Don’t let these opportunities go by.  And don’t let social media only be the domain of the marketing staff.  Because social media are not just for distributing promotion codes or advertising messages.  Social media are for venting.  For praising.  For bashing.  For ….

Social media are your chance to demonstrate you are listening, paying attention, and willing to do something.

New tools are coming out regularly … they are very affordable for most companies.  You should monitor the social media with the same discipline and focus as you give your phone calls and emails.  Well, maybe more focus, because a lot of companies try to avoid answering the phone and take forever to answer emails!

It’s an excellent premise.  And the premise of the article — that customers prefer easy resolution to exceptional customer service — is consistent with the fundamental idea that direct commerce is about convenience.

So, Merchants, make it convenient (read that as “easy”) to buy things from you and easy to resolve any problem that might arise.

Interesting market analysis and forecast for 2011 by Bruce Biegel, managing director of Winterberry Group, interviewed in Chief Marketer.

In general, direct and digital marketing are not the dominant advertising channels, as compared to traditional media.  Paper-based direct mail is making a little comeback, expected to rise 5.8% in 2011.

Worth reading the whole piece.

The link above takes you to an outstanding set of observations about how multi-channel customers behave in the various channels, and how you should adjust your marketing communications based upon the acquisition channel.

Great insights that are worth your attention

Retail sales in October 2010 were $373.1 billion, an increase of 1.2 percent from September and an increase of 7.3 percent from October 2009.  Excluding autos, retail sales were $306.1 billion, up 0.4 percent from last month and up 6.0 percent from last year.

Retail sales peaked back in Nov 2007 at $379.4 billion.  So, you can see we’re getting close to a complete recovery from a pure sales point of view.  Retail sales have been growing at a rate of $1-3 billion per month for most of 2010.

However, Electronic and Mail order sales dipped in Dec 2007, after peaking at $17.6 billion.  Sales wobbled up and down in a very narrow window for a number of months, but surged passed the Dec 2007 peak in Aug 2009 and has not looked back.

In Sep 2010 (the most recent monthly report available), Electronic and Mail Order Sales reach $23.3 billion a full 30% higher than Sep 2009.

Direct Commerce is where the action is, but Brick & Mortar retail is still the name of the game.

Direct Commerce constitutes only 6.321% of total retail sales.

In the article linked above, Kevin makes a great point — some sales happen without marketing.

Do you know what that percentage is for your business?  Kevin outlines a testing strategy to find out.

It’s worth looking into.

This is a huge change.  The article documents a coming change by FedEx and UPS to reduce the factor used to calculate Dimensional Weights from 194 to 166.  The article explains the calculation, if you’re unfamiliar with it.

This change is important and noteworthy in both the short-term and the long term.  In the short-term, because it will mean an immediate rate increase on many packages.  And it will also increase the percentage of packages to which DIM weights will apply.

In the longer term, it portends a move towards DIM weights becoming the default or de facto method for rating the cost of shipping parcels.  After all, it’s generally accepted that planes and trailers are most likely to fill up space-wise before they fill up weight-wise.  So carriers will make the most money, if they charge based upon DIM Weights.

An example for comparison.  Let’s assume a 3# packaged being shipped to Zone 5 — the generic average parcel bound for a residential address.  Further, let’s assume a parcel 12″ x 12″ x 8″ — not huge, not small.  This parcel calculates to a DIM weight of 5.938 using the 194 factor; 6.94 using the 166 factor.

Here are UPS Ground rates (without accessorial charges, based upon the current rate table):

• 3# Z5          = $6.24
• 5.938# Z5 = $7.10 (an increase of 14% over actual weight)
• 6.94# Z5    = $7.29 (an increase of 17% over actual weight)

This change by FedEx & UPS should result in a lot of work on product packaging, in an effort to reduce parcel sizes.  And it will put increased pressure on “free shipping offers.”

This is an article in Multichannel Merchant about the increase in parcel volumes at the three major parcel carriers (FedEx, UPS, USPS).  This increase, of course, parallels the uptick in direct commerce sales reported here earlier.

The chart shows total retail sales on the blue line against the left axis.  Direct Commerce sales are the green bars against the right axis.

During this same period, Aug 2003 to Aug 2010, Total Retail Sales have risen only 18.2%.

Perhaps even more significantly, Direct Commerce Sales as a percent of Total Retail Sales has risen to 6.16%, its highest ratio, ever.

Good news, but we also need to be careful not to read too much into this.  Direct Commerce has always succeeded in large part due to its convenience, and in a major recession, those with larger incomes are more concerned with convenience and more able to continue spending.

So, this could be most the effect of the current economic conditions.

Automatic updates via Apple’s book store.

Actually, there are a couple of apps in Apple’s App Store already:  IKEA (UK), Pottery Barn (actually, they have two different ones), SkyMall … and several others which are not recognizable brands.

I wonder how their doing?