Each month, Practical eCommerce asks industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could help an ecommerce company. Here’s what ten of them had to say for the June 2009 installment.
Set Yourself Apart with Visual Security
“Making your commitment to security known by your customers can be the difference between abandonment and a conversion. Strong visual indicators, such as Extended Validation certificates (green address bar) and trustmarks, greatly increase shopper confidence.”
Alex Kehayias
Product Manager
Comodo Group, Inc.
—
Start a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise in China
“Hangzhou, China is the B2B [business to business] mecca for IT. With a strong dollar, you can leverage the force of a very tech-savvy development team and pick up a global presence instantly. Superior product development is what sets apart one company from another. This will let you focus on sales and marketing while your offices overseas focus on the website product management.”
Jason Prescott
CEO
Top Ten Wholesale
—
Speed Up Page Loads
“Optimize your site with fast-loading pages for customers who are ready to buy. Start testing load times during the design phase, and keep them under two seconds for better conversions and an improved bottom line. Otherwise, users you just paid to attract will give up and buy from the competition.”
Autumn Looijen
President
StreetPrices.com
—
Help Customers Find Exactly What They Want
“Advanced filtering by product attributes, tags and advanced searching helps customers find exactly what they want by driving into the product catalog in a natural, fluid way instead of forcing the customer down a deep and rigid hierarchical category structure.”
Ed Sturrock
Product Manager
AmeriCommerce
—
Use Multivariate Testing On Your Shopping Site
“Use multivariate testing to enhance the on-site shopping experience by determining which combination of on-page variables increase your conversion rates. A/B splits are very limited, but with multivariate testing you can test multiple features at once and contemplate the user’s full experience at your site.”
Scott Smigler
President
Exclusive Concepts Inc.
—
Don’t Hide Behind Your Site
“Try not to treat your ecommerce platform as a 24/7 faceless store. Interact with your customers through images, video and live help as if they were in the room with you. Not only will this build empathy and trust with the shopper but you will also increase conversions.”
Phil Williams
Director
OpenmindCommerce
Openmindcommerce.com
—
Self Insure USPS Shipments
“If you sell many of the same item, self insure instead of buying USPS insurance. Charge an insurance fee and assume the risk. USPS rarely looses packages. If they do, your customer will be happy when you simply and quickly replace the item. Insurance becomes a profit center.”
Richard Kuipers
Owner
Windmill Trading Company
—
The Key to Free Freight Offers
“A key to free freight offers is the fact that shipping cost per pound drops quickly as total package weight increases. Typical UPS or FedEx cost for zone 5 residential delivery is approximately $7 for a one pound package, but only $.60 per pound for a twenty pound package–yet revenue per pound remains unchanged.”
John Lindberg
President
efulfillment service Inc.
—
Provide Contact Details
“Provide your customers with visible contact details on every page of your site. Whether it’s a visible phone number and email in your header graphics or a live chat tool on your website. Nothing makes a customer feel more comfortable about buying from you than being able to contact.”
Christian Anthony
Sales & Marketing Manager
ShopFactory
—
Differentiate Yourself From the Competition
“Create a niche by offering customers your knowledge and expertise. Daily tips, newsletters, or instructional videos on media such as YouTube are ways to offer customers more than just the products you sell. It’s a cost-effective way to promote your brand and separates you from the competition.”
Leslie E. West
Owner
Bluedotpapershop.com
Bluedotpapershop.com
Got a helpful ecommerce tip? Email kate@practicalecommerce.com.
Data Suggest Solid 2024 Holiday Sales
Perplexity Shopping Tests Ecommerce SMBs
Action Steps for Bing’s AI SEO Guidelines
Wallet Passes Are a Mobile Marketing Channel
5 Content Marketing Ideas for January 2025
From Porsche to Purpose: A CMO's Journey
Drive More ROI from Meta and Google Ads
