Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for July 2010

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 July 2010 installment of “Great Ecommerce Ideas.”

Don’t Rush Your Product Listings

“When first setting up your ecommerce site it can be tempting to just get the basics of the products uploaded first and add details later, but don’t rush. Take time to get the title tags and descriptions right for each product, including relevant key words and a USP [unique selling proposition). Also write the description tags to sell and include relevant keywords.”

Rob Mobberley

CEO

Performance Motorcare Products Ltd

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Conversion Optimization Testing is Important

“Run controlled A/B/n tests of your site-wide templates, and concentrate on statistically significant results. In many cases, a 10 to 30 percent increase in sales can happen by testing variations in design layout.”

Chris Goward

Co-founder and CEO

WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization

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Make Use of Free Surveys

“Many shopping search engines (like Shopzilla) have free sales confirmation surveys, and the feedback can be invaluable. Survey your customers regularly, and be sure to route the feedback to the appropriate departments – customer service, webmaster, product development, or other.”

David Norris

Owner

Fourth Wave Consulting

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Up-sell Only What Makes Sense

“Whenever possible, up-sell accessories and items that make sense and compliment a customer’s purchase. These items will encourage customers to buy more and enhance their overall experience with the core product.”

Manish Rathi

Co-founder and Vice President of Marketing

Retrevo

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Set Workflow Rules to Automate and Innovate

“Workflow rule engines provide vital flexibility when processing orders, shipping, segmenting traffic, and giving discounts. Jump ahead of the competition by setting workflow rules to automate and innovate. For example: Set a 10 percent discount for customers coming from ‘Google only’ on ‘orders over $50.’ Then, set it to ‘send them an email’ and ‘set a tracking code’… the uses are endless.”

Ed Sturrock

Co-founder, VP of Product Management

AmeriCommerce

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Use Free Tools to Track SEO Efforts

“Find the top searched-for terms related to your industry with the free Google AdWords keyword tool. Then use the free Rank Checker from SeoBook.com to determine where your site ranks for each term across the major search engines. Organize all the information in a spreadsheet and recalculate rankings often. This is a great way to keep track of SEO efforts and to discover keyword terms to target through link building and on-page optimization.”

Josh Weiss

President

Bluegala

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Link Your Blog to Internal Product Pages

“Create a helpful, industry-specific blog, and make sure each of your principle team members has access to create entries regularly. Your corporate blog linked to internal product pages is your single best way to obtain long tailed keyword relevance in the search engines. “

Brina Bujkovsky

CEO/President

The Younique Boutique

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Find Out Why the Cart Was Abandoned

“Contact those visitors who passed almost the entire checkout in your shop but didn’t pay. There could be a technical problem that caused the customer to abandon the cart. Send a follow up email to find out why they didn’t complete the sale.”

Alexander Mulin

Sales Department Manager

Qualiteam

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Create an Easier Order Form

“Testing confirms that simpler and easier order forms convert better. So, make your order form as short, and with the fewest fields, as possible. Save information so that customers don’t have to start from scratch if they come back later. And, use either check boxes or radial buttons, but not both.”

Mason Wiley

Senior Vice President of Marketing

hydra

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Get Shoppers Back with Retargeting

“When visitors leave your site without making a purchase, display ad retargeting can help get those shoppers back to your site and motivate them to buy. Retargeted ads can promote the products each shopper is most likely to be in-market for next. It is always better to target shoppers with a known affinity for your brand, rather than prospecting for new shoppers.”

Lori Trahan

Vice President of Marketing

ChoiceStream

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