Daniel Burstein says, “How can you attract more traffic to your ecommerce store? How can you improve conversion on the traffic you’re currently getting? At IRCE (Internet Retailer Conference + Exhibition) 2014, we sat down with 39 marketers and ecommerce experts to bring you actionable ideas to improve your results. To help you prepare for IRCE 2015, today on the MarketingSherpa blog I’m taking a look back at a few of the key lessons I learned from the interviews at last year’s event. Lesson #1: User-generated content is not free labor for marketers User-generated content. Community-sourced... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “E-commerce sales for U.S. retailers grew 13.6 percent to $261 billion in 2013, up from a revised $229 billion in 2012, according to the latest annual report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Taken from a compilation of survey data, the E-Stats 2013: Measuring the Electronic Economy report shows retail sales accounted for 5.8 percent of total sales in 2013, up from 5.3 percent in 2012. Total sales increased by 3.8 percent to $4.5 trillion in 2013 from a revised $4.3 trillion in 2012. The largest retail merchandise category for e-commerce sales in 2013 was Clothing and Clothing... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “I’ve recently been looking at how ecommerce sites are using content, and Coggles is one that we picked out as as example.  I’ve been talking to Clare Potts, Head of Search, Social and PR,  Prestige Luxury at The Hut Group, which looks after Coggles. Clare talked about the brand’s content strategy, the part that SEO plays, and howCoggles measures content… How long has Coggles’ Life section been running? The editorial section of Coggles has been running as long as the ecommerce site has been live, editorial content is at the heart of the... [...]

Jerry Low says, “At this point, all of us have had at least some experience shopping online. Chances are, we’ve also all experienced an e-commerce site that had a pretty terrible experience—one that might have even led you to abandon the effort all together and go elsewhere. This is the experience you want to avoid at all costs, and is why design is such a vital part to success in e-commerce. An e-commerce site that is easy to use ensures that consumers can find the products they want and need, and purchase them. Sounds simple, but in reality, it’s a challenge for all e-tailers. How... [...]

William Johnson says, “yber-attack – the event and its consequences are not new to online merchants. Most of those who promise secured transactions to customers have had an experience of customers complaining about faulty transactions and other security breaches. Magento, Joomla and even any ecommerce platform including CMS, plugin and extensions are susceptible to such phishing attacks. Unlike the traditional phishing techniques through social media and emails, hackers are now finding new ways to add a bunch of malicious codes to the ecommerce sites and thus bypassing all the sensitive data... [...]

Catalin Zorzini says, “The strategy you employ to market and grow your e-commerce business will help determine whether (and how quickly) you reach your goals and achieve success. And whether you are new to the e-commerce game or you’ve been selling online for years, there is always room for growth. Here is the good news: There are marketing and growth techniques that can put you on the path to success. Here is the not-so-good news: Sustained success won’t come overnight. Now let’s take a look at seven highly efficient marketing and growth techniques for e-commerce businesses. 1.... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “Ecommerce brands have embraced content marketing over the past couple of years.  Of course some, like Net-A-Porter, have used content effectively long before it became a buzzword. However, while some are using content well, others just seem to be ticking boxes and failing to incorporate content fully. In this post, I’ll look at how ecommerce brands should be using content, and some of the mistakes to avoid. How ecommerce brands can use content:  In his new content strategy report, which looks beyond just ecommerce, Mike Baxter sets out three content types: 1.... [...]

Morgan Jacobson says, “The news that Internet Explorer is set to be phased out surprised approximately no one. Most internet users have moved on to greener pastures anyway, so they won’t be affected by the changes. However, there are still about 7.7% of users that rely on Internet Explorer, at least as of March of this year. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot of people. To put it in perspective, consider the fact that over three billion people use the internet. That means approximately 231 million people still use Internet Explorer. Now, what if those 231 million people are your ecommerce... [...]

Susan Wu says, “B2B eCommerce is growing, and it’s growing quickly. In fact, at Forrester we estimate that it will reach more than $1 trillion in the US by 2020, double the size of B2C eCommerce. B2B buyers are rapidly gearing their researching and purchasing activities toward true digital platforms. B2B sellers are similarly shifting their resources toward providing an eCommerce portal to better reach and engage with their customers. Forrester’s ForecastView team recently conducted a pioneering study on the B2B eCommerce market where we explored nine product categories and their... [...]

Seth Rand says, “Creating an online store is an exciting step forward for any business. It can sound like a daunting task. According to the State of Small Business in America Report, “only 25% of small businesses said they have websites with ecommerce functionality – in fact, 58% earn less than 10% of their sales from online purchases.” The good news is that a ton of tools exist to help you create an ecommerce site without major technical skill. If you do have luxury of a strong software platform, an experienced design and development team, and a little bit of elbow grease,... [...]