Trisha Okubo › Comments

Large majorities of the top 100 companies according to Internet Retailer had a profile on Facebook (79%), Twitter (69%) or both (59%). Formerly hyped technologies such as blogs and RSS feeds were much less popular among these online retail leaders—fewer than one in five used either. - Trisha Okubo

One of the Web's little secrets is that when consumers write online reviews, they tend to leave positive ratings: The average grade for things online is about 4.3 stars out of five. - Trisha Okubo

The online retailer's 1-Click payments service, which lets customers buy an item and have it shipped with a single mouse click, can now be used when shopping from mobile devices on other retailers' websites. Amazon already allows 1-Click on its own site and the websites of third-party retailers who sell goods on Amazon.com. - Trisha Okubo

The Internet's share of retail clothing sales has been well documented. Although apparel sales overall are down 7.11% in the period from July 2007 to July 2009, online sales have grown 12.55%, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. But it's the Internet's role as tastemaker that may very well signal the end of the severely coiffed fashion editor as gatekeeper. - Trisha Okubo

The global strategy of branding and merchandising that has dominated the luxury sector for the last decade is falling away in favor of more authentic, localized experiences. Luxury brands are borrowing ideas from the fast-fashion world -- opening pop-up shops, launching limited-edition collections, even mixing it up with the mass market. - Trisha Okubo

But the real revolution in retail will be mobile, experts say. Tag technology will allow shoppers to use a cellphone to upload a photo of a bar code on an item and get all sorts of information that a salesperson might never have. "It could take you to a specific URL, or promote a special message, or take you directly to a product information page," says Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst for market research firm Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "So far, it's been about bringing the store to your home. But the future will be about bringing the Web to the store." - Trisha Okubo

Programmers are using a new tool called sentiment analysis to extract opinion data from the stream of blog posts, Twitter feeds, forums, news articles and other online content. Some experts caution that the technique, which uses algorithms to rank and categorize keywords appearing in text, will face problems teasing out sarcasm, idioms and other nuances of written expression. - Trisha Okubo

Ms. von Furstenberg says it is crucial to fill a niche rather than to aim to be a brand that is all things to all consumers. Her own specialty is feminine yet comfortable women’s fashion. - Trisha Okubo

According to Condé Nast’s internal numbers, Men.Style.com saw 1.7 million unique visitors last month, up nearly 50% from the same month last year. The umbrella website, Style.com, had 2 million monthly UVs. ComScore paints a different picture, putting Men.Style.com at 386,000 unique visitors and Style.com at 656,000 in June. - Trisha Okubo

While companies have used traditional contests for years to generate buzz, a Twitter contest is superior because "retweeting" spreads brand awareness even quicker, says Dan Zarrella, a social-media consultant based in Boston. Case in point: for three days "#Moonfruit" was on Twitter's trending topics list, which tracks the most popular words on the site. - Trisha Okubo

My fave film out of Sundance this year....coming to theaters tomorrow :) - Trisha Okubo from Bookmarklet

Artisans flocked to this online marketplace, but few made enough to quit their day jobs. Now comes the struggle to keep them. - Trisha Okubo

According to the new Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 70% of people trust recommendations from unknown users online, up 9% from 2007. - Trisha Okubo

Worldwide revenues from consumer location-based services were under $1 billion in 2008, but Gartner projects they will top $2.2 billion this year. North America’s share will be the largest, at $713.7 million. - Trisha Okubo

Despite the economic gloom brought on by Japan's shrinking domestic consumption, Fast Retailing Co. has had no trouble living up to its name: domestic same-store sales in May of its Uniqlo chain shot up 18.3%, extending on-year gains to seven consecutive months. Japanese consumers -- and for that matter, tourists -- can't seem to get enough of Uniqlo's inexpensive but high-quality products, from undergarments and T-shirts to tops, jumpers and jeans in a plethora of colors. - Trisha Okubo

