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Electronics Top Shopper Back to School Lists, SortPrice.com Says

Posted in Ecommerce, General News / Technology, Retail, tagged , , , on August 12, 2011 | 1 Comment »

With the back-to-school shopping season in full swing, what items are consumers targeting most?

According to price comparison site SortPrice.com, electronics and gadgets are once again the most sought-after products in 2011.   The company rolled out its annual top 10 popular back to school products list yesterday, which is compiled using site traffic and user searches.

Gone are the days when pencils, pens, and spiral-bound notebooks dominate back to school shopping lists, though SortPrice is quick to point out that the economic climate is still having an effect on consumer buying habits, even now during the industry’s second-biggest shopping period of the year.

“With the economy still clearly affecting consumer buying habits, we’ve got an interesting dynamic going on this back to school season,” says Doron Simovitch, SortPrice co-founder and CEO. “While parents seem committed to spending extra time looking for the best price on back to school essentials, that diligence hasn’t necessarily translated down to students, who are still targeting higher-end electronics in particular as must-haves before they return to the classroom this fall.”

So what does this year’s SortPrice top 10 look like?

1- Apple iPad 2

2- Sony Cybershot Digital Cameras

3- UGG Girls and Women’s Boots

4- Acer Netbooks

5- Jansport Backpacks

6- North Face Hooded Sweatshirts and Outerwear

7- Bed-in-a-Bag Bedding Ensembles

8- Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star Sneakers

9- Diesel Messenger Bags

10- High-Definition Web Cams

We were surprised to see the iPad so high on the list given its hefty price tag but it’s apparent that more students (and their parents) are viewing Apple’s tablet as a must for a successful school year.

Thoughts on SortPrice’s list?  Leave us a comment with what you’re targeting for back to school 2011!

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Merchant Tips: Is Contact Data Accuracy Hurting Your Business?

Posted in Ecommerce, Merchant Tips, tagged , , , , on July 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

It may not be one of the sexier components of any e-commerce operation, but the fact remains that having solid and accurate customer data information in order to maintain clear lines of communications with your shoppers is a must in this day and age.

The question then becomes, are you one of the haves or the have-nots when it comes to an updated customer database?

According to a new study by Experian QAS called The Dilemma of Multichannel Contact Data Accuracy, it seems that accurate customer contact information is falling through the cracks for many retailers even as many are increasingly finding new methods to collect the vital information.

The overall polling carried out in June by Experian QAS, a division of Experian Marketing Services and provider of address verification services and software, included the responses of 100 or so retailers.  The study’s aim was to review current attitudes toward contact data quality and make recommendations for better collection of such data across multiple channels.

Three quarters of the retailers polled say their databases are rife with incomplete, outdated or simply erroneous consumer contact information.  They further stated that an average of 12 percent of all the customer information in their databases is inaccurate, which further hinders their ability to reach shoppers.  If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that among the rest of the industry sources polled (mostly insurance and banking professionals), there’s actually a higher rate of erroneous information (23 percent) in their databases.

Furthermore, 55 percent of the retailers (versus 68 percent for everyone else) say they capture customer data via mobile applications, cementing the utility and effectiveness of mobile in general.

Still, the picture isn’t a pretty one, as evidenced by the fact that 98 percent of ALL respondents say they waste budget money annually on inaccurate contact data.

“The large amount of erroneous contact data is overwhelming businesses, causing them to ignore the inaccuracies in their system,” said Thomas Schutz, senior vice president and general manager of Experian QAS.  “With the popularity of alternate channels, organizations face more opportunities for growth, but also for error.  Data quality needs to be considered to ensure success from new channels rather than additional headaches.”

Experian’s data shows that 36 percent of retailers use some type of in-house software tools to manage their databases, slightly higher than the survey’s broad average of 30 percent.  The company also states that the lowest-quality information in company databases is often that which customers enter themselves, though 44 percent of the retail respondents to the survey pin the blame on customer service.

Nevertheless, Experian recommends that companies keep mobile data collection to a minimum since such shoppers are often in a rush to finish the check-out process, making errors all the more likely.

“Users are frequently distracted or in a hurry to complete the transaction,” the survey states.  “Organizations need to ensure the accuracy of this information so that they can follow-up.  However, as with adding anything to the e-commerce checkout process, organizations want to make sure they prevent user drop-off.”

The company, among its additional recommendations, also advises that retailers should match stored data on its returning customers’ accounts so the shoppers aren’t forced to re-enter the data with every visit.

