Gloople - The UK's 1st Social Sharing Ecommerce Platform

A first in the UK: Gloople is placing e-commerce at the centre of social networking Gloople has been selected as a finalist for the Innovation in E-Commerce Award by Econsultancy Innovation Awards.

Winners will be announced on 14 January 2011.

Jan 10, 2011 – Harness the power of social conversation and increase your social media ROI with Gloople, the UK’s first ever fully integrated ‘social shopping’ e-commerce platform.

With more retailers adding social shopping capabilities to their commercial offering every day make sure your business isn’t left behind. Gloople provides a powerful and affordable e-commerce option for SME brands and retailers, enabling you to automate engagement with your consumers online.

Available to either licence or purchase with a range of customisable options for your business, Gloople allows consumers to make direct purchases from your brand’s embedded store without having to leave the comfort of their social networking ‘home’. Links with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter communicate your online consumers’ purchase behaviour to their entire social community, sending your brand viral.

We already have applications such as American Express’ iPhone app Social Currency which allows users to show off purchases made on their AmEx card to their online community, but where is the brand control? There is no direct brand to consumer communication here. Gloople provides brands with a fully customisable online sales platform, from which to engage directly in commercial activity with their online fan base through controlled social media interaction.

By offering rewards and incentives in return for further online interaction with your brand using Gloople’s GroupBuy facility, your brand’s online community is no longer simply a fanbase, but an empowered salesforce, expanding with every ‘tweet and ‘like’.
Perpetual creatures of consumption, what we purchase is symbolic of who we are and when combined with the allure of social media, it is only natural that we would want to share our online purchasing behaviour with our peers. We already broadcast our location to the world; with Gloople, we can now show off our latest purchases.

Other functionalities of Gloople such as the Social Hub provides online consumers with an arena to share purchase stories, advise and recommendations, promoting a sense community and conversation under the watchful eye of the brand. Gloople also has full mobile functionality; with a unique mobile application complete with branded search capabilities and even a payment system, Gloople is fully equipped to meet the demands of the Smartphone user.

http://www.gloople.co.uk/

Internet Retailer Names 2010 Top 10 Retailers

Internet Retailer has named the top 10 internet retailers for 2010 in their annual Top 500 Guide of the most successful internet retailers.

Number one is Amazon which reported $24.51 billion in sales in 2009, up almost 28% from the $19.17 billion sales in 2008.

Here are the Top 10 and their 2009 sales totals. Also included is the percentage of change over the previous year:

• 1. Amazon (AMZN): $24.51 billion, up almost 28%


• 2. Staples Inc (SPLS): $9.8 billion, up 27.3 percent


• 3. Dell Inc (DELL): $4.53 billion, down 6.2 percent


• 4. Apple Inc (AAPL): $4.25 billion, up 16.7 percent


• 5. Office Depot (ODP): $4.1 billion, down 14.6 percent


• 6. Wal-Mart.com (WMT): $3.5 billion, up 19.8 percent


• 7. OfficeMax (OMX): $2.78 billion, down 10 percent


• 8. Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD): $2.77 billion, up 3 percent


• 9. CDW Corp. (CDW): $2.47 billion, down 5 percent


• 10. Best Buy (BBY): $2.45 billion, up 20 percent

According to Internet Retailer, the Top 10 accounted for more than 45% of all U.S. online sales in 2009.

The Top 10 accomplished this by:

• Strong name recognition and brand awareness;


• Focusing their efforts on their most loyal customers last year;


• Offering large quantities of merchandise;


• Offering lots of discount deals and


• Providing a superior online shopping experience.

Amazon remains on the top due to their excellent customer service.

Online Business Professionalism - Separating Your Personal Life

Social networking sites are important to online sales. Some multi-seller marketplaces have integrated socializing directly into their venue. Everything said within these social arenas can be found by potential customers anywhere in the world simply by doing an internet search. Be it Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Plumbdrop, chat forums, blogs or wherever, the potential to grow your business and profits is enormous but it could also mean disaster. More times than not, online sellers fail to see the danger in their personal life information being online which could also be tarnishing their online business.

Every now and then, you should Google the online ID's you use and also your real name. Does each search return provide information you would like attached to your business? Personal notes or photos that show you in a bad light may be something you want to have removed. Your friends might find it really funny to see photos of you passed out drunk at a weekend party or clowing around with some friends on a social site and post a photo or write something not so flattering about it on a social site. If one of your friends networks with a potential customer (online or real life), the photo or writing may be shared and it could tarnish your reputation plus it does nothing to instill buyer confidence. Your private life is yours and should be separated from your business because not everyone will view talk or pictures of such matters in a positive way.

If you have worked hard to build a professional online business reputation but a potential buyer does a Google search and finds a photo or written commentary about your weekend escapades or you are ranting and raving in online forums, you may have frightened that customer away which means you have wasted your time building your reputation. For the most part, online buyers do their research before making a purchase. This is good for the buyer but a potential disaster for the seller who has not separated his personal life from his business.

Some people are passionate and have something to say about a controversial issue or topic that is unrelated to their business or they post less than flattering images on a social networking site for their friends and family to see. For this reason, it may be a wise idea to create a separate socializing ID so it won't be connected to your business.

Socializing and your business reputation is difficult to deal with when you are involved with online marketplaces that have an attached forum since socializing is one of the draws to the site. Be really careful in what you post on the forums. Don't just type what first comes to mind and hit the send button. If what you are writing will offend, hurt or upset someone, maybe you should write it in an email and send it to yourself to spare the feelings of others and your own business reputation.
The same thing goes for avatars associated with your business ID. Is your avatar controversial or offensive in any way? Does your avatar reflect you personally more than it does professionally? If so, then you should consider a more neutral avatar because you never know who your next potential customer may be or what their beliefs or moral standards are.

Economy Sends E-sales Into Negative Territory

Overall online retail spending continues to slip in the second quarter, though some categories still post solid gains.

August 12, 2009
By Michelle Megna

E-commerce sales continue to suffer, with online retail spending pegged at $30.2 billion, down one percent compared to a year ago -- only the second quarter on record where e-commerce spending has been lower than the same quarter the previous year, according to comScore.

Click here to read the rest of the article.