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Catch This? Best of the Week, May 9th - 13th

Lauren Smith — Fri, 13 May 2011 09:01:00 GMT

Catch This? is ShopVisible's weekly roundup of critical reading on the web. We know you're busy, but these are articles you simply can't miss.

E-Retail Sales Jump 12% in Q1
Results for ecommerce in Q1 are in and they're looking great. Internet Retailer reports a 12% growth over Q1 in 2010.

Say Hello to the F-Commerce Ecosphere
A quick infographic on Social Commerce Today that summarizes the six ways that retailers are selling with Facebook.

Gas Prices Drive Shoppers Online
Now that filling up the tank costs nearly $4.00 a gallon (and even higher across the rest of the country), more shoppers are choosing to avoid driving to the mall and instead shopping online. Have you made adjustments to your buying habits due to the high prices at the pump?

Two Thirds of Moms Shop With Their Smartphones
Mashable reports that 66% of moms acknowledged their smartphones played a role in their shopping trips. While the largest percentage used them for store location, 36% used them for price comparison and 31% used them for product research.

Speedy Summary: University Research on Value of Social in Shopping
A three university study finds that implementing social features in ecommerce sites affects shoppers' moods, leading to increased purchase value because of perception - the site appears more useful, engaging, and fun.

Catch This? Best of the Week, April 11th - 15th

Lauren Smith — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:21:00 GMT

Catch This? is ShopVisible's weekly roundup of critical reading on the web. We know you're busy, but these are articles you simply can't miss. This week's news is a bit short - I've been away at Social Slam in Knoxville and came away with some great tips for you about social media, blogging, and finding your company's voice. Check back next week for a full writeup.

Social Slam Kyoo
Digital marketing agency Pyxl put together a great concept for Social Slam. Kyoo is a central place to see all tweets, photos, blogs, and happenings at Social Slam. The feed updates itself and provides rich analytics on the back end. We're looking forward to learning more about Kyoo and what it can do for our customers.

Howell Marketing Interviews Mark Schaefer
Amy Howell interviewed the brainchild of Social Slam, Mark Schaefer. Mark is an amazing B2B blogger, professor, and author and Amy is the best of the best in the PR world. Watch this video as Mark explains the idea behind Social Slam and gives a great recap.

More TPI Than Knoxville May Have Ever Seen
Jack Lail provides an extensive round up of tweets, highlights, and more from Social Slam. It's estimated that Social Slam generated 3,445 tweets with a potential reach of 5,222,174.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled news:

Why Merchants Need To Board The MCommerce Train
Mobile buyers tend to be repeat purchasers, he said, and 51% of customers are more likely to buy from retailers with mobile specific sites.

Social Media for Businesses - 6 Effective Strategies
Just getting started in social media? Mashable’s got you covered with six tips to create a great social media presence.

Introduction to Google PageRank
Rob Chant from Search Engine Watch presents myths and facts about Google’s PageRank algorithm.

Luxury Daily : Swarovski Debuts First Fragrance with Facebook, Email Push

Marketing — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:55:00 GMT

Customer Reviews : What's the Value of "I Hate This Umbrella"?

Lauren Smith — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:03:00 GMT

About a month ago I purchased an umbrella that while not incredibly expensive, was significantly more money than I would normally spend. Made by a German company, I expected this model to solve all my umbrella needs. The umbrella folds down to a tiny, miniscule size in the way that most European things do. It has a snazzy carrying case to keep the contents of my bag from getting soaked. It’s incredibly lightweight and underwent rigorous testing in wind tunnels to prevent breakage. But there's one little thing missing - the auto-open button. Who spends $50 on an umbrella without that key feature? This girl. Oops.

I recognize that it was entirely my fault for not testing the umbrella before removing the tags and throwing away the return receipt, but I wrote a review on their website anyway (so that others would be warned about the absence of this incredibly important auto-open feature).

Within three days, the retailer emailed me and apologized for the disappointment regarding my purchase. They offered to send me a printable return label that I could simply stick on a box to return the umbrella in exchange for a full refund, despite the fact that I’d used it and they wouldn’t be able to re-sell. I found it refreshing that this retailer was intent on making me happy rather than making the sale. And why does this matter? Because I’ll go back to them again and again because they treat me well.

Inviting feedback through online ratings & reviews gives you an immediate, relatively low cost way to listen to what your customers think. It also allows customers to make more informed purchases, which results in less returns. For example, if a buyer discovers that others who have purchased feel a shoe runs a half size large, they will purchase accordingly. But the most powerful aspect of the ratings & reviews feature is for manufacturers to learn how their products performed once in the hands of the customer. Previously, expensive market research had to be performed to collect this data. Now, manufacturers can quickly (and affordably) find out if the wheels on the suitcase weren’t holding up as expected, if the shoe was uncomfortable, or in the best case - the customer loved the item and will buy again.

