Report: Online sales rose 13.2% in February

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March 2, 2011 Sign up Forward Archive RSS Feed News about digital retail commerce   Top Story    Shopkick founder reflects on 6 months of success Shopkick launched a shopping application based on the simple idea that brick-and-mortar merchants should have a way of rewarding customers for showing up, says founder Cyriac Roeding. Six months after its launch with high-profile retail partners including Target, Best Buy and Macy's, Roeding talks about the app's success, how the company combats the rising tide of location-based "app fraud" and why the relatively simple system is driving more traffic and revenue than larger rivals. Shop.org Blog (3/2)   Increase Conversions and Channel Savings with ClearSaleing Recently, Forrester Consulting examined the total economic impact and potential ROI that enterprises may realize by deploying ClearSaleing's advertising analytics and attribution management technology. Download the study to see the full analysis.   Online Retail Trends    Report: Online sales rose 13.2% in February Consumers spent $13.8 billion shopping online in February, making it the fourth consecutive month of double-digit growth in online sales, according to a report from MasterCard Advisors. "Not only are online sales doing well, e-retailers are stealing channel share from the bricks-and-mortar stores. One thing to watch is gasoline prices. If they rise much higher, that will definitely help online sales even more," said analyst John Gamel. InternetRetailer.com (3/2) Analyst: Catching on to cost savings could accelerate e-commerce Online retail sales have grown rapidly in recent years, but e-commerce still represents a small portion of overall retail sales and the annual growth rate is expected to settle at about 10% through 2015, according to a new report from Forrester Research. Some analysts say a greater understanding of potential cost-savings could accelerate online shopping rates. "Once consumers understand these benefits, a greater share of their spending tends to shift to digital commerce," said comScore senior director Andrew Lipsman. E-Commerce Times (3/1) On-Demand Web Conferencing and Collaboration-Anywhere. No need to scramble for conference rooms when you can instantly connect employees, customers or students online. Cisco WebEx supports 10 million subscribers each month with easy-to-use web applications. It's free, it's easy, it's WebEx . . . try it today.   New Media & Technology    Companies must organize for social media Though social media is less expensive than traditional advertising, it does require investments of significant hours and structural changes. "Social media requires a much more expansive view of content creation and storytelling," said an official with Coca-Cola, which tapped workers in its toll-free call center. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (3/1) How to boost search rankings with user-generated content The vast majority of online shoppers find sites first through Google searches, which favor user-generated content in the rankings. Meanwhile, 65% of the top 20 e-commerce companies are losing in the rankings by failing to optimize user-generated content, according to this analysis. ClickZ (3/1) MAKEaDeal app matches shoppers with deals from nearby merchants A new iPhone application from Spreezio comes close to letting users name their price on the products they're shopping for, using location-based software and a pre-set radius to match the user with personalized coupons from 85 retail chains including Macy's, Target and Best Buy. MAKEaDeal users enter a product category, along with preferences on discount amounts and distance, then wait to see which merchant sends back a limited-time coupon with the best deal. GigaOm (2/28) Bar code systems have the ability to improve patient safety and process efficiencies in hospitals. When evaluating a patient wrist banding solution it is critical to consider business and performance issues, efficiency of use by staff, and comfort for the patient. Click here to download a complimentary eBook on patient safety and critical IT considerations.   