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
Understanding Comparison Shopping Engines

June 6, 2012 • Jody Isaksson Hartwig

Editor's note: We welcome Jody Hartwig as our newest contributor. She is a senior account manager at Acumium, an ecommerce consulting and technology firm. She is also a longtime advisor to ecommerce merchants. For us, Hartwig will address the pros and cons of marketplaces and comparison...
Conversion
10 Ways to Evaluate Online Marketplaces

May 25, 2012 • Gagan Mehra

Online marketplaces have been around for a long time. The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, is a marketplace. Many businesses sell their products on online marketplaces. Marketplaces, though, are not for everyone. This article lists ten reasons why they may — or may not — f...
Analytics & Data
Integrating Google Analytics with Site Search to Drive Conversions

May 21, 2012 • Tim Wilson

There are two broad types of data you can collect about visits to your site. "Behavioral" data is about what visitors actually do on the site, while "attitudinal" data is about what visitors want to do. Both are valuable sources of information, and they complement each other in many way...
Conversion
Publishers to Become Ecommerce Merchants?

May 16, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Trends in online commerce, content marketing, and advertising sales may have set the ecommerce and publishing industries on a collision course as both strive for trust, relevance, and profits. U.S. online sales in just the first three months of 2012 were more than double American newsp...
Conversion
Using Google Analytics Advanced Segments to Find Actionable Data

May 14, 2012 • Jaime Brugueras

Editor's note: We welcome Jaime Brugueras as our newest contributor. He's the co-founder of Mineful, a marketing and data-analysis firm. For us, Brugueras will address analytics, measurement and conversion matters. His first piece, on creating "Advanced Segments" in Google Analytics ...
Conversion
Online Apparel Sales Explode

May 10, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Books, music, software, and consumer electronics have been the mainstay of ecommerce transactions since online sales began. Apparel is now the fastest-growing segment — by growth percentage — in ecommerce thanks to the greater sophistication of shopping tools, free shipping, and more fl...
Conversion
Choosing Sales Channels to Reach Target Consumers

May 9, 2012 • Dale Traxler

In my previous three articles, I explored the importance of developing effective strategies for your ecommerce business. This starts with knowing who your customers are and what products and services they buy from you, and why. Those three articles are: Who Needs an Ecommerce Strate...
Conversion
Drop Shipping: The Good and The Bad

May 8, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Drop shipping may help online retailers increase sales and profits. But the strategy is not without problems — ranging from gathering product information, managing orders, providing good customer service, and removing poor-performing items. As a business model, drop shipping has online...
Product Pages
6 Product Page Factors that Drive Sales

April 30, 2012 • Pablo Palatnik

Among the most underrated aspect of ecommerce websites are product pages. When consumers consider actual items to purchase, it's the product pages that determine if they want to buy from your website, or not. Product pages, in my view, are where the sales are really made. 6 Product Pa...
Conversion
7 Things to Know about Your Customers

April 26, 2012 • Dale Traxler

Whether you are planning to launch a new online store, new product lines, or an entirely new business, you need to know who your target consumers are and how to reach them. These seven questions will help with that understanding. Why do customers buy from you and not a competitor? ...
Checkout Tactics
3 Tips for Managing Shopping Cart Abandonment

April 24, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Recent studies indicate that 7 out of 10 online shopping carts are exited before a sale is completed. This abandonment rate seems to be rising, as online shoppers become more comfortable comparing prices and other product or service attributes. SeeWhy, a website conversion service, rep...
Conversion
6 Ways to Increase Prices on Your Ecommerce Site

April 19, 2012 • Gagan Mehra

Pricing management is one of the most ignored processes for an ecommerce site. Most sites set the prices once and then largely forget about them. Though, the fact is that effective management of pricing can result in significant increase in profits. One way to do that is to increase pri...
Conversion
Analyzing Customer Review Platforms; Amazon’s Example

April 5, 2012 • Louis Camassa

A customer review system is one of the top features of an ecommerce website. It provides credibility through the word of others who have previously purchased the products or services. This singular feature differentiates the online shopping experience from brick-and-mortar stores more t...
Conversion
10 Ways to Improve Product Photos

April 3, 2012 • Drew Coffin

Online stores do not have the shelves filled with products for consumers to touch and examine like physical stores do. This makes the use of compelling product images important for online merchants. Here are ten ways to improve your product images. 1. Start With Good Photographs You c...
Conversion
Do Digital Catalogs Drive Conversions?

