U.S. shoppers less than merry after online glitches

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tom Nenon, a philosophy professor at the University of Memphis, is vexed with his online shopping experience at Best Buy, a sentiment shared by other U.S. Internet shoppers this holiday season.

Just days before Christmas, he received an email from the top U.S. consumer electronics chain informing him that his online order for a 42" Samsung TV will not be fulfilled.

"You can count on me not being a Best Buy customer anymore," Nenon told Reuters on Friday, adding that he was disappointed that the chain tried to make him buy an older model at the same price as a replacement, rather than trying to make amends for its shortcoming.

Best Buy is not the only retailer causing problems online this Christmas. Other brick-and-mortar chains including Target Corp, Wal-Mart Stores and Barneys are struggling to keep up with online demand, an indication of poor execution by retailers during the biggest selling season of the year.

"Since Best Buy's website has always been a stepchild to the stores, it's gotten short shrift, and when they boosted Web demand by essentially matching others' Web prices, they got a bit overwhelmed," said Craig Johnson, president of retail consulting firm Customer Growth Partners.

In an email, Best Buy spokeswoman Lisa Hawks said less than 1 percent of Best Buy customers' online orders during the Thanksgiving weekend and the following week were affected.

"The challenges related to this situation are being addressed. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, and are providing e-Gift Cards to the affected customers," Hawks said.

Other chains apologized for online ordering and fulfillment issues as well.

"We, at Barneys New York, are sincerely apologetic for any inconvenience that occurred while holiday shopping on barneys.com this past week. We are personally reaching out as quickly as possible to every customer who has been affected by this limited, but unfortunate, IT glitch," Barneys posted on Facebook. A spokeswoman for the company did not return phone messages seeking comment on the nature of the problems.

BITING OFF TOO MUCH

In a bid to win shoppers from the likes of Amazon.com, many brick-and-mortar chains including Best Buy decided to offer free shipping this holiday season.

The decision certainly helped sales.

U.S. shoppers spent $30.9 billion toward online purchases during the current holiday season, a 15 percent increase from the year-ago period, according to comScore.

Still, experts think retailers bit off more than they could chew.

Target's website crashed twice in recent months, while some Wal-Mart Stores shoppers had trouble checking out online when its site went down briefly after midnight on Black Friday, the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

"Retailers have been surprised by how successful the holiday season has been online. Negative economic sentiment may have driven more people to the Web in search of better deals," said Jordy Leiser, chief executive of STELLAService, which rates online retailer customer service.

"For some retailers, this was a good thing that turned into a very bad thing once it started affecting the experience of customers online," Leiser said.

Only six of the 25 largest U.S. retailers received top marks for online customer service, including website performance, between this year's November 25 Black Friday and the following Cyber Monday, according to STELLAService.

The result is a large number of disappointed online shoppers like Nenon.

"They don't understand the basics of customer service," Nenon said of Best Buy. "I understand that things can happen. What bothered me is when they made a mistake, then they made no concessions to their customers to try and make up for it."

Nenon's sentiment was echoed by a director of communications at a San Francisco tech company who decided to order his Christmas tree online from Target.com this year.

The shopper, who did not want to be named, received an email from Target saying the tree would not be delivered until very close to Dec 25. To top it off, Target did not let him cancel the order, but advised him to mail the tree back once it arrived.

The tree finally arrived via FedEx on December 21, but that was not the end of his worries.

"As predicted, FedEx dropped it off without knocking. So I had the added joy of getting the FedEx guy to come back and get it. And let me tell you, nothing screams holiday cheer like watching a grumbling FedEx employee schlepping a Christmas tree back into his truck," he told Reuters.

The stories are bad news for retailers, industry-watchers said.

"The three pillars of retail are prices, product and experience. Best Buy sells a commodity product and has to price competitively, so the thing most in their control was experience. And now they've blown that.

"It's another blemish for a management team that is starting to look like they've gone five rounds with Rocky Balboa ... and lost," Trutina Financial Chief Investment Officer Patty Edwards said.

"People have a long memory. And when a retailer ruins Christmas by not delivering little Jimmy's present on time, they've placed themselves on the permanent 'naughty' list."

(Reporting By Dhanya Skariachan and Alistair Barr, editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Online spending stays strong in early December

(Reuters) - Online spending remained strong in early December, a period that usually marks a lull in the U.S. holiday shopping frenzy, comScore said on Sunday.

