How to Position Your Online Retail Business When the Economy is Down

I was just listening to the late night news, and they reported that the upcoming Holloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons may not be merry holiday seasons for retailers. As the financial markets crisis deepen, there are fears that people will not spend as much this year for gifts, holiday preparations and other items (worse, they may not have anything to spend at all).

So how do you position your online retail store to ride out this tide of bad news and emerge with strong sales during the holiday season? It's a tough ordeal but here are some suggestions:

• Emphasize the convenience and savings in gas, time and money for shopping in your online store instead of driving to the mall. There are no lines, no parking hassles, no parking fees, and no crowd. Plus, no waiting for the store to open because your ecommerce store is open 24/7. Use this pitch in your email campaigns and in the copy of your website
• Depending on what you sell, present yourself as a one stop shop where customers can get most (if not all) of the gifts for their list. If you have not done so, invest in technology that will allow your online store to include gift recommendations and guides as well as gift finders.
• Consider free shipping -- with conditions. You may choose to give free shipping only to those who spend a certain amount (e.g. $75 worth of items) or to your email subscribers or to your best customers (assuming of course you are tracking who your best customers are)
• Give free gift cards or discounted offers on the next purchase. In lieu of free shipping, you can offer a discount for repeat purchases within a certain timeframe. Since the customer has bought gifts for the people in their list, why not entice them with discounts so they can buy gifts for themselves instead?
• Promote gift cards. Gift cards have become the gift of choice of many gift givers. It is so convenient, and ensures that the recipients will actually love their gifts.
• Review your sales copy. Make sure you clarify your store's value proposition. The last thing you'd want is for the customer to check out your product -- and then buy it from another store. Put yourself in the shoes of the customers and ask, "Why should I buy from you?"

And if you haven't done so already, start marketing your holiday sales now.

10 Reasons Why Online Retail Entrepreneurs Succeed -- and Fail

The book "How to Start a Home-Based Online Retail Business" by Jeremy Shepherd is one of my favorite startup guide for starting an ecommerce business. The author writes from the perspective of someone who will run the business from a small office tucked in the kitchen with the inventory located in a spare room or basement.

The author lists a good list of 10 reasons whu online retail merchants will make it big:

1. Good product niche
2. Good web site design
3. Excellent customer service
4. Good market research
5. Competitive prices
6. Innovative Marketing
7. Established word-of-mouth buzz
8. Good product sourcing
9. Good business and financial planning
10. They never lose their entrepreneurial spirit

He also puts out a top 10 list of mistakes made by online entrepreneurs

1. Lack of product research
2. Not finding a product niche
3. Lack of familiarity with online retail
4. Poor web site design
5. Lack of financial planning
6. Poor customer service
7. Ignorance of online legal issues
8. Lack of competitive edge
9. Lack of commitment
10. Lack of passion

One thing that I will add to the list of common mistakes of online entrepreneurs is the failure to understand the site's metrics. Big companies often pore through their data trying to understand how customers purchase through the site and make the necessary adjustments.

Small business owners, on the other hand, commonly fly through the seat of their pants praying their Hail Marys that customers come to the site and buy. But they don't have the knowhow, interest or time to carefully analyze at what point of the buying process they start losing their customers, or why their customers are abandoning the shopping carts at a high rate.

Small online entrepreneurs may not have the deep pockets to use the latest technologies in their website but there are tools such as Google Analytics that can give them a perspective of how visitors are using their site and what kind of visitors convert into buyers.

43 Website Features of Top Online Retailers

Ever wonder what sets big businesses apart from small businesses? Of course they have the resources, and with it they can get the best talents and top-of-the-line technology to outsell othe retailers and develop features that can only turn a small business green with envy.

