E-Commerce

Gap has struck a deal with Zalando, Europe's largest dedicated online fashion retailer, to sell its core brand starting next May in the hopes of reaching more consumers, particularly in markets where it has no physical stores. Gap already delivers to 24 European countries from its own website and has more than 200 stores on the continent, but is not present on the ground in key markets such as Germany. Berlin-based Zalando started out selling shoes in 2008 and now ships 1,500 brands to customers in 15 European countries.

If you're looking for tips to get more out of your holiday program, or if you think it might have some potential weaknesses, below I've highlighted five common mistakes with strategies to correct them. Each includes a tactic you can integrate into campaigns and content to make your marketing program more successful.

Many online retailers are looking for ways to increase impulse buys among shoppers. How can retailers catch the eye of online shoppers, who have a short attention span and a goal-oriented mind-set when making purchases? Here are some ways to encourage those much-needed impulse buys among online shoppers:

Consumers misuse of Wal-Mart's price match program isn't limited to the PlayStation 4. But shoppers may find it's no longer so easy to replicate the feat. After Wal-Mart announced Nov. 13 that it would price match select online retailers, including Amazon.com, several customers used the program to buy $400 Playstation 4 consoles for under $100 using fake Amazon listings. Twitter and Reddit users posted pictures of receipts documenting PS4 prices as cheap as $90. "Sounds like Wal-Mart needs to trust, but verify," said Edgar Dworsky, founder of advocacy site ConsumerWorld.org.

An overwhelming majority of e-commerce website managers accept the grim reality that over 97 percent of visitors will abandon their site without ever making a purchase. The increasing minority that's challenging this status quo is looking to the innovators. Amazon.com, still the biggest e-tailer on the planet, consistently reports conversion rates of 30 percent or more. While a strong brand contributes to these staggering figures, consumer trust can never account for such overwhelming repeat purchases. The growing realization in the e-commerce community is that smart, multipronged personalization is at the core of Amazon's track record.

Given that the majority of shoppers will begin researching gifts before Thanksgiving arrives, it's crucial to think ahead. In a perfect world, you've perfected your digital strategy months in advance. But even if you're late to the game, there are ways to fine-tune your digital strategies ahead of the holiday rush. Here are six tips on how to make the most of the massive e-commerce opportunity on Cyber Monday:

Shoppers beware: The massive discounts and promotions after Thanksgiving and Christmas may soon be history, according to a new retail report. EDITD, a retail analytics provider, says that the upsurge in discounts that follow national holidays is waning, both in the U.S. and the U.K. "It's interesting to note that 'January sales' appear to be a thing of the past," said EDITD in a report that was circulated on Wednesday and led by CEO Geoff Watts.

When a consumer watchdog organization alerted eBay that it had found hundreds of counterfeit items on the site, eBay blocked the whistleblower's accounts and removed its comments warning people about fake products. It did this instead of removing the fake products and blocking the sellers of them. The company, The Counterfeit Report, had just completed a nine-month investigation into counterfeit products being sold on eBay, publisher Craig Crosby, told Business Insider. It had discovered 250 of them, verifying that each one was a fake with the manufacturer.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have become the first U.S. business group to be disappointed by Republicans since their midterm election gains, as party leaders indicated that a bill to end tax-free internet shopping was doomed. Retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy have long railed against a perceived loophole that they say gives e-commerce rivals an unfair advantage by enabling many online shoppers to avoid sales tax. But on Monday, a spokesman for John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said a bill to tax online shopping wouldn't move forward in the final weeks of the current Congress.

In Ugam's six-plus years of providing price intelligence solutions to U.S. retailers, we've found that improper deployment of pricing intelligence (especially price matching) isn't an effective strategy. Smart retailers know that there are several other levers that can be deployed along with a competitive price that will help maintain margins while maximizing revenue. Here are a few ideas that we've seen succeed that you can use this holiday season: