Online Marketing

FOCUS 2012: Trends in Digital Media — E-tail & Retail, a half-day conference presented by the Retail Marketing Society yesterday in New York City, featured a panel of retail marketing executives discussing best practices around how to monetize the digital consumer experience. A key topic that panelists universally agreed on was the importance of data to retailers and how, when used correctly, it can help create a personalized experience for consumers.

Magazine publishers are rapidly getting serious about ecommerce. Earlier this month, Time Out New York, a weekly print and digital magazine covering entertainment in New York City,began selling event tickets through its website and iOS apps. And last week, Time Inc.-owned Real Simple magazine released a mobile gift guide that allows users to shop directly from the app. The next day, Elle magazine launched a shoppable trend guide on Facebook that encouraged users to make purchases on advertisers’ websites.

Amazon.com drew flak on Thursday after it was accused of and later confirmed inflating its Amazon Prime video catalog. The retailer acknowledged to Fast Company that it counts each individual TV episode as a show, leading to just one long-running TV series representing a large part of its catalog. A roster of 17,000 titles claimed by Amazon amounted to 1,875 titles, all but 150 of which were movies. Netflix, Amazon's main competitor in subscriptions, consciously avoids mentioning numbers partly out of honesty. 

Zappos.com has announced the launch of the new fashion and celebrity weekly web series "The Trend" by Zappos Couture. The new web series, which airs every Monday on the Zappos Couture website and lives on the "Trends" tab, will feature unique and exclusive interviews with designers, A-list celebrities, and fashion icons-content that viewers will not find anywhere else.

Celerant Command is real-time software that manages all areas of sporting goods dealers with one fully integrated system.

Retailers must leverage mobility to stay competitive.

Using tools from MicroStrategy, Celerant is now building on its experience with data mining applications to expand the value of data access and processing through data warehousing.

Shopping cart abandonment is one of the most pervasive concerns among online retailers, and with good reason. According to a study from Listrak, 75 percent of your site visitors will likely leave without making a purchase, and 85 percent of the top 1,000 online retailers are doing nothing to combat this growing issue. If you're investing in channels to drive traffic to your site this holiday season, take advantage of the opportunity to add value to your campaigns and maximize return on investment by using your existing AdWords Conversion Tracking pixel to remarket to past converters.

For online retailers to fully maximize this year’s holiday rush, marketers and merchandisers need tools to ensure that each customer receives a personalized shopping experience. Here are several best practices for retailers to help them identify key website traffic segments and properly leverage analytics to make the most of this holiday shopping season.

A powerful data mining application helps this 41-store specialty retailer maintain its stock position in a tricky retail environment.