According to website traffic data, visitors to ShopGala.com who reach the site by searching for “HSN Coupon Code” skyrocket on Black Friday, the day-after-Thanksgiving. ”Google Trends confirms ShopGala’s data: searches for “HSN Coupon Code” more than doubled from October to December last year.” In a promotional press release, ShopGala.com suggests that they are the place to go to find coveted, HSN “Free Shipping” coupons, a strategy that is increasingly popular among online retailers during the Holiday season. ShopGala.com Press Release Oct 25, 2011
Coupon Curator ShopGala.com Expects a Run on HSN Coupons Come Black Friday
Distribution Channel, Worldwide Web
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Oct 262011
Oct 242011
Memphis-based Federal Express — which will add some 20,000 workers to handle the additional volume — is the beneficiary of gradual economic improvement and ever-increasing internet sales, according to analysts. Reuters Oct. 24, 2011
Who are the Best Online Shoppers? The Ones Using Tablets.
Distribution Channel, Worldwide Web
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Sep 282011
Members of the media examine Sony's new Android-based tablet computers.
Tablets account for only a small percentage of overall e-commerce, but the conversion rate for shoppers using them is 4% or 5%, versus 3% for shoppers using a traditional PC, according to an analyst at Forrester Research. Many retailers report that tablet users’ orders are 10% to 20% higher than other online shoppers, which makes some sense since the 9% of online shoppers who use tablets tend to be wealthier than other online shoppers. All of this has retailers like Macy’s, Sephora and QVC scrambling to cater to these hip, tablet-toting early adapters. Claire Watts, ceo of QVC U.S., sees tablets as “a key growth vehicle.”
Look for retailers’ websites to become less “point-and-click, underline, mousy” and more “big-button-touchscreen, fat-finger friendly” soon. The Wall Street Journal Sept. 28, 2011
Republican Governor Supports Democratic House Member’s Plan to End Internet Tax Exemption
Catalog, Distribution Channel, DRTV Retailer, Infomercial, Mobile telephone, Worldwide Web
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Jul 302010
In an interview yesterday morning, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds (R) announced his support of the Main Street Fairness Act, sponsored by Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) which would make it easier for states to charge sales taxes on catalog, mail order and internet sales. One analysis of the mail order and internet sales tax exemption by the Brookings Institution found that the amount of lost sales tax in 2008 was $3.9 billion.
Zalemark to Launch New TV Shopping Network, LuxTV, This Fall
Distribution Channel, DRTV Retailer, Featured, Worldwide Web
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Jul 292010
Zalemark Holding Company Inc., the California-based jewelry design and manufacturing company, plans to launch a new home shopping network September 1st, according to an exclusive story in National Jeweler (Jul. 28, 2010). The network, called LuxTV, will make use of the remaining assets of now-defunct multimedia retailer Gems TV, which Zalemark expects to purchase in the coming days. Those assets include Gems TV’s former headquarters in Reno, Nevada, where the new network will also be based. LuxTV will offer nearly all the Zalemark brands–Demeter, Steven Zale Beverly Hills, B. Smith and Paris Blues (Badgley Mishka and Seventeen jewelry will not be included)–as well as other jewelry lines, at steep discounts both on-air and on the Internet at ShopLuxTV.com.” LuxTV’s initial market will be 40 million households in all 50 states through distribution on the Dish Network, DIRECTV and various cable stations. The company will be run independently of Zalemark as LuxTV Inc., with Matt Chao serving as president. Future plans call for an expansion of the network’s merchandise into branded shoes, handbags and ladies’ accessories, with an emphasis on celebrity-endorsed lines.
QVC Records Biggest Ever Christmas-in-July Sale
Distribution Channel, DRTV Retailer, Worldwide Web
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Jul 292010
QVC has announced that last weekend’s Christmas in July event was its biggest ever with retail sales of $46.5 million, representing a 14 percent increase over the prior year. Anchoring the product line-up were several gift and Holiday decor big sellers, including the Bethlehem Lights Ready Shape 6.5′ Noble Fir Tree featuring, the Rubik’s Slide Signature Edition Electronic Handheld Game, Disney Princess & Me 18” Fashion Dolls and a Hello Kitty Plush toy. “Additional top selling brands included specialty gift bags, boxes and wrap from Isaac Mizrahi; home fragrance from Slatkin & Co; great gifts for the gourmet from Kansas City Steak Co., Mrs. Prindable’s Apples, Harry London Gourmet Chocolate, Harry & David and Godiva.” QVC Press Release Jul. 28, 2010
Lack of SEO-Optimized Video Hampering QVC’s Web Sales
Distribution Channel, Technology, Worldwide Web
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Jul 222010
With countless hours of video available on its website, QVC has only seven video segments indexed on search engines Bing, Google and Yahoo. Overstock.com, by contrast, boasts some 56,000 hours of indexed video on Google alone. QVC’s enormous cache of video content – unoptimized and untagged — represents a big missed sales opportunity given that the 100 best companies in Internet Retailer’s Top Retailers Guide report an average of 30 percent of their website traffic is search-engine derived. ReelSEO (The Online Video Marketer’s Guide) Jul. 22, 2010
The Glamour Jewelry Collection — part of the Condé Nast magazine’s new merchandising push — will debut on HSN, August 18th, at 2am EDT, and will be offered for sale on-line beginning August 3rd. In a statement released today, John Bosco, SVP of merchandising at HSN, said, “We are excited to offer our customers an exclusive jewelry collection from Glamour that captures this season’s must-have trends and styles … In working with one of today’s top fashion publications, we are confident this collection will appeal to HSN’s consumers and integrate seamlessly with our existing … jewelry pieces.” The collection is the first deal HSN has struck with a publication to create a namesake line. HSN Press Release Jul. 22, 2010
Pressure Mounts to Tax Catalog, TV and Web Sales
Catalog, Distribution Channel, DRTV Retailer, Geography, Infomercial, Mobile telephone, USA, Worldwide Web
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Jul 212010
Influential tech columnist Bill Snyder advocated for an end to the sales tax exemption for catalog and web retailers earlier this month. And in an editorial today, the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star seconded the motion. Here is how Snyder put it, “The Internet is no longer a baby that needs to be cosseted and protected from the real world, and favoring Internet business over brick-and-mortar ones via a tax exemption is not fair.” He goes on to suggest that the current fiscal crisis in many states may pave the way for passage of the Main Street Fairness Act (H.R. 5660), which was introduced this month by Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.)
No industry wishes to lose out on tax breaks, special treatment or other favors from government, but non-store retailers should prepare for the end of this one soon. It is wholly without merit, and there is a long list of government services to be paid for.
Ratings and Reviews Feature of ShopNBC Website Leads to Improvements in Product Presentation
Customers/Customer Service, Worldwide Web
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Jul 162010
ShopNBC execs are paying close attention to what customers are saying in the ratings and reviews feature of the retailer’s website. Evocative color descriptions like “Sunset” are being fleshed out with additional descriptions, such as “burnt orange,” for example. And because customers frequently have difficultly picturing the size of a watch on their wrists, the retailer is including .pdf file outlines of the watches it sells on its website, so interested customers can print them out and hold them up for comparison. Carol Steinberg, SVP of e-commerce, marketing and business development at ShopNBC (who I think is wearing a “Sunset-burnt-orange” top at left) described the changes in an interview that led to an Internet Retailer story yesterday.
