Website Design for Home Goods

'Showrooming' hurts small - and big - businesses with physical stores

2012-01-23T11:08:00.001-08:00

Article from today's WSJ about online-only sellers discounting and hurting physical stores - even the biggies like Targer

Small businesses being hurt by Amazon.com

2012-01-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

Today's New York Times reports on large, online only retailers competing against physical mom and pop stores.

Spam / phishing alert for Thomas Kevin

2012-01-09T09:03:00.001-08:00

Received this message today. Likely spam or phishing:

From: Thomas Kevin
Date: January 9, 2012 8:31:26 AM EST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Bcc: jason@solarek.com
Subject: Order

Hello,
Am Mr.Thomas Kevin and I will like to place an Order regarding Tableware.What is the cost price per each?what type do you have in stock,And also what type of credit cards do you accept for payment, hope you answer to my request ASAP.

Regards
Thomas ..

Spam / phishing alert for Tom Parker / Cyprus / California, US.

2011-12-19T07:10:00.000-08:00

I received today this e-mail and its most likely spam / phishing scam:

From: "Tom Parker"

Date: December 19, 2011 2:38:44 AM EST

Subject: Order

I would like to place an order with you to Cyprus, but I am located in California, US. I am wanting to know if you can ship direct to Cyprus, but if not, i can handle pick up from your door step. Also, let me know what type of Credit Cards you accept for payment. {Visa / MC / Amex / Discovery}.

Looking forward for your swift email response & Kindly attach your current price list sheet or direct website link to your full product page.

Kind Regards,

Tom....

Amazon.com hurts small businesses?

2011-12-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

This article below is from today's NY Times. Amazon is now running promotions that specifically take sales from small businesses. Amazon seems to wish small businesses with physical stores would be 'showrooms' for Amazon's sales leads.

If a retailer knows of a brand that sells to Amazon, it may wonder why the brand is doing so.

December 12, 2011, 11:00 AM

Amazon Denies It Has a Small-Business Problem

By ROBB MANDELBAUM

THE AGENDA

How small-business issues are shaping politics and policy.

For years — since its inception — Amazon has been at implicit war with local brick-and-mortar stores. Last week, the implicit seemingly became explicit when Amazon began a promotion that encouraged customers to check out prices at local retailers and use a specially designed "Price Check" smartphone app to report what they found back to Amazon. Customers who then purchased the same item from Amazon received a 5 percent discount, up to $5. (The deal was available only from Friday night through Saturday, and only for certain kinds of products.)

For its initiative, Amazon has been greeted with a barrage of rotten tomatoes, from the press and from small businesses and their sympathizers. (Gawker, for one, described it as "a Christmas attack on local shops" and a "cheap, sad thing.") On Thursday, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the top Republican on the Small Business Committee, joined the fray. "Incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far," she said in a statement. "During the busiest shopping season of the year, we should remember that our local restaurants, bookshops and hardware stores are the economic engines in our communities." Ms. Snowe urged Amazon to cancel the promotion.

Read full article - click here

Plates and politics in the news

2011-12-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

Interesting story:

Saddam Hussien's looted Wedgwood plates end up in the East Village, then are repatriated with help of State Department to Iraqi people.

Watch video:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/looted-dishes-used-in-art-project-returned-to-iraq/?ref=arts

December 14, 2011, 2:41 PM

Looted Dishes Used in Art Project Returned to Iraq

By RANDY KENNEDY

Over the last several years, as cultural patrimony cases have roiled the artworld, federal marshals have made surprise visits to numerous American museums and galleries to cart away artifacts that foreign governments claimed were looted.

Such a visit has never been much of worry for the people who run Creative Time, the scrappy New York public art organization that helps contemporary artists realize unusual projects like turning a building into a musical instrument or painting signs for Coney Island midway merchants.

But on Tuesday a marshal and a marshal’s assistant arrived at the organization’s offices in the East Village to take custody of an even more unusual trove of cultural booty: Saddam Hussein’s dinner plates, or at least some of those that were believed to be in use in his palaces when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

The plates were taken out of the country illegally, according to Iraqi officials. Creative Time, which bought them on eBay for Michael Rakowitz, an artist whose Iraqi-Jewish grandparents fled Iraq in 1946, said it believed that an American soldier and an Iraqi citizen first bought them from Iraqis who had looted and carried on a brisk trade in such palace wares some time after the invasion.

Read rest of story

Using freshness and personalization to market products

2011-09-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

This article from today's Wall St. Journal shares marketing techniques used by Whole Foods and others to market goods. I think retailers, brands, and sales reps. may use it for inspiration about how they may market their items.

Beginning of article:

By MARTIN LINDSTROM

As someone who's been on the frontlines of the branding wars, I've spent countless hours with CEOs, advertising executives and marketing mavens at some of the biggest companies in the world. I've seen—and, honestly, been disturbed by—the full range of psychological tricks and schemes that some companies use to prey on our most deeply rooted fears, dreams and desires in order to persuade us to buy their brands and products.

A key lesson: Fear sells. I recall a vintage early 20th century ad for lunchbox thermoses that bore an unforgettable tagline: "A Fly in the Milk May Mean a Baby in the Grave." Advertisers have since gotten more subtle in using fear to persuade us, but the underlying principle remains the same. The illusion of cleanliness or freshness is a particularly powerful persuader—and marketers know it.

To see all the tricks that marketers have for creating the appearance of freshness, there's no better place to go than Whole Foods, the giant purveyor of natural and organic edibles. As we enter Whole Foods, symbols—or what advertisers call "symbolics"—of freshness overwhelm us. The first thing you see is flowers—geraniums, daffodils, jonquils—among the freshest, most perishable objects on earth.

The prices for the flowers and other produce are scrawled in chalk on fragments of black slate, a tradition borrowed from outdoor markets in Europe. It's as if the farmer or grower had unloaded his produce (chalk and slate boards in hand), then hopped back in his flatbed truck and motored back to the country. But, in fact, while some of the flowers are purchased locally, many are bought centrally, and in-house Whole Foods artists produce the chalk boards.

Full article online:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576572843029572656.html?KEYWORDS=selling+illusions

Making prices lower may be just as important as inventing a new product

2011-09-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

I liked this article by Matt Ridley in the WSJ about the innovation of reducing prices. We often think of entrepreneurship as inventing something new; there are also those that find ways to make what exists but with a new twist that brings the price down and brings the item/service to the masses.

Excerpts:

A feature of innovation is that the greatest impact of a new idea comes not when the light bulb goes on over the geek's head, but when the resulting technology eventually becomes cheap enough for many people to use—perhaps decades later. The first plane at Kitty Hawk had zero impact on the world economy, but budget airlines have a huge impact; the first computer was a curiosity, but cheap laptops changed the world.
...

Cornelius Vanderbilt cut the price of rail freight 90%, Andrew Carnegie slashed steel prices 75% and John D. Rockefeller cut oil prices 80% between 1870 and 1900. Malcom McLean, Sam Walton and Michael Dell did roughly the same for container shipping, discount retailing and home computing a century later, and were also unloved for it.

Read the full article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704436004576299431739673572.html

Tips on promoting your retail store

2011-09-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

Retailers often ask me about increasing traffic and sales. Below please find a New York Times article about a Hearts on Fire print campaign.

1) Customize your advertisements to your audience.
Excerpt:The content of the print ads will vary slightly in each magazine based on its target audience. For younger fashion-conscious readers of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Redbook, ads will highlight lower-priced items. The more affluent readers of Harper's Bazaar, O, The Oprah Magazine and Town & Country will see higher-priced items.Male readers of Esquire will be encouraged to buy diamonds for the women in their lives.

2) Quote current customers, such as from popular channels like Facebook.
Excerpt:Instead of featuring a simple image of the product, Ms. Bookbinder said, the new ads show real quotations from the brand's Facebook page describing jewelry as "bling-tastic" and "a menagerie of twinkles."

3) Conduct contests.
Excerpt:Each month, users who "like" the Hearts On Fire Facebook page will be entered in a contest to win a piece of diamond jewelry.

4) Promote your expertise.
Excerpt:Users who need a little guidance before committing to a jewelry purchase can call one of the company's "Perfection Stylists" to help them select the right bauble.

5) Be willing to share the rewards of the campaign with partners.
Excerpt:Another feature of the campaign is a revenue sharing model where Hearst will get a percentage of the sales generated through the campaign, though representatives from Hearts On Fire and Hearst declined to say what the terms would be. The model could represent a new revenue stream for the publisher.

Read the full article here at the NY Times website

Tips for designing good website user interfaces

2011-08-19T07:53:00.001-07:00

http://designm.ag/resources/5-proven-ux-strategies/

Supercookies: cookies that one can't remove from his/her computer

2011-08-18T08:16:00.001-07:00

This article from today's front cover of Wall Street Journal reports on 'supercookies,' tracking files that are nearly impossible to remove from your computer.

Spam alert: Russian Federation Order! from: nabokovent@blumail.org

2011-08-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is likely spam/phishing:

Hello,

I will like to place order on some items in your store. Kindly tell me if you accept VISA & MASTER CARD as a form of payment and i will also like to know if you ship down to Moscow, Russia. Furthermore, I will be glad if you can email back with the current price sheet and the list of items you have available in stock at the moment or a link to your website where i can find prices on each products.

Your total effort on my order to be completed would be dearly appreciated!

I can't wait to do business with your company.

Best Regards,
Andrei Nabokov
Owner.

Nabokov Enterprises.
Address: Povarskaya ulitsa 80,
Moscow 121069, Russia Federation.
e: nabokovent@blumail.org
web: under construction

Spam alert: "Order from Greece." / from: Robert Corwin

2011-07-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

I received this message today. This appears to be a phishing scheme to strike up a conversation about buying something, and then that may lead to hijinks. If you receive this message, be wary.

........................

Hello Sales,

I am interested in purchasing some of your products, I will like to know if you can ship directly to ATHENS, I also want you to know my mode of payment for this order is via Credit Card. Get back to me if you can ship to that destination and also if you accept the payment type indicated. Kindly return his email with your price list of your products..

I await your quick response.

From the desk of Purchase manager,

CPT CONCEPT INTL.
Address : Ialyssos Zipcode : 85101.
City : Rhodes,Greece.
Phone : +30 22410 0000

Consumers wish companies would catch up online

2011-04-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

The following article from Advertising Age says that consumers wish to do more business online, but that companies may not be adequately meeting him/her there. Ad Age included a survey that companies can take to measure their communication preparedness. I'm including it with this post.

MARKETERS FAILING INTERACTIVE PART OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING
Forrester Study: Consumers Want Cross-Channel Engagement, but Companies Are Falling Behind

Published: April 03, 2011
Attention, marketers: You're falling behind your consumers.
A "huge disconnect" between consumer behavior and marketer behavior persists -- thanks largely to CMOs who have not empowered their interactive marketing teams to deliver the consumer experience, consistent across channels, that people expect these days.
That's the message of a Forrester Research report, "The Future of Interactive Marketing," out today, and explained by Principal Analyst and Research Director Emily Riley. Consumers, Ms. Riley said, "expect the information about them to carry across a mobile, hand-held, call center, website -- and that very rarely actually happens. They think that you, as a marketer, should know everything about them and be one step ahead of them in terms of addressing their interests and needs."
But marketers still lack adequate skills, resources and technology to meet that expectation, she said.
The report found that 30% of large companies have fewer than 15 interactive-staff members. That's a constraint that limits the interactive team's ability to use anything other than digital media in executing campaigns. And teams are still, more often than not, siloed in marketing organizations, separate from disciplines such as creative and production. In fact, Ms. Riley's research leads her to believe that less than a quarter of Fortune 500 companies have effectively integrated interactive marketing teams.
The report's findings raise imperatives for CMOs in structuring their marketing organizations to deliver on the future of interactive marketing -- defined by Forrester not as building online campaigns, but "enabling collaborative customer relationships -- through any medium or experience.

View article on Ad Age's website - click here

Videos may increase sales of products by 10%?

2011-04-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed this article from the WSJ about the power of video taping products. Excerpts:

In the fall of 2010, the company did a test. It showed its products two ways—with the video and without the video—to track shoppers' behavior. It found purchases increased about 10% when a product included a video description, says Laurie Williams, video and photo products manager at Zappos. The company is still testing to figure out what components affect sales the most, she says.

Why? A video—even an unflattering one—produces what marketers call "the stimulation process," says Mr. Shiv. When a company shows people an item in action, "your brain is sort of naturally imagining, 'how is this product going to feel on me, how is it going to look on me,' " he says.

Phone scam by steven bradley 1-800-650-5124 Caribbean Cruise

2011-03-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

I received a suspicious call today, and then did some research and found out it's a sales scam.

A person named "Steven bradley" called and said that since I had purchased something at [insert name of any retailer], I was entered in a drawing and won.

He said that the store I bought something at had given him my name. I called the store after my call with "Steve", and the owner of the store said that they had not shared my name. (I know the store owners well.)

What this sales person had really done was do a search on the Internet, and found that my name is associated with a domain for a store. What was really happening: there was no contest. The store had not given Steve my name. This was a cold call, a sales call, and this guy was lying.

Steve said that I was very lucky to win.
He then offered to go over details.
He told me i had won a 75% discount.
He said I was hand selected.
He mentioned First Class Vacations. Carnival Cruise Lines.
He said less than 1% 'selected'.
He said due to tremendous savings, they are extremely limited, and must "keep it to one call." aka: high pressure sales technique. They are giving an excuse to make you decide in a hurry on the phone.

Cruise was for 8 days. "Any caribbean location", including St. Thomas.

He insisted I buy the package right there, after 30 seconds. I sensed it was scam, so I acted very interested, and pleaded to call him back so i could in fact track down this dirt ball. He then gave me his phone number: 1-800-650-5124
ext 314
and name:
Steven Bradley
note: this name could be an alias.

In sum, these companies do a search on a person's name, get some info related to you, then lie and say whatever source they found associated with you has given them your info, and they use this to build trust. Then they act like you 'won' something when in fact it's a plain sales call.

Similarities between online vs. physical store layouts?

2010-12-12T11:15:00.000-08:00

I often try to make navigating an online store compelling. I wonder how many parallels there are between what to 'show up front' in an online store vs. a physical one. Should inexpensive items be put on a home page and in the online checkout area?

View full article online

How Stores Lead You to Spend
Displays, Music, Layout Make $98 Pillows, $8 Bracelets Look Like Must-Haves
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY

Santa Monica, Calif.

At the Kitson store here, the $98 Jonathan Adler zodiac pillows in the window and the $4.95 Silly Bandz rubber jewelry in bins at the door have one thing in common: They are bread crumbs on a carefully designed trail into the depths of the store.

