
E-Commerce

An ominous bell is tolling for daily-deal sites. Groupon may be growing like kudzu, but it's losing money as more daily-deal sites like LivingSocial enter the marketplace. But don’t count out daily salemails yet. Daily-deal sites are recalibrating by offering a cache of products that drill down to a particular neighborhood, drum up repeat business and calculate metrics. What’s the real deal? Business owners can now design the right daily salemail to fit their brand experience.
On Oct. 26, Sears made its local-only e-commerce move that would limit its displays to products sold by and available at the most local store. It would also display nonadvertised local sale items plus a preview of items slated to go on sale the following week.
Macy’s has launched a new online destination, called mBLOG, for fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle news and trends. Each day of the week is dedicated to a specific topic, and embedded e-commerce enables readers to purchase featured merchandise directly from macys.com.
Online retailers have plenty to be joyous about this holiday season as new research shows companies are adjusting their holiday plans based on expected growth and strong demand from holiday shoppers.
Target confirmed that its website crashed for the second time in six weeks on Oct. 25, going down at approximately 12:50 p.m. EDT and then coming back up two hours later. Target.com also crashed on Sept. 13, after the retailer’s online introduction of its new line of Missoni apparel and items.
While many consumers remain focused on prestige pieces that will retain their worth, young consumers are racing to purchase "new luxury" accessories like high-priced handbags and shoes, according to a study just released by PM Digital, a New York-based digital marketing agency.
When the first flakes of a snowstorm start falling in Philadelphia, it doesn't take nearby Home Depot stores long to position shovels and rock salt up near their front doors. At the same time, if a heat wave is blasting Phoenix, shoppers walking into their local Wal-Mart will be tempted to buy air conditioners, kiddie pools and slushy machines.
Retailers are so desperate this holiday season that they're willing to lose money to get you to spend yours. Take online jeweler Stauer. It's offering a $249 amethyst necklace for free — provided customers pay the $24.95 it costs to ship it. Stauer will lose money on the deal, but it hopes to reel in new customers who will buy other jewelry.
Any digital-based business, whether it’s advertising, commerce or publishing, is still saddled with the burden of potential. Growth is expected to be exponential. Therefore, it surprised me that more than a few experts are throwing in the towel on some important growth markets.
Amazon-owned Soap.com has begun selling grocery goods. Unlike Amazon Fresh, which delivers a full range of groceries via an elaborate system of delivery trucks, Soap.com‘s selection is limited to approximately 10,000 nonperishable items such as cereal and coffee.