E-Commerce

It's not breaking news that great customer service is key for any retailer. In fact, a recent study from STELLAService found that 10.7 percent of online consumers will spend more for a great customer service experience. A session from Retail Online Integration's Retail Marketing Virtual Conference & Expo titled At Your Service: Current E-Commerce Customer Service Trends for Retailers features a roundtable discussion with retail industry leaders on best practices surrounding customer service. Will Freund, senior director of operations at Gilt Groupe; John Ernsberger,  co-founder and vice president of sales at STELLAService; and John Rote, director of operations and customer experience at Bonobos, led the panel discussion. 

Launched at the height of the flash-sale craze in 2009, ideeli grew faster than it planned for. Sounds like a good problem to have, right? Well, sort of. The retailer’s rapid growth left its in-house customer service team unable to provide the high level of service that it believed its members deserved.

Frustrated at getting blank results pages from product keyword searches on retailers’ websites? Think it would be easier to pick out what you’re looking for from a lineup of images rather than describing it via text. Well, it appears you’re in luck.

Lowe's announced the launch of MyLowe's, an integrated online experience that will help customers manage their biggest asset — their homes. It will revolutionize the customer experience with home improvement, allowing all purchases, in-store and online, to be tracked automatically and stored on their customer profile online.   

The Groupons and Woots of the world have been feeding Black Friday-caliber deals to consumers throughout the year. Have they created a subculture of deal "addicts" who scoff at discounts less than 50 percent off?

Answers.com, a popular website for questions and answers, announced the launh of Coupons by Answers.com, which combines coupons and deals with a vast community of shopping experts who share their tips on how to save money online.

On Oct. 26, Sears made its local-only e-commerce move that would limit its displays to products sold by and available at the most local store. It would also display nonadvertised local sale items plus a preview of items slated to go on sale the following week.

Amazon has become the 800-pound gorilla in e-commerce, but retailers of any size can capitalize on its powerful reach by selling on the Amazon.com platform. Diane Buzzeo, CEO of Ability Commerce, believes every online retailer should make Amazon a part of their selling strategy, and provides answers to the question, what are the five key things online merchants should know about selling on Amazon.com?

Amazon has made some big changes to its website in China including a new name and a new short URL. Formerly called “Joyo Amazon” after buying out Joyo.com seven years ago in order to enter China, the name has been simplified to just “Amazon.” The new Z.cn URL serves as an easy-to-remember shortcut to the ongoing Amazon.cn homepage.

An ominous bell is tolling for daily-deal sites. Groupon may be growing like kudzu, but it's losing money as more daily-deal sites like LivingSocial enter the marketplace. But don’t count out daily salemails yet. Daily-deal sites are recalibrating by offering a cache of products that drill down to a particular neighborhood, drum up repeat business and calculate metrics. What’s the real deal? Business owners can now design the right daily salemail to fit their brand experience.