Take a look for example at online businesses. Beyond their sleek and professional design, leading online retailers use a number of features and functionalities that sets them apart. Some of these features are something small businesses can adopt, while others are certainly beyond the reach of small online retailers:

1. 360-degree view
2. Advanced search
3. Affiliate program
4. Auction
5. Blogs
6. Catalog quick order
7. Color swatching
8. Coupons/rebates
9. Customer reviews
10. Daily/seasonal specials
11. Dynamic imaging
12. Email a friend
13. Enlarged product view
14. Frequent buyer program
15. Frequently asked questions
16. Gadgets
17. Guided navigation
18. Interactive catalog
19. Interactive kiosks
20. Keyword search
21. Mapping
22. Mobile commerce
23. Mouseover
24. Online circular
25. Online gift certificates
26. Outlet center
27. Pre-orders
28. Product comparisons
29. Product customizations
30. Product ratings
31. Product recommendations
32. Product wikis
33. Registry
34. Site personalization
35. Social networking
36. Store locator
37. Syndicated content
38. Top sellers
39. Videocasts
40. What's new
41. Widgets
42. Wish Lists
43. Zoom

Top Products Sold on the Internet

I just got my copy of the Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide Report (2008) http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/ and the report has a lot of interesting data on selling online.

Using 2007 data, the top product categories in terms of sales and the top 2 ecommerce merchants for that category are:

• Mass Merchant/Department Store = $29.309 billion [Amazon.com; Sears.com]
• Computers/Electronics = $23.337 billion [Dell; HP Home and Home Office Store]
• Office supplies = $13.970 billion [Staples; Office Depot]
• Apparel/Accessories = $12.359 billion [Victoria's Secret; LL Bean]
• Books/Music/Video = $4.142 billion [Netflix; Blockbuster]
• Housewares/Home furnishings = $3.891 billion [Williams Sonoma; Crate and Barrel]
• Specialty/Non apparel = $3.416 billion [Musician's Frend Inc.; Oriental Trading]
• Health/Beauty = $2.453 billion [Quixtar; Avon]
• Food/Drug = $2.372 billion [Drugstore.com; Peapod]
• Sporting Goods = $1.535 billipn [Cabela's Inc; Recreational Equipment]
• Hardware/Home Improvement = $1.366 [Home Depot; Lowe's]
• Flowers/Gifts = $1.350 billion [1-800-Flowers.com; FTD Group]
• Toys/Hobbies = $1.123 billion [Toys R'Us; American Girl]
• Jewelry = $1.051 billion [Blue Nile; Bidz.com]

How the Big Boys Do It: Web Site Features for Online Retailing

Internet Retailer magazine made a list of the top tools used by the Top 500 retailers on the Web. It's an interesting look at how the top guns of online retailing are doing it, and can give the small online retailers on the features they need to consider for their websites (if they are not yet doing them).

These features are as follows, ranked according to the number of top 500 retailers that are using them:

1. keyword search
2. daily/seasonal specials
3. enlarged product view
4. what's new
5. affiliate program
6. advanced search
7. online gift certificates
8. rich media
9. outlet center
10. email a friend
11. coupons/rebates
12. top sellers
13. site personalization
14. alternative payments
15. store locator
16. wish list
17. customer reviews
18. catalog quick order
19. mapping
20. product customization

Selling Online: Lessons from the Top Home Furnishing Stores

My all-time favorite home furnishing store, Bombay Company, discontinued its web operations after the company filed for bankruptcy in October. I guess my purchases cannot keep the company afloat :o) Too bad, as I am a big fan of their cherry-colored furniture and stylish home decor items.

But there are still a wide variety of home furnishing stores out there. And Internet Retailer magazine has a very interesting article identifying the elements that work for these stores and make them stand out from the rest.

• LillianVernon.com = adds features to make the shopping experience better for customers such as reminder service, product suggestions, customer reviews and a tool that allows customers to see how a name would look on a personalized product.
• Crate & Barrel = to make their Web and store operations more seamless, added photos of individual stores in their store locator section, information on store promotions and made maps more interactive.
• Oneida.com = uses technology to help customers identify the right products such as their Virtual Table Setting tool and Pattern Identifier
• RestorationHardware.com = added an interactive catalog that allows shoppers to flip through the pages, apply virtual sticky notes and include comments about items on the pages

All the above features are seemingly must-haves if you want to improve customer experience and your bottomline. Of course, implementing any or all of them will depend on your technical and financial resources -- and with small businesses, that is always a big IF unfortunately.

