The Power of Retail

Well, I’ve been hankering for another vacation and it looks like I might be getting one soon. Yes, I used the word I instead of we, since I’m thinking of tagging along with my hubby on his next to next work trip which is likely to last 10-14 days. So, might as well make the most of it and explore a new city and country, and have a change of pace for a while. I’m not good at working and traveling together, I find I get too bogged down with work to really enjoy a trip, but not everyone is like that.

Thousands or rather millions of people create websites and blogs every single day and thousands more abandon them as well. One of the more prominent web site hosting companies is Go Daddy, which announced that it would be taking over the domain names of rival firm RegisterFly.com, which has been beset with financial and other problems. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) estimates that there are 85,000 domain names that will need to be transferred to GoDaddy.com. Customers will not be able to renew or upgrade their accounts in the meantime.

Finding and buying artwork is something that I enjoy immensely. I have been collecting artwork consciously for the past 10 years and bought it on and off before then. My collection is nowhere near complete but it is getting there, one painting at a time. I like buying a piece of art from all my travels and constantly look for new work and new artists on the Internet as well. I came across the Park West Art Gallery which has one of the largest collections of fine art in the world and conducts fine art auctions in the US and Canada. The company even has an affiliate company called Park West at Sea that conducts art auctions on cruise-ships. One of the artists on display at the Park West Art Gallery is Richard E Williams who does mostly watercolor works with a light and delicate touch. Art is a great investment, one only needs a good eye to judge it, so it’s better to go with art work that appeals to you, something that you can live with and see on a daily basis.

Facebook is to allow retailers and other companies to develop applications for Facebook users to add to their personal pages. The first company to take part in this is Amazon.com, which has created a Book Reviews feature that lets Facebook users write about their favorite book and display the review on their page, which when clicked will take readers to Amazon.com’s page for the book. Another retailer called Glimpse.com has come up with a Fashion & Style feature where Facebook users can highlight and comment on favorite items from Glimpse.com’s selection of items. Blue Nile is allowing Facebook users to share info or pics with other users and exchange tips.

In all, 65 developers announced 85 applications for Facebook at a developers conference the company hosted last week in San Francisco. Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old founder and CEO of Facebook, explained that any applications built with the technology Facebook is offering will be as integrated into the information flow and relationships of Facebook as Facebook’s own applications. “Until now, social networks have been closed networks,” Zuckerberg declared. “Today, we’re going to end that.”

Well, the Miss Universe pageant got over last night and really didn’t make much of a dent in the the searches. I’ve been checking out Google’s Hot Trends (which is fast becoming my most checked site on a daily basis!!) and seen that the Miss Universe pageant search was at #36, which is pretty low for such a supposedly big event. In fact, there were more searches for Miss USA Rachel Smith, specifically for the video of her fall (search #2 & 11) during the evening gown round than the winner Miss Japan Riyo Mori (search #68). Unfortunately, Miss Japan’s misspelled name as ‘rita mori’ got her more searches at #36!

Summer is here, so have you found a job yet? If you need some help finding a job during your summer break, then head on over to SnagAJob, where you can find all the tools to help you find the employers and job openings that are just right for you. Why spend your days searching for a job when you can find exactly what you’re looking for on SnagAJob.com? I personally feel that a summer job is a great way to explore opportunities at working, especially trying out jobs in new fields. I did a variety of summer jobs, including one in sunny California which turned out to be quite a vacation as well. Keep your options open and you’ll see what a great learning experience it can be.

Best Buy was the number one retailer for computer and consumer electronics for the month of April for the highest number of unique visitors, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The retailer’s visitors rose from 10.26 million in April last year to 10.78 million this year, an increase of 5%. Other high performers were, eBay Electronics, Circuit City and eBay Computers.

Interestingly, visitors did not spend the maximum time at Best Buy, but rather at CDW at 24:36 minutes. Best Buy’s visitors stayed on their site for just 9:10 minutes, but spent the maximum amount of money, showing that it’s customers had already made up their mind to purchase something and were not the typical browsers.

Online advertising has increased by 35% in the past year to $16.9 billion, as per the Intenet Advertising Revenue Report that has been released by Interactive Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The largest share of online ad revenue came from paid keyword search, which accounted for $6.8 billion, or 40% of online ad spending. Display ads such as sponsorships, slotting fees and broadband video accounted for 32% with $5.4 billion. Classified ads came in at the third spot with $3.1 billion or 18% of total online ad spend.

“Interactive advertising revenues continue to show solid growth as advertisers and agencies recognize that it is a medium that can uniquely affect consumer behavior from product awareness, to purchase intent, to actual purchase and then brand loyalty,” says Randall Rothenberg, IAB president and CEO. Rothenberg predicts that the growth trend will continue as marketers shift more of their marketing budget online.

Buying a car is a confusing time, deciding between what one wants to get and what one can afford and hoping to meet both somewhere in the middle. One site has something called a Vehicle Selector Tool that helps you decide what car to buy based on their lifestyle, features and of course budget. I think its a really great idea, since most consumers often get sidetracked once they see the car of their dreams, the car that has no regard for the necessities of daily life, but instead craves only to be seen.

The Vehicle Selector Aid is simply superb. You select your main criteria for a car, such as a second car, college car, eco-friendly car, senior car, executive car etc in the first page. At the next level, you can select your level of price, reliability, drive-ability, safety etc, as well as the vehicle types. I deselected trucks and minivans, since I am not interested my second car being one. The results keep being updated according to your preferences and voila, you have the car’s that will best suit your needs. Autotropolis also has a Dealership Locator that will locate a new car dealer for you based on zip code which is another handy tool to have at hand when one only wants to look at local cars. The company has created a great way for potential customers to get more involved in making a decision, based on their choices.

Just a regular weekend here…no extra holiday for Memorial Day, but my work load will be reduced due to the US holiday, and so I can have a somewhat relaxed Monday, at least that is what I’m hoping. There’s been lots of stuff happening in retail and I might have to work extra to cover some of the new developments for one of my clients. For everyone in the US, have a great Memorial Day!