Hitwise reports on where online consumers go after being greeted with CircuitCity.com’s Sorry-we’re-closed message. Twenty percent of them float downstream to Best Buy’s website. Ten percent go to Wal-Mart, followed by Kmart.com and Sears.com with four and two percent respectively.

These are obviously the brands on the top of consumers’ minds and their online behavior might very well mimic offline behavior: Oh, Circuit City’s closed. Let’s go to Best Buy across the street, then.

But what was really interesting about the report was Radio Shack’s aggressive poaching of Circuit City customers in the search results. Though non-searching consumers may not have thought of Radio Shack as often, searchers using branded terms from a portfolio of Circuit City’s portfolio of branded terms were met with paid search ads for Radio Shack.

Three percent clicked through to Radio Shack’s website. Best Buy, on the other hand, ran no targeted search campaign, and only just over one percent clicked through to the site from the organic results. This was a very clever and apparently effective strategy on Radio Shack’s part.
 

The phones will be available at Wal-Mart during the last week of December according to the Mercury News. Reports say that Apple will offer a 4 GB version of the iPhone at Wal-Mart and it will retail for $99.

Currently the iPhone is available in two versions, one with 8 gigabytes of memory that retails for $199 and one with 16 GB of memory that sells for $299.

Wal-Mart employees confirmed to the Mercury News that they would be carrying a 4GB model. One employee said that the iPhone will be available very soon and that Apple originally had plans to introduce the 4GB model before Christmas, but could not get them to the retail giant fast enough.

An AT&T representative told a Wal-Mart manager that stores would be getting the 4GB version two days before Christmas.

Wal-Mart officials have declined to confirm they will be carrying the iPhone, as have representatives from Apple and AT&T.

Offering the iPhone at Wal-Mart would be a good strategy for Apple industry and financial analysts said. Wal-Mart has around 4,000 discount, supercenter and Sam’s Club stores in the United States.
 

Via the company’s Web sites, both candidates will present their views on issues beginning today through Election Day to the 136 million Wal-Mart customers and its 1.4 million associates.

"We know that, like most Americans, our customers and associates are concerned with a number of important issues, including health care and the environment, with the economy at the top of the list," said Leslie Dach, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs and government relations.

"As so many pollsters have pointed out, the ‘Wal-Mart Mom’ is at the center of the election and we’re pleased to offer Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain the opportunity to speak directly to her through these videos."

Two videos from each campaign are available on Wal-Marts Web sites. The video-based voter guide will allow the candidates to introduce themselves to customers, club members and associates, detailing their plans and stances on key issues, and will reflect the candidate’s campaign platforms in a nonpartisan manner.

The videos can be viewed at walmart.com, samsclub.com and walmartstores.com, the company’s corporate Web site. The Web sites will also offer information about other presidential candidates.

The retailing giant says it will alert customers of its online offering through public service announcements that will air today on its in-store television network.

"We thank Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama for sharing their views on these key issues with our customers, club members and associates so they can make an informed decision and have their voices heard on Election Day," said Mr. Dach.

Yahoo will use the behavioral data collected on Wal-Mart’s website to better target the ads, a practice known as behavioral targeting. As I understand, Wal-mart will use yahoo for serving behaviorally targeted in-house ads (and products) and behaviorally targeted 3rd party ads.

Side note: I believe that in near future all of the eCommerce sites will have some version of on-site behavioral targeting. eTailers (Online retailers) cannot put generic messages and products in front of customer and expect the conversions to go up. They will have to understand what customers want (or need), where customers are in their purchase decision and put relevant messages and products in front of them (more on that later).

Wal-mart’s latest foray into online classifieds (IMHO they should have built their own classifieds instead of using oodle.com) and now deal with Yahoo to sell targeted advertising is the beginning of a long list of offering that Wal-Mart will roll out as a part of their online strategy to compete with Amazon, eBay etc.

Amazon v/s Walmart.com

I am including this chart to show how traffic to Walmart.com compares to Amazon. It will be interesting to see how Amazon and Wal-Mart compare to each other after Wal-Mart moves forward with its online strategy and rolls out new offerings.

Note: Wal-Mart uses oodle.com to power its classifieds; the traffic Wal-Mart will get on its classifieds section is attributed to oodle.com and not to Wal-Mart, since the classifieds resides on oodle.com domain. Not a very smart move by Wal-Mart.

Comments

 Google Search Results For Polaroid T730 Compact 7mp Digital Camera

Two things I learned: 1. When writing a review, don’t be an ass; 2. If you’re going to spend a lot of money on competitive keyword advertisements, it’s likely a best practice to give the searcher what they are actually searching for.

