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IDEAS FOR INTERNET

BASED BUSINESS, or

ECOMMERCE (E-TRADE) (*)

How to Leverage Promotion Codes

“Make sure your promotion codes require

customers to buy at least two or more items.

Then display your cross-sell offerings on the

promotions code page. This gives customers

incentive to increase their purchase amount, and

helps them find additional products with which

to do

Offer a Prize to Entice New Subscribers

“Anyone who signs up for our email newsletter is

automatically entered into a monthly drawing for

a chance to win a free toy or gift certificate from

our website. Drawings are held at the end of

each month, and all active subscribers are

eligible to win. This campaign is currently

featured on our store’s home page, and we've

seen a huge increase in the number of

Streamline Your Shopping Cart

“Each new page a shopper has to load to

complete another step in the checkout process is

a chance for them to fall out of the funnel. You

can minimize fallout by combining pages, and

Empower Employees to Offer Special Incentives

"Empower your employees to offer incentives to

help take online shoppers from simply browsing

to actually purchasing. Arm phone, email and live

chat agents with a cadre of special promotions,

discounts and other inducements only they can

offer. Consider driving communications by

advertising the offers on site, i.e., “Call now for

special discounting,” or “Chat now and get free

shipping.”

Merchandise Products Both In-Store and

Online

“Retail sites and search engines are consistently

the first or second stop in the shopping

continuum, with the end purchase location

being split fairly evenly between the online and

offline retail channel. If you buy shelf space,

eye-level kiosks or other brick-and-mortar

merchandising options and don’t merchandise

on retail websites, you’re missing almost half of

your potential customers.”

Test Placement of Anxiety-Reducing Content

“Test placement of anxiety-reducing content,

including security icons, returns policy, and

satisfaction points. It's often best to separate

emotive content from transactional

considerations.”

Product Feeds Lead to Success

“Proactively sending out product information is

a secret to success. Product feeds to locations

like Google Base, Shopzilla and Shopping.com

give customers more opportunities to find what

you have to offer. Search engines want to

provide relevant information when searchers

look for items you have described in your

feeds.”

Follow User Paths with Clickstream Tool

“Use Alexa Clickstream to learn from which

sites users come to your competitors’ sites, and

where they go afterward. You can also use it to

see where visitors come from and where they

Add a Handwritten Note to Shipped Items

“Empower your packers to add a handwritten

thank you note to the enclosed invoice or

packing slip. If possible, use the customer’s first

name, i.e., ‘Dear Helen, Thank you for your

order. We appreciate your business. Regards,

Rob.’ It doesn’t take much effort, but it

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significantly improves how the customer

perceives and feels about your company.”

Test Small Before a Full-Site Rollout

“Experiment with new ideas. There are tons of

ideas out there to try, from chat to video to

social networking. Develop small, quick, cheap

tests to see which are most effective before

investing in a full site rollout.”

Correctly Evaluate Your Conversion Rate

“The conversion rate is the ratio between the

number of visitors who are likely to perform an

action you desire and the ones that actually do.

It's not related to the whole website traffic.

Eliminate from your analysis those visitors who

don’t have the slightest intention to convert, but

can skew your reports. For instance, when

calculating your sales conversion rate, exclude all

visitors who are referred by organic search

keywords that are not related to your offer.

You’ll be able to focus conversion optimization

actions on the segments that truly matter to

your business goals.”

Deep Links Lead to Deeper Value

“Getting links to your site isn’t a new concept,

but links should point to your most relevant

pages. Home page links aren’t usually relevant

for searches. Look to gain links to specific

category or product pages. This will pass link

value deep into your site and drive rankings for

specific long-tail keywords.”

Mommy Bloggers Love to Do Reviews

“Mommy Bloggers love to write reviews about

products. Search for Mommy Bloggers and then

contact them. Tell them how much you like their

site, why your product is great, and offer to send

them a free product to review. As an added

bonus allow them to do a giveaway of your

product to their readers. This is not only good for

driving sales to your site but is great for SEO

[search engine optimization].”

Mobile: A Critical Ecommerce Channel

“Mobile is not just another customer

communications medium, it is rapidly evolving

into an effective and critical ecommerce

channel--one that creates a link between

existing commerce channels, helping to

converge them. And, consumers aren’t just

using high-end phone browsers, they are using

a wide range of phones to browse the web.

When developing mobile websites and

applications, businesses should focus on

content delivery across different types of

devices, as well as ease of navigation, design,

usability and context. For example, small

displays create usability challenges, and

cumbersome processes that can cause

customers to abandon their purchases.”

Impress Your Customers

“Impress your customers after their first order

with a shipping upgrade, a special discount or

store credit for future purchases. This

encourages them to come back for more, and

the return on investment can be much higher

than traditional advertising.”

Provide Customization and Personalization

Whenever Possible

“Online product customization is becoming an

increasingly popular feature for merchants

keen to distinguish themselves from their

competition. The magic lies in customers being

able to instantly see the customized products,

so they don't have to imagine what the watch,

for example, looks like with a blue band as

opposed to a green one, or a silver dial versus a

gold one. Letting customers personalize their

purchase provides the ultimate touch

(assuming of course, that you are actually able

to actually produce the end result).

Customization can make a huge difference in

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the customer's buying experience; however,

utilizing this power requires merchants to

expertly prepare their images.”

Two Great Conversion Tips

“Cart abandonment may not reflect a cart

problem. New info crushes momentum. Make

sure visitors can access the complete cost from

any page and your cart abandonment problem

may magically disappear. Also, test a one-page

checkout. We've seen it increase conversion

rates 'in some cases.”

Appeal to Coupon Hunters

“Make sure you regularly publish your coupon

codes and special deals on your Facebook and

Twitter accounts, using the words ‘save’ or ‘deal.’

These are often grabbed by third parties and

coupon hunters and then republished on various

coupons sites, giving you a wider distribution list

at no cost.”

Protect Your Brand’s Reputation Online

“As the online retail sales channel continues to

grow, a company's greatest challenge is

defending its brand from being devalued by

discounters. Ensure your company’s ecommerce

success by monitoring and enforcing pricing

violations to keep online retailers on a level

playing field.”

'One-Day Only' Sale Can Boost Social Presence

“We now do a "Wild Wednesdays" promotion

where we announce one product for $10 (usually

retails for $25), or $10 off a particular item. We

announce it on Tuesday via Twitter with a

coupon code that is good only on that

Wednesday. We limit the offer to one discounted

product per customer, and it could be offered

only ‘while supplies last’ for those with a big

customer list. We are currently using this

campaign to grow our social media presence.”

Create Unique Descriptions for Best Results

“Search engines want to provide the most

relevant results possible when people search.

The original content rule applies to storefronts

if they want to succeed. Best practices for

natural search engine ranking is to create your

own unique product descriptions and avoid

copying descriptions from manufacturers.”

Cut Down on Clutter

“Shoppers don’t want clutter! Ideally there

should be only 10 to15 products on a page, no

pop-ups or advertising, and a comparison

feature to view more product details.”

Consolidate Your Community

“Publish exclusive offers and discounts in the

social networks (like Twitter, Facebook or

Google Orkut). It will consolidate your

community and will keep it active.”

