You all have heard the good word – online sales are on the rise and consumer confidence is steadily increasing. But the interesting part about the uptick in online sales is that customers are using their credit cards less to make online purchases.

A recent article on WalletPop.com entitled, “Customers rely less on credit cards when buying online,” highlights a new study from Javelin Strategy & Research which reveals that Americans are using other payment methods such as PayPal and debit cards more frequently.

The research group attributes the decline in credit card activity to the advances in technology to make online shopping more secure, and consumers’ desires to curb their “buy now, pay later” spending and keep their debt under control.

What are your thoughts on this trend? Please share them with us – we’d love to hear what you have to say.

Many e-commerce and marketing executives we talk with understand how proactive chat can improve their online conversion rates and order values. But because chat may require a headcount increase in their contact centers – a cost center that they don’t control – they sometimes have trouble making the business case.

David’s Bridal is a great case study on using an outsourced contact center to staff proactive chat on a retail Web site. Implementing a best-of-breed proactive chat solution, but outsourcing the agents to handle the chats, allows retailers like David’s Bridal to obtain the benefits of chat but avoid adding headcount. If you’re an e-commerce or contact center executive trying to make the business case for proactive chat, I’d encourage you to listen to today’s Webinar, “David’s Bridal: Boosting Conversions & Average Order Value on ‘High Touch’ Online Transactions.” You’ll learn how David’s Bridal worked with Clicks & Mortar Consulting, InstantService Chat from ATG, and Global Response, an expert outsourced contact center, to drive an incremental lift in conversation rates and average order values – without adding new headcount to the contact center.

Join this 45-minute webinar and better understand how live help – with an outsourced contact center strategy – can become an integral part of your online sales growth.

This past holiday shopping season was a big coming out party for mobile commerce, which finally reached a critical mass of consumers. Retailers gained valuable insight into what innovative mobile strategies can help drive Web sales and engage consumers more directly on the go. As Nina alluded to in her post about the iPad launch, mobile devices and now tablets are becoming increasingly popular for everything from shopping, to social networking and consuming media. The opportunities are virtually limitless for merchants to connect with their customers across channels, and the smart phone continues to be one of the key devices that demands attention. Here are some trends to watch for in 2010 as retailers try to maximize the value of m-commerce.

1. Apps, Apps & Apps:  Last year we introduced a framework for our customers to build their own iPhone applications; Tommy Hilfiger was the first company to launch a shopping app with ATG, and it’s a success story we’re really quite proud of. This year, we’re adding Android Apps and browser apps.  Together these provide consumers with great shopping experiences for all Smartphones and retailers with an efficient and effective way to capitalize on the growing mobile market. 
2. Consistent cross channel stores:  While Apple & Google battle it out and mobile platforms and devices continue to expand, retailers will need to follow the lead of companies like Best Buy and create mobile stores that are based on the same underlying commerce platform and infrastructure as their traditional Web sites, meaning customers have access to the same product inventories across channels;
3. GPS-driven mobile interactions: Creative online retailers will micro-target customers that opt in to  receive location-based services, offers and store information;
4. Barcode scanning: When customers are physically in a store, they want to be able to use their phone to get more information – some of our customers have already implemented features that let consumers scan a product barcode or text a special code and immediately receive more product information, access to customer reviews, etc. One of our major European retail clients is actually building this into the iPhone shopping app they’re creating, and it’s something we hope to see others embrace, as well;
5. SMS and push notifications: Using mobile alerts and text messages to reach consumers is not groundbreaking – but it is smart and increasingly effective. This year, we’ll see more companies keeping consumers aware of sales and gift guide suggestions via push notifications, helping keep their brand and products top of mind.

 These practices are just the tip of the iceberg. Now that m-commerce has finally come into the mainstream, making it easy for consumers to shop on their phones will be a key trend in 2010. The cross-channel opportunity presented by mobile is tremendous, and so is the potential for innovation by e-retailers as they experiment with new ways to reach today’s “commerce anywhere” consumer.

We’re pleased to congratulate a number of our customers who have been nominated for The 2010 Racie Awards, which will be announced during a gala reception at The Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference on March 3.

