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Known News Recently while reading The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille, I read this quote which I think is perfect to describe a Known News page: |
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The Internet Retailer Recognizes the Top 100 Retailing Web SitesApparel & Accessories6pm.com: Time to shopAt 6pm.com, the emphasis has always been on bringing value to price-sensitive customers. That's why the e-retailer has worked hard on developing filters and sorting features so customers can closely describe what they are looking for and find shoes that closely resemble that description at the best price. Abercrombie.com: Strike up the brand The Abercrombie.com shopping experience is almost as immersive as stepping into an A&F retail store. And the web site is devoted to immersing shoppers in the retailer's distinct brand, so much so that its home page eschews selling for stunning black-and-white imagery of its beautiful models. AE.com: ‘It's a mall world' The web site for American Eagle Outfitters is all about lifestyle. From product photos to video content, this site sends a message that it gets who its customers are, and how they want to look and live. Anthropologie.com: A sensual experience Women's apparel retailer Anthropologie is out to capture consumers' hearts by appealing to all the senses. A site redesign this year streamlines navigation and affords an enhanced online replication of the brand's look and feel, aided by features such as larger images, on-page zoom and earlier price visibility. BrooksBrothers.com: Conservative elegance A 189-year-old company known for conservative elegance might be expected to struggle in the digital age. But BrooksBrothers.com has found a way to combine high-tech features with classic elegance so that it does not seem stodgy. CafePress.com: Way beyond mugs With 130 million products for sale, CafePress invested this year in technology to speed up shopper access to products. It now ranks consistently among Gomez Inc.'s top 10 retail sites in response rate and availability. And modifications to the shopping cart and product pages this year have lifted conversions by 15%. Coach.com: Fast follower To integrate web sales with its physical operations, this high-end reseller of fashion accessories has borrowed an online sales tactic from mass-merchandise retailers: buy online/pick up in store. And in November, it implemented another web sales tactic common outside its industry: a gift registry. DavidsBridal.com: Visualizing the big day Selling something online as emotionally charged as a wedding gown can't be easy. But DavidsBridal.com has found ways to use technology that gives customers more information than they can get in a store, including the 2007 debut of an online “dress your wedding party” feature. Gap.com: 10 and counting Gap.com celebrated its 10th birthday last month, making it a relative veteran among apparel sites. But it's not getting stuffy. The retailer has been taking advantage of advances in web technology to provide better usability and a more engaging customer experience. Guess.com: No question, it's the look Guess.com is the online equivalent of magazines like Vogue or W, with stunning still photography of trendy apparel and shoes worn by high-fashion models. In response to customer requests, Guess? has added more product images. But a key goal of its web site is to drive customers to the company's stores. JCrew.com: Reinforcing the brand At J. Crew Group, the web is all about selling and reinforcing the brand. A shopper who walks into a J. Crew store is greeted with signature pieces such as the retailer's well known broken-in chinos. JCrew.com gives shoppers the same experience online. Karmaloop.com: Social street Karmaloop.com has found a winning formula to social marketing by integrating blogs, user videos and an ambassador program that empowers customers to spread the word about Karmaloop. The Karmaloop Rep program enables customers to earn discounts on future purchases by promoting Karmaloop on social networking sites and personal blogs. Kohls.com: Meeting its market Two years ago Kohl's Corp. decided e-commerce could no longer take a backseat to stores. Today the retailer has transformed Kohls.com into a state-of-the-art e-commerce site with more merchandise, improved graphics, and advanced shopping features and functions. Nike.com: Living up to the swoosh Edgy, cool and nearly universally known, the Nike brand and its iconic swoosh logo demand a site that says cutting edge. Nike's e-commerce site does not disappoint: Framed by a black background, handsome central images rotate every few seconds, for example, and products and text drop into view, bouncing a little as they settle in. NineWest.com: The shoe fits Fashion of the moment at an accessible price point—that's what NineWest is all about, and its e-commerce site incorporates that philosophy with features and functions that make accessible to customers not only fashion-forward products, but also content about what drives the brand. PacSun.com: Building a community Pacific Sunwear of California has made a career of knowing how to connect with its teen and young adult demographic. Its flagship e-commerce site, PacSun.com, bolsters the company's tradition of relating to its consumer base: It added several features in 2007, all aimed at building a sense of community among shoppers. Patagonia.com: Having a dialogue Consumer brand manufacturer and multi-channel retailer Patagonia believes an open dialogue with shoppers is the best way to state its position on preserving the environment, build trust in the brand and ultimately increase sales. This year it introduced several new ways to have a dialogue with consumers on its e-commerce site. Rampage.com: Chic shopping The young women who shop Rampage.com know what they like, and that's hot apparel fashions. To aid them in shopping online, the retailer has added web tools such as the virtual outfit builder, where shoppers can mix and match items to visualize ensembles, and “Tell Me When It's In Stock,” a pop-up window system that enables e-mail notifications on out-of-stock products. Skechers.com: Running to meet needs By focusing on speed and simplicity, Skechers designed a sleek web site that serves up product pages lightning fast and makes navigation extremely easy. The site also capitalizes on the popularity of the Skechers brand through a loyalty program called Club SKK in which members receive e-mails with exclusive shoe news, offers based on their preferences and free shipping. Swell.com: Cool site, dude At Swell.com, it's all about surfer products. The site projects the lifestyle of its wave-loving customers and has a mission to offer the “raddest products” available. Swell does very well with a key to e-retailing: It knows its customers and what they want and executes a site that shows it. Timberland.com: Building an image Companies like The Timberland Co. that want to be known for supporting a cause as much as for quality products face unique marketing challenges. For Timberland, that means marketing its dedication to preserving the environment as well as outdoor apparel and accessories. And it uses its e-commerce site well to show