SEO mindset E-book,

The premier provider of robust e-commerce platforms and services, today announces the findings from a six month year-over-year organic search engine revenue comparison for 2009 vs. 2008. The results:A 72% increase in FREE revenue!Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and content exposure are core to the architecture and page construction of Warp 9’s Internet Commerce System (ICS) customer sites. SEO is both an art and a science. Warp 9’s ICS platform, along with its in-house technical and marketing talent, are helping clients see dramatic results.The Warp 9 ICS open platform architecture allows us to integrate best-of-breed technologies and changes that we feel will give our clients a competitive advantage. It is always a great feeling to watch our clients grow and be more successful knowing that we played a role,” commented Harinder Dhillon, Warp 9’s CEO.Looks like American Express Guide did not understand or was not aware of SEO. In one of its small business guides, OPEN it had mentioned not to waste money on SEO and search engines penalize optimizers. These PDF statements by OPEN clearly demonstrates how illiterate or unaware the authors of the book had been.
OPEN a part of American Express Business Gold Rewards Card program, it releases books and meet-ups in several cities. The book is also called “A practical guide for business growth”. The following is an extract from the book.
Search engines, like Yahoo! and Google, are usually the first place people will look for you. Make it easier for them to find you. Yahoo! and Google offer tools to let them know the site map structure of your Web site.
Also, using clean U.R.L.’s like yourdomain.com/store/widgets instead of your pksml5@yahoo.com,widgets will increase your chances of getting indexed in a search engine.
Finally, don’t waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.) specialists. Search engines are very quick to penalize sites that try to trick their filtering techniques, and once your site has been put on Google’s blacklist, it will take forever to get off.
This statement has a contradiction to another document hosted by the same OPEn Meetups page which promotes the idea of search engine optimization.
Today’s Internet market needs SEO to survive especially small business companies. Websites which have not done basic optimization are considered bad sites to refer by search engines. This note by American Express Guide can just be ridiculed as a book written by inexperienced editors.There are many SEO Mindset Reviews and great Marketing websites on SEO Mindset e-book available online. Please be careful as 90% of these are affiliate websites and they earn every time you purchase a book. The better they describe about the book the more money they get. This review is not one of their affiliate programs.
SEO Mindset is the latest popular e-book on SEO in the market. A 128 page e-book has various strategies explained for attaining and staying on to top search engine rankings. The book provides good insights on SEO and SEM for both beginners and experienced individuals.Some of the helpful resources found in SEO Mindset include:
Several links and information on free programs found online and also created by Brad Callen.
Excellent information on how to work on Keyword Research
A 3 page master plan which provides a good tutorial and guide on how a basic optimization is done.
Tips on launching your own site
Though there are a large number of content available, the book is more of a beginners guide and a 2 year old SEO expert would not find all the chapters to be interesting and worth reading.
Brad Callen is a 29 year old Marketing Expert from Indiana and has many software’s, websites and e-books to his credit. The e-book currently costs $45. SEO Mindset is available through various affiliate websites.

Recourse from International Financial,

Recourse from International Financial, although the August data show poor performance of exports, but most research institutions are still very confident to future export prospects of China. When many traditional international trade enterprises got serious effect from the financial crisis, however, the e-commerce industry is not only unbeaten by the financial crisis, but also many enterprises are still able to grow in adversity. Judging from the recent Alibaba.com, Dhgate.com nets and other domestic e-commerce leaders’ performance in the medium-term can be seen that trend. Alibaba.com daily news shows, the total operating income reached 1.715 billion Yuan. Nevertheless, as a representative of lesser foreign trade platform Dhgate.com, achieves nearly 10 billion Yuan in the first half of2009 in online transactions. Though the whole e-commerce industry avoided "the storm's eye" of the financial crisis, changing trends in international trade is a test for the every major e-commerce service provider. Insiders express, the general trend in international trade is trade flow steadily shortened, the bulk of foreign trade gradually decline, and lesser line rise rapidlyGlobal Sources’ latest financial report show that the typical large B2B trade platform, got revenues of 54.2 million U.S. dollars in the second quarter 2009, down 14.89%; net profits of 5.1 million U.S. dollars, down 39.29%. ecoogle, data recovery, iphone 3gThe lesser typical export platform Dhgate.com network’s data showed that from 2006 to 2008 these three years, Dhgate.com reach a rapid speed growth to the annual growth rate of 2561%, in which nearly 14 billion Yuan from transaction volume in 2008, and in 2009, will likely exceed 2.5 billion. It is understood that, Dhgate.com is the first B2B e-commerce site making integrated online trading and supply chain services, mainly to help overseas buyers find the small supply in China. In addition, Dhgate.com profit model is not to charge membership fees from domestic sellers, but to allow buyers and sellers use the site for free registration, and charge overseas buyers after completing transaction. Lesser foreign trade trend seems to have been accepted by the industry; recently, Alibaba.com has also launched a small wholesale and retail trade platform. For this platform, epathchina.com (www.epathchina.com) thinks services of Ali-express has no essential difference from EBay.com andDhgate.com; only in the seller access and charging method have subtle differences in transaction process, it essentially can be considered as foreign version of Taobao.com. The platform will become a new profit growth point of Alibaba.com, and compete with Dhgate.com and EBay, etc.As a lesser foreign trader, epathchina.com (www.epathchina.com) considers the trend a perfect commercial opportunity for its self-progressing. Based on its own featured marketing mode, utilizing other excellent major traders, epathchina.com hope to get a high stable development.

Google Buys Mobile Ad Firm AdMob for $750M,

When Google reported a better-than-expected financial performance in the third quarter, the company's executives proclaimed that the worst of the economic downturn had passed, and projected an aggressive acquisition strategy at the rate of roughly one company a month.
Today the search giant made good on that commitment, announcing an agreement to purchase mobile ad firm AdMob for about $750 million.
"Despite the tremendous growth in mobile usage and the substantial investment by many businesses in the space, the mobile web is still in its early stages," Google Vice Presidents Susan Wojcick and Vic Gundotra wrote in a company blog post. "We believe that great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem. That's what has us excited about this deal."
The acquisition comes amid an aggressive push for Google into the mobile sector, as its Android operating system is powering a host of smartphones that are either on the market or on carriers' product roadmaps to debut this year and next.Google is also rumored to be developing its own branded handset independent of carrier subsidies.
AdMob, founded in 2006, specializes in display advertising for mobile sites as well as serving ads within the third-party applications that are proliferating in smartphones such as Android-powered devices and Apple's iPhone.
Google said the acquisition would complement its in-house mobile advertising technology, which has primarily focused on search ads.
The recent glut of Android-powered devices, which are now supported by three of the four largest domestic carriers (with the lone holdout, AT&T, rumored to be developing its own), has led many industry observers to see the smartphone market taking on a binary character, defined by a titanic rivalry between the iPhone and handsets powered by Google's operating system.Google set up a Web site to explain the deal, seeking in part to defuse the concerns that arise anytime Google buys a company -- namely that it's too big and exerts too much control over the digital advertising sector.
"The mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive, with more than a dozen mobile ad networks," the company said. "The deal is similar to mobile advertising acquisitions that AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have made in the past two years."

