Apparently the folks over at Sortprice.com share those sentiments.  To commemorate both St. Patty’s and the end of a long and cold winter, they’ve put together a product list of spring gift ideas exclusively in the color green.  Pretty cool idea, right?

You can view the entire list of green products.

Sortprice’s list includes some typical electronics items that you may be surprised to find available in green, including an iPod Nano, Canon Power shot digital camera and a Dell Inspiron notebook. There’s also a really nice Ed Hardy Satchel and lime green topaz/diamond ring, both of which are sure to catch the eye of more than a few female online shoppers out there.

But our absolute favorite item on the list is those Kelly green Converse Chuck Taylors hi-tops. Those would look really good paired with a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” T-shirt during St. Patty’s Day bar-hopping activities.

Sortprice says that anyone can build this kind of list simply by using their Shop-by-Color feature, which lets you search for items in a specific color or narrow down product results with its’ built-in color palette.

So check out the list and let us know what you think.  Do you like any of these items? Hate them? We want to hear from you!

Details are hazy at best right now but based on the Rightcliq terms of service, consumers will be able to use it to store credit card information and shipping addresses for online purchases with various web retailers.  Rightcliq apparently will also let shoppers collect special offers from certain merchants as well and save product information directly from shopping portals.

Prior to this week, the last time we heard much of anything publicly on this new application was back in October.

“[Rightcliq] is an online shopping tool targeted to consumers that assists online shoppers by offering the ability to browse multiple merchants and select items consumers are interested in looking at in one central location, making comparison shopping easier,” Joseph Saunders, Visa’s chairman and CEO, said at the time during a conference call.

Saunders added that Rightcliq would also include an “auto-sell” feature that instantly compiles a shopper’s shipping and payment data for faster checkout and exclusive offers for Visa cardholders.

This kind of payment processing-comparison shopping tool would likely put Rightcliq in direct competition with PayPal, which currently boasts more than 81 million active accounts.  While credit and debit cards are still the most frequently-used forms of payment for online purchases, PayPal is far and away the most popular alternate payment form.  With Google’s and Amazon’s checkout features failing to grab a significant market share or put a dent in PayPal’s slice of the pie, clearly Visa sees an opportunity here and is taking advantage.

Still, analysts believe the company faces an uphill battle in trying to compete, particularly in making Rightcliq as efficient as the well-established PayPal.  Anyone competing with Paypal would need to, at the very least, deliver a service with a large customer base that is cost-effective for retailers to employ, particularly smaller and medium-sized companies.

For now, Rightcliq is in what amounts to a testing phase, gathering user feedback to make tweaks and adjustments in the coming months.  There could, however, be a more formal public announcement on the plan as soon as tomorrow when Visa executives gather in San Francisco for an Investor Day to discuss new products and the company’s financial health.

We’ll keep tracking this story as new developments arise.

Geeks and tech junkies will find items sporting phrases such as “Let’s Have Code Sex,” “FSK the Establishment,” and “Fork You” as part of a new exclusive line of apparel available only through the new storefront.

The Foundation is also sponsoring a t-shirt design contest to solicit public input on new ‘geeky’ designs for Linux apparel to be sold through the site.  Submissions, which you can deliver here are due by April 11.  The top 5 designs will then be put to a public vote on Linux.com through June 6.

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by hosting important workgroups, events and online resources.  For more information, please visit www.linuxfoundation.org.

Well that certainly didn’t take long.

Less than a week after the Colorado legislature targeted out-of-state retailers with a bill that imposes sales taxes on online purchases, the measure has already claimed its first victims and reignited a fierce political debate in the Centennial State.

Amazon announced yesterday that it is cutting ties with all of its Colorado online affiliates in the aftermath of last week’s legislative action, a move that will affect more than 4,000 operations that formerly partnered with the online giant, most of them small and mid-sized businesses.

Amazon notified the affiliates via email, tersely calling the new tax regulation burdensome and unlike rules in other states.  And that was that.  Nothing else has been heard from them on the subject.

Many of the bill’s opponents argued that this is precisely the kind of thing that would happen if it passed, stating that big online retailers would simply pack up and leave the state altogether rather than stick around and fork over tax money.  Colorado has more than 4,200 companies that worked as affiliates for Amazon, linking customers to its site through their own blogs and web portals.   This industry of affiliates accounts for about 5,000 jobs in the state and while most of these companies aren’t completely reliant on their relationship with Amazon, others most definitely are.

Affiliate relationships have been a central issue in the overall online sales tax debate as more and more states have considered implementing such taxes to narrow budget deficits.  Several states that have passed similar legislation on new online sales taxes have excluded affiliate provisions in their bills.   Others, like Rhode Island and North Carolina, did not and Amazon high-tailed it out of both of those states as well, just as it’s doing in Colorado.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and many Democratic state lawmakers are seething over Amazon’s swift action, calling it a case of a corporate bullying.

“They’ve done nothing here but spit in our face,” Senate Majority Leader John Morse said.

Meanwhile, state Republican lawmakers, who opposed the proposal and other tax hikes, criticized Democrats for pushing ahead with it and argued that no one should be surprised with Amazon’s move.

“It’s exactly what we said would happen. They’re going to put people out of work,” said House Minority Leader Mike May, “It’s a game of chicken with people and their jobs, and they lost.”

For now, the bill isn’t going to be repealed and its supporters promise that Amazon is still going to be on the hook for collecting sales tax revenues regardless of their decision to abandon the state. Still, it appears that one of the biggest downsides to taxing online purchases has in fact played itself out and should give lawmakers around the country who are considering similar action something to seriously think about.

Leave us your thoughts and comments below!

There are lots of reasons to look back at 2009 from an economic point of view and cringe. Unemployment was up, consumer confidence was down and many Americans found themselves devising new ways simply to get by.  Despite all of that though, e-commerce overcame a recession that dragged down the rest of the retail industry to post an 11 percent rate of growth last year and a leading research firm expects 2010 to be a repeat performance.

Released today, Forrester Research’s new report, “U.S. Online Retail Forecast 2009 to 2014”, takes a look at the year that was in 2009 for online shopping and also presents some promising predictions for the e-commerce industry over the next four to five years.

Forrester reports that 2009 saw 154 million people buying items on the web, representing 67 percent of the total number of online users.  The result: $155.2 billion in sales and an 11 percent increase in overall online spending from 2008.  Now sure, 11 percent doesn’t hold a candle to previous years when online spending was growing 20 percent or so each year. But like anything else, as more and more shoppers have flocked to the internet, growth can’t help but level off. Throw in the fact that every economic factor and indicator was pointing downward in 2009 and 11 percent increases start to sound really good!

And according to Forrester, it’s only the start.  Their report sees online retail growing at a rate of 10 percent annually over the next 4 years and predicts total online spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $249 billion by 2014.

Forrester projects that online shopping will grow by another 11 percent here in 2010 and that e-commerce could account for as much as 7 percent of ALL U.S. shopping this year. (By comparison, the National Retail Federation optimistically predicts only a 2.5 percent increase in overall U.S. retail for the current year.)

