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Twitter Says Tweets Influence Online Shopping

posted on November 20, 2012

In that rare bit of breathing space between back-to-school and holiday shopping, Twitter hired Compete to test the effectiveness of retail Tweets.

Their results were extremely positive and I believe them, but it’s my duty to remind you that Twitter paid for the survey, so make of that what you will.

To conduct the survey, they “observed” 2,600 US web surfers. Once group was exposed to Tweets from 700 retailers (wow!) including Amazon, Nike, and Walmart on Twitter.com. They compared those responses to two control groups (we are controlling the horizontal, we are controlling the vertical); one made up of people on Twitter.com who didn’t see any retail Tweets (how did they manage that!), and one group of general internet browsers.

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And So It Begins: Sears Botches Their Early Black Friday Sale

posted on November 20, 2012

The Black Friday craziness has begun and we have our first casualty – Sears.

Hoping to do something nice for their “Shop Your Way” members, they had a pre-pre-pre Black Friday sale on Sunday night.

According to BFAds.net, Sears was selling a 32″ HDTV for only $97. Buy online and pick up at your store. Wow.

Things started to go wrong immediately thanks to poor coding of the website’s countdown clock. Instead of counting down to 5 pm Central time, it adjusted based on each shopper’s time zone, so unless you happen to live in the Central Time Zone, you had the wrong start time on your computer.

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New Study Details States That Like to Browse Vs. States That Like to Buy

posted on November 19, 2012

In real estate, location is everything and according to a new survey by Monetate, it’s pretty important in ecommerce, too.

The EQ3 2012 edition of the Ecommerce Quarterly has some pretty interesting information about how people from different states shop online. Get this, of the top five states that drive the most ecommerce traffic, none of them have the highest conversions. What’s that all about?

The Browsers:

My fellow Californians are responsible for the largest amount of ecommerce traffic on the net. What does that say about us? That we dream big? We love to shop? We have a lot of spare time on our hands?

Folks in Wyoming are barely shopping online at all. Maybe they’re too outdoorsy to spend time looking for new DVD releases on Amazon.

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Who Supports Small Business? Survey Says Facebook, Not Etsy

posted on November 16, 2012

There’s not usually a long line at the window where you leave compliments for Facebook, but in a recent survey by Manta, they did alright.

Manta asked 1,087 small business owners which online marketplaces offered them the most support. Facebook came out on top with 29% of the vote. Granted, that’s not a huge slice but the fact that anybody thought Facebook was supportive of small businesses is pretty amazing.

What’s more amazing is the site that landed on the bottom – Etsy. This site is made up entirely of artists, crafters and vintage dealers, many of which are one-man operations. But 47% of those surveyed said they thought the site was the least supportive of small business owners. Ouch.

You know who else landed on the bottom? eBay, Amazon and Groupon!

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10 to 14 Percent of Consumers Plan to Spend More This Holiday Season. Yeah! And Boo!

posted on November 15, 2012

In a press release titled “Consumers Show a Little More Cheer this Holiday Season,” The Conference Board by Nielsen reveals that “Nearly 10 percent of consumers said they plan to spend more on holiday gifts this year, up from 7 percent last year.”

More spending! That’s great news.

The PeriscopeIQ Retail Intelligence Survey agrees. . . sort of. Their press release has this subtitle: “Consumers Indicate a Lackluster Holiday Season vs. 2011,” and it says “only 14 percent say they will increase holiday spending from 2011 levels.”

Only 14%! Boo!

Wait a minute, Periscope is in agreement with Nielsen, even predicting a slightly higher level of increase spenders. Yet Periscope’s “only” makes the stat sound negative where Nielsen is rejoicing over a shopping bag half full.

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Pinterest Learns To Speak Business

posted on November 14, 2012

Today, Pinterest has announced new tools for businesses. One can say that Pinterest isn’t just about recipes and crafts anymore but, in all likelihood, it still is for a lot people. What we often overlooked are the businesses that crave that kind of forum to get their products wedged into the Pinterest boards of cooks and crafters everywhere. What better way to sell things! Oops, I meant add to the conversation (selling is so 1900′s)!

Of course, Pinterest is far from being just for those folks and as it expands its horizons the need to be more business oriented is apparent and one that should be addressed. Well how about this, today it is! From the Pinterest blog we get

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Hottest Trend in eCommerce: Alternate Shipping Options

posted on November 12, 2012

Shipping is often the make it or break it portion of an ecommerce sale. Cost of shipping, length of time and delivery method all come into play. Amazon jumped ahead of the pack by offering free 2-day shipping with their Prime membership. BestBuy and other online / offline retailers allow you to buy online and then pick-up at the store. Amazon’s version of that is buy online and pick up via a locker at Staples.

Now we have ShopRunner, a third-party program that is all about getting your e-purchases delivered cheap, fast and safe with PickupPoints.

To prove the need, ShopRunner commissioned a study and found that 75% of Americans are concerned about having packages delivered to their homes.

Biggest worries?

52% said theft