You can read the full article at Internet Retailer

Whitepapers on Doing Business Online

If you are selling or doing business online, you may want to check out the following white papers from different vendors/companies:

• Post-Holiday Paid Search Strategies
• MarkMonitor Brandjacking Index
• Online Businesses Discover Direct Response TV
• The Effect of DRTV on Search Engine Marketing
• The Evolution of Landing Pages
• 2008 ePayment Management Guide

Some of the above will require registration, while some are direct links to the white papers. Skip through the promotional blah-blah, and you will find some gems from these papers. Be prepared though to get some phone calls from these vendors (umm .. "I just downloaded your white paper, and has no interest in your business whatsoever.")

What Consumers Want in their Online Shopping Experience

Sterling Commerce and Deloitte Consulting collaborated on a very interesting survey entitled "What Consumers Want in their Online Shopping Experience?" that looks at consumers attitudes and preferences when shopping online.

The findings of the paper are as follows:

• Shoppers have three major areas of dissatisfaction: lack of information availability, out of stock items, and lack of assistance/poor customer service
• In terms of importance, consumers rank online notifications higher than product rating and review features
• Tracking an order is a necessity
• Out of stock sale items decreases consumers' willingness to shop with that retailer

If you are selling on the Web, this free paper (requires registration to download) is a must-read

Most Effective Web Tools for Online Selling

Catalog Success magazine has an interesting article on the web tools and features that can bring the most returns for your ecommerce website.

According to the article "Maximize Your Web Tools" by Larry Kavanagh, here are the tools that your website must have in order to sell more (however, the article fails to mention vendors for these tools):

1. Customer rate and review feature increases product conversion 42 percent:

• Visitors to pages with highly rated products (between 4-5 stars) are 42 percent more likely to buy the product; while visitors to low rated products are only half as likely to buy
• Drive traffic to highly rated products by featuring them in your emails, placing them on the homepage and using them as landing pages for paid search.

2. Wish list helps you acquire new customers inexpensively

• Allows you to cross sell more effectively to help customers add more items to their wish list easily
• If the wish list tool allows customers to email and share their wish list to friends, it could be a way to entice new customers into the site.
• It also increases sale as friends and family of customers who created wish lists can now find the task of gift buying easier

3. Guest checkout which makes the shopping experience faster and better by giving shoppers the option of buying without creating accounts

• By allowing people to buy without asking them first to create accounts, you can boost sales by as much as 24%

4. Triggered emails result to 3-10x the response rate of bulk emails

• There are tools that integrate browsing behavior of the user on the site with emailing that proves to be significant revenue generator
• The downside is that these tools have premier prices, which may be out of reach by small online sellers

5. Personalized recommendations

• Use your shopper's past history to populate parts of your homepage with items the shopper may be interested in

6. Making full use of AJAX

• AJAX can make customers' shopping easier through quick orders

The above are tools that bigger businesses employ in their online stores to increase sales and improve conversion. Alas, many of these tools may be beyond the budget of small online ecommerce owners. But nonetheless, if you can afford to splurge on a web app for your store, consider the above tools.

Read the full article at Catalog Success magazine

How to Create Effective Calls to Action in Your Website

A "call to action" is defined as an activity requested of a consumer. It could be purchasing a product, requesting for information, completing a survey, or subscribing to an online newsletter. Call to action is your signal for communicating to visitors or users what you expect them to do.

An effective call to action can increase your conversion rates, whether that means sales, leads or however you define the end-goal. Examples of call to action include:

• "Order today before supply runs out!"
• "Click here to subscribe!"
• "Sign up now and get your free gift!"
• "Join our affiliate program."
• "Add to your shopping cart."

