Importance of e-commerce

Universities in Bahrain,

2009-12-03T03:50:00.000-08:00

Universities in Bahrain are participating in the CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge for the first time.
CFA Bahrain, the association for local investment professionals, consisting of portfolio managers, investment advisers, educators and other financial professionals, hosted the first stage of the national competition.
Over the next few months, five teams of 20 students from four of the country's leading universities and business schools will compete for a place in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regional final in Istanbul in March next year.
The successful team from the EMEA region will then compete in the international final to be held in Hong Kong next April.
The Global Investment Research Challenge is an educational initiative in which leading industry professionals guide business and finance students in researching and reporting on a publicly traded company.
It spans one academic year and consists of analysing a public company, mentoring by a professional research analyst, writing a research report and presenting its results and recommendations to a panel of experts.
"Last year students from Nanyang Technological University from Singapore won the competition, beating stiff opposition from three other teams from Ireland, the United States and Brazil." CFA Bahrain vice-president Lamees Al Baharna said.
"This year's competition will be just as challenging. Our society is very excited to be bringing the event to Bahrain and the GCC for the first time, for giving students the chance to meet some of the finest investment professionals working in the country and to potentially meet their contemporaries from many other countries."
With the cut-off date approaching bankers, financiers, and Islamic banking professionals are rushing to get their votes in for the Islamic Business and Finance Awards.
This year's award ceremony will be hosted by CPI Financial, publisher of Islamic Business & Finance magazine, and will be highlighting the phenomenal performance of the Islamic finance industry, particularly during times of economic instability.
The awards ceremony is set to be held on December 14 under the patronage of Dubai International Financial Centre.
They were first introduced in 2005 in response to the extraordinary growth rate of the Islamic financial institutions, and is currently one of the most distinguished awards within the financial industry.
"Islamic finance proves to be the most promising financial sector today." CPI Financial chief executive officer Nigel Rodrigues said
"Throughout the global economic crisis, the combined assets of Islamic banks continued to soar relative to the private banks worldwide," he added

Supporting business leaders in running,

2009-12-03T03:43:00.000-08:00

Supporting business leaders in running for next year's parliamentary elections was one of the plans outlined by the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry's new board yesterday.
BCCI chief executive officer Ebrahim Al Lengawi said the chamber Foundation president Kevin O'Malley wanted the business commuity to have more presence in parliament and it was keen to help.
"The chamber is thinking for the business community to have a presence in the parliament and to support one or two in the next elections as a way of supporting the economy," he told the GDN following a Press conference held at the BCCI in Sanabis.
"They will do this by making alliances with societies that are related to the economy and supporting them logistically."
He said other plans for the chamber included supporting the private sector in establishing a company for fish farming, poultry and red meat.
BCCI bureau members Jawad Al Hawaj and BCCI vice-treasurer Sagar Shaheen will spend the next three days visiting the Philippines and Thailand to discuss opportunities for fish farming with Bahrain.
Meetings will be held with their counterparts in each country and business leaders in the field.
Meanwhile, a proposal to add four new committees to the BCCI's existing 18 was announced.
The four committees are: fairs and exhibitions committee, transportation committee (with a focus on heavy vehicles), joint committee with Bahrain Association of Banks and a joint committee with contractors.
The chamber is also considering establishing a fifth committee, which will be a joint committee with Tamkeen.
The committees will be chaired by a board member involved in that particular sector or in some cases by a member outside the board.
The progress of each committee will be reviewed every three to six months.
The board also announced its decision to adopt a 10-point manifesto that had previously been presented by a 14-member bloc in the chamber's elections, which were held on November 16.
In the polls, 13 out 14 members in the bloc, which included BCCI chairman Dr Essam Fakhro, were elected to the new board.
"It will form part of the BCCI's objectives and more will be added because obviously others were elected to the board and they have their individual goals and agenda," said Mr Al Lengawi.
"The board will continue to support the market and focus on activating committees in the BCCI and make sure they deliver, with a special focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to open lots of avenues in the local and international markets."
BCCI's objectives for the next four years include:
l Frame a new strategic vision for the chamber in accordance with Bahrain Vision 2030.
l Enhance the chamber's role in protecting members' interests and bring up existing and emerging issues that members are facing.
l Establish a new centre for upholding the interests of small and medium enterprises.
l Provide support and orientation to young businessmen and women so they can emerge successful in their business ventures and equip them to play an important role in the kingdom's economy
l Set fundamentals for dialogue, discussions and partnership with the chamber and government and carry the private sector's voice to legislative bodies to uphold national interests
l Play a new influential role for the chamber in streamlining procedures, regulations and initiatives for infrastructural facilities pertaining to contracting industries, traders and services.
l Improve administrative systems and create value added services for the members to enhance ties and boost financial resources among them.
l Adopt and encourage initiatives and investments in national projects, research and administration to boost competency for establishments and companies in Bahrain.
l Conduct a viability study to enhance the private sector's role in local and public issues and to increase their role in political movements.
l Enhance the chamber's role for setting up an appropriate legislative and administrative environment to encourage private and commercial sectors.

Oman Air has launched a new three-class services,

2009-12-03T03:33:00.000-08:00

Oman Air has launched a new three-class service on its flagship Muscat-London Heathrow route. The service is offered aboard new A330-300 aircraft and features new First Class, Business Class and Economy Class cabins, together with state of the art in-flight entertainment and delicious new menus.
"Oman Air's new three-class service between Muscat and London delivers everything the discerning traveller could want," Oman Air's chief executive officer Peter Hill, who launched the new service, said.
"Our daily, non-stop direct flights between our hub in Muscat and London Heathrow offer a smooth and hassle-free journey and our stunning new aircraft offer more space, comfort and luxury than ever before.
"With lie-flat seats, direct aisle access and a la carte dining for every passenger in First Class and Business Class, together with surprisingly comfortable and spacious Economy Class seats, we now offer an unmatched level of quality for all passengers.
"In addition, our leading-edge in-flight entertainment system, including audio-video on demand and six channels of live TV, wonderful new menus in every class and superb hospitality offered by our specially-trained cabin crew attired in new, Balenciaga-designed uniforms - underline our commitment to ensuring that every one of our passengers reaches their destination relaxed, refreshed and ready to go."
The seats in each class of the new service have been designed to the highest specifications by EADS Sogerma.
The First Class Mini Suite offers the longest lie-flat bed available on any commercial airliner and is set within a massive 87-inch pitch.
Furthermore, with a 25.5-inch wide seat, and eight point massage system built in, stowage for hand luggage, dedicated space to hang a coat and a huge 23-inch video monitor, Oman Air's First Class Mini Suite is in a class of its own.
With just six seats within the first-class cabin, together with a luxurious lounge area, the passenger experience is akin to flying in an exclusive private jet.
The Business Class cabin offers 20 lie-flat seats, each within a pitch of 82 inches and fitted in a four-abreast, on-two-one configuration.
A wide seat, ample stowage space, a privacy screen and a sizeable 17-inch monitor ensure that Oman Air's Business Class seat outshines most other airlines' first-class offering.

The eGovernment National Portal,

2009-12-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

The importance of Bahrain's National Portal in boosting business and trade ties were highlighted at a major forum. The eGovernment Authority in Bahrain shared its expertise with delegates from across the GCC and the region at the event.
The two-day third Gulf eCommerce Forum 2009 opened yesterday at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre under the patronage of Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro.
The theme of the forum was 'Electronic Portals: A Future Look'.
The eGovernment National Portal , launched in November last year, was a landmark event, being the first of the four main service delivery channels in the eGovernment strategy, the other three being the mobile gateway, common service centres, and national contact centres.
The story of the National Portal was chronicled by eGovernment Authority chief executive officer Mohammed Al Qaed during the forum's opening ceremony.
This included major milestones and challenges faced before and after the portal's launch, as well as the importance of such portals to e-commerce.
"Well-developed comprehensive electronic national portals are a significant factor in the progress of nations when it comes to simplifying processes." he said.
"Such portals are a key reason why nations such as the US and Singapore sit amongst the top countries in important UN rankings reports such as eReadiness and business friendliness.
"Bahrain, guided by Vision 2030, is setting the necessary groundwork to become a player in the regional and international scene through various eGovernment programmes and initiatives," he said.
"We have recently completed upgrading the portal's infrastructure platform to accommodate its growing number of visitors and integrated e-services the ministries plan on launching through the site."
National portals help shift the focus to the end users, thereby elevating the level of service, Al Qaed said.
In addition, they present a convenient one-stop-shop to access all government services and information for users, and even enables direct interaction between the public and government ministries and departments.
eGovernment Authority head of eService Delivery Mohammed Abdulaziz gave an in-depth presentation during the forum's first session, using the National Portal to illustrate the important role partnerships can play in creating world-class electronic portals.
The presentation, entitled 'Effective Partnerships in eServices', revolved around the role of public-private partnerships and the eGovernment Authority's experience in this regard.
The presentation included case studies of current partnerships between the eGovernment Authority and various private sector enterprises, and how these joint efforts optimise eService delivery to citizens, residents, visitors, and businessmen.

Everybody loves a bargain,

2009-12-03T03:07:00.000-08:00

Everybody loves a bargain, right? Well, what's true in flush times is even more so in lean years, and the holiday season of 2009 is certainly going to cap off one of those.
With the economy only beginning to lurch its way back from the precipice, some research firms have already offered preliminary analyses projecting a bearish holiday retail season, even for the online sector.
Despite reporting encouraging results from an early November e-commerce sales report, comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni today was quick to temper his optimism. "Nonetheless, online spending this holiday season will likely be tempered by the stark reality of 10-percent unemployment and less disposable income in many consumers’ wallets," Fulgoni said of the strong start.
So with online retailers looking to make hay in a cloud cover, this year's e-commerce season could be a bargain bonanza, if you know where to look. The importance of bargains is certainly not lost among the giants of the online retail sector.
On Tuesday, eBay unveiled a new "Deals" app for the iPhone that promises to funnel users a steady stream of bargain listings from the site.
This Friday, known in the retail world as "Black Friday," eBay is kicking off its "12 Days of Deals" promotion, featuring exclusive mystery deals the e-commerce giant has arranged with vendors. The promotion opens with the Samsung Netbook N120-12GBK and runs through Dec. 8.
In concert with the release of the new Deals app, eBay updated its regular iPhone app and redesigned its mobile Web page, which it expects to rake in more than $500 million in sales by the end of the year.
Not to be outdone, rival e-commerce titan Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has stocked its own Black Friday deals page with markdowns geared for the onset of the holiday shopping season.
Apple also has some markdowns in store for shoppers on Black Friday. Late Tuesday afternoon, the consumer electronics juggernaut posted this promotion online store, advertising a one-day shopping event for the day after Thanksgiving.
To help navigate through the blizzard of promotions and merchandise available on the Web, the search engines are getting in on the game. On Monday, Google rolled out some updates to its Product Search service, now offering a high-resolution gallery view and summaries of reviews to speed the research process.
Microsoft's Bing, which is working assiduously to lure Web users away from Google, is increasing the percentage it's offering to pay back to shoppers through its cash-back program.
Even though for many, online holiday shopping might begin with the biggest, best-known names on the Web, savvy bargain hunters are wont to neglect the long tail, and that long tail is becoming an increasingly social place.
"Customers are increasingly using a variety of social web platforms to connect with one another on a multitude of topics," said Shari Gunn, vice president of advertising and business development at Kaboodle.com, a social shopping hub. "In the biggest shopping season of the year, we're seeing shopping and product related activity/conversations pop up all over the place -- and in more types of places than ever before."
Gunn explained that the rise of sites like Kaboodle, as well as social media powerhouses like Facebook and Twitter, has carried the social side of shopping well beyond user-generated product reviews and created tremendous opportunities for brands to spread the word virally.
"The key shift in consumer behavior is that consumers now expect to be well-informed and expect to be able to find product information, brand information, deals and discounts," she told InternetNews.com.
In recent years, a bevy of sites have emerged that position themselves as hubs for Black Friday promotions. To name a few, these include BlackFriday.info, BlackFriday2009.com, BFAds.net and special Black Friday sections on Dealighted.com and GottaDeal.com.
These sites can be valuable resources for shoppers working out their Black Friday game plan, since they often offer previews of deals retailers were trying to keep mum but leaked.
In a sign that consumers are taking notice, research firm Experian Hitwise today reported an 87 percent spike in traffic to its category of Black Friday referral sites over the past week.
Those sites couple with the litany of online coupon hubs that have become a mainstay in the online retail sector. These include Coupons.com, CouponSherpa.com and RetailMeNot, whose Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions were recently profiled by InternetNews.com.
"With the economy still slow and many Americans on a strict budget, retailers are going to be offering a lot of great deals this holiday season," said CouponSherpa co-founder Luke Knowles. "Black Friday is an ideal time to take advantage of deep discounts."
Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving so-named for the untold hours office workers log shopping online after the holiday break, figures to be an even bigger e-commerce extravaganza than Black Friday, according to marketing firm Responsys.
"Cyber Monday is well on its way to living up to its claim as the biggest online shopping day of the year," said Responsys Research Director Chad White, noting the glut of direct response e-mails retailers typically send out that day.
"This year, folks seem to be sending more of their offers even earlier than previous years," agreed Kaboodle's Gunn. "There is a higher volume this year of retailers offering 'sneak peaks' and 'VIP previews' of their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals."
Have some other suggestions for great bargain sites? Tell us about them in the comments, but please, no spam this space is moderated.

SEO mindset E-book,

2009-11-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-12T05:46:00.001-08:00

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,

2009-11-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-12T05:34:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-12T05:13:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-12T04:35:00.000-08:00

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 ,

2009-11-12T04:18:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-12T04:10:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

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),

2009-11-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-10T06:12:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-10T05:16:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-10T04:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T04:56:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-09T04:47:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-08T05:07:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-08T05:02:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-08T04:58:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-08T04:50:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-07T02:40:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-07T02:24:00.000-08:00

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,

2009-11-07T00:32:00.000-08:00

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.

Google is celebrating the third anniversary ,

2009-11-05T05:27:00.000-08:00

Google is celebrating the third anniversary of its Custom Search tools with a number of new features for webmasters looking to improve web site search facilities.
The firm claimed in a blog post that the new tools - Custom Search Themes, Structured Custom Search and the Custom Search Wikipedia skin - will improve user experience, save time on page development and layout, and speed up the search process for visitors.
Customer Search Themes offers a range of new customisation features, including a new set of layouts for search results, and versions designed for Android, iPhone and Palm Pre handsets. Drop down menus offer quick access to options for changing fonts, and other page elements.
Google software engineer Radu Cornea and senior interaction designer John Skidgel explained that webmasters could present results in a number of ways, such as limiting the range of searched documents or using certain categories.
"There are several results hosting options. Your users can quickly review results, narrow results to specific categories with a simple tabbed interface, and dismiss results, all without leaving your web page. We believe this will make it easier and faster for your site's users to find the information they are looking for," they said.
Structured Custom Search, meanwhile, improves the way that searches are narrowed down, and provides the ability to search for an author's name, for example, while researching a certain topic.
Finally, the Wikipedia Custom Search skin adds the ability to search Wikipedia articles and gather up-to-date information within one page view. Results are placed inline, and in tabbed groups, making it easier to see what is relevant and discard what is not.
The feature works with Wikipedia's Monobook and Beta Vector skins, and " shou
Web giant Google has suffered yet another outage on one of its most popular services, this time the Blogger publishing platform.
Brief messages on the Blogger Status site and Blogger Help Forum suggest that the service went down for around 90 minutes between 7.30am and 9am BST on 23 October, so it is unlikely to have affected many users.
A simple message posted on the Blogger Status site at 1.07am PDT (9.07am BST) reads: 'Blogger was unavailable for most users for over an hour. Service has now been restored.'
Millions of individuals and businesses use Blogger to manage and publish blogs, and the outage will be yet another embarrassment for Google, which has been trying to convince users of the stability of its cloud-based service delivery systems.
"Users were unable to access their Blogger accounts, and some people had trouble viewing others' blogs. We worked quickly to address and fix the issue, and we apologise for any inconvenience to our users," a Google spokesman told research firm IDG.
Google will be hoping that outages such as this remain few and far between, as it seeks to push into the enterprise market with its Google Apps online applications.
Pest control firm Rentokil recently announced plans to roll out the service to its 35,000 employees by next year, while Portsmouth University is set to do the same for its 30,000 students.
Large scale outages, however infrequent, continue to plague Google. The most recent was in September when Gmail users were unable to access the webmail service for over 90 minutes.ld" work on Wikipedia domains globally, Google said. Users will need a Wikipedia account to use the Custom Search skin.

Social networking site Facebook,

2009-11-05T05:21:00.000-08:00

Social networking site Facebook has been awarded a huge $711m (£430m) by a Californian court, following a judgement against professional spammer Sanford Wallace.
The court found Wallace guilty of breaking the Californian Can-Spam Act by sending false or misleading marketing emails.Today a San Jose court awarded Facebook $711m in damages against Sanford Wallace, one of the spammers who accessed people's accounts without their permission and sent phony Wall posts and messages," said Sam O'Rourke, lead council for litigation and intellectual property at Facebook, in a blog post.
"While we don't expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent against these criminals."
The case reached court in March, and Facebook is keen that the ruling and punishment will result in less spam for its users.
"Most notably, the judge referred Wallace to the US Attorney's Office with a request that Wallace be prosecuted for criminal contempt, which means that, in addition to the judgement, he now faces possible jail time," said O'Rourke.
"This is another important victory in our fight against spam. We will continue to pursue damages against other spammers."
Facebook was awarded $873m (£528m) in November last year after a judgement against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital. O'Rourke said that Guerbuez had been sending sleazy messages to Facebook users.
Facebook users are facing yet another malware attack this week, after security experts warned of a new phishing scam with a nasty payload.
Email hosting provider AppRiver said that the Zbot, or Zeus, botnet is delivering 30,000 messages a minute, and warned users to take extra care with unsolicited emails.
"We have already seen about 1.65 million messages from this campaign. As we've come to expect from Zbot, the phishing email is well crafted and could easily trick the unsuspecting recipient into falling for its ruse," Fred Touchette, a senior security analyst at AppRiver, said in a blog post.
"The graphics are well done and all look like something you would see from Facebook. The email informs users that Facebook is updating their log-in system to 'make things more secure', and urges people to click on the update button in the email.
"This should be enough anyone needs to see, considering that Facebook, your bank or anyone else, doesn't need every one of their users' participation in order to update their product."
Clicking on the link leads to a genuine-looking Facebook login screen that asks for the user's password. Another screen then asks them to download an update tool, which is actually the Zeus Trojan that typically targets bank accounts.
"Stay away from these emails. Zeus or Zbot spares no effort in making their attacks appear to be genuine. It is very important to protect yourself by being vigilant," said Touchette.
"If you don't personally know the sender, I would avoid clicking any links in emails, especially when the term 'your account' appears anywhere in the email."
This is the second phishing attack on Facebook users in as many days, following the discovery yesterday of a widespread attempt to trick users into giving away password and login details.

The fate of the European Telecoms,

2009-11-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

The fate of the European Telecoms Reform Package and what kind of action member countries can take against illegal downloaders is likely to be decided in Brussels this evening as the European Union's conciliation procedure draws to a close.
Five EU directives, collectively known as the EU Telecoms Rules of 2002, are currently being reworked in an attempt to make the European telecoms market more unified.
There has been broad EU agreement on four of the directives. However, the Framework Directive, which has raised the possibility that illegal downloaders may lose access to the internet, has caused so much disagreement that it had to enter an EU process whereby it is further debated and negotiated.
The final details are likely to be ironed out tonight when the EU conciliation delegation meets at 8pm. The debate could last into the early hours of the morning, according to an EU spokeswoman.
The disagreement is between the European Council, formed from ministers from each of the EU member states, and the European Parliament, which holds the EU's elected members.
In two votes, 88 per cent of the European Parliament decided that internet service providers (ISPs) and regulators, such as Ofcom in the UK, cannot restrict individuals' access to the internet, even if they are illegal file sharers and downloaders.
The European Parliament formed what is known as Amendment 138, which reads: 'No restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end users without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, notably in accordance with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, save when public security is threatened in which case the ruling may be subsequent.'
Since the beginning of the conciliation procedure in September, the amendment has been watered down by both EU bodies as they have tried to reach a compromise.
The Parliament's version of the amendment promises to protect citizens' access to the internet, but the Council's version leaves room for private corporations to restrict an individual's internet access.
If the Council version of the amendment is accepted, business secretary Peter Mandelson will be able to continue with his plans to introduce a three-strikes rule to tackling illegal downloading, under which the cost of enforcement will fall to copyright holders and ISPs.
Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of citizens' rights group La Quadrature du Net, warned the Parliament not to bow to any pressure from the Council.
"What will citizens think if, after having seen their representatives defending them on two occasions before the elections, when they had everybody's attention, they now witness the Parliament giving in to the Council in closed-door meetings," he said.

