eCommerce is growing fast in Canada and retailers can still take advantage of this promising window of opportunity to increase their sales online. According to the eMarketer report “Canada Retail Ecommerce Forecast“, published in February 2011, Canada has an expected online sales growth of between 12% and 14% on average over the next four years.

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If you are looking to promote your business, attract new customers, and retain loyal customers without necessarily making a huge upfront investment, coupons are definitively worth looking into.

You may not have noticed this, but recently, out of nowhere everyone seems to be crazy about coupons.

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Internet Retailer just released the 2008 edition of their now famous Top 500 Guide to the most successful US online merchants.

Having purchased and intensively used the 2007 edition myself in more than one instance, I can only recommend that you purchase this exhaustive and very affordable (under $100) source of competitive information.

This guide will reveal the sales and conversion rates of the best 500 online retailers. You will be able to analyze and compare within 14 retail categories the profile and practices of the best performing merchants.

As well as forecasting major trends for 2008, the guide also takes a macro view of the eCommerce industry and points out what worked and what did not in the past year. Read More

Online Marketing is basically the adaptation of traditional marketing practices to the online media channel (i.e, the Web). As with any new communication channel there is a maturity curve through which businesses have to experiment and figure out how to get the best value for the time and money they invest in growing their presence in that space. But at the end of the day, beyond creating awareness and growing share of voice, organizations need to build trust.

I have come across Matt McGee’s simple and brilliant SEO Success Pyramid which was inspired by coach John Wooden Pyramid of Success. Read More

Retailers who have embraced online marketing and eCommerce are reaping the benefits of experienced consumers who use the Internet channel to search and discover products before making a purchase decision. The most noticeable outcome is that online browsing converts consumers into store buyers.

In a recent report on Multi-Channel Retailing in the US, Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst for eMarketer says that: “US consumers now routinely use various combinations of a retailer’s stores, website and catalogues, even during the course of a single transaction. One consequence of this is that online product research is driving more store sales than online sales.“

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