But how do you craft an effective call to action? Here are some strategies for improving your call to action:

• Instill a sense of urgency. The sooner you can make them respond, the better. Otherwise they can forget or be distracted by other matters.
• Consider using exclamation marks -- just don't use them excessively where every sentence ends with an exclamation mark.
• Be specific about what you want the visitors to do. "Click here" or anything as vague as this phrase just won't do.
• Pump it up: there are no rules that "call to action" signals need only be 1 sentence. Explain why the person has to do what you want them to do in a paragraph or even more.
• If you are using buttons or graphics, make it stand out in terms of its design and colors. Make it stand out from the page.
• If you are not using buttons, highlight the text by using colors, underlines, even arrows to make the call to action distinguishable and attention-calling.
• Don't put your call to action for the last, especially if the visitor will scroll down just to see it. Put the call to action above the fold.
• D0 a test to see which phrase, manner of presentation, and location within the site works the best.
  

How Shipping Options Can Improve Online Sales

According to a USPS study "Increase Sales with Online Buyers" one of the effective ways that can boost your online sales is by offering customers shipping choices. About 60% of consumers and 72% of business owners want to choose their delivery company when making an online purchase.

The 2-page paper, however, did not elaborate on what it means by "shipping choices." Reading it, my first thought was whether choices mean offering customers with a choice to select USPS, UPS, Fedex or some other shipping companies. I've never seen such an offering -- same price point but different shipping companies. Most online businesses including the giants such as Amazon.com offer shipping choices in terms of bundling, and shipping times, with the fastest option being the most expensive. I know I've received packages from Amazon using their Free Super Saver shipping option from UPS, USPS and Fedex -- without me knowing (or choosing) which carrier they will use.

The study also found that 43% of online shoppers abandon their purchase at checkout, and the main reason cited is the high shipping costs. Even me, I abandon the shopping cart when I get a sticker shock in terms of shipping.

The study has some important findings -- just skip through the self serving "USPS is the best" section.

Elements of Effective Customer Service on the Web

As a business owner, it is important is to keep customers happy. Give customers what they want, and your business will thrive. As such, having a plan on how to actually provide great customer service is a must.

If you are selling online, here are the elements of an effective customer service plan:

• Contact Us section that either provides a form to allow for easy contact or email address for contacting you -- and you actually respond to it
• Customer service contact telephone number (better yet, a 1-800 number) located in your homepage, or even in all your pages. If you can offer live chat capabilities, so much the better.
• List of hours when customers can contact you
• Inventory status notification - don't put that the item is available when the customer has to wait 2 months to get the item because it is out of stock
• Quick and easy checkout process
• Privacy policy
• Clear returns policy
• Fast shipment of items, possibly between 3-to-5 business days
• Notification of status of shipment of the items via email

Using Viral Marketing for Your Business: Lessons from Jockey.com

Online videos are all the rage nowadays; and businesses are jumping into the bandwagon.

According to the research of Nielsen Company, an estimated 81 million people who access the Internet over broadband in the U.S. watch broadband video at home or at work -- and growing fast. Hence, more and more businesses are harnessing the power of videos to create buzz for their products and attract a whole new demographic, mostly the younger set.

One example of how a business uses online videos is Jockey's new site StopSquirming.com
http://stopsquirming.com/ . The site is a tongue-in-cheek approach that focuses on one of the most common problems of mankind -- uncomfortable underwear. It is also the platform for introducing their new product: squirm-proof underwear.

This new website is an excellent illustration of how a business can tap the power of online videos and how to use the Web 2.0 approach of interactivity by allowing users to upload videos and vote for what they think is the best.

The things I like about this approach used by Jockey are:

• With this new site, Jockey is addressing a common problem their target market faces
• When introducing a new product, it must first and foremost address a need; and then decide how to attract potential customers.
• It allows them to attract a new and younger video-watching audience for their brand.
• The site is a great viral marketing tool: the topic alone and the videos can be something that younger folks would love to talk about and share with their friends.
• The site provides a branding opportunity for Jockey as their brand name can be found all over the site
• Site encourages shopping at Jockey.com as a prominent link at the top navigation area urges visitors to shop at Jockey.com
• The site is fun -- not only the videos but the "Grundy Grievance" service that allows users to send underwear problem alerts to their friends

While we may not be able to implement something as finely packaged as this Jockey website, the ideas behind the site are definitely worth looking into. We need to first and foremost look at the needs of our customers -- find a problem that they have, and then offer a solution to address these needs. Jockey succeeds in taking a fresh spin to introducing a new product, and adopting an approach that is sure to be a great hit with their younger target audience.

