Deal of the week: Amazon to buy Zappos
Amazon is buying online footwear superstore Zappos.com. The ecommerce behemoth is paying 10 million shares of its stock, worth more than $800 million (£486.4 million), plus another $40 million (£24.3 million) in cash and other stock, for Zappos. Amazon launched its own footwear website, Endless.com, two years ago, but the effort has not been deemed a success.

DRL Holdings acquires Expert Logistics
DRL Holdings, which sells white goods via its Appliances Online and Appliance Deals websites, has acquired Expert Logistics, which specialises in providing home delivery for white goods. In addition to its own websites, DRL manages white-label sites for other merchants.

Sainsbury starts selling nonfood range online
Supermarket Sainsbury has joined competitors Asda and Tesco in selling nonfood goods online. Sainsbury is currently offering 4,500 nonfood items on its website but plans to increase that to 8,000 in September.

Vasanta Group raises funds, reduces debt
With help from turnaround fund Endless, stationery wholesaler Vasanta Group raised £30 million and had its debt reduced from £200 million to £50 million. According to reports, these moves are enabling the company to avoid falling into administration.

New stores for Brora, Nauticalia
Cashmere fashion cataloguer Brora is opening its second bricks-and-mortar store, in Edinburgh, this week. And Nauticalia, a cataloguer/retailer of maritime-inspired gifts, opened its 10th store, in Cowes, Isle of Wight. In addition, Nauticalia has taken over the production, manufacturing, and marketing of the Beken of Cowes calendar range.

Kaleidoscope to relaunch website
Freemans Grattan Holdings is relaunching its Kaleidoscope website next month. The revamped site will include a year-round holiday shop selling cruisewear and an improved checkout process.

Supplier Awards entry form is now available for new categories
The entry form for the FOUR new categories for Suppliers to enter in this year's Catalogue Exchange/ECMOD Supplier Awards is now available to download here. The closing date for entries is Monday 7th September. These all-new specialist supplier awards are designed to highlight the incredible contribution that our valued supplier organisations bring to the catalogue & online trading sector.

We hope that client side executives throughout the sector will want to support this celebration by nominating those suppliers who have assisted their businesses throughout the year. Download the client nomination form here. All details must be personally completed by the nominating executive, be dated and signed and be able to be verified.

These sought after Awards will be presented at the official ECMOD HQ Hotel - The Copthorne Tara, Kensington, on 7th October. Tickets for the evening which, whilst not being fully black tie, does ask for smart evening dress are priced at £95 + vat per person or £950 + vat per table of ten for the full evening including dinner. These tickets are on sale now. There will also be tickets available for the evening’s cocktail reception & Awards presentation without dinner at £45 + vat per person. Please contact Sam or Leanne for further information on 0871 855 5545.

Cut the costs of your paid-search efforts
Advocates of paid search probably wouldn’t agree with the adage about the best things in life being free. But certainly they wouldn’t have any qualms about trying to cut the costs of their search engine marketing efforts. For cost-cutting tips, click here.

Coming Up in Catalogue e-business

• August issue: special focus on customer retention and reactivation, plus a guide to deciphering SEO jargon, how to coordinate direct marketing and outbound sales, and more
• September issue: special focus on technology, plus ECMOD Preview supplement, with articles from speakers Amy Africa, Katy Howell, Ernie Schell, and others