New rules have come in to force across the UK, which enable advertising watchdogs to monitor the way in which companies advertise through social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook. (more…)

According to a new blog report by social networking giants Facebook, the site’s Places application is being adopted by a number of organisations across the UK in order to support the promotion of their products and services. (more…)

According to SEO research by ComScore Inc, the digital metrics specialist, online spending across the US has increased dramatically over the past year. (more…)

According to a new study, tobacco advertisers are circumnavigating advertising bans by utilising social networking and digital media to promote their products. (more…)

Pink Floyd, one of the most successful rock groups of all time, have this week seen their music being pulled from digital download distributers, following the expiry of EMI’s contracts which covers the albums at the end of June. (more…)

Recent reports on net usage and uptake suggest that a new wave of ‘Silver Surfers’ (people over the age of fifty who use the web) has increased dramatically within the past twelve months. Almost two million new internet users have joined the UK online community, and estimates suggest that over half of these users are made up of people aged fifty and over.
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As anyone who sells goods online should know, we’re fast closing in on the most important day of the year for the ecommerce industry, Cyber Monday. For the uninitiated, Cyber Monday is statistically the busiest day of the year for the vast majority of ecommerce sites. It typically happens on the first Monday of December, right after people have been paid for the last time in the year and when the highest numbers of shoppers are making online purchases agead of christmas. (more…)

Lesson 4: Address Security Issues

Even now, with ecommerce so established, many people simply don’t feel comfortable buying online. It’s important to address these concerns even though you, as a seasoned internet professional, probably don’t share them. (more…)

Lesson 3: Break up the Ordering Process

There are a number of necessary steps when it comes to an E-commerce transaction, many of which need to be done on separate pages. At times it can seem as if the process is never ending with page after page to fill out. A good way to mitigate this frustration is to be up front and honest with your customers about the entire process and map it out in bit sized pieces for them. (more…)

Lesson 2: Keep it Simple

Always remember, there is only ever a quick tap of the back button stopping a customer from navigating away from your site in frustration. Online customers know they have a choice and thus exhibit a very low tolerance for extra hassle. (more…)

This week the generous online teachers over at top click are going to let you in on how to maximise the efficiency, speed and profitability of your ecommerce site with a few simple tips. So, if you sell products online then sit back, relax, and let us lay some knowledge on you.

Lesson 1: Email addresses not User Names

Because email addresses are used much more regularly than individual user names, they are much more memorable to consumers. For this reason it’s a better idea to have customers sign into their site with their email address. This can seem counterintuitive as email addresses tend to be much longer than most user names though if you think about it, it does make sense. Anyone who is reasonably active on the internet is going to have accumulated several different user names in their time, though nobody really has more than two or three actively used email addresses. Why would you?

This is a particularly good ploy for bigger websites. How annoying is it to try to come up with a user name and find that your first five or so choices are already taken by someone else? An email address is by its very nature unique, so you bypass this process entirely.

We see practically every day on the news that high street behaviour has been hugely affected by the recession. But how has the world of online commerce changed? Well, according to research carried out by IMRG Capgemini e-Retail sales, perhaps surprisingly, online sales have not gone down – in fact, they have risen by 14 percent over the last year. This proves that consumers have not stopped buying altogether, in many cases they are merely adapting how they shop. (more…)

A survey conducted by Click and Buy has found that many ecommerce site owners are losing out on business through abandoned shopping carts from badly set up payment processes. The survey highlights numerous points that anyone who takes credit card payments over the internet would be do well to note. Details after the jump. (more…)

Amazon.com has courted controversy over the last few days by banning adult books and DVDs from its list of bestsellers. The upshot being that the books and DVDs no longer featured on the all important sales rankings. The online retail giant became the subject of a deluge of emails bouncing around the internet over the long weekend, asking people to boycott the site in response.
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