How to Use Videos to Boost Your Ecommerce Sales

There's no doubt that online videos are growing in popularity, led by the video sharing site YouTube. The key question for website owners and marketers, particularly those selling online, is: how do we use videos to boost sales of our website?

I suggest you read our newest article "How to Use Video and Rich Media to Drive Online Sales and Loyalty" for ideas on how online videos can be used to improve conversion and sales. The article also discusses how other sites, mostly the big boys, use these videos on their websites. The article also provides some tips on how you can leverage YouTube to market your products.

5 Trends in Online Retailing Small Businesses Should Consider

If you are selling online, here are trends you need to look out for:

1. Using videos to generate online sales = The increasing use of broadband has significantly expanded the use of videos and rich media. The key now is to think how to use these formats to increase sales in your website. Video sites such as YouTube attract gargantuan traffic and could be used to increase brand awareness, and ultimately drive sales. One way videos can be used to boost sales is through the creation of product demonstrations. Marketing Sherpa has written a great article on how to create online videos for your products.

2. Using social networks to boost sales = Social networking sites such as MySpace generate tremendous traffic, including your very own target audience. Study how the big and other innovative small businesses are creating personal profiles in MySpace and similar sites and using these to drive traffic and sales to their websites.

3. Using product reviews to create more loyal customers = Amazon has made product reviews an important tool of online selling, and big sites such as Overstock.com and others are using the same technique. In a study published by Foresee Results in January 2007, they found that "shoppers on sites with customer product reviews were 5% more likely to buy online, 5% more likely to buy from the retailer the next holiday season, and 4% more likely to purchase from the retailer the next time they are in the market for similar merchandise."

4. Increasing importance of multichannel marketing = This is an area where the big boys can sufficiently harness to further their brand and reach. Customers can order at CircuitCity.com and pick up the items from the nearest Circuit City store. Customers can buy from Gap.com and return the items in their nearest Gap stores. The key is integration of the different sales mediums. There are a lot of small businesses that operate catalogs and online stores or physical and online stores -- and they need to enhance the synergies between these mediums.

5. Growing mobile commerce. Using cellphones to buy items online may still be in its infancy in the United States, but it is happening elsewhere such as Japan. While there may still be a lot of technical hurdles to overcome, tapping the phones and turning them into a sales machine is something that small businesses need to look into, and how to get in on the game.

Basic Steps to Starting an Online Store

Many people wants to start their own online stores, whether clothing, gift basket or toy stores on the Web. Using a clothing store as an example, here are some basic steps to creating your online storefront:

1. Define your business - The very first step is to always know what it is you want to do. This includes knowing what type of clothing business and what market will you tap (online clothing shop for plus sized women, for casual men, for babies, etc)

2. Research your market - Understand your target customer as well as know your competitors -- who they are, what are they doing and how are they presenting their store, how are they marketing, are your target market buying online and from where

3. Arrange your startup capital. If you think your idea can work, then it is time to start the ball rolling. If you need to apply for a loan, prepare a business plan. If you have savings or will ask loan from your family and friends, a business plan is optional but it can help you think through the business. There are no grants for starting an online store to sell clothing

4. Line up suppliers - where will you get your merchandise. You may not be able to arrange an account at this stage without a sellers permit, but at least find out who are they. Attend clothing tradeshows so you can meet manufacturers and other industry players personally http://www.apparelsearch.com/trade_show.htm

5. Start the legal and regulatory processes - Register your business and your assumed name (doing business as), get a sellers permit from your state, find out reporting schedules for tax purposes, decide on the legal structure of your business (e.g. sole proprietorship, LLC, S corp, C corp, etc). Go to your county.

