Proficiency Index

Top 10 Webstores in 2010

W o n d e r f u l

W e b s t o r e s

The best got better! New rising stars! Resellers respond positively to urgent challenge

23 Dec 10 (Completed1800ET; 2300 GMT)
Regular readers know that we have campaigned resellers for 3 years to match the Amazon.com webstore experience that women in business prefer. The great news is that 9 have matched and exceeded the experience. Especially these champions…

Read more: Top10 Webstores of 2010

Proficiency Index

The P O W E R 

Performers 2010

Who wins the growth champions challenge for US and UK resellers

23 Dec'10 (Updated 1300ET; 1800 GMT))

Last year, Tony Ellison CEO at Shoplet.com scooped the pool with a tremendous triple-top perfomance: #1 webstore; #1 in productivity; and #1 in market growth. Can anyone match that in 2010. We suggest some hot performers and welcome your contributions. 

Nominations all in...the countdown from #10 down #1 follows here:

Read more: Proficiency Index - Power Performers 2010

Proficiency Index

OP Reseller Review

The Productivity

Champions 2010

New leaner US/UK entrants 

outpace 2009 leaders

23 Dec’10 (Refreshed)

We’ve been busy reviewing best practice in one of the most universally accepted measures of reseller productivity and a strong profitability indicator.

As started in 2009, we differentiate between stocking, stockless and pure internet resellers. 

Read more: Proficiency Index Productivity Champions 2010

Boston, Chicago, London,

Minneapolis, NY or Seattle?

Top Growth

City in 2010

Where is it all happening in OP?

14 Dec 10

Chicago is the home of the modern day OP industry. In recent years Boston has taken the lead with many challengers emerging. So who leads in 2010?  

Read more: OP's Top Growth City 2010

Proficiency Index

Productivity is up!

2010 Reseller Review

Will 2009 leader Shoplet be overtaken? Who will lead the ‘stocking’ league?

30 Nov’10 (Updated)

I have been asked to bring forward the very popular Annual Productivity Review of US/UK resellers. We will publish this on Friday and invite resellers not previously listed to submit any claims over $400,000 sales/employee (£250,000). Please email Peter Frost before Monday 5 December 2010

Proficiency Index
2010 Poll Results

Top 6 women
OP marketers

The winners + mini-profiles are:

27 Nov 10 (Completed)
Many thanks for submitting nominations and voting for the top female marketers in the OP industry. We list the top 6 in alphabetical order with a mini-profile of noted achievements…

Read more: Top 6 women marketers 2010

Proficiency Index
2010 '40 under 40’ Poll Results

Top young talent
in OP marketing

The winners and mini-profiles are:

27 Nov 10 (Completed)
Many thanks for submitting nominations and voting for the hottest young talent in the exciting OP industry. We list the top 10 in alphabetical order with a mini-profile of noted achievements…

Read more: 40 under 40 top OP marketers

Proficiency Index Poll

40 under 40

Nominations please for OP’s
hottest young business talent

The results of this tremendously popular poll are being processed and the top 40 will be the subject of a special feature this weekend

Read more: Proficiency Index Poll - 40 under 40

Proficiency Index Poll

Top 20 Women
OP Marketers

Please make your reasoned nominations

21 Nov 10 (Updated)
Both leading Fortune and Forbes magazines have recently published their lists of the most powerful women in business. We thought it was a good idea to recognize the top female marketers leading the OP industry’s transformation from box shifters to productivity service providers.  

All entries have now been received and results will be published in a special feature on Monday

Read more: Proficiency Poll - Top 20 Women Marketers

Annual Brand Design Review

Are you proud of
your brand image?

Who will rate the best? Who is dressed to impress? Who gets its message across best to user-choosers?

5 Nov 10 (updated)

Last year we attracted an impressive number of entries from US and UK dealers, to our first Reseller Brand Design Review. We invite dealers again to email with their brand image, logos, message and webstore designs and the Proficiency Index team will assess and constructively comment.

