Online Marketing News - E-Commerce

Booking and researching holidays and flights online has become more and more popular over the last few years. In 2007, the online travel market in the UK was worth £11.2 bn.

Booking a holiday online can be a complicated process, so it's important to make it as easy to use and understand for customers. Many travel websites are frustrating to use, so how does Thomas Cook fare? It's pretty good, but we have nevertheless suggested a few improvements after the jump...

Here, we ask Dominic Yacoubian, MD of 247electrical , about the continuing problem of online fraud, how his company is affected by it and what he feels needs to be done to better combat the problem.

This week has seen the introduction of new rules allowing Google Adwords customers to bid on other peoples trademarks but is anybody doing it?

Initially on Tuesday (the day the policy change was enforced) we saw a large number of adverts for brand name terms but these ads are no longer showing.

As many web design firms take on the remit of upgrading a client’s website, it is important to integrate best practice SEO techniques into the web design process.

This will ensure that your client both maintains and benefits from the free rankings available in the organic listings of the major search engines.

Craigslist is more than just a popular online classifieds service. The bare-bones site created by Craig Newmark represents, to some, the epitome of the New Internet.

It is fueled by a dedicated community and Craig has eschewed the temptation to fully exploit its commercial potential for his personal gain, even going so far as to state "my exit strategy is death".

No matter how successful an e-commerce site is, there are often ways in which a site can be improved to maintain its appeal to customers and maximise conversions.

We have looked at M&S, Amazon and Tesco already, now we take a look at Next to see what improvements could be made to their website...

Snooth is wine review site that previously covered only the US, but recently launched worldwide and now displays information from sellers in 40 countries.

There are a number of ways for etailers to handle the problem of unavailable items, from not displaying the products at all, or offering customers alternatives.

In last year's Online Retail 2007: Checkout Special report, we advised that customers should not be allowed to begin to purchase items that are out of stock, as this can frustate customers.

I've been looking for a new laptop lately and have been doing my research online at a number of sites.

Two of the best known are PC World and Comet, so how do they measure up?

John Wyllie is the global web analytics manager at GE Money – a role in which he advises and directs the analytics activities of the company’s numerous international businesses.

We asked him a few questions about how analytics can best be managed within organisations, and how the financial services industry stacks up against other sectors.

Dela Quist explains how new ways of measuring email performance can boost ROI and give you a new perspective on your email strategy. Find out how customer-based metrics could transform your campaigns.

Chris Shimojima was brought in to steer the online business of Nike in 2006 – a position in which he oversees the direct-to-consumer digital sales of Nike and its sister brands, such as Converse and Hurley.

He recently spoke at ChannelAdvisor’s Catalyst event about how the company was generating business online through its Nike+ community and Nike iD, its system that allows shoppers to create customised trainers online and in store.

After his speech, we asked Chris a few questions about Nike’s e-commerce strategy, internal structure and future social media plans. And why its website is 100% Flash.

Reserve and collect services are all the rage at the moment as retailers integrate their online and offline businesses. But few – if any – have developed an equivalent offering for marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

One company that is looking to do so, however, is footwear chain Schuh; one of the most prolific sellers on eBay UK. 

Leon Bailey Green gives fashion retailers five tips to think about for increasing revenue and sales.

This week's The Web Week in Review is a hodgepodge of news.

Whether you are a new entrant to e-tail or an old hand with large sales volumes, the right content optimisation strategy is vital in order to effectively leverage multivariate testing tools within your organisation.

Facebook’s platform boss Ben Ling was speaking at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst last week and had some interesting stuff to say about the social network’s e-commerce strategy.

One thing that stood out was that it has seemingly not given up on the 'Beacon' ads for online retailers that caused such a furore last year.

You may have seen print adverts for new website modeurbaine.com.  Leon Bailey suggests five improvements the website should have made before embarking on an advertising campaign.

I read an interesting article on usability and user experience posted recently on this site by Tom Stewart, the Chair of the sub-committee of the International Standards Organisation (ISO), which is responsible for the revision of ISO 13407, the international standard for Human Centred Design.

We are in the process of redesigning our site for a new platform being developed for release later this year, and the aforementioned article got me thinking about the planning for the design of a website.

Marks & Spencer revamped its website last year, and enjoyed a successful Christmas online, increasing its web sales by 78% in the 13 weeks to the end of December.

The M&S website scored badly in a usability study last year though, so there may still be room for improvement to the user experience.

We've identified 10 areas of the site that M&S may want to take a look at...