Protecting your cyber-turf from overseas retailers - Marketing Magazine

Protecting your cyber-turf from overseas retailers - Marketing Magazine

40% of online dollars are spent offshore ($0% of approx $23 Billion ). SO Simon McEvoy asks what are Australian Retailers doing about this.


Simon suggest these are the basic things needed to fight off international etailers

1. Range
2. Secure payment options
3. User experience
4. Customer service
5. Leverage brand loyalty

I would add to this the greater trust in buying in Australia. Refunds and returns are easier and more affordable to hadle.

Read Simon's article here

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85% of internet users shopping online this Christmas: Getprice Shopping - International Business Times -

85% of internet users shopping online this Christmas: Getprice Shopping - International Business Times -

The latest GetPrice.com.au survey confirms the use of the web to research and be informed about product pricing, warranty, piece of mind and convenience.

Click here to read the press release

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Online-Retail-whitepaper from Paypal UK and InternetRetailing.net

Online-retail-whitepaper

An exciting document produced in collaboration with Internet Retailing in the UK and Paypal. Online Shopping in the UK is well advanced, and some of the conceptual ideas that are already taking shape in the Uk are very clever and in some instances astounding. This Whitepaper is a worthwhile and enjoyable read.

It covers:

What does the next generation of online shoppers look like?
How has shopping behaviour evolved?
Is online shopping a pleasure or a chore?
How do urban and rural online shoppers differ?
How do they want to shop online in the future?

Australia has some way to go compared to this, yet we can learn a lot from the UK experience

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Photo Gift Card - Bunnings Warehouse

Photo Gift Card - Bunnings Warehouse
TO boost sales of Bunnings Gift Cards, Bunnings has a novel feature on their website where users can upload a personal picture for a surcharge of $4. This is a fantastic way to utilise the website as a tool to add value to their customers.

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Online retailer Topbuy warned over spam - Digital Media

Topbuy.com.au has had their knuckles rapped by the ACCC  for "breaches to systemic issues surrounding a family and friends referral campaign. Read more at DigitalMedia.com.au

Online retailer Topbuy warned over spam - Digital Media

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Revealed: Why our SMEs are laggards in adopting eCommerce - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

Craig Reardon from the e Eteam writes on Smartcompany.com.au in response to the Sensis eBusiness repot recently published

• Only 54% of small business (1-20 staff) have a website at all
• 28% of small business do not intend to have a website
• Around 10% of Oz retailers sell online
• 96% have broadband connection
  

Download the Sensis report here:

Craig Cites technophobia as one of the main reasons business has not adopted the web. It's an interesting take on the topic and in my opinion partly true.

I guess the core thing about the web, no matter what business you are in really leads to the question of search. You may be a barber or an auto mechanic who feels that there is no place for your business on the web. WRONG. With increased usage of the internet for quick lookup of information, and the web going mobile as more Smartphones go into use, search is becoming more important for users in our ever hectic lives. So if the barber or motor mechanic does not have at least a well indexed page with contact details, what they do etc, they are out of the loop for a customer seeking their service, yet as with anything there will always be sceptics.

Read Craig's article here:

Revealed: Why our SMEs are laggards in adopting eCommerce - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

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Another great article and more statistics for Australian Retailers who are starting to sit up and take notice about online as another channel.

It is assumed that half of Americans will shop online for Christmas presents this year.

Read the article here:

Multichannel retailing: all you need to know about e-tail

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Internet Retailing 2009 Post Event

http://www.screenevents.co.uk/IR09_PostEvent/pdf/MCRBrochure%2028.09.pdfRoyal Mail, Digital Proceedings Sponsor for the InternetRetailing conference in the UK, has published this gem of information entitled:Royal Mails 2009 home shopping and multi-channel retailing trends report. Download

• It's interesting to note that 48% OF UK shoppers buy from sites abroad.
• 67% of buyers cite security concerns when buying unknown brands or using unknown sites.
• There is also an ongoing trend that buying online means bargains are to be had.
• 63% of shoppers used online catalogues to inform or buy from
• 4% of 16-34 year olds use just bricks and mortar stores to buy goods and services compared to 27% over 55 years old
• Some buyers would consider buying carbon offsets for the convenience of online shopping ... and many more gems. Have a peak at the document by clicking on the image below.

