The weather is finally starting to feel like summer! Last week I decided I would start researching wooden playground sets for the backyard. I shopped online for an hour or so, and compared the same wooden playground set on a handful of online stores. My process went something like this, I would go through the ordering process of each site to determine my actual cost, and bookmark the sites that I thought had the lowest pricing.
The next day, around 10am I received a phone call from a customer service agent at one of the websites I had visited. The agent asked if I had any questions about the wooden playground set I had looked at on their website. I paused for a minute, feeling very vulnerable to the fact they knew exactly which product I had put in my online shopping cart, I told the agent that I did not have any questions and request they not call me again. During the checkout process, I had put in my actual phone number, not thinking anything of it. Mainly because my phone number came up to auto fill in the telephone field and I did not think it would be a big deal.
Four days later I received an email from the same company offering a discount on the exact product that I had added to my shopping cart. The email does not bother me, partially because they offered me a discount, and partially because it does not feel as intrusive as a person calling me. Throughout the last few days I have noticed an uptick in the number of wooden playground ads when I log into my email account, and I understand this as another retargeting effort. Like the email, I do not feel bothered by the increase in ads targeted at me based on my searches.
Do you feel calling customers directly has taken retargeting too far?
Big name retailers and small niche online stores are now starting to offer their products for sale direclty on Facebook. How do you get starting selling your products on Facebook?
Determine the most appropriate setup for your type of ecommerce site. There are two layout options available.
1) Selling products directly on Facebook. Example; Land’s End.
Land’s End uses a “social shopping experience” called 8th Bridge to integrate their store on Facebook. 8th Bridge allows the customer to complete an entire purchase while never leaving the Facebook website. A ton of major retailers, such as Hallmark, Delta Airlines, HauteLook & 1-800-Flowers.com are all using 8th Bridge on Facebook.
There are a few other companies offering this same type of product, but with a little less glitz, and a smaller price tag,
2) Provide a “Shop Now” button that links back to your storefront.
This is a great option for smaller budgets, and involves little setup time. Example; Toms Shoes
Toms Shoes has a one page layout with their new Spring Collection, and provides a “Shop Now” button that links directly back to the the Toms website and allows the customer to purchase from that point.
An alternative layout for linking directly to specific products and not general categories is also a good option. Etsy offers their sellers a product page that links back to their Etsy store front to complete the purchase. Example; Typos
Once you have determined which type of setup works the best for your business, start selling! Look for more and more of your favorite stores to start using either one of these methods to start selling their products on Facebook. This is an exciting new way to allow Facebook Fans to shop for their favorite products without having to leave Facebook to search for products.
1) Shopping Cart Email
This is a fairly new feature that many of the top sites have started implementing. If you add a product to your shopping cart and enter an email address and do not purchase the items in your shopping cart, an email reminder will be sent out. The reminder will let you know that you still have items in your shopping cart and will include an incentive for returning to the store to purchase the item(s). Usually a discount code or special offer will be part of the email.
2) Turn Up the Volume
Increase the frequency of email campaigns to your customer email list. Let them know what promotions and new products are available at your store.
3) Coupon Code Distribution
Post coupon codes on sites like Retail Me Not, Current Codes, Coupon Cabin and Ultimate Coupons. These sites are a great way to distribute your store’s coupon codes to the masses. When customers search for your store’s name and the words ‘coupon code’ these sites will likely be the first listed.
4) Holiday Countdown
Show customers how many days are left before the upcoming holiday. Display the number of days left before the last shipping day available for your products. This will help decrease the number of phone calls and emails inquiring about the fast shipping methods and availability.
5) Facepile
Take the Facebook “like” button to the next level with a “Facepile”. Display a Facebook “Facepile” on your site’s homepage showing all the profile pictures of the people who have “liked” your site.
6) Shipping Communication
Increase communication with customers about the status of their order. Stay on top of any backorders, delays and tracking numbers. This will help decrease WISMO (Where is my order?) questions, which will in turn help free up time to help potential customers with orders.
7) Mystery Shoppers
Make sure your site is in tip top shape before the holiday season begins. Test the site with mystery shoppers, or use UserTesting.com to find any potential problems with the ordering process, or navigation on your site.
8) Holiday Spirit
Spread the holiday spirit with graphics and related promotional names on your site. Let customers feel the spirit of the holiday on your site. Simple graphics are easy to update and will make your site feel fresh.
