From Chris Matyszczyk on CNet: IKEA, the Swedish purveyor of fast-food furniture, decided to open a new store in Malmo, Sweden, and didn't really have a lot of money to let people know about it.
So it engaged a rather outre advertising agency called Forsman and Bodenfors to create a rather special launch campaign.
The agency created a Facebook profile for the store manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Over a two-week period, it uploaded images from of IKEA showrooms to his Facebook photo album.
Then it put out word that the first person to tag their name to a product in the pictures, won it.
Facebook being what it is, word got out and needy, enthusiastic Swedes begged for more pictures so that they could tag themselves to a new sofa, a new bed, or a new vase into which they could stick their plastic flowers or their dead grandparents' ashes.
Before Facebook could take credit for its own wonderful ingenuity in creating the world's most needed Web site, thousands of Swedes were spreading pictures of IKEA showrooms all around the personal galaxy known as their profile pages.
This was truly a case of "Build It and They Will Come!"
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Asos (US) Launches Twitter-linked Micro Review Site
From Catalogue eBusiness magazine: Continuing to set the pace for retailers’ use of social media, fashion etailer Asos has launched Asosreviews.com, “a Twitter-powered feedback and reviews microsite” that enables customers to post real-time comments.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
AmEx Take Aim at PayPal
From the Associated Press: With its deal to buy Revolution Money, American Express is taking aim at the growing market for online and alternative payments, in a challenge to recognized leader PayPal, analysts say.
AmEx announced plans Wednesday to buy the Web payments firm started in 2005 by Internet firm AOL founder Steve Case, with the purchase price set at $300 million.
Analysts say AmEx is most interested in the so-called peer-to-peer services of Revolution, which enables low-cost money transfers among individuals and businesses.
"I think it's a challenge to PayPal, but it's more than that," said Ed Kountz, an analyst who follows financial technologies at Forrester Research.
"AmEx is positioning themselves for more effective innovation, and for the next generation customer."
Kountz said a variety of new technologies are emerging for person-to-person and alternative payments, but that few companies have been able to get the critical mass with both consumers and merchants to gain a foothold.
Revolution also aims to compete against traditional credit card firms by handling payments at a lower fee.
Joe Weisenthal at the online analysis site Business Insider said Revolution is "frequently described as a PayPal killer," but has been unable to grow during the financial crisis.
The action by AmEx comes with PayPal expanding its offerings with new ways to transfer money using mobile phones or social networks like Facebook.
Revolution "offers a unique card that seems to blend the idea of traditional credit and debit cards with Internet-based payments along the lines of PayPal and Google's service," said Jim Kim of the financial technology website FierceFinanceIT. "We'll see how the other big boys react."
"New payments products and platforms are evolving rapidly and it's important for us to keep identifying cutting edge technologies that can extend our leadership beyond the traditional payments arena," said Kenneth Chenault, chairman and chief executive officer of American Express in announcing the deal.
"This is a smart, nimble business. It's run by an accomplished management team who have quickly developed some cutting edge e-payment offerings," he said. "Joining with American Express will help unlock their potential, while allowing us to deliver competitive online payment products more rapidly and efficiently."
AmEx announced plans Wednesday to buy the Web payments firm started in 2005 by Internet firm AOL founder Steve Case, with the purchase price set at $300 million.
Analysts say AmEx is most interested in the so-called peer-to-peer services of Revolution, which enables low-cost money transfers among individuals and businesses.
"I think it's a challenge to PayPal, but it's more than that," said Ed Kountz, an analyst who follows financial technologies at Forrester Research.
"AmEx is positioning themselves for more effective innovation, and for the next generation customer."
Kountz said a variety of new technologies are emerging for person-to-person and alternative payments, but that few companies have been able to get the critical mass with both consumers and merchants to gain a foothold.
Revolution also aims to compete against traditional credit card firms by handling payments at a lower fee.
Joe Weisenthal at the online analysis site Business Insider said Revolution is "frequently described as a PayPal killer," but has been unable to grow during the financial crisis.
The action by AmEx comes with PayPal expanding its offerings with new ways to transfer money using mobile phones or social networks like Facebook.
Revolution "offers a unique card that seems to blend the idea of traditional credit and debit cards with Internet-based payments along the lines of PayPal and Google's service," said Jim Kim of the financial technology website FierceFinanceIT. "We'll see how the other big boys react."
"New payments products and platforms are evolving rapidly and it's important for us to keep identifying cutting edge technologies that can extend our leadership beyond the traditional payments arena," said Kenneth Chenault, chairman and chief executive officer of American Express in announcing the deal.
