Tote Tastemaker - Beautybloggingjunkie.com

We certainly don't post as often as we should here at Tote, but we read a lot of blogs and we're excited to start highlighting some of our favorites. If posterous cooperates, we'll add them to a blogroll soon.

Our first Tote tastemaker is Amber Katz of BeautyBloggingJunkie.com. Amber loves beauty products. She loves trying them on, loves reviewing them, and loves giving them away for free to her readers. And she definitely loves interviewing the personalities that make and use them.

We're excited to add beauty products to the next version of Tote, so we've been keeping up with the latest trends, events and celebrity news at her site.

Amber's story is super-inspiring too. She started hobby-blogging while working full-time as an editor for a financial services firm. Her profile increased when she got singled out by big-time press like Women's Wear Daily, NY Magazine, Lucky and Glamour. A few months ago, she got the opportunity to make her passion her career. DailyMakeover, one of the biggest beauty-sites on the web, gave her an editorial position!

Fortunately, she continues to blog regularly. In fact, the sheer volume (no pun intended) of posts and tweets is mind-boggling! We encourage you to check it out here or on twitter here. Consult the BBJ Glossary at the bottom of the blog to decipher some of her more obscure "abbreves". I definitely needed to!

If there are other blogs you think we should be checking out, let us know in the comments below or at paul [AT] coldbrewlabs.com.

Mobile Shoppers Ready to Buy from the Phone?

When we started working on Tote, lots of folks asked us whether consumers were ready to buy from their phones.  Some new reports point to a resounding "Yes!".

eBay's CEO John Donahue recently announced that consumers have spent more than $380 million through the company's iPhone application in the first three quarters of 2009.   PIzza Hut, which released an application for mobile ordering in September 2009, said mobile sales are going to add more than $1 million to it's top-line this year.

Our own early experience with Tote confirms this behavior.  Lots of people push the "find online" button -- in fact, a lot more than we initially thought.

While users took a while to get comfortable with e-commerce, it seems the "learning curve" for mobile buying is a lot less steep. Certainly, Apple did it's part to help consumers feel o.k. about buying stuff on their phones with the App Store.

Expect to see a lot more numbers about on-phone purchasing from retailers this holiday season.

Trick or TOTE (version 1.01)

Just in time for Halloween, we released a new version of TOTE (http://bit.ly/t101b).  We got great feedback from our early users and did our best to incorporate all the terrific suggestions. Here's what's new:

• Winter Fashions:  We've added lots of fall / winter stuff from your favorite stores.  It's starting to get chilly (at least here in Manhattan), so check out the new scarves, hats, knits, and coats!

• Bookmarks:  When you stop browsing a store or category, we remember just where you left off.  No need to scroll by items you've seen before.  

• Integrated Maps: Some of you found it confusing to get "bumped" to the external Maps application when finding nearby stores.  We totally agreed.  Now when you tap "Find Nearby Stores" TOTE launches an internal map.

• Speed! We spent a long time making browsing and filtering snappier. While can't do anything about your AT&T coverage, you'll notice scrolling is quicker, and it's much faster to narrow down a store by category.  Just tap the magnifying glass in the upper right corner.

• Push Notification:  We can now send you a message when new items are added or when your favorites go on sale.

1 More Guest at the Sample Sale Party

Today I heard about Swirl (swirl.com) another online sample sale.  This one is created by the super savvy folks at Daily Candy.  The name doesn't work for me (I think swirlie), but Daily Candy knows what they're doing, and I'm sure they'll fare just fine against...

Very First Post

...to the hellotote blog!