The top organic spot for those keywords doesn’t belong to Polaroid, as one might expect. Actually, Polaroid is nowhere to be found on the first page, organic or paid. Way to be in charge of your brand, there Polaroid.

Had the company been more proactive about SEO – yes, they actually have a website, and even a product page for the T730—interested customers would not have to suffer through number-one-spot squatter Woot.com’s excruciating review by "WOOTBOT," which earned the number one ranking as of midnight this morning. Despite the stupidity of it, I was still miraculously interested in learning more about the camera*, mainly because WOOTBOT didn’t mention a price.

Back to the search results, then. Not willing to brave another organic, non-Polaroid page on the product, I turned to the retailers who popped up for the keywords, who surely would have detailed (unbloviated) product information that included pricing, especially since I had to spend their money to find it.

Top result: Circuit City. Of course they’ll have all that. No, they don’t. In fact, clicking on the top paid search result directed me to a listing for Bissell Pet Odor & Removal Formula with Scotchguard, which retails for $12.99, in case, unlike me, you actually have a pet or find yourself in need of that information on The Price Is Right.

 Circuit City’s Paid Search Destination

Good job capitalizing on that ad spend, Circuit City. I’ll bet Office Depot knows how much it costs. Nope. Their paid link takes me to a landing page advertising 10% off, well, anything I guess. So if I ever actually find the camera and learn the price of it, I can save some unknown quantity of money.

Shopping.com? Close. Polaroid T730 memory cards, but no camera.

Amazon? Blank white screen. Service unavailable.

BizRate? Everything but that particular product.

Target? Enter your zip code to see the Target Weekly Ad. No thanks, and go screw yourself.

 Target’s Sign Up For The Weekly Ad

Wal-Mart? Polaroid TVs, cameras that perhaps are similar, but no trace of the T730.
 
Back to the organic results, then. Byrev.net had a much less BS-ified review, but still no price. DealsPlus: jackpot. $74.99, $5 shipping. Too cheap for me to be proud of as an expectant father, and I’m way too invested now to be disappointed with general affordability. I’ll dream about that $850 Canon listed below, and eventually buy something in between.

But here’s the point: Every one of the major, corporate retailers failed the search marketing test. None of them SEO’d their sites well enough to pop up in the top 10 organic rankings where searchers automatically associate credibility—until they read something written by WOOTBOT—and none of them actually capitalized on an interested buyer via great, relevant, and/or useful landing pages.

Lesson: Shoppers, especially during the discovery process, will give you, maximum, ten seconds (more like four) to earn their visit and/or business. They need information, not fluff, redirection, malfunction, or similar/related product pitches. Give them the right landing page and you’ll not only not waste your daily ad spend, but you may just earn a loyal customer who’s very tired of the BS.

_{*My best guess was that the review overall was positive, after sifting through stories of fat men and vacuums, and obscure Latin and German phrases nobody searching for camera information on the English version of the Internet needs to ever, EVER know.}  
 

Wal-Mart is the first major retailer in the U.S. to sell products other than its own online and its new classified service has around 30 million items listed. The service is free for both the seller and buyer and is accessible through Walmart.com. Wal-Mart said the online classifieds,"further connects our community of 130 million customers who shop the Wal-Mart brand each week."

A spokesman for the company would not comment on financial details of the partnership with Oodle or how long the classified site would be in beta. Oodle was launched three years ago by former eBay and Excite executives in the San Francisco area.

"This is good for Wal-Mart because it provides a different experience for consumers, and it benefits Oodle because it extends the reach of our network," Oodle Chief Executive Craig Donato told the Wall Street Journal.

Wal-Mart’s classified service will be in direct competition with eBay’s classified offering Kijiji and Craigslist.

Walmart.com Classifieds has a reach of more than five million customers each month through a network of sites, including newspapers, portals and online communities.

Best Buy is offering $50 gift cards to customers who purchased an HD DVD player or an HD DVD unit for a Microsoft Xbox 360 videogame console before February 23. Those who receive gift cards can keep their HD DVD players.

Best Buy will mail the gift cards by May 1 to customers who bought warranties or who are in its "Reward Zone" program. The gift cards will not expire. If you did not purchase a warranty or are not in the rewards program you can call 1-888-BestBuy to participate. You will need your receipt or credit card information as proof of purchase.

Customers wanting to get rid of a player can visit Best Buy’s online trade-in center. It does not matter where it was purchased. Customers can ship the player free of charge by printing out a prepaid shipping label. A gift card will be sent in 10-14 days. The amount will vary depending on the model.