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
Recommerce Surges as Retailers, Brands Get in the Game

August 28, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

Recommerce, the process of selling used products or excess inventory to companies or consumers, is growing 20-times faster than the broader retail market and five-times faster than off-price retailers. Leading recommerce merchants include thredUP, The RealReal, and Poshmark.
Conversion
17 Ideas to Reinvent Your Ecommerce Business

August 26, 2019 • Dale Traxler

When was the last time you did something innovative with your online store? Innovation involves taking a risk. In this post, I'll offer ideas that have the potential to reinvent your business. Most involve investing in design, development, tools, or support services.
Product Pages
Non-standard Product Images Can Spur Sales

August 22, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Quality product photos are crucial to selling online. Since they cannot physically touch an item, shoppers need to see all the core details. To maximize sales of a product, though, you need multiple types of images — beyond studio shots. Here are three types of non-standard photos that encourage sales.
Conversion
Useful (and Useless) Mobile Ecommerce Metrics

August 16, 2019 • David Shreni

In my experience, there are a few "cuts" of data that matter more for mobile than for desktop. Conversely, there are a handful of traditional metrics from desktops that are not as important on mobile or potentially difficult to optimize.
Analytics & Data
10 Ways Bad Data Hurts an Ecommerce Business

August 13, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Data is essential for ecommerce businesses. Order quantities, shipping addresses, sales history, marketing performance — all rely on accurate data. Thus missing or inaccurate data can harm a business. Here are 10 ways that poor data can reduce ecommerce performance.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics’ Learning Resources

August 12, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics is sophisticated and comprehensive. Getting started — logging in, using the menu, viewing the reports — is straightforward. But interpreting the data can be difficult. Fortunately, Google Analytics offers many learning resources to help.
Product Pages
Simple Tweaks to Product Pages Can Drive Sales

August 8, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Adjusting layouts on a per-product basis is costly and time-consuming. It makes sense instead to focus on the most crucial elements of the page — to communicate benefits to the highest number of product-page visitors. Here are six ways to do that.
Conversion
9 Ways to Reduce Apparel Returns

August 6, 2019 • Viktoria Kanevsky

Four triggers cause apparel returns. In my years of running apparel boutiques, I used the following checklist. It kept returns to less than .5 percent (one-half of 1 percent) of overall sales.
Product Pages
5 Benefits of Ecommerce Loss Leaders

July 25, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Whether clearing out last year’s styles or promoting the latest gadgets, loss-leading strategies are used by companies of all sizes. There are good reasons for online stores to sell select products at a loss.
Product Pages
Why Your Mobile Shoppers Aren’t Shopping

July 22, 2019 • David Shreni

Improving mobile performance is a priority for most ecommerce executives, who often obsess over conversion metrics that are typically lower than desktop. But mobile visitors often have different goals. In this post, I'll address solutions to four common obstacles in converting visitors on mobile devices.
Analytics & Data
Need Data for a Key Decision? Try These 8 Sources

July 16, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Data drives most businesses. But what happens when you lack data to make a critical decision? How do you collect the data, and at what cost?
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Common Mistakes from Ecommerce Merchants

July 5, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics provides impactful data that can help ecommerce merchants. But installed incorrectly, Google Analytics can produce inaccurate reporting. In this post, I'll address common mistakes from merchants in installing Google Analytics and analyzing its data.
Customer Retention
Retargeting Improves Conversions from SEO

June 30, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Retargeting turns visitor actions on your site or app into a second chance to capture a sale. It’s an excellent way to move top-of-funnel traffic from organic search to conversions.
Product Pages
Optimize Responsive Product Images with SRCSET

June 25, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Online retailers may have an image problem. In many cases, the images they need to sell a product are so large and so slow-to-load that they are driving shoppers away. Fortunately, a simple HTML attribute could significantly improve site performance.
Analytics & Data
7 Gaps in Google Analytics That Require Additional Tools

June 23, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Analytics is a powerful, free web analytics platform. However, it has gaps that are better served by other tools. I'll address those gaps and tools in this post.
Customer Retention
Branding Is the Key to More Ecommerce Sales