Increase Foot Traffic

“If you welcome customers to collect purchases

in person, or if you have a bricks-and-mortar

store, make sure you are listed on Google

Places. It will help you get found by potential

customers looking for your products in and

around your local area.”

Develop Pure Content

“Content is still king. Dedicate a portion of your

web team’s time and budget to developing

pure content that is compelling and relevant for

your users. Finding the right idea is key – it can

be informational and help your users make a

more educated choice, or it can be simply for

entertainment. Compelling content will

generate free traffic and links that your product

pages never will.”

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Tips for Global Ecommerce

“Know your global audience. Americans may

want a quick and easy checkout process, but

consumers in Japan and Europe prefer to see

more details and options when shopping online.

Eighty-five percent of the local German market

uses bank transfers as the primary means of

payment, not credit cards. And, discounted

products are often perceived in Japan as being

faulty instead of simply a good deal.”

Consider Payment Provider Added Services

“Consider the cost of added services when

choosing your payment provider. For instance,

you may use PayPal to checkout customers from

your store or on a selling channel like Etsy or

eBay, but did you know PayPal can also get your

accounting done? Various added services offered

by payment providers can make it less costly and

simpler to run your business.”

Make a Better Category Tree

“Don't make product lists too long. Everything

that goes ‘beyond the fold’ is too long. Spend

more time to make a better category tree. If it's

impossible in your case, make page navigation

very obvious and easy for a visitor.”

Display In-store Promotions on Your Website

“Since the research cycle is typically much longer

for consumers considering a big ticket purchase

online, the impact of relevant and compelling

promotions can often be the driving factor in

getting them into the store or online to make

their final purchase. To make this process

seamless for the customer, use ecommerce tools

to align your site with your promotional

calendars, and display on your website your in-

store events, promotions, sales, coupons and

finance offers. When optimized, these tools will

create a better customer experience online,

extending the value of materials created for in-

store customers.”

Try Incentives to Reduce Cart Abandonment

“Online merchants typically concentrate on

attracting new customers, but research shows

that the industry has a very high rate of

shopping cart abandonment, and this has not

improved over the past years. Try offering

incentives for consumers to complete their

purchases, and reward them for doing so.

Rewarding customers creates loyalty and drives

more sales and revenue.”

Don’t Rush Your Product Listings

“When first setting up your ecommerce site it

can be tempting to just get the basics of the

products uploaded first and add details later,

but don’t rush. Take time to get the title tags

and descriptions right for each product,

including relevant key words and a USP [unique

selling proposition). Also write the description

tags to sell and include relevant keywords.”

Conversion Optimization Testing is Important

“Run controlled A/B/n tests of your site-wide

templates, and concentrate on statistically

significant results. In many cases, a 10 to 30

percent increase in sales can happen by testing

variations in design layout."

Make Use of Free Surveys

“Many shopping search engines (like Shopzilla)

have free sales confirmation surveys, and the

feedback can be invaluable. Survey your

customers regularly, and be sure to route the

feedback to the appropriate departments –

customer service, webmaster, product

development, or other.”

Up-sell Only What Makes Sense

“Whenever possible, up-sell accessories and

items that make sense and compliment a

customer’s purchase. These items will

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encourage customers to buy more and enhance

their overall experience with the core product.”

Set Workflow Rules to Automate and Innovate

“Workflow rule engines provide vital flexibility

when processing orders, shipping, segmenting

traffic, and giving discounts. Jump ahead of the

competition by setting workflow rules to

automate and innovate. For example: Set a 10

percent discount for customers coming from

'Google only' on 'orders over $50.' Then, set it to

'send them an email' and 'set a tracking code'...

the uses are endless.”

Use Free Tools to Track SEO Efforts

“Find the top searched-for terms related to your

industry with the free Google AdWords keyword

tool. Then use the free Rank Checker from

SeoBook.com to determine where your site

ranks for each term across the major search

engines. Organize all the information in a

spreadsheet and recalculate rankings often. This

is a great way to keep track of SEO efforts and to

discover keyword terms to target through link

building and on-page optimization.”

Link Your Blog to Internal Product Pages

“Create a helpful, industry-specific blog, and

make sure each of your principle team members

has access to create entries regularly. Your

corporate blog linked to internal product pages is

your single best way to obtain long tailed

keyword relevance in the search engines. “

Find Out Why the Cart Was Abandoned

“Contact those visitors who passed almost the

entire checkout in your shop but didn't pay.

There could be a technical problem that caused

the customer to abandon the cart. Send a follow

up email to find out why they didn’t complete

the sale.”

Create an Easier Order Form

“Testing confirms that simpler and easier order

forms convert better. So, make your order form

as short, and with the fewest fields, as possible.

Save information so that customers don’t have

to start from scratch if they come back later.

And, use either check boxes or radial buttons,

but not both.”

Get Shoppers Back with Retargeting

“When visitors leave your site without making a

purchase, display ad retargeting can help get

those shoppers back to your site and motivate

them to buy. Retargeted ads can promote the

products each shopper is most likely to be in-

market for next. It is always better to target

shoppers with a known affinity for your brand,

rather than prospecting for new shoppers.”

Use a Thank You Page

“An order confirmation is good, but a ‘thank

you’ is even better. More than just good

manners, a thank you page is an opportunity to

reinforce your relationship with your

customers, reward them with discounts on

future purchases, and up-sell and cross-sell

your products.”

Close More Sales Through Personalization

“Converting browsers to buyers is tough. For

most ecommerce sites, as many as 97 percent

of visitors leave without making a purchase,

and this is often attributed to shoppers just not

finding merchandise that interests them. You

can improve conversions by presenting

relevant, personalized product

recommendations on your product detail

pages, category pages, and cart page.”

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Engage Multi-channel Consumers with Relevant

Online Content

“Retailers must use their web presence to

intercept consumers online—with relevant

content—before they get their information

elsewhere or make a purchase from a

competitor. By providing more relevant online

information, retailers can successfully use the

Internet to seamlessly deliver products and

promotions to consumers in conjunction with

the store experience.”

Check Reputation Before You Deal

“If you are about to strike a deal with another

company, check its reputation before making any

decisions. Take time to Google its company name

and search for reviews.”

Shipping Can Be a Profit Center

“You can make shipping into a profit center. If

you have accounts with UPS or FedEx, ask them

to give you a discount based on your history.

(The FedEx discount can run up to 47 percent.)

Then, advertise discounted shipping rates to

customers, but only give half the discount.”

Build Virtual Relationships

“Segment your customers and re-market to them

via email, based on what they have purchased

from you in the past. Build virtual relationships

with your customers based on their buying

behavior and preferences. The stronger your

customers feel a brand affinity with your

company, the more likely they are to do repeat

business with you.”

PPC: Test Multiple Pages

“Test multiple landing pages for your pay-per-

click ads. It’s easy to run multiple creatives in

Google and point one to a category page, one to

a product listing page, and one to a product

detail page. Most websites have a few pages that

will work for a given keyword, and this is an

easy way to get more ROI out of your PPC

campaigns.”

Use Unique Content to Increase Conversions

“Original content is critical to building a

successful online business. When you regularly

update your websites and sales pages with

unique, search-relevant content, you not only

increase organic rankings, but also provide

added value to the consumer, resulting in

higher conversions and a larger number of

repeat shoppers over the long term.”

