Category

Conversion

Fewer than 5% of visitors to an ecommerce site typically convert to customers. In this Conversion category, we offer insights to increase that percentage. Our expert contributors address ratings and reviews, social proof, site search, product page enhancements, product descriptions, checkout options, live chat, and much more — anything to help close online sales.

Analytics & Data | Checkout Tactics | Customer Retention | Customer Service | Photography & Video | Product Pages
  • Conversion

    Incentives That Create More Sales

    March 28, 2007 •

    What makes a customer commit to that profit-boosting holiday purchase? One respondent to a survey conducted by the e-tailing group summed up the heavily promotional mindset of today's online shopper this way: "Find something that no one else has been able to find, with a coupon and free...

  • Conversion

    Quality Images Boost Sales

    March 14, 2007 •

    Online retailers use the Internet to reach a broader audience in order to promote and sell products. However, as online technology has evolved, so have the expectations of the growing number of shoppers. Customers now expect a quality online shopping experience. A website that is poorl...

  • Conversion

    Usability Report Card: Delsol.com

    March 8, 2007 •

    This month we review DelSol.com, the online store for the manufacturer of color-changing apparel and accessories. All items sold by Del Sol change color when exposed to sunlight, and this influences everything about the brand, including the website. Del Sol's website has a laid-back de...

  • Customer Service

    Treat Customers as Next-door Neighbors

    February 19, 2007 •

    People often ask me where I learned so much about ecommerce and business in general. I didn't attend business school, nor do my college degrees reflect what I do today. Besides being book smart and having been raised "old school," I accumulated the majority of my knowledge from experien...

  • Conversion

    Google Is Keeping Score Of Your Keywords

    February 14, 2007 •

    It's one of the topics that floats to the top in the search marketing world and generates intense discussion — even though no one knows exactly what it means: "Quality Score." In the usual, Google AdWords sense, Quality Score is the measurement of several variables, such as keyword clic...

  • Conversion

    Are 1-800 Numbers And Live Chat Important?

    February 14, 2007 •

    As online shopping matures, merchants must avoid the tendency to be complacent in their merchandising efforts. Here are five ways merchants can truly innovate in the coming year. In the end, there is one point all five recommendations have in common and that is "listening to the custome...

  • Conversion

    Conversion: Define Your Audience

    February 12, 2007 •

    Regular readers won't be surprised to find that this month's column describes one of the key elements of effective conversion. In fact, this element is so critical, I consider it to be the cement that binds all the other areas of effective conversion together. Before I reveal what it is...

  • Conversion

    Usability Report Card: Quelobjet.com

    January 30, 2007 •

    For this month's edition of the Usability Report Card we have chosen Quel Objet, a site specializing in French products for the home. Quel Objet means "What a thing!" according to the site's "about us" page, and the site's design shares the same funky vibe as its name. Quel Objet doesn...

  • Conversion

    Why the Fishing Lure Won’t Reel in Much Online Profit

    January 16, 2007 •

    "I invented and patented a fishing lure (the "Bottom Banger") about five years ago. I have tried to sell it online, but every time I try I fail. I have a video showing the lure in action and I do sell them in the local bait shops for $1.99. Can you steer me in a direction that will make this take off?" -- Greg Amsler

  • Conversion

    Quick Query: Restaurants & Email Marketing

    January 10, 2007 •

    Abby Weaver is the marketing director for Fajita Grill (Fajitagrill.com), a small restaurant with locations in Oswego and Fulton, New York, that successfully uses email marketing and its website to boost sales. PeC: When did Fajita Grill launch its website? Weaver: Even before we op...

  • Conversion

    Outsourcing Pay-per-click

    January 8, 2007 •

    Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a long-term, time-consuming endeavor. Business owners that are serious about search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns, and who want those efforts to lead to strong sales, must realize the implementation of PPC is not something to take lightly. To achie...

  • Conversion

    The Three Best Website Traffic Sources

    December 4, 2006 •

    Not a day goes by that any serious website owner doesn't wonder how to get more traffic to his site. This intense desire to generate more clicks makes virtually any online entrepreneur easy prey to many of the traffic schemes and scams that pervade the Internet like conmen on a carniva...

  • Conversion

    What is Viral Marketing?

    December 4, 2006 •

    I flipped on VH1 recently and sat enthralled as a rap artist with colorful language skills hosted "Web Junk 20" where they played 20 videos plucked from the web and played them on cable TV. Last night I saw that Bravo Channel now airs a show called "Outrageous and Contagious Viral Vide...

  • Conversion

    Quick Query – Michael J. Katz

    December 1, 2006 •

    <strong>Do ecommerce businesses do a good job of marketing to existing customers? </strong> One of my favorite questions to ask somebody is, "What do you do now to systematically stand in front of the people you already know?" I always get a sort of embarrassed si...

  • Conversion

    Usability Report Card: eBladestore.com

    December 1, 2006 •

    The team at eBladestore.com asked us to review its site for usability issues. eBladestore sells knives of all types and sizes through a basic, three-column storefront. There are several good things about this site, including a quality site-search function. While the site has a basic, cl...

