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E-commerce: Seven Straightforward Tips to Improve Web Conversion
June 20, 2006

When it comes to online marketing, conversion rates are key. With that in mind, Jeff Schueler, president of Usability Sciences Corp., a Dallas-based Web usability company, offered seven tips to improve conversion on your e-commerce site in a session at the Internet Retailer conference, held earlier this month in Chicago: 1. Encourage account creation. “People inherently don’t like to register,” Schueler said, “so integrate account creation into the shopping cart process, but do it after the customer has paid.” This accomplishes two things: First, the customer doesn’t feel pressured to register in order to buy something from you, and second, you’ll already have the customer’s

By the Stats: Consumer Expectations Increase for the 10th Straight Year
June 6, 2006

The level of consumer expectation across 35 brand categories has risen by 4.5 percent from 2005, while the average ability of brands to keep up with those expectations has dropped by 9.2 percent, according to the “2006 Customer Loyalty Index,” a yearly report by customer loyalty consultancy Brand Keys. This is the 10th straight year consumer expectations have increased, according to the survey. The survey assigned an index number to each company based on the results of a survey of about 16,000 consumers. The index score reflects how well a brand delivers on the expectations of its most loyal consumers. Some of the most

A Chat with Christophe Gaigneux,EVP, Boston Apparel Group,
June 1, 2006

EVP, Boston Apparel Group, © Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, June 2006 Interview by Matt Griffin Catalog Success: How many catalogs are in the Boston Apparel Group? Christophe Gaigneux: In the Boston Apparel Group we have four catalogs, we have Chadwick's, the Lerner catalog, or Metrostyle, because we're changing the name this year, and we have Jessica London. And all three of these are located in the Boston area. And we have La Redoute, which is a French brand that we also have in the U.S. CS: When was that group established? CG: As it is today? We just changed the setup a

Product Data Feed Standards Sought
March 1, 2006

While comparison shopping sites such as Froogle, Shop.com and Shopzilla can provide an opportunity for multichannel marketers to reach new customer universes, they also present a unique set of challenges. Because there are myriad formats of product data feeds (the information you provide to the sites), this creates problems if you want to sell products on more than one site, says Alan Rimm-Kaufman, CEO of interactive marketing firm The Rimm-Kaufman Group. In a move to combat these dilemmas, merchants, search agencies and search engines met at Shop.org’s FirstLook 2006 in Atlanta in January to discuss the need for a common standard for describing

Get All Your Customers' Eggs in Your Basket
August 8, 2005

Aggregate. In other words, cross-sell other products and services. It's easy since you already have a relationship with your customers. Offer one-stop shopping, consolidated billing, free shipping and other benefits for giving you more of their business. Everyone's busy, and consumers are looking for service providers who can make their lives easier. It's what they want, so why not give it to them? Case in point: Amazon.com. What started as the "Earth's Biggest Bookstore" in 1995 is now an online powerhouse, offering everything from toys to travel and Target merchandise. Amazon.com took a winning formula and added new product categories and partners. And

A Chat With Dyan Eagles, founder and president, DharmaCrafts
August 1, 2005

© Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, August 2005 Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Dyan Eagles: 1979, but it didn’t turn into a catalog until 1981. It started out as a little 5 1/2-by-8 1/2-inch black and white book. I started it with $10. After a meditation retreat, I came back and decided to start a business selling meditation supplies. I started out by making drawstring pants for my friends and hanging up fliers in Harvard Square. I was living in a meditation center and studying Zen with a Korean Zen Master; it just grew out of my interest in that. CS:

Customer Acquisition: Feed Your Need to Sell
May 1, 2005

The rise of the search engine as a marketing tool has brought with it a bevy of other online-selling opportunities. Not least among these are the shopping feeds, Web sites that act as online aggregators of merchandise and that allow consumers to compare similar products online, then choose merchants to supply the items. Often shopping feeds are referred to as comparison shopping engines or Web co-ops. Notable examples include Google’s Froogle and Amazon (see “Five Feeds Examined,” below). While few catalogers are claiming that shopping feeds are bringing in huge amounts of money, many in the e-commerce world do admit that they’re

E-commerce: Lessons Learned From Being an Amazon Partner
March 15, 2005

Becoming an Amazon.com Merchant is a tremendous way to supercharge your Internet exposure, said Sally Rue, former director of consumer business at Caswell-Massey, a soap and toiletries multichannel merchant, during her talk at the conference of the eCommerce and Catalog Systems Forum, held March 3 and 4 in New Orleans. Caswell-Massey’s foray into the Amazon world boosted the merchant’s incremental sales and enabled it to achieve better prospecting. “No question, it was 100 percent worth it,” said Rue, now an e-business consultant who retains her ties with Caswell-Massey. Indeed, in December, Caswell-Massey, a tiny firm by most measures, had three of the top 10 selling

The Secret to a Successful Web Site
November 26, 2003

It should have such incredible perceived value that your visitors want to bookmark it By Denny Hatch When I travel, I like to bring my laptop so I can check e-mail and read English-language newspapers online. To do that, of course, I need the right phone jack for the country I'm visiting. Recently I went to Spain. Before I left, I visited the Web site for the Magellan's catalog, clicked on "Info Center," scrolled down the country guides list to Spain and found that Spanish telephones are accessible with the RJ-11 adapter used in the United States. Terrific! No order needed from

Amazon Helps British Merchant Unveil Its Brand in the U.S.
October 1, 2003

By Lisa Yorgey Lester The launch of a new sports bra ordinarily doesn't attract a great deal of press. Then again, a tennis match at Grand Central Terminal between Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and tennis siren Anna Kournikova is no ordinary event. Bezos and Kournikova recently teamed up to promote the U.S. debut of the Anna Kournikova Multiway sports bra available to U.S. consumers through Figleaves, a London-based intimate apparel retailer that recently joined Amazon's Apparel & Accessories store. Exclusivity and variety are Figleaves' unique selling proposition. The retailer sells leading swimwear, nightwear and hosiery brands for men and women in all