Listen: Cute items and store layout go a long way in luring customers to spend, reports Christina Binkley.
Owner Fraser Ross strategically plans his stores' layout to lure in shoppers with quick-hit gifts and guide them to the more expensive fashions and jewelry at the back. "No one wants to buy anything for themselves anymore," says Mr. Ross, adding that "you've got to get them through the door."

Kitson stores are eclectic, up-to-the-minute emporiums of trendy fashion, accessories and novelty items. They make money from fashionistas seeking Elizabeth & James tops and folks who want to shop at the place where Britney Spears bought baby clothes. Kitson counts on holiday sales for half its $30 million in annual revenue.

Right before Thanksgiving, Mr. Ross transformed his 10 stores in Southern California into Grand Central for gifts. He filled them with the kinds of doodads that nobody actually needs but many buy this time of year: a "Call Your Mom" throw pillow, a Betty White calendar, a pair of $395 Diddy Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.

View full article online

Pennsylvania store writes a review of Solarek Studio services

2010-09-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

Friday, September 10, 2010
Thoughts on My Summer of Success
by Linda Tabas
The Pink Daisy retail store
Yardley, PA

I wanted to share my good news after so many years of banging my head against the wall. With the help of the Bridge, Jason, and many hours of hard work on my website my web sales have tripled. My in store sales have also increased because in the retail world you need to keep reinventing yourself or the world will pass you by. We have a saying in my store...we want to be whatever the customers want us to be so if that means selling scarves and pocketbooks we will do that too. Baby is also very important. Don't forget that the baby boomers are all becoming grandparents...that means lots of baby gifts and lots of 60th birthday presents for women who already have all the vases and serving dishes they can use. Think personal accessories.
Well back to the bridge...I added Alberto Pinto and within one week I received an order from Chicago for $1200. Yesterday when I wasn't even open I got an order from Des Moines, Iowa for $4400 for Anna Weatherley. Some brands I don't do as well with because of the discounters but the bridge has helped my in store sales because everything is pictured there and has helped especially with Mottahedeh.
So whether you are going to do a bridge or just have Jason Solarek do a new website for you remember that it is always good to move forward and that he has been worth every penny to The Pink Daisy.

Advertising appearing over images

2010-08-21T16:27:00.001-07:00

This company GumGum does a neat job of placing ads over images.

http://gumgum.com/advertisers

Your computer allowing 3rd parties to spy on your every click

2010-08-03T08:34:00.001-07:00

A program on your computer called Adobe Flash is collecting all your computer actions in files that are hidden from you, outside of your browser, and selling this info. It can track your keystrokes, what you look at online, health sites you visit, etc. Essentially, it can watch anything you do.

The Wall St. Journal has written about this the past two days.

Notably, this is not normal cookies. This is 'Flash' cookies. It's virus like in that it regenerates on its own if you just choose to delete cookies.

To remove these tracking files, I went to this link:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

Instructions on what to do on this Adobe page above are listed here:

http://www.imasuper.com/66/technology/flash-cookies-the-silent-privacy-killer/

Using your website to track online sales goals for stores and sales reps

2010-07-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

This article below from the Wall St. Journal last week explains a new tool from Mint.com (owned by the giant Intuit). The tool lets people set savings and spending goals on the website mint.com, a massively powerful and widely used online financial site.
What if the same could be done for brands and retailers, so a store could set sales goals for their physical store on a brand's website? The brand's website would give the retailer visual markers to show progress. Emails could also be included in the sales program.
By doing this, a brand could watch over these goals, and seek to reach out and help the retailers along.
If a store wants to double its X brand sales in 6 months, how would it do so? How can a website help? How can sales reps participate to bridge the gap between brands and retailers and the website?
The article offers some clues and inspiration.

/////////////////

Goalkeeping Gets Easier in the Finances Arena
THE MOSSBERG SOLUTION
JUNE 30, 2010
New Mint.com Feature Offers User-Friendly Options That Help Savers Set Up Budget Objectives and Stick to Them
By KATHERINE BOEHRET

When most people hear the word "budget," they groan about all the numbers and spreadsheets involved in setting financial goals. Instead they procrastinate and continue spending without any specific savings goals. Case in point: I recently postponed a meeting with my financial planner because I didn't have the energy after a long business trip to work through my finances.

Now Mint.com, a website that already offers user-friendly options for studying how one's money is spent, has introduced an easy way to set budget objectives, link them to accounts and learn specific steps on how to reach those goals. The goals can even be personalized with digital photos, like an image of the car you're saving up to buy. And this service, which launched Tuesday, doesn't cost a cent.

I've been testing Intuit Inc.'s free, updated Mint.com service, specifically focusing on its new Mint Goals feature. The idea of adding goals that tie into real accounts has been a long time coming for the finance-management website. Mint previously offered a Planning section on its site, but it required too much manual input, including setting up personal budget categories, and guesswork about how much one should spend.

Read full article

Lifetime Brands 'socializes' via Facebook and Youtube.com

2010-07-18T19:02:00.001-07:00

The following article is from HFN magazine:

Lifetime Brands Launches on Social Media Sites

17366 Thu, 11/19/2009 - 1:39pm
NEW YORK–Lifetime Brands has launched company pages on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to communicate directly with consumers. In addition, it announced that it will revamp its corporate Web site and relaunch it the first quarter of next year.
“We touch millions of lives through the products we design—products dedicated to enrich people’s lives,” said Dan Siegel, executive vice president. Lifetime Brands. “We are committed to engaging with the people who use our products, and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will help us do that. Using social media to communicate is something consumers have come to expect, and Lifetime Brands is ready to join the conversation.”

Read full article

Creativity and Technology (CAT) conference excerpts from Ad Age magazine

2010-07-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

I agree with these excerpts from the Advertising Age's article on CAT:

Don't separate interactive
"The best way to make un-ambitious work is to set up a separate group called 'interactive,'" said Matt Howell, chief interactive officer, Modernista. But bringing interactive into the fold goes somewhat against established agency culture. "Collaboration and sharing are not core competencies at agencies," said Ivan Askwith, director of strategy, Big Spaceship. "Our focus should not be on emerging tech, but emerging cultural practices." These strategists advise to sit next to your interactive specialists and mix everyone up together.

/////////////////////

It's hard to laugh alone
Mr. Slavin's project exemplified how digital and social media are changing our traditional habits, but he was also quick to point out how it all tracks back to extremely human instincts. Viewers tweet and update Facebook networks during live TV because of a simple human truth: It's hard to laugh alone. The urge dates all the way back to the laugh track, which provided the illusion of a shared experience and being part of an audience. "People watch TV together in one room because they like to have the same experience at the same time," he said. "Sometimes that room is Twitter."

Read full article - click here

Website design concept

2010-06-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

Concept I designed for a website.

How to choose a website design company

2010-06-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

Many business owners consider choosing a website design company primarily based upon the colors and pictures in the website company's portfolio. That is somewhat understandable considering the subconscious emotional connection that images and colors make.

Problem with this approach:
Most of those pictures were provided by someone else, most likely a photographer and/or culled from a stock photo website. Furthermore, pictures don't get one ranked in Google, nor help a shopper quickly find what he or she needs. The term 'designer' is often taken too literally to designate what a web designer does. A good web designer/web design firm brings many things to the table, one small part of which is choosing a photo for the home page. Web success most often comes from the architecture BEHIND the site – the usability, the search engine optimization, the customer service tools, and more.

My advice on choosing a web company would be to pick a website company that:

1) Works in your industry, and with your business colleagues.

2) Offers functionality that meets your customers' needs.

3) Knows how to get your site ranked well in Google.

4) Knows how to organize information.

As an analogy, when you choose a location for a physical store front, you don't choose it based upon the color of the current store you're considering renting. Why? You know you'll repaint it and customize it. The key factor in setting up a retail location is location, and how it serves your customers. Similarly, when you build a website, you'll be repainting and choosing photography. The web designer's most important function is to provide the 'location', a.k.a. the technical underpinnings of the site. With this said, there are even truly ugly website that make tons of sales and have many 'happy' customers because the site is easy to find in Google and easy to use.

Predictive marketing based upon past purchases

2010-06-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

Below is a New York Times article from this past weekend. The article shares how major retailers are dynamically customizing their promotions based upon past customer purchases. Luxury home goods retailers could likely customize their offerings in a similar fashion. The strategy is akin to how election marketing is done. If someone drives a Prius, then they are likely to be a Democrat. As such, Democratic candidates are marketed to that person. What can we infer about a person that buys Juliska, or Ercuis silverware?

Sam’s Club Personalizes Discounts for Buyers
By ANDREW MARTIN
SECAUCUS, N.J. — For years, hotels, airlines, banks, online retailers and other data-driven businesses have turned to powerful computers to help determine the optimal price for their products, or to find ways to recommend items that groups of customers with similar tastes might want to buy.

The big retail chains have been slower to adapt, in part because of the sheer volume of customers they serve and products they sell.

But now, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart’s warehouse chain, is offering a program called eValues that strives to offer bargains tailored to each member, based on that member’s buying history.

Industry experts said they expected other retailers to move toward more individualized offers, too. Today, most retailers offer across-the-board discounts or deals aimed at categories of customers.

“This is really the holy grail in a sense, pricing to the individual,” said Willard Bishop, a retail consultant in suburban Chicago who focuses primarily on supermarkets. “Everyone is on the path to doing what you are talking about.”

On a recent evening, for instance, Angela Otero stopped by the Sam’s Club in Secaucus and printed out four pages of eValues offers at a bright green kiosk near the front door, including $50 off a plasma television, $3 off a 30-pack of toilet paper and $2.50 off a box of meatless burgers.

Ms. Otero said she had used eValues since it started in August and found that the discounts covered “the majority of things I want.”

“The detergents, TV dinners once in a while,” she said, scanning through her printout of deals. “There’s a dollar off Bounce. I use that all the time.”

“It’s basically my own grocery list,” she said.

Read full article

Home Furnishings Magazine Bridal Report

2010-05-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

This bridal report, which appeared in HFN magazine, has a few good insights. They include:

The number of brides will increase due to Millennials coming of age.
The majority of brides buy registry items they don't receive.
The majority of brides use gift certificates on items they did not register for.
The majority of brides down scale registry items when it comes time to redeem registry credit they have.

HFN magazine website

Spam alert for Garry Cole

2010-05-13T07:34:00.001-07:00

I received this e-mail below today, and it's likely spam and a phishing scam.

From:
garryoffice2@gmail.com

Dear Sir/Madam
Am Mr.Garry and would like to order Picture Frame from your
store and would like to know the types and sizes you have in stock as
well as the prices and the types of credit cars that you take for
payment.Thank you and waiting to hear from you as soon as possible.

Regards
Garry Cole

Nice website by Herman Miller

2010-04-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

www.hermanmiller.com/

I saw this site commended in the magazine Communication Arts

Home goods mobile shopping website for iPhone

2010-03-09T12:49:00.001-08:00

This is a concept for mobile shopping site. We are expanding the fixed investment in the website by migrating the data to a mobile device. With little additional cost, the site's information and functionality are now accessible practically anywhere.

How to improve your e-mail marketing

2010-03-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

Advertising Age's Steve Cone recently wrote about successfully using e-mail to connect with customers.

I found these two excerpts below interesting A link to the full article is below the excerpts.

What's the biggest mistake marketers continue to make with e-mail marketing?

It's still too much of a one-way street. Marketers send offers, ask for opinions or do customer surveys and provide no means for the recipient to directly communicate back to them. All types of companies are sending frequent e-mail surveys. But rarely do they report back the results, and they almost never ask for additional comments that will be seen by a company employee and responded to quickly or at all. Remember call centers? E-mail should be no different. E-mail is a very personal, two-way communication -- or should be. But most marketers fail to understand "personal" means responding to the individual.

//////////////////////

What's the best way to keep your e-mail from getting deleted immediately?

Brand yourself immediately on the "from" and "subject" lines. Seventy percent of consumers say the "from" line is how they base their decision to open or ignore. Thirty percent say it's the "subject" line. That's not surprising, and it just reinforces that you should make your brand equity work in those two spots.

Read full article - please click here

Website design for luxury tableware company in New Jersey

2010-02-17T15:02:00.001-08:00

I created this design for a fine china company's website. This is part of a series of designs. The design goals:
- Visually represent the brand (elegant, honest).
- Organize a large amount of product data.

New free service for retailers by Solarek Studio

2010-01-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

We are launching a new service today that helps retailers find hard to locate items, or unload excess product. For example, if a retailer can sell four placesettings, but only has three, the retailer would create a FREE posting on the Retailers Exchange saying it needs this fourth placesetting.

Likewise, a retailer could have four vases, and wish to sell them. It could post for free these items on the website.

The person that makes the post lists his or her contact information, so the buyer and seller can directly negotiate the transaction. There is no costly 'middle man.'

In sum, the Retailers Exchange that connects buyers with sellers.

This service is designed for retailers, brand, and distributors of home goods. You can post a listing for FREE. Please view the listings at:

retailersexchange.blogspot.com

Beware of fake tableware and fine china websites

2010-01-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

I received a Google alert for my name "Jason Solarek', and noticed that my name was mentioned on a tableware website I'd never visited. I have no association whatsoever with this site. Yet, my name appeared on the site. Please see screen shot above.

I then visited the site, and realized this site is a sham. This is a site generated by robots that go out and comb the internet for certain keywords. The site then adds this data to its site, as if it were its own data and authentic. In this way, it appears that I visited this site and posted content on it. I never did. This is misleading, and false.

This is the fake site: http://www.noritake-tableware.com/gallery

I then took a look at the company on the Contact Us page. A warning sign was the the company says "Contact Us" but does not offer a phone number or address.

I visited site for the company that designed the website.

http://www.19parking.com/

19parking.com creates bogus websites that clutter the internet.

They also have a Contact Us page without a phone number or address. A red flag is always a company without a physical address listed.

Luxury e-commerce websites make their sites lively and fun

2010-01-08T10:36:00.001-08:00

The article below from the New York Times is about selling and promoting luxury goods online (such as Prada and Burberry). I suggest browsing the article because it shows how some companies are properly using the the web to make money.

Excerpt:
Selling luxury goods online isn’t the problem — that’s a done deal. Rather, it is that designers and fashion chiefs... can’t seem to grasp the most obvious aspect of the ... Web.

Go to the sites of the most innovative labels — Prada and Balenciaga, to name two — and you find almost no appreciation for the potential of digital technology. No special films that might illuminate the creative process, no animation, no design gestures that are consistent with the contemporary spirit of these brands. Instead, what you chiefly get is a video of the last collection, some still images from an advertising campaign and, in Prada’s case, an update about its art-world projects.