For the week ending December 9, consumers spent $5.9 billion online, up 15 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to comScore, which tracks Internet activity.

E-commerce spending for the first 39 days of the 2011 holiday season reached $24.6 billion, also up 15 percent versus the corresponding days last year, comScore added.

Earlier in the season, the day that has become known as "Cyber Monday" saw a record $1.25 billion spent online in the United States, up 22 percent from last year. Other early season shopping days were also strong, with "Black Friday" e-commerce sales jumping 26 percent from a year ago.

That sparked concern that sales could weaken later in the season, but so far that has not happened, comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said on Sunday.

"These highlights represent another very positive sign for the holiday shopping season, as the week following 'Cyber Week' often experiences relative softness in spending momentum due to retailers pulling back on their promotional activity," he said.

'GREEN MONDAY'

The latest data suggests a "strong finish" to the holiday shopping period online this year, Fulgoni added.

This coming week is usually the busiest for online retailers, beginning with "Green Monday," a term coined by eBay in 2007 to describe the Monday occurring around the second week of December, which has tended to be among the heaviest online spending days of the year.

Over the past six holiday shopping seasons, "Green Monday" has ranked among the top spending days of the season, ending the year as the top-ranked twice (in 2005 and 2007) and the second-ranked spending day three times (in 2006, 2008 and 2010), according to comScore data.

"Green Monday will rank among the top online spending days of the season, but it's hold on the No. 1 position may be slipping," Fulgoni said.

That may be because "Free Shipping Day" is becoming more important. This is a day when thousands of merchants offer free shipping on one of the last days that allows enough time for packages to be delivered in time for Christmas Eve, December 24.

Free Shipping Day is December 16 this year and these kinds of promotions may be helping to spread online spending throughout the week. In the past, spending was more concentrated earlier in the week, comScore's Fulgoni noted.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

View the original article here

Study: Most people still don't trust online info

NEW YORK (AP) — Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed the rise of social networks and mobile technology that's put the Internet at an arm's reach, day and night — yet a new study has found that people are even more distrustful of the information they find online.

Three-quarters of Internet users find the Web an important source of information, but most people still don't deem the content they see online reliable, according to a report out this week from the University of Southern California.

Such are the deep chasms among Americans' attitudes about the Internet.

In 2010, 15 percent of Internet users said they find only a small portion of online information reliable. That's greater than the 7 percent who were likewise skeptical of the vast majority of information they come across on the Internet.

The mistrust is especially true for social networks. That said, people don't look to social networks for reliability. Rather, they visit the sites to socialize and share photos, updates and videos.

Trust grows when it comes to established media outlets and government websites. In 2010, 79 percent of Internet users said they found content posted on government websites reliable, about the same as in 2003, the first year the center looked at that question.

Jeff Cole, author of the study and director of USC Annenberg School's Center for the Digital Future, said Americans tend to be more trusting of government and big media.

"Other countries are better at distinguishing good information from (the) unreliable," he said. In repressive regimes where media is closely tied to the government, citizens grow adept at filtering truth from propaganda.

When it comes to privacy online, Americans are actually more concerned about businesses than the government, the report found. Nearly half of U.S. Internet users said they are worried about companies watching what they do online, compared with 38 percent who said the same for the government.

Looking ahead to the next decade, Cole expects tablet computers and other touch-screen devices to largely replace personal computers and with them, the clunky computer mouse.

The center has surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. households each year since 1999. The latest report is a look back at the past decade of Americans' Internet use. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

View the original article here

iPhone 4S leads online smartphone buzz

We've already seen?fish wielding tools and?ravens socializing, and now we're seeing another hint to the inevitable world domination by animals. This?bearded dragon has mastered the video game?Ant Crusher on its owner's cellphone. Sure, the game seems perfectly tailored to the … Continue reading →

View the original article here

Report: Most people still don't trust online info

NEW YORK (AP) — Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed the rise of social networks and mobile technology that's put the Internet at an arm's reach, day and night — yet a new study has found that people are even more distrustful of the information they find online.

Three-quarters of Internet users find the Web an important source of information, but most people still don't deem the content they see online reliable, according to a report out this week from the University of Southern California's Center for the Digital Future

Such are the deep chasms among Americans' attitudes about the Internet.

