Daniel Burstein says, “”Testing is the only way to find customer logic.” The above quote is from a respondent to the MarketingSherpa Ecommerce Benchmark Study survey. In this chart, we’ll look at data generated from responses by 2,151 marketers and explore the correlation between A/B testing and ecommerce success“. How are successful and unsuccessful ecommerce companies approaching online testing? MarketingSherpa  [...]

Amberly Dressler says, “Alibaba may be valued at more than eBay and Amazon combined, but China’s e-commerce powerhouse has low brand recognition among American online shoppers of all generations. Bizrates Insights, a division of Connexity (formerly Shopzilla), surveyed more than 3,500 online buyers and found that 63 percent are still not familiar with Alibaba, which is said to soon be entering the U.S. market. Of the online shoppers who are familiar with Alibaba (or have even interacted with the site), 35 percent indicate they would not even browse, much less purchase from a Chinese e-commerce... [...]

Jordan Elkind says, “What is common to McDonald’s, Whole Foods, Nike, Starwood, Groupon, and Uber? Answer: They are all launch partners of Apple Pay, Apple’s new mobile payment service for online and store-based retailers, announced a month ago and available to use as of earlier this week (October 20). The new iPhone and iPad models – iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, and iPad Mini 3 – are the first devices embedding Apple Pay. These devices will enable consumers to pay with their phones or tablets online through the Touch ID interface using one’s fingerprint”. What Apple Pay Means... [...]

Derek S. says, “With more than 1 billion unique monthly visitors, Google already provides e-commerce merchants with an unparalleled opportunity to be found by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Google provides another benefit to e-commerce merchants that a majority of ‘Net professionals may not be fully aware of in Google Shopping, a feature that allows consumers to quickly find the product(s) they are looking for directly on the search results page. Google has announced they are bringing local inventory ads from their Google Shopping feature to the UK, France, Germany,... [...]

Zia Daniell Wigder says, “In August and September of this year, we fielded a survey of online retailers in Brazil together with partner e-Commerce Brasil, an established industry organization. The goal was to better understand key performance indicators (KPIs) in Brazil as well as retailers’ priorities, challenges and the size and composition of eCommerce teams. We received over 300 responses to our survey and have just published the first in our three-report series based on the survey. Retail eCommerce In Brazil: Key Metrics provides a look at over a dozen KPIs such as conversion rates,... [...]

Amberly Dressler says, “Retailers with both e-commerce sites and traditional brick-and-mortar stores have their work cut out for them. “Omnichannel” is no longer a buzzword. Today, rather, it’s an expectation. According to Forrester Research, 71 percent of consumers now expect to view in-store inventory online while another 50 percent expect to buy products online and pick up in-store. The bad news is that most retailers are unable to deliver this experience. The good news is there are, of course, solutions that can”. IBM Talks E-Commerce Fulfillment Trends Website Magazine  [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “Back in the distant past of 2012, our illustrious editor shared his 14 best practice tips for how ecommerce sites should handle online returns. Upon reading the above linked article you’ll notice that very little in terms of best practice has changed in the intervening years. The benefits of nailing customer returns are also still the same. Customer satisfaction leads to better retention and higher CLV. However in the intervening two years since the above publication, how well have some of the top UK ecommerce sites presented their returns information? Let’s take... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Ecommerce continues to grow, increasing by around 10%, 2013 to 2014. Part of this growth is due to the continuing emergence of APAC, specifically China. This has created what PayPal calls ‘new spice routes’ with countries trading cross-border when it comes to ecommerce. I’ve done a bit of a literature review to bring myself up to speed on how international ecommerce is changing. I hope you find it informative”. What’s happening in cross-border ecommerce? ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Matt McGee says, “E-commerce sales are expected to rise between eight and 11 percent this holiday shopping season. That’s the word from Shop.org, which released its holiday shopping online sales forecast earlier this week. Shop.org today released its 2014 online holiday sales forecast, expecting sales in November and December to grow between 8 – 11 percent over last holiday season to as much as $105 billion. Shop.org forecasts sales based on government data including, consumer credit, disposable personal income, and previous monthly retail sales releases. Holiday non-store sales in 2013... [...]

Paul Rogers says, “I was recently asked for advice on the best course of action for discontinued products for an ecommerce site and whether you should follow Google’s previous advice to let the pages 404. I decided to write this piece up because it’s something that’s talked about a lot, but rarely written about. I’m half suggesting people to question bits of it, as it’s an area that is, in my opinion, pretty subjective. In this specific scenario, the website was a very large fashion retailer, meaning that products are frequently discontinued (with no intention of bringing them back)... [...]