The best-selling U.S. online retail categories have consistently been clothing (apparel, footwear, and accessories), consumer electronics, and computers (hardware, software, and the like).  Those three categories already account for about 40 percent of all online retail sales across the country and will likely continue to do so, according to the report.  Both the clothing and electronics registered 17 percent increases in sales in 2009.

So what do we take away from these positive projections?

For one, it’s clear that the clothing and electronics sectors will continue to lead the way for online shopping; the former due to the fact that it attracts younger, more tech-savvy shoppers and the latter because of how easy it is to research models and compare tech items by using the web.

The report also indicates that in addition to the usual benefits of convenience and selection, e-commerce enjoys such strong growth and potential because retailers are offering innovative online shopping experiences and incorporating social networking tools as well.

Finally, Forrester states that 42 percent of all 2009 retail purchases, worth about $917 billion, were influenced by the web in some way.  Forrester argues that in the future, the line between online and offline commerce will only get more blurry and that retailers who find ways to use e-commerce to influence in-store purchases will see the best results.  With m-commerce growing as well, this means retailers everywhere will be looking to expand intelligently to ensure that they’re getting a slice of what promises to be a teeming pie of potential revenue and customers.

As always, leave us your thoughts and comments below!

The April 3rd release date is only a few days later than what was originally planned, and every major tech analyst from Wall Street to Silicon Valley is chomping at the bit to get their hands on what many believe will change the tablet PC forever.  Originally slated for release in late March, there had been rumors circulating that issues with the iPad screen and other manufacturing issues were arising.

Yet no one really believes that a delayed release date will hurt initial sales or kill any of the buzz associated with the iPad. To wit, Apple’s stock price jumped today despite the announcement of the delay.

Anyone with easy Wi-Fi access can get a crack at the first version of the iPad, with orders being taken starting March 12 at Apple online stores.  Prices will vary between $499 and $699.   The Wi-Fi + 3G version, expected to be coveted by Apple’s AT&T subscribers, will be available later in the month for between $629-$829, all dependant on whether the consumer wants a 16, 32 or 64 GB version.

One central question that remains is just how many models Apple will make available to the public.  Some believe the company will intentionally stick to a low volume early on, creating scarcity and driving up both demand and buzz on the item even further.

The first versions will debut a dozen apps specifically designed for the iPad, including the iBookstore, which will directly compete with Amazon’s Kindle-ready e-books but will not be compatible with e-books already out there.  Adobe Flash will not be available but most of the other 150,000 or so applications currently for use on the iPhone will eventually be available on the iPad as well.  We covered the pluses and minuses of the iPad back in January so you can learn more about its features there.

Despite all the excitement coming out with the announcement of the iPad release, we DID find at least one person who doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal. Microsoft’s Bill Gates chimed in by saying: “It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it’.”

It remains to be seen if the general public will share his sentiments.

The cornerstone of the new law requires online retailers that don’t currently collect online sales taxes to notify shoppers in Colorado that they are responsible for paying the taxes themselves directly to thestate.  It also dictates that retailers doing more than $100k annually in online sales to Colorado consumers must provide the state’s Department of Revenue with a list of all their in-state customers and the total value of each of their purchases.

“Every online retailer who sells to a Colorado purchaser and doesn’t collect sales tax will be required to put a notice in the customer’s invoice that says, ‘You are obligated to pay sales tax in the state of Colorado for this purchase’,” said Mark Couch, liaison for the state’s Department of Revenue.  The requirements regarding customer lists and their purchase history are designed to aid the state’s effort to check compliance with the law.

Though very few actually do so, consumers are already required to pay their own taxes for online purchases.  Colorado’s law, the first of its kind nationwide, finally puts some muscle behind that requirement and could raise upwards of $4.7 million in revenue for the state in the first year alone.

Colorado governor Bill Ritter Jr. officially signed it into law on March 1.

Couch added that more than a few other states have already approached Colorado with interest in the new law and have plans to track its effectiveness to see if similar legislation is a good fit for them as well.  Colorado has a budget deficit of several hundred million dollars, and like many states, is seeking every possible means of narrowing that fiscal gap.

Colorado’s law was initially proposed as a mirror to New York state’s “Amazon law”, (which we detailed in a past posting) that addressed the online sales tax issue terms of affiliate relationships between large and small outlets.  But, as we argued for when discussing Virginia’s online sales tax legislation, Colorado lawmakers dropped language in their bill regarding affiliates due to concerns that major online retailers like Amazon, Overstock and the like would end their business relationships with Colorado companies.

Nevertheless, it probably won’t be long before other states follow Colorado’s lead and become more proactive in collecting online sales tax revenues.

Leave us your thoughts and comments below!

MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse report on retail activity between Jan. 31 and February 27 released earlier today showed sales growth for footwear, men’s apparel, electronics, and luxury goods compared to the same time period just last year.  The report also indicated that online sales grew significantly last month, likely due again, to rough weather conditions that kept many shoppers indoors.  Women’s clothing and apparel was the only major retail sector to post losses according to the report.

According to SpendingPulse, clothing sales fell overall by 1.8 percent last month versus February 2009 but men’s clothing jumped 5.7 percent and footwear rose 2.2 percent.  Meanwhile, consumer electronics recorded a sixth straight month of increases with 5.8 percent growth and luxury goods (excluding jewelry) were the biggest winner, posting a 15.2 percent increase after a strong 8.1 percent jump in January.

Online sales were up 16.7 percent as well, though the average transaction for a web shopper actually dropped by almost 4 percent.

While the gains across the industry appear to be good news, analysts were quick to warn against putting too much stock into the data, considering that consumer confidence was at an all time low back in February 2009.  Additionally, February is usually considered the second-least important month of the year for retailers (behind January) because it is sandwiched between holiday clearance time and the bustling spring shopping season.

We should get a better overall gauge of February retail information once the International Council of Shopping Centers releases its own index of sales figures for the month tomorrow.   The ICSC tracks information from stores that have been open for at least a year but does not include Wal-Mart.  It is estimated its index will show at least a 2 percent rise in sales when it is unveiled for February, following up on strong months in January (+3 percent) and December (+3.6 percent).

Let us know if the snow kept you from shopping February by leaving a comment below!

At issue are a total of 20 patents governing various smart phone and mobile technologies.  Apple filed suit on half of those patents with a federal court in Delaware, with the other ten being covered in another suit with the U.S. International Trade Commission.  The suits address both hardware and software, as well as touch-screen control and scrolling features, and aims to ban the sale of Google’s Nexus One phone and Microsoft’s Windows mobile devices, both manufactured by Taiwan-based HTC.

HTC was a virtual unknown in the smart phone market until just recently with its support for the Android mobile operating system.  It was the first company to unveil a Google phone and has enjoyed success with its Hero model, sold through Sprint Nextel, and the Droid Eris, available from Verizon, as well as its featured Google and Microsoft phones.

