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

Product Pages
SEO: Product Descriptions Are a Blind Spot for Ecommerce Merchants

April 14, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Why does the ecommerce community have such a blind spot when it comes to unique product descriptions? Syndicated descriptions produce duplicate content. Why is duplicate product copy accepted so blindly? The answer depends on whether you’re the syndicator or the site using the syndicated content.
Analytics & Data
8 Ways to Improve Marketing Automation for Ecommerce

April 8, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Marketing automation can do more with email than send mass deployments and track opens and clicks. Marketing automation can integrate email with your customer management platform to create relevant campaigns. In this post, I'll review eight ways to accelerate an ecommerce marketing automation program.
Analytics & Data
Using Alerts in Google Analytics for Slow Site Speeds

April 4, 2019 • Morgan Jones

I’ve addressed site speed reports in Google Analytics. Site speed is critical for conversions and, increasingly, for search engine rankings. In this post, I’ll explain how to set up Custom Alerts in ...
Conversion
4 Online Merchandising Hacks to Increase Profits

April 3, 2019 • Charles Nicholls

Retailers seek to avoid markdowns and sell out of the season at full margin, but it isn’t easy to predict how much inventory to acquire. In this post, I'll address four online merchandising tactics that balance consumer demand with inventory levels, to maximize profits.
Customer Retention
Analyzing the Impact of Customer Retention on Profits

March 26, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Customer retention is a good indicator of an ecommerce business’s potential for long-term growth and success. With this in mind, ecommerce owners and managers should consider making customer retention a ...
Conversion
The Many Benefits of Live Chat for Ecommerce

March 21, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Live chat may be one of the best ways to answer questions, overcome the barriers to an online sale, and even discover where your website needs improvement. And these are just some of the benefits.
Product Pages
6 Selling Tips from Auto Manufacturers

March 21, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Ecommerce merchants can learn a great deal from auto manufacturers, who spend millions to understand how people shop and the choices they’re likely to make. This is evident both in showrooms and on the internet. Studying their marketing and websites can tell us a great deal about consumers.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Data Studio to Report Gross Profit by SKU

March 18, 2019 • Morgan Jones

In "Using Google Analytics to Track Profitability by Product," I explained how to import product cost into Google Analytics to calculate gross profit for each item sold. It was a tricky exercise. I received feedback and questions. In this post. I'll break the process down by using Google Data Studio and data blending.
Product Pages
Building Landing Pages That Convert

March 5, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Online stores need a healthy balance of landing pages, especially for anchor products and product categories. Landing pages have a specific goal, such as getting people to sign up for email newsletters or purchase a product.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Tracking Sales When Multiple Sites Use a Single Checkout

February 26, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Larger ecommerce companies sometimes create multiple branded websites that feed into a single checkout. For those companies, tracking which site generated the business — revenue — can be tricky. In this post, I will provide a method for reporting the “source of business” metrics in Google Analytics.
Product Pages
3 Ways to Overcome Shoppers’ Desire to Touch Products

February 22, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Ecommerce stores are convenient and offer much to consumers. But online shopping has one big disadvantage: Buyers cannot touch the products. In this post, I will discuss three ways for ecommerce businesses to overcome a potential buyer’s desire to physically handle a product before buying online.
Photography & Video
14 Online Video Editors for Ecommerce

February 19, 2019 • Sig Ueland

If you’re interested in producing video to promote your products or brand, consider using an online video editor. There are a variety of easy-to-use tools available for free or very little cost, with many of the bells and whistles of high-priced video editing software.
Analytics & Data
Using Excel to Forecast Sales, Expenses, More

February 10, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Forecasting sales is useful for many reasons, such as inventory management, investor relations, and setting expense and marketing budgets. But producing accurate forecasts can be confusing. In this post, I'll explain how to generate forecasts using Microsoft Excel.
Checkout Tactics
5 Tips for Selling without Discounting

February 7, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Increasing sales via discounts, coupons, and undercutting competitors (or a combination of all three), isn’t typically the best practice for smaller companies.
Conversion
Getting Started with Continuity Ecommerce, Part 2: Steps to Success

February 5, 2019 • Charles Nicholls

Continuity ecommerce generates recurring revenue via a combination of connected devices and auto-ship functionality. It's subscriptions on steroids. In "Part 1: Approaches, Expectations," I explained how continuity ecommerce can build high-margin revenue streams. In this article, I’ll focus on how to make continuity programs a success.
Conversion
Getting Started with Continuity Ecommerce, Part 1: Approaches, Expectations

