A recent PWC report into online commerce, quoting Hitwise figures, generated a few surprises.

One eye widener was the explosion of online purchases conducted on mobile devices, and the inescapable need to accommodate smart phones as part of the sales process.

The Australian newspaper reported during the week that Harvey Norman were disappointed with the performance of their online entity, launched in November 2011, and had revised their sales targets down by 60%–80%.

But isn’t it a little early to throw in the towel?

I recently reviewed the Adwords strategy for a large online store and found that they could spend less and gain more. Aligning the business strategy with all business units is critical to business success, and advertising in no exception.

The marketing team at Woolies deserve big raps. Instead of posting yet another billboard spouting cheaper prices they have chosen to truley differentiate themselves by offering products and ordering via virtual stores and mobile phones.

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.