Erik Bartz Erik Bartz

Online retail sales to hit $34-billion in Canada by 2018

Slowly but surely e-commerce is coming into its own in Canada.

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Erik Bartz Erik Bartz

Why 2013 Is The Year You Need To Get Serious About Tumblr

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Erik Bartz Erik Bartz

5 Reasons to Start Bidding on Branded Terms

Here is a great post giving a run down on the arguments for bidding in your branded terms in AdWords. I’ve had the debate several times in my own career and I think this article does a nice job explaining some of the pros to the strategy. 

Regarding people’s arguments against because its a waste of the marketing budget; I’ve always found the branded ad groups to be significantly cheaper to run. Its minuscule and I believe offers way more upside than not.

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Erik Bartz Erik Bartz

Gamestop to J.C. Penney Shut Facebook Stores

F-commerce has been described as the next big thing in online commerce, but this article from Bloomberg shows it may not be all we thought it could be. Though Facebook is the most visited site on the web, its also fairly specific in it’s use of ‘hanging out with friends’. Retailers have found this environment doesn’t work well for selling, plus consumers seem to find the actual websites a preferable shopping experience.

The article quotes Wade Gerten as saying “It was basically just another place to shop of all the stuff already available on the retailer websites.”

But what is one of the top rules in social media? Customize your message to the medium. Replicating your store on the network isn’t customization, brands need to consider how to extend themselves and their online shopping experience to Facebook. Imagine if the stores used Facebook for a pop-up shop to showcase a new product line before it hits the regular store, or a limited edition product run that will be available no where else.

Give the fans something special.

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