Inventory: Moving Product Online

JANUARY 9, 2009

Jeff Hoffman, CEO, Enable Holdings

Jeff Hoffman is CEO of Enable Holdings, dedicated to helping manufacturers and retailers get the maximum value for their excess inventory. Enable Holdings includes auction Website uBid.com, fixed-price Website RedTag.com, business-to-business trading division Dibu Trading Corp., offline excess inventory solution RedTag Live! and private auction software company Commerce Innovations. He also serves as entrepreneur-in-residence at the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech.

eMarketer: A lot of people are talking about how rough this economic environment is. But is bad news for everybody else good news for your business?

Jeff Hoffman: Yes, it certainly is. When retail is slumping—since we are in the business of picking up unsold retail and selling that off—we are the after-retail channel of excess inventory. We tend to get more inventory during slow times, which means we have more products and better prices. So, it’s definitely a benefit to our company.

eMarketer: At one time your business was referred to as the liquidation industry. Terms like “distressed merchandise,” “odd lots” and “steep discounts” were common. But now it’s called “asset recovery,” and it’s become a big part of the economy. What changed?

Mr. Hoffman: Two things. First of all, there was a recognition by manufacturers and retailers that asset recovery—recovering the cash you’ve invested, getting products out of the warehouse and off the books after the retail run—was actually an important part of their business and could generate respectable revenues.

There was a recognition by manufacturers that they need this function—they need to pay attention to it.

“The advent of new tool sets and new Internet technologies enabled this sales channel to become much more mature.”

And, additionally, with the development of new tools, especially on the Internet, it became easier to sell that merchandise and make money on it. The advent of new tool sets and new Internet technologies enabled this sales channel to become much more mature.

eMarketer: Could you explain how the Internet has affected your category?

Mr. Hoffman: We can obviously move a lot more products a lot faster. For example, on uBid.com, we get 2.1 million visitors a month typically to the Website. So we can expose the product to a large consumer base in a very short period of time and move products out of warehouses quickly—which is the name of the game in retail rotations.

The full version of this interview is available on eMarketer’s Total Access subscription site.

Online Shopping—in the Store

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Using e-commerce to expand physical store offerings

"But the price listed on your Website was lower!"

Statements like this may not be heard in retail stores for much longer. Some stores have maintained Web-exclusive pricing or acted as if consumers never researched on the Internet before making a trip to pick up their products.

Yet nearly six out of 10 consumers in the US now use the Internet as their first choice for researching items purchased in a store, according to Nielsen Online, and smart retailers are bringing the e-commerce element to brick-and-mortar.

Some retailers are providing in-store kiosks and wireless devices to let shoppers access a store's Website for product information or to place an online order, according to AMR Research.

More than four out of 10 retailers surveyed said they offered such services, and nearly three-quarters said they planned to do so by 2010.

Store kiosks can save the sale for retailers by creating "an endless aisle of products" when the store is out of stock or space limitations prevent the retailer from displaying its full selection.

The loss of sales to competitors due to stockouts measures $93 billion, according to the 2008 "Store Systems Study" produced by RIS News and research partner IHL Group. Another application of store kiosks is to provide customers with supplementary product information available from the retailer's Website.

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Economy Gives Web Coupons a Boost

AUGUST 5, 2008

Users willing to trade e-mail addresses for $2

The Internet is now the leading source of coupons for printable coupon users in the US, according to newly released data from a Simmons Market Research Bureau study sponsored by Coupons, Inc.

Nearly eight out of 10 printable coupon users said the Internet was one of the main places they went for coupons, while only 73.5% named newspapers as a top source. "Printable coupons" are just that: online coupons that may be printed out and redeemed in-store, as opposed to coupon codes intended for online use.

Among all consumers—not just printable coupon users—the Sunday newspaper is still the top coupon source, according to a July 2008 survey by Scarborough Research. The company said 53% of households usually found their coupons there, while 11% normally went to the Internet.

Coupons are a strong incentive, according to the Coupons, Inc. study. Nearly two-thirds of printable coupon users said they would disclose their e-mail address for a coupon worth $1, and more than three-quarters said they would give their e-mail address for a $2 coupon.

