Himanshu Sareen says, “If you were to track the rise of ecommerce in today’s business landscape, you’d have to go back to the dot com crash of 2000. Despite a tanking economy, the businesses that survived the crash quickly started adapting their selling methods, because, even with an economy going down the drain, it was clear that the Internet would hold the key to the future of sales. Fast forward to 2015 and the U.S. Census Bureau releasing a report on the dollar amount of ecommerce sales that took place within the first quarter of the year — the total amount was 80.3 Billion... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “EBay Enterprise says the move will give far more tools to the retailers who work with its affiliate marketing program, which has 59 retailer clients in the Internet Retailer Top 1000. EBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions has acquired AffiliateTraction, an affiliate technology vendor that counts such retailers as Fathead LLC, Skechers USA Inc., Guess Inc. and American Apparel Inc. among its clients, the companies said today. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. EBay Enterprise also announced that AffiliateTraction CEO and president Greg Shepard will assume the role... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “Ah, email. The marketing channel that steadfastly refuses to die.  And why should it? Clearly it still works, particularly when it comes to ecommerce. But as an email marketer it can be difficult to know what success looks like. Never fear, though, because in this post I’m going to share some ecommerce email marketingbenchmarks for 2016. The benchmark figures come from some recent research by Remarkety, which studied millions of emails across thousands of ecommerce brands. Newsletters Sending out regular newsletters is important. It’s a chance to promote specific... [...]

Bryan Robinson says, “Did you know that 60 percent of consumers expect a consistent experience when dealing with brands online, in-store or by phone? In the world of retail customers expect a lot, and rightly so. They’re choosing to spend their hard earned cash with you, so in return you should be able to provide them with a great product and a consistent service. But aligning every channel that you own is not as easy as it sounds, which is why it’s important that retailers have a clear and focused omni-channel strategy. What’s Omni-Channel? The idea behind omni-channel is... [...]

Kurt Bilafer says, “When it comes to online commerce, the point at which money changes hands has often been the moment a sale falls apart. What was a carefully crafted brand experience becomes off-putting and complicated. There are confusing redirects, forms that clash with the rest of the design, and a lot of sensitive data that needs to be entered. But that’s now changing, and fast. Innovative companies have stepped up their game, using technologies that make a much easier payment experience possible. That, in turn, is changing consumer expectations about what a payment transaction should... [...]

Jimmy Rodela says, “The sales that you had been getting from your eCommerce site for the last 6 months is a nightmare. It had plummeted to the deepest depth of the planet, and it doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of recovering. As you browsed the internet for ideas on how to fix your dreaded rock bottom sales, you came across a survey saying 96 percent of Americans are in fact coupon users. You then say to yourself, “This it! With the use of discount coupons, I’ll surely be able to get better sales.” I don’t doubt you for one minute. True enough, using discounts coupons can... [...]

Darren DeMatas says, “85% of ecommerce brands are looking to add value to customers beyond discounts and promotions. Yet, 97% of rewards programs are transaction-based. Giving discounts to attract customers is often a knee-jerk reaction to boost sales. But competing on price is a race to the bottom.  Most ecommerce businesses can’t survive by giving deep discounts to one-time customers. To succeed in the long term, you have to shift your focus to customer retention. Loyalty programs can drive high margin repeat business, but most programs fail to add value to the customer experience. To... [...]

Greg Randall says, “The topic of placing products on the homepage always comes with debate, but when thinking in the context of customer experience design, the reasons against presenting products are straightforward.  I’ve previously taken an in-depth look at product page design, and now it’s time to turn the spotlight on the homepage. Purpose of the homepage The purpose of the homepage is to maintain a consumer’s ‘buying momentum‘. Buying momentum is characterised by a series of micro-actions consumers take in their journey leading to a macro-action (a purchase). The... [...]

Matt Mansfield says, “From merchant accounts to product images, product descriptions, add-on apps and possible integration with your existing website and back-end systems, there are a lot of details to stay on top of when you build an eCommerce site for your small business. Interestingly however, one of the most critical decisions you need to make is what your new eCommerce site will look and feel like (i.e. its theme). Why is selecting a theme so important? It’s all a matter of cost. The Cost of Customization The truth is, there are many eCommerce storefronts you can add in minutes. Each... [...]

Everett Sizemore says, “If there has been one “SEO tactic” that we’ve seen work consistently throughout 2015, it’s the idea of pruning underperforming content out of Google’s index. Sometimes it is a result of outdated SEO tactics like article spinning, or technical issues such as indexable internal search results or endlessly crawlable faceted navigation. Other times there are thousands of products with little or no content, or manufacturer-supplied product descriptions. This is why it’s important to make distinctions between pruning off the site (i.e. removing) and... [...]