We found out eBay’s plans for helping volume and retail sellers maximize their opportunities and heard sellers’ views on what needed to happen.

We joined David Smith from the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) as he looked back at some of the key developments in UK online retail in 2007 and shared his predictions on the opportunities for savvy online retailers in 2008.

Savvy retailers know how to distinguish their products from the competition and provide compelling reasons to buy. Integrating discounts, free shipping and other promotions on your site and in your ad copy can be huge customer incentives. ChannelAdvisor, Google and an experienced online retailer explored the most persuasive campaign strategies that will give you a head start on your competitors in the increasingly competitive online battle for buyers.

Attendees were able to view the good, the bad and the ugly as a panel of representatives from expert design agencies gave live website critiques. During this interactive session, an online retailer’s site was “pimped” to improve its design, structure and usability. Attendees learned how to enhance the look and feel of a site as well as guide customers to exactly what they’re looking for with fewer clicks and reap the results.

Google discussed the importance of pay per click advertising and demonstrated how it can help you target new audiences with ease.

Three Category Managers discussed the best practices for 3rd party sellers to sell effectively onto this emerging marketplace.  Topics included who should sell onto Amazon, what you can sell, how to utilize Amazon seller tools including ChannelAdvisor and what functionality is coming to the Merchants @ program in near future. 

By streamlining your checkout process, you remove the obstacles that cause online shoppers to drop out of transactions.  This converts more browsers to buyers, resulting in incremental sales for your business.
With PayPal, there is no need to share sensitive personal information online, since this is already stored with us.  Adding an account based payment option such as PayPal to your site enables your customers to complete their transactions more quickly and securely.  

We joined Shopping.com, Shopzilla and new entrant, Twenga, on the sofa as they discussed the opportunities and challenges presented by this increasingly popular channel. We learned firsthand what it takes to make this channel work and heard what new technologies you can expect to see in the coming 12 months. Attendees took away lessons that will prove invaluable when they sit down to plan their own winning CSE strategy for 2008.

As the number of online shoppers in other European countries continues to rise, an increasing number of UK retailers are seeing a significant portion of their turnover originate from outside the UK. However to be successful in emerging markets, such as France, Spain, Italy and Germany, requires more than simply duplicating your UK strategy. We joined professional consulting and ecommerce-specific translation providers, Intercultural Elements, and two ChannelAdvisor Account Managers (one from France, the other from Germany) as we explored some simple strategies for taking the plunge and tapping into new buyer pools abroad.

Panel Discussion: Tips & Tricks for Getting More out of Your Email Marketing
Jeff Barnes, ExactTarget; Mike Weston, Silverpop

As retailers increase their use of email marketing to reach out to prospective and existing customers, it's becoming increasingly challenging to ensure your email campaigns reach, and get noticed by, your target audience. However by paying attention to a few best practices your chances of success are greatly increased. We joined email experts from Keymail Marketing (Exact Target) and Silverpop as they took us through some examples of the good the bad and the ugly and point you in the right direction on the road to success.

Bazaarvoice brings the power of social commerce to the world's best brands. Social commerce happens when you connect customers to one another in ways that drive measurable results to your business. This session examined how social commerce (such as user-generated reviews) can help your customers build your business.

Often discussed and rarely well understood, Search Engine Optimisation is one of the most effective techniques for improving your websites' natural search results. But how do you sort through the myriad of so-called 'experts' on the subject and determine which techniques are worth investing time in and which are simply attempts to 'trick' the search engine algorithms that will ultimately have a negative impact on your results. We joined e-commerce services provider, Screen Pages, as we delved into some simple best practices that will ensure the maximum return on investment for your SEO activities.

Launched in early 2007, PlayTrade is already proving to be an essential part of any media retailers channel mix. We joined Luke Taylor, head of PlayTrade.com as he shared his vision for this new marketplace and described what makes it a unique destination for buyers and an attractive selling venue for retailers.

Business is good, but do you get the feeling it could be so much better? If only you could stock more products or physically get more products out of the door each day. It could be time for you to look at your fulfillment operation and see what products and services are available to help you stock more products and ship more packages. We joined representatives from Royal Mail, Amazon and Metapack as they explored some of the common challenges faced by rapidly growing online retailers and discussed some simple solutions that are available at less than the cost of a new warehouse!

We joined the eBay UK team and eBay expert, Scot Wingo, for an interactive panel discussion to help you understand the impact of DSRs on your eBay business and share 11 Best Practices to improve your ratings. Many UK and US PowerSellers have already implemented the recommendations we discussed and are seeing an upward trend in their DSRs. With DSRs impacting site visibility, conversion rates and your fees, it’s never been more important to think strategically about how their impact on your eBay business.

In this unique and fascinating panel session we asked 10 Internet shoppers to share their experiences of shopping online and gave you, the chance to ask those questions that you’d always wanted to ask. Is it more important for me to offer free shipping, or just be upfront and transparent with my shipping costs? What is guaranteed to scare you away from a website? What makes you choose to buy from a lesser-known retailer rather than a recognised brand? Do you use PayPal or Google Checkout? Which do you prefer? What attracts you in a website design? What makes you abandon your cart? All these questions and more were answered in this interactive and amusing insight into life as a consumer.