  | News about digital retail commerce |  | | |  | - Kmart unwraps social-media strategy for the holidays
Kmart's marketing efforts this holiday season will include an online space for moms to share their family traditions and favorite holiday memories. It's part of the chain's effort to connect with customers through social media, says CMO Mark Snyder. Also on tap for the chain: expanded layaway and a greater emphasis on private label brands. Brandweek (10/3)       | Video Commerce: 4 Tips to Fast Forward to More Revenue
Online video helps retailers close the gap between the "touch and feel" experience of being in a physical store. This free white paper offers 4 video commerce tips to help you showcase the right video at just the right moment in a customer's purchase path to increase order values, improve conversion rates, and lower product return rates. | - Shoppers grow less patient with online shopping glitches
Consumers are spending more on online shopping but they have less tolerance for time-consuming site delays, according to data from Tealeaf Technology. Fewer consumers said they would try again to complete a transaction if it didn't go through on the first try, compared with a similar survey last year, and about a quarter of consumers who abandon a shopping cart because of technical glitches head to a competing merchant to make the purchase. Site problems cost retailers about $44.6 billion annually in lost revenue, Tealeaf estimates. InternetRetailer.com (10/1) , BizReport (10/4) - Online retailers may see higher Halloween sales
Halloween sales both in-store and online are expected to rise this year, according to two surveys. The National Retail Federation predicts consumers will spend about $10 more on costumes and candy this year, while a separate survey says 35% of consumers will shop for the holiday online, most of them spending between $25 and $100. InternetRetailer.com (10/1) - Can in-store TV finally get its act together?
Automated Services hopes to overcome the "taint" of in-store TV with its trial of a 3G network in nine Bloom stores in the Washington, D.C., area, according to its chief, Bob Wolinsky. Among the platform's issues the company promises to address are improved content, less costly technology to wire retail outlets and tools for ad delivery and tracking the number of consumers in each location. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (10/4) - Twitter gives more prominence to Promoted Trends ads
Twitter has shifted its Promoted Trends ad to the top of its list of trending topics. The move could improve such a link's performance because the better placement signals a stronger connection to the topic, according to this article. ClickZ (10/1)  | When the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, it took the Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) industry with it. Ten years later NEPs are experiencing resurgent growth and are finding themselves challenged by a new set of market conditions. This complimentary whitepaper explores how to survive these challenges and the next wave of consolidation among NEPs. |
 | Hot Topics |  | | | Top five news stories selected by Shop.org SmartBrief readers in the past week. - Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.
| Companies in the News | | | | - Skye Associates moves into acquisition mode
Skye Associates creates retail websites and manages retail websites for a growing number of brands, including 15 websites created during the past year. The company is continuing its growth spurt with plans to acquire similar players, including the purchase of a women's denim apparel site slated to close later this month. The Washington Post (10/4)
| Interactive Advertising | | | | - Marketers tap college students as brand ambassadors
American Eagle, Disney and Apple are among the top marketers enlisting college students as sales reps to help them integrate their brands into the lifestyles of their peers. "College marketing used to be block and tackle," said Matt Britton, founder of marketing agency Mr. Youth. "Now, college students are immune to those tactics and expect something much more deeply intertwined in their lives." USA TODAY (10/3) | Shop.org Spotlight | | | |
- Southwest Airlines co-founder: The customer is not always right
Want to keep your associates happy? Southwest Airlines President Emeritus Colleen Barrett shares her advice: Give employees the authority to make good decisions, embrace your corporate culture as a way of life, and stop saying the customer is always right (they're not, she says). In a three-minute video, hear more about Barrett's philosophies on taking care of employees. Watch the video.
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Google says it continues to fight to keep information accessible to consumers in China and other countries where governments block access to online information. Government censors in about a quarter of the 100 countries where Google operates have blocked access to at least some of the company's content, an executive said recently. 
Almost one-third of online retailers have seen a decrease in their shopping-cart abandonment rates. Source: 
