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As a general rule of thumb,“ A good website is one which makes users take a desired action” This action could be anything from making users add a product to a cart or share a particular article, good website design urges them do it without a lot of clutter or text to go along. Consequently good websites are one which are - High Converting - Easy to Navigate - Cleanly Branded - Interruption Free. Whether you own an e-commerce website or are building a forum for dog lovers, there are a few basic guidelines you can follow to ensure high conversions and revenue regardless of what scale you are running at....
TVs sold on Amazon.com were 15% less on the Friday after Thanksgiving than they were on Prime Day 2015, Market Track finds. Amazon.com Inc.’s second annual Prime Day promotion takes place July 12, but if last year is any indication, shoppers might be better off waiting until later in the year for the best deals. A report from retailer pricing, advertising and promotions tracking firm Market Track finds that on Black Friday 2015, televisions were 15% cheaper compared to Prime Day. Video games, meanwhile, were 12% cheaper on the day after Thanksgiving than Prime Day, which last year was on Wednesday, July 15. Amazon Prime is Amazon’s annual subscription where shoppers pay $99 and receive perks such as free expedited shipping. Market Track examined the prices of nearly 400 items on both Prime Day and Black Friday 2015 across five categories: TVs, video games, laptops, small appliances and tablets. Of the five categories studied, small appliances had the least difference in pricing, with those items 3% cheaper on Black Friday than on Prime Day. Overall, all categories studied were cheaper on Black Friday than they were on Prime Day....
We (marketers) have all been waiting for this moment for the last decade: The moment social media goes from being an engagement platform to a revenue generation tool.
Yes, for years now, businesses large and small have had to struggle to defend their social media spends. After all these years, just 36 percent of all CMOs claim that they see clear quantifiable results from social media marketing. Questions like ROI, revenue attribution, last mile conversions have dogged the platform like a heavy albatross around its neck. Long-winded methods are adopted by various firms to showcase the impact that social media has on the bottom lines of businesses.
No more. Finally, enough factors have come together to prove the naysayers wrong. Now we have tools that can directly produce the results that marketers were hoping social media would be able to influence someday. Transactions are no longer limited to e-commerce sites, they happen right here on social media now. So what are these five ingredients that are responsible for this perfect storm?...
As the 2016 year comes barreling towards us, it’s essential to look back at what you’e done with your business in order to establish a plan for the unexpected ahead. Even evaluating your entire ecommerce system is a wise choice, considering companies change, prices go up and offerings are not always what they once were.
Yes, the new year is a time for reevaluation, and the ecommerce world is no stranger to that. Therefore, keep reading to learn about the ten most interesting ecommerce trends for 2016 and beyond....
The retail model of the future will be a radically different experience from today, largely driven by the changing shopping demands of the younger hyper-connected consumer. Bricks-and-mortar retailing will remain to be a very significant part in retail, however the lines between channels will erode at the benefit of both the customer and the business. Advances in technology will significantly improve the relationships between retailers and customers, much the way analytics is already doing to online shopping.
Real opportunity lies in responding to this change, focusing on delivering a truly integrated and seamless omni-channel experience. The future of retail is an exciting one, and over the next few years we expect to see a number of key developments taking place in stores around the globe...
Coupons are quickly growing as a significant component of beacon-enabled proximity marketing thanks to strong redemption rates, with brands and retailers forecast to deliver 1.6 billion coupons a year by 2020, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The results point to how proximity marketing is gaining traction as retailers look to engage more deeply with consumers in and around their stores, prompting the volume of beacon-enabled coupons to grow quickly from the 11 million expected to be delivered in 2015. However, the research also underscores the potential danger of turning beacons into nothing more than another offer channel, which is likely to cause shoppers to lose interest....
Coined by the fearless leader and editor of “The Robin Report,” Robin Lewis, “The race to the bottom” is now the perfect catchall phrase for the dynamic we see at play now. (Full disclosure: I have valued Robin’s work for over 25 years, and think he is a complete visionary.)
The phrase not only refers to a price proposition, but also to the value proposition that I call “emotional gross margin” or EGM. EGM is the intangible value when you appeal to a consumer in ways beyond the product value. When you dilute your EGM, all you have left is a commodity. And everyone has commodities. The reality today is that we have created an experience for the consumer that is contributing to the dilution of an emotional gross margin. The diminishment of this so-important value proposition is creating an unending cycle that feeds on itself, further diluting the emotional connection.
