Selling successfully online is as much science as it is art, and a continuously changing one at that! However here are some timeless tips to succeed with your online store:

1. Customer Reviews Are Critical - Reviews drive down your returns rate and helps make important product or service adjustments
2. Make Sure Customers Can Contact You - A toll-free phone number with store timings show commitment to customers
3. Bring Your Store To The Customers - Search engine optimization (SEO), RSS feeds, blogs, social networks, etc
4. Neat Site Design & Layout - The online storefront is as important as offline stores. Attention to details like product pages, color options, imagery are important to convert site visitors to customers
5. Good Product Photography - Skimping on product imagery will only chase away customers
6. Email Marketing - Automate emails to upsell to customers that have purchased products
7. Print Marketing - Effective, personalized mailers are a good way to get people to your store
8. Expanding Relationships - The quicker you can get customers to come back and purchase more, the better the long term prospects with that customer
9. Quick Shipping - Getting the product in good condition, quickly to your customer shows you have your act together
10. Business Plan - Online business are no different from offline businesses. Create a plan and identify the steps necessary to achieve targets.
11. Collect Metrics - There is a lot of business information that can be obtained by collecting metrics on your site.
12. Good Business Practices - Customers these days expect Free Shipping, Easy Returns & Reading Feedback as norms in good online stores.

Talk to MDS about how we can help you succeed with your online store. We are an end-to-end interactive services firm.

"Staging" has become an important part of selling a home. The term still may be unfamiliar to many, but the concept certainly is not. In the magazine business it's called styling, and simply put, it's about romancing. It's all those elements that are brought to a photo shoot to enhance a room, inside or out: flowers, bowls of fresh fruit, throws, spots of color in accessories such as pillows, collectibles. Retailers and manufacturers know just how important these "magazine worthy" touches are, and they spend a bundle to photograph their products in the best light, literally and figuratively, which is why some of today's relevant cues for making your home inviting come from retailer catalogs.

"Catalogs have become the new magazines," said Gale Steves, a former editor-in-chief for Home magazine and currently a home-design consultant based in New York. "They're lifestyle catalogs that merchandise in very interesting ways that catch the eye. It's up to you to interpret."

Retailer Ethan Allen, for example, produces a magazine distinguished by its large format and edgy graphic covers. They're visually compelling with tight, low-angled photography and packed with witty takes on design, such as the top 10 signs you need a design pro. Some examples: Your dining room makes you want to go out to eat; someone nominated your home for a TV makeover show; there's no decent backdrop for family photos, so you always shoot outside.

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INTERNET RETAILER, March 2009: Although retail catalogs are still a big business at The Orvis Co. Inc., economic demands are forcing the retailer of outdoor apparel and sporting goods to reduce circulation. It’s a tough call for the brand that started in 1865 as a mail-order house, says Mark Holmes, vice president of information technology, because it risks cutting off valuable customers.

Even in a web world, loyal catalog customers have proven valuable because they spend more, he says. “The importance of the catalog hasn’t gone away,” Holmes says. “We’re proving that someone who gets a catalog buys across our web and store channels, and that the catalog is a material tool for driving people to our retail web site.”

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DM NEWS, 2 March 2009: While the past few months have been punishing for consumer cata­logs, business-to-business catalogs are faring better by comparison, a trend one analyst says has held true in past economic crises.

Williams-Sonoma Inc. recently reported that net revenues for the eight-week period ended Decem­ber 28 dropped 22.6% while comparable store sales decreased 24.2%. The company, which pub­lishes the well-known Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn catalogs is not alone in this malaise. With consumer confidence at record lows, many consumer catalogers are posting dramatic sales declines, making cutbacks and even exiting ancillary businesses.

While b-to-b catalogs, like most today, haven't been untouched by the current economic downturn, the picture from them is slightly different, however.

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23 Feb 2009: SOME €12 million per day is being spent on internet purchases in Ireland, according to Realex Payments, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of internet payment services. Not only is this figure substantial and growing, it is sending a loud and clear signal to retailers who are only now hearing it because their once-tinkling cash registers are edging toward silence.

There is currently a rush to the web for both consumers and businesses. Cash-pinched consumers see it as a way to click through the crunch and increase their spending power, and more and more businesses are creating their own websites in the hope of growing sales. And it is the creators of commercial websites who are facilitating this overall growth and creating new ways to monetise the web.

Establishing a commercial presence on the web is not like painting a new shopfront or designing a new logo. It requires the support of formal strategic thinking – the kind of analysis marketing tacticians bring to all commercial communications.

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DIRECT, 19 Jan 2009: Direct mail is effective with Hispanics, judging by a new report from the Direct Marketing Association. The DMA found in a survey that 92% of all marketers and agencies in the Hispanic market use non-catalog direct mail. The study, “Hispanic Direct Marketing: Techniques and Best Practices,” highlights different approaches to marketing to Hispanics and the effect on response rates.

The DMA also reported that 77% of the active companies specifically tailor non-catalog direct mail messages for this audience. In addition, 52% telemarket to Hispanics. In another finding, the DMA reported that almost half of all marketers use both Spanish and English in promotions to Hispanics. One in five marketers only use English, while nearly the same number use separate English and Spanish versions of promotions. Roughly 75% of Hispanic marketers collect consumer data about language preference and proficiency, age and gender.

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