Posts Tagged ecommerce
Sales At Retail Expected Down in February, But Ecommerce Expected Stronger
According to the February Consumer Reports Index, though consumers spent more than they planned to this past holiday season, they aren’t planning to open up their wallets again anytime soon. The Past 30-Day Retail Index for February, which reflects the purchases consumers made in January, is 10.9, a decline of 23% from the previous month says the report.
The Next 30-Day Retail Index, which represents the number of electronics, appliances, and yard and garden equipment consumers said they’re planning to buy in February plummeted to 6.9 from 8.9 the prior month. That’s the lowest level it has been since August of last year.
The hesitation to spend money is not the result of personal financial hardships, however. The consumer Reports Trouble Tracker showed real improvement. It declined to 53.4 in February from 58.2 in January. The top difficulty reported in February: the inability to afford medical bills or medications (14.7 percent, up from 12.7 percent in January).
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Trend Tracker on February 16th, 2010
15 common sense marketing steps for small business owners to take through thick and thin
By Tom Polanski
Here are 15 excellent marketing reminders for small business owners to think about over the weekend -
1. Conduct a Competitive Analysis and Plan Your Strategy
2. Optimize Your Home Page and Landing Pages
3. Optimize Your Website Copy
4. Implement Your Website Metrics and Testing Platform(s)
5. Improve Your Order Process
6. Develop Your Email Capture
7. Optimize Your Offer Pricing
8. Set Up Your Comparison Shopping Engine Campaigns
9. Set Up Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
10. Optimize Your Website for Natural Search Engines
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Marketing on July 25th, 2008
Is Your Head Buried in The Sand?
By Tom Polanski
It’s clear to me that e-commerce businesses are short-changing themselves in a number of ways. First, they seldom factor in offline sales and lifetime value when making marketing decisions. Secondly, many think in terms of net margin (again they don’t factor in revenue from offline sales and lifetime value). In addition, many are still of the, “I spent a dollar, I want two dollars back now“, mentality. This psychology has left many with woefully underdeveloped CRM practices in place. Finally, most fail to understand that because the internet is a giant calculator, everything can be tracked. The ramifications of this are stupendous. One example is that capital intensive testing can be amortized by positive discovery. Each conversion is an opportunity to spawn many more from the first purchase.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising on May 20th, 2008
“Start Negotiating” or “Make An Offer” Buttons On Sites Selling High Price Items
By Tom Polanski
eBrand Media has several e-tailers who sell high priced items through their websites. It occurred to me the other day that there is one feature that really could benefit to our clients that is missing from the tens of thousands of sites we’ve visited; a “Start Negotiating” button placed under the “Buy Now” button for hard to sell items. Why this capability hasn’t been developed yet, I don’t know. I think that there may be tremendous upside to the development and testing of such a feature. I imagine that a button of this type would not only reduce shopping cart abandons but enhance the shopping process for the end-user.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Seeing Into the Future on May 6th, 2008