”A pound invested online is far more effective than one spent offline” say Martha Lane Fox - Read my take on Martha’s comment on the Market Sentinel blog.

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Read my interview with Jamie Murray Wells founder of Glasses Direct on Drapers.

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Amazon has been with many of us since our internet lives began.

The brand is a constant. Always reliable, always selling books cheaper than Waterstone’s and generally always there.

By there, I mean our email inboxes. Amazon likes to keep in touch.

We invite them to keep in touch by buying from them, and agreeing to receive emails.

No matter how irrelevant or random we may find the product suggestions many of us still stay subscribed – but why?

Because as a brand Amazon is a constant and has earned the right to bombard with offers, discounts and (sometimes) miscalculated suggestions to our tastes.

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Buying UGG boots online? Read my Drapers blog first

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Visit the Glasses Direct blog to see my blog post ‘Will you join Glasses Direct’s online fan base?’.

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Read my article ‘The future challenges of online retail - delivery’ on E-Consultancy.

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Internet business has changed to meet the demands and expectations of the growing numbers of online shoppers, shifting their pounds from the high street to the internet.

But with many high street stores now offering the same prices as their online counterparts, the internet is no longer always cheaper.

Let’s take a look at how online stores can launch an offline presence to continue the trend of growing numbers of online shoppers, now that price is no longer a stark differentiator.

Web to high street
Taking a successful online operation to the high street seems to be a key move for fashion websites. Other sectors must follow surely?

Recently at the Drapers Online Fashion Retailing Conference Nick Robertson of ASOS said he would consider launching a flagship store for the online brand.

Fashion website Lipsy is too opening a store in London’s Brent Cross.

Old media partnerships
Old media brands and online retailers partnering – like OK! Magazine and Glasses Direct - is something we’re definitely going to see a lot more of in the future.

It gives the online retailer the ability to capture an audience offline.

Interactive TV
This is definitely an area with a lot of potential for online stores that hit the demographic of TV shoppers.

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This week on my Drapers blog you can read my views on whether newspapers are taking online fashion revenue seriously.

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Self styled commercially focused search engine marketing agency Maven Metrics was set up last year by Lucie Follet.

I caught up with Lucie to get her thoughts on the search marketing industry, why she has set up automotive parts websites and her plans for new bottled water company Sip’s online marketing campaign.

Maven Metrics is described as being commercially focused. How do you think this approach makes Maven Metrics different to other search marketing agencies?

The main difference with us is that we have worked in other, highly commercial and competitive environments – specifically non-marketing, ‘non meedja’ industries. In my own case, I worked in Investment Banking as a Japan equity sales/analyst until 2002 and also operate my own niche websites which I use as a test bed for hands-on work for any tips or advice I find in blogs and forums.

This combination of being commercial and hands-on is unusual and not always found in larger agencies. It’s not uncommon to find individuals working in SEO and especially web analytics who are so hung up on terms such as ‘conversion rate’ or ‘measuring engagement’ or the anthropological nature of blog networks that they have forgotten the commercial purpose to the website and how this relates to the bottom line – it has become totally abstract and a mere blip on an excel sheet.

I personally find this quite alarming.

Many search marketing agencies are becoming full service, or becoming part of media agencies. Do you think there will be demand for specialist search agencies? Where are you taking Maven Metrics?

Arguably, it could well be said that such large behemoths pose a very real threat to smaller, specialist search agencies as they have the name and client base to pull them through, regardless of the quality of their work and leave smaller agencies to mop up what little there is left.

For example, I am always suspicious when I hear of large, well known pr agencies launching ‘digital marketing arms’ yet when you cast an objective eye over their own websites, you often find all manner of things which make you wonder whether they can actually ‘walk the walk’, (absent or duplicate meta tags, non-search engine friendly flash etc.) There’s no doubt that they perceive online to be nothing more than a convenient money-spinner and they benefit from their clients’ ignorance in all things online.

Realistically, we can’t change that and have to work double-hard to get the business. We get most of our business through word of mouth referrals and, perhaps surprisingly, we do receive unsolicited approaches from companies who have found their experience with larger agencies to be unsatisfying, both in terms of lack of personal attention but also on value for money.

It has to be said, though, most companies are not this enlightened or have too many layers of internal politics to be able to make such a choice and will plump for what they consider to be the ‘safe’ option – which is not always the case.

Tell me more about your niche automotive websites.

I import car parts from Germany and operate several niche automotive sites including one for Volkswagen and Audi water pumps. This one in particular was set up as an arbitrage site to take advantage of perceived flaws in Original Equipment (OE) parts which are, on the whole, manufactured in China.