One good thing about successful entrepreneurs,

2009-11-05T04:49:00.000-08:00

One good thing about successful entrepreneurs is the resilience with which they cope with their problems. And, interestingly, even long after the dust has settled and their deep cuts have become shiny scars, there is the unmistakable involvement with which these entrepreneurs recount their battles, list the takeaways, and reason out the venturesome trajectories.
Nishanth Chandran, Co-founder and Executive Director, E-Billing Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Chennai (www.ebs.in), whom I met on a crisp morning in Nageswara Rao Park a few weeks ago, provided me with all that over a two-hour interaction. Whether the tales are about his boyhood disappointment at not being able to hold on to a domain of ‘national importance’ or the college exploits in the realm of project reports, the early successes in business or the difficulty that entrepreneurs face in the matrimonial market, a steady undercurrent appears to be that Nishanth is enjoying himself. The enthusiasm can be infectious, and I take forward the meeting as an email interview.
Excerpts from the Q&A, in which Nishanth discusses the challenges to e-commerce, offers comments on the recent security measures for Internet transactions, and reassures smaller enterprises about the potential of online revenues.
As a player in the e-commerce space, what do you see as the key drivers to the growth of e-commerce in the country, and how have they been different from what other countries have witnessed?
Key drivers to the growth of e-commerce growth in India include: computer literacy among the youth, exposure to the Internet, awareness of the online concept, attractive schemes and advertisements for e-shops, and above all its role in cost-cutting and time-saving.
However, people in India are not much exposed to or familiar with online shopping due to the lack of the touch-and-feel they are used to. Also, cost is a major hindrance; online stores are costlier than offline supplies, which is exactly the opposite of the situation witnessed in other countries.
In the rest of the world, people find online shopping more suitable as they get wider options, that too at a discount. And with a lot of information available on the product, a comparison with a similar range of products is made easy.
In general, any merchant planning to set up an e-commerce shop has to understand that people don’t accept a vendor unless they perceive a combination of: Finest services, absolute support, trouble-free process, and most importantly, cost-effectiveness with speed.
Are there hurdles to the growth of e-commerce that can be effectively tackled through a change in the policy regime?
Indian e-commerce volumes are still low compared to the world markets and hence the transaction discount rate or the merchant discount rates charged by banks and payment brands such as Visa, Mastercard are on the higher side. This situation will hopefully change as the transactions increase in volume and the fixed costs associated with the banks and other stakeholders are met.
The second hurdle is that we have many restricted categories, and limitations for certain services such as recurring facility. Businesses where the customer has to pay a small sum on a monthly basis (as in the case of club membership or magazine subscription) do not benefit from e-commerce, as there are many restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India on recurring billing.
Is the potential of e-commerce appreciated enough by our enterprises, large and small? How prohibitive or attractive are the costs for businesses that wish to go online?
E-commerce growth is still the next big thing in India, and right from a small business to large corporations, enterprises have taken this seriously. We see many large business houses forming e-commerce divisions; and many a product launch or promotion is done online, apart from the traditional media route.
The cost of setting up an e-commerce business is very affordable even for a small business owner. The pricing is very much scalable for any business. The business owners can either choose to pay a large setup fee and a very low transaction cost or an affordable setup fee with a higher transaction fee. However, lower setup and higher transaction fee can be upgraded once they see their business grow.
To what extent are the fears of hacking and other threats real? Do we have the countermeasures in place?
Hacking, phishing, and carding are the common online threats which every online business will face. However, these problems can be overcome if the right security standards are followed.
As the head of a company that was among the first in India to go for PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) certification, let me offer merchants and consumers a few tips as safeguards against hacking:
Always use strong passwords that contain alpha, numeric and a special character. . Change passwords every 30 days; let it not be one of your last 3 or 5 passwords.
Host your website with a reputed hosting company which follows strict security standards.
Enquire whether your hosting company uses a firewall and find out what ports are blocked.
Plus, have a policy to backup your data frequently.
Your views on the recent measure to safeguard e-commerce through 3D authentication.
While the ‘3D Secure’ has complemented the state-of-the-art risk management in EBS which checks across 600+ rules, we find that the new initiative suffers from many limitations with a potential to adversely affect businesses. For instance, how many passwords and logins can a person remember? Then again it’s an additional imposition on the customer. We have begun seeing hackers sniffing this password by infecting computers with Trojans to steal information.
Let us not forget that the frauds happening from Indian credit cards are at about 0.16 per cent of transactions as compared to as much as 4 to 5 per cent in the field of international cards. The RBI’s new regulation of mandating 3D Secure covers only domestic transactions.
Thus, the new system has its own benefits, but has drawbacks too. As a result, the number of transactions has dropped down considerably; and many transactions are termed as failed transactions.
Historically, the 3D authentication was implemented in the international market long back; a small proportion of cardholders registered themselves for this, and when there were reports of data compromise, the system was made optional. My view is that in India, too, the choice should be left with the cardholder and the merchant, as regards 3D Secure.
Does the mobile platform pose its own set of challenges to e-commerce?
There are more mobile users than computer users in India. Mobile platform, being quicker and increasingly ubiquitous, actually complements and accelerates e-commerce growth. Today, many mobile handhelds offer a full browser experience thus making it easier for a mobile consumer to make a transaction on the move. When compared to the cost of device used for e-commerce transaction, it comes with such a low price tag making it affordable to all classes of people, thus encouraging more mobile-based transactions in contrast to e-commerce.
We are already witnessing an increasing number of transactions coming from mobile phones as compared to last financial year. Most merchants today have a separate section for mobile phone users, which optimises content for mobile phones. Many airline-ticketing portals have gone one step further in developing a mobile application for seamlessly booking a flight ticket right from your mobile phone.
What do you see as the common myths about e-commerce?
Most of the myths are slowly beginning to fade, however some of the persistent ones are as follows:
Credit card used online can be stolen: This is not true as credit cards used online are much safer compared to handing the credit card to a bearer in a restaurant.
Online shopping is unsafe: As in an offline scenario, where it is very common that one goes for shopping after seeing the merchant’s establishment, brand reputation, and quality of merchandise or service etc, so too in an online scenario, one has to look at the website, study the brand reputation and customer feedback before making a buy. For example, a simple Google search about a particular website will reveal a lot about the merchant.
Only credit cards are accepted online: Today there are many options such as debit card, netbanking account, and cash cards.
Most products are not available online: Almost every product from grocery to car is sold online. Online shopping is not restricted by geographies, as anyone can shop anytime 24x7.
E-commerce service quality is poor: It is hard to generalise e-commerce quality as poor. It totally depends on the business establishment and has nothing in particular to the nature of the e-commerce industry.

I just finished reading The Black Swan,

2009-11-05T04:09:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading The Black Swan, a book that has been on my list since it came out in 2007, and I highly recommend it, though it is not easy reading. There is a great deal of set up before you get to the whole point of the book in the last 50 pages.
The Black Swan is about uncertainty in the real world, and the subtitle explains it all: "The Impact of the Highly Improbable." It's something that I can see affecting CRM and its users on many levels. Highly improbable things happen frequently, and they have deep and unpredictable impacts on our world.
Uncertainty is related to risk and randomness, and while we lay people might lump all of them into the same definition, they are different. My understanding of the three is that risk is something to which you can attach a probability, like a coin toss landing heads (50/50 or .5). Randomness is less constrained than risk, if only because it is too complex to compute -- if we flip 100 coins, we might reasonably expect half of them to land heads, but we can't say which ones. Uncertainty is a condition or event that will surprise us, one that is not on the radar -- a blue bird, sometimes called an "unknown unknown." Forecasting Follies
The blue bird interests me most and is an important factor for CRM. I have been trying to get my head around some data that I collected earlier this year about sales and forecasting that seems to relate to this. As you might recall, the data showed that the vast majority of sales forecasts (better than 90 percent of them) are worthless. They are so inaccurate that they can make a coin toss look like the model of precision.
My question: Is this the best we can expect, or are there things we might do to improve our forecasts by reducing uncertainty?
The data also show that most sales managers engage in a process of downloading forecasts to spreadsheets in which they massage the data with the intention of improving it. If the dismal forecasting results are the product of an improvement process, it can only suggest that the starting point data is no better (remember GIGO).
All this evidence notwithstanding, companies continue to make money more often than not, and salespeople manage to sell things. And according to Jim Dickey and Barry Trailer, nearly 60 percent of them make quota. How can this be? How can we be so profoundly bad at sales forecasting and still manage to sell things?
Rational or Emotional?
First, though there is a great deal of uncertainty in sales forecasting, uncertainty is a two-way street. Deals come in that were not forecasted or perhaps not even known about -- so-called blue birds -- and some deals that appear to be a lock simply evaporate. Anyone who has tried to sell -- and forecast -- knows this.
Customers do rational things for emotional reasons, the saying goes, and the irony to me is that at precisely the moment when we need the customer to act emotionally -- to buy a product -- we expect that customer to act rationally. If you doubt this, then how can you explain attaching a probability to an otherwise emotional decision? It's not wise to do that, so if you are going to forecast using a probability of close, then you have to assume a set of rational expectations. In other words, if we have been through a sales process with the customer -- understood the business problem, demonstrated how our solution solves the problem, and asked for the order -- we expect the logical conclusion: a purchase order.
But while the situation might look certain, or at least logical, to us, we have little or no visibility into the similar process being conducted by our competitors, and there lies a great source of uncertainty.
What can be done?
Unknown Unknowns
As mentioned above with GIGO, we need to acknowledge that the way we are forecasting is not working. In other words, stop digging the hole we have gotten into. There's too much uncertainty in a forecast to believe the numbers we generate.
But stopping the excavation will not solve the problem; it will simply prevent the hole from getting deeper. As salespeople, we can try to eliminate some of the uncertainty in our deals, but by definition, we can't do that. We don't know what we don't know. Even if we know everything our competition says and does, we have no visibility into whether the stock market will crater the day before we expect the P.O. There is always something.
Nonetheless, a company's sales usually fluctuate around a level that is near to the level of the goal -- few sales teams in aggregate hit the ball out of the park, and few get shut out. Uncertainty makes sales a numbers game, meaning the more irons you have in the fire the more opportunities you have and the better insulated you are against risk. Notice I said "risk" and not "uncertainty." More opportunities reduce the importance of a single opportunity because there are many ways to make your number -- that's risk. But there is nothing that will insulate your forecast from the remote (we hope) possibility of the stock market cratering or flu breaking out in your customer's headquarters.
SFA and Social CRM
If sales really is a numbers game, then it makes sense to have systems that can help you manage big numbers of everything -- opportunities, deals you know. More important, it is also essential that we have ways to get as many good opportunities into a pipeline as possible.
For years, we've had a discussion about the efficacy of SFA -- is it good, is it worth the effort, isn't it just a management tool? Ironically, there are still companies out there that believe they are too small for SFA or that it doesn't work. In a few years it will be the same stories with social CRM, and by then the companies that failed to adopt SFA will be completely out of business.
Truth is, we need both these days. We need SFA to manage our large data sets, and we need social CRM to help us take uncertainty out of deals. If we never use an outbound social CRM tool such as a blog or micro-blog or networking site, we would be fine as long as we had some exposure to tools that help us know what customers think in aggregate. For me, that's where the power of social CRM is -- it's in helping us reduce uncertainty by that radical idea of asking customers what they think

Holiday Online Retail Spending Forecast,

2009-11-04T02:58:00.000-08:00

For the holiday season to date (the first 23 days of the November-December season) $8.19 billion has been spent in online retail (non-travel)—an unprecedented 4% decline from the $8.51 billion spent during corresponding shopping days last year, according to comScore.
“With consumer confidence low and disposable income tight, the first weeks of November have been very disappointing, with online retail spending declining versus year ago,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “It’s also likely that some budget-conscious consumers are planning to wait to buy until later in the season to take advantage of retailers’ even more aggressive discounting.”
Holiday Online Retail Spending Forecast
comScore forecasts that holiday online retail spending for the whole of the November-December period will be flat from last year’s season—significantly lower than last year’s 19% growth rate and below the retail e-commerce growth rate of 9% observed for year-to-date 2008.Assuming the stock market doesn’t deteriorate materially during the season and that there is no apocalyptic news of major financial institutions, manufacturers or retailers failing, we should see online spending growth inch back towards positive as we get deeper into the season,” said Fulgoni.
Holiday Online-Shopping Survey
Alongside its reporting of behaviorally monitored e-commerce spending, comScore is conducting weekly surveys of approximately 500 consumers to determine holiday-shopping attitudes and sentiment.
One-third (33%) of consumers surveyed Nov. 21-24 said they had not even begun their holiday shopping.Consumer also intend to cut back on holiday spending in several ways, most notably by buying fewer gifts (47% of respondents) and buying less expensive gifts (46% of respondents)
Respondents also said they planned to employ the internet to help cut costs by taking advantage of free shipping and/or no sales tax (39%). The retail industry is increasingly turning to social networking sites as a new means of connecting with customers. Facebook, which reports more than 200 million active users worldwide, is especially popular with retailers.
Although Facebook was founded in 2004 as a service for registered Harvard University students only, it has since expanded to become a completely open service and says its fastest-growing age category of users is 35 and up. When Retailer Daily reviewed the Facebook pages of Aeropostale, Papa John’s and Sears in April 2009, the primary retail application for Facebook was simple branding.
Earlier this year, most Facebook pages contained some unique coupons, promotional videos and customer-generates content, but were primarily extensions of branding performed on retailers’ existing websites. True e-commerce functionality was provided through links back to retailers’ transactional websites, and most promotional features were static photos and videos.
Judging by the Facebook pages of the three retailers Retailer Daily is reviewing for the third quarter of 2009: 1-800-Flowers.com, Charlotte Russe, and Netflix, this is starting to change. 1-800-Flowers.com in particular is raising the social networking bar by offering actual e-commerce functionality on its Facebook page, while Charlotte Russe and Netflix use Facebook applications to help customers collaboratively share ideas and product information. Highlights from these three retailers’ Facebook pages follow.
1-800-Flowers.com
1-800-Flowers.com, with 3,584 fans as of September 10, 2009, is a rare retailer which offers full e-commerce functionality on its Facebook page. A shop tab leads users directly to a Facebook storefront where they can browse, select and purchase items from a product assortment of roughly 120 bouquets and gift baskets. The wall offers promotional information and holiday trivia, and customers are encouraged to leave comments and post photos. There is also a promotion tab, which did not have any active promotions when clicked, and a special offers tab with online discount coupon codes for registered fans.
Charlotte Russe
Charlotte Russe, with 51,194 fans as of September 10, 2009, features a catalog widget on its Facebook page that allows customers to browse products, save images and share them with friends, and set preferences for what types of products the widget will display. The widget integrates with Charlotte Russe’s Shop Together social shopping program that allows groups of online customers to pick out and discuss items together in real time. Customers can chat, view products, collect mutual favorites and share ideas.
Charlotte Russe’s Facebook page also features an online fall catalog, videos and photos, an events calendar, and a wall where customers can post comments and photos and ask questions.
Netflix
Netflix, with 48,814 fans as of September 10, 2009, uses the Facebook Connect application to allow customers to share their movie ratings posted on the Netflix site with their Facebook friends. The discussion board allows customer critiques and includes conversations on suggestions to improve Netflix and a recent trend of damaged discs. Netflix also uses its Facebook page to inform customers about promotions and special events and features photos posted by both the retailer and its customers, as well as movie trailer videos.

Trading Markets writes,

2009-11-04T02:46:00.000-08:00

Q3 net earnings at Dollar Tree increased 23.7% over 3Q07 as consumers continue to turn to discount retailers and dollar stores for their basic shopping needs, reports Retailing Today.
Earlier this month, Dollar Tree reported a healthy 11.6% sales growth to $1.11 billion and same-store growth of 6.2% over the previous year, helped by strong sales of food and seasonal items .
Dollar Tree was able to slightly reduce its selling, general, and administrative expenses to 27.8% of sales from 28.4% last year due to expense control, reduced advertising expense, and favorable leverage from the comparable store sales increase, Trading Markets writes.
Full-year sales are estimated to range from $4.64-4.68 billion, with earnings of $2.45-2.53 per share. Q4 per-share earnings are expected to be $1.07-1.15, and sales estimates were set at $1.38-1.42 billion, based on low-to- -mid single-digit positive comparable-store sales.
Dollar Tree operates 3,572 stores in 48 states but is rapidly expanding and aims to add 7% of square footage per year. During the third quarter (ended Nov. 1), the company opened 68 stores, closed 13 stores, and expanded or relocated 36 stores.Retailer Daily has compiled comparable store sale data from the SEC filings of 26 major US retailers spanning several years, up to the most recently released September numbers. The data excludes fuel sales (which would have distorted numbers because of high gas inflation, then deflation, in 2008) and is available in Excel format from the link below:In the drugstore vertical, Walgreens, which set sales records for the second, third and fourth quarters of its fiscal 2009, continued its general 2009 trend of improving same-store sales (the only month this year Walgreens has reported a same-store sales decline is February). In the months ahead, Walgreens may also see the benefits of expanded rollout of its Customer Centric Retailing (CCR) store format that that streamlines assortments and devotes more store selling space to skin care and cosmetic products. Struggling drugstore chain Rite Aid, which reported same-store sales declines in five of the first eight months of 2009, saw same-store sales rise 0.3% in September. Even this modest increase is good news for Rite Aid, which reported declining revenues and gross profits in its fiscal Q2 2010 (ended August 29, 2009).
Meanwhile, leading drugstore retailer CVS, which only releases same-store sales figures by the quarter, reported a 6.1% same-store sales increase in Q2 2009, a quarter in which CVS saw net earnings, revenues and operating profit rise. CVS cited this year’s late Easter holiday as boosting front-of-store sales for the quarter, while the introduction of generic drugs had a negative impact on still-strong retail pharmacy sales.
In the auto parts segment, Auto Zone reported a solid quarterly same-store sales increase of 5.4%. According to the August 2009 Advance Monthly Retail Trade Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, motor vehicle and parts retailers had a 10.6% sales increase driven by the federal “Cash for Clunkers” auto-buying incentive program. Auto Zone’s quarterly same-store sales likely received a boost from this program, and now that Cash for Clunkers has been closed it will be interesting to see how Auto Zone fares with its Q4 2009 same-store sales.
Dollar store retailers are continuing their strong performance in the face of a severe economic recession that has consumers fixated on obtaining the lowest prices possible. Family Dollar recently released mostly positive financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2009, and Dollar General is planning an initial public offering of stock to raise revenue for growth that could approach 12,000 new stores in the U.S.
In the supermarket vertical, Kroger reported a respectable increase in its fourth quarter same-store sales. While Kroger has been quiet in recent months, as a well-established national supermarket player it undoubtedly benefits from providing a product that consumers literally cannot live without on a very regular basis. However, the quarterly same-store sales decline posted by Supervalu shows that supermarket retailers cannot assume positive same-store sales by virtue of supplying a product that must be regularly replenished. Earlier this year, Supervalu offered fiscal 2010 guidance predicting a net sales decline of 3%.
For the first time in a long time, department store retailers have a reason to be at least mildly optimistic about their same-store sales. Kohl’s reported an impressive 5.5% same-store sales increase during September, and department store chains including JCPenney and Macy’s substantially cut their September declines from August levels.
JCPenney has been actively promoting a variety of new online services and licensed private label goods. Macy’s is rolling out a new merchandise localization program, so it will be worth watching Macy’s same-store sales in the upcoming months to gauge the effectiveness of that initiative. Like JCPenney, Kohl’s has been heavily involved in selling licensed private label merchandise and has entered a number of celebrity merchandising partnerships to boost sales with the female tween audience.
Not all department store retailers have reason to feel confident, however. Sears, which recently reported soft results for Q2 2009, should be disappointed with its steep same-store sales drop considering the numerous activities it has recently undertaken to launch new product lines and improve multichannel customer service. , saw its same-store sales loss grow to its highest point of the year in July and apparently is not yet seeing benefits. Gap, which increased its same-store sales decline by one percentage point between August and September, continues to struggle to connect with consumers. Gap recently launched a major strategic initiative to regain market share in its three store banners. The initiative includes efforts to improve assortment, product categories, in-store customer experience, and advertising and marketing.
The continuing same-store sales declines at most department stores, shrinking or not, signals that the vertical continues its slump from the last several months. While the discount vertical traditionally poses the biggest challenge to department store retailers, discount leaders Wal-Mart and Target both reported declines in their most recent same-store sale results. However, consumers at all income levels are even starting to turn to dollar store retailers for many purchases. The most recent quarterly same store sales results from major dollar store players Family Dollar and Dollar General are indicative of this growing trend.
Previous Analysis
In the office supply segment, vertical leader Staples reported a 5% same-store sales decline despite launching a major back-to-school promotion in mid-July. Recent independent research from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Deloitte indicate that back-to-school sales are sluggish this year, although improved from 2008.
In the home improvement vertical, The Home Depot and Lowe’s both recently reported declining net earnings for Q2 2009. Based on second quarter performance and their own forecasts, Home Depot and Lowe’s should continue to produce sluggish results for the remainder of fiscal 2009. While The Home Depot and Lowe’s were both fairly quiet during Q2, Home Depot publicly discussed financial expectations, strategic priorities and long-term operating targets during its 2009 investor and analyst conference In addition to its expectations for a 9% drop in sales, Home Depot also predicted comparable store sales to decline in the high-single digit area and gross margin expansion to be flat to slightly positive. In the long term, Home Depot said it believes that its strategic priorities, along with a correction in the home improvement market, will allow it to achieve an operating margin of approximately 10% and a return on invested capital of approximately 15%.
Retailers in verticals such as drugstore, consumer electronics, supermarket, toys and arts and crafts face a new, heightened challenge from discount giant Wal-Mart. The retailer launched a new program called Project Impact last week, designed to improve customer service and knock vertical competitors out of business. Project Impact includes features such as less crowded aisles with better sight lines, more convenient placement of consumables, improved assortments, and more prominent promotion of vertical products. If Project Impact is successful, numerous vertical retailers may see their same-store sales slip.
Sales for existing stores typically reflect a combination of (a) the robustness of consumer consumption in their individual trading areas and (b) the local standing and competitiveness of each store within its trading area. Among other criteria, retailers look at average order size multiplied by the number of transactions during the period to identify sources of revenue growth per store. Growth might, for instance, be driven by a more expensive product mix if, say, a retailer started successfully upselling higher-end products to its customers.
Another issue affecting same-store sales is trading-area saturation, whether because of competitive pressure or self-inflicted causes. Home Depot, for instance, stated in a recent SEC filing that it opened stores “near market areas served by existing stores (“cannibalize”) to enhance service levels, gain incremental sales and increase market penetration…. [N]ew stores cannibalized approximately 9% of our existing stores as of the second quarter of fiscal 2008, which had a negative impact to comparable store sales of approximately 1%.”
Declining same-store sales can increase the weight of selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) as a percentage of sales. For instance, Home Depot said in 2008 that its “deleverage in SG&A reflects the impact of negative comparable store sales, where for every one percentage point of negative comparable store sales, we expect to deleverage expenses by about 20 basis points.” Also, Mapping of the 155 stores closed by Circuit City in November 2008 showed that overlap in some markets probably contributed to under-performance there. Were the current recession to last, it is quite likely that retail density will decrease with more store closures in areas showing the most overlap.

