing e-commerce merchants today is which shopping-cart solution to choose for their web stores. The sheer number of options can be daunting—a recent Google search on “online shopping cart†turned up 12.7 million hits, many of them offering shopping-cart products of their own. No wonder it’s a tough decision.
A good way to narrow the field is deciding what kind of cart is most appropriate for your needs: open source (available at no cost) or proprietary (available for a fee). There was a time when many in the e-commerce world frowned on open source products. Some said they were difficult to install and configure, while others bemoaned their lack of available features and technical support. Fortunately for online entrepreneurs on a budget, those days are all but gone.
The latest open source shopping carts offer pretty much everything you’d find in a proprietary solution, provided you have the basic technical expertise to install and configure them. Most have become much easier to install than previous offerings and include numerous developer contributions for increased features and customization. Technical support tends to come in the form of user forums, which at least for the most popular products, are heavily trafficked and often yield answers in a matter of minutes.
The grandfather of open source shopping carts and still among the most popular is osCommerce. In operation for more than eight years, it now claims 176,100 storeowners and offers 4,700 free add-ons. osCommerce is compatible with all PHP 4 versions and features automatic browser-based installation and an object oriented backend.
Another popular choice is ZenCart, which was initially based on osCommerce code but has developed dramatically and is a fully independent product. Known for its long list of added features, ZenCart is PHP-based and uses a MySQL database and HTML components. Its frequently praised gift certificate module allows merchants to create, distribute and manage digital coupons.
An alternative to these two somewhat similar options is Ubercart, a shopping cart product built on top of the leading open source content management system, Drupal. Designed to take advantage of Drupal’s core and other contributed systems, Ubercart gets high marks for its flexibility and intuitive layout.
These are just a few of the open source shopping carts available today. All three are free under the GNU General Public License.
Which of these (or other) open source products would be best for a particular merchant’s online store? That depends on individual business needs. Factors like design flexibility, search engine friendliness, reporting and backend functionality are important to weigh when choosing between products. Most product sites include demos and lists of live sites running the software, which can also help differentiate between competitors.
Are you uncomfortable with the technical requirements of setting up a shopping-cart application? It’s possible that open source solutions are not for you. Proprietary programs cost money, but generally offer configuration, design and support services that can take the headache out of launching a store for the less technically inclined. For others—especially smaller merchants with limited startup budgets—open source solutions can provide precious cost savings at a crucial stage of store development.
Erin Kroll is the PR/VAR marketing coordinator e-onlinedata.
The economic decline is top-of-mind for everyone – especially retailers – as consumers place an even stronger hold on their wallets. In such a volatile marketplace, retailers must employ creative tactics to gain a competitive edge and remain profitable. With escalating gas prices, now more than ever, shoppers are going online which puts multichannel retailers at an advantage. That considered, simply having an online channel is not enough – it’s how you market your site and engage customers that makes the difference.
Here are 10 tips and tricks you can apply to your e-commerce site to survive the recession and boost website sales.
1. Smart Merchandising - Promote Groups of Low-Cost Offers: Find inexpensive, appealing items and bundle them in a creative way as a special promotion that gives shoppers an incentive to fill their carts with many low-cost items.
2. Instant Couponing for Multiple-Category Purchasing: Drive shoppers to buy more by offering them a reasonable discount on items from other categories if they buy immediately.
3. Minimum Purchase Free Shipping: Look at your margins and offer free shipping at a purchase threshold where it makes financial sense. Shoppers will fill the cart for the reward.
4. Personalized Recommendations on the Shopping Cart Page: Personalized product recommendations (PPRs) are a recession hit: they’re important on the category page, on the product detail page and everywhere else on the site you can afford the real estate. Putting them at the point of purchase—on the shopping cart page—is a highly strategic placement that moves shoppers to buy. PPRs are recession-proof because leading vendors like MyBuys offer them on a pay-for-performance basis.
5. Value Exchange (Gift with Purchase): Offer a small gift with a minimum price purchase to help move more product, increase customer loyalty and motivate customers to sample other products to increase cart size.
6. Use E-mail Creatively: Use e-mail alerts to recommend products that shoppers want and while you’re at it, remind them of abandoned shopping cart items, which have high conversion rates.
7. Ratings and Reviews: Create a sense of community and loyalty by adding ratings and reviews to your site. Shoppers trust one another and this functionality is not expensive to implement. Also, highly rated products tend to convert at better rates.
8. Creative Use of Widgets: Make widgets highly accessible from your webpage and your Facebook page. Offer different size choices and make them easy to download. Turn your fans into advertising affiliates by having them add these widgets to their social networking pages or blogs and give them points toward purchase for click-throughs or conversions.
9. Create Special Membership Clubs: Companies like SKECHERS, Clinique and many others have successful clubs for building loyalty and growing their lists. Get shoppers to sign up, become part of your community and give you permission to market to them. Reward them with free shipping, special coupons and discounts.
10. New Customer Programs: Coupons or other incentives to turn people into first-time buyers aren’t expensive to create or manage and once you bring shoppers to your site, you can employ the rest of the tactics mentioned above to bring them back for more.
