| News about digital retail commerce |  |
- LivingSocial posts 168.3% increase in Q1 revenue
LivingSocial's revenue reached $110 million in the first quarter, up 168.3% compared with Q1 of 2011. Amazon owns 29% of the daily-deal website, which offered more than 21,000 deals in North America during Q1, up almost 15% compared with Q4, according to Yipit. Internet Retailer (4/30)       | Profiting from Mobile: The Three Keys to Success
Mobile is on the mind of most retailers, but how can you ensure the highest return from your investment? This informative Retail TouchPoints white paper analyzes the three focus areas for in-store mobile success: IT infrastructure, security, and store flow. Download your copy here! | - Report: Merchants are fluent in e-commerce, but not yet m-commerce
The top online retailers now excel in the functions that keep e-commerce customers happy and coming back, but they've got room to improve when it comes to mobile, according to study from Deloitte Consulting. Retailers in several industry segments, including hardware and jewelry, have created the most advanced mobile sites, while apparel retailers have the most room for improvement, the study says. Internet Retailer (5/1) - Online marketplaces for secondhand fashion expand
Start-ups including Copious, which has signed up high-profile fashion bloggers to sell the fashions and accessories they don't want anymore, are starting to take off as the Web becomes a larger marketplace for secondhand goods. Others including The RealReal and Poshmark are finding favor from designer-hungry fans in search of a bargain. San Francisco Chronicle (4/29) - European retailers find online success
Amazon leads business-to-consumer e-commerce in Europe, but a number of homegrown merchants are finding success as online retail in Europe grows at about 12% a year. Germany's Otto Group and Italy's Yoox are among the established retail companies finding success online. Internet Retailer (5/1)  | 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! |
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  | Companies in the News | | | | - CafePress to leave Silicon Valley for Kentucky
Online printing retailer CafePress will move its headquarters from San Mateo, Calif., to Louisville, Ky., and double the size of its production facility there, with the help of up to $10 million in state and local incentives. The company, which launched in 1999 and went public last month, expects to invest $16.5 million and create 592 new jobs. San Jose Mercury News (Calif.) (free registration) (5/1) - Kindle's popularity boosts e-book sales in U.K.
U.K. e-book sales increased 54% last year, and e-books account for 8% of book purchases, a trend driven largely by the popularity of Amazon's Kindle, according to The Publishers Association. E-reader sales hit 1.3 million during the holidays, with 1 in 40 adults receiving a Kindle. The Inquirer (U.K.) (5/2)  | |  | | The Buzz(CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS)
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- Wanted online: Brands that can laugh at themselves
Online comedy outlets are seeking out partnerships with brands with a sense of humor. Pantene agreed to participate in a big-hair spoof for Funny or Die called "The Weird Science and Big Business of Working Girls in The Breakfast Club," and BMW allowed its iconic "Ultimate Driving Machine" motto to be appropriated for a driving comedy on The Daily. The Onion, The Daily and Funny or Die executives hawked comedy/brand relations at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Digital Content NewFronts presentations. ClickZ (5/1)  | Legislative & Regulatory | | | | - Mall owners support online collection of sales tax
Mall owners including Simon Property Group support efforts to pass federal and state legislation to require online retailers to collect sales tax. Malls, which have seen traffic and sales slow as more consumers turn to online shopping, say requiring sales tax on e-commerce would level the playing field. The Wall Street Journal (5/1) | Shop.org Spotlight | | | | - Target, Sears Holdings, and New Balance are hiring
Shop.org offers a jobs board for people looking for positions in e-commerce. Recent postings include a technical architect in Target’s digital and multichannel technology department, a development business partner with Sears Holdings Management Corporation, and a relationship marketing specialist with New Balance. All Shop.org member companies are invited to post jobs for free. View the job board. - Forrester Research executive: Don't overlook site fundamentals
There's no doubt there are plenty of bases to cover to ensure your website platform can handle the activity your business deserves. In a recent interview on the Shop.org blog, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst Brian Walker stresses the importance of ensuring site fundamentals are in top shape and shares tips for increasing business agility through site maintenance, load testing and replatforming. Read more.
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Social media is a digital means to boost the customer relationship building efforts that supermarkets have always worked to achieve, says food industry consultant Michael Sansolo, who shares tips for grocers operating in a social-media age. "So much of social media is simply the basics of human interaction," he says. 
Nine out of ten consumers said they read customer ratings and reviews online. Source: 