UK to cut VAT 2.5 in percentage,

2009-11-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

To stimulate consumer spending and give retail a chance in the coming year, the British government has implemented a temporary cut to the value-added tax (VAT)—the equivalent of a national sales tax (because it gets passed along to consumers)—reports Alibaba.com.
The VAT will go down to 15% from its previous 17.5% rate for a period of 13 months, starting Dec. 1, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling presented during his pre-budget statement.
Major retailers have already expressed gratitude for the cut. “This is good news for consumers and will help to maintain consumer confidence and spending, which is a good thing not just for individuals but also for the economy,” said the CEO of Tesco, the biggest UK retailer in terms of sales.
Companies are urged to pass down the VAT reduction to customers immediately. Many have already offered price discounts of 20-25% to stimulate sales in order to dilute the impact of the cut.
But analysts are skeptical: The VAT will go back up again on Jan. 1, 2010, which is right in the middle of the post-Christmas sales. It may therefore end up as a “retail profit tax” because retailers will have trouble passing the increase on to their customers, observes Pali International’s Nick Bubb.
Ultimately, the cost of the cut (£12.5 billion a year) will be paid by consumers via increased taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and petrol, analysts said.
There is also concern that the modest reduction would not be noticed by shoppers. The average earner, with an annual salary of £25,000, would save only about £170 a year because many food items do not attract VAT and the change may be too small to influence big-ticket purchases, writes Retail Week.
A £550 flatscreen TV, for example, would go down only to £538.38; a supermarket shopping basket would go from £50 to £49.47.
Retail stores will also have to bear the cost of changing the VAT in just one week, said British Retail Consortium director general Stephen Robertson. It’s the busiest time of year, so changing the IT system, replace shelf labels, and stickering over prices will be a “mammoth and costly task,” he warned.

In the eyes of one Ecommerce expert,

2009-11-04T02:00:00.000-08:00

ShopVisible tries hard to keep up with the latest buzz in Ecommerce news and address relevant content for its merchant base and other interested Ecommerce enthusiasts. Recently the CEO of Macy's addressed a retail conference in Las Vegas to highlight the importance of multichannel integration, a specialty of ShopVisible's Ecommerce solution. Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren notes that "the power of Ecommerce extends far beyond the keyboard and onto the sales floor..." The company's new web presence encourages shoppers and browsers to offer up their own relevant content in the form of reviews and recommendations. Lundgren states that he was "worried about what customers would say on product reviews. We realized that if you start getting bad reviews on a product, get rid of that product. Stop doing business with that particular product." Hubbies Smith of the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows that "Macys.com generated $30,000 in sales the first year...in 1996. Online sales now bring in about $1 billion in annual revenue...Through August, online sales increased 13 percent from a year ago..." Lundgren concludes noting "every dollar spent online influences $5.77 spent in the store over the next 10 days."In related Ecommerce news, Forrester expert, Sucharita Mulpuru discusses how Ecommerce is indeed the bright side of retail. In her keynote address from shop.org's Annual Summit, Mulpuru delves into the significant strides being made in the Ecommerce realm that are helping to keep the retail sector afloat during these troubling economic times.In the eyes of one Ecommerce expert, online retailers are:
resetting their goals: they are thinking ahead and altering standard business practices not to just emerge from the recession but in fact excel out of it...
alternatively assessing their competitors: looking at best practices and not just ROI driving methodologies; utilizing in some cases radical transparency as a means at the disclosure of innovation
developing their IT departments: folks are creating client enhancements and thinking ahead of the curve; they are testing in staging environments in an effort to provide solid QA in their production arenas
sticking together: they have realized that remaining close with brand loyal patrons and building upon existing relationships with their manufacturers is critical; add value to the selling arena and promote competitive pricing models
blogging, tweeting, faceBooking and more: Mulpuru cannot address enough the significance of social media marketing as a form of enhanced and deliverable customer generated content; the 2 way street enables brands to promote and spread word of mouth while conversely, customers and loyal brand enthusiasts can share their positive feelings about the company
getting mobile: Mulpuru lauds the iPhone as a revolutionary device. She encourages Ecommerce merchants to develop mobile sites and focus on few click-thrus for checkout to enable seamless mobile purchasing and updating; Mulpuru notes that "email is web retailers best friend, but it's not the future..."

The first principle of online selling,

2009-11-04T01:44:00.000-08:00

The first principle of online selling, especially for small businesses that cannot afford to make many mistakes, is to sell the right items. Trying to sell the wrong product online is like failing to hitch the horse to the wagon -- you can do everything else right, and you still will not get anywhere.
Not every product is appropriate for online sales, and those that are may already have reached saturation level in the e-commerce landscape. Yankee Group analyst Adi Kishore recommends evaluating a new e-commerce venture before launching it. "Take a long, hard look at your business model," Kishore told the E-Commerce Times. "Is anyone else doing it? Develop specialty products."
Kishore noted that commodity products lend themselves to online transactions but are often overexposed by giant e-tailers. The trick is to advance a unique product niche within a commodity category.
Targeted Efforts
Advertising is another potential pitfall. Mass-market advertising is not only too expensive for most small e-commerce ventures, but it does not even work well for them. "With blanket advertising, you're wasting half your budget, and you don't know which half," IDC research manager Jonathan Gaw told the E-Commerce Times.
Instead, companies should explore more finely targeted, and in some cases experimental, promotions. The good news for new and small companies is that they do not have to learn this lesson the hard way, as many e-commerce pioneers did.
In finding targeted media in which to inject a message, the key is to think across channels. For example, just because a company is trying to transact business online does not mean it should ignore brick-and-mortar promotional opportunities. Even in the online space, it is not all about Web promotion -- e-mail and back-channel possibilities also exist. Ideally, a promotional strategy should be blind to channel distinctions, because all channels can contribute to e-commerce exposure in today's multichannel selling universe.
In short, small companies should develop a portfolio of promotional initiatives that complement each other. "Specialized niche audiences are served by specific targeted media," the Yankee Group's Kishore noted, pointing to "e-mail newsletters, certain chat rooms, specific Web sites [and] printed magazines" as possible venues for advertising.
Affiliations
One concept from the bubble years that has become more important in the post-bubble era is strategic partnering. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) is doing it. EBay is doing it. Small businesses can do it, too.
According to Kishore, the preliminary work of building an affiliate relationship involves identifying potential partners that will benefit the business the most. "Partner with sites that have high traffic," Kishore advised. Bulk traffic is as important as exact match-ups between partners.
Again, cross-channel thinking is crucial. "Don't ignore the brick-and-mortar environment," Kishore noted. "You can partner with a physical retail outlet."
Paying the Search Engines
Another method of gaining notice that has soared in popularity recently involves placing ads on online search engines. These sites, most prominently Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), feature targeted advertising next to search results of predetermined keywords. The cost of buying paid search hits is controlled to some extent through an automated auction process that gives the top spot to the highest bidder. The advertiser pays only for click-throughs, elevating the efficiency of this type of advertising.
"You get a load of recognition for a reasonable price," IDC's Gaw told the E-Commerce Times. "You might not have a big budget, but for a while, at least, you can outbid Amazon."
An added (and free) benefit of buying search results is sheer exposure -- your name appears fairly prominently even when viewers do not click through. In traditional advertising, such an "impression" would be billed.
Although purchased search results are all the rage, traditional online directories should not be disregarded, either. Helen Chan, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group who specializes in SMB (small and medium business) e-commerce, emphasized the importance of finding directories that match your product category or even geographical location. "Find the appropriate vertical directories, not just the generic listings," she told the E-Commerce Times.
Making Connections
Chan, who wrote a recent Yankee Group study called "SMBs and E-Commerce: Strategies for Success," also said small e-commerce ventures should look beyond the dry metrics of dollars and eyeballs. "It's all about building connections," she noted.
She rattled off a quick inventory of basic approaches that should be undertaken by any small site. "Provide links in partner sites. Cross-leverage traffic. Integrate with every part of the business process. Get that site in front of existing customers. Include the site in existing marketplaces like eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) or Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) Shopping."
Crucial to small-business e-commerce success, according to Chan, is keeping customers interested after the first visit. To that end, communication and personalization features are imperative. They not only make a site more engaging, but also open the door to more alluring advertisements. "The more customers expect interactivity at the site, the more they'll visit it," Chan noted.
Chan's published report identified this bundle of "behavioral" factors as the most crucial determinant of e-commerce success for small enterprises.
The Upshot
In a sense, for small businesses, bad news is good news. "There's not very much capital in the market today," Kishore said. "The formula of heavy marketing, coupled with the hope of reaching critical mass, is not an option any longer." With the competitive scramble for venture capital also a distant memory, small e-commerce projects can launch into a relatively level playing field.
Of course, small companies must dig their trenches far from the giant footprints of big-name online destinations. But with everybody in partnering mode, even the smallest operation stands a chance of affiliating with a larger e-tailer.
The real progress in SMB e-commerce is made by companies with imagination. Great targeting can easily make up for a modest budget, leading the way to e-commerce success.

Products and Services Focus ,

2009-11-03T02:58:00.000-08:00

Printer supplies, printer consumables, inkjet cartridges, laser toner cartridges, parts for printer consumables Summary Remax Asia Pacific is the most efficient trade show (expo) for printer consumables industry. Inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges, toner, ink, OPC, Rollers, parts for printers or printer supplies are all covered by the show. General Information At Remax Asia Pacific 2009, you can: - Meet over 280 exhibitors Remax Asia Pacific 2008 attracted over 180 exhibitors and 5000 visitors. In 2009, it will be at least 50% bigger than the 2008 show with more new and exciting initiatives than ever before - this is an event you cannot miss! - Visit real factories. Remax Asia Pacific is a great show in Zhuhai, the World Capital of Printer Consumables. In 1 hour, you can reach any of the 300 factories in Zhuhai; and in 2.5 hours, you can reach more than 600 factories in the Pear River Delta. You can audit the factories locally for a more secure business contract . - Save your time and cost by visiting China Sourcing Fair, Hong Kong Electronics Fair, Remax Asia Pacific and Canton Fair within one week. October is the prime time for exhibitions in the Pearl River Delta (Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou). Remax Asia Pacific 2009 is positioned to be part of these essential trade shows in Pearl River Delta region, and will exhibit over the three days: October 14 and 16. This will be convenient for buyers who want to cut business travel expenses. - Trade, learn and network. Remax Asia Pacific is the best place to meet new and existing suppliers, discover new products in aftermarket imaging supplies industry, learn the latest information and technology, and network. - Enjoy some leisure time in Hong Kong and Macau during the trip. Zhuhai lies adjacent to the shopping paradise Hong Kong across the river to the east, and adjoins the Oriental Las Vegas Macau over land to the south. Its only 70 minutes away from Hong Kong by water. Zhuhai, China 14-16 October, 2009 is where the printer consumables industry comes together; it is the most efficient and valuable show for the industry. Dont miss it! Attendee InformationBuyers, technicians and marketing professionals from manufacturing or remanufacturing factories; Importers, distributors and retailers of printer consumables or the related components According to the statistics made by the departments concerned: It is a prosperous peak of the medical devices trade in 2008-2010. The national construction of the health service network during countryside, city and community will firstly benefit to the industry of medical devices, and will also bring us an enormous market of medical devices. Promoting the development of the national medical and health cause, 2009 the 6th China (Shanghai) International Medical Devices Exhibition, jointly sponsored by China International Exchange and Promotive Association for Medical and Health Care (CPAN) and Shanghai Zhanya Exhibition Service Co. Ltd., will be held on September 27th- 29th, 2009 in Shanghai Everbright Convention Exhibition Center. With your support and participation, 2009 the 6th China (Shanghai) International Medical Devices Exhibition will have a more excellent future. From the year 2004, Shanghai Medical Devices Exhibition has already been successfully run 5 times. The exhibition scale has been expanding year by year. Tens of thousands of domestic and international merchants, specialty people of research institutions, government departments, and hospital purchasing and administrative departments are attracted every year. This exhibition has already become one of the famous medical devices exhibitions and it has a significant influence in the field of medical care at home and abroad. The quality and population distribution of the professional spectators reflects the characteristics of this exhibition which are always kept: high professional intensity and even distribution. Based on the statistics, about 30% of the spectators came from hospitals (the small, medium and big), medical therapy units and medical research units from all parts of the country and even from other areas of the world, and 60% were wholesalers, agents and traders engaged in the business of the medical products. In the short 3 days, the sponsors received spectators apart from Shanghai also from over 28 provinces, cities and autonomous regions and special administrative region such as Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Jilin, Sichuan, Guangxi, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taiwan; and spectators abroad from more than 20 countries such as South Korea, Japan, U.S.A., Germany, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Turkey, Switzerland, Britain, Singapore, Thailand, Denmark, Iran, Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil, and Africa. During the exhibition, more than 28000 domestic and international professional spectators were received. Meanwhile, during the exhibition the sponsors will organize more than 30 academic and technology seminars involving over 60 special topics, which will become another great characteristic of this exhibition.

Management of the Internet ,

2009-11-03T02:44:00.000-08:00

A United Nations technology summit reached an agreement to leave the United States with ultimate oversight of the main computers that direct the Internet's flow of information. This agreement has overshadowed the summit's original intent of addressing ways to expand communications technologies to poorer parts of the world. Negotiators from more than 100 countries agreed to leave the United States in charge of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN. That decision averted a U.S. - EU showdown that threatened to derail the World Summit on the Information Society. The computers under dispute control Internet traffic by acting as its master directories so Web browsers and e-mail can find other computers. David Gross, the U.S. State Department's top official on Internet policy, stated that "despite the U.S. hand in ICANN, Internet governance was not the provenance of one specific country." Mr. Gross is dismissing claims that the U.S. is holding onto its position as the arbiter of the Internet.
Negotiators also agreed to form an open-ended international forum for raising important Internet issues. Officials say that this forum would give nations a stronger say in how the Internet works, including the availability of domain suffixes in Chinese and other languages. Currently, though names partially in another language are possible, the suffix ".com" remains in English. The group could also address issues not currently covered by ICANN, threats like spam and cybercrime.
The new group, the Internet Governance Forum, would start operating next year with its first meeting opened by U.N. secretaryGeneral Kofi Annan. Left unsettled, however, was whether the U.N. would ultimately administer that forum. Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media, said the agreement paved the way for better Internet governance.
The above information was gathered from www.ecommercetimes.com Airlines continue to upgrade
With high fuel costs, airlines continue to turn to their Websites and other technology to save money and speed up the check-in process. Many airline travelers still buy their tickets over the phone from call centers or at reservation counters, but the airlines are pushing customers to book travel online because it saves the carriers on labor costs.
The Website of American Airlines draws upward of a million visitors a day. According to airline vice president, Bella Goren, total online ticketing accounts for 35 percent of American's total ticket sales. American is also trying to boost sales of hotel rooms and rental cars on its site. This year it began working with a seller of last-minute vacation packages.
The most successful airline Web site, in terms of percentage of an airline's tickets sold online, belongs to Southwest Airlines. The carrier sells more than half its tickets on its Website, which has allowed the company to close some of its ticket-selling call centers. The airline has also looked to technology to reduce the need for labor at the airports. Over the last three years, Southwest has spent $12 million to install technology to issue paper boarding passes. The passes contain a barcode for each passenger. There are about 350 touchscreen ticket readers at airport gates to track each customer who gets on a plane. This information, along with factors such as cargo and fuel, can help to calculate the weight and balance of each plane load.
The above information was gathered from www.crmbuyer.com.
Fraud rising among large e-commerce companies
A new report says that losses tied to fraudulent e-commerce activity will reach $2.8 billion in 2005. Professional scammers are targeting fastgrowing e-tail sites that are too large to manually verify each purchase, but haven't yet implemented sophisticated anti-fraud measures. CyberSource, a payment solutions and fraud detection company, said its seventh annual survey of e-commerce providers finds that fraud will rise eight percent over 2004 levels. The increase comes after several years during which fraud rates were being kept in check.
Fraud-loss rates could reach as high as 1.8 percent of revenue for mid-sized merchants, those with sales of $5 million to $25 million. Companies in this segment are just coming on to the radar of professional fraudsters. Smaller companies can manually verify every purchase but there comes a point in their growth when that's no longer practical. The largest companies are likely to have more sophisticated anti-fraud systems in place, but they may also be at greater risk for fraud because they are more likely to have significant international sales which have the highest rates of fraud. The international fraud rate is about 2.4 percent compared to around one percent for all domestic sales.
There doesn't appear to be any single trend or new approach to fraud that will help explain the eight percent increase. Many large-scale fraudulent purchases from stolen credit cards are tested first and, if successful, it is quickly followed by a flood of additional purchases. There are a lot of programs available to detect that but many medium-size companies have not reached that point. Sensitivity to fraud often varies based on the profit margin and cost of sales at an etailer. Those with thin margins will see their profits hurt by a few fraudulent purchases; those with more room for error can absorb more.