Provide a Toll-free Number

“Place a toll-free phone number in a large font

in the header of your website. You will get a

few more phone calls, and that is a good thing.

Answering your business phone is your ticket to

increasing the average revenue per sale, as the

phone is one of the best places a merchant can

up-sell.”

Basic Security Tips

"These are basic website security tips: Keep

your operating systems and installed

applications up-to-date with the latest security

patches. And, don’t run unnecessary network

services on servers and workstations."

Study Your Competitors’ SEO

“Study and learn why your direct competitors

rank above you on search engines by looking at

their code. Using your browser’s ‘View Source’

function, determine what puts them on top for

specific keywords, then you can beat them at

their own game on your website.”

Focus on Your Key Message

"Don't use lengthy product descriptions in

general lists of products, like categories or

search results. Web visitors will simply scan

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over long sections of text and can miss your

value proposition. Better to focus on your key

message for product lists."

Aim for Quality Backlinks

“Getting many links to your site is key when it

comes to ranking well in the search engines, but

quality counts. Aim for backlinks from related

sites, from pages that don't have a lot of other

links, and ask for anchor text that includes your

keywords rather than just your company name.”

Give Localized Delivery Information

“Give customers localized information about

delivery and shipping times for their particular

location, which can be the deciding factor in

making a sale. To make this process accurate,

inventory levels should be updated in real-time,

with localized delivery dates based on stock and

incoming purchases.”

Put Your Phone Number in the Title Tag

“If you make sales by phone, include your

telephone number in the main title tag of your

home page. This way, someone can call you

without visiting your home page, because the

phone number will also appear, in bold-face, in

Google search results. Featuring your telephone

number prominently is also a signal of honesty

and transparency.”

Good, Better, Best

“Consumers love to be told what to do. In a day

when information overload is the norm, keeping

things simple and direct is key. Telling a

customer what is a good choice, a better choice,

and finally the best choice, is a very good way to

increase conversion rate and help your

customers find what they want quickly.”

Make Web Pages Load Faster

“The faster your page loads the more Google

likes your site [and users, too]. Take a look at

implementing things like gzip compression,

which can usually be done with a few lines of

code. Suitable code can be easily found by a

quick search on the Internet.”

Warn Consumers of Scams

“Search and monitor social media networks and

other Web 2.0 platforms for new scams on a

regular basis. If you find your company is being

victimized by a scam, warn consumers through

various mediums, including the company page

on your social networks, your corporate

website, an official tweet on Twitter, and the

official company fan site.”

Have a Great Newsletter

“Make your newsletters fun and/or insightful.

The vast majority of newsletters in the world

are boring and one-sided. Use your newsletter

to show your customers what your company is

doing to help them. Give them a reason to

open it, read it, and look forward to it.”

Make User Guides Available

“Shoppers like to be able to view or print

product user guides or manuals, particularly

when looking at consumer electronics products.

User guides not only help shoppers select the

right product, but can also prevent returns.

These documents are commonly available as

PDF files included in the product content made

available by your vendors via hosted content

links.”

Drive Short-term Sales

"To drive short-term sales volumes, try these

marketing techniques: Offer 24-hour deep

discounts on selected products for one day

only. Or, offer free shipping over a limited time

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period, such as 'Place an order this weekend and

get free shipping.' Repeat at intervals to drive

traffic to your site."

Learn HTML, Save on Design Fees

"Make sure at least one of your core team

members learns and understands HTML very

well. You can potentially save a bundle in web

design fees by being able to make easy and quick

updates yourselves."

Squeeze Images to Web-friendly Size

"When looking for ways to speed up your site's

performance, be sure you have squeezed your

images down to the most web-friendly size. Free

online services, such as Smush.it from Yahoo!,

are great for compressing your images without

losing any visible detail."

Don’t Get Hung Up on Cool Tricks or Gimmickry

"There are a lot of great web tools that promise

to do big things for your online business. Look

into them if they interest you, but remember the

core values that drive your business, and find

ways to infuse those into your ecommerce site

for long-term growth and revenue."

Put Text in Bite-sized "Chunks"

"Web pages that present a wall of solid text and

information are intimidating to shoppers—it

seems like too much work to slog through. So

separate text into short, discrete paragraphs

separated by white space, and use bullets when

you can."

Make the Most of Free Shipping

“One of the most significant draws to a product

listing is free shipping. When you offer free

shipping, be sure to populate the shipping field

with a zero (0) for all eligible products in all your

data feeds on comparison sites and other

product databases (such as Google Base).”

Use Advanced Analytics to Maximize

Conversions

"Optimize your site at its full potential to

convert visits to sales by using advanced traffic

and sales analytics tools, such as Google

Analytics. By tracking patterns during visitors'

shopping experiences, you can determine

which pages should be most advertised, and

which pages need adjustments."

Return Policy

"Place your return policy link immediately

under the checkout button. You need to give

users comfort that they can return without risk.

If you can accept returns without penalties and

fees, you will find yourself in even better

shape."

Use All the Free Tools at Your Disposal

"Use all the available free tools to market and

maintain your website, such as Google Product

Search, Xenu's Link Sleuth, Twitter and Google

Webmaster Tools. And, use that other great

free tool, the Internet, to find more available

tools."

The Power Of Online Video

"Using video to promote products and services

online is one of the most underused,

ecommerce strategies today. Video is highly

viral. YouTube is now the number one search

engine behind Google, and Americans watch

double the number of videos compared to the

number of online searches conducted. This

gives video the potential to make your

ecommerce campaigns incredibly successful."

"Add to Cart" vs. "Buy"

"Use phrases like 'Add to Cart' on your buttons

rather than phrases like 'Buy.' Consumers don’t

like commitment. It is like saying 'Will you go on

a date with me?' versus 'Will you marry me?'

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You are more likely to say yes to the date

because less commitment is required."

Watch PPC Metrics Weekly

"If pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is part of your

marketing strategy, establish a set of core

performance indicators and pay attention to

those metrics on at least a weekly basis."

Free SEO Information for Beginners

"A great source of free information for beginners

can be found at SearchEngineBook.com. It will

provide you with the 'ABC’s' of SEO. Sign up for

the free beginners SEO course and you will

receive an easy to understand email once a day

for a week on the basics of search engine

marketing."

Lead the Eye to the Action

"Want people to click that 'buy' button? Design

your web pages to lead the eye to it. Take

advantage of the fact that people read from left

to right. Use arrows to point, and color your

order button to stand out."

Comparison Tool Helps Reduce Returns

"If your products are technical with many

features or detailed specifications, make sure

your ecommerce software has a comparison tool

that allows shoppers to view detailed feature

breakdown for a number of products side by side

for easy comparison. This improves usability and

can reduce returns."

Some Free Comparison Sites

"Take advantage of the free comparison

shopping sites that are out there, including

Google Product Search (a staple of any shopping

channel strategy), theFind (it has a great, free

'up-front' program to enhance merchant

visibility), Sortprice (it has a Facebook store

application for online retailers), and Oodle (for

merchants who also have a physical store)."

