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

    Tools To Detect Slow Load Times

    July 24, 2008 •

    Don’t you hate when it takes, seemingly, forever for a website to load? Here’s why the load time of your site matters Slow load times constitute poor user experience. People are paying upwards of $50 a month for their high-speed Internet because they don’t like to wait. If you ma...

  • Conversion

    Overcome The Disconnect With Persona Marketing

    July 22, 2008 •

    A major challenge for businesses today is a lack of understanding of their customers. You may know only what your online tracking reports or store receipts tell you about your customers, and not the customers themselves. You need a way to overcome this disconnect. Remember, you’re not m...

  • Conversion

    Conversion Report Card: Weddingthings.com

    July 15, 2008 •

    WeddingThings is an established ecommerce company that sells the unique gifts wedding guests traditionally take home, as well as other wedding essentials for the perfect wedding such as invitations and bridal-party gifts. Eugene Mar, vice president of WeddingThings, wants some insigh...

  • Conversion

    Improving Your Website’s Yahoo! Quality Index Score

    July 15, 2008 •

    Most pay-per-click advertisers are familiar by now with concept of the PPC Quality Score. Advertisers running on the major search engines may think that the variables that Google looks at are the same as those at Yahoo!. Both Google’s Quality Score and Yahoo!’s Quality Index aim to prov...

  • Conversion

    Lessons Learned: Practicalsports.com Owner Byron Tabor

    July 11, 2008 •

    “Lessons Learned” is an occasional series where we ask seasoned ecommerce professionals about their mistakes and successes. For this installment, we’ve asked Byron Tabor, owner of Rooms Delivered, a company that sells sporting goods and camping equipment on its sites Practicalsports.com...

  • Conversion

    Improving Your Yahoo! Quality Index Score

    July 11, 2008 •

    Most pay-per-click advertisers are familiar by now with concept of the PPC Quality Score. Advertisers running on the major search engines may think that the variables that Google looks at are the same as those at Yahoo!. Both Google’s Quality Score and Yahoo!’s Quality Index aim to prov...

  • Conversion

    Facebook Widgets: Consider Sproutbuilder.com

    July 11, 2008 •

    Last year I wrote about the potential of applications – or widgets – on the Facebook platform. At the time Facebook was one of the only social media entities that had an open platform for anyone to build and share applications. Widgets are popular because users can customize their pages...

  • Conversion

    Pay-Per-Click Bid Management Strategies

    July 11, 2008 •

    My philosophy on pay-per-click bid management has always been to manage each keyword’s performance in each engine individually. Knowing a keyword’s impact makes it easier to determine the next steps to take in improving the account’s overall performance. I start by looking at a current ...

  • Conversion

    Local Search Pays Off, Naturally

    June 25, 2008 •

    When your customers are right around the corner, you don’t need your pay-per-click ads seen half-way around the world. For example, when you’re a Boston-based florist offering online ordering, it’s not necessary to have a top position in search results every time someone searches for “o...

  • Conversion

    Conversion Report Card: Musicforte.com

    June 23, 2008 •

    Musicforte.com offers songbooks, sheet music and music reference materials to artists and music fans. It relies heavily on search engine optimization for sheet music sales and hosts a social network of over 40,000 musicians. Unfortunately, the site is suffering from poor conversion rat...

  • Conversion

    Niche Marketplace Sites Are Worth Considering

    June 23, 2008 •

    Ecommerce merchants looking for additional sales channels might want to consider niche auction and marketplace sites. There are many niche auction sites owing to the fact that most anyone can create one, just like most anyone can open an eBay account or start an ecommerce store. In fac...

  • Checkout Tactics

    Keep It Simple And Straightforward

    June 11, 2008 •

    During a recent online shopping experience, I was thrilled to find the particular store offered free shipping on orders of $25 or more. The large, bold graphic denoting such offer was in the upper-right hand corner of the screen. So I spent some time picking out a few more items, then I...

  • Conversion

    When To Ignore A 50% Conversion Rate

    June 11, 2008 •

    Now that your analytics tool is tracking your conversions, you can measure the conversion rate of search engine keywords, referring sites and ad campaigns. The strategy is to find a traffic source that generates higher-than-average conversions, and increase the traffic from that source ...

  • Conversion

    PPC Report Card: Learningbreakthrough.com

    June 11, 2008 •

    Learning Breakthrough Program is a specialized exercise routine that improves cognitive functions for those diagnosed with developmental, behavioral and learning disabilities. This exercise program is offered via Learningbreakthrough.com, and staff of LBP (Learning Breakthrough Program)...

  • Mat Greenfield Conversion

    Conversion Success: Simplicity, Target and Alignment

    June 9, 2008 •

    I enjoy watching those television shows where the masked magician reveals the secrets of how stage magic is done. It’s funny because whenever he reveals a new trick, I mentally kick myself for not having figured it out earlier. It seemed so simple. In this, my final column for Practica...

