Posted on May 19th, 2008 by Raj Gajwani
Why do people shop?
It’s not just to acquire things they want or need. People shop because it makes them feel good.
Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan has an intriguing article in the Wall Street Journal called The Neuroscience of Retailing: Research Shows Shopping Can Make People Euphoric:
Research shows that people often do get a high from shopping [...]
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Posted on May 19th, 2008 by Raj Gajwani
The resurgence of Internet innovation since 2004 (”web 2.0″) has been driven by user-generated content and UI innovations. The secret ingredient for both is widespread broadband Internet access.
Unfortunately America still lags in penetration of fast, broadband Internet. Christopher Rhoads reports in today’s Wall Street Journal that local governments around America are racing to [...]
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Posted on March 26th, 2008 by Raj Gajwani
Female shoppers are the default target for most apparel retailers, and that’s just as true online. Increasingly, though, online fashion retailers are targeting men — and generating surprisingly positive results.
In his analysis of male online shopping behavior, Ray Smith writes in the Wall Street Journal that “recent research by analysts and retailers has turned [...]
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Posted on January 9th, 2008 by Raj Gajwani
MasterCard SpendingPulse reports that online sales surged 32% in December. (Reported by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan in the Wall Street Journal today).
While these numbers aren’t directly comparable to the more widely-reported Comscore stats about holiday season shopping, they reflect greater strength than other reports we’ve seen. Two facts stand out:
MasterCard’s numbers include gift card [...]
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Posted on December 19th, 2006 by Raj Gajwani
Think you’ve got a lot of competition? You’re right.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over one million retail establishments in the US. Or as Austin Powers might put it: “One MEELLION retailers! (Mua ha ha ha…)”
In such a brutally competitive market, even tiny details are crucial. Jessica Vascellaro writes in today’s [...]
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Posted on December 5th, 2006 by Raj Gajwani
Last year, “free shipping” offers were as ubiquitous at online stores as screaming kids at the mall. The prevailing wisdom was that free shipping was an absolute necessity to coax cost-sensitive consumers to shop online.
What a way to sell yourself short! Online retail is a different experience than shopping at a mall, and [...]
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Posted on October 23rd, 2006 by Raj Gajwani
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Joanna Ossinger reports that
“online retailers and shopping-information sites are starting to figure out how to use videos to draw visitors to their sites and help propel sales.”
QVC.com, the online store for home-shopping channel QVC, is naturally one of the pioneers of online retail video. Senior VP Bob Myers notes [...]
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