Consumers may be using coupons in part to maintain their brand preferences during the economic slowdown. More than six out of 10 coupon searches in June 2008 were for specific brands, according to Hitwise data.

Retail Shoppers Hit the Web First

JULY 28, 2008

Checking purchases out before checkout

While some consumers in the US are shopping online to avoid driving, even those visiting stores in person are hitting the Web first.

Eight out of 10 respondents who had recently made consumer electronics purchases in a brick-and-mortar store said they had visited the store's Website first, according to a May 2008 Nielsen Online survey. More than one-half said they purchased from the retailer on whose Website they had spent the most time.

"Consumer electronics is an ideal product category to research online, since product features and prices can be easily compared," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.

If they had to choose just one method of researching their purchases, 58% of respondents said they would choose the Internet—far more than would choose their own friends and family.

"Retailers that are able to facilitate consumers' multichannel shopping behaviors will enjoy growth in market share across the enterprise," said Ken Cassar, vice president at Nielsen Online, in a statement.

Consumer electronics companies will likely pay special attention to multichannel consumer behavior during the economic slowdown. More than three in 10 online buyers surveyed in April 2008 by Piper Jaffray said they planned to decrease the amount of consumer electronics they purchased.

The two leading consumer electronics Web retailers—Best Buy and Circuit City—offer an option to buy online and pick up in-store, which satisfies consumers' craving for immediate gratification and avoidance of shipping fees.

"The retailers also benefit from consumers' tendency to make additional impulse purchases once they are in the store," Mr. Grau said.

Learn about current online buyer behavior. Read eMarketer's US Retail E-Commerce: Slower But Still Steady Growth report.

Gas Prices Boost E-Commerce

JULY 25, 2008

Fuel-saving strategy has been a long time coming.

Depending on your perspective, online sales are up either despite or because of the economic slowdown. With gas prices continuing to climb, a growing number of shoppers are deciding to skip car trips to the mall in favor of online merchants.

Even as many brick-and-mortar stores are struggling, 11% of US consumers surveyed by Nielsen in June 2008 said they were shopping more on the Web as a result of gas prices.

"E-commerce is a bright spot," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer. "While retail store growth is in the middle-low single digits, e-commerce is still growing at least in the mid to high teens."

"With gas being such an issue, we know that mall traffic is down more than off-mall traffic," said Mike Boylson, CMO of JCPenney, in a July 2008 New York Times article. Mr. Boylson said J.C. Penney had an 8.7% increase in Internet sales in Q1 2008, compared with a 7.4% decrease in sales at stores open at least one year. The Times also reported that Gap had an 11% decline in same-store sales in Q1 2008, but a 21% increase in online sales.

The effect of gas prices on consumer behavior has been building for a while. Some 13% of adult consumers in the US surveyed in January by Vertis Communications said they were buying more online.

Over one-half of respondents to an April 2008 Piper Jaffray study selected rising gas prices as an incentive to increase online buying, while slightly less than one-half (48%) cited lower prices as a reason for making Web purchases.

Another April survey by iCongo revealed that high gasoline prices were an incentive for 33% of shoppers to purchase more online.

Fine-tune your online retail strategy for Q4. Read eMarketer's US Retail E-Commerce: Slower But Still Steady Growth report.

Online Reviews Sway Shoppers

JULY 9, 2008

Consumers look for peer opinions.

Consumer reviews play a big part in purchase decisions for online shoppers in the US, according to a June 2008 Opinion Research Corporation study.

A full 61% of respondents said they had checked online reviews, blogs and other online customer feedback before buying a new product or service. Search engines were the preferred way to research purchases. Of those who looked for reviews and other feedback, more than eight out of 10 said such evaluations had at least some influence on their purchases.

"Businesses today exist in an era in which it's nearly impossible to escape the likelihood of being evaluated." said Linda Shea, senior vice president at Opinion Research, in a statement, "There's nowhere to hide."

The company also found that 38% of respondents first checked online product or service reviews when starting shopping research.

Online shoppers value product reviews from other consumers (29.6%) even more highly than professional reviews (21.3%), according to an InQuira-commissioned survey conducted in 2008 by Service Excellence Research Group.

