Bill Briggs says, “53% of consumers in Europe bought something online in 2015, says a study by Eurostat. E-commerce is on the rise in Europe. The proportion of consumers age 16-74 who made a purchase online in the 12 months prior to a recent survey stood at 53% in 2015, compared with 43% in a 2012 report. The 53% represents a high-water mark and exceeds the European Commission’s Digital Agenda goals for technology adoption in the region, including online shopping. The commission’s first agenda in 2010 set a target of 50% of the region’s total population shopping online by 2015. 81%... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “We often discuss basket abandonment on this blog, and one of the quickest ways to lose your customer is to bore them with a seemingly endless checkout process.  I say ‘seemingly endless’ because, however long the process really is, if you don’t include some kind of progress indicator then people have no way of telling how close to the end they are. So they might as well assume they’ve got a long way to go, get bored and give up. In this post I’m going to cover why checkout progress indicators are so important for ecommerce and show you some examples of effective... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “We often discuss basket abandonment on this blog, and one of the quickest ways to lose your customer is to bore them with a seemingly endless checkout process.  I say ‘seemingly endless’ because, however long the process really is, if you don’t include some kind of progress indicator then people have no way of telling how close to the end they are. So they might as well assume they’ve got a long way to go, get bored and give up. In this post I’m going to cover why checkout progress indicators are so important for ecommerce and show you some examples of effective... [...]

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... [...]