To date we have received 42 responses...

Read more: Proficiency Index - Reseller Brand Design Review

Buying groups
belong to a
bygone era!

If marketing to users is #1 priority,
what tools do dealer groups provide?

27 Oct 10 (Updated)

First of all we apologise for the protracted delay in publishing the Proficiency Index Annual Review of OP Dealer Groups. Unfortunately, some groups have declined to participate. As the priority has shifted away from buying at lower prices, towards marketing at lower costs, are they afraid to expose their shortcomings? We focus on 10 key marketability services that groups can offer members and have rated all groups in the US and UK, regardless of their wish to be involved.

Read more: Dealer Group Marketability Survey 2010

Webstore Survey #5

Unlock your
p o t e n t i a l !

UK webstores probably 2 years
behind best US user experience

5 Oct 10
We apologise for the delay in reporting Round 5 of the Proficiency Index Webstore Review. We have completed over 50 reviews and this time wanted to highlight best practice in the UK. There are still too many top resellers with password protection restricting open user access inside their customers.

Report will be completed later today including comparison with a new US rising star

Read more: Proficiency Index - Webstore Survey #5

Best Practice Case Study

Marketing plan for small dealers

One thing more important than sales... personalized marketing

By Lucy Jermyn
20 Sep 10
Smaller companies sometimes focus more on sales than marketing. This can work up to a point, but sooner or later, a well-planned marketing strategy needs to be in place, even if you’re building it from scratch.

Read more: First marketing plan for small resellers - case study

Proficiency Index Trendwatch

The myths of

market share

Beware narrow definitions in

new business supply market

Read more: The myths of market share

Proficiency Index
Webwatch Surveys

OP’s Top 10
W e b s t o r e s

Independents’ extremes...
the best and worst practices.

10 Sep 10
The Proficiency Index web design has now reviewed 40 of the best webstores in the OP world. The comprehensive surveys cover 10 marketability factors from a user chooser’s viewpoint. We now highlight the Top 10 performers, which amazingly just excludes the iconic Amazon, and Office Depot... 

Read more: OP's Top 10 Webstores

Proficiency Index
WebWatch Survey #4

The Wonder
of Webstores

Top 2 rated 70%+...but user experience still not great

8 Sep 10 (Completed with pix)
The Proficiency Index team can now bring you Survey #4 results  of the highly popular and controversial review of top US resellers’ webstores.

Read more: Wonder of Webstores - Survey #4

2010 Office User Survey

What women
want in business?

“I love office products... my favourite webstore is… it’s lighter and brighter … I want human touch… I want an easier search… I want video demos”

Read more: 2010 Office User Chooser Survey

Proficiency Index
First Annual Webstore Review
Survey #3 resumes...

Trio of resellers...

highly rated 70%+ 

Open 24/7 - Your #1 priority

Today, the Proficiency Index team resumes and reports on Survey #3 of the immensely popular review of UK/US resellers’ webstores.

In the US we analyse: Give Something Back, Guernsey OP; Phillips Group; S&T Office; and Warden's. In Canada: Beatties Basics. In the UK: Caboodle;  Excel Office; Irongate/OfficeThingy; and Paperstone.

Read more: Proficiency Index; Webstore Survey #3

Proficiency Index 

First Annual Web-watch

Survey #2 Results

Tangled
web designs

Self-serving stores miss
user-choosers completely

11 July 10
We’ve just completed the second survey of resellers and must admit disappointment with the moderate results compared with Survey#1 last week. Local resellers have a huge natural advantage over the bigbox operators, but fail to exploit it....

Read more: WebWatch Survey 2 - Tangled web designs

Proficiency Index

Twelve worst
webstore practices

Disrespect, sad search and own 

brand, spoil shopping experience

9 July 10
The Proficiency Index team has now reviewed 20 of the best known webstores in the UK/US OP marketplace. A few are beautiful experiences for users, but most are frustrating. Here are the most irritating practices...

Read more: Proficiency Index - 12 worst webstore practices