Top Story

• EBay aims to boost position as holiday shopping destination
  EBay is rolling out a new marketing campaign today, its first in about 18 months. The campaign features the tag line "Come to think of it, eBay." The online auction house is striving to attract more holiday dollars this year as its marketplace continues to slump. Lorrie Norrington, president of marketplace operations at eBay, said the campaign is meant "to shift the buyer perception of what eBay is today." The Wall Street Journal (11/2)

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Online Retail Trends

• M-commerce may not be mainstream yet, but it's heading there
  More than 100 retailers have mobile-commerce sites and applications. Pioneering retailers are realizing that m-commerce may not have reached the masses -- despite eBay's reported $380 million in m-commerce sales during the first nine months of 2009 -- but they are learning valuable lessons from early trials. With more consumers jumping onto the m-commerce bandwagon every day, retailers are realizing the increasing need for mobile capabilities. Internet Retailer (11/2009)

• Holiday season could prompt shift in online shopping
  Consumers are waiting and watching as retailers battle for their dollars through price wars, discounts and other incentives -- many of them delivered online. In an effort to avoid the masses, many consumers are planning to shop online on Black Friday as well as on Cyber Monday. Online shoppers' decisions to postpone their purchases suggest that many consumers expect better deals as the holiday season comes to a close. BNET (10/31)

• Column: Online retail has room to grow in New Zealand
  Columnist Anthony Doesburg writes that less than half of New Zealanders made an online purchase in the last quarter of 2008. While the number actually fell during the first quarter of 2009, Doesburg attributes that to the recession rather than a peak in online retailing. He argues that there are too many reasons for more people to start shopping online for the sector to have peaked. The New Zealand Herald (11/2)

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New Media & Technology

• Create brand activists out of passive fans
  You can use people's natural curiosity to get them involved with your brand, Wyatt Wood writes. Offer something in exchange for participation -- TGI Friday's gave out burgers to gain Facebook fans -- and stay on message even when conversations turn negative, he advises. You can also take advantage of new tools, such as Facebook's link-sharing functionality, to get users to spread your message. The Buzz Bin (10/28)

• Module helps Wilkinson boost conversions, order value
  Wilkinson, a retailer of general homewares, said installing a behavioral-merchandising module on its Wilkinson Plus online site has helped boost conversions by nearly 23% and order value by 16%. "The solution has helped us to improve conversion rates by offering the correct product for that customer earlier on in the experience," said Stuart Carlisle, Wilkinson Plus' marketing manager. "At the same time, we've also increased basket size by showing customers products they might not have initially come to buy, but were useful to them once we knew more about their behavior on our Web site." InternetRetailing.net (10/30)

• Column: Suggestions for maximizing social-shopping results
  Columnist Heidi Cohen, president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, offers seven suggestions to online retailers interested in making the most of social-shopping opportunities. First, she advises retailers to build relationships with current customers as well as prospects. Cohen also advises adding social tools that allow readers to share your content, effectively reaching out to new prospects. ClickZ (11/2)

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Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by Shop.org SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• GSI Commerce acquires RueLaLa.com for $350 million (Google)

• Saks tests 36-hour invitation-only online sales (The Wall Street Journal)

• Tracking of consumers' Web habits raises questions (USA TODAY)

• Companies take different approaches to Twitter (ComputerWeekly.com (U.K.))

• PayPal launches Web site for holiday deals (PC Magazine)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Companies in the News

• Downturn prompts some Nashville, Tenn., firms to go online-only
  A number of entrepreneurs in the Nashville, Tenn., area are changing their business models to cope with challenges brought on by the economic downturn. For some -- such as Cyndi Collett and Chris Tait, who co-own the Mad Mod furniture store -- the downturn prompted them to remake their ventures as online-only shops. Nashville Post (Tenn.) (11/2)

• Pizza Hut teams up with Blastoff Network
  Pizza Hut's partnership with Blastoff Network is a way for the company to deliver deals to its customers and stay at the front of the social-media wave. "Pizza Hut, especially PizzaHut.com, has had a long tradition of trying to provide maximum value to our consumers," says Bernard Acoca, senior director of digital marketing at Pizza Hut. Blastoff Network allows users to aggregate their favorite online pages into a single Web interface. QSRMagazine.com (10/30)

Featured Content

Interactive Advertising

• Brands see live online content as key to authenticity
  Burger King, Adidas and Diet Coke are among the marketers using live content on the Web and other platforms as a means of establishing their bona fides with their target audiences. "It's fascinating because it's really about the brand letting it all hang out and not being afraid of messing up," said Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at Ogilvy North America. "If brands want to ... be seen as 'friends,' then they also need to have flaws like real people have." Adweek (11/2)

Shop.org Spotlight

• Get the inside scoop on what's hot in retail
  What did retailers find most valuable last month? October's biggest news included a blog post about 10 holiday trends, a webinar on how going green can save companies money, congressional testimony about swipe fees, and information on how retailers can control crowds. Check out the hottest news from October.

• Shop.org SmartStat: Nov. 2, 2009
  More than one-third of online retailers said their budgets for free shipping this holiday season are higher than last year. Source: Shop.org eHoliday survey.

• What happened on day 2 of the Global E-Commerce Summit
  On the second day of the Global E-Commerce Summit, a Tommy Hilfiger executive discussed how retailers could centralize areas to gain efficiency and brand consistency, but also addressed why it was important to keep the local flavor. In addition, the CEO of Rakuten spoke about the future of e-commerce and the MOBshop co-founder made a bold statement about mobile. Read more.

Editor's Note

• What form of social media should online retailers be focusing on most heavily?
  Look out for the Shop.org SmartBrief Year-End Report on Dec. 8 and 15. The results of this poll will appear in Part 2 on Dec. 15.

	Twitter.
	Facebook.
	Promotion through blogs.
	Viral videos.

SmartQuote

Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory." --George S. Patton Jr., World War II general