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eCommerce Weekly Roundup Volume 1 Issue 3

[May 9th-May 15th, 2009] volume 1 – issue 3 

Welcome to this weeks edition of the eCommerce Weekly Roundup. The last two Roundup’s have been posted on the weekend. Starting with this one I hope to start making the post live every Friday afternoon. If you have suggestions, articles, etc. please send them to me via twitter or email me at dustin[at]dustinfisher[dot]com.

Improve Your eCommerce Site Now With These Articles

5 Advanced Segments for Ecommerce Analysis (via roirevolution.com) – I love taking all the data we can get now with analytics programs and seeing what can be done with it. Here are 5 advanced segments you can create with Google Analytics that can help your eCommerce site analysis out.

Checkout Inspiration From Top Converting Sites (via getelastic.com) – They look at the top converting ecommerce sites according to Nielsen Online/Marketing charts and see what they are doing right in the checkout process.

Conversion Makeover: LandsEnd.com – Part 1 – Part 2 (via grokdotcom.com) – Couple post series on how Lands’ End website could be made over to increase conversion. This is a longer post, but by reading it you can get some great tips that you can apply to your online store now.

5 Conversion Rate Improvements You Can Do In Under 5 Minutes (via distilled.co.uk) – 5 good tips on improving your conversion rate quickly.

(via jbillingsley) – Ecommerce tip: separate the AOV metric for new and repeat customers. Indicates how well you build trust and loyalty.

New Ecommerce Research – Website Tactics that Boost Conversion (via marketingsherpa.com) – Chart showing tactics that you can employ on your site to increase conversion.

How To Monitor Your Rankings Using Google Analytics Advanced Filter Segmentation (via blogstorm.co.uk ) – This could be a great tool to have to keep up on rankings in Google. I am still testing this out now, so I can’t say how well it works yet.

Introducing Rich Snippets (via google.com) – Rich snippets could prove very useful for consumers and online shops. It will be interesting to see them start showing up and how well they work. I would look at the examples they provide in the link and setup your stores to use them.

Social Media: Create a Strategy for Your Online Store (via practicalecommerce.com) – Basic list of how to tackle all the social media out there for your online store.

Ecommerce Know-How: Writing Product Descriptions that Sell (via practicalecommerce.com) – This article gives you three tips to writing product descriptions that catch peoples attention.

Make Your Web Analytics Actionable in 5 DIY Steps (via grokdotcom.com) – High level look at some key areas to look at in your web analytics and how to act on them.

Retail Email: Sell or Inform? How About Both (via getelastic.com) – Quick post about retail email. Should it sell in the email? Give information? or both? They show an example of a Sephora ad that does both. It is a really good example of a nicely done email. Check it out for some ideas, because I would say they are doing it right.

Optimizing Conversion Rates: It’s All About Usability (via smashingmagazine.com) – This is the second article in a 3-part-series on optimizing conversion rates. This one is geared towards what to consider when you prepare your landing page. Very good info in this.

 

Interesting eCommerce Articles of the Week

Shopping.com Introduces Tiered CPC Pricing and Variable Logo Rates (via csestrategies.com) – Shopping.com is changing their pricing structure as of this Friday, May 15th. If you use shopping.com it’s time to get familiar with the new structure.

Study: Shopping On The Internet? Bo-ring! (via mediapost.com) – New study showing customer satisfaction with eCommerce is down 3% from last year. A few years back it did not take much to satisfy the customer. Online shopping was much more convenient to them. Now customers are starting to demand much more from online shops. The bar has been raised.

Dell launched a new part of their website looking to target the female population for their laptops. Check it out here: Della. 

Lands’ End launched a new part of their site targeting the female bathing suit shopper. Combination of flash, social networking and ecommerce. (link) 

Gartner: Custom Development A Waste For Most Sites (via informationweek.com) – Study says online businesses can save up to 35% on maintenance and license fees this year by using off-the-shelf products.

Linens ‘N Things is Back and Better Than Ever! (source) – After only a couple months ago closing it’s last retail store Linens ‘N Things (http://www.lnt.com/) is back as a eCommerce shop. I predict Circuit City is not far behind in doing the same thing. (note: Had put this article in earlier this week and just the other day it was announced that Circuit City was bought by Systemax Inc.  Circuit City is really close behind now on coming back online.)

ATG launched it’s new on demand eCommerce system, LiveStore. Brian Walker at Forrester did a write up on it. Check it out here, it is a good write up on it.

Google’s Rival Keyword Sales Go Wide (via businessweek.com) – Google is opening up trademarked keywords to Adwords advertisers on June 4th. This is going to turn into a nice bidding war for many keywords. More revenue for Google.

Web Retailers Sweeten the Deal to Nudge Sales Higher (via openforum.com) – Has some good data on survey results by consumers and how eCommerce stores are using social media to boost sales.

Macy’s is now focusing on eCommerce sales. On their first quarter conference call Macy’s said their sales were down 9.5% and online sales rose 16.2%. (source) 

Amazon earnings jump 24% for the first quarter. (source)

Smart Promotions Key to Attracting Discount Shoppers (source) – Some data on what discount-oriented shoppers want when it comes to promotional messages.

eCommerce Weekly Roundup [5.03.09-5.09.09]

This is the second issue of the eCommerce Weekly Roundup. I have decided to remove the jobs at this time. I may return to putting them up in the future. If you have any suggestions please let me know via comments or on twitter.