After crushing most independent, ‘main street’ stores, Wal-Mart and other big retail chains are turning their guns on smaller online competitors. They’re asking their allies in Congress for new laws designed to cripple competition from online entrepreneurs.
In the name of preventing “retail theft,†the Wal-Marts of the world are telling Congress that e-commerce is causing dishonest employees and suppliers to steal from their store shelves and loading docks. That’s like blaming the back seat of cars for causing teenage sex.
Even the lobbying arm of the big-box retailers, the National Retail Federation, knows this is a bogus claim. Its own 2005 study showed that most retail theft comes from a store’s own employees. Nevertheless, retailing giants and their lobbyists want new laws to hold e-commerce responsible for their own unwillingness to screen employees and spend more on security.
* HR 6491, the Organized Retail Crime Act, would make it a crime if a marketplace doesn’t pull listings when a competing retailer claims it has evidence of theft. This is just asking for abuse: A high-markup retailer can claim that a particular item just HAS to be stolen “because it’s selling for less than my cost!†and marketplaces like eBay and Overstock would have to pull the listing.
* HR 6713, the E-Fencing Enforcement Act, would require marketplaces to conduct investigations if a retailer provides a police report—dated anytime in the last year— claiming theft of goods similar to an online listing. A big-box chain could file a police report for theft of baby formula, then use this report to force online marketplaces to investigate every listing of baby formula—even by mothers whose newborns just can’t stomach the formula samples they brought home from the hospital!
These bills would impose extraordinary and discriminatory restrictions on Internet marketplaces that help millions of people to legitimately buy and sell products every day—at big discounts. Amazingly, only Internet sites are targeted by these bills, while newspaper classifieds and other “off-line†flea markets are not even mentioned. The proponents of these bills say they’re about loss prevention, but they’re really about competition prevention—preventing online marketplaces from competing with big retailers.
Steve DelBianco is executive director of NetChoice.
In this world where “flat is the new up,” it is critical to make each visit of every shopper count. With fewer shoppers coming to your site, you have to be instantly engaging, catering to your shopper, making your site a destination. And, you have to get your shoppers to put as much as possible into their cart and then actually check out.
I just returned from New Zealand—a land known for its geographic isolation—where I met with one of the nation’s premier web development firms. While the work done in New Zealand is on par with the best in the world, the price based upon current currency disparity makes it anywhere from 35- to 40-percent less expensive. Savvy e-marketers should look beyond the proximity of any opportunity when making any cost-benefit decisions. Prior to my voyage I attended the sixth annual E-Commerce Best Practices Conference.
In my 
Retailers are facing one of the toughest economies in recent history. Experts predict that the first half 2009 will be dismal in regard to consumer spending. Therefore, retailers need to work even harder to engage their existing customers in order to stay top-of-mind during what is likely to be a difficult first quarter. Now, in the wake of a challenging holiday season, businesses must re-think, revamp and reinvigorate their marketing mix in order to succeed in the coming months.
We’ve heard the reports, seen the numbers and heard the ba humbug! This past holiday season was one of the most dismal for retailers in years. Stores were slashing their prices to get rid of merchandise and still weren’t seeing the sales of years past. So how does a company compete and distinguish itself in such a tough economy? Obviously, red-lined prices aren’t making an impact, but great customer service leaves a lasting impression.
There is no question about it—the world is going through an economic downturn. Consumers are cutting back on their spending and businesses are facing tough decisions, perhaps the strongest signal for a stormy period to come. According to Forrester, a leading technology analyst, “Risks have grown that the U.S. and other major countries will experience a longer and deeper recession than we had expected. If so, the hi-tech market would see several quarters of declines in purchases, not just two or three quarters with little or no growth in late 2008 and the first half 2009.â€
Recently, I opened up my community newspaper to learn that my favorite shoe store was going out of business—another victim of the economic meltdown. Another blow came a few days later when my husband and I drove to one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants only to be greeted by a sign on the door that read: Thank you for allowing us to serve you these past few years. Unfortunately, we have closed our doors. 
By drawing on the experience of traditional retail, and taking advantage of the unique opportunities presented by the Internet, e-retailers can look brightly at the future in spite of a gloomy economy.
During a Black Friday that left a 
Loading ...
One of the most important dilemmas facing e-commerce merchants today is which shopping-cart solution to choose for their web stores. The sheer number of options can be daunting—a recent Google search on “online shopping cart†turned up 12.7 million hits, many of them offering shopping-cart products of their own. No wonder it’s a tough decision.
The economic decline is top-of-mind for everyone – especially retailers – as consumers place an even stronger hold on their wallets. In such a volatile marketplace, retailers must employ creative tactics to gain a competitive edge and remain profitable. With escalating gas prices, now more than ever, shoppers are going online which puts multichannel retailers at an advantage. That considered, simply having an online channel is not enough – it’s how you market your site and engage customers that makes the difference.
After crushing most independent, ‘main street’ stores, Wal-Mart and other big retail chains are turning their guns on smaller online competitors. They’re asking their allies in Congress for new laws designed to cripple competition from online entrepreneurs.
