Archive for the ‘Ecommerce’ Category
-
Just in time for Christmas: BabyAge.com Increases Ecommerce Sales Conversion by 22%
Ecommerce dreams do come true: by testing the product page template, this top Ecommerce retailer increased its sales conversion rate by 22% – an amazing improvement, just in time for Christmas sales. Continue Reading
-
Do McAfee or HackerSafe Security Badges Increase E-commerce Conversion Rate?
Site-wide Shopping Cart
with McAfee BadgeA client of ours recently tested adding the McAfee Secure badge to their persistent checkout area (the mini shopping cart area that shows up on all pages) and ran a site-wide A/B test. They found that simply adding the badge actually decreased conversions by 1.6%.
I tweeted about this recently and joined others who have seen similar results. There are, of course, positive test results from adding security badges and, in some cases, no difference at all. So, have you tested your security badges?
Should you be paying for third-party security? Continue Reading
-
Consumer Sat in E-Commerce Slips – and What a Great Opportunity this Represents for Conversion-oriented Marketers!
ClickZ reports a study by ForeSee Results and FGI Research that consumer satisfaction with e-commerce sites has dropped in 2009 compared to a year ago.
• Out of a possible 100 points — with 100 representing the highest possible score — the top 100 e-commerce sites recorded an aggregation score of 73, down 3 percent from 2008
• Of the top 100 sites, scores for 55 sites dropped year-over-year, while only 16 increased.
Things seem to be seriously wrong for some eCommerce retailers: Continue Reading
-
Amazon’s Brilliant 2008 Holiday Shopping Season: Improved Sales Conversion Rate
Conversion Optimization isn’t just getting more web visitors to buy – it’s also about getting those visitors who buy to spend more (i.e., increase in the AOR – average order value).
So, in a season where most headlines read like a nightmare (“Gap Inc. Sales Drop Sharply”; “Shoppers Scale Back Spending At Toys “R” Us”; “Department Stores Down Across the Board”), Amazon.com — my favorite “book store” (just kidding) completed the 2008 holiday shopping season with exceptionally strong overall results: “Overall, spending per customer was $163.63 up 17% from $139.78 in 2007” according to data gathered by Geezeo’s Main Street Spending Index (MSSI).
But that’s not all:
Continue Reading -
eCommerce Sales 2008: Bad News or Not-So-Bad News? (Is there an opportunity for you here?)
News of a drop in holiday sales comes as no surprise this year. Overall holiday retail sales were down 5.5% in the month of November, and 8% in December up to the day before Christmas, compared to the same periods in 2007, according to MasterCard Advisors, a subsidiary of MasterCard Worldwide.
But wait! eCommerce sales were not down by as much as overall retail sales.
ComScore’s end-of-season online sales figures put the tally at $25.5 billion, down “only” 3% from a year ago. And MasterCard Advisors’ report says overall ecommerce sales ended the season with a decline of “only” 2.3% (the emphasis is mine).
But wait! Unique visitors to eCommerce sites were actually up.
Continue Reading -
Big News for Ecommerce Retailers: “Cyber Monday Shoppers Looking for Bargains”
OK, so this isn’t exactly news for most retailers – but maybe for some pure-play eCommerce retailers it is.
This morning, ClickZ reports that on Cyber Monday eCommerce order volumes rose by 14.5 percent but average order sales were significantly down, falling 12 percent.
The result: Overall sales volume on Cyber Monday was essentially flat, growing less than a half-percent compared with the same day in 2007. This trend is consistent with payment activity during much of November.
But the Cyber Monday snapshot isn’t telling the complete story. Consider this: Continue Reading
-
A Salute to Brave eCommerce Retailers
There are brave eCommerce retailers, truly working both hard and smart at making sure the avalanche of bad economic news does not sweep them over.
This morning, AdAge reports a ComScore finding that consumer web spending dropped 4% so far in November versus the same period last year — the first time e-commerce figures have shown a year-to-year drop. “Despite the recent reprieve that plummeting gas prices have given American consumers, the depressed and volatile stock market, declining housing prices, inflation and the weak job market all represent dark clouds hanging over their heads this holiday shopping season,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
But there are positive forecasts too: Continue Reading
-
How to lose more sales and frustrate people
Okay, this one is really weird.
My wife has recently become a fan of the kids clothes at NEXT, a UK clothing and household store.
But it’s got some very strange quirks that I can’t imagine the rationale for:
- The online shopping cart closes every day without warning. Seriously, they’ve got closing hours.. on the Internet…
- When the shop closes, your shopping cart automatically empties.
- If you leave your shopping cart for more than 1/2 hour, it empties.
It wouldn’t take a usability expert or months of focus group testing to tell how you can increase your conversion rate.
Maybe I won’t tell you, though. At least it keeps my wife from giving you all my money.
WiderFunnel Rating:
