E-Commerce

The number of consumers willing to provide demographic information in exchange for a personalized online experience increased 24 percent this year over 2005 to a total of 57 percent, according to a recent survey by multichannel personalization provider ChoiceStream. However, 62 percent of respondents still express concern about the security of their personal data online. The survey also showed that 30 percent of online consumers are members of social networking sites, such as MySpace. Broken down by age, however, 69 percent of online consumers ages 18 to 24 participate in social networking sites, while just 8 percent of consumers older than 50 do so.

Customers shopping online over the weekend following Thanksgiving were more satisfied than they were on Nov. 25, a/k/a “Cyber Monday,” according to a survey of more than 36,000 e-commerce Web site visitors, conducted last week by online customer satisfaction research firm ForeSee Results. Cyber Monday has come to be known as the e-commerce answer to the retail shopping madness of “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving when most U.S. retailers run huge sales to get a jump on the holiday selling season. As they did in the malls on Black Friday, consumers “were looking for deals,” says Larry Freed, chief executive officer of ForeSee

The advent of e-mail as a marketing medium has provided catalogers and online marketers with the ability to reach their customers with personalized, highly relevant messages that drive them to purchase again and again. In fact, 39.6 percent of respondents to The Direct Marketing Association’s “2005 Postal and E-mail Marketing Report” used e-mail personalization to increase response rates last year; 93.2 percent of those marketers said the tactic was successful. But before you can start slapping your customers’ names and other personal details on all of your outbound e-mails, there are five things you’ll need, according to a recent white paper from catalog management

The most successful Web sites are those that serve the interests of customers rather than organizations. Practically all Web sites, whether they are intranets or public Web sites, start off with an organization-centric worldview. Following are 10 tips to make your Web site more customer-centric. 1. You are not your customer. Never fall into the fatal trap of thinking that all you have to do to understand your customers is look into your heart. Constantly research, test and change things that aren’t working. 2. Your language is not your customers’ language. Just 4,000 people per month search for “low fares” (industry language) online, while 2 million

The Web is an essential channel for catalogers. Customers expect catalog companies to have effective, well-designed e-commerce sites. The Internet is undergoing a period of rapid innovation, often labeled “Web 2.0.” It includes tagging, visual search, wikis and Ajax. Web 2.0 technologies will transform online retail over the next two years. Catalogers will need to upgrade their sites to remain competitive. I suggest you read this month’s column with a computer close by — as I’ll tour some Online Retail 2.0 ideas that will transform e-commerce. The first stop is del.icio.us, the social tagging site. (Go to del.icio.us/catalogsuccess, and you’ll find a

The advent of blogs, message boards and online social networks has become a double-edged sword for multichannel merchants. Consumers now can easily heap goodwill and praise on your brand and products, but they just as easily can disseminate complaints and vitriol about a poor service experience. So what do you do when your erstwhile customers are shouting your flaws from the rooftops? Following are five steps to deal with negative word of mouth offered by Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the World of Mouth Marketing Association, taken from his recently published book, “Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.” 1. Know what

A survey released this week by multichannel research and strategy firm the e-tailing group shows that 54 percent of the 1,300 consumers polled plan to research products online before purchasing from any channel. Other data gift-purchasing behavior revealed by the survey: * 54 percent of consumers search directly for a specific item at a merchant site where they like to shop; * 44 percent comparison shop three sites before making a final purchase decision; * 39 percent browse multiple brick-and-mortar stores prior to completing a purchase; * Of those consumers who plan to purchase 20 or more gifts online this holiday season, 77

Successful catalogers know that putting the right offers in front of the right customers at the right times will result in strong sales. But the online affiliates putting your offers on their sites may not. Following are eight strategies your online affiliates should be using in order to maximize their contributions to your holiday sales offered by affiliate network Performics and multichannel strategy and research firm the e-tailing group. 1. Centralize and prominently position free shipping offers. Potential shoppers flock to these, the authors write. 2. Create a sense of urgency. Your affiliates should remind shoppers of the number of days until Christmas. 3. Inspire impulse

About 35 percent of consumers will buy holiday gifts online this year, up from 33 percent last year, according to a survey of 5,000 U.S. households released last week by business research and analysis firm The Conference Board. Even more revealing, a separate survey of 1,000 adult consumers with Internet access released last week by comparison shopping toolbar company Vendio, shows that 78 percent of consumers plan to shop for holiday gifts online this year. The surveys revealed the following about consumer spending: From The Conference Board survey: * U.S. households are expected to spend an average of $449 on gifts during the

A good Web analytics platform can tell you a lot about how consumers act while they’re on your site, but how can you leverage that data to improve sales? The key is to view customer conversion not as a single numerical result at the end of the purchase cycle, but as an elongated process with many smaller conversions along the way, said Pinny Gniwisch, vice president of marketing at online jewelry merchant Ice.com during a session at the recent Mid Market eTail conference in San Francisco. “We look at each section of the site as a number, or percent of the monetary value that the