Energy Risk Awards 2007

10 Secret Strategies Online Retailers Use to Get You Spending

With the economy in jeopardy and $680 billion in projected online sales this year at risk, online retailers are making it ever easier for shoppers to buy. Through product placement, color conditioning, sense of urgency, ease of use, and the power of One-Click shopping, the most steel-willed window-shopper can end up buying sooner than anticipated.

In a brilliant graphic, the site Most Wanted details a myriad of sneaky ways that online retailers are pulling out all the stops to get you to open your wallet and type in your credit card details. Some of the methods, like yellow text equating a feeling of “Act Now!”, are familiar, but others will surprise you, like the fact that when Dell changed it’s message from “Learn More” to “Help Me Choose” it made them an extra $25 million in sales. 

1. Color subconsciously creates emotions: Blue = Trust & Security, Yellow = Act Now!, Green = Wealth, Black = Luxury

2. Product videos lure you in. Product description vids boosted Zappo’s sales by 6%-30%!

3. Carefully selected words make you spend more.

4. Making purchasing easy is key. Retailers employ: one-click shopping, renewing purchases automatically, quick load times on pages, shopping via your smart phone, and stored credit card details.  Did you know that people spent twice as much shopping eBay on their smart phones in 2010 vs. 2009– to the tune of $1.5 billion!

5. You are influenced by what other people say. Whether it is Tom Cruise boosting sales of Ray-Bans because of the sunglass’ starring roles in Risky Business and Top Gun or word of mouth in reviews, you are being influenced. A lot.

6. Shoppers will pay 20%-99% more for a 5-star reviewed product that a 4-star one, according to comScore. The reviews really do matter.

7. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Free shipping = more shopping, reduced prices, no matter how low, add up super fast in your cart, and free trials will always be just another way to lure you in.

8. Anything with a timer or short sales window will add to the urgency of your shopping and make you afraid you’ll miss out if you don’t act now, but you’ll also feel like an insider for finding the “deal.” Groupon, Ticketmaster, and airline sites that show you how many seats are left on the plane are all using this strategy.

9. “Helpful” email reminders of items you “forgot to buy” are opened by 50% of shoppers vs. the usual 10% that open retail emails. 25% of you will then go on to click a link in that reminder email which gets you right back where the retailer wants you: shopping!

Riding out the Waves | Iron Energy Blog

Soon its Long Lake oilsands facility would encounter technical difficulties and balk at reaching its production design capacity target of 72,000 barrels a day. The Macondo oil spill made a mess of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010, casting a long shadow over the region´s regulatory process and complicating Nexen´s prospects for its deepwater work with Royal Dutch Shell plc. "In our business, there can be long cycle times to our investments," he says. "For example, we´re bringing on stream with Exxon [Mobil Corporation] and Chevron [Corporation] and Total [E & P Canada] a $10 billion project in West Africa. That was from a discovery that we made in 1998. That was three CEOs ago. So my job is to develop that asset to production and my job will also be to leave a few jobs for the next guy to develop because of the cycle times." In the context of Nexen´s three-course strategies-conventional oil and gas, shale gas and oilsands-gas production from Nexen´s attractive shale gas prospects in the Horn River Basin may well become the responsibility of Romanow´s successor. So will any subsequent phases of Nexen´s oilsands development at Long Lake because, in the meantime, Romanow has his work cut out for him. In the oilsands, Nexen arguably gambled on an innovative technology that uses the heavy bottoms of bitumen rather than natural gas to generate steam for its steam-assisted gravity drainage wells and is now paying the price. But taking the longer view, Nexen started working on Long Lake more than a decade ago, and is now part way through ramping up to a production level that will continue for decades to come during which time natural gas prices will wax and wane. Romanow concedes that in retrospect some of the decisions Nexen made in 2001 would have been made differently today. "We made a very large investment and we should´ve phased it a bit more," he says. "But now, the upgrader we have, the gasifier and the steam is about 80 per cent of the total investment, and those are going to create value. We just need a few more wells. Which take time to drill, but they´re also the cheapest part of the development. Romanow´s leadership style recognizes that today´s oil and gas industry is more complicated than ever.

Asiamoney

Business Risk Management Handbook, A Sustainable Approach

Damages in international investment law

Congressional Record, V. 153, Pt. 2, January 18, 2007 to February 1, 2007

Energy Efficiency:, Real Time Energy Infrastructure Investment and Risk Management