E-Commerce

Sitting in packed sessions at trade shows devoted to the discussion of affiliate marketing, one gets the sense that the catalogers in the room are either experts or novices in this growing channel. This special report is meant to serve both groups: It’ll explore what you should know before you start an affiliate program, as well as strategies to make your existing program better. Affiliate marketing is the process by which third parties, often Web sites, advocate your products or services in exchange for a commission. A commission is paid every time the affiliate sends a sale to you, or in exchange for

Big changes are afoot online. It’s still early, but I see two trends that will impact online marketing: 1) the sharing of content and 2) the sharing of applications. These two trends haven’t fully arrived, and so they don’t have well-established names yet. But their early glimmers are visible today in the growth of really simple syndication (RSS) and the growing popularity of Web service application programming interfaces (APIs). These trends — let’s call them “open content” and “open apps” — are coming fast. During the next few years they’ll revolutionize the Web, and in doing so, revolutionize online marketing. This article

“Data, data everywhere” could be the cry of the merchant who selects a Web Analytics solution without understanding the commitment it requires from technical, marketing, merchandising and other staff. The same lament might come from selecting a solution that’s not optimized for e-commerce or for a user’s special needs related to Web site optimization. In the long run, it’s better to have realistic expectations of what you want to use a Web Analytics solution for. Like many companies, Gardener’s Supply tried several Web Analytics solutions before settling on its current application: Omniture. But the merchant’s experience taught it to be realistic about how

Thumbnails are out. Collections are in. That was the mantra offered by Ken Burke, president and CEO of MarketLive, an e-commerce development and technology company, during his talk “Innovate or Stagnate” held during the New England Mail Order Association’s fall conference in Groton, Conn., last week Collection selling for an apparel merchant would include offering entire outfits on one screen on your Web site, similar to what you do in your catalog, said Burke. He suggested that catalogers try sorting merchandise in new and innovative ways. For example, let customers shop by: ¥ activity (sport or hobby); ¥ event (work apparel or evening wear); ¥ theme (movies from the

Your Web site plays a crucial role in tying together all of your marketing channels. In fact, consumers cite company Web sites and third-party retail sites as being the most influential factor in seven out of 10 product categories as a source of further learning in their decision-making processes leading to purchase, according to a recent survey by DoubleClick. What are some ways you can leverage your Web site to increase conversions both online and off? Chris Shimojima, vice president of customer marketing at Sears Direct, shared some of his strategies on integrating the Web with your other channels in his session “Creating a Best-in-Class

Always ask to be added to your customers’ online address books to help ensure that your e-mail campaigns are delivered, note the authors of the white paper “Authentication, Accreditation tion — for Marketers!” Use registration pages on your Web site and in all e-mail communications to remind consumers to add your URL and e-mail address(es) to their address books. By being “white listed” in this way, you could realize several benefits: full image content and links will be rendered as you intend them to be; your e-mails will bypass personal adaptive filters; and you’re guaranteed placement in customers’ e-mail folders, according to the white

¥ 39.5 million U.S. households shopped online in 2004, up from 36 million in 2003. ¥ 70 percent of online consumers say they research their purchases on the Internet before making a purchase. ¥ 29 percent of North American households used broadband connections to link to the Internet in 2004, up from 19 percent in 2003. Source:”Forrester Research: The State of Consumer Technology Adoption,” released Aug. 2, 2005

Almost any question can be answered cheaply, quickly and finally by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them — not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort — the buyers of your product. —Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising, 1923 Savvy catalogers have long used testing to improve their mail businesses. And as the Web matures, catalogers are bringing the same discipline to their online marketing efforts. This article offers 10 tips for running direct marketing tests in the online world. The first seven are common to online and offline. The last three are unique

Every business-to-business (B-to-B) merchant should take the time to optimize its homepage space to ensure its customers have a positive experience, said Amy Africa, president of Eight By Eight, a strategic consulting firm specializing in online and offline integration, in her session “The Best of the Best: B-to-B’s Top 25 Web Sites” at the Sixth Annual MeritDirect Business Mailer’s Co-op and Interactive Marketing Conference held last month in White Plains, N.Y. Africa offered the following tips for b-to-b marketers interested in taking their Web entry pages from so-so to stellar: 1. The entry page should download as quickly as possible. “Make sure important stuff loads in

This holiday selling season you want your employees to convey to customers the excitement of your new product line. You’d love to see your staff pumped up and ready to handle the increased volume and sales, right? But how do you get them into that mental state in which they’ll happily go the extra mile to satisfy shoppers? Susan Drake, Michelle Gulman and Sara Roberts, authors of the new book “Light Their Fire: Using Internal Marketing to Ignite Employee Performance and WOW Your Customers” (Dearborn Publishers, $23, http://www.dearborntrade.com), note that to “create inspired and motivated employees who perform well and deliver on your