Here are tips and tactics for wholesale sellers and retail buyers to put to work in the new year’s marketing plans. All are based on the latest stats, trends and Best Practices.

The number one reason potential customers bail out of online purchase transactions is concern over use of their personal information, according to recent study results from Jupiter Research.

As soon as the books close on 2008 holiday sales reports, Value Price kicks off its first New York City Expo (January 11-13, 2009 at Jacob Javits Convention Center). Then, in early May, Value Price returns to Las Vegas (May 4-6, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center); followed by a pre-Summer Season expo in Atlantic City (May 17-19, 2009 at Atlantic City Convention Center).

Seasonal Scheduling and Regional Trade Shows are Value Price Expo opportunities to enter the extreme value marketplace … leveraging off-price buying, staying competitive through a rougher economic climate, and meeting regional preferences.

1.   Leverage Off-Price Product Sourcing

Exhibitors at VPExpo NYC represent major manufacturers/distributors across 30 product categories — housewares, consumer electronics, toys, hardware, health and beauty merchandise, sporting goods, apparel, luggage and gifts/novelties.  Sellers include Mazel Company, Leon Korol, CWC Inventories, Wisconsin Toys, Consolidated International, X-S Merchandise and Liss Global … among many wholesalers, importers and manufacturers.

According to new study results from ad spending tracker eMarketer, (1) spending for online advertising is slowing; (2) online advertising still pulls budget away from offline ad campaigns; and (3) search advertising continues to be a bright spot in the economic gloom.

“Once seen as immune to economic slowdowns, the online advertising sector has now become the downturn’s latest victim,” noted Jeff Meisner in Online Ad Sector Showing Signs of Strain in E-Commerce Times.

However, such a “down” statement was only on first glance. Advertising’s budget pulse is weaker, stronger or holding steady … depending on where you measure it.

·  Slower Growth: After predicting 2009 online advertising growth of 14.5% in August, eMarketer recently revised its projections down to 8.9%, following collapse of real estate, financial and domestic auto markets. Pushing into the next two years, eMarketer is still projects growth, but at slower rates: 10.9% increase in online ad spend for 2010; 13.5% growth in ad spend for 2013.

Gain visibility in Buyer and Seller markets by tapping the power of search engine optimized (SEO) web pages. Here are three SEO Marketing tips: Use Site Search as a customer service tool; Use Buyer/Seller Key Words from web logs and analytics; and Tap Profit Power of the Long-Tail.

1.         Use Site Search as a Service

A Site Search Box is a must-have for your corporate web site. You never know how potential customers land at your site: Some click deep into a seller’s site from a listing on a SERP (search engine results page); some land on the Home Page after typing your web address into a browser; other prized visitors jump into ANY page on your site from a link at their favorite blog or recommendation from a trusted users site.

With three weeks left to count up November-December holiday totals, and after passing the online sales gate marked by Cyber-Monday, previous holiday spending expectations from comScore, Forrester Research and eCommerce Times are being lowered a bit. And that’s in spite of the surge in sales, incentives and discount specials across the marketplace.

Holiday Spending Pulse Check To Date:

·        Ditto 2007? Online retail sales trackers are revising their predictions for November-December 2008, now seeing “same level of overall holiday sales as 2007.” Flat-line predictors include comScore’s holiday season estimate of $29.2 Billion (same as last year), and Forrester Research’s downward revision of web sales growth of 12% (October 2008) to 7 or 8% (Cyber Monday December 1, 2008).

·        Cyber-Monday – online equivalent of offline retailing’s Black Friday – is the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Considered the biggest online shopping day of the year, early results from online totals Monday December 1 hint it may not increase overall holiday sales compared to 2007.

Here are five tips for tapping into Buyer and Seller markets. Includes: Get listed in Product and Local Directories; Scan new prospects from Trade Show Calendar sites; Get free guidance from Import/Export sites assisting small business. Also, see a mini-case study from the Toy Industry on regaining markets with the right Crisis Management.

1.         Put New Business Development into the Plan and Budget

You have business health trackers in place – Marketing Plans; metrics and measures of return on investment, pricing strategies, revenue/cost margins; P & L statement pulse checks.

Ensure that developing new business, accounts and product lines is an item in the budget, too. Instead of assuming that all marketing and advertising expenses are the sum total of your New Business Development strategy, earmark resources and time towards the goal of finding and building new product lines or customer segments.

The buying and spending habits of tweens and teenagers across the globe would be valuable market research for sellers of online games, brand-name clothing, personal electronics, music CDs and other youth market lifestyle products.

Gathering a reasonable cross-section of international respondents in the targeted youth group would also be a massive research effort that would probably take months to plan and implement.

Yet, a Finnish company, Sulake, did all the above in only two weeks. Sulake had already created a virtual world for teens in the late 1990s called Habbo. It is a trusted site among teenaged users worldwide. So, Sulake had no difficulties getting responses from youth in 22 countries.

In fact, the virtual world developer from Helsinki found 42,000 teens were eager to participate; and they felt comfortable revealing spending habits and preferences to Habbo virtual world avatars.