Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for September 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 September 2010 installment of “Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas.”

Correctly Evaluate Your Conversion Rate

“The conversion rate is the ratio between the number of visitors who are likely to perform an action you desire and the ones that actually do. It’s not related to the whole website traffic. Eliminate from your analysis those visitors who don’t have the slightest intention to convert, but can skew your reports. For instance, when calculating your sales conversion rate, exclude all visitors who are referred by organic search keywords that are not related to your offer. You’ll be able to focus conversion optimization actions on the segments that truly matter to your business goals.”

Adriana Iordan
Vice President of Web Marketing
Avangate

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Deep Links Lead to Deeper Value

“Getting links to your site isn’t a new concept, but links should point to your most relevant pages. Home page links aren’t usually relevant for searches. Look to gain links to specific category or product pages. This will pass link value deep into your site and drive rankings for specific long-tail keywords.”

Randy Windsor
Marketing Manager
Network Solutions

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Mommy Bloggers Love to Do Reviews

“Mommy Bloggers love to write reviews about products. Search for Mommy Bloggers and then contact them. Tell them how much you like their site, why your product is great, and offer to send them a free product to review. As an added bonus allow them to do a giveaway of your product to their readers. This is not only good for driving sales to your site but is great for SEO [search engine optimization].”

Adam Golomb
Director of Ecommerce
Smileycookie.com

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Mobile: A Critical Ecommerce Channel

“Mobile is not just another customer communications medium, it is rapidly evolving into an effective and critical ecommerce channel–one that creates a link between existing commerce channels, helping to converge them. And, consumers aren’t just using high-end phone browsers, they are using a wide range of phones to browse the web. When developing mobile websites and applications, businesses should focus on content delivery across different types of devices, as well as ease of navigation, design, usability and context. For example, small displays create usability challenges, and cumbersome processes that can cause customers to abandon their purchases.”

Carsten Thoma
President
hybris, U.S.

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Impress Your Customers

“Impress your customers after their first order with a shipping upgrade, a special discount or store credit for future purchases. This encourages them to come back for more, and the return on investment can be much higher than traditional advertising.”

Gonzalo Gil
President and Co-Founder
3dcart Shopping Cart Software

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Provide Customization and Personalization Whenever Possible

“Online product customization is becoming an increasingly popular feature for merchants keen to distinguish themselves from their competition. The magic lies in customers being able to instantly see the customized products, so they don’t have to imagine what the watch, for example, looks like with a blue band as opposed to a green one, or a silver dial versus a gold one. Letting customers personalize their purchase provides the ultimate touch (assuming of course, that you are actually able to actually produce the end result). Customization can make a huge difference in the customer’s buying experience; however, utilizing this power requires merchants to expertly prepare their images.”

Ralf Mandt-Rauch
Founder
Secure.CC Ltd.

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Two Great Conversion Tips

“Cart abandonment may not reflect a cart problem. New info crushes momentum. Make sure visitors can access the complete cost from any page and your cart abandonment problem may magically disappear. Also, test a one-page checkout. We’ve seen it increase conversion rates ‘in some cases.”

Chris Goward
CEO
WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization

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Appeal to Coupon Hunters

“Make sure you regularly publish your coupon codes and special deals on your Facebook and Twitter accounts, using the words ‘save’ or ‘deal.’ These are often grabbed by third parties and coupon hunters and then republished on various coupons sites, giving you a wider distribution list at no cost.”

Richard Potvin
CEO
MapleSyrupWorld

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Protect Your Brand’s Reputation Online

“As the online retail sales channel continues to grow, a company’s greatest challenge is defending its brand from being devalued by discounters. Ensure your company’s ecommerce success by monitoring and enforcing pricing violations to keep online retailers on a level playing field.”

Paul Demirdjian
CEO
Jagged Peak

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‘One-Day Only’ Sale Can Boost Social Presence

“We now do a “Wild Wednesdays” promotion where we announce one product for $10 (usually retails for $25), or $10 off a particular item. We announce it on Tuesday via Twitter with a coupon code that is good only on that Wednesday. We limit the offer to one discounted product per customer, and it could be offered only ‘while supplies last’ for those with a big customer list. We are currently using this campaign to grow our social media presence.”

Brian M. Almashie
Vice President of Ecommerce
Shopwildplanet.com

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