Internet Retailer

This year alone, Green Mountain’s stock has jumped by more than 120 percent. The company has maximized its selling opportunities by supplying McDonald’s with its “premium” coffee. More recently, in April Green Mountain struck a deal to sell its Keurig coffeemakers and the little containers of coffee designed for them in more than 3,000 Wal-Mart stores. Along the way, Green Mountain embarked on a growing list of sustainability projects. During a session at last week's Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Boston, Green Mountain’s vice president of environmental affairs, Paul Comey, shared several ways Green Mountain not only practices sustainability in a profitable way, but also how it publicizes its green practices to consumers.

The number of marketing e-mails being sent to consumers continues to increase, finds a recent survey. U.S. retailers and wholesalers will send 158 billion marketing e-mails this year, a number likely to grow 63 percent to 258 billion in 2013, Forrester Research predicts. But the increase in volume hasn’t translated into an increased reliance on testing. According to Internet Retailer’s survey of 174 Web-only retailers, chain retailers, catalogers and consumer brand manufacturers, conducted last month with e-mail marketing and survey firm Knowledge Marketing, 52.9 percent of respondents do not test their e-mail campaigns. Here’s a look at some more of the survey’s findings.

Marc Joseph, president of Dollar Days International (www.dollardays.com), whose company’s Web site offers wholesale and closeout products to multichannel merchants, outlined several ways that small and midsize merchants can compete against the big-box retailers, particularly when dealing with product vendors, at the recent Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago. Here are some of his takeaway tips from the session. 1. On dealing with vendors: * deal/negotiate with the right people; * don’t give a bottom-line price right away; give yourself some negotiating room, he said; * don’t be afraid to say no; and * be honest and ethical. 2. On buying product:

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 It was out-of-date, text-heavy and hard to navigate.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

This week’s edition of Catalog Success: Tactics & Tips is Part 2 of ideas garnered by Editor-in-Chief Paul Miller at DM Days New York and by Senior Associate Editor Joe Keenan at the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago.

As multichannel merchants look to capitalize on the all-important holiday shopping season, particularly online, many are counting on increased Web traffic and the sales that follow. But for many, the sales don’t always follow, due to poor Web design. Jeff Schueler, president of Usability Sciences Corp., a testing and user research solutions provider, has composed a list of his top Web design tips for improving online sales. Listed below are some of his best. 1. Allow ‘guests’ to buy your products. Many customers avoid sites that force them to register to make a purchase. They see the registration process as an invitation to receive

In a session on the future of online retailing that he delivered during the recent Internet Retailer Conference in San Jose, Calif., Gary Briggs, chief marketing officer at eBay, outlined several key challenges to attendees, some of which his company has been acting on, some not. Below are some of his key points. 1. “Are we challenging each other to truly innovate, as opposed to mostly copying each other,” he asked. “At eBay, we need to drive more innovation in the auction platform to make the eBay brand stronger. Sameness doesn’t drive consumer demand.” 2. “Are we listening to consumers and the new ways

During a session at last week’s Internet Retailer Conference in San Jose, Calif., a panel of speakers explained the reasons why the following five attributes are myths of affiliate marketing: * Affiliate shoppers are undesirable. “Affiliate shoppers are wealthier, tend to have children in the home and skew older than the overall Internet shopping average,” said Stuart Frankel, president of Doubleclick Performics, an online advertising agency. He based his information on a recent Performics-sponsored affiliate insight study commissioned by ComScore Networks (see www.performics.com). * You can’t control your brand. “Affiliate marketing at its root has absolutely nothing to do with affiliates,” said

Eighty-five percent of U.S. and European consumers claim that word of mouth recommendations from friends, family or colleagues typically are more trustworthy than corporate-generated content, said Peter Kosciewicz, director of e-commerce for vehicle customization merchant The Eastwood Co., citing a Datamonitor survey in a session at the Internet Retailer conference held earlier this month in Chicago. Using that data as a catalyst, Kosciewicz explained how The Eastwood Co. has developed on online community dedicated to its products. 1. Find a conversation and listen in. Kosciewicz surfed the Internet looking for auto parts and customization Web sites, message boards and online forums to find out whether

While catalog quick order entry boxes were among the highest converting segments of Spiegel’s Web site, officials at the multichannel apparel merchant felt that the quick order boxes took away the opportunity to upsell to customers, said Tony Chivari, Spiegel’s senior vice president of marketing, during a session at the Internet Retailer conference held earlier this month in Chicago. Following are a few features Chivari and his team added to the catalog quick order function to increase its value during a recent Web site redesign. 1. Added the ability to quick order up to five items at a time. 2. Made it easier to continue shopping