The hype for this year’s Internet Retailer conference in Chicago, starting this week, suggests there’s an “urgent need for e-retailers to reinvest and reinvent their online retail businesses in the wake of the recession in order to capitalize on the industry’s certain return to double-digit growth”. No mention of a “double dip” here; the “Great…
Category Archives: Blog
Worthy of imitation?
You’ve got something you’d like to learn. There are a dozen ways to learn it, but perhaps none simpler than imitation. Babies are master imitators. Animals, too, are quick to learn from imitation. So why do we resist it? Scolding “copycat!” voices from our childhood may still be in our head. There’s the aspiration to…
What’s really holding you back?
Seth Godin made an interesting blogpost earlier this week called Is it too late to catch up? He provides a list of ten things you should start doing if your business has no online presence at all, as if the last fourteen years have just passed you by. His suggestions are practical and inexpensive (mostly…
How to manage the #1 complaint about ecommerce software
Were your competitor pressed to explain why its ecommerce software needs a platform upgrade, the answer will likely sound familiar to you. That’s because it’s your answer, too, and the likely answer for 8 out of 10 merchants: insufficient innovation or flexibility. The desire for constant improvement runs strong among ecommerce merchants. How could it…
Internet retailers moving to ‘in-house’ marketing
Over the last six months, we’ve spent a lot of time talking to online retailers about their approach to marketing and the challenges they face, trying to understand how best we can meet their needs with the launch of Frankly eCommerce. One trend that’s struck us as becoming increasingly prevalent during 2009, is the drive…
Frankly eCommerce beta release coming soon
As merchants begin to focus on maximizing their revenues after the critical holiday period, a free beta version of Frankly eCommerce will soon be released to an invitation-only list of online retailers. To join our list of invited beta users and start realising some quick wins for your website, sign up now to register your…
The Top 500 Guide: lessons for the little guys
But for the absence of wands, broomsticks and stuffed owls, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were advanced copies of the latest Harry Potter installment. In reality, this is June in Boston, the final day of the Internet Retailer Conference, and the coveted publication in the mountain of closely guarded cardboard boxes is the 2009…
Green light for Frank to do business
While not immune to the credit crunch, e-commerce has largely bucked the trend and remained the “bright light” of the retail sector. As a result, today’s merchants are more motivated than ever to get better at selling online. That’s why, this week, a group of investors bought into our story and put up the capital…
How much learning airfare can you afford?
Over breakfast before today’s Internet Retailer conference, I listened to the e-commerce manager of a sporting goods store describe the purpose for his visit to Boston: “We’re here to learn. It’s critical to keep pace with what’s happening, and so going to the speaker sessions is our way of keeping up, of getting smarter. I…
E-commerce hosting customers hungry for marketing help
For an e-commerce hosting company, training its merchant customers how to sell online often doesn’t get beyond “here’s how to configure your shopping cart.” Teaching merchants how to use the e-commerce software in this feature-driven manner is challenge enough. But for a web hosting company, even a software development company, when the questions become about…