You can now buy clothing for less than you pay for pizza at Dominos. The commoditization of apparel has finally hit its stride. Clothing is now the new fast food. And we digest it just as fast, or even faster.
At the same time, the consumer is smart enough to know that the price tag on a garment is simply a placeholder for an inevitable discount. By price promoting in this way, we have created an environment that has no end game and is jeopardizing our customers’ trust in our brands, it’s a game of chicken and we always blink....
User reviews are a proven sales driver, a survey has revealed, so what are people really searching for and what decisions does this lead to?
Well, this infographic from PeopleClaim explains exactly how user reviews affect consumers’ decision-making when buying a product.
This infographic shows: - If an issue is handled quickly, 95% of customers will return - 70% consult reviews before purchase - Reviews drive higher loyalty and purchase satisfaction....
After researching for more than two weeks, it’s finally done! Here are the best 100 business blogs about ecommerce, SEO, conversions and marketing, and the most popular articles from each one. It’s a comprehensive list of tremendous resources, so please make sure you bookmark it for later reference if you don’t have 48h straight to binge it right now. Also, please consider to tweet or share it on Facebook if you think it’s a valuable resource.
OK, let’s get the party started...
Not every retailer had a great 2015. Some brands seriously struggled.
These are some brands that did not fare too well — many suffered from low sales and misguided sartorial choices. Some companies filed for bankruptcy.
Here's hoping 2016 will be better for them....
Accenture conducted an online survey of over 4,500 consumers in October 2015 across the United States, Canada and China. Overall, consumers are showing an increase in their spending expectations this holiday season, with 40 percent of US consumers planning to spend more on holiday shopping although they are still enticed by a good deal.
Sparked by ongoing optimism around consumers’ personal financial situations across each of the five markets, consumers remain enthusiastic about Holiday Shopping–both in-store and online, although the majority of shoppers would prefer the online option over physical stores where a retailer sells their product using both channels.
And despite increased instances of cybersecurity breaches across multiple industries in recent times, consumers are increasingly open to sharing personal information with retailers in order to receive personalized offers. Privacy and security concerns are the number one reason in all markets for consumers when shopping on a mobile phone, smartphone or tablet....
A new video made by Shopify, an e-commerce software company, delves into this bit of Internet history to track down the first official e-commerce transaction. The trail begins on the ARPANET, with a 1971 deal between computer science students at Stanford and MIT to buy some pot. But, explains the narrator, that technically didn’t count because money wasn’t exchanged online: they only used the network to arrange a meeting place.
Next, the trail leads to 1984, when a 74-year-old British grandmother named Jane Snowball used a Videotex—essentially a TV connected to telephone lines—to order provisions from her local grocery store: margarine, eggs, cornflakes. However, the groceries were delivered by hand, and Snowball paid for them in cash. That’s not exactly e-commerce.
The first true e-commerce transaction didn’t happen until 1994 with the advent of the Internet as we more or less know it today. Though Pizza Hut often gets credit for the first e-commerce transaction (they started selling pizzas online in late August 1994) the actual credit goes to Dan Kohn, a 21-year-old entrepreneur who ran a website based in New Hampshire called NetMarket....
IBM’s Watson platform has another new side project: making holiday gift predictions. The company is releasing a new iPhone app called IBM Watson Trend, which they claim can predict which gifts are most likely to sell out at stores and e-commerce sites. While aimed at helping consumers, the app also shows the investment IBM has been putting into expanding Watson into the business world.
The app shows "trending" gifts in three categories—toys, consumer electronics, and health and fitness—alongside explanatory information about why those particular objects are trending. This includes analysis of hot purchases such as Lego City and the Nikon D-SLR, as well as products like Mattel's "Hello Barbie", which are declining in popularity (IBM says that, although popular with parents, children feel the interactive doll has an outdated style)....
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Amazon has been experimenting with the pop-up store concept for a number of years. They have opened up dozens of locations in malls all over the United States. It looks like Amazon intends on opening 30 new locations all over the United States so people can easily buy Kindle e-Readers, Fire Tablets and Echo Speakers for the holidays. Amazon is on a hiring spree to find temporary and permanent employees, which suggests that the stores could be semi-permanent installations. They are looking for staff in Texas, Washington, New York, Florida and dozens of other States. Additionally, it looks like Amazon is also looking to hire a major executive to oversee all of the pop-up stores and implement a unified strategy, design and stock each location with more products. Having a dedicated person in charge is a good move if Amazon plans on expanding this program in the coming years....
