I started at my bank’s website, credit card reward program. “Shop online from our links and get paid for it.” OK, buying phones was on my “to do” list so now I’m on the bank’s partner landing page scanning the retailers. Pre-scanned by my bank, I’m comfortable the retailers on the page are relevant to my needs. And, there is a certain trust factor build into the relationship. Well then, who sells electronics? In particular, who sells smart phones and who’s got the deal that’s hard to beat?

Before getting into that, one side note. I knew the “actual company offering the smart phones” didn’t matter all that much. I was specifically looking for a Verizon package; my wife’s current carrier, contract period past the renewal date (no cancellation fees) and Verizon’s reception is better than other phones we used at the house (rural area). To top it off, Verizon wants to keep the business and we know that.

Many retailers are finally realizing the obvious, “keeping existing customers” is far more profitable than advertising to find new customers. In fact, I knew that almost all of the retailers offering Verizon phones landed on what was basically a Verizon framed page. Except for one important thing, the “smart phone deals” varied based on the “affiliate” offering Verizon’s services. Verizon services are the same no matter where you buy them. The affiliates, such as Sears, are after the commission they get from a renewed “two year contract” with Verizon. Basically, I know the affiliates can give away the phones and still make money. And, that’s what I’m looking for.

I’m not a cell phone fanatic, but my wife needs a new phone and upgrading my old cell phone is long overdue. I am a qualified prospect – you get the picture. And, yes, the phones come with an 8 mega pixel camera. You’ll soon see the pics as well, assuming the deal goes down. There’s more.

On the list of retailers partnered with my bank, Sears stands out immediately because it was offering twice the credit card rewards as everyone else (10 percent vs. 5 percent). Many companies just offered “free shipping” – big deal, I skipped those companies. Sears appeared to do their homework; they knew what their competition was offering and beat it.

NOTE: The “partner affiliate deal” is more important in this case than the results of a Google search. And, I propose, far more effective than a Google search. The results of the Google search was good for finding reviews of different phones and a Bing search was excellent for finding photos of the smart phones. But, when it came time to make the buying decision, offerings from those that I already had relationships with was far more important – the trust factor higher. And, there was more in it for me, the customer.

The entire process is a long story, so I’ll get right to the point. After completing a series of unsuccessful radio button options – Verizon’s website usability challenges – I had no other choice than to talk to a human. Choices included: call or online chat with customer service. In this case, I started with a call and the CSR was a Sears sub-contractor obviously not in the U.S. About 40 minutes later, what I thought was a “done deal” was just the beginning.

I hung up the phone and the email autoresponders started kicking in. I received this in an email (bright RED letters): We need your help to complete your order!

You’re kidding me – the deal’s not done? With too much time invested, I had no other choice than make another phone call to find out if I could buy from Sears. Yeah, that was annoying after a 40-minute phone call already. Should I take the opportunity to “abandon” the deal and move on?

Not yet, I believed they had what I wanted and I’m invested in the process with my time. I phoned Sears customer service, again. About 30-minutes later the deal still wasn’t done because the CSR wasn’t trained well enough to figure out the real issue, which turned out to be a Verizon issue. I was told I had to wait 12-hours for them to research the situation – very, very annoying. I hung up. More autoresponders kicked in.

Somewhat frustrated, I decided it might be time to kill the deal. I launched the customer service link in the autoresponder to cancel the order. But, there was still “online chat” offered to help me. I thought for a second, maybe this will work – I’ll give it a try and/or use online chat to cancel the order. What happened next?

Fortunately, the online chat CRS was better trained then those in the call center. The rep quickly identified the problem, solved it and the deal went down. More email autoresponders kicked in:

“Great News! Your new Verizon Wireless DROID INCREDIBLE by HTC has completed processing and is ready to ship…” (no big RED letters this time).

I think my wife and I are getting new phones! That’s incredible.