Do You Need Incentives to Re-capture a Customer?

2009-11-03T02:34:00.000-08:00

a conversion service company that can help you recover potentially lost sales due to cart abandonment, has an interesting offer for small to mid-sized e-commerce businesses.
Online merchants who sign up for the new Live-in-Five program by midnight (Eastern time) on November 21, 2009 will have a shopping cart abandonment re-marketing solution up and running “in as little as five days” — in time for the official start of the holiday shopping season on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
How Re-marketing Cart Abandonment Helps Merchants
SeeWhy’s Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Charles Nicholls, said that merchants who capture and re-market to customers who abandon their shopping cart can recoup up to 50 percent of that abandonment.
“In e-commerce we call abandonment The Grinch who steals up to 70 percent of a merchant’s potential sales,” said Nicholls. “Our new Live-in-Five program is designed to get merchants up and running quickly before the 2009 online holiday shopping season starts.”
Like a good retail sales associate who catches empty-handed customers on their way out, SeeWhy’s re-marketing services work like that—they send a timely service contact to ensure the customer doesn’t need further assistance on your site.
The way it works is simple. After signing on with SeeWhy, merchants put tags on site pages. If a customer lands on your site and adds products to his or her cart, at different stages he or she will provide information, such as an e-mail address, that is captured. If the customer abandons the cart before checking out, the SeeWhy service will contact the customer via e-mail asking if he or she needs assistance and provides a direct link to the unchecked basket.
According to Nicholls, when that service contact e-mail goes out within hours, merchants see up to a fifty percent checkout rate on those abandonments. He said that the longer you wait to make the service call, the less response rate you get. “Even when you wait 24 hours, many merchants see a lower response rate from the customer.”
Best Practices, Test factors, Tracking and More
SeeWhy follows industry best practices and adheres to CAN-SPAM standards and legal obligations. When your customer data is captured (e.g. from previously logging into your site log-in or when they create a cart account) they’re to opt-in to receive cart reminders. Before implementing the service, Nicholls recommends that merchants review their online privacy policy to ensure it permits re-marketing offers.
When customers unsubscribe from the cart reminders, SeeWhy immediately removes them from the list. According to Nicholls, these service reminders are so relevant to the customer that they actually see fewer unsubscribe requests than one would see with a general newsletter subscriber list.
The new Live-in-Five program is a more simplified add-on of SeeWhy’s re-marketing service that lets merchants have the service online faster. After adding basic page tags, SeeWhy works with you to test abandonment and the messages they send out to your customers. Then they turn the service on, and it goes live on your site.
SeeWhy provides the e-mail services and tracks deliverability and open rates, but it can also tightly integrate into an existing e-mail service if you use one. You can also integrate SeeWhy with your analytics solution to track conversions. For example, if you use Google Analytics, SeeWhy can be added as a campaign inside Google Analytics.
Do You Need Incentives to Re-capture a Customer?
Nicholls said that most merchants do not need to offer incentives to regain a customer. “When you send the service contact in a timely manner, that is often enough to capture a proportion of those customers who abandoned their cart,” he said.
Nicholls believes that when merchants send discounts and offers right away, it trains customers to expect a discount when they purchase — a trend we saw last year during the holiday shopping season. He believes that a gentle nudge approach is best. The first contact should be a basic service reminder with a link to the abandoned cart to see whether the customer needs further assistance or encountered a problem with the checkout process.
“After the first 24 hours, if there is no response, then you could offer a small incentive,” he said, “But stay in the context of a service communication and save those free shipping or bigger discount offers for the last contact.”
Pricing and Availability
SeeWhy’s Live-in-Five program is available to all merchants who sign up before midnight on November 21, 2009. By registering before this date, the company promises live service in time for the official start of the holiday shopping season on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (November 27 and November 30).
The company doesn’t charge any fee for accelerating the timing to get service up and running for the big selling season. You do, however, pay for the Abandonment Tracker Pro service. SeeWhy doesn’t make its pricing for that available other than to say it’s based on volume.

As a final point

2009-11-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

First launched on 10th March 2009 and being into operation for less than 6 months, www.missFashion.com.sg has already achieved a ranking within the Top 1000 most visited websites in Singapore – published by Alexa.com (Global Web Information Company).“We are delighted and proud to be recognized as a trusted source for online fashion shopping in Singapore. This validates all the hard work invested in branding missFashion.com.sg as an online shop that delivers better online shopping experiences and quality customer support.” Said Rif Chia, Founder and Director of www.missFashion.com.sg Being dedicated to the satisfaction of their customers, they are well known for their huge variety of fashion collections and quality customer services. Unlike most online fashion shops, missFashion.com.sg operates itself as a professional commercial shop with more than 5 full-time staff attending to different aspects of its business. Their business model promotes efficiency and service quality, hence building trust with thousands of members.missFashion.com.sg is a registered fashion business in Singapore that operates an online shop with huge variety of fashion collections from Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Its inventory policy ensures shorter waiting time with close to 90% of the items kept in stock.Superior Technologies FZ LLC is based in Dubai Internet City, and provides its customers with top quality networking and Connectivity Solution products that encompass all segments of the communication transport environment. “Our company provides End- To-End Structured Cabling Solutions for our clients, and part of our business relies on open tenders from governmental and private organizations”, explains Mr. Jamal Hachem, Technical Presales Manager of Superior Technologies. He went on to say: “We recently joined Tejari’s advanced B2B marketplace to monitor tenders, receive timely notifications and know more about our competitors and bidders.” Superior Technologies represents several international suppliers from Europe and the USA that together provide a diverse range of products in the areas of networking and connectivity. The company aims to supply the best products available in their market sector. Their current product line includes such items as: cables, cabinets, accessories, and OSP joint enclosures. Furthermore, in addition to their networking hardware offerings, Superior Technologies offers complete value-added services that provide technically optimal and competitive networking solutions.With respect to implementing and using Tejari’s innovative B2B platform within his organization, Mr. Hachem of Superior Technologies had this to say: “Currently we have two professionals within our company who work with online tenders on Tejari. We see that the trading platform is already well developed, and we expect that it will provide even more features to support the transactions of its members in future.” In terms of his suggestions for additional improvements that could be made to enhance the online marketplace’s effectiveness, Mr. Hachem mentioned that: “One of the ways Tejari may consider developing its platform for future operations would be to provide support for delivery of goods between its members.”As a final point, Mr. Hachem offered this recommendation for other companies who may be considering engaging in online trading: “We suggest to all companies to join the Tejari network and Manshoori tendering platform to be closer to the real market and run a more profitable business online.” About Tejari:Tejari is one of the leading B2B online marketplaces in the emerging markets. Tejari enables buyers and sellers to transact and share information about a variety of goods and services via a secured Internet environment. Tejari provides a single point of contact for an open and growing community of buyers and suppliers, permitting spot-purchasing and on-line auctions that enable participants’ real-time access to new markets and greater cost savings. Visit Tejari at http://www.tejari.comMedia Contacts:For additional information please contact: Vadim Lisenko, Tejari Marketing Manager by phone at: +971 4 391 37 77 or via e-mail to: Vadim.Lisenko ( @ ) tejari dot com.

E-commerce News Articles,

2009-11-02T05:57:00.000-08:00

Itransition, an international software development company providing a full spectrum of software, implementation, customization and integration services, has announced today that it has successfully reached the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status. Gold Certified Partner status speaks for the closest collaboration with Microsoft in the matters of training and support and proves Itransition ability to deliver top-notch solutions with the use of Microsoft technologies. It is notable that only a small number of Microsoft's hundreds of thousands of partners ever attain Gold Certified status. "I am extremely pleased Itransition has attained Gold Certified Partner status. Our competency and experience working with Microsoft products and invariably high quality of solutions we build using Microsoft technology have been noticed and appreciated not only by our customers, but also by industry professionals. Of course it is a great honor to join the industry elite forces and get a unique opportunity to receive access to Microsoft resources, training and support", said Sergei Gvardeitsev, CEO of Itransition. As part of the Microsoft Gold Certification Process, Itransition also declared a number of Microsoft Competencies, which are aimed at identifying partner's strong points related to specific Microsoft technologies. Itransition has been awarded several Microsoft's technical competencies, including Custom Development Solutions and Mobility Solutions. What is more, Itransition has proved a new competency, Information Worker Solutions (Portals and Collaboration). Itransition has been working with Microsoft solutions for many years and provides a full range of services, including the following:• Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation, customization, and integration. • Content management systems development, implementation and integration based on Microsoft SharePoint Server. • Web portals development (MS SharePoint). About Microsoft Partner ProgramLaunched in October 2003, the Microsoft Partner Program testifies Microsoft's commitment to the success and intellectual development of its global partners. The program offers a single, integrated partnering framework that measures and expands partner expertise, encourages the growth of the total share that partners have in the technology marketplace, and helps partners' businesses be more experienced and professional.About ItransitionItransition is a global provider of software development services and technology solutions. Presented in the market for almost 10 years, the company offers a creative array of software development services from Enterprise Solutions development and Content Management systems development to IT consulting. Itransition is featured in Global Outsourcing 100, CIO 100 awards lists and Software Magazine 500.

Following a six-day trial,

2009-11-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

Following a six-day trial, a federal jury here dismissed Blue Nile Inc.'s $60.1 million claim against The Yehuda Diamond Company, reaffirming Yehuda Diamond's right to compare the prices of its clarity enhanced diamonds to the untreated diamonds sold by online retailer Blue Nile.
Yehuda Diamond, based in New York, has earned widespread industry and consumer loyalty for its successful competition with Blue Nile and other online jewelers, favoring consumers not only with lower prices but also with unsurpassed expert face-to-face service and full Federal Trade Commission-compliant disclosure.
The suit [No. C-07-2017 TSZ], brought by Blue Nile and heard last month in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, involved Blue Nile's efforts to prevent Yehuda Diamond from comparing the price and appearance of its clarity enhanced diamonds to those natural untreated diamonds sold by Blue Nile.
Yehuda Diamond has consistently contended, even before Blue Nile filed the lawsuit against it in December 2007, that Yehuda Diamond's price comparisons are in the best interest of consumers. After 4-1/2 hours of deliberations, the jury agreed, dismissing both Blue Nile's federal and state claims that Yehuda Diamond had engaged in false or misleading advertising.
Blue Nile, which has brought multiple lawsuits against smaller competitors over the past decade, had petitioned the jury to award it exemplary damages of $60,161,834.64, based on alleged actual damages of $20,053,944.88.
"This is a momentous victory for all consumers and for free-market competition," says Dror Yehuda, president of Yehuda Diamonds.
"In essence, the jury told Blue Nile that it can't use its massive size and legal muscle to prevent consumers from learning about lower-priced, quality alternatives to Blue Nile diamonds," explains Mr. Yehuda. "In recent years, Blue Nile has preferred to fight its competitors in the courtroom than in the marketplace."
The jury's decision clears the path for Yehuda Diamond to continue to inform consumers of how much they stand to save by shopping at Yehuda Diamond authorized retailers, who offer competitive prices along with personalized, expert, face-to-face customer service for its clarity enhanced diamonds. By comparison, Blue Nile untreated diamonds are frequently higher-priced and Blue Nile bypasses the retail distribution chain altogether.
Moreover, Mr. Yehuda vowed that his company will continue to press its own lawsuit against Blue Nile [Court Case #08-CV-9751] filed in November 2008 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In that ongoing case, Yehuda Diamond contends that consumers who purchased rubies, emeralds, sapphires or jewelry containing those stones from Blue Nile were not informed that the gemstones had been treated to enhance their appearance.
As Mr. Yehuda previously noted: "We believe Blue Nile is deliberately misleading consumers about the quality of some of the gemstones it sells" in defiance of best industry recommend practices. "When a giant retailer such as Blue Nile does not do right by consumers, it taints our entire industry."
Yehuda Diamond has repeatedly endorsed full disclosure to consumers of any and all fillings and treatments made to valuable gemstones, including diamonds. Yehuda Diamond goes to great lengths to inform consumers of its own proprietary clarity enhanced diamond enhancement process, including prominent videos and text on its popular www.yehuda.com web site that illustrate the Yehuda Diamond proprietary technique.
Testifying at trial in Seattle, Mr. Yehuda cited Blue Nile's grading of its treated gemstones, such as rubies and emeralds, to rebut Blue Nile's contention that Yehuda Diamond acted improperly in grading its clarity enhanced diamonds after enhancement.
"Clearly, the jury understood the hypocrisy of Blue Nile saying that it is okay for Blue Nile to grade in this manner, but not okay for Yehuda Diamond," Mr. Yehuda noted after the verdict was announced. "More importantly, Yehuda Diamond is upfront and straightforward in telling our customers about our grading process, while Blue Nile keeps so many of its customers in the complete dark."
Mr. Yehuda said that given the jury's rulings in support of Yehuda Diamond, he has asked his attorneys to petition the judge in the case, the Honorable Thomas S. Zilly, to require Blue Nile to pay Yehuda Diamond's legal fees. Yehuda Diamond is represented by Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer LLP, a Manhattan-based law firm.
Full details concerning the price-advantages, brilliance and other characteristics of Yehuda clarity enhanced diamonds can be found at www.yehuda.com. In addition, the Yehuda Diamond web site explains why it encourages all consumers to visit an affiliated local jeweler and personally examine the diamonds before they buy - without cost, obligation or pressure.

By tapping into drop-shipping programs,

2009-10-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

The declining economy has led to an increased trend toward drop-shipping transactions and has allowed e-tailers to remain competitive while brick-and-mortar stores hedge their bets as they see physical retail sales and profits slide precipitously.
By tapping into drop-shipping programs, e-tailers can effortlessly expand product lines to meet shoppers' demands without the overhead risk, inventory investment or storage requirements.
While many manufacturers and distributors in the past were reluctant to consider a drop-shipping partnership, economy-induced reductions in inventory orders have changed the retailing landscape completely. Retailers are now able to reach out to their suppliers and can begin establishing drop-shipping partnerships that benefit the retailer, the supplier and the customers.
In addition to expanding inventory options, drop shipping allows retailers to ship products to consumers in the most direct and economical way by eliminating the expense of double-shipping -- that is, shipping from manufacturer to retailer and from retailer to consumer.There are countless business growth opportunities for online retailers looking to establish a successful drop-shipping program, but it's important to understand the potential challenges that can arise and how to implement smart strategies to avoid and overcome them.
Establishing a drop-shipping program can change a site owner's job dramatically, as most didn't set out to be shipping and fulfillment experts.
Without the right systems in place, e-tailers' responsibilities can become complicated with archaic business practices: manually filling out shipping orders; monitoring multiple inventory stocks; and playing the middle man between the supplier and customer.
The key to having a well synchronized drop-shipping system that saves time and money lies in the effectiveness of one's e-commerce solution to automate, customize and organize back-end management and customer service operations. With the right e-commerce solution, online retailers can easily integrate drop shipping into their business plan for success.
Must-Have List
In order to establish a successful drop-shipping program, online retailers would be well-advised to seek certain key features in their e-commerce platforms:
Automatic Data Management: Look for an e-commerce solution that automatically sends order information to the retailer and the supplier from the moment a purchase is made to the moment it is delivered to the customer. This eliminates communication hassles between a drop-shipper and retailers, which saves retailers time, allows orders to be processed faster, and reduces chances for human error.
Item-Specific Fulfillment: If you use multiple suppliers, avoid platforms that simply track orders at the total order level. If a customer buys three items and they are delivered at different times because of their origin, having just one tracking order will lead the customer to believe the order is incomplete and may result in a complaint.
Utilizing a sophisticated drop-shipping solution that tracks each item within an order will provide customers and site managers with individual tracking numbers for each item purchased, even those shipped from different locations. This allows retailers to eliminate the manual step of recreating orders item by item, supplier by supplier, and also ensures increased customer satisfaction.
Multiple Resource Management: E-tailers can benefit from a feature-rich platform that can manage and ship from multiple inventory supplies, including fulfillment houses, drop-shippers and in-house stock. Having smart technology behind your chosen e-commerce solution allows business owners to maximize and synergize available resources, rather than struggling to consolidate and eliminate valuable resources to fit an inadequate system.
Comfortable Shipping: Clients can choose to integrate their preferred shipping application with a platform because of its automated tracking number generation and retrieval process. Some platforms let businesses that already have a preferred shipping application use that application, with all the data transferred automatically to the new platform's site manager.
The key to having a recession-proof business is being able to remain nimble to meet the demands of consumers. Drop shipping is an efficient and economical way for e-tailers to increase sales, expand product lines and improve their bottom lines at a time when it is needed most.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index,

2009-10-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) rose for the sixth straight month [pdf] in September 2009. Combined with flat performance in the Conference Board Coincident Economic Index (CEI), this signals a possible bottoming out of the current U.S. economic recession.
The LEI, which measures economic activity for the next six months, increased 1%, from 102.5 to 103.5. This marked the LEI’s sixth straight month of growth following 20 straight months of decline. In addition, the CEI, which measures current economic activity, remained flat at 99.9, following fractional increases in July and August and eight straight months of decline that ended with a 0.4% decrease in June. A score of 100 marks the performance level of both the LEI and CEI in 2004.
Eight of the ten indicators that make up the LEI increased in September. The positive contributors – beginning with the largest positive contributor – were interest rate spread, index of consumer expectations, average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance (inverted), stock prices, real money supply, index of supplier deliveries (vendor performance), manufacturers’ new orders for non-defense capital goods and manufacturers’ new orders for consumer goods and materials. The negative contributors – beginning with the largest negative contributor – were average weekly manufacturing hours and building permits. In August, only five of 10 indicators increased and two remained flat.
In addition, three of the four indicators that make up the CEI increased in September. The positive contributors to the index, beginning with the largest positive contributor, were industrial production, personal income less transfer payments, and manufacturing and trade sales. The negative contributor was employees on non-agricultural payrolls. This performance was a repeat from August.
According to Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein, taken together, the performances of the LEI and CEI continue to indicate an economic recovery is developing. However, he cautioned that it is not yet clear how strong that recovery will be. “The intensity of that recovery will depend on how much, and how soon, demand picks up,” said Goldstein.
Two other consumer indices also paint a somewhat optimistic picture of the direction of the U.S. economy, although not all recent consumer and economic research suggests an end to the recession is near. The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index, which attempts to track consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending, rose 11.6% in September 2009.
Although the Consumer Reports Index, which tracks consumer financial and employment numbers to obtain an overall sense of consumer health, climbed from 38.1 in September to 40.3 in October, the index still stands well below 50, indicating continuing negative consumer sentiment regarding the economy.
In contrast, two other consumer indices have recently declined. Following an August 2009 increase driven by an optimistic consumer future outlook, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell from 54.5 to 53.1 in September 2009. The most drastic decline came in the Present Situation Index, with the future-looking Expectations Index declining only half a percentage point.
And according to the September 2009 Advance Monthly Retail Trade Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. retail and food service sales fell 1.5%, from $351.4 billion to $344.7 billion, in September. This is the second slip for U.S. retail and food service sales in the past five months, with a revised 0.2% dip in July.
However, a 10.4% drop in sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers significantly outpaced any individual increases, which were mostly below 1%. Last month, motor vehicle and parts dealers reported a 10.6% increase which was likely spurred by the federal government’s now discontinued “Cash for Clunkers” incentive program. The motor vehicle and parts sector bears careful monitoring in the coming months to see if the short-term spike in sales caused by Cash for Clunkers has any long-term positive economic effect.
One other consumer index, The American Express Spending and Saving Tracker, is giving mixed signals on the near-term direction of the economy. It indicates consumers will spend more on travel and dining out in the next 30 days, but less on groceries and personal grooming.