9) The Last Minute Gift
The Christmas Eve is typically the biggest holiday shopping day of the year for physical stores. So, what can online stores do to take advantage of this big day? Giftcards. Allow instant gifts with emailed giftcards to your store.
10) Extended Opportunities
Allow customers to reach your store outside of business hours. Extended hours for phone operators, live chat availability and order processing will help to reach customers shopping online after work and on the weekends.
11) Be Prepared
Know the days of the holiday season that will be the busiest. Historically, the Monday after Black Friday, known as Cyber Monday, and 11 to 12 days before Christmas are the largest online shopping days of the entire year. Be prepared to handle a large volume of calls, emails and orders.
12) Suggested Gifts
Guide customers to the best deals and most popular products. Use an “Editor’s Pick” or Review Ratings to help customers navigate their way to the perfect gift. Feature these products with banners, promotions and placement on the site.
We are just two weeks away from the biggest shopping day of the year and I am feeling the excitement! My inbox is increasingly filling up with email promotions and stores are starting to run their best ‘deals’ of the year. Every year at this time I think – How can we separate ourselves from the competition?
We can’t always offer the best pricing, or quickest shipping. Our biggest strengths revolve around the customer’s experience and the large number of products that we offer on our sites. We thought the best way to capitalize on our strength is to build our customer reviews. For a couple years I went down the traditional path of a simple email to the customer post-purchase asking them to complete a review on the product. We received a few reviews, but they were lacking in style and content. We would get reviews like this;
“Good product. I like it.”
I wanted to scream. How are these larger online stores receiving beautifully crafted, informative reviews on their sites? I started to do some research and realized that most of them are outsourcing their review collection and forms. I found a couple companies that offer a customer review service that entails the following;
- Follow Up Emails – An email template is provided that can be customized and sent out to customers. Email address and product model numbers can be uploaded via .csv file and the follow up email can be scheduled.
- Review Forms – Forms that are created based on products categories. If you have multiple categories on your site, you can select a different form for each category. Having these forms help to guide a customer through their review. Instead of a simple sentence, this form prompts questions to the customer about the product. The last section of the review allows customers to post an image of the product if they wish.
- Verified Buyer & Verified Staffer Badge – Each review submitted is required to have an email address assigned to it. That email address is then searched to determine if the reviewer has actually purchased this product from your store, or if that person is a staff member. If the reviewer’s email matches up as a customer or staffer, a badge is assigned to the review. This lets readers know that this person has actually purchased this product. This also allows staffers to review products and give their insight.
- Moderation – The service companies will review the reviews and edit them as they see necessary. Profanity, formatting and readability are all looked at. Once they are moderated by the service company, they are sent along to the store to review before posting.
- Escalation of Problems – Customer reviews that are completed and the customer is expressing a problem with a product or service can be handled by escalating the review to a manager. The manager can then reply to the review and resolve the issue.
- Data – After the email blast has been sent out to customers and reviews have been submitted, a summary of the email is given. This summer will let you know how many follow up emails were sent, the number of emails opened, how many reviews were completed, bounced email address and the number of customer that unsubscribed. This will allow you to resend the email to customers who did not open it the first time around.
Two of the best services are Power Reviews and Rate Voice. Power Reviews has a few more high profile customers, and seems to be rapidly evolving their available services. Rate Voice is slightly less expensive, but doesn’t have the exposure of Power Reviews. Either service would be a good investment. We have seen a dramatic increase in the quality, and return rate of reviews since adopting a review service. The service has also saved us a ton of time!
These services are not the most inexpensive method, but we found they produce a higher percent of return and better quality. The cost of this service ranges from $20 to $40 per month, per site. Each of the sites we looked at has a 30 day trial period and has plenty of references, or should I say customer reviews. Let us know if you have found another customer review service, or innovative way to increase the return rate and quality of customer reviews.
You probably have seen these little black and white codes on the back of catalogs, on the sides of buses, or maybe even downloaded one on your phone as a boarding pass. They seem to be popping up just about everywhere. The QR Code, Quick Response Code, is a two dimensional matrix barcode that can be read by QR Readers.
You will need a phone with an internal camera and a QR Reader. Some new phones will come with a QR Reader already installed, or you can download the software in the form of an app.
I suggest using the QR Code Reader and Scanner by Big in Japan. I downloaded three QR readers before finding this one that worked like a charm on my iphone. Once the app is on your phone, you are ready to go! There are a ton of difference uses for the QR Code, but I found these to be the top 5 best ways people have started using them.
1) Business Cards
Place a QR Code on your business cards. All your business associates have to do is scan the QR Code and your information is automatically added to their contacts. You can put as much or as little information on the QR Code as you want. You can order QR Code Business Cards on Tec-It right now, but I suspect these will become widely available in the near future. This would be great for having at tradeshows or large conventions!
2) E-Commerce Promotions
Place a QR Code on a print advertisement for your customers to reach your promotion quickly. Scanning the code can take them directly to the promotion section of your website, or provide a text with a discount coupon code. Super simple.
3) Real Estate
Placing QR Codes on lawn signs to allow for potential buyers to receive more information on the listing, and save the real estate agents contact details with one click. I wish this was available when I was looking for a home!
4) Product Instructions
Use a QR Code on the outside of product packaging that will allow the customer to scan the QR Code to get the instructions on how to assemble the product, either via video or written instructions. Save a tree and the cost of printing!
5) Travel
Download your boarding pass on your phone in the form of a QR Code, instead of printing it out. These are easy for the airlines to scan and you do not need a computer. One more way to save paper!
If you would like to create your own QR Code, Kaywa has a nice QR Code Generator available for free. The code can be used to sent a text message, go directly to a URL, send a phone number of an SMS. My favorite part of using the QR Codes is that it requires very little typing on the keypad. You will save a ton of time by scanning instead of typing. Let us know how you use QR Codes for your business, or how you would like to see them used in your everyday life.
A few weeks ago a few friends and I went out to grab some Margaritas on a Friday evening. I was prepared to spend $20 to $30 on the Margaritas, Queso dip and my Enchiladas. Three or Four ritas later, and a full belly, we received our bill. $15. Excuse me? I had at least three ritas, and dinner. The week before, my friend had purchased a Groupon to said Mexican restaurant for $45, but only had cost her $18. She was nice enough to use this towards our entire bill. What a steal! We received a $27 discount with the pre-paid Groupon. How had I missed this fenomenon?
Thus, began my obsession with the Groupon. I went home that evening and signed up on Groupon.com to receive emails with the latest Groupon in my area. The signup was nothing more than entering my email address at the top of the page to received daily ‘deals’. The idea behind Groupon, is that a business determines how many coupons they would need to sell to make it worth their while and provide this number to Groupon. Let’s say they would need to sell 100 coupons to make this deal happen. An email is then sent out to everyone who has signed up on Groupon.com with the deal of the day in their city, and once 100 people have purchased the Groupon, the deal is on. 100 people have to purchase the Groupon that day to make the deal happen. If not enough people purchase the Groupon to make the deal, the deal is canceled and there is no charge to the people that purchased the Groupon.
Groupon.com started in November of 2008 out of the Chicago based site, ThePoint.com. The Point is a platform that focuses on collective action, which ties into the concept of building a Group of people to purchase at discounted rates. Groupon focuses on local businesses and features local charities. They pride themselves on offering “too good to be true” experience and deals. Groupons are now offered in more than 150 cities around the world and have just recently acquired Japan’s Qpod Inc. and Russia’s Darberry Inc. as part of its international expansion.
Although Groupon is working on a patenting their idea, many others sites have started to join the group discount bandwagon. Here are just a few of the sites competing;
8Coupons – This site lists the top 8 deals in a specific city.
Buywithme – Almost identical to Groupon, but with a smaller number of cities represented.
Woot – Does not require a ‘group’ to purchase, but just offers daily deals on one product.
Livingsocial – Offers 1 Day Deals for wide range of cities in the US
Steepandcheap – Focuses on outdoor gear with 1 Deal a Day format.
Last Thursday Groupon hit a milestone when they their first nationwide Groupon for the Gap, with a $25 price for a $50 Groupon. The Gap Groupons started selling at an average of 10 Groupons per second! As of right now, this is Groupon’s bestselling deal. The deal was so big, Groupon’s site crashed at the end of the day on Thursday. With the success of the Gap Groupon, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more nationwide deals popping up on Groupon. If you haven’t already signed up to receive a daily deal day, visit Groupon to start saving.
Where do you shop for 1 Day Deals?