Note that some trade shows will only allow you to attend if you can prove that you are indeed part of the industry - which means you have business registration to show to them

6. Start working on your website.

• Get your domain name
• Decide on a web host
• Find a designer/web programmer to create your site, if needed
• Compare and decide on the shopping cart system
• Decide on your payment gateway
• Find a photographer to take pictures of your clothes, if needed
• Hire a copywriter to write your sales and website copy including the description of your merchandise, if needed

7. Apply for a merchant account in order to accept credit card payments

8. Plan your marketing strategy.

• How to market via search engines and whether you need to hire someone to optimize your website and do pay per click advertising
• Decide whether you need to hire a PR person to help you raise publicity for your business

Tips for Ecommerce Merchants: Do's and Don'ts In Online Couponing

I am a coupon freak (at least online). While I never collect coupons going to the grocery, I always search the Web first if there are any coupons available before I start my online shopping. I also sign up for offers with my favorite stores so I get their latest deals and coupons.

If you are selling on the Web, online coupons are a must to attract and retain customers. MultiChannel Merchant has an interesting article on "Ten Tips for Online Couponing" written by the founder of CouponCabin.com. His tips include:

1. Create coupons that appeal to a wide audience and are simple to apply.
2. Avoid complicated coupon codes.
3. Higher discounts lead to better conversion rates.
4. Coupons offering a flat rate discount in dollars, such as $10 off a purchase of $50 or more, are very popular.
5. Create a minimum spending requirement (e.g. $10 if you spend $200)
6. Free shipping coupons do well
7. Offer greater discounts to first time customers since they often have larger orders
8. Make your coupons user friendly or just one click of the user
9. Mark your coupon code boxes in your checkout clearly so customers can see them immediately
10. Link the coupons to specific landing or category pages.

Using Online Customer Reviews for Your Business

Catalog Success magazine offers interesting tips on how your ecommerce business can use customer testimonials and reviews, which if used properly can be powerful conversion tools:

• Given that the hardest part is starting out, encourage customers to leave reviews by promoting them through contests until they become self perpetuating.
• Feature your customer reviews in your promotions, such as email campaigns and other promotional activities
• Build a separate domain for customer reviews and take advantage of double exposure by linking it to your product pages
• Allow customer in their reviews to include and post pictures
• Don't censor negative reviews as it can help you improve the products
• Use customer reviews across channels

Success Factors for a Small Business Online Retail Store

Small businesses like us have inherent disadvantages compared to the big boys. This is particularly evident on the Web.

True that we can create Web sites that don't look that it is a one-person based operation but a million dollar operation. However, the big boys still outgun us in terms of marketing resources, technological capability and scope of inventory.

In order for our web retail businesses to thrive and succeed amidst the competition, here are two important things we need to consider and harness:

1. Ability to attract TARGETED traffic = you don't want any kind of traffic, but you want traffic that are actually interested in what you offer. Your traffic generation strategy should focus on what allowing you to get as much traffic as possible at the lowest cost that would be interested to buy whatever it is you are selling

This includes:

• Knowing how to optimize your search pages to get good organic search engine rankings
• Knowing how to maximize your pay per click strategy and improve results
• Knowing how to build your brand
• Knowing how to tap the media and press to raise awareness about your company

2. Ability to CONVERT visitors into buyers = you need to be obsessed with your conversion rate. From the "buy me" buttons to the categorization of products, every single thing on your website is a signal to a buyer and can spell the difference between browsing and buying

This includes:

• Knowing how to build customer confidence in your business
• Knowing how to maximize after sales opportunities
• Knowing how to improve the overall buyer experience
• Knowing how to improve product presentation (from the pictures to the sales copy)

You can get a few ideas on how to improve the sales and competitiveness of your online store from the article "How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site"

Preparing for the 2007 Holiday Season

The year has just started, but it is time to start planning and thinking about the holidays of 2007. And what better way to start planning than by looking back at what happened last year.

Oneupweb.com has an interesting study called 2006 Holiday Online Retail Buying Trends: A Study of the Consumer Behavior Online that looks at the traffic, conversion rates and sales during the 14-weeks holiday season. It provides an analysis on effective pay per click campaigns, and offers strategic bidding advice in preparation for the holidays.

