One hundred and thirty years ago, Campbell’s invented condensed soup and began selling it to stores. Ten years ago, it launched its brand online via a co-branded partnership with Netgrocer.com. The company has created so many soups that stores have simply run out of room. Most retailers stock Campbell’s top sellers along with popular regional flavors.

While this adds up to a lot of soup, it leaves a few customers without their favorite flavors. We recently spoke with John Faulkner, director of brand communications, Jodi O’Brien, manager of consumer operations, and John Johnson, senior manager of interactive marketing, who discussed the strategy behind this small but important part of Campbell’s business. Here’s a snippet from the full interview available on eMarketer Total Access: (Read more…)

We recently spoke with Dan Graham, who heads up the California office of consumer products and services consultancy Dechert-Hampe, which specializes in retail operations, go-to-market strategies and sales efficiency. Here’s a snippet from the full interview, in which Mr. Graham spoke about best practices for consumer products brands and manufacturers looking to enter the online marketplace. (Read more…)

The Procter & Gamble Company raised some eyebrows with its January announcement that it would sell CPG products directly to consumers via a new Website. But P&G maintains that its eStore is a learning lab, one of the many groundbreaking test concepts it has launched over the past several decades.

We spoke with Glenn Williams, External Relations Manager at Procter & Gamble, about the new eStore and some of the strategies and expectations behind the concept. (Read more…)

 E-commerce sales in France rose 30% in Q3 2009, relative to the third quarter of 2008, according to the Fédération de l’e-commerce et de la vente à distance (Fevad).

The number of online transactions by French buyers between January and September 2009 was up 34% on the equivalent period in 2008,  said Fevad. Average order value fell 1%, however.

Most of the growth seems due to the more than 15,000 e-tailers that opened their virtual doors for the first time in the previous 12 months—as well as the expanded product and service offerings of older online merchants. François Momboisse, president of Fevad, noted that the number of online buyers had risen only modestly in a year.

The holiday season looks set to bring further cheer to France’s e-commerce sector, especially now that the country has officially emerged from recession. A full 83% of Internet users polled by Médiamétrie said they planned to consult the Web when shopping for gifts, and 70% said they would buy at least some of their holiday items online.

Fevad predicted that online sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 would be 25% higher than in 4Q 2008, and reach €5.4 billion ($7.94 billion). That would take total 2009 online spending by consumers in France to €25.2 billion ($37.0 billion). Fevad anticipates that annual online sales will pass €30 billion ($44.1 billion) in 2010.

A French-language summary of these and other research results is here.