Patent suits and legal action are not all that rare in the tech industry.  Apple sued Nokia back in December, claiming the company hand infringed on several iPhone patents.  In February, Kodak sued both Apple and Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion, asserting that their smart phones illegally employed Kodak’s digital imaging technology for  cameras.  Generally, such suits fly under the radar as lawyers on both sides battle it out in court away from the spotlight.

This time however, Apple came out with guns blazing, issuing a press release featuring some tough talk from CEO Steve Jobs.  Analysts believe this larger-than-usual media push regarding the legal action is evidence that Apple views HTC’s alleged infringements as a serious threat.

Apple claims they’re simply defending their intellectual property.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” Jobs said in a statement.  “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Even though Apple’s iPhone continues to hold the top spot among smart phones, the marketplace has tightened in the last year or so as more manufacturers and vendors introduce their own models.  Android, in particular, has seen remarkable growth, accounting for 3.9 percent of the smart phone operating system market in 2009 after only 0.5 percent the year before.

While HTC has churned out a number of smart phones to compete with the iPhone, the very recent release Google’s Nexus One phone likely was what caught Apple’s attention and led to the current legal action.  Like the iPhone, the Nexus One offers a host of applications, GPS and a touch screen. Some experts claim that Apple’s aggressive legal action is a means of slowing down HTC’s growth in theindustry while still others believe this could just be the beginning of a larger strategy to keep hold of its place atop the smart phone market.

The case before the International Trade Commission will proceed first, a standard move in this type of action involving technology because the ITC tends to arrive at decisions much faster than the country’s federal courts.  Perhaps more importantly though, and a fact certainly not lost on Apple, is that the ITC has the power to ban a product from being introduced into the U.S. completely, meaning that if Apple wins, the phones HTC has produced to compete with the iPhone may never see shelves in the U.S. again.

We’ll keep track of this story as it unfolds in the coming months.   As always, leave us your comments below!

However, there’s one area that is often overlooked in the day-to-day operations of an online store that can be just as valuable: public and media relations.  We understand why PR can get lost in the shuffle.  Most small and midsize retailers just don’t have experience in crafting or implementing a communications strategy, nor do they think they can fit such activities into an already busy schedule.  But we’re here to tell you that you can.  And that you should!

We talked to a New York-based communications specialist with more than a decade’s worth of experience in public and media relations to get his thoughts on what ecommerce entrepreneurs can do to bring PR into the mix and help spread the word about their brands.  Here are three tips that don’t require too much time and effort but should produce results!

Build Press Kits: A press kit offers reporters and bloggers all the necessary background information on your company in one place.  As such, they might just bethe most valuable PR tool one can have.  And these days, it’s not just enough to have a paper version of a press kit. You need an electronic one that can be accessed via your website as well. A good press kit should include background pages on the company, executive biographies, links to or PDF versions of previous press ‘hits’, press releases on new features or other news, and even financial summaries in some cases. Electronic press kits can also include videos, audio clips and even podcasts.

Press kits should always provide reliable contact information should the reporter want to get in touch with you.  Regardless, you should always have your press kits done and ready to go BEFORE you begin any big media or marketing push.  You don’t want to make a press announcement and then have to scramble to pull together background information if a reporter calls to follow up. Members of the media operate on strict deadlines and if you can’t provide them with the information they need quickly, they will simply move on to someone else.

Make a Press List and Get to Know Who’s On It:   When you do get around to making that press announcement, you’re going to need to let members of the media know about it.

Start small, especially if you operate in a small media market.   Identify the relevant reporters at your local and major state newspapers and business journals, namely retail and small business reporters.  If the newspaper is very small, you can look for the business editor instead.  Give them a call or shoot them an email introducing yourself and offer to send over a press kit.  Tell them that you will have some news announcements in the coming months and that you want to keep them in the loop.  By putting getting your company’s name on their radars with a pleasant introduction, you’re increasing the chances of them running your story as opposed to cold calling them later on when they don’t know you from a hole in the wall. If you want to expand your targeted press lists even more, visit this Newslink.org which links to the websites of every single major newspaper, periodical, and radio/TV station in the country.  Also track a blog search engine like IceRocket to find bloggers that might have an interest in what you’re doing.

Put your press lists in Excel format with the contact’s name, phone, fax, email and a ‘notes’ section detailing when you last spoke to them or what their preferences are for being contacted with news. When it’s time to send out that next press release, you have your list ready to go!  Now, sure there are PR firms and media databases out there that will identify reporters that are relevant to your brand and geographical location and build you some press lists for a few hundred, if not thousand, dollars.  But why spend all that money when you can do it yourself simply by following the steps outlined above?

Track the News:   Along those same lines, it always helps to keep track of business and retail news on both the national and local levels.  This not only helps you identify new reporters and bloggers to add to your press list, but it keeps you in the loop on things your competitors might be doing or trends emerging in your particular industry.

One simple way to do this is to set up news alerts through Google.  Visit this page alerts to set up Google Alerts and Google will deliver every news item from around the world to your email inbox for each keyword that you enter.   For instance, if you’re a sports memorabilia retailer, set up an alert with ‘baseball memorabilia’ or ‘sports collectibles’ as keywords to get specific news items on your industry.  Also set up an alert for your company name and those of your competitors, as well as broad business terms like ‘retail spending’, ‘consumer sentiment’, and/or ‘online shopping’ to get a daily rundown of all the news that is important to you.

Staying informed is key and quickly browsing the morning paper isn’t enough anymore.  You need to be “in the know” as much as possible, not only when dealing with members of the media, but when deciding how and where to spread your own news announcements when the time comes.

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?  Leave us a comment!

The software king opened a legal assault earlier this week against several networks of compromised computers being run by hackers, and a federal judge in Virginia agreed to the company’s request to deactivate 277 infringing domain names.

Microsoft’s suit, which was filed on Monday, specifically targets a botnet known as Waledec, as well as 27 “John Doe” defendants.  The company maintains this pool of cybercrooks broke federal laws with a scheme to create bot-herders.  Bot-herding is a process by which hackers use automated scans to look for vulnerable computers across several networks, which then become one of many zombie machines when infected by the  hacker.  Spam, click fraud, denials of service and malicious software can all be spread through the use of bot-herding, which gives the hacker complete control over an infected computer.

In the suit, Microsoft’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to issue a restraining order to allow the company to cut communication channels to the botnet in stealth before its perpetrators had a chance to re-establish their links to its network.

Waledac is believed to be one of the 10 largest botnets in the U.S., with the ability to send approximately 1.5 billion spam email messages per day, while stealing sensitive information and establishing backdoor remote access on any machine it infects.  Online security experts estimate the botnet has infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world.  Microsoft itself has analysis that shows more than 650 million spam emails attributed to Waledac were directed to Hotmail accounts between December 3-21 of 2009 alone.  Clearly, there was a need to act and Microsoft did just that.

“The takedown of the Waledac botnet that Microsoft executed this week — known internally as Operation b49 — was the result of months of investigation and the innovative application of a tried-and-true legal strategy,” said Tim Cranton, Microsoft Associate General Counsel.

