september 2008

Ok. Ok. I know the calendar has not yet flipped over to October, but if you have not yet started contemplating your holiday ecommerce strategy, it is time to get going.

With all the funkiness in the financial markets and the presidential race leaving many in suspended animation, there is no question this year brings with it a few added complexities. But business is business, and now is the time to plan out your course for online success. Here are a few areas to consider:

1. Have you started preparing your website messaging to reflect the upcoming holidays? Letting your customers know that you are welcoming them for their holiday shopping is key. This can be accomplished with good copywriting and some accompanying holiday-themed images.

2. Have you thought about which products will be your best sellers? You want to be pushing those on your home page? If you have relevant holiday related products, be sure those are also front and center, and not buried somewhere on your site. Any great gift ideas should be featured on the home page.

3. Have you considered what kind of specials might work well for you at this time of year and how you can promote those either via email marketing, search engine exposure, or other promotions on your site? If there is anything you can do to specifically cater to holiday shoppers (perhaps with gift wrapping or special shipping arrangements), take a few minutes to create a well-optimized page explaining what you are doing.

4. And how about email marketing?  Now is the time to start crafting your campaigns for the next few months to drive holiday traffic to your web site. A well-timed email blast will work wonders. You don’t want to overdo it, but think about a schedule for holiday email blasts and start preparing your copy.

If you do your preparation now you will be ready to roll out your marketing when the time is right and might even have a little time left over to do a little of your own stress-free holiday shopping!

Tags: ecommerce,, shopping,, marketing,, strategy

“Green” Consumers want to know; is shopping online good for the environment?  If you’re trying to make environmentally responsible choices, you may have wondered whether you can shop online with a clear conscience. What is the net effect of shopping online and having items shipped right to your door? You already know that it is incredibly convenient, saving you time and money, especially when you factor in the astronomical price of fuel. But is shopping online really a good choice for the environment?

You might assume making a ten-minute trip to the store would use less fuel and energy than having the same product shipped hundreds of miles straight to your door.  I was surprised to find the opposite to be true, and to find out just how many ways eCommerce helps the environment!

Dr. Joseph Romm, Lead Author and Executive Director for The Center for Energy and Climate solutions reports, “Internet shopping uses less energy to get a package to your house. Shipping 10 pounds of packages by overnight air - the most energy-intensive delivery mode - uses 40 percent less fuel than driving round-trip to the mall. Ground shipping by truck uses just one tenth the energy of driving yourself.”

The energy efficiency and emissions control potential of online shopping is growing exponentially.  I cornered the delivery man in our office today to ask if there had been recent internal policy changes to improve fuel and energy efficiency.  I’m glad I asked!  He reported substantial changes in the way UPS manages deliveries. In addition to their recent policy of “No left turns”, which conserves fuel and controls emissions, UPS recently bought 500 alternative fuel vehicles. According to UPS, the switch to alternative fuel vehicles will save 176,000 gallons of fuel per year, which is roughly the equivalent to taking 100 UPS trucks off the road. Moreover, the trucks powered by compressed natural gas will reduce truck emissions by another 20 percent. Fedex quickly followed suit, announcing plans to replace 30,000 trucks with hybrids.  When the largest fleets in the country start competing for the title of “Greenest Carrier”, everyone wins!

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of the potential impact of increased internet sales on the world’s economy.  According to Dr. Romm’s report:

• The Internet decreases our need for commercial building space. The resulting energy savings from operations and maintenance alone were estimated to save a total 53 billion kilowatt hours and 67 trillion BTUs worth of natural gas per year by the year 2007.

• The avoided construction would save the equivalent of 10 more power plants worth of energy, and another 40 million metric tons of greenhouse pollution.

The Internet saves million of tons of paper every year.  The American Forest & Paper Association reported paper production has experienced a steady decline since the year 2000, an average of .7% annually, according to an article published by Recycling Today Magazine.  Newsprint production is sliding even faster, decreasing by 28.7% since 2000.  For the first time, in February of 2008, the ...