The Process

Key components to successfully selling and marketing online:

1. Establish partnerships of interest to your target market.
2. Market your partners as well as your services.
3. Create landing pages on your website that clearly describe “the deal.”
4. Website usability – all’s for not if qualified customers have trouble completing the deal.
5. Customer service options – if you can’t man a phone call at least offer an extensive FAQ page that answers the most common questions asked by your existing customers. Without it, bounce rates are high and your customer will be on your competitor’s website within a few clicks.
6. Email marketing and autoresponders. They are expected after processing an order. Make sure you set them up and update them frequently based on customer feedback.
7. Offer as much help as possible. And, more importantly, train your customer service reps or hire a sub-contractor that is willing to invest the time in doing so before answering your customer’s calls.
8. Set a high priority on taking care of your existing customers.

Tis the Season | Sears Affiliate Promotions:

• Online Only! 24 months No Interest on Electronics over $599 + FREE Shipping on TVs 37″+ 12/5-12/11
• FREE Shipping on Thousands of Electronics over $99 with code SANTA 11/19-12/17
• Online Only Midnight Madness! EXTRA 5-15% off Thousands of Items + FREE Shipping 5pm 12/12-5am 12/13
• $150 off LG 42″ Class 1080p 60Hz LCD HDTV $599.99 on sale 12/10-12/11

AIMcustom.com/digitalAIM/ News – Source: Splashtop via Business Wire, SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov 30, 2010 – Splashtop Inc., the worldwide leader in instant-access computing, today announced the immediate availability of Splashtop(R) OS (beta), a lightweight, web-centric operating system optimized for notebooks and netbooks. Splashtop OS is a browser-based “companion OS” that can co-exist with the Windows operating system. The company also announced a new worldwide search distribution agreement with Microsoft Corp., through which Bing will become the default search engine across the Splashtop family of products. The new product, coupled with Bing technology, will make the promise of Instant Search available to millions of consumers worldwide.

Splashtop OS is designed for people who “live on the web” and need fast, reliable access to their favorite sites and web-based applications, as well as a traditional Windows-based desktop environment. In addition to prominently featuring Bing as the default web search provider, Splashtop OS delivers a simple yet familiar environment based on Chromium, the open source project behind the Google Chrome browser.

“We’re experts in getting you what you want — and fast!” said Mark Lee, CEO and co-founder of Splashtop Inc. “Through our OEM-branded instant-on products, we’ve already got millions of PC users hooked on Splashtop speed. With our downloadable product, we’re aiming to reach the rest of the population. And now, together with Microsoft, we’re going to put some zing into web search.”

Unlike previous Splashtop products that have been white labeled, pre-installed and distributed on tens of millions of PCs from major OEMs like Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and LG, the new product will be Splashtop-branded and available directly to end users via download from the company’s web site. Splashtop OS is streamlined: it will include no native applications beyond the Chromium-based browser, and will boot directly to a Bing-powered search box in just seconds.

“We are excited to be working with Splashtop on giving our mutual customers easy access to Bing’s powerful tools that help customers make more informed decisions,” said Jon Tinter, General Manager at Bing. “Our two companies share a vision for instantly-available, search-centric computing experiences. We think Bing is a natural addition to the Splashtop OS providing the perfect way for users to more quickly find the information they need to complete complex tasks and make better decisions.”

An instant-on, browser-centric OS allows users to quickly get to the content that matters to them. Users can do a quick search, find an address, check email or update their status on Facebook or Twitter without having to boot into Windows and launch a web browser. In contrast to Google’s Chrome OS, expected to reach the market before the end of the year, Splashtop OS is intended to complement — not replace — Windows as the primary desktop operating system.

Key Benefits

Fast — less than 5 seconds to start Easy — Instant Search, a pre-browser Bing-powered search box for faster queries Safe — features a locked-down Linux core running a Chromium-based browser Convenient — includes all the core plug-ins, such as Adobe Flash, pre-installed so there is nothing more to configure Smart — automatically imports critical settings such as region, language, time/date, Wi-Fi networks and browser bookmarks from Windows for streamlined set-up.

Availability

Splashtop OS (beta) has been optimized to install and run on several popular platforms from HP, including Mini netbooks and Pavilion notebooks. Platforms from other PC makers that have bundled Splashtop will also be supported. Support for additional Splashtop-based platforms will be made available in the coming months.