March 26, 2012 • Charles Nicholls

Traditionally, catalogs are printed. They have an interruptive value as they arrive through the mailbox. They get read at the breakfast table, in front of the television, and in bed. They provide customers with a pleasurable way of browsing at their leisure, selecting products for a pot...
Conversion
5 Techniques for Excellent Online Customer Service

March 20, 2012 • Gagan Mehra

Customer service is especially important in today's socially connected world as consumers can harm the image of a company with a single comment. In my experience advising leading ecommerce companies, the following techniques can help all merchants — large and small — offer excellent onl...
Conversion
3 Examples of Marketing on the Fringe

March 20, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Unrestrained marketers with blockbuster budgets can come up with some pretty amazing ways to promote products and services. These ideas can inspire small and mid-sized online retailers to market on the fringe. Entertainment marketing is a sub-genre of content marketing that is aimed at...
Conversion
How to Promote a New Product on Your Ecommerce Site

March 12, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Retailers frequently add new product lines, brands, or even seasonal items. When these fresh items are introduced, marketers call it a product launch. Product launches are important and frequent events in ecommerce marketing that may be managed with a promotional recipe, removing uncert...
Conversion
Configuring an Ecommerce Site for International Orders; 8 Tips

March 8, 2012 • Louis Camassa

International orders are an often overlooked market for ecommerce merchants. Prior to accepting them, however, merchants should configure their sites to increase international profits and reduce potential losses. Here are eight tips to help. 1. Enable Fraud Protection Fraud is a hug...
Conversion > Merchant Voice
How to reduce customer returns, refunds and resentment

March 4, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If you can reduce returns and refunds, you make more money! Here are my tips from my business and personal consumer experience. 1. 100% money-back guarantee When you shop online, you probably don’t buy products from unfamiliar companies, without a 100% money-back guarantee. You might ...
Product Pages
10 Most Important Features of Ecommerce Product Pages

March 2, 2012 • Pablo Palatnik

Editor's Note: We welcome Pablo Palatnik as our newest contributor. He is director of search marketing and search engine optimization for Fortune3, a shopping cart company. Palatnik's articles will address strategies for improving ecommerce product pages. His first piece is below. In...
Conversion
The Pros and Cons of Drop Shipping

February 21, 2012 • Rob Snell

When I spoke at a conference a couple of years ago, and I made the mistake of referring to two types of online retailers: "real retailers" (like me) who stock what they sell and then those other folks that drop ship. Whoops! I have never gotten so much hate mail.
Product Pages
Identifying Conversion Problems from the Product Page

February 21, 2012 • Pamela Hazelton

When vying to increase conversion rates, many storeowners mistakenly put primary focus on the checkout process. While a simplified checkout with ideal options — i.e. various payment and non-inflated shipping choices — will definitely help increase the percentage of visitors who complete...
Customer Retention
3 Ecommerce Personalization Strategies

February 20, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Personalized product recommendations may help shoppers discover products or services more quickly and boost ecommerce sales conversions. There are, perhaps, a few possible definitions of personalization. For some, “personalization is about engaging customers using technology in ways th...
Customer Retention
4 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Conversions with Better Landing Pages

February 14, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Better landing page content and design may boost ecommerce conversions. A small difference in an online merchant's conversion rate can make a huge difference in that merchant's profit. Consider an online retailer with about 20,000 monthly visits and an average order value — sometimes c...
Conversion
Ask an Expert: Better to Sell Retail or Wholesale?

February 13, 2012 • PEC Staff

"Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about the pros and cons of selling products on a retail basis, versus wholesale. The question comes from Jan Hansen, co-owner of Jewels by...
Customer Retention
3 Tips for Getting Started with Subscriptions

February 13, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Product and service subscriptions give ecommerce businesses a reliable flow of revenue, predictable inventory requirements, and the opportunity to cut costs. Transitioning from a traditional retail model to a subscription service can be done in small measured steps. What follows are th...
Customer Retention
Fake Reviews, a Despicable Practice?

January 31, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Online retailers have an ethical and legal responsibility to customers to advertise and market in an honest and legitimate fashion. But sometimes the line separating an excellent marketing idea from a despicable or even illegal business practice is not perfectly clear. Ecommerce market...
Conversion
PetFlow.com: Customer Focus, Business Savvy Drives Success

January 30, 2012 • Armando Roggio

PetFlow is a subscription-based ecommerce business that sells pet food, including heavy bags of it, overcoming logistic and service challenges. The company is expected to have more than $20 million in sales in 2012, succeeding in an industry where others have failed, and demonstrating ...
Customer Service
Increasing Conversions by Referring Consumers Elsewhere

January 26, 2012 • Pamela Hazelton

Zappos.com's customer service is legendary. It's been known to order pizzas for customers, to take special product photos for customers, and to help customers match items and colors. It also refers consumers to competitors when they request products Zappos doesn't carry. Referring cons...

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