Richard Maven

Richard Maven helps run the E-consultancy blog as well as contributing to our Buyer’s Guides and other reports. He’s 29 and has several years’ experience in the telecoms/media/ecommerce space, both in the UK and the Middle East. You can contact him at richard@e-consultancy.com.

Q&A: thetrainline.com’s Iain Hildreth on user experience

The last year has seen thetrainline.com making a big effort to solve online usability issues, including a research project with agency cxpartners and the relaunch of its site in September.

Here, we speak to Iain Hildreth, the company’s director of marketing, about the challenges of making a complex booking service a smooth process for users.

by Richard Maven 25 November 2008 12:54pm 1 comment

Q&A: mydeco CEO David Kelly on e-commerce

Launched in beta earlier this year by a team of 20+, mydeco is an affiliate-cum-online media property focused on selling interior design products and hosting a community for home furnishing shoppers.

We caught up with CEO David Kelly to talk about the site’s planned launch of widgets, its focus on driving conversions through 3D room-planning software, and the way it has gone about building its design and development team.

by Richard Maven 11 November 2008 13:53pm 2 comments

Q&A: Firebox’s Naomi Brown on affiliate marketing

Here, we speak to Firebox’s Naomi Brown about how she’s been developing the gadget retailer’s in-house affiliate marketing programme since taking it over two years ago.

by Richard Maven 09 December 2008 11:31am 0 comments

Q&A: Beautique.com’s Jason Russell on establishing an etail start-up

Here, we speak to Beautique.com MD Jason Russell about the health and beauty retailer's acquisition and conversion activity, as well as the challenges of starting an e-commerce operation from scratch.

by Richard Maven 21 October 2008 14:27pm 0 comments

Q&A: BT’s Chris King on affiliate marketing

Chris King, BT's head of affiliate sales, gives us some thoughts on the telecoms and media group's online strategy and the growth prospects for the affiliate channel in a tough economic environment.

He also tells us how BT keeps the information flowing between it and super-affiliates, who of course play a big role in the company's sales efforts.

by Richard Maven 10 October 2008 19:06pm 0 comments

PPC roundtable briefing - impact of Google Suggest

There was a lively discussion at a E-consultancy's recent roundtable about paid search marketing, with much of the talk predictably focusing on new services and policies from Google.

One particularly hot topic was the potential impact of Google Suggest on searchers’ behaviour from a marketer's perspective - something we've discussed before.

by Richard Maven 09 October 2008 10:49am 8 comments

Q&A: Lenstore's Mitesh Patel on online marketing

Lenstore.co.uk is a fast-growing etailer of contact lenses that was founded late last year.

The company aims to target consumers who buy their lenses online and go to their opticians for professional care - a trend that is apparently less prevalent in the UK than other countries, such as the US and Sweden.

We asked director Mitesh Patel how he is looking to change that, as well as where he sees the brand going.

by Richard Maven 07 October 2008 17:43pm 0 comments

Q&A: Lou Rosenfeld on site search analytics

Lou Rosenfeld is the founder of Rosenfeld Media, a publishing house focused on user experience design, and the co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (O’Reilly & Associates; 3rd edition, 2006).

He also co-founded the Information Architecture Institute and UXnet, the User Experience Network, and as an information architecture consultant, has helped numerous Fortune 500s and other large, messy, political enterprises make their information easier to find.

Here, we asked Lou a few questions about site search analytics (SSA) – it’s importance in site design and development, and how it is being used by different types of businesses online.

by Richard Maven 30 September 2008 17:13pm 0 comments

Q&A: Thomas Cook's Russell Gould on improving conversion

Here, we speak to Thomas Cook e-commerce director Russell Gould about the company's efforts to increase conversion rates online, including user reviews, video and a recently-launched co-browsing service.

by Richard Maven 16 September 2008 13:09pm 0 comments

Q&A: Sift Media's Ben Heald on B2B online publishing

This week, we speak to Ben Heald, chief executive of Sift Media, about the challenges of B2B online publishing, including the economy, how to monetise international traffic and tackle participation inequality in social media.

We ask him about trends from audiences and advertisers, how the sector is moving forward in terms of best practices, and why his journalists are now paid on a performance basis.

by Richard Maven 09 September 2008 12:51pm 1 comment