Basic Social Marketing Tips

"Social marketing is important and time

consuming. Make a specific plan, commit to

being regularly active on the social site, and

make your profile dynamic. If you can’t perform

social marketing well yourself, hire an expert or

delegate it to someone who can."

Success Metrics for A/B Tests

"When performing A/B tests you should make

sure especially of two things: to have

statistically significant results and to choose the

right success metric for your campaign (which

can be revenue, profit, orders, average order

value, CTR, or other important metrics)."

Ease the Pain of Tax Season with Online

Incentives

"March is the height of tax season, which

makes it the perfect time for financial services

marketers to target consumers filing their taxes

online with great deals and special promotions.

During tax season, people are looking for online

incentives that help them get over the pain of

filing their taxes."

Keep Information Consistent Across All Selling

Channels

"To ensure cross-channel consistency, SKUs,

prices and product information should be the

same online and in-store so they can be treated

exactly the same from a fulfillment and service

perspective. The result is less work, higher

customer satisfaction and a reduced need to

develop separate staff or procedures for online

sales."

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Identify the Source of Inquiries

"Measure your marketing effectiveness with lead

tracking software. By identifying where your

inquiries come from (e.g., online or via the

telephone), what sources are working and how

much they are costing, you can get closer to the

‘holy grail’ of marketing: $x Marketing Spend =

$y Sales Return."

Shop Payment Gateways

"Shop around to find the best deal in credit card

processing gateways. Even a penny more per

transaction will eventually add up to big bucks

over the life of your shop."

Copy Your Foreign Competitors

“When entering foreign markets for the first

time, make sure you offer customers the same

value as your foreign competition. Copy your

competitors' payment solutions, business terms

and business partners; and match their delivery

costs and delivery times. If you cannot meet or

beat your foreign competitors, then don’t enter

foreign markets.”

Use Tags to Label Images

"Label all images with alt tags and image tags to

provide another way for customers to find you.

Imagine if you were reading a description of your

product without photos. Could you visualize it

from the description? Include image tags and alt

tags that describe what’s in the image to help

visitors who are vision impaired. "

Learn to Delegate

"A business owner does not have the time to be

an expert in everything or to micro-manage

every business detail. Learn to delegate

responsibilities, hire good employees or service

providers, and allow yourself time to focus on

the big picture."

Calculate the Discount That Brings the Biggest

Profit

"It's important to double check the math

behind your online promotions. A 60 percent

discount will bring you more customers than a

40 percent discount, but keep in mind that the

40 percent discount might actually bring you

more profit and even better customer

retention."

Adjust Plans Based on Metrics

"Traffic, conversion rate, and average order

value are three numbers that significantly

impact the bottom line. With 2009 as your

baseline, create your 2010 goals, then map

your on-page and off-page tactics to positively

influence these key ecommerce metrics.

Produce monthly scorecard reports and quickly

adjust plans if you’re not seeing the results.”

Use a Favicon to Promote Your Brand

"Promote your brand with a favorite icon (or,

"Favicon"), a square 16 pixel graphic that

appears next to your website address in the

address bar, next to the web page’s title in the

web browser favorites, in tabs, and desktop

shortcuts. To implement, place the favicon.ico

graphic file in the root of your URL, and then

link to it with: <link REL="SHORTCUT ICON"

HREF="http://www.thenameofyourwebsite.co

m/favicon.ico">." Watch this tutorial for help in

creating your own favicon.

Offer Additional Payment Methods

"When you offer additional payment methods

(e.g., PayPal, Amazon and Google Checkout)

you can lock in customers that may be worried

about trusting your online store. Millions of

customers that already have accounts with

these secure payment methods know and trust

their checkout systems and buying experience."

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Take Advantage of Free Online Education

"Take advantage of free education on the

Internet. No one knows everything, so learn

more about topics you need to stay current on.

Most tech sites have sponsored seminars, and

since they are free, you have nothing to lose."

Shop First, Ask For Registration Later

“Allow shoppers to check out before asking them

to register with your website. The information

learned at check out, such as name, address and

email, can be used to create customer accounts.

Eliminating this extra step in the online shopping

process gets you one step closer to a completed

order.”

Offer a Branded DIY Gift Wrapping Kit

"Many shoppers don't use gift wrapping services

because they prefer to save the money, or they

might want to check what they bought before it

is wrapped. Try offering a DIY gift-wrapping kit

with your branded gift-wrap, ribbon, and card for

a nominal fee. You won't need to use staff

resources wrapping products, plus your

customer gets to inspect the gift before he or she

presents it. It's a win-win solution."

Never Argue, Try Persuasion

"Never argue with a customer. Even if you are

right, it's useless waste of time. You'll lose as

soon as you start arguing with the customer. Try

to persuade him or her instead."

Adjust Your Spend Caps During the Holidays

“If you have caps on your spend at various

comparison shopping engines, be sure to go in

and adjust your budgets throughout the holiday

season. Traffic and costs will rise steadily so be

ready and visible for all opportunities.”

Keep Social Media Strategy Relevant to Your

Business

"Connect to customers through social media

outlets, but develop your own strategy relevant

to your particular business. Just because Dell,

Best Buy or other large corporations are using a

particular site or a particular strategy doesn't

mean it is relevant or feasible for your

business."

The Advantage of Up-selling

"Up-sells increase average earnings per sale,

and a properly executed up-sell can even

increase your conversion rates. Compelling up-

sell offers should cost no more than 30 percent

of the price of your primary product. And, when

choosing your up-sell offers, always select

products that complement your primary

product offer."

Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

"Try not to rely too heavily on one supplier.

Although it's more difficult to manage multiple

suppliers, diversifying will help shield you if

your primary supplier should run into trouble."

Offer Telephone Sales on Your Site

"Offer telephone orders on your site as an

alternative to online orders. A message such as

'Order by telephone and speak to one of our

Product Experts' can increase sales. And,

conversions are typically higher over the

telephone."

Embed Ecommerce Into Your Overall Retail

Strategy

"Launch your ecommerce operation as a

coordinated, multi-channel selling effort,

ideally with the head of ecommerce seated at

the management table. This structure allows

ecommerce to become what it should be in

12

retail--a force multiplier for chain-wide

initiatives, and it optimizes online results."

Keep Shoppers on the Cart Page

"When cross selling or up-selling products in the

shopping cart, make sure you allow shoppers to

easily add the recommended products to the

cart without leaving the shopping cart page."

Localize Site Content

"Your ecommerce site should be as localized as

your physical stores. Some retailers have

hundreds of localized, micro-branded sites with

content that resonates with local consumers.

You can also use IP mapping to localize prices,

offers and product selection. Make sure your

website platform embraces this complexity --

when done correctly, it's a powerful sales tool

for your online and local stores."

Keep Your Message Above the Fold

"If it is important, keep it 'above the fold' [middle

of screen]. Email or newsletter sign ups, special

offers, reviews, and navigation are better served

'above the fold' where a visitor is more likely to

engage them."

Include Expert Testimonials

"Customer testimonials and user-generated

product reviews are great to provide reassurance

for your online store. But, if you can, go one step

further and put up any 'expert' testimonials or

product reviews. An example might be, 'The

head groundsman at Wimbledon recommends

this lawn mower...' and include actual quotes

from the expert."

