Though Fulgoni said that it was still uncertain whether the stimulus bill would result in a significant bump for e-commerce, he was positive.

“If you look back on what happened in ’08 [after the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, signed by then-President Bush] there was a bump in e-commerce,” he said. “But the impact was short-lived. It will depend on a number of factors, like unemployment, the price of gas, and whether we are out of the stock market meltdown.”

The National Retail Federation also issued a statement, which said the bill doesn’t go far enough.

“While these and other individual tax provisions will provide stimulus, this mas-sive measure still fails to provide the direct and targeted tax relief needed to stimulate consumer spending,” said Steve Pfister, SVP for government relations at the NRF, in a statement. “With consumer spending rep-resenting two-thirds of GDP and consumer confidence at the lowest level since records have been kept, it is difficult if not impos-sible to foresee an improvement to overall economic growth until consumers regain confidence and resume spending.”

Byrne said one reason why e-commerce is better equipped to handle a recession is that more people use comparison shopping sites today than in the past, and these sites often then lead them to an e-commerce site.

Fulgoni agrees with that sentiment. “It is becoming very apparent” that consumers are using the Internet more and more to make purchasing decisions, he noted.

Because of this, Fulgoni said it is more important for marketers to engage consum-ers through online channels.

“Savvy marketers really need to consider the Internet a key part of their commu-

nications programs with consumers,” he said. “They should be asking themselves, ‘Am I properly allocating my marketing and advertising budgets?’ I think there are pretty dramatic gains that can be made from shifting [marketing and ad budgets] from traditional media to the online channel.”

The slowing of the e-commerce sector in the fourth quarter of 2008 also coincides with a slight downturn in satisfaction with e-commerce sites, according to a survey released by the University of Michigan and ForeSee Results.

The report found that satisfaction with the e-commerce sector dropped 2% to 80 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) 100-point scale in the fourth quarter. The drop halts a three-year climb, but satisfaction with the e-commerce sector still out performs most other service sectors of the economy.

Much of the drop is due to satisfaction with the online brokerage industry plum-meting 6.3% to 74, and is the largely respon-sible for the 2% dip in satisfaction for the overall e-commerce sector.

“Despite the drop in satisfaction, e-com-merce is still one of the best performing ser-vice sectors of the economy in all of ACSI, but it is far from immune to the challenging economic conditions,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results.

Freed said online brokerage sites like TD Ameritrade and E-Trade “got hit hard” as smaller investors had less money to invest, while brokers that serve larger investors, like Charles Schwab, were not hit as hard.

Overall, although it is growing at a slower rate, e-commerce is still a popular channel, Freed said.

“I think it’s an industry that is in very, very good shape,” he said. “It’s a great alter-native to traditional channels.”

What do you do when you have a good product and a loyal audience? You give them a simple, straightforward offer. That’s exactly what Spring Hill Nurseries did with this big, six- by 11.5-inch enve-lope package.

Ferns are popular among gardeners because they grow in moist or shady areas of the garden where few other plants will grow. They blend with any kind of plant and provide beautiful color and texture where it’s needed most.

I’m a customer of Spring Hill Nurseries, and I’ve purchased ferns from it before, so I’m on their list and they know I like ferns. So, given all this, does it need to clobber me over the head with fern details? No. It just needs to catch me at the right time with the right offer.

The good work starts on the outer envelope with a big photo of their ferns. The teaser copy is dead simple: “Ferns. Over 50% OFF!” Not clever, but it doesn’t need to be.

The back of the envelope shows the six types of ferns offered with the headline “Beautify any shady spot instantly and save over 50%!”

Inside, Spring Hill uses smart produc-tion techniques to create a wide, personal-ized letter and order form. The two pieces are printed on one 11- by 17-inch sheet, then cut apart.

This lets Spring Hill use the headline, “Delicate, graceful, elegant and soothing are just some of the words that describe our Hardy Fern Collection, Mr. Rieck.”

The package also includes a small gate-fold brochure. Large photos, big type, and simple copy help the reader visualize the ferns in his or her own garden. The offer is everywhere you look.

This is not what you would call an “award-winning” direct mail package. There’s little of what most people would consider clever copy or design. But Spring Hill is a no-nonsense seller of flowers and plants. Their customers don’t want clever advertising, they want beautiful gardens and good deals. So, the company’s focus is always on the promise of carefree beauty and dollar savings.

One nice technique demonstrates this straightforward marketing approach. On the back of the business reply envelope, an area most mailers leave blank, they offer to send a free catalog to two friends if you supply their name and address. Clever? No. Smart? You bet.

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“For brands that have a regular budget for search spending with us, there is an addi-tional monthly fee flat fee determined by the value of their branded keyword terms,” said Kristen Morquecho, director of corporate communications for Yahoo. “The cost of terms can vary in value.”

“Yahoo is looking to innovate and offer advertisers and consumers something they’re not getting from Google, which is exactly what they need to do,” said Nate Elliott, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

When asked about the impact of the launch on competitive marketplace, both Google and Microsoft suggested that they were pursuing similar technology.

Google had no official comment on the news, but referred DMNews to a November 17, 2008 blog post that said, “…over the next few months, you’ll see us continuing to experiment with new ads in new places.”

Meanwhile, James Colborn, director of product marketing at Microsoft Advertising, said, “At Microsoft we believe that image ads are a key and integral part of a customer’s media mix. Over the coming months, we will launch similar technology.”

According to ComScore, Yahoo’s search engine market share was up .5%, to 21%, between December 2008 and January 2009. Google was down .5% to 63% during the same period.

However, Mayer was cautious. “It’s chal-lenging to quantify this program impacting our market share,” he said.

Reid Spice, director of search media strat-egy at iCrossing, said he believes quite a few of the agency’s clients would at least be interested in testing these types of ads.

“In this economic climate, our clients are interested in testing anything that would potentially improve [search] performance. This definitely falls into that bucket,” he said, calling the move a “bold step forward.”

Elliott is more skeptical. He compared the new Yahoo technology to Branded Response enhanced listings, which were launched by Ask Jeeves in 2001.

“What you had was a user clicking because it caught the user’s attention, even though it might not be exactly what they were looking for,” he said. “Click-through rates are interesting, but advertisers are primarily interested in the ROI.”

But Elliott went on to say that if this proved to be cost efficient, brands may choose to better diversify their search bud-get. “No one needs to convince [brands like] Coke to advertise on Yahoo, but getting a bigger share of the search budget is key [for Yahoo].”