E-Commerce

By now, you're probably sick of hearing about the iPad, right? Unless you're living under a rock, you know that Apple launched its iPad tablet computer on midnight, April 3. The smartphone/laptop computer combo was so popular, I'm sure you read, that Apple sold over 300,000 of them in the U.S. on that day alone. And as of press time, one report says more than 600,000 iPads have been sold. But what does the iPad mean for multichannel retailers?

B-to-B companies are notoriously cheap, so here are some free tools and services that can improve your online marketing know-how and creative efforts.

Given an inherent reliance on targeted and personalized content, direct digital marketing is a proven and effective approach to lifting key online retail metrics. But a reasonable question persists: How does an overall direct digital marketing approach to customer communications impact real e-retail challenges like shopping cart abandonment?

An impressive 59% vs. 36% in 2009 are planning to invest somewhat more in e-commerce than they did in 2009 given its essential role for today’s retailers

With a recovering economy and shifting channel priorities, 92% anticipate 2010 Internet revenues to increase over ’09 with significant growth in the 6-15% range; just 8% report a flat or downward trend in their e-commerce business vs. 34% last year.

eMarketer forecasts that after two years of subpar growth, 2010 US retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will climb to more than $152 billion, up 12.7 percent year over year. This follows the US Census Bureau’s release showing online sales in Q4 2009 grew by 14.6 percent over a year earlier — the biggest gain in eight quarters.

Problem: The Pashmina Store, an online retailer of luxury pashmina scarves, wraps and shawls, sought a more robust e-commerce platform to reach its goal of $1 million in revenues. Solution: Hired an e-commerce solutions provider. Results: From 2005 to 2007, revenues increased more than 60 percent year over year; in 2008, revenues increased 25 percent year over year. Traffic to the site has more than doubled, and conversion rates hover around 4 percent — significantly better than the apparel industry's average of 2.3 percent.

At a movie theater concession stand you'll hear, "Want to make that a jumbo for just a quarter more?" In an airport bar, you can get a bigger beer for just a dollar extra. Car rental companies will upgrade you to a nicer ride for just $7 more per day. You can add 32 gig of extra storage to your iPod for just $80. All these merchants know that getting you to spend just a little bit more will supersize their profits. The same is true on your website.

A POPULAR new reality series on CBS, “Undercover Boss,” shows senior managers working incognito as everyday employees. As for employees who are not secretly C.E.O.’s, they have champions, too, in marketers that are devoting ad campaigns to workers.

As someone who has been working in retail direct marketing for more than three decades – quite possibly longer than anyone else in the room at today’s Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference – Williams-Sonoma CMO Pat Connolly has a tremendous amount of insight on retail, traditional marketing, and how the internet can help retailers save money and increase their brand.

Economic crisis accelerates changes in the basic underlying business models of multichannel marketers, who have had to adapt in order to survive as consumers shut their wallets. Here are some of the ways business models have been radically and permanently altered.