Dell Finding Sales Via Twitter

Dell seams to have found the right formula for making money via Twitter, attributing $3 million in sales to posts on the social networking site. According to PCWorld, "Dell Outlet uses Twitter to promote clearance sales, coupons, and other discount-related fodder... It also may provide a much-needed business model for Twitter by giving the social networking site a valid reason to charge for corporate accounts." Of course $3 million is not a huge sum where Dell is concerned but in these trying economic times it's nothing to sneeze at either. With some simple math we can deduce that @DellOutlet, which has some 600,000 followers, can place a value of $5 on each follower. Interesting...

Wired has a look under the hood as e-bay tries to regain momentum

Wired has an interesting article about slowing growth at e-bay and the companies attempts to get going again. It's not that e-bay is not making money, it's more about continuing to grow. Over the last few months e-bay has undertaken a number of new initiatives that are aimed at growing business and keeping browsers pointed squarely in their direction. "Other discovery features hop on the social-network bandwagon. Neighborhoods, a forum for like-minded collectors to network, got buzz when it launched in early October, and the still-unpublicized EKG allows users to curate their favorite items and share them with others, a concept similar to craft-commerce site Etsy's Treasury." Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I visited e-bay?

Online retailers benefit from bad weather

Record rainfall has resulted in record breaking sales for online retailers in Britain. The BBC is reporting that online sales for July nearly doubled the mark set last year, up from £2.34bn to £4.2bn. According to the Interactive Media in Retail Group sales gains can also be attributed to improve websites, and faster Internet connections.