Will post relevant news/stats here:
Holiday Central 08 - CNBC
Holiday Sales Views Still Weak After Weekend Rush (CNBC - 11/30) - “According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), shoppers spent an average of 7.2 percent more per person to nearly $373 during the four-day holiday weekend from U.S. Thanksgiving on Thursday through Sunday. Total spending was $41 billion. More than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites during that time, up from 147 million a year ago, the NRF said. Excluding repeat visits, the number of people who shopped over the weekend rose to 110 million from 99.5 million a year ago. But the NRF kept its forecast for total holiday sales growth of 2.2 percent to $470.4 billion, saying consumers had done more of their shopping in the Black Friday weekend in the past. Momentum is likely to drop sharply in the coming weeks and stores may need to offer […]
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Will post relevant news/stats here:
Live Cashback Having a Bad Black Friday (TechCrunch - 11/28)
US shoppers seek deals, buy less on Black Friday (Reuters - 11/28)
Apple offers limited Black Friday price cuts (Reuters - 11/28)
Shoppers cautious with gadget buys on Black Friday (Yahoo! Tech - 11/28)
Black Friday traffic takes down Sears.com (Yahoo! Tech - 11/28)
Shoppers hit stores but mood is subdued (WSJ)
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If you’re new here, welcome! And thanks for subscribing to Get Elastic. Friday is Blogger Digest day where we highlight posts from other blogs that are of value and interest to online retailers and Internet marketers.
Remember OfficeMax’ Elf Yourself viral? It’s back along with Sephora and Guitar Center launching similar campaigns with Mistletoe Makeover and A Real Guitar, respectively. Via Retail Email Blog
A Get Elastic reader built a new tool called CheapTweet which is like a Digg for shopping in Twitter. If you’re a retailer you can try submitting your deals, see what happens.
Speaking of cheap, Amazon’s holiday strategy this year is to undersell everybody.
Do you know how to measure the value of ecommerce tools like video? Analytics guru Avinash Kaushik shares tips on how to do it intelligently.
Google Product Search launched a free shipping filter this week.
By now you’ve probably heard the news, the economy’s […]
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Google has implemented complete pricing and a “free shipping” filter that instantly makes shipping a critical data point in your Google feed. It appears that both shipping and tax information must be configured either in the Google Base interface or in the feed for this to work correctly.
It’s pretty clear that many merchants do not currently have these data points set up. I searched on iPod and saw the first result had 52 sellers. When I clicked the free shipping filter, that number dropped to one. A quick glance at the product page indicates that though there were a few merchants with tax and non-free shipping configured, most of the merchants just have blanks in those areas. So if they are offering free shipping but don’t have it or the tax configured correctly, they are probably going to lose a lot of traffic this weekend.
If you offer free shipping, […]
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I. Why We Are Shopping
Lately with the way the economy has been going Americans are trying to cut costs. The first things to go have been the personal luxuries- entertainment subscriptions, dining out, and frivolous shopping just to name a few. But with the holidays just around the corner, this frugal spending is about to […]
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And the Survey says! Merrill Lynch as just released the results of their 4th annual onlin pricing survey. Many experts beleive the low prices will be the key to holiday season sales.
Pricing survey highlights Amazon prices and selection
For our Fourth Annual Holiday Pricing Survey, we aggregated prices for the 60 most popular Books, DVDs, CDs, Video Games, Electronics, and Toys at leading online retail sites such as Amazon, eBay, and Overstock, as well as multi-channel retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target (which is powered by Amazon) as well as specialty retail sites. Among traditional retailers (excluding eBay), Amazon had the best prices in 4/6 categories (although differences were minimal vs Wal-Mart), up from 2/6 last year, and best selection.
AMZN: Retail price edge in 4/6 categories, best selection
Versus traditional retailers, Amazon was the low-price leader in video games, CDs, Toys, and Electronics, and was very competitive in the other […]
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Last week, I talked about MATLAB on Amazon EC2. Today, I am very excited to talk about Mathematica on Amazon EC2.
Wolfram Research announced last week that they will be embracing the Cloud and providing a "Cloud Computing Service" with help of Nimbis Services, Inc
The Mathematica cloud computing service will provide flexible and scalable access to HPC from within Mathematica, simplifying the transition from desktop technical computing to HPC. "The two largest challenges in using HPC are programming the HPC application itself and ensuring that you can get enough computing power to do the job," says Tom Wickham-Jones, Wolfram Research Executive Director of Kernel Technology. "Mathematica answers the programming challenge by providing an integrated technical computing platform, enabling computation, visualization, and data access. Cloud computing offers consistent access to large-scale computing capabilities.
A Screenshot from recent demonstration at SC08:
Mathematica is a true cloud service offering. They connect to Amazon's Cloud from within Mathematica. So […]
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How can marketers work to grow their affiliate programs today in a world that’s already decided “fewer affiliates are better?”
The following is a transcript of an interview conducted by Jeff Molander of Molander & Associates Inc., with affiliate marketing veteran, David Delisle (pictured left) which set out to answer this question. (Also a Get Elastic exclusive):
Advertisers seem increasingly weary of affiliates of all sizes, shapes and colors. Yet the black eye affiliate marketing has earned itself isn’t holding some advertisers back. There are a select few who are bucking the trend – aggressively investing in and expanding their affiliate marketing channel.
There’s a lot of hype-and-spin surrounding the risks involved with and the future of cost-per-action (CPA) affiliate marketing. Where it’s going next is unclear. In particular within the scope of so-called “social media” it remains highly unclear yet everyone seems hopeful. […]
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After being acquired by Yahoo in 2004 for €475 million, Jamplant took the French CSE off of the purple giant’s hands for less than €100 million earlier today.
Kelkoo will continue to power Y! Shopping, Cars and Travel.
Sellers on Kelkoo today received the following email outlining the Yahoo’s sale and Jamplant’s acquisition of Kelkoo:
Dear merchant,
Today, I am extremely excited to inform you that Kelkoo has been acquired by a newly formed private equity company called “Jamplant”. Kelkoo will no longer be a subsidiary of Yahoo! and will continue to trade as an independent entity.
Going forward - your trading relationship with Kelkoo will be unaffected. Kelkoo will continue to power Y! Shopping, Y! Cars and Y! Travel. Administration of your account will also be unaffected, and all current contracts remain valid.
Through greater levels of investment in our product, systems and back office, we are firmly committed to bring you the highest level of […]
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If you’re new here, welcome! And thanks for subscribing to Get Elastic. Friday is Blogger Digest day where we highlight posts from other blogs that are of value and interest to online retailers and Internet marketers.
Did you miss this week’s webinar? Don’t miss our on-demand replay Multi-Store Retailing Online: Perks and Pitfalls or December’s webinar Dangerous Marketing Ahead: How to Break Bad Habits and Survive a Deep Recession.
I want to start off with a link from John Audette. He doesn’t post too often but when he does, seriously, it’s good stuff. Audette Media has built an interactive “Marketing Cube” tool that helps you rate the effectiveness of your various online marketing strategies like blogging, social media, affiliate marketing and Pay Per Click using three campaign priorities: Time to Results, Persistency of Results, and Measurable ROI so you can make better decisions for budget allocation. Yes, it’s free.
Public Service Announcement: […]
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