Facebook Wins $711M in 'Spam King' Lawsuit,

Facebook last month was awarded $711.2 million in damages last month by a Northern California judge who found that self-proclaimed "Spam King" Sanford Wallace violated the Federal Trade Commission's Can-Spam Act.
The default judgment, issued on Sept. 18 in a U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., found that Wallace "willfully violated" a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction issued in the case and referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecution of criminal contempt.
Facebook originally filed this latest lawsuit against Sanford in February, alleging his spamming operation accessed Facebook accounts without users' permission to send bogus e-mails and posts to the users' public message walls.
"The record demonstrates that Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook and the thousands of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct," Fogel wrote in his judgment order.The order also permanently prohibits Wallace from accessing the Facebook Web site or creating a Facebook account, among other restrictions.
Wallace, who has been the subject of multiple lawsuits filed by companies and the FTC since the 1990s, and another defendant were ordered to pay MySpace $234 million in another default judgment issued in May 2008.
Facebook is no stranger to aggressive, illegal spamming and phishing attacks. In November 2008, a federal judge also in San Jose, Calif. ordered Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital to pay more than $873 million in damages.
While the onslaught of spam scams will undoubtedly continue, Facebook hopes this latest judgment will deter others from following suit.We're very pleased with this significant judgment, the second largest in history for an action brought under Can-Spam," a Facebook spokesperson said in an e-mail to InternetNews.com." We're confident that the ruling will act as a powerful deterrent against those who would abuse Facebook and its users, especially since the judge also referred Wallace for prosecution for criminal contempt of court, which means that he now faces possible jail time."
Attempts to contact Wallace and his attorney for comment were not immediately successful.
Wallace earned the nicknames "Spamford" and "Spam King" for his past role as head of CyberPromotions, a company responsible for sending as many as 30 million junk e-mails a day in the 1990s.
In May 2006, Wallace and his company Smartbot.net were ordered by a federal court to turn over $4.1 million.
"This ruling is the result of tireless effort by our legal and security teams, which work to find, expose, and prosecute the sources of spam attacks," Facebook added in its statement. "These efforts complement the sophisticated technical systems we continue to develop to limit the impact of these attacks, and where possible, block them altogether."
Facebook claims to have more than 300 million registered users and more than half of those active users log onto their accounts everyday.

IBM on Wednesday debuted WebSphere Commerce 7,

IBM on Wednesday debuted WebSphere Commerce 7, a new version of its e-commerce software platform which incorporates mobile and social commerce features that let retailers provide a convenient and communal shopping experience for their customers.
IBM WebSphere Commerce 7 is a fully integrated, single-platform application suite designed to bring the best elements of social networks—particularly reviews, pricing comparisons, etc.—to the mobile devices and smartphones that have essentially become an indispensable appendage for online shoppers.
The goal—beyond selling more software—is to provide customers with a new level of shopping intelligence just in time for the holiday shopping season and to build brand loyalty for retailers willing to pony up for the applications.
Typically, customers hop around from site to site and blog to blog to do research, review and compare products, making life difficult for retailers looking to track buying trends. More often than not, researchers say, customers will research products online before visiting a store and then eventually end up purchasing the product from a catalog or through a retailer's call center.

Commerce 7 is the first fruit borne from Big Blue's five-year, $100 million investment announced in June to develop new services for mobile phones.
IBM, along with a slew of venture capitalists and competing software developers, have come to realize that the mobile phone—not the PC—is the device of choice for customers whether they're buying products online or at brick-and-mortar store locations.
"Mobile devices are gradually becoming ubiquitous and helping us transcend many boundaries—geographical, economic, and social, among others," Guruduth Banavar, global leader of the mobile communications focus for IBM Research and director of IBM Research India said in a statement at the time announcing $100 million investment pool.
One component of Commerce 7, the IBM Mobile Store Model, lets customers use their mobile phones to browse the online store, conduct side-by-side comparisons, receive marketing messages, check store locations and inventories and buy the products in one location.For retailers, the application suite lets companies establish an ongoing dialogue with existing and prospective customers through microblogs, online reviews and ratings delivered directly to their mobile devices.
IBM officials said the software lets retailers drill down to an individual's shopping behavior, preferences and purchase history to help facilitate one-to-one "precision marketing" marketing campaigns. This feature means a retailer can send a coupon offer through e-mail or SMS text messaging for the specific item the customer was viewing as an incentive to complete the purchase.
Those companies that primarily or exclusively sell to other businesses can opt for the Web 2.0 Starter Store that includes a fast product finders, drag and drop shopping and the ability to manage multiple purchasing windows in an out-of-the-box package.
According to Forrester Research, 77 percent of online shoppers use ratings and reviews before making any purchases, and more than 5.8 billion people will use mobile phones as their device of choice for communications, navigation and information services by 2013.
At this time last year, an IBM survey of 600 desktop PC users in the U.S., China and the UK found that more than half would trade in their computer for a smartphone.
This affinity—or perhaps necessity—for mobile devices is particularly pronounced in Asia. IBM said about 25 percent of China's 123 million Internet users are regularly engaging in online shopping with their mobile devices—up 50 percent from last year.
According to IBM researchers, 45.1 percent of customers in Shanghai and 38.9 percent in Beijing make all their online purchases with a mobile phone.

Business travel is coming under closer scrutiny,

In Germany alone, companies spendapproximately 50 billion euros on business travel every year.To partially offset this expense, many companies are replacing business trips with onlinemeetings. With this technology, customers and partners are able to communicate with images and audio over the Internet, while special presentation functions reinforce the personal aspects of a meeting. Software licenses, Webcams, and headsets are worth the investments. Companies that use Web meetings discover new methods of collaboration and reduce their own output of greenhouse gases.Online-only retailers dominated the top of the charts in a recent survey by Lycos-owned shopping portal Pangora. Consumers were quizzed about their experiences with on- and offline retailers and, with the exception of one category, online-only etailers came out on top.
Amazon, ASOS (As Seen On Screen), Lastminute.com and Dell all took top places ahead of their bricks-and-mortar cousins.
Best online grocer was the only category in which a multi-channel company won. Tesco came out on top followed by Asda and Sainsbury’s.
"With a greater consumer choice and the technology to pick and choose the best deals and offers, each retailer must keep up with the competition. If they fail to deliver against ever-higher customer expectations, they face being left behind in the online retail race," said Rob Staunton, head of Pangora UK.
Retailers were selected across several product categories including gadgets, entertainment and computing. Voters were asked to rate each retailer on price, range, customer service and speed of delivery and were also asked whether they would recommend them to a friend.

American online media ,

American online media is starting now to exposé the European shopping club phenomenon which now beginning to get a foothold in the US market. The shopping concept is growing in importance in the US, whereby in Europe there are dozens of such “Vente-Privée” (private sales, member-only shopping club) services in countries like France, Italy, Spain or Germany.
Several US media companies are now simultaneously reporting on the member-only shopping clubs on the web. One example: ABC.com is currently airing an introductory video report, where they explain how internet users can get in on the designer fashion sales.
To score a deal on coveted designer goods you no longer have to battle the crowds, at least not in person. Luxury items without the luxury price tag are just a click away. Online shopping clubs like Ideeli.com, RueLaLa.com, and Gilt.com are slashing prices on designer clothing and accessories and selling them through their members-only websites."
NBC also recently released an article on the US shopping clubs ("Sample Sales have gone online"). The post delivers a first time overview of all the active US clubs, although new starter TheTopSecret is missing from the list.
"Traditionally, VIPs rely on word of mouth to gain access to exclusive sale events. These happenings often occur in a back alley, without signage, and well after closing hours. Now, thanks to the Internet, there is no need to peek down darkened streets."
While the big online media players are focusing on explanatory introductions for consumers, the e-commerce bloggers are going one step further.
For example, B2B blog Snow Patrol have identified two e-commerce strategies that brand-name companies can use to profit from the shopping club trend.
"1. Depending on your product, you can use one of the growing number of online private sale services - Vente Privee is arguably the most famous of all of these in Europe but more seem to be springing up.
2. Set up private sales as part of your own website - Koodos offers a fairly simple private sales service, for example."
The comparison to Koodos.com is a bit weak though, because although they offer deals on designer products, all offerings – including pricing – are accessible to the public. So Koodos.com isn’t really a private shopping club, and has therefore up till now only been of peripheral interest to us.
The Snow Patrol posting isn’t the only evidence of minor misunderstandings. To see that some e-commerce experts haven’t really understood the member-only principle, just take a look at a current posting on Internet Retailing:
"I’d go as far as agreeing that Private Sales are an alternative to eBay but really I don’t buy it, and I’m sure that neither will anyone else. Why as a retailer would you want to do a private sale on a site that’s unknown, and numbers its visitors in hundreds, rather than hundreds of millions?
Yes there’s the chance to get a higher price than you would on eBay, but is the extra work involved in inviting people to the sale and the cost of publicising the sale really worth that effort? Lets’ not forget this is old stock, or it’s overstock, isn’t it better to just get rid of it and concentrate on your current stock?"
Here we see that Internet Retailing sees private shopping clubs only as an extra revenue stream, to be used to clear out old or overstock products as quickly and as cost effectively as possible. Therefore the comparison to eBay.
But, private shopping clubs are for brand-name companies an alternative to traditional sales methods which are intended to move out-of-season product to selected customers, in order to avoid price competition with its own retail distribution network.