It is not just new online shoppers who look for the opinions of other consumers, according to a February 2008 study commissioned by PowerReviews and conducted by the e-tailing group. Nearly one-half of US consumers surveyed who shopped online four or more times per year and spent at least $500 said they needed four to seven customer reviews before making a purchase decision.

Get the online buying outlook for the rest of the year. Read eMarketer's US Retail E-Commerce: Slower But Still Steady Growth report.

Consumer Electronics and E-Commerce

JUNE 16, 2008

Many consumers to pull back on gadget spending

Despite the jittery economy, eMarketer predicts that retail e-commerce sales in the US will reach $146 billion this year, up 14.3% over 2007.

However, some categories of retail e-commerce may not fare as well as others. Two traditionally strong online sales categories—computers and consumer electronics—may see a slowdown, based on a Piper Jaffray study of online buyers. Along with jewelry and watches, more respondents said they were likely to decrease spending on these categories than on any other.

That conservative approach will also affect total retail sales for those categories, judging by a similar study by The NPD Group. More than one-third of responding consumers said they planned to spend less on entertainment products and devices, compared with 18% who said they would spend more. Almost one-half said they would keep spending the same amount as last year. As a result, NPD said that sales of such products would slow slightly.

Seasonality is another important trend to watch. For online retailers, the holiday season is the best time for consumer electronics sales, according to Nielsen Online data. In November 2007, the average order size for consumer electronics hit an annual high of $135, a rise from October's $127 average, settling to $132 in December. The rest of the year, Nielsen data shows the average order size hovered around $93 to $100.

By contrast, online sales of computer hardware peak in summer based on strong back-to-school demand. The category had monthly average online sales of $272 and $256 in October and November 2007, respectively. These sales were far larger than those in the consumer electronics category—but also far lower than the averages posted for computer hardware in July ($455) and August ($387).

While last year’s monthly sales patterns will likely hold true this year, exactly how much consumers will spend remains in question.

The State of Affiliate Marketing in Online Retail - Internet Retailer 2008

Interview on how the affiliate marketing game is changing in 2008 with Larry Joseloff, VP Content, Shop.org from the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2008 in Chicago.

Multi-Channel Shopping Changing Retail

JUNE 12, 2008

Bargain hunting reduces loyalty

US consumers are increasingly using multiple channels to shop and buy. While researching online and then buying in-store has become common, this consumer behavior is changing consumer loyalties and spending. Multi-channel shopping is also changing how retailers sell their goods.

Consumers in the US who shop using multiple channels are more likely to purchase from multiple providers, according to an April 2008 study by Opinion Research Corporation (ORC).

"Multi-channel customers are often the most astute about pricing, and as such, may not be the most loyal," said Jill Glathar, vice president at ORC, in a statement.

The good news is that multi-channel shoppers tended to spend nearly twice as much as consumers who used only one channel.

ORC also noted that multi-channel shopping varied by industry, with far fewer consumers using multiple channels to shop at specialty stores than at big box retailers such as Home Depot or mass merchants such as Wal-Mart.

Those large multi-channel retailers also receive slightly more of their sales on the Internet than do total multi-channel retailers (35% vs. 31%), and 12 percentage points less of their sales come through stores, according to a February 2008 study commissioned by IBM and SAP and conducted by Retail Systems Research.

Multi-channel shoppers who research products online and buy in-store are having a greater effect on store sales than on Web sales.

eMarketer forecasts that in 2008, Web-influenced store sales will reach $625.2 billion, compared with $158.3 billion in retail e-commerce sales. From 2007 to 2012, Web-influenced store sales are expected to grow at a 19% average annual rate, compared with a 12% rate for e-commerce sales.

Another way to look at the numbers: In 2008, online product research generated $3.95 in offline sales for every $1 in online sales. By 2012, the proportion will be $4.68 for every $1.

Learn all the methods consumers use to communicate with businesses. Read eMarketer's Multi-Channel Retailing report.

The Economy and European E-Commerce

JUNE 9, 2008

The economic downturn is starting to slow e-commerce growth in continental Europe, but much less so than in the US and the UK.