it's an eco-friendly business. Undergear.com: A model site Undergear rang in the new year with style—a whole new look for its site. The clean, streamlined design of Undergear puts the focus where it belongs—on the retailer's underwear, swimwear and workout wear and the muscular men wearing the garments. Undergear knows what its customers like and how they want to see it. VeraBradley.com: Aligning with retailers While Vera Bradley wants to encourage online purchases of its products, it has the challenge of not wanting to appear to compete with the 3,500 retailers that sell the Vera Bradley line in their boutique shops and on their web sites. So VeraBradley.com is integrating affiliated retailers into its e-commerce in ways that help them invest in their stores. Vivre.com: The soft sell Some visitors to Vivre.com may not even realize they are at an e-commerce site. With articles about travel destinations and fashion tips, the site looks more like an online copy of Vogue than a sales channel. But Vivre.com believes its customers—women with average annual incomes of over $300,000—don't want the hard sell. They want to be inspired, and the e-commerce site does so by being a lifestyles resource guide for its customers. WorkingPerson.com: Person at work To working people, quality and value in the products they purchase to perform their jobs are a necessity, and those are the attributes WorkingPerson.com drives home. The e-retailer's no-nonsense approach plays well with its target audience and is backed by robust customer service, such as a 120% price protection guarantee, free shipping on orders of $59 or more, product reviews and deferred billing. Books/Films/MusicAbeBooks.com: Making things easyAbeBooks, an online outlet for 13,500 booksellers, is a premier Internet destination to find used and out-of-print books. Its simple and colorful design, easy but powerful search tool, and enormous inventory create a fulfilling shopping experience. Audible.com: Made for the medium With the advent of downloadable music, web-based audio shot into the Internet retailing stratosphere. Audible.com has taken to the Internet like a duck to water and created a simple-to-navigate and straightforward web site that's loaded with highly accessible content and built with a marketer's eye. BarnesandNoble.com: Bonding with the brand There's a feeling that pervades a good bookstore. It's arranged to invite those who enter to browse, investigate whatever captures their attention; basically, to just hang out. The redesigned BarnesandNoble.com does the same thing, with new features that offer visitors more ways to engage with the brand, thanks in large part to creative use of Web 2.0 technology. Chapters.Indigo.ca: Building a community Bookstores are communal places where shoppers can go to meet authors, listen to them read from their latest works, and discuss literature. While the Internet has in some ways taken that coziness away, Indigo Books & Music is determined to restore this heritage by building a series of communities on its web site for author chats and book clubs. eCampus.com: Textbooks to go With the advent of the web, e-commerce sites like eCampus.com have altered the textbook purchasing process forever. ECampus.com has become a destination for buyers and sellers and developed innovative ways for students and schools to provide books and other materials. FYE.com: Plastic and digital FYE.com has an FYI for online music shoppers: It sees the future and it is digital. The multi-channel retailer is making a concerted effort to diversify its digital products and offer shoppers more download options. Plastic may be hip, but digital is hipper, and FYE.com is using its e-commerce site to get the message across. Netflix.com: Delivering to customers Netflix attributes its success to steady, incremental changes to its operations and site. Sometimes the changes make news, like this summer's decision to abandon e-mail customer support in favor of telephone call centers. Sometimes changes are less visible, like adding delivery centers so more subscribers get their DVDs the next day. The biggest change, though, is the ability to deliver movies directly to a subscriber's computer. Computers/ElectronicsAbt.com: Remembering its rootsOne of the toughest elements for any retailer to transfer from the store to the web is customer service. Known throughout the Chicago area for its attention to customer care, Abt Electronics has brought that same level of service to the web. Apple.com: Message to the faithful Successful e-retailers know their customers and create a shopping environment that reflects the tastes and needs of those customers. In the world of consumer electronics, few e-retailers do it better than Apple.com. Dell.com: Plugged in When it changed its name to Dell Inc. a few years ago from Dell Computer Corp., Dell told the world it was no longer just a computer company but a provider of a broader range of computer systems and integrated electronics products. True to its tradition as a web-centric company, it has redesigned its web site to reflect its new market strategy. HPShopping: Beyond the basics If Hewlett-Packard Co. ever wanted to open retail stores, it could take lessons in accommodating customers from its e-commerce site. That's because for shoppers looking for the mix of computer and home entertainment products offered, it's tough to find a more helpful retail environment than HP Shopping, also known as the HP Home and Home Office Store. Palm.com: Helping them explore Demonstrating the interactivity of a hand-held mobile device on the web is difficult using static pages that show a photo and list product features. Mindful of this, Palm Inc. has integrated interactive video and rich media throughout its site to enable shoppers to explore its products and quickly drill down to their desired level of detail. PCConnection.com: Straight to the product PCConnection.com, the flagship e-commerce site of direct marketer PC Connection Inc., doesn't mess around with getting busy consumers and businesses straight to the gear they are looking for. The company uses TRAXX, an internally designed and maintained supply chain management and e-commerce platform, to give customers a one-stop shopping experience. PCUniverse.com: Appealing to the core For a small retailer, PC Universe Inc. is a big developer of web site features and functions that attract serious techies. For more than a decade, PC Universe has quietly built up PCUniverse.com into an e-commerce site that today carries an inventory of more than 25,000 products and 250,000 individual SKUs. SonyStyle.com: Listen up It's axiomatic among retailers that customers should be at the center of what they do, but what field something to strive for. "It was more than a redesign. I call it Sony's effort to l isten to our consumers," vice president Brian Siegel says. TigerDirect.com: See for yourself If you're going to sell high-tech electronic products, you'd better give your customers the impression you're up on the latest trends. TigerDirect.com takes that to heart when it offers its customers not only the ability to see pictures of the product they might want to buy, but gives them an online video showing someone using it. YourElectronicWarehouse.com: The