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December 14 2007
New Deals
The latest round up of software and services purchased by online and offline retailers featuring Amazon, Bill Me Later, Empire Stores, Tamar, Woolworths, Avail Intelligence, GSI Commerce, PaddyPower, Email Reaction, Glass, Timberland, and Bazaarvoice
Bill Me Later Amazon
Not content with paying £1.9 Million for a Harry Potter spin-off novel Amazon.com have also splashed out on equity in alternative payment technologies company Bill Me Later, and as part of the deal they will make the Bill Me Later payment option available on the Amazon.com website.
"Bill Me Later has developed a very customer-centric method to make online shopping even easier," said Matt Swann, vice president of payments at Amazon.com. "We are pleased to make the convenience of Bill Me Later available to our tens of millions of Amazon customers."
Bill Me Later enables consumers to shop online without using a credit card and helps retailers simplify the payment experience.
Empire chooses Tamar
Tamar, a search conversion agency has been selected by Empire Stores as its natural search provider as the home shopping brand looks to considerably increase its online presence and conversion through the successful implementation of an SEO campaign.
Due to the huge increase in home shopping and ever increasing competition, Empire Stores is trying to increase brand awareness and visibility with the ultimate goal of increasing loyalty and new customers online. As a result, the company has struck a deal with Tamar to provide a structured links campaign, and its expertise on site optimisation and press release optimisation.
Prior to working with Tamar, Empire Stores was doing most of its SEO work in-house with limited resources.
Woolworths selects Avail Intelligence
Woolworths’ online customers will be able to take advantage
of recommendations from other shoppers, following the implementation of
technology from Avail Intelligence.
The recommendations are expected to deliver significant, immediate and measurable
improvements to conversion rates and average order values per customer – with
increases of up to 20 per cent.
"We have already noted improvements to the customer journey, with positive
customer feedback on the recommendations generated. This has been particularly
strong on toys, which is an extremely important area for Woolworths during the
Christmas period,” said Mark Batty, online marketing manager, Woolworths.
“Our main aim for the Woolworths site is to make the shopping experience as
enjoyable as possible for customers. Understanding our customers and their
precise needs is critical to our online strategy and Avail’s technology enables
us to present relevant recommendations at the right time in the buying process
– something that our customers are already asking for,” continued Batty. “In
turn this should enable us to hit key performance targets in terms of increased
basket size and repeat purchases.”
GSI Commerce for the larger man
E-commerce provider GSI Commerce has partnered with US oversize retailer Casual Male Retail Group to build an extensive European market. GSI Commerce will design, develop and operate the online stores for both the Casual Male XL and Rochester Big & Tall brands in six European countries. The Web stores are scheduled to launch during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
Under the agreement, GSI will provide an e-commerce solution that includes Web store design, Web technology, order processing, fulfillment and call center services for each Web store. Each online store will be tailored to the specific European country in which it operates and GSI will localize country-specific components of the solution, such as online payment processing, content translation and customer services.
PaddyPower chooses Email Reaction
Email Reaction, a specialist in enabling online customer communications, has provided Paddy Power, the largest provider of fixed-odds sports betting in Ireland, with a “point and click” email tool to manage marketing campaigns quickly and easily and provide data enrichment capabilities.
With a growing retail presence in the UK, Paddy Power is using Email Reaction to improve the effectiveness of its email marketing strategy by integrating an email campaign solution that will take advantage of digital delivery channels such as email, RSS and SMS (text). The advanced personalisation features in Email Reaction will be used to speed up existing workflow processes, increase the relevance of email through personalised content and thus improve deliverability rates by reducing the possibility of high spam complaint rates.
Email Reaction will integrate its own software solution with Paddy Power’s current customer information, connecting multiple databases that can be easily managed, improving the efficiency of a number of functional and support requirements. Email Reaction will implement a communication strategy that is easy for non-technical users to manage, providing the ability to create and manage microsites, include dynamic content in emails and use advanced tracking tools.
Stephen Lovell, user experience manager, of Paddy Power said: “When looking at email marketing solutions, a key requirement for us was to be able to integrate software with our own CRM system that would be easy to use, but have sophisticated data analysis capabilities. We also required high levels of customer support and account management. Email Reaction provides our non-technical marketing users with a straightforward solution that is flexible enough to fully integrate into our CRM and analysis products, and careful ISP management means fewer emails will be identified as spam.”
Agency turns retailer
Digital communications agency Glass has re-launched its re-vamped Glass Boutique, an online luxury men's fashion site.
Targeting fashion conscious men between the ages of 18 and
35, Glass Boutique offers a range of distinctive and unique men's fashion
designs, often sourced from niche brands in Scandinavia.
Glass is an independent agency, co-founded in 2003, by Ben Hart and Kevin Eade. Clients include: Lloyds TSB, Panasonic, Pernod Ricard, The Diamond Trading Company, Allen and Overy, San Miguel, Virgin Media and EDF Energy
Timberland gets Bazaarvoice
Fashion brand Timberland has launched ratings and reviews on its web site to encourage shoppers to share information about products, encourage loyalty and drive sales.
Social commerce company Bazaarvoice has implemented the Ratings & Reviews platform which will help Timberland build deeper relationships with its online customers.
“We are implementing a service that will allow our customers to help each other by giving authentic, honest appraisals of products,” said Troy Brown, Senior Direct and General Manager of E-commerce at Timberland. “We have only recently launched the site and these reviews will help us to more easily identify popular products and allow us to really understand the issues that are important to our customers.”
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