"This is a smart, nimble business. It's run by an accomplished management team who have quickly developed some cutting edge e-payment offerings," he said. "Joining with American Express will help unlock their potential, while allowing us to deliver competitive online payment products more rapidly and efficiently."
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Elusive Web Measurement Strategy
Brent Dykes has a very good post on the Omniture blog on developing a Web Measurement Strategy. He notes that "In a recently released report by e-Consultancy, we continue to see that many companies still don’t have a measurement strategy in place. After surveying more than 800 digital marketers, e-Consultancy found “…that just one in five companies (22%) has an internal strategy that ‘ties data collection and analysis to business objectives’ and only 27% say their web analytics ‘definitely drive actionable insights.’”
That's alarming...but seems like a realistic assessment, unfortunately. Why bother with the exercise? Dykes sees "four main benefits to developing a web measurement strategy," which I quote below:
That's alarming...but seems like a realistic assessment, unfortunately. Why bother with the exercise? Dykes sees "four main benefits to developing a web measurement strategy," which I quote below:
- Gain a clearer understanding of your company’s online business performance. Without well-defined KPIs, you’re not going to truly understand business performance and take appropriate action.
- Achieve greater buy-in and adoption by involving key executives and stakeholders in the business requirements gathering phase.
- Align your organization around shared measurement objectives that are tied to key business goals. Having everyone focused on what’s most important to the business is extremely valuable.
- Avoid costly missteps that may require re-implementation and delay “time-to-value”. Measure twice, cut once.
Next Generation Web Content Management
The Aberdeen Group has produced a report on "Next Generation Web Content Management: A Comprehensive Assessment of Current Challenges and the Future of WCM," documenting the trouble companies are having in using Web Analytics effectively to serve personalized Web content. They suggest that Adobe's acquisition of Omniture in October was a positive step in a direction that portends future trends in coordinating Web content with profiling and analysis tools.
According to Aberdeen, the next generation of WCM tools might look like this:
The paper concludes with these comments on the "gaping void in today's marketing technology landscape":
Click HERE to read a copy of the full report.
According to Aberdeen, the next generation of WCM tools might look like this:
The paper concludes with these comments on the "gaping void in today's marketing technology landscape":Click HERE to read a copy of the full report.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Processors Imposing "PCI Insurance Fees" on Smaller Merchants
From "practical ecommerce" -- Since June of 2008, all merchants accepting credit cards have been required to become PCI-DSS compliant to help prevent and control loses from businesses losing card holder data. For smaller merchants, compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requires merchants to complete a self-assessment security questionnaire and complete quarterly vulnerability scanning of their servers and network connections.
Until recently, Level 2, 3, and 4 merchants (those with fewer than six million Visa direct commerce transactions per year) have largely been ignored by the Security Standards Council. For Level 4 merchants, who do not generally need their quarterly scanning to be conducted by an official "Qualified Security Assessor," or QSA, there were no repurcussions for non-compliance. PCI's focus was on ensuring that large businesses were secure
because more damage could result from a single data breach as observed with the TJX and processing services breaches.
But that has been changing. Under pressure from card issuers, the government, and consumer advocacy groups, Level 4 merchants who are not certified as PCI-compliant are now being charged a monthly "PCI fee" which can range from $20 - $50 per month. This trend started in July of 2008, and it looks to become the standard in the processing industry. While your processor may not have a PCI non-compliance fee right now, there's a good chance that they will in the near future.
Why are processors charging this?
Card issuers don't have the means to police the millions of businesses in the US and around the world, so they ar
e placing liability for a data breach on credit card processors. Essentially, this means that the processor could be liable for all costs incurred if a non-compliant business suffers data loss. Most processors don't have near enough cash reserves for even a few small data breaches. Even a small breach of a few hundred card numbers can result in millions of dollars in damages.
The only option is an insurance fund to cover costs from data breaches that a processor is liable for. These funds are made up from the newly appearing fees that processors are passing to their non-compliant customers. Unless processors are removed from the liability circle, these fees are likely to become a standard.
What can you do to avoid these fees?
The only way to avoid these fees is to become officially PCI-compliant. PCI scanning from an officially designated Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) ranges from about $50 per year to hundreds of dollars annually, but in almost every case can be cheaper than the additional fees that processors have been forced to pass down. The PCI Standards Council maintains a list of approved PCI scanning vendors that are allowed to perform the required quarterly scanning for compliance. Click HERE to view the relevant page on their site.