Help Non-Profits and They Help You

"Things are tight for everyone right now,

including non-profits. For a donation, many local

groups, especially team sports, will help you with

time-consuming projects such as taking online

inventory, washing windows, or cleaning

company vehicles. If they don’t ask, you can

suggest it. It is a great solution for both

organizations because everyone wins."

Use Ning to Target Customers

"Ning is a web service that hosts thousands of

social networks and it is a great place to target

niche customer segments. For example, if you

were selling embroidered pet collars, the best

place to promote your products would be a

Ning network for dog lovers. Find out the

networks your customers are likely to belong to

and connect with them on Ning."

Create a FAQ Page

"Create a FAQ [frequently asked questions]

page that educates customers about your

products or services in a concise matter. It

should cover a wide range of questions and

answers to help customers make more

informed decisions on purchases. Customers

will be more comfortable shopping with your

company and have a better understanding of

the way you operate, creating a foundation for

repeat customers and referrals."

Define Your Business Objectives

"Approach ecommerce as an all-encompassing

marketing discipline from the outset. Clearly

define your business objectives, make them

achievable and measurable. Once this has been

defined you can then make intelligent decisions

and select appropriate partners to assist you."

Detailed Images Appeal to Sophisticated

Shoppers

"As the Internet matures so does the

sophistication of online shoppers. Studies

indicate that today's shoppers expect retailers

to provide not only textual product

information, but also detailed, zoomable

images, videos, and alternate product views. A

13

superior customer experience separates the

best-of-breed retailers from the rest of the

pack."

Use Creative Commons for SEO Value

"If you have old imagery such as model or

product shots which you are no longer using,

consider submitting them to image-sharing sites

under a Creative Commons license. Oftentimes

users will credit your company for the image and

provide SEO value by linking to your site."

Improve Your Onsite Search

“Help shoppers find the products they’re

searching for more quickly. If you sell

merchandise across a range of product

categories, consider adding a category drop-

down [menu] next to your search box to allow

shoppers to narrow their search ahead of time

(e.g., women’s apparel vs. men’s apparel vs. kid’s

apparel).”

The Power of Product Reviews

"Use the power of product reviews and motivate

your team to do their best work. Instruct your

employees to route satisfied customers to the

most important online sites for leaving feedback,

and give your people a bonus if a referred

customer writes a review about your company

there."

Only Ask For Information You Absolutely Need

"Ask your customers only for the information

you absolutely need. If you are selling digital

products, do you need the customer's full

address? What about the phone number? Most

customers dislike giving their precious personal

information away until they get to know your

company better."

Grab Your Market Share Now

"A recession is no time to reduce your

marketing and advertising budgets. Manage

expenses according to ROI, but this is a good

time to grab additional market share."

Improve Rankings With Press Releases

"Press releases provide an opportunity to

provide high-quality content within your press-

related pages. Many merchants disassociate

the importance of marketing activity from their

websites. But each press release allows the

opportunity to increase your keyword density

and improve your rankings."

Deploy Decision-making Widgets

"When selling big ticket items or products that

require research, deploy merchandising

widgets to aid in the decision-making process.

Customers who interact with online

merchandising widgets will generally view more

products per session and are more likely to add

a product to their shopping cart, increasing

conversions, repeat visits and customer

satisfaction."

Add Unique Content to Improve Product

Descriptions

"Improve your product descriptions by adding

informative and unique content. The more

descriptive and unique you are in your product

descriptions, the better the chance that

someone will buy from you. Figure out a way to

make your product descriptions unique to

differentiate you from the competition."

Hire Interns With Advanced Skills

"Utilize local high school and college student’s

talent for jobs whenever possible, including

paid internships. You will be amazed at the

talent you can find, such as advanced skills in

programming, photography, blogging etc. And

14

the interns can gain necessary experience in a

practical environment."

Step Up Security Accreditation

"Go one step further than SSL or 'McAfee Hacker

Safe' certifications on your site. Try to get

industry-endorsed accreditations such as the

'Good Web Shopping Guide' or 'Governed by the

Internet Shopping Code of Practice.'"

Earn Trust By Keeping Your Promises

"Be honest with your customers and never

promise anything that cannot be accomplished.

Once you make a promise you must keep it.

Earning a customer's trust is the best way to get

a lifelong partner."

Spread the Word on Facebook

"A Facebook page is a great way to promote your

online store. Not only does it give you

customized presence and branding, it also gives

your customers a channel to interact with you.

And, it provides great SEO value, too. Set up a

Facebook page now and spread the word among

your friends and customers."

Help Customers Interact With Your Site

"Invest in features that will help customers

interact with your site or understand your

products better. This could be product reviews,

expandable interactive images, video, or chat.

Watch your competition -- what features are

they adding?"

Turn Shopping Cart Abandons Into Future

Customers

"Never underestimate the profit opportunity

that comes with undecided or 'freebies hunting'

customers. Do your prospects want your

merchandise for free? Get creative! Join forces

with advertisers and other merchants around the

world and use the 'Get it for free' model to turn

shopping cart abandons into sales."

Targeted Email Can Increase ROI

"Your customers have different purchasing

patterns and interests. Segmentation allows

you to send targeted email campaigns to

subgroups within your list based on subscribers'

behavior or demographics. Since competition

for the attention of your newsletter subscribers

is rising, sending relevant email is vital to a

successful email marketing campaign."

Use Google Alerts to Stay on Top of Your

Industry

"Use Google Alerts to stay abreast on what's

happening in your industry, you'll be surprised

how much they keep your 'finger on the pulse'

of news items that are important to you. Make

sure to include keywords like your company's

name and your line of business, as well as

important industry keywords and buzzwords."

Establish Good Inbound Links

"Links are the currency of the web. Not only do

they drive traffic in their own right, but they

also are essential to high search engine

rankings. Without good inbound links to your

web site, your search engine optimization (SEO)

efforts will be limited."

Present Your Products in the Best Possible

Way

"Image is everything and online shoppers need

to come as close to touching and feeling a

product as possible. You need to overcome the

obstacle of customers not being able to

experience your product, like they can in a

retail store. Take time to present your products

in the best possible way with clear and vibrant

images and accurate descriptions."

15

Customer Testimonials Add Trust

"Customer reviews and testimonials are great

ways to help visitors to feel more confident in

their purchase, resulting in lower shopping cart

abandonment and higher overall revenue. When

contemplating a purchase, peer feedback is very

powerful and adds a new dimension of trust."

Look Further Afield for Inventory Sources

"With an unrivaled manufacturing infrastructure,

sourcing direct from Chinese suppliers can

greatly increase profit margins for small online

businesses. By using a transactional marketplace

rather than a supplier directory, buyers can

select and purchase small volumes at a high

frequency while utilizing inbuilt security systems

– mitigating risk and maximizing cost-

efficiencies."

Take Advantage of Existing SEO Services

"Before contracting for any SEO services at all, be

sure you are taking maximum advantage of SEO

services you already possess, such as those built

into your web hosting account, or those built

into your shopping cart. You should be using

them. Some are highly effective and will

continue to build page authority and page rank

for you day-by-day, every day."

