The report, which includes case studies and examples of best practice, includes sections on customer centricity, channel diversification, data, social media and content strategy.

The new website�s capabilities - visible at http://www.hush-uk.com, developed in Magento, include:

- Simple, clear design which allows beautiful catalogue photography to shine
- Browse products by range (nightwear, loungewear etc)
- Large, life-style photography (with zooms)
- Cross-sells and up-sells
- Gift set options & gift packaging
- Lifestyle blog featuring tips, recommendations and special offers
- Ratings and reviews
- Single page checkout with online card authorisation via Sagepay
- Order status and tracking
- Full content management via Magento Administration Panel
- Integration with Khaos back office for stock availability and order processing, including back order handling

Rupert Youngman, director at Hush, said: �The internet is comfortably our largest sales channel and therefore it�s vital that the web provides the kind of service our customers expect from the Hush brand. We�ve worked really hard with the team at Screen Pages to improve the look and feel, content, flexibility, operational effectiveness and overall service our website delivers.�

Roger Willcocks, director of Screen Pages, said: �Hush is a fantastic business, with great products, brilliant service and incredibly loyal customers. It is both a great challenge and very exciting to be working with Hush to increase its online presence and sales.�

For shoppers, 80 percent of whom use their tablets in the living room, they make online shopping a leisurely experience in a way it hasn�t been since e-commerce came along.

"A majority of the mobile-optimized web sites we looked at lacked basic features to help shoppers make purchase decisions in physical retail stores,� the survey said.

But at the end of the day, it comes down to links.

Recently, I came across a great e-book by Kelvin Newman all about link building and I was motivated to summarise it for Screen Pages clients � who are all niche retailers with e-commerce websites � and at the same time, sift out the easy-to-implement and inexpensive measures that our clients (with limited time and money) could readily use.

What follows is a mixture or direct quotes and summaries�enjoy and profit.

And it comes down to this � we have learned the hard way what works and what doesn�t. Mostly, it comes down to people linking to your website. So often, though, clients are told by experts to tweak their URLs, fine-tune their re-directs, hand craft every page title on every page, spam meta data with extra keyword matter and so on. But, at the end of the day, it�s simply about those links.

The trouble is � it�s extremely hard work and takes time. Fortunately, however, for our kinds of clients, it�s not a massive task in the scheme of things. A few hundred links is often enough to make you competitive in a market and a few hundred more will yield great results for important trading categories and products.

I�ve been trying to explain this to clients in my own way for years. And then, by chance, I was listening to a podcast about Internet Marketing and I heard Kelvin Newman (@kelvinnewman) talk about his e-book in progress on link building. When it became available, I downloaded �Becoming a Clockwork Pirate�. And I have to say, it�s the best and most helpful, practical volume on how to go about getting links.

I was motivated to summarise it for Screen Pages clients � who are all niche retailers with e-commerce websites � and at the same time, sift out the easy-to-implement and inexpensive measures that our clients (with limited time and money) could readily use.

What follows is a mixture or direct quotes and summaries�enjoy and profit.

�Becoming a clockwork pirate - a field guide to creating links for search and social success�

The way most people think about doing better in Google is wrong � it�s not just about your website, it�s about who links to your website. The number and quality of links pointing to a site is a signal to the search engine algorithms that determine who should rank, and how high, in their results. Each link is a marginal gain and part of a campaign.
All good link-building work requires time, effort and imagination. This is what separates proper link-builders from chancers looking to make a quick buck before they get found out by Google. It�s the marketer who makes the biggest effort that gets the rewards � that means imaginative thinking and clever planning.

The skills to be successful are drawn from a number of different disciplines. You need the ability to write a great story like a journalist, build relationships like a public relations expert, spot trends like a financial analyst, produce video like a documentary film-maker and build websites like a developer.

Quality will always usurp quantity.

In the past, search engines only had links to decide who was trusted: social indicators are starting to give Google this information too. Social reputation influences the search results.

Link equity is far more complicated than just volume, but it doesn�t matter if you have a pile of links as high as Ben Nevis if your competitor�s is as big as Everest.