manufacturer's pal YourElectronicWarehouse.com doesn't forget about its product manufacturers. By courting and working closely with manufacturers, some of which previously had been resistant to selling online, the site has not only been certified as an authorized Internet distributor for some elite brands, but it also has been able to conduct joint promotions with the manufacturers. Flowers/Gifts/Jewelry1-800-Flowers.com: A blooming businessConsumers looking for a broad selection of quality gifts, a seamless and speedy online shopping experience and multiple options on how to choose and buy will find it all at 1-800-Flowers.com. And 1-800-Flowers.com hasn't just grown its offering for customers--the way it keeps embracing new technology matches the rapid growth of a bumper flower crop. AmericanGreetings.com: Greetings the fun way Birthdays, Mother's Day, holidays; consumers will send a card for any occasion. But in today's fast-paced world, they want the ability to express their sentiments on their terms, and that's where e-cards come into play. AmericanGreetings.com has done its homework on helping consumers stay connected and putting their personal stamp on their greetings. BlueNile.com: Shines like a jewel As an e-commerce success story, BlueNile.com sparkles as brilliantly as the more than 70,000 diamonds it sells. The fine jewelry web site has become such a force in the online jewelry industry that it might even be affecting the way bricks-and-mortar jewelers conduct their business. DelightfulDeliveries.com: Delighting shoppers E-retailers of gift baskets need to offer something special to lure shoppers out of the store and onto their site. Delightful Deliveries.com delivers the goods through improved site navigation, customer reviews and other measures to entice customers. When it comes to offering shoppers something extra, the site shows it has hit its stride. GiftTree.com: Gifts under the tree Wine aficionados base their purchase in part on being able to describe the flavors and aromas of the wine. Since e-retailers of wine can't offer a tasting session on their sites, the next best thing is to describe the wine in detail and present a high quality image of the wine itself–as GiftTree.com has done in creating an on-site environment that captures the spirit of a wine tasting. JTV.com: Beyond the airwaves JTV.com doesn't simply want to support the television program that sired it. It's out to surpass the show as an alluring venue for shoppers purchasing jewelry and gemstones. "We wanted to refresh the web experience, because it had gone static," says senior vice president of e-commerce and strategic business development James Thome. Food/DrugCarolsDaughter.com: We are familyShopping online for skin care products is not easy since customers can't test a sample. But CarolsDaughter.com gets around some of these obstacles by creating families of products that its customers come to know. Once a customer finds a fragrance she likes in one product, she can easily find on the web site all the other products in that fragrance family. Drugstore.com: Earning the edge Drugstore.com thinks it has an edge over its brick-and-mortar competition. While bricks-and-mortar stores have to worry about shelf space and SKU movement, Drugstore.com doesn't. With more than 30,000 SKUs, the site offers more products to customers than large drugstore chains such as Walgreens. FoodNetworkStore.com: Cooking good FoodNetworkStore.com has risen like a soufflé over the last few years as it has worked to distinguish itself from the Food Network television colossus and the show's web site, FoodNetwork.com, as a unique but related entity. A remake of the web site this fall has helped establish the site as a great destination of its own for shoppers of cookware and gourmet foods. HarryandDavid.com: A mouth-watering site Gourmets will be the first to admit that food is as much about presentation as it is taste. Create a mouth-watering presentation and consumers will want more, especially when they are shopping for food items. So HarryandDavid.com sets the gold standard for presentation. KLWines.com: Up from the cellar With its roots in the wine business going back more than 30 years, K&L Wine Merchants has long-established connections with wineries around the world. Its team of 12 wine buyers constantly acquires large stocks of the most popular wines. But it also has a focus on the rare and unique. LakeChamplainChocolates.com: Chef's choice Lake Champlain Chocolates is the result of a dare made by a restaurateur to his chef to make the best chocolate desserts. One taste convinced the restaurateur to sell the restaurant and enter the chocolate business, eventually becoming a wholesaler/retailer. LakeChamplainChocolates.com, launched in 1998, is now the company's fastest-growing channel. Lancome-USA.com: Looking beyond beauty It might seem counterintuitive for a beauty products marketer to peruse web sites of film rental, automobile and grocery companies to learn how to improve its e-commerce operations. Yet that's exactly what Lancome-USA.com, a division of L'Oreal, did in preparing the redesign of its web site this spring. MyMMs.com: Sweet personalization Although it has become somewhat common for retailers to use the web to facilitate product customization, few Internet retailers have taken this to the same level as MyMMs.com Taking a commodity product that just about everybody knows well, candy maker USA enables visitors at the site to create their own M&Ms. Romanicos.com: Handmade fame The crew at Romanicos Chocolates makes by hand truffles and other chocolate delights. Not just any chocolate, but only the richest, without added ingredients like butter and sugar, and often embellished with spices and freshly made fruit puree–just like the owner's grandmother used to make in Venezuela. Wine.com: Searching and learning As most wine lovers know, picking out a good wine is a valuable mix of art and science—but one that requires a skill that often overwhelms all but the savviest of connoisseurs. Making both the casual wine buyer as well as the connoisseur feel at home searching for the ideal wine is San Francisco-based Wine.com's mission. Hardware/Home ImprovementAceHardware.com: From web to storeA recent overhaul of AceHardware.com is aimed at familiarizing consumers with the Ace name and giving them reasons to frequent one of Ace's almost 5,000 stores. "Our goal was to represent our brand better and to really make the local stores come to life online," says Dana Kevish, e-commerce marketing manager. HomeDepot.com: Selling know-how What do-it-yourselfers need more than tools and materials is information. Addressing that need has become a focus of Home Depot's web site. "Customers tell us their number one source for home improvement research is the Internet," says Greg Foglesong, general manager of Home Depot Direct, the online unit of The Home Depot Inc. Lowes.com: Shopping and education Shoppers at Lowes.com expect to find a wide variety of hardware and home improvement products and services. What they might not expect to find is inspiration. Lowe's is changing that. "Our primary goal is to be a source of information for customers when they're researching and shopping," says Ames Flynn, vice president of e-commerce