In France, for example, online buying revenues during the post-Christmas sale period were high. In the first five days of these sales, French trade group FEVAD noted a 25% rise in revenues from nine leading online retailers in 2008, compared with the same period in 2007.

The group predicts that B2C e-commerce will grow 30% this year. That is down from 35% in 2007, but still quite healthy.

French consumers have a generally high opinion of online buying. More than 85% of French respondents to a Benchmark/Brandalley survey said online retailers offered better prices and reductions than offline stores. More than one-half also said online shopping helped them avoid crowds.

A survey by DirectPanel in May 2008 found that over one-half of 12,000 French shoppers polled had bought books, CDs, DVDs or software online. A similar number had bought train or plane tickets online. One-half had also bought clothing and shoes or other leather goods—traditionally a tough sell online. All these purchases indicate a major commitment to online shopping.

In France, another significant trend is the growing revenue for sales of luxury goods online. Responses to an online questionnaire circulated by Benchmark in 2007 indicated that 80% of French female Internet users had already bought clothes, shoes or accessories in the "luxury" bracket. This may not affect many buyers, but it is an excellent index of the confidence both sellers and buyers have in the market that the Internet is taking increasing amounts of sales in this category.

Germany is now a healthy market too, thanks to its large population as well as the efficiencies of major online retailers.

eMarketer estimates that more than three-quarters of German Internet users are already buying online, and this percentage should continue to rise. Nielsen thinks the number is already higher, at 97%.

Major retailers are leading the charge. For example, Amazon does extremely well throughout Europe.

Another reason e-commerce is expected to remain strong in Europe despite economic woes is that online buying has reached critical mass and is being adopted by very large numbers of Europeans in a variety of categories. The very strong underlying growth in this phase of the expansion cycle should help e-commerce do well, even though some offline stores will struggle.

This is more true in France, Germany and Scandinavia than in Italy and Spain, where infrastructure weaknesses and cultural habits have generally discouraged e-commerce on a large scale.

There is also every reason for online comparison shopping to flourish in Europe. The desire to compare prices when budgets are tight plays directly into the strengths of these offerings, although comparison sites that are well-organized and user-friendly, with good security, will benefit more than those that are not.

Learn how online merchants in the US will fare this year. Read eMarketer's US Retail E-Commerce: Slower But Still Steady Growth report today.

Retail E-Commerce and the Economy

MAY 19, 2008

Fewer new online buyers, less growth

The US Department of Commerce released retail e-commerce sales data last Thursday. Online sales grew by only 13.4% during Q1 2008 over Q1 2007.

That is quite a drop-off from recent e-commerce growth rates. For instance, in 2007 total e-commerce sales grew by 19.8% over 2006.

"This shows that the economic slowdown is having more of an effect than people suspected," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer. "It's accelerating existing trends."

Mr. Grau said that retail e-commerce sales growth would have slowed even without any concern about the economy. Since 2003, the real engine of e-commerce growth has come from increased sales to existing online buyers rather than new buyers.

E-commerce sales growth is still higher than overall retail sales growth, which has been 6% at most over the past five to six years. In contrast, retail e-commerce sales growth has been about 25% or more during the same time.

One reason for slowed overall retail sales growth is that existing online buyers are doing more of their buying on the Internet instead of in stores, according to USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future data. The organization reported that not only did large percentages of consumers say their online buying led to decreased offline buying, but that the number is growing.

This shift to online buying is happening because consumers have become more confident shopping on the Internet, which has also improved satisfaction levels. Additionally, merchants have figured things out operationally as far as product information, stock and delivery.

Although the economic slowdown is affecting retail e-commerce sales as well as retail sales overall, Mr. Grau said that online stores likely will fare better than brick-and-mortar ones—partly because of the downturn.

"Some people may shift their spending online to save on gas and because they think they can get a better deal," Mr. Grau said.

The eMarketer US B2C E-Commerce report will be published this month. Click here to be notified when it is released.

Get in on the social shopping craze

By Denise Zimmerman

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The social element of shopping is manifesting in many ways online, providing marketers with opportunities -- and challenges. NetPlus Marketing's president describes the environment.

