More mobile, more social, more real time-are e-retailers ready?

We are also seeing amazing change in the online marketing/ internet retail space!

Customers are local, vocal and social. If you don't believe me, just ask any merchant who has been "flamed" on Yelp.com without recourse to defend themselves against unfair, biased or fraudulent (from competitors) reviews.

Smartphone and mobile shopping is growing exponentially. (If you doubt that-check out the recent Morgan Stanley report.)

Integrated multichannel strategies that manage audience, promotion and source but are open to shopper preference and convenience. Protecting a channel is dead. Online contributes to Brick and mortar and vice versa, merchants must not see these channels as exclusive/competition but as complementary.

in reference to: Holiday 2010 Will Be Business As UnUsual (view on Google Sidewiki)

Quick thoughts on developing a Conflict of Interest Policy...

In the age of Enron and bank bailouts and derivatives , some fear ethics in business are dead.

Here are just a few of our core values...

Trust

Mutual respect

Transparency

Mutual Loyalty... in a world that where churn and burn, wham bam thank you maam are far too common.

When an opportunity arises to serve a competitor in a niche we feel our obligation is to our first client -first.

If the request is similar and them market competitive, our first step is to disclose the nature of our relationship and commitment.

If that disqualifies us for the deal, so be it.

in reference to:

"A conflict of interest can only exist if a person or testimony is entrusted with some impartiality; a modicum of trust is necessary to create it. The presence of a conflict of interest is independent from the execution of impropriety. Therefore, a conflict of interest can be discovered and voluntarily defused before any corruption occurs."
- Conflict of interest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (view on Google Sidewiki)

Got Twitter issues? ;-P gapingvoid gallery

gapingvoid gallery

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Yahoo Store Floating Cart-Just released!

Thanks to the Yahoo Team for this great new feature!

Our clients have seen the benefits of custom floating carts with our customizations before, but now it is easier and more accessible for more stores!

Our initial testing is showing some minor issues with IE, but Yahoo is aware of the issues and is working thru them.

For stores with custom templates and those unfamiliar with CSS, contact www.fastpivot.com for help!

in reference to:

"Using Floating Cart Manager, you can now set up and customize a mini-cart and floating cart for your store pages. These features are designed to keep your customers in the shopping flow until they’re ready to complete their order, which helps optimize their shopping experience and encourages increased order values."
- Official Yahoo! Store Blog tips and tricks for ecommerce success » Introducing Floating Cart Manager (view on Google Sidewiki)

Comparing conversion rates chaps my chaps

This recent Marketing Sherpa chart got my hackles up because it reminded me of so many conversations with newbie etail and ebusiness folks who ask "what should my ideal conversion rate be"?

Jen Doyle's post alludes to the fact that conversion rates are so site specific and 'user defined'...

The main issue isn't comparing conversion rates with other sites but:
Having proper site specific unique conversion events defined,Measured and in a
State of continuous improvement FOR YOUR SITE and business!

Your ideal conversion rate should be something better than your current rate, but isn't really productive to spend much time comparing it to others...

Whew. Had to get that off my chest.

in reference to:

"In analytics, a conversion event is what is known as a user-defined event. In other words, it can be anything you want it to be."
- MarketingSherpa: New Chart: How Do Your Search Conversion Rates Compare? (view on Google Sidewiki)