Don't Wait to Promote Top-rated Sellers

"Leading retailers have recognized the value of

premium position and are offering it as part of

their top-rated program. But why wait until

October (like eBay does) to promote top-rated

sellers? Offering cost-per-click bidding now to

attain premium position helps

advertisers/suppliers improve sales while helping

you generate incremental revenue in hours."

Google Alerts Provide an Extra Set of Eyes and

Ears

"Set up Google Alerts on your company’s high-

converting keyword phrases. When these

phrases appear in a blog post, video, website

update, or news release, Google will send a

relevant email update. This instantaneous

feedback is a great information resource for

new blog posts, latest product ideas, link

exchanges and even short-term PPC

campaigns."

Seek Quality and Affordable Advertising

"It is important not to overlook paid search

engine advertising for your online business.

Many of the leading search providers, such as

Google, Yahoo! and Bing, offer paid advertising

at rates that are affordable to businesses of any

size. This is a great way to get targeted visitors

to your website which could lead to potential

sales."

Use Long Tail Phrases to Describe Products

"Most people think of keywords as individual

words. While these are important it is also

important to think about the phrases that

consumers use to describe your products.

These phrases are referred to as 'long tail

keywords.' For many websites, more than half

of traffic comes with long tail keywords than

from shorter one- or two-keyword phrases."

Fundamental Security Tips

"It's critical to become a stickler for security

when it comes to your customer's data. Some

fundamental tips are to use strong passwords

and change them frequently, become PCI

compliant, never store sensitive information in

plain-text at any point, use digital certificates,

store transaction IDs/subscription IDs over

credit card data, and above all do not store any

more customer data than is necessary."

16

Work Together to Build Strong Links

"To make the most of out your SEO linking

strategy, make sure that the rest of your

marketing team understands what keywords and

pages you’re targeting. Some of the best natural

links come from work you’re already doing

elsewhere, from press releases to social media."

Diversify Online Marketing Tactics

"Online merchants should diversify tactics to

reach customers through targeted advertising on

sites like Shopzilla, Bing cashback, and Google

Product Search; timely email promotions; and

most importantly, by providing relevant, quality

site content and high-quality images that foster a

better online shopping experience."

Put Your Best Image Forward

“Compared to traditional store rent and utilities,

ecommerce has built-in advantages with already

cheap start-up costs. Resist skimping further on

aesthetics and appearance; these things strongly

represent you, your vision, and your business.

Spend the dollars in design, proper functionality,

and support to ensure your image is represented

correctly.”

Audit Search Queries Often

“Regularly audit your search queries. These are

the actual words a searcher types, not the

keywords you buy. If you buy paid search

advertising using broad match and phrase match,

you could be wasting money.”

Start Planning for Holiday Season Now

"To succeed during the holiday season, make

sure your website and its underlying technology

can support your marketing plans now. Online

retailers should be prepared to quickly and

accurately process large quantities of orders

during the holiday season. And, integrate social

media, wish lists, and page promotions now to

have a successful holiday shopping season."

Use A Site Search That Incorporates Guided

Navigation

"Shoppers often begin their search using vague

and general terms, and then abandon the

search in frustration and leave the website

altogether because too many choices are

returned in an unstructured manner. Guided

navigation helps solve this problem by allowing

the visitor to easily and rapidly narrow the

search in a highly structured fashion."

Focus on Upsell Products

"To succeed with your ecommerce solution, it is

extremely important to focus on having the

customer picking an upsell product with better

profit, or adding accessories together with the

product they are purchasing. This is no more

than a time commitment, but well worth it.

Find products that you can add as accessories,

not only to a few of your products but to all of

them."

Automation is Not a Substitute for

Outstanding Support

"It is critically important to have user friendly

automated tools, dynamic and well-designed

web pages, and clear communication

processes. But don’t forget the importance of

coupling this with easy access to an

outstanding, knowledgeable and helpful

support representative to create positive, long

lasting, impressions of your company."

Tap Location Online to Drive Offline Sales

"The consumer’s expectation of 'research

anywhere, buy anywhere' means merchants

must bring offline decision-making to online

commerce. And, location plays an integral role.

With geolocation technologies, online

enterprises can proactively drive offline sales

17

by highlighting the nearest retail locations or

presenting coupons for in-store use based on

shoppers’ geographic locations."

A/B Split Testing

"Do A/B split testing of landing pages using

Google Website Optimizer. It's free and you'll be

pleasantly surprised at your conversion's

improvement."

Find Related Forums and Blogs

"Targeted marketing is the most effective way to

drive potential customers to your site. Use the

search engines to find related forums and blogs,

and sign up for as many you find. Participate by

adding useful information, comments and

advice, and be sure to include a link to your

website."

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

"Diversifying your product range is an excellent

way to expand your existing business and reach

new customers. You can add value to your online

store and increase your margins by introducing

new complementary products. This will also

allow you to test new suppliers for quality and

reliability."

Maximize Your Profit on Every Item Sold

"Setting the right price for items is key to

maximizing profit, but it can take

experimentation and may vary based on who the

actual shopper is. Understanding how your

shoppers respond to pricing and promotions and

making fine adjustments will deliver large

returns. Leveraging new vendor solutions that

are low risk will simplify this complex process."

More Trust Equals More Revenue

"With all that consumers are hearing in the

media about identity theft, hacking, and fraud,

they are understandably more concerned than

ever about transacting business online.

Merchants need to be sensitive to these

concerns and reinforce the trustworthiness of

their site wherever possible."

Add a Video Play Button

"The benefits of product video on ecommerce

is well established, but how it is triggered by

shoppers is critical. Take a cue from YouTube

and news sites - use a superimposed ‘play

button’ in the immediate vicinity of the primary

product image. Shoppers know immediately

what this means, and your conversion rates will

be maximized."

See Things From a Customer's Viewpoint

"Understanding complete customer experience

requires monitoring from the customer's

viewpoint (not an internal one) through the

entire order lifecycle. How easy is it to order

and how long does it take to receive it? It’s also

important to analyze how technology enables

or hampers the customer experience."

Set Yourself Apart with Visual Security

"Making your commitment to security known

by your customers can be the difference

between abandonment and a conversion.

Strong visual indicators, such as Extended

Validation certificates (green address bar) and

trustmarks, greatly increase shopper

confidence."

Start a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise in

China

"Hangzhou, China is the B2B [business to

business] mecca for IT. With a strong dollar,

you can leverage the force of a very tech-savvy

development team and pick up a global

presence instantly. Superior product

development is what sets apart one company

18

from another. This will let you focus on sales and

marketing while your offices overseas focus on

the website product management."

Speed Up Page Loads

"Optimize your site with fast-loading pages for

customers who are ready to buy. Start testing

load times during the design phase, and keep

them under two seconds for better conversions

and an improved bottom line. Otherwise, users

you just paid to attract will give up and buy from

the competition."

Help Customers Find Exactly What They Want

"Advanced filtering by product attributes, tags

and advanced searching helps customers find

exactly what they want by driving into the

product catalog in a natural, fluid way instead of

forcing the customer down a deep and rigid

hierarchical category structure."

Use Multivariate Testing On Your Shopping Site

"Use multivariate testing to enhance the on-site

shopping experience by determining which

combination of on-page variables increase your

conversion rates. A/B splits are very limited, but

with multivariate testing you can test multiple

features at once and contemplate the user's full

experience at your site."