and special orders. RepairClinic.com: Pay heed to this speed Visiting RepairClinic.com is like going to an old-fashioned hardware store—nothing fancy, nothing flashy, just mountains of spare parts and a guy who knows which flange or valve you need who also will tell you how to install it. RepairClinic.com does this so well that Home Depot has inked a deal making RepairClinic.com its appliance parts arm. Rockler.com: Content beats pizzazz The web site of Rockler Woodworking and Hardware reflects the company's nimbleness in adjusting the presentation to appeal to customers. "We do testing on the home page to see what sells," says Scott Ekman, Rockler's vice president of marketing. "We track conversion rates, and we always strive for incremental gains. Housewares/Home FurnishingsCrateandBarrel.com: Gotta Have ItFor die-hard home-as-art devotees and those who merely dabble, few online shopping experiences serve up the delights of CrateandBarrel.com. But it isn`t just about attractive merchandise, attractively presented. This year, part of what makes the site's shopping experience stellar is the fine-tuning of site basics. LillianVernon.com: Loyal to Lillian Catalog and online retailer Lillian Vernon has a loyal customer base, and it plans to keep it that way. That's why it has introduced over the past year a series of online services aimed at easing its customers' busy lifestyles. Among the new features is a reminder service that notifies customers when a holiday, birthday or other personal holiday is approaching and suggests gifts. Oneida.com: Cutting edge The redesigned Oneida.com launched in May 2006 and sales and visits are up 50% this year, says Amy Gebhardt, director of web marketing. The visits are as important as the sales because Oneida.com is designed to encourage consumers to buy Oneida dishes, silverware and glassware, whether directly from the site or through stores that sell Oneida. RestorationHardware.com: Focus on furnishings Selling home furnishings on the Internet requires panache to recreate the presentation of the in-store experience. E-retailers need to strike the delicate balance of putting the item in the context of the room where it will be placed without allowing the room setting to divert the shopper's attention. RestorationHardware.com meets this challenge with a homey and inviting site. StacksandStacks.com: Stacking it on Stacks and Stacks has made several compelling changes to its utilitarian, easy-to-navigate web site. Reviews not only give customer product ratings, they now allow reviewers to describe their persona (bargain hunter, value-oriented, stylish) so other customers can easily find reviews most relevant to them. A special "green" section spotlights environment-friendly products. VivaTerra.com: Going green online With environmental issues making headlines, many retailers are going green with products and marketing. But VivaTerra.com goes one step further, with an entire web site devoted to living harmoniously with nature. While its product line is small—it sells women's fashions and home furnishings—every item is environmentally friendly as well as stylish, and the site's visuals and page layout support the theme of green fashions. Williams-Sonoma.com: Something's cooking Williams-Sonoma.com specializes in providing serious cooks with the products and information they need, whatever the season. In early November, a Thanksgiving page featured selections of Thanksgiving-related food, baking tools, cookware, tableware and home décor. There were checklists of kitchen tools and food, each with images and an easy way to add one item—or all of them—to a shopping cart. Mass Merchants/Department StoresAmazon.com: Still the one If it's impossible to attempt any roundup of the web's best retailers without featuring Amazon.com—and it is—it's no surprise: Seattle-based Amazon.com defined the genre, and it ranks highest in online sales. But sales rank isn't why Amazon.com is a leader—sales rank is a by-product of the innovation and the operational excellence that sets it apart, as this year again shows. Buy.com: Buy it wherever Buy.com, a general merchandise, online-only retailer, has built a reputation for being on the leading edge in areas such as social networking and Internet TV. This year it launched a new application—Garage Sale—on Facebook.com. The application lets Facebook members post and sell items directly on their profile pages. Costco.com: Something for everyone Not only does Costco.com sell higher quality items than many department store and warehouse sites, it also promotes new and limited-time offers and features a buyer's pick selection. Among the more than two dozen departments listed atop the site's home page are funerals, food and wine, musical instruments and pets. Mousing over each category reveals its sub-categories, making navigation easier without cluttering up the home page. JCP.com: The web's way more The web is much more than just a sales channel. For multi-channel marketers, it can be a multi-tasker of the first order—if they know how to harness its full utility, as J.C. Penney does. JCP.com produces shopping functionality such as the Know Before You Go initiative, which provides online merchandise visibility at local stores, the ability to shop weekly print ads online and enhanced search capabilities. Macys.com: Hub of the brand Macy's Inc. has invested heavily in Macys.com. Among the many site improvements is an enhanced product-comparison feature that's improved conversion by three times. Customers can search by a wide range of attributes, such as the number of cups a coffeemaker makes. They also can e-mail gift cards good in stores and online, and personalize gift cards with photos they upload to the site. NetShops.com: The niche expert NetShops operates more than 200 web sites, each with a narrow specialty, such as Adirondack chairs, bocce ball sets or trailer hitches. Because a bocce enthusiast is likely to be quite different from someone seeking a trailer hitch, each site is designed individually. A new feature called Shop Together lets two customers jointly explore the site from separate computers. Overstock.com: Easy hunting Overstock makes bargain hunting quick and easy by offering multiple options for browsing and searching—such as Clearance Bin and Steals of the Week. It is moving into mobile commerce with a program known as Mobile O that lets customers shop the whole site from a mobile phone. It also has introduced a new community feature called Omuse, which lets readers help populate various how-to guides. Shop.com: Shop for fun When Shop.com learned that its customers wanted more fun in their shopping, it added games to keep loyal customers coming back, and to win new ones. In a daily "cart-me-away" game, contestants read a story, then are given a list of related items and asked to select products with prices that add up to a given dollar amount. More than 50,000 shoppers compete, and the numbers are escalating. ShopNBC.com: Convergence ahead ShopNBC.com is a natural to lead in the use of video online. More than 30% of the items on the site feature 30-second to 1-minute video demonstrations, and customers who watch them convert at twice the rate as other visitors to the site. This spring it launched ShopNBC.tv, a