These honors are broken into several categories of pioneering marketing initiatives from traditional print and online advertising to the creative use of motion design and social commerce. According to the Racie Award site, “this year’s competition was stiff, with a 42 percent increase in entries over last year,” so we’re impressed that six of our customers made the list of nominees.

Customers in the running for these notable awards are: AT&T (with our partner, Sapient, as the agency of note), Best Buy, CVS/pharmacy, JCPenney Company, Inc.,  Tommy Hilfiger and OfficeMax. We’ve often expressed our pride that the brands selecting ATG are among the smartest and most creative when it comes to finding innovative and engaging ways to connect with their customers, so it’s great to see our friends getting some well-deserved kudos for the impactful marketing campaigns they’ve executed in recent months.

In fact, we’re particularly thrilled to be recognized for our work to deliver the Tommy Hilfiger iPhone app, which was nominated under the Racie Awards’ new “Mobile Apps,” category. You can read more about this project in our earlier blog post or by reading the app launch press release.

We wish you all the best of luck and we look forward to seeing you and toasting to your success in the year ahead at the Racie Awards Reception & Dinner Gala!

How do you define social commerce? Has social media made selling products online easier or more complex? With shoppers now empowered and more influenced by what they hear from their friends or family through social media than by an advertisement, how have merchants’ selling strategies been impacted?

I’ve just started a social commerce series on the ATG Community where I’ll look at how this social revolution and virtual collaboration is giving rise to new software/SaaS solutions to help merchants better engage with consumers. Head on over and give it a read.

“How am I supposed to control my brand if it is molded by the voice of the consumer?”

One of the primary discussions and concerns of 2009 centered on how the rise in social computing has caused marketers to feel as if they’ve lost control of their brand. It’s 2010, and let’s face it, this is still a big issue for marketers across the country. This presumed loss of control is understandable, but marketers do have some powerful tools available to help them actually strengthen their brand by learning from the “voice of the consumer.”

Live help technologies (those such as click to call or chat services) enable marketers to listen to, respond to, track, and analyze their customers “voices” during the process of providing online customer service on a specific part of the Web site. Applying what is learned through this analysis can ultimately help companies increase online conversation rates, reduce Web site abandonment, reduce service costs and even improve their products and services.

One major U.S. airline used click to call to analyze customer service issues pertaining to its online flight bookings process, and then improved its Web site based on the analysis.

The airline – which uses proactive live help – noticed a rise in call center volume stemming from a particular point in the online booking process. Taking quick action, they listened to a sample of the click to call recordings originating from that point in the bookings process to determine if callers were encountering a common problem.

As it turned out, the rise in click to call use was a result of travelers’ inability to view their seating assignments on a specific page. They were using click to call to find out their seating assignment before continuing the booking process.

With this ”voice of the customer” knowledge, the airline improved its booking process by making the seat assignment more prominent. The result? A drop in click to call activity and direct bottom-line impact (not to mention happier customers).

This is one of those hidden benefits of live help that businesses often don’t consider when evaluating the potential return on investment. Unlike a 1-800 number, click to call and live chat interactions can be tied directly to each customer’s online context, as this example shows.  With live help, companies can capture, listen to and respond to the voice of their customers at the most critical moments of need to drive revenue and customer satisfaction while reducing support costs.

How are you strengthening your brand by capturing and responding to the voice of you customers?  I’d love to hear your stories.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs displays ATG OnDemand customer National Geographic’s Web site on the new iPad during its launch on Wednesday.

Like most folks, we sat on the edge of our seats on Wednesday afternoon, waiting to see the latest bit of coolness that Apple would unveil next. I was particularly excited to see National Geographic’s site featured with the iPad launch for two reasons: One, because National Geo is an ATG OnDemand customer, and two, because I’m planning a trip overseas and the National Geographic connection made me think about the benefits of having a device like that with me when I go and as I prepare for the trip.