In real life, not all recommendations are created equally: we know which of our friends are experts and who doesn�t know what they are talking about.

Make sure your titles & headlines contain your target keywords � make the anchor text contain the keywords you target.

How to contact link partners

Sell yourself; encourage feedback; show you�ve studied their site and give feedback � personalise the approach. Provide an embeddable link (with the correct anchor text). Repeat the keywords in your email request.

How to find potential links

1. Directory submission
This has an important role early on in the campaign: they have fast turnaround times and don�t need excellent content. Some have great generic value (business.com, bestoftheweb.com, DMOZ. Yahoo!), but find those in your industry (search for your keywords and append �directory�). Some are paid for, but they are worth it.

2. Back-link analysis
Audit the links of your competitors and who is ranking for your keywords. Conduct research on who is linking to your competition using OpenSiteExplorer or MajesticSEO. Look at the anchor text.

3. Trusted domains (academic/government)
Offer discounts to students and staff and get them referenced in links; recruit from colleges (and have the jobs on the establishment�s site); offer work experience/case studies to business students.

4. Guest posting
Write guest content for blogs � identify the main blogs in your niche, study them, review their blogrolls for other bloggers. When you write, include a link. Exchange emails with these bloggers, then link to them and ask for links.

5. Offer a ranking or give awards
Give the winners a badge which links back to your site. Examples could be �Top Ten X� or �Best 25 companies� � if you are not doing this every 3-4 months, you are not using your website properly.

6. Article syndication
Write and submit articles to places like ezinearticles.com. Make good use of titles (which will end up as title tags and links with good anchor text). Repurpose other content � eg a blog post � for quick article creation.

7. Press release syndication
PR distribution is an opportunity to generate links for keyword relevant pages. The story is not going to be �read�, but it needs to be keyword rich and well-written. Do not confuse with real press releases which should be personalised and emailed. Use a variety of paid sites: prwebdirect.com, prleap.com, prweb.com, realwire.com, sourcewire.com. Keep a separate list of free sites and use them once per month.
There are journalists looking for people like you. Follow them on Twitter and communicate. Sign up for HelpAReporterOut (helpareporter.com). Make sure you stand out, as there are thousands who use it.

8. Blog commenting
Comments are not necessarily �not followed�, but they�re a good way of building a relationship prior to a link. (Establish a list of target bloggers, subscribe via Google Reader etc, to keep up with their material).

9. Social bookmarks
Such sites are perhaps a �no follow so don�t bother�, but bookmark sites are used by knowledgeable online folk. If it�s the type of content that people love, people will link to it. See Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us, stumbleupon.

10. Social media
Be active on LinkedIn (for contacts), Facebook (for customers), Flickr (for photos).

11. Trade associations and public bodies
Join those that list their members. Get listed, then develop the relationship (conduct research, write articles, sponsor events etc) with the body for additional links.

12. Use Twitter to get before potential linkers
A quick Tweet referencing some good material will be recycled and shared and generate links. Retweet the material of influencers you follow.

13. Advertise jobs or projects
Circulate job descriptions to wider website communities. Focus on universities (who have strong domains) and career services.

14. Offer Testimonials
Offer to write testimonials on supplier sites (or where you are a customer), with a link (and keyword rich anchor text) back to your website. Choose relevant suppliers (the link will have more value).

15. Ask your �political� contacts
Approach holding companies/sites, suppliers, customers/clients, employees, friends, solicitors, accountants, business partners, educational alumni pages. Just ask with a smile!

Create content

To quote a clich�, content is king. The idea here is to create original, relevant, entertaining content that people will link to voluntarily. Once created, make sure it is distributed via PR, social media, bookmarks etc.

We are often told �I don�t have time to write content�, but it�s actually just a case of imagination and thinking of angles then getting it down and out there.

1. Printable resources
Create a white paper (for businesses), downloadable guides (for consumers). They also demonstrate what you know and position you at the leading edge of an industry. To get ideas, ask what your customer concerns are. 10-15 pages is ideal, but make it easy to access.