Got any feedback on this issue? Leave us a comment!

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SortPrice’s Facebook Store Application Gets Boost with New Flash Sale Feature

Posted in Ecommerce, Facebook Commerce, General News / Technology, Online Shopping, Retail, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Flash Sale for Facebook StoresAlready one of the leading F-commerce solutions in the industry, comparison search engine SortPrice.com announced this week that they’ve added another cool feature to their Facebook Store Application that allows merchants to run Flash Sales right on their fan pages.

The company says the new component is just the latest in a long line of upgrades to its Facebook retail application, which is currently being used by more than 1,500 retailers across the nation.

According to SortPrice, the Flash Sale feature is, in part, an attempt to bridge two big recent F-commerce trends: the rise in popularity of daily deal sites like Groupon and the reality that most Facebook users tend to “Like” retail brands in the hopes of getting a special deal as a result.

“We’re really excited to offer this feature, since Flash Sales and the daily deal models have proven to be very effective and popular tools for retailers,” said Doron Simovitch, the company’s co-founder and CEO.  “Shoppers love such deals for their exclusivity and merchants can really capitalize on that potential by quickly and easily incorporating flash sales into their overall social shopping offerings.”

SortPrice merchants who are operating Facebook stores through the company can run one Flash Sale per day (for now) on their Facebook fan pages, listing a specific product for a discounted price for a limited time, with the option to include a promo code or coupon if they wish.  Simovitch says the Flash Sales are ideal if a merchant has a high volume of merchandise they need to move quickly or they just want to reward their Facebook fans for their loyalty.

“It’s another way to engage your Facebook fans and provide them with an incentive, which is ultimately the name of the game when it comes to social shopping,” he said.

One of the major benefits of the component is the ease in which a Flash Sale can be set up—SortPrice says retailers can have one up and running in less than five minutes by picking an item from their catalog and then setting the special price and time frame for the sale right in the management console that SortPrice provides to all of its retailers.

The console is also where SortPrice retailers can control the look and feel of their Facebook stores, enable or disable particular components, enact side-by-side product comparison features and more.

Keeping things consistent throughout its broader application, SortPrice has also included all of the usual social shopping features in the new Flash Sale offering.  Users can “Like” or comment on Flash Sales and share them with their Facebook friends as well.

We’ve followed a lot of SortPrice’s F-commerce work in the past few years.  They were, after all, one of the first companies to even offer retailers a storefront application back in 2008 and since then, their client list is an impressive 1,500-plus national retailers.  An earlier SortPrice press release said those merchants posted more than $3.78 billion worth of merchandise on their Facebook stores in 2010 and with the Flash Sale component, we’re guessing the company will pick up quite a few more clients in the coming months.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments!

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The End Comes for Borders

Posted in Ecommerce, General News / Technology, Online Shopping, Retail, tagged , , , , , , on July 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Borders, which gamely filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and then committed heavily to a reorganization effort to save itself, is out of options and will now begin the process of liquidation.

Thus ends the tenure of one of America’s most popular retail brands.

“Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development,” Borders group president Mike Edwards said yesterday.  “We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, e-reader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now.”

In January, Borders filed for bankruptcy and listed assets of $1.27 billion and $1.29 billion in total debts.

Earlier this month, Borders had finalized a preliminary agreement to be bought at auction by a company called Direct Brands for roughly $215 million in cash plus the assumption of another $220 million in debt.  The bid by Direct Brands, a component of the Phoenix-based investment banking firm Najafi, was a ‘stalking horse bid’—defined as an initial bid on a bankrupt company’s assets by an interested buyer chosen by the bankrupt company itself with a predetermined floor for minimum acceptable bids.

Last week, the creditor committee that was tasked with overseeing the Borders bankruptcy plan rejected the bid from Direct Brands on the grounds that it was too low.

That cleared the way for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York yesterday to approve the sale of the company’s assets to two liquidation firms—Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group—instead.

The remaining 200 or so Borders stores still in operation will be shuttered by Hilco and Gordon starting immediately through the end of September.  The two liquidation firms also assume immediate ownership of all of Border’s intellectual property rights as well as Borders.com but it remains unknown when the company’s e-commerce operations will officially end.

Quite a few major book publishing houses are still holding IOUs from Borders, most notably Penguin Putnam (for $41.1 million), Simon & Schuster ($33.7 million) and Random House ($33.4 million).