The fluid connection between content and commerce really comes to life here. I could be reading the travel section of the New York Times on my new iPad (can’t wait!), click through to research something on the National Geo site, decide I need to pick up a book, or new pair of binoculars or some maps.  And when I walk into a luggage store and the associate on the floor is able to show me specialty items available only on their site, I may find that she is holding an iPad with that nice big screen.  This device, like the iPhone, helps the merchant and the publisher bring better information to the point of decision, and even extend the experience of value.

For consumers, devices like the iPad make life easier. The problem for online merchants is that it’s really hard to make things that simple. Online vendors are tasked with ensuring that their Web platforms are compatible with — and take advantage of — the myriad of tools and applications on today’s market, and with every new device comes new opportunities and challenges.

Forrester’s Josh Bernoff explains the hurdles that devices like the iPad present for Web-based businesses in his recent blog post, “The Splinternet means the end of the Web’s golden age.” Yesterday, he continued that discussion.

These posts serve as a friendly reminder that great Web sites just aren’t enough anymore. Consumer access to commerce will continue to evolve and online merchants should focus carefully on their cross-channel strategies, while learning to embrace new platforms as they arise.

If you are a consumer product manufacturer who wants to increase or maintain the value of your brand,  the first thing you should realize is that going direct is not just about online sales, but building and maintaining brand value as well.

In a recent webinar with Viking Range called “Getting Serious About Going Direct: How Manufacturers Can Develop an Optimal Web Strategy for Their Brand,” Sucharita Mulpuru, principal analyst at Forester Research, explains that there are a number of go-direct online strategies and that choosing the right strategy depends on your market and business needs. Mulpuru points out that more retailers are going online to preserve their revenue and margins while also reducing inventory, and consumer product manufacturers must compete to maintain sales levels. She provides a framework for choosing the right strategy and data to build a business case for investing in that strategy.

Tim Tyler of Viking Range, who joins Mulpuru in the webinar, says the benefits of going direct go far beyond online sales and that doing so helps maintain brand value and support the product life cycle. He shows the wide range of Web-based features that Viking Range uses to support purchases and build brand value across channels.

Malpuru points out that 62 percent of Web buyers are brand loyal. Check out the full webinar, to learn how to maintain – and increase – that loyalty.

Today we are thrilled to announce that ATG has acquired Seattle-based InstantService, a market leading SaaS provider of live chat, email response management, and other customer service and lead capture solutions. Over the last decade, InstantService’s innovative technology has contributed to the online business success of more than 300 customers, including FedEx Kinko’s, Garnet Hill, Orvis, REI, and Sundance.

By combining InstantService’s offerings with our ATG’s market-leading eStara Click to Call service and other complementary optimization services, ATG is well positioned to deliver on enterprise and mid-sized business requirements for live help, which we view as a key component to an effective online selling and service strategy.

Not only are we excited about the possibilities InstantService and ATG offer to our current and future customers, but we are also welcoming a highly knowledgeable team of live help and customer service technology experts into the ATG family.

We look forward to providing you with ongoing updates as we integrate the InstantService and ATG solutions and operations over time.

With double-digit e-commerce growth and rising consumer expectations of Internet and cross-channel shopping, consumer product manufacturers need to create the right online brand presence.  Consumers are already “going direct” to manufacturers for consideration, purchase, and post-purchase support.  If you are a consumer product manufacturer, even if you don’t sell online, your Web presence is one of your most valuable opportunities to have a direct relationship with your consumers – to not only influence consumer purchase, but also support the full product life cycle – including usage, satisfaction, and brand loyalty.

In our January 12^th webinar, Getting Serious About Going Direct, How Manufacturers Can Develop an Optimal Ecommerce Strategy for their Brand with Viking Range and Forrester Research, learn how you can benefit by selling direct to drive and maintain sales growth, maintain brand value, and capture valuable information about consumers, their wants, and their expectations.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• How Viking Range uses the Web to present a consistent brand, sell to, and service different audiences, and maintains a direct connection with its consumers
• How to build a business case for investment in your direct-to-consumer channel
• How to leverage your direct customer relationship to ensure satisfaction with knowledge, communities and service
• How to marry your B2C and B2B solution to improve operational efficiencies

Register