2. Curate resources
Curate, compile, synthesise other people�s content. Or create a rating chart (with embeddable badges).

3. Beginner�s Guide
Check what there is first. Write stuff which will genuinely help and inform. Get beginners to contribute/review. Write it for a specific audience. Keep it on focussed and narrow. Reference other people�s material as well (share the links). Spread the word through blogs, Twitter, beginner�s guides websites, communities.

4. Debunk myths
If you have an interest in your industry, name two or three misconceptions or emperor�s new clothes � bust open the myths and peel back the misunderstandings of your competitors, customers, colleagues. But create a logical, cohesive argument.

5. Topical Content
Comment on news, conferences, industry meetings, press events � just be quick and publish. Sign up for Google news alerts & RSS feeds, participate in Twitter (search terns and hash tags).

6. Ego Link Bait
Create a list of the �most influential people in �. Use a panel, justify your picks, time it well. Add value, by, say, providing Twitter accounts.

7. Take photographs and publish them
People link to photos you take and publish of movers and shakers in your industry - plus you get link credit. Take your camera with you.

8. Produce Video Content
Video is more noteworthy than text. Easy video: record your screen and voice over. Use iPhones to make HD quality video. Youtube is the second biggest search engine. Publish on your own site then syndicate via Youtube.

9. Produce Audio Content
Create a series of podcasts and distribute via iTunes.

10. Carry out a survey of create original research
Create a questionnaire and publish the results. Results are newsworthy. Use Surveymonkey to collate the data. Ask the right questions and tell the right people.

11. Re-purposing material in a different media or for a different audience
Turn academic papers and conference sessions into short blog posts. Repurpose material for a different audience (i.e. basic for experienced and vice-versa).

12. Contests and competitions
Give something away and let people know: engineer it so that links are inevitable (make the entrants link to the competition site). Then turn the exercise into a case study!

13. Interviews
Interview someone with their own blog. Pick someone you know. Research and plan the questions. Record and publish.

14. Convert existing activities into link generation.
Turn your mentions without links into links. Improve the anchor text of existing links (just ask). Get social media links (eg Facebook like) onto your site.

Making it happen
Define your proposition. Make a plan and write it down. Set time frames and monitor performance. The trick isn�t coming up with ideas, it�s making them happen. �Real artists ship�. Track results.

How to quantify a link

Some links are better than others. Here�s what to look for in a link to assess its weight:
-Pagerank (available in Google Toolbar)
-No follow (not so good � visible in source code)
-Domain age (look at the whois in dnsstuff.com)
-Domain extension (in the URL)
-Links to competitors (see elsewhere for which tools to use)
-Relevance (look at the meta data to see keywords targeted)

To download the full ebook, go to http://www.clockworkpirate.com. All you have to do is tweet the link.

Ebay made its original investment in Magento one year ago and the acquisition rounds out Ebay�s e-broader commerce agenda, with e-commerce products and services now for everyone from the smallest to the very big. X-commerce is all about an �open platform for e-commerce� of the future, an e-commerce operating system (according to one Magento senior manager).

Magento as an e-commerce platform is being adopted in its commercial, licensed forms at the rate of about 100 accounts per month � our analysis suggests this translates into 8-10 per month in the UK. The company suggested that figure eclipsed its competitor�s annual new business intake � a measure of its popularity. 92% of its sales are coming from Magento Enterprise, which is routinely winning in competitive sales situations against the �big� platforms such as ATG, Websphere and Demandware � the largest Magento Enterprise websites are handling hundreds of millions of $s online. We were pleased to hear that the UK was the biggest European market for Magento, closely followed by France and Germany. The company felt that Germany would overtake the others as e-commerce became more established. EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) accounts for 40% of Magento�s business. Magento�s website gets over 300,000 visitors per month.

The platform is receiving a lot of R&D and constant improvements are being made � especially to the Enterprise versions. Release 1.10 has just been made available and 1.11 will follow shortly, before Magento 2 goes into beta testing.

