Business Idea of the Day

According to Website Magazine , e-commerce merchants who are still unsure of what consumers want this holiday season can direct their efforts toward providing user reviews, security verification and fair pricing. In a word, 2010 holiday shoppers are looking for online retailers they can trust. That was the fundamental message from ChannelAdvisor’s 2010 Consumer Shopping Habits Survey, the e-commerce solutions provider’s third annual report to help merchants prepare for the holiday season. An eye-opening 92-percent of the participating consumers said that they read product reviews, and nearly half admitted that reviews influence their purchasing decisions one way or the other. Shoppers also listed the top three most influential promotions that drive purchases as best price, free shipping and trusted seller status, and the top three indicators of trust were security verification, user reviews and website design aesthetics

Chris Schultz can divide his time in New Orleans into pre- and post-K periods: before and after Katrina reports Portfolio.com . For Schultz, founder of the technology incubator Voodoo Ventures, the difference is that stark. What Schultz—who founded and sold an Internet travel business, Destination V.I.P., before moving to New Orleans from Los Angeles in 2002—has seen in the last five years is new blood in the Big Easy. “We had an amazing ‘brain gain’ post-K of smart, passionate young people moving to New Orleans to make a difference,” the 36-year-old told Portfolio.com

According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Raymond Stauffer was shopping at a New Jersey mall when he noticed something peculiar about the bow ties on display at Brooks Brothers: They were labeled with old patent numbers. Stauffer also happens to be a patent lawyer. He sued Brooks Brothers Inc. in federal court, claiming it broke the law by marking its adjustable bow ties with patents that expired in the 1950s.

According to a story at CNNMoney.com , after selling his Illinois gourmet food store and moving to Austin six years ago, Chris Miller was anxious to open another food-related business. So he became an early pioneer of one of food world’s hottest trends: mobile food trucks. Miller’s hot-dog trailer transplants a Chicago classic down south

A lot has changed since we were babies. While some products that our parents might have used are still around, there are many more options than ever before. Baby Gift Room recognizes these changes and offers only what they feel are the best options for new moms and anyone that needs the perfect gift for one.

James Crow likes to think outside the box when it comes to his startup. If you were to ask him about his business philosophy then he would have to tell you that it’s happiness before the cash reports Stuff.co.nz . For Crow, that means organic growth and time with his young family are part of the equation and he’s in no hurry to find an outside investor.

Independent bookstores were battered first by discount chains like Barnes & Noble, then by superefficient Web retailers like Amazon.com. Now the electronic book age is dawning. The New York Times is reporting that with this latest challenge, these stores will soon have a new ally: the search giant Google. Later this summer, Google plans to introduce its long-awaited push into electronic books, called Google Editions. The company has revealed little about the venture thus far, describing it generally as an effort to sell digital books that will be readable within a Web browser and accessible from any Internet-connected computing device

It’s not every day that an entrepreneur that spends his time bring electricity to remote parts of Africa can spend a year with two Silicon Valley financiers and a retired tech exec. Yet for the 8th year in a row, over 20 social entrepreneurs like that one have been invited to Santa Clara University’s Global Social Benefit Incubator .

It takes more than just ingenuity to get a product onto retailers’ shelves and into the homes of millions of American consumers. It takes money, marketing and distribution–and most inventors don’t have any of these things. Michael Weinstein is an entrepreneur and internet marketer who runs the Internet division of Lipenwald Inc., a 60-person direct-response marketing company that finds, creates and markets consumer products through the internet, catalogs, direct mail, retail and television, reports Entrepreneur.com . As Chief Internet Officer, Weinstein is responsible for finding products, driving website traffic and increasing internet revenue, as well as ensuring effective online creative development and execution for more than 200 websites that offer thousands of products ranging from collectibles and horticulture to cosmetics and “As-Seen-On-TV” general merchandise

The next time you’re in Stafford, VA you might want to keep your eyes open for a new flea market that has just launched. Doug Shirley started the mostly open market last month on a piece of commercial property he owns reports Flea Market Zone . He also operates a pet salon, crab shack, and a real estate business, among other wide-ranging interests, and he says he has leveraged these in opening the new market. The crab shack is selling food to market-goers, and he is using extra pet salon space for inside vendors.