Life In Internet

Back by popular demand for the third consecutive year, we will be featuring our “40+ Things You Can Do To Make More Money Next Week” session.  This is our highest ranked and most popular afternoon breakout session and we want to hear from you about what specific and practical tip you feel is the most important.  Last year we received well over 100 proposals, so this is very competitive.  To make sure you have the best chance, please read the rules and regulations very carefully.  If you do not follow any of these, your proposal will not be considered:

Speakers must talk about SPECIFIC and EASY-TO-IMPLEMENT ecommerce tactics.

Read the rest of this entry »

Working on your site merchandising roadmap? Join us on April 20th as executives from Best Buy, REI and the e-tailing group lead a members-only webinar exploring how two retailers that have found success in merchandising by combining high-caliber customer service with stellar site experience.

Shop.org and NRF members will be the first to hear the highlights from the e-tailing group’s 9th Annual Merchant Survey where retailers share their thoughts on 2010 priorities, merchandising features that deliver from an ROI point of view, and which initiatives will make the cut this year. You’ll also get to hear our executives tackle some tough questions… a few of which we have included for you below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Chris McCann, President of 1-800Flowers.com, was featured last night on the season finale of the hit CBS series “Undercover Boss.” NRF’s Ellen Davis has an insightful interview with Chris on the NRF Blog about his experience on the show, and what he learned about the retail trenches.

You can watch the full episode of the show online, and see more of Chris at the 2010 Online Merchandising Workshop, where he is a keynote speaker.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Q1 quarterly online sales flash survey results are in – and encouraging they are. Conducted in partnership with Forrester Research, we ask** retailers every quarter or so how their gross online sales grew for the previous quarter compared to the same period a year earlier.

Shop.org Members can download the data summary and results overview now. A couple of highlights:

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings

We received a question from a Shop.org member to the community.  Looking forward to seeing the responses below if anyone has any ideas. 

Thanks

————————————————————————————————————————————————-This past holiday season I noticed a spike in the use of network branded gift cards and prepaid products online.  As many of you already know, network branded (open loop) gift card volume has experienced strong growth in recent years, as has online shopping volume in general.  As usage of these network branded gift cards increases we see evidence of a growing problem in the customer’s online shopping experience.

 Let’s say I received a $50 gift card for the holidays, and I’m shopping at a brick and mortar retail store.  I grab a sweater for $60 off the rack and I take it to the clerk for checkout.  In most cases, the clerk can swipe my card and then ask for a second form of payment to cover for the $10 balance I owe towards that sweater.  Many merchants are enabled for this type of processing due to coding called partial authorization available at their point of sale.  The customer is able to easily use the entire balance on their gift card easily and leaves the store happy. 

Read the rest of this entry »

As Google frequently changes their algorithm multiple times a year, it is paramount to execute both widely accepted and new/upcoming SEO practices within your eCommerce domain.

Helping Google not only crawl your site efficiently, but also properly categorize your content is fundamental to maximizing organic search potential.

Read the rest of this entry »

As Google frequently changes their algorithm multiple times a year, it is paramount to execute both widely accepted and new/upcoming SEO practices within your eCommerce domain.

Helping Google not only crawl your site efficiently, but also properly categorize your content is fundamental to maximizing organic search potential.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today Shop.org hosted a webinar for members on leveraging the power of alternate payment solutions. Our speakers from Javelin Strategy & Research, Buy.com and eBags.com were able to dive into the different payment options they currently have available, the internal and external hurdles they faced, and how implementation of these payment options has optimized their business.

Who joined the webinar? Over 100 of you registered for the event including retail registrants from Southwest Airlines, Spencer Gifts, Hermes of Paris, Isabella Oliver Limited, VF Corporation, Bass Pro Shops, Walmart.com, Best Buy, Overstock.com, Columbia Sportswear Company, Williams-Sonoma, and Bare Escentuals Beauty – just to name a few.

Read the rest of this entry »

At Shop.org we take our motto of being “by the member and for the member” very seriously and now here is a chance for the right person to help Shop.org take this promise to new heights.  We are currently hiring a Director, Membership position with the responsibility for membership recruitment and retention for both the retail and associate member base.   You can read the entire job description, or simply contact me or Scott with any questions.

Working at Shop.org is a true privilege and our new Membership Director will be immersed in the dynamic world of digital and cross-channel retail.  It is always a true pleasure to see how our members feel a great responsibility of making Shop.org all it can be and creating the community that makes us special.   If you think this position is right for you, send a resume and one-page letter summarizing your interest, qualifications and salary expectations. Please reference the Director, Membership position in your cover letter. Please mail, fax (1.866.223.5393), or e-mail (hr@nrf.com) your application to: Human Resource Manager, NRF, 325 7th Street, NW Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20004.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I saw that Undercover Boss would feature an e-commerce company, determining who to feature for our next Talking With… was practically a no-brainer. GSI Commerce CEO Michael Rubin, who went incognito working at the fulfillment and call centers for a week during the holiday season, talks about what task particularly frustrated him, his advice to other executives thinking about participating in the show, and what new initiatives the company is undertaking based on Michael’s experiences.

(If you missed the episode, which provided really eye-opening insights on what it’s like to work the back-end jobs in retail during the holiday season, you can watch it here.)

Read the rest of this entry »