Trends

Bells and whistles are great, but ultimately, if a website doesn’t get the fundamentals right, the competition is just a click away.
Last month Gomez, the web performance division of Compuware, released the results of an Equation Research survey showing how important website speed is to consumers and its impact on site traffic and revenues for web and mobile devices. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of consumers will wait no longer than five seconds for a webpage to load before giving up.

Bogus digital goods are more of a problem for e-commerce merchants than counterfeit merchandise is for brick-and-mortar retailers, according to CyberSource, the credit card processing firm for online transactions.

Just when you thought there was nothing new in the world of toasters, along comes Burnt Impressions L.L.C.

Founder Galen P. Dively III came up with the idea for his Burnt Impressions toaster idea while wrapping Christmas gifts last year. The idea was to allow patterns to be “toasted” on bread. The idea kept rattling around in his head and before long he got to work bringing his idea to life. He now offers Hemp Leaf Toasters, Peace Sign Toasters and Jesus Toasters through the company's websites and a growing number of stores.

On Friday, Sept. 10, an event staged for Fashion’s Night Out not only managed to drive traffic to a local retail store in New York, it succeeded in stopping traffic!

Daffy's, a chain of discount fashion clothing and accessories, offered a peep show of sorts at its Herald Square location. Live models stood in the store's street-level windows and put on – and took off – clothing before a pleased public throughout the night.