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With the holiday shopping season now all wrapped up, here's a look back at several reports over the past month to provide an overview of how it all went down — both from what was predicted to what actually transpired.

So you want to be a power networker? In this economy, you need to cultivate as many positive connections as you can.

As I continue with part two in our three-part series examining how catalogers should adjust their marketing budgets to account for an influx of Web traffic and buyers, this week I provide a list of Web programs that catalogers should consider investing in. (For part 1, and a recap of how catalog/multichannel merchants can begin the process of planning their Web marketing budgets, click here.) The following online programs have proven worthwhile for catalogers to invest resources in: * Search engine optimization (SEO) solutions have become a big part of most catalogers’ marketing programs because paid and natural search are proving profitable and scalable.

The nation’s economic struggles will take its toll on retailers this coming holiday season, a recent survey showed. According to the Consumer Intentions & Actions survey from the market research firm BIGresearch, 39 percent of consumers intend to spend less this holiday season than they did last year, an 8 percent increase from last year. The recent survey polled more than 7,500 consumers. Here are some more findings of the survey. * 4.7 percent said they plan to spend more on gifts this year compared to last, down from 6.9 percent who said the same last year; * 31.4 percent said they plan to

As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, be it catalog mailings or other techniques, many marketers have turned to optimizing performance from existing customers as a way to limit costs while improving sales, namely through cross-selling and upselling. In a presentation at the eTail 2008 East conference in Washington, D.C., last week, Michael Dell’ Arciprete, vice president of marketing for Boca Java, an online coffee retailer, rattled off a number of best practices to help online marketers boost sales through cross-selling and upselling. (Note: This is part one of a two-part series on this presentation. Check back next week for Dell’ Arciprete’s tips on

New York’s new nexus-expanding affiliate marketing law has generated considerable confusion and anxiety in the direct marketing industry. The legislation was signed into law on April 15, and now the second shoe has dropped in the form of a technical services bulletin (TSB) issued by the New York Department of Taxation and Finance on May 8 — TSB-M-08(3)S. The TSB purports to explain the new law and resolve some of the uncertainties arising from its vague statutory language. The good news is the TSB actually narrows the scope of the new law in certain important respects. It may provide comfort to catalog companies

As a company best known for its videos and call-in television programs, PBS decided it needed to upgrade its Web site if it had visions of success in a future dominated by multichannel organizations. The nonprofit network did have an e-commerce site, but it wasn’t very effective. It was out-of-date, text-heavy and hard to navigate. A redesign was in order. In a session at last week’s Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, Andrea Downing, PBS’s vice president of home entertainment and partnerships, disclosed the company’s six-step process to its successful Web site redesign. 1. Take the time to plan. Noting that

If you’re like me, you have the sense that every time you turn around, you find another new online marketing tactic: blogs, podcasts, Amazon “buy boxes,” PayPal extended payment terms, Facebook widgets, talking graphics, user-generated content, banned commercials on YouTube, to name a few. How can you keep up? How do you decide what’s important to your particular business?
Here are four considerations that may prove useful for any cataloger.
1. Seek an outside consultant who’s an expert in the online marketing world. (First a little disclaimer: Earlier this year, I accepted a position as president of Ability Commerce after a lengthy

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

The other day, an experienced catalog mailer told me that her company increases its pay-per-click (PPC) ad spend on the day it receives its competitor’s catalog in the mail. “Interesting,” I said. It’s her theory that her competitor’s mailings increase the overall demand — and therefore the Google searches — for common products sold by the competitor and her. She also firmly believes that when her competitor mails a catalog and stimulates demand for, say, ergonomic office accessories, there will be an immediate increase in the number of prospects who go online to search for ergonomic office accessories.
By increasing her