Posted June 30th, 2009, by Stephen Cobb
This is just a quick blog post to put an important date on the calendar: Cyber Monday 2009, which falls on November 30.
As you doubtless know already, Cyber Monday is: “A Shop.org-coined term for the Monday after Thanksgiving, which is seen by many retailers, consumers and the media as the official kick-off to the online holiday shopping season.”
Obviously, November 30 is the latest possible date that can be a Cyber Monday, which suggests that online retailers will need to make the most of Cyber Monday 2009 and the shopping days that follow.
But why mention this now? Because it’s never too soon to get ready for the high traffic of the holiday season.
I’m not just talking about making sure you have the bandwidth and server capacity to meet expected demand, I’m talking about gathering the visitor data you need to collect before November rolls around. This is the data you will use to segment your traffic in order to target it with personalized offers, messaging, and promotions. You need to be collecting that data now. You can’t wait until November .
And the more of that data you can gather, the more effective your behavioral targeting will be, and the more accurately–and profitably– you will be able to target personalized messaging and promotions during the holiday season.
Posted June 23rd, 2009, by Stephen Cobb
You know you’ve had a busy trade show when you don’t have time to blog about it while it’s still going on. Last week’s Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Boston (IRCE 2009) was a case in point.
I had a great time manning the Monetate booth and meeting all kinds of online retailers, from established giants like Overstock.com and Staples.com, to startups who don’t yet have a web site.
With all the travel and follow-up activity that working a show entails, this is the first chance I’ve had to write up what I learned from the show.
Introducing Monetate to such a diverse audience was a stimulating challenge and a great way to hone my answer to that critical question: What do you guys do? That process taught me some valuable lessons about marketing in general as well as marketing online.
Online marketing guru Bryan Eisenberg says I should be able to explain the value of doing business with Monetate in 140 characters or less (you can read Bryan’s TweetVP exercise here). Obviously that particular constraint is the one imposed by text messaging and Twitter, but I found that it also mirrors the attention span of the typical trade show attendee. This is the person strolling down an aisle of booths, all of which are competing for his or her attention. Your pitch to them has to be catchy but honest, brief but informative. You only have about 20 words or 140 characters to engage them in conversation.
Of course, there are some trade show attendees who make your day by coming right out and asking:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted June 16th, 2009, by Stephen Cobb
Have you studied the Amazon.com home page lately? If you’re an e-retailer you should. By my count it now contains 13 pieces of personalization, 13 ways in which Amazon is addressing me personally, and I don’t just mean “Hello, Stephen Cobb.”
The fact that Amazon.com happens to know my name is not nearly as important as the other things that Amazon.com knows about me, like what products I’ve looked at lately and what things I purchased in the past. But why is this important to other e-retailers? Because if you’re not controlling and customizing the experience that visitors get when they visit your web site–personalizing that experience based on what you know about them–then there’s a good chance Amazon.com will eventually get those visitors. And Amazon.com is very good at turning visitors into loyal Amazon customers.
In this blog post I will examine the implications of Amazon’s growth for other e-retailers and what they teach us about the best ways to protect and grow e-commerce operations today. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted June 2nd, 2009, by Stephen Cobb
That’s the theme of this month’s Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Boston, also known as IRCE 2009: Rising Above—Not Just Surviving—the Economic Storm! And we like it! All the signs that we’re seeing suggest that e-retailing is a bright spot in the economy, one that is only going to get brighter.
From boutiques to megastores, speciality retailers to general merchandisers, online is where the growth is. And I think this is due, in no small part, to new technologies being applied to online retailing in new and interesting ways.
IRCE 2009 runs June 15 through 18 at Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and we will be there. We hope you can stop by and visit with us (Booth Number 1203 near Cyber Cafe). We’d love to get your take on where e-retailing is heading in 2009 and beyond.
David Brussin
Stephen Cobb
Blair Lyon
Tom Ellis