Forbes Column 08: How Technology Can Save Retailers

My new Forbes column How Technology Can Save Retailers gets into online brand engagement, focus groups, inventory planning.

Forbes Column 08: How Amazon Could Change Publishing

Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in book retail. What if they also became the publisher, and cut out all the middle-men? Read my new Forbes column, How Amazon Could Change Publishing.

Carefully Folded Business Plan: What We Can Learn From Gap’s Failures

By Richard Laermer, Guest Author I was watching an old TV show from last year –gosh, my TiVo has so much stored it could have been from two years ago– and found myself gawking at a super-colorful Sarah J Parker dancing and carousing to “I Just Love Being a Girl” in a really horrible ad

Read Full Article »

Deal Radar 2008: Figleaves and Specialty e-Tail

(I want to preamble this piece by saying that when you read it, please don’t be surprised if Google AdSense starts pushing lingerie ads to you. It is not a very smart algorithm!) Figleaves.com is the world’s largest online retailer of branded intimate apparel. It includes Aubade to La Perla to Zimmermann. Users can shop

Read Full Article »

Blue Nile Needs to Up-Sell

Back in May I rated Blue Nile (NILE), the leading online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, very well in terms of Web 3.0. Blue Nile takes the approach of providing in-depth educational content and vertical search tools that aim to make consumers feel in control of the jewelry shopping process. Many males will admit

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 5)

Conclusion We have reviewed Amazon’s strategy in the upcoming Web 3.0 world over the last few days. Amazon has been focusing on enhancing its technology, introducing new categories of products and services (recently introduced, Amazon MP3 and Grocery), increasing depth of selection in each category, opening new markets (UK, Germany, Japan), offering better shopping tools

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 3)

Web 3.0 Framework discussion Below is a quick overview of the Web 3.0 framework for the Amazon sites. Context Amazon’s primary Context is shopping. Whether it is for books, music, toys, or clothes, you come to Amazon to shop. Content Amazon has really good content about its merchandise. In fact, the Amazon catalog is a

Read Full Article »

Web 3.0 & Amazon (Part 1)

Introduction I posed a question to ponder: Is eBay or Amazon a better company? Recently, I have covered eBay in detail, and this week, we will analyze Amazon. I will reserve the answer to the question until after. Meanwhile, I do encourage you to think about the question. I will give you my analysis later.

Read Full Article »