Does Brick & Mortar's Online Success Signal an End to 'Pure E ...

The online commerce landscape has changed dramatically since shopping on the internet first began gaining traction in the mid to late 1990?s. Early adopter e-commerce companies founded on technology enjoyed a head-start over traditional brick and mortars who were slow to respond to consumer spending shifting online. Initially, some tried to solve the problem by simply throwing money at it; as recently as 2009, some brick and mortars were still spending up to nearly $300,000 per day on paid search.

The last 12-18 months have seen traditional brick and mortar companies step up their game when it comes to online commerce. Tech writer Farhad Manjoo recently reported at Fast Company that Walmart is investing millions in technology to fight e-commerce leaders, even recruiting a key engineer in silicon valley who built much of eBay?s infrastructure to head their tech team. The New York Times recently described how Target has recently rebuilt much of their website to be more technology friendly and user-centric.

Online Search is Central to E-Commerce Success

A major component of the online commerce battle is visibility in the search engines. Data shows search engines have the highest influence on online purchase behavior, more than alternative sources such as social networks and recommendation engines.

To check in on how brick and mortars did versus pure e-commerce players this holiday season we tracked three hundred of the most popular products across three of the most popular product categories on PriceGrabber:

? Electronics
? Toys
? Jewelry

In selecting the most in-demand products across three categories on popular shopping engine PriceGrabber, we ended up with a good sampling of some of the most in-demand products this holiday season (note: PriceGrabber regularly updates the most in demand products based on shifting consumer demand. Our list was pulled the first week of December).
We entered the top 100 products in each category into Searchlight, Conductor?s Enterprise SEO Platform, and tracked the domains that appeared in top ranking positions (position 1-5) for each keyword on Google. To determine how prevalent e-commerce websites are vs. traditional brick and mortars in the search results, we then categorized each domain that appeared in the top search results into one of four website types:

• E-Commerce: A pure e-commerce player
• Brick and Mortar: Any retailer with a brick and mortar presence
• Shopping Engine: A shopping engine such as Nextag.com and Bizrate.com
• Other: Non-retailers (e.g. Wikipedia, CNET?)

After Years of Growing Pains, Brick and Mortars Make Significant Headway in E-Commerce

Looking at the results for all 300 keywords together we can see that e-commerce sites appeared in top ranking positions (1-5) 39% of the time while brick and mortars appeared more than a quarter (26%) of the time. While we do not have historical data for comparative purposes, and we see e-commerce players overall still appearing at the top of the results most often, we would hypothesize that brick and mortars have made substantial inroads in the search results. In fact, we?ve reviewed enough data over the years to know their percentages would have been substantially lower at this time one year ago, and lower still two years ago.

Indeed, anecdotal evidence of this conclusion is that in that time frame (the last two years or so) we see several large brick and mortars transitioning their search strategies from a ?throw-money-at-the-problem-via-paid search? short term approach to a long-term ?gradually-move-up-the-natural-search-rankings where 92% of the clicks occur? approach; some of our historical data shows one major brick and mortar retailer reduced their paid search spend by more than 85% in that time frame. And, the brick and mortars that the media cite as increasingly giving mindshare to online commerce (Walmart and Target) are those that now appear most often in the search results.

Brick and Mortars Beating E-Commerce Websites in the Toys Industry

Looking at the results for the individual industries we see that in ?Toys?, brick and mortars are actually outranking e-commerce players (34% to 30%). This is likely reflective of the focused efforts in the search results of brick and mortars such as Toys R Us and Target over the last several years. Consumer spending on toys during the holiday season also likely shifted online faster than products such as bulky consumer electronics and costly jewelry, giving toy brick and mortars a bigger head start working in the search results than the other industries.

Top Winners

Looking at top rankers across all website types in all product categories, it is clear that Amazon remains a dominant force in e-commerce search visibility due to their unparalleled product selection, long-time investment in technology, and unmatched user reviews which the search algorithms increasingly value post Panda/Penguin algorithm updates.

However, for the reasons described above and in contradistinction to just a few short years ago, traditional brick and mortars are shown to have a strong presence in the search results, with brick and mortars Walmart and Target appearing second and third most often in top ranking positions across all product categories. Additionally, Target and Toys R Us in toys and Best Buy in electronics were strong influencers in their respective industries.

In [the last two years or so] we see several large brick and mortars transitioning their search strategies from a ?throw-money-at-the-problem-via-paid search? short term approach to a long-term ?gradually move up the natural search rankings where 92% of the clicks occur? approach[...]