“For decades, Borders stores have been destinations within our communities, places where people have sought knowledge, entertainment and enlightenment, and connected with others who share their passion,” said Edwards. “Everyone at Borders has helped millions of people discover new books, music, and movies, and we all take pride in the role Borders has played in our customers’ lives.”

What are your thoughts on the Borders liquidation? Leave us a comment below!

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Amazon Rolls out Kindle Textbook Rental Program for College Students

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , on July 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Here’s some good news for all you college students out there.  You now have a chance to put a slight dent in what has become an outrageous cost associated with higher education thanks to a new service rolled out by Amazon today.

The program, the Kindle Textbook Rental, offers students the chance to save up to 80 percent off the list prices of their college textbooks by renting the books from the Kindle Store instead.

Amazon has tens of thousands of textbooks available for the upcoming school year, including those from leading publishers such as John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis.

“Students tell us that they enjoy the low prices we offer on new and used print textbooks.  Now we’re excited to offer students an option to rent Kindle textbooks and only pay for the time they need–with savings up to 80% off the print list price on a 30-day rental,” said Dave Limp, vice president of Amazon Kindle.

The big benefit of the new program, besides the obvious one in that it defrays the cost of books, is flexibility.

Students can customize the rental periods for any textbook from anywhere from 30 to 360 days so that they only pay for the specific amount of time that they actually will use the book. Customers can also extend any rental period pretty easily, even for as little as one day.

The program also allows for students to purchase any book they’re renting at any time.  To top it all off, Amazon has also found a way for students to keep possession of all the notes they may take in a particular textbook beyond the life of their rental agreement.

“Normally, when you sell your print textbook at the end of the semester you lose all the margin notes and highlights you made as you were studying,” Limp continues.  “We’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you get to keep and access all of your notes and highlighted content in the Amazon Cloud, available anytime, anywhere — even after a rental expires.  If you choose to rent again or buy at a later time, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

With free Kindle Reading Apps for PC, Mac, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based devices, the new Kindle Textbooks fulfill Amazon’s catchy slogan for the program, “Rent Once, Read Everywhere.”

Students can learn more at: www.amazon.com/kindletextbooks.

Leave us your thoughts and comments on this new program!

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E-commerce Sales Continue Scorching Run

Posted in Ecommerce, General News / Technology, Retail, tagged , , , , , , on July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

While Friday’s big economic-related news announcement was definitely a downer—unemployment nationwide has increased and now sits at an ugly 9.2 percent—web retailers are rejoicing thanks to more good news for them.

E-commerce sales in June increased 15.2 percent year-over-year according to the latest MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse report.  For those of you keeping score at home, that now makes it eight consecutive months of double digit gains for the industry and June was the 23rd straight month of growth overall.

Are you beginning to wonder if this streak is ever going to end?  So are we.

As was the case in May, when e-commerce sales were up nearly 16 percent year-over-year, outside factors seem to be dooming brick and mortar merchants as consumers opt to stay home to shop instead.

“…unfavorable weather and high gasoline prices appear to have helped e-commerce to its eighth consecutive month of double-digit growth,” said Michael McNamara, vice president, research and analysis, for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse.

Not every product category in the e-commerce industry had a solid June.  MasterCard reports that online jewelry sales dipped nearly 13 percent compared to the same month a year ago.  Such a precipitous drop is fairly interesting considering that non-jewelry luxury sales elsewhere (i.e. premium restaurants, grocers, department stores and general apparel merchants) actually increased 8.2 percent in June.

Web sales in the ‘family clothing’ category also slipped, but only by 0.2 percent.

Outside of those few isolated areas though, June proved to be just the latest in a long string of robust months for online retailers.  Women’s apparel was the biggest winner among e-commerce categories, jumping 12.2 percent year over year.

The SpendingPulse report is based on retail sales across all forms of payment, including all credit and debit cards, cash and check.  MasterCard does not generally include spending in actual dollars as part of the report.

So, before you head home for the weekend, tell us what you think about this unprecedented, nearly two-year run of growth in e-commerce sales.  Is it going to continue?  If so, for how long?  Leave us your thoughts and comments

below!

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“Mobile Mannequin” App Goes Live

Posted in Ecommerce, Mobile Commerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , , on July 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Even the most die-hard online and mobile shopping enthusiasts would probably concede that the biggest drawback in using such channels to buy clothing and apparel is the inability to actually try the merchandise on.

