The more I look at the Amazon.co.uk website I more I get confused by its design. I am not an usability expert, but the layout seems cluttered and I find the order they put the information confusing. Presumably Amazon are not short of advice and expertise on how to build product pages which convert, so [...] Read more – ‘What is it with Amazon’s Design?’.
We have been hosting European interns for the last few months and have found them a great asset to the business. Here is a summary of what we have learned so far. UK vs. European interns We have had UK interns and we have had interns from the EU. Sorry, fellow countrymen, but give me [...] Read more – ‘How to find interns’.
I’ve recently been watching a lot of films by and about the German Film maker, Werner Herzog. He’s more than a bit krazee but I find him quite inspiring. Dreams can be a burden Burden of Dreams covers the filming of one of Herzog’s most famous films, Fizcarraldo. The film was created under enormously difficult circumstances, [...] Read more – ‘Werner Herzog on dreams…..’.
One of my favourite books is the Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. In case you haven’t read it, the Prince is a brilliant guide to how a leader should behave in order to hold and expand their power. Whilst the book was written with the 16th Century Italian Prince in mind, its lessons are much more [...] Read more – ‘Machiavelli’s Relevance to the Euro Crisis’.
At Hello Baby we have recently started selling on several international marketplaces (Amazon.fr and de, eBay.fr and de). Overall this has been a success, though we almost got kicked off Amazon.fr the other day. Here are my thoughts having gone through the process Increase sales without reducing prices Increasing our international exposure has allowed us [...] Read more – ‘The perils of international trade’.
The relationship between the online and off line retail is frequently uncomfortable. As an online retailer I have witnessed a backlash recently against internet businesses with several brands refusing to deal with me. This got me thinking about the future of retail and our high streets. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order. [...] Read more – ‘The future of the high street’.
When I was sitting in a particularly tedious presentation the other day involving far too many PowerPoint slides, I found myself reminiscing about my father creating diagrams for presentations using Letraset and then photographing the diagrams to create slides. This, as you might imagine, was a real pain and so presentations tended to have far [...] Read more – ‘In praise of Letraset’.
Despite the fact that it is now 2011 and the internet has been in full swing for over 10 years, you would not think so dealing with some suppliers. I frequently come up against the following problems: “Sorry but we don’t sell to online only retailers” “Sorry but we don’t allow our products to be [...] Read more – ‘What’s wrong with online only retailers FFS?’.