Conclusion: Brick and Mortars are Now a Force to be Reckoned with in Online Retail

Only a few short years ago young, nimble internet players were the nouveau riche of the online commerce game, while traditional brick and mortars were the lumbering giants struggling to figure out the internet thing. Now, after several years of focused effort it?s clear that brick and mortars are making serious inroads in online commerce?transitioning to more mature search strategies and now, even capturing more of the top rankings in the Toys industry than e-commerce sites. As we head into 2013 and leave the holiday season behind us, it is clear that brick and mortars are investing in the technology and long term approaches that have turned them into a force to be reckoned with in online commerce.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/consumer-marketing/does-brick-mortars-online-success-signal-an-end-to-pure-e-commerce-dominance-0378672

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Lead Generation Service Provider Tiger Media Marketing Revamps ...

New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/23/2013 -- With the video marketing industry expected to reach $8 billion in the next three years, there are surely many business owners who would love to have their questions about how to best invest their marketing budget answered. Perhaps most entrepreneurs know by now that an effective approach should boast more elaborated tracking and targeting, be more personal and easier to interact with, but do they have the perspective, inspiration and means to create it?

?The online community is one driven specifically by results. Lead generation and the possibility to turn leads into quantifiable results ? that is, buying clients ? is the essential driver of the marketing and sales connection?, says representative of Tiger Media Marketing, an online marketing agency specializing in video marketing, mobile marketing and SEO.

Tiger Media Advertising specializes in achieving greater tracking and targeting of users through online advertising means, including video marketing, mobile marketing and SEO, allowing business owners to obtain better results by directly advertising to the audiences they target. Additionally, the services offered by the company will eliminate the ad spend wastage for both advertisers and viewers, allowing the latter to receive personalized ads and interact with their preferred content.

According to the company?s statistics, almost 80% of business owners consider the lead generation part as the biggest challenge to their organization, and things get even tougher with time, as lead generation strategies constantly change and evolve.

?The advent of smartphones, tablets and other such gadgets has transformed the way people interact with the video content they access, causing TV and smartphone services to mix together. The services that were once provided solely by television are now conveniently accessible on mobile devices, including on-demand video players, social apps and OTT content?, continues spokesperson for the company. As a result of this shift, more and more marketers are investing in video marketing campaigns, being confident that online video will eventually kill TV advertising just like the internet has done to the printed ads.

To access the entire service range offered by Tiger Media Marketing, please visit http://tigermediamarketing.com/.

About Tiger Media Marketing:
Tiger Media Marketing is a small experienced team who helps businesses get the best results from online marketing. They use the best lead generation techniques such as video marketing, mobile marketing and SEO to help businesses get more sales and repeat business from a variety of methods that increase sales.

Contact Information:

Tiger Media Marketing

347 5th Avenue
New York, New York 10016
United States
(347) 523-4498

Source: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/lead-generation-service-provider-tiger-media-marketing-revamps-website-integrates-video-marketing-on-site-to-improve-online-experience-says-sma-press-198596.htm

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With Maine as exception, GOP has no political incentive to make ?fiscal cliff? deal with Obama

WASHINGTON ? Amid the last-minute wrangling over a ?fiscal cliff? deal, it?s important to remember one overlooked fact of the 2012 election: Republicans in the House and Senate have absolutely no political incentive to compromise with President Obama.

The numbers are stark.

Of the 234 Republicans elected to the House on Nov. 6, just 15 sit in congressional districts that Obama also won that day, according to calculations made by the Cook Political Report?s ace analyst David Wasserman. That?s an infinitesimally small number, particularly when compared with the 63 House Republicans who held seats where Obama had won following the 2010 midterm elections.

The Senate landscape paints the same picture ? this time looking forward. Of the 13 states where the 14 Republican Senators will stand for reelection in 2014 (South Carolina has two, with Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott up in two years time), Obama won just one in 2012 ? Maine. In the remaining dozen states, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney won only one, Georgia, by less than double digits. The average margin of victory for Romney across the 13 states was 19.5 percentage points; take out Maine, and Romney?s average margin was 22 points in the remaining 12 states.

The picture on the Democratic side is less clear. Although 96 percent of House Democrats in the 113th Congress will hold seats Obama won in November, according to Wasserman, fully one-third of the 21 Senate Democrats who will stand for reelection in 2014 represent states that Romney won.

While Obama narrowly lost North Carolina, where Sen. Kay Hagan, D, will run for a second term in November 2014, the president lost the other six states where Senate Democrats will be running by double digits. Here?s that list: Alaska (lost by 14), Arkansas (lost by 24), Louisiana (lost by 18), Montana (lost by 13), South Dakota (lost by 18) and West Virginia (lost by 26). Obama?s average margin of defeat across these seven states? A whopping 16 points.