February 3, 2019 • Charles Nicholls

Continuity ecommerce combines recurring revenue, connected devices, and auto-ship functionality. It's subscriptions on steroids, and it's becoming big business. In this article, I'll explore how merchants can implement continuity programs...
Product Pages
20 Popular Product Videos from Vat19

January 28, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of the most popular videos from Vat19, to provide inspiration for your own product video production. While Vat19's entertaining videos are appropriately silly — the company sells silly products, after all — they also highlight product features in a short amount of time.
Analytics & Data
SEO: Monitoring Traffic from Domain Mergers, with Google Data Studio

January 27, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

A common practice among retailers is creating microsites to target different audiences. The strategy can produce strong conversions because the user experience is simpler and more relevant. Unfortunately, it is not usually helpful for organic search rankings.
Customer Retention
8 Micro Conversions to Instill Trust, Obtain Customers

January 23, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Micro conversions are smaller actions that can lead to sales. Micro conversions can instill trust, and therefore influence the 90 percent of visitors who do not intend to immediately purchase.
Conversion
Should Merchants Consider Voice Commerce (Yet)?

January 17, 2019 • Dale Traxler

Shopping is too complicated to conduct by voice, at least thus far. Does this mean voice shopping is a low priority? Absolutely not. It’s an opportunity that manufacturers and retailers should be investing in right now.
Analytics & Data
18 Basic Metrics to Review at Year-end

January 15, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

This is the time to conduct your year-end analysis to help plan for 2019. Here are some basic metrics to analyze, to see what worked and what didn't.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: How to Track PayPal Transactions

January 11, 2019 • Morgan Jones

“PayPal Payments Standard” is popular, but it can be challenging for Google Analytics to report the sale. Using PayPal Payments Standard, customers leave the merchant's website for their account at PayPal. After they complete payment, PayPal redirects them back to the return URL provided by the merchant.
Product Pages
6 Key Components of Product Videos

January 8, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Video is a crucial part of selling online. What once was a secondary, supporting element is now a primary educator about what a product is and what it does. When creating a video, be sure it includes the following core elements.
Analytics & Data
Fine-tune Google Analytics for a More Profitable 2019

December 24, 2018 • Pamela Hazelton

If there is one new year's resolution for boosting ecommerce conversions in 2019, it's to get your store's analytics in order. Otherwise, you will never understand the impact of changes to your site. You’ll also miss out on potential target audiences — long-term, loyal customers.
Conversion
Ecommerce Briefs: Walmart vs. Jet, FedEx and DHL Enhancements, Product Returns

December 20, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

In “Ecommerce Briefs,” an occasional series, I review news and developments that impact online merchants. In this installment, I’ll address Walmart's effort to differentiate Jet.com, new ecommerce shipping options from FedEx and DHL, product returns, and vacancies at shopping malls.
Analytics & Data
To Analyze Data, First Form an Objective

December 11, 2018 • Anna Kayfitz

The most important part of analyzing data is to define an objective. This is often overlooked. Analysts tend to drill down for insights without really knowing what they are looking ...
Conversion
Shopper’s Journey: Lessons from a Gift Search

December 11, 2018 • Marcia Yudkin

Is your ecommerce site set up for consumers who know very little about your products? I recently shopped for a bicycle safety light for a relative who commutes to work by ...
Checkout Tactics
7 Conversion Snafus That Kill Ecommerce Sales

December 7, 2018 • Pamela Hazelton

There are many reasons for high ecommerce exit rates and abandoned carts. Most are logical. Take the new year to address problems that may be decreasing sales conversions. Here are seven often-overlooked sales killers.
Conversion
3 Ways to Narrow the Mobile Commerce Gap

December 3, 2018 • Charles Nicholls

A study in 2017 revealed a massive "conversion gap" on mobile. Responsive design relies on concepts from a different era, when most shoppers navigated a website with a mouse. What follows are three ways to prompt more mobile conversions.
Customer Retention
10 Holiday-selling Tips to Boost January Revenue

November 26, 2018 • Pamela Hazelton

While you are busy handling lots of holiday orders, take a few minutes to analyze your online store to increase the chance of getting post-holiday sales. Here are 10 tips to enter 2019 stronger than ever.

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