Meanwhile, pesky bloggers — to whom fashion houses threw open theirs doors in the unexamined belief that their presence was good for marketing — are downloading every scrap of information as fast as they can. They have overrun the ivory tower.

..........

The big guys may want to pay attention to the oldest name on the block, Hermès. The standard-bearer of the establishment, the creator of the Kelly bag, has one of the most imaginative sites going. Created in 2008, the site, which has games and lots of windows to open and explore, is charming and elegant — consistent with the brand’s heritage yet utterly contemporary in a way that you would expect of the Web.

..........

Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/fashion/31NOTEBOOK.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=stodgy%20prada&st=cse

I also encourage you to visit the site that the author enjoys:
http://artofthetrench.com/

Wall St. Journal: As Stores Sputter, Sales Sizzle Online

2009-12-28T17:40:00.000-08:00

As Stores Sputter, Sales Sizzle Online
Dec. 15 Sets Record for Web-Site Revenue; Sears, Macy's,Other Big Retailers Lure Internet Shoppers
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

A holiday season of Web price wars and aggressive online promotions by store-based retailers is leaving e-commerce a larger force in American retail.

While sales conducted at brick-and mortar stores are about flat this season compared with 2008, online retailing grew 4% from the beginning of November through Dec. 18 to $24.8 billion, according to Web tracking company comScore Inc. Online sales on Dec. 15 totaled $913 million, marking a one-day record for the industry.

Most online holiday sales began winding down Friday with the expiration of deadlines to receive free shipping. But Web analytics company Coremetrics Inc. reported that sales Friday and Saturday broke expectations to increase 24% compared to the Friday and Saturday before Christmas last year, as snowstorms in the eastern U.S. prompted some consumers to do last-minute shopping online.

While e-commerce accounted for 6% of all U.S. retail sales excluding cars, travel and prescription drugs in 2008, it could end the holiday season this year representing about 7%, said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research.

"Price and convenience are probably the biggest factors—you can often save money shopping online," she said. Online sales just over the holidays likely will reach 10% of all retail, she added.

The lion's share of the online growth went to larger retailers that were in a better position to offer deep discounts and lures such as free shipping. Out of the top 500 retail sites, the percentage of visits to the top 20 such sites rose 9% over the past five weeks, versus the same period last year, according to Experian PLC's Hitwise Web-tracking service. The percentage of visits to the rest—including sites such as Petco.com and Hallmark.com—fell 9%.

Amazon.com Inc. appeared to be the biggest winner, at least in terms of site traffic. Its share of traffic among the top 500 retailers rose nearly 31% to more than 16% in the week ended Dec. 12. That's more than double its nearest competitor, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which launched aggressive price wars with Amazon on books, video games and other products.

Amazon, which declined to divulge sales statistics, has said only that December marked the best month ever for sales of its Kindle e-reader.

Sears.com, owned by Sears Holdings Corp., leapt from No. 6 last year to No. 4 this year on Hitwise's traffic rankings, thanks to an 11% pickup in share during the week ended Dec. 12. Sears has been promoting a service that lets online shoppers pick up their purchases in its stores and created an online community called MySears.

"Everybody raised their game," said Fiona Dias, executive vice president for marketing and strategy at GSI Commerce Inc., which runs about 100 retail Web sites. "People are going to have to be much more creative in a world where the big guys are consolidating."

To compete with the mega-sales from the largest retailers, this year GSI encouraged about 30 online merchants to band together and email each others' best customers for a "world's greatest friends and family event" last Sunday and Monday.

Yet some of the sales growth came at the expense of profit. MyBuys Inc., which tracks sales by individuals at dozens of client sites to provide product recommendations, said that for the month of December through the 17th, the average discount on promoted items rose 5.6% to total 26.4%, compared to last year.

Large retailers got the biggest boost from discounting, with sales from such promotions leaping 213% among the top quarter of retailers by size that MyBuys tracks.

Some smaller online retailers say they are having a harder time standing out. Vanessa Barcus, the owner of the designer-clothes site Shopgoldyn.com, said she can't compete with the holiday marketing budgets of large sites and has tried to rein in discounting as the economy picks back up.

"No one wins—big or small—when we all cut down our margins so much," Ms. Barcus said. Still, her holiday sales so far are up 37% compared to last year's, and selling online has become more important than sales in her Denver showroom.

EBay Inc.'s giant online marketplace, where traffic has slumped in recent years, lost shoppers every week since the end of November compared to the same period of last year, according to Compete Inc.

EBay, which has cut back on coupons this year to instead focus on a multimedia marketing campaign and cross-country mobile shopping display, declined to comment.

But some of the largest merchants on eBay.com reported a pickup, especially last week. ChannelAdvisor Corp., which helps brands sell on a variety of online destinations, said its comparable-store sales on eBay were up 4% from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15. Including merchants that were new to eBay this year, sales were up 20% year over year, the company said.

Yet comparable-store sales among ChannelAdvisor clients on Amazon's marketplace were up 74%.

"Clearly, Amazon continues to do very very well and is taking share from everyone in the ecommerce world," said ChannelAdvisor's chief executive, Scot Wingo.

Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com

full article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704786204574608383669228994.html

Reader "comments" on your blog can be spam

2009-12-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

When you blog, you appreciate comments from readers. However, some comments may have alternate motives. Please see this comment below that I received. This is a generic comment, and is spam. These are sent out to millions of blogs. Sometimes, people are hired for pennies to tailor these comments and submit them individually to each blog.
These people are trying to embed links on my blog site. The link this person is seeking to embed is "It Solution", which is a hyperlink in his post. The person wants this because it can help the person's own site rank in a Google search for "It Search".
As such, I do not allow these comments on my blog.

From: saurabh
Date: December 15, 2009 6:23:08 AM EST
To: jason@solarek.com
Subject: [Website Design and Strategy for Home Goods Brands and Retailers] New comment on Luxury website design for Connecticut store.
Reply-To: noreply-comment@blogger.com

saurabh has left a new comment on your post "Luxury website design for Connecticut store":

this is really great stuff! very useful tips and innovative designs. what a great blog.....
(this is the link in his message:) "It solution"

Publish this comment.

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by saurabh to Website Design and Strategy for Home Goods Brands and Retailers at December 15, 2009 3:23 AM

Luxury makes a comeback

2009-12-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

from Fortune magazine

Jaguar, Oakley, and other brands are trying to put the 'lux' back in luxury, despite the recession.

By Suzanne Kapner, writer
December 3, 2009: 9:02 AM ET
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Here's what the financial crisis sounds like at the top of the income ladder: When asked how the recession had impacted her life, one banker's wife said, "The waiting list for a Birkin bag is a lot shorter."

She was referring, of course, to the coveted Hermès handbag. Each bag is hand-stitched and takes weeks to make, which keeps supplies scarce. For the unconnected -- those who are not socialites, celebrities, or super-wealthy -- the waitlist can run two years or longer. Starting prices are around $5,000, but versions made of exotic skins, such as crocodile, command well into the six figures.

Even though conspicuous consumption is out of style, people are still buying Hermès bags. Third quarter sales were up 10% -- a reminder that people are willing to splurge on products they consider worth the price.

It's a lesson many luxury firms forgot during the boom years when, in an effort to expand market share, they courted the mass affluent -- upper-middle-class customers who aspired to a more luxurious lifestyle than they could actually afford. "The luxury market went mass," says Pamela Danziger, the founder of Unity Marketing.

Milton Pedraza, CEO of The Luxury Institute, calls the recent overreaching "faux luxury." And, he says, a lot of companies forgot what luxury was all about. "They just slapped a logo on a canvas bag," Pedraza says. "The products were expensive, but the quality was not very good."

Now a handful of companies are trying to put the "lux" back in luxury by introducing products with more handcraftsmanship and detailing. Sure, these products cost more. But the companies that make them are betting people will be willing to spend more to get more.

Take Jaguar, for example. After going for the middle market with $30,000 cars in the 1990s when it was owned by Ford (F, Fortune 500), Jaguar -- now part of India's Tata Group -- is repositioning as more of a true luxury brand. The XJ Sedan, which is scheduled to hit dealer showrooms this spring, will carry a sticker price of $72,000 to $115,000, making the XJ Jaguar's most expensive car on the market.

Jaguar chief designer Ian Callum has given the XJ a more modern look without skimping on the wood and leather that harks back to the brand's heyday of British luxury. The XJ's audiovisual system includes a 1,200-watt stereo and comes with headphones that allow each passenger to listen or watch what he or she wants. (Just imagine how many family fights could be averted if Dad got his dose of classic rock, Mom her Streisand, and the kids Hannah Montana.)

"The car's interior is nicer than many living rooms I've sat in," says Michael Silverstein, a senior partner with the Boston Consulting Group.

Jaguar only expects to sell 8,000 of the XJ Sedans, compared with 30,000 of the more mass-produced cars it used to make. But sometimes less is more. "With this economy, you've got to give high-end shoppers a reason to buy," says Jaguar spokesman Stuart Schorr. "You do that by making the car more interesting, more indulgent, and more luxurious."

Sunglasses-maker Oakley, though not considered a traditional luxury firm, is also going against the tide by adding more expensive products to its lineup. In November, Oakley introduced the "C Six," a $4,000 pair of sunglasses made from 80 layers of carbon fiber that mold to your face. (Spokeswoman Brianne Bates calls the glasses an "engineering feat.") The C Six sell for six times the price of the company's previously most expensive glasses.

Likewise, this fall, Restoration Hardware launched the Artisan Collection, which includes more expensive items than its traditional fare, including a $4,000 trunk that doubles as a portable office. CEO Gary Friedman recruited craftsmen from around the world to create the collection and give it a handcrafted feel. All of the brass nail-heads on the trunk, for instance, are hammered by hand.

The Artisan Collection -- which also features $1,500 end tables and blankets made of Mongolian cashmere and stitched on ancient looms -- is popular enough that Restoration Hardware has extended the line through the spring, and it may stretch beyond that. "Gary (Friedman) feels that if people are going to spend money, we should give them a step up in quality," says spokeswoman Ashley Boyle.

Not all firms are brave enough to buck the tide of falling luxury sales -- expected to decline 8% this year, according to Bain & Company -- and claw their way back up-market. Saks (SKS) and Neiman Marcus, for instance, which both courted those mass affluent consumers during the boom, are capitalizing on a "trading down" effect during the bust by adding even more "affordable" merchandise to their stores.

But there are a handful of companies moving in the opposite direction by appealing to consumers who still have money. And despite uncomfortably high unemployment, there are plenty of them. After all, those record Wall Street bonuses aren't going to be spent at Wal-Mart.

CNN: Cyber Monday sales rose 14% this year

2009-12-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

From CNN.com today:

Cyber Monday: A lot of clicking and shopping

Report says sales rose 14% over last year and shoppers on average spent more online than they did on Black Friday.

By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: December 1, 2009: 10:27 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Did Cyber Monday outshine Black Friday this year?

Early reports suggest that Americans shopped more enthusiastically online for holiday bargains than they did in stores on Black Friday.

Cyber Monday sales rose 14% this year compared to 2008 and consumers also bought nearly 30% more items per order versus last year, according to research firm Coremetrics.

Also, the firm said shoppers bought 10% more items per order online than they did in stores on Black Friday.

"We are seeing good online buying momentum because people are looking for the very best deals, and are going online for the most convenient way to shop," John Squire, chief strategy officer, Coremetrics, said in a report Tuesday.

Clothing and jewelry e-tailers were the most popular shopping destinations on Cyber Monday. Although department stores saw a 33% increase in traffic to their Web sites, the average order volume actually fell 10% versus last year, the report said.

Kindle top seller at Amazon.com
Cyber Monday, which is the e-tailers version of Black Friday, is the day that e-tailers furiously push big discounts, free gift cards, free shipping and any other gimmick they can think of to entice consumers to spend even more of their holiday shopping dollars online.

Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) spokesman Craig Berman said its wireless Kindle e-reader was the "best-selling item across all of Amazon's product categories on Monday."

"This November has become the biggest month for Kindle sales since we launched the product two years ago," Berman said. But he declined to disclose how many Kindle units have been sold over that period.

Also, Berman said the e-tailer sold out of its Cyber Monday deal of the day, which was an 8GB iPod Touch for $158.

Other hot sellers Monday included the hugely popular Zhu Zhu pet hamsters, which are sold on Amazon through third party vendors.

Although the retail price of each hamster is $9.99, Berman said some of the hamsters, such as Mr. Squiggles, were selling for as much as $63 each.

4.3 million shoppers a minute
An average of 4.3 million consumers per minute visited shopping Web sites throughout the day Monday in North America, according to Internet monitoring firm Akamai, which tracks traffic trends to more than 270 e-tailers.

The firm, which monitors North American visitors to sites such as American Eagle Outfitters, Overstock.com, QVC.com and eBags.com, said traffic peaked at about 9:30 p.m. ET, reaching 5.1 million visitors per minute.

Pedro Santos, chief strategist for e-commerce with Akamai, said he expects heavy online traffic to continue on subsequent Mondays leading up to the last shipping day before Christmas.

Here's a sampling of what other sellers were serving up to customers.

Walmart.com is offering nearly 150 specials on such items as flat panel TVs, gaming systems and toys as well as 97-cent shipping on laptops, digital cameras and MP3 players.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) said in a statement the deals are being offered through Friday, but only while supplies last.

For book lovers, Barnesandnoble.com is chopping prices by 50% on all New York Times bestsellers and offering a $10 gift certificate for every $100 purchase.

Still, don't expect any special deal on Barnes & Noble's "Nook" eBook reader, which industry experts peg as one of the hottest products this holiday season.

A quick check on the book seller's Web site showed that if you order the Nook Monday, it won't be shipped until Jan. 4. And the "extra" incentive to Nook buyers is free shipping and a free gift certificate.

About 96.5 million Americans planned to shop online Monday, up from 85 million in 2008, according to the National Retail Federation.

Despite these expected traffic numbers and heavy discounts, Cyber Monday is still seen as more of a ceremonial start to online holiday shopping.

The busiest online shopping day tends to be later in December, and is the last day that gifts can be shipped to guarantee delivery by Christmas Day.

Full article:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/01/news/economy/cyber_monday_shopping/index.htm?cnn=yes

How the Bridge Sales Tool Works

2009-11-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

How does a luxury product get from a brand’s website to a retailer’s website?

Current way of doing business

1.
A brand adds 1,000s of product images, prices,
descriptions, dimensions, and other product data to its site.

2.
Hundreds of retailers do the exact same thing.
They independently add 1,000s of product images, prices,
descriptions, and dimensions to their site. The duplication of these actions is expensive.

There are massive inefficiencies in this system.
100’s of retailers are updating the same product’s information.

New way of doing business

1.
A brand adds 1,000s of product images, prices,
descriptions, dimesions to the Bridge database, which supplies
data to its website.

