On Sale Now!

There’s not a morning that goes by that I don’t get a killer offer in my Gmail. Apple. Golf Galaxy. Nordstrom. Gap. Field Notes. Amazon. 
And on it goes. My head’s swimming with numbers and percetage symbols. I haven’t known whether to shop or wait for discounts to go lower.
Until now. Enter ZingSale, a zippy, nice Web site that [...]

A Shopping Name for Every Day

First there was Black Friday.
Then Buy Nothing Day, an anti-consumerism alternative.
Today it’s Cyber Monday.
What’s next? Gift Card Saturday?
A year ago, I only half-jokingly suggested the possibility that someone might buy their friends only virtual gifts from Facebook. At $1 a pop, these gifts are a bargain, environmentally friendly (zero wrapping!), and never get lost in the [...]

A Month Devoted to Madness

It’s that time of year: A college basketball tournament with a registered trademark, the obssession over “bracketology”, and new sales or manufactured events. March Madness has become an unofficial-almost-end-of-winter mantra — and reason to buy something, anything. Tax refund checks are in the mail, and the money is presumably burning holes in pockets. 
GMC trucks. Zero interest 60 months during its March Madness [...]

Hip Shopping Advice

What if people congregated daily to share places to shop for designer brands, microbrands and everything in between? They are — right here at superfuture’s supertalk, where “superbored” shoppers provide advice and recommendations, as well as display their clothing style preferences and tastes with uploaded images from around the world. The website is closed to [...]

Kindle Online Community Outcry

A scan of the Amazon website tonight shows a steady flow of spirited comments in the Kindle forum. While some posts condemn Amazon for the Kindle shortage (4-6 week delivery from time of order), others defend the company, which has made a great business by providing prompt and accurate service.
Once you’ve become accustomed 2-day book delivery, waiting a month or [...]

Brand Fakes Haven Gets Own Brand

Beijing’s infamous epicenter for counterfeit brand products has launched its own. The Silk Street Market settled lawsuits in 2006 with five major luxury brands including Louis Vuitton. During business trips to Beijing’s Chaoyang District, I remember flocks of American tourists haggling price with Chinese vendors over copies sure to go underground this summer during the Olympics.
 

Amazon Kindle Redux

Browsing books to buy on Amazon, I suddenly wished for a Kindle — if just for a moment tonight. The ability to download books on a wireless device is brilliant if you want something now.
Remember the hype and Newsweek cover story two months ago? The product was out of stock less than six hours after [...]

Perfect Apple PR

Apple this year provided a case study in achieving PR nirvana. It helps when your CEO baits the tech press in January to stir so much anticipation for a product launch that customers camp out to be first (iPhone). Or you launch a blizzard of funny ads that humanize basic complaints about your competitor’s marquee [...]

Shopaholics Anonymous

Just when you thought all the major shopping days before Christmas were identified, up sprouts another: Green Monday. This tag, coined by the folks at eBay (Shop Victoriously!), coincides with the second Monday of December. New data from comScore shows that Dec. 10 (I mean, Green Monday) recorded the highest online sales of any day this shopping season over [...]

A Facebook Christmas

A poll released today on MarketingCharts says American shoppers plan to spend the same or less on gifts as last holiday season. Average total spending per shopper will be $662. That’s to cover an average of 16 people on gift lists. The survey includes a breakout of most popular product categories, but what’s not on the list may be in a five years: [...]