The thrill of the deal, spreading the word, networking with birds of your feather, getting the scoop -- social shopping has all of the trappings, joys and innuendos that fuel commerce.

In 2008, U.S. advertisers are expected to spend nearly $1.6 billion -- up 69 percent from the $920 million they will have spent in 2007, according to the report, "Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage." In four years, U.S. ad spend on social-networking sites is expected to reach $2.7 billion.

Social commerce has arrived….so pay attention
Simply put, social commerce is about customers having the means to interact with one another in order to make better buying decisions.

The social aspects of shopping have long been an integral part of our culture first institutionalized and marketed perhaps with the original Tupperware Home Party in 1948. Asking someone where she got that great bag, hearing about the latest sale from a friend or socializing at the mall are all integral parts of our consumer culture.

The advent of ecommerce and, more specifically, word-of-mouth vehicles such as reviews on shopping sites and other online platforms is a bold extension of the power of word of mouth and the social joys that accompany shopping. New media communications now provide an even broader, extensible platform to further ignite the social aspect of shopping.

Social shopping online expresses itself in a multitude of different ways, from so-called social shopping sites with features that encourage word of mouth to social networks such as Facebook that are trying to monetize their social fabric with shopping applications.

What does this all mean for marketers? How can they join in the conversation, start the buzz, spread the word without seeming like…well, like they are trying to sell stuff? What is acceptable in this environment? What are the current options, opportunities and challenges?

To begin to answer these questions requires gaining an understanding of how social shopping is being enacted, the environment, the opportunities and challenges.

The environment
From social networks to social shopping sites and site features that encourage and facilitate social commerce, social shopping is evolving. With most teens and nearly 40 percent of adults visiting social networking sites, advertisers are avidly experimenting on Facebook, MySpace and niche online social networks, according to a new eMarketer report. Social networking sites and services designed around shopping such as Stylehive, Kaboodle and CrowdStorm encourage customer feedback, discussion and reviews. They are rooted in encouraging dialogue, chatter and peer-to-peer sharing of information.

Upsales To Drive Retail E-Commerce

MARCH 12, 2008

The supply of online buying newbies is not infinite.

Since 2000, the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has tracked the percentage of Internet users who have purchased something online.

USC's researchers said that in the early days of the project, consumers worried about trusting unknown merchants, damage during delivery, buying without a live human being in the process and privacy and security.

Tracking those same fears, USC found that in 2007 almost all of them except for privacy and security had largely disappeared—and buying without a human became an asset rather than a liability.

Addressing consumer concerns was at least partly responsible for the steady rise in online buyer numbers since 2003, after the dotcom bubble burst.

eMarketer projected in November 2007 that the percentage of Internet users who have made an online purchase will continue to rise steadily but slowly, at least through 2011.

"Most analysts including eMarketer say that online sales growth has more to do with incumbent online buyers increasing their e-commerce spending rather than increasing new online buyers," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.

"The market is maturing and most people who plan to purchase online are already doing so," he said.

The boom in online buyers has certainly been good for retail e-commerce. While retail industry sales growth has ranged from 2.2% to 6.4% during the past seven years, retail e-commerce growth as been as high as 32.6% (in 2002), according to eMarketer calculations of US Department of Commerce (DoC) data.

Retail e-commerce sales data from the DoC tracks the ascent of online buying. Since the US DoC began publishing annual e-commerce sales estimates in 2000, growth in online sales has far outpaced retail industry sales—the vast majority of which comes from stores.

70% of UK Shoppers Want Online Reviews, Ratings

This will make a most
savory Yelp review.

A study released by Jupiter Research and Bazaarvoice found 70 percent of UK consumers consider ratings and reviews the most helpful web feature when researching an online or offline purchase.

The research reflects last week's Forrester report, which found 64 percent of US consumers want ratings and reviews available on the websites they visit.

The UK report compared ratings and reviews to other resources. 53 percent of the 1,000 online users surveyed said customer reviews were the most helpful source of information.

Recommendations from friends came second, with 47 percent. Only 11 percent cited TV ads as the most helpful source, and four percent called magazine and radio ads a major influence when deciding what to buy.