2.
There is no step 2. The brand’s database is
synced with retailers’ websites so there is just one
database of products: the Bridge database. The brand does the ‘work’ of
100’s of retailers just by doing what is was before:
updating its website. Brand is able to maintain
MSRP, and product picture quality, etc., while retailer
gets quality, real time product data with no employee
cost or tech cost.

Bridge Features:

- Brand and retailers access the same product data. Brand controls
majority of product data. Retailer can get special feature to set
special Gift Registry pricing.

- The brand and retailer have unique websites. Their website designs
are independent of each other.

- The retailer can sell any other brand’s items it wishes. Joining the
Bridge does not limit a retailer from selling other products.

How to make a website layout

2009-11-19T17:18:00.000-08:00

I designed this website for Institutional Investor's Sovereign Funds organization.

I also designed promotional banners for the other locations on the roundtable tour. Each banner promoted a different event location. Other designs included: London, Coral Gables, and Singapore.

This relates to retail website design because it shows how you compose a website layout.

Client testimonial

2009-11-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

An e-mail from a website client today:

"We have had an amazing first 15 days of the month! Many calls turned into sales for Haviland china and Royal Crown Derby which I don't even have much on the site. It is so exciting. - A lot of women look and actually call to make sure they can get the item in time. Thanks for making the site so feminine!

I feel like we are on fire! More emails today for other limoges patterns.

Have a great week.

Linda
thePinkDaisy.com

Luxury website design for Connecticut store

2009-11-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

I recently designed and coded a new website for a home goods store in Westport, Connecticut. In the attached image, I show my strategy behind the site design. I'd be happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions. Thank you.

You're invited to view the live website here:
www.lcrwestport.com

New Mottahedeh tableware website design revealed

2009-11-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

Mottahedeh recently hired me to redesign its website. Please find a sample design above.

The parent company Mottahedeh, Inc. distributes Mottahedeh, R. Haviland & C. Parlon, and Milestone. I designed the new site to show the three brands with equal footing, and make it easy to navigate to each.

In the attached comparison, I show the enhancements I made over the original.

Currently, the new home page is 'live,' with subsections coming as they are ready.

The new site should be fully ready by January 1st, 2010.

Advertising Age article about how e-mail is a cheap way to make good money

2009-10-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

How E-mail Became a Direct-Marketing Rock Star in Recession

As Search Gets Cut, Retention-Focused Retailers Find Value in Channel's Cost-Effectiveness and Trackability

By Natalie Zmuda
Published: May 11, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It's likely the least sexy tool in your marketing arsenal, but it could be the one that delivers real results.

E-mail has emerged as a recession darling, as retailers look to proven programs that are cost-effective and results-oriented. That's led to increasing investment in technologies that better target customers and serve up more enticing messages.

FRIENDLY REMINDER: Consumers can opt in for e-mails about holidays from FTD.
"The economy has energized this channel," said Ryan Deutsch, VP-strategic services and market development at StrongMail. "It's become the rock star of direct marketing in a lot of these retail organizations because it's the most cost-effective and most trackable."
Thanks to its cost-effectiveness and retailers' recession-era emphasis on retention -- Shop.org says that the number of companies focused on retention has nearly doubled in the past year -- experts say few cuts are being made to e-mail budgets, while areas including paid search, affiliate marketing and social marketing are coming under scrutiny.

A Shop.org study shows that 30% of retailers are spending less than originally planned on their web businesses overall while 24% are spending more. Of those spending less, more than half said search spending is being affected, while about a quarter said affiliate marketing and social marketing are taking a hit. By contrast, only 4% of retailers said budget cuts would affect e-mail marketing. Of those increasing investments, e-mail marketing will be the beneficiary at 65% of retailers.

"It's not sexy, but it delivers results, and it's focusing on existing customers," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. "E-mail technology continues to advance and allows retailers to be smarter. It's not about sending more e-mail; it's about more-targeted and more-relevant e-mail."

Solid ROI
Indeed, retailer Zappos.com said it is in the process of building out a more robust e-mail program because it's found that e-mails have a noticeable impact on sales. "Right now, it's just a mass mailing," said Michelle Thomas, brand-marketing manager. "We're getting more sophisticated in our segmentation approaches. ... We're investing more."

Experts say investment is flowing into the area because optimizing e-mail lists and upgrading to new technologies can be done quickly and offers a solid return on investment. In the Shop.org study, e-mail also emerged as retailers' most successful marketing tactic.

"Because of the economy and how efficient e-mail is, it's definitely taken precedence over other projects that were longer term," said Mr. Deutsch. "It's low-hanging fruit. Dollars go into the e-mail channel [and companies] know that in four to 12 weeks they'll see a return."

Enhancing e-mail lists with demographic data, for example, can improve performance threefold, Mr. Deutsch said. That upgrade can happen in less than eight weeks. Retailers are also revamping e-mail templates to stress value and discount offers, and they are looking to integrate social-networking tools into their e-mails. That involves adding a link to allow recipients to share the e-mail with friends.

Preference centers, which allow customers to opt in to receive communications, are another area retailers are embracing. Flower retailer FTD, for example, allows customers to choose to receive e-mail reminders to send gifts for just about every holiday in existence, in addition to custom settings for birthdays and anniversaries.

View full article:

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136516

Will there ever be a green (environmentally conscious) fine china set?

2009-10-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

One could hope to find it here:

http://www.gengreenlife.com/green_listings.php

New Yorker article suggests economy is bound to rebound

2009-10-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

This New Yorker article by James Surowiecki suggests that in just a few years Americans (and the world) will be consuming like its 1999. And I think there is some truth to this. If one adds to this information from another recent New Yorker article about cycles (one theorist says a bust comes every 8.6 years), then we do seem destined to recover. Aka: more people will be buying home goods soon.

INCONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION
by James Surowiecki
October 12, 2009

For all the uncertainty about the current state of the economy, everyone is sure of one thing: this recession has permanently remade American consumers, turning them from spendthrifts into tightwads. From cover stories on “The New Frugality” to stories about cheapness as a new status symbol and pundits’ repeated analogies to the lessons inculcated by the Great Depression, the message is the same: there has been a fundamental change in American consumer behavior, one that will endure after the recession ends, returning us, as one economist put it, to “the days of ‘Leave It to Beaver.’ ”
The assumption that consumers have fundamentally changed is understandable. Personal spending is down sharply from 2007, while the national savings rate, which dipped below zero a few years ago, went above six per cent earlier this year. But although analysts point to the numbers as proof of a new mind-set, you don’t need psychology to explain what’s happened: simply put, Americans have been spending less because they have less money to spend. After all, in the past two years, nearly seven million jobs have been lost and wage growth for people who have kept their jobs has been anemic. At the same time, the housing crash and the stock-market meltdown erased, conservatively speaking, about thirteen trillion dollars in household wealth. Given the well-known wealth effect—people’s tendency to spend more when they get richer, and vice versa—that alone would translate into an expected drop in personal spending of between five hundred and seven hundred billion dollars.
In fact, you could argue that consumption has actually fallen less than might have been expected. Spending did drop off the proverbial cliff in the fall of 2008, in the direst phase of the financial crisis, but it stabilized at the beginning of this year, and has now risen for four months in a row. And much of the decrease in consumption since early 2008 can be traced to a drop in spending in just two categories: gasoline (thanks to lower prices) and cars. The decline in new-car purchases has been so steep that the average life of a car on the road today is at a historic high. This is just one example of how better product quality makes it possible for consumers to cut back without experiencing much decline in their standard of living. We can delay buying a new car because the one we have can be driven hundreds of thousands of miles without problems—making the auto industry a victim of its own success. Nonetheless, the response to the Cash for Clunkers program indicates a certain amount of pent-up demand out there.
Of course, none of this precludes the possibility that our frugal ways will endure even after the economy starts to recover. But there are reasons to be skeptical. Recessions regularly give rise to assertions that consumers will begin spending more responsibly. Toward the end of the 1990-91 recession, for instance, Fortune reported forecasts of the “death of conspicuous consumption.” Time ran a cover story on the return to the simple life, arguing that “after a 10-year bender of gaudy dreams and godless consumerism, Americans are starting to trade down.” Consumer-behavior experts predicted that people would be more frugal in the nineties, and consumers themselves said they planned to cut back on spending. It didn’t happen. A decade later, the bursting of the Internet bubble and the impact of 9/11 led many to predict that Americans would consume less—and we all know how that panned out.
This is a far more severe and traumatic recession—the worst downturn since the Great Depression. So, just as the Depression, as the Times put it, “imbued American life with an enduring spirit of thrift,” won’t this recession make Americans thrifty again? Maybe. But the current downturn, bad as it has been, is nothing like the Depression, which lasted a decade and saw unemployment hit twenty-five per cent. What’s more, the notion that the Depression turned Americans into tightwads is largely a myth. In fact, it was after the Second World War that America really came into its own as a consumer society. In the five years after the war ended, purchases of household furnishings and appliances climbed two hundred and forty per cent, while between 1940 and 1960 the rate of homeownership rose by almost fifty per cent. If the Depression didn’t make Americans wary of the pleasures of consumption, it’s unlikely that this downturn will.
This doesn’t mean that we’re going back to the days when the average American saved not a penny of his paycheck. As people try to rebuild their nest eggs, the savings rate is bound to remain higher than it was a few years ago. And what we spend our money on will change, too; housing costs, which were the central cause of the rise in Americans’ indebtedness in recent years, should eat up less of our budgets in the future. But the evidence for a radical shift in the way we consume seems more like the product of wishful thinking (there’s a palpable longing among pundits for Americans to become more frugal) than anything else. In many categories, spending has dropped only slightly, if at all. And, while these are very tough times for retailers who believed that spending could only go up, retail sales rose briskly in August. Before we go proclaiming this the age of the American tightwad, a little perspective is in order. Even after the worst recession of the past seventy years, retail sales this year will be about where they were in 2005. Does anyone really think that four years ago Americans were misers?

Please view the original article here

Should you offer free shipping on your website?

2009-10-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

Please see below. This article from today's Wall St. Journal explores the expectation for free shipping when buying online.
My advice to clients:
- Let's better promote our free shipping offer for orders made online.
- Let's e-mail a coupon to past customers either for an amount off the purchase, or something about free shipping.
- Can we lower our free shipping baseline, or offer a free upgrade to quicker shipping? aka: 2 day shipping?

We can start promoting our holiday deals November 1st.
Thank you, J

Retailers Feed Holiday Demand for Free Shipping
Increasingly, Shoppers View the Perk as a Given; Buying Enough to Qualify
By RACHEL DODES AND GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Online shoppers this holiday season can expect a little something extra from retailers: more offers of free shipping.

Free shipping has already become standard practice for certain retailers, like footwear and apparel sites Zappos.com and Shoebuy.com. Now, as competition heats up, free is becoming the new normal across even more sites.

Target Corp. is launching its holiday free-shipping promotion on Nov. 1—two weeks earlier than last year—and applying it to twice as many items, the company says. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is using free shipping in its holiday fight with Amazon.com Inc.: Both retailers are selling 10 popular books at a deep discount—but Wal-Mart is throwing in the shipping.

Last December, 250 stores ranging from J.C. Penney Co. to Pottery Barn participated in a "Free Shipping Day" event organized by Freeshipping.org, an ad-supported site that lists free-shipping deals. This year, the number of participating retailers for the Dec. 17 event is expected to double, with stores like Toys "R" Us joining for the first time.

Retailers are jumping on the free-shipping bandwagon because it is a proven way to catch shoppers' attention. The strategy is also an attempt to cut down on the huge number of virtual shopping carts that are abandoned at check-out. Indeed, a May survey by eBay Inc.'s Paypal found that 46% of shoppers claimed high shipping charges—more than any other reason—was why they ditched potential purchases in online shopping carts.

"Free is very exciting," says Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University. "Free shipping is not just another discount." Mr. Ariely found in an experiment that people are between four and five times as likely to spend $5 for an item if either the shipping or the item is free as they are to pay $2.50 for the same product plus $2.50 for shipping.

Many new offers are likely to come around Thanksgiving and toward the middle of December. That's when retailers with extra inventory are looking for ways to liquidate it before the end of the season. Some of the deals come in limited-time specials and require special coupon codes to be entered at checkout; they are sometimes announced only to select customers via email. Others require consumers to spend a certain amount or are part of loyalty-program benefits.

But shoppers will have to keep their eyes peeled for some of the offers: Sites don't often give a lot of advance notice of their free-shipping deals. Luke Knowles, chief executive of Freeshipping.org says many stores are likely to keep mum about participating in "Free Shipping Day" until the event approaches. They "don't want people to hold off on buying today because they are waiting for free shipping," says Mr. Knowles.

Many retailers lowered the bar on free shipping after the economy worsened last fall: It was a bid to woo shoppers and liquidate inventories. A year later, many have slashed inventory levels—but most are keeping or expanding free shipping, even as the costly benefit cuts into profits.

Macy's Inc.'s Bloomingdale's chain, now gives shoppers who use its credit card and spend more than $150—and noncardholders who spend more than $300—free shipping. Nordstrom is lowering its free-shipping threshold to $100 from $200 on Nov. 2 for the holiday shopping season. Luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue says it has increased the frequency of its sporadic free-shipping offers since last September. "We believe, especially in this kind of economic environment, people appreciate that value even more," says Denise Incandela, president of Saks Direct.

Read the rest of the article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703816204574485233689205064.html

Graphic showing the benefits of working with a team-oriented web design company

2009-09-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

I just added this section our our website design services page. This helps explain the benefits of working with us and our clients/partners.

Our page explaining our website design services can be found by clicking here.

1. There is strength in numbers. The sum of our network provides leverage with brands, manufacturers, and distributor.
2. We can easily and quickliy compare retailer information (e.g. sales statistics) to notice new developments.
3. We are in touch with your industry’s needs, and can quickly add features to help you boost sales based on experience with our other similar clients.
4. We work with many brands and retailers. Our past experience with these clients increases the likelihood more brands and retailers will join us in the future. This helps brands and retailers since we can share the brand’s products with retailer's websites via our Bridge tool.

Alert About Potential E-mail Scam to Phish for Customer Information

2009-09-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

I received this e-mail today, and it's likely spam. This is similar to the other phishing schemes I've seen that mention a purchase and desire to pay before a product has even been chosen.

e-mail from:
tri3p@yahoo.com
Subject: information

Dear sir/madame,

I need your information if I'am order for your T-shirts product but for a small quantity
with delivery to Singapore and payment by t/t or credit card can you process or not.
Pls your comment as soon as your receive this e-mail and thank you for your kind
attention.-

Regards,
J.Richard

Our clients' sales are up +22% while the industry is down -35%

2009-08-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

Sales for the overall home goods industry are down by 35%, but for our Bridge partners they are up.
Please see the accompanying chart. This shows a distributor's average retailer sales. Most of the distributor's retailers are down 35%, whereas our Bridge retailers' sales are up from 22% to 98%. These numbers are based on the first seven months of 2008 vs. the first seven months of 2009.

