Do you have a plan? Most companies spend a considerable amount of time, energy, and money planning what to do and how to do it.
Let’s say you need a website, so you develop a plan, present it to a bunch of website designers, and get quotes or proposals.
You’re not going to get caught with your [...]

Seven. It’s just a number like any other, but it does seem to come up on a fairly regular basis.
There’s the Seven Wonders of the World, The Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Dwarfs: Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Bashful, Doc, Dopey, and my personal favorite, Grumpy.
Phone numbers are seven digits, and they say the optimum [...]

ShopVisible, the cart and listing service we reviewed several weeks back, has announced they have enhanced site security with ControlScan.
Within the announcement they state that membership protection will be enhanced by ControlScan, who provide a comprehensive security suite that ensures PCI Compliance and up-to-date standardised website safety for online sales, breach protection, and customer-sensed security.
ShopVisible’s [...]

ShopVisible LLC is a multi-channel shopping cart integration service with tools for many of the most popular platforms, including Amazon, Craigslist, and eBay.  Their tools suite also provides multi-channel payments processing including Google Checkout, PayPal, and now also Checkout by Amazon.
In addition to these “standard” ecommerce tools, they also provide shopping carts, product search tools [...]

Thus far this year I’ve been noticing a targeting trend towards older customers, all over the web.
Website and service launches such as Skip McGrath’s “Geezers” series, aimed at the retired bunch older than Generation X, are typical of a growing under current of blue-rinsed rebellion at the “kids” who are too young to remember where [...]

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has announced the publication of its Mobile Banking Overview calling it -
“an educational resource designed to provide analysis of the unique marketing opportunities and attributes that the mobile channel represents for the financial sector.
Key subjects include market size, consumer-focused mobile banking products and services, and the mobile media channels available [...]

Technology Strategies International has released a report titled “Canadian Payments Forecast – 2009″.
The report forecasts that the Canadian debit and credit card market will be hit by the decline in personal expenditure on consumer goods and services as a result of the economic downturn, but over the long term both forms of payment will command [...]

The U.S. Census Bureau has announced advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December
Adjusted for seasonal variation, and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, sales were $343.2 billion, a decrease of 2.7% (±0.5%) from the previous month, and down 9.8% (±0.7%) below December 2007.
Total sales for the 12 months [...]

Six of the largest US credit, debit, and charge card issuers have reported 4th quarter 2008 financial results this month.
Included in their results are some steep drops in the purchase volume on the cards they issue -

6% at US Bank
7.6% at JP Morgan Chase
10% at American Express
10%+ at CapitalOne
15% at Bank of America
17.2% at Citigroup

Between [...]

Over on the Auctiva Education Blog, Dennis L. Prince asserted (on Friday) that “Smart listing strategies will ensure continued sales”.
It’s a great post and well worth a read in the context of its original intent. However I’m in a bit of a mischievous mood today, so I’m going to give the post an “on [...]

Most small business owners/operators would probably agree that developing a stand-out brand identity is an essential part of the marketing package for corporates and large companies.
Many would add that branding is not that important for small businesses and see it as an additional expense on the P&L.  So they head off to the local printer [...]

Announced on the AbeBooks blog this week …
On 1st January 2009, Popeye the Sailor man becomes copyright-free and enters the public domain in the European Union.
Creator, Elize Segar died in 1938 which means the timeframe specified in EU law of author’s rights for the duration of the author’s life + 70 years is up at [...]

Winnie-the-Pooh is possibly the world’s best loved bear.  If any readers don’t love the “tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff” then now’s the time to hit the back button on your browser.
Apparently somebody loves him a whole lot.
An auction record was set at Sotheby’s, last Wednesday, when a collection of E.H. Shepard’s original drawings [...]

The European Commission last Thursday reinforced its commitment to keeping Europe’s markets open, and to increasing efforts to improve openness further afield.  The following extracts and notes are from the full communique, which can be read in the BuildaSkill “Trade Blocs” discussion board.
The latest communication identifies the main non-tariff barriers faced by European exporters, and [...]