Well, we’ve just about (but not quite!) recovered from the first ChannelAdvisor Insite event of 2007 which took place yesterday in central London.

Over 30 UK online retailers joined ChannelAdvisor and Google (who were Platinum Sponsors) for an information-packed day of presentations, discussions and workshops about the current opportunities for online retailers in the UK.

The day started with a look at recent UK eCommerce Trends followed by an introduction to the fundamentals drivers of success on marketplaces (such as eBay and Amazon Merchants@), shopping comparison websites and paid search campaigns.

After lunch the group then split into two ’streams’ to dive into some more advanced strategies for optimising each of these channels in preparation for the rapidly-approaching Q4 busy season. Attendees also got the opportunity to hear first-hand from Aidan O’Curry and Richard Keelty from Google Europe about how Google Checkout and Google Product Search can drive more sales and reduce costs for online retailers.

A big thanks to our sponsors: Google (Platinum), PayPal (Gold), Cybersource (Gold) and FOEB (Silver) without whom the Insite series of events wouldn’t be able to happen. We look forward to the next events up in Manchester on the 5th September, and then on to Glasgow, Birmingham and finally Dublin.

If you were at the event yesterday - thanks for coming - we’d love to hear your comments!

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If eBay’s MissionFish program is not today part of your eBay strategy then I encourage you to join Kristin Cunningham (General Manager, eBay Giving Works) and David Yaskulka (Vice President, Product Marketing, Kompolt) next week to learn how it can help you differentiate your retail brand, attract new customers, and improve customer loyalty by giving back to causes important to you and your market.

Kristin and David will be joined next Wednesday, August 16th, at 2 p.m. EST by special guest Elizabeth Bennett of Africa Direct, a Platinum PowerSeller and winner of the 2007 eBay Community Hall of Fame award.

Click here to register for the webinar.

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Back by popular demand, we’re excited to announce the expanded 2007 series of ‘ChannelAdvisor Insite‘ conferences, taking place in cities all over the UK and Ireland this summer.

If you’re an online retailer, planning your strategy for Q4 and beyond, then take a day away from the distractions of the office, and come to one of these highly informative one-day events.

Join ChannelAdvisor and industry experts, and your peers as we focus on some of the most effective strategies and techniques for boosting sales and improving the profitability of your online business. We will cover topics such as eBay, Amazon Seller Central, Google Checkout, PayPal Express Checkout, Paid Search Marketing and Shopping Comparison engines and, with a combination of presentations and workshops, equip you with the tools required to go back to your business and make an immediate impact.

This summer we shall be visiting a total of six cities with the Insite event - starting in Bristol on the 16th August, then London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and finally Dublin in mid-October.

And, thanks to generous sponsorship by Google (Gold), Cybersource and the FOEB (Silver), we are able to keep the cost to a minimum - only £49 + VAT per person for a full 8-hour day of learning! I think you’ll agree this represents tremendous value-for-money - in fact, as we’re limiting places to 25 delegates per event, we expect all six events to be oversubscribed. So if you’re interested in taking your online business to the next level this Christmas, be sure to sign up straight away and reserve your place.

Here’s a link to the official Insite website where you can see more details on the agenda and register to attend. Hey, why not bring someone else from your company as well so you can bounce ideas off each other during the day and take action when you’re back in the office?

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MarketingSherpa covered an interesting new study by ScanAlert yesterday indicating that comparison shopping tools are giving buyers too many options (I knew it …), prolonging the purchasing decision from an average of 19 hours just two years ago to now over 34 hours.

They recommend four tips to reducing this conversion window and building awareness:

1. Add “About Us” blurbs to every conceivable entry point
2. Grab emails early on — before the shopping cart
3. Content: give more product info than the competition does
4. Exclusive here-only bonuses

A ChannelAdvisor Store that does a particularly good job at grabbing email addresses early is GolfEtail — front and center is a giveaway (for which you have to register) and on the right of the banner buyers can sign-up for exclusive email-only deals.

Now hurry up and shop already.

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A little-used customization feature of the ChannelAdvisor eCommerce store is the Add To Cart button. Even one of my new favorite CA Stores, Cozykid in the U.K., is using the default image on their product detail pages. The GetElastic blog recently posted 107 shopping cart icons from top online retailers (in addition to a few good tips on design and usability).

It’s pretty easy to replicate one of these buttons (tweak it to your needs) and use it in your ChannelAdvisor Store. Simply go to “Store > Store Design Center > Customize Theme > Buttons & Icons” and then point to your new image.

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