About the Solarek Studio Bridge
Solarek Studio invented the Bridge to share products between brands/manufacturers/distributors and retailers. Instead of retailers adding a product, their website gets the product information from the network. We offer 6,000+ product via our Bridge system for sale on retailers' websites.

To learn more about the Bridge, please click here.

Does Nike's Facebook application steal your data?

2009-08-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

Please see the attached screen shot. This is the sign up form for Nike's Ballers Network, a Facebook application that lets you arrange basketball games with others. To use the app, I was surprised I had to allow the app to pull all my profile information, photos, friends info, and other content. Does that seem a bit intrusive? I can go to a web page anonymously, but this app downloads my life before I can even view it.

Nice article on how to make a website easy to use

2009-08-16T19:12:00.001-07:00

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/

Use the five senses to sell

2009-08-16T15:35:00.001-07:00

Many of my clients show pictures of their items in an effort to sell it. Humans do have sight, but they also have other senses. How can we depict what we're selling in terms of the 5 senses, such as what sound the product brings to mind (a luxury silver set may be accompanied by picture of a piano at a luxury restaurant with dinners in the background), taste (pictures of food), and touch (pictures of things that elicit the feel of the item). I don't think a website needs a piano soundtrack. We can better associate items with the product's aura. Otherwise, we are just showing one element of the product's experience.

Tracking abandoned shopping carts and retrieving lost sales

2009-08-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Below is a good article from Inc. magazine about tracking abandoned shopping carts. How can the home goods industry get sales from this area?

Excerpt:
The median abandonment rate is 40 percent for consumer-products companies and 58 percent for service companies, according to a recent survey by MarketingSherpa, a research firm based in Warren, Rhode Island. During periods of economic decline, shopping cart abandonment tends to spike, because potential customers jump to other sites to check prices or simply decide not to buy.

..."For any site that does e-commerce, this is the first thing you should look at," says Reid Carr, the CEO of Red Door Interactive, a San Diego Web consultancy.

Full article:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090701/turning-web-browsers-into-buyers.html

iPhone website to browse and sell home goods

2009-08-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is a magazine's web site is that is formatted for the iPhone:
http://iphone.newyorker.com
The nice thing about this site is that it takes all pre-existing web content and formats it for the iPhone. This is good because:
- this approach reduces the cost of developing content for the iPhone. Usually, one would pay $20k to build an iPhone app.
- this keeps all info on the web, thereby keeping the information in the same medium. In contrast, if you had an iPhone app, you would then have your website in one format AND an iphone app (which uses different programming language).

I'd like to see a web page like this made for home goods items, that allows people to browse products on their iPhone and buy them.

Website design comparison: before and after pictures

2009-08-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

Home page:

Results page:

Shopping cart page:

Please click on the images above. They show the comparison of our clients website before and after we redesigned their retail home goods website.

Will fine china manufacturers and retailers offer 'secret' discounts?

2009-08-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

This article below from today's NY Times shares how brands and retailers in our market are offering 'discreet' discounts. How do we act on this info below to compete?

August 1, 2009
High-End Retailers Offering More Discounts

By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Scott Stuart was at the Bloomingdale’s store in Manhattan when a salesman sidled up to him, said a private sale was under way and offered him a discount on the slacks he was inspecting.

That was last autumn, and in the months since, he has been inundated with similar discount offers. If a salesman does not make one, he has learned to ask.

“In another market, I would have found it very inappropriate” to ask for a discount, said Mr. Stuart, a bankruptcy lawyer who works in New York and Chicago. “In this market, I’m finding it incredibly appropriate.”

Please read the full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/business/01secret.html?scp=1&sq=High-End%20Retailers%20Offering%20More%20Discounts&st=cse

How good or bad is your plate for the environment?

2009-07-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

Wal-mart is going to put green ratings on its products, and accordingly is asking suppliers to report the product's environmental impact. What if tableware companies did the same? Is a Bernardaud plate more environmental than a Pickard one?

Please see article below. The logic is three-fold: 1) it helps the planet 2) makes your product cost less 3) puts you ahead of competitors. Consumers care what a product does to the environment.

Excerpt:
Wal-Mart Thursday will tell suppliers they must calculate and disclose the full environmental costs of making their products, then allow Wal-Mart to distill the information into a rating system that shoppers will see alongside prices for everything from T-shirts to televisions.

The questionnaire Wal-Mart sends suppliers is below.

Please find the full article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124766892562645475.html

Sustainability Index: Supplier Assessment Questions
Energy and Climate

Reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions

1. Have you measured your corporate greenhouse gas emissions? (Y/N)

2. Have you opted to report your greenhouse gas emissions to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)? (Y/N)

3. What are your total greenhouse gas emissions reported in your most recently completed report? (Enter total metric tons CO2e, e.g. CDP6 Questionnaire, Section 2b -- Scope 1 and 2 emissions)

4. Have you set publicly available greenhouse gas reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets? (Enter total metric tons and target date; 2 fields or leave blank)

Material Efficiency

Reduce waste and enhance quality

Scores will be automatically calculated based on your participation in the Packaging Scorecard in addition to the following:

5. If measured, please report total amount of solid waste generated from the facilities that produce your product(s) for Wal-Mart Inc for the most recent year measured. (Enter total lbs)

6. Have you set publicly available solid waste reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets? (Enter total lbs and target date; 2 fields or leave blank)

7. If measured, please report total water use from the facilities that produce your product(s) for Wal-Mart Inc for the most recent year measured. (Enter total gallons)

8. Have you set publically available water use reduction targets? If yes, what are those targets? (Enter total gallons and target date; 2 fields or leave blank)

Natural Resources

High quality, responsibly sourced raw materials

9. Have you established publicly available sustainability purchasing guidelines for your direct suppliers that address issues such as environmental compliance, employment practices, and product/ingredient safety? (Y/N)

10. Have you obtained 3rd party certifications for any of the products that you sell to Walmart? If so, from the list of certifications below, please select those for which any of your products are, or utilize materials that are, currently certified.

People and Community

Responsible and ethical production

11. Do you know the location of 100% of the facilities that produce your product(s)? (Y/N)

12. Before beginning a business relationship with a manufacturing facility, do you evaluate their quality of production and capacity for production? (Y/N)

13. Do you have a process for managing social compliance at the manufacturing level? (Y/N)

14. Do you work with your supply base to resolve issues found during social compliance evaluations and also document specific corrections and improvements? (Y/N)

15. Do you invest in community development activities in the markets you source from and/or operate within? (Y/N)

Web design spam from Redesign Unit

2009-06-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

I received this spam below today. It came to multiple clients' e-mail addresses, from different "marketing directors," including "john" and "jason".

.......................

Hello,

We at Redesign Unit have successfully redesigned websites and enhanced brand appeal. Our exotic and appealing web designs cater to ever changing audience tastes with times. Our clients have benefitted from increased traffic to their websites giving them the much desirous business growth.

Our team of professionals has expertise in redesigning websites by adopting emerging technologies to relive the experience of your peak time business. They have experience in providing world-class solutions and have launched websites for start-ups and non-starters, successfully.

Our professionals will offer you a wide range of cost effective solutions from redesigning your home page and desired inner pages to redesigning the entire website as you may choose.

Your decision for redesigning your website for business growth is at the least cost of $100.00.
You may slice it to XHTML / CSS at a reasonable $100.00 extra added to the design cost.

If you have decided to redesign your website choose Redesign Unit to get the best for business growth and enhance your brand appeal.

John [Marketing Director]
Email : info@redesignunit.com
URL : www.redesignunit.com
CONFIDENTIAL : If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please erase all copies of the message and its attachments and notify us.

Giving tableware and home good products green ratings and labels

2009-06-08T18:36:00.001-07:00

The Ad Age article below describes how the European Commission may propose a system to put color-coded labels on cars designating how 'green' they are. What if this was done for home goods brands? For individual products?

View Ad Age article

Europe May Put Green Grades on Car Ads
Proposed Rating System Would Color-Code Brands by Their Carbon Footprints

By Emma Hall
Published: June 23, 2008

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- In a move that could have strong repercussions for the $1.6 billion U.K. auto-advertising industry, the European Commission is proposing a rule that would require ads to make brands' eco-statuses clear, with a "climate-hazard alert" in the form of a color-coded traffic-light warning system.

Chris Arnold: It could be good for automakers to include green info in ads like this one from Honda.

Under the proposed system, red dots would flag high-pollution cars, and green dots would signal low-emission vehicles, rated by carbon emissions and fuel consumption. Automotive is the fifth-largest ad category in the U.K. and accounted for 7.5% of ad expenditures in the region last year, according to the World Advertising Research Center quarterly advertising forecast published in connection with the Advertising Association and Nielsen.

Under the proposal, as much as 20% of each car ad would be reserved for information about the vehicle's carbon footprint. The European Commission may also introduce restrictions on the types of images used in car ads. For instance, environmentally unfriendly images of powerful cars traveling at high speed could be outlawed.

The commission has just started an eight-week period of consultation on car advertising, talking to the public as well as media owners and advertisers. So far, only print media is being considered.

Indicating there is a strong push under way to implement the plan, the commission said in a statement: "We hope to have it ready and agreed before the end of the year."

Greener Europe
While the proposal might seem harsh by U.S. standards, consider that Europeans already drive more-fuel-efficient cars. According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor quoting the International Energy Agency in Paris, the average light-duty vehicle gets 32.1 miles per gallon on the highway in Europe compared with 21.6 in the U.S.

A similar traffic-light system is already in use in the U.K. for food, flagging products that are high in fat, salt or sugar. The system, which is used on packaging and to determine advertising restrictions, has been controversial because of disagreement over the criteria used. The proposed car-ad rules could provoke similar outrage among automakers.

Honda has pursued an eco-friendly message in its ads but does not welcome the new proposals. "We would much rather have a self-regulated approach than new legislation imposed on us," a spokesman said. "CO2 is not the only discriminator when deciding on a car purchase -- otherwise everyone would be buying hybrids -- and yet we know many buy small diesels due to price considerations. We would welcome a consistent, self-regulated approach that is clear but does not ram information down people's throats."

Credibility gap
Chris Arnold, creative partner at London-based ethical-marketing specialist Feel, said: "Consumers are confused. They are looking for simple solutions and guidance. Trust is the biggest problem: The majority of people don't believe car ads' green claims, and honest accreditation would sort out the truth from the blag."

Mr. Arnold said the traffic-light system could work well for auto marketers. "Car companies are coming to realize that no one believes their claims," he said. "If the values are clearly defined, then they will all be competing on a level playing field."

A survey by environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth last year found that 55% of car ads in U.K. national newspapers were for the vehicles that pollute the most -- cars that emit more than 165 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. A similar survey two years earlier found that 56.6% of car ads fell into that category, so there has been little voluntary improvement from car brands.

Checkout page encouraging FaceBook participation

2009-06-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

This screen shot shows a recent purchase that I made, and the confirmation page. I like how the site offers the ability for me to share my purchase on my FaceBook page. After all, everyone likes to share what they've recently purchased. Will they do it via this fashion?

Google friendly websites for "Raynaud tableware"

2009-06-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

We build websites that rank well in Google. This screen shows our clients' ranking for "Raynaud tableware" in Google. Our clients sell Raynaud tableware, and they occupy four out of the top six spots on Google's 1st page.

Chrsyler using its website to help predict real world car sales

2009-05-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

The following article shows how Chrysler is using its website to drive real world sales. Excerpts:

Nearly six months before the launch, a team at Organic started calculating how much Chrysler would need to spend on marketing to sell its target number of vehicles by figuring out how much Web traffic the company needed to generate.

When the ad campaign went live, the system started calculating whether the commercials were generating enough Web visits. Certain Web activities have become a good barometer for car sales, says Jason Harper, group director of analytics at Organic.

...

The agency estimates that about 70% to 80% of consumers research vehicle purchases on the Web, providing an indicator of whether visits translate to sales.

The TV spots, appearing during NFL football games among other places, didn't result in enough traffic to its Web site, so Chrysler made a couple changes. One included tripling the amount of time that the URL appeared during the TV spot from two to six seconds. Chrysler also tweaked the homepage of its Ram Challenge Web site.

...

"Instead of looking in the rearview mirror, you have a heads-up display," says Greg Green, managing director at VivaKi, Publicis Groupe's digital marketing unit.

In refining its model, Organic learned how certain ads spur people to visit the Web. It then figured out which Web activities translate into actual auto sales. Some actions, such as scheduling a test drive online or entering a ZIP code to locate a dealer, are a good predictor of sales. Other actions, such as pricing a vehicle or playing with the colorizing features on the site, occur earlier in the shopping process and aren't a direct indicator of serious buyer interest.

The result was a system that predicted 2008 sales within one percentage point of actual sales figures for its Jeep brands, Chrysler says.

/////////////

Please view the full article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124259801821028103.html

By EMILY STEEL

With a reduced advertising budget and a desperate need to increase sales, Chrysler is relying more heavily on new technologies to predict how ad purchases will translate into sales.

A team of statisticians, economists, software engineers and media planners at Chrysler's digital marketing agency, Organic, has designed a "media modeling" system that helps the company calculate the best ways to allocate its marketing dollars. The system calculates how much ad spending is needed to meet certain sales targets and then analyzes how both online and offline ads affect Web activity and, ultimately, sales.

Car makers and other companies have used forecasting tools for years, but digital ads have ramped up the systems' sophistication and accelerated reaction time to the data gathered.

Chrysler is using digital-ad agency Organic to try to make the most of its marketing. Organic's technology was used in Chrysler's campaign to promote the new Dodge Ram truck, shown above in a video.
"As a marketer, it helps me be smarter about the dollars I need to reach the sales goals we are responsible for," says Susan Thomson, Chrysler's director of media and events. "It gives you some science."

Chrysler, operating under bankruptcy amid a government bailout, proposed spending $134 million in advertising during the nine weeks it expected to be in bankruptcy court, but the U.S. Treasury's auto-industry task force said Chrysler can spend only half that amount. As it was, its total U.S. ad spending had fallen to $801.3 million in 2008, down 34% from $1.2 billion in 2007, according to WPP's ad tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence.

So Chrysler is deploying the new technology to calculate its ad budgets and tweak its marketing campaigns. A campaign to promote the recent launch of the new Dodge Ram truck illustrates how it works.

