How will you invest your 2012 marketing budget?
Econsultancy has launched its annual research aimed at uncovering where companies will be investing their marketing budgets in 2012. As usual, those taking the survey, sponsored by Experian Marketing Services, will get a free copy of the report when it is published early next year.
China: Is the East the new West for e-commerce?
China is a difficult market to currently crack for international businesses, but a shift appears to be happening, driven largely by e-commerce.
In association with Toluna, Econsultancy has carried out a survey of online consumer behaviour in the region to try to understand this further.
More companies are using mobile for customer engagement
73% of companies are planning an investment in mobile channels in 2011, with almost half planning to move into mobile commerce.
Econsultancy's Customer Engagement Report, which we produced in association with cScape, has some interesting findings on companies' use of mobile.
It seems that, as well as losing their fear of social media, more firms are coming round to the value of mobile.
Are etailers really this bad at delivery?
I was surprised by an article I've just seen in The Telegraph covering a Which? survey on deliveries by online retailers, which found that nearly 7% of customers were unhappy with deliveries.
According to Which?, almost 200 out of 2,500 customers surveyed reported some kind of delivery issues, and some of them are shocking. In one case, a laptop was thrown over a six foot wall, items were left in dustbins, while others were simply left carelessly in public view.
38% of visitors to e-commerce sites in research phase: survey
Of all visitors to e-commerce sites, 38.6% are there to research products and prices, and to gather information, though just 85% are able to complete this task successfully.
This is one if the findings of an iPerceptions e-commerce survey, suggesting that improvements in navigation and usability can have a significant impact on sales.
Research reveals increasing use of online ad networks
Two thirds of advertisers are currently working with online ad networks, while almost half say they are using them more than they were a year ago.
This is one of the findings of Econsultancy's Online Advertising Survey Report, which was produced in association with the Rubicon Project, based on a survey of more than 250 advertisers and agencies.
Price comparison sites need to work on usability
Some of the UK's leading financial comparison sites need to work hard at improving the user experience on their websites, according to a new study.
According to Webcredible's Future Comparisons white paper (pdf), presentation of search results, and the ability to manipulate and sort was one major area for improvement, while customer trust issues were often not addressed adequately.
The report looks at the five main financial comparison sites in the UK: Moneysupermarket.com, Gocompare.com, Comparethemarket.com, Confused.com, and uSwitch.com.
Council websites could improve usability: study
While the average usability score for local council websites has improved over last year, there is still plenty of work to be done to improve the user experience, according to a new report.
Webcredible's Local Council Websites report (registration required) gave an average score of 59.9% for usability, an improvement on last year's average of 56.6%.
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.
Social media marketing and online PR challenges for 2009
It has been interesting watching and taking part in discussions about our recent Online PR Industry Benchmarking Report. Over 300 UK marketers and PR professionals working for both in-house company teams and for agencies were surveyed.
Here are a few key report findings and opinions from those working at the coal face who blogged or commented...