site that plays the show airing on the ShopNBC TV network and lets consumers buy the presented products. Walmart.com: Only the beginning Walmart.com this year rolled out initiatives that are turbo-charging its progress. The Site to Store free shipping option implemented nationally in July delivers merchandise ordered online to a shopper's local Wal-Mart store for pick-up and has saved customers $25 million in shipping fees. A new Find in Store feature lets online customers see inventory status at their local store to buy there or online. Specialty/Non-ApparelAmericanStationery.com: Personal done properlyFor a company that's been around since 1919, American Stationery proves that an old dog can learn new tricks—and learn them well. AmericanStationery.com boasts top-flight site navigation, easy-to-use personalization, customer reviews and a Flash catalog. Shoppers can search the site using categories such Hand-Bordered Stationery and Personalized Party Wares. Art.com: Art to suit Art.com accomplishes the near-impossible—bringing order to a site that offers hundreds of thousands of images, including posters, paintings and photos. The home page allows visitors to search by art styles, subject matter, artist or collections. Shoppers also can mouse over a color chart to search for artwork containing a chosen hue, or click on images representing categories such as best sellers and decorating tips. Bulbs.com: Lighting the way Bulbs.com makes the tiresome and challenging task of picking the right light bulb from thousands of choices relatively easy. The site offers bulbs and light fixtures for locations ranging from parking lots and airfields to home driveways and dining rooms, an inventory that can be mind-boggling to consumers. With that in mind, the retailer makes navigating the site as easy as possible. Diapers.com: Parent-friendly Diapers.com operates on a very basic philosophy. Its customers are busy parents with hectic lives and little free time. The web site, therefore, must be simple to navigate and enable fast purchases. Dressed in soft pastel colors, the site is uncluttered and straightforward. Unlike its customers, the design is the antithesis of busy, eschewing visual distractions. DrsFosterSmith.com: Trading on 'vet cred' "Vet cred" is what sets Drs. Foster and Smith apart from myriad web sites and catalogs catering to pet owners. Founded by a pair of practicing veterinarians, a 16-page informational flyer has grown to the largest pet-supply operation on the Internet. Superb navigation helps customers find their way through thousands of products for all kinds of animals. Levenger.com: Content is everything Levenger sells its own brand of products for people who read and write: fountain pens and note cards, briefcases and bookcases. Its web site stands out by the depth of information it provides, including how-to tips on every page, from how to fill a fountain pen to the proper way to file. The site has been enhanced in the past year with more and larger photos, color swatches, zoom and product reviews. PetsUnited.com: To each its own By operating a menagerie of sites, PetsUnited focuses more intensely than other large web pet supplies retailers on niches within its category, and the strategy has paid off in customer loyalty and growth. Rather than a generic home page with tabs for different animals, the retailer operates Dog.com, Horse.com, Ferret.com, Bird.com and Fish.com, and has made each one a devotee destination. PlumberSurplus.com: The knowledge pipeline PlumberSurplus.com takes the view that visitors to its site don't always know precisely what they want. The web site is designed to give them the tools they need. It offers a learning center with videos, definitions, and how-to guides. The home page invites customers to comparison shop so they not only can learn what product they might need but also compare brands and prices. PowerEquipmentDirect.com: Power play Power Equipment Direct operates ElectricGeneratorsDirect.com, PowerWashersDirect.com, AirCompressorsDirect.com and, new this fall, SnowBlowersDirect.com. The retailer has taken on the difficult challenge of marketing and selling bulky items through the Internet, connecting with customers when they need what may be out of stock in their local home improvement store. ShopPBS.com: Tuning into film buffs When "The War" debuted on PBS recently, the Ken Burns film flooded ShopPBS.com with shoppers looking for the related sets of DVDs, CDs and books. Thanks to a redesigned web site, those shoppers more easily found those products in the exact mix they wanted. They can search on "war," then click one of several links—format, price range, production date, and the date a program aired on TV. Shutterfly.com: Picture perfect Shutterfly.com, the web-only photo and publishing service, is always looking for new ways to preserve memories of family and friends. Long known for being innovative, Shutterfly.com uses technologies such as Flash, Ajax, and Java to make the site easy, intuitive and fun for people to be creative. Step2.com: Out of the box Step2 knows how to make it easy to shop for the right toy. The retailer goes above and beyond the usual shopping services and displays a wealth of information on a single page: Images that put toys into size context in play scenes, including some video and 3-D demonstrations; information on shipping times and costs; views of complementary toys; and detailed assembly instructions. Sporting GoodsAltrec.com: Get out!Outdoor gear retailer Altrec makes sure its customer service staff takes all their vacation time. The company knows they'll spend it camping, biking, climbing mountains, and doing other things that will improve the advice they offer customers. Altrec also operates GreatOutdoors.com, packed with news, how-to's, and features on outdoor sports and travel. BestKiteboarding.com: Surfing the web Kiteboarding—riding the waves on a small board using a kite for propulsion and maneuvering—is a relatively new sport that combines aspects of surfing, snowboarding and parasailing. BestKiteboarding serves a market of under a million kiteboarders spread throughout 191 countries and territories, engaging visitors by serving 128 gigabytes of videos per month. Bodybuilding.com: Physical and social Bodybuilding.com has been busy consolidating its position not only as a top fitness Internet retailer but as a social hub for the bodybuilding community. User forums have been an important community element, racking up 19 million messages in the past five years. On its social network, BodySpace, members can post photos of themselves, describe their workout goals and blog about their progress. Cabelas.com: Good hunting Cabelas.com continues to build on a legacy of distinction. To keep traffic and web sales growing, the specialty retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor merchandise has implemented a number of e-commerce technology upgrades. Cabela's has improved site navigation and product display and added zoom technology and product views that shoppers can see in three dimensions. DicksSportingGoods.com: Winning the web game Each sport is different, and its adherents have unique sensibilities. DicksSportingGoods.com appeals to those sensibilities by giving each product