http://www.practicalecommerce.com/topic/20/Conversion--Usability/ Online business articles about converting web site visitors into customers and how to gauge and improve your business website's usability. en-us Copyright 2007 Confluence Publishing Wed, 07 May 2008 17:24:42 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/rss/ Practical Ecommerce v2.0.1 Ecommerce kmurdock@practicalecommerce.com bgetting@practicalecommerce.com 60 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/730/Five-Fast-Steps-to-Improve-Website-Usability/ Problem: Your website doesn't work like it should, and every day you're losing sales because of it. As much as you'd like to take the time to comprehensively study the problem, you've decided you can't afford to wait. In many instances, you should take some time to step back and look at your entire website and how its usability can be improved. However, there are some things you can begin looking at right now. 1. Checkout More sales are lost at checkout than any single spot on a website. Look at your analytics to see if you have an unusually large number of visitors who abandon their shopping cart before completing the sale. This may indicate a technical or design problem. Have someone look at your checkout procedure to see if it performs as it was initially designed. If it's not, you're likely losing sales. Things to consider include ease of use, payment terms, cart accessibility from each page of your site and helpful instructions. Ask friends to recommend sites and checkout... Wed, 07 May 2008 17:24:42 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/730/Five-Fast-Steps-to-Improve-Website-Usability/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/729/Pay-per-click-Advertising-Try-The-Home-Page-For-A-Landing-Page/ Over the last couple years a lot of emphasis has been put on creating the perfect pay-per-click landing page. The overall landing page strategy is to create a clear call to action on the page and to have relevant content relating to the search query and ad text. After you've followed these guidelines and even split-tested different variations, what happens if the keyword still doesn't convert? In my experience, a home page can sometimes be the solution. The value of landing visitors on a home page through paid search should not be overlooked. The main reason is because your home page is a reflection of your business. People always say, "You don't get a second chance at a first impression." While it may be a cliché, the adage is oftentimes true. A well-contrasted, clean-cut home page will give first-time visitors a warm and fuzzy feeling when they find your ecommerce business. Not only will this help conversions, but it could potentially turn those first-time visitors into... Mon, 05 May 2008 11:09:49 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/729/Pay-per-click-Advertising-Try-The-Home-Page-For-A-Landing-Page/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/716/Analytics-Collect-The-Right-Data/ "If you had just..." often starts a phrase of regret. If you had just left on time. If you had just bought that stock. In web analytics, "If you had just..." nearly always relates to loss of data. Here are two ways that data loss can erode the value of your web analytics implementation, and how to fix them both. Holes in the coverage Unless you are doing log file analysis (which analyzes data that are automatically collected by your web server), your web analytics tool relies on a small code snippet on each page to give a picture of visitor behavior. If that code snippet is missing from some of your pages, you could miss critical information about visitors' behavior on the site. So, the first step of proper implementation is to have your webmaster ensure that your web analytics code snippet is placed on each page on the website. Your webmaster can search the source code of all files on your site to see if any were missed. Once you have the complete picture, it's... Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:10:11 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/716/Analytics-Collect-The-Right-Data/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/710/Conversion-Report-Card-Firststreetonlinecom/ FirstStreet Online is a large, Virginia-based ecommerce company that offers gifts and lifestyle products to "boomers and beyond." The staff of FirstStreet asked Practical eCommerce to grade its site for conversion issues, which we are pleased to do. A site that is easy to find and easy to navigate will convert many visitors into customers. Let's see how First Street Online stacks up. Findability Qualified prospects must first find your website, and once at your site it must be easy for them to locate products they are interested in. We conducted a range of relevant searches in Google. The site ranked well for common phrases. The site did not rank well for long-tail terms such as "gifts for arthritis sufferers," nor for some of FirstStreet's top sellers, such as "Philips HeartStart defibrillator." The on-site search was easy to locate and worked reasonably well. The site search responded effectively to need-based searches but was not tolerant to errors. Searches... Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:39:10 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/710/Conversion-Report-Card-Firststreetonlinecom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/707/Bells-And-Whistles-Or-Accessibility-Stop-Signs/ With the advent of high-speed Internet, a treasure trove of possibilities presented themselves to the web developer. Java, embedded video, Flash and other coding options afforded online retailers the opportunity to provide entertainment, in addition to merchandise. Something to keep in mind is that while you might find a catchy tune or nifty Flash animation appealing on your home page, you may be putting up impenetrable barriers to people with disabilities. Let's say you sell music. Having a snippet of a popular song play when a visitor arrives would seem to be a natural sales aid. But do you offer an option to turn the music off? Is there a SKIP INTRO button? Do you allow for a few seconds between the time your page loads and the start of your music or video clip? If not, you should. The visitor using assistive technology may not be able to hear his/her screen reader if there is, simultaneously, music or video content playing. If that user cannot hear the contents of the page... Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:30:06 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/707/Bells-And-Whistles-Or-Accessibility-Stop-Signs/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/696/Social-Networking-Build-Your-Own-Community/ There is not a day that goes by that I don't reflect on how to leverage social media, including social networks, for marketing purposes. I have tried a number of approaches, some of which have been successful and some of which have not. This month, I want to share an idea that I think has genuine potential. I call it "getting a table of your own." A basic rule of thumb in social media marketing is that, in order to gain influence, you must actively participate in the communities of which you are a member. That means commenting on blogs, participating in forums and message boards, joining fan groups at major social networks like MySpace or Facebook, and dialoging via online chat on sites like Twitter. Participation in social shopping sites such as Judy's Book, Kaboodle or ThisNext is a good thing as well, and essential to any effective marketing strategy. However, I liken all of these activities to getting a seat at someone else's table. How much better would it be to get your... Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:30:21 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/696/Social-Networking-Build-Your-Own-Community/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/694/Pay-per-click-Report-Card-Vxbcom/ Vxb.com sells ball bearings of various types and sizes. The company is based in California and requested a review of its pay-per-click campaigns on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Vxb.com's monthly ad spend is around $9,000 in Google, $2,000 in Yahoo! and $150 in MSN. Average conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who click on an ad and then purchase something within 30 days) ranges from 1.5 percent to 1.9 percent. Its average cost-per-click ranges from $0.42 to $0.57. Account Structure Its account is structured differently in all three engines. The Yahoo! account consists of 11 campaigns broken up by ball bearings types, such as rollerblades, bicycle, fishing and slotcar. Not all types listed on the website are present in the campaign. Additionally, there is one campaign for generic keywords (ball bearings, bearing distributor) that uses most of the budget. Drilling down further into the Yahoo! account, I noticed an overlap of keywords in different ad groups. If you're... Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:46:46 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/694/Pay-per-click-Report-Card-Vxbcom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/671/Conversion-Metrics-Maximize-Decision-Making/ One of the most appealing aspects of web marketing is that it is so measurable; you can actually quantify what works. Because I spend a considerable portion of my work time studying web analytics and metrics, here is a distinction I have found useful over the years: Some metrics are “indicators,” while others are “diagnostic.” The difference is important for the web marketer who wants to actually use web metrics for decision making. Indicator Metrics Indicator metrics show the performance level for various areas of a site. They include: A. Conversion rate – the best example of an indicator metric – indicates the overall effectiveness of the site, but does not explain why the number is at a particular level. B. Number of visitors indicates the popularity of a site and the growth of the visitor base, but gives little insight into why the site’s popular. C. Time spent on the site indicates how compelling visitors find the site, but this metric alone... Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:10:36 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/671/Conversion-Metrics-Maximize-Decision-Making/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/663/Usability-Report-Card-Ceriellofinefoodscom/ Joseph Malewicki, the owner of Ceriello Fine Foods, has been an avid reader of Practical eCommerce since its inception. He sells specialty Italian foods at Ceriellofinefoods.com and, when requesting a site-grade, said, “I think I’ve nailed down the info in past issues about usability and navigation problems.” Let’s see if he’s right. Home Page Clarity Successful websites are clear about immediately identifying to the visitor what the site is and what the site is for. Ceriello does a pretty good job of doing this. For example, the URL is descriptive, as is the window title in the browser. The home page has both a category list and a bestselling items list, which includes fine Italian foods. However, the tagline “Fine Italian Food Products” in the site logo is difficult to read. Consider placing the tagline below “Ceriello.” The site also doesn’t have a welcoming statement. This is another opportunity to be explicit about what the site offers and why one should... Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:15:04 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/663/Usability-Report-Card-Ceriellofinefoodscom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/635/Usability-Report-Card-Acceptedcom/ Accepted.com is an admissions consulting and application editing service website. It has requested this usability site grade. Home Page Clarity To ensure credibility and trust, sites that gather customer information should include a “Privacy Policy.” Accepted.com has a link to its at the bottom of the home page. They also have an “About Us” link in the left hand navigation, which is good and links to, among other things, profiles of the editors that customers can choose to edit their CV or college application essay. Accepted.com further increases its credibility by including client testimonials on the right hand side of many pages of the site. In addition, a photo appears beside each quote. Unfortunately, however, the photos are not of the actual client that provided the testimonials, but rather models. More egregiously, the same photo of the model is used for quotes from different people in the site and the syntax of the quotes is sometimes incorrect. For example,... Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:57:02 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/635/Usability-Report-Card-Acceptedcom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/613/Biggest-AdWord-Mistakes/ Practical eCommerce asked Senior Contributor and website conversion expert Mat Greenfield, founder of Conversion Results, for his take on the biggest AdWord mistakes a website could make. If your AdWords' campaign is having troubles, it may be due to one of the following: 1. Having too many keywords in a single Ad Group. Since an Ad Group is Google’s lowest level of segmentation, it should ideally be used to express a single idea or theme. Generally, I find that the more specific, the better. Typically, I find that any Ad Group with more than 50 keywords is probably too broad. The exception would be Ad Groups with a large number of misspellings. More specific Ad Groups do mean more management — but it will also mean a much better ROI. 2. Using “Broad Match” without negative keywords. The default setting for keywords in Google is Broad Match. That means that any search phrase that contains your keyword can trigger your ads, whether they are relevant or... Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:40:33 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/613/Biggest-AdWord-Mistakes/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/606/Usability-Report-Card-Lucky-devilcom/ Introduction Lucky-devil.com’s tag line succinctly states its purpose: “Presents for Kiwis in the UK and NZ” (Kiwis being the nickname for New Zealanders, not the fruit). The site “soft launched” at the start of October before its official launch on Nov. 1, and the owners are committed to making as many improvements as possible in the first couple of months. Let’s see how the initial site fares and where improvements can be made. Home Page Clarity The first page of the site visitors' encounter is not a traditional home page. Instead, it is a page used to determine which version of the website customers need to visit, This depends on whether they want to buy a gift for someone who is living in the UK or New Zealand. Lucky Devil does ship to other countries, but this defeats one of its unique selling propositions: The ordered products are only sent locally, which reduces carbon emissions, and shipping to other countries is discouraged. The landing page for each... Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:22:50 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/606/Usability-Report-Card-Lucky-devilcom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/604/Conversion-Experimentation-Is-Key/ Deep down, we conversion experts carry a secret that we don't want you to know. Even though there are proven conversion principles which apply to any website, as well as many best-practices, which could be applied to improve most sites, there is a large grey area where we experts are forced to say, "well, that depends" instead of giving a definitive answer. Issues such as exact wording of text, size and placement of calls-to-action, length of testimonials, pricing, and a myriad of other minutiae can only really be determined by thorough experimentation. This “confession” doesn’t invalidate the existence of conversion principles and best practices, nor de-value the role of consultants and experts. But at the end of the day, you don’t really care what the industry best-practices are — you only really care about what will work on your site. Let me illustrate how these principles, best-practices, and grey area all co-exist: Principle: A page should create “instant... Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:51:39 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/604/Conversion-Experimentation-Is-Key/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/574/Usability-Report-Card-Babyplanetboutiquecom/ Canadian-based Babyplanetboutique.com strives to provide parents with unique, useful baby products at affordable prices. The site’s owner Danielle Burgi is a nominee for Savvymom Mompreneur of the Year. An impending upgrade to the site, coupled with a new shopping cart system, which will offer customers new features such as a gift registry, inspired her to put the site forward for this Usability Report Card. Home Page Clarity Baby Planet Boutique’s home page suffers from having no products visible “above the fold.” Instead, the top of the body of the page is currently devoted to information about the Mompreneur of the Year Award website (including a link). Below this is a large area devoted to the possibility of the customer winning a $25 gift certificate, as well as the guarantee of receiving a coupon code for five percent off their next order if they sign up for the site’s newsletter. Unfortunately, increasing the chance of winning the award through customer... Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:42:45 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/574/Usability-Report-Card-Babyplanetboutiquecom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/543/Usability-Report-Card-Arenaflowerscom/ Arenaflowers.com is a United Kingdom based website that primarily sells fresh flowers. On the verge of its one year anniversary, the ebusiness wanted to get an external perspective on how its website was doing. Homepage Clarity Arena Flowers’ homepage does a good job of stating its value proposition of buying direct from auctions in Holland for freshness, cutting out the middleman for savings and free delivery on all bouquets. Prominence is also given to the fact the organization is the first United Kingdom florist to sell “Fair Flowers, Fair Plants (FFP)” accredited flowers and plants. This guarantees its products have been grown in an ethically and sustainable manner, which is an increasing concern for consumers. All of the important information that needs to be accessed easily is above “the fold.” The page area below “the fold” is chiefly devoted to informational links such as Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Sitemap and Guarantees. Excellent, large... Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:57:36 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/543/Usability-Report-Card-Arenaflowerscom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/541/Site-Search-Increases-Conversion-Rates-Average-Order-Value-And-Loyalty/ If your online store has hundreds of products, you may want to consider implementing a more sophisticated site search to help your customers find what they need quickly. For those of you running shops with an inventory of less than 500 products, you may only need to make sure your navigation has been designed effectively. But for shops with 500 or more products, an advanced site search solution will help you in many ways, including increasing revenues. There are several factors in determining whether your site should utilize the features of a site search solution. The main factor is the size of your product catalog. “The more SKUs a storefront has, the more difficult it is for shoppers to find the right products,” said Joe Lichtman, director of retail product management for FAST, which develops advanced search technology solutions. “Advanced site search with dynamic navigation helps shoppers quickly sift through thousands of products in just a few clicks.” Large... Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:04:15 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/541/Site-Search-Increases-Conversion-Rates-Average-Order-Value-And-Loyalty/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/535/Usability-Report-Card-Make-These-Tweaks-Before-Growth-Occurs/ Artistream.com was formed to expand the artistic markets and opportunities for Native Americans and has ambitious expansion plans for itself. Currently, Artistream.com is a fairly basic website that lists all the prints and sculptures the artists have available for sale. The site was chosen in part because it does its product pages fairly well, but aspects of its navigation poorly. Home Page Clarity and Navigation Artistream.com has a clean home page that suffers from an unnecessarily large welcoming paragraph, and its three-fourths of a page of white space could be utilized to feature more thumbnail photos and descriptions of the available artwork. The home page has two navigation menus: A left-hand navigation menu to access the artwork for sale, and two further menus sandwiching the main banner logo which, runs across the top of the page. Unfortunately, some of the menu titles are white text on a tan background, which offers little contrast, and may make it difficult for... Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:38:14 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/535/Usability-Report-Card-Make-These-Tweaks-Before-Growth-Occurs/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/523/Usability-Report-Card-Acihoistcom/ Alan Gonzalez at ACI Hoist & Crane, Inc. recently inherited the responsibilities for the company's website, Acihoist.com, and its ecommerce push. He is in the early stages of improving the site's navigation and content, but asked for a site review. Gonzales said the plan is “to do a site rebuild from the ground up.” We have some suggestions for the website that would be beneficial to consider during the overhaul. Home page clarity: ACI Hoist & Crane’s home page does a reasonable job of explaining who they are, what they sell and why the customer should choose them. However, the compelling benefits of shopping with ACI such as “factory-direct pricing” and “30 percent to 50 percent savings over other major brands” are buried below the fold. There is also a lot of unproductive white space available on the right of the screen where these key points could be displayed, as well as a place for more images of their products. Home page navigation: ACI’s product... Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:47:06 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/523/Usability-Report-Card-Acihoistcom/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/497/Is-Your-Website-Ready-For-The-Holiday-Shopping-Season/ Anyone’s who has talked with me for any given amount of time will tell you I’m adamant about testing sites for security and navigation. Summer is the perfect time to plot out upcoming holiday season sales campaigns, and it’s also the time to make sure things are running smoothly. With an ever-growing number of people shopping online, comes a vast amount of new online stores, some of which will likely be competitors. It pays to be more than just the guy who offers a better deal. You’ve got to be better overall, right down to design elements, customer guidance and tools that give online shoppers a sense of security. Here are my top 10 things to look for when determining if your store will be ready for the biggest holiday shopping season ever: 1. SSL – Make sure it’s working and that no errors are present. Fix all errors as they are found. A dedicated SSL certificate lends more credibility to your business. 2. Navigation – Customers need to be able to browse the... Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:45:12 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/497/Is-Your-Website-Ready-For-The-Holiday-Shopping-Season/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/495/Critique-Part-Five-Customer-Experience--Usability/ The Problem: A blob of home-page text greets the consumer. The Fix: The home page could be improved by relocating its long introduction to either the bottom of the page or, preferably, to the "about us" section. This would free up enough space to display twice as many products as those currently listed, with room left over to promote sale items or the company's offer of free shipping on orders more than $65. The Problem: Out-of-stock items are not always identified as such. The Fix: In some instances this useful information is displayed below product photos but in a difficult-to-scan format. Attempting to buy a single keychain resulted in this strident but amusing error message: "Unable to Add Product: Volcom Skibby Keychain To Your Cart (Msg: Not Enough In Stock. Try A Lower Qty!)." In this instance, trying to order with a lower quantity would mean ordering zero -- which would definitely not solve the customer's problem. Error messages that state the problem in a... Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:46:46 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/495/Critique-Part-Five-Customer-Experience--Usability/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/486/Exclusive-Offers-Help-Retain-Customers/ Minding the Store is a classic book written by one of the all-time great merchants, Stanley Marcus of Neiman-Marcus fame. Its lessons were extensive, but taking care of the customer and delivering a well-merchandised experience were two of the essential components. Today, it is imperative that multichannel merchants heed these lessons; both are critical to their ultimate success. Annually, the e-tailing group conducts a survey of merchants to understand trends in strategy, merchandising and marketing online. This month's column is dedicated to the merchandising highlights from our Sixth Annual Merchant Survey in which 167 merchants shared their wisdom and insights for the sake of advancing multichannel merchandising. Conversion Rates Steady The etailing group's Sixth Annual Merchant Survey queried the 167 sampled merchants as to their online conversion rate. For this, we defined "conversion" as the number of orders received divided by the number of unique visitors to the... Thu, 24 May 2007 07:46:39 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/486/Exclusive-Offers-Help-Retain-Customers/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/485/Comparison-Sites-Can-Help-Boost-Sales/ Shopping comparison sites enable merchants to market to the masses, but stepping into a competitive environment like BizRate, PriceGrabber or Shopping.com can seem pretty daunting to the owner of a small ecommerce business. However, three entrepreneurs say getting out of the comfort zone and into the game is worth the effort. Top Three Mistakes: Shopping Comparison Sites Trying to compete primarily in terms of price. "Do not start by trying to be that 'low-priced guy,'" Saldana said. "That is just the absolutely wrong way to do it." Instead, he said merchants are better off when they provide a fair price, a great product description and great service. "It is not always about price," Saldana said. Customers will respond "if they have the information and are armed with [an understanding of] exactly how this product is going to fill their need." Expecting too much. Ordonez advises merchants to maintain realistic goals as to how many sales will be converted from the new... Mon, 21 May 2007 14:01:15 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/485/Comparison-Sites-Can-Help-Boost-Sales/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/481/Aligning-Keywords-And-Landing-Pages/ As a child you probably played "connect the dots," drawing a line from number to number to create a picture that answered a riddle. Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing presents a similar "connect the dots" scenario. The "dots" are points within the customer experience value chain. This chain starts with a keyword search, moves into an ad impression, a click-through, a landing page visit and finally a completed action. To illustrate: The user (e.g., your potential customer) is the driving force of the process. The merchant, however, is the driving force behind the user's experience and the value gained from that experience. The merchant's role is to motivate the user from point to point through increasing relevance to and consistency with the user's intentions. An intention by definition is "what one plans to do or achieve which simply signifies a course of action that one proposes to follow." At each dot (e.g.. step), the user is required to make a decision to continue... Wed, 16 May 2007 09:36:10 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/481/Aligning-Keywords-And-Landing-Pages/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/479/Show-Me-The-Money-Conversion-Ratios/ When I begin an ecommerce optimization engagement, there are four key ratios that I immediately look for. And as strange as it might sound, the site's overall conversion ratio is not one of them — at least not directly. To be fair, the four ratios that I'm primarily interested in are actually sub-components of the site's overall conversion ratio. However, these more-specific ratios provide me with a lot more information than I could ever get from the overall percentage alone. As I perform my initial diagnostic assessment, understanding these four ratios allows me to very quickly develop a solid understanding of where the biggest opportunities for profitable improvement are located. In effect, these four ratios "show me the money." While each of these ratios would require its own article to fully explain, I'll cover the basics here: What each ratio is measuring; what levels represent potential red flags; and even some of the root causes and problems I often... Fri, 11 May 2007 13:13:32 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/479/Show-Me-The-Money-Conversion-Ratios/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/477/Tools-To-Boost-Conversion/ Most ebusiness owners can find ways to increase traffic to their site, but turning a visitor into a buyer remains an ongoing challenge. To get a visitor at your site to do what you want him/her to do - whether it is signing up for a newsletter, buying a product online