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.