The human body was not designed to sit still in front of a computer for 12 hours a day. Yet, that is what most of us do on a daily basis. We sit still and move our fingers from the keyboard to the mouse, and answer our phones. It is almost impossible to get around the amount of time you sit still at your desk, and the little movement that your body makes.
This can ultimately cause poor circulation, joint pain, cramping, and potentially swelling.
How can you work your way around this sedentary type of work? Here are a few ways of keeping active, in a non-active environment.
- Stretch
- Arms: Roll your wrists 10 times in each direction a couple times during the day.
- Feet: Move your ankles and roll them a couple times during the day to prevent “pins and needles”.
- Calves: Flex your calf muscles by pointing your toes.
- Back + Shoulders: Roll your shoulders back 10 times a couple times during the day.
- Neck: Slowly move your head front to back and side to side (be cautious).
- Posture
- Consistently check your posture during the day
- Are you sitting up straight?
- Are your legs crossed? (uncross them)
- Are your feet flat on the floor?
- Is your monitor at eye height? (you should not be looking up or down)
- Make sure you are using a chair that is ergonomically designed and adjusted for your height. Alternatively, you can use a stability ball instead of a chair.
- Consistently check your posture during the day
- Down time
- Use any time that you do not have to be looking at the computer to get up and walk around. Get up from your desk at least once an hour.
- Eating + Drinking
- Make sure you are getting up from your computer during lunch (and maybe dinner).
- Drink plenty of water during the day. This will also help with getting up from your desk at least once an hour.
- Aerobic Activity (Non-Desk Exercise)
- Walk briskly for 10 minutes 3 times a day. This is simple to break down. Take 10 minutes mid-morning, 10 minutes after lunch and 10 minutes in the late afternoon. This will help increase circulation and will also give you a little break from the computer screen.
- Spend some time on the weekends and in the evenings walking or doing some light jogging for 30 to 45 minutes, 2 to 3 times a week.
If you need some more ideas on how to stay active at your desk, or just want to mix up your routine, check out this video.
Staying active is a vital part of our lives that can be easily neglected by the demands of our jobs. Take time during the day to think about moving. This will help you feel better, both physically and mentally. Taking the time to move can help cleanse your mind and release stress. Try doing some of these deskercises over the course of this next week and see how you feel!
Over the past week every other headline seems to be about privacy online. Google and Facebook have both been making headlines about questionable security practices. Each of these online giants touches our lives on a daily basis and it is important to stay on top of their security practices.
Google has many countries across the world are in an up roar about “accidental collection” of personal information from the public Wi-Fi Networks. Many countries, including the US, have started an investigation to whether or not they breached data protection and computer hacking laws. Google is claiming they overlooked this problem and that they did not use the gathered information for any other purpose then to improve services. Look for more headlines regarding Google’s oversight and how they will be correcting their privacy issues.
Facebook has been topping the headlines with their privacy settings issues that affect all of their 400 million users. So, what is going on with Mark Zuckerberg and all of his friends at Facebook? They have been receiving a lot of heat for their lack of privacy and bulky privacy settings page. The current privacy settings are defaulted to public, and you have to navigate your way through about 170 different granular settings to make the switch to having a more private setting. Facebook users have been voicing their concerns for months about the default privacy settings and awkward granular privacy settings page. Finally, Facebook has listened to the users and will be making significant changes to their privacy. The changes will include;
- Sharing
- One page of privacy settings that will have a default privacy setting, along with separate levels of privacy.
- Granular controls are still available to use, but do not have to be used.
- Basic Directory Information
- Less publically available information.
- Only necessary information for people to find you on the site.
- Platforms
- Control over what applications (Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc) and sites have access to your information.
You can read more about the updated privacy settings on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg also posted a nice blog and video today reviewing the changes to the privacy settings. These new privacy controls will start taking effect gradually over the next few weeks, so you won’t see them right away. If you are interested in changing your privacy settings, you can log into your Facebook account, go to Account, and select privacy settings.
How Does Your E-Store Compare?
Like many operators of online stores, I am constantly looking at our conversion rate. How did our sales this week affect our conversion rate for the month?
Did our site updates make a difference in our conversion rates? It is the figure that is always being analyzed.
My first encounter with conversion rates happened way before I become involved with e-commerce. I had just started working at a popular clothing store, and I was told by my manager on duty to make sure that I walked around the ‘head sensor’ when coming in and out of the store. Intrigued by all the employees walking sideways out the front door, I asked why it was so important that we all looked silly walking in and out of the store. I was told that little head counter was the source of my manager’s quarter bonus. She explained to me that the number of sales we have per day are divided by the number of heads that head counter detects, which equals our daily conversion rate.
When I started working with e-commerce sites, my first question was, ‘what should our conversion rate be?’ I think every person working with an e-commerce site has that thought, followed by ‘who has the best conversion rate?’
What should our conversion rate be?
Conversion rates are broken down by the industry in which you categorize site. To help see where you should be, Fireclick offers a great breakdown of industry conversion rates by Global, First Time Visitors and Repeat Visitors. They have industries broken down by Fashion and Apparel, Electronics, Catalog, Specialty, Outdoor and Sports, and finally Software. You can compare what the conversion rates are for this week, last week and see any % changes, along with a graph chart shown by week, month, or yearly.
Who is on top?
The Nielson Company collects data on the top ranking e-commerce sites by conversion rates. These conversion rates can be a little shocking when you are currently working to improve your conversion rate from 2.5% to 3%. Typically, these high ranking sites are catalog and subscription sites, and have abnormally high conversion rates.
Top 10 Online Retailers Based on Conversion Rate – Jan. 2010 (Min 500K Unique Visitors)
| eCommerce Site | Industry | Conversion Rate (%) |
| Schwan’s | Food | 45.80 |
| Amway Global | Beauty / Bath & Body / For The Home | 27.80 |
| Keurig | Coffee | 27.10 |
| vitacost.com | Vitamins & Supplements | 24.40 |
| 1800petmeds.com | Pet Medicine | 24.20 |
| Roamans | Woman’s Plus Size Clothing | 20.60 |
| DrsFosterSmith.com | Pet Medicine | 20.50 |
| Woman Within | Woman’s Plus Size Clothing | 19.10 |
| ProFlowers | Florist | 18.90 |
| Snapfish | Digital Photo Printing / Sharing Service | 17.40 |
Fireclick offers weekly average conversion rates that are an average of all industries, and will typically be more consistant with rates of non-subscription and catalog sites. These averages can be very helpful while comparing your conversion rates to averages. You can take your comparison one step further and look at the average conversion for keywords, emails and affiliates.
| Conversion Rates | This Week | Last Week |
| Global | 4.30% | 4.10% |
| First Time Visitors | 5.50% | 5.50% |
| Repeat Visitors | 3.00% | 2.80% |
| Marketing Conversion Rates | This Week | Last Week |
| Keywords | 3.30% | 3.20% |
| Emails | 3.70% | 3.40% |
| Affiliates | 7.60% | 7.80% |
Now that you have an idea what your industry average conversion rates are and who is on top, make sure your conversion rate is accurate, and compare your site!
The ever changing world of e-commerce is always exciting! No, really, it is. There are constantly new and innovative ways to create a better shopping experience for your customers, ideas on how to increase your conversion rates, and ultimate how to make your e-commerce site better.
There are a few different ways that we have found to keep up with e-commerce.
During the day I need the ‘extra’ noise, and podcasts are the answer to my prayers. Podcasts and audiobooks seem to be a constant on my itunes, but let’s face it, free podcasts are better for the budget. Shawna Fennell hosts a weekly podcast, eCom Experts. The eCom Experts is fairly new, debuting in November of 2009. She is very enjoyable to listen to and breaks down theories and ideas, so they are easy to understand. Subscribe to eCom Experts to hear her weekly podcast.
This blog is a must if you are involved in any way with e-commerce. Linda Bustos authors this awarding winning blog with the idea of helping e-commerce sites in every aspect of their business. You can find information on marketing, technical, and the latest trends in the e-commerce world. In addition to writing on the blog, Linda also has guest writes, to mix up the flavor. There are daily posts, and I have found them very relevant to our everyday operations of our e-commerce sites.
I know – it is a little broad. Avanish is the author of Occam’s Razor Blog, the best-selling book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, and the new book, Web Analytics 2.0. He has also hosted analytics webinars, and is very involved with analytics education. He has his finger on the pulse of analytics! Following him on twitter, and keeping up with his publications can be very helpful.
These are my favorite three ways to keep up with e-commerce. Let us know where you find your update to date e-commerce information! I would love to expand this list.