  • Conversion

    Accessibility: Use Audio To Describe Your Products

    June 4, 2008 •

    On Memorial Day my wife and I went to see the new Indiana Jones film. You might find that odd, a blind person going to the movies. But it’s possible, thanks to audio-description technology, which allows the blind to follow what happens on-screen. It got me thinking: How could such a se...

  • Conversion

    Social Media Made Simple

    May 27, 2008 •

    Social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and blogs consistently rank high in search results. This means you have more opportunities to increase visibility, build your brand and learn about your audience if you're utilizing social media. It may seem overwhelming at firs...

  • Conversion

    Conversion Report Card: Folica.com

    May 19, 2008 •

    Folica.com is an online beauty retailer that is achieving success through the implementation of a unique business model that includes ecommerce, branded product development and online community. The site has evolved from a relatively small e-retail catalogue to a rather large site with ...

  • Conversion

    Gift Certificates Create Automatic New Customers

    May 14, 2008 •

    Electronic gift certificates can be a great way to acquire new customers. When an existing customer buys one for a friend, the friend becomes a free and automatic customer acquisition, unless they were already shopping with you. When a new customer buys a gift certificate for a friend, ...

  • Conversion

    Social Commerce For Social Media

    May 14, 2008 •

    As social media expands, developers are finding ways to monetize it, making it useful for ecommerce. This is done with applications (abbreviated "apps") and widgets. Jodi McDermott, Director of Product Management for Analytics for Clearspring, a widget developing service, defines the tw...

  • Conversion

    Five Fast Steps to Improve Website Usability

    May 7, 2008 •

    Problem: Your website doesn't work like it should, and every day you're losing sales because of it. As much as you'd like to take the time to comprehensively study the problem, you've decided you can't afford to wait. In many instances, you should take some time to step back and look at...

  • Conversion

    Pay-per-click Advertising: Try The Home Page For A Landing Page

    May 5, 2008 •

    Over the last couple years a lot of emphasis has been put on creating the perfect pay-per-click landing page. The overall landing page strategy is to create a clear call to action on the page and to have relevant content relating to the search query and ad text. After you've followed ...

  • Conversion

    Analytics: Collect The Right Data

    April 16, 2008 •

    "If you had just..." often starts a phrase of regret. If you had just left on time. If you had just bought that stock. In web analytics, "If you had just..." nearly always relates to loss of data. Here are two ways that data loss can erode the value of your web analytics implementatio...

  • Customer Service

    Protect Customers' Data Or Lose Your Business

    April 14, 2008 •

    Back-end store security: It's the most important, yet the oft-overlooked parameter of running an online business. Without securing customer data, you have no claim to running a legitimate business. I often hear excuses of ignorance, which makes me wonder how many online store owners ta...

  • Conversion

    Conversion Report Card: Firststreetonline.com

    April 7, 2008 •

    FirstStreet Online is a large, Virginia-based ecommerce company that offers gifts and lifestyle products to "boomers and beyond." The staff of FirstStreet asked Practical eCommerce to grade its site for conversion issues, which we are pleased to do. A site that is easy to find and ...

  • Conversion

    Bells And Whistles, Or Accessibility Stop Signs?

    April 2, 2008 •

    With the advent of high-speed Internet, a treasure trove of possibilities presented themselves to the web developer. Java, embedded video, Flash and other coding options afforded online retailers the opportunity to provide entertainment, in addition to merchandise. Visual animation is ...

  • Conversion

    Promotional Offers Can Create Prospects

    March 12, 2008 •

    For ecommerce websites, a sale is a desired outcome. However, in some cases, building a mailing list of interested prospects can also be very valuable. In this article, we'll discuss some of the principles for developing a compelling offer to get visitors to convert in a non-financial...

  • Conversion

    Pay-per-click Report Card: Vxb.com

    March 12, 2008 •

    Vxb.com sells ball bearings of various types and sizes. The company is based in California and requested a review of its pay-per-click campaigns on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Vxb.com's monthly ad spend is around $9,000 in Google, $2,000 in Yahoo! and $150 in MSN. Average conversion rate (...

  • Conversion

    Pay-per-click Ads Impact Google Checkout and PayPal

    March 5, 2008 •

    If you're running an ecommerce store, you've probably heard of PayPal and Google Checkout. The following is a quick rundown of things you might not have known about the two. Google Checkout You can process 10 times your ad spend in Google AdWords for free. For example, if you're spend...

  • Conversion

    Ecommerce Blogging: Who, What And When

    March 5, 2008 •

    Last month I talked about blogging platforms and the value blogging can bring to ecommerce sites. When a website makes the decision to begin a blog and decides upon a blogging platform, it will then have to decide who will blog and how often. Time allotted to blogging is also a relative...

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