In 2010, 15 percent of Internet users said they find only a small portion of online information reliable. That's greater than the 7 percent who were likewise skeptical of the vast majority of information they come across on the Internet.

The mistrust is especially true for social networks. That said, people don't look to social networks for reliability. Rather, they visit the sites to socialize and share photos, updates and videos.

Trust grows when it comes to established media outlets and government websites. In 2010, 79 percent of Internet users said they found content posted on government websites reliable, about the same as in 2003, the first year the center looked at that question.

Jeff Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future, said Americans tend to be more trusting of government and big media.

"Other countries are better at distinguishing good information from (the) unreliable," he said. In repressive regimes where media is closely tied to the government, citizens grow adept at filtering truth from propaganda.

When it comes to privacy online, Americans are actually more concerned about businesses than the government, the report found. Nearly half of U.S. Internet users said they are worried about companies watching what they do online, compared with 38 percent who said the same for the government.

Looking ahead to the next decade, Cole expects tablet computers and other touch-screen devices to largely replace personal computers and with them, the clunky computer mouse.

The center has surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. households each year since 1999. The latest report is a look back at the past decade of Americans' Internet use. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

View the original article here

25 Computer Security And Online Safety Articles:

01.) 2006 Security Watch

02.) About Encryption and Making Your System Secure

03.) Beware Internet Explorer Plug-Ins

04.) Computer Viruses that Come a Calling

05.) CounterSpy 1

06.) Department of Defense Crackdown on Secuity - 2006

07.) Fighting of Viruses_Advancements in AntiVirus Sofware

Suites

08.) Fighting Spam

09.) Finding the Security Suite that meets your needs

10.) How Many Spyware Items are Infecting my Computer

11.) Name Rank and Social Security Number

12.) Parental Peace of Mind

13.) Phishing for your Identity

14.) Protection You Can Afford

15.) Securing Your Computer System

16.) Spam Buster

17.) Surfing the Web Anonymously

18.) The Advancement of the Keylogger

19.) Trojan Horses

20.) Website Security Rules of the Road

21.) What are Intrusion Detection Systems

22.) What the Heck are Botnets

23.) Who are the Players in the Antivirus Industry

24.) Why Do I Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

25.) ZoneAlarm

25 eZine Marketing Articles:

01.) Why Publish an eZine

02.) Making Money from Selling Advertising Space

03.) Mailing List for Affiliate Marketers

04.) Which One is More Important - Product or Mailing List

05.) Publishing Your eZine - the Pros

06.) Publishing Your eZine - The Cons

07.) Deciding the Nature of Your eZine

08.) Churning out eZine Content

09.) The 3 Best eZine Formats

10.) What You Need to Start an eZine Publication

11.) Converting Every Visitor into Subscriber

12.) Converting Every Web Page into Subscriber Snatching

Devices

13.) Ad Swap Magic

14.) Building Your List with Articles

15.) Building Your List with Paid eZine Advertising

16.) Refrain from Buying Bulk Mails

17.) Weakness in Safe List

18.) Using Free Reports to Build Your List

19.) Landing Page Success Tips

20.) Building Your List with Give Away Ventures

21.) A Popular Autoresponder Marketing Technique

22.) Autoresponder Improvements

23.) Autoresponder Marketing Techniques

24.) Do The Two Step

25.) Improve Your Sales With Autoresponder Improvements

25 Web Design Articles:

01.) 5 Important Rules in Website Design

02.) 5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back

03.) Generating Revenue with Good Planning

04.) Good Design Practices

05.) How To Have Websites Built For You The Cheap Way

06.) The Importance of a Sitemap

07.) Improve Usability of Your Website

08.) Building Your Mailing List with Downloads

09.) Make It Easy To Buy From Your Site

10.) Mistakes To Avoid When Using Web Templates

11.) Pros and Cons of Flash-based Sites

12.) Reducing Load Time Through Image Optimization

13.) Search Engine Friendly Pages

14.) The Importance of A Good Design

15.) Ways To Improve Sales Through Your Website

16.) Web Design Elements You Should Avoid Having on Your

Site

17.) When Is the Right Time to Redesign

18.) Who Is Your Audience

19.) Why Hire A Designer

20.) Why You Should Use Graphic Templates

21.) Is it Easy to Create Our Own Website

22.) Should I Create a Website

23.) The Key to Better Websites-A Navigation

24.) The Key to Better Websites-B Design

25.) Website Customization

25 Basics of Investing Articles:

01.) Avoiding Impulse Spending

02.) Rebates - Reward or Rip Off

03.) Spend Wisely to Save Money

04.) The Budget

05.) Why Should I Make a Budget

06.) About Online Trading

07.) Choosing A Broker

08.) Determine Your Risk Tolerance

09.) Determining Where You Will Invest

10.) Different Types of Bonds

11.) Different Types of Investments

12.) Different Types of Stock

13.) Getting Your Feet Wet

14.) How Much Money Should You Invest

15.) How To Know When To Sell Your Stocks

16.) Investing Basics

17.) Investing for Retirement

18.) Investing Mistakes to Avoid

19.) Investment Strategy

20.) Long Term Investments for the Future

21.) Stabilize Your Current Situation Before You Invest

22.) The Importance of Diversification

23.) Understanding Bonds

24.) What Is Your Investment Style

25.) Why You Should Invest

40 Self Improvement Articles:

01.) Your 7 days program to self-improvement

02.) Why is it important to improve your self

03.) Unlock your self improvement power

04.) Self improvement and success

05.) Motivation, the heart of self improvement

06.) Build your self esteem, a starter guide to self

improvement

07.) Harnessing your attraction power

08.) Unleash your creative thinkink

09.) What Innovation Can Do to Your Life

10.) Adventures in Creative Thinking (creative problem

solving)

11.) The Powers of a Positive Attitude

12.) Your 7 days program to Positive thinking

13.) Power through the people

14.) The Road to Intuition

15.) Creating Effective and Efficient Relationships

16.) 10 ways to empower your communication

17.) Happy as You Want to Be

18.) 10 ways to start taking control

19.) Setting Your Goals - Easier Said, Easily Done

20.) Time management and personal growth

21.) Your 7 days program to Stress management

22.) Your Recommended Daily Allowance for Relaxation

23.) The Way to Wellness It's time to start a Healthy life

24.) How to Become an Ideal Leader

25.) Things You Thought You Knew About Leadership

26.) The Spiritual Challenge of Modern Times

27.) Do Yoda Proud: Meditation 101

28.) 5000 Year-Old Medical Secret Unearthed

29.) Why Coaching is the Way to Go in Team Management

30.) The Game of Life Start your own coaching

31.) Life Mapping

32.) 10 questions you should ask to yourself

33.) Impossible is Just a Word

34.) Life is About Choices and the Decisions We Make

35.) Energy Healing 101 - Pranic, Tantric, and Reiki

36.) Genuine Happiness Comes from Within

37.) Enjoy your life - change your point of view

38.) Inspirational quotes than can improve yourself

39.) Your 5 minutes daily program to Stress management

40.) To Go or Not to Go Herbal, that is the Question?

10 Web Traffic Articles:

01.) 7 Surefire Ways To Increase Your Traffic

02.) Heres Why Paying For Your Traffic Is A Smart Move

03.) How To Generate Traffic Using Only Free Methods

04.) How To Monetize Your Traffic

05.) How To Use A Tell A Friend Script

06.) Search Engine Optimization

07.) Top 5 Ways To Low Cost Traffic

08.) Using Google Adwords For Laser Targeted Traffic

09.) Using Overture Yahoo To Get Website Visitors

10.) Viral Marketing 101

10 Affiliate Marketing Articles:

01.) 3 Things All Affiliate Marketer Need To Survive Online

02.) 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight

03.) A day In The Life Of An Affiliate Markete

04.) Easy Affiliate Profits Using PPC

05.) How To Become A Super Affiliate In Niche Narkets

06.) The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

07.) Using Camtasia Can Increase Your Affiliate Checks

08.) Using Product Recommendations For Profit

09.) Which Affiliate Networks To Look For When Promoting

10.) Which Affiliate Program Should I Choose

10 Google Adsense Marketing Articles:

01.) 3 Reasons Why Adsense Is Essential For Content Sites

02.) 5 Ways To Improve Your Adsense Earnings

03.) Avoid Getting Your Adsense Account Terminated

04.) Don't Get Caught With Adsense Click Fraud

05.) Google Adsense The Easiest Money To Make Online

06.) How To Start Making Money With Adsense

07.) Monetizing Your Website With Adsense

08.) Monetizing Your Website With Adsense.

