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February 3, 2009 |
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| Online Marketing Channels Commentary |
A New Year at eTail dTail!
 Many of you know that MerchantAdvantage sponsors a blog called eTail dTail, dedicated to the observation and celebration of online commerce. Since its inception, the almost-daily postings have come from co-founder Chip Arndt and from his perspective as our Business Development Specialist.
The blog has become a popular source of information and opinion, with several hundred visits every day and growing. Our readers say they value having a central source for objective news and analysis of what’s going on in our industry. In response to your strong (and growing) support, we’re making some improvements to eTail dTail for 2009:
Chip will continue to be our “lead blogger,” but you’ll find three new faces making routine appearances: Mike Lambert, our co-founder and principal software developer; Tom Romeo, who heads up our Technical Division; and Chris Barr, our new EVP Marketing. This diversity of perspectives will increase both the breadth and depth of our postings to the blog.
Look for Rearview Mirror at the end of every month. This new column will highlight the most useful or provocative postings of the previous month so you can catch things you might have otherwise missed – or want to be reminded of.
Because people are both more successful and happier if they have lives that extend outside the office, we have another new regular column: Smart People. Every Monday we’ll post some wise words from someone outside the walls of MerchantAdvantage simply designed to gently massage your brain. The thoughts may have to do with business and they may not – we see you as a whole person and want to acknowledge your fertile creativity across the gamut. If there are quotes or excerpts you’d like to share with our readers, we’d love to have you submit your recommendations.
Get F.I.T. in 2009: Sell More Products and Efficiently Find More Consumers
by Mike Lambert
 Miami, FL (February 3, 2009) – Just a story: A man asked his wife why she cut the two ends of a roast before cooking it, and she answered, “Well that’s the way my mom did it. I think it’s so that the juices can get back into the roast and make it taste better.” Not convinced, they asked her mom who said, “Well that’s the way my mom did it. I think it’s so that the roast cooks more evenly.” Still not convinced, they all asked the grandmother who provided the best insight. “I cut the ends of the roast because I didn’t have a pan big enough to fit it.”
Over the past several years we have been providing a tool which allows merchants to alter their product data content and to intelligently select which products to send or pull to which channel. This convenience and power can be used wisely…or NOT. I think most merchants are aware of that fact, but there is another anomaly that I feel compelled to point out to online retailers.
Over time we make many decisions and continue on with our normal operations similarly to the opening story. There is no doubt, or perhaps simply no thought about the quality of these decisions made in our past, unless something very obvious alerts us to a mistake that we may have made. But there comes a time when it would be prudent to double check past decisions, especially when those decisions significantly affect future efforts. One simple example of my point is that many merchants look at performance factors such as return on ad spend, and make a decision to PULL various products from a channel due to poor performance. Obviously I am not questioning the wisdom in this procedure. But if the conditions and circumstances change, so too might that original decision.
As an example for this February article I would like to use jewelry. It is possible that there are merchants that sell many categories of products, and they may have seen poor performance on a channel for this category in the past. However, it is possible that jewelry may do a bit better during this Valentine’s day season. Please don’t simply read “seasonal” into my statements. There are many reasons for an alteration in a past decision, and most of them are unique to each merchant. Perhaps seasonal performance, cost reduction on a product, improved marketing content for a product, new product offerings which may be complemented by old/removed products, industry trends such as economy shifts and such and on and on.
The original goal remains the same, “Sell more products and efficiently find more consumers”. Merchants should be aware that they are always in control of their own efforts. So if changing your mind or your practices will aid in the goal, then don’t miss that opportunity out of stubbornness, or laziness.
Another reason that a merchant may wish to alter a past decision is that new information is provided. New information can significantly alter a viewpoint, and to that end we will be releasing the new Chanalytics(sm) Reporter at the end of this month. There are many new features including additional information tracked on every click and purchase, customizable drill down reports, the ability to download, share and add new templates, simple exports of data and graphs to various file formats, and vastly improved speed. It is our hope that the additional feedback will aid online retailers in making more prudent decisions towards more efficient or F.I.T. marketing campaigns.
