  | News about digital retail commerce |  |
- Luxury chains boost free-shipping offers
Neiman Marcus is offering free shipping for purchases and returns, and free gift wrapping. Rival Saks Direct has free shipping on purchases up to Dec. 23, with a guarantee of delivery on Christmas Eve. Nordstrom and Barney's also added the popular perk. InternetRetailer.com (12/16)        | Applying Social Data: 3 Best Practices
Learn what it takes to create a positive experience for both your users and your business.
Download a free whitepaper now. | - Amazon, Target top consumers' list of favorite holiday ads
Consumers may be bargain hunting when they shop this year, but when it comes to holiday commercials they prefer to be won over with humor, according to a poll by NRF and BIGresearch. Almost one-third of respondents favored Target's commercials with a quirky and obsessive shopper, compared with 17% who said they liked Wal-Mart's spots best. Respondents also preferred Amazon.com's whimsical online and e-mail ads to Wal-Mart's practical messages. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (12/16) - ScoreBig.com aims to be the Priceline of live entertainment
Every year, millions of seats go unsold at concerts and sports events, but widespread discounting is tricky because it risks devaluing brands. To get around that problem, a former NBA executive launched ScoreBig.com, an online startup to do for live entertainment what Priceline.com did for travel. The site lets customers bid on tickets by the maximum percentage of retail value they are willing to pay -- but if they bid too low, they are locked out of bidding again for 24 hours. Since discounts aren't published, venues don't worry about eroding their pricing power, and full-price ticket buyers don't feel betrayed. The Wall Street Journal (12/16)  | Supercharging the Online Channel
Getting to the right shoppers and then converting them to buyers in your online store is every retailer's key objective. Short purchase windows, impatient buyers, and new mandates around security are creating unprecedented demands on commerce sites. Learn how to attract customers to your site, optimize their online shopping experience and drive more transactions. Watch the webinar NOW! |
 - Boden cuts marketing costs with ad-tracking tags
U.K.-based online apparel retailer Boden says tracking tags that measure the performance of online ads helped reduce its online marketing costs. The tags, added last year, help merchants determine where shoppers come from, a key part of measuring the effectiveness of online advertisements. InternetRetailer.com (12/16) - How to measure Twitter success
 It's tough for merchants and marketers to get a handle on their ROI for Twitter use, writes The CMO Site's Mitch Wagner. Wagner suggests seeking circumstantial evidence that you're reaching your target audience, including measuring how often followers retweet your messages. The CMO Site (12/16)  | Samsonite Brings Durability Online with Amazon Webstore Samsonite wanted a truly integrated brand and marketing experience—a site that looked like Samsonite and still allowed them to promote their products effectively. They turned to Amazon Webstore to tap their expertise and raise the Samsonite eCommerce processes to a 'best-in-class' level. Download the Case Study now! |
 - Bonobos gains $18.5 million in funding
Online apparel retailer Bonobos secured a new round of $18.5 million in financing from a group led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Lightspeed has investments in several other online companies, including daily-deal site LivingSocial. Bonobos has grown since its launch three years ago, and the company says its monthly sales have tripled in the past six months. Crain's New York Business (12/16) - Nook Color helps Barnes & Noble boost online sales
Barnes & Noble's recent disappointing earnings report included a bit of hopeful news: Online sales rose in the second quarter for the chain, which is struggling to become a digital player. Additionally, sales were strong during Thanksgiving weekend because of Web purchases and the new Nook Color e-reader, which the company says has become its most popular product. InternetRetailer.com (12/14)  | Increase Sales with the TRUSTe Seal
Download this case study to see how one company added the TRUSTe seal to lead registration forms and their shopping cart, and saw an enormous 84% lift in purchases, and a 72% increase in revenue per visitor lift. Learn how a consumer-facing seal can accelerate a transaction, and why visitors feel an increased level of trust upon seeing the TRUSTe seal. |
| Interactive Advertising |  | | | - How holiday marketers can make their e-mails stand out
Social tools such as Facebook's "like" button, partnering with popular themed publications that send daily e-mails, and promoting online holiday gift guides are a few ways marketers can stand out from the flood of seasonal e-mails consumers receive this time of year, writes interactive media strategist Tessa Wegert. ClickZ (12/16) | Legislative & Regulatory | | | | - Feds: Industry cooperation is needed on Web privacy
The U.S. Commerce Department released a policy paper Thursday that calls on the Internet industry to collaborate on enforceable Web privacy guidelines. The proposal does not recommend legislative action, but is a shift from previous administrations' hands-off policy. Consumer groups were critical of the proposal, which is open for public comment, saying it would give the industry too much discretion. The Wall Street Journal (12/17) , CIO.com/IDG News Service (12/16) , Bloomberg (12/16) | Shop.org Spotlight | | | | - Swipe fee victory a testament to strength of retail industry
Swipe fee accomplishments this week include a proposed Federal Reserve regulation that could cut debit swipe fees by 90 percent, and a bit of publicity as NRF's interchange lobbying received recognition on Capitol Hill. In a open letter to the retail industry this morning, NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay says these accomplishments are evidence of what retailers can do when they work together. Read more.
| SmartQuote | | | |  | It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
--W. Edwards Deming,
American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant  |
| | This SmartBrief was created for cpgbrokers.data@blogger.com | | | | Advertise | Sales Account Director:
Dena Malouf 202.737.5500 ext. 282 | | | | | | | | | | Recent Shop.org SmartBrief Issues: - Thursday, December 16, 2010
- Wednesday, December 15, 2010
- Tuesday, December 14, 2010
- Monday, December 13, 2010
- Friday, December 10, 2010
| | | Lead Editor: Megan Conniff
Mailing Address:
SmartBrief, Inc.®, 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005 | | | | | | © 1999-2010 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information |
|
For their online holiday shopping, consumers rank free shipping for returns 4.3 out of 5. Source: 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment thoughtfully CPG Brokers, your best resource to optimize your in store self exposure and maximize sku distribution.