Nearly six months before the launch, a team at Organic started calculating how much Chrysler would need to spend on marketing to sell its target number of vehicles by figuring out how much Web traffic the company needed to generate.

When the ad campaign went live, the system started calculating whether the commercials were generating enough Web visits. Certain Web activities have become a good barometer for car sales, says Jason Harper, group director of analytics at Organic.

The agency estimates that about 70% to 80% of consumers research vehicle purchases on the Web, providing an indicator of whether visits translate to sales.

The TV spots, appearing during NFL football games among other places, didn't result in enough traffic to its Web site, so Chrysler made a couple changes. One included tripling the amount of time that the URL appeared during the TV spot from two to six seconds. Chrysler also tweaked the homepage of its Ram Challenge Web site.

The agency says it noticed an uptick in traffic to the site.

When it started building the technology, Organic, an Omnicom unit, was trying to figure out the impact of the auto maker's online ad dollars. As the model evolved, Organic started including broader sets of data, ranging from sales data related to advertising in traditional media like print and TV to economic factors that affect car sales, such as housing starts, fuel prices and unemployment rates.

Ad agencies long have used complex models to calculate the best ad spending mix, but the rise of digital media has revolutionized these systems. Instead of waiting weeks or months for data, marketers now can get them in real time, allowing them to adjust their ad spending or the creative elements of their campaigns on the fly.

"Instead of looking in the rearview mirror, you have a heads-up display," says Greg Green, managing director at VivaKi, Publicis Groupe's digital marketing unit.

In refining its model, Organic learned how certain ads spur people to visit the Web. It then figured out which Web activities translate into actual auto sales. Some actions, such as scheduling a test drive online or entering a ZIP code to locate a dealer, are a good predictor of sales. Other actions, such as pricing a vehicle or playing with the colorizing features on the site, occur earlier in the shopping process and aren't a direct indicator of serious buyer interest.

The result was a system that predicted 2008 sales within one percentage point of actual sales figures for its Jeep brands, Chrysler says.

Offer your customers perks for visiting your website often

2009-05-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

This article below from Ad Age tells about a mall that gives points to people for visiting it. Accrue enough points, and the person get perks, such as valet parking. We heave heard about giving points after making a purchase. The idea of offering them just for visiting seems novel, and worthy of considering for websites. I'd like to see some home goods companies offer a similar arrangement to the general public and retailers. For example, visit 20 times in one month, and earn free shipping on the next purchase.

How One Mall Got People to Buy Stuff, and How You Can, Too
For Starters, You Can Make Your Guests Feel Wanted

by Jonathan Salem Baskin

Published: March 23, 2009
I visited a mall in Glendale, Calif., a few weeks ago and had a novel experience: I saw customers.

The mall was the Americana at Brand, and I was there because I believe the smartest, most cutting-edge solutions in marketing today come from asking a classic, old-fashioned question: How can we get people to buy stuff?

Jonathan Salem Baskin is the author of "Branding Only Works on Cattle" and blogs about marketing at Dim Bulb.
The Americana's answer has been to redefine the very definition and purpose of a commercial development. It's not satisfied simply hosting retailers. It has elected instead to go downstream to talk to consumers (they're called "guests," to differentiate them from the mall's tenants, who are actual "customers"). That strategic decision guides its operations, staffing and tenant relationships and gives it the wherewithal to prompt and reward guest visits.

It's a heckuva lot more than marketing, but one of the fundamental pillars of its strategy is a guest-loyalty program. That's right: Shoppers accrue points and gain elite status levels for visiting the mall. More than 100,000 people have availed themselves of the opportunity. Why more developments haven't done something similar is beyond me (not to mention the municipalities that host vacation destinations, museums or any locations that need to incentivize repeat visits).

Full article:
http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=135341

Website design comparison example

2009-05-10T15:44:00.001-07:00

We are working on this design for a home goods company. The current website is at left; our proposed updated design is on the right. Notes about the design:
- I updated logo to be clean, contemporary, and fresh.
- I put the hyperlinks to the categories and the brands directly on the home page. This is good for ranking well in Google.
- I was sure to put lots of smiling faces on the home page, and in the top banner. This builds trust with shoppers.
- The phone number is big and easy to read in the top right. The website is a sales processing tool, as well as as sales lead generator; phone call sales are just as good as web sales.
- There is a product slideshow.
- The footer of the page shows a map of the store's location. People are more likely to trust a store which they feel they can visit or sense that others are.

Purchasing inquiry e-mail a possible scam

2009-05-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

We received this message below twice. It's possibly part of a purchasing scam to fish for e-mails or more. I'd be wary of messages like this.

from:
stelcomms@gmail.com

Hello,

I'm from Singapore and I want to order from you.
Could you ship worldwide to Singapore or Indonesia...???
Could you ship the item by FedEx Delivery...???
Do you accept credit card payment...???
I'm waiting for your next response today. Thanks and have a nice day.

Sincerely

Nicholas Tan

New Sales Begin on the Transaction Confirmation Page

2009-04-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

This image shows a screen shot of what the confirmation page looks like at CafePress.com after you make a purchase there. Please see how CafePress.com encourages purchasers to hand over friends' e-mails.

Putting your company on Facebook

2009-04-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

The top brands on Facebook accorinding to a recent Ad Age article are Barack Obama, Coca Cola, Nutella, and Dr. House. How can your brand join the ranks? Well, first you have to setup your Facebook page. I've attached some screen shots above to show how two premium brands are running their social networking. I've also attached the Chicago Market's page. Please feel free to offer your thoughts.

Gucci Facebook page

Porsche Facebook page

Chicago Market's Facebook page

Ticketmaster: master of extra fees?

2009-04-08T10:25:00.001-07:00

This blog's purpose is to help the home good industry better market and conduct business online. We can often learn from other industries. Please see attached screenshots. I was buying tickets to a concert, and Ticketmaster is charging fee upon fee, and even wants to charge you extra for printing your tickets. They charge a convenience fee AND a processing fee. Aren't those the same? I hope the artist Neko Case whom I bought tickets to see will pick a new ticket processor. However, this is often setup by the venue, so she'd have to totally change venues to accomplish this. This shows what a stranglehold Ticketmaster has on the industry. To come back to our focus, should home goods companies be charging customers for printing receipts? I think not. However, maybe there are services provided that are not being charged for, and can be. Ticketmaster can bring out the worst in us, but maybe also any unfound revenue.

Brides increasingly use the web to learn and shop

2009-04-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

The attached image shows what mediums are growing in terms of
influence among brides and which are shrinking. The full article can
be found online at AdAge.com.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=135372

Taking this information one step further, if brides are one of the
legs of the tableware industry, then maybe the tableware industry
should start its own bridal site–as Orbitz.com was started by the
airlines to counter all the independent travel sites. Because whoever
controls the bridal sites will have a large say in directing brides in
what to buy.

Sferra e-news shares line of credit fees

2009-04-01T09:00:00.001-07:00

The message below was sent out to retailers yesterday by the linens brand Sferra. I was intrigued by how open they were about their credit line. Excerpt:
"...We have over $3 million outstanding on our line and an interest charge of $15,000 per month falls right to the bottom line. Our "affordable luxury" pricing policy affords no financing of past due amounts."

.....................

March 31, 2009

Dear Client:

As you probably have noticed during the first three months of 2009, SFERRA is truly committed to supporting you through exceptional deals that help improve your margins and profitability. So far, we have offered:
- Free shipping and extended payment terms on orders placed at trade shows.

- SILOs (Special In-Line Offers) providing 25% discounts on styles that would normally be stocked in stores.

- An unprecedented 10% off our top 10 best-selling items in white and ivory.

And now, something we have never done before - 50% off selected in-line table linens just in time for the holidays.
And we plan to do even more, so watch for our emails with "SFERRA" being the first word in the subject line.

What you may not know is that SFERRA carries a significant line of credit to maintain the stock levels you have come to enjoy over the years. This line of credit is secured by "eligible" accounts receivable balances, which are less than a certain number of days outstanding. Once an account ages past a certain point, we can no longer use it as collateral. Therefore, it is imperative that we remain diligent in our collection practices. Presently, we have over $3 million outstanding on our line and an interest charge of $15,000 per month falls right to the bottom line. Our "affordable luxury" pricing policy affords no financing of past due amounts.

The extension of credit on accounts can be costly in financial terms, human resources expended in collection efforts, and in maintaining good customer relations and, to that end, we want to share our policy so there are no misunderstandings. Here are SFERRA's updated collection procedures effective immediately for all customers:
- If an account becomes past due (invoices age beyond the net terms) the account is placed "on hold" and no orders will be released.

- If an account becomes 15 days past due (45 days from invoice date in Net 30 Days accounts) a non-reversible late fee of $35 is posted to the account. Of course, it is not our desire to collect any fees. We are only asking that all customers comply with their agreed upon payment terms and this policy will help to enforce that.

- If an account becomes 30 days past due, a non-reversible 1% monthly (12% annually) interest assessment is posted to the account.

- If an account becomes 60 days past due, an additional non-reversible 1% monthly (12% annually) interest assessment is posted to the account.
Interest expenses will continue to be charged at 30-day intervals until the past due amount, late fee charge, any service charges, and accumulated assessments are paid in full.
Payments must be in our hands (not in mail and not post-dated) on the dates noted.
Customers with an "on hold" status may still get necessary orders released by making a credit card payment for the current order, plus a minimum of 15% of the past due balances. Nancy Kowalski will do everything she can to work with our valued customers, as the goal is not to stop anyone from doing business; it's to ensure that we both remain healthy during these challenging times.

We trust that you will appreciate our concerns. We want to be able to help our customers going forward, but we need for everyone to be fair with us.

In the event you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at 732-225-6290 (x1026) or sschneider@sferra.com. Thank you for your support.

High Google Ranking for Tableware and Home Goods Brands

2009-03-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Last week we did an assessment of how a client's web site is ranking in Google. We are pleased with the results for SallieHome.com.

On Sallie's site, we offer 54 brands for sale.
Eighteen of these brands (that link to her site) appear on Google's first page of results. That is a 33.3% first page ranking.

Nine brands appear on page two. That is 16.5%.

Thus, the 50% of Sallie's brands when Googled appear on page 1 or 2 of Google and create sales leads to her company.

Internet Scams: Fake Orders and Freight Company Inquiries

2009-02-26T13:20:00.001-08:00

Below is an e-mail tread that tracks the evolution of a scam. It's from a Larry Wedge, who suggest he's a business person in Sweden. I became suspicious after he asked that I e-mail a very generic sounding address about getting freight charges. He then called me 3 times on Tuesday, and 3 times yesterday. After I sent him the e-mail asking for detailed info, he stopped calling. Notably, what number did he call from?

Larry's phone number: +233278525083

I looked it up, and +233 may be the country code for Ghana. Quite far from Sweden!

Wikipedia has a nice article about how these scammers string you along, and eventually get your money:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fraud

Stay clear.

.....................................

Hi Larry,
Thanks for the call this morning.
We need a few things here to move forward. I need this information to complete required paperwork here in my office. I appreciate your time on this.
1) What is your office telephone number in Sweden? Do you have a company website?
2) What is the name of the shipping company, its address, and its contact info?
3) Do you plan to use the messenger bags as gifts, to sell them in a store, or something else?

We appreciate your business.
Thank you,
Jason

On Feb 24, 2009, at 2:51 PM, larry Wedge wrote:

Hello
I will like to order 200 Qty of the bags@ $7,998 I will like you to contact (exportfreightco@gmail.com) with your store location, the total weight on the bags , the delivery address below and request for a freight quote. Please let me know how much it will cost me in totality to have these bags order and shipped.

Stortorget 2-4,SE- 831 30
Östersund (Sweden)

Kind Regards
Larry Wedge

--- On Tue, 2/24/09, Jason Solarek wrote:
From: Jason Solarek
Subject: Re: Special Order.......
To: larry.wedge@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 4:14 PM

Dear Larry,
Thank you.
To confirm, you'd like this bag:
Correct?

Since you are ordering 200 bags, you are eligible for a special discount price.
Normal price:
Discount price:

We do accept credit cards. Credit card fees are not included in this discount
price, and credit card processing fees are added to the discount price. We
appreciate your understanding. We also accept checks, although this may take
longer to process.

How would you like to proceed, sir?

ps–How did you hear about us?

Thank you!

Jason

Jason Solarek

On Feb 23, 2009, at 2:04 PM, larry Wedge wrote:

>
> Thanks for your reply ,And i went through your website and i will like to
order Amsterdam Airport Netherlands AMS Messenger Bag with the price of $39..99
and i will like to order 200pcs and i will like you to email me back with the
total cost for the 200pcs excluding freight cost..Hope to hear from you soon
>
>
> --- On Mon, 2/23/09, Jason Solarek wrote:
> From: Jason Solarek
> Subject: Re: Special Order.......
> To: larry..wedge@yahoo.com
> Date: Monday, February 23, 2009, 6:41 PM
>
> Hi Larry,
> What items would you like?
> Can you please send me a website link to the item you'd like?

>
> Thank you!
> Jason
>
> On Feb 23, 2009, at 11:53 AM, larry Wedge wrote:
>
>> Thanks for you email,And i will let you to email me back with the
price of each so that i will let you know quantities i need from you Thanks
>>
>> --- On Mon, 2/23/09, Jason Solarek wrote:
>> From: Jason Solarek <
>> Subject: Re: Special Order.......
>> To: "larry Wedge"
>> Date: Monday, February 23, 2009, 2:34 PM
>>
>> Dear Larry,
>> Thank you for writing me.
>> What location would you like written on the bag?
>> How many of the bags would you like?
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Jason Solarek

>>
>>
>> On Feb 23, 2009, at 5:52 AM, larry Wedge wrote:
>>
>> > GOOD DAY,
>> > MY NAME IS LARRY WEDGE AND I AM LOOKING TO ORDER TO
SOME(Travelling Bag
>> Model No.:CTO905) WHICH WILL BE PICKED UP FROM YOUR STORE.THESE
(Travelling Bag
>> Model No.:CTO905) ARE TO BE
>> SHIPPED TO MY NEW COMPANY IN (SWEDEN) WITH THE
>> SHIPPING I WILL RECOMMEND A SHIPPING COMPANY TO YOUR LOCATION FOR THIS
PICK UP
>> ,CAN YOU GIVE ME THE PRICE OF THE (Travelling Bag Model No.:CTO905)
THAT YOU
>> HAVE FOR SALE.
>> >
>> > DO YOU ACCEPT CREDIT CARD FOR THIS ORDER?
>> >
>> > HOPE TO READ FROM YOU SOON AS THE QUOTE IS READY.
>> >
>> > COMPANY NAME: Larry&Son..Co.Ltd
>> > COMPANY ADDRESS: Stortorget 2-4,SE- 831 30 Östersund (Sweden)
>> > COMPANY LOCATION:
>> Sweden
>> > THANK YOU,
>> > LARRY WEDGE
>> >

Tableware industry jumps on the Obama products band wagon

2009-01-02T15:58:00.001-08:00

You've probably seen more Obama t-shirts then Che ones over the past year. Now a tableware company is joining the movemnet by offering Obama-Biden inauguration gifts. The gifts, produced by Pickard China, include two plates and a wine coaster.

