E-Commerce

Once you start a Web site redesign, the results often can be surprising. Geoffrey Robinson, vice president of e-commerce for auto parts cataloger J.C. Whitney revealed several surprises that followed his company’s Web site redesign during a session at last week’s Internet Retailer conference in Chicago. * Men don’t read! When Robinson and his team at J.C. Whitney added more text-based product information to site search results, they found that predominately male audience didn’t click on the category links listed as text, but rather skipped to the bottom of the page where specific product images related to the search were featured. Unfortunately, these product links

Twenty-six percent of e-merchants offer tiered commission increases as rewards to online affiliate partners that drive traffic to their sites, according to a recent report from affiliate network LinkShare and shared with attendees at last week’s Internet Retailer conference in Chicago. Other affiliate incentives revealed by the study include the following: * Special access to marketing materials, such as data feeds and pay-per-click keywords: offered by 25 percent of online merchants; * VIP commissions, offered right away to large affiliates that can drive highly qualified traffic: 25 percent; * Contests rewarding top affiliates per month or per quarter: 22 percent; and * Special bonuses

With the advent and development of Internet marketing in the last 10 years, catalogers have been inundated with more data than they know what to do with, courtesy of their Web analytics packages. Catalogers shared their frustrations and success stories regarding their online marketing data at the session “Web Analytics: The Secret to Your Success” at last week’s ACCM. Below are their stories. 1. With the current version of its site active and taking orders since 2002, Classic Designs has been using WebTrends to track online marketing data since that time, said Mark Desrochers, co-owner of the woodworking catalog. But while the software had been

As online shoppers become increasingly savvy, catalogers must meet rapidly changing customer needs and expectations. The must-haves for accomplishing this are advanced e-commerce features that support personalization of online merchandising and enhance the brand experience. These features will allow catalogers to quickly respond to trends, assist in buying decisions, build customer loyalty, target marketing initiatives and enable product comparisons. Until recently, personalization features have been more reactive than proactive and have been delivered using approaches that leave much to be desired. Available e-commerce solutions that are fully featured have tended to be inflexible and expensive. In-house e-commerce development has left many catalogers with a confusing

Onsite merchandising is the top initiative planned by 75 percent of e-commerce executives to improve site performance, according to the Annual Merchant Survey conducted by e-commerce consultancy The e-tailing group. Among other data revealed by the survey of 190 senior e-commerce executives: * 70 percent of e-commerce executives plan to add or improve onsite search to improve Web sales; down from 77 percent last year. * 64 percent plan to redesign or upgrade their sites; level with last year’s survey. * 60 percent plan to devote resources to content development; up from 53 percent last year. * 50 percent plan to overhaul the online

Almost 60 percent of U.S. businesses believe that cybercrime is more costly to them than physical crime, according to a recent IBM survey of 600 IT executives. These executives report that the costs resulting from cybercrime primarily are from lost revenue, loss of current and prospective customers and loss of employee productivity. Other data revealed by the survey include: * 84 percent of IT executives believe organized criminal groups possessing technical sophistication are replacing lone hackers in the world of cybercrime. * 74 percent believe that there are threats to corporate security coming from inside their companies. * 61 percent believe it’s the responsibility

For every business that uses the Web as a revenue-generating channel, data are important company assets. The loss of a customer order database would be devastating to a cataloger, leading to unfulfilled orders, dissatisfied customers and loss of touch with thousands of clients. Keeping all of your Web site data on one computer or server, death-prone machines that they are, is a formula for disaster. Since it is self-evident that preventing the loss of all of a business’ orders and customer information is an important task, why is it that backup solutions are among the lowest priorities of most businesses shopping for Web hosting?

Forty-eight percent of online merchants report that online chargebacks amount to about 0.1 percent of sales, which matches the generally accepted rate in brick-and-mortar stores. A recent survey by the Merchant Risk Council revealed this finding and other data revealed below: * Use of address verification systems by online merchants has increased from 70 percent to 83 percent since 2001. * The effectiveness of address verification systems on online retail sites has dropped from 70 percent to 25 percent. * Card verification codes’ use increased from 38 percent to 73 percent since 2001. * Card verification codes decreased in effectiveness from 49 percent to

The number of catalogs available online increased from 7,440 to 8,903 in the past year, according to the 2006 edition of The National Directory of Catalogs, which was released last week. Seventy-eight percent of the 11,438 catalogs in the directory are available online, up from 60 percent last year. Other data revealed by the directory: * 1,320 catalogs are only available online, up from 772 last year. * In the past 10 years, the strongest growing categories were Automotive, Education, and Apparel and Accessories. * In that time, the Automotive category has grown 101 percent. * The Education category has grown 54 percent. *

In this era of security breaches made public, you can’t be too careful when it comes to protecting your company’s sensitive data. Sure, you may be trying to secure your company’s data against external sources, but are you doing anything to protect that data from internal threats? Computer Associates, an IT management software provider, offers the following “do’s and don’ts” to keep sensitive data safe from potential disastrous inside threats. 1. DO ensure that former employee and contractor accounts are deleted or disabled promptly. Your IT and HR departments should coordinate efforts to keep old accounts from accessing sensitive company information. 2. DON’T allow IT staff