According to The Daily Record,

2009-10-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

According to The Daily Record, GGP is authorized to pay out $11.6 million in bonuses to its top 12 executives, $6 million in bonuses to 35 senior executives, and $30 million in bonuses to 706 regional shopping mall managers and 2,122 additional employees during the next two years. Bonuses will be entirely cash-based as the bankrupt company’s stock is currently worth less than $2 a share. Bonus values are estimated as they are tied to 2009 salary figures, which have not been made public.
In addition, if GGP exits bankruptcy by June 30, 2010, the company will be allowed to distribute an extra $10 million bonus pool to employees. GGP will receive an extra $5 million bonus pool if its exits bankruptcy between July 1 and September 30, 2010, and no extra bonus pool money after that date.
The Daily Record quotes a GGP spokesperson as saying the company’s creditor committee supports the bonus plan. This may result from a favorable bankruptcy court ruling on August 11, 2009 that holds the potential to make it harder for creditors to obtain repayment.
According to Retail Traffic, Judge Gropper is allowing GGP to hold special purpose entities (SPEs) that are traditionally considered outside the realm of corporate bankruptcy in its bankruptcy filing. Furthermore, the SPEs in question are not considered to be in financial distress. In June, creditors including ING Capital Loan Services LLC, Helios AMC, LLC, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and KBC Bank, N.V. had asked the bankruptcy court to disallow the SPEs from GGP’s filing. If the ruling stands, funds from the SPEs will go toward corporate restructuring rather than repaying creditors. Thus creditors may be more willing to accept the bonus plan as a means of getting GGP out of bankruptcy as quickly as possible, even though it uses money that potentially could help pay GGP’s debts.
In another recent legal development, Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan, an heiress to what was once the GGP fortune, is suing attorneys Marshall Eisenberg and Earl Melamed and their law firm, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, along with trustee General Trust Co., for alleged improprieties relating to the handling of GGP-related stock and trusts. According to the Chicago Tribune, Scanlan said she has lost $1.7 billion since the collapse of GGP, and she blames the defendants in her suit for $300 million of those losses.
In June, GGP proposed a seven-year plan to fully repay all creditors. The company has been trying to restructure and refinance its debt for months.
According to Commercial Real Estate Examiner, GGP’s plan involves a seven-year extension of its secured and unsecured loans at their current interest rates. GGP says this would allow it to create a cash flow large enough to pay off all debts. In a presentation [pdf] at a recent investment research conference, GGP made arguments in favor of the plan such as the mall industry is more stable than retail in general due to its reliance on long-term leases, 82% of its debt is fixed-rate, and its malls have a 90.9% occupancy rate. The bankruptcy court is still determining a restructuring and repayment plan for GGP.
GGP’s proposal follows recent motions by a number of lenders to its malls requesting the properties be removed from GGP’s bankruptcy filing. According to Reuters, lenders are saying the loans in question are not in default danger and that GGP is using Chapter 11 bankruptcy to obtain leverage in debt negotiations. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for June 17, 2009.In December last year GGP hired AlixPartners to help it turn around. Its team is lead by Managing Director James A. Mesterharm, whose declaration in support of first day motions can be found here (pdf). Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP have been retained as counsel and co-counsel to the debtors. The case has been jointly filed under number 09-11977 with the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York. The court, headed by judge Stuart M. Bernstein for the last nine years, has had many high profile “mega cases” under its jurisdiction since the current recession began, including BearingPoint, Star Tribune and Lehman Brothers.This filing lists many entities but excludes some third-party businesses and joint ventures. Along with retail locations, 11 office properties, one master planned community and six properties still under development are part of the filing properties, while many operating properties are not involved in the filings. More details, including contact information for the attorneys representing GGP, are available from a website maintained by noticing agent Kurtzman Carson Consultants.
With roughly 200 million square feet of retail space and 24,000+ stores across 44 states, GGP is the second-largest mall owner in the US behind Simon Property Group. It employs approximately 3,700 people directly and many more indirectly.

Research data on e-commerce and online purchases,

2009-10-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

The current serious economic recession has not frozen investments in e-commerce. Smilehouse, a company focusing on e-business solutions and expert services, achieved an organic, profitable turnover growth of more than 50% in 2008.
The Internet is gaining more and more ground both in consumer and business-to-business trade. Fundamental changes are to be expected in consumers’ purchase behaviour and b2b trade, based on research data on e-commerce and online purchases, as well as the rapid growth of the value of online trade and increasing investments in e-commerce.
- Our estimates indicate that the recession will boost the purchase behaviour change that is already in progress. In bare markets, consumers and companies strive towards increasingly sensible purchases, and the Internet and online stores offer particularly efficient ways to support more thoughtful purchasing, both in terms of cost savings and the ability to offer more extensive background information, says Tapio Talvisalo, CEO of Smilehouse.
In the field of product and service sales, e-commerce is not only a necessary channel for making customer contacts but also an investment that will bring significant yield once fully up and running. It enables companies to boost sales and also gain notable cost savings through automated functions.
- Companies that can see the big picture keep up their investments in e-business regardless of the recession in order to ensure success when the economy turns up again, Talvisalo says, crystallising the point.

Smilehouse showed the industry’s highest organic growth
As the only e-business expert company, Smilehouse made it to the Deloitte Fast 50 list ranking the fastest growing technology companies in Finland. This was Smilehouse’s third time on the list that requires strong, long-term growth.
- We are extremely pleased with the strong growth and particularly the fact that last year, for example, we were able to achieve growth that was organic and profitable, unlike many other industry players. This means that our top position is the outcome of competence and expertise, not external capital injections of corporate acquisitions, Talvisalo points out.
In 2008, Smilehouse achieved the planned growth of over 50% and increased its turnover to EUR 5.5 million. Smilehouse’s e-business solution expertise was utilised by such customers as Konebox, Sanoma Magazines, Anglo-Nordic and Kalevala Koru.
Smilehouse’s strong growth can be, above all, attributed to the increased investments in e-commerce made by major corporations as well as small and medium-sized companies. Smilehouse gains competitive edge from such features as its actively developed solution software package, a decade’s experience in e-commerce and the ability to serve as a one-stop shop for all e-business solutions and services.
Smilehouse even seeks growth in recession
Despite the economic recession, Smilehouse is targeting nearly 40% growth for the current year. The turnover target is set at EUR 7.5 million. Achieving this goal will require major new customer accounts but also an increase in personnel.
It is difficult to estimate how the macro economy will effect the company growth but as the market leader Smilehouse is in a good position when companies select their partners for successful e-business.
- The growth target is a major challenge in the current economical situation, even for us. No company is independent of the general market trends. However, we believe that there will be demand for expertise and competence even during difficult times, says Talvisalo in conclusion.Smilehouse has been showing strong growth for a long time, as evidenced by it being included for the second time in two years on the Deloitte Fast 500 EMEA list, which lists the fastest growing technology companies.“Our strong growth shows that e-commerce is increasingly often an integral part of companies’ strategies, and that it can help achieve tangible sales growth and efficiency improvement. Our decision to focus on providing complete and specialised solutions for e-commerce has received strong acceptance from the markets,” says Tapio Talvisalo, CEO of Smilehouse Oy.Key accounts and the SME sector the growth driversSmilehouse’s growth in 2007 was largely based on significant key accounts in the corporate customer segment, and powerful growth in the SME sector. Last year, Smilehouse won several major accounts, such as Lumene, Orion, Suunto, the Hedengren Group and Anglo-Nordic.Over 8 000 merchants uses free e-commerce service Wosbee Smilehouse released a free e-commerce service for entrepreneurs and small businesses on May at CeBIT 2007. Now anyone can open a free webshop at www.wosbee.com and build successful e-business solution, with secure hosting included.Compared to other e-commerce services, Wosbee is offered free of charge. It includes a lively community for services and support. Today Wosbee has a community of over 8 000 merchants.Smilehouse invests in strategic partnership“In 2008 we intend to enhance our solutions range, particularly in the strategy-level value added services for e-business. We partner with our customers to help them make the most of the opportunities provided by e-commerce. The development work on the Workspace product line is moving on to the second generation version, offering companies even more extensive opportunities for exploiting e-commerce in their business. We feel very confident about the future,” Talvisalo continues.Now listed on the Deloitte Fast 500 EMEA list, Smilehouse is the only Finnish growth company focusing on e-commerce. The aggregate turnover growth percentage for the past five years is 318. In 2007, Smilehouse recorded turnover in excess of EUR 3.5 million, showing an increase of 46% on the previous year. At the same time, the number of company personnel rose to 70 e-commerce specialists. Strong growth is expected to continue, and the budgeted turnover for 2008 is EUR 5.5 million.

Microsoft’s recent launch of new search engine,

2009-10-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Microsoft’s recent launch of new search engine Bing could be set to shake up the world of internet browsing and certainly gives marketers using online advertising something to think about.
In her blog for Forrester, Shar VanBoskirk suggested that the new tool, which replaced live.com last week, could change the face of search, having a massive impact for marketing professionals.
She predicted that Microsoft’s current eight per cent share of searches will grow, meaning that marketers will need to buy search advertising through Bing as well as Google and Yahoo.
Ms VanBoskirk also forecasted a change in the approach to search engine optimisation (SEO).
“Instead of Bing showing all sites that match the search engine’s algorithm, it will show just three results for a given ’subcategory’ related to a search,” she explained.
“This means SEO strategies will adjust in order to optimise web content for select subcategories, rather than select keywords only.”
Given that a recent survey by Forbes revealed SEO to be one of the most important and effective tools for marketers when aiming to secure conversions, the launch of Bing could be particularly important.
Researchers questioned senior marketing executives during February and March of this year and found that when it comes to digital media spending for the coming months, 40 per cent of respondents planned to devote more of their budget to SEO.
The findings of this report echo earlier results from Econsultancy and search agency Guava, which found that SEO is the area where companies are most likely to be investing more money in 2009, with 55 per cent of respondents to the online survey saying they expect their budgets for this to increase.
Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, recently highlighted the importance of getting SEO right.
“A non-trivial percentage of Internet traffic to sites is driven by search engines, and good SEO techniques can help increase site traffic even further,” he wrote in his blog.
“Likewise, small mistakes can significantly impact the search relevance of your site’s content and cause you to miss out on the traffic that you should be receiving,” Mr Guthrie explained.
He said that common errors, such as broken links from a page, poorly chosen titles, descriptions and keywords, large amounts of viewstate and multiple URLs leading to the same content, are usually easily fixable.
To that end, Microsoft have launched the first beta of the Internet Information Services Search Engine Optimization Toolkit, which allows firms to analyse SEO on a website and identify and fix any issues.
Looking ahead, marketers are going to have to increasingly look at incorporating video into their websites, as this is set to be hugely influential for SEO.
With broadband increasing in availability and lowering in price, video has seen huge growth in recent years and Google is ranking pages higher in its news section based on the presence of the media on a website.The search engine giants have teamed up with Adobe Systems, creator of the widely-used Flash Player technology, in a bid to improve what content users can search for on the internet.
In the past marketers and search engine optimisation experts have had to rely on text content alone to drive up search engine rankings for results, with a focus primarily on keywords.
Google has already integrated the new technology into its system, while Yahoo will do so at a later date, according to reports.
However, some remain sceptical that the new Flash search will really make that much of a difference to overall search marketing.
Vanessa Fox, editor of the Search Engine Land journal, told Info World: “It could be a large impact or it also could be really small.
“I do think developers who are implementing Flash on their site probably still need to pay attention to search engine optimisation.”

Net neutrality Postmortem,

2009-10-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

Given the extraordinarily noisy run-up to yesterday's meeting at the Federal Communications Commission, it's hardly surprising that reactions came fast and furious from lawmakers, businesses and advocacy groups that had staked out a position in the Net neutrality debate.
As a matter of procedure, the action the FCC took yesterday was to initiate a rule-making process that would enshrine its 2005 Internet policy statement as formal rules, and add to it stipulations mandating non-discriminatory network management and disclosure of ISPs' traffic-shaping policies.
The commission is calling for public comments through March, with the formal rules to be drafted and considered by the commission later next year.
But some are hoping it never gets that far. The morning of the FCC's vote, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced the "Internet Freedom Act of 2009," which would bar the commission from writing Net neutrality rules.
In an op-ed penned for the Washington Times, McCain professed to be worried about a "government takeover of the Internet."
Kay Bailey Hutchison, the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, has also warned against overreaching FCC regulations. Earlier this week, one of her aides told InternetNews.com that she had backed off of an amendment to an appropriations bill to withhold funding from the FCC and prevent it from enacting new regulations, but that the option was still on the table.
This morning, Hutchison issued a statement reiterating her concerns and saying that she would be "closely reviewing" the FCC's notice and the comment process. After reviewing the commission's decision, I will evaluate whether legislative efforts, including those recently introduced, are an appropriate course of action," she said.
A rush to praise the FCC
Meantime, on the other side of the aisle, several Democratic lawmakers rushed to praise the FCC's action.
Sen. John Rockefeller and Rep. Henry Waxman, who chair the commerce committees in their respective chambers, wrote a brief letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski praising his efforts and urging him to stick to his promise that the rule-making process would be transparent and data-driven.
A rare showing of bipartisan solidarity came from Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who have teamed together in the past to sponsor Net neutrality legislation.
In a joint statement, Dorgan and Snowe praised the FCC for initiating the rule-making process. "Network neutrality protects the fundamental rights of Americans in using the Internet and accessing content, applications, and services of their choice," they said in a joint statement.
Dorgan and Snowe said they would watch the FCC's proceeding closely, holding out the possibility that they might reintroduce legislation to support Net neutrality.
A pro-Net neutrality bill, backed by seven Democrats, has already emerged in the House. The legislation, dubbed the "Internet Freedom and Preservation Act," bears an uncanny titular resemblance to the bill McCain introduced yesterday, though they are obviously working at cross purposes.

The Gx family features a new three-issue 64-bit core,

2009-10-26T03:15:00.000-07:00

This new family, the TILE-Gx, consists of four new processors from Tilera, all aimed at different markets based on their scalability. They come with 16, 36, 64 and 100 cores, all operating in parallel and can be configured so all cores run on one task or core groups can be partitioned and assigned to different applications. The chips aren't slated for release until next year.
The TILE-Gx family uses 40 nanometer chips, fabricated by Taiwan's TSMC. They run up to 1.50 GHz while consuming between 10 and 55 watts. They have a similar RISC (define) design like the other Tilera processors, but also have a few advancements.
The Gx family features a new three-issue 64-bit core, meaning it executes three instructions per cycle. It has a total of 32MB of cache: 32KB L1 cache and 256KB L2 cache per core. It makes all of the individual L2 caches appear as a single L3 cache, so every core knows the contents of every other core. The Gx family also has integrated high-performance DDR3 memory controllers that can access up to 1TB of ECC memory. The chips have their own encryption engine, called MiCA (Multistream iMesh Crypto Accelerator) that delivers up to 40Gbps encryption and 20Gbps full duplex compression processing.
It also has a packet processing accelerator called mPIPE (multicore Programmable Intelligent Packet Engine) to provide wire-speed packet classification, load balancing and buffer management.
A solution for cloud computing
Tilera is targeting cloud computing systems with the new TILE-Gx line, promising four times the performance of Intel's high-end Nehalem-EX and ten times the performance per watt.
It's an easy claim to make since neither chip is on the market yet, but Tilera is not interested in being a niche player. "We will make the statement we are a broad-based processor. We will not be placed into a niche," Bob Doud, director of marketing for Tilera told InternetNews.com. Within the cloud computing market is a decent segment where you just don't care what the underlying hardware is, you just want performance and performance per watt," he added.
The software is there
CPU history is littered with the corpses of failed start-ups, mostly because they didn't provide the software base. Doud said Tilera has that covered with a strong software ecosystem to support the hardware, starting with the fact that existing code will be portable to the TILE-Gx.
"People won't have to write new code. Porting is usually as easy as recompile and run," he said.
"We've all seen a lot of guys with a good idea and specialized processor chip come and go. Often times they carried baggage along with them requiring people to use special programming languages or funny libraries to use their chip. TILE-Gx runs Linux and runs C/C++. It's not binary compatible with an x86 processor, but the cloud is such a huge market that areas that don't require binary compatibility are a huge play for Tilera," he added.
One area where Tilera has experimented is Memcached, an open source caching middleware software package often used by Web 2.0 sites to serve up code and data that is frequently requested.
Tilera was able to port Memcached to its currently-shipping TilePro64 chip in a day, using Linux and open source tools, spent a few weeks optimizing it, and got seven times the performance-per-watt on a single 64-core chip as a dual socket quad-core Nehalem server.
"We've invested a huge amount into software, about equal to what we put in the hardware. We realized software was it or we'd have a boat anchor. We've got the debugger, profiler, and optimizer tools," said Doud.
So far, Tilera has 75 customers using its development kits, but will not identify those customers until they ship products. The TILE-Gx family begins shipping next year, with the 100-core processor coming last.
Will Strauss, principal analyst with Forward Concepts, said Tilera isn't a threat to Intel yet, but sure could be one. "The hardware works, there's no question in my mind. They can run the benchamarks and it looks very good. They are further along than any other massively parallel processor vendor," he told InternetNews.com.
"What they don't have is Windows on it. But it is programmable in C and they do have a Linux running on it. So it does have a capability. The real secret to success is how easy is it to program and what kinds of tools do they have to program? People aren't used to programming a large array of processors," he added.

UK unemployment figures are almost at two million,

2009-10-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

At a time when UK unemployment figures are almost at two million, online retailers are bucking the downward trend with some claiming they are excelling in the current climate, according to the findings of a survey.
A study in the Bearing Partnership's Digital Industry Confidence Report said e-commerce managers are confident that their teams will either grow or maintain this year and may even receive pay increases.
Aryn Hurst-Clark, director of search and selection at recruitment specialists Bearing Partnership, said: "Brands will need to service the growing demand for e-commerce from consumers and, in an area currently suffering from a skills shortage, making the right staffing decisions will be critical to the company's overall business success."
She added that companies that invest wisely in e-commerce employees will reap the benefits when the economy picks up.
The report also showed that 77 per cent of e-commerce managers reached their targets during last 12 months and almost half of managers said they were confident of a pay rise in the next year.
Bearing Partnership's report follows the news that online sales were up by 14 per cent in April compared to the same time in 2008, according to an Imrg.com survey.Online retailers have reason to celebrate as sales were up 14 per cent in April compared to the same time last year, according to an online retail website.
Figures released by IMRG/Capgemini, the e-commerce specialist, from their e-Retail Sales Index revealed that although there was a growth compared to last year, monthly sales figures actually dropped two per cent compared to March this year.
Mike Petevinos, head of consulting for retail at Capgemini UK, said: "The e-retail industry continues to perform well during the recession with year on year growth at around 15 per cent being achieved consistently over the last ten months. We are also seeing growth in the average basket value with UK shoppers spending £10 more online per visit compared to a year ago."
He continued to say that as the market matures and stabilises the 50 per cent year-on-year growths are now a thing of the past and seasonal peaks and troughs are now visible.
The report said that the average online basket size has grown from £121.69 in April 2008 to £131.76 last month.
An e-commerce study by Gartner has recently suggested that perpetual shopping carts are the most effective way of increasing visitor conversion rates for online retailers.

Online retailers in Europe,

2009-10-24T05:06:00.000-07:00

Online retailers in Europe are being held back by legislation which is not up to the task, according to one expert.
Even though online retailers in the EU have recently reported annual transactions in excess of €100 billion (£87 million), Petra Papinniemi of ZDNetAsia.com claims the laws that govern e-commerce in Europe are no longer good enough.
She said: "Changes to the legal and regulatory framework are now a priority if cross-border e-commerce is to reach its full potential."
Ms Papinniemi highlighted the legislation that governs cross-border selling as the biggest hindrance to European e-commerce, saying data protection issues which stop companies exchanging information are most in need of reform.
The Office of Fair Trade (OFT) has responded tentatively to a proposal which came after the European Commission's report and would mean all EU countries having the same level of consumer protection.
Ms Papinniemi said this could water down much tougher, existing consumer protection in the UK and the OFT has expressed a preference for the standard to remain flexible to allow member states the choice to keep stringent rules in place.
UK online retail managers who took part in a recent survey by Bearing Partnership said they were confident that their teams will either grow or maintain this year and may even receive pay increases.The new software comes from Interprise Software Solutions, an e-commerce specialist that says its program, named Interprise On-Demand, can appeal to businesses looking to develop without spending thousands of pounds.
Gary Harrison, president of Interprise Solutions, said: "In a tough economy, customers need options. Interprise On-Demand gives companies the freedom to choose between the simplicity and immediate return-on-investment of the software as a service subscription option or the flexibility that the licensed option provides."
He added that the company is looking forward to getting the service on the open market and hopes businesses will see the possible benefits that Interprise On-Demand could bring to their productivity and revenue streams.
In a recent survey by Bearing Partnership, the recruitment specialist, most e-commerce managers reported that they expected their teams to grow and salaries to increase by the end of the year.