About Splashtop

Splashtop Inc. (formerly known as DeviceVM, Inc.) was founded in 2006 with the goal of optimizing the computing experience so that people everywhere can quickly get to what matters to them. The flagship Splashtop OS product, first introduced in 2007, is an award-winning instant-on platform that allows users to get online, access e-mail, and chat with friends seconds after turning on their PCs. The expanded family of products includes Splashtop Remote, which allows users to enjoy the full Windows experience from their iPad or other mobile device, while away from their Windows PC.

Today, Splashtop-based products are available on more than 40 million PCs from leading manufacturers including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG and Sony. Splashtop has received numerous awards, including the prestigious “Most Innovative Product” award from PC World, the “Best of What’s New” award from Popular Science, and “Best of 2010 CES” award from Laptop Magazine. Splashtop Inc. is headquartered in San Jose with offices in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Taipei. For more information, visit the links below.

More Info:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Splashtop Website: www.Splashtop.com

Splashtop OS download: www.Splashtop.com/os

SOURCE: Splashtop Inc. via Business Wire

Burst Media surveyed more than 4,500 women 18 years or older about their current use of the Internet for household purchases and their penchant for web coupons:

More than two-thirds of respondents (69.4%) say they would print and redeem an Internet coupon for a product they would be interested in purchasing. Three-quarters (75.2%) of women 35-54 years would print and redeem an Internet coupon – this compares to 62.2% of women 18-34 years and 67.7% of women 55 years and older. Among all respondents, 43.0% say they are more likely to redeem and print an Internet coupon today then they were six months ago. Read the Burst Media full story here.

Other industry experts have taken note of the consumer’s love for a deal as well. About this time last year, Google searches for the term “coupons” exceeded searches for “Britney Spears.” (AdAge.com).

Consumer penny-pinching and the decline of newspapers are making online coupons a hot ticket:

NEW YORK, NY – March 31, 2009 – Platform-A’s Business Intelligence organization, in partnership with Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), has released the results of a new study on trends in consumer couponing with interesting results. Based on input from more than 36,000 IRI panelists gathered in September, 2008, the study gauged consumer usage of traditional newspaper coupons and interest in digitally distributed online coupons. (Full press release here.)

As a result of this growing trend several websites now offer access to coupons for almost anything you buy. Sites promoting the best deals are also becoming extremely popular. Here are a few examples:

• Shop and Save: Search results page for coupons and deals.
• Slickdeals.net is a free, user-driven deal sharing site where consumers share information and collaborate in order to make better shopping decisions. The site provides a forum for discussion of  various shopping tools.
• GasBuddy.com provides residents and visitors to an area access to local gas prices.
• BestCouponCode.com is one of many sites that now offer coupon code listings.

Yes, people love discounts and consumers are seeking coupons whether they’re offline or online. Just adding a dotted line around an image can increase click-thru rates.

Coupons can be used in many ways, whether you sell products or services. Common uses include retail shopping carts for almost any product; however, you’ll see them used effectively in email marketing campaigns, social networks, forums and blogs. Consider the use of coupons in your marketing strategy but be ready to honor the deal. Don’t forget to include an expiration date!

Are you using coupons in your marketing campaigns? Tell us about it (leave a comment below). Need help setting up a marketing campaign using a coupon strategy? Give us a call, we’ll be glad to help – thanks.

Quantcast, with just 70-employees, is already the de facto standard for measuring Web audiences. They determine who’s clicking on ads, visiting websites, and buying products online. Subsequently, the information is used to help match consumer characteristics with the campaign goals of media buyers. According to Fast Company, 9 of the top 10 media buyers in the U.S. are customers; as are CBS, ABC, and MTV Networks.

Here’s a quote from the “About” page at Quantcast:

Ten years ago the Internet had 9.5 million websites and 150 million people online. Email was a relatively new phenomenon. Fast forward a decade and we’ve seen the most rapid adoption of a new technology in the history of the planet. Not only is everyone, including your grandmother, using email, chat, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, but 1.6 billion people, and growing, now engage with over 240 million web pages on the Internet.

CrunchBase reports that Quantcast received $27.5M in Series C funding (1/4/10), $20M in Series B funding (1/1/08) and $5.7M in Series A funding (3/1/07).

Another company on the Fast Company top 10 list is Slide. Through its branded Funspace, the company now serves some 10 million videos a month and is the largest video-distribution platform on Facebook. And Facebook, by the way, is number one on the most innovative list in the web category.