Cranton went on to say that Operation b49 had effectively shut down connections with the vast majority of Waledac-infected machines within three days of implementation and that Microsoft was shooting to make the disruption permanent.  He did caution however that the effort would not thoroughly cleanse infected computers, which would still be hosting the original malware.

Industry experts have long agreed that online fraudsters will not be curbed merely by fighting them on a technology level.  As such, in opening a new front against cyber-crime, Microsoft is being lauded for finding a legal principle with which to challenge the bot-herders on this matter, which may open new opportunities in the future for others to more aggressively fight back against cyber crime.

Case in point, we came across a study today proving that online shoppers are increasingly becoming more diligent in their product research and price comparison efforts.  We can assume that a lot of this is due to continued economic problems which are forcing consumers to be frugal, but the data offers retailers of every size and scope solid information from which to build on.

The Compete Online Shopper Intelligence Study indicates that a whooping 94 percent of online shoppers now conduct research prior to making a purchase.  Furthermore, the study revealed that 61 percent of those polled rely on search engines more than any other online shopping resource, ahead of coupon sites (35 percent), retailer emails (29 percent) and online product reviews (24 percent).

While general and comparison search engine usage is high—amounting to roughly 80 million users totaleach year—the report also dictates their popularity is often dependant on the type of products being sought.  Apparel and clothing shoppers, for example, are the least likely to use such online shopping methods, relying instead on retailer websites and catalogs and purchasing from retailers they’ve bought from before.  If you’re an apparel retailer, this type of information means that establishing customer loyalty is a huge priority.

Electronics shoppers also use comparison engines less than the general public but they are more active in seeking out information on new items, whether it be professional product reviews, social-content reviews and recommendations from friends and family.   As such, electronics merchants would be wise to incorporate various mediums for reaching new and existing customers, since these consumers appear to be more well-informed than some of their counterparts who prefer other product categories.

What else did the report show?  Sales assistants, of both the online and in-store variety, are utilized by shoe shoppers more than any other category of consumers.  This would seem fairly obvious for brick and mortar retailers since finding the right fit in a shoe is paramount to making a purchase. But it also indicates that online shoe merchants could increase their effectiveness by incorporating some sort of web chat or interaction with their customers during the buying process.  Finding the right fit means less returns and happier shoppers.

You can read a little bit more about the Compete report and check out graphical results for the data it collected on Compete’s blog.  As always though, we encourage you to leave us a comment with your feedback and thoughts!

VeriSign is best known for its SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates that it sells to websites to indicate high standards of encryption for sensitive information, particularly with consumer financial information in the case of retail websites.

The new product, the VeriSign Trust Seal, is geared towards smaller businesses that don’t generally need SSL certificates because they don’t directly handle sensitive information. These are businesses or retailers that outsource payment processing and financial information-gathering to third party sites but still wish to convey to site visitors that they run a reputable and safe operation, which we all know is a must in the e-commerce industry.

Companies that sign up for the Trust Seal undergo a rigorous corporate background check and an in-depth  analysis of their website by VeriSign to determine their legitimacy.  Those that past the muster are given the Trust Seal to post on their sites, which the company maintains increases the likelihood that visitors will purchase through that particular retailer.

Another added bonus to the Trust Seal package is that VeriSign will run daily malware scans on the retailer’s site to determine if it has been hacked or tampered with to attack or steal information from visitors to the site.  This is especially valuable since hackers tend to target weaker, unprotected websites that many newer and smaller retailers operate.   VeriSign itself farms out the daily malware scan feature but doesn’t indicate who its partner is.  A one-year subscription to Trust Seal will run about $300, which isn’t a bad deal at all if it actually does what it is supposed to do.

We’ve always maintained here at Junkie that retailers should make sure they have security certifications like this, particularly because the leading hang-up that most consumers have about online shopping is, after all, security. Prominently displaying your partnership with a company like VeriSign can go a long way to establishing customer loyalty by communicating to them that you’re serious about their security and safety.

Nevertheless, there are some researchers and industry analysts who maintain that, despite their aesthetic value, these seals and verification programs don’t ensure safety at all, particularly since many cyber criminals can fake a verification seal. We don’t subscribe to that type of thinking at all. VeriSign is obviously a trusted company—its existing SSL certification program boasts a nearly one-quarter increase in traffic for sites that run it—and again, for $300 it’s not a bad investment.

Visit VeriSign’s site to learn more  and feel free to leave us comments with your thoughts on this issue. If you’re a retailer, tell us if you’re using these types of certifications as part of your overall security program. And if you’re a consumer, let us know if you look for certifications when browsing online retailers.

Amazon was the only online-only outlet to crack the study’s top 10 of the most trusted brands.

Millward Brown used a standard called “TrustR” to judge all of the companies in the report.  The standard is based on two simple questions posed to consumers across 22 countries; “How trustworthy is this brand?” and “Would you recommend this brand?”

Responses were then loaded into an index to product both a ‘Trust’ score and a ‘Recommendation’ score, which were added then divided by two to formulate each brand’s overall TrustR score. Anything over a 105 is considered good while anything under 94 is considered poor.  The average TrustR score was an even 100.  Only 1 percent of all brands achieve scores of over 120 while 27 percent register scores of 105 or higher.

The top 10 most trusted and recommended brands in the U.S were as follows:
1. Amazon   123 points
2. Fed Ex   122
3. Downey   120
4. Huggies   120
5. Tide   120
6. Tylenol   120
7. Toyota   119
8. WebMD   119
9. Pampers   118
10. UPS   118

What stands out to us in this list (besides the proliferation of laundry detergents and diapers) is Amazon coming out on top of a many brands that have been around much longer.   It’s a testament to Amazon’s evolution to comprehensive shopping resource that it is able to not only be included in this list of brands completely different from it, but to sit atop of it as well.

The report’s summary indicates that top brands enjoy a much stronger bond with customers and in certain cases, these brands are seven times more likely to be purchased than those with weaker TrustR scores.  All in all, it’s a good sign for the e-commerce industry to see one of its major players ranked at the top of a list like this and it gives Amazon’s competitors something to shoot for in the future.

Research from Javelin Strategy & Research indicates that more and more online shoppers are now eschewing credit cards and using prepaid gift and debit cards as well as alternate payment methods like PayPal and Google’s Checkout service to complete their online purchases instead.

Javelin estimates that consumers spent roughly $205 billion in online purchases last year.  Credit cards were still the top payment option at 43.5 percent of the total online payment volume, with debit cards at 28 percent, PayPal/Google Checkout-type tools at nearly 16 percent and prepaid/gift cards accounting for almost 7 percent of online payment volume.   Javelin proposes, however, that the latter two methods of payment will only increase in the near future while it expects credit and debit card usage to decrease.

“Prepaid and gift cards are hitting stride in the online payments environment,” says Javelin analyst Elizabeth Robertson.

Why is this, you ask?  According to the company, the increase in popularity of non-credit card payments can largely be attributed to consumer sentiment and concern at a time of continued economic trouble.  Quite simply, shoppers are choosing to pay for their purchases right away rather than deferring them and taking on more debt with credit cards.

