 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shopping Centers Today -> March 2004
 PRINT THIS STORY: |
  CHANGE TEXT SIZE: |
|
BRICKS TOP CLICKS
Most of the companies on a top-10 list for online customer service are brick-and-mortar retailers. Ann Taylor, Crate & Barrel, J.C. Penney, J. Crew, Lands’ End, Men’s Wearhouse, Orvis and Petco were among those listed by The e-Tailing Group, a Chicago-based Internet retail consulting firm. One hundred retailers were graded on, among other things, their responsiveness to e-mailed inquiries and the rapidity of the ordering and delivery process.
|
TEEN SPENDING POWERIt pays to be able to see your customers sometimes — an advantage brick-and-mortar retailers enjoy over their Internet-only counterparts. This was demonstrated recently when three bored German teen-agers reportedly purchased $160 million worth of products over the Internet in just two hours. Among their purchases: light aircraft, artwork and industrial machinery, reports The Seattle Times. |
 |
ONLINE SEX CHANGE
Men used to do most of the Internet shopping, but last year women overtook them and now make up 52 percent of online shoppers, according to a survey by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Harris Interactive and Nielsen/NetRatings. This gender shift is reflected in the kinds of items being bought. During the 2002 holidays, consumer electronics was the hottest category, but a year later it was merchandise for the home and garden.
 |
JOINING THE BAND (WAGON)
The stampede to sell music online has been joined by none other than the Smithsonian Institution, which, for 99 cents each, is offering songs by such artists as Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly at its Web site (www.folkways.si.edu). A disparate group of existing or budding online music vendors includes Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Virgin Group and Wal-Mart.
HONOR BOX
Online shoppers in California who somehow forgot to pay sales tax on their purchases in the past year are getting an opportunity to rectify the omission through a new line on their 2003 income tax forms. They can even opt to pay over the Internet. The state loses an estimated $1.2 billion in sales tax revenue through unreported online purchases.
 |
|
 |
CLICK TO CONTRIBUTEAmazon.com has added another category to its Web site: political patronage. Visitors can now contribute anywhere from $5 to $200 to a presidential candidate through the site. “We’re trying to take the friction out of grassroots contributions to presidential candidates,” Amazon explains. “We’re making it as easy for people to contribute as it is to buy the latest Harry Potter.” |
CAUTIOUS CANADIANSFew countries, if any, have more people connected to the Web than Canada, but you wouldn’t think so judging by the number of people shopping online. Online sales in Canada dropped nearly 2 percent this past holiday season, the second consecutive year of decline, according to the annual Ipsos-Reid survey. That contrasts with a 30 percent leap in online sales in the United States over the same period. Canadians are more concerned about credit card security, and there is less of a tradition of catalog retailing in that country compared to the United States, Ipsos-Reid told the Ottawa Citizen. Online sales are also hampered by the poor quality of many of the country’s online retail sites, one analyst opined. |
Shopping Centers Today
 | Current Issue March 2010 |