What do all of the companies on the list have in common with small business owners?
The ability to identify opportunities and react quickly – innovation. How does your company plan to innovate in 2010 and beyond?

The ability to distribute your content across several online platforms from one source is critical. And, if you want to save time and increase your online exposure you need a system to perform the task for you automatically. First, consider your content source. Are you using a Content Management System (CMS)? Examples include dynamic websites, blogs, and shopping carts. All include simple tools for re-publishing your content on other websites whenever you update the “source” (your website, blog, etc.).

LinkedIn.com “applications” is one example of an automated website marketing tool. Whenever I publish content on my blog it is automatically re-published to my LinkedIn profile where hundreds of my contacts are notified and millions of LinkedIn users can stumble upon the information while browsing. This simple process, which is easy to setup if you have a WordPress blog for example, increases traffic to your site. We measure the traffic using analytic tools such as Google Analytics, which is the science of website marketing. In a few clicks, we can determine the popularity of our latest blog post on LinkedIn, and a bunch of other sites for that matter.
[slider title="Support for LinkedIn.com"]Prefer we do this for you? If so, just give us a call: 804-723-9160. We provide LinkedIn customization as well as social media training for our clients and their staff.[/slider]

Similarly, you can connect your website content to dozens of social networking sites such as Facebook.com and Twitter.com; it is relatively easy when your website is built using a CMS.

Here’s a short-list of links to website tools – detailed explanations are included on the sites:

• bit.ly – Allows you to shorten long links and track how many people click on the link. This tool is great for posting on twitter or Facebook given you can measure how many clicks your shortened link gets. There are numerous tools similar to bit.ly. Here’s an article that covers five more: visit FriedBeef’s Tech blog here.
• StumpUpon.com – Allows you to bookmark and browse content made popular by a community of Stumblers; you can also use the tool to bookmark your content for others to view.
• AddThis sharing tool by clearspring. Including a “share” tool on your site makes it very easy for you and others to share your content with friends and colleagues.
• Website Grader – provides a website grading score that incorporates your website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how your website can be improved from a marketing perspective.
• Google Webmaster Tools – Check your keywords and how well you site ranks for those words and determine if any pages on your site are causing problems for Google when crawling your site. The tools also allow you to see what pages are getting the most links, etc.
• Term Extractor – This tool analyzes the content of a given page and extracts the terms that appear to be targeted at search engines.

The processes are confusing and complicated. The results are frustrating and it all seems like a colossal waste of time. If that’s you, let’s first dispel some of the myths of social media.

One: Social Media is Free

Yes, for next to nothing you can quickly create a presence on the top three social media sites – Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And, you can create accounts on other sites such as Blogger, WordPress, YouTube, Flickr, StumpleUpon and Digg; all within a few hours. That too is almost free but incorporating the plethora of tools into a business marketing system that produces real results requires time, marketing savvy and money. Social media marketing is far from free.

Two: Social media profiles are just brief bios or short descriptions of your company

You don’t need to spend a lot of time creating your social media profiles or bios; right? Unfortunately, that’s far from the case. Those that understand the strategy and importance of social media profiles are obtaining far better results than those that don’t. Profiles are very important and very effective when they include a theme that matches your online business goals and objectives.

Three: Anyone can do it and you can do it in-house.

Ask yourself, do you have the experience? Are you using the most appropriate strategies and the right tools? Fact is, few businesses have in-house teams with the experience needed to launch an effective social media marketing campaign. And, many lack the resolve to allocate the necessary resources required to obtain meaningful results.

What do you need? First and foremost, a concise written strategy as well as numerous technical tools, a contact list manager, copy writer, graphic artists and, most importantly, knowledge and experience.

Social media marketing is a fundamental shift in the way individuals network, organize information and communicate. In essence, it is the child born from the evolution of technology during the past two decades. Today, businesses are leveraging technology in more ways than you can possibly imagine.

Each business has unique goals and objectives. Therefore, establishing a social media marketing budget depends on your industry, your competition and your expectations. But, creating a budget is similar to any other project. Here are four quick steps to get your started:

What “projects” and “resources” are required?