page a distinctive flair associated with the featured sport. Golfers, for instance, are greeted by flowing green fairways. A "handicap tracker" invites them to list their scores and have their handicaps calculated. Golfballs.com: It's all about you Golfballs.com could be just another sporting goods web site. But the online retailer of golf equipment and clothes distinguishes itself with the high degree of personalization offered to customers. During the 2006 holiday season, the retailer increased sales by more than 30% and tripled conversion rates. Eight out of ten of those holiday orders included personalized golf balls or other personalized items. Moosejaw.com: Solid as a rock Moosejaw Mountaineering's most noticeable quality is a certain goofiness that appeals to its core customer base of college students and young adults, with such "Moosejaw Madness" features as the "Daily Remark" and the quasi advice column "Dating Girl." But behind the giggles is an e-commerce site as solid as the rocks in Joshua Tree National Park, where Moosejaw shot its most recent product photos. REI.com: A new foundation Visitors to REI.com over the past year have seen several new features. The sporting goods site deployed a new site search engine that offers shoppers the option of searching for products based on categories such as vendor, best selling and price. Since it launched a customer reviews feature at the end of August, customers have posted more than 18,000 reviews. Q3 e-commerce sales shoot up 51% at J. Crew J. Crew (No. 63) posted third quarter web revenue of $71.3 million vs. $47.1 million in the prior year. Overall the company reported net income of $26.8 million on sales of $332.7 million vs. net income of $26 million on revenue of $233.6 million in Q3 2006. Coldwater Creek turns in a lukewarm web sales performance The Internet channel grew, but only modestly for Coldwater Creek (No. 46) in the third quarter. In Q3, web sales increased by 4.4%, compared to a 13.6% decrease in same store sales. Talbots year-to-date web sales rise 33% Web sales are a bright spot in an otherwise murky financial picture at The Talbots Inc. (No. 62). For the year, e-commerce sales are up by about one-third, compared with just 6.9% for all sales and a decrease of 5.4% for comparable store sales. Big Fish Games hooks multi-player game developer Thinglefin Online casual game developer and distributor Big Fish Games (No. 271) has acquired Thinglefin, a developer of perpetual online games that can be played by hundreds or even thousands of players at a time. New CEO seeks to turn around Broadspan Commerce Online furnishings retailer Broadspan Commerce has hired a new CEO in a move to regain profitability while the company operates under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The retailer operates web sites DirectlyHome.com and TotalBedroom.com. Improvement Direct remodels corporate site to capture shoppers Improvement Direct (No. 165) has relaunched its corporate web site as the focal point of its 12 specialty sites. The niche sites, such as FaucetDirect.com and KitchenDirect.com, will continue but ImprovementDirect.com will drive customers to one brand. Organize.com picks up Ajax technology, customer reviews Organize.com (No. 443) has relaunched its web site on a Yahoo e-commerce platform that enables shoppers to sort products by price and name, and provides customer product reviews and video demos. Teen retailer dELiA’s Q3 web sales rise 13% Multi-channel retailer dELiA’s reports third quarter 2007 web sales of $33.6 million, up 13% compared with Q3 2006. Direct segment sales, including catalog and web, were up 5% in the quarter. Etronics.com redesigns its site in time for holiday shopping Online retailer Etronics.com (No. 72) is stepping up its game in time for the holidays. Etronics.com now has several new features and functions such as Google Checkout, on-site price comparison, live chat with customer reps and a 30-day money back guarantee. Buy.com launches retail site for jewelry and watches To mark its 11th year as an online retailer, Buy.com (No. 38) is launching a jewelry and watches online store with an inventory of more than 30,000 products. Online sales for week after Thanksgiving grow 18% over year before Online retail spending for the week after Thanksgiving reached $4.06 billion, up 18% from the same week a year ago, comScore Networks reports. The heaviest spending day was the Monday after Thanksgiving, with $733 million in sales. More than just gift sites benefit from the surge in online holiday shopping All kinds of retail web sites experienced a boost on the Monday after Thanksgiving, not just sites associated with traditional gift-giving. Among them: The HP Home & Home Office Store, AllergyBuyersClub.com and MusicNotes.com. JCP.com's "Know before you go" out to save time for busy shoppers The new initiative facilitates online research and tightens integration between channels, even offering near-live online visibility into local store inventory. Office Depot uses a game to remind customers it’s got gifts, too Office Depot has launched a micro-site featuring a game that gives visitors a chance to win high-tech prizes. It's an effort to remind customers that Office Depot sells gift items as well as office supplies. Web 2.0 feature answers the question, "How do I look in these glasses?" Online prescription eyeglass retailer EyeBuyDirect.com's new Wall of Frames social shopping feature lets friends and the community comment on virtual try- ons. Sears ponders its next move for Restoration Hardware Sears Holdings Corp. still wants to acquire Restoration Hardware Inc., but it's unclear if it`s willing to sign a confidentiality and standstill agreement. Sears announced a bid of $6.75 per share Nov. 23. Technology upgrade helps lift conversions by 15% at CafePress.com Investing in its platform to speed access to 130 million products and streamlining its shopping cart and product pages pays off for CafePress.com. How SitStay.com fit Big Blue into a smaller budget IBM's WebSphere software is usually found on the e-commerce servers of big e-retailers like Staples and L.L. Bean. But a much smaller online merchant, SitStay.com, found a way to use WebSphere to take on bigger pet supply rivals. Mobile search site gives away product listings to local stores Getting m-commerce top of mind with local merchants is one aim of a new promotion by Slifter.com, which seeks to increase the number of small stores in its retail assortment through which mobile shoppers can search. New index tracks performance of mobile web sites Keynote Competitive Research has announced the first results of a new weekly mobile web performance index. The index measures and ranks the response time, download speed and success rate of well-known mobile web sites. Chase Paymentech merchant index shows surge in online holiday sales Online sales volume at the 10 U.S. e-retailers tracked by the Chase Paymentech Pulse Index rose 38% year-over-year for the on weekend after Thanksgiving, Chase reports. It takes time to buy wine After redesigning its site to ensure experts and amateurs had all the information they needed presented in an optimal fashion, KLWines.com was rewarded by customers spending more time online. The average time