Locate Indies Online

As an independent retailer you want to be found by new customers, investing in new advertising channels, such as social media or smartphone technology, may help in attaining this goal. But wouldn’t it be nice for customers to find you through an easy-to-use Internet store locator, rather than you doing all the work to entice them to your storefront? For brick and mortars without a B2C site, participating in an Internet store locator listing can provide shopping traffic that would have otherwise been missed. There are two types of locator listings,... 

Site Speed Matters

With more and more consumers shopping online these days, retailers are ramping up spending on search engine marketing (SEM), paying close attention to search engine optimization (SEO), and revamping landing pages. Yet the time, effort and money used to maximize sales could be in vain if the traffic they’re driving to the site causes it to slow down or even crash. For those brick and mortar stores considering a B2C site, this could be crucial information as they attempt online retailing for the first time. It’s no secret that website performance... 

Customer Satisfaction Retail Priority

While any retailer’s ultimate goal is to sell, there are other strategic initiatives that need to be set and met first in order to attain a result of profitability. Retailers are well advised to perform a thorough evaluation of their business and its success in past years as they refocus their top priorities for a new selling year. “Though customers are always a company’s top priority, customer satisfaction will get a huge facelift this year,” says  NRF President and CEO, Matthew Shay, after seeing the results of the Benchmarks for 2011,... 

Are Mobile Shoppers Purchasing Your Products?

National news sources and even IndependentRetailer.com have not only followed the growth of mobile marketing (smartphone and tablet) throughout 2011, but have declared it as one of the fastest growing browsing and shopping channels of the year. As a result, this increasingly popular marketing platform is now influencing retail industry forecasts for 2012. Yet there are some retailers who might ask, “Will mobile marketing serve a purpose for me?” Stores magazine columnist, Susan Reda, writes, “Much of the excitement around mobile isn’t [even]... 

Magmito Promotes Easy Mobile Marketing for Independent Retailers

NRF Stores magazine highlights that 2011 was the year for smartphones, tablets and consequently, m-commerce. As a result, this increasingly popular browsing and shopping channel continues to influence retail industry forecasts for 2012. As Stores columnist, Susan Reda, writes, “Much of the excitement around mobile isn’t [even] about transacting, it’s about influence, providing the local information shoppers are seeking about a store and being part of the conversation. Shoppers are channel-agnostic; they expect interaction from their mobile... 

Mobile Marketing a Crucial Part to Holiday Shopping

Many independent retailers have come to terms with the fact that consumers flock to the Internet, whether it be via PC or mobile browsing, for product information and purchasing options. But for those smaller businesses holding out on mobile opportunities, the “Back to School” shopping season confirmed the change in consumer shopping trends. A survey commissioned by Deloitte and conducted by an independent research company picked up an increasing trend among parents shopping for this year’s school supplies, in which nearly two-thirds of the... 

Independent Retailers Can Capitalize on Small Business Saturday

American Express and independent retailers are asking American consumers to not only shop, but pledge their allegiance to local small businesses this holiday season. Over the years, Black Friday has become recognized for the flash mobs hunting for bargains and big name brands at big box retailers, while Cyber Monday has become a day for eCommerce giants to celebrate the increased checkouts among their digital shopping carts. Independents, however, have earned a day to showcase their unique merchandise, offer in-store specials and bring together... 

Strategic Web Marketing

The name of the game is always changing in the world of web marketing, as new competitors enter the ecommerce market and search engine algorithms become more advanced, personalized and localized. There are many consultants who offer their professional services to improve an organization’s online presence, but web marketing involves more than banner ads and keyword copywriting, and without a strategy it is usually ineffective. This is where a full service online marketing company such as OMguru can help. The first step to profitable web marketing... 

Social Marketing Requires a Professional Code of Conduct

If you are just beginning your social media campaign, don’t be discouraged by research studies broadcasting such efforts to be a big waste of time. Success on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and the many other emerging social sites is all about the approach. A study by IBM reveals that many companies are missing an opportunity to utilize social media channels to drive sales growth because of a misunderstanding of what consumers want out of those channels. A majority of consumers say the top reasons they interact with companies via social sites are... 

Web Wisdom: Competing in a Shifting Web Landscape Part Two

In part one of this article we talked about the World Wide Web as an ever-changing entity, a concept that is crucial to understanding why you cannot reverse engineer any search engine. Many of us utilizing Web space today, do not grasp this basic concept and that is why you find so many attempting website optimization with yesterday’s laundry lists of DOs and DON’Ts.  This is pandemic. Keyword Metatags As an example, take a look at the page source of any dozen or so websites you find on the Web (write to info@globalb2bcommunications.com if... 

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