SmallBusinessNewz

Daily Deals: Groupon Down, LivingSocial Up, Facebook Out

The daily deals space is getting quite interesting, and is one that local businesses ought to pay attention to.   For one, Facebook announced that it is shutting down its Deals service after four months. They are, however, keeping check-in deals, after changing the way Facebook Places works. 

Members Of Gen Y Identified As Loyal Shoppers

It's common enough for people's earning power to increase as they age, and as a result, older individuals can make better consumers.  Have a care for the opinions of young people, though, as new Hitwise data suggests that they can be loyal customers.

Hitwise Finds Facebook Users Like Broadcast Media

Small business owners who are wondering how best to attract the attention of Facebook users might want to favor video and images over lots and lots of text.  Fresh Hitwise data shows that Facebook users prefer broadcast media over print sources when it comes to news, at least.

Social Media Was Big for Retailers for the Holidays

The holidays really showed just how big of an impact social media is having on businesses, retailers in particular. Competitive intelligence agency Experian Hitwise is sharing some data it collected regarding the impact of traffic sources to retail sites. Social networking has become th most popular activity online and because of that, visits to the retail category represented 13% of all US Internet visits in December, according to the firm.

Holiday Sales Opportunities Still Abound

It's always tempting to take a breather after Christmas.  It's even possible that you won't want to touch a computer (your humble author spent most of his holiday break rubbing dogs' bellies, instead).  But online retailers may still be able to do a lot of business over the next few days.

Hitwise Recommends Marketers Focus On Brevity, Relevancy

There are many facts that small business owners have to accept, and one of them is that the average small business's site will never attract people the way something like Google or Facebook does.  Still, some details related to how big sites are doing better than ever may prove helpful.

People are Searching for Coupons. Can They Find Yours?

Experian Hitwise has shared some interesting findings about how searches aid offline purchases. The research firm pointed to this survey from the NRF, which Doug covered here. That survey found that the average shopper had completed 46.7 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December.

Hitwise Outlines Holiday Traffic Trends

Small business owners who are trying to predict when their sites will receive the most holiday traffic have received a little help from Hitwise.  The firm released some details yesterday about holiday traffic trends - including how owners can try to manipulate them.

Time to Strongly Consider Going the Coupon Route

Experian Marketing Services released data from its coupon report: Benchmark Data and Analysis for Email Marketers. Among their findings, was that 80% of online coupon mailings garnered higher transaction-to-click rates and transaction rates than non-coupon campaigns. In other words, if you are using email marketing, you may want to seriously consider going the coupon route.

Hitwise Declares "Hunt Is On" For Discounts

More evidence has surfaced to indicate that small business owners who want searchers to wind up at their sites should consider breaking out terms like "free shipping" and "coupon."  Hitwise took a look at how searches for these terms tend to increase dramatically around the holidays.