euroblaze | OXID e-Commerce User Blog

With social media marketing, many retailers are tempted to forget the power of email campaigns and email marketing. But the good old email is still an indispensable tool for creating revenue, follow consumers, present new products and foster loyalty. According to a new study which analyzed the use of email among 200 business representatives, 91% said to drive incremental revenue, 89% said to increase purchase frequency, 81% said to promote products and 80% said to improve loyalty among the customers.

The study also shows a few examples of how several online shop are using their e-mail marketing messages to reach their goals:

• Levi Strauss offers free shipping to shoppers who order on the same day as they receive the e-mail message.

• Beauty suppliers retailer Sephora USA Inc. is sending personalized e-mails on the birthday of their customers.

• Housewares and home furnishings retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc. offers a loyalty program membership for $30, allowing customers to purchase products free of shipping costs for 1 year.

• Women’s apparel retailer Forever 21 includes links to the retailer’s blog and contact / sharing information in their email.

• Office supplies retailer Office Depot Inc. sends out messages to remind consumers to replenish stocks of frequently purchased products.

Facebook has recently published a manual giving businesses and brands a guide for the best practices doing marketing on the social networking site.
The small document can be seen as an official resource on how to use Facebook’s advertising for succeeding with your own business.
Although this guide is tailored to the Facebook platform, it can be adopted to any social media marketing effort. Some of the core topics of the guide point on key business objectives like increasing traffic and sales, product development and building customer loyalty.

You can download the PDF here.

Source: www.readwriteweb.com

The search giant Google has launched a page that enables consumers in Portland, New York City and the San Francisco Bay area to sign up for Google Offers, its version of the daily deal marketing vehicle that will feature discounts of at least 50% off purchases.

The service, which Google notes is in beta testing, will initially roll out in Portland before expanding to New York and the San Francisco Bay area.

“We picked Portland because it’s a city known for its unique local businesses, great restaurants, interesting places and a thriving, active community,” says Google in the Offers’ help page.

Google has not posted when it will begin e-mailing its offers to consumers who sign up for the service. However, the help section says: “We’re working hard to get Google Offers up and running in Portland. Soon you’ll start receiving e-mails with great local offers if you have signed up with Google Offers.”

Google Offers dovetails with Google’s other locally focused initiatives, such as its recent enhancement of its Product Search comparison shopping engine that allows consumers to check whether a product is in stock at local stores. “Offers is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new services that give consumers great deals while helping connect businesses with customers in new ways,” a Google spokeswoman says.

The local shopping startup Milo has recently been acquired by eBay – for 75 million dollars. Milo connects the worlds of online and offline stores by searching local store shelves in real-time to find the best prices and availability. The business concept of Milo is to show you what’s in-stock where, and tell you how much it costs at that very moment. Milo also allows insight into detailed product information and user reviews. In short, Milo makes it easy to access both online and offline shopping in one place.

For eBay, Milo represents just another way to get into the $917 billion market of online research to offline buying. And Forrester estimates that this will eventually reach $1.3 trillion and account for nearly 50% of total retail sales by 2013.

eBay plans to bring the inventories of its sellers to Milo. The company will also integrate Milo’s local product feeds into both its online marketplace and mobile applications. eBay’s barcode-scanning iPhone application RedLaser will also feature Milo local results.

The e-commerce portal “Internet Retailer” has recently published a study about the 300 largest online stores in Europe. Not surprisingly, Amazon dominates the ranking. But there are also some unexpected results.

In 2010 the European e-commerce industry made around 118.3 billion euros. The top 10 web shops earned 23.2 percent of this amount, which is 27.4 billion euros. The top 300 companies earned together 57.5 billion euros. Amazon holds the lion’s share of this revenue with 9.36 billion euros – around a third of the revenues of the top 10 and 16.3 percent of the top 300. The Otto Group ranks on the second place with a revenue of 3.83 billion euros, the third place goes to Tesco stores with 3.15 billion euros. Another interesting result of the study: The top 10 web shops achieve a monthly average of about 471.6 million visits and have an average market basket value of €188.60.

(Source: Internet Retailer’s Europe 300)