school phone mast emissions low,

A study of electromagnetic emissions from mobile phone masts near 100 schools in the UK has shown that they are all way below international maximum recommended exposure guidelines.
The study was set up by the government two years ago, on the recommendation of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones chaired by Sir William Stewart.
It was carried out by the Radiocommunications Agency, part of the Department of Trade and Industry.
The first results, published on Monday, showed that the level of emissions ranged from several hundred to many thousands of times below exposure guidelines set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
Testing is to continue, at another 100 sites this year. Locations of the base stations being tested will be widened to those other than schools.
Economic importance
The E-commerce Minister, Douglas Alexander, said: "It is important that the public have all the information available to them, in an open and accessible way.
"Mobile phones are changing the way we live and work. I am committed to continuing this programme as mobile communications remain important in the development of our society and economy.
"The mobile phone industry has the responsibility to work closely with communities when putting up masts and base stations. They should work together to lessen any impact on communities.
"Building public confidence is essential to building a strong future for the industry."
Fractional emissions
The Minister for Young People and Learning, Ivan Lewis, said base stations near schools could be a cause of real concern.
"The audit results are an important step in reassuring the public that base stations do operate within the relevant international guidelines," he said.
The audit of the 100 base stations near schools was carried out between December 2000 and December 2001.
The findings showed that levels were between 1/279th and 1/825764th of the ICNIRP's international exposure guidelines.
Mike Dolan, director of the MTAG mobile phone industry group, said: "The mobile phone operators understand the concerns some people have raised regarding mobile phone base stations and health, and are committed to addressing these concerns openly and transparently.
"The audit provides independent information for parents who can see that mobile phone base stations operate at small fractions of the guidelines."
Sceptical
A campaigner against a phone mast next to a school in Essex, Danny McLaughlin, said: "This audit has nothing to do with the main reason why many people are opposed to siting of masts near schools: We still do not know what effect such low-level RF radiation may have on the long-term health of children."
Dr McLaughlin, a lecturer in neuropathology at Bart's and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said he was beginning to think that until the proper studies had been carried out - which would take years - there should be a complete ban on placing masts within a 200m radius of school grounds.
"I say this because it would seem that the 'precautionary' approach advised in the Stewart Report does not go far enough," he added.
Earlier findings
The Stewart Group said the evidence did not suggest that mobile phone technologies put the health of the general population at risk.
But it said there was evidence to suggest that there might be biological effects at exposures below the guidelines and that children would absorb more energy than adults.
It said there ought to be a precautionary approach.
Schools were invited to register for Radiocommunications Agency audits.
Details of the findings on each site have been published on the agency's website.

Michuki Rules’ costing economy billions of shillings,

Nairobi residents could go back to standing in buses, a minister has said.
They may also no longer have to fasten seatbelts in public transport.
This follows an observation the measures, introduced as part of regulations to reduce chaos in public transport, are a burden on the economy.
Kenya loses Sh29 billion a year due to traffic jams, Nairobi Metropolitan Development Minister Njeru Githae says.
The billions are lost through wasted vehicle fuel, time, environmental degradation and economic opportunity costs.
Githae argued the problem is made worse by some of the ‘Michuki Rules’ and that changes are in the offing.
"The poor transport mobility and connectivity is a cumulative result of an poor transport system, inadequate transportation plans, investment, development and maintenance of infrastructure," said Mr Githae.
He, however, said the Government had embarked on strategies to improve transport.
In a speech read by Metropolitan PS Philip Sika during the 2009 World Town Planning Day Celebrations on Monday, Githae said some ‘Michuki Rules’ are to blame for poor mobility and accessibility within the Nairobi Central Business District.
He said changes in regulations that would allow passengers to stand in public transport buses are underway.
The ‘Michuki Rules’ forbid passengers to stand in public service vehicles and require them to fasten seat belts.
"This has the net effect of increasing passenger embarking and disembarking time as well as reducing the number of those transiting in high-capacity carriers within the CBD," said Githae.
The Metropolitan Development and Transport ministries are in talks with a view to change the rules to allow high capacity public service vehicles carry standing passengers.
However, the vehicles would have wide entry and exit doors and other requirements approved by the Kenya Bureau of Standards.
Time spent
Githae said the Government intends to reduce time spent in travel due to congestion by 50 per cent and reduce road fatalities by 75 per cent.
Nairobi has an inadequate transport network and mushrooming slums due to poor planning.
"My ministry has in place the Nairobi Metro 2030 Strategy and has sponsored a spatial planning competition to ensure we receive the best concepts for translating the plan into a spatial format," said Githae.
Nairobi is yet to have a new master plan after one designed in the 1970s expired in 2000.

The Dubai Judicial Institute (DJI),

The Dubai Judicial Institute (DJI), a leading centre of law studies and judicial training in Dubai, is organising a three-day judicial training program in co-ordination with University of Georgia for aspiring judges, lawyers and district attorneys.
The International Judiciary Training Program (IJTP) is being held at the Institute’s Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hasher Hall and will run up to November 12.
To be held under the theme ‘Caseflow Management – USA Experience,’ the training sessions mark the first time that IJTP is partnering with a foreign organisation (DJI) and providing training outside the US.
The program will share the US experience in caseflow management and judicial leadership to assist in the development of the Emirates’ judiciary.
Prominent speakers will include judge Doris Downs, chief judge, Fulton County Superior Court, Atlanta Judicial Circuit; judge David Emerson, current member of the Georgia Supreme Court Technology Advisory Committee and member of the Judicial Counsel of Georgia; and Mark Beer, registrar of the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts.
"This landmark event will usher in a new age in the UAE’s judicial system, bringing to the fore the best technologies and techniques for optimising and expediting the dispensation of justice."
"Our partnership with the University of Georgia brings us a step closer to establishing the DJI as a premier regional and international education and training institution for aspiring judges and public prosecutors. We have seen rapid growth in our judicature over the years, so IJTP provides us with the perfect opportunity to properly direct our efforts in our field," said Dr Jamal Alsumaiti, director general of Dubai Judicial Institute.
"Organising this training program is in line with our vision and strategy to implement the best judicial practices and reinforce the position of Dubai Judicial Institute as a regional center for excellence in judicial and legal studies."
"DJI is the first institute in Middle East to offer such a specialised training program in judicial studies, and the participation of director generals of UAE courts and the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs in Bahrain reflects the significance of this training program to further enhance the quality of judiciary in the region," Dr Alsumaiti added.
Speakers at the training program will explain the management of routine and complex civil or criminal cases; particular considerations when handling the routine criminal case and implementing knowledge economy principles through judicial practices.
They will also discuss the use of case count data in trial case management and judicial administration; building and managing the finances for local court operations; and the role of the chief administrative judge.
Other topics to be discussed include the integration of technology into the judicial practice; the judge’s ethical duties; judicial values; and caseflow management and policies.-TradeArabia News Service.