Asia-Pacific E-Commerce Rises VIP VIP VIP

Asia-Pacific E-Commerce Rises

FEBRUARY 6, 2008

Online travel is big in China and India.

Japan and South Korea are known for having high Internet and mobile phone penetration, so it's not surprising that the countries lead the Asia-Pacific region in business-to-consumer e-commerce sales. In fact, such sales are growing across the region.

B2C e-commerce sales, including travel, for the five major countries that eMarketer covers in the Asia-Pacific region totaled an estimated $73.3 billion in 2007. That is up 24% over 2006.

eMarketer forecasts that online sales will more than double by reaching $168.7 billion in 2011.

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What is new is that market share is moving toward Australia, India and especially China. China’s share of regional B2C e-commerce will grow more than threefold from 4.1% in 2006 to 14.3% by 2011.

Shifting market share is a reflection of differences in e-commerce growth rates.

China’s B2C e-commerce market is on the fast track, with eMarketer expecting sales to grow at a 58.5% average annual rate from 2006 to 2011. India is also a high flyer with sales forecast to grow at a 48.8% annual rate. At the low end, South Korea’s B2C e-commerce sales will grow by 13.3% over the same period. Between 2006 and 2011, the aggregate CAGR for the five countries will be 23.3%.

Online travel is the largest e-commerce sales category in most major countries. For the same group of five countries, plus New Zealand, online leisure and unmanaged business travel sales totaled about $17.7 billion in 2007 and are forecast to rise to $41.7 billion by 2011.

eMarketer forecasts that from 2006 to 2011 online travel sales will grow at a 24.8% annual rate, higher than the 23.3% rate for B2C e-commerce. This indicates that travel is one of the key drivers of e-commerce sales in the APAC region.

In China and India, online-travel spending drives B2C e-commerce sales, and it accounts for a majority of total sales. Consumers are less wary of buying services like train or airline tickets online, and sellers can avoid the logistics and delivery problems associated with physical goods.

Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer, said that such preferences underscore how e-commerce in the region has a vast amount of growth ahead.

"E-commerce in these markets will have come of age when consumers start buying more expensive, high-touch categories such as apparel, home furnishings and jewelry," Mr. Grau said.

Learn what it takes for Web merchants to succeed across the Pacific. Read eMarketer's Asia-Pacific B2C E-Commerce: Focus on China and India report.

Shopatron Raises $6M For Local eCommerce

Shopatron (fka Firepoppy) has raised $6M in a Series B funding round from Kern Whelan Capital. San Luis Obispo-based Shopatron develops e-commerce software. Its consumer brand clients include Callaway Golf, Berkley Fishing, Brooks shoes, and Avent baby gear. Shopatron focuses on consumer brands that don't want to drop ship. Rather, visitors select a product from the Callaway Golf site, for example, and the Shopatron system will either have the closes retailer of the clubs ship them to the consumer or the shopper can pick them up at that store.

Read - announcement

Shoperion = Advaliant + Advario innovation tools

Extremely interesting technology built by our technology partner ELC Technology ( they are building all our new systems with Joe M.) these are very interesting mini tools that we could have in the Advaliant system as tools for publishers and advertisers. They are the next wave of embedded mini apps or widgets that STAY embedded!! We need to have a section for these in Advaliant. Where clients can give us theirs like the mobile widget PlayPhone is giving us. Also for ones we can create based on needs we see in the market. These could also be inside Advario intext ads. This is VERY INNOVATIVE and hands down the direction the market is headed. www.shoperion.com