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| Advice, Tips & Tricks |
Don't get Sunk by not Syncing
by B. Thomas Romeo
 Miami, FL (February 3, 2009)— Last month we talked about "organization" and this month we'll talk a little about "organizers". As I write this, I remember my own fascination with the classic Palm V organizer. For me this was the perfect organizational tool because I could finally carry with me not only my calendar and contacts but even some of the files I had been working on. At the time it was a new and fascinating idea but one that was already on the top of most technologist's minds in the guise of "you know what would be really cool?" And right away there was even an answer to that question once the Palm V was in our hands. "Do you know what would be really cool?" was answered with "...if it was a phone too!"
Now we have Treos, Blackberries and iPhones. We have desktops, laptops and netbooks. We have iTouchs. We now assume the kind of connectivity we had been dying for just a few years ago. We have all the gadgets available to us now and I'm sure that many of you as merchants have some of them. But do you find, like many people, that out of organization actually comes chaos? I've spent a lot of time, probably more time then these gadgets are supposed to save me, finding various methods of synchronization between all my devices to be able to create that "perfect" organization.
Let me illustrate a simple example that has nothing to do with online retail. Let's say you just want to carry your digital grocery store shopping list with you. You might have Outlook on your desktop with it's "Notes" component and yet you carry an iPhone. Well iPhones notes don't even sync with a Mac so you're dead in the water. You have notepad and a Blackberry. Also dead in the water. You have a Nokia and... well you get the point. What you really need is an application that crosses over several operating systems that you can download and install on all of your devices. One such application as an example is Evernote. Install it on whatever device you are using and your notes are magically synced across all computers and mobile devices.
Let's use another example - email. How can you get your email to follow you everywhere? Well, there are several types of email accounts. There are corporate Exchange accounts, IMAP accounts and POP accounts. There are Hotmail, Yahoo! and dotMac accounts. Each device works differently with different types of email accounts, some readily support them and others happen to be missing the one you happen to be using. What I've found, and this is a big IT secret, that is if you standardize your email account on IMAP - you can pretty much set up up for any device. The short and sweet of it is that IMAP allows your email to live on a server and you are accessing it from whatever email client you are using, phone or otherwise. Sure Exchange is the same concept but with the caveat of support being in place for Exchange. The other secret is that Google has their domain for apps program that allows you to host your IMAP email from them with your domain name for free or cheap. By the way, a great free application to use for your desktop email with whatever account is Mozilla's own Thunderbird product. There is even a calendar syncing component called Lightning.
One more thing to consider is web use itself. So you use a computer in the office and a computer at home, no? Are your bookmarks the same? No? Are you using Firefox? You could be and you could have those bookmarks follow you around. And by follow you around, I mean magically be the same. One great thing about Firefox is it has the ability to have add-ons and one of the best add-ons for Firefox is Foxmarks, a bookmark synching tool. I don't know how I would live without it. I have an intensive collection of bookmarks that I need readily available and Foxmarks makes it so I don't even have to think about it. Foxmarks works on many phones too including Blackberries and Nokia smartphones.
So here are some ideas that can help you get in the right direction of having "your stuff" with you at all times. You can carry notes and email around, you can see your bookmarks wherever you are and of course you can find other solutions for things such as to-do lists (Things) or your documents (Google Docs). But what about mobile access to industry tools? What about mobile applications you can shop with? Next month we'll focus on a few cool apps available for the iPhone that include applications such as Amazon, TheFind and Like's mobile apps that are already available now. |
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| Webinars & White Papers |
Webinar:
Getting F.I.T. in 2009- Focused Intelligent Targeting for Online Marketing
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM-2:30 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM-11:30 AM Pacific
Reserve Your Seat Now! >>
Webinar:
10 Crucial Changes to Energize Your Holiday Marketing
(On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
Webinar:
The Blueprint for Multichannel Success (On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
Webinar:
7 Steps to Reach More Customers Before and During the Holidays (On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
Webinar:
How to Afford Comparison Shopping Engines
(On Demand Webcast)
View Webinar >>
White Paper:
2 Steps to Increase Return on CSE Ad Spend
Download >> |
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| Industry News |
Post-Holiday See-Saw: Achieving Perfect Balance In 2009
U.S. Online Retail Sales +6%, Jewelry &
Watches -12% in 2008
U.S. e-Commerce Comeback Seen by 2010
Retailers Need to Look to Mobile Internet - Survey
Report: Online Retail Could Reach $156B in 2009
Google Makes Gmail Available Offline |
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| Merchant of the Month |
Clothing4All.com
 "Clothing 4 All is an online clothing catalog company headquartered in Eugene Oregon with annual sales of almost one million dollars. Clothing 4 All started modestly online two years ago, utilizing the free services of search engines and Froogle. The company offered one product line of about 1200 items and reported its first month’s sales of $600. Two years later, monthly sales have exceeded $80,000 and is growing at a rate of approximately 30% every six months.
