Shane Jones says, “While ecommerce has come a long way in recent years, it still has a long way to go. One of the main problems with online shopping is that a certain amount of guesswork is always required before making a purchase. Customers are never quite sure about the quality of an item, since they can’t touch it like they would when shopping in person. Instead, they are forced to rely on small photos and glib product descriptions”. The five words that don’t belong in ecommerce customer service ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Carmen Weeks says, “The MECLABS Conversion Heuristic is what we use when optimizing our Research Partners’ websites – and now for me as a research analyst, it’s become second nature to optimize every website I encounter. I say this because truthfully, it’s one thing to simply memorize and understand a formula. But when you’re able to conceptualize and apply it, you own it. For instance, I was recently window shopping on one of my favorite sites, HauteLook, a members-only ecommerce website that offers limited-time sales of leading brands in fashion, home décor, skincare, and occasionally,... [...]

Rachel Serpa says, “Coined in Joseph Heller’s classic satirical novel of the same name, ‘Catch-22’ is a term that refers to a situation in which a person is trapped by completely contradictory goals or circumstances. In Heller’s book, the only way for a pilot to escape his WWII flying mission is to request psychiatric evaluation due to mental instability, and be deemed insane. However, awareness of his own insanity is considered proof of a rational mind, thus making it impossible to escape his mission, a total and complete Catch-22″. Privacy and personalization: a marketer’s... [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “Finally, mobile devices are at a stage where technology meets and occasionally exceeds the expectations of the consumer. Although not every retailer is offering a flawless and perfectly persuasive conversion bonanza when it comes to a mobile commerce experience, but most are now beginning to at least think ‘mobile first’ when it comes to ecommerce design. Obviously the arguments for responsive or adaptive design can hardly be considered a trend as it’s a conversation that’s been raging for a long while”. 10 trends that will impact your mobile... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Customers responding to email marketing and shoppers navigating directly to online stores (including app traffic) accounted for the highest share of purchases on phones in the first quarter of 2014, according to a recent report from Custora. Email marketing generated 26.7% of retail purchases made on phones in 1Q14, compared with only 20.9% of sales on desktops and 23.1% on tablets. Direct traffic also drove a larger share of purchases on mobile phones compared with desktop, with one-third (32.9%) of sales coming from shoppers who went straight to online stores/apps. On... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “In its latest round of reports, Custora claims mobile e-commerce revenue is set to reach $50 billion by the end of this year, up nearly $8 billion since last year, and an astounding $48 billion since 2010. Analyzing e-commerce data from more than 100 retailers, 70 million consumers and $10 billion in transactions, Custora found mobile traffic to e-commerce sites has increased from three-percent to nearly 37 percent in the last four years, while mobile e-commerce revenue climbed from $2.2 billion in 2010 to $42.8 billion last year”. Study: Mobile E-Commerce Sales... [...]

James Critchley says, “Many online retailers remain obsessed with growing overall site traffic, at the expense of increasing conversion rates from existing customers. Research shows that for every £100 retailers spend getting customers to a website, only £1 goes into converting them. This can be counter productive: the cost of acquiring new trafficis increasing exponentially. Actually it makes much more sense to convert the 97% of customers that visit your site and abandon before making a purchase. What often prevents retailers from concentrating on conversions is the perception that... [...]

Derek S says, “Having to piece together performance and security software is something that Wany web workers are familiar with. Verizon Digital Media Services, a division of Verizon Communications, has announced the release of a new e-commerce solution for website owners. Through the new solution, Verizon aims to target website owners that are piecing together their website protection and performance softwares and offers them an all-in one solution. Within the solution are eight features (Transact, Protect, Compute, Analyze, Develop, Support, Store and Route) which combine to offer... [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “Continuing my quest to investigate how various industries use email marketing, here’s a look at how some of our favourite fashion retailers use this most effective yet often neglected marketing channel. Much like my round-up on the travel industry a couple of weeks ago, I’ll be looking at the frequency of emails, the use of subject lines, the email content itself, special offers, editorial voice, personalisation, relevance… All of the many tools that a company can utilise to coerce the recipient to open up an email or even engage with it. As well as the... [...]

David Moth says, “Content marketing has been a hot topic in digital for more than a year, but many brands still struggle with the challenge of how to integrate content seamlessly into the ecommerce experience. One of our recent surveys found that only 38% of in-house marketers have a defined content marketing strategy, despite 76% saying they are producing significantly more content than they were 12 months ago. To help brands overcome these challenges Econsultancy and EPiServer have published a new report entitled Where Content and Commerce Collide. It examines how digital content can... [...]