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Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for December 2009

Practical eCommerce asks industry insiders each month to share a great, innovative idea that could help an ecommerce company. Here’s what ten of them had to say for the December 2009 installment.

Shop First, Ask For Registration Later

“Allow shoppers to check out before asking them to register with your website. The information learned at check out, such as name, address and email, can be used to create customer accounts. Eliminating this extra step in the online shopping process gets you one step closer to a completed order.”

Jeffrey Cohen
CIO/CTO
PM Digital

Offer a Branded DIY Gift Wrapping Kit

“Many shoppers don’t use gift wrapping services because they prefer to save the money, or they might want to check what they bought before it is wrapped. Try offering a DIY gift-wrapping kit with your branded gift-wrap, ribbon, and card for a nominal fee. You won’t need to use staff resources wrapping products, plus your customer gets to inspect the gift before he or she presents it. It’s a win-win solution.”

Elizabeth Ball
Director
It’s In The Stars

Never Argue, Try Persuasion

“Never argue with a customer. Even if you are right, it’s useless waste of time. You’ll lose as soon as you start arguing with the customer. Try to persuade him or her instead.”

Alex Mulin
Director of Sales
Qualiteam/X-Cart

Adjust Your Spend Caps During the Holidays

“If you have caps on your spend at various comparison shopping engines, be sure to go in and adjust your budgets throughout the holiday season. Traffic and costs will rise steadily so be ready and visible for all opportunities.”

Matt Thompson
Director
Indigo Sky

Keep Social Media Strategy Relevant to Your Business

“Connect to customers through social media outlets, but develop your own strategy relevant to your particular business. Just because Dell, Best Buy or other large corporations are using a particular site or a particular strategy doesn’t mean it is relevant or feasible for your business.”

Brad Yeager
Certified Business Intermediary
Ecommerce Exit Strategies

The Advantage of Up-selling

“Up-sells increase average earnings per sale, and a properly executed up-sell can even increase your conversion rates. Compelling up-sell offers should cost no more than 30 percent of the price of your primary product. And, when choosing your up-sell offers, always select products that complement your primary product offer.”

Bobbi Leach
General Manager
RevenueWire

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

“Try not to rely too heavily on one supplier. Although it’s more difficult to manage multiple suppliers, diversifying will help shield you if your primary supplier should run into trouble.”

Micheline Hellwege
Owner
The Collectors Hub

Offer Telephone Sales on Your Site

“Offer telephone orders on your site as an alternative to online orders. A message such as ‘Order by telephone and speak to one of our Product Experts’ can increase sales. And, conversions are typically higher over the telephone.”

Kate Holroyd
Marketing Manager
Tiger Commerce

Embed Ecommerce Into Your Overall Retail Strategy

“Launch your ecommerce operation as a coordinated, multi-channel selling effort, ideally with the head of ecommerce seated at the management table. This structure allows ecommerce to become what it should be in retail–a force multiplier for chain-wide initiatives, and it optimizes online results.”

Carl Prindle
President and Chief Operating Officer
Blueport Commerce

Keep Shoppers on the Cart Page

“When cross selling or up-selling products in the shopping cart, make sure you allow shoppers to easily add the recommended products to the cart without leaving the shopping cart page.”

Ido Ariel
Co-Founder
Barilliance Systems LTD

Got a great ecommerce idea? Email kate@practicalecommerce.com.

Kate Monteith
Kate Monteith
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