Please click here to view the Obama collector gifts and plates by Pickard

Note: Pickard China is a Solarek Studio client, and we built their Obama tableware blog.

If Video Games Have to Abide by MAP, So May Tableware Brands

2008-12-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

The ruling by the Supreme Court last year on MAP (or MSRP) has left some scratching their heads about whether they can set minimum prices on home goods and tableware. According to the article below, it appears so.

Excerpt:
But in a controversial decision last year, the Supreme Court opened the door for manufacturers to set minimum prices as a means to enhance a brand's image and for retailers to make enough profit on their merchandise to provide better customer service. The 5-4 ruling reversed a 96-year-old precedent and said cases should now be considered on a case-by-case basis, weighing the impact of pricing policies against free-market principles.

In the wake of the decision, many manufacturers have instituted pricing minimums for advertising or sales.

Please find the full article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123007559680631543.html

Pizza Hut sells more than $1 billion in pizzas online

2008-12-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

The Ad Age excerpt below states that Pizza Hut has sold more $1 billion in pizzas online. All those college kids that buy pizza online will soon move on to to buying other items online, such as home goods. What can we learn from Pizza Hut's tactics?

"Pizza Hut, which recently crossed the $1 billion benchmark in online sales, is launching a Facebook application that allows fans to place orders without leaving their profiles. Although online ordering isn't new -- the chain has offered it in some form since 2001 -- Bob Kraut, VP-marketing communications at Pizza Hut, said the bulk of that $1 billion in sales has come in the past 18 months. The chain is also launching text-ordering capabilities and e-gift cards, which can be purchased, exchanged and redeemed online."

Full article:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132322&search_phrase=pizza%20hut%20facebook

2008 Online Sales to Grow 12% Over 2007

2008-11-30T15:55:00.000-08:00

From Advertising Age magazine regarding online sales:

Overall retail sales are projected to grow only 2.2% by the National Retail Federation, making online growth projections of 12% downright cheery.

Deloitte's annual holiday survey also presents several compelling reasons to maintain spending online. The category is ranked by consumers as the No. 2 shopping destination this year behind discount department stores. A full 21% of consumers plan to shop primarily or entirely online this season, up from 19% last year. And 24% of total dollars spent this season are expected to be spent online, compared with 22% last year.

"Retailers should be viewing [online investments] as a way to capture lost sales and prevent them from going to a competitor," said Mr. Silverman. "I'm not going to say the growth in online is all additive -- a lot of it is shift. However, if you haven't been investing in your online store, that shift may not go to you, it may go to a competitor."

Read full article

Restaurant in New York City Could Stand Under Rihanna's Marketing Umbrella

2008-11-30T15:18:00.000-08:00

I designed a line of plates for a New York City restaurant last year, but never launched the line. One of the reasons was that the owner wanted only to cash the royalty checks for having his restaurant on a plate sold in retail stores, but he didn't want to make any instore appearances to promote the line. The article below about Rihanna's umbrella product line sheds light on why the owner's objection spelled doom for the product line. . . If not for Rihanna's in person store appearances, the product would've not gained the momentum it needed to be profitable. I wish the restaurant owner would please take a lesson about product promotion from Rihanna.

Excerpt from Ad Age
Rihanna previewed the new line via an in-store promotion at New York's Macy's Herald Square.

Northlich also organized a meet-and-greet session during Fashion Week 2008. That gave Totes ink in fashion magazines and a mention in celebrity-gossip blog PerezHilton.com. The day after that mention, totes.com shot to more than 24,000 daily hits from its average of 3,000.

Online Shoe Seller Can Help Luxury Home Goods Get Leg Up

2008-11-30T14:57:00.000-08:00

The article below about Zappos.com offers ideas to help online stores increase their sales. These strategies include:
- free shipping
- free returns
- a more generous return policy
- free upgrades on shipping

Do these services above cost $ to offer? Yes, however, for a $1 spent, they may give back $5 in sales. That is how Zappos.com sees it. And they do almost $1 billion in sales.
Also, check out their website: http://www.zappos.com/
The design is not sleek; it's down right functional and structured for Google's crawler.

Notice:
- the popular search links at the top. google pays close attention to links at the top of pages.
- the blue underlined links. very simple. everyone knows blue underlined means it's a link.
- navigation on the RIGHT side of the screen. why? most people keep their mouse icon on the right side of the screen, since the scroll bar is there.

You're welcome to post your thoughts.

............................
Excerpt:
The approach is producing results, as customers keep coming back. Mr. Hsieh says some 75% of Zappos' sales come from repeat customers. This year, the number of paying customers has grown to 8.2 million, which, Mr. Hsieh notes, means that 3% of the U.S. population is shopping at Zappos.

Free delivery, free returns and a 365-day return policy have been the cornerstone of Zappos' customer-centric approach. It even quietly upgrades the experience, from four-to-five-day shipping to second-day or next-day shipping, to wow customers. Its customer-service center is staffed 24/7 with 500 employees -- about a third of the company's payroll -- answering 5,000 calls a day.

"Those things are all pretty expensive, but we view that as our marketing dollars," Mr. Hsieh says. "It's just a lot cheaper to get existing customers to buy from you again than it is to try to convince someone [new]."

......................................

ZapposCustomer Service First -- and a Daily Obsession
By Natalie Zmuda
Advertising Age

Published: October 17, 2008

Imagine a retailer with service so good its customers wish it would take over the Internal Revenue Service or start up an airline. It might sound like a marketing fantasy, but this scenario is reality for 9-year-old Zappos.com.

Read full article here

LCR in Connecticut chooses Solarek to design retail website selling home goods

2008-11-20T15:46:00.000-08:00

LCR Collection, which has two stores in Connecticut (Westport and West Hartford), selected us to design, build, and maintain their website. The two images above are the initial design choices. LCR chose the design to the right.. Please visit their website as we continue to update it: www.lcrcollection.com/

Pickard China, the oldest manufacturer of tableware in the United States, selects the Solarek Studio to design website

2008-11-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

Pickard China, the oldest manufacturer of tableware china in the US and the producer of the White House's private tableware, asked Solarek Studio to design its new website.
Above are three images:
- Home page
- Find a Sales representatives map page
- Monogram china page

The site is built to be rich in keywords and well indexed by Google. There is an administration system to let employees easily update content and product photos.

You're invited to view Pickard's site by clicking here.

Cross Promoting Tableware Brands with Food and Beverage Brands

2008-10-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

This article below from the New York Post shares that Facebook is looking to promote music to its customer base. Why? Facebook, like MySpace, knows that people that use its service are young and probably listen to and buy a lot of music. Facebook is anticipating a customer desire, and trying to offer one more way to satisfy him or her-and make money in the process.

I wonder if there is some room for the tableware industry to learn from this. It's not rocket science to realize that people are going to cook or server food on the plates bought at 41 Madison or 7 West. But, have you ever seen a food or beverage company (Godiva? Omaha Steaks? Veuve Clicquot?) sponsor an event at one of these buyer meccas? Also, have you we seen a tableware company recently reach out to a food or beverage company and offer to do a cross-promotion? If you know of an example, please let us know by leaving your comment here.

Also, what other cross-promotions could exist?

Thanks, J
.................

FRIENDS OF THE BAND
By BRIAN GARRITY
New York Post

October 17, 2008 --
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg is plotting a possible push into the digital-music business in the wake of MySpace's launch of MySpace Music last month.

The surging social-networking giant is talking to a number of song-streaming services and music community sites, including Rhapsody.com, iMeem.com, iLike.com, and Lala.com, about an outsourcing deal that would more deeply integrate their music experience into Facebook, sources familiar with the situation said.

Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives also have been busy taking meetings with the major record companies about the strategy.

The company has a checkered past with the recording industry. In August 2007 it was forced to pull the plug on Audio, a popular third-party application that allowed users to upload and stream music, in the face of label complaints of copyright violation. Record execs protested that Facebook was engaging in "massive infringement."

That history may impact current talks, especially as record companies seek leverage for participation in the upside of any new Facebook music offering, sources said.

But a formal Facebook foray into digital music would be decidedly different than MySpace Music, which is a joint venture between the online powerhouse (which, like The Post, is owned by News Corp.) and the world's four biggest record companies - Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI.

Unlike MySpace, which traded equity in its music venture in exchange for licenses to stream ad-supported songs, Facebook doesn't want to bog itself down in securing their own licenses to distribute music, or building a proprietary service from scratch, sources said.

Insiders familiar with the talks further cautioned that nothing is imminent, and Facebook may ultimately walk away from the plan altogether.

The company has been toying with the concept off and on for the better part of the year, but Zuckerberg's interest in the concept is believed to have peaked now that MySpace is live with its service.

Facebook declined comment on the situation specifically, but a company spokesman said in a statement that "music sharing plays a part" in the site's mission and that it is "always talking with potential partners."

Facebook already permits a number of digital music services - including Rhapsody, iMeem, iLike, and Lala - to have a presence inside the site, allowing users to download applications to their profiles that can stream music to other users.

Reps for all four companies declined comment.

brian.garrity@nypost.com

Manufacturers and retailers seem to be able to set minimum prices (MAP / MSRP)

2008-10-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

An article in today's Wall St. Journal sheds light on home goods manufacturers' ability to fight discounting.

Excerpt:
Blocking discounting used to be clearly an anticompetitive practice, but a Supreme Court ruling last year changed things. The court said it wasn't illegal for manufacturers and retailers to agree to minimum prices, but that such agreements must be examined case by case for possible antitrust violations. The case involved a handbag maker, Leegin Creative Leather Enterprises Inc.

Manufacturers have grown more interested in establishing minimum advertised prices since the ruling, which provided "a new safety net for MAP adopters," says Quentin Johnson, a Minneapolis attorney who advises companies on pricing-policy matters.

The full article can be found here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122472033433560649.html?mod=testMod

Be Wary of E-mails Promising High Search Engine Ranking

2008-10-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

A client of mine received the e-mail below. I have not contacted the group listed in this notice, but I will note a few things from my experience:
1) Dan promises to "hand deliver" a high ranking in Google for apparently any search term, but if I Google this guys name and business ("Dan Linx Monster"), there are NO matching results in Google.

For a guy that promises high search ranking, why does he–accoridng to Google–not even exist?

2) People may search for the terms he suggested "[insert location] bridal store", but the more common search term is a brand or product category. Think about it, if you're a bride, you know where you'll register. If you're a customer seeking to buy an item for a bride, you know what she wants and will Google the brand name of the item she wants. You won't Google her home town name and look for a bridal store there. Dan, if you're reading, that is some free advice.

3) Dan goes on to say, "We personally own 10,000+ websites and offer private linking to over a thousand website owners just like yourself. " Oh really, do you know of any company besides a front company that offers such operations? These 10,000 sites are most likely those generic, annoying sites that you hate to land on. You immediately click off them. So, first, Dan's company is filling the Internet with crap sites. Thanks, Dan. But, those sites with their links are seen by Google, and therefore putting your company's name on these sites will maybe boost your site ranking. However, two caveats: do you think that Google is aware of these shitty sites trying to game the system? To quote Sarah Palin, "you betcha!" So, Google may not even pay attention to these 'false' sites, and may even penalize these sites listed on these false sites. Theoretically, your site could be reduced in ranking for joining this racket. Secondly, websites should be spending money to build a better site with more keywords and more information. They should not spend it on the services of these networks since these false sites, if they did help, are only band-aids on the issue. You start throwing money into this and you're never correcting the real issue: your site needs the funds. Then, once you put your money into these false sites, they can pull the rug out from under you at any time. In essence, you are paying them to gobble up traffic for your keywords, and then they can sell their false pages to the next person. What can you do to stop them? Nothing. Invest in what you own: your site.

Thoughts or comments on the above?

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan
To:
Sent: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 11:19 am
Subject: Question regarding your website

I was looking at websites under the keyword "[insert location] bridal store" and came across
your site [insert site name]. I see that you're ranked # 57 in Google.

I'm not sure if you're aware of why you're ranked this low but more
importantly how easily correctable this is.

There's no reason you can't have a top three ranking for this keyword
based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.

You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you're
interested I can help you with this...

I'm talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites is what produces the rankings you are looking for

The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking....and I can hand deliver these quality links to you

We personally own 10,000+ websites and offer private linking to over a thousand website owners just like yourself.

I didn't send this email out to thousands of people but I am currently reaching out to a list of your 'keyword competitors' as well. But you're my favorite and you're the one I really favor and the one I see can monetize the targeted website traffic this can deliver.

I have a phone # from your website...is it ok if I give you a call?

If so, just hit reply and give me the green light to call or give me a call 800-543-4559

I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it's without risk for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes

I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?

Sincerely,
Dan
Linx Monster
800-543-4559

P.S - I'm talking about keywords that produce the right kind of traffic...

Traffic that delivers leads, sales and profits. Because getting a ranking that doesn't generate leads and sales is worthless

Is it Ok to give you a call? If so, fire back a reply and we can talk
or give me a call 800-543-4559

Free Shipping Offers From Online Merchants Will Increase

2008-10-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

A recent article in Advertising Age questions whether free shipping from websites may be less common due to rising fuel costs. I believe free shipping with and without conditions will increase. Free shipping has more to do with getting around MSRP than actual shipping costs. For a retailer to cut out free shipping, theoretically the free shipping would have to account for 50% of an item's price thereby canceling out any profit for the retailer. (I'm assuming that the item in question is marked up 50%, as most retailers do.) Fuel surcharges may be up, but I foresee a 1/3 of online retailers continuing to offer free shipping without conditions and 70%+ to offer it with conditions. In these tough economic times, retailers will choose to cut further into their profit as long as it doesn't completely nix any profit. Why? Most online purchases can be drop shipped, so it's not skin off the retailer's nose to make as little as 10% on an online order (granted, they must deter returns with a restocking fee). From my client base, I can see that retailers offering offer free shipping fare better. This also helps in Google. If you saw two Google results, and one offered free shipping, which would you click?

Furthermore, it's worth noting from the article that "consumers preferred free shipping over coupons, buy-one-get-one-free promotions, free gifts, gift cards or early-bird specials, according to a Shop.org study. In the same study, 35% of consumers said they would spend more online because of free-shipping offers, while 13% said they would spend less because shipping charges were too expensive."