While many retailers fear giving their audience a voice, I would like to encourage them to rethink that strategy. A comScore study found that consumers are willing to pay 20-99% more for a five star product versus a four star product. Who doesn’t want to make a better margin? And since SEO is king, ratings & reviews gives your site continual, fresh content - a key to appearing high in natural search. By implementing ratings & reviews, you can make your site a community and destination where consumers can share information, research purchases, and leave as happy customers.

Catch This? Best of the Week, April 4th - 8th

Lauren Smith — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:51:00 GMT

Catch This? is ShopVisible's weekly roundup of critical reading on the web. We know you're busy, but these are articles you simply can't miss.

Web Shoppers Show a Cautious Trend
Online shoppers are taking longer to research their purchases and do repeated searches for the same product.

Facebook Promotes Social Ecommerce
Word of mouth from friends proves to be more valuable than generic marketing ads, and Facebook sees large increases in spending on social companies’ sites.

Ecommerce Steps On The Gas
Online retail sales jumped 16.1% over March last year, mostly due to rising costs in gas prices.

10 Rules for Engaging Mobile Shoppers
iMedia presents best practices for creating a mobile commerce strategy and making it stick.

Average Easter Spending Jumps Significantly Among Online Shoppers
Shop.org reports that buyers who shop online plan to spend an average of $225 on Easter clothes, gifts, and food this year, 72% higher than brick & mortar shoppers.

The Shopping Habits of Newly Frugal Moms
Moms turn to price comparison engines and coupons from social media to maintain the family budget.

Mobile Strategies for a Three Screen Consumer

Lauren Smith — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:24:00 GMT

Last Thursday, Kendrick and I attended the March SEMPO Atlanta event held at the Google offices here in Atlanta. Entitled “Mobile Search Marketing,” SEMPO lined up some of the heavyweights in the mobile search industry to speak including:

   - Paul Gelb, VP of Mobile at Razorfish
   - Paul Cushman, Senior Director of Mobile Sales Strategy at Yahoo
   - Andy Chu, Director of Mobile Product Management at Bing
   - Elliott Nix, Senior Account Executive at Google

Mobile is a hot topic in the ecommerce world these days, with mobile commerce expected to grow a whopping 875% over the next five years, according to Paul Cushman of Yahoo. Even more staggering are the statistics that highlight the success mobile search campaigns see. When Papa Johns Pizza implemented a mobile ordering system, they saw $1 million in sales within the first six months. But what does this mean for online retailers?

The Traffic Pattern Is Changing
Yahoo examined the time of day most searches were made on desktops versus mobile devices and discovered that mobile originated searches start 2.5 hours earlier in the day than those from desktops. Not surprisingly, at around 7AM, while most people are getting up, eating their breakfast and even using the restroom (by the way a shocking 10% of searches occur in the restroom), they’re searching for products. Around 9:30 AM, when consumers are settled in at work, desktop searches searches see a surge in frequency. The number of desktop searches tend to remain consistent all day, but mobile searches spikes again around 12 PM while eating lunch. At 6 PM, another traffic spike occurs and climbs steadily until 11 PM. So in a nutshell, people are still using their phones while eating dinner, watching a little prime-time television, and cuddling in to bed.

Stop With The Traditional Advertising, Will You?
Both Google & Yahoo recently completed studies during The Oscars, The World Cup, and The Super Bowl. What they found is bad news for TV advertisers. You might as well turn off the commercials, because no one is watching. As the tablet market gains a larger share, people are using both their tablets and smartphones as their television watching companions. These two major search engines saw huge traffic lifts during show breaks, creating a graph that resembles the Rockies. The traffic dramatically increases, then dramatically decreases, through the program. In other words, that high dollar ad you paid for? Useless. The only highly searched ads were those with compelling soundtracks that happened to grab the consumer’s attention from their mobile device. Best example? Eminem’s Chrysler spot.

App or Mobile Site?
Before the saturation of smartphones in the market, many companies developed one off applications that were device specific. The problem began when consumers adopted additional smartphone platforms. The iPhone app was no longer relevant if a consumer purchased an Android. Companies began to develop apps specific to the added platforms, but the smartest companies know the secret - stop developing apps, and instead create a mobile instance of your site. The mobile version should be sleek & streamlined, allowing the user to finish a task as quickly as possible. The longer it takes, the quicker they are to abandon your site. And please, whatever you do, don’t use Flash.

Help Them Check Off Their To-Do’s (And Save a Few Bucks, Too)
The majority of searches are task-centric. Bing found that 75% of mobile searches that are task related are completed within one hour. In comparison, task-centric desktop searches take about one week to complete. When a consumer is searching for a birthday gift, the smart retailer will direct them to a quick selection and allow easy mobile purchasing. Secure payment methods and alternative payment methods like Google Checkout, Amazon Checkout, and PayPal are a necessity.

