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Friday, September 28, 2007
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Summer time for an ecommerce web designer should be preparing web site for the holiday season. This includes A/B testing, SEO and making any final design changes. Here's an interesting article that can when redoing your site for the upcoming holiday season...
Top 10 Tips to Boost Holiday Sales
Reprinted from Offermatica Blog
The holiday sales season is drawing near, complete with dramatic increases in sales -- and the accompanying fear among online marketers of doing any testing that might jeopardize those increased numbers.
Giving in to fear and avoiding such a smash-hit tactic as testing, however, can be far more risky during the holidays than continuing to test. After all, the testing of promotions and content during off-peak times results in significant increases in ROI. Imagine, then, now much more you can bring in by testing during the busiest time of year.
Testing technology, too, has changed in recent years, so that web operators no longer need to fear that making changes, testing those changes and optimizing for the best results will put any real restriction on their daily traffic or run the risk of a system-wide failure.
So rather than avoiding testing because of fear, take control of your site and your traffic by testing any or all of the following things:
1. Landing page merchandising
There is nothing more important on a retail landing page than the way the merchandise is displayed. What products you show, how many items are displayed, whether photographs are large or small, the quality and quantity of copy all benefit from aggressive testing and optimization.
You might also consider testing how products are grouped: Try listing best-selling items versus most popular items versus most-often-recommended items to see which is most effective in prompting visitors to buy.
2. Percentage off versus dollar savings, and other promotions
Customers often respond differently to promotions, depending upon how it is framed, even when the ultimate price is the same (e.g., 10% off a $100 purchase versus $10 off a $100 purchase).
You can also test free shipping -- the most popular form of holiday promotion last season -- along with the threshold for free shipping, to see if the resulting boost in sales makes up for the loss in shipping fees.
Test, too, how long you offer free shipping. The promotion matters a lot in, say, early December, but it ceases to matter later in the month. Last-minute shoppers tend to make purchases no matter the cost. So at what point do you stop offering free shipping? On December 15th? December 18th? There's no guessing.
Divide your traffic and show visitors two offers: 90 percent of them get free shipping, while 10 percent do not. The branch of the test receiving free shipping will most likely show increased sales over the non-free shipping branch.
As the holiday approaches, you'll reach a point when free shipping stops having an effect, when the two branches begin to converge. At that point you can change the promotion, stop the free shipping, and save yourself a bundle without sacrificing sales.
3. Encouraging customers to "act now"
You can often improve conversions by generating a sense of urgency among visitors. Test different scarcity messaging like "Limited Time Only" vs. "While Supplies Last" vs. "Offer expires November 31st."
4. Reflecting paid search content
Create customized landing pages for your 5 top-performing keywords. Then, make sure that the landing page content obviously relates to the search terms. You might repeat the search phrase verbatim, or reorganize your content to narrow the focus of the page.
It helps to consider the intention of visitors who arrive using those top 5 keywords. For brand-specific keywords, you might test an offer-based landing page more focused on selling, as brand-specific words sometimes indicate a higher level of intent.
Category words can indicate that a visitor is in a browsing mode. They might need more trust statements and branding elements.
5. Reinforcing your affiliates
Reminding customers where they came from can also increase conversion, especially if a visitor stands to gain by spending money with you (e.g. Upromise).
Try showing the logo of the affiliate to those who arrive from affiliate sites. Test size and placement of logo, as well as reinforcement copy.
6. Promotions in email marketing campaigns
You don't have to limit yourself to testing a promotion within the email itself. You can also carry the promotion forward onto the website, customizing it so that only the people who received the offer will see the offer, and so that they will see only the specific offer that they received in the email.
If you plan to run a free shipping promotion in an email campaign, for example, you might test various thresholds to see which brings optimum results. Offer A might be, "Spend $100 dollars and get free shipping," while Offer B would be, "Spend $150 and get free shipping."
On the website itself, those who saw Offer A would see it reinforced on the site, while those who saw Offer B would see that offer.
7. Call-to-action
On paid search and email campaigns, test "Learn More" or "Start Now" versus "Buy." When writing your call-to-action copy, finish the "I would like to..." sentence.
