Doing business on the web used to be so easy. Slap up a home page, add a shopping cart, feature a few products and the orders would come in. Major retailers were way behind and virtually anyone working out of their home or garage could be in business.

For the most part, those days are gone. Major retailers are dominating cyberspace and quickly changing the landscape. Consumers are used to world-class sites such as amazon.com, expedia.com and priceline.com and expect other sites to be at least as good.

That’s why it’s so exciting to see the relaunch of bebeautiful.com. Not only can you view the current catalog but you can quick order if you know the item numbers you want.

New features include updated graphics, easy navigation tools, indexing, tabs to switch between new products, best sellers and what’s hot, and categorization that is user friendly.

It was a long time in coming and special thanks to Mark L. and his crew for making it happen. Site traffic has already increased but more importantly, the customer experience will be ten fold better which was the ultimate goal for the relaunch.

The team is working on other site enhancing features that will be launched in 2010 but for now, holiday shopping will fun and simple. Take a look at the new site, it’s where the action is for beauty.

Happy Monday!

It’s a well known fact that diamonds are a girls best friend. But then again, so are shoes, handbags, cosmetics, dresses, accessories and restaurant reservations.

Diamonds last forever. That is perhaps one of the greatest marketing lines ever invented. DeBeers came up with that one years ago; they are the clearing house for all diamonds sold and are responsible for keeping the price points high.

Sapphires and emeralds aren’t too bad either. Although a bit lower priced, they have that lure that brings attention day after day. One never gets tired of looking at brilliant gems.

With this in mind, Essie herself a connoisseur of fine diamonds, an idea hatched. Why not put a diamond, sapphire and emerald in a bottle of polish and name the collection Essie Loves Diamonds?

Essie partnered with designer Judith Ripka and with no budget spared, came up with a special 1-ct diamond, sapphire and emerald gem. The collection has 3 colors and each color will have one lucky bottle in it containing the gem, up to a $5000 value. At $15 a pop, it ain’t cheap but the marketing folks at Essie are tossing in a signature crystal file, a $14 value, for free (Max is a big shooter).

The collection officially launches August 1 but you can buy now at theindustrysource.com and bebeautiful.com.

If you are a lucky winner, you have to let me know so I can feature you in my blog and in our magazine. Good luck to all.

Happy Thursday!