The cost of e-commerce is weighing heavily on brick-and-mortar retailers, who have successfully increased digital sales but thinned their margins in the process, according to a new study from retail strategy firm HRC Advisory released Tuesday.
That shift has led operating earnings as a percentage of sales to decline by up to 25%, in part due to the major investments retailers are making in e-commerce and omnichannel plus the higher cost of e-commerce fulfillment, the study found. Returns of online orders are particularly expensive and returned merchandise is difficult to resell at full value, HRC added.
Although brick-and-mortar retailers have successfully increased their digital efforts, momentum is slowing. Online sales growth for 11 public department store chains fell from 39.3% in 2012 to 18.6% in 2015, HRC said, while the online sales growth rate for 22 specialty stores declined from 17.5% in 2012 to 9% last year....
AT Kearney released a report – The 2015 Global Retail E-Commerce Index. Their research analyzes retail e-commerce around the globe and ranks countries according to its proprietary Global Retail E-Commerce Index.™
The biggest news for this year’s index is that e-commerce continues to grow strongly in big markets and small with only a few exceptions. The index ranks countries by several criteria: online market size (40%), consumer behavior (20%), growth potential (20%) and infrastructure (20%) weighted to arrive at an overall Online Attractiveness Score....
In 2014, research firm Nielsen conducted a study that found 85% of all consumer packaged goods (CPG) product launches flop. Of course, many see this as a necessary cost of doing business. To effectively test whether or not their ideas will fare well with consumers, big brands develop dozens of products, investing millions in the process, hoping that a handful will become wildly popular. And they do all this knowing a majority of their newest products will fail.
For small businesses though, this statistic is hugely discouraging. Fortunately, there are things brands and store owners can do to ensure the next products they develop, launch and promote are a success.
To help you beat the odds, we have outlined 10 steps every eCommerce store should take to increase their chances of a successful product launch....
These days more and more retailers are establishing their business online. Running an eCommerce website has become an indispensable part of their successful marketing strategy. Since the majority of today’s shoppers prefer to read about their preferred products and compare pricing on the web, a website is the first place that the users will check out before making their final decision whether they need to buy something from you or from a different company. So, as you may appreciate, the way your website is designed and how your products are presented has a great impact on the customers’ decision-making.
If a ready-made website template sounds like a more lucrative solution for you (compared to a custom-made or a self-made design), then you’ve reached the right post. Below you will find 30 of the most appealing and powerful eCommerce themes that could make your store shine in 2016.
Look through the compilation of PrestaShop, Magento, WooCommerce, Opencart, Shopify, VirtueMart and ZenCart themes and, who knows, maybe your dream design is listed somewhere below....
A/B Tests aren't for every website. If you have a high value item that only 20 people see a week, but when it converts it means a bigger return, A/B testing would be a lot harder to implement in a way to get return on investment. A/B Tests and multivariate tests are perfect for websites where you have a solid amount of traffic coming in so that you can reach statistical significanc.
A/B Tests are only as good as your assumptions and guessesSo a deep dive into what has worked for other eCommerce websites is a prerequisite for implementing any meaningful change on your website. Familiarize yourself with many sources of information about eCommerce sites and come up with the tests that you feel are most likely to move the meter as far as revenue goes.
Two of the crucial moments on a website are when a visitor lands on your homepage and product page/buy button. So many of the case studies, I've read and implement changes around these crucial areas....
While similarities exist across all age groups, some key differences emerge immediately. First the similarities: Most U.S. adults intend to spend the same amount or more while shopping online during this season as compared to a year ago. 85% of U.S. Adults 18 and older plan to do so, ranging from 86% of 18-54 year olds to 83% of those 55 and older. Additionally, most consumers across all age groups plan to spend at least as much as they did last year on the top retail categories of Clothing and Electronics. Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults plan to spend at least as much this season as they did last year on Clothing and Shoes and roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults plan to spend the same or more on Electronics. However, Clothing and Electronics spending plans do vary by age group with younger shoppers more likely than older consumers to spend the same or more on Electronics (75% of A18-34 vs. 57% of A65+) and Clothing (82% of A18-34 vs. 71% of A65+ on Children’s Clothing, 78% of A18-34 vs. 63% of A65+ on Shoes).