Magento is investing heavily in its partner programme. We met senior managers responsible for worldwide partners, Europe as well as the new country manager for the UK. It has a dedicated European support team (although like many US suppliers, blurs country borders as if they were states). It has 18 developers in support working behind 15 technical support analysts and its team worldwide deals with 10-15 issues per day. As a partner, we have access to expert support in both pre- and post-sales situations and Magento is working on lots of documentation, training and additional support materials to help us and clients.

Screen Pages has a delivered many Magento Community Edition websites (at well over 20 perhaps more than anyone else in the UK), so it was encouraging to hear that the open source version remained �fundamental� to its plans. Having said that, we are impressed by the power and performance of Magento Enterprise and we can see important economic and marketing advantages to this version for ambitious online retailers. We are working internally and with the Magento partners team to deploy Magento Enterprise to our joint customers.

More than 3m visitors a week are visiting the M&S Direct site, an 18% growth in traffic compared to last year. Online sales outperformed the wider online market, which IMRG figures show is growing by 20% a year, and it also claimed a 5.6% share of the online clothing market.

�The use of social media is enabling us to engage with our customers and gain further insights into their shopping habits and preferences,� said M&S.

Full article here...

- Asked why consumers shop online, convenience came top (52%), then ease of browsing (45%) and then price (41%).
- 58% buy every 1-3 months: 75% spent more than 10 hours a week online
- 57% buy casual wear: shoes and party wear are also bought by over one third
- 37% say choice is betteer online.
- 42% said decision to purchase online was based on wanting a particular item.
- 41% say purchases are influenced by how products are presented
- 37% change their minds during online checkouts (vs 34% in shops): 14% of shoppers say they never change their minds during checkout
- Reasons why people abandon baskets: they were just checking/browsing (32%), errors on the chckout (30%), checkout process was too long (27%) and they didnt want to register (28%)
- 45% liked using debit cards, 26% credit cards and 21% Paypal
- 51% expected to pay up to �4.99 for delivery, 23% only used free delivery
- Free dlievry (77%) and free returns (45%) would get people tp purchase more online
- 65% feel that interactive content & stylish imagery make them more likely to buy fashion from websites
- 47% used fashion websites to find specific items; 46% to check prices; 35% for inspiraton/ideas, 32% to see what's new in
- For images, 46% preferred pictures on "real life size" models; 42% wanted pictures on models; 21% wanted magazine-type outfit pictures
- 40% don't like browsing from mobile phones: 15% of men buy fashion from their mobiles vs 7.5% of women

Download the report here.

"The perk of free shipping is a major incentive to buy more, as orders with free shipping average around 30% higher in value those that tack on a couple of bucks for transport."

Should a UK-based web manager make no overt changes to its website on the morning of 26th May, it will not automatically be liable to a fine from the ICO, as the ICO recognise that implementation of the new law will need to be phased. However, what all web managers need to be doing now is considering options towards achieving compliance and setting out a plan to that end. If the ICO were to make any enquiries into a website shortly after the 26th May, a response explaining the preparatory steps might well be enough to avoid any sanctions. However, making no changes to one�s website and being unable to demonstrate any consideration of implementation methods could lead to sanctions from the ICO.

What needs to be done now

Web managers in the UK should therefore be doing the following:

�Ascertaining what type of cookies are used by their sites and how they are downloaded onto users� machines (effectively a �cookie audit�).

�Deciding on which method(s) of obtaining consent is/are best for their website, given the cookie audit.

�Recording the cookie audit and implementation methods in an easily digestible form should the ICO ever investigate the site during this transitional period.

Suggested methods of implementation

The list is non-exhaustive and will doubtless get longer, but here are a few options which have been suggested to procure user consent before cookies are downloaded:

�Pop-ups each time a cookie is to be downloaded onto a user�s machine.

�Having in place a privacy policy setting out the site�s use of cookies; the terms of which a user must positively agree to upon visiting the site (i.e. via a tick box).

�Settings and feature-led consent. If cookies are downloaded when a user does something e.g. watches a video or personalises the site, obtaining the user�s consent prior to that action for compliance.