Sure, advancements in product photo and video displays have helped some but consumers more often than not want to see what a piece of clothing looks like on their body before deciding to buy or not.  In that regard, brick and mortar stores have had a distinct edge over their e- and m-commerce counterparts simply by virtue of being able to offer the low-tech resource of a fitting room.  But that edge may be a fleeting one.

Marketing and technology company Weyrich Enterprises this week launched a new mobile application called Divalicious that allows a person to upload their own full body image onto a virtual mannequin.  Shoppers can then take clothing and accessory images and place them over the mannequin for an accurate preview of what they’ll look like in the wares they’re considering buying.

This form of augmented reality, which relies on a smartphone’s camera to alter imagery, has already been introduced by several companies before, most notably eBay.  What makes Divalicious interesting though, is how expansive a shopping experience it can offer: consumers can browse product images from more than 300 fashion brands, mixing and matching brands and specific products along the way, almost as if they were at the mall.

“With this application, you no longer have to go to the stores to see what you would look like with a dress from BCBG, shoes from DSW and a handbag from Saks.  The clothes are all in one place, not in three different stores,” says Rich Kessler, chief technology officer at Weyrich Enterprises.

Quite a few big names have already signed up to offer their products through Divalicious, including Zappos, Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters, Gap, Calvin Klein, Nike, Prada, Steve Madden, Ralph Lauren, American Eagle Outiftters, Nine West and more.

Weyrich worked with Sugar Inc.’s ShopStyle comparison and social shopping site to bring Divalicious to life.  Products are listed on the application as links thanks to ShopStyle’s product data feeds, and shoppers are taken to a mobile-optimized product page hosted by specific retailers when they click on those links.  Transactions can be quickly and easily completed with the merchant directly and the shopper can return to any area of Divalicious once the purchase is complete.

If any of our readers have already tried out Divalicious, we’d love to hear what you thought of it—leave us a comment!

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Indiana, Pennsylvania Getting a Boost from Amazon

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Sales Taxes, tagged , , , , , on July 6, 2011 | 2 Comments »

It seems as though Indiana and Pennsylvania, two states that have yet to pursue internet sales tax laws like so many others around the nation, are being rewarded for their position on the issue by Amazon.

Amazon, which along with Overstock.com has assumed a leading voice for the e-commerce industry in the ongoing debate over the necessity and constitutionality of such tax bills, has announced plans to open a new fulfillment center in Indiana and increase hiring at a similar facility in Pennsylvania in the near future.

Several hundred workers, many of them full-time, will be employed at each of the facilities, reiterating the huge impact that such moves can have on local economies and job markets.

In announcing a new 900,000 square-foot distribution facility in Plainfield, IN that is set to open by the end of the summer, Amazon didn’t mince any words in explaining why it is increasing its presence in the Hoosier State.

“We’re expanding in Indiana because Gov. Daniels and other state officials have demonstrated their commitment to Amazon jobs and investment,” said Dave Clark, vice president, Amazon North American operations.

Once the Plainfield center is open, Amazon will have a total of four fulfillment centers in Indiana, all of which are operated by subsidiary Amazon.com.indc LLC.  The subsidiary tie is an important one, as Indiana does not consider Amazon subsidiaries the basis for the in-state presence that may otherwise necessitate the company collecting taxes for web purchases.

California recently became the latest state to pass an online tax law with a provision requiring companies that operate subsidiaries to comply with sales tax collections.

Meanwhile, Amazon has put out the Help Wanted sign at its Breinigsville, PA fulfillment center as well, with plans to bring in a wave of new workers for the facility just outside of Allentown.

“We’re excited to be hiring for hundreds of additional jobs at Amazon’s fulfillment centers in Pennsylvania this summer,” Clark said in a separate statement.

The lesson here seems pretty obvious: if you’re a state that isn’t going to try to get an online sales tax implemented anytime soon, the chances of Amazon doing business with you looks pretty good. Amazon’s got more than 60 of these fulfillment centers operating around the globe and the company has wasted no time in closing centers or abandoning plans for new ones in states that have aggressively pursued new sales taxes.  What has happened in such states, as well as these recent developments in Indiana and Pennsylvania, further illustrates that Amazon can dictate state policy with regards to taxes just as much as states can dictate whether Amazon does business in them or not.

And it also proves that the showdown between both sides isn’t going away anytime soon.  As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments!

