E-Commerce

Lately, it seems like decent size database now calls itself a specialized vertical search engine. There’s some clever marketing logic in positioning itself as such given that good search results are a cost-effective form of inquiries, leads or orders when a search-based marketing program is done well. And taking advantage of those vertical search engines will allow B-to-B catalogers to leap ahead of the competition. Consider the fact that search is the new cognitive framework for buyers of industrial, technical and business products and accordingly, industrial marketers must radically shift their marketing mixes to online channels if they haven’t done so already. Those marketers involved

Choosing a Web site host is an often overlooked piece of e-commerce strategy. Because it’s such a specialized portion of the e-commerce puzzle, many catalogers are unprepared to make an informed decision regarding Web hosting. Following are tips to help you make the right decision when choosing your Web host or considering a change to your current provider: 1. Understand the distinctions between different hosting options. As the e-commerce business has matured, hosting offers have split into several distinct categories, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. * Shared hosting allows you to share server space with other companies. The host manages the server almost

During a session at last week’s Lenser & Associates client summit in San Rafael, Calif., Lenser partner Michelle Farabaugh offered several Web and e-mail marketing tips to the firm’s client base, which included more than 100 mid-size catalog marketers. Following are some that are worth keeping in front of you. * Increase your advertising effectiveness by improving headlines, copy and destination landing pages. Include a value proposition, promotions, deferred billing and a buy now button. * In e-mail, separately test segmentation, frequency, time of day/day of week, subject line, “From” address, format, offers, deadlines, length, landing pages and hold out panels in order to see true

Online merchants, including catalogers, e-merchants and brick-and-mortar retailers, made three times as many adjustments to their online marketing as they did their offline plans during last year’s holiday season, according to recently released report from Shop.org, the online division of the National Retail Federation, and online research firm BizRate Research. And 70 percent of those adjustments involved either investing more in paid search or making improvements to e-mail campaigns. The report also revealed the percentage of merchants that used various promotions, as well the merchants’ ratings of the effectiveness of those promotions on a scale of 1 to 5. Below are the findings.

Does your company market products through comparison shopping engines? Comparison shopping engines (CSEs) are sites such as Yahoo! Shopping, Shopping.com, Gifts.com, Pricegrabber, NexTag, MSN Shopping, Google Base and Shopzilla. CSEs aggregate SKU data from retailers for online shoppers. Some retailers avoid CSEs due the technical hassle of sending product data to the engines and retrieving corresponding advertising cost reports. But today, the National Retail Federation (NRF) announced a new data format intended to simplify communication between retailers, agencies and CSEs. The beta test of the standard took place last week when engineers at Channel Intelligence used the format to submit product data for

With the holiday shopping season nearly upon us, it’s time to evaluate your marketing plan and make sure you’re prepared for what’s to come. Shop.org, the online arm of the National Retail Federation, offers the following to tips on ensuring your holiday marketing plans are up to snuff in a new best practices report. 1. Be ready for shoppers early in the season. One-third of consumers surveyed after last year’s holiday season said they started shopping online earlier than in 2004, up 6 percent from a similar survey held after that holiday season, according to the report. Some Shop.org members revealed that free

Before my official post for the week starts, let me thank all of you who added your comments to this site, as well as those who e-mailed me privately. Your encouragement and feedback was much appreciated, and it’s nice to get the first Catalog Success blog off to a good start.

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Great, you’re back … O.K., now on to this week’s topics: 1) my own goals for this blog, and 2) my response to a

Forty percent of online consumers would abandon a transaction when experiencing problems on an e-commerce Web site, according to a recent survey by online customer experience management solutions provider TeaLeaf and market research firm Harris Interactive. Nearly one-third of those consumers would turn to a competitor while 7 percent would abandon the endeavor entirely, the survey revealed. The top problems that online consumers said would cause them to turn to competitors are, * Incorrect information or lack of adequate information on a Web site, cited by 41 percent of respondents; * Difficulty navigating the Web site, cited by 37 percent; * Inability to complete

When it comes to integrating creative between the three primary marketing channels – catalog, Web and retail – much has been said about presenting a consistent image across all channels. But doing so isn’t always so easy. As Carol Worthington-Levy, partner and director at San Rafael, Calif.-based consultancy LENSER, pointed during a session at the recent New England Mail Order Association conference in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., multichannel marketers should enroll their creative people in “taking a role in the actual selling process.” She offered the following points and tips to marketers looking for ways to achieve multichannel consistency: Leverage your branding across all media that sells

9 ways to get your site search-ready for the holidays. The clock is ticking. Holiday shopping season is just around the corner. More customers will turn to your Web site than ever before. That means it’s time to tune it up for maximum search engine visibility. Here are nine traffic-building tips that’ll make your site sing “Happy Holidays” long after the season is done. 1. Link Building Links are the currency of search engines. Improving the quantity and quality of your inbound links will pay dividends. Add a handful of links from high-PageRank, relevant sites and you’ll see an impact within weeks. (PageRank