Teachers training by INTEL,

The Meghalaya government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Intel, a global leader in information technology, to provide computer training to teachers inselect government schools.
The memorandum was signed at an educational seminar last evening as part of the government’s initiative to extend the benefits of technology to education in the Northeast.
On the occasion, the Intel announced the launch of its “World Ahead Program”, the first in the Northeast, in the presence of commissioner and secretary, education, L. Roy, North East Council member P.P. Shrivastav and president, Intel India, Praveen Vishakantaiah.
The programme underlines the advantages of organised ICT (information and communication technologies) adoption by providing access to personal computers, enabling broadband Internet connectivity, educating teachers and students on the application of technology in day-to-day life, empowering citizens to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities and access to better healthcare.
Speaking on the occasion, Roy said the partnership with Intel would strengthen the commitment to improve the ICT education scenario in Meghalaya.
“The training provided by Intel will help the teachers and students in Meghalaya to avail of the benefits of technology and develop their competence with 21st century skills,” Roy added.
Intel India president Vishakantaiah said the company was happy to tie up with the Meghalaya government to demonstrate and impart the value of information and communication technology in the schools of the state.
“We will create an enhanced learning experience for teachers and students by integrating technology into school education methods. This partnership is a continued effort towards Intel’s goal of spreading ICT skills to students and teachers in India, particularly in the Northeast,” he added.
NEC member Shrivastav said that given the difficult terrain in the Northeast, technology would help the citizens of the region to be on a par with their counterparts worldwide.

In a meeting held on 22 May,

E-commerce represents an opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), but despite significant progress in deploying information and communication technologies in many regions of the world, there is still an e-commerce gap between developed and developing countries. In a meeting held on 22 May, government experts and representatives of non-governmental organizations and international organizations joined members of the Action Line on e-business, established following the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005, to find solutions to help e-commerce prosper in developing countries. Cross-border e-commerce, they recognized, can only thrive through effective partnerships, harmonized national laws and clear standards. The UPU agreed to organize a conference on public-private partnerships for e-business standards in September 2008 in Geneva along with the International Organization for Standardization and other international organizations. The UPU, the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Labour Organization lead the Action Line on e-business. High-level executives from UNCTAD and ITC, as well as the UPU Deputy Director General, Guozhong HUANG, highlighted the opportunities offered by the rapid progress in the use of new technologies around the world. The UPU led the session about challenges, opportunities and concrete solutions for SMEs wanting to start e-commerce activities. A presentation of the Alibaba.com e-marketplace, for business to business (B2B) e-commerce, showed how this platform has helped several small businesses expand their online activities. China Post also described its e-commerce activities and strategic partnership with Alibaba.com in the areas of logistics and online payments. ITC experts also stressed the importance of making proper use of information and communication technology for enhancing the competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses. They also highlighted the new opportunities provided by "m-commerce" (or commerce through a mobile phone) as a starting point for e-commerce activities, particularly because mobile technologies facilitate access to information and its distribution.

As a business owner or marketer,

As a business owner or marketer, you need to be informed of what is happening on your website, and what analytics tools you need to measure this activity. Seminars for Success provides an ideal opportunity to familiarize yourself with all aspects of Google Analytics, including the recently announced Google Analytics Enterprise features. Choose one or two days to customize your learning, and invite your team. From marketing and management decision-making to the technical skills required to put these plans into action for you, attend these in-person seminars to make the most out of your investment in Analytics.Whether you're just getting started using Google Analytics or a seasoned veteran ready to take your website performance to the next level, Seminars For Success: Google Analytics will help you make the most out of your online efforts. If you: Wish you knew when, where, and how people were finding your website Seek account management tips from an industry professional Have Troubleshooting questions, from installation to advanced queries Desire to boost your ROI by capitalizing on visitors to your site Want to learn to make Google Analytics perform at the highest levels for you Justin Cutroni, Director of Analytics and Testing for EpikOne, has consulted with hundreds of organizations around the globe to optimize their use of Google Analytics. An analytics industry leader, widely read blogger and author of Google Analytics Shortcuts from O'Reilly, Justin will provide best practices for analyzing and optimizing your implementation and marketing initiatives with Google Analytics. As an analyst, Justin draws on a wealth of experience managing and executing web analytics projects for clients to optimize their online presence using data. In his position at EpikOne, Justin is responsible for enterprise class Google Analytics consulting, managing web analytics consulting projects, designing and executing website optimizations tests, designing internal methodologies to deliver web analytics solutions, and evangelizing web analytics and Google Analytics.Alex Broussard is responsible for overseeing all technology operations and planning at EpikOne. He is involved in product development of EpikOne's Software Services group, strategic planning for EpikOne's on-demand technology infrastructure, technical processes for our Consulting Solutions group and employee development. Alex is also a Google Analytics product expert. He has lead EpikOne client organizations through Google Analytics deployments and developed enterprise level analytics strategies. His deep analytics and technology experience has helped EpikOne maintain a leadership role in the analytics industry.. Prior to co-founding EpikOne Alex was the Lead Developer at an interactive agency responsible for online development, application development and technical operations. Before that he was part of the software development team at IXI Corporation which provides market segmentation, targeting, and tracking solutions for financial services companies. His experience includes data modeling and analysis, web application development and architecture. Alex graduated from Colgate University with a degree in Economics and Computer Science.All Google Authorized Consultants have reached a level of training and expertise that allows them "expert" status within their field. For your investment in Google Analytics education, Why choose EpikOne? since the program's inception in 2005, EpikOne was selected as one of only five original Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAAC's). EpikOne has since expanded its relationship with Google and is also a Google Enterprise Professional, Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant and AdWords Qualified Company. We are a mix of an ad agency, search marketer, data analyst, web developer, and usability expert all rolled into one powerhouse, metrics-driven online marketing firm. As a team, EpikOne has successfully propelled client accounts ranging from start-up status to multi-million dollar international conglomerates.In the event there is insufficient enrollment in the course, you will be notified by email and refunded your full registration fee. Cancellations must be made within 15 days of the scheduled event. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 15 days notice, or no-shows. When canceling, please provide written notification via email, including attendee name, to info@epikone.com. Refunds will be issued to the credit card that was used to make the original purchase.

6 Facts to Know Before Renting an Email List,

he Internet has made our lives easier, more productive and knowledge more easily attainable since its inception. It is an important part of our daily business and personal lives. When our Internet connection goes down it seems all business and communication comes to a halt. When we have a question about a product or service we immediately search the Internet for quick answers and solutions. It seems we are all rushing around because we have limited time so these quick low cost solutions appeal to us. Logic and comparing options have taken a backseat to speed and convenience. We need a list to prospect. Here’s one! It amazes me how many experienced and inexperienced professionals turn to the web to find a cheap list. Why would you commit all your marketing dollars just to one list when there are over 73,000 postal, email and telemarketing list on the market today? Not all lists are created equally. How do you know you’re getting accurate information? How can you tell if the list you just rented or bought is CAN SPAM compliant? Yes, we all want quick solutions and results to our marketing challenges, but your list choice accounts for 75-85 percent of your success or failure. It is the one process that should not be rushed.
Six facts you should know before renting a list online:

1) Many new to direct marketing flock to the Internet and sign up for one of those low monthly self serve services or share your leads programs. Most, if not all are from compiled sources or up load your contact database. Why would you limit your marketing efforts to only one list source when they’re so many to choose from? You quiet frankly should not be selecting your own data unless you understand data intimately. Each list source or service has strengths and weaknesses. Do you know them? Certain selects are a waste of money since they are derived from inferred data. Does the list match your existing customer base? One rule in direct marketing is that your next customer will look a lot like your last. If your friend broke his or her leg, would you look on the Internet for a cheap doctor or use every resource to find the best?
2) Many compilers set up wholesale arrangements with other list companies. Some run their counts and order off an online system set up by the compiler. In many cases these vendors resell the data on lower margins than the compiler. This allows for lower costs on small orders that are not profitable for the compiler to serve directly. Where this gets really scary is when the vendor negotiates a data install and sells the data really cheap. Sometimes they pay for updates, but when things are slow, well your renting data that can be more than a year old. The USPS has Move Update regulations in place that have to be followed or mailing costs will increase. Since you want to save on postage and who doesn’t, you mail 3rd class bulk. You want to increase your response rates so you start calling after your mailing only to find that 30%+ never received your mail piece. Why? 20% of consumers change their address each year on average. For B2B when you combined openings, closings and moving the percentage is even higher. None of your mail comes back undeliverable because it is 3rd class and is tossed out. Can you tell who is taking an install of data and not updating it as frequently as the actual compiler? You will not find that on the Internet!
3) A big problem today and the main reason for writing this article is email marketing. Is email really cheaper than postal and can you really send out a million names for only $19.95? The fact is not everyone should be renting 3rd party email files and you certainly should not be selecting your own list here either. There are many companies claiming they can reach every audience with their email file. This is absolutely not true. Many are harvesting names off the Internet (via web crawling or spidering) or setting up registration sites for the sole purpose of collect email addresses. Any company willing to provide the email addresses directly to you is not CAN SPAM compliant. I don’t know any legitimate email source that will provide you with their data out right. Anyone who releases their e-mail list is basically giving away their bread and butter with out any way of policing the use of it, would you give away your client file to just anyone?? If they are selling the actual addresses to many different companies then who is taking care of the opt-outs or unsubscribed?
Ask for the source of the data. Where can you go to register? Remember, you want a file that matches your best prospect from your customer database. Look for focused publications or focused legitimate websites that offer real content to subscribers that offer an email option. If you don’t have good brand recognition within your target market, email may not be for you. If you want to be black listed or have your ISP shut down due to SPAM or damage your brand don’t hire a list broker who will avoid these traps.
4) Keys to successful direct marketing: Postal, email and telemarketing

Your Best Customers,
Take a hard look at your existing customer base. This applies to both consumer and B2B. Find out their age, income, title, industry, married, single, children, geography etc. You will know have profile of who your best customers are and where they come from. This will not only make it easier to find a list of best customer prospect, but where to spend your marketing dollars in other channels such as, traditional media, radio, etc... with less waste.

5) When your marketing to only a few zip codes compiled data is usually your only option. There is only a hand full of national compilers for consumer and B2B. Each has their strengths and weaknesses so knowing when to use one over the other is key. Compiled data should not be considered as a last resort list source. Most of the direct response lists on the market use compiled files for data over lays to enhance the demographic selects on their files. The key is to know which compiler to use for your offer and which selects or omits to choose that will increase response rates. When you have a larger geographic area to work with your list choices increase dramatically. Since you now have a profile of your best customer prospects matching a direct response list(s) is simplified. In many cases your lists choices are numerous and can be quiet confusing. Hire a professional who has experience in your industry!
6) Here is why your list broker should be your new best friend.
A list brokers guides you towards the best list(s) for your offer based on past client experiences and industry knowledge. A broker will steer you away from non-performing lists and selections. The list owner pays a list broker a standard commission only when an order is placed. What that means is the list brokers service to you is free and their primary goal is to make your direct marketing experience as successful as possible.
As you can see there is more than meets the eye when selecting lists. Knowing how data is gathered, updated, and strengths and weakness of data sources is a full time job. This is not something you can learn on the Internet quickly because it takes years of experience working with mailers and many different list sources. Unlike other mediums, direct marketing is 100% tractable and when treated as a science predictable over time.

The conference room of building 14 at the Googleplex

As I sat in the conference room of building 14 at the Googleplex last week, my excitement about what Google was doing to improve its analytics and testing platforms went through the roof. At the 2009 Partner Summit, Google gave a preview of the new Website Optimizer (GWO) features as well as soon-to-be-launched, feature-packed version 4 of Google Analytics.
So what’s new with GWO? Well, there is not a lot, but the few features Google added to its testing platform are HUGE! For me, two of the most notable updates are:
Management API for the creation and management of experiments outside of the Website Optimizer interface
Daily conversion tracking
The GWO API will allow you to much more easily set up tests and record stats, especially if you are using a content management system or a third-party shopping cart. Basically, you will be able to do almost anything you can do in GWO, but with your own interface.
As for the daily conversion tracking, I have always been one of those people who like to see test results to the minutest detail. Until now, Google has only allowed you to see aggregated stats for the entire testing period.Now, I am even more excited about a couple of new features Google Analytics has included in its newest version. My favorites are:
20 Goals, including brand new engagement goals
Custom alerts
Advanced filters built into report interface
I’m sure many of you have shared my frustration when trying to track more than four goals for one website. Before, we would have to create a duplicate profile of our website just to add goal five, six, seven….
Well, that’s all changed! Google has announced 20 goals for each profile. These will be grouped into four sets of five, but you will be allowed to use the 20 slots however you want.But it doesn’t stop there. Add on top of that the fact that you will now have the ability to set user engagement goals. And you are no longer limited by a goal being attributed only to a pre-defined conversion page. The new engagement Analytics goals are:
1.Time on page
2.Pageviews per visit

You will also be able to set custom alerts to be emailed to you. By “custom,” I mean you set the variables however you want. So if I want to know if my website’s New York PPC traffic drops 15%, Google will let me know and I can act accordingly.Finally, they have added custom filters to the report interface. Sure you could export the data to Excel then sort, filter, and do whatever you wanted to make the data make sense to you. But now, Google has added the flexibility to get a clear and intelligent picture of what’s going on with your website without having to go back and forth between its interface and Excel.Say I’m looking at my Top Content report and I want to sort by bounce rate to see which pages are performing poorly so I can dedicate new resources for improvements to be made. Previously, I would see many pages with a bounce rate of 100% simply because they just had one or two visits.
Now, I can set the filter to only look at pages with a minimum of 100 visits and a bounce rate of less than 70%. This will allow me to make much more sense out of the heaps of data that Analytics is collecting.
You should be seeing all of these new features and many more appear in your Analytics and Website Optimizer interfaces over the next few weeks. We will be taking advantage of them right away with our research partners.
Check back next month after we’ve tested some of these new features, we’ll offer suggestions on how you can make the most out of them.

BASF and e-business,

E-business is of great importance to the BASF Group: The electronic performance of business processes is regarded as a decisive success factor.
Virtual commerce continues to grow in significance in today's globalized world, and e-business opens up new perspectives above and beyond communication. It guarantees customers competent advice, transparent, secure communication processes and information available at anytime, anywhere in the world. This increases the efficiency of business relationships. Both for our customers and for BASF, this means: Faster, more cost-efficient value-added processes.
As early as 2001 a unit was founded within the BASF Information Services department exclusively dedicated to the topic of e-business. For procurement and sales processes, i.e. for both customers and vendors, the team standardized processes, developed user-friendly tools such as "World Account" and industry-specific portals and was one of the founding members behind the initiation of ELEMICA, the platform of the chemical industry. The renaming of the e-business unit as "E-Solutions" in 2006 is a clear indicator: Expansion of the range of information for BASF products, E-Marketing and more than anything the development of an optimum e-business strategy are all promising measures for success taken above and beyond the level of the pure transaction. The e-solutions brochure gives you an overview of the offered tools and services.
The e-business team supports customers worldwide with current trends and innovative technologies in the context of e-business. In this way companies can standardize business processes of increasing complexity quickly and flexibly and can react to new developments: An important investment in the long-term satisfaction and retention of the customer.
The figures for 2006 already demonstrate how successful e-business has become at BASF. For the first time, more than a third of corporate revenues were generated through electronic commerce. This makes the BASF Group the world's leading chemical company in the area of e-business as well.

