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Carole and Michael Middleton of Party Pieces

In 1987, Carole and Michael Middleton started a party supply. With help from their agency, Screen Pages, Party Pieces is now one of England's leading online retailers. If that's not enough, their daughter Kate is engaged to Prince William. Party on!

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Apple Rejects Issuu iPhone App

Friday November 26, 2010

Okay, so which do you want first: The good news or the bad news?

Here's the good news:

What YouTube did for the online video, Copenhagen-based Issuu has done for electronic magazines, catalogs, and newspapers. Like YouTube, Issuu is a hosted service that lets you upload any pdf-based publication for free.

It's a fantastic solution for anyone who wants to publish a product catalog in electronic format. The Issuu reader is so slick that you'll never look at Adobe Reader® in the same way again. Here's an example of how New York boutique, "Thistle & Clover" uses the free version of Issuu to publish The Thistle & Clover Diaries, a quarterly showcase of up-and-coming designers.

In addition to the free service, Issuu also offers a professional version that can be used to create a branded version of the player, without those sometime troublesome links to other content. Even The New York Times uses Issuu to make back issues of its T Magazine available online.

Now for the bad news: Read more...

Online Grocery Sales Spike

Tuesday November 23, 2010

TurkeyEven though the holiday shopping season gets off to its official start later this week, all I can think about right now is food -- or groceries, to be precise. After all, this is Thanksgiving week and for most people in the United States, it's time to roast turkey and bake pumpkin pie. It's time to go grocery shopping!

Which makes me wonder how many people will actually be doing their grocery shopping online this year? Online grocery orders are up 24% over this time last year, reports MyWebGrocer, a leading provider of online grocery Ecommerce services.

Aside from the spike in online sales, MyWebGrocer data shows there is "a split between shoppers who stick to traditional, established brands and private label. When it comes to the stuffing and pie crust, shoppers go for established brands, but choose private label for turkey."

Doing your holiday grocery shopping online is a good way to beat the crowd. But some people prefer the rush that comes from navigating your cart through treacherous terrain and elbowing in to grab the last box of stuffing mix, or to score a carton of eggnog. In my mind, this is the true beginning of the holiday season:

Get your hands off my mushrooms
before I slap you with this celery!

Read more...

Magento's Open House Mystery

Saturday November 20, 2010

Magento Open Source Ecommerce

The other night I attended an open house celebration at Magento's new digs in Culver City. It's only a two-hour drive from San Diego, and I have been wanting to go up for a visit for quite some time. Everyone there was given a name badge, a menu, and a stack of "Magento bucks," to spend on food and drinks.

Their new office in West L.A. is a very hip, industrial-style open space with what looks like a dark, starry sky overhead. It's a great place for a party with a DJ playing from the 2nd floor loft while people mingle below.

In place of what would normally be the lobby, there's an open space where people can gather in small groups or, I imagine, could even be used for company-wide meetings. The bar was serving beer and mixed drinks like "Magento Martinis" and Mojitos and there were a few pillars scattered about which were just the right size to hold your drink as you talk to someone, or gaze into their eyes, as the case may be. But I imagine that these pillars could also be used as demo stations. In fact, there's a planning wall in the back with stuff pinned all over it that looks like a work-in-progress for the upcoming IMAGINE eCommerce Worldwide Conference. Then beyond that are are some individual work spaces with low, white walls cut at irregular angles that make you feel as if you're walking through an ice cavern. (You might think of them as "ice cubicles.") Then along the side are some more traditional, but open offices.

But before we go any further, here's a little background for those not familiar with Magento. Read more...

Google Serves Souped-Up Fashion at Boutiques.com

Thursday November 18, 2010

Boutiques.com is a very smart site, but not only in the fashion sense.  As you would expect from Google, Boutiques.com is a souped-up shopping engine, but with a wealth of style and taste.

Here's the basic recipe:

  1. Start with some nice, fresh produce from the Google garden of search algorithms.
  2. Mix in a generous helping of curated content from a team of "stylemaker" designers, celebrities and bloggers.
  3. Add some online retailers and season to taste with your own preferences.
  4. Finally, sprinkle some social networking over the top and serve.

    This site will feed a virtual army of hungry fashionistas and wannabes.

Before I knew it, I had spent hours in there and had even created my own boutique.  So now that Boutiques.com knows all about my loves and hates regarding fashion, (no likes and dislikes here) it can make intelligent recommendations based upon my preferences. Read more...

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