Don't Hide Behind Your Site

"Try not to treat your ecommerce platform as a

24/7 faceless store. Interact with your customers

through images, video and live help as if they

were in the room with you. Not only will this

build empathy and trust with the shopper but

you will also increase conversions."

Self Insure USPS Shipments

"If you sell many of the same item, self insure

instead of buying USPS insurance. Charge an

insurance fee and assume the risk. USPS rarely

looses packages. If they do, your customer will

be happy when you simply and quickly replace

the item. Insurance becomes a profit center."

The Key to Free Freight Offers

"A key to free freight offers is the fact that

shipping cost per pound drops quickly as total

package weight increases. Typical UPS or FedEx

cost for zone 5 residential delivery is

approximately $7 for a one pound package, but

only $.60 per pound for a twenty pound

package--yet revenue per pound remains

unchanged."

Provide Contact Details

"Provide your customers with visible contact

details on every page of your site. Whether it’s

a visible phone number and email in your

header graphics or a live chat tool on your

website. Nothing makes a customer feel more

comfortable about buying from you than being

able to contact."

Differentiate Yourself From the Competition

"Create a niche by offering customers your

knowledge and expertise. Daily tips,

newsletters, or instructional videos on media

such as YouTube are ways to offer customers

more than just the products you sell. It’s a cost-

effective way to promote your brand and

separates you from the competition."

Optimize Comparison Shopping Engine Feeds

"Start inexpensively with Google Base. When

the feed is optimized well, the results can show

up on the first page of Google within hours

(over months with SEO) and conversions are

easier since the traffic is qualified for

‘shopping’."

19

The Evolution of the Payment Provider

"With the status of the financial market, the

standard payment service provider tries to

provide innovative solutions. A preferred option

is to combine their services with affiliate,

marketing and alternative payment methods.

Today’s providers are elevating to complete

ecommerce service providers offering the

merchants what they require."

The Human Face on Your Website

"Make simple product videos, upload them to

YouTube, and then embed the video on your

product page. Just standing in front of the

camera and demonstrating your product will set

you apart from 99 percent of other online

retailers. Demonstrating on video shows that you

really know your product, and it puts a human

face behind your website."

Eliminate Guesswork

“Track, measure, and test to eliminate

guesswork. Evaluating traffic patterns reveals

ideal places for cross-sell and up-sell. Identifying

points of abandonment exposes weaknesses in

your system. Conducting A/B split tests on

everything from emails to landing pages to

checkout steps allows your customers to show

you exactly what they want.”

Manage Deliverability

“Use E-mail marketing tools to effectively

manage your deliverability and monitor the

performance of your campaigns. Focus on the

customers that are more receptive to your E-

mails to reduce the costs of campaigns and

improve your return on investment.”

Discount Coupons for Affiliates

"Especially in these tough times, the discount

coupons will be the most convincing argument

an affiliate could have. Give 'classical' coupons to

affiliates or offer them tools to make their own

coupons, from the commission they already

have."

Maximize Revenue by Offering Value Added

Services to Your Existing Clients

"By offering value added services through

strategic partners you can strengthen existing

client relationships, increase loyalty and

generate additional revenue. Solid partners

should offer recurring revenue to you, truly

competitive pricing and automated tools to

make it easy for you and as seamless as

possible for your clients to enroll in their 3rd

party service offering."

Build Rapport

"Merchants often underestimate the value of

relationship management in regards to

eCommerce. If you build great rapport with

your customers, suppliers, credit card

processor, etc., I assure you that your Internet

retail business will be better off."

Take Total Control

"Take total control of customer interactions

instead of outsourcing critical operations such

as customer service and shipping. It may be

easier and cheaper to hire a call center to

answer phones, or to have a manufacturer drop

ship orders, but customers will not feel the

personalized and expert service that can be

offered in house."

Explorers and Hunters

"Your biggest pool of prospective customers

may be people who are 'exploring' for ideas or

'hunting' for options. Anything you can do to

help them find and choose products will set you

apart from your competition and open up a

large and untapped area of revenue."

20

Rich Consumer Experiences Dominate

"Focus on immersive branding and marketing

techniques that create unexpectedly fast, fun,

and easy shopping experiences. Are your budgets

caught up on technology or are you investing in

creating that visceral connection to the

consumer? What amazes us the most is that very

few e-stores provide that connection."

Segment Audiences, Then Localize Messages

"Online retailers need to better segment online

audiences. Once marketers understand an

audience’s make-up and behavior, they can

determine which online segments are useful,

viable and profitable. They can start “localizing”

their messages. Segmenting an audience into

smaller groups ensures each receives the most

relevant, personalized experience, information

and offers."

Provide Engaging Content

“You invest heavily to get shoppers to your

product page, now focus on sales conversions.

Product videos and other engaging content are

proven to increase sales, and it’s not just for

large merchants. They are available from many

of your vendors at no charge to you. Ask them

about it!”

Remove Disturbing Elements

"Remove any disturbing elements that could

make any potential customer leave your site, like

blinking banners and annoying flash-animations.

Also make sure there's not too much information

on your site. Keep in mind most people only read

the headlines."

Engage Visitors With Video

"Video engages the user by providing

demonstrations about your products or services.

Show how your product works, different views,

features and how it will benefit the user.

Providing video is fairly easy and can be a major

boost to your sales when done correctly.

Search engines also like quality video."

Create Simple and Fun Initiatives

"Great websites employ three main elements:

content, community and commerce. Site

owners need a meaningful metric for user

participation on their sites. So create simple

and fun initiatives for users and reward users

that participate. It’s a great way to develop an

audience for your site."

Try USPS For International Shipping

"The fall of the dollar against foreign currencies

is opening up a huge new export market for

U.S. ecommerce merchants. United States

Postal Service first class mail international and

priority mail international delivery are a reliable

and inexpensive way to ship export orders.

Rates and how-to information are posted

online at

http://www.usps.com/business/international/

welcome.htm."

Target International Searches

"Increase your website targeted traffic with

targeted localized search engine marketing

campaigns in both natural and paid search

efforts. Promote your product, service and

business on domestic search engines, such as

Google.fr, Google.de, Google.it, Baidu,

Rambler, and others. Localize your product

description, FAQs, tutorials, website, public

relations and advertising campaigns."

Use Your Social Smarts

"Make product pages more social. Offer prizes

to past customers who post the best reviews.

Allow "track backs" to product pages that are

linked to from blogs. Make it easy for users to

share products on Facebook and Twitter. And

21

have a public (though moderated) comment

section for each product."

Implement a Life Cycle Email Messaging

Strategy

"Email marketing is much more effective when

managed with a marketing strategy. An email life

cycle plan will improve conversions, increase

revenue spent per customer and help discover

opportunities that are often missed due to failed

communications. There is a little cost in setting

this up and the rewards keep paying."

Determine Valuable Variables

"Doing multivariate testing used to require some

in-house programming expertise or expensive

third-party software. Thankfully, Google Website

Optimizer has provided us with a free

alternative. You don’t need to have the right

answer, your customer will."