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Online Christmas Bargains | ninemsn video

Have a look at this ACA - Current Affair clip on online shopping from a  buyers perspective. It also  features promotional  commentary from Paul Greenberg (DealsDirect.com.au), Gabby Liebovich (CatchoftheDay.com.au)  and Johanthan Zilberman (Bshare.com.au). Any free publicity is good publicity for these brands and is worth a fortune in advertising value, and probably features in their promotional  and PR agenda's each year.

Online Christmas Bargains | ninemsn video

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McAfee warns about '12 Scams of Christmas' | Safe and Secure - CNET News

During the pre Christmas rush amidst all the excitement leading to Christmas consumers forget that this is also a ripe time for scammers and rip off artists. Although focused on the US market, the implications are the same for Australian consumers and Online Retailers.

Click on the link below

McAfee warns about '12 Scams of Christmas' | Safe and Secure - CNET News

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Digital Marketing and Media Summit

On Monday 16 November, as brand sponsors for the Digital Marketing and Media Summit we attended the event (see pictures HERE), looking forward to a day of interaction between client side and agency side marketers and to get a feel for the state of the market in digital marketing.

We expected client side marketers to have little interest in our presence at the summit as our relevance to them is insignificant unless they are involved in selling online (which was the exception at this event) however we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of interest by agency side marketers who attended. As we represent the online retailing industry we couldn't understand why agency side marketers who would want online retailers in their portfolio, were not that interested in what we did or who we represent.

Once again this probably highlighted the challenges that online retailing still faces in Australia. The Summit which represented some of the more reputable agencies certainly demonstrated that we have a looong way to go to achieve the standards set by the UK and the USA.

I also somehow got the impression from this summit that just as traditional bricks and mortar retailers don't get online, it seems that some of the agencies are traditional agencies claiming they know online and digital, but they only know parts of it. There was also no focus on search at all which we were surprised about!

Teresa Sperti, one of Internet Retailing's writers who also attended on the day made some interesting assertions which I agree with, so instead of repeating many of my thoughts, please read Teresa's posting here at Digital Marketing Lab Blog

Regards
Mark

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Search Engine Usage and Trends in Australia - Statistics & Figures 2009 |SEO Sydney Blog | Search Engine Optimisation News & Jobs in Australia

Search Engine Room (www.searchengineroom.com.au)  had their annual conference today, there are already some nice blogposts on the event. Apologies to those who expected to meet up with me I just couldn't make it.

There is a great post from SEOSydney blog on the current state of search engine use in Australia

Search Engine Usage and Trends in Australia - Statistics & Figures 2009 |SEO Sydney Blog | Search Engine Optimisation News & Jobs in Australia

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Outsourcing SEO – Yes or No? | Search Engine Journal

Outsourcing SEO – Yes or No? | Search Engine Journal

A great article about SEO and the challenges and mistakes you could make if outsourcing to a foreign country due to language differences.

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Fulfillment: Guidelines for Outsourcing | Practical eCommerce

Fulfillment: Guidelines for Outsourcing | Practical eCommerce

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New study about online retailing finds Chat & self service are top for good customer experiences - Retail Technology Review .com

New study about online retailing finds Chat & self service are top for good customer experiences - Retail Technology Review .com

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Nine West investigates ecommerce facilities for Australia

Nine West has advised that their US web consultants are currently looking into e-commerce facilities and hope to be up and running in the not too distant future.

This is great news as they curently have a well laid out site, great product photography etc, only thing missing is the checkout facility.

Looking forward to seeing the ecommerce enabled site.