Clothing 4 All is THE competition when it comes to corporate apparel, selling embroidered logos, monograms and names for only $2.99; shipping to regular customers as far away as Africa and Australia. Having eliminated such barriers as minimum orders, Clothing 4 All also sells to individuals whom appreciate the extremely low prices for apparel. All name brand items are discounted heavily to everyone.
From an online marketing perspective, the one thing Clothing 4 All did differently was to utilize MerchantAdvantage and feed their product files to the various shopping comparison sites. MerchantAdvantage allows Clothing 4 All to promptly update price and product additions & deletions to its media resources in an economical and accurate manner".
Gene Constant, Clothing4All.com
Get Your Channel Management Fee Waived Plus Receive a Complimentary Companion Airline Ticket!
 We're thrilled and inspired by all the Channel Management success stories you share with us. Now we want to turn the spotlight on you! Send us your best Channel Management success story and you could be selected as our Merchant of the Month.
If chosen, your company will be exclusively showcased in an edition of our monthly newsletter, eTail dTail.
Best of all, your monthly MerchantAdvantage fee will be waived in the month you are selected and you will receive a complimentary Companion Airline Ticket. Submit your Channel Management success story today to stories@merchantadvantage.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
(Note: MerchantAdvantage reserves the right to use any or all of your story, whether or not your article is selected as the winning entry.) |
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About MerchantAdvantage
MerchantAdvantage (www.MerchantAdvantage.com) is an ecommerce software solutions company committed to championing and helping the small to midsized online merchant address complicated online and mobile commerce issues. MerchantAdvantage takes a systematic, controlled and proactive approach to online product marketing by providing long-term, cost effective, Web-based software tools that enable an online business to grow by reaching the widest audience possible via online, broadband, and wireless devices.
MerchantAdvantage's applications are designed to connect the online retailer to their marketplace partners in a seamless motion of communication, allowing online merchants to take control of their e-Commerce and m-Commerce channels, marketing strategies and IT solutions. MerchantAdvantage currently markets over $3 billion worth of product value daily, representing over 900 online storefronts and is changing the macrocosm of ecommerce by staying ahead of the curve in providing business solutions to the growing online retail marketplace. They are here because your commerce future is online and wireless. For more information, please visit MerchantAdvantage.com, e-mail us at sales@MerchantAdvantage.com or call us at 1.800.550.9466.
MerchantAdvantage – Take Control of Your Marketing Channels! |
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| Industry Events |
• Online Marketing Summit
February 4-7, 2009
San Diego, CA
Learn More >>
• Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West
February 10-12, 2009
Santa Clara, CA
Learn More >>
• Search Engine Strategies (SES) London
February 17-20, 2009
London, England
Learn More >>
• Retail Advertising Conference (RAC)
February 25-27, 2009
Las Vegas, NV
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| Partner Spotlight |
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TheFind.com is a discovery shopping search engine that delivers a comprehensive, relevant and visually compelling shopping experience optimized for lifestyle products. Unlike comparison shopping sites, TheFind.com returns results from more than 150 million products from over 500,000 stores, and allows users to filter results by leading styles, brands, and stores and the ability to browse and search for similar items. TheFind.com strives to be a comprehensive and unbiased shopping experience, and does not charge merchants to be included in their product index, or for clicks on their organic product listings. For more information, visit http://www.thefind.com. Give us a call, send us an email and/or visit our website for more information. |
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