Vice President of Sales at Nexternal Solutions explains further,

A leading provider of ecommerce software is proud to announce the release of Direct Checkout. This groundbreaking tool allows customers to order a specific product from a single screen, providing the fastest checkout possible. Direct Checkout greatly increases conversion of customers who are shopping for a specific product. This happens frequently when a customer has run a query on a Search Engine, has used an online marketplace like Shopping.com, or is responding to an offer email from a merchant.
As an example, a merchant might run an ad on a search engine for a specific product. Instead of taking the customer to a landing page or the products page within an online store (the best option previously available) the customer is now treated to the Direct Checkout for that specific product. On this single page, the customer picks attribute information for the product if applicable and enters their shipping and payment information. The customer experience is as simple as possible and greatly reduces the steps of a traditional store experience, even stores that have a “one page checkout”. Direct Checkout is effective in pay-per-click ads, online marketplaces, email marketing campaigns, search engine optimized product landing pages, and online video ads.
Craig Ross, Vice President of Sales at Nexternal Solutions explains further, “There are two primary types of shopping experiences online. The first is what I call the Gap experience. In this case the customer is shopping a specific retailer’s site (in this case the Gap) and they want browse and compare many products. The customer is not looking for a specific product; they are shopping at the brand for certain type of product. For this type of experience the traditional online store concept is the best.”
“However, it is often the case that a customer knows exactly the product that they are looking for. I call this the Google experience. In this case the customer will execute a product search in Google. The customer simply wants to click on a link to buy the product in question. In essence, they have told Google that they want to buy the product by clicking on the appropriate ad. Most orders that originate from this type of source are for one product.”
“While the Gap shopping experience is very different from the Google shopping experience, every ecommerce system that I am aware off treats the customer exactly the same and their conversion suffers. Why should a customer have to select ‘Add to Cart’ once they already told Google that they intend to purchase the product? Why should they have to navigate through a store when they just want to purchase the intended product? Direct Checkout solves this problem.”
Steve Barbour of the Barre Army Navy Store has already used Direct Checkout to increase conversion for his Google Product Search listings. “While feed conversion was very strong in my online store, Direct Checkout increased it even further. Having an easy and quick shopping experience is critical for my customers and this new tool redefines the experience a customer can have online.”
Steve Barbour of the Barre Army Navy Store has already used Direct Checkout to increase conversion for his Google Product Search listings. “While feed conversion was very strong in my online store, Direct Checkout increased it even further. Having an easy and quick shopping experience is critical for my customers and this new tool redefines the experience a customer can have online.”
Any merchant who advertises online knows the importance of customer conversion and can calculate the sales increase they will have when they improve that figure. Nexternal now offers a tool to merchant of all sizes that specifically addresses this issue in a way that was previously unavailable from any ecommerce provider. To see an example of Nexternal’s Direct Checkout, follow this link.About Nexternal Solutions Nexternal Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of web based e-commerce software. Founded in 1999, the company's unique e-commerce system is used by hundreds of clients in many diverse industries. Nexternal's software features an always-on screen shopping cart with integrated marketing and fulfillment tools allowing merchants to maximize revenue while minimizing operating costs. Nexternal's software was rated five out of five stars by Internet.com and is a three time SIIA Codie awards finalist for Best E-Commerce Software. Winery clients include Paul Hobbs Winery, Bonnydoon Vineyard, Whitehall Lane Winery, Duckhorn Wine Company, Peter Michael Winery and Lewis Cellars. With locations in Carlsbad, CA and New Canaan, CT, Nexternal provides industry leading customer service. For more information, contact Nexternal Solutions, Inc. 800.914.6161. Web: www.nexternal.com

Nexternal Solutions,

A leading provider of ecommerce software is pleased to announce that it now offers a Preferred Delivery Date feature. This tool allows online shoppers to specify a preferred delivery date when checking out. It also allows merchants to easily manage current and future delivery date shipments. Any merchant selling products that are event driven will find this tool much appreciated by online shoppers. Like all updates to the Nexternal’s ecommerce software, this enhancement is provided at no charge and does not require the merchant to install any software.
The Preferred Delivery Date feature has many configuration options to handle different scenarios merchants encounter. This tool takes into account time-in-transit information which is calculated in real-time from the various shipping carriers. It also allows merchants to specify a lead time with a cutoff component for maximum accuracy when processing orders.
Susan Boling, owner of Honeyham.com said, “The preferred delivery date feature is a boon for our business. Many of our customers are selecting to have their turkeys and hams delivered the day before Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving orders are up tremendously this year and I sincerely believe it is because our customers feel confident in knowing that their main course will arrive fresh. We have also already started taking orders that will be delivered near Christmas. This provides us the additional advantage of having plenty of time to prepare for those orders and get ahead of the holiday crunch. This new feature definitely gives us a leg up on our competition.”
“Although this tool has tremendous benefits for companies that ship gift items, it also provides a competitive advantage to all merchants that use it. When shopping online, it’s a great convenience to specify a preferred delivery date. People may go out of town or simply want a gift to arrive on the recipient’s birthday,” said Ty Nunez, Director of Business Development at Nexternal Solutions. “Orders are tagged and color coded in a way that allows merchants to see which order must go out on a given day. They can even batch process today’s shipments without fear of including a future shipment request.”
Enabling Preferred Delivery Date increases conversion by allowing the customer to select the delivery date that is ideal for them or a gift recipient. Nexternal Solutions continuously adds new tools to its software that help merchants increase their profits by improving customer conversion, website traffic, and business management efficiency. About Nexternal Solutions Nexternal Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of web based e-commerce software. Founded in 1999, the company's unique e-commerce system is used by hundreds of clients in many diverse industries. Nexternal's software features an always-on screen shopping cart with integrated marketing and fulfillment tools allowing merchants to maximize revenue while minimizing operating costs. Nexternal's software was rated five out of five stars by Internet.com and is a three time SIIA Codie awards finalist for Best E-Commerce Software. Clients include Alcoa, USA Today, Oxfam America, K2 Sports and Hershey. With locations in Carlsbad, CA and New Canaan, CT, Nexternal provides industry leading customer service. For more information, contact Nexternal Solutions, Inc. 800.914.6161. Web: www.nexternal.com

twitter list and business,

The latest feature rolled out by Twitter is lists. This new offering by Twitter allows users to create lists of specific Twitter users. Believe it or not, Twitter lists can be helpful to the business web site owner. After all, social media has been proven to be a boon to the online business owner.
How Twitter works for business
As social media outlets go, Twitter is quickly becoming one of the more popular micro-blogging sites around. The list of businesses currently using Twitter in one fashion or another is constantly growing. Comcast, JetBlue, and Dell are just a few companies that realized early on that Twitter has great potential to help them get in contact with and support their customers. Comcast is a perfect example of how a business can use a micro-blogging service to give fast and courteous service to their existing customers as well as garner new business by word of mouth from happy and support customers.
How Twitter lists work for business
Once a business has set up their Twitter account, it is very easy to start racking up the number of users being followed. At last count, the official support Twitter account for Comcast has over 32,000 users it’s following. Trying to keep track of that many conversations at once is completely impossible. So, what is the solution?
Simple – Twitter lists. Creating a list is a very quick and easy process. Log into Twitter and click on the “New list” link found on the right-hand side of the web site. A new window will open up where a name can be typed in as well as the type of list it should be (private or public). Once the list is created, it’s then a simple matter of going through the “following” list of the account and adding members to the newly created list.
One great example for a business use for a Twitter list is a company that has offices and customers across the states. If this business wished to group its customers by area, lists such as “northwest_customers” or “Oregon_clients” could be created. Then, support teams could have direct access to specific customers based on geographic location.
Taking it one step further
Twitter has made it convenient to include user lists within web sites. By going to the Goodies – Widgets area, one can find the easy to customize Twitter list widget. Once customized, the code then can be grabbed and integrated easily within a business web site. This widget provides a quick way to keep tabs on customers and makes it very simple for new customers to join in on the conversation. The list widget can be placed on a front page of a web site or even within a support section. Either way, including this bit of coding is a perfect way to generate more business.
Conclusion
Including Twitter within a social media campaign is a smart move. Twitter is continuously adding new features to make the experience of micro-blogging easier. The latest addition of Twitter lists is a splendid way to monitor topics and people who matter most and a great way to keep in contact with and give support to customers and clients.

