The new e-commerce website has been launched at http://www.nessbypost.com.

Established in Edinburgh in 1996, Ness now has three stand-alone shops in the capital as well as another in St Andrews with plans for opening more outlets across the UK in the next 12 months. With over 500 stockists nationwide and more across Europe and the USA, demand for Ness designs and clothing is very strong.

The new website incorporates a clean, fresh design, employing photography and artwork from Ness’ popular catalogue and combines many “best practice” e-commerce features to enrich the customer experience, boost engagement and sales conversions. Special characteristics include:

• Attractive lifestyle photography
• New arrivals and best sellers
• Multiple product images & on-page zooms
• Email newsletter & catalogue request
• Cross-sells and up-sells
• Free delivery over £75
• Automated integration of product & stock data with MNP’s Order Active
• Automated export of orders
• PCI compliant website and hosting

Gordon Macaulay, Ness’ managing director, said: “We have seen what great work Screen Pages has done with other lifestyle clothing brands and it was important we picked an agency with a rich vein of online retail expertise. Screen Pages has shown great enthusiasm for our brand and this project and we have all worked hard to achieve a great result.”

Sarah Willcocks, director of Screen Pages said: “Ness is a great, of-the-moment brand – colourful and dynamic in its approach to modernising fabrics of Scotlands heritage. We are delighted to be working with Ness’ team on its e-commerce activities and look forward to a period of exciting growth and online sales success.”

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The survey found that merchants believe online business is better suited to withstand an economic downturn than physical stores or catalogs, though they acknowledge challenges for both.

The companies reported scaling back hiring and their increasingly expensive paid search marketing programs. Online merchants whose business is doing well will likely fuel much of the e-commerce investments in the coming months.

Shop.org said businesses active online remain optimistic: "It's safe to say that it continues to be a bright spot in the economy."

Forrester Research forecast in January that total U.S. online sales, where growth has been slowing for a few years, will increase 11 percent to $156.1 billion in 2009, compared with a 13 percent gain in 2008. For 2010, Forrester projects 13 percent growth, and then 10 percent growth in 2011, 9 percent in 2012 and 8 percent in 2013. The figures exclude online travel sales.

About 30 percent expect to cut their spending on Web operations for the year, while 24 percent said they would increase it and 46 percent said they would spend as planned.

Online retailers said they are focused on e-mail marketing, which almost 90 percent listed as a top priority. But that doesn't mean shoppers should expect to be bombarded with even more spam in coming months.

Retailers are getting more sophisticated about using e-mail to attract and retain specific customers already known to them. Almost three-fourths of the surveyed retailers plan to send targeted e-mails based on customers' stated preferences or past purchases.

With questions lingering about the sales potential for marketing in social media like blogs and social networks, companies that are growing faster than expected are more likely to embrace such initiatives. Of 20 retailers whose business has beat expectations, 12 said they were going to invest more in social marketing initiatives this year.

Among retailers that expect to cut spending on their online business this year, only 24 percent plan to cut spending on social media, indicating a willingness to experiment in this emerging area, the study says.

Retailers faring less well said they plan to seek "quick wins" instead and delay large initiatives.

"For example, the term 'eye cream' returns 67,900,000 results; however, 'eye cream age 35' returns 206,000 results. While still a large amount of options, the more specific searcher has a better idea of what she wants to buy and is likely closer to making a purchase."

Screen Pages' e-commerce platforms are equipped with onsite reviews, which makes them EVEN BETTER for SEO, as the extra content is held on an additional product page (= two entries in Google's database) and you get extra copy for the robots to gobble up.

Mydeco considers Twitter "very important, because a major aspect of what it does is focused on building its community, and that includes going wherever on the web its customers choose to be."

Shop Direct aka Team Woolies has been tweeting since the company acquired the brand at the start of this year. It writes a handful of tweets a day and spends about a couple of hours catching up with what others have been saying about the brand online.

"There's truly an abundance of product on offer, and the home page makes a decent stab of drawing you in. Its design is bright without being garish, and entices with lots of images in its Top Categories, Top Rated Products and Customer Favourites sections. There are more categories in the left-hand menu too — although these don't leap out as much on first viewing — and here you can also filter by age and price. The company prides itself on personally testing all products, and encourages customers to leave their own feedback."

Overall rating: 88 out of 100.

Average conversion ratios were 4.3% against an average order value of £61.