1. Social Media Strategy and Theme – generally developed by the business management team (or owner) with the marketing/communications manager. If you don’t have a full-time marketing manager, consider outsourcing this important starting point to an experienced marketing firm.
2. Tools – select the sites and tools you’ll focus on for your campaign. And, stay focused. The most appropriate sites are not necessarily the top three. Research the sites visited most frequently by your target market just like you would with any other marketing campaign. Stick with your plan long enough to collect meaning data to determine the effectiveness of the campaign.
3. Integration – plan out specifically how you intend to use other forms of advertising – such as marketing brochures, trade shows, local events, print ads, etc. Are you driving traffic to social media sites and capturing leads to build your contact list? Are you sponsoring an event supported by an email marketing campaign? For example, are you posting photos and copies of presentations you gave on your blog following an event? There are costs associated with this aspect of the project such as contact management software, email marketing software, blog maintenance, etc.
4. Define success – almost everything online can be measured. However, the more you intend to measure the more money you’ll spend collecting and analyzing data. It is very important to understand some of the costs are “branding” costs and some are “operational” costs (IT support). Understand the different aspects of your marketing campaign and appropriate the resources as well as the expenses accordingly.

Next week we’ll go into more detail on planning and budgeting for social media marketing. You can subscribe to our site here; it allows you to receive the updates when they are published. Also, please leave a comment below if you have specific questions about social media. Or, tell us what lessons you learned last year about social media marketing?

A few photos of the Asian Chamber members attending the event – thanks again for inviting AIM Custom Media to present to your group of members. We enjoyed meeting your new members and guests.

[Show as slideshow]

Are you passionate about increasing sales but can’t seem to get anywhere using social media? We all know millions and millions of links and leads are shared everyday on social networks. And, there are several simple things you can do to improve your results and get your share. This evening (January 27, 2010, 6-8pm) I’ll be giving a presentation at the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce Business Networking Forum. Here’s the info from the Chamber’s website and a link for additional details:

Marketing Yourself and Your Business in the New Digital World

2010 is going to be an incredible year for marketing. Entrepreneurs that survived the economic storm of 2009 are in an exciting position for 2010. The days of costly brand building are over. It is going to be a time where innovative marketing is going to flourish. Brand marketing is going to be cheaper, faster and smarter.

Are you ready to enter the universe of possible marketing and advertising initiatives?

If yes, let Social Networking Guru Greg Magnus break down for you the steps needed to make when moving into the complex world of social networking, beginning with how to best put social networking to use, whether you are:

• Business prospecting
• Promoting your brand
• Recruiting talents
• Hatching a new venture
• Engaging and retaining customers, or
• Exploring a new career

Coordinated by the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce, this group of businesses and professionals meet monthly between January and June to network and discuss key issues impacting their businesses’ bottom line.

Guest Speaker:
Greg Magnus, President
AIM Custom Media, LLC

Date & Location:
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 From 6-8pm
Mekong Restaurant, 6004 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23230

More information here.

If you can’t make it or you already missed it, you can subscribe to our site here. I’ll post the presentation materials later in the week and you’ll receive the info when it is added to digital AIM.

NOTE: If you subscribed, please check your Inbox right away. Within the next minute or two, there will be an email asking you to confirm your subscription. This is called “double opt-in” to make sure that someone else cannot subscribe you to our list. It is very important that you click the confirmation link in that email. If you fail to do that you will not receive the info requested.

To begin with, website marketing requires a lot more than a website. What’s essential?