Javelin’s research included some 5 year estimates to support its overall claim that these alternate payment methods will only continue to cut into credit and debit card usage.   Its’ 2014 forecasts for the percentage of total online payment volume of the major payment options in play:

-Credit cards: 39.4% (decreasing)
-Debit Cards: 25.6% (decreasing)
-Prepaid/gift Cards: 10.7% (increasing)
-PayPal/Google Checkout, etc: 19.2% (increasing)

That’s nearly a 4 percent change up and down across the board, with store-issued credit cards compiling the final 5 percent.   Overall Javelin anticipates an overall increase in the number of U.S. adults regularly shopping online (63 percent to 78 percent expected in 2014) as well.

We’ve always advocated using credit cards as your primary purchase tool online, mostly because they offer the most protection against fraud and give a shopper the most flexibility with bigger purchases.  But this information and Javelin’s projected figures regarding online payment systems is certainly intriguing.  We cannot argue with the logic behind using things other than credit cards to avoid adding on too much debt, but we want to hear from you.  Do you agree with Javelin’s predictions?  Are you already one of the many online shoppers keeping your credit cards tucked away for PayPal or a gift card?

Leave us a comment!

Facebook has replaced Yahoo as the United States’ second largest web site and has narrowed the gap on No. 1 Google, according to a report on January traffic from Web analytics firm Compete. Facebook drew nearly 134 million unique visitors last month, compared to Yahoo’s 132 million. Google, which has been in the top spot since overtaking Yahoo back in February of 2009, registered a monthly audience of about 148 million.

Compete compiled its data through a panel of 2 million U.S. internet users representing a cross section of the population.  The report does conflict somewhat with similar information from ComScore, which doesn’t put Facebook’s audience quite as large.  ComScore, which we’ve referenced a number of times here at Junkie for various tech and internet trends, estimates that Facebook doubled its audience to 112 million in 2009, putting it squarely in fourth place behind Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Unlike Compete, however, half of ComScore’s 2 million member panel used for its data gathering resides outside the United States.

Nevertheless, there are some common themes emerging from both firms’ reports, primarily that user engagement on Facebook has skyrocketed recently.  Compete’s data found that 11.6 percent of all time spent online in January was on Facebook (compared to 4.25 percent for Yahoo and 4.1 percent for Google).  That’s a sizeable chunk of time, and it echoes ComScore’s reporting last month that Facebook’s average monthly minutes per visitor (a key engagement metric) increased 45 percent from 170 to 247.

Yet another report on Tuesday from the Nielsen Co. revealed an even higher estimate for time spent on the social networking giant, reporting users spent an average of just over 7 hours on Facebook in January (up 10 percent from December.)  Google and Yahoo both averaged only 2 hours in Nielsen’s data.

Whichever round of data and information you choose to take as fact, the overall picture is pretty obvious.   Facebook, which recently announced it has hit 400 million global users and 100 million mobile users, has now eclipsed one web giant and may very well be poised to take down another in the near future.  If you’re an online advertiser, all of these stats prove that Facebook’s audience is improving in both quantity and quality. As such, it is an online advertising option that simply cannot be ignored.

For retailers, this lends even further credence to our long-held assertion that you must integrate social media into your operations from here on out.  After all, how can you ignore the potential of 400 million people?  Adding a Facebook tool like the Merchant store application from Sortprice.com is a great way to begin asserting your company and brand on this huge group of people. One way or the other, if you don’t take advantage, your competitors probably will.

Leave us your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below. We’re particularly interested in what you think makes Facebook so popular and such a fast riser in these kinds of rankings.

The conference is taking place March 2-3 of this year at the Sands EXPO Center in Las Vegas (and who doesn’t love spending time in Sin City!)  Looking over the schedule of events and sessions , it definitely looks like there will be some informative and helpful discussions taking place.

If you’re still interested in attended, you can register through the IMA site here.

Well, in another sign that Google really is setting its sights on becoming a serious player in that industry, the search giant has created a new position, vice president of commerce, and hired former eBay executive Stephanie Tilenius to fill it.

Tilenius will oversee development of digital content and commerce for Google as well as the site’s product search, payments, and Checkout tool in her new role.  In short, she’s going to be Google’s commerce guru.  Tilenius’ background, coupled with the dominance the Google name carries, should be enough to concern the leadership at even the most stabile of e-commerce entities right now.

Google’s evolution and expansion from more than just single source of revenue (online advertising), is already well underway.  The site’s Product Search is growing in popularity with shoppers while cutting into traffic at traditional comparison shopping sites, and the company has plans to launch an e-books online store sometime in the first half of this year.  Google was also offering rentals of indie movies from the Sundance Film Festival last month and is in the process of selling business software through yet another online store.

Bringing Tilenius on board should only expedite Google’s ambitious plans currently in development at a time when new tools and applications to aid mobile and e-commerce are being introduced at a rapid rate.  She is well known for her ambitious goals and ideas and has a proven track record for success, the exact blend that a company like Google wants.

A Harvard Business School graduate, Tilenius’ first e-commerce gig was with Firefly, which was eventually bought by Microsoft.   From there, she co-founded the online healthcare portal PlanetRx.com and took the company public in 1999.  She held several positions at eBay during a nine year run with the company, most recently as head of global product and eBay North America.

Suffice to say, the Stephanie Tilenius hiring is a clear sign that Google is moving towards building a diverse online retail platform that can compete with the likes of Amazon and Tilenius’ former employer, eBay.

Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

Comparison shopping engine PriceGrabber.com has released a survey indicating just that. In the study, 55% of the respondents said they still view netbooks more as a complimentary tool to laptops, rather than a replacement.

While that doesn’t necessarily support our assertion that netbooks are growing in popularity, the implication that the other 45% DO believe netbooks can be a useful replacement for traditional laptops is certainly noteworthy.  It represents a significant increase in popularity over a very short period of time for a new product competing against one that has had a solid hold in the marketplace and the consumer psyche for quite a while.

Supporting that notion?   PriceGrabber’s survey reveals that an increased demand in netbooks has led to a significant drop in prices for traditional computers, reporting that the average cost of a laptop on its site has dipped from $808 in December of 2008 to $645 twelve months later. Another interesting tidbit from the survey results is the news that the majority of new netbook owners hail from the 45-64 age group, a designation previously held by those in the 35-54 demographic.

Clearly, netbook manufacturers are making a dent with older consumers, people who don’t necessarily need huge hi-def screens and juiced up processors and probably love the simplicity and affordability that netbooks offer instead.

Those in the 55 percent group of PriceGrabber’s survey cited the following reasons for their continued preference of traditional notebooks:

Uncomfortably small form: 54%
No CD drive: 50%
Minimal Storage: 49%
Slower processes: 38%
Multimedia-rich apps bad performance: 26%
Poor playback performance for games/hi-def: 16%
Other: 14%

(For the purposes of this study, PriceGrabber defined a netbook as a computer with a screen under 11 inches and price tag lower than $500.)

So now it’s your turn.  We want to hear from as many of you as possible today, letting us know what you think of netbooks v. notebooks.  Which do you prefer and why?   Share your stories and thoughts with us by leaving a comment below!

