E-Commerce

L2, a New York University think tank that specializes in retail economics, has released their first-ever ranking of department stores based on digital prowess, and here's a shocker: Macy's has beat out pace-setting digital darling Net-a-Porter. Macy's comes in second on this list, topped only by Nordstrom, while Net-a-Porter is way down the ladder at seventh. Saks, UK-based Marks & Spencer, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdale's also rank ahead of of the luxury e-tailer. So, er, how is that possible?

Competing with an e-commerce Goliath like Amazon.com can be a daunting task, but specialty merchants have some distinct advantages, including the capacity to forge strong ties with shoppers through a brand community. Amazon's online warehouse of products offers little to unite customers around a common lifestyle or passion. By focusing on a particular product category, value proposition or audience, you can provide meaningful interaction and a shopping experience to connect your customers with other like-minded consumers.

With the paradigm shift from brick-and-mortar to online retail, too many business owners think that great customer service has lost its importance. A customer, however, is always a customer, and whether the purchase process takes place in a store or on a laptop, in order to get repeat business, you want to give your buyer the easiest, most enjoyable experience possible. If you're unsure how to improve customer service online, follow these helpful pointers:

Newegg, a leading electronics-focused e-retailer in the U.S., has launched a flash-sale site, NeweggFlash.com. The site offers consumers daily bargains in a variety of product categories, from technology and consumer electronics to housewares, fashion, jewelry, skincare and makeup. Flash sales or "deals of the day" allow consumers to shop for items at deeply discounted prices — always, of course, "for a limited time only." NeweggFlash is a members-only site, but membership is free.

eBay launched its eBay Deals program in Canada, replacing its former program there called The Big Deal. eBay's Deals program is a takeoff on daily-deals sites like Woot that offer a limited number of items at a significant discount available for a short time or until supplies run out. The eBay Canada Big Deal launched as a weekly feature — eBay worked with sellers and listed new items "at a significant discount, including free shipping within Canada" in fixed-price format each Wednesday.

The rapidly expanding online design shop Fab.com has just secured another $150 million from investors, which means, of course, more expansion. The e-tailer has announced ambitious plans to become one the top five e-commerce businesses in the world. "There are currently only four e-commerce companies in the world that are valued at more than $10 billion: Amazon.com, Alibaba, eBay and Rakuten," Fab Founder and CEO Jason Goldberg wrote on his blog. "We believe that Fab has a legitimate chance to be the fifth."

Discounts have been around as long as retail has. And on the web, the flash sales wave pushed them front and center. But I was still surprised when I recently visited certain non-flash sales e-commerce sites to find that young startups with aspirations of creating brands with cachet would be offering discount promotions to first-time buyers right on their homepage. So I asked three of them that offer homepage discounts in exchange for an email address — menswear maker Bonobos, high-end T-shirt startup Pickwick & Weller, and women's jewelry seller BaubleBar — to explain their thought process. 

Wantful, an online gift retailer, announced a partnership with Nordstrom to develop innovative gift giving experiences for Nordstrom customers. The first iteration of the partnership launched yesterday with The Nordstrom Gift Collection by Wantful. The Nordstrom Gift Collection, based on Wantful's popular service, offers an assortment of thousands of unique products curated by Wantful in categories from home decor to accessories to specialty food and wine. Nordstrom customers visiting the site answer a few questions about the person they're buying for, and the service helps them quickly and easily curate a customized collection of up to 12 gift choices. 

Online shoppers faced with buying a gift often don't know what they want to buy until they see a product that catches their fancy. That presents a challenge for online retailers, who must present shoppers with the right mix of products without knowing what they'll jump at. A variety of search and navigation tools can help guide your customers through the process of looking for a gift and zeroing in on the best options. Your job is to make this process as fast and easy and possible; consumers don't have time for endless, random browsing.

Seventy-nine percent of smartphone owners are what Google calls "smartphone shoppers," meaning that they use their smartphones at least once a month in stores. That's a lot of people. If there are 130 million smartphone users in the U.S., then about 111 million Americans use their smartphones to prepare for shopping or to look things up while there. It's not surprising that Google wants to get in all those heads and see what's going on. There's money there!