June 20, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Positive branding is key for any business. It takes a lot of work over time, but the benefits make it worthwhile. The products you sell, interactions with shoppers, transparency — all impact branding.
Checkout Tactics
How to Get More Form Submissions, Even on Checkout Pages

June 11, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Obtaining shoppers' contact information is valuable for ecommerce businesses. But consumers are reluctant to provide their email address, or name, or phone number. There are ways, though, to streamline the process.
Conversion
A 7-step Cart Recovery Program for Luxury Brands (That Actually Works)

May 24, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Imagine a company selling high-end products that cost thousands of dollars each. A few abandoned ecommerce shopping carts could add up to a small fortune. The recovery series described below has generated as much as $40,000 in a few hours.
Analytics & Data
Using Attribution Modeling in Google Analytics

May 24, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Marketing attribution is the process of identifying sources or channels that led to a desired outcome, such as a sale or a subscription. Google Analytics offers attribution modeling at Conversions > Attribution > Model Comparison Tool. There are a handful of models to select from.
Product Pages
The Bare Essentials for High-converting Ecommerce Sites

May 22, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Driving traffic to your online store is one thing. Turning a decent percentage of visitors into buyers is another. That’s why businesses should always make sure the site is shoppable before spending a dime on advertising. A conversion-worthy website focuses on key elements that work together. Call them "essentials."
Conversion
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 16: Custom Manufacturing

May 15, 2019 • Eric Bandholz

Selling manufactured goods directly to consumers, with no retail middlemen, has exploded on the internet. For this episode 16, I spoke with Jimmy Hayes, the co-founder of Minaal, a manufacturer of "bags and gear for life on the move."
Analytics & Data
Use Market Basket Analysis to Boost Cross-sales, Average Order Values

May 9, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Market basket analysis is based on the idea that a customer who buys product A is likely to buy product B, too. The model seeks to find relationships among purchases — a customer who buys pasta likely needs pasta sauce. The model applies at an item level or to a group of items or categories.
Analytics & Data
Analyze Click Paths in Google Analytics to Improve Conversions

May 8, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Monitoring the navigation of visitors can help ecommerce merchants identify bottlenecks to the checkout page. There are two ways to analyze paths in Google Analytics: Behavior Flow and Navigation analysis.
Conversion
What’s a Good Conversion Rate? It Depends

May 8, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

When it comes to analyzing online businesses, a common question is "What is a good sales conversion rate?" It's difficult to answer because conversion rates vary greatly and depend on many factors, including product offerings, target audiences, prices, and devices.
Analytics & Data
How to Merge Data from Multiple Sources into a Single Platform

May 1, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Migrating to a new customer management platform may require merging multiple data sources or adding a new source. In this post, I’ll review how to merge multiple sources into a ...
Photography & Video
Optimizing Images for Google Search Results

April 26, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Google search results now include images 34 percent of the time. Optimizing images for search engines is based on relevance to a keyword theme, as is optimizing textual content. For images, however, the lack of visible text means that the process is different.
Customer Service
Using Facebook Messenger Chatbots to Support Live Chat

April 23, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Chatbots can help bridge the gap between live chat and self-help support pages. While highly customized automatic chatbots require a large financial investment, there are many ways to affordably integrate more personal conversations.
Photography & Video
How to Make Images Load Faster

April 16, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Images impact the load time of a website. The faster the site, the better the user experience, leading to conversions and profits. In this piece, I'll offer suggestions for optimizing images. The goal is to create an attractive experience without bogging down performance.
Photography & Video
25 Websites to Share, Manage Video

April 15, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Creating a video can promote products and services, but only if it attracts viewers. Here is a list of websites and platforms for managing and sharing video. There are hosting services, social networks, entertainment sites, news platforms, archives, and more. Many are free.
Product Pages
7 Reasons Your Mobile Site Isn’t Converting So Well

April 15, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Most online stores are seeing more traffic from smartphones. But desktops and tablets still generate higher conversion rates. Here are seven reasons why.

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