Jeremy Goldkorn founded the popular China media website Danwei.org, and acts as editor and publisher. The site has tracked the changes in China’s media and Internet on a daily basis since 2003 and also produces video interviews with people in culture and the media in China. Here, in this piece in fastcompany.com magazine, he outlines the copykat sites that have sprung up in China.
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Larry Kavanagh, founder of D.M.insite discusses what to test with the goal in mind of pushing up online sales and profits. He has a 7-step program that touches on all the important keys to success.

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57% of online retailers plan to spend more on e-commerce technology in 2010, including 49% whose investment priorities cover new or upgraded e-commerce technology platforms, Forrester Research Inc. says in the study, “2010 U.S. Online Retail Technology Investment Outlook.” The report is based on a survey of 291 online retailers in the fourth quarter of 2009. Other popular areas of technology investment this year include content management tools, multichannel order management integration, system security and mobile commerce. Among the goals underlying many investment plans this year are improved marketing capabilities, including a strong focus on social marketing as well as search and other forms of online marketing, the study says. See the summary report here.

As online retail sales perked up in the fourth quarter of 2009, many leading e-retailers did a better job of making their web sites easy to shop and responding promptly to consumer inquiries, retail consultancy The E-tailing Group Inc. found in its 12th Annual Mystery Shopping Study. “Throughout our review we observed merchants being attentive to efficiencies for ease of use, differentiators to drive conversion and involvers to engage customers,” the firm says in the study. The report notes, for example, that retailers such as Blue Nile and REI responded to customer e-mails in less than 30 minutes, and that most of the retailers in its E-tailing Group 100 study group let shoppers sort site search results by price, category and brand. Most also link to social networking sites. Other features are still less common, such as sorting site search results by top sellers and product style and fit. See the results here.

Bill Siwicki discusses the results of the Internet Retailer Survey, showing that a significant part of some e-retailers revenue is coming from International sales, despite the fact that few are offering International-friendly tools on their e-commerce sites.

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The state of the Web, 2007: Check out the results of I/R’s 07 survey. Web retailers are feeling pretty bullish about their financial situation these days. But having made the transition from start-up operation to established business, web merchants are also keeping a close eye on their expenses and growing organically using their own resources rather than take on a big acquisition or too much outside financing, according to InternetRetailer’s latest monthly survey.
full article here
pdf of print article here

According to a recent survey of 404 web retailers, 2/3 plan to redesign their sites this year.
PDF HERE
Web Article Here

Online retailers are protective of their main means of customer communication

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Creative people want to express that creativity. Meanwhile, they need to make a living – possibly by finding an audience for some buyable form of that creativity. This is an old predicament, but the Internet enables new experiments in resolving it – like the Swap Meat, a project of a Web site called Coudal.com.

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Marketing and customer acquisition costs are on the rise, and ROI-driven marketing is more important than ever. Accordingly, today’s savvy e-commerce marketers invest precious time and money into meticulously selected search terms, carefully segmented e-mail campaigns and highly focused advertising. It’s quite surprising then, how little thought goes into the other half of the equation, the landing page.

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