Archive for September, 2008

Only 94 Online Shopping Days…

// September 21st, 2008 // No Comments » // e-commerce

until Christmas! The reminder of how many shopping days that were left appeared in a number of online e-commerce stories to emphasize the fact that Christmas starts earlier every year online and that the countdown to 2008 has already begun.

At a recent event the Google Keynote highlighted that Google Trends data led them to believe that September 15th was the date that Christmas 2007 started online. That seems to have been beaten this year with Internet Retailing reporting that MyVoucherCodes.co.uk saw 47% of it’s traffic over the weekend of the 13th-14th September coming from Christmas Gifting related terms.

As a response to this surge in gifting related terms MyVoucherCodes.co.uk have put live their Christmas Deals and Discounts page, which even at this time is well populated with promotional offers from a wide range of retailers. So, if you’re not in the middle of preparing the go live for Christmas 2008 online, it’s probably worth starting soon!

Three e-commerce developments worth a look…

// September 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // e-commerce

Whilst browsing Internet Retailer today there were three stories that made me sit-up and pay closer attention to the headlines I was skim-reading:

1. Website Independent Gift/Wish Lists

One of those moments when you think – ‘Damn wish I’d thought of that’. The system has been developed by US retailer Best Buy, but in Web 2.0 tradition they’ve turned it into an seperate online service named – Giftag. Take a look at the Giftag site, where there are short videos of how it all works.

2. Consumer Reviews Everywhere and Anywhere

A new US service called TurnTo that allows you to see what your friends think of products and brands whilst on participating online retail sites.

TurnTo turns your customers into trusted references for their friends regarding your site and the things you sell. Nothing is more persuasive than advice from friends your visitors know and trust.

The big challenge her is to get the TurnTo brand established and build up a good size userbase for it be worthwhile using. Maybe a tight integration with an existing network like Facebook could give this idea a kick-start?

3. Transactional Banner Adverts

Not the first time I’ve heard about these (NMA had some coverage on a scheme trialled by Boots 6 months ago), but with Christmas just around the corner the idea of a customer being able to complete an order on someone else’s website within a transactional banner advert does sound like an interesting development.

Google Chrome

// September 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // web thoughts

Just when it appeared that the browser wars had a stable number of competitors, a huge new giant one appears on the horizon – Google Chrome. Using a rendering engine based on a combination of Safari’s Webkit and Firefox’s Gecko, Google Chrome is a super-fast new way of surfing. At the heart of this new browser is a JavaScript virtual machine, simply named V8 that claims to be hugely faster than anything else currently available.

Amazingly the Chrome project has been under-wraps since 2006 and after two-years of beavering away the team released their first Beta. First impressions have been extremely positive, with the Google T&C’s being the only bone of contention. Google quickly swept away this negative press by posting an updated version and only time will tell what kind of market share they can expect. Posting a link from their homepage certainly won’t do any harm!