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
3 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Conversions this Month

October 17, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Banner ad retargeting, live chat, and a well-planned series of checkout abandonment emails could boost an online retailer’s conversion rates and sales immediately with a relatively small investment in development ...
Business
Understanding Ecommerce Shoppers: Who, Why, Where, When, How

October 17, 2013 • Dale Traxler

Most ecommerce merchants can describe their customers in a general way. They likely know basic demographics — age range, gender, income level. But, do they understand the “why,” “where,” “when,”
Customer Retention
Understanding Consumer Search Behaviors

October 2, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Shoppers have many reasons to look for products online. They may want a particular item, seek a bargain price, or even compare similar choices. Understanding these basic consumer search behaviors ...
Analytics & Data
Holiday Analytics: 13 Tips to Prepare your Ecommerce Site

September 25, 2013 • Feras Alhlou

The holiday season is fast approaching. As you get your ecommerce products, promotions, and backend processes in place, take your analytics and optimization up a notch. Don’t just focus on ...
Customer Retention
6 Ways to Market Gift Cards Online

September 24, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Gift cards can be an effective way to increase online sales, acquire new customers, and encourage return visits. Marketing gift cards can be easy during holidays, like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s ...
Conversion
5 Unusual and Effective Ecommerce Pricing Strategies

September 23, 2013 • Gagan Mehra

Most online retailers set pricing using the cost-plus or the value-based method. While these work well, there are several other ways to price products. Here I present five unusual and ...
Customer Retention
Marketing to Affluent Customers, for High Margins

September 18, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Many online retailers compete on price. But selling luxury products to relatively affluent shoppers with annual incomes above $100,000 per year is an exercise in brand building and content marketing. Shoppers ...
Checkout Tactics > Merchant Voice
Reducing Cart Abandonment

September 6, 2013 • Richard Stubbings

The most important part of any ecommerce site is the checkout: the collection of money from your customers. You have spent time and money getting customers to your site, you ...
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics for Lead-generation Tracking

August 29, 2013 • Kevin Webster

If your lead-generation website is supported by paid advertising, it's important to attach a value to each lead. In other words, to turn web analytics into a decision-making machine, as opposed to simply a visitor counter, you have to tell Google Analytics what your leads are worth to you.
Product Pages
5 Ways to Add Personality to Your Product Descriptions

August 28, 2013 • Jerry Jao

If you’re doing business online, chances are you know other companies selling similar, if not identical items. With that in mind, how can you differentiate your products from those of the ...
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Site Search and Capital Letters

August 27, 2013 • Tim Wilson

The site search functionality on a website is a powerful source of information about what users are looking for. It’s the place where visitors actually use their keyboard to tell ...
Photography & Video
15 Video Tutorials for Product Photography

August 26, 2013 • Sig Ueland

You can produce professional-looking product photos without having to hire a professional photographer. By following simple instructions from online video tutorials, you can create rich product images for very little ...
Conversion
6 Ways to Encourage User Generated Content

August 23, 2013 • Armando Roggio

User submitted content like product reviews, guest blog posts, and rich media provide online retailers with excellent and marketable resources that might boost site traffic and encourage additional sales. When online ...
Photography & Video
Mobile Image Recognition to Revolutionize Ecommerce?

August 21, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Mobile image recognition technology identifies objects like shoes, handbags, and golf clubs in images, videos, or directly through a tablet or smartphone’s image sensor. The technology may make a new ...
Analytics & Data
5 Ecommerce Metrics You Should Be Tracking

August 8, 2013 • Feras Alhlou

When it comes to ecommerce analytics, business owners and marketing managers typically focus on metrics like conversion rates, number of transactions, and average order value. These are valuable, and should be monitored. After all, measuring such outcomes is what directly impacts reven...
Conversion
10 A/B Testing Tools for Small Businesses

August 5, 2013 • Sig Ueland

A/B testing is a simple process to test versions of your page and determine which produce positive results. It is a great way to remove the guesswork from your development and focus on what’s working. Here is a list of affordable A/B testing solutions for small businesses. There are ea...
Conversion
6 Benefits of Predictive Analytics for Online Retailers

July 30, 2013 • Gagan Mehra

Predictive analytics is a process that uses machine learning to analyze data and make predictions. It has been used for a long time, though the adoption has been low because of the complexity and costs. With Big Data, both of these things are changing, as more affordable solutions are...
Conversion
Google Analytics ‘Events’ Track Downloads, Video Views