8. Gift suggestions
Test whether gift suggestions affect sales in your particular environment. If so, you might begin testing what you yourself think will be a great gift idea. Is it really something people want to give? Keep back-up ideas on hand in the event that what you think they want to give turns out to be wrong.
The sooner you can move to what people actually want to buy and to give, the better.
9. Increasing trust during checkout
Test placing confidence information (return policy, privacy policy, customer service number, recent awards, etc.) and security trustmarks (TrustE, VeriSign, HackerSafe, etc.) above the fold and in combination with each other to see if you can reduce abandonment rates.
10. Radical simplification
Yes, cross-sells and other content may increase your visitors' average order value, but there may be a downside -- in some cases, superfluous content distracts customers from completing their purchase.
Lost revenue from abandoned shopping carts may exceed revenue gained from cross-selling. Test it and find out!
As the holidays approach, of course, it makes no sense to rewrite the entire holiday shopping experience by fiddling with the checkout process or offering a slew of new products. But by making certain assumptions about merchandising, categorization and promotion, and then being willing to test those assumptions with customers, you can improve revenue far beyond your expectations.
Top 10 Tips to Boost Holiday Sales
Reprinted from Offermatica Blog
The holiday sales season is drawing near, complete with dramatic increases in sales -- and the accompanying fear among online marketers of doing any testing that might jeopardize those increased numbers.
Giving in to fear and avoiding such a smash-hit tactic as testing, however, can be far more risky during the holidays than continuing to test. After all, the testing of promotions and content during off-peak times results in significant increases in ROI. Imagine, then, now much more you can bring in by testing during the busiest time of year.
Testing technology, too, has changed in recent years, so that web operators no longer need to fear that making changes, testing those changes and optimizing for the best results will put any real restriction on their daily traffic or run the risk of a system-wide failure.
So rather than avoiding testing because of fear, take control of your site and your traffic by testing any or all of the following things:
1. Landing page merchandising
There is nothing more important on a retail landing page than the way the merchandise is displayed. What products you show, how many items are displayed, whether photographs are large or small, the quality and quantity of copy all benefit from aggressive testing and optimization.
You might also consider testing how products are grouped: Try listing best-selling items versus most popular items versus most-often-recommended items to see which is most effective in prompting visitors to buy.
2. Percentage off versus dollar savings, and other promotions
Customers often respond differently to promotions, depending upon how it is framed, even when the ultimate price is the same (e.g., 10% off a $100 purchase versus $10 off a $100 purchase).
You can also test free shipping -- the most popular form of holiday promotion last season -- along with the threshold for free shipping, to see if the resulting boost in sales makes up for the loss in shipping fees.
Test, too, how long you offer free shipping. The promotion matters a lot in, say, early December, but it ceases to matter later in the month. Last-minute shoppers tend to make purchases no matter the cost. So at what point do you stop offering free shipping? On December 15th? December 18th? There's no guessing.
Divide your traffic and show visitors two offers: 90 percent of them get free shipping, while 10 percent do not. The branch of the test receiving free shipping will most likely show increased sales over the non-free shipping branch.
As the holiday approaches, you'll reach a point when free shipping stops having an effect, when the two branches begin to converge. At that point you can change the promotion, stop the free shipping, and save yourself a bundle without sacrificing sales.
3. Encouraging customers to "act now"
You can often improve conversions by generating a sense of urgency among visitors. Test different scarcity messaging like "Limited Time Only" vs. "While Supplies Last" vs. "Offer expires November 31st."
4. Reflecting paid search content
Create customized landing pages for your 5 top-performing keywords. Then, make sure that the landing page content obviously relates to the search terms. You might repeat the search phrase verbatim, or reorganize your content to narrow the focus of the page.
It helps to consider the intention of visitors who arrive using those top 5 keywords. For brand-specific keywords, you might test an offer-based landing page more focused on selling, as brand-specific words sometimes indicate a higher level of intent.
Category words can indicate that a visitor is in a browsing mode. They might need more trust statements and branding elements.
5. Reinforcing your affiliates
Reminding customers where they came from can also increase conversion, especially if a visitor stands to gain by spending money with you (e.g. Upromise).
Try showing the logo of the affiliate to those who arrive from affiliate sites. Test size and placement of logo, as well as reinforcement copy.
6. Promotