Shop.org Blog » Josh Greene

Ad Tech?

Josh Greene — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:47:11 +0000

Anyone going to Ad Tech this week in NYC? Want to do a Shop.org blog meetup on Thursday for coffee?

Widgets, Widgets everywhere

Josh Greene — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:36:17 +0000

We’ve put together a very basic widget for the Discovery Channel Store. I’m curious what folks have planned for the holiday season, in terms of extending their brand to other sites. Any thoughts?

Speaking of search engines…

Josh Greene — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:51:28 +0000

There’s been a great deal of talk today in the blogosphere, about the latest changes in Google Page Rank. Anyone seen changes in their own sites/contemplating changes in their search marketing/linking strategies?

Shop.org conference blog posts?

Josh Greene — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:02:47 +0000

With the annual conference just over, I thought I’d take a quick survey of the blogosphere and see what coverage is out there on the conference. I didn’t find much - so if you’ve written posts, or seen good ones, let me know.

Alan Rimm-Kaufman - Jott for conference attendees:
Secrets of paid search from Dana Todd:

Summary day 1: Michael Julson:

Online retailers responsive to shoppers:

What is the Fishbowl privacy policy? Is a business card opting in?

Josh Greene — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:46:39 +0000

I was surprised to get an email from Potbelly. I’ve occasionally gotten a sandwich there, and I had once dropped a card into the fishbowl they have there to win lunch. I didn’t think I’d ever opt’d in to receive email. The email I received appeared to conform to the CAN SPAM requirements, providing a physical email address and a way to opt out. Out of curiosity, I checked out the Potbelly privacy policy. This sentence seems to cover it: We receive and store any information you enter on our Web site or give us in any other way. Out of curiosity, I went back to the store to see if the promotional piece had said anything about email. It was inconclusive today, as there was a fishbowl with literally nothing on it. A clear, transparent fishbowl. People will still happily dropping cards in, undoubtedly assuming there was some reason for doing so In general, it seems logical to me that if you drop a card in, you should probably expect to get an email. Why else would a business be doing it? Given the huge number of restaurants near Discovery HQ, an investigation commenced.

McDonalds, Chik-fil-A — no opportunities to win free lunch
Eggspectations - Win a free lunch for two - no policy
Chipotle - win a lunch - no policy
Lebanese Taverna - win lunch for two, we’ll send you a copy of our menu.
The pho restaurant - everyone wins lunch for them and friends, if you’re willing to sit through an Ameriprise presentation on financial planning. Clearcut policy, but not really a free lunch.
And, the winner for the clearest “Fishbowl privacy policy” is Noodles & Company. They tell you that you’re signing up for “free noodles”, and that you could win lunch for 8. They also tell you on the fishbowl, and via conveniently located entry forms, in case you don’t have a card, that you’re going to receive email, and that their privacy policy is online at the website.

-Josh

Praise to Infrequent Customers

Josh Greene — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:50:34 +0000

Kevin Hillstrom had a post entitled “Praise to Infrequent Customers.” In it, he demonstrates how “infrequent customers” can make the difference between profit and loss in a multichannel environment. I’m curious to hear reactions, and if there are any special actions retailers have taken to cater to customers who don’t visit that often. It’d be tough to cost justify the same rewards your best customers get, so what can you do to make them feel special when they do visit and purchase?
–Josh

Who owns the data?

Josh Greene — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 21:07:33 +0000

I’ve been reading with great interest the story of Harry Joiner, and have written a bit about it on my personal blog. He was banned from Facebook, after attempting to invite his 4,600 contacts through Gmail. There’s been a variety of press, and I’d expect it to attract mainstream media attention shortly. The question it raises for this blog is, what are your policies regarding Web 2.0 interaction on your site? If you have an address book function, do you let customers export it, if they need everyone who’s on a registry or a flower sending list? If you’re starting a social networking function on your commerce site, how carefully will you monitor usage? What about product reviews? Is it clear what the rules are? Do you publish everything, or do you take down reviews that are unacceptable? Are you willing to get into an online blog war about your rules? It’ll be fascinating to hear the viewpoints from industry participants over the next few months, at the conferences coming up.

–Josh

[Updated with comment I received from Harry] - Hi Josh,

Thanks for the coverage on this. I know that many of your readers are Shop.org members and “Internet Retailer” subscribers, so I’ll take a moment to clarify:

All I did was follow the instructions on the Facebook UI to invite my current contact list to join. Facebook never informed me of a limit. My understanding is that technology writer Robert Scoble has 4200 Facebook contacts — and last week, Mr. Scoble described Facebook as “the new Rolodex” and hyped its click-to-call compatibility with the iPhone.

Moreover, Facebook’s email address inhaler slurped up every single Gmail address I had on file — which just happened to be 4600 and change. Facebook even served up hundreds of photos of my contacts who were already members.

Honestly, it appeared to me as if everything was cool when I hit SEND. It was only when Facebook’s customer service rep gave me the boot in a misspelled email that I realized that I had been “F’d”

If Facebook had given me a limit, I would have obeyed it. No problem. I am a member in excellent standing on several online communities and social networks.

Note to Shop.org members: Even as this thing continues to gather steam in the blogosphere, Facebook has remained quiet on the matter. A mistake. Moreover, Facebook customer service was incredibly resolute about the permanence of their decision — even though they never gave me a Warning or an opportunity to atone for my actions.

It was like getting an instant death penalty for speeding on an unmarked highway.

Kind regards,
Harry Joiner
EcommerceRecruiter.com
As seen in “Internet Retailer” magazine

Today’s emarketing links

Josh Greene — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:52:14 +0000

Online social marketing is growing but budgets aren’t, Jupiter study finds

Shopping engines in the dark ages. They also link to this post about “bad clicks” on shopping engines.

Hispanic impact on E-tail is growing.

NY Times article on the Supreme Ct. decision to lift ban on price floors.

They’re Beautiful, a fun, virtual flower gifting startup.

-Josh Greene

Fascinating Monday e-marketing links

Josh Greene — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:28:10 +0000

Cleaning up your Google reputation.

Google and “Sicko”. “A pitch on an official Google blog to get the healthcare industry to spend money on positive advertising in reaction to Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko raised more than a few eyebrows”. A Googlers response.
The age distribution of Facebook users.

buySAFE put on a panel about Discovering the Secret Sauce of Multi-Channel Selling Success .

Bill Me Later extends its service to small businesses.

Five more important facts about User reviews in E-tail.

– Josh

Ebay vs. Google - another manic Monday

Josh Greene — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 01:26:47 +0000

Ebay pulled all of their ads from Google last week due to a variety of issues. John Batelle got a note from Ebay communications, announcing they’re back up and running. Key sentence here: The test we began last week was successful. We found that we were not as dependent on Google AdWords as some may have thought. By re-allocating our marketing dollars to our other partners, such as Yahoo!, AOL and MSN, we were able to increase traffic and find efficiencies that will enable us to drive more value to our sellers and partners going forward. It would seem that continually testing which PPC engines yield the best return, and the tortured language suggests there’s more to the story. Scott Wingo has a great post on the impact on Ebay sellers.

Reporters reading blog comments to find sources for stories?

Do URL extensions cause issues in Google?

Latest trends in adoption of Google Checkout, Paypal, and Bill Me Later.

Ever wondered if your blog’s popular? Google Webmaster Tools, once you register, lets you see all incoming links to your blog. You can always find some interesting links. I just noticed that TryBuyShop.com tends to steal the postings from shop.org, and post them on their site.

Josh

Great Monday links

Josh Greene — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:22:34 +0000

Great SEO article from Seattle SMX… Post of the week. When you print it out, you know it’s a good post.

2nd life not yet driving real life sales.

Life of a farm blog Sometimes a blog is completely different enough that you stop to see how different people live. Here’s life on a farm. Nice piece of sponsored writing, by a tractor company.
Keyword Search top tools for buying decisions

Do online conversion rates differ by business model? Yes, but sometimes it’s nice to see the numbers.

Scott Wingo’s thoughts on Internet Retailer vs. Ebay live

Interesting thought: Twitter to drive retail sales:

Internet Retailer thoughts from Greg Howlett

CRitique on “last click” attribution

We recently announced we’re closing the mall based Discovery Stores, while DiscoveryStore.com stays open. Sample articles/comments follow… you can see the different focus in the communities, from FatWallet and discounts, to Gizmodo and “geeks weeping”, to a local Portland blog, Digg, Yelp, and others.

GAP: We’d like your email and zip code, please.

Josh Greene — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:28:55 +0000

When I checked out at the Gap last weekend, I noticed that the POS terminal, after I swiped my credit card, asked for both my email address and zip code. It popped an onscreen keyboard that I could use the stylus to type in the information. There was a conveniently located cancel button if I choose not to enter. I hadn’t seen this before; the only information I could find was this 2002 press release from Gap. Has anyone seen this from other retailers?

Josh

Monday links

Josh Greene — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:04:56 +0000

Google acquires Feedburner: Lots of blogs use Feedburner to distribute and measure RSS feeds. Good opportunity to further the spread of Adwords in new channels.

Mark Cuban on pricing Internet video.

Mahalo launches. Jason Calacanis’s new search engine. Human powered. See what they’re editing in real time.

Search Marketing Expo is this week in Seattle. Great summary of the paid search roundtable.

PriceGrabber launches ShopGreen, ecofriendly shopping.

Multichannel sellers debate Amazon vs. Ebay.

–Josh

Monday links (slightly belated :)

Josh Greene — Tue, 29 May 2007 18:29:56 +0000

Quick links for the first day back at work post-Memorial Day:

What was SES China like?
Gartner discusses a new breed of online shopper — the “social gatherer”.

Got 100 dollars? 7 Experts share budget website marketing tips. Good tips even if your budget is substantially more than $100.

Cottonelle has a branded campaign featuring a very cute puppy running around your desktop. I clicked on this first because I had a friend who used to work at OTO Labs, the agency that created it, but it’s a nice application, and a good way to build a community around toilet paper, something that’s on the challenging side of the spectrum.
LinkedIn now has a feature called “Who viewed my profile?”… It shows titles or companies of people who have viewed your profile. This seems to be part of a trend towards “overt surfing”, where the tracks of where you go online are revealed for all to see. With a bit of work, I can identify about 30% of the people who’ve visited my profile, which then leads to interesting speculation.