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rightcart"> RightCart fliplead"> FlipLead hoverpage"> HoverPage pushvote"> PushVote runcards"> RunCards Dashboard RightCart The in-page shopping revolution RightCart is helping reshape what people think about e-commerce. With the ability to add a complete shopping solution to your website in seconds. You can turn any web page into a store effortlessly. "RightCart is the end-game in shopping" -Amazon.com FlipLead Next generation, lead generation. Fliplead the a new way to deliver leads not just clicks to advertisers. Using our patented in-page technology we can expect more from our ad space and keep the audience on your website. HoverPage Bring your landing page to them. Unlike standard display ads, HoverPages use Ajax technology to allow users to visit and interact with your landing page without leave the site they are on. Allowing Publishers to retain the audience and advertisers to deliver more. PushVote Opinions matter Survey, polls and reviews help us to learn more about what people are thinking and guide our decisions. PushVote makes it easy to create, launch and review results from surveys while enhancing your site's experience for customers. RunCards Your site, your sale. Experiece is important when completing a sale on the web. RunCards is a mixture between RightCart and FlipLead and allows you to accept credit cards on your site to deliver and cohesive sales process easily. Dashboard One to rule them all. Mangaing web apps, creating new AdSpots and selling your ad space can be conquered using Dashboard. Brining innovation to help both novice and seasoned marketers to get more revenue out of their websites. Beyond Banners Shoperion helps advertisers, publishers and retailers engage customers through innovative web applications. Each application can be added to your website and help to add the ability to sell items, capture leads, take a survey and receive payments. Unlike traditional display advertising embed-able web applications keep the user on a publishers website to increase overall yield from the audience.

Comparison Shopping Site Analytics and Optimization

Comparison Shopping Site Analytics and Optimization
By Sally Curran
August 14, 2007

Comparison shopping engines (CSE) are a valuable sales channel for e-tailers, but as is the case with any marketing plan, you have to track performance and continually adjust your campaign accordingly to get the most out of the effort.

Michael Lambert, CEO of MerchantAdvantage, a company that provides CSE feed management and analytics, recently outlined approaches to successful CSE statistical analysis for those wondering how to interpret the data these sites provide. Lambert discussed what level of tracking detail is necessary to help e-tailers with marketing decisions and why it's necessary and showed how some performance-tracking data can be misinterpreted, and therefore, cause marketers to make poor choices about their campaigns. Before getting into the details of analysis, however, he offered the following tips for listing at and analysis of CSEs:

• Optimize content by providing as many product attributes as possible — most CSEs don't require much information, but by filling out all the data fields available, you increase your click-to-purchase ratios and return-on-ad spending.
• Optimize product inventory by removing high-cost per-click items with low or no sales, but do not remove items with low or no-cost per click, and he emphasizes this, regardless of sales performance.
• Reporting tools should cover clicks and purchases — not just clicks — and e-tailers should prioritize their analysis by focusing first on high-click costs on products with low sales within a specific channel and then on any products or categories with low sales within a channel. Sellers should also test new products within a channel and watch their performance.

Too Much Of A Good Thing?
To illustrate how some performance-tracking mechanisms don't always provide positive outcomes, Lambert first explained how CSEs work to track consumers. Perhaps a consumer is in the market for an indoor bike trainer. He heads to a CSE, mulls the options the site provides, and clicks the one he feels best suits him. The site shoots the Lance Armstrong-wanna be to a redirect page, which is the first point of tracking. From there, he lands at the product page, where he (hopefully) puts the product in his shopping cart and checks out. Finally, he ends up at the thank you or invoice page, which is the most important tracking point of all. After all, marketing is all about sales. Lambert then pointed out that some performance-monitoring systems insert a tracking point between the redirect page and the product page, which he believes to be risky. While not likely, there could be an Internet-connection failure or computer glitch at that point, which could prevent the consumer from reaching the product page. He said there's no reason to introduce another point of failure and that you'll otherwise glean enough data to make informed marketing decisions.

The Devil's In The Details
Lambert emphasized that it's important to strike a balance between too much information and not enough, so that marketers can make informed decisions about how best to present their products to consumers. Ideally, when evaluating data about CSEs, you'll want to know which CSE the consumer came from, the product code, the approximate cost-per- click and the keywords for which the consumer searched. The MerchantAdvantage chief also recommends that e-tailers review the click-through path of the consumer: If while searching for his trainer, the biker also bought a helmet, it's important to know that the click for the trainer led to the sale of the helmet. Otherwise, the tracking is misleading. In regard to evaluating the statistics, ratios are best for evaluating performance. A reasonable click-to-purchase ratio, Lambert said, is key. Marketers need to know where each click came from and the approximate cost-per-click. To make sure your statistics aren't tainted, Lambert said it's important to keep product information updated. Most CSEs grab product information from product sites, so merchants need to be vigilant about keeping prices and information accurate. He also said that marketing high-performing products through CSEs and not including your slow-moving products is tempting, but to be wary: Striking the right balance of products sent to CSEs — without losing critical mass — is important.