News from China B2B research center,

2009-10-24T04:59:00.000-07:00

News from China B2B research center, 2009 China (Guangdong) international e-commerce conference
will hold on September 12, 2009 in Baiyun International Conference Center ceremoniously in Guangzhou. Organized by the Guangdong Provincial Information Industry Department, the Guangzhou People's Municipal Government and China Electronic Commerce Association, the conference set "to promote innovation, boost transformation, and strive for creating the International Electronic Commerce Center" as the theme and hold around the target of how to achieve "further establish the Pearl River Delta Region International E-Commerce center ". Except some major officials from relevant departments will attend the meeting, the meeting also invited many seniors of leading enterprises on e-commerce home and abroad, such as China Mobile, China Union Pay, Alibaba, Tencent, IBM, Cisco, Google, Amazon, eBay, and the European Union Resident Representative in China, Hong Kong and Macao delegates and local service providers.The meeting will give a platform to present e-commerce application, supporting system and safeguard measures, exchange experience, share new ideas, analyze application cases, inspire the participants thinking, and open the sight of practitioners. E-commerce is a new industry representative and the core of the modern industrial system with a flexible response capabilities and broad space for development. It is not only a technology tool for businesses to recruit more business, but also basing on the level of industry resources allocation through the effective integration of procurement, manufacturing, sales, channels, payment, information, logistics and other activities to establish a new marketing and growth mode. E-commerce can help SMEs break through the regional restrictions and trade monopolies in the international competition. Spreading and deepening e-commerce applications, could also contribute to the innovation and development of traditional industries, which plays a pivotal role in assisting upgrading the regional economy. The conference is the largest e-commerce activities of the southern area so far, which provides participants a perfect opportunity for comprehensive revealing the nature of e-commerce and in-depth understanding panorama of the international e-commerce center. As a winner of domestic e-commerce, epathchina.com (www.epathchina.com) certainly will concentrate on the great issue. This is a good chance for epathchina.com to learn advanced marketing features from other excellent e-commerce enterprises and conclude work experience to make up for its own deficiencies.Epathchina.com also makes an effort of keeping pace with Ebay.com, Amazon.com, Alibaba.com dhgate.com etc. and shortening the distance. Epathchina.com strives for standing as a winner of international e-commerce in the end.

Electronic commerce(e-commerce),

2009-10-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

Electronic commerce or e-commerce covers all business conducted by means of computer networks. Progress in telecommunications and computer technologies in recent years have made computer networks a vital part of the economic infrastructure. More and more companies are aiding transactions over web. Although business-to-business transactions play an important part in e-commerce market, a share of e-commerce revenues in developed countries is generated from business to consumer transactions. E-commerce provides numerous benefits to the consumers in form of availability of goods at lower cost, wider choice and saves time. People can purchase goods with a click of mouse button without moving out of their house or office.For developing countries like India, e-commerce offers considerable opportunity. E-commerce in India is still in budding stage, but It is believed that low cost of personal computers, a growing installed base for Internet use, and an increasingly competitive Internet Service Provider (ISP) market will help fuel e-commerce growth in India.Many sites are now selling a diverse range of products and services from flowers, greeting cards, and movie tickets to groceries, electronic gadgets, shoes and computers etc.However The speed post and courier system has also improved tremendously in recent years. Modern computer technology like secured socket layer (SSL) helps to protect against payment fraud etc. Many companies also provides “cash on Delivery” service where people can access goods through e-commerce without owning a credit card. In India, scores of organizations have ventured into e-commerce such as Bigshoebazaar.com which offers huge range of branded and non branded shoes under one site thus changing the way India shops. Now you can buy your favourite shoe with the click of the mouse. You can chose among over thousands of designs without sweating in the sun running from one shop to another. It also helps the compare the shoes so that you can end up purchasing the best one for you or your loved ones. What that means is that when a customer wants more variety that a physical store can hold, they will get access to an unlimited virtual variety. He/She will simply go to www.bigshoebazaar.com where a whole new world of footwear opens to him, giving him dozens of brands and thousands of shoes to choose from.Bigshoebazaar brings together 60 brands and 10000 designs on one platform. Brands like Woodland, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, Nike, LeeCooper, Red Tape, iD, Adda, the list just goes on and on. Other important companies in India are e-bay, indiatimes.com.homeshop18.So, Shop the way the whole world is shopping and get your favourite stuff with a click of a button of the mouse.

Recourse from International Financial,

2009-10-24T03:55:00.000-07:00

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%. The 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 .

Certainly e-commerce is back in vogue,

2009-10-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

Today, UrbanBaby.com.au is an e-commerce success by anyone's standards, doubling its revenues each year and supporting 10 employees. Managing director Linda Hattersley says the company has about half a dozen serious competitors, plus lots of little ones that come and go.
"We probably receive five e-mails a day from new mums wanting advice about starting an online business and asking where we source our products," Hattersley said from the company's Sydney warehouse.
She and business partner Christine Thompson were new mums themselves when they started the company. They met at a mothers group and discovered they shared a passion for stylish, practical and innovative baby products. Both wanted to return to work, but felt constrained by a traditional bricks and mortar approach. An online business allowed them to develop a successful retail operation while retaining a more flexible lifestyle.
"There are lots of people out there with no experience who want to make a living online, and plenty of people making money out of their lack of knowledge," said Hattersley. She said many Web site developers charge big dollars to deliver another company's templated product, something that most people could easily put together themselves if they knew where to look.
Certainly e-commerce is back in vogue. A significant number of medium to large companies have some level of Web presence and many SMEs are either online or exploring their Internet options. The companies that perform well in the e-commerce space have a clear vision for their online sales strategy. Business people are making the decisions about how the site should look and typically they're outsourcing the technical side of things to a company with expertise in e-commerce."
Debrincat warned that businesses that run their Web service in their own back office often lack the infrastructure to ensure a reliable and secure e-commerce environment, which puts them and their customers at risk.
"We're heading into a period of massive e-commerce growth driven by user demand, but many Australian businesses are going to be caught unprepared," Debrincat said. "We're seeing strong and growing demand from SMEs for hosted e-commerce solutions to enable them to get online quickly and securely, but most are still focused on driving customers to their storefront premises."
Major drivers of e-commerce Affordability of broadband has been a key enabler of e-commerce, with online sales growing in line with domestic broadband take-up. The percentage of Australian homes with broadband Internet connections has risen from four per cent in 2003 to 31 per cent in 2006, while two out of three individuals now have home Internet access.
At the same time, the major banks have been actively encouraging their customers to do their banking online in a bid to streamline their processes and reduce costs. Online banking has played a major role in developing confidence in e-commerce since consumers who have had a positive experience with internet banking are more like to make online purchases.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of people who shopped online grew from just seven per cent in 2000 to 31 per cent in 2005. Interestingly, the proportion of people making online purchases jumps sharply when age and income are taking into account.
While 23 per cent of those earning $40,000 per annum made purchases in 2004-05, this rose to 73 per cent of those earning $120,000 per annum or more.
Cornering the youth market One of the challenges for e-commerce retailers is overcoming the obstacles to making an online sale. Not only are some consumers still reluctant to provide credit card details online, but 45 per cent of adults don't even have a credit card (Reserve Bank 2006).
That number is obviously even higher amongst the youth market, most of whom are very comfortable with the Internet and more likely to shop online, but lack the means. These consumers might have a debit card and are likely to use Internet banking, which is why Melbourne company Centricom has teamed up with Unisys to develop a system that allows consumers to transfer funds directly from their bank account to a retailer's account.
Known as POLi (Pay Online), the solution is already supported by the major banks including ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB, Westpac, Suncorp, Bankwest and Bank of Queensland, with Adelaide Bank and St George soon to come on board.
POLi works by taking the consumer from a retailer's shopping cart to their online banking portal where they log in as usual within the bank's secure environment to authorise the transfer of funds. POLi populates the transaction with details of the merchant and purchase amount, recording the Internet banking receipt number as proof of purchase for the merchant and sending a receipt back to the customer.
With advantages such as higher security, real-time authentication, instant receipting, automated reconciliation, integrated reporting, minimised dishonours and reduced customer repudiation, POLi is expected to prove popular with both merchants and consumers.
Centricom's chief executive, Simon Warner, said online debit systems have received strong endorsement from the Reserve Bank for being much more secure than credit cards and far cheaper for merchants.
"POLi is completely secure because the transaction actually occurs within the bank's own environment. It operates in real time and allows the consumer only to spend available funds. This is particularly good for teenage shoppers, some of whom have previously run up substantial credit bills by purchasing items via SMS," he said.
Empowering SME e-commerce Another way in which financial institutions are playing a major role in encouraging e-commerce is through their provision of services to customers. Some Australian banks are exploring the possibilities around offering packaged e-commerce Web sites to business customers to ease their transition online.
Not only would this allow these institutions to create an online community of their business customers, but playing such a role would help to cement the relationship and reduce customer churn.
This is already happening overseas with companies like British Telecom, which has reduced turnover on its broadband plans by over 80 per cent after offering low-cost e-commerce facilities to its business customers.
Online communities such as that created by BT have the potential to evolve into digital shopping malls, providing consumers with a portal to a broader range of products and services than they could access from a single retailer.
Integrated shopping malls A good example of this is the way Telecom New Zealand has brought together leading retailers from around New Zealand to create an online shopping mall that caters for everything from books to perfume and bikinis to mountain climbing gear.
Ferrit.co.nz was launched in November 2005 by Telecom NZ as a natural extension of its Xtra broadband and Yellow Pages businesses. General manager Ralph Brayham says it was an easy step to move from being a directory service to a shopping mall, providing an online presence for over 120 retailers with no up-front capital cost for the merchant.
"We offer an investment base and development base that retailers can leverage to get their products online. Since they only pay us when they sell something, it's a no-brainer for the retailers," he explained.
"New Zealand is very underdeveloped in relation to online retailing, particularly when compared to the UK and the US. We have just 1.1 million households and 4 million people, but the same breadth and depth of product choices as any English-speaking country. Given our small population, it's difficult for retailers to think about making the capital outlay required for an e-commerce Web site."
Even though much larger than NZ, Australia is in a similar position when compared with other developed nations, so ferrit.co.nz offers a model that might well be exploited there.
Until very recently, ferrit.co.nz didn't have a shopping cart, so if a customer wanted to buy an iPod, socks and a CD, they had to click through to the individual retailer Web sites and make separate purchases. However, the company introduced an integrated shopping cart in November which can bundle multiple purchases from different merchants into a single transaction.
"We can now place all three products into one shopping cart and make one charge to the purchaser's credit card. But it shows up on their statement as three individual items from three merchants to help them track their spending," he said.
Very few companies offer this level of multi-retailer service anywhere in the world, US-based Shop.com being a notable exception, but Brayham believes that other malls will quickly follow their lead.
"This model is very challenging technically, but it offers a great experience for the shopper and the retailer. Established merchants like Amazon will struggle to adapt their technology to this approach, but we had the advantage of starting from scratch."
Brayham says their biggest challenge is in the area of market development, with less than 0.5 per cent of NZ retailers online. "In other countries, the level of online representation is typically 6 to-10 per cent or higher, so we have a lot of ground to make up. We are investing heavily in education to grow the market and encourage other players to offer a level of competition."
eBay offers low cost entry Of course, the biggest e-commerce phenomenon around the world is eBay, which boasts 193 million members worldwide, including around 3.5 million Australians.
According to AC Neilsen, 52,700 Australians use eBay as a source of income, including 17,567 businesses that rely on eBay as their primary or only sales channel and 35,133 that use the online marketplace as a secondary source of income or channel for their business.
eBay offers the benefits of low overheads and an established customer base, with the potential to reach a global market.
However, recent moves by the Web site to increase the cost of selling goods on eBay could encourage more established retailers to start developing their own Web sites and building a stronger online presence for their business.
Giving power back to consumers eBay's latest venture to win widespread applause has been the introduction of Shopping.com, a global price matching Web site that detects each visitor's country of origin and automatically directs them to a local site.
Shoppers can search for products in a wide range of categories, comparing features and prices before clicking through to the Web site of their chosen retailer to conduct the transaction. The site also provides useful links to manufacturer sites, eBay listings for similar products and even links to Choice evaluations relevant to the product search.
Price comparison engines such as Shopping.com or GetPrice.com.au allow shoppers to compare offerings from a selection of merchants before making a buying decision.
They focus on the three criteria of most interest to consumers - price, availability and delivery - putting more power into the hands of consumers. The cost of these comparison engines to the retailer is surprisingly low, and they have proven to be enormously effective in driving traffic.
In Germany, where eBay has only been in operation for just over three years, 18 per cent of all Deutsche Post packages are now sourced from eBay. While this kind of data is not tracked in Australia, eBay's obvious success here makes it reasonable to assume that a similar proportion of packages have an association with the site.
Emerging technologies The emergence of more feature-rich technology will also drive new capabilities and functionality on e-commerce Web sites. The next release of Microsoft Vista and Internet Explorer 7.0 will offer far more multimedia capabilities, as will the Web V2 as it comes online over the next 12 to 18 months.
Already some progressive sites offer early indications of what these emerging technologies will offer, such as 3D views and live demonstrations via streaming video to highlight the features of high-value products like cars and real estate.
Of course, these kinds of facilities are more bandwidth intensive and will need to be supported by increasingly higher data speeds. For example, some cities in Germany are being wired with 50MBps links in preparation for these more demanding types of applications and Australia must inevitably follow suit if we want to stay in touch with leading edge trends.
Combining clicks and mortar While some retailers have embraced the Internet with open arms, bricks and mortar malls have been fearful of e-commerce because they believe it allows consumers to shop from home and avoid going to the store.
However, eCorner's Debrincat believes there is enormous potential for traditional shopping malls to leverage the power of e-commerce to their advantage.
"People like the Internet because they can access information about the features, pricing and availability products. But in a lot of cases they still want to see the product and hold in it their hands before they buy it.
"Companies like Westfield or independent malls like Macquarie can use the Internet to extend their range and quality of services to streamline and improve the shopping experience."
Debrincat pointed to the severe traffic congestion that gridlocked major shopping malls like Macquarie Centre and Roselands in Sydney in the days leading up to Christmas last year.
"Instead of putting people through the unpleasant experience of fighting traffic jams and driving around for an hour looking for a parking space, these companies could use the Internet to allow shoppers to research their purchases online, place orders from the shops they want to visit, and then book valet parking for the length of time they wish to stay.
"If mall owners create the right kind of e-commerce solutions, rather than discouraging people from shopping at their centre, they can attract people by offering a better quality shopping experience."
As UrbanBaby.com.au's Hattersley will attest, it's the quality of shopping experience that brings customers back.
"We focus on driving traffic to the Web site and then backing it up with fast delivery and quality service. Our customers love our Web site and the products, so we have a very high conversion rate. And as we continue to grow, we know it's critical that we maintain our service levels and still ship products within 24 hours.
"Other sites often make customers wait weeks for delivery so we need to keep that point of difference."

This is the first time in New Zealand,

2009-10-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Today shoppers can place products from almost half of the 95 retailers currently operating on Ferrit into their shopping cart. And more retailers will be added and more will switch to the Ferrit shopping cart from today. Goods from all retailers, including those who do not yet have a shopping cart, are available through the retailers’ websites or in stores.
“Our vision from the outset has been to build the best possible online mall where Kiwis can go to find, choose and buy new products in New Zealand,” says Ferrit General Manager, Ralph Brayham. “We’re aiming to be the first place people visit when they have a shopping need, the Google of online shopping in New Zealand.”
“This is the first time in New Zealand that such a large range of products is available to buy from at one site,” says Brayham. “No one else has taken this approach of bringing a large number of leading retailers together in a single mall, providing a single shopping cart and paying with a single credit card entry to simplify purchasing and delivery for customers.”
As well as a single shopping cart, Ferrit 2.0 features a number of other enhancements which make searching and comparing faster, easier and more flexible and improve the overall online shopping experience. Tools like Wish Lists and Gift Grabber have been expanded, streamlined and made more responsive to shoppers’ preferences.
With 1.5 million products from more than 90 retailers in 2,500 product categories, people can use Ferrit to buy everything from robomowers to MP3 players, barbecues to buoyancy compensators, intercom kitsets to tartan ties. After researching the things they want on Ferrit, shoppers can choose how they purchase the goods: at the retailer’s store; through the retailer’s website; or online at Ferrit.
While consumers will see a new shopping cart and the enhanced Wish Lists, Gift Grabber and search and compare tools, the technology behind the scenes is also enhanced – increasing the speed with which Ferrit can add new retailers and the flexibility it has to work with them.
“Like any new large-scale retail development Ferrit is rolling out in stages,” says Brayham. “We started one year ago with a simple idea – making high quality online shopping available in New Zealand. Our first stage was simply about getting a web site up and running and attracting a critical mass of retailers.
“The next step was to build a sustainable business. That requires the support and active participation of New Zealand’s leading retailers; a world class e-commerce web site; the backing of a credible, committed organisation; and consumers ready to buy new products online.
“With Ferrit 2.0, we’re about to move to a whole new level. Last week we had a website. Today we have a business.”
And with over 1,000 retailers expressing interest in being on the site, Ferrit is poised to rapidly grow the number of retailers represented.Ferrit is already hard at work on additional features and enhancements to the site, continuing the drive to make it quick and convenient for New Zealanders to shop online for new goods.
Ferrit recorded 168,202 unique browsers in October 2006 and 176,929 in September 2006.Security
To protect its customers Ferrit 2.0 supports secure credit transactions based on the international PCIDSS standard (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). It uses Secure Socket Layer transactions, which mean that exchanges between customers and the server are secure, and any data transferred during the payments process cannot be interfered with or read by unauthorised third parties.

Leading ebusiness solutions company,

2009-10-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

Since introducing Cloudmark Authority for its premium email subscribers in January this year, Melbourne IT has seen a significant reduction in the amount of e-mail borne threats, including spam, phishing and viruses, making their way to customer inboxes.
This enhanced performance has also reduced Melbourne IT’s infrastructure requirements by around 80 per cent, delivering significant cost savings in hardware, power consumption and space requirements which is especially critical for hosting companies and consistent with Melbourne IT’s sustainability strategy.
Melbourne IT went looking for a new email filtering service after experiencing some major service interruptions in mid-2007. The sheer volume of spam has soared in Australia, including wide-spread phishing scams purporting to come from leading Australian banks. In the face of a growing stream of malicious traffic, Melbourne IT found that its existing filtering solution couldn’t process this unwanted volume effectively and efficiently.
Leading ebusiness solutions company, eCorner, recommended Melbourne IT purchase Cloudmark Authority and helped the hosting company to implement an in-house pilot program to test offerings from Cloudmark and a large Internet Security software company last September.
As exclusive distributor of the Cloudmark solutions within Australia and New Zealand, eCorner provided its own technical expertise as well as bringing out a senior solutions architect from Cloudmark in the US to help design and establish the pilot. In order to guarantee an impartial result, Melbourne IT personnel performed the actual testing.
Cloudmark Authority is a carrier-grade solution that delivers the industry's most effective and highest performing anti-spam, anti-phishing and anti-virus protection, consistently blocking over 98 per cent of inbound and outbound messaging attacks in real time with near zero false positives.
eCorner’s Managing Director, John Debrincat said the Melbourne IT pilot compared Cloudmark Authority head-to-head with the competitor, with conclusive results.
“Both Cloudmark Authority and the competitor filtered the same 10 per cent of the total production message stream through Melbourne IT over seven full days in September 2007, scanning around 1.5 million messages.
“Cloudmark proved much more effective than the other company, stopping 45 per cent of all messages compared to their 26 per cent,” said Mr Debrincat. “The Cloudmark solution reduced traffic to Melbourne IT’s internal MTA and mail store by 19 per cent, had lower False Positives and was able to process the same number of messages in less than half the time required by the competitor.”
“In Australia, there is growing public pressure on both government and service providers to clean up e-mail and stop the onslaught of unwanted and potentially dangerous messages flooding inboxes,” said Michael West, Messaging Product Manager of WebCentral “We are committed to protecting our customers by using the best technology available and found that the high level of accuracy of Cloudmark Authority best met our needs and simultaneously helped us to optimise our infrastructure utilisation. With Cloudmark, we help to ensure that our customers are shielded from e-mail threats and receive the messages they want in a timely fashion. We are proud to be the first provider in Australia to offer this level of service and security.”
Mr Debrincat said Cloudmark’s unique approach to spam and email filtering sets it apart from the competition. “Cloudmark works on a collaborative global network of more than 260 million mailboxes, all of which receive messages in real time and provide instant feedback to the system whenever a new spam message is identified.
“Cloudmark’s Advanced Message Fingerprinting algorithms and real-time corroborated feedback mechanisms create an in-memory cache of verified fingerprints that is automatically updated and distributed to customers every 45 seconds. This ensures that all email servers are immediately protected, instead of having to wait for a programmer to write a new rule and send it out via an update, as with other companies. As a result, Cloudmark Authority is able to stop email borne threats with over 98 per cent accuracy and near zero false positives,” he said.
“Like every country with high Internet penetration, Australia is facing the problems associated with the global increase in spam, phishing and virus attacks,” said David Somerville, VP of regional sales, Asia Pacific, at Cloudmark. “Unfortunately, while many messaging security providers deliver threat coverage for the U.S. and Europe, coverage in Australia, especially against threats originating in Australia and Asia, has been erratic and unreliable. Cloudmark is the first leading messaging security provider to provide real-time threat data to Australian service providers from reporters in Australia. Melbourne IT is setting the standard for protecting consumers against the proliferation of e-mail threats and we look forward to working closing with them.”
About CloudmarkCloudmark, Inc. is a global leader in carrier-grade messaging security, delivering the industry’s fastest, most comprehensive and most accurate real-time spam, virus and phishing protection for fixed and mobile networks. Cloudmark solutions combine highly sophisticated Advanced Message Fingerprinting™ technology based on innovative, high-performance algorithms and a Global Threat Network consisting of trusted reporters in 163 countries to provide security intelligence and filtering at all points in the messaging infrastructure.
Cloudmark solutions currently protect more than 260 million mailboxes and the company works with more than 90 of the world’s largest service provider and mobile operator networks (including seven of the top 10 in North America), such as EarthLink, Comcast, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, NTT Communications, SprintNextel, Virgin Mobile and Swisscom, as well as hosted messaging providers, including domainFACTORY. Cloudmark is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit http://www.cloudmark.com.
About eCorner Pty LtdeCorner™ is a leading provider of eBusiness solutions and messaging security technology. eCorner will help you build and deploy an electronic commerce capability or protect your email infrastructure from malicious spam and phishing. We are the Australia & New Zealand master distributor for ePages software and a strategic distribution partner of anti-messaging abuse provider Cloudmark.