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is predicting a 2.5 percent pick-up in sales for the coming year, citing improved consumer confidence and a number of other economic indicators heading upwards in the near future.  The anticipated 2.5 percent rate of growth would reverse an overall decrease in retail sales last year of the same amount.

“While we still expect shoppers to continue to be frugal with their discretionary spending, retailers will soon be able to reap the benefits of leaner, smarter inventories and a year and a half of pent-up consumer demand,” said NRF’s Chief Economist Rosalind Wells in a statement.

The bold prediction does come with a caveat, however, as Wells estimated that consumer spending would likely continue to lag behind overall economic growth in the coming year. Nevertheless, the NRF’s outlook is based heavily on turnarounds in the housing market, as well as strong exports and a big turnaround in retail inventory cycles in 2010.

While we like the sound of this and are certainly buoyed by the NRF’s confidence in a retail turnaround in 2010, the fact remains that retailers everywhere (both online and brick and mortar), still have some obstacles to overcome if such a prediction is to come to fruition.  The country’s 10 percent rate of unemployment is foremost among the issues of concern, since it’s very difficult to envision people spending money when 1 out of every 10 of them is looking for work. An uptick in fuel prices could also negatively affect the industry as well by adding costs to the shipping component of a retail sales operation.

We’ll continue, as always, to keep track of all the important economic news and indicators that impact the retail industry.  But we’re also going to keep this 2.5 percent increase estimate in the back of our minds moving forward and see just how accurate it was this time next year.  In the meantime, we welcome your comments and feedback!

We’ve been hearing rumblings from friends and colleagues in the industry about an increase in the number of active online shoppers reporting fraudulent charges on their credit cards.  Of course, this can sometimes be the result of an advanced version of click fraud that we reported on  about a month ago.  But it’s also likely that people are seeing these unauthorized charges as a result of this new scam to collect consumer credit card information under the guise of an ecommerce store.

How does it work?  A new wave of cyber criminals has discovered a way to build disposable websites in order to compile data from shoppers who assume they’re using a reputable online store. These sites look and operate like a regular online shopping destination, complete with products descriptions and images as well as full shopping cart capabilities, totally able to process transactions complete with sensitive financial information.

The thieves capture credit card information during the check-out process and naturally, the shopper never receives any merchandise, only the charge for the fake item plus whatever else the scammers have decided to charge with the card.   It gets worse.  Some of these cyber crime rings are taking the credit card numbers they steal from consumers and using them to set up online advertising packages with comparison sites and search engines.  These ads bring in even more customers, more fraudulent sales and thus, more stolen credit card information.

By bringing those advertising entities into the mix, this scam has the potential to cast a much wider net than others that preceded it, preying on web partners that aren’t diligent about double-checking their advertisers and thus, attracting unsuspecting consumers who believe they’re shopping with reputable merchants.  There is no accurate measure for how often this type of fraud is being perpetrated, nor any reliable estimate on the amount of money it is costing consumers but it’s definitely out there, and that alone is reason enough to reinforce some important security tips for online shopping.

You should always be on the lookout for merchant certifications when browsing on comparison shopping sites, which we covered with another recent posting recently.  These designations, earned by retailers who meet or exceed the highest standards of quality as established by the hosting website, ensure that you’re buying from a trusted source.  Some scammers will affix certification logos or buttons on their fraudulent sites but they’re almost always just images that don’t link to any certification page.  As such, you should not only look for these designations on retails sites and comparison shopping pages, you must click on them to make sure they really are legit.

Another way to research a particular merchant is to look for customer reviews on the web and on specific shopping sites.  Relying on other consumers and their experiences with retailers is quick, easy and free.  You can also check with the Better Business Bureau, particularly for local and regional merchants.   Finally, trust your gut.  If you come across a shopping page where something…anything…seems a bit off, go elsewhere.  Chances are, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it is.

We’ll keep tracking this new fraud activity and report any updates we come across.

Only one dissenting vote was recorded in the state Senate Finance committee’s debate on Sen. Emmett Hanger’s proposed legislation, which would collect the tax from businesses in-state that are affiliated with major online shopping companies such as Amazon, Overstock and the like.

Analysts expect the bill to move to the state Senate for a full vote next week.

Under the current system, which is almost identical to the set up in other states around the country, major national retailers play the role of a wholesaler for the Virginia-based internet retailers.  The smaller companies receive a share of every sale that is processed through their relationship with the bigger partners, minus any sales tax.

Proponents of an online sales tax have argued for years that such a system puts traditional brick and mortar retailers at a distinct disadvantage with consumers.  Senator Hanger himself made the case that there’s no level playing field between online retailers and their brick and mortar counterparts: the latter of which are forced to struggle with the ups and downs of a volatile economy while also trying to compete with the online retailers that are immune to Virginia’s 5 percent state and local sales taxes.

The Virginia Retail Merchants Association supports Hanger’s proposal and several brick and mortar retailers were on hand to add their take on how the current system is putting both their businesses and lives in peril.

Opponents of the bill meanwhile, in echoing the sentiments of their colleagues around the country, argued the measure looks good on paper but will really only end up hurting Virginia’s smaller retailers.  They maintain that the large shopping companies, more secure and much more insulated from cost fluctuations than their smaller partners, will simply end their relationships with the state’s retailers once the tax is implemented, leaving them holding the bag.

“You’re going to put Virginia businesses out of business if you do that,” said Reggie Jones, a lobbyist for Dulles-based AOL, which opposes the legislation.

Coincidentally, state officials in Colorado this week also brought the online sales tax issue to the forefront with a piece of proposed legislation of their own, which would require out-of-state retailers to collect the tax or send notices yearly to their customers informing them that they need to pay the tax on their own.

Both cases clearly signal that online sales taxes are increasingly being looked at as a means to close budget deficits in states that are having a hard time staying afloat financially.

Unfortunately, while such a tax conceivably could become a reliable stream of revenue for these states, most of the proposed plans end up burdening the retailers with the responsibility of tracking and collecting those taxes. In essence, state governments are telling the retail industry that they want their cut of the money, but don’t want to contribute to the collection process.

We outlined our stance on this situation and the online sales tax issue overall about a year ago in another post so feel free to read through it and leave us your thoughts on the subject!

The Reston, Va.-based internet researcher reported that overall 2009 online spending was $129.8 billion, down 0.2 percent from $130.1 billion the previous year. The decrease would have been even larger were it not for a strong fourth quarter, when spending grew at 3 percent during the busy holiday shopping season.  comScore reported 4Q 2009  spending at $39.05 billion, which certainly helped end the year on a positive note but can’t overshadow just how much a struggling economy is affecting both consumer spending habits and online retail sales in general.

Even retailers’ efforts to incorporate social media and networking into their sales and marketing operations could not reverse the downward trend, as shoppers everywhere tightened their purse strings.

comScore’s chairman, Gian Fulgoni, said yesterday as part of the report’s unveiling that retailers should remain optimistic that they can endure and continue to attract consumer spending but cautioned against overall growth in the industry as long as high unemployment figures remain a part of the current economic climate.

