Contact Standards Across Businesses & Internet Shops

I have a question about what current standards there are, if any, for
contact information across businesses and companies?  We work with over 500
internet retailers ( via http://www.superstoresearch.com ) in the UK
shopping industry and have access to thousands more, but there does not
appear to be any useful standardization of contact information for these
companies and the business sector is certainly an area that could benefit
from having a common platform through which consumers could get in touch
more easily.

For example, websites will list their telephone numbers in varying places,
some prefer to include them above the fold on every single page, while
others may keep them on a single page that is not as easy to find.  There
are often variations for the number to call depending on the nature of the
enquiry - such as a dedicated number for orders & sales and a separate
number for customer services and technical support.  Some retailers have
multiple store locations.  Consumers are often interested in the nearest
available store and the store opening times.  All these varying types of
information could be compiled in a standardized way, enabling useful
services to emerge that help consumers to get in touch with businesses much
more easily and quickly.  Having such standards implemented as rich snippet
data by those websites would further help them to be discovered by spider
bots that would compile and update such information.

I am open to suggestions on how we can help and contribute to these ideas,
including reaching out to our contacts in the online shopping retail
industry to get their help and support in providing such contact information
in a standardized manner.  Some planning beforehand will greatly enhance the
amount and quality of the data that can be compiled.

Please put forward any ideas and suggestions on what the next appropriate
step would be.

Best regards,

Junaid Nazir

SuperStoreSearch Team
--------------------------
Merchant Support

http://www.superstoresearch.com | Online Shopping Guide

Email:   junaid.nazir@superstoresearch.com
Phone:  0798 555 333 0

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