   | News about digital retail commerce |  |
- Etsy launches wedding portal, registry
Etsy has created Etsy Weddings and a wedding registry to capitalize on its growing popularity among couples shopping for invitations, party favors and keepsakes before their special day, the company said. AuctionBytes (4/30)       | Retailers, isn't it time to upgrade your mobile communication with customers? Mogreet's rich media mobile messaging platform delivers video, images and text messages of your products, with 90% open rates and 3x the participation of basic SMS campaigns. Retailer Charlotte Russe grew its mobile database by 33% using Mogreet's MMS marketing platform! Download the case study to find out how they did it. | - How product pages can help boost sales
Product pages that offer favorable price comparisons, authenticity seals and consumer reviews can go a long way to convincing more shoppers to make a purchase, writes marketer Pablo Palatnik. "When consumers consider actual items to purchase, it's the product pages that determine if they want to buy from your website, or not." Practical eCommerce (4/30) - The future of tap-to-pay technology
Caribou Honig, co-founder and partner at QED Investors, says smartphones that allow tap-to-pay transactions will become commonplace after Apple introduces the next iPhone, which will have near-field communication and a digital wallet. "The value will manifest as developers integrate wallet functionality with the other capabilities of the phone, and create novel apps that are nearly unforeseeable today," he writes. Forbes/CIO Network blog (4/23) - E-commerce lets small B2B businesses compete with the big boys
About 75% of small businesses market to other businesses, and the use of e-commerce is helping these smaller business-to-business companies level the playing field against giants such as Amazon and eBay, writes Steven Kramer. The use of e-commerce provides operational efficiencies, creates a sense of outsized scale, trims the sales cycle, and can even lower operating costs and aid customer relations, adding to the bottom line. TechNewsWorld (4/28)  | Top 5 HR Compliance Concerns for Small Business
Small and medium sized companies spend a lot of time focusing on core business issues, but they may overlook one of the most potentially serious and costly issues — regulatory compliance. How do you know what issues to look for in order to protect the company? Download this must-read paper that discusses the top 5 HR compliance issues. |
 - Apps for the affluent reinforce in-store shopping
The affluent demographic likes its own set of mobile applications, according to a Luxury Institute/Plastic Mobile study. The most popular are those downloaded from Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Saks Fifth Avenue and Gilt Groupe. More than 70% of luxury-app users said the apps made them feel better connected to the brand, and almost half said they want the app to enhance their personalized in-store shopping experience. MediaPost Communications/Mobile Marketing Daily (4/30)  | Which do you choose: Customer frustration…or channel integration? Today's consumers expect to shop the way technology lets them work and live: easily, efficiently and seamlessly across channels. Aberdeen's 2012 Analyst Insight on the Omni-Channel Retail Experience explains how your competitors make that happen – and how you can too! This $399 value is now yours free. Download the report now! |
 | Companies in the News |  |  | | - Groupon replaces Starbucks CEO on board of directors
Groupon has replaced Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and venture capitalist Kevin Efrusy on its board of directors with Deloitte executive Robert Bass and American Express CFO Daniel Henry. The new members were named to address criticism about the company's accounting practices, but analysts were disappointed that the daily deal site replaced Schultz rather than adding seats to the board. Reuters (4/30)  | Earn 2X rewards points on gasoline purchases with The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN. Designed to earn Membership Rewards® points faster:
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- C-suite loves social but can't measure likes
Executives continue to love social media but are still grappling with measurement, per a PulsePoint Group and Economist Intelligence Unit survey. Companies that said they had "extensive" social media engagement reported the best return on investment (7.7%), while 84% of executives said that investment gave them an marketing/sales effectiveness advantage and 81% said the effort had increased market share. Still, executives were unsure how such measures as Facebook likes translated into bottom-line numbers. eMarketer (5/1)  | Interactive marketers are feeling the pressure from government to offer clear, transparent privacy regulations for consumers. This free whitepaper, discusses various legislation, such as the EU Cookie Directive, and outlines how marketers must comply while offering a positive and enriching consumer interaction via the new paradigms of consensual targeting. Get the free whitepaper here. |
 | Shop.org Spotlight | | | | - Gilt Groupe CMO: "To stay ahead of the curve, we eat, drink and breathe innovation"
Approaching 5 years young, Gilt Groupe has changed the way both retailers and consumers look at shopping for fashion -- and has grown into a billion-dollar company doing it. In a recent post on the Shop.org blog, Gilt Groupe co-founder and CMO Alexandria Wilkis Wilson shared how Gilt's e-commerce and digital strategies revolutionized the category, and what's ahead for the fashion retailer to stay on the cutting edge. Read more. Shop.org Blog (4/16) - How Internet Retailer 1000 companies handle shopping cart abandonment
With shopping cart abandonment rates rising, e-commerce solution provider Listrak recently reviewed the check-out process and shopping cart remarketing tactics of the Internet Retailer Top 1000 retailers. In a dynamic addition to the Shop.org white paper library, Listrak identifies numerous opportunities for retailers to recover abandoned carts, including the number, timing, and content of follow-up messages, as well as how retailers can significantly improve the check-out process to mitigate cart abandonment in the first place. Download the white paper.
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