The obvious benefit to me in doing this – aside from an additional income stream – is to keep my hand well and truly on the commercial pulse.  For example, at present, my North American sales have dropped considerably on a YOY basis on account of the unfavourable exchange rate and as I am not importing huge quantities and cannot forward fix my rate, I am having to raise my prices. So I am more than sympathetic to those retailers who are trying to sell into the
US – it’s not easy in such price-sensitive times – and it means that you have to work extra hard to build up online coverage.

You’re doing the online marketing for Sip water. What are the advantages of marketing an up and coming brand online?

Sip is a great company to be involved with, mainly for the fact that the founders are both incredibly open to the idea of using SEO and web analytics and are always hungry to learn more.

Not only is this attitude extremely refreshing, but it means that it is entirely possible to work in sync with the sip PR dept so that at all times, we can monitor just exactly how useful, say, a particular article in a particular magazine or event sponsorship has been in terms of visits to the site. This approach is ideal and is one I would highly recommend to others.

What is the online marketing focus for Sip? Is it driving brand conversation across the web or driving traffic to Sip’s website?

At present, the sip site is not selling online – yet.

This means that our task at this point is twofold – a/increasing awareness amongst potential distributors both UK and ex-UK and pushing them to the optimised, multilingual pages on the sip site and b/using the optimised blog to highlight offline press coverage we have achieved to get people to find out more about the brand. It is working – since the site’s launch in February, unique visitors to both the site and blog have increased on a month on month basis.

What exciting projects are on the horizon for Maven Metrics?

In addition to working with new clients, we are also building up our preparation to launch a new site which will act as a go-between for PR firms representing brands and consumers.

Our experience of working with PR firms, especially in the health, beauty and lifestyle sectors, has shown us that there is still very little knowledge and appetite within PR co’s for proactively targeting consumers online, other than to send out the, hopeful press release and sample to a relatively short list of ‘themed’ blogs.  Given the current economic outlook, this will become increasingly more important.

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Maven Metrics

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Buying glasses from a high street optician is a thing of the past for me, I always buy online. If you haven’t yet made the switch here are ten top reasons why you should buy from Glasses Direct!

1. Price
Why pay high street optician prices when you can get glasses for as little as £15? Designer glasses can cost hundreds of pounds, but start from £45 on Glasses Direct.

2. Choice
There’s a pair of glasses to suit EVERYONE on Glasses Direct. There’s never been so much choice.

3. Leisure
You can take all of the time you need to decide which pair of glasses is right for you. Browse in the comfort of your own home, rather than a crowded high street store.

4. Try them on virtually
Did you know you can try on your glasses virtually? Upload a photo and the snazzy software on the Glasses Direct website will show you how you will look with any glasses you decide to ‘try on’.

5. Try them on at home
As well as trying them on virtually Glasses Direct allows you to try on a pair at home for FREE!

6. Money back guarantee
If you’re not entirely happy with your delivered glasses, send them back, get a refund and order a replacement.

7. Fashion
At these low prices you can afford for your glasses to become a fashion accessory. You can have a different pair for every day of the week to go with all your outfits.

8. Support Entrepreneurship
Glasses Direct founder James Murray Wells is a young entrepreneur who started the company with his student loan.  By supporting the company you are supporting entrepreneurship amongst the young.

9. Charity
For every pair of glasses from the Colours range that is sold, Glasses Direct donates £1 to Orbis, the charity committed to bringing sight-saving care to the developing world.

10. Because I do
How many more reasons do you need?

Visit Glasses Direct, and the Glasses Direct blog to check out my article ‘summer trends according to fashion bloggers’

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Read my articles on the Drapers Maximising Revenue Through Online Fashion Retailing conference.

‘Being relevant’.

‘Search engine traffic’.

‘Trust’.

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Today was the Drapers online fashion conference at the Radisson Edwardian hotel in Mayfair.

The conference theatre was taken over by independent fashion stores interested in getting online, established online retailers and the big players.

As an online marketer having worked on fashion websites, one of the most surprising comments I heard was from Nick Robertson of ASOS who said “nobody searches for ‘black frilly dress’ [in Google]”.

According to Nick people search for stores (such as his own) and brand names (such as UGGs), but not for the actual item they want (such as black frilly dress). I couldn’t disagree more.

I believe that whilst many want inspiration (which is why they search for stores) and some are driven by brand (they search UGGs), an increasing amount knows exactly what they want and they do search Google for things like black frilly dress.

It’s been my experience that the latter is more likely to convert. And I know that view is also shared with others in online retail – (I wasn’t the only one in disbelief at the comment!).

Perhaps because of ASOS’s scale, the rules that apply to most online fashion stores don’t apply to them. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

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Read my article ‘Five online fashion stores for Mary Portas’s shopping tribes’ on Drapers.

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Read my article ‘How Asda’s George clothing will succeed online’ on Drapers.

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Read my article ‘the online fashion trust factor’ on Drapers.

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