Email link – bad idea,

One of the first and most annoying things that can happen to a new web site owner is being blasted with spam. There is a dilemma presented when wanting to have potential customers or clients contact you or your company. Either your email has to be publicly posted or you will need to enable a form to allow quick and easy contact. When you do implement either choice, spammers will come and they will do as much damage as is possible.
Email link – bad idea
The first thing that should be done is to toss out the idea of publicly placing your email address in any form that can be clicked as a link. Using a linked email address publicly is an open invitation to spammers. Nothing can be more unpleasant than having to start off your business day wading through hundreds upon hundreds of spam content in your email in-box. If you must use this route, simply place your email in text only – this will make it harder for a potential spammer as they will have to physically copy and paste your address into any email. Inconvenience is the bane of the spammer.
Contact form – can be attacked
If you’ve decided to place a contact form anywhere within your web site, you’ll want to enable some type of security to ensure that an actual human is utilizing the form. This sounds simple enough because, after all, the purpose of the form is to gather human information. However, most email forms have a standard “name”, “email”, “subject”, “content” style to them that is easily recognized and exploited by spammers. Using this standard information, spammers use automated systems to attack a contact form – computer to computer. What can stump them is requiring something that only a human can input or answer and that isn’t part of the standard email form. This is where Captcha comes in.
Contact form with Captcha – better idea
Captcha is a type of test that is used to ensure human interaction. The premise behind Captcha is that computers should not be able to solve something that requires human input. The very early implementations of Captcha were simple generations of a word or series of letters with some small amount of warping. However, spammers quickly adjusted to this warping and this initial Captcha implementation had to be abandoned. Modern Captcha uses two to three regular words that are segmented and have lines through the words making it much more difficult to automatically guess via a computer system.
This all culminates into a small bit of either PHP or Javascript that is placed within your form before the submit button coding. After filling out the rest of the form, a user must then enter the correct words generated within the Captcha coding. You can set the form to lock out a user after a certain number of errors thus staving off the possible attack of spammers for yet another day.
Conclusion
Of course, the simplest way to avoid spammers at all is by not allowing any sort of email contact within your site. But this is not a feasible option – after all, you have your web site online for the purpose of contacting new and old customers or clients. So, before putting your email form online, use a bit of quick security and incorporate Captcha.

New e-commerce technology and services,

A full economic recovery is barely on the horizon, but web retailers already are planning to spend significantly more on new e-commerce technology and services this year.
With many experts predicting e-commerce will rebound more quickly than stores and catalogs, many web merchants are planning to replace their older homegrown systems and limited off-the-shelf software with new e-commerce platforms that can handle sophisticated applications in such areas as mobile commerce and social marketing.
To give visitors a superior shopping experience, online retailers also are looking to add on—or replace—software and services that can expedite and target e-mail, create a better web site design, and deliver more targeted affiliate and search engine marketing results, according to a recent Internet Retailer survey.
The survey finds that 72.4% of merchants expect to spend more on advanced e-commerce applications and services this year, including 33.8% that plan to increase spending from 10.1% to 20%, 13.1% from 20.1% to 50%, and 14.7% by more than 50%. The Internet Retailer survey of readers of its IRNewsLink e-newsletter was conducted in August with e-mail marketing and survey firm Vovici Corp.
Breaking down the results by type of merchant, 31.1% of catalog companies expect to spend at least 20% more this year on e-commerce technology, compared with 30.5% of web-only merchants, 26.1% of chain retailers and 20% of consumer brand manufacturers.
“The last time many retailers installed a new e-commerce platform was five years ago, and those systems aren’t robust enough to support all of the new technology that’s changing the very nature of how consumers are shopping online,” says David Fry, founder of Fry Inc., a web site design and application development company. “Merchants are looking past the economic downturn and ahead to better online retailing sales. Smart retailers know they need to implement better technology now or they’ll miss out on the recovery and a big opportunity.”
Top priority
Replacing an entire e-commerce platform is the top priority for many web retailers. The Internet Retailer survey of 192 chain retailers, catalog companies, consumer brand manufacturers and web-only merchants reveals that 48.9% expect to install a new e-commerce platform within two years, including 38.3% in 12 months and 22.2% within six months.
One third say they will implement and install their own system, compared with 27.9% that will move to an e-commerce platform hosted by a vendor, 18.2% that will purchase an off-the-shelf application from a vendor and 20.2% that will build a new platform using software-as-a-service applications.
Flexible technology and better pricing are the big reasons more retailers are choosing to spend money on a new e-commerce platform now. Just five years ago, it would have taken a large online retailer up to nine months and $1 million to install a new off-the-shelf e-commerce platform and integrate the system with back-end applications, says Fry.
But now options such as software-as-a-service and hosted platforms can bring down the up-front costs of launching a large-scale e-commerce platform to between $250,000 and $500,000. “The first e-commerce platforms were developed in response to the birth of the industry and, over more than 10 years, the capabilities for these platforms have been forced to evolve,” Fry says. “Now platforms and e-commerce technology are to the point where retailers have multiple options to choose from and lower up-front costs.”
Big plans
For many merchants, replacing their entire e-commerce platform is the top goal, but retailers also have plans to implement or replace other key components of their technology infrastructure. The survey results, which include responses from 113 web-only merchants, 30 chain retailers, 26 catalog companies and 23 consumer brand manufacturers, show that 38.5% of companies plan to purchase a better content management system within the next year, followed by 37% that will implement customer reviews and ratings or product personalization, 35.9% that will update site search, and 33.9% that will purchase a new live chat or order management system.
In order to launch more targeted marketing programs and roll out more advanced features and functions on their e-commerce sites, 44% of companies participating in the survey expect to update or replace their e-mail marketing system, followed by 41.2% that will spend money on a new site design, 30.8% that will invest in a better affiliate program and 26.9% in a search engine marketing program.
Web retailers also are earmarking more money to fund new social marketing, rich media and product personalization projects. Social marketing was a top priority for 49.5% of survey respondents this year, compared with 35.7% for video, 34.1% for blogs or customer ratings and reviews, and 22.5% for live chat or product personalization.
“We’re finding that any increase in e-commerce technology budgets, even higher funding for just a single application, is being done with the expectation that the project will have to produce a superior return on investment,” says Ken Burke, chairman of e-commerce platform provider MarketLive Inc. “Retailers are increasing their spending on technology now because they need more horsepower to deliver what shoppers just naturally expect these days: a very sophisticated shopping experience.”
C-level clearance
It’s clear Internet retailers take technology spending seriously—the survey finds that chief executive officers or presidents have the final say on purchasing any new e-commerce technology or service at 51.1% of companies. At 17% of companies, the chief information officer oversees the budget and at 11.4% it’s the chief marketing officer.
It’s also evident senior executives have very specific business goals tied to any increase in e-commerce technology spending. The survey reveals that attracting new customers is the top reason 24.4% of merchants are spending more on better applications and related services this year, compared with 22.9% that want to generate higher sales conversions, 17.6% that need better web site optimization, and 11.5% seeking to boost multichannel sales or web site performance.
“E-commerce budgets are increasing along with the detail decision makers are asking for in a proposal because they have very clear business goals and objectives they want to achieve,” Burke says. “If we cite in a proposal that customer reviews have the potential to double a conversion rate on a particular product or category page, CEOs are asking us to supply support documentation that details how our other retailers are hitting that target. Providing that level of detail was practically unheard of five years ago, and now it’s almost standard operating procedure.”
With conventional store and direct marketing sales not expected to fully rebound anytime soon, setting aside even more money for e-commerce technology or at least keeping current budget allocations intact is becoming a priority for merchants at all levels, the survey finds.
Even among the 27.6% of merchants that have no plans to increase their e-commerce budget this year, the survey reveals that 80% of retailers will keep funding levels the same and only 14% will reduce technology spending by more than 10%.
“Even before the economic downturn, more consumers were shifting away from stores and shopping more online,” says Kasey Lobaugh, retail analyst and principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP. “When the recovery fully takes hold, the growth will be driven by the web, and retailers that want to survive and grow need to fish where the fish are. Merchants with worn-out old systems won’t be the ones getting the business online. The ones that will are making a sound investment in better e-commerce technology now.”