Nearly 50% of consumers want mobile coupons and roughly 5.3% of consumers actually use them. Offering an exclusive mobile discount gives them an incentive to purchase immediately, then and there.

The key takeaways are best summed up by Google’s Elliott Nix. Where do you want to reach your customers? What’s your success metric? Determine your goals and decide how you will reach them, but neglect a mobile strategy at your own peril.

Luxury Daily : Do Security Fears Hinder Mcommerce For Luxury Consumers?

Marketing — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:04:00 GMT

Catch This? Best of the Week, March 28th - April 1st

Lauren Smith — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:56:00 GMT

Catch This? is ShopVisible's weekly roundup of critical reading on the web. We know you're busy, but these are articles you simply can't miss.

Moms Love Smartphones
53% of moms say they purchased a smartphone directly as a result of becoming a mom. A staggering 68% of moms use their smartphone when shopping.

How The Pros Measure Social Media Marketing Success
Experts from JWT, 360i, and Digitaria explain why collecting a lot of Facebook “likes” must have an end goal.

Is Your Site Too Flashy?
With the significant increase in mobile shopping, it’s time for retailers to consider abandoning Flash-based websites.

Fifty Percent of Shoppers Consult Mobile Phones for Purchasing
A survey of 1800 mobile phone users revealed that at least 50% of them use the phone for mobile shopping, whether it be purchasing, price comparison, or search.

What Retailers Need To Know About E-Couponing
Learn how to increase sales, website traffic and customer retention by offering e-coupons on your ecommerce site.

The Rules of Social Media Engagement
Brian Solis gives best practices for engaging in social media - from finding your brand’s voice to practicing self-restraint.

ShopVisible Social Commerce Platform - Three Reasons We're Different

Lauren Smith — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:31:00 GMT

We’re inventing a brand new category of ecommerce. We officially launched the ShopVisible Social Commerce platform in December 2010 and have already released a round of enhancements to what we know is a major contender in the ecommerce market. While there are several social commerce applications and widgets on the market, we believe that we have created the most robust and comprehensive offering available. Want to know what makes our social commerce platform so great?

1. ShopVisible Social Commerce is ShopVisible Ecommerce, Within Facebook.

We didn’t set out to build a “light” version of our highly rated, enterprise level, on-demand ecommerce platform. We set the bar high because we felt our merchants deserve and require the same quality of robust ecommerce features they’re used to seeing in their main sites. We’ve created an enterprise level on-demand ecommerce platform with all the functionality built specifically to drive conversions in Facebook. ShopVisible Social Commerce clients enjoy the same tools for Facebook that multi million dollar companies use on their sites daily.

2. ShopVisible’s Social Commerce Platform Enables Viral Marketing

It’s not enough to simply throw a shopping cart on Facebook. Anyone can do that, and we don’t think that’s enough. We’ve built the functionality and challenge retailers to create shopping experiences that are relevant and unique to Facebook. Our Social Commerce platform allows marketing teams to create promotions, events, and experiences that not only deliver a measurable ROI - but give their customers a reason to shop there by harnessing the environment Facebook’s created. It’s about liking, sharing with friends, and checking in. We’ve enabled exciting features like a virtual check in, creating affiliate fans, and VIP product access that make your messages, ideas, campaigns, and products go viral.

3. ShopVisible Social Commerce Yields Measurable ROI

The way we look at it, throwing a promotion on Facebook is the modern day equivalent to putting a sale flier under the windshield wipers of 1000 cars in a parking lot, crossing your fingers, and hoping for the best. (Albeit Facebook is much easier on the environment). While you might be able to gauge success by how many new customers came in, you wouldn’t be able to tell the how and why or define the who. The ShopVisible Social Commerce platform allows you to answer the “what’s the sweet spot” in marketing. Did more fans respond to a promotion posted at 10AM Tuesday, or do you get better results if you post at 5PM on a Friday? Did people purchase a higher dollar cart with a 10% promotion versus a 20% promotion? What age group, demographic, or geographic area shared your new product announcement the most? Would hosting an in-store event based on that new product launch make sense? The ShopVisible Social Commerce platform delivers a rich analytics suite with over 65 canned reports to give you answers to these questions. If those reports aren’t enough, we give you the tools to create any
ad hoc report needed.

We recognize that Facebook Commerce is a new and exciting category, and in turn, one that scares merchants or retailers who aren’t sure how to get started. That’s why the ShopVisible Social Commerce platform can easily stand alone or integrate with legacy ecommerce and any third party system that you require. Our goal is to empower retailers and marketers to create experiences for their fans in Facebook that engage customers that might never reach their main site.

If you’re interested in learning more about the ShopVisible Social Commerce platform, and how we’re different from the other solutions out there, please fill out our contact form. We would love to speak with you.

Orange County Business Journal : Incipios New Friends

Marketing — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:34:00 GMT