09.) Using Other Peoples Info To Increase Your Adsense Cash

10.) Who Else Wants To Make Money With Adsense

10 Email Marketing Articles:

01.) 3 Quick And Easy Ways To Build A Profitable Opt-In List

02.) 3 Things To Avoid When Emailing Your List

03.) 4 Crucial Things You Need To Do To Build Your List

04.) 4 Ways To Get Your Opt-In List To Trust You Quickly

05.) 5 Things To Consider When Publishing A Newsletter

06.) 7 Ways To Make Money Using Nothing More Than Your List

07.) How To Build A List Of Eager Subscribers

08.) How To Get Your Subscribers Begging For More

09.) How To Grab Their Attention With A Subject Line

10.) Use Articles To Build Your List

40 Ebay Marketing Articles:

01.) eBay: The First 10 Years

02.) EBay Income Possibilities.

03.) What You Need to Know BEFORE You Get Started on eBay

04.) A Beginner Guide to the Different eBay Auction Types.

05.) Staying Out of Trouble with eBay Listing Policies

06.) Learning the eBay ingo?

07.) 5 Simple Steps to Posting Your First eBay Auction

08.) An eBay Seller Checklist.

09.) What Your eBay Reputation Really Worth?

10.) Is the eBay Customer Always Right?

11.) 10 Sure-fire Ways to Kill Your eBay Business

12.) 10 Steps to Successful Selling on eBay

13.) eBay ?Part Time or Full? How to Decide

14.) How to Think Like an eBay PowerSeller

15.) How to Use eBay to Grow Your Other Businesses

16.) Taming the eBay Search Engine

17.) How to Choose the Right eBay Product Category

18.) eBay Title Writing Tips.

19.) eBay Description Writing Tips.

20.) 10 Tips for Increasing Your eBay Response

21.) An Introduction to Bidding and Buying on eBay.

22.) Your Rights as an eBay Buyer

23.) 10 Ways to Avoid Being Ripped Off on eBay

24.) How Important is Your Buyer Reputation?

25.) How to Check an eBay Seller Reputation (and Why You

Should Do It

26.) Understanding the Different eBay Auction Types

27.) When to uy Now?and When to Bid.

28.) eBay Auction Buyer Tips and Tricks.

29.) When and How to Withdraw Your eBay Bid

30.) You Won that eBay Auction! Now What Do You Do?

31.) The eBay Buyer FAQ.

32.) SafeHarbor; eBay Own Scotland Yard.

33.) Using PayPal on eBay.

34.) How to Get eBay Coupons.

35.) Introducing the New eBay uyer Credit?Program.

36.) Tips and Tricks for Using eBay Search.

37.) When Things Go Wrong: How to Resolve eBay Disputes.

38.) Watch Out for eBay Automobile and Computer Scams.

39.) Tips for Buying Collectibles on eBay.

40.) Taking Advantage of low?eBay Auctions

25 VIRAL MARKETING ARTICLES:

01.) 3 Steps to Find 廮reebies?to Add to Your E-book

02.) 6 Ideas for Viral Marketing

03.) B2B Marketers Do It, Too

04.) E-Books and Affiliate Programs

05.) Folksonomies - a New Viral Marketing Tool

06.) Four Good Reasons to Use Viral E-Books

07.) Getting a 壣uzz?On

08.) Houston Museum of Natural Science Went Viral

09.) How to Get and Use E-Mail Addresses for Viral

Advertising

10.) Humor Turns E-Mail Viral

11.) Start Viral Marketing Campaigns Using E-Books

12.) Successful Forum Viral Marketing

13.) The Many Facets of Viral Marketing

14.) The Subservient Chicken

15.) Using Chat Rooms in Viral Marketing

16.) Using E-Mail to Achieve Objectives

17.) Using File Sharing in Viral Marketing

18.) Using Forums in Viral Marketing

19.) Using Videos in Viral Marketing

20.) Viral Marketing Goes Mobile

21.) Viral Marketing using Forums

22.) What an E-Book Can Do for You

23.) What Works & What Doesn't in Viral Marketing

24.) Why and How E-mail Viral Marketing Works

25.) Your E-Book is your Viral Salesman