or some other desired outcome - is a blend of art and science, and it's not easy. An ecommerce site with 6 to 9 percent of its visitors making purchases can be considered a success, according to conversion experts, but, unfortunately, the industry standard hovers around 1 to 2 percent. A retail site is frequently considered a success when its purchase conversion is in the high single digits, but for lead generation sites, numbers in the high teens are considered good. An average retail site is converting about 1 to 2 percent of visitors, and an average lead generation site is doing 5 to 6 percent. Top Three Mistakes: Conversion There are many things that can negatively impact the experience a visitor has at... Wed, 09 May 2007 10:09:25 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/477/Tools-To-Boost-Conversion/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/448/Incentives-That-Create-More-Sales/ 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 shipping —and it is perfect!" In the "Holiday '06 Mindset of the Multichannel Shopper Study," more than 1,300 consumers (68 percent women, 32 percent men) at the cusp of the shopping season clearly demonstrated their deal orientation. Asked, "How would you characterize your shopping behavior when buying gifts for the holidays?" 54 percent identified themselves as deal seekers who prefer to buy at sale prices; 34 percent purchased some full-price items and some sale items based on convenience. Only 12 percent focused on finding the perfect item regardless of price. Promotional patterns truly dominate. Additionally, when asked about online shopping's role in buying gifts, shoppers said... Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:36:05 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/448/Incentives-That-Create-More-Sales/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/447/Diagnosing-Site-Performance-Delays/ When your site begins to experience performance drains, which usually show up as slow-loading web pages, the problem's diagnosis can be more challenging than its solution. The first thing developers should examine is the nature of the website. Is the site a static HTML website, or does it rely on dynamic scripting such as ASP, PHP or Perl? If the site is a static HTML site, then database connections, web services and inefficient scripts are probably not the cause of performance bottlenecks. Bottleneck sources might be found in the server's Internet connection — if client-side connections and ISPs have been ruled out — or in the server hardware and software. Perhaps the server is overloaded and unable to respond to the number of requests your visitors generate. Perhaps the allotted disk space in the hosting account is full or the server is not configured properly. The answer might be simple: Upgrade your hosting account or switch to a hosting company with a more reliable... Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:40:35 -0600 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/447/Diagnosing-Site-Performance-Delays/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/432/The-Surest-Way-To-Lose-A-Customer/ 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 design that correlates to the brand's position in the market, but this style has detrimental effects on the site's usability. Let's see how. 1. While the home page is pretty clear, there is definitely room for improvement. One of the most obvious places is the large dead space at the bottom of the page. This room could be used to advertise more products, promote specials or even to draw attention to the free shipping offer on orders more than $75. Currently, that information appears in a plain font just above the blank space. A more important change to address is the tiny "Go" buttons, since the product pictures already act as links. Consistency seems to be a major issue: Some pictures link to... Thu, 08 Mar 2007 08:00:28 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/432/The-Surest-Way-To-Lose-A-Customer/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/420/Treat-Customers-as-Next-door-Neighbors/ 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 experience, logical thinking and learning from others. This all leads me to a need to reflect on someone recently lost by the ecommerce community — someone who played a role in who I am, and why I do what I do. Luray Williams was my first partner in the ecommerce community. Coming from different backgrounds, we butted heads as often as we partook in total agreement. That's a good thing because it meant we both spun ideas based on what we knew, and ultimately found a method that would work for most of our clients. Sometimes I called on him just to tell me I was wrong, because Luray was a brilliant man whose goal was to be simply human when it came to dealing with people. He didn't like using highly... Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:16:38 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/420/Treat-Customers-as-Next-door-Neighbors/ http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/418/Are-1-800-Numbers-And-Live-Chat-Important/ 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 customer." By creatively interpreting this feedback, merchants can set themselves up for a distinctive user experience that is sure to satisfy today's demanding consumer from the shopping experience to customer service solutions.Tools to help Vendors like Sli Systems and Mercado can help your have products that can boost the merchandising functions at your site including “recommender” and product comparison functions while, at the same time, boosting your site's search capabilities. These products also typically feature robust analytics packages to provide metrics to monitor your site, identify products that are selling well, etc. There are also a host of analytics packages in the marketplace that can... Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:05:37 -0700 http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/418/Are-1-800-Numbers-And-Live-Chat-Important/