Leading ecommerce solutions provider,

2009-10-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

Predictions of a gloomy Christmas for retailers are falling on deaf ears in the world of ecommerce, where online businesses are reporting strong and growing activity as the festive season draws closer.
Leading ecommerce solutions provider, eCorner, which hosts over 170 Web stores in its Australian SME cluster, has experienced a 90 per cent increase in traffic volume for November year on year. eCorner, which has been providing and supporting local businesses with ePages eCommerce software since 2003, also supports large retailers like Dick Smith Electronics and Weight Watchers Australia and New Zealand.
eCorner Managing Director, John Debrincat, said online sales by its customers have risen by 70 per cent in the past 12 months with significant growth in the past few months.
“We’ve seen a 25 per cent increase in unique visitors in the past quarter alone and 17 per cent during November,” said Mr Debrincat, who believes that consumers are increasingly looking for alternatives to traditional shopping methods.
“Most of us know there are bargains to be had but you have to look for them. As more consumers are financially challenged or just more fearful about the future, they are turning to the internet as an attractive and lower cost alternative to bricks and mortar companies with their high overheads.”
He said visitors to eCorner-hosted stores during December are on track to exceed last year’s figures by more than 20 per cent and beat November by around 25 per cent.
“The average order value for our customers is almost 30 per cent higher than last Christmas and conversion rates have increased by over 50 per cent in the same period. Of course, our customers sell a wide variety of products, from home theatre systems to glass beads, but the overall trend is extremely positive,” Mr Debrincat said.
Wilfried Beeck who is the CEO of ePages GmbH based in Hamburg, Germany gave an international perspective. “We have seen similar trends throughout Europe over the last few months. We have now over 50,000 companies selling online using ePages and that number is increasing rapidly.”
Transaction Volumes Increase Other key players in the digital economy are reporting similar strong growth. eWay, which is the major payment gateway in Australia for online retailers, recorded a 69 per cent increase in transaction volumes in November compared to a year ago, as more companies shift online.
“Our actual customer numbers are up 47 per cent from November 2007 as retailers move to take advantage of greater consumer confidence in ecommerce,” said eWay CEO, Matt Bullock.
“The biggest growth has happened in the past few months, with a 16 per cent increase in merchant numbers from October to November as retailers seek to take advantage of the Christmas trade.”
Mr Bullock said while many new merchants were online-only businesses, a significant proportion were retailers keen to complement their established brick and mortar premises with a Web-based presence.
“We’ve seen high profile firms like Oroton, The Shaver Shop and Wheel & Barrow set up trading accounts with us in recent weeks to handle transactions from their online stores. We’re also seeing greater interest from not-for-profits like The McGrath Foundation and The Lions Club which are recognising that people are making more spending decisions online,” he said.
PayPal Australia’s Director of Merchant Services, Brad Paterson, said they have noticed increased activity this Christmas, particularly amongst SME retailers.
“We believe this can be partially attributed to our recent promotion which helped SMEs to begin online trading in time for the holiday season. We have noticed significant increases in areas such as books, gifts and lingerie, while other popular areas such as homewares, electronics and cosmetics are slightly down,” he said.
Online Research Informs Buying Decisions The rise of comparison shopping sites like GetPrice.com.au makes it easier for consumers to make informed decisions about where to make their purchases.
GetPrice CEO, Chris Hitchen, said traffic to the site has almost tripled in the past 12 months from 700,000 visits in November 2007 to 1.96 million visits last month.
“We’ve seen a massive increase in traffic as people use the internet to do their research and make buying decisions. During this uncertain economic climate, people are getting savvier about how they spend their money and of course the internet affords them transparency, immediacy and convenience, as well as the opportunity to compare products and prices to get the best deal relevant to their personal criteria.”
Mr Hitchen said many consumers will click through to an internet store to make their purchase while others will simply do their research online and then go to an offline store to complete the transaction.
“While price-conscious consumers simply want the cheapest product, we’re seeing higher click-through rates for known brands – multi-channel retailers who sell online but also offer in-store returns to maximise convenience for shoppers. We’re currently redesigning the site to provide more information about warranties and support levels to help our visitors have a more complete picture of the merchant’s offering to inform their buying decision,” he said.
A Successful Formula eCorner’s John Debrincat said success online is a formula that can be replicated. “It’s all about a professional approach, safe and reliable technology like ePages, and quality of goods and services. You must have the right channels to market and professional partners for technology, payments and marketing.” he said.
When asked about comments from some of the large main street retail chains that online shopping does not work and costs too much Mr Debrincat surprised, “There are some retail business leaders who still have their heads in the sand over online shopping. Primarily it is because they have chosen the wrong technologies or partners; or just spent too much without a real strategy. Unfortunately you can’t save the dinosaurs; they will either evolve or become extinct. You just cannot ignore the overwhelming worldwide and local success stories.”

Over the past three years,

2009-10-23T04:56:00.000-07:00

Over the past three years, MySpace has taken aggressive steps to protect its users and combat spam, phishing and viruses that threaten the MySpace user community. The CloudFilter™ solution enables MySpace to provide users with a premium mail service backed by industry-leading messaging security accuracy. CloudFilter™, a managed email security solution, delivers zero-hour protection using carrier-grade sender reputation data, advanced content filtering and proven messaging policies. With the launch of MySpace Mail, the company is ensuring Mail users would have optimal protection from day one.
"MySpace has always taken an aggressive approach to privacy and we are committed to ensuring MySpace Mail has the same level of security for our users that we have employed throughout our site," said Rajit Marwah, director of product management for MySpace Mail. "Cloudmark's proven technology is a vital part in our approach to providing users with a trusted and secure Mail experience."
The new MySpace Mail blends the best of social networking and traditional mail. MySpace is supplying users with @myspace.com mail addresses, enabling them to securely send and receive messages to and from friends both inside and outside the MySpace network.
"We applaud MySpace's holistic and proactive approach to ensuring the protection of their vast user community," said Hugh McCartney, chief executive officer at Cloudmark. "Making security a top priority and ensuring the best user experience will certainly enhance the adoption of MySpace Mail. By leveraging Cloudmark's proven technology and expertise in deploying and managing large-scale security infrastructures for carrier networks across the globe, MySpace IT staff can rest assured they are taking every measure possible to protect their network's integrity."
About Cloudmark
Cloudmark, Inc. is a global leader in carrier-grade messaging security, delivering the industry's fastest, most comprehensive and most accurate real-time spam, virus and phishing protection for fixed and mobile networks. Cloudmark solutions combine highly sophisticated Advanced Message Fingerprinting™ technology based on innovative, high-performance algorithms and a Global Threat Network™ system consisting of more than 850 million trusted reporters in every country across the globe to provide security intelligence and filtering at all points in the messaging infrastructure. Cloudmark solutions currently protect more than 850 million subscribers and the company works with more than 120 of the world's largest service providers and mobile operator networks (including the top 12 in North America), such as Comcast, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Earthlink, NTT OCN and Swisscom, hosted messaging providers, including Synacor, domainFACTORY and NuVox, and social networks, including MySpace. Cloudmark is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit http://www.cloudmark.com. eCorner are the Cloudmark distributor for Australia and New Zealand -Dry July is an online social community where an individual or group can sign up to the challenge of a month long sponsored abstinence from alcohol.
The funds raised from sponsorship of these brave 'dry' efforts directly benefit the lives of adults living with cancer right across Australia. See our beneficiaries for 2009Dry July is an online social community where an individual or group can sign up to the challenge of a month long sponsored abstinence from alcohol.
The funds raised from sponsorship of these brave 'dry' efforts directly benefit the lives of adults living with cancer right across Australia. See our beneficiaries for 2009
Sponsorship is raised online via participant or group profile pages. You can find your choosen participant or group by searching for them via the "Make a donation to" search box on the homepage.
Dry July is about clearing your head and making a difference. Get healthy, challenge yourself, encourage positive change and a healthy attitude to alcohol consumption.
We hope you embrace the concept, take on the challenge and ensure Dry July has a positive effect on your well-being as well as the well-being of others.
2008 was Dry July's inaugural year with over 1000 participants and raised a combined total of $257,283 for the Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation, Dreams2Live Charity based in Sydney, New South Wales. Due to the overwhelming interest and support across Australia in 2008, in 2009 Dry July has become a national fundraising event.

It's a strong September quarter,

2009-10-23T04:31:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com has posted quarterly profits that handily beat Wall Street estimates.
It added that holiday sales could come in far above expectations, sending its shares up 15 percent to their highest level in nearly a decade.
The world's largest online retailer also said its Kindle electronic reader was its top item in both unit sales and dollars across all of its product categories.
"It's a strong September quarter," said Colin Gillis of Brigantine Advisors. "They beat on the top and they beat on the bottom ... investors are going to be heartened that consumers are still spending."
Amazon's net profit in its third quarter was USD 199 million, or 45 cents per share, far above the average analyst estimate of 33 cents per share.
Year-ago profit was USD 118 million, or 27 cents per share.
Revenue rose 28 percent to USD 5.45 billion, the Seattle-based company said, compared to the Wall Street average estimate of USD 5.03 billion. Citibank's Mark Mahaney said Amazon must be taking market share based on its results.
"Amazon should be extremely well prepared for Q4 -- facing shrinking/destocking offline retail competitors, with THE must-have eReader, and a significantly strengthening presence," wrote Mahaney in a note.
Wall Street expectations for Amazon have been high, and expected it to outpace the market during the crucial holiday season. But a growing price war with Wal-Mart means that margins could be at risk in coming months.
For the key holiday fourth quarter, Amazon said it sees revenue to range between USD 8.125 billion and USD 9.125 billion, compared with analysts' expectations for USD 8.13 billion.
"The problem with the guidance is, it is so wide you could drive a truck through it," said Gillis, adding Amazon had a history of providing a wide-ranging forecast.
To maintain its dominance in e-readers, Amazon has cut the price of its Kindle to USD 259 from USD 299 and introduced a global version.Online retailer Amazon.com has reported a 69 percent surge in third quarter earnings as sales surged across all product lines and its Kindle electronic book reader was a hit with customers.The Seattle-based pioneer of web-retailing Thursday said it earned $199 million in the third quarter compared to $118 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 28 percent to $5.45 billion.'Kindle has become the No. 1 best-selling item by both unit sales and dollars - not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com,' Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in the statement.For the fourth quarter, which includes the key holiday season, Amazon expects revenue of $8 to $9 billion compared to analysts forecasts of $8.13 billion.The company said North American sales were up 23 percent from the same quarter last year, to $2.84 billion. International sales were $2.61 billion, an increase of 23 percent from 2008.Sales of book, movies and other media grew by 17 percent to $2.93 billion, while electronics sales jumped 44 percent to $2.36 billion.

Richest source in china,

2009-10-22T03:24:00.000-07:00

China has become the "richest source" of new, loyal travellers for Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
According to an analysis on the enrollment and travel trends of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members, Chinese enrollment in SPG jumped 50 percent in 2009 compared to last year, and SPG members now make up roughly half the occupancy of Starwood hotels in China.
The company also shared that the rapid growth has resulted in China’s rise to become the SPG programme’s fourth largest base of active members, behind only the US, Canada and the UK.
At Elite levels, SPG members in China are 94 percent active in the programme – the highest rate globally for the group.
Also, the SPG programme’s most significant growth area in China is in the category of guests who stay more than 10 times a year, which has grown more than 40 percent year over year.
"The growth in this segment is unprecedented compared to global averages and supports the strong engagement of our most loyal guests in China with Starwood and SPG," stated the company.
The analysis also revealed Chinese SPG members are most likely to redeem their points for domestic travel at Starwood hotels in Hong Kong, Sanya, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hangzhou. International travel was largely confined to Asia with most popular redemption properties located in Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; Bali, Indonesia; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The most favoured Starwood brands for redemption are the St. Regis, Le Meridien, Westin and Four Points by Sheraton.Cruise travel company NCL has launched a partnership with regional flight specialist Jet2.com allowing agents to fly their customers from local departure points to join a selection of Mediterranean sailings from Venice and Barcelona.From 16 October, direct Manchester to Barcelona flights will be available for passengers to join Norwegian Jade’s new seven-night Mediterranean Treasures itinerary on its peak season sailings from May to September 2010.
According to the airline, agents can now book flights from either Manchester or Edinburgh direct to Venice from where Norwegian Gem’s new seven-night alternating and combinable ‘Venice and the Greek Isles’ and ‘Venice and the Aegean Sea’ sailings depart from April 2010. The company added that customers will not incur any additional regional supplements for the direct departures whilst agents will receive support from NCL’s in-house teams to ensure smooth booking processes.
The reservations team will provide all flight information at point of sale or within 24 hours for those booking through external systems, whilst the flight desk team can offer assistance with post-booking queries. Both are on hand six days a week year-round rising to seven in January and February.
NCL says its affiliation with Jet2.com means travel partners can capitalise on the combined strength of regional flights and popular sailings.

Nexternal's e-commerce software,

2009-10-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

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. Nexternal's ecommerce software has been helping wineries sell directly to consumers online since 2000. However, rules for shipping wine directly to consumers have been continuously in flux since the Supreme Court ruling in 2005 (Granholm v. Heald) which ruled states that permit in-state vintners to sell directly to consumers may not deny that right to out-of-state producers. Today, Nexternal provides ecommerce software to more than 200 wine brands. Six88 launched its ShipCompliant software in 2006 and now makes it easy for more than 275 wine brands to stay on top of the ever-changing matrix of rules and regulations imposed at the state level.
Sasha Kady of King Estate Winery in Oregon explains, "We at King Estate have been extremely happy with Nexternal's ecommerce solution, which has powered our web store at www.kingestate.com for several years. King Estate was among the first wineries in the Northwest to adopt ShipCompliant, another product we have been extremely satisfied with. Now that both products are working together - synergizing - we couldn't be happier! We have freed up some manpower, and can rest assured that we are shipping wine across country with full legal compliance and accurate reporting. It's like an auto-pilot for compliance!"
Jason Eckenroth, President of Six88, recognized an opportunity for the systems to efficiently work together. "ShipCompliant has produced several initiatives to assist wineries in taking advantage of the direct-to-consumer market. By developing integrations with innovative companies, such as Nexternal, compliance checks are automatically run without exporting the order data, enabling an efficient workflow and great customer service. The integration between Nexternal and ShipCompliant is seamless, affording our joint customers an easy solution for ecommerce and direct shipping compliance."
Doreen Davis, who manages Nexternal's wine vertical, sees a big opportunity for these technologies going forward. "Wine sales through our platform are still growing at 50% per year. The Supreme Court ruling was a great boon for wine drinkers throughout the country. Although wineries can now ship to more states, many states haven't made it easy. Fortunately for wineries, ShipCompliant, has taken the pain out of shipping direct to consumers and navigating through the maze of compliance confusion.

Redundancies hit Vodafone NZ,

2009-10-22T02:18:00.000-07:00

The mobile service provider's customer base now stands at 4.2 million, up around 110,000 on the company's half yearly results reported last November. The results, which covered the quarter to 31 December 2008 were heavily influenced by the completion of its acquisition of Crazy John's, which added around 76,000 new customers, who since July became direct customers of Vodafone.
Hewitt yesterday boasted that Vodafone's latest figures had shown it was "resilient" to the economic downturn.
"No company is immune to recession, but Vodafone Australia has proven to be extremely resilient to date. During the Christmas quarter and beyond, Vodafone maintained an extremely keen position on price and value, which resonated well with customers," he said in a statement.
Customers acquired through Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MNVO) partners such as People Telecom, which it signed last year, stood at 305,000 - down 54,000 since November's report. A spokesperson for the company said the decline was due to Crazy John's customers now being included in its direct customer base.
"Crazy John's sales during Q3 exceeded all expectations, and our ownership of the company has already proven to be the right buy at the right time for Vodafone," Hewitt said.
The strategy behind today's results, according to Hewitt, was the company's focus on exclusive handsets, such as the iPhone and internet services.
"During Q3, Vodafone concentrated on exclusive handsets, mobile broadband devices, high-value plans and a powerful retail presence. As a company with many moving parts in retail, technology and customer service, we lined up in perfect formation and achieved excellent results in a softening market."The number of job losses could be as high as 20, but a company spokesperson said the exact number was yet to be determined.
The spokesperson said that from time to time, Vodafone reviewed part of its business to ensure its structure and approach was best able to deliver to its customers, adding the goal of the review wasn't merely cost-cutting, but to make sure Vodafone had the right structure in place for the current environment.
At this stage, they said consultations with the staff affected were still in progress. Vodafone intends to minimise job losses caused by the review, and employ staff in other areas of the business rather than making them redundant.
Vodafone is New Zealand's largest mobile operator with over 2.2 million customers and a 55 per cent market share. The company also has a sizeable fixed-network presence, providing broadband and telephony services to retail and business customers. It employs around 1,400 staff in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Delivered strong results,

