Faster computers and impatient consumers expecting rapid download speeds compel online merchants to optimize storefront performance. Even a several-seconds download can be too slow for the millions of web shoppers who are ready to buy but intolerant of slow page loads. As marketers demand increasingly rich presentations with more images and consumer interaction, retailers are challenged to accelerate their sites’ front-end user experience.

Wine.com overcame these challenges with a front-end site optimization tool that cut landing page load times to just two seconds and effected improvements of up to 45%. “A four-second download once was acceptable but today is far too slow, given advancements in computer technology and growing consumer expectations,’” stated Geoffrey Smalling, CTO of Wine.com. “Two seconds was an ambitious goal but we had to reach it or lose potential customers, especially first-time visitors."

As consumers continue to gravitate to the always-on, multimedia benefits of smartphone technology, email marketing is coming to the forefront as a key way to increase click-through rates and purchases via mobile. Overall email opens via smartphones have increased from 13.36% in Q4 2010 to 20.24% during Q1 and Q2 2011, according to research from Knotice, a targeting marketing communications solution provider. Email open rates via desktop decreased from 86.64% in Q4 2010 to 79.76% during Q1 and Q2 2011.

Knotice’s “Mobile Email Opens Report” defines mobile email open rates as the number of opens occurring via all mobile devices, including tablets. Results are compared to email opens occurring on desktop computers and laptops to highlight the growing importance of streamlining email design for mobile users. According to Patti Renner, Director of Marketing of Knotice, mobile open rates will surge as smartphone usage becomes more prevalent.

With the Openbucks gift card payment network, shoppers can now use their retail gift cards as cash online for gaming and other purchases. Numerous retailers, including CVS, Subway, Sports Authority, CircleK, Citgo, Hess and more have become Openbucks card issuers recently. At presstime, Openbucks cards were for sale in more than 50,000 retail locations in the U.S. and Canada, according to the company.

“Our vision is to enable anybody to pay for something in the digital world,” noted Marc Rochman, CEO of Openbucks. “It is easy, safe, private and costs shoppers nothing. There are no forms and users are not required to share their addresses or other personal information. Thousands and thousands of people are currently using it. ”