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ShopRunner to Offer Digital Wallet, Monthly Shipping Service

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , on July 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Taking a page from the likes of Visa, MasterCard and others that have an electronic wallet in some stage of development or implementation, ShopRunner is using the concept as the cornerstone of a new aggressive expansion plan.

The shipping and online marketplace site has announced that it will roll out its own version of the e-wallet sometime this month.  The company will also soon begin offering consumers the option to sign up for its shipping package on a monthly basis, a move believed by some to be a precursor to an eventual premium service offering next-or same-day shipping that could give ShopRunner an edge over its biggest rival, Amazon Prime.

As with the other digital wallet offerings out there, ShopRunner’s is quite simply designed to make things easier on the consumer.

“A member shouldn’t have to go through multiple steps to complete a checkout process,” says ShopRunner president Mike Golden, who promised that the new tool would debut with a single, unnamed retailer later in July.

The e-wallet uses software developed by ShopRunner to store shoppers’ payment card information, shipping details and billing address to speed up the process of payment transactions.  The feature will initially be offered to retailers free of charge, but Golden says ShopRunner may add fees to the e-wallet feature eventually if sales and conversion rates increase as a result of it.

ShopRunner currently has about 44 retailers offering its services—centered around a program of free two-day shipping on all online orders for $79 annually—and expects that total double by the end of the year.  The company also runs a marketplace-style offering featuring retailers like Lord & Taylor and Toys R Us.

Also coming soon will be the monthly alternative to the $79 annual fee for ShopRunner’s discounted shipping service. By late July or early August, shoppers will be able to choose to sign up for the service on a monthly basis for a fee of $8.95 a month.

“This is a risk for us because some consumers would only use us for the holiday season, but we think that once consumers use our service a couple of times they love it and don’t quit,” Golden says.

While a premium service that would ensure even faster delivery of orders for a higher annual fee is still in the works, ShopRunner will also be launching an iPhone application in the coming weeks that will allow shoppers to scan bar codes in stores and find out if the product is available through the company’s standard two-day shipping program.

Have any thoughts or comments on the expansion efforts over at ShopRunner?  Leave us one below!

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Online Product Research Becoming More Extensive, Report Says

Posted in Ecommerce, Online Shopping, tagged , , , , , on June 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »

In a likely indicator that the growing number of online shopping resources available to consumers is actually making people better and smarter shoppers, a new report reveals that product research is taking up an increasingly larger share of the overall shopping experience and that more people are doing such research on social networks.

One out of every two people polled for The E-tailing Group’s report, titled “The 2011 Social Shopping Study,” said they spend at least 75 percent of their overall shopping time researching products.  That’s a substantial increase over the 21 percent of consumers who said the same thing just a year ago.

The group credits the rise in time spent researching to increases in both the amount and quality of information available to shoppers online.  (We’ll wager that the economy probably has something to do with it too.)

“People are willing to take the time to do research,” says Lauren Freedman, president of The E-tailing Group.  “They will do anything to find the right price.”

Furthermore, the survey shows that nearly one-third (29 percent) of all respondents are employing social media sites to conduct their product research.  This despite the fact that that a mere 18 percent of the retailers in The E-tailing Group’s late-2010 mystery shopper survey include actual customer reviews on their Facebook pages.

It’s almost certain, however, that the inclusion of reviews and similar features on retail Facebook pages is substantially more widespread across the industry than the The E-tailing Group’s sample size indicates.  In fact, it’s hard to believe the use of social networks for product research would be as high as it is if that wasn’t the case.  Nevertheless, Freedman makes the case that social network product research is indeed relevant and could very well increase even more.

“Social is emerging as a significant way that some consumers research products,” she says.  “In some early adopter categories it can be important.  However, in other categories it probably isn’t top of mind.  The real question will be whether social media is adopted by most younger consumers and become a standard way consumers research products.”

So how, exactly, are consumers using social media to conduct product research? According to the report:

–59 percent of respondents say they read customer reviews;

–42 percent access question-and-answer features that allow a consumer to pose a question to other shoppers or respond  to another person’s query;

–26 percent converse in community forums;

–15 percent view user-generated videos or create their own video;

–13 percent access a retailer or manufacturer’s Facebook page;

–13 percent pose questions in their news feeds;

–9 percent monitor, respond to, or post tweets on Twitter

We’d be interested to hear what our readers have to say about this.  Are you using Facebook, Twitter, etc. for product research?  If so, how are you going about doing so?  Leave us your thoughts and comments!

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