Beyond spending plans, younger consumers are more prone to being influenced by digital and mobile media than older shoppers are in their Clothing purchases. Overall, 1 in 4 U.S. adults report that they are influenced by Email Ads and 1 in 5 by Internet Ads in their Clothing purchases. More U.S. adults are influenced by Email (26%) than Broadcast TV (21%) and more by Internet Ads (19%) than Cable TV (13%) in their Clothing purchases. Digital influence is more pronounced among 18-34 year olds shopping for Clothing: 1 in 3 are Influenced by Email Ads, 1 in 4 by Internet Ads and 1 in 5 by Social Media. This younger demo is also twice as likely as the general adult population to be influenced by Mobile Video, Blogs or Web Radio. 35-54 year olds parallel the general adult population in digital media influence on Clothing purchases and 55-64 year olds are a bit less influenced by these media. Fewer clothing shoppers 65 and older are influenced by any media but twice as many of them are influenced by Internet Ads (10%) than Cable TV (5%)....
No matter what niche you are in, setting up a successful ecommerce store requires both planning and a lot of smart work. If you take into account that customers now have around a gazillion of online stores to turn to for their shopping spree, you can understand why you have to develop both a short term and a long term strategy. From figuring out exactly what you have to sell to choosing the right platform for you (this comparison might be of use here), you have to take into account almost everything.
The following experts answered these two important questions: - In your opinion, what’s the one and most important thing any store owner should focus on right after they launch the website?
- What’s the worst mistake that would set a new online shop on the wrong path?...
As the 2016 year comes barreling towards us, it’s essential to look back at what you’e done with your business in order to establish a plan for the unexpected ahead. Even evaluating your entire ecommerce system is a wise choice, considering companies change, prices go up and offerings are not always what they once were.
Yes, the new year is a time for reevaluation, and the ecommerce world is no stranger to that. Therefore, keep reading to learn about the ten most interesting ecommerce trends for 2016 and beyond....
According to the IAB’s “Digital Shopping Report,” more consumers overall still prefer tablets over smartphones when it comes to making retail purchases — 35 percent vs. 28 percent — though when it comes to younger consumers, it’s a different story.
For shoppers between the ages of 18-34, the majority prefers smartphones over tablets for making purchases — 43 percent vs. 35 percent — while for adults between the ages of 34-54 it's the opposite, with most in this age group opting for tablets over smartphones — 41% vs. 35%. Those between the ages of 55-64 are more than twice as likely to use a tablet: 34 percent vs. 15 percent, respectively.
The study found this trend continues when identifying what devise consumers use for checking prices and reading product reviews. Consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 were more likely to skim product reviews on smartphones than tablets — 44 percent vs. 32 percent — and members of this age group are also more inclined to check prices on a smartphone than a tablet as well: 42 percent vs. 32 percent. Those between the ages of 35 and 54, however, are more prone to use tablets to read reviews, locate stores, check store hours, and compare prices: 40 percent vs. 35 percent....
So the question that comes to mind is “What has caused this unremitting demand for online commerce? So, what really drives the customers to visit a particular online marketplace and choose the same for purchase? What are the factors that make shopping both a comfortable and pleasurable experience for them? And, on what basis do they decide to revisit the portal or repeat purchase?
Irrespective of how utilitarian the concept of online buying sounds, shopping either from a real or virtual platform does entail a splash of hedonism as also grants the whole affair a distinctive upmarket feel.
That’s precisely why there are as many customers who shop purely to elevate their moods (and trigger the release of dopamine) as those who shop to meet their immediate needs without the pressure of wants influencing the purchase. At the same time, given the rapidly transforming global marketplace led by technological innovation and a furious digitization spree, online buying has to a large extent become inevitable....
This holiday shopping season, customers are increasingly avoiding brick-and-mortar stores in favor of buying online, according to a new report on consumer shopping patterns commissioned by Salesforce titled “2015 Connected Shoppers Report."
In fact, 88 percent of shoppers who avoid going to physical stores during the holiday season do so due to the crowds (82 percent), limited parking (48 percent), convenience of online shopping (48 percent) and a lack of knowledge/service from seasonal employees (24 percent). One of the study's key results is that retailers are failing to leverage technology to create multichannel experiences for shoppers.
The Millennial Divide
“As Black Friday approaches, and with more than $950 billion expected to be spent this holiday season in the United States, new research from Salesforce shows that in order to succeed, retailers need to accelerate digital transformations to provide personalized, 1-to-1 customer journeys for customers,” the company said in a statement....
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Even with minimal traffic, a high converting website ensures that you are making the most of all your visitors and effectively converting all those website visits into $$$.