E-Commerce

A constant theme heard throughout the recent ACCM conference in Kissimmee, Fla., was how catalogers can no longer survive with the catalog alone. They must cater to today’s multichannel customer if they hope to thrive, which means effectively selling on the Web. A session led by Margaret Moraskie, vice president of e-commerce of the women’s apparel catalog Boston Proper, and Brad Wolansky, vice president of global e-commerce of the outdoor sporting goods and apparel catalog Orvis, offered up several tips on how to effectively sell merchandise online. Here are seven of their tips on adapting catalog practices to the Web. 1. Return to

Lately you’ve probably noticed that more and more B-to-B direct marketers are adding various Web 2.0 social networking functions to their online marketing efforts. Office Depot, for example, allows you to share one of its products with your network via Facebook, DiggThis and del.icio.us. It also allows you to review a product and read the product reviews of others, both good and bad.
I’ve also noticed many more product videos cropping up on YouTube. Try searching for industrial tools or forklifts, for example. YouTube isn’t just for funny or entertaining videos anymore. Very useful videos on how to find, buy and use various

Start with the premise that catalogs and the Internet are interdependent and not adversarial. Remember the brick-and-mortar days when retail channels thought they should receive credit for catalog sales within their trading area? The Web vs. catalog debate is just as silly. Catalog/multichannel companies today recognize the importance of having an e-commerce presence, and many successful dot-coms now have a catalog or are starting one. The best run companies maximize both selling channels. This month, let’s explore how to manage those channels together, including mailing strategies for catalog/Web customers, internal allocations to both channels, the importance of matchbacks and profit contribution by

I chose to devote this month’s column to AJAX, the scorching-hot technology that catalogers should become fully familiar with, if they’re not already. So let’s cut right to the chase and answer six key questions about AJAX. 1. Just what is AJAX? Beyond the Greek hero in the Trojan War, AJAX is a Web programming acronym coined by Web expert Jesse James Garrett in 2005. It stands for “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.” What, you didn’t understand that little string of technobabble? Let’s take each concept in turn: Asynchronous means the browser can exchange data with your server without reloading the entire page.

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part series on becoming more adept and adapting to the multichannel world. Part one appeared in our February issue, and part three will appear in our September issue. The world of direct marketing is changing quickly. Whole new analytical tools, benchmarks and ratios have become commonplace in measuring success. You must think cross-channel if you’re to be customer-centered. And above all else, if you’re a stand-alone cataloger or retail store operator, the corporate atmosphere is forcing you to rethink your internal culture. The opposite of a multichannel approach is a channel-centric one, where one channel dominates

In the second part of this two-part series extracted from a recent whitepaper on improving conversion rates, this week we offer a summary of the final three steps. The whitepaper, Best Practices for Conversion: The New Engagement Funnel in 7 Steps, comes from the online business optimization software provider Omniture. (For part 1, and steps one through four, click here.) 5. Place effective calls to action. The right call to action can double clickthrough rates and subsequently double the overall conversion rate, the whitepaper notes. This applies to both ads and your Web site. Here are some of the whitepaper’s best practices to follow.

While multichannel merchants shouldn’t overlook the value of customer acquisition, particularly search and affiliate marketing, they should heed the real measure of a campaign’s success — its conversion rate. In a recent whitepaper from the online business optimization software provider Omniture, Best Practices for Conversion: The New Engagement Funnel in 7 Steps, the conversion process is broken down into seven steps, all with one common objective — to increase relevancy. This week in part one of a two-part series chronicling the whitepaper’s seven-step process, we offer up steps one through four. Next week, we’ll examine steps five through seven. 1. Identify conversion

During a Direct Marketing Association seminar last week, marketers alike tried to wrap their arms around just what New York state’s new Internet tax law means for their businesses. Jerry Cerasale, the seminar’s host and senior vice president of government affairs for the DMA, and the organization’s tax counsel, George Isaacson, provided the 85 members in attendance with answers on what this development means for their industry. Here’s a sampling of some of the tips, thoughts and observations gleaned from the event: * “This is very aggressive, nexus-expanding legislation,” Isaacson said, referring to the law which requires out-of-state online retailers to collect sales (or

While nearly 90 percent of the 1,092 respondents surveyed in the latest Ouch Point survey from Opinion Research Corp., an infoUSA company, said they shop online, the marketing channel is still far from perfect. Twenty-four percent of the respondents cited purchased items having no resemblance to their images on the Internet as their biggest online shopping frustration. Here are some more noteworthy findings of the survey. * The inability to speak with a customer service representative at an online store was the second most cited frustration with online shopping (23 percent), followed by learning that items are back-ordered or out of stock after they’re

I suspect many of you are now familiar with The Long Tail strategy first coined by Chris Anderson in 2004. Essentially, the notion suggests “selling less of more.” I view it as the 80/20 rule in reverse, and it’s often the topic of heated discussion between direct marketers and their accountants.
The strategy focuses on the inherent competitive advantage of a B-to-B (or B-to-C, for that matter) catalog company stocking as many items as it can in order to compete with retail stores or “net gnats,” who pick off your best-selling items and sell them online at a discount. A retail store’s space is