Kogan’s Australian head office will manage the Kentucky-based warehouse and products manufactured in China will be shipped directly to the US.

Ruslan Kogan founder and CEO said the company is in the final stages of opening the US branch after three years of growth in Australia.

He said the US market is 20 times bigger than the Australian market and shoppers purchase online there, which directly fits with Kogan’s direct online sales model.

“Our buying power will increase and products will become cheaper for everyone especially our Australian customers who will then benefit.”

Read the full article at CRN

These International shoppers can now search, browse and purchase over 600,000 quality discount products, all priced in local currency, from the company’s website: http://www.overstock.com.

“International markets are underserved by online retail,” said Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com chairman and CEO. “With the weakness of the dollar the time has never been better for international customers to buy bargain American goods, creating a great opportunity for us.”

The site geolocates international visitors and displays pricing in their local currency, automatically adjusted to daily fluctuations in exchange rates. Overstock.com launched its international service in August 2008, and International shoppers can conveniently find quality brand-name items in 10 major categories.

Since its go-international announcement in May 2008, Overstock.com has seen a substantial increase in international traffic on site and international sales.

“With the high interest and volume of international customers visiting our site, we want to continue to give them an opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of shopping Overstock.com,” added Byrne. “We plan to continue our expansion into other countries as we roll this business forward over the next several years.”

MySpace, a unit of media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, said it was cutting payrolls “as part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business”.

The restructuring plan affects all US divisions of the company and the round of job cuts will lower the domestic workforce to 1,000 employees, it said in a statement.

“Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,” said Owen Van Natta, MySpace chief executive.

“I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centred on our user and our product.”

Van Natta, who was named MySpace CEO in April, was a chief revenue officer and vice president of operations for Facebook when he resigned from the rival company in early 2008.

Facebook’s popularity has soared amid a surge in social networking in the United States.

Facebook was the top social networking site when ranked by total minutes for the month of April, showing a gain of 700 per cent from a year earlier, according to a recent study by Nielsen Online.

MySpace was in second place, with its total minutes declining from 7.3 billion in April 2008 to 5.0 billion in April 2009.

- AFP/AAP

“The State Of Retailing Online 2009: Marketing Report,” the first of a three-part series of reports based on the study, was released in conjunction with Shop.org’s Online Marketing Workshop in Scottsdale, AZ.

While Internet sales continue to outpace traditional retail sales, companies are realistic about current challenges. According to the survey, half of respondents (54%) expect overall retail growth to slow during the next 12 months and 57 percent acknowledge the economic slowdown is hurting their company’s bottom line. That said, companies are bullish about web operations: four out of five retailers think the web is better suited than other channels to withstand the recession and one-third say the downturn has enabled them to capture greater market share. Illustrating the resilience of the web, retailers report that their conversion rates continue to hover between 3 percent and 3.5 percent as they have for years.

“Retailers everywhere are trying to get their arms around a pullback in consumer spending, and online retailers are no exception,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. “Online retailers are trying to weather this economic storm by doing more with less, making smart spending decisions, and leveraging effective, affordable tactics like email to grow their businesses.”

Under pressure from the economy, nearly one-third of companies (30%) are spending less than originally planned on web retail operations this year. Among retailers cutting costs, most (88%) will scale back hiring and staffing plans and slightly more than half (56%) will spend less on search. Others see the economy as an opportunity to increase market share and are charging ahead with new initiatives. Almost half of retailers surveyed (46%) have no plans to cut back original budgets and will spend as planned on their web business, while one in four retailers (24%) will spend more on their online business than originally planned. Companies planning to spend more will increase investments in several areas, including search (80% of respondents), email (65%), and social marketing (60%).

Despite the focus on customer retention, many retailers — primarily multichannel retailers — say their efforts at customer acquisition will be higher this year than last year. But for those retailers that operate primarily online, customer retention (which has historically been a distant second goal for this group) is now critical.

According to the survey, a majority of retailers (88%) list email as a high priority for the year, largely to retain customers. Almost three-fourths of retailers (71%) plan to send segmented emails to customers based on stated preferences or purchase data. In addition, more than half will use emails that highlight new product availability (55%), extend invitations to participate in surveys or garner customer feedback (55%), and feature online-only promotions (53%).

“Because consumers continue to spend online, interactive marketing spend to drive web sales remains a lucrative investment,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research principal analyst and author of the report. “While other retail channels struggle, eCommerce managers have a unique opportunity to drive more sales and test different tactics that resonate with consumers.”

“The State Of Retailing Online 2009: Marketing Report” is currently available to Shop.org members and can also be purchased directly at www.shop.org/soro. Forrester clients will be able to access the report directly on www.forrester.com as part of their subscription service starting on June 5, 2009.

“The State Of Retailing Online 2009: Merchandising Report,” which will examine tactics to improve conversion rates and customer experience optimization investments and plans, will be released in July at Shop.org’s Online Merchandising Workshop. Additionally, “The State Of Retailing Online 2009: Profitability Report,” which will explore company organization, sales and metrics, operations and fulfillment, and expansion, will be released at Shop.org’s Annual Summit in September.

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, consumer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 25 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, is the world’s leading membership community for digital retail. Founded in 1996, Shop.org’s 700 members include the 10 largest retailers in the U.S. and more than 60 percent of the Internet Retailer Top 100 E-Retailers. It’s where the best retail minds come together to gain the insight, knowledge and intelligence to make smarter, more informed decisions in the evolving world of the Internet and multichannel retailing. Shop.org programs and activities include benchmarking research, events and networking communities.