Even the most cursory analysis of those numbers makes two things clear.

First, with the exception of a dozen or so Republicans in the House and Maine?s Susan Collins in the Senate, the number of GOP members of the 113th Congress who see cutting a deal with the president ? in the fiscal cliff or, frankly, anything else ? as politically advantageous is close to zero.

Second, while House Democrats are equally de-incentivized to working across the aisle, there is a large-ish group of Senate Democrats who must find ways of showing their bipartisan spirit if they want to win reelection in states that didn?t favor their party ? or even come close to doing so ? in the 2012 election.

Those twin political realities make the ground on which the fiscal cliff fight ? and future scuffles over gun control measures, etc. ? less heavily tilted toward Democrats than you might think.

Yes, Obama won the election and did so quite convincingly. And, no, he doesn?t ever have to worry again about being reelected, which should, in theory, embolden him. But he is the only person involved in the fiscal cliff talks who has that luxury. Everyone else needs to keep one eye (at least) on their next race.

That mentality means that for the vast majority of Republicans in Congress, a deal is more dangerous than no deal. A deal creates the possibility of a primary challenge from their ideological right in districts and even states that, by and large, went heavily against Obama in November. No deal means they might ? with the emphasis on ?might? ? face some blowback from constituents who want them to get something done for the good of the country and put the partisanship and politics aside.

And so, if you are wondering why congressional Republicans won?t, in the words of Obama, just ?take the deal,? now you know. They have every political reason not to.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/12/30/politics/with-maine-as-exception-gop-has-no-political-incentive-to-make-fiscal-cliff-deal-with-obama/

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Trains carrying more oil across US amid boom

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) ? Energy companies behind the oil boom on the Northern Plains are increasingly turning to an industrial-age workhorse ? the locomotive ? to move their crude to refineries across the U.S., as plans for new pipelines stall and existing lines can't keep up with demand.

Delivering oil thousands of miles by rail from the heartland to refineries on the East, West and Gulf coasts costs more, but it can mean increased profits ? up to $10 or more a barrel ? because of higher oil prices on the coasts. That works out to about $700,000 per train.

The parade of mile-long trains carrying hazardous material out of North Dakota and Montana and across the country has experts and federal regulators concerned. Rail transport is less safe than pipelines, they say, and the proliferation of oil trains raises the risk of a major derailment and spill.

Since 2009, the number of train cars carrying crude hauled by major railroads has jumped from about 10,000 a year to a projected 200,000 in 2012. Much of that has been in the Northern Plains' Bakken crude patch, but companies say oil trains are rolling or will be soon from Texas, Colorado and western Canada.

"This is all occurring very rapidly, and history teaches that when those things happen, unfortunately, the next thing that is going to occur would be some sort of disaster," said Jim Hall, a transportation consultant and former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Rail companies said the industry places a priority on safety and has invested heavily in track upgrades, provided emergency training and taken other measures to guard against accidents. There have been no major oil train derailments from the Bakken, according to federal regulators.

Union Pacific Railroad CEO Jack Koraleski said hauling oil out of places like North Dakota will be a long-term business for railroads because trains are faster than pipelines, reliable and offer a variety of destinations.

"The railroads are looking at this as a unique opportunity, a game-changing opportunity for their business," said Jeffery Elliot, a rail expert with the New York-based consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

BNSF Railway Co., the prime player in the Bakken, has bolstered its oil train capacity to a million barrels a day and expects that figure to increase further. To accommodate the growth, in part, the railroad is sinking $197 million into track upgrades and other improvements in Montana and North Dakota.

BNSF is also increasing train sizes, from 100 oil cars per train to as many as 118.

Larger trains are harder to control, and that increases the chances of something going wrong, safety experts said. State and local emergency officials worry about a derailment in a population center or an environmentally sensitive area such as a river crossing.

Rail accidents occur 34 times more frequently than pipeline ones for every ton of crude or other hazardous material shipped comparable distances, according to a recent study by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. The Association of American Railroads contends the study was flawed but acknowledges the likelihood of a rail accident is double or triple the chance of a pipeline problem.

The environmental fears carry an ironic twist: Oil trains are gaining popularity in part because of a shortage of pipeline capacity ? a problem that has been worsened by environmental opposition to such projects as TransCanada's stalled Keystone XL pipeline. That project would carry Bakken and Canadian crude to the Gulf of Mexico.

Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for the Sierra Club, described rail as "the greater of two evils" because trains pass through cities, over waterways and through wetlands that pipelines can be built to avoid.

"It's an accident waiting to happen. It's going to be a mess and we don't know where that mess is going to be," Schafer said.

For oil companies, the embrace of rail is a matter of expediency. Oil-loading rail terminals can be built in a matter of months, versus three to five years for pipelines to clear regulatory hurdles and be put into service, said Justin Kringstad of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority. Although more pipelines are in the works, Kringstad said moving oil by rail will continue.

The surge comes at the right time for railroads: Coal shipments ? a mainstay of the rail industry ? have suffered because of competition from cheap natural gas.

In the eastern U.S., CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads haven't seen as much growth because oil from the Marcellus Shale area of Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York is close enough to refineries that trucks haul the crude.

Yet BNSF is beginning to haul Bakken crude east to Chicago, where it hands off the tank cars to CSX or Norfolk Southern for delivery to Eastern refineries. It has also sent oil to the West Coast, a trend that could increase if Alaska crude production falters, as some industry observers are predicting.

The growth will require significant upgrades to already congested rail lines, industry analysts said.

Overall, crude oil shipments still represent less than 1 percent of all carloads. And there are far more dangerous materials aboard the nation's trains, including explosives, poisonous gases and other industrial chemicals.

But emergency officials are increasingly wary of major accidents involving oil trains, which carry far more cargo than some other hazardous-material trains.

While oil is not as volatile as some other products, a rupture of just one car can spill 20,000 to 30,000 gallons, said Sheldon Lustig, a rail expert who consults with local governments on accidents and hazardous materials.

Recognizing the risks, Houston-based Musket Corp., an operator of oil train terminals in North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Oklahoma, has donated spill equipment and provided training to fire officials.

"You want to be a good steward in that community," said Musket managing director JP Fjeld-Hansen.

Federal Railroad Administration officials said they have coordinated hazardous-material training seminars and sought more law enforcement patrols for rail crossings to increase safety.

Federal law requires railroads to select hazardous-material routes after analyzing the potential for accidents in heavily populated areas and environmentally sensitive spots. Those analyses are confidential for security reasons.

Lustig said the railroads have considerable sway over the process.

"Under federal guidelines, the railroad makes the analysis, the railroad decides what they want to do, and the railroad does it," he said. "There is no public accountability."

__

Funk reported from Omaha, Neb. Associated Press writer James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-28-Oil%20Trains/id-e0ff4fdc23354873afe074c245f0dc94

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Obama: Troops aiding African diplomat evacuation (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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In 2012, we turned to Wikipedia to learn about ... Facebook?

15 hrs.

Rosa Golijan , NBC News

Unlike most major Internet brands, Wikipedia had no year-end top-10 list to share. But that's not to say there isn't a list of most viewed Wikipedia articles of 2012. It took a software engineer with a bit of spare time to gather up the data, and share the results, equal parts predictable and off-the-wall.?What does this list say about us?

Based on?Johan Gunnarsson's analysis of Wikipedia logs, it seems that?the most viewed articles on the English version of Wikipedia are lined up as follows:

• 1. Facebook - 32,647,942 views
  
• 2.?Wiki -?29,613,759?views
  
• 3.?Deaths in 2012 -?25,418,587?views
  
• 4.?One Direction -?22,351,637?views
  
• 5.?The Avengers (2012 film) -?22,268,644?views
  
• 6.?Fifty Shades of Grey -?21,779,423?views
  
• 7.?2012 phenomenon -?20,619,920?views
  
• 8.?The Dark Knight Rises -?18,882,885?views
  
• 9.?Google -?18,508,719?views
  
• 10.?The Hunger Games -?18,431,626?views
  

While we're not surprised to see iconic pop culture phenomena like musical sensation One Direction, the all-star movie?"The?Avengers," the risque literary?trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey" and of course the?inescapable "Hunger Games" series?appear,?we did scratch our heads about Facebook and Google, and ... "Wiki"?

Wikimedia spokesman Jay Walsh explained the popularity of these items to All Things D's Liz Gannes as likely being due to users who might type "Facebook" or similar into a search engine built into "their browsers intending to go to the site and end up on Wikipedia."?Either that, he says, or there's simply "general, high-level interest and curiosity" about the history of some of these websites and services.

We'll buy the accidental typing explanation over the "high-level of?interest" one.

