Corey Beale says, “Designing and developing an ecommerce website seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? Display the products and prices, provide a shopping cart and payment portals, and you’re done. Or are you? A simple ecommerce site may be easy enough to launch, but will it reach all your buyers at any time? With so many different shopping styles and personalities out there, you can be sure your simplified design leaves a chunk of buyers out in the cold. How can you plan for the many different shoppers so that you can be prepared to convert them to customers at any time? We’ve... [...]

Gregg Crystal says, “The adage “patience is a virtue” doesn’t apply online. Even a one-second delay can drastically reduce pageviews, customer satisfaction and drop conversions. The speed of your site even affects your organic search rankings. Since 2010, Google has been accounting for a site speed in its algorithm. So what’s the biggest factor contributing to your page speed? Size. It takes browsers time to download the code that makes up your page. It has to download your HTML, your stylesheets, your scripts and your images. It can take a while to download all that data“. 5... [...]

Paul Rouke says, “In previous articles I have discussed my admiration for the online experiences offered by the likes of ASOS, Booking.com and (yes, honestly) Lingscars.com. Now it is time to add another online experience to the pantheon of greats; the phenomenal ecommerce experience that is AO.com (formerly Appliances Online). My opinion is that AO.com is among the most customer-centric retailers I have had the pleasure of knowing in more than 15 years working in the ecommerce industry. Background I first became aware of AO.com back in 2008, when Matthew Lawson contacted PRWD concerning... [...]

Morgan Jacobson says, “Nothing about running an ecommerce website is straightforward and easy. The goal is, of course, to present a product, entice buyers to purchase, and then process the payment. This is how even the most basic ecommerce site should run. For those that really want to increase sales through the use of psychology and maybe even a little wheedling, there are some other tactics you can adopt. A/B Testing Absolutely every aspect of your site could be tested for improvement, including images, headlines, product descriptions, and even the overall design. Even if you think you’re... [...]

Ryan Nicholson says, “There is another dimension beyond which is known to most marketers. It is a dimension that is vast and chaotic and as timeless as the sales process itself. It is the middle ground between the introduction and the close, between engagement and disengagement, it lies between the deepest of our marketing fears and the heights of our marketing knowledge. This is the 4th dimension of the sales funnel. It is an area which we’ll call… The Sales Continuum. We all have a concept of the sales funnel. It fits nicely into a very linear framework of time. The human mind loves... [...]

Benjamin Spiegel says, “As much as we all love terms like “breaking down silos” and “omni-channel,” we all know there is a big divide between the online and offline worlds. The reality is that we still have a long way to go in integrating our digital with our offline activities; this is especially true for the shopping realm. Digital shopping is widely believed to be the future of commerce. If it were up to companies like Amazon, Instacart and Facebook, we would be purchasing all our goodsvia digital channels. One exciting aspect of e-commerce is the massive amount of data it generates.... [...]

Greg Wise says, “Getting people to spend money online is easier than ever, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for everyone. There are still plenty of consumers out there who aren’t comfy passing along financial information, no matter how secure the transactions get. One small slip, and you could turn them off of shopping with you for good. So, how can you get your visitors to trust you enough to convert to customers? Here are some tips to help. Updated Design Anyone who shops online is familiar enough with websites to recognize old or bad design. If you haven’t updated your design lately,... [...]

Adam Silverman says, “When I tell friends and family I’m researching the future of the digital store, they more often than not conjure up a certain image in their heads: robotic sales associates, augmented reality dressing rooms, holographic advertising displays, and maybe even hovercraft-friendly shopping malls (à la The Jetsons). And while components of digital stores are absolutely in line with this flashy and quintessentially futuristic vision (Samsung’s virtual fitting room—equipped with 3-D cameras and depth perception software—can virtually drape an article of clothing over... [...]

Kath Pay says, “When creating and optimising our ecommerce customer journey, not only do we need to ensure that we make this as frictionless as possible, but also that we make it as persuasive as possible. Our journey today When creating and optimising our ecommerce customer journey, not only do we need to ensure that we have made this as frictionless and easy to use journey as possible, but also that we have made this journey as persuasive as possible. Working Psychology defines Persuasion as being: Persuasion attempts to win “the heart and mind” of the target. Thus persuasion... [...]

Michelle Beeson says, “Europe’s eBusiness professionals are increasingly focused on their digital presence, and with good reason. Digital touchpoints are feeding into almost every stage of the customer life-cycle. For many retailers over half of all online traffic comes from mobile devices, like smartphones – yet, smartphone conversion rates are considerably lower. Initially this may appear as a cause for concern. But Forrester’s updated European Cross-Channel Retail Sales Forecast sheds a different light on this phenomenon by quantifying the influence of digital touchpoints,... [...]