PCI compliance is more than simply filling out the questionnaire and having your networks scanned for vulnerabilities: it requires you to actually maintain secure networks, computers, servers, software, and equipment. But most small businesses can't withstand the cost of a data breach, and security is a business owner's responsibility, no matter their size, whether they want it or not.
Until recently, Level 2, 3, and 4 merchants (those with fewer than six million Visa direct commerce transactions per year) have largely been ignored by the Security Standards Council. For Level 4 merchants, who do not generally need their quarterly scanning to be conducted by an official "Qualified Security Assessor," or QSA, there were no repurcussions for non-compliance. PCI's focus was on ensuring that large businesses were secure
because more damage could result from a single data breach as observed with the TJX and processing services breaches.But that has been changing. Under pressure from card issuers, the government, and consumer advocacy groups, Level 4 merchants who are not certified as PCI-compliant are now being charged a monthly "PCI fee" which can range from $20 - $50 per month. This trend started in July of 2008, and it looks to become the standard in the processing industry. While your processor may not have a PCI non-compliance fee right now, there's a good chance that they will in the near future.
Why are processors charging this?
Card issuers don't have the means to police the millions of businesses in the US and around the world, so they ar
e placing liability for a data breach on credit card processors. Essentially, this means that the processor could be liable for all costs incurred if a non-compliant business suffers data loss. Most processors don't have near enough cash reserves for even a few small data breaches. Even a small breach of a few hundred card numbers can result in millions of dollars in damages.The only option is an insurance fund to cover costs from data breaches that a processor is liable for. These funds are made up from the newly appearing fees that processors are passing to their non-compliant customers. Unless processors are removed from the liability circle, these fees are likely to become a standard.
What can you do to avoid these fees?
The only way to avoid these fees is to become officially PCI-compliant. PCI scanning from an officially designated Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) ranges from about $50 per year to hundreds of dollars annually, but in almost every case can be cheaper than the additional fees that processors have been forced to pass down. The PCI Standards Council maintains a list of approved PCI scanning vendors that are allowed to perform the required quarterly scanning for compliance. Click HERE to view the relevant page on their site.
PCI compliance is more than simply filling out the questionnaire and having your networks scanned for vulnerabilities: it requires you to actually maintain secure networks, computers, servers, software, and equipment. But most small businesses can't withstand the cost of a data breach, and security is a business owner's responsibility, no matter their size, whether they want it or not.
Top 50 Third-party Shopping Sites
Website Magazine has published a list of the Top 50 "Virtual Product Shelves," i.e., third-party eCommerce sites that provide pricing comparisons, social shopping, or special deals on merchandise from participating merchants.
Says the magazine, "The top few positions on this month’s list are filled with the product-side interfaces of major search engines and large product networks like Amazon. But the real action happens fur
ther down the list. Comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com, Bizrate.com and Shopzilla.com present major opportunities for e-commerce merchants looking to acquire more traffic and vital impressions from consumers.
"Social shopping engines and tools are also noteworthy. As social media continues its rapid rise, these resources are becoming an integral part of the online experience for researching and buying products. Kaboodle, StyleFeeder and ThisNext make their mark in shopping circles and, as a result, increasingly importance to merchants.
"Deal sites may be your best bang for the promotional buck. Pronto, DealTagger, Sortprice and Dealtime established modest followings with serious shoppers. Price-sensitive shoppers are aware of their existence, and so should you.
"It may be difficult to ensure your products appear on each and every one of these virtual product shelves, but doing so may be what makes this holiday season a festive one. "
Click HERE to see the list.
Says the magazine, "The top few positions on this month’s list are filled with the product-side interfaces of major search engines and large product networks like Amazon. But the real action happens fur
ther down the list. Comparison shopping engines such as Nextag.com, Bizrate.com and Shopzilla.com present major opportunities for e-commerce merchants looking to acquire more traffic and vital impressions from consumers."Social shopping engines and tools are also noteworthy. As social media continues its rapid rise, these resources are becoming an integral part of the online experience for researching and buying products. Kaboodle, StyleFeeder and ThisNext make their mark in shopping circles and, as a result, increasingly importance to merchants.
"Deal sites may be your best bang for the promotional buck. Pronto, DealTagger, Sortprice and Dealtime established modest followings with serious shoppers. Price-sensitive shoppers are aware of their existence, and so should you.
"It may be difficult to ensure your products appear on each and every one of these virtual product shelves, but doing so may be what makes this holiday season a festive one. "
Click HERE to see the list.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
