E-Commerce

Recently, I found myself in the middle of a discussion about how long it took to actually place an order on a particular cataloger’s Web site. Granted, this particular company admits it’s not on the cutting edge of online selling. But the result was an eye-opener. Knowing the product number, it still took me 22 clicks to buy an item on its Web site. Would anyone really put up with that? It actually surprised me how many customers did.
We, of course, began a search of this company’s competitors’ sites and found the same product could be ordered with far fewer clicks in

With many Web options available, overseas expansion for multichannel marketers might not be as daunting as it once was. John Lazarchic, vice president of e-commerce for multichannel pet supplies retailer PETCO, laid out a multistep plan to attract business from foreign customers during a Feb. 13 session at the eTail conference in Palm Desert, Calif. 1. Choose a comparison shopping engine and marketplace site, because … * they capture large audiences; * when used effectively, they can significantly impact traffic and sales; * you compete with the many online businesses that compete on price, and they’re all most likely using such search engines; and

In a recent mystery shopping study conducted by the e-tailing group, TV home-shopping marketer QVC captured the top spot. The consulting firm ranked 100 Web sites based on a perfect score of 100, gauging such factors as the site’s key pages, the overall presence and execution of merchandising, and customer-service tactics. Here are some of the more noteworthy findings of the report: * QVC captured the top spot with a score of 86.5; * the average score was 67.9; * 40 percent of the sites earned index ratings greater than 70, 44 percent of the sites were in the 60 to 70 range and

When I attend industry conferences, I do quite a lot of cherry-picking. After all, there’s quite a lot of information spread around, but not a lot of it’s relevant to catalogers and multichannel marketers. So for this week’s edition of The Corner View, I took it upon myself to attend many sessions from the eTail Conference, held Feb. 11-14 in Palm Desert, Calif., and whittle down these experiences into the top 10 ideas, tips, points and company activities I took in during the event. I only attended sessions with panels that included catalog/multichannel marketers. The most noteworthy subjects they discussed included exploring

For many, South Florida, particularly Miami, evokes pleasing thoughts of palm trees, cold drinks and fun in the sun. But for multichannel marketers, the city raises a red flag. According to a survey of 318 online merchants by CyberSource, a provider of electronic payment, risk and security management solutions, Miami is the highest-risk area for online fraud in the U.S. Orders from this city have the highest probability of being fraudulent. With 10 percent of the vote, Miami edged New York (8 percent), which held the top spot the previous two years. Here are some other noteworthy findings of the survey: * Other

Having a hard time finalizing your 2008 contact strategy? You’re not alone. The mission hasn’t changed: You want to develop the most efficient way to convert prospects into first-time buyers and first-time buyers into repeat customers. But piece together the rapid pace of technological change, the volatile economy, the ongoing migration and evolution from phone to Web ordering, then add the likely distraction of the presidential election throughout the year, and it can make any marketer feel like throwing in the towel in bewilderment. Realistically, there are only three ways to proactively convert known prospects to buyers and one-time buyers to repeat buyers:

Editor’s Note: This is the first article of a three-part series on becoming more proficient and adapting to the multichannel world. Parts two and three will appear in our June and September issues. Can you imagine a catalog/multichannel company not striving to become more efficient and effective in each selling channel in which it operates? Certainly not. This article focuses on the key issues and trends impacting multichannel selling today. It examines how you can improve your bottom line in each channel, cuts to the chase and identifies seven issues that smart direct sellers need to focus on this year. (You can also

There’s that old Bob Dylan song about times a-changin’ that I won’t bother to quote further. But it seems to hold true moreso year after year, and 2008 is no exception. So while some of us continue to exchange “happy new year” greetings with one another, I’ll send along one last new year’s greeting with what I believe to be the top five actions you should act on, examine or just ponder to bring your catalog/multichannel business in sync with the times. 1. Get your matchback system working smoothly at once. Assign someone in either your marketing or operations departments to do nothing

Over the past few months, we at Catalog Success have been hard at work to further develop a hefty well of research data for our readers. In October we launched the Catalog Success Latest Trends Report, a quarterly series of original benchmarking research we’ve been conducting with the multichannel ad agency Ovation Marketing. In the coming months, we’ll also be running a series of mail volume charts provided by several catalog co-op databases. Like the Latest Trends surveys, these will run in the IndustryEye section of our print magazine. And for the past year or so, we’ve been running a regular reader poll.

Recently I’ve been involved with a project researching what leading B-to-B and B-to-C catalogers are doing in the area of e-commerce systems. Specifically, I’m exploring what, if any, systems they’re using to conduct search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) programs, as well as to operate e-mail and online ordering programs. The project has been a real eye-opener because there doesn’t appear to be any established best practice.
As a group of direct marketers, we appear to be all over the map. Most of us are struggling with staffing implementation and have no idea how to evaluate our results. Here are the things