More than three-quarters of retailers predict their ecommerce sales will rise in 2011 – but most fraud management budgets are set to stay on hold, according to new CyberSource research.

Are retailers now any clearer on where they stand when it comes to payments, following updated guidance on PCI compliance which took effect last year? Kevin Burns, PCI specialist at BT Expedite, comments.

Online shoppers collectively spent £2.8bn online this Christmas, according to research from Tealeaf. But takings may have been higher but for the number of buyers who abandoned transactions for reasons ranging from delivery delays to website issues. Meanwhile, says Actinic, SME retailers saw a 10% rise in Christmas trade compared to last year, and 13% rise compared to the third quarter of this year.

How can you harness word of mouth online? Julie Atherton, planning director at Indicia, look at how you can identify the individuals most likely to help you, and how to adapt your marketing to target them.

Facebook has been valued at $50bn, thanks to an investment from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor. So what does that mean for online retailers?

Ecommerce is expected to grow fast over the year ahead. So just what are the areas that retailers will be concentrating on in 2011? Pontus Kristiansson, chief executive and co-founder of Avail Intelligence gives us some ideas.

Gaming consoles were among the most searched-for entertainment products in the run up to Christmas shopping season, analysis from Greenlight has found. Its Entertainment Retail report for October showed that Xbox was more searched for as a term than either DVDs or CDs.

As the online market continues to mature next year, UK online retailers will need to be innovative in order to keep ahead of competition, says Simon Bird, director of retail partnerships at voucher code website Savoo.co.uk. He discusses the various challenges online retailers have faced this year, in order to capture consumer attention

Online shopping has reached a tipping point, with consumers expecting to research their purchases through more than one channel. But this is also a business opportunity, since multichannel shoppers spend an average of 82% more on each transaction.

Some 61% of mums now shop online, according to research – making cyber-mums a key target for online advertisers. The findings from Microsoft Advertising suggest that attitudes towards the internet have changed fast among mothers over the two years since it last carried out this research.

This in my Editorial from the November issue of Internet Retailing Magazine. Also available as ‘digital print’ via the November digital edition.

Searchandising (ugh) and merchandising relate to retailers’ promotion of sales of products to customers. …

David Kiashek, managing director, UK for personalised retargeting company myThings, takes a look at the variety of ways that customers can use display advertising to boost their brand.

Yesterday’s Mega Monday, thought to have been the busiest online shopping day of the year, saw £831,000 spent in a minute. Payment processing company Retail Decisions says the record high was achieved at 13.15 yesterday as online shoppers got in their Christmas orders on a day notable for continued disruption from the snowy weather.

The holiday shopping season is a real test for etailers’ websites. Sam Patel, technical consultant at Keynote Systems, sets out the case for load testing ecommerce sites to make sure they continue to function well as traffic climbs.

Retailers must move their focus beyond the multichannel customer: now they should be concentrating on what the ‘omnichannel’ consumer is looking for from their business.

Online grocery sales are set to almost double by 2015, new research from food and grocery analysts IGD suggests. Already some 7% of shoppers do all their regular grocery shopping over the internet, with young consumers leading the way.

In an era when the customer expects personal service, how can online retailers make the difference that the good shop assistant brings to the high street? David Selinger, founder and chief executive of Rich Relevance considers the issues.

New ONS figures out today show that the value of ecommerce transactions rose sharply in 2009. Most purchases continue to be through electronic transactions, but website sales reached £115bn in value.

Analysts calculate that £76.9m, or 14.9% of the £515.5m total spend by British people celebrating the Royal wedding, will be carried out online.

As consumers become increasingly social, Mark Thorpe, managing director UK at Stibo Systems, explains why the way retailers manage their product information is so important.