Spire Express » eCommerce

Behind the Great Firewall of China

Mike — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:47:37 +0000

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.
Read the print article here.

7 Keys to E-Commerce Tests That Matter

Mike — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:54:36 +0000

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.

Read the online article here.

Read the print article here.

E-retailers boost their technology budgets

Mike — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:40:47 +0000

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.

Mystery Shopping Study

Mike — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:20:39 +0000

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.

Internet Retailer Survey

Mike — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:07:10 +0000

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.

Read the article online here

Or read the print article here

Internet Retailer’s 2007 survey

Mike — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:11:02 +0000

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

Survey: pent-up demand for redesign projects

Mike — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:03:18 +0000

In spite of the recession, more than three in five web retailers redesigned all or part of their web sites in 2009. And with an economic recovery under way, web retailers are planning to embark on further improving their sites to make them faster, quicker and easier for customers to shop. Retailers are focused on such improvements as search engine optimization, site organization and navigation, as well as planning to add a few advanced bells and whistles like video streaming and community features. These are some of the conclusions of a recent Internet Retailer survey of 404 web-only retailers, chain retailers, catalogers and consumer brand manufacturers. The survey finds that while 22.3% of survey respondents say they deferred a web site redesign in 2009 because of the economy, 66.5% say they plan to embark on a redesign in 2010.

Survey on Online Customer Service

Mike — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:31:26 +0000

Online retailers are protective of their main means of customer communication

Online cool-stuff experiment evolves

Mike — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:25:51 +0000

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.

Lift conversion with well-crafted landing pages

Mike — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:18:35 +0000

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.