- Josh

Don’t bother returning them…

Josh Greene — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:43:35 +0000

Here’s an unusual customer service experience. A colleague of mine had ordered a pair of childrens water shoes for $10 from a well known online retailer. They were a size large, and she called to make arrangements to return them. They told her they’d send out the new pair, and not to bother sending back the first pair, just to donate them to charity. Econmically it makes sense; their margain was probably only $5, and between shipping costs and restocking, they’d lose money. I wondered if they saw on her customer record that she was a fairly regular customer, and this wasn’t something that had the potential for abuse. I’m wondering, have others heard/seen of a practice like this, as it was new to me?
Welcome Ethan. Some good links in your post. I look forward to reading future posts, and would love to see an intro section with a bit of bio info on the different posters. It also seems that there’s a comment queue somewhere, as it doesn’t look like there have been new comments on the blog in quite a while. [this appears to be fixed :), as comments have posted]

-Josh

Monday links

Josh Greene — Mon, 21 May 2007 21:58:55 +0000

From LoveYourFeed.com: Is Amazon a comparison shopping engine?

What color is my hat? Party games with deeper meaning.

Not the pull quote he was looking for: Good article on BizChair.com and the 20 year old founder. I do wonder if he actually said the following, and if he wishes he left out the “other”. Belnick notes he has signed exclusive agreements with several suppliers in China. “That way some other fly-by-night web site can’t just come along and undercut our price by $10.”

Freakonomics Blog on Zappos.com and the NY Times article on buying clothes online.

WebProNews: Google to shutdown Made for Adsense sites. This should eliminate some of the search spam that’s out there.

Always nice to see people make it to the top of the world. Of course, I work at Discovery, but you’ll keep coming back to the blog.

–Josh

Monday links

Josh Greene — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:08:41 +0000

SEOmoz has 17 New Rules for Successful E-Commerce Websites.

Eric Enge has 7 observations from SES in New York.

I was looking for a basic intro to Search Engine Optimization. NetConcepts has a variety of articles online. SearchEngineWatch.com also has an intro from Danny.

Amazon doubles sales of watches and jewelry in past year. Amazon’s experience also shows consumers are comfortable buying high-priced items online. The company says top sellers include the Chopard Men`s Mille Miglia watch for $8,860, Cartier Men`s Tank Francaise for $17,316, TAG Heuer Men`s Formula One at $1,750, [etc]. I’m sure they do sell some of the high priced items, but I do wonder if those examples are the top sellers among high priced watches, vs. say, a Timex Ironman.

Good article from the Freakonomics folks about the WSJ and the effect of newspapers charging for online subscriptions.

And, of course, if you need a last minute gift for Mom, or are shopping early for Dad, the Discovery Store does have a nice selection of digital picture frames and telescopes

It’s 71.8 miles from Washington, DC to Hagerstown

Josh Greene — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:29:31 +0000

According to Google Maps, it’s 71.8 miles from Washington, DC to Hagerstown, MD. No one who lives in DC would have reason to visit Hagerstown, unless it was part of a road trip. I’ve occasionally wondered why some Google Adwords ads showed up the way they did, as seen in the snapshot below. I had assumed that the Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD) was some sort of geographic targeting, based on my IP address. When I received a Terminix flyer yesterday, offering to remove termites for people based in the Washington, DC - Hagerstown area I did a bit more investigation. Turns out this is based on DMA areas, set by Nielsen. Wikipedia reference. Nielsen has a list, available on the right side of this page. The Washington - Hagerstown market is #8 in the US. My assumption is that Google pulls an IP address, or recognizes a geographical term in the query, and then appends the DMA information, if it’s a local search. An odd experience, but most of the mystery is solved.

Make sure the mall links to you

Josh Greene — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:25:24 +0000

We at Discovery Store have been working on improving our natural search rankings. One of the key facets to this effort is making sure we’re linked to from a variety of locations, much of which has happened organically over time, especially for our popular toys and telescopes. There are a number of areas to explore, and we’ve been working with Stephan’s company, NetConcepts on many of them.

One area of focus lately is making sure that we’re linked to properly from all of the malls that have a Discovery Store in them. For example, the Cherry Creek mall links directly to Shopping.Discovery.com. The Woodfield Mall has a Discovery Store page that links to the main Discovery.com page, which is not quite as useful to either a shopper, or our efforts at link building, and presents an opportunity to improve the link.

There are also several malls that appear willing to link to the home page of merchants, that we may not have contacted. The Crabtree Valley Mall is a good example, linking to the home pages for Build-A-Bear and Yankee Candle, but not yet to Discovery. In contrast, the Stanford Shopping Mall page about the Discovery Store has a Google Page Rank of 4, which would be a pretty good link. Unfortunately, at the moment, it has an affiliate link in place, as opposed to the linking methodology of many of the other stores in the mall. This is a prime opportunity to change a link, and continue the work, that will ultimately result in better search rankings.