  • Customer Retention

    Selling After Dec. 25

    December 1, 2006 •

    For the majority of online stores, the holiday shopping season is what makes an entire year’s worth of work pay off. With the bulk of shopping taking place the first two weeks of December, it’s typically considered the highest grossing month of the year. That may be so, but the normal s...

  • Conversion

    Site Search Can Pay Dividends

    December 1, 2006 •

    Improved site search and "recommender" functions not only improve a user's experience at a website, but they can also help improve a site's sales, according to site-search professionals. Converting visitors into buyers frequently hinges on a site's ability to quickly and correctly get ...

  • Conversion

    10 Tips To Improve Usability

    December 1, 2006 •

    In a brick-and-mortar enterprise, the problem would be so obvious, no one could ignore it. A tangle of abandoned shopping carts full of unpurchased goods means trouble. "All right," any serious business owner would ask, "What's going on here? What am I doing wrong?" Three questions ar...

  • Conversion

    Great Ideas Roundtable

    December 1, 2006 •

    "What customers want is information. What makes them happy during their shopping experience is finding what they want, checking out hassle-free and feeling secure with their online payments when providing their personal information. What makes them unhappy is when they can not complete ...

  • Conversion

    Need a Stocking Stuffer?

    December 1, 2006 •

    If you're anything like me, your focus dwindles over the holidays. So instead of providing you with tips that you don't have the energy to use, I thought that I'd briefly review some of the books that have shaped how I think about the web. Feel free to copy down this list and use it whe...

  • Conversion

    Yahoo! Search Marketing Releases New Platform

    December 1, 2006 •

    Yahoo! Search Marketing may have been a pioneer in the pay-per-click industry, but anyone who has ever used its advertiser's interface would probably agree that it has been light-years behind Google AdWords for quite some time. The interface is cumbersome, slow and just plain difficult ...

  • Conversion

    Local and Geo-target Searches: How Well Do They Work?

    December 1, 2006 •

    Refining your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising strategies to include geotargeted searches can help a business owner focus promotion efforts and get more bang for the buck. However, not all search engines are created equally when it comes to managing a localized campaign. Geo-targeting i...

  • Checkout Tactics

    Lowering Cart Abandonment

    December 1, 2006 •

    With shopping cart abandonment at a high level, ecommerce owners continue to look for ways to motivate shoppers to complete the checkout process. Research from Shop.org indicates shoppers abandon their cart during checkout more than 75 percent of the time. Imagine 75 percent of the gro...

  • Conversion

    5 Benefits of Using Feeds

    November 20, 2006 •

    What's a Feed? Feeds are a way of sharing content. When you make material from your website available for publishing on other sites, you provide them with a feed. Basically, it's a code that lets them post your articles and blogs. There are different kinds of code - XML, RSS, Atom, etc...

  • Conversion

    Making Liquidation Work For You

    November 13, 2006 •

    Liquidation is a very scary word for most of us. But the reason we get nervous is just because we really don't understand what liquidation is. One man who is extremely familiar with the process is Bob Nelson, president of Power Retailing, a retail consulting firm. Nelson explains liquid...

  • Conversion

    Accessibility – The Wheelchair Ramp to Your Website

    November 13, 2006 •

    The original creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, dreamed of an information space that was open to everyone on the planet. But like many dreams, imagination took over and the vision became layered with roadblocks that effectively brought down the shutters for many users. Acc...

  • Conversion

    Diversify Traffic + Cultivate Subscribers = Win Big in Ebiz

    November 6, 2006 •

    The Amazon River starts as a drop of rain falling into a tiny trickle of a stream way up in the mountains of South America. At its end, the Amazon pumps up to 300,000 cubic meters of water into the Atlantic Ocean every second during the rainy season. To build from a trickle to a torrent...

  • Conversion

    A Win-Win Situation: Why Affiliate Marketing Works

    November 6, 2006 •

    Affiliate marketing can be a profitable venture for you, as a merchant or affiliate. It presents you with a great opportunity to increase revenue, and build valuable business relationships. Affiliate Benefits and Resources As an affiliate partner, you're capitalizing on traffic you al...

  • Conversion

    A Closer Look at Microsoft adCenter

    November 1, 2006 •

    Microsoft adCenter was officially launched in May 2006 after a nine-month beta period in the U.S. Surprisingly, however, many business owners and advertisers are not aware of its existence, and, among those who are, some are hesitant to try it out. While Google and Yahoo! have had pay...

  • Conversion

    Usability Report Card: Hummerpartsclub.com

    November 1, 2006 •

    In this Usability Report Card, we’re taking a look at Hummer Parts Club, an ecommerce store selling accessories for the full range of Hummers. I realize Hummers aren’t as innocuous as headsets or vinyl toys, but let’s put the politics aside and concentrate on improving an ecommerce stor...

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