1. Website Marketing Plan
   • Development of a small business website marketing plan requires: industry knowledge (current trends, marketing research), strategic planning, financial management (budget), team management (human resources) and a clear understanding of what it will take to implement your plan (basic, if not advanced, technical skills).
2. Things to consider:
   • MARKETING EVENTS CALENDAR (2010): Prepare a schedule of major industry events such as trade shows (local/national), PR events, seminars, speaking engagements, etc. Determine in order of priority the most important half dozen or so for your business (certain businesses will have a few dozen).
   • LEAD CAPTURE: What online resources do you plan to use to capture leads before and after each event? Do you intend to create specific website content for each event? You said yes, right?
   • MARKETING CAMPAIGNS: Have you planned out the resources required to implement your marketing campaigns for each event? Consider what it really takes to implement email marketing, social networking, press releases and similar tactics such as blogging and article marketing. Website marketing requires IT support, graphic designers, and copy writers for each event as well as post event follow-up marketing.
   • SEGMENTATION – TARGET MARKETING: Have you created a contact and prospect list for each event identified? Known as list segmentation and target marketing, it is key to successful website marketing. List development and management is often neglected by small business owners new to online marketing.
   • LIST MANAGEMENT: Review your customer list as well as your social network connections and determine if the majority are within your target market. If not, grow your list as well as your network by specifically targeting key players that have the ability to drive new business and referrals. Also, determine how you’ll manage your list? Your email client, such as MS Outlook, is probably the wrong answer.
   • CONTENT MANAGEMENT: Over stated but not something you want to forget, “Content is King.” Regular website updates are mandatory for marketing online. And, it almost always requires technical resources that often overwhelm the average small business marketing department.
   • TECHNICAL SUPPORT (IT): Understand the need for IT support and graphic designers as well as the usual marketing copy writers. Also, understand your sales people are not website managers. Asking them to do so is a misuse of their talents so make sure you have the right people doing the right job when it comes to website marketing.
   • SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO): The most important thing to understand about SEO is “you must be persistent.” SEO is an ongoing process, not an event. There are numerous SEO strategies and the costs can range from a few hundred a month (limited expectations for growth) to tens of thousands (shopping cart sites with high ticket items that require lots of website traffic). Search engine optimization is often beyond the technical skills of most small business owners; get help when you need it. Sure, you can “do it yourself” but in most cases the skills require an expert to be truly successful. Think of website traffic like putting gas in your car – stop adding gas and you’ll sit on the side of the road where you’ll watch the traffic go by.
3. Financial Management:
   • BUDGET: Does $3,000 or $5,000 per month sound like a lot to you for website marketing? If so, think about it. That figure is equivalent to $36 – $60,000 per year, which probably isn’t enough to hire the appropriate staff with the skills needed to successfully grow your business online. And remember, everyone it seems is planning to grow their business online in 2010.
   • VENDORS – OUTSOURCE: To rise above the competition, you’ll need to get the appropriate help or spend a lot of your time each day as a “website marketer” instead of as a business owner. Do what you do best with your time. If it isn’t website marketing, then consider outsourcing.
   • Online marketing budgets vary greatly depending on the industry and business revenues. Contact us for assistance with the budgeting process if you don’t already have specific numbers in mind for your plan.

A few quick tips:

1. You can use most any magazine editorial calendar appropriate for your industry as a planning guide. I’ve owned and worked for a few publishing companies. The major publishers put a lot of time and energy into their editorial calendars – no need to recreate the wheel. For local events, check with the chamber of commerce and city magazines as well as last years blog posts; many publishers have maintained blogs for several years now and you can review their archives. Also, ask your mentors, vendors and business colleagues as well as your competitors websites.
2. Learn from others that are already successful. A business colleague and personal friend publishes the “Rich Niche Group” blog. A significant portion of his blog posts are interviews of successful entrepreneurs; learn from their experiences. Here’s an example and a link for you: “We originally had visions of building a little bit of a client base, selling to AOL, and retiring in the Caribbean. Well, we were a little late for that, so we had to opt for Plan B which was to buckle down and build the business.“ Dale Coyner, Serial Entrepreneur, Founder of Communicast and Open Road Outfitters.
3. Email marketing software that is hosted online can be used to cost-effectively manage a small business contact list. Use a software program that allows you to add custom fields to the database. Also, you can easily add new prospects to your list just by opening up a website browser and accessing your list and/or your newsletter subscription form.

Are you preparing your 2010 Website Marketing Plan? Share your ideas in the comment section – thanks.

By Greg Magnus
AIM Custom Media
www.aimcustom.com

RESTON, VA, December 2, 2009 – comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 30 days of the November – December 2009 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $12.26 billion has been spent online, marking a 3-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday reached $887 million in online spending, up 5 percent versus year ago, and matching the heaviest online spending day on record, December 9, 2008. Continue reading at comScore >