The study offers a number of interesting insights on the holiday online selling trends and traffic, including the period where sales and conversion start rising as a signal of the start of the holiday season and online holiday shopping peaks. The study also finds that a pre-Thanksgiving dip in traffic and sales occurs as well as the impact of last-minute shoppers on the week before Christmas.

Their findings include:

1. Be ready by Halloween.
2. Back-to-school triggers testing.
3. Protect peak season opportunities, e.g., develop bid strategies with higher conversion rates in mind (to offset seasonally high keyword prices), and develop inventory strategies.
4. Prolong the season with e-cards.
5. Use milestones to predict peak volumes, e.g., multiply Halloween levels by four or double levels two weeks prior to Thanksgiving to estimate peak volumes .

Read the study 2006 Holiday Online Retail Buying Trends: A Study of the Consumer Behavior Online

Ecommerce Tips for Small Online Businesses

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you had a great holidays.

Online shopping is such a wonderful innovation for me that I am absolutely hooked to it. In fact, I did almost all of my Christmas shopping online. In doing so, I noticed some little things that some retailers may overlook, but could help online sellers build customer confidence and improve bottomlines:

1. Be consistent in naming your products. Keep the names of your products consistent in your webpages and invoices. For example, if the product's name on your website is "Golden Pearls", don't call it "Yellow Pearls" in your invoice. Doing so can confuse the customers and they may question whether the product shipped to them is the same as the product they ordered.

2. Ship the product using the shipping method you charged them. If the customer pays $24 for the shipment of a jewelry set via FedEx, ship it via FedEx. Don't ship it via USPS Priority that costs only $7. While the shipping fee may be high, the customer agreed to it -- and hence expected to get what they paid for. They may be on the lookout for the package waiting for the FedEx truck to pull in, only to get frustrated when the FedEx truck does not because they don't have the package! Customers will feel shortchanged if you change your shipping mechanism and opt for the cheaper one -- without informing the customer or reimbursing them for the price differential.

3. Check the products you ship. During crunchtime when there's so many items to ship, it can be easy to get confused. But make an effort to check and double check if the items in the package coincide with the order. Imagine the frustration of the customer who ordered Black Akoya pearls only to receive White Akoya pearls because the retailer failed to double check the order. It's a lot more hassle to arrange for the return of the product and added cost to the retailer to ship the correct order (if the customer does not cancel the order).

8 Tips to Holiday Online Selling

I am almost done with my online shopping for Christmas, 100% of which was done online. I just find it so much easier to jump from one website to another and shop -- something that is very hard to do in the mall when you have 2 toddlers pulling you in all directions.

But the shopping season is still underway. If you are operating an ecommerce site and want a piece of the increasingly massive online shopping ca-ching, we have some tips to grow your holiday selling by leaps and bounds:

1. Analyze your past holiday selling experiences.
2. Plan your promotional activities for the period.
3. Get your website ready.
4. Clarify your holiday hours and shipping information.
5. Check your inventory to ensure that only available items are posted on your site.
6. Get positive reviews from shopping comparison sites.
7. Tap the blogosphere.
8. Use transactional emails to cross-sell your products.

For details, read the article "8 Tips to Holiday Online Selling"

Where People Shop for the Holidays

The National Retail Federation has released a survey conducted by BIGResearch “Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey” that shows consumer behavior and shopping trends for the 2006 holidays. The survey, which polled 7,623 consumers, looked at where people plan to shop and how they intend to use the Internet for this year's holiday shopping.

Holiday shoppers are expected to spend $791.10 each this year, and a growing number is going to use the Internet for their shopping. According to the study, respondents will use the Internet for an average of one-fourth (28.9%) of their shopping.

Here are some interesting data from the study:

• 47.1% plan to purchase holiday items online, though 70.3% will use discount stores; 61.6% will go to the department store; 49.3% will go to the grocery/supermarket; and 48.4% in specialty stores
• Those earning $50K+ more likely to use the Web at 57.8%
• About 38.1% regularly research products online before purchasing them in person or in store
• They mostly research online electronics (39.3%); apparel (20%); appliances (19.6%); home improvement items (18%)
• A fifth (23.6%) use Google first to research products online

You can read about the study from the NRF website