Now that you'll be able to get Jimmy Choos for $50, spending $500 seems ridiculous. Will be interested to see the quality of the Jimmy Choo for H&M shoes. - Trisha Okubo

Neiman Marcus Group Inc. swung to a fiscal third-quarter loss on a 24% sales decline and disclosed a merchandising strategy that calls for more lower-priced goods. - Trisha Okubo

Online retailers such as my-wardrobe.com are anticipating huge sales growth this year, as customers grow more accustomed to online shopping. The CEO of my-wardrobe.com thinks one benefit of online shopping is that customers can resist temptation more easily than they can in a busy shopping center. - Trisha Okubo

Luxury merchants shouldn't expect affluent shoppers to go back to splurging anytime soon, says Claudia D'Arpizio, partner and luxury goods expert at consulting company Bain & Co., who anticipates that the global luxury business will not fully rebound until 2012. - Trisha Okubo

The company said it had benefited from exclusive collaborations with designers including Alexander McQueen and RM by Roland Mouret. It said much of the growth had also come from a strategic approach to buying. - Trisha Okubo

And yet as millions of devotees have discovered, Twitter turns out to have unsuspected depth. In part this is because hearing about what your friends had for breakfast is actually more interesting than it sounds. The technology writer Clive Thompson calls this "ambient awareness": by following these quick, abbreviated status reports from members of your extended social network, you get a strangely satisfying glimpse of their daily routines. - Trisha Okubo

Almost half of U.S. cell phone users feel "somewhat safe" shopping via cell phones, according to a Harris Interactive poll that found 26% thought the activity was completely safe. Security aside, only 46% said they would use their phones to shop, although younger adults seemed more willing to do so. - Trisha Okubo

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh likes to get in front of audiences as much as possible. If you're a public face for your brand, Hsieh recommends talking about your passions and offering personal stories. - Trisha Okubo

There are an estimated 20 million bloggers in the U.S., and of those, about 452,000 do so as their occupation. But paid blogging is a tough slog. It takes impressive traffic -- about 100,000 unique visitors per month -- to generate an annual income of $75,000. - Trisha Okubo

Designers are turning to online stores because expanding into brick-and-mortar spaces is proving daunting amid the recession. Some, such as Guillaume Hinfray and Omelle designers, are offering merchandise that is exclusive to their online stores. "Some retailers have seen that it has been the only channel for growth," a Shop.org executive said. - Trisha Okubo

Web Strategy's Jeremiah Owyang notes that quality content is still the most important component of a great blog in 2009, but the best modern bloggers also know how to distribute their content, use their posts to highlight conversations happening elsewhere on the Web and reflect their personal brands. While it might seem like a vanity exercise, a good blog can be "an indicator of how you'll represent your employer and clients," - Trisha Okubo

TheOutnet.com, set to launch this weekend, will sell items from brands such as Chloé, Christian Louboutin, Diane von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Oscar de la Renta that have been offered on sister site Net-a-Porter.com. The outlet site will sell merchandise at up to 80% off. - Trisha Okubo

Amazon's BlackBerry application enables shoppers on the go to look at a mobile version of the site and find and buy products with one click. A feature also enables customers to take a photo of an item that the application then tries to match so users can purchase it or add it to their wish lists. - Trisha Okubo

Does that actually work at all? - Jim Norris

Retailers such as Vans, Lucky Brand Jeans and Jansport are looking to bring social interaction to online shopping. They're integrating with social media such as instant messaging so shoppers can solicit opinions on purchases from friends. - Trisha Okubo

More significant is the fact that mobile activity is expanding beyond the bounds of basic tasks and into the realm of entertainment, commerce, and social networking. As impressive as 100+ percent growth in news and information usage is, the number of users accessing social networking sites and blogs on their mobile devices shot up 427 percent in the past year, with more than 9 million accessing social sites on a daily basis, and 3.3 million now trading stocks or accessing their personal financial accounts. This is all due to the increasing availability of downloadable, resident applications that facilitate these types of transactions. - Trisha Okubo