2009-10-22T01:55:00.001-07:00

In areas where specific technical knowledge was sought from customers, offshore employees "delivered strong results" according to the telco, with the offshore operation recording the highest ever level of customer satisfaction for broadband support in December.
"This proposal will see the further migration of our broadband support help desk to our outsourced partners over the next 18 months, where we have found it easy to recruit technically-skilled staff," Alan Gourdie, CEO Telecom Retail said in a statement.
Yet in other areas, the offshore staff did not perform as well, convincing the telco to maintain its largest contract centre operations, dealing with calls to 123 and *123, at home.
"In the case of 123 and *123 the trial data did not show us the consistent performance we needed to see in order to be comfortable with a large-scale offshoring of that operation, in which a detailed knowledge of an extremely varied set of products and services is all-important," Gourdie said.
Once the 250 call centre jobs have been moved overseas, Telecom New Zealand will have 700 positions outsourced in Manila and 1,600 positions in New Zealand.
"Today's proposals will not change the fact that Telecom still has more contact centre reps in New Zealand, answering more calls from more New Zealanders, than any of our competitors," Gourdie said.
Six New Zealand contact centres would be restructured with a final structure to be confirmed by early March. Apart from broadband support, international roaming, online provisioning, wholesale voice provisioning and dealer support would have some positions moved offshore.
Telecom NZ would fight to keep redundancies to a minimum, Gourdie said, attempting to redeploy staff where possible. "Due to the long time frame for the migration, we expect the total number of redundancies to be very limited," he said.The carrier will be bringing the technology to its roadside cabinets, the equivalent of Australia's nodes, and local telephone exchanges. Telecom New Zealand is in the midst of rolling out 2,500 kilometres of fibre in a project which will allow over 80 per cent of New Zealanders to access high speed broadband by 2011.
The VDSL2 upgrade will enable "high-speed" broadband to be "higher-speed" broadband. New Zealanders within one kilometre of the cabinets and exchanges will be able to achieve up to 50Mbps downlink and up to 20Mbps up.
"We have been testing VDSL2 for several months now and we're excited to be getting the VDSL2 roll-out underway in key metropolitan centres across New Zealand," Telecom Wholesale chief executive Matt Crockett said in a statement. "With the fibre-to-the-node program hotting up and shortening copper loop lengths across the country, it's the perfect time to deploy VDSL2."
The carrier did not disclose how much would be spent on the roll-out.
From March, VDSL2 line cards will be installed into all cabinets and local telephone exchanges in towns and cities with more than 500 lines. The service providers buying from Telecom NZ wholesale will be able to offer the product from then, with key Auckland exchange areas serviced and available in the second quarter of the year and major cities and towns in the third quarter of the year

Microsoft promote versions Windows,

2009-10-21T04:03:00.000-07:00

Microsoft said it will heavily promote two main versions of the next Windows operating system in an attempt to avoid the problems it faced by marketing four tiers of the Windows Vista system.
But while the Redmond-based company said it will simplify its message, it did not give up the multitiered approach with Windows 7, which is officially expected at the end of January 2010. All told, there will be at least six different versions.
Microsoft said the primary version for consumers will be called Windows 7 Home Premium, and the one for businesses will be called Windows 7 Professional. Prices have not yet been disclosedIn addition, it will sell two lower-end versions, Home Basic and Starter edition, to PC makers. The Starter edition is intended for sale in developing countries, while computer makers can install Home Basic on PCs intended for sale anywhere in the world. Neither sport the sleeker appearance introduced with Vista, which is getting a makeover in Windows 7.
The company will also sell a top-end Enterprise version for big corporate customers and a similar Ultimate version for consumers. Those versions will include security features and a few other tools not available in the two main versions.
When Microsoft started widely selling Windows Vista in January 2007, it offered four options: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. Some people who purchased Home Basic complained that they did not realize it lacked the updated user interface.
In the months before Vista was released, Microsoft and PC maker partners promoted certain computers as capable of running the new system. They were disappointed to learn that while their new machines could be upgraded to run the dialed-back Home Basic, they weren't powerful enough for the better-looking Home Premium or Ultimate versions, which led to a class action lawsuit.
Microsoft said in a statement that changes to the way it communicates about Windows 7 should "make these choices as simple and clear as possible for customers and partners."
Microsoft also said all versions of Windows 7 will run well on netbooks, a fast-growing category of small, low-powered laptops meant mostly for surfing the web and checking email.The study, conducted by Galaxy Research, found that 45 per cent of the Australians sampled believe "it's OK, or at least OK in some situations", to download illegal copies of proprietary software.
The acceptance of pirated software also varied markedly with age. Of the 16- to 24-year olds surveyed, 64 per cent believed it was "OK or OK in some situations" to pirate software. On the other hand, only 36 per cent of over 50s surveyed had the same belief.
The study also found that 59 per cent of Australians "either weren't sure or didn't believe there to be any differences" between pirate and licensed software.
An IDC study estimated that Australia had a 28 per cent software piracy rate in 2007, suggesting that not everyone who believes it's acceptable to pirate software does so.
In order to combat piracy, Microsoft said that from today, Office customers would be able to install licence notifications through automatic updates known as Office Genuine Advantage. This notification ensures that installed copies of Office are legally licensed. If the update establishes the copy of Office is pirated, a pop-up dialog box will alert the user and provide options on how to acquire genuine Microsoft Office.
The update will not affect the way Microsoft Office works on individual computers and the user can continue to use Office as before. Those who find they are the victim of counterfeit software can submit a report to Microsoft and may be eligible to receive a free legitimate licence.

E-commerce News Articles,paris

2009-10-21T03:50:00.000-07:00

Europcar, the European leader in light utility vehicle and passenger car hire, has announced the launch of a new service which makes reserving vehicles easy via mobile phone.With over 8 million adults in the UK accessing the internet via their mobile phone, a growth of 42% on 2008*, Europcar, Europe's leading vehicle hire company, has launched car hire booking on the go with a new mobile car hire service reservation service for online booking from any web enabled mobile phone.An integrated search engine makes it easy to find the desired car hire location, and there is a special application for iPhone users which automatically selects the nearest station. Customers can also book additional equipment, such as satellite navigation systems and child seats, through this system. To ensure a reliable and practical service, confirmation of each reservation made by cellphone is sent immediately and free-of-charge by text message and e-mail.Once booked, the confirmation is sent immediately by free text and email.Available in seven languages (English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) and for all Europcar vehicle hire locations around the world, the innovative service is compatible with all mobile phones that have Internet access (including Blackberries, iPhones and other smart phones).As part of the launch, a car hire deal of a 10% discount is being offered to Europcar customers until the end of November 09. This offer applies to reservations of all passenger cars, as well as to vehicles in the "Prestige" range. Contractual conditions for business customers will be applied automatically when they enter their contract number."We want to stay at the cutting edge of innovation and forge close relationships with our customers," said Guirec Grand-Clement, Global Sales and Marketing Director of Europcar International. "This new service illustrates our commitment and provides greater flexibility for the most mobile among these customers. As a result, every owner of a mobile phone with Internet access can now reserve a Europcar vehicle at any time at any location in our network around the world."Providing a swift and easy way to book vehicles, this latest development is a further example of Europcar's commitment to make car hire simple, accessible and stress-free. *Source: OfcomAbout Europcar:Europcar is the European leader in passenger car and light utility vehicle rentals. The company serves business and leisure customers throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Excluding franchise operations, in 2008 Europcar signed more than 10 million rental contracts, with 8,000 employees and a fleet exceeding 225,000 vehicles. In September 2008, Europcar and U.S. market leader Enterprise Rent-A-Car joined forces in a strategic commercial alliance to form the world's largest car rental network, with more than 1.2 million vehicles and 13,000 locations around the world. Europcar is owned by the French investment company Eurazeo.In addition to being the European market leader, Europcar is leading in its environmental approach to car rental. It opened its first "environmental agency" in Paris in 1999, and in 2008 it was the first company in Europe to have its "Environmental Charter" - which formalizes its commitments in favor of sustainable development -- certified by Bureau Veritas. In 2008, Europcar was also the first company ever to win the World Travel Award for "the World's Leading Green Transport Solution Company."As the world's busiest airport, Heathrow serves 180 destinations in over 90 countries. Heathrow airport is definitely one of the main hubs within Europe that welcomes travellers from all over the world and we cater for this with our Car Hire Heathrow service.
It can be confusing enough navigating through Heathrow's five terminals without having to worry about car hire too. Our 'Car Hire Heathrow' service ensures we'll have your car ready for you without having to worry about queuing.
Car Hire Heathrow is a service especially designed for travellers who need to be on their way. Why not take advantage of our premier Car Hire Heathrow meet and greet service? You will be greeted on arrival by one of our experienced team members, who will also help you with your luggage to the car if necessary. Once you are satisfied with everything, you can drive away and enjoy the hassle free experience of Car Hire Heathrow, no buses or trains and especially no hassle!

E-commerce business services,

2009-10-21T03:31:00.000-07:00

There are almost as many different ecommerce storefront options, shopping carts and software programs these days as there are products sold on the Internet. If you compare and contrast the many different online stores you visit, you’ll notice that some are extremely elaborate while others are basic in their design. Choosing an ecommerce storefront drastically affects your sales. Choose wisely and sales double, triple, or more. Choose poorly and you waste your time and money. Selecting the right ecommerce storefront begins with determining which features you will need. Doing some research and finding out about the different features available will help you select the services designed to target your individual business needs.
If you already have an existing website that is drawing traffic, adding an easy-to-use shopping cart may be all that you need. Deciding whether or not you want the capability to add html code to your existing website or if you want to be able to restructure your product pages completely are questions you should ask yourself while doing your research. Figure out what additional services you may need. Some ecommerce services offer search engine optimization to increase your traffic, website design to give your online business a new look, email delivery for your client base, and inventory control to help you track your merchandise. If you need a domain name, server, and client management system in addition to the ecommerce service, these features may not be offered by every service. Decide which features might benefit your company the most. Search for a company that offers everything you need.
How user-friendly the service is should be important to you. You may not want or have time to learn HTML in order to use the features you are paying for. Make sure you know how much of your time is required to set up your ecommerce storefront. Many ecommerce solutions are set up in a way that allows you to use the features even without knowledge of HTML.. These services also vary greatly in price. Setting a budget and sticking to it helps you sort out unnecessary features to select a product that you can live with easily. Another consideration is billing. Some companies will charge one flat fee where others you’ll receive a monthly bill.Studies have shown that customers prefer a speedy checkout. Choose software that allows you to customize the number of clicks needed to check out. You may want the capability to customize other aspects of your service, like providing a consultant or a translator to customize your website further.
One important aspect to consider when choosing an ecommerce storefront service is the shelf life of the software. You do not want your current software to become obsolete in six months. Select one that offers research and product updates on a regular basis to keep your features and software fresh. Any reputable business offers a satisfaction guarantee. You should thoroughly research the cancellation and refund policies before signing up with an ecommerce storefront. Be wary of any company that does not extend a money-back guarantee. Read through the customer testimonials available for review. Find out what your competitors have to say about the product. Look for any complaints filed with the online better business bureau.
Customer service is important when deciding on this storefront service. If the company is in a different time zone, check to see that they have adequate customer service representatives available to assist you during your regular business hours. Learn if the company has a service available to help walk you through the setup of your new website. The company should offer training seminars, videos or troubleshooting guides to help get you through the setup of your new site. As new features become available, training materials should be released to help you learn about these new features.
When selling products over the Internet, an ecommerce storefront can be one of the most useful tools of all. A storefront is a great option for the individual who does not already have his or her own website. It gives a certain level of creative freedom and helps promote a product effectively. Getting answers to these targeted issues is the first step toward finding an ecommerce storefront solution that is right for your business. Knowing what you need before you shop gives you the advantage of quickly narrowing down the choices to find the perfect solution.

Canada's leading On-Demand eCommerce,

2009-10-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

OrderDynamics, Canada's leading On-Demand eCommerce Solution provider enables its merchants to offer a recurring purchase and ship option called "auto ship".
Toronto - OrderDynamics Corporation, Securing repeat business is important in any business especially in times of economic uncertainty. For online retailers it's becoming an essential way not only to survive, but to grow revenues on top of a reliable base. Online retailers are in a unique position to acquire recurring sales through sticky services and providing relevant information after the initial purchase thanks to having detailed customer information in their database.
As part of their new feature release strategy, OrderDynamics performs regular Dynamic Merchandising eCommerce Surveys to capture specific interest areas from its Client base. "We hear consistently from both new and current Clients that recurring purchases is a key part of their sales strategy. This helped us prioritize our AUTO SHIP feature" explains Steven Berkovitz, VP Development. OrderDynamics calls its recurring purchase and shipping feature AUTO SHIP, which is a well known term in the eCommerce community.
AUTO SHIP gives the online merchandiser point and click ease to enable their customers to automatically receive certain products on a regular basis. Merchandisers can offer special discounted pricing for customers that subscribe to AUTO SHIP as well as offer multiple shipment frequencies. Call Center agents are also able to easily up-sell shoppers and subscribe them to AUTO SHIP on their behalf. The OrderDynamics SaaS-based eCommerce solution handles the recurring charges and shipping, and provides key management metrics to the merchant to manage their AUTO SHIP program.
AUTO SHIP seamlessly integrates into existing OrderDynamics fulfillment technology. "Our One-Step Bill & Print concept totally streamlines the fulfillment process for our merchants" explains Michael Benadiba, CEO of OrderDynamics. "With a click of a button, orders are downloaded, matched to shipping manifests, then printed for warehouse staff and uploaded to the shipping company for shoppers to track their orders online. And this can be done anytime throughout the day". This process has been refined over the years specifically to reduce fulfillment errors and handle higher volumes of orders. "AUTO SHIP orders seamlessly integrate into our existing One-Step Bill & Print which makes rolling out this new feature transparent to our customer's fulfillment departments." continues Benadiba.
These enhancements are part of an overall new feature release strategy that OrderDynamics includes as part of their eCommerce solution.
About OrderDynamics Corporation
OrderDynamics Corporation is a privately owned company that provides turn-key eCommerce solutions to businesses looking to grow their online sales. The success of OrderDynamics is highly attributed to its response to real client requirements and Dynamic Merchandising concepts which provide superior control and help drive revenue. The OrderDynamics solution is designed for online merchants and services different business such as retail, manufacturing, business-to-business, complex online retail, and more. OrderDynamics officially launched its solution in 2006 after 2 years of research and development.Canada's leading on-demand eCommerce provider announces partnership with CardinalCommerce to enable alternative payment brands to its customers.
Toronto, ON - OrderDynamics Corporation, Canada's leading on-demand eCommerce solution provider, is pleased to announce its partnership with CardinalCommerce, the worldwide leading enabler of payment brands. The partnership will leverage CardinalCommerce's universal merchant platform, Cardinal Centinel®, to enable multiple payment brands for the Order Dynamics customer base.

E-commerce platform with management system,

2009-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

OrderDynamics provides an integrated Order Management System (OMS) which is designed to capture orders before being sent for 3rd party financial processing. This is an intentional design which enables merchants to avoid lost Revenue When Payment Processors Go Down.
August 13, 2009 -- With 2 major payment providers going down within 4 weeks of each other (Authorize.NET July 3, 2009, and PayPal August 3, 2009), tens of thousands of online retailers and merchants that rely on these systems were effectively out of business during that time, unable to take orders, and losing revenue. OrderDynamics' retailers were largely unaffected by both of these outages thanks to its sophisticated multi-eStore eCommerce platform. Failures like this are considered unacceptable to executives, although they are an unfortunate reality of doing business online. The successful online retailer must be aware of these risks and seek out methods to mitigate the impact caused by these types of failures. One way of mitigating the impact of a payment provider failure is through an on-demand eCommerce platform with an integrated Order Management System (OMS).
The OrderDynamics Order Management Systems (OMS) is software that facilitates the capture and processing of website orders for high volume retailers that use their on-demand eCommerce platform. The OMS, built-in to OrderDynamics, is an end-to-end system which is fundamentally linked into all areas of the eCommerce platform, such as eMail Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Fulfillment and Inventory Control, Front-End Presentation, and Merchandising Rules. This is what enables OrderDynamics to protect merchants from costly Payment Brand failures, and other external system outages.
OrderDynamics eliminates order errors by capturing all order information without being dependent on third party systems, like payment processors. This ensures a smooth shopping experience and no interruptions to backend operations. OrderDynamics takes this a step further by automatically creating a Customer Service record (ticket) for any abandoned PayPal or Google Checkout orders so retailers can proactively follow-up with these shoppers and convert the sale. This process can be tailored with automated emails to the shopper inviting them back to the website to complete their purchase, with an optional incentive to return.
Learn about how we've helped online merchants grow, Read our Case Studies.
About OrderDynamics Corporation:
OrderDynamics Corporation is a privately owned company that provides turn-key eCommerce solutions to businesses looking to grow their online sales solutions. The success of OrderDynamics is highly attributed to its response to real Client requirements and Dynamic Merchandising concepts which provide superior control and help drive revenue. The OrderDynamics solution is designed for online merchants and services different business such as retail, manufacturing, business-to-business, complex online retail, and more. OrderDynamics officially launched its On-Demand eCommerce Solution in 2006 after 2 years of research and development.
For more information, please contact:
Michael BenadibaChief Executive OfficerOrderDynamics Corporation1+ (866) 559-8123news@orderdynamics.com

Browse the large variety of products,

2009-10-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

LDD Trading Associates, the LED lighting company recently formed to distribute products in the US that are manufactured by IMAC, has launched its E-commerce site offering hundreds of LED machine-vision lights. On the Website, you will find lighting designs, functional graphs, specifications, and technical information to help you choose the correct lighting technique for your application.
Browse the large variety of products, available in different sizes and wavelengths, including ring lights; dark-field lights; back lights; area lights; spot lights; line lights; dome lights; axial lights; multi-axis lights; and IR, UV, RGB, and yellow lights. Also available are power and control products, cables, and optics.
The site provides intuitive product-selection aids and 24/7 purchasing through its shopping cart. Orders ship from LDD's Milford, NH facility. LDD serves end users, OEMs, and resellers with a no-questions return policy and a two-year warranty.Telecompaper actively tracks the global telecommunications industry. Our knowledgable editors and local correspondents publish around 200 news items each business day. Although we have a global focus, we also have local presence as many correspondents provide us with news from their local market. Topics range from fixed voice communications, internet services, fibre roll-outs, mobile services, MVNO launches, converged services, satellite services, research and development, equipment news, regulatory changes, product launches, etc.
Our News Access subscriptions allow you to log-in and search our site for news items. Using our news database can make your life easier as the news is timely, focussed, to-the-point and objective. The news items are written in easy-to-read English, specifically targeted at telecoms professionals.
If you would rather have news delivered to your inbox, we also offer a Daily Feed option. Furthermore, we can offer customised news services, such as intranet solutions. For more information, please contact our sales department.The subscriptions are priced based on the included archive access. For ad-hoc news needs or to test our services, we have two one-day subscriptions. The Day Basic option only allows users to access recent news (no more than 24 hours old) and the login is valid for one day. The Day Unlimited subscription also allows you to access our website for 24 hours but includes full archive access. You would be able to access all of Telecompaper's news stories back to 1993.
In the annual subscription plans, the Light option is ideal for people that regularly log-on to our website or that have RSS feeds set up and basically read the news on a regular basis. If you need to be able to search back further than one month, the Basic, Plus or Unlimited options would be a better choice as they include more extended archive access.

It was frist the magazines

2009-10-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

First it was the magazines who had to scrap their premillennial ways and embrace new media for fear of complete obsolescence. Now it’s their web offspring that are playing catch-up, because in the game of fashion web traffic, there’s a new king: e-commerce sites. This weekend, the New York Times reported that the young e-retailer Polyvore has essentially out-editorialed the editorial sites by letting users play stylist and cutting out the masthead experts altogether. Stats cited (and this is coming from the paper of record here) show that Polyvore, which allows members to collect and post favorite items much as any style blog would do, attracts 835,000 unique visitors a month — 25 percent more than Style.com, for example. Add to that the fact that users of Polyvore, StyleCaster, Kaboodle, and other similar sites can actually purchase the items pictured directly, and you’ve got a business model that makes the costly, corporate-backed web presences developed by Condé and others look positively Web 1.0.
Great. Fine. But what does this trend in crowd-sourced style-casting auger for the larger industry vehicles? Will Vogue have to become a superannuated version of Gilt Groupe just to maintain the interest of its millennial audience? Will the fashion cognoscenti have to make room for amateur editors operating from their basements in order to sustain click-through rates? Does Anna Wintour even know what “click through” means? Go ahead and max out your Master Card online while we research.www.qtelltrader courses will teach you how to make your own business web design web site in a few days cutting the cost for any business today any where in the worldWholesale Web design Websites from Qtelltrader Cheapest CMS Web design On the Internet with Free Flash Free Hosting over 160 Video's In HD To Watch, That Covers Every Part of the CMS Web design Website.Looking a new way To Sell Your Products Online, Web design Websites That Sell On E-bay For Over £6000.00 Pounds Websites are $60.00 Dollars per Year Plus Vat and No Hidden Charges, Free Hosting Free Flash Web design For Your Business, Back Your Online Selling with a Great Looking Web Site with Flash in the Header.What Do I Get with These web Sites• Free Hosting • Free Flash Web Design