One thing I’ve found when running an online store is to give a little and not be greedy. Customers love a free gift, an unexpected product, sampler, or a simple ‘thank you’.

Another thing I notice is that many stores look at the Christmas sales period as the goal, neglecting New Year and the post Christmas holiday period.

There is plenty of hype surrounding online shopping, but increasingly I see online stores forgetting their roots, and neglecting the strengths they built their businesses on.

Come on people. It’s simple stuff.

With very little fanfare Harvey Norman launched their online store today.

So has Harvey Norman delivered a competitive proposition to the market and reconciled it’s traditional sales model, traditional costs and it’s need to drive customers in-store.

The first week of the Christmas online sales surge has begun. This should be the most productive 6 weeks on your store’s sales calendar, if it’s not, here’s some quick tips to help take advantage of the increase in online retail spend from early November to mid December.

Too often we see affiliates who are adding very little value to online stores, and in some cases actually cause harm to a store’s image.

How much value do your affiliates actually add? Are they creating traffic which you are not already reaching?

One of my stores was recently defrauded of $400. My disappointment grew when I was forced to deal with a series of organisations and individuals who simply didn’t want to help get a dangerous and sneaky criminal off the streets.

The recent investment in group buying systems was bound to trigger a spike in the deployment of similar sites. But is anyone else getting bombarded with Daily Deals which are already starting to lose their gloss?

Media investment in online commerce continues as Ellerston Capital, a Consolidated Press investment vehicle, sees the Packer Empire and media businesses continue to take up opportunities in online retail business with a stake in DealsDirect.com.au estimated to be worth $10 million (by the AFR).

Harvey Norman have announced a partnership with eDeal Busters to operate www.harveynormanbigbuys.com.au, with currently listed items including Cosmetics, Toys & Games and Household items.

I’m going to assume that the site is still in beta since everything is sold out and the URL redirects to a cloud.net sandbox…but if this is what Harvey Norman intend to go with I’m disappointed with the strategy, the implementation and can only ponder what could have been.

Harvey Normans legacy retail model is simply not a good fit for its proposed online venture, but is it dead in the water before it floats? Currently Yes, but it doesn’t have to be that way.