During the economic downturn,

During the economic downturn, marketers had to become smarter at e-commerce. Savvy marketers tested e-mail campaigns, offers, on-site merchandising and targeting. Now, as the economy recovers, they must build on what worked to gain competitive advantage, grow their brands and increase their customer bases.
In any market condition, one of the most successful strategies is the use of analytics to help guide business decisions and make sure limited resources are focused on areas with the greatest potential for returns. Marketers now are taking testing to the next level. Many use A/B testing strategies to determine what works, dividing traffic equally between two different versions of a Web page to determine which one delivers the best results.
As marketers become more adept at using A/B testing, it may be time to explore a more effective variation called multivariate testing. Multivariate testing, as a methodology, lets site owners find out which zones of a Web page have the biggest impact on target metrics like orders, leads or time spent on the site. It also pinpoints which version of each page component produces the biggest lift in the metric of interest. With multivariate testing, each test looks at more than one part of the page and more than one variable at a time.
Key Considerations for Optimal TestingIt's clear that testing offers significant benefits and a much deeper understanding of customer preferences and behaviors. However, it requires time and attention to do it right. The following are some key considerations:
Clearly define your objectives: Prioritize specific goals related to your business, and set your testing methodology around them. Common goals include factors like driving increased clickthroughs or improving navigation on search results pages. With your goals in mind, engage in a progressive process of continuous optimization, factor by factor.
Understand your capabilities: Determine the amount of time your marketing staffs (and the IT people who support them) can commit to testing to assure a smooth process of refinement in areas such as page modifications, usability and site function.
Creatively explore the unknown: The most successful and useful testing strategies measure factors in which the outcomes are uncertain. Marketers often suspect that they know what will work, but are often surprised with the results of testing. These unexpected results can drive improvements to functional areas within the site and dramatically improve business results.Implement informed site 
changes: Testing is a systematic 
method for allowing site visitors to define a site that is most effective for them. The benefit is that effective sites are the most profitable and create the most loyalty. Successful testing strategies result in a need to change merchandising strategies and site design. Execute tests with action plans in mind to implement changes to the site that reflect the tests results. Refine, test and learn: Testing is a practice that can positively impact marketers' businesses by implementing customer-centric approaches to site design and merchandising. Marketers who continuously measure and improve their sites produce fresh, effective sites that work for customers. The most successful marketers are open to unlikely outcomes and committed to making changes based on test results, which also means they are most likely to uncover new opportunities.
While all testing requires resources, multivariate testing programs require additional considerations:
Resources—While more effective than simple A/B testing methodologies, multivariate tests can take significantly more time to design and execute. The most successful multivariate testing programs are continuous, so the resources needed to plan a testing strategy, create alternative content, set up and run the test, and share the results need to be part of the ongoing staffing plan.
Technology—The technology required to run a multivariate test is more complex than what's needed for an A/B test. So, even if you built your own A/B infrastructure, you will need to move up to a multivariate testing application.
Content—Multivariate tests require significantly more content than A/B tests. Marketing and site design teams need to be prepared to do extra work to develop this content.
The Benefits of Multivariate TestingGaiam, a large multichannel marketer, has used testing and ongoing site refinement to optimize sales. In one specific program this year, Gaiam tested several key zones on critical product pages. Informed by test results, the marketer focused on improving the product page for a popular product called the Balance Ball Chair. Gaiam was able to achieve positive results by analyzing shopper behavior and making appropriate changes to the site. Findings included:
Most visitors zoomed in on the photo. Increasing the size of the graphic resulted in a better layout.
Adding the product feature toolbar helped customers find the most searched upon information.
Adding ratings and reviews reduced navigation away from the page as customers looked for feedback.
Adding promotion data on the product page motivated customers to buy now. Adding related items increased average order size.
Jason Marshall, vice president and general manager of consumer direct at Gaiam, offers, "Testing gives us access to the data that helps us fine-tune our business. In a recent testing and refinement cycle, we were able to recognize important customer behaviors and make changes to our product pages that increased overall site conversion by over 10 percent."If you have had success with A/B testing, now is the time to try multivariate testing to further optimize your site to increase revenues, grow your brand and expand your customer base.

The International Chamber of E-commerce,

The International Chamber of E-commerce (I.C.E.) was established to educate business operators on how to develop, manage, support, and promote their e-business on the Internet in the most cost effective manner. William Mobley, the founder and visionary of I.C.E., is considered a true pioneer of the e-Commerce sector. As a serial entrepreneur, in both public and private companies, he developed the first global e-commerce trading system, automated website/portal builder and largest streaming media portal in history. Today, William Mobley aspires to bring all these experiences, elements and knowledge, once available only to corporate giants, direct to the business masses in simple easy-to-use online services. Our goal is to partner these next generation e-business services with regional grass roots Chambers of Commerce as a means of distribution to the business owners and members. To stay competitive business owners must embrace technology, which is often confusing, time consuming and costly when trying to investigate what is the best e-business or e-commerce solution for their business. We have simply eliminated all the time, cost and more importantly, risk, out of this pain staking process for the business members. Meanwhile, the regional Chambers earn recurring monthly revenues while providing higher levels of service, tighter communications and a daily interactive bond with their members. Isn't that what everyone really wants? We believe we've made it happen!" .C.E. will leverage its position in the world's technology epicenter by providing our members access to educational, marketing and networking opportunities. I.C.E. also provides a forum for business owners to share and build upon similar interest, as well as develop and learn about new ones.
As the world moves together closely through the use of technology, especially the World Wide Web (WWW), business owners need to acquire skills and tools in e-business, e-marketing and advanced research to participate in this ever-changing market place. The I.C.E. acts as a clearinghouse for all new emerging technology and services, probing the impact of these items in the new e-conomy. Once disseminated by importance and value, the I.C.E. simplifies how members can engage and deploy these opportunities.
The I.C.E. membership will influence developers of ease-of-use technology, shape e-policy, and support businesses that strive to ensure the best possible environment in which I.C.E. members can operate on the Internet.
Regionally Focused - Nationally Represented - Internationally Organized
Our Founder
William A. Mobley, Jr. is the Founder and President of The International Chamber of E-Commerce. Mobley is the Founder and President of Nextelligence, Inc., a public company (NXLG), which provides various levels of assistance to dynamic Internet entrepreneurs. Nextelligence transforms these entrepreneurs' ideas and/or concepts into successful enterprises.
William Mobley also currently serves as Chairman of Personal Portals Online, Inc. a publicly traded company (PPON) and its subsidiaries, ZeroBrand, Websiteowner, WebSiteSuperstore and TemplateStore.
Mobley previously founded and served as the Chairman of MegaMedia Networks, publicly traded Internet broadcasting and distribution company that delivered popular music, sports and entertainment through its online portal, MegaChannels.com. MegaChannels.com became the number #1 male 18-35 destination website in the world, eight weeks following its launch in March 2000. MegaChannels.com held that position for 10 weeks serving some 800,000+ unique visitors per day prior until the big online advertising and dot com fall-out in the late summer of 2000.
Mobley also founded and served as President of World Commerce Online (WCOL) from 1994-1999, a publicly traded company and recognized leader in e-commerce business-to-business and industry based solutions. World Commerce Online, became a I2 Technologies powered solution and provided services to such clients as; GE Global Exchange Services, Dole Foods, Acosta, IBM and others. Wall Street was quick to see the investment potential. World Commerce Online gave investors over a 2000 percent return in the months following its debut on NASDAQ prior to Mobley's departure in the spring of 1999.
Prior to WCOL, Mobley held the Vice President position with Intermarket Services (Southeast Banks Export Trading Company), of Miami specializing in the trade of perishable commodities from Latin America and Europe.
Mobley graduated from the University of Florida in 1984 with a degree in International Business Development and Marketing.