Don’t Fail To Plan

"Having been through the personal experience of

becoming involved with a young business, and

trying to slide a foundation under the building,

after it has begun construction, has taught me

the importance of planning. Take the time to

plan your site. The end result will pay you

Don’t Filter Feedback

"Merchants cannot control their credibility —

they can only influence it. If a customer leaves a

bad, yet constructive review for one of your

products, leave it up. Prospective customers

trust other customers more than they trust you.

Filtering that feedback can tarnish your

credibility with the reviewer and the visitor."

A Toll-Free Number

"Get a toll-free number and use it in your Google

AdWords. It’s one of the last search engines to

let you show your contact information in the ad

— you’ll get calls from people just looking to

order over the phone because they are busy or

they don’t trust the web."

Persuasion Through Web Personalization

"Successful ecommerce firms understand the

correlation between sales and positive

customer experience management. Offering

easy returns and free shipping are expected.

Leveraging customer behaviors/attributes so

you can serve persuasive offers that change in

real-time goes a step further. To promote the

right product/service at the right time, think

web personalization."

Use Video

"Start creating short videos on a regular basis

that solve a problem for your target audience.

Keep the videos at two minutes or so, include

B-roll, upload to multiple sites via

Tubemogul.com, and archive uncompressed,

high quality versions of the videos for future

use. Create a Magnify.net channel, too."

Syndicate Content Via Widgets

"Adding a syndication widget enables

ecommerce sites to easily syndicate and

distribute dynamic content from a knowledge

base, such as frequently asked questions,

product specifications and warranty

information — across multiple websites."

Talk With Your Customers

"Websites, emails and forums are great for

getting out your message, but talking with your

customers about their needs and how you can

provide solutions or products is the best way to

build a long-term relationship and customer

satisfaction. Remember your customers are not

just another row in your database."

22

Back To The Future

"I revolutionized my time management by

abandoning my PDA for an old-fashioned

Franklin Covey Planner. Now my mission, values,

and most important goals are in front of me

daily, and I’m getting done what really matters.

I’m more efficient and focused."

Align Consumer Strategies To Increase

Conversion

"Before spending your limited online marketing

and web development dollars on rich media

merchandising, get to know your customers.

Uncover their critical decision-making needs, and

align your online brand and user experience

strategies with them for increased purchase

conversion."

Check Your Impression Share

“Take a long, hard look at the Impression Share

of your paid search campaigns. It’s possible that

your ads are not running as often as you think,

which is deadly if the campaign is profitable.”

Widgets Can Expand Your Reach

"Push your marketing to the edge by using a

widget to display your products for purchase on

other websites. Whether implemented on social

networks or through your affiliate programs,

widgets can create natural link popularity and

help expand your reach without having to drive

users directly to your website."

Add Alternative Payment Options

"It is possible to increase revenue and sell

globally without risk. Adding new alternative

payment options such as inpay allows customers

to use their online bank to pay instantly and

worldwide. You can sell to customers with no

credit cards and get orders even when a card

transaction is rejected."

Develop Banking Relationships

“It is vital to develop banking relationships as

well as financial jurisdictions, especially in the

midst of this recession. This will provide a

merchant with the means to expand an e-

business globally, as well as improve his

customer base.”

Develop a Strong Marketplace Strategy

"Customers will always compare prices online

before making a decision. Develop a strategy to

list products on marketplaces like Amazon.com.

Your products will be presented to millions of

viewers, and you pay only when there is a sale.

Also, don't forget to list your products on

Google Base, a great source for free traffic."

Contact Customers by Phone

"Include an optional field in your "Contact Us"

form where customers can leave a phone

number and request that you call them. You

will be able to close more sales over the phone

than over email.”

Offer More Payment Methods

"Maximize closing sales by offering more

payment acceptance methods because many

people do not wish to pay via credit cards or

debit cards. With methods like PayPal and

WorldPay becoming increasingly popular it

makes good business sense to not reject the

end user based on their payment method."

Recurring Payment Plans

"One emerging and profitable trend is recurring

payment plans. The best use is to understand

the life of your product. If you sell homemade

soap that lasts about a month, enable your

customers to join a plan where you will ship

them a new product monthly. This moved you

from one sale to twelve."

23

Review User Sessions

"Knowing which pages your users visit can help

you understand what people are looking for so

you can make it easier for them to get it. You can

get this information from website logs, but my

favorite new way is using Clicktale, which plays

back each user session in a video."

Build Credibility

"Regardless of increasing consumer confidence

in online retail, people buy from people they can

trust. Build credibility with security audits of your

website, and in turn include security

accreditation logos in strategic points on your

site. Client testimonials also add value.”

Implement Product Descriptions

"Use relevant and informative product

descriptions. Not only will those descriptions

help the shopper in their buying process but the

content of that description will also be indexed

by search engines, increasing the visibility of your

website."

Research And Exclude Negative Keywords

"Invest at least one hour every week to research

negative keywords for your pay-per-click

campaign. Be sure to exclude keywords such as

free, no charge, no cost, problems, trouble,

negative, bad, worst, rebate and similar

keywords that you don’t want your ads showing

up for."

Use Article Directories

"Write articles and submit them weekly to

Ezinearticles.com and other article directories.

Search Google for article directories to find a top

50 list. If you don't have time to write them, hire

someone at Elance.com, Guru.com or

Getafreelancer.com for $5 to $10 each. This will

get you traffic and backlinks."

Build An Ecommerce Facebook Application

"One of the best ways for an ecommerce site to

get into the social media game and gain lots of

new interest is though Facebook.com.

Facebook’s open source policy is designed as an

active invitation for creating applications, which

has secondarily given birth to widget platforms

like Clearspring.com."

Incorporate Regular PCI Verification

"Leverage your PCI compliance efforts every

quarter as a benchmark for your overall

security posture. When you go through

compliance exercises, compare your previous

scores and look for consistent reduction in type

and number of problems you have to resolve."

Use Simple Tools To Lower Abandonment

"More than half of online shoppers abandon

the checkout process before completing their

purchase. Counter abandonment by adding

simple tools like security certificates, progress

bars and live chat to allay customer confusion,

fears or frustrations."

Inventory Management Is Key To Success

"One database means less hassle and less

manpower required to keep track of inventory

from multiple locations. The right database can

also handle inventory from multiple locations.

With the right software to manage it, there is

no need to go beyond one program to add,

remove and track products."

Online Chat Service Can Increase Sales

"We now have two years experience using

online chat services and have just moved to our

third vendor. It does not provide the same level

of conversion to sales as prospects that phone

into our sales department, but it has increased

our sales by 10-12 percent."

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Make Trustmarks Prevalent

Place trustmarks on your home page and all

catalog pages; don’t bury them in the shopping

cart. The millions of security conscious shoppers

who respond positively to trustmarks frequently

abandon websites before they even get to the

cart."

Be Sure To Offer Flexibility

"E-tailers face a huge challenge in the

commoditization of brand-name products,

facilitated by comparison shopping sites and

other channels that sort products by price only.

To survive, smaller e-tailers must offer payment

flexibility, fast order handling, and outstanding

customer support. Focus on best sellers and

initiate quick-ship programs. Customers may pay

more if they can get it fast."

(*) The document is prepared by using various

sources including especially

http://www.practicalecommerce.com