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Insights into DealsDirect.com.au's strategy and the future

Detailed insights into DealsDirect.com.au and Paul Greenberg's thinking, strategy, systems and the future:

Click here to read the article

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IS multi channel worth the money

Very relevant to the Australian landscape, many traditional retailers are asking "Is multi channel worth the money?" I am certain many would say it isn't based on early experiences with etailers in Australia.

There is a fantastic article written by Joanna Perry in Retail Week from the UK this week following the UK  InternetRetailing 2009 conference, where she writes a compelling article about multi channel retailing and whether it's worth it.

The bottom line as usual is a lot of passion and hard work to make it profitable.

Read the article here

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Australian Internet Activity to June 09 ABS

Here are figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to Jun 2009 (released 14/09/09) via aaNet's monthly newsletter

• At the end of June 2009, there were 8.4 million active internet subscribers in Australia
• Dial up users still account for 13% of internet subscribers with 1.1 million users.
• DSL continued to be the major technology for non dial up connections with 50% (4.2 million) subscribers.
• 57% of non dial up subscribers are now using a download speed of 1.5Mbps or greater, compared with 51% in December 2008
• Mobile wireless subscribers account for 23% of non dial up users with 2 million subscribers.
Data from Australian Bureau of statistics 8153.0 - Internet Activity, Australia, Jun 2009, released 14/09/09

It looks like the Toys R Us Site is now online

After what appears to be a brief launch hiccup on Thursday (don't we all have these when launching a site for the first time), the new Toys R Us ecommerce site was up and working  tonight and I had the opportunity to test some of its features. Visit our article here for more commentary on the site.

Best of luck to the team at Toys R US and Citrus, I'm always excited when a national brand dips their toes into the online retailing space.

Media Scope Final Design & Listing Overview Sept 09

Check out this SlideShare Presentation, This is Denise Shrivell's latest offering, and looks like a very interesting way to search for advertising listings

Media Scope Final Design & Listing Overview Sept 09

View more presentations from deniseshriv.

Toys R Us launches its Australian online store

Toys R Us Australia launches their online store on 1 October. Its main focus of capturing sales of larger outdoor bulky goods such as portable pools, swings, jungle gyms and trampolines, is an interesting and logical strategy. Most customers that visit Toys R Us Stores live within a 15 km radius of their 30 sites across Australia. The online store will allow more people across Australia access to these bulky goods.

Read more about the launch Toys R Us here

Social web's customer loyalty impact turns viral

It's not often we get to see Australian based research on cutting edge topics such as social media so my  eyeballs started to itch when I read this one.

This is a fantastic article based on research done in Australia. Commissioned by Rightnow (www.rightnow.com.au), the article discusses from an Australian perspective how poor customer experiences can negatively impact an organisation's bottom line and reputation. The survey  investigated how Australian consumers want organisations to engage with them through web sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

You will need to register with the site hosting the article, its free and a worthwhile read:

http://www.thewisemarketer.com/news/read.asp?lc=z63631ex3008zf 


Enjoy

email and the spam act

It appears that there is still lack of clarity with regards to knowledge of the SPAM Act

Hereis a useful link:

http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311260

SEO guidelines for Bing

I have had some queries recently as well as seeing an article at Anthillonline.com, about Bing an the SEO rules for Bing. There have been some comments that Australia is not on the radar yet for Bing and therefore the search results for Australian sites are still a little vague.

TO answer this, here is a post from the Bing blog which offers a white paper on SEO for Bing:

http://tinyurl.com/mrknvw

and here is the actual download page:

http://tinyurl.com/llgu2g

Internet retailing in Australia, am I allowed an opinion

People ask me lots of questions about my knowledge or what special skills I have that give me creative licence to write articles and opinions on the state of internet retailing in Australia. Well to tell you the truth I don't have any, and that's what my secret is. You see it's my ability to explore and ask questions about things I don't know about, or understand then group them together in some sort of logic (or illogic).