Tips for Optimizing Feeds
And, if you're wondering how to optimize your CSE feeds, Leigh Vosler, of SierraTradingPost, recently outlined 22 tips at the July Shop.org merchandising conference in San Diego. Some key advice from Vosler includes the following: watch and budget for the Q4 CPC price increase that occurs on nearly all engines, request the product categories from each of the shopping engines and take the time to map your products to the CSE categories for quicker and better data matching and remember that return-on-ad-spending is not important if you are bidding too low to be found on the engine in the first place. Alan Rimm-Kaufman of Rimm-Kaufman Group, a search marketing agency located in Charlottesville, Va., also participated in the panel and posted the entire list at his blog here. Sally Marek Curran is a regular contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com.

80% of Online Customers Trust Brands More with Reviews | Bazaarblog

80% of Online Customers Trust Brands More with Reviews Bazaarblog: "80% of Online Customers Trust Brands More with Reviews August 11th, 2007 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer We recently published a joint study with Vizu Research on reviews. The key finding is that US and UK shoppers have more trust and respect for Brands that enable product reviews. In fact, 8 out of 10 shoppers trust and respect brands more if they have authentic, user generated reviews on their site. So, not only do reviews help improve conversion, average order value, returns, satisfaction, natural search traffic, RSS feed click through, email revenue, and offline impact (ask us for any of these case studies)…they also improve brand perception! Another finding: US shoppers consider ratings and reviews to be the most useful eCommerce site feature (44 percent). Product comparison (15 percent), product navigation (12 percent), and privacy information (11 percent) followed in the distance. We knew this already from site surveys with PETCO and CompUSA, but it's always helpful to get another data point! We're sort of maniacal about data "

Hearst Ups Digital Ante: Buys Kaboodle

by Erik Sass, Thursday, Aug 9, 2007 8:30 AM ET

HEARST CORP. WENT DIGITAL SHOPPING--AND it came home with Kaboodle Inc. Billed as a "social shopping community," it allows members to browse and share product recommendations. The new acquisition will be jointly managed by Hearst Interactive Media and the Hearst Magazines digital media unit. Kenneth Bronfin, president of Interactive Media for Hearst, predicts that "Kaboodle will bring to social shopping what MySpace has brought to social media." He added that the acquisition "will enable Kaboodle to further expand its content and service offerings, while also significantly increasing its advertiser base." Kaboodle's novel take on social networking brings together consumers on the basis of their product tastes. It combines the social network function with an e-commerce platform. The site, which launched in 2006, attracts over 2 million unique visitors a month. Cathleen Black, president of Hearst Magazines, touted the synergies that will result from the purchase: "We think Kaboodle has terrific potential for many of our brands, especially in the fashion, beauty and consumer technology categories. Our readers will be able to find the products featured in our magazines, shop electronically with their friends and get their feedback." The Hearst-Kaboodle deal is just the latest in a series of acquisitions of online-only companies by magazine publishers that want to increase their online audience and build online distribution platforms for their content. In July, Hearst bought Ugo.com, described as "a first-stop destination for the latest news and content on games, movies, television, film, DVDs, music, sports, women and comic books." It mostly targets a young male audience, including more than 11 million unique visitors in the U.S. In January, the company acquired eCrush.com, along with related sites eSpin.com and HighSchoolStyleBoard. The first two sites currently have about 3.4 million registered, active users. Other magazine companies have followed suit. Time Inc.'s Sports Illustrated bought FanNation.com, a social networking and news site for sports enthusiasts, in February. The site will serve as a model for social networks built around Time Inc.'s other magazine brands. And in April, Hachette Filipacchi purchased JumpStart, an online automobile ad network, which is being integrated with the publisher's CarandDriver.com, RoadandTrack.com and CycleWorld.com properties. JumpStart's network of sites, which include NADAguides.com, Vehix, and J.D. Power & Associates Autos, reach 5 to 7 million potential car buyers a month.