MarketLive

In a fast-paced session at the opening day of the NEMOA directXchange conference in Boston, Ken Burke, chairman, founder and chief evangelist of MarketLive, an e-commerce software platform and service provider, and Kelly Goldsmith, e-commerce manager at Title Nine, a cross-channel retailer of women's athletic apparel, tackled the question all retailers want an answer to: How can I make money via social media?

The 2010 Mindset of a Multi-Channel Shopper Survey gives insight on how multi-channel retailers can refine their marketing, merchandising and promotions strategies to effectively reach holiday shoppers. 

Retailers are making last-minute preparations and considering which tactics will help them attract and convert shoppers as the holiday season kicks off. An October survey of more than 1,000 consumers conducted by MarketLive and the e-tailing group revealed critical considerations and customer preferences for the 2009 season. Among other facts and indicators, free shipping and high-quality customer service rank top of mind for consumers.

There's a battle raging for the control of e-commerce. On one side are retailers looking to increase market share, accelerate revenue, grow brand affinity and increase customer lifetime value. On the other side are consumers who want to be empowered, increase connectedness, find relevant products, receive feedback from peers, and have interactive and entertaining experiences online.

In part 1 of this two-part series from our August issue, we classified e-commerce systems into four essential groups: bundled suites, enterprise leaders, niche players and experienced multichannel partners.

This year's economic retreat actually stands to help Gaiam, a product and information services company with a heavy emphasis on sustainability, position itself for greater growth in the near future.

Customer Engagement: Solid product discovery and site navigation are key to engagement. The MarketLive Performance Index v5: Focus on Engagement is now available! Refine familiar tactics to yield greater results. * Improve internal site search capabilities * Navigation that sells * Relevancy strategies * Better engagement and conversion Get your free copy!

Holiday Growth Tactics 2008 A successful holiday season starts now, particularly in this tough economy! This informative report by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group and MarketLive explores proven tactics for growing holiday sales in key areas: Gifting, Promotions, eMail, Customer Service, and more.

It may be hot outside, but savvy merchants are already contemplating sleighs and snowflakes. With the holiday season comprising fully a third of all online sales, according to Forrester Research, now’s the time to begin building the strategies that will propel year-end success. But we’re not only talking holiday season here. Half of all online buying is for other people at any time of the year, according to Forrester. So multichannel merchants should adapt successful holiday gifting tactics for year-round use during seasonal peaks and special events. To be successful, your gifting strategy must be carefully planned and woven into the fabric of

Tech Talk • Maximize Search Visibility E-commerce technology provider MarketLive has released MarketLive 5.2, an upgrade to its e-commerce platform. The upgrade features the ability to create spider-friendly URLs, overcoming obstacles such as query strings, database characters and session IDs to enable every page on a Web site to be fully indexed by search engines. Keyword-relevant terms are embedded in the URLs to improve search rankings. Other features include the ability to customize the URL, page title and metadata configurations for each page of the site, and automatically create keyword-rich alternate descriptions for images. For more, visit www.marketlive.com. • Print Labels Faster Office products manufacturer Seiko