Companies in the News    Yahoo! reportedly aims to sell its share of Yahoo! Japan Yahoo! reportedly is in talks to sell its 30% stake in Yahoo! Japan, a holding that might be worth more than $7 billion, one analyst said. Japan's Softbank, which owns 41.9% of the venture, said it has no intention of buying the stake. The Wall Street Journal (3/2) Amazon prepares to launch an Android app store Amazon is moving closer to launching a store for Google Android applications that will compete head-to-head with the search giant's Android Marketplace. "We're starting with Android apps since it's an open ecosystem," said Anya Waring, an Amazon spokeswoman. "Amazon officially hasn't made an announcement as to when our app store will launch, but all I can say right now is soon -- it's coming soon." Los Angeles Times/Technology blog (3/1) Crowdtap lets marketers crowdsource research for social campaigns A startup launched this week offers consumers points toward free gifts for participating in online marketing research aimed at driving social brand campaigns. Retailers including Old Navy and Diesel are already using the Crowdtap site, which launched with about 54,000 consumers on board. DMNews (3/1) Google buys German security software company Zynamics Google said this week it has acquired Zynamics, a German firm that specializes in reverse-engineering software that analyzes malware and other software for which there is no available source code. Yahoo!/Mashable (3/1) Health care reform got you down? Learn more from UnitedHealthcare on how the federal changes to medical benefits will affect you and your employees. This comprehensive guide highlights incentives for enrollment and a timeline of important dates and deadlines. Don't let them pass you by—Learn more here!   Featured Content    How to Get More from Your Sales Team Mike Michalowicz Why You Should Teach the Janitor About Finance Mike Periu How to Test a Brilliant Business Idea Shira Levine 9 Surefire Ways to Get Investors Katie Morell Mail-away Cobbler Makes Old Shoes New Again Christina Hernandez   Interactive Advertising  Twitter hopes to grow with smaller ad accounts Twitter is going after medium-sized and smaller advertisers, who account for about half the $26 billion in online ad spending in the U.S. market. The site follows Google and Facebook in reaching out to smaller accounts, a key move if Twitter hopes to catch up to its bigger rivals. The Wall Street Journal (3/2) Advertisers can now reach out when consumers are near Taking location-based advertising to the next level, the mobile social network Loopt offers advertisers the option of sending location-keyed alerts to Loopt users to promote special offers for consumers in the vicinity of a given business. AT&T offers a similar "push-notification" service. The Wall Street Journal/Digits blog (3/1) The Buzz(CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS) Do you have tools in place to protect your customers against pharming, phishing and malicious malware attacks? Chase Paymentech's Safetech™ Fraud Tools can help. Fraud is a fact of life in commerce. Knowing what to look for and using proven fraud prevention strategies can save both your reputation and your bottom line. Learn more. Interested in learning more about advertising in Shop.org SmartBrief? Contact Dena Malouf at (202) 737-5500 x282 or dmalouf@smartbrief.com.     Shop.org Spotlight  Crate & Barrel, Dick's Sporting Goods and Sheplers are hiring Shop.org offers a job board for people looking for positions in e-commerce. Recent postings include an e-commerce route manager at Crate & Barrel, an e-commerce site merchandiser at Dick's Sporting Goods, and a digital sales manager at Sheplers. Shop.org member companies are invited to post jobs for free. Visit the job board. Shop.org SmartStat: March 2, 2011 More than 4,500 people are connected to Shop.org through LinkedIn. View the page.   Know an exceptional retail loss prevention professional? Nominations for NRF's Loss Prevention Awards are now being accepted. The Awards Program honors and acknowledges law enforcement officers, loss prevention professionals, law enforcement agencies and retail companies who have impacted their community or the industry and deserve nationwide recognition. Submit a nomination now for one of these prestigious awards. The submission deadline is March 18. Learn more. Learn more about Shop.org -> Website  |  Events  |  Research  |  Shop.org Blog  |  Join Shop.org   SmartQuote  Books give not wisdom where none was before. But where some is, there reading makes it more." --John Harington, British writer and inventor of the flush toilet   This SmartBrief was created for cpgbrokers.data@blogger.com   Subscriber Tools       Update account information | Change e-mail address | Unsubscribe | Print friendly format | Web version | Search past news | Archive | Privacy policy Grab our News Widget Publish your Press Release   Advertise Sales Account Director: Dena Malouf 202.737.5500 ext. 282 Download Media Kit       Recent Shop.org SmartBrief Issues: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 Monday, February 28, 2011 Friday, February 25, 2011 Thursday, February 24, 2011 Wednesday, February 23, 2011     Lead Editor:  Megan Conniff       Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005     © 1999-2011 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information