Substantiating that warning is a separate report from MyBuys.com, which revealed that retailers are already off on the wrong foot in 2010.  The MyBuys reported listed January revenue for online retail down 7.5 percent from January of 2009, with revenue from products sold at full price also down 11 percent as well.  Revenue from discounted products was up 44 percent last month, a very clear signal that even those consumers venturing onto the web for shopping thus far in 2010 are going after items that are on sale and eschewing full-price and big ticket items.

Other highlights from the comScore report:

–Larger retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart were able to put some distance between themselves and smaller rivals with strong 4th quarters in 2009;

–Free shipping deals factored into more than 40 percent of online sales transactions during the 2009 holiday season;

–The Q4 2009 increases reflect an increase in the total number of online shoppers, though spending per user/buyer declined overall

So, what kind of year do you think 2010 will be for online retailers?  Will this decrease in sales and revenue carry over throughout the year or was it a small bump in the road?  We want to hear from you so leave us a comment!

Consumers are considering both traditional favorites as well as several new ideas for Valentines Day gift-giving as they shop for the holiday this year, according to data released today by shopping search engine Sortprice.com listing the most frequently searched-for gifts on its site thus far.

“Not only are shoppers taking advantage of the many post-holiday deals offered up by many retailers right now,” said Doron Simovitch, Sortprice’s co-founder and CEO. “It appears that many of them are thinking outside the box this year to supplement, or even completely replace, traditional Valentines gifts like candy, fragrances and lingerie.”

Sortprice, which regularly tracks user visits and searches during major holiday shopping periods to gauge consumer trends, compiled a top ten list of the most popular products being viewed on the site. The data was collected starting in late January through February 8th.

TOP TEN

Canon Power Shot SD970 IS

Ugg Classic Short Boot

iPod Touch

Kama Sutra Bath Gels and Oils

Guess Handbags

Bulova Diamond Women’s Watches

Weleda Body Oils

Betsey Johnson Necklaces

Philips Norelco Men’s Razors and Grooming Kits

Armani Acqua di Gio Men’s Fragrance

Sortprice added a Valentine’s shopping guide with helpful suggestions for a wide range of gifts for him and her, including a list of recommend top retailers.  Learn more at: http://www.sortprice.com/valentines.html

ChoiceStream, a product recommendations specialist and display ad provider, just released the results of its 2009 Personalization Survey. The company polled nearly 600 adult web users, nearly all of whom had made an online purchase in the past six months

In this pool of experienced online shoppers, 59 percent of the respondents reported getting poor quality product recommendations last year, up from 45 percent in 2008. Similarly, only 17 percent of those polled rated retailers’ product recommendations as excellent.

The overwhelming unhappiness on the part of the survey participants regarding their experience with retailers’ product recommendations came down to the fact that they were receiving recommendations unrelated to what they were shopping for or for products that did not match their preferences. Others in the survey, almost 45 percent actually, were unhappy because they got recommendations from products they already own.

Lori Trahan, ChoiceStream’s vice president of marketing, summed it up pretty well. “Consumers expect more from recommendations than they did even a year ago,” she said. “They expect them to be accurate and on target, so when they’re not, shoppers are disappointed.”

While product recommendation sections on retail websites are far from a perfect science, it’s pretty telling that this group of shoppers had the issues that they did. What really strikes us as odd is the figure indicating that retailers are recommending products that a consumer already owns. It’s possible that consumer might have actually purchased the product on the same site now giving them the recommendation, which reeks of sloppy data mining and organization on the part of that merchant.

And that’s what it all comes down to. If you’re going to offer shoppers recommendations on products and product categories, you need to have good customer data. The more information you collect on your customers, the easier it is to provide them with ideas for products that they will actually find useful. Shopping history, preferred brands, and average spending per transaction are just some of the things you should take into account when you’re crafting information for product recommendations.

You can also try offering questionnaires or surveys to your regular customers (albeit with some incentive for them, like discount on their next purchase or free shipping) to pull together important data. The bottom line is that product recommendations can be a useful offering for retailers and a big hit with consumers if the merchant goes about them in the right way.

We want to hear from you. As a consumer, what do you think about the product recommendations you find on retail sites? And merchants, what is your process and level of success with offering them? Leave us a comment below!

According to the report, which polled 29 major retailers, sales rose by a healthy 3.3 percent rate in January.  That’s more than twice what many industry analysts were anticipating and builds on Thompson Reuters’ December report that showed a 2.9 percent increase in sales.

To put things in even greater perspective, the January 2009 survey reported a sales drop of 5.7 percent, meaning the retail industry has come a long way in 12 short months.

A separate report from the International Council of Shopping Centers for retail sales last month reported increases of 3 percent as well, echoing the Reuters report and giving the retail industry a strong finish to its fiscal year, which generally ends in January.

There were several chains that reported having one of their best months in years, including Macy’s, Gap Inc. and Kohl’s.  Even some higher-end merchants like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Saks exceeded analysts’ expectations, indicating that American consumers have not completely turned away from spending on luxury items.

While the data from both reports is encouraging, the consensus is that there is still a long way to go for the retail industry. The nation’s dismal unemployment rate and overall ho-hum consumer spending figures, both of which are closely tied to the performance of retailers from month to month, figure to slow down the growth just a bit as the first quarter of 2010 gets underway.

The Labor Department reported yesterday that initial claims for unemployment benefits rose again last week, albeit somewhat unexpectedly.   That’s now four of the last five weeks that have seen increases in workers filing for those benefits, meaning layoffs are continuing and new jobs are pretty scarce.

As we always say, it important for retailers and merchants to keep track of these kinds of economic indicators, not only because they can help explain the current economic situation but because they also tend to provide a glimpse of what’s to come in the near future.   But we’d like to hear from some of you today.  If you’re a merchant or retailer, leave us a comment with your thoughts on the current retail climate, where you think it’s going, and how you’re dealing with the current economic state.

The question you must ask yourself constantly as a retailer these days is simple:  as part of a burgeoning industry with so many players, how do I continue to separate myself from the competition?

Customer service is obviously paramount to this question. We covered the holes many online retailers have in their customer service offerings a few weeks ago when we reported on the E-tailing Group’s study of online customer service.

Part of solid customer service is communicating your commitment to good business practices to potential consumers, and that’s where certifications come in.  Increasingly, more shopping portals and comparison engines are recognizing reputable retailers and merchants with these kinds of certifications.

One such example is the SortPrice SCM program from Sortprice.com.   The company adds a “Sortprice Certified Merchant” (SCM) seal to the product listings of retailers that fulfill Sortprice’s criteria for outstanding service—including accurate and up-to-date pricing information, multiple shipping and payment options, and reliable and convenient customer service options for shoppers. These retailers also can add the SCM seal to their own homepages to promote their recognition as a merchant that is serious about hassle-free shopping and real savings.

TheFind.com also runs a similar program called UpFront.  Participating merchants affix an UpFront button on their homepages that gives consumers quick access to vital information about the retailer, such as contact information, how long the business has been around, and any special information about pricing and shipping options.