In sum, I think free shipping is here to stay, and will likely continue to grow.

....................

No Such Thing as Free Shipping?
Facing Rising Costs, Online Retailers Likely to Attach Strings to Holiday Promos

By Natalie Zmuda

Published: September 22, 2008
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Retailers counting on online shopping to buoy sales in a tight economy are wrestling with a big problem: free shipping.

Shipping discounts, which have become a mainstay of the holiday season, are being carefully analyzed by retailers as they weigh the benefits against the mounting costs. Transportation costs have skyrocketed in the last year, with diesel prices rising 50% year over year. In response, fuel surcharges applied by UPS and FedEx have more than doubled to 10.5% for ground packages and 34.5% for air packages.

Read full article at AdAge.com - click here

ROI on Digital Trounces Magazines by 'Factor of 2', also?

2008-09-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

This article from Ad Age below says that online advertising delivers twice the return on investment as television. Few tableware companies advertise on television, but many do advertise in magazines and trade publications. My question: does online advertising also beat out magazines? I would imagine so. I can't imagine that a tableware ad in Tableware Today for $500, $1,000, or $1,200 can deliver as much as that amount spent online. So, the question is: does anyone in the tableware industry read Ad Age? If I were the tableware magazine people, I'd hope not. And if they do, I'd be preparing for a change in our my business model.

Kellogg Says ROI on Digital Trounces TV by 'Factor of 2'
Food Giant Plans to Cut Commercial Filming up to 20% in the Next Year
By Emily Bryson York
Published: September 06, 2008

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- After taking a long look at where it's getting the best return on its marketing investment, Kellogg Co. has decided to move more money online and spend less on TV.

Kellogg Chief Marketing Officer Mark Baynes said last week that the company's online ROI for the Special K brand has surpassed that of broadcast TV in the past 18 months "by a factor of well over two." Speaking at a Lehman Brothers Back to School Consumer Conference about how Kellogg is trying to boost marketing efficiency, Mr. Baynes said: "Maybe the biggest opportunity over time is driven by what the digital environments afford, and we are working to embrace this aggressively."

$1M for every three films
Among the initiatives he laid out to cut costs was a plan to slash the company's TV-commercial filming 10% to 20% in the next year. Kellogg does 350 to 400 shoots every year, and Mr. Baynes said the company will save about $1 million for every three films he's able to excise.

Full Ad Age article below:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=130795&search_phrase=kellogg

The U.S. Army Defeats Tabletop

2008-09-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Ad Age article below talks about Sears and the U.S. Army's partnership to sell Army approved clothing. Read: "U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division" on t-shirts, etc. Regardless of your personal view about war and/or the U.S. Army, this initiative says that the Army is being creative in marketing. How does the army relate to the tableware or home goods industry? I'm not referring to camouflage plates. What the Army sees and fine tableware doesn't is the need to: 1) Appeal to youth, 2) Use a 'personality' or 'brand' to move goods. In this case, Army is the brand, and it's not waiting for people to enlist to market it-that would be too late. One definition of marketing is creating an atmosphere so that when presented with a purchase opportunity, people need no further 'education' and make the purchase. By hitting 'customers' early and in outside avenues, the Army's work is cut out for before the candidate comes into the recruiting offer. Allison Zisko says in this week's HFN annual tabletop report that tabletop industry sales are down and don't look good for the future. The matron's market and disappeared, and the industry still expects to sell product off the back wall shelf. Why? There is no branding, no marketing, no personality in the business. Note: having a company CEO show up at a Paris tableware show is not marketing. The army- maybe to the detriment of our youth-is surely not taking this philosophy. They are building new routes to get their brand out via clothing and video games-to then in turn bolster their true purpose (delivering soldiers). I am amazed at how the Army is a better marketer than home goods companies.

Ad Age article about the Army's marketing plans:

Now You Will Be Able to Buy Official U.S. Army Clothing at Sears

Available for Men, Women and Boys, Military-Branded Apparel Will Support Programs for Troops

By Natalie Zmuda

Published: September 02, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Soldier chic isn't a new fashion trend, but now consumers will be able to buy officially endorsed military merchandise at their local department store.

The U.S. Army has officially licensed its First Infantry Division marks and insignias to Sears.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. has signed a deal with the U.S. Army to launch the All American Army Brand's First Infantry Division clothing collection. It marks the first time the U.S. Army has officially licensed its marks and insignias; licensing fees will be used to support military programs for troops and their families.

Coming to Fashion Week
Craig Israel, president of Sears Apparel, said the brand will be prominently featured during the retailer's Fall Forward fashion exhibit at next week's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. The line will also be included in future marketing campaigns, including those slated for the holiday season.

Full article:
http://adage.com/print?article_id=130696

Designers-like Consumers-Use Online Resources

2008-09-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

The article below from today's Times explains how fashion designers are using the Web to design new collections. I imagine the same could be said of home goods and tableware designers. When more and more people spend time online instead of in front of a television or reading, how could the Net not be an increasing influence? This same trend extends to pre-shopping habits. When people plan to pay $300 for a tabletop setting, they go online first and Google the brand and/or keywords. What comes up first 'wins.'

New York Times
September 8, 2008
Designers of High Fashion Enter the Age of High Tech
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
Early this summer, Gianfranco Zani, director of trend and concept at the women’s clothing retailer White House Black Market, was looking for ideas for the company’s fall 2009 collection. He logged onto Stylesight, a subscription-based trend forecasting Web site for the fashion industry.

Mr. Zani browsed through photos, articles, color swatches, fabric samples and sketches and concluded that next year’s shoppers would probably favor a “moody” color palette of gray-greens and purples with a shot of pink, the return of the hourglass silhouette and fabrics printed with faux textures. White House Black Market, owned by Chico’s FAS, started designing the fall line based on these trends.

Read the full article here

List of Top 15 Tableware Retailers in 2007

2008-09-02T13:28:00.001-07:00

A tableware and home goods brand would ideally have a product that can sell in most of these 15 stores. Note: sorry about writing over some of these store names. I was actually crossing off which ones would not sell fine porcelain tableware.

Price Fixing, MSRP, and the Tableware Market

2008-08-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Tableware manufacturers often want to set retail prices, but are afraid of being accused of price fixing. According to the article below from today's Wall St. Journal, due to a court decision last year manufacturers now are much more likely to be able to set prices. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts about the article below. (The story appears on the front page, if you'd like read the print version.)

/////////////////

Wall St. Journal
Price-Fixing Makes Comeback
After Supreme Court Ruling
By JOSEPH PEREIRA
August 18, 2008; Page A1
Manufacturers are embracing broad new legal powers that amount to a type of price-fixing -- enabling them to set minimum prices on their products and force retailers to refrain from discounting.

For the better part of a century, punishing retailers for selling at cut-rate prices was an automatic violation of antitrust law. However, a Supreme Court ruling last year involving handbag sales at a Dallas mom-and-pop store, Kay's Kloset, upended that original 1911 precedent, potentially altering the face of U.S. discount retailing.

Read the full article at WSJ.com

Shoppers Go Online to Save Gas Money

2008-07-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

This article below from the today's NYT echoes a conversation I had this week with a major tableware brand. The head of the company said that he can see a day when the traveling home goods salesperson will not travel. Instead, the person will do his or her sales presentations over the phone and web. Samples will be shipped via UPS or FedEx. Otherwise, sales reps have to drive to and from meetings, and this gas money may eat up 25% of their commission. Oddly, few sales reps have seen this fate, and so they do have not embraced the web yet. They should be, or they may have to drive out to find a new job.

July 19, 2008
To Save Gas, Shoppers Stay Home and Click
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
To go shopping these days, more Americans are trading in their car keys for a keyboard.

Online shopping is gaining at a time when simply filling up a gas tank to head to the mall can seem like a spending spree.

A number of retailers — including Gap, Victoria’s Secret and J. C. Penney — are experiencing double-digit sales growth at their shopping Web sites, creating a surprising bright spot during an otherwise gloomy time for sales in brick-and-mortar stores.

One popular strategy for getting shoppers’ attention is offering free shipping, in contrast to many other businesses, like airlines, that are adding surcharges and other fees to offset their higher costs.

The Web sites of Neiman Marcus, Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Bon-Ton Stores, Aéropostale, American Eagle Outfitters,Target and Kmart were all offering a deal on shipping this week.

“With gas being such an issue, we know that mall traffic is down more than off-mall traffic,” said Mike Boylson, chief marketing officer for J. C. Penney, which had an 8.7 percent increase in Internet sales in the first quarter of this year.

That is in contrast to a 7.4 percent decrease in sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales and a measure of retail health. “We see more people turning to online because it’s much more efficient in terms of time and money,” Mr. Boylson said.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/19shop.html?scp=1&sq=shoppers%20click&st=cse

Williams-Sonoma Investing in Web in Down Times

2008-07-16T08:19:00.001-07:00

An article by Barbara Thau in HFN from June 2008 points out that while Williams-Sonoma, parent company of Pottery Barn and West Elm, is facing shrinking sales, the company is still investing in the web.

Excerpt:
"Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s net revenues decreased 4.4 percent to $781.8 million. Net earnings fell 42 percent to $10.4 million.

Direct-to-customer net revenues, which includes catalog and Internet revenues, fell 4.0 percent to $348.2 million.

Across its formats, the retailer continues to bet big on e-commerce, with site upgrades set for Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen in the third quarter."

Full article:
http://hfnmag.com/index.php?id=128&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1491&cHash=78f5ae7ef8

Teroforma.com

2008-06-09T15:54:00.001-07:00

This new home goods website Teroforma means well, but the navigation is horrible. They should've minded everyone's warnings about sites done entirely in Flash.

https://teroforma.com/

The article below is what HFN's Allison Zisko had to say about it. If Ms. Zisko or anyone at Teroforma has any thoughts, I'm happy to take posts on this. Thank you.

...................

New Site Promotes the Customized Table

05/19/08
By Allison Zisko

NEW YORK–A newly launched Web site, “designed by consumers for consumers,” promises a new way of thinking about and shopping for tabletop.

Teroforma, established online in March by former investment banker Andrew Hellman, offers an interactive forum that enables consumers to mix and match dinnerware, glassware, flatware and linens on a virtual table, while learning about the artisans who designed them.

Hellman said the site was borne out his own frustration buying home furnishings: After moving back to the United States after several years abroad, he and his wife were hard-pressed to find furnishings in the mid to upper price range that offered a design statement but were also casual and easy to care for. He said the same held true for tableware.

Hellman grew up in the hotel business (his father ran the Waldorf Astoria hotel) so he is familiar with the tabletop industry, while his Swedish-born wife is “passionate about Scandinavian design.”

The pair quit their respective jobs and established a business that set out to answer the questions they think most shoppers have in common.

Read the rest of article at HFNmag.com

Apple's Online Store to Show Fellow Shoppers

2008-04-28T10:24:00.001-07:00

This prospective online application by Apple shows the importance of 'group thought' and the 'mob atmosphere' in shopping. In brick and mortar stores, we like to see what others are looking at and buying. Websites currently do that by listing the Top 10 Most Viewed Stories, or Most Popular Products. Showing how many people are online and/or where they are in the store is one more way to help people feel comfortable online.

Orbitz Checkout Procedure

2008-04-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

I was impressed by how many upsells Orbitz tried to offer me when I bought this ticket.

Amazon.com Offers In-Store Home Goods Spying Tool

2008-04-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

This should be of interest to retailers:

AMAZON TAPS TEXTERS IN STORE-SPY SERVICE
from AP
April 3, 2008 -- SEATTLE - Amazon.com's brick-and-mortar competitors have yet another reason to fear the Web: a new service that lets shoppers compare prices and buy things with a few quick taps on their cellphones.
Amazon TextBuyIt lets people text the name of a product, its description or its UPC or ISBN to 262966 (that's "Amazon" on the keypad) from anywhere their mobile phones work - including from inside physical stores.

If Amazon stocks matching items, the service returns two results at a time. Shoppers can immediately buy one of the first two of the selections by texting back the number "1" or "2," or they can ask for more by texting the letter "M."

New TextBuyIt customers will be prompted to enter the e-mail address associated with their existing Amazon account plus a shipping ZIP code. The service then calls them and walks through the checkout process using an automated voice system. Shoppers get confirmation by text message and e-mail.

From there, the customers can check on order status on the Web site of Jeff Bezos-run Amazon.com.

Howard Gefen, director of Amazon mobile payments, would not directly answer when asked if the service is meant to extend Amazon's reach by poaching customers browsing at bookstores or big-box electronics retailers.

"We think this is a great experience

Wall St. Journal Pop-up Ad

2008-03-07T14:35:00.001-08:00

This is a screen shot for the Wall St. Journal home page today. On it you'll see there is an advertisement for the Museum of Beauty website by Konika. This larger ad showing a scultpture appears if you roll over the smaller black ad to the left of it. The ad that pops up is animated, and shows you amble information that could not be shown in the small black box.

What Home Goods Can Learn from Network Solutions

2008-02-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

I attempted to buy a domain from Network Solutions, and these are their check out pages. They are mercilessly marketing add-ons. They are the cablemen of domains.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business Suite

2008-02-15T07:59:00.000-08:00

David Pogue in his New York Times column this week reviews the new Microsoft Office Live Small Business suite. He first notes:

Half the small businesses in America, and 70 percent of one-person businesses, don’t even have Web sites. Obviously, the percentage that exploits Internet marketing tools like e-mail newsletters, search engine ads and online stores is even lower.

The immediately brings to mind all the mom and pop and small tableware companies. For them, I initially thought this suite may be a good fit. However, upon review of the sample websites provided in the article, I see that there is a problems with this service. Namely: bad design is bad design, whether you get it for free or not. Most business owners do not have the know-how to design a web site, lay out information, make the site Google friendly, nor compose pictures for the web. There are millions of factors that make a website work, and to put up a lackluster site may in the end just bring more disappointment and frustration. The equivalent would be offering someone a kit to build a car. Sure, you can do it, but do you really want to?

What I do like about the service rather than the website tool is the e-mail marketing tool. Pogue writes:

Office Live offers an easy-to-use e-mail marketing system that includes newsletter design and address database. You can also track the results of your e-mail initiatives: how many people opened your mail, as well as how many clicked a link in it. Microsoft even does the e-mail sending for you, so your e-mail won’t get blocked by your own Internet provider as spam. That’s all free during the current testing phase, but Microsoft will charge a monthly fee after that.

I do wish to know for my clients how many people opened an e-mail or did not see it because it was blocked. I do sell a tool to clients that can do this, but it's not free...Microsoft just hurt one small business.

I imagine once Microsoft starts to charge for this, the pricing will be similar to http://www.myemma.com/.

Click here for the NY Times review of Microsoft Office Live Small Business