July 30, 2013 • Kevin Webster

Event tracking is one of Google Analytics most underutilized tools. From monitoring PDF downloads to video views, Event tracking counts the number of times a specific action takes place on a website, where that action might not create a unique page view.
Photography & Video
Top 10 Cameras for Ecommerce Product Photos, Videos

July 29, 2013 • Jason Lawrence

One question I get asked a lot at Arqspin, my 360 product photo company, is, "What camera should I use for product photography?" With the right techniques, almost any camera can be used to take good product photography — even the camera on your smartphone. And if you’ve read "How to Tak...
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: How to Avoid Data-wandering

July 17, 2013 • Tim Wilson

When it comes to Google Analytics, a common question users ask is, “Where do I start?” They have logged into the tool multiple times and stared at the default report with its default timeframe of the last 30 days. They have pondered whether there was anything actionable buried in that c...
Analytics & Data
Ecommerce Analytics for Multiple Devices, Channels

July 12, 2013 • Feras Alhlou

Many ecommerce owners use analytics to measure page views, traffic, and conversion rates. That is all well and good, but it is old-school. In today's multi-device, multichannel world, marketers are finding it challenging to connect the dots between the web, mobile, and their backend da...
Conversion
Optimizely Exec on A/B Split Tests

July 10, 2013 • PEC Staff

Leading online retailers continually test different aspects of their websites to help drive sales. This can be as simple as testing various fonts and colors, or more sophisticated tests, such as pricing and product descriptions. Optimizely is a leading testing platform for online bus...
Conversion
Key Site Search Features that Drive Conversions

July 9, 2013 • Dale Traxler

There are many previously published Practical eCommerce articles about site search. They include tips about features that are critical to delivering a world-class customer experience. Review them and learn more about both technical details of site search and leveraging reporting to deli...
Conversion
7 Post-purchase Survey Questions

July 1, 2013 • Dale Traxler

One frustrating aspect of being an online retailer is that you don’t often talk directly to your customers. In fact, most of the customer feedback comes from phone orders, online chat, problems, and returned orders. It’s difficult to gauge customer satisfaction without feedback. Many ...
Conversion
Implementing Live Chat: Dos and Don’ts

June 26, 2013 • Jerry Jao

Many online merchants who use live chat on their stores have seen significant increases in sales. This includes Bloom Nation, an online florist. According its founder, Gregg Weisstein, shoppers are 11 times more likely to convert when engaged in live chat. Similarly, David Handmaker o...
Analytics & Data
2 Handy Google Analytics Features: Ecommerce Reports, Weighted Sorting

June 19, 2013 • Tim Wilson

Overall, Google Analytics has a clean and intuitive interface. But, somehow, useful capabilities sometimes get lost on the screen. Two such features are the "Ecommerce" metric group and "weighted sorting." The Ecommerce Metric Group Every standard report has one or more predefined “me...
Checkout Tactics
Reviewing the Checkout Process of 10 Leading Online Retailers

June 19, 2013 • Armando Roggio

The checkout process is the last step in completing an online transaction and making a sale. A well-planned checkout experience can significantly boost conversions. Leading online retailers have made their checkouts more adaptive, rewarding registered users, and giving site visitors ple...
Conversion
Using A/B Testing to Optimize an Online Store

June 18, 2013 • Dale Traxler

Larger online retailers have big budgets to optimize their navigation and user interface to drive higher conversion rates. They do this by experimenting relentlessly to find the designs with the results they are targeting: drawing visitors to their stores, delivering the products they a...
Business
Are Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode Conversion Killers?

June 14, 2013 • Charles Nicholls

No merchant wants to add steps in the checkout process that reduce conversion. However, merchants often don’t have a choice about 3D Secure, the payment industry program behind "Verified by Visa," "MasterCard SecureCode," and "Amex SafeKey." These programs attempt to reduce card-not-p...
Conversion
Personalization: Letting Shoppers Decide

June 7, 2013 • Dale Traxler

In "Personalizing the Customer Experience," I addressed how that strategy can increase revenue and customer loyalty for ecommerce merchants. In this article, I'll take the concept further. It's time to move from the model of the merchant defining what the shopper wants to one where the...

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