In the future, consent will be provided through users� web browsers and the Government is currently working with the major browser manufacturers to this end.

Web managers should be reminded that where the use of cookies is �strictly necessary� for the disclosed central purpose of the site, no consent needs to be given by the end user to their deployment. The most common situation in which this applies will be where a website remembers the contents of a user�s shopping basket as it navigates the site.

The ICO will be drafting further advice on the new law in the near future, potentially including further suggested methods of compliance and how and when it intends to begin enforcing the regulations.

This guidance note has been provided by Simon Halberstam, Technology law partner at Kingsley Napley LLP. For further information contact him on 00 44 207 814 1258 or by email to shalberstam@kingsleynapley.co.uk

Marie Chantal�s Magento website can now benefit from access to the resources, experience and proper support channels that Screen Pages offers, such as professional development standards, consideration for performance and scaleability as well as long-term attention to a client�s needs for flexibility and ease of maintenance.

Screen Pages has invested in a professional, structured business based around Magento, and will provide Marie-Chantal with e-commerce and digital services for ongoing website design, development, integration, hosting, support, updates, consulting, email marketing and account management.

The initial migration to Magento took just a few working days and a major re-design with improved navigation, filtering and product layouts has already been completed.

Will Lewis, managing director of Marie-Chantal, said: �Magento represents a great platform for niche retailers such as Marie-Chantal. Magento provides excellent flexibility and tools to help us manage our online sales and merchandising activity � but we needed the experience, support and service of an experienced e-commerce provider and one which has a proven, serious commitment to Magento.�

Roger Willcocks, director of Screen Pages, said: �We are delighted to be working with Marie-Chantal on its e-commerce activities and look forward to partnering with its team to achieve great online success. We are seeing many companies jump on the Magento bandwagon, without the proper infrastructure, experience and resources and we are pleased to offer such services to online retailers who have chosen Magento.�

The new website�s capabilities - which is visible at http://giftshop.bhf.org.uk - was developed in Magento and include:

- Simple, clear design, consistent with the main website
- Wide range of products for healthy living, home & garden, wedding & gifts
- Merchandising categories such as new, bestellers, best of British etc
- Large, life-style photography (with zooms)
- Filtered search (by price, type, occasion etc)
- Cross-sells and up-sells
- Gifting, donation and gift-aid options
- Ratings and reviews, blog and social media integration
- Single page checkout with online card authorisation via Worldpay
- Full content management via Magento Administration Panel
- Integration with back office for stock availability and order processing

Jackie Skeel, Head of Fundraising Promotions for BHF, said: �In 2011, BHF is launching several important campaigns around its 50th birthday and is seeking exciting sales growth online. It needed a new e-commerce platform � with revamped design, greater flexibility and deeper functionality - to support its growth plans and allow the online sales team to push ahead. Screen Pages emerged as a strong partner with an offering, culture and capability appropriate to our size and needs.�

Roger Willcocks, director of Screen Pages, said: �BHF is one of the most respected and cherished charities in the UK. We are honoured to be working with BHF�s online team responsible for e-commerce sales in this its landmark year and look forward to supporting it as its online sales activities and profits increase.�

For my money - standard delivery should be free and express (next day) should be priced up there (it's a premium service).

An increasing number of people reportedly expect more from mobile websites now than they did last year, which is a sure sign that the m-commerce shopper is becoming more knowledgeable as smartphones becoming increasingly ubiquitous.

Chris Russell, Director at eDigitalResearch, said: �This second study reinforces what our previous results have shown; that the dramatic increase in smartphone use is fundamentally affecting consumer behaviour.

Listening does not pay the bills, but social media experimentation does not cost a lot - just time.

The report says "retailers feel like there's potential around social...If they don't put money into it they can't learn about it and they have to keep learning. Even if it doesn't deliver on retention and acquisition, they concede social is great for brand building and customer listening...As for social, I think no one wants to be a late mover, and all the hype around social networks in particular lead people to think that it's something they need to do."

Source: Direct Marketing News