By Bryan Yurcan: These days, even a slight growth in the e-commerce sector is cause for celebration. Online sales inched up slightly by 2% in January, com-pared to a year ago, according to a ComScore report released last week. In December 2008, online sales were down 3% compared to the previous year.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed into law on February 17 with the goal of stimulating the economy, also provides some online retailers with a glimmer of hope.

The stimulus bill includes a $400 tax credit for individual taxpayers, as well as tax credits for those buy-ing new homes and automobiles. But there is controversy regard-ing how the online retail channel should interpret the news.

“Discretionary spending is still down vs. a year ago, but I view this growth as a positive sign for the e-commerce sector,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of ComScore.

According to ComScore, online sales totaled $10.9 billion in Janu-

By Mary Elizabeth Hurn: In the first major change to its search technology since Carol Bartz took the helm as CEO last month, Yahoo is offering advertis-ers the ability to run images and video alongside text in paid search results. The program, called Rich Ads in Search, is currently being offered to brands by invitation only and is set to roll out in the next few months. It was announced in a blog entry February 19.

“Since Yahoo has been experi-encing increased demand from

ary. Among the categories that grew the most were sports and fit-ness, up 42% vs. a year ago; books and magazines, up 37%; and home, garden and furniture, up 14%.

Conversely, computer software, down 58%; music, movies and vid-eos, down 22%; and office sup-plies, down 20%; did not fare as well in January.

However, the music, movies and videos category did not include digital downloads, which presum-ably would have raised that cat-egory significantly.

Though e-commerce is slow-ing, Fulgoni noted that it is still in much better shape than its bricks-and-mortar retail counterpart and other sectors of the economy.

“It may never go back to the huge growth [of several years ago], but it is still gaining market share,” he said.

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Over-stock.com, was positive about the slight growth, but has muted expec-tations going forward.

“We are probably at the new equilibrium,” he said. “I don’t see [e-commerce sales] making a huge rebound anytime soon.”

Byrne added tha t i t was “unlikely” that the stimulus bill would provide a bump in e-com-merce sales.

“People are more likely to pay down debt and put cash under their mattress,” he said.

February 23, 2009 www.dmnews.com

Hope springs for e-commerce USPS sets 30% Move Update error threshold

dmne

ws.

com How did an

X-Files DVD campaign succeed with the latest rich media technology? Mary Hurn finds out in our “Conference Call” online exclusive

By Bryan Yurcan: With a May 11 deadline loom-ing to improve their bulk mailing lists or face fines, mailers now can receive reports on how well their mail is performing through the US Postal Service.

Beginning May 11, 2009, a mail-ing with a 30% or more error rate for Move Update requirements will no longer qualify for automa-tion discounts.

“The Postal Service has had three months in which to glean data to be used to establish a fair and realistic tolerance threshold for non-compliance with the new requirements,” the USPS said in a statement sent to DMNews when clarifying the 30% rate.

For a Standard Mail mailing, this means that every piece in the mail-ing will be charged an additional 7 cents. For a First-Class Mail mail-ing, this means that every piece in the mailing will be charged at the single-piece rate of 44 cents.

The new requirements, which became effective November 23, require businesses to update their bulk-mailing lists every 95 days. Previously, only First-Class Mail was subject to Move Update stan-dards, and those lists had to be updated every 185 days.

USPS said it is also providing customers with feedback on their mailings via the reports. l

New Yahoo tool aims to boost its market share

PLUS FTC backs self-regulation for BT P3 | New leaders at two database firms P6 | Financial mail drop analyzed P7

‘E-commerce’ continued on page 22

advertisers for performance-driven offerings, we’ve been working with them to aggressively launch or expand our offerings,” said Tim Mayer, VP of search monetization and distribution at Yahoo, in an e-mail to DMNews. “Rich Ads in Search is an example of this.”

The expandable video ads are currently being used by big brands including Pepsi, Pedigree, SoBe, and Esurance on trademarked keywords in a standalone ad unit, according to Yahoo.

‘Yahoo’ continued on page 22

MORE INSIDE

The Work,p15

Axe

2005 2006 2007 2008

+24%

$82B

+24%

$102B

+21%

$123B

+6%

$130B

Online consumer dollar sales growth, excluding auctions, autos and travel

Consumer online sales spend slowing

Source: ComScore

11Enfatico’s Torrence Boone works to break through silos

Enfatico’s Torrence Boone works to break through silos

4

A social media push for The North Face’s eco-friendly jacket

Fisher-Price is among the marketers looking to reach moms online

12