Online holiday shopping gets off to a brisk start

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November 23, 2011 Sign up Forward Archive RSS Feed News about digital retail commerce   Top Story    One Kings Lane aims to sell a lifestyle Buying furniture online can be confusing when images of the items are viewed on their own, especially at flash-sale sites where shoppers typically only have 72 hours to make a decision. One Kings Lane aims to overcome that with magazine-like images of artfully arranged rooms. The Wall Street Journal (11/23)      Always wanted people to “Like” you? Venda can help you engage your customers through multiple social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter, maintain a strong following through personalized loyalty programs, and gain fan feedback via product reviews. Visit or call to learn about incentives for upgrading to Venda for social commerce advancements.   Online Retail Trends  Online holiday shopping gets off to a brisk start Consumer spent $9.7 billion on online shopping in the first 20 days of November, up 14% over the same period a year ago, according to comScore. Separately, a study from Boston Consulting Group reports 98% of American women are making use of the Internet, and shopping is one of their favored online activities. MediaPost Communications/Marketing Daily (11/23)      U.S. retailers expect significant e-commerce gains Nearly 20% of retailers have developed mobile applications to help potential customers with holiday shopping lists, and 68% expect their online sales to grow by at least 15% over last year. A majority of U.S. consumers plan to use smartphones as part of their holiday shopping strategy. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model)/AdAgeStat blog (11/22) Introducing The New Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN. Designed to earn Membership Rewards® points faster: • For a limited time, 50K bonus points when you spend $10K your first 5 months • 3X points on airfare • 2X points on advertising, gasoline, and shipping • 1X points on everything else LEARN MORE & APPLY   New Media & Technology    Social network shopping poised for significant growth Companies are still grappling with proper pairings for retail offerings and e-commerce, a business category that is said to be on pace to be worth $200 billion this year. Companies that focus on niche products or individual customer customization are best positioned at this point to take advantage of this growing revenue stream. Adweek (11/22)      PayPal Express boasts higher conversion rate, study shows Shoppers at 15 online retailers closed the deal more often when using PayPal Express Checkout compared with other payment options, according to a study by comScore. InternetRetailer.com (11/22)      Consumer Insights Your Brand Needs to Know: Latest Trends in Behavioral Advertising Learn what brand managers, advertisers, as well as networks, agencies, and publishers need to know about consumer survey insights into behavioral ad serving, also known as interest-based advertising. Learn more today!   Companies in the News    Zappos will pay holiday toll for Massachusetts drivers Amazon-owned online shoe store Zappos will pay the toll for every driver on the Massachusetts Turnpike between 5 and 7 p.m. today, saying it hopes to ease the stress of holiday travel. If traffic matches that of last year, the company will pay at least $20,000. American City Business Journals/Boston (11/22)      Sears Holding readies additions to online offerings Sears Holding will unveil new features across Kmart, Sears and MyGofer e-commerce and m-commerce platforms beginning on Nov. 28. The new mobile applications will give iPhone and Android users access to millions of products, information on in-store availability and purchasing options. Drug Store News (11/22)      Target names new president for digital operations Target has promoted Senior Vice President Casey Carl to the post of president for digital operations. He takes the lead over the retailer's revamped website, which has crashed six times since launching last August. The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (11/22), Bloomberg Businessweek (11/22)      Best Buy's big-spender reward backfires Best Buy launched a series of pre-Black Friday online deals for Reward Zone members who spend $2,500 or more a year, but a website glitch didn't allow many to buy advertised products Monday. The company e-mailed an apology to affected customers and said it is working to fix the problem. The Wall Street Journal (11/22)      Other News Amazon, eBay take new holiday tacks to compete with retailers Bloomberg Businessweek (11/23)      Let Social Media Find Your Staff For You Give your hiring managers fast, easy access to quality employees by pairing social media with automated recruitment solutions that use Web 2.0 functionality. Download the white paper Automating Social Recruiting for Better Hiring and see how 85 percent of best-in-class companies save money with automation.   Featured Content    How To Improve Your Facebook Marketing For The Holidays Jay H. Lee How to Make the Most of Small Business Saturday Julie Fajgenbaum Small Business Snapshot: The One Magical Way to Secure Press Coverage Katie Morell Niche Marketing: 3 Tools That Will Help You Reach Targeted Customers Heather Whaling (Mashable) Want To Give Your Products More Exposure? Kim Kardashian Can Help NELL MERLINO   Shop.org Spotlight  Old and new: Children's top holiday requests include Barbie, LEGOs, iPods and iPads Popular holiday toys this year will be a mix of classic and contemporary, according to NRF's 2011 Top Toys survey released today. Continuing her reign, Barbie once again tops little girls' wish lists and video games top boys' lists. Additionally, Apple iPods appeared on both lists, and girls ranked iPad as a "must have" this holiday season. View the full top toys list.      Shop.org SmartStat: Nov. 23, 2011 Almost three-quarters of retailers have invested in their Facebook page this year in anticipation of the holiday season. Source: Shop.org's 2011 eHoliday survey Shop.org Blog (10/25)        5 things you need to know about the multichannel holiday shopper Recent holiday research from NRF and Shop.org supports the fact that consumers are really cross-channel shoppers, primed to take advantage of retailers' holiday deals across the Web, stores, smartphones and tablet devices -- or where and when it suits them best. In a recent post on the Shop.org blog, Head of Research Fiona Swerdlow shares 5 trends on the multichannel holiday shopper including how this group plans to buy, pay for their gifts and when they'll start making their holiday purchases. Read more. Shop.org Blog (11/23)      Learn more about Shop.org -> Website  |  Events  |  Research  |  Shop.org Blog  |  Join Shop.org   SmartQuote  A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself" --Arthur Miller, American playwright and essayist        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 Senior Account Director:  Dena Malouf (202) 407-7837 Download Media Kit       Recent Shop.org SmartBrief Issues: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Monday, November 21, 2011 Friday, November 18, 2011 Thursday, November 17, 2011 Wednesday, November 16, 2011     Lead Editor:  Megan Conniff       Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004     © 1999-2011 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information