The value of these kinds of programs is pretty obvious.  With consumers inundated with online shopping  choices, they can afford to be picky about who they purchase from. Many of them may still also be a bit wary of shopping online and thus will avoid merchants they don’t know too well or that seem to run less-than-legitimate operations.  If they come across a site that has been rewarded for strong performance, not only will it put their minds at ease, it also increases the likelihood that they’ll buy from you now and then again in the future.

As a retailer, you simply cannot afford to not be a part of these kinds of programs when they’re offered by your online partners.  We’ll go a step even further and suggest that you prioritize listing with comparison engines, like Sortprice and TheFind, that have them.  If you need to make upgrades or improvements to your site and technology to qualify for them, you should do so.  The cost is worth it in the long run.

For merchants operating in smaller markets, you can also establish yourself with local partners to even further enhance your reputation.   Join your local and state chambers of commerce and register with the Better Business Bureau near you and make sure you advertise and promote your relationships with bothclearly on your site and marketing materials.

In short, anything you can do to convey to consumers and potential customers that you take their shopping experience seriously—on everything from selection to security to service–will go a long way towards separating your operation from your competitors.

Leave us a comment below with your thoughts!

Why are we bringing this up now?  Because we came across a report that substantiates what we’ve said all along—a shopping portal with technology problems more often than not results in lost customers, lost sales and a boost for your competition.  In short, it says that online shoppers have very little patience or tolerance for sites that take too long to load or malfunction during the transaction process, especially during the busy holiday shopping season.

The survey, conducted by Equation Research for Gomez, the web-performance division of Compuware Corp., polled 1,500 consumers between Dec. 16-22 of last year, all of whom had used the web to buy products or services over a nine-month period of 2009.  The standout statistic from the findings: the revelationthat one out of every five shoppers who experience problems or wait times when using a retailer’s site are likely to go to a competitor’s site instead.

This is a very important study for online retailers.  More than half of those polled indicated that they spend a “significant” portion of their web purchasing dollars during peak holiday shopping times, meaning that this data is collected from some of the most consistent and experienced online shoppers out there.  These are people who rely on the web for most of their shopping needs, whose online spending likely exceeds the national average of about $1,050 annually.   In short, they’re people you want as customers.

What else did the report reveal?  One third of the respondents said they had a bad experience on retail and travel sites during the 2009 holiday shopping period.  Additionally, 41 percent said they’ll tolerate no more than two glitches with a retailer’s site before they’ll abandon it for a competitor.

But here’s where it gets really critical.  More than one-third of those polled said they moved on to competing web sites because of poor performance.  47 percent of those people left a poorly-operated site with a negative perception of that retailer (and one that probably won’t result in a return visit), while another 42 percent admitted that they shared the negative experiences they had with others via blogs, on social networking sites, and via emails and word-of-mouth. Obviously, that’s the kind of advertising no business wants.

“The first lesson for online retailers is that performance matters on peak time,” said Jeff Loeb, Gomez vice president of product marketing.  “Secondly, in terms of what they can do, [online retailers] need to be much more proactive in determining if their web application infrastructure can support [peak time] shopping.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Check out our previous postings on the subject to learn more about how you can optimize your web site for maximum performance and total customer satisfaction.  We’ll continue to track studies like this in the future so we can gauge what’s happening out there in the industry but as always, feel free to leave us your comments and suggestions below!

If you love ecommerce we recommend adding the following people and companies to your daily tweets.

Datafeed companies:

Godatafeed
Singlefeed
Mercent
Feedperfect
iProspect
CPCstrategy

Comparison Engines:

Become.com
SortPrice.com
PriceGrabber.com
The Find

Ecommerce experts:

Linda Bustos
Shawna Fennell
Ina Steiner
Scott Wingo
Bill Mirabito
Brian Walker

Feel free to recommend other users for ecommerce related Tweets below.

And this is just the start.

Bing is on the verge of overtaking Yahoo as the no. 2 search engine behind Google, which is only a formality once Microsoft is done finalizing the particulars of its deal with Yahoo to run Bing as that site’s search engine.  The company then figures to invest serious money to challenge Google for the top spot, and e-commerce will likely be a very big part of Microsoft’s planning and strategy. Given that Google and Bing have been one-upping each other back and forth for the past year or so, and that both seem committed to continuing that trend as they expand their e-commerce platforms, their battle has consequences for both shoppers and retailers alike.

Bing made shopping results one of its cornerstones when it was launched in June and its product results mirror the layout of many shopping sites and comparison search engines already.  Bing also added a Cashback feature that has only added to its popularity as a shopping resource. Google, of course, countered in the fall with a number of retail innovations on its search results pages, most notably presenting product images from retailers feeding into its product search service. Google also expanded its product listings advertising program and introduced Sitelinks: an advertising system that lets retailers show multiple links for one CPC advertisement.

The result?  Traffic at both the Bing and Google shopping pages is starting to climb and more retailers are looking into how to incorporate both into their e-commerce efforts.  Even the smaller search engines are taking the cue from Bing and Google;  Ask.com, which trails both by large percentages in the search industry, offers up a Deals & Coupons section featuring product listings.

All of this begs the question, will search leaders like Bing and Google expand their shopping offerings to the point that they’ll put comparison search engines and shopping portals out of business?   And will merchants very quickly begin cutting back their feeds to CSEs in favor of the big boys?

For consumers, having more choices when it comes to online shopping is naturally a good thing, but for now, it seems that CSEs are still the best option for retailers.  As self-contained entities focusing squarely on product listings, CSE’s are able to provide to shoppers a broader selection of merchants and products and more resources than the general search engines.

For example, we did a search for “video cameras” on Sortprice.com, Google Products and Bing Shopping.  The results pages all look reasonably the same, with Sortprice offering the most, followed by Google and Bing.  The latter two offer some options for modifying your search.  But Sortprice gives you the most choices for whittling this list down even further, whether it be by retailer or price range, while also giving you the option to shop by color (a feature visibly absent from the other two).   It’s also a lot easier to find product reviews on a CSE, which many consumers cherish more than any other online shopping tool.

The CSEs are also more fluid.  Your search results page isn’t cluttered with ads like they are on Bing and Google, and in most cases, the product listings indicate clearly which merchant is advertising which product at each particular price so you know exactly who you may be buying from.  Finding the merchants for specific product listings on Google and Bing can be time consuming.

However, that could all change.  One clear advantage the search engines have as they enhance their shopping offerings is that they can shorten/tighten the link between web searching and shopping.  For example, they could create tools that let users make a direct purchase without leaving the page where the search results are listed, or similar applications that streamline the process.

Regardless, Bing and Google are giving both shoppers and merchants something to think about moving forward.  While they both have a long way to go to catch up to the services and tools offered by comparison search engines, their status as technological trendsetters coupled with their fierce rivalry will undoubtedly change the face of e-commerce in the near future.

Leave us a comment with your thoughts about shopping with Google, Bing and traditional comparison search engines below!