spent on the site is up 14%. A study of 69 web site factors shows e-retailers have a long way to go A study of 300 retail web sites shows that most have a long way to go to create an outstanding customer experience. SmartBargains.com, the best retailer of the 300 in the study by Future Now Inc. scored only 67 out of 100 possible points. Major hacker attack distorts search engine results A well-organized attack caused search engines to return links to sites that try to download malicious software onto visitors' computers. The immediate impact on retailers seems limited, but the attack points to the potential for future mischief. Younger shoppers defecting to newer comparison shopping sites, Hitwise says While traffic is up to the 12 leading comparison shopping sites, those sites are losing favor among younger consumers, who increasingly are turning to newer sites for information on products and price, according to web traffic measurement firm Hitwise. Monday's online sales grow 20.6% over year ago, comScore reports Online retail sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving reached $733 million, up 20.6% from $608 million on the same day last year, comScore reports. The increase was ahead of the increase in sales for the first three weeks of November (17%). Retailers score higher customer satisfaction and sales at start of holidays Customer satisfaction in e-retailing on Monday rose 1.3% from a year ago as retailers were better prepared to handle high traffic volume, researchers ForeSee Results reports. Online shopping traffic rose 26% year-to-year on Monday, according to Hitwise. Retailers set e-mail record with Monday-after-Thanksgiving promotions Two-thirds of the more than 100 large online retailers tracked by RetailEmail.Blogspot sent promotional e-mails on Monday, compared with 44% on that day last year. But the record may not last for more than a few days. Survey probes what motivates online product reviewers A Bazaarvoice/Keller Fay Group study finds online reviewers are more inclined to want to help the online community than to seek a platform for bashing a brand. Americans viewed 9 billion online videos in September Nearly 75% of U.S. Internet users watched a video online in September, averaging three hours of video per person during the month, according to comScore Video Metrix. Google Sites, which includes YouTube.com, topped the September rankings. Europe's October traffic to online retail sites rose 5% year-to-year Online retail traffic in October grew 11% year-over-year in the U.K. and France but fell 1% in Germany, comScore reports. The leading traffic generator among retail sites in each market was eBay.com. Amazon continues its lock on shopping sites in October Amazon.com Inc. led online shopping destinations in October with 83% more unique visitors than No. 2 Target.com, whose platform Amazon operates, Nielsen Online reports. Game show host Howie Mandel will play the lead in Buy.com ads Mandel, host of Deal or No Deal, will appear in a series of ads for Buy.com over the next two years. The first television commercial featuring Mandel will air nationally this month. Catalog and e-commerce veteran Ted Deikel buys 10% of auction site uBid.com Deikel, former CEO of catalog and online retailer Fingerhut, has purchased 1.8 million shares of uBid.com Holdings Inc. Deikel says new CEO Jeff Hoffman’s arrival bodes well for the company’s growth. GSI Commerce agrees to buy European fulfillment provider Zendor.com Ltd. Targeting retail e-commerce growth in Europe, GSI Commerce has agreed to pay approximately $7.9 million in cash to acquire U.K.-based Zendor.com Ltd., a provider of fulfillment and customer care services with five U.K. retailer clients, GSI says. Internap names a new vice president of global sales Internap Network Services Corp., a provider of Internet platforms including for retailers, has named Randal Thompson vice president of global sales. Thompson has been an Internap employee for four years. E-mail marketing company Responsys names a new chief technology officer Responsys, a provider of on-demand e-mail and marketing automation services, has named Antonio Casacuberta chief technology officer. Casacuberta is former CTO of Infospace. Michael Penney returns to Epsilon to lead consulting and analytics team Penney will be executive vice president of strategic and analytic services at Epsilon, a multi-channel marketing company. He previously led the company's marketing efforts and analytic consulting practice. Site search company Netrics hires a new head of engineering Site search technology provider Netrics has hired Patrick Austermann as vice president of engineering. Austermann most recently was the information security officer at Bookspan, a partnership between Bertelsmann and Time Warner. Rich media firm EyeWonder opens office in Dallas and hires sales execs Ryan Manchee, who until recently was director of creative services, will head up sales in the new Dallas office. The company, which specializes in providing rich media and video for online advertisers, also named three regional sales vice presidents. buy at, Inc. Launches Affiliate Network in the US The UK affiliate network provider is launching an affiliate network in the U.S. and has opened a U.S. headquarters in Manhattan. The company has been chosen as affiliate network provider by Ticketmaster. Julian Lennon invests in MyStore.com Lennon, son of Beatles star John Lennon and himself a musician, is among the investors in yourStore LLC, operator of MyStore.com, a site that enables musicians to sell their work. Gap's Q3 online sales grow 36% year over year Online sales at Gap (No. 27) rose 36% year over year to $247 million for the third quarter ended Nov. 3, as total net sales remained flat at $3.9 billion and comparable store sales decreased 5%, Gap says. A new look and hot sellers boost e-commerce sales at Barnes & Noble A newly redesigned web site and the release of the fastest-selling teen novel in the history of the company helped Barnes & Noble (No. 33) grow its overall and e-commerce sales in the third quarter. E-commerce sales rose year over year by 13%. Brookstone goes 3-D with virtual store Shoppers at Brookstone.com (No. 146) now can follow a link to a 3-D virtual store that has the appearance and attributes of an actual store, enabling them to browse the aisles, view products and – ideally – purchase products. ValueVision counts on the web and e-commerce to jump-start business As ValueVision (No. 64) goes forward it will concentrate on the Internet to help turn around its financial performance, says interim CEO John Buck. To expedite the turnaround, ValueVision will concentrate on new Internet initiatives. Shoes.com Q3 sales up almost 30% Shoes.com (No. 155) sales were up 29.5% to $22.4 million in the third quarter of 2007 compared with the prior year period. Specialty retail segment sales were up 3.8% year over year. New RealNetworks media player downloads videos to Macs RealNetworks (No. 94) has rolled out a new media player that enables consumers to download and record video from thousands of web sites. The new device also works with Apple’s Mac computers and iPods. Q2 e-commerce revenue rises 24.4% for Dreams Q2 web sales rose to $5.6 million in fiscal 2008, from $4.5 million in the prior year quarter. Across all operations, Dreams (No. 289) posted a net loss of $784,000 on revenue of $12.5 million vs. a loss of $302,000 on sales of $8.5 million in Q2 of fiscal 2007. Casual Male eyes a European e-commerce expansion Casual Male Retail Group, (No. 236) a multi-channel retailer of men’s big and tall clothing and accessories, is starting up a European e-commerce operation. It will use GSI Commerce to oversee its web expansion plans. The first question about adding web content is 'does it fit your mission?' Big Fish Games (No. 271) did a boatload of customer research before rolling out a social networking feature on its casual gaming web site. Balancing customer wants with company needs was paramount, says CEO Paul Thelen. Pairing with provider yields product search info for Abt.com In 2004, Abt Electronics (No. 156) had a problem organizing more than 10,000 SKUs on its web site. Since partnering with a provider in early 2005 the retailer has deployed detailed decision tools that help shoppers search by product features and intended use. Online holiday sales: "So far, so good" Early indications are that online retail sales were strong through the Thanksgiving weekend and on Monday. But with merchants pushing sales offers earlier than usual, analysts say it’s too soon to predict a happy holiday season for e-retailers. Yahoo Store platform back in operation after Monday shutdown The Yahoo Merchant Solutions e-commerce platform, also known as Yahoo Store, returned to regular operation late last night after most of its more than 40,000 retailers were unable to process orders as usual yesterday, Yahoo says. Heavy traffic on Monday slows down some retail sites A third of sites that Keynotes Systems Inc. monitors for its Holiday Retail Index suffered slowdowns on Monday, the symbolic start of the online holiday shopping period. None of the sites crashed, but many experienced extended checkout times. Internet Retailer Conference returns to Chicago for its 2008 show Internet Retailer's fourth annual conference—Internet Retailer 2008 Conference & Exhibition—will be held June 9-12, 2008, in Chicago. The conference, the world's largest e-retailing trade show, will take place at the new McCormick Place West. Internet Retailer announces keynote speakers for IRCE 2008 Mike Boylson, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of J.C. Penney Co. Inc., and Neel Grover, president and CEO of Buy.com Inc., will deliver Keynote Addresses at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition June 9-12 in Chicago. Amazon builds out its toy store with the Holiday Toy List Featuring videos of more than 450 of the season's top toys and gifts for kids, Amazon's Holiday Toy List offers enhanced search functionality to speed and inform shopping. Blockbuster knocks out Overstock to win Gomez site performance tournament Strong performance throughout the contest by retail chains like Blockbuster suggests they're increasingly focused on e-commerce, Gomez says. Gomez says the sites it tracked Monday mostly held up well despite high traffic, with some exceptions. Canadian electronics chain Visions turns on the lights of its online store Vision Electronics, which operates 26 stores in western Canada, has launched an e-commerce site. The site features links to store specials and a technology learning center. Thanksgiving week dishes up a strong start to holiday online shopping Researchers report strong growth in online sales for Thanksgiving week. Sales were up 22% on the day after Thanksgiving from a year earlier, comScore reports. That outpaced the 17% growth for the first three weeks of November, comScore says. Retailers report extended web site outages on Yahoo Store platform The e-commerce platform provided by Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo Merchant Solutions, or Yahoo Store, has experienced outages for several hours today, according to Yahoo and retailers operating on the Yahoo Store platform. Most sites are up to the shopping challenge this year, Keynote reports Although 10 of 30 sites that Keynote Systems tracks for its Holiday Retail Index experienced slowdowns in response time Friday, they were not serious enough to affect the shopping experience. One exception: Sears.com was down during peak shopping hours. Google and PayPal renew rivalry with competing holiday promotions Google offers frequent flyer miles to consumers who pay online with Google Checkout. PayPal’s offers include 20% cash back at some merchants, starting with purchases today. Online holiday shopping up 17%, comScore says; Hitwise reports 12% growth Two companies that report actual online activity calculate that online holiday shopping growth is well into double digits. Two new consumer surveys agree about two in five U.S. adults will shop online this holiday season. Amazon wirelessly delivers books at the speed of thought - almost Amazon's Kindle, a portable, wireless reader, offers book titles that download in 60 seconds. Consumers can download content without plugging the reader into a computer. Redesign boosts sales performance by double digits at SonyStyle.com SonyStyle's site overhaul is producing increases in sales and in such key metrics as customer satisfaction, time on site and pages viewed. The reviews are in for two new features at Walmart.com The Internet retailing arm of behemoth Wal-Mart added customer reviews and order online/pick-up in store features. Customer reviews are piling up and site-to-store free shipping is reaping rewards for customers and the e-retailer. UPS, FedEx announce shipping rate increases for 2008 Carriers UPS and FedEx Corp. have announced average shipping rate increases of 4.9% for 2008. DHL says it will announce its 2008 rates next week. CircuitCity.com unveils social networking destination CircuitCity.com has launched CityCenter Community, a social networking online gathering place for shoppers and sales associates. Community features include blogs, personal profiles and photo galleries. DrsFosterSmith.com to use online video to better educate customers The retailer will be moving into the online video realm, rolling out educational videos on the web site and a syndicated TV show, both scheduled to debut in February. And it believes video can help boost conversion and sales. New e-commerce site melds Hollywood, social networks, multi-level marketing Fanista.com will initially sell music CDs and movie DVDs, and later video games, downloads and books. Founder Dan Adler hopes to use his Hollywood connections to draw artists to the site and will offer commissions to visitors who recruit their friends. eBillme makes it easier for online consumers to pay the bill Consumers now can set up eBillme as the payee in their online bill-pay systems and then pay any merchant that accepts eBillme. Previously, they had to set up each merchant as a payment recipient. Sun Microsystems shows sharpest rise in traffic to computer hardware sites Sun Microsystems had the sharpest increase in unique visitor traffic to computer hardware manufacturers' e-commerce sites for October, with a 77% year-to-year increase. Apple continued to lead in terms of total unique traffic, Nielsen Online reports. |
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