While most of the top 100 most-viewed?English Wikipedia articles centered around pop culture and current events, some articles raise eyebrows for feeling a bit out of place. Entries on the Illuminati (No. 33), elocution (No. 34)?and g-forces (No. 83)?cropped up on the heels of expected entries like Mitt Romney (No. 22) and?Justin Bieber (No. 25).

The more immature individuals among us may find it amusing that entries on sex (No. 18) and human penis size (No. 82) made it into the list of 100?most viewed.?Android fanboys may flaunt the fact that an article about the mobile operating system hit the list at No. 70, while no entries about iOS made it into the top 100. (Though Steve Jobs did come in at No. 64.)

At least some people were using Wikipedia for its intended purpose, to cheat on homework assignments: Historical topics from?Albert Einstein (No. 98)?to the Hatfield-McCoy feud (No. 91) pepper the list.

When looking at the?most viewed articles in languages other than English, we find that the obsession with major Web properties and pop culture extends beyond their idiom of origin. Facebook led the Spanish top 10, which also includes One Direction. German language readers were particularly interested in the?TV shows "How I Met Your Mother," "The Big Bang Theory," "Two And A Half Men," and "Game Of Thrones" ? all which made it into their top 10.

And speaking of Bieber,?those with an irrational dislike for the teen?heartthrob may find it comforting to know that he?only made the top 10 in Norwegian and Danish. He failed to reach single digits in any other language, and sits at No. 25 on the list of the most viewed English Wikipedia articles.

"Gangnam Style," the ear-worm that beat Bieber's "Baby" to?a billion views on YouTube, appears to have only made it onto one top-100 list?? the English one ? taking the No. 21 spot with a mere?13,129,876 views.

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/2012-we-turned-wikipedia-learn-about-facebook-1C7753895

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Top Ten Excuses For Gaming During Family Gatherings - Features ...

The holiday season is always bittersweet. On one hand, most of us have a string of days off from work or school. On the other hand, we're expected to spend that time with our families instead of playing video games. Fear not! Here's a list of ten ways you can sneak away from the relatives and get in some gaming.

Excuse #10: "I'm just testing to make sure it works."
What could possibly be worse than opening a shiny new game on Christmas morning only to find out that it's broken? No one would want their child/sibling/parent/whoever to suffer such disappointment. Before you wrap that exciting new game up, explain to the powers that be that you should really pop it into your console and play the first couple of hours just to make sure it works.

Excuse #9: A Visit From Santa
If you're a gaming parent, Christmas Eve can be the perfect time to get in some digital entertainment after the children go to bed ? as long as you plan ahead. Keep a string of bells beside you as you play; if a sleepy little intruder does barge in on your late night gaming marathon, just give them a jingle, open your eyes real wide, and ask, "Is that Santa?" They'll spend the rest of the night staring at the chimney while you play into the early morning hours. God bless the gullibility of children.

Excuse #8: "I don't want to be rude..."
Most people would consider it rude to play video games when the relatives are over ??but isn't refraining from playing them even ruder?

This mind-blowing excuse turns the etiquette argument on its head. Consider the facts: a loved one went out of their way to buy you a video game that they know you'll love ? wouldn't it be inconsiderate to simply set it aside in the pile of other opened presents and pretend it doesn't even exist until everyone goes home? You always have to immediately try on the ugly sweater your aunt buys you in order to spare her feelings; the same rule should apply for games.

Excuse #7: "Think of the children!"
Here's another classic excuse that hinges on playing the part of the selfless relative. The rambunctious nature of little children often means that they get a free pass to do as they please at family gatherings ? as long as they're not torturing the dog or breaking stuff, no one really cares. Secretly ask your nieces/nephews/younger siblings/random neighborhood kids if they want to play video games ? if they say yes, you're pretty much obligated to play with them. Remember, you're not secluding yourself from the other adults to selfishly play video games; you're being the considerate guardian who's entertaining the children.

Excuse #6: An Answer For Everything
Smartphones have been a boon for stealth gaming; no one can see what you're doing on your private screen, and there's a wealth of valid excuses for why your eyes might be glued to your mobile device. Use that to your advantage during family gatherings by volunteering to answer any questions your relatives may or may not have by "looking it up on your phone."

Who invented tinsel?? How long should you cook yams? What the hell are yams? After playing a game for five minutes, reply to your waiting family member that the answer is yes. If it's not a yes or no question, just say the results are inconclusive. If someone questions why your phone is making video game noises while you're supposedly looking up answers, just say it's a state-of-the-art device like the handheld computer Al had in Quantum Leap.

Coming Up Next: Five more incredibly stupid ideas...

Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/12/24/top-ten-excuses-for-gaming-during-family-gatherings.aspx

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