Improve Your eCommerce Site Now With These Articles

Ecommerce Know-How: Six Ways To Improve Your Online Store (via practicalecommerce.com) – Some good tips that all eCommerce shops should be using. Number two on that list saying, Use Video for Product Demonstrations, Merchandising, will definitely improve your store. It has done amazing on the sites I run.

PPC Myth Week – Part1 - Part2 - Part3 (via getelastic.com) – Good series on some common misconceptions when it comes to Pay Per Click. Some good pointers that can help improve your performance in the PPC arena.

SEO for Multiple Points of Entry – Keeping the Focused Shopper in Mind (via closed-loop-marketing.com) – Good advice on optimizing your site for customers coming in on different pages. Your local brick and mortar store knows when and where the customer will enter, the front door. On the web your customers will not be coming in to your homepage every time. You need to optimize every page on your site because there is a good chance they will never see your home page.

Using Analytics For Local Search Optimization (via searchengineland.com) – Great article for local retailers that have an eCommerce site and brick and mortar store to target your local customers.

Preparing to React to Rapidly Emerging Events: Tips for Your Online Business (via forrester.com) – Brian Walker at Forrester put out a blog article detailing how to prepare for rapidly emerging events in your online business. Looks to be inspired by the recent swine flu outbreak. (side note: Do you have the swine flu?)

Feast or Famine Sales? Why no consistency? (via webmasterworld.com) – Good forum thread to follow or participate in. They are discussing how and why sales fluctuate on a given day or week for their online business. 

Give your Online Store Some Bite! (via thinkvitamin.com) – Article on how to put your online store above the rest. More and more companies are putting their business online by the day and you need to keep yours a notch above the competition to get that sale.

Abandonment Tracker Free (via seewhy.com) – Abandoned carts are an issue many eCommerce developers pull their hair out over. This is a free tool to track those that abandoned their carts. I have not tested it out, but it could prove beneficial.

Why It’s Not Enough to Just Sell (via invesp.com) – eCommerce used to be just about getting the sale. Not anymore. You need to give the customer more even after the sell. This is a good article giving some pointers on how to go above and beyond the initial sale.

You Can’t Edit Your Way Out of Negative Reviews (via grokdotcom.com) – Negative reviews are going to happen. Don’t try and cover them up. Even negative reviews can help your sales. This article shows you why not to cover them up and how to overcome them for your benefit. 

Optimizing Conversion Rates: Less Effort, More Customers (via smashingmagazine.com) – Smashing Magazine is doing a 3 part series on conversion rates and this is the first installment. Good tips on getting your customer to convert.

How To Optimize Feeds To Maximize Your Exposure In Shopping Engine Results (via searchengineland.com) – Good article on optimizing your feeds in the shopping engines. With all the shopping engines out there and the traffic they can bring this is a great article to read.

How to organise e-commerce product reviews (via econsultancy.com) – Reviews are a must have on eCommerce sites now. They have proven their benefit. This article gives you some tips on how to organise all the reviews that come in.

 

Interesting eCommerce Articles of the Week

GSI Commerce and Bath & Body Works Extend Agreement through 2015 (source) – In the word of eCommerce a 6 year commitment is a long time to one platform.

E-commerce business, Wizy-Wiz, accused of Web of deceit. The claim is accusing the company’s owners of repeatedly failing to deliver on their promises to help small and mid-size businesses sell their products online. (source)

Online Sales Slip (source) – For the first quarter of 2009 online retail was up 11%, but looking forward the say overall for the year online sales will contract, by .4%.

Recession forces new focus in e-commerce marketing (source) – Article on how retailers are shifting from traditional marketing to less expensive tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Shop.org put out their 2009 State of Retailing Online: Marketing Report. You can get a couple highlights of the report in this article, but you need to be a paying member to see the full report. One day I will sign up for this when the money is there.

Bob Evans Revamps E-commerce Site (source) – Living in Columbus, OH it is always good to see local companies making the changes in today’s world to target customers.

Sears’s Lampert Targets Web Shopper (source) – Sears gets it. In their annual shareholder meeting the chairman told investors they may become a smaller retailer, but they will be well positioned to profit from online shoppers. This is a Wall Street Journal article, so you will have to be a subscriber to read the entire article or if you have the iPhone they now have an app and you can read all the articles on the Journal.

HSN.com leads online mass merchants with March conversion rate of 6% (source) – The monthly report of conversation rate is now out. How do you compare?

Forrester: e-commerce ‘better suited to withstand economic downturn’ (source) – ZDNet did a blog article on some Forrester research on how eCommerce can withstand the economic downturn. Makes you glad to be in the eCommerce business doesn’t it?

Collective Brands, Inc. Announces New eCommerce Technology Platform for the Company’s Brand Websites (source) – Collective Brands owns and operates Payless.com, striderite.com, keds.com and sperrytopsider.com and others.  They have used ATG to develop their platform. Payless will be first and their other brands will follow over the next 12 months.

Lane Bryant will launch new e-commerce site with Fry (source) – The sites Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and Catherines Plus Sizes are expected to release this fall on the platform built by Fry.

The CODiE awards are out. The best eCommerce Solution goes to Billeo. Congrats Billeo. (source)

Talking with…Scott Silverman, Shop.org executive director (source)

Click And Buy reveal alarming e-commerce trends (source) – Some good statistical data on eCommerce sales. Here is one from the article: 50% of regular online shoppers don’t complete the transaction if preferred method of payment is not available.

Liz Claiborne launches on Demandware. (source)