Canada’s Web Shop

Mike Sachoff from WebProNews posted an interesting article last Thursday about people who shop for cruises online.  The article states that despite the convenience of online ticket purchasing, total online sales for cruises totalled only 944 Million.  This number represents a fractional 7 percent of the total cruise revenue from ticket sales as a result of buyers wanting to speak to a “Real Person” about the cruise they’re considering.

The CEO of Priceline says that questions like “What restaurants are available on the cruise ship?” and “Will I have to wear a tie to a dinner?” are common.  Even with customer reviews and very detailed cruise descriptions available, in the end, people still want to be reassured that they’re going on a good cruise by a living, breathing, human being. 

From the looks of it, the more moving parts to a product and the higher the selling price, the more likely a potential customer is to pick up the phone and call to gain reassurance.  Would you agree? 

This is one of the reasons why we stress having a 1-800 toll-free number to all of our clients.

Tracking

1-800 Numbers can be tracked.  This makes them instrumental in tracking how many people call in as a result of your online efforts.  Not everyone is as inclined to fill out a request for information or send an email to await a reply.  In “online time”, waiting for a reply via email can feel like an eternity. 

Reassurance

In researching larger purchases, I myself have removed candidates from a short-list because they didn’t have any easy way to contact them should the need arise.  Having that 1-800 number available gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. 

Support

Often, getting a client on the phone and talking with them requires less time that composing several emails that go back and forth between you and your client.  What could have been dealt with in a single 5 minute phone call cost you over an hour composing and replying to emails.

1-800 Numbers have been around for a long time and for good reason:  They Work.  We use one for our website and one for our Yellow Pages ad so we know where our calls are originating from.  For the most part, all of our clients with toll-free numbers have had positive experiences with them. 

 Do you use a toll-free number for your business?  I’d be interested in sharing your experiences or tips here on my blog. 

The landmark 44.6 Billion Dollar bid (one of the highest bids ever for any single online property) by Microsoft for the ailing web property Yahoo was quashed yesterday by their executives, financial/legal advisors, and Board of Directors officially stating that the deal was “Not in the best interest of Yahoo and our stockholders”.

The bid by Microsoft would have merged the two companies into a single entity creating a viable competitor against the Search Giant, Google. 

Yahoo’s official statment continued on to say, “After careful evaluation, the Board believes Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo, including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments,”

Interesting…

I had a conversation with my operations manager yesterday when he mentioned that Yahoo had turned down the offer and he said that Yahoo will now be doubly accountable to increase value for its shareholders.  I couldn’t agree more.  Yahoo is an outstanding company which has stood the dot.com test of time but its future is questionable given the size of its competition: HUGE. 

That being said, if Microsoft were to re-bid later down the road, he doubts that the bid would be anywhere near 44.6 Billion dollars.  Since Yahoo turned down the opportunity to potentially satisify shareholders, the pressure’s even greater now than it was just a few months earlier.

I really do hope Yahoo pulls out of the dive.  As much as I am a fan of Google, I don’t think that having one search engine to serve everyone’s needs is in the best interest of web users.  Competition keeps companies on their toes.   

Sources

Kaye, Katie “Microsoft Stuns Industry with $44.6 Billion Bid for Yahoo” ClickZ .com 1/2/08
Accessed: 12/2/08
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628304

Kay, Katie “Yahoo Confirms Rejection of Microsoft Bid” ClickZ.com 11/02/08
Accessed: 12/2/08
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628394

This week has brought some interesting news to my desk.  Namely the Microsoft/Yahoo deal that’s on the table and its implications to the search industry but there were other interesting articles as well that I came across:

1. Super Bowl Advertiser Recaps – A lighthearted play-by-play Chris Boggs (SearchEngineWatch) of Superbowl advertiser’s ads and who made the grade as far as fully leveraging the potential traffic from this highly-watched sporting event.
2. Search Traffic is Down - ClickZ.com’s search engine report shows that search queries were down by a marginal percentage in December compared to the previous month.
3. Using Controversy to Gain Readership in Articles – Christopher Knight of EzineArticles.com presents 9 points to consider before grinding the controversy axe in your articles to gain readership. 

All well-written pieces with some very relevant information if you’re in the Internet Marketing field.  Check them out and I’ll see you next week!  Have a great weekend everyone. 

You’ve probably heard by now that Microsoft has something like a $44.6B down to acquire Yahoo! If you haven’t well, either it doesn’t affect you or you’ve been away on vacation for a week or two in a place with no newspapers or TV.

Much of the buzz I’ve been seeing come across my desk is the impact this will have on the Search Industry. If Yahoo is acquired by Microsoft then instead of having 1 Giant search engine with 3 smaller ones, we’re now going to have 1 Search Giant, a slightly smaller but heavy-hitting contender, and an even smaller contestant who may not be able to compete against it’s two larger competitors ultimately leaving the two to war it out with each other. Second, what will happen to the paid search listings? With Microsoft’s growing Adcenter offering married to Yahoo’s search partners and their Yahoo Search Marketing paid solution, Google may now have a very worthy adversary in the Paid Search arena.

It should be interesting to see what happens from this point on. We may be a little ways away from the deal actually going through because it has to be scrutinized by the powers-that-be to make sure that the deal would remain within the spirit of competition. Barring that however, I’m anxious and a little frightened at the same time to see what will happen to the search industry when two become one.

On a side note…what would they name it? It’s like a marriage where both the bride and groom have very prominent names. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Mr. and Mrs. Microsoft-Yahoo. [Cue Cheesy Wedding Music]

Mike out.