E-Commerce

With its announcement yesterday that it will be investing in same-day shipping starting in 2014, Home Depot became the latest in a long line of retailers to offer this service to customers. This video examines the same-day shipping trend and what it means for consumers and retailers alike. 

Brands offering a seamless and engaging online shopping experience is no longer an expectation, it's a requirement. Whether you're selling to consumers or businesses, your customers want to feel comfortable making purchases from your e-commerce site. Blueberry Diapers, a manufacturer and global distributor of cloth diapers, is in a rather unique position: while the majority of its sales are to other businesses, its customers prefer a B-to-C-like online shopping experience. Nearly 95 percent of Blueberry Diapers' B-to-B sales are transacted online. 

Cato, a specialty retailer of women's fashions and accessories, has made its debut in the world of online shopping with the launch of its first ever e-commerce site. With the help of its implementation partner Celerant Technology, the company said its new website will support the growth of the renowned, national brand and will offer the same collections as its brick-and-mortar stores, as well as additional sizes, colors and exclusive items. 

comScore yesterday reported holiday season U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the first 39 days of the November-December holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $31.5 billion has been spent online, marking a 9 percent increase vs. the corresponding days last year. However, as we've noted in previous releases, Thanksgiving Day falls six days later this year than last and causes more heavy spending days to fall in the year ago period, thereby diluting growth rates at this point. For example, we see a 25 percent increase if using the alternate comparison of the four-week period preceding Thanksgiving. 

While Black Friday weekend suffered the first spending decline since 2009, Cyber Monday increased nearly 20 percent to a record level, according to ComScore. Online retail sales reached nearly $2 billion, with mobile devices generating more than 17 percent of online purchases, according to IBM. Clearly, the lure of deeper discounts while steering clear (as in, not being in the car at all) of crazy Black Friday in-store madness is taking internet shopping to another level … and marketers are taking advantage.

Fab's management is aware of its image problem. They read the same stories about the home design site that everyone else does: The ones about Fab being in a "death spiral" and CEO Jason Goldberg being a "demolition man" whose resume looks like a "history of mistakes." But those articles tell only half the story. Fab's top brass — its CEO, COO, a board member and its chief HR officer (and other sources, speaking privately) — say that Fab has been treated unfairly by the press, and that most of the criticism misses the point: Fab is financially stable. 

With online sales expected to grow 15 percent this holiday season, consumers will be making purchases from a variety of devices and places — including work. While some employers have taken a liberal stance toward online shopping and personal internet use, the holiday shopping season threatens to strain bandwidth capacities to a point that would frustrate even the most lenient of employers. In some organizations, free-for-all bandwidth consumption might lead to an office network crash, hindering not only deal shoppers, but others in the office attempting to — shockingly enough — conduct actual company business. 

Let's get right to the point: Teavana messed up big time on a big promotion and e-commerce day. This post is all based on my personal experience placing an order during a Cyber Monday sale. Clearly some issues aren't purely marketing related, but it's how Teavana handled the situation that relates to marketing and branding. Teavana sent out an email promoting its Cyber Monday offer. I was running low on tea and the offer seemed generous, so I took the brand up on it. That's where the positive news ends. 

The days of tax-free purchases from Amazon.com are coming to an end for Tennessee customers. WPLN Nashville Public Radio reports that the online retail giant will begin charging the Tennessee sales tax on Jan. 1, in keeping with a previous agreement with the state.

Retailer Toys"R"Us has agreed to pay more than $178,000 to settle claims of overpricing errors at its stores in San Diego and Los Angeles counties, prosecutors announced Monday. Inspections by county and state agencies checking on accuracy of prices at Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us stores in the two counties from late 2009 to mid-2012 uncovered what the San Diego County District Attorney's Office called "a significant pattern of inaccuracies." Inspectors bought more than 4,150 items in the probe. The stores overcharged in 5 percent of the purchases, authorities said.