Articles written by: Murray
Buy Nothing Day? A missed opportunity.
November 25, 2011 Comment, eCommerce, Featured“Lock up your wallets and purses, cut up your credit cards and dump the love of your life – shopping. ” “Saturday November 26th is Buy Nothing Day. It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life.” So says the blurb on the Buy [...]
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Zero percent off! A crash-course for maximising peak season profit.
November 9, 2011 Featured, MarketingThere are plenty of online retailers out there, worrying whether they’ll still be here this time next year. At this time of year, with the next few weeks due to deliver a significant proportion of annual turnover, the pressure is never greater to squeeze that extra pound out of your customers. Merchants up and down [...]
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Mega Black Manic Cyber Monday – An Identity Crisis?
November 29, 2010 Comment, eCommerceThe biggest online shopping day EVER is having an identity crisis.
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The Boxing Day Bonanza
November 17, 2010 eCommerce, Featured, MarketingDon’t miss out on the two biggest online shopping days of the year. If you’re looking no further than the Christmas postage deadlines, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out.
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Cover design: the mystery of the unopened catazine
September 3, 2010 Comment, MarketingThe Autumn 2010 Joules catalogue has been lying around in our house for over a week now. The trouble is, it’s still in its polywrap. Unopened.
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Video & e-commerce: time for the niche retailer to pay attention
August 21, 2010 Featured, MarketingThere’s no doubt that the web continues to evolve into an increasingly visual medium. Consumers like pictures, and they like video even more. So – as the technology continues to evolve at warp speed – maybe now’s the time for small business to sit up and pay attention? Video has the power to showcase products [...]
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Managing the loss of a key employee
April 5, 2010 ManagementDo your staff-related anxieties betray a lack of ‘readiness’? Ask a small business owner what worries them most in relation to staff or employment issues and one answer crops up again and again: how would I cope with the sudden loss of a key employee? Isn’t this a great metaphor for the ‘growing up’ of [...]
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Raising finance for your catalogue & e-commerce business
January 13, 2010 Featured, FundingThe theory goes that direct commerce is a cash-generative business. Our customers generally pay up front, and we in turn negotiate credit terms with our suppliers. So why is cash flow and funding so often cited by niche merchants as the factor that most inhibits their growth? No prizes for providing the answers. Most businesses [...]
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A course for ecommerce success
December 30, 2009 eCommerceMany niche multi-channel retailers don’t have an organisation big enough to support the in-house marketing expertise they need to grow their business at the pace they’d like. Often, the owner/manager will be working with limited resources, trying to navigate through an array of online tip-sheets and free advice to discover a strategy that’s effective, economical [...]
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Why independent retailers are worth the effort
December 3, 2009 CommentBetween Tesco and Amazon, I could buy everything I need this Christmas. I’d be confident about having huge choice, paying reasonable prices, and getting decent service. It sounds like a no-brainer – so why would I rather sell my soul to the devil than make my holiday shopping so simple? The answer is that I’m [...]
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