In-store phone users more inclined to buy
Those distracted-looking shoppers who are calling and texting in bricks and mortar establishments aren't just killing time or catching up on messages. 6% of them are more likely to buy, according to a ForeSee Results study.
In “Mobile Apps: The Next Big Thing," the study found shoppers using a mobile device in-store are 6 percent more likely to buy.
Site review: lastminute.com
Travel comparison company lastminute.com has opted for a low key launch of its revamped website, giving users the chance to use the new version and give feedback.
The redesigned version of lastminute devotes more space to providing holiday ideas and showing the latest deals on offer, so the search box is less prominent than before. The old version is still running alongside the new one, which gives me a chance to compare the two.
Affiliate Census goes live in US and UK
This week we’ve gone live with our 2009 Affiliate Census surveys which are aimed at producing comprehensive overviews of both the US and UK affiliate marketplaces, from the perspective of publishers.
This research follows our inaugural Affiliate Census published in 2007 which gave some much-needed insight into affiliate businesses, the affiliate lifestyle and relationships between publishers and networks.
Credit crunch hits travel website
Holiday comparison website Travel.co.uk, which we covered when it launched earlier this year, seems to have fallen foul of the current economic downturn, and has been forced to scale back its development.
How the website will continue is uncertain, as two key staff; Head of Marketing Vicky Smith and Head of Customer Experience Mike Ramsden, are leaving the company shortly, while MD Ray Mason will be stepping down in the New Year.
Q&A: Dan Hart of nowfly.co.uk
Nowfly.co.uk is a newly launched flights search engine which aggregates flights from 340 airlines.
I reviewed the website yesterday, and have also been finding out more from founder and CEO Dan Hart...
If you liked this, are you really sure to love that?
The New York Times Magazine published an interesting article that discusses the Netflix $1mn challenge that has some developers working tirelessly to improve the accuracy of the Netflix recommendation engine by 10%.
Site review: Sky Shopping
Launched last week, Sky Shopping is a price comparison site displaying products from retailers including M&S, John Lewis and Comet.
There are already plenty of shopping comparison sites out there, so is this one any different?
Seven deadly consumer biases and how to deal with them
On Saturday, Scott Brave of The E-Commerce Times posted a great article about seven deadly consumer biases that impact customer ratings and reviews on etailer websites.
Retailers invest in comparison engines but opportunities missed
Our Comparison Shopping Engines Survey Report published this week found that there has been an overall increase in the level of online retail sales that can be attributed to this channel.
Q&A: Wayne Robbins of social shopping site Tribesmart
I reviewed social shopping site Tribesmart last month and, though it needs to add more users and products to become a valuable resource, it is a well designed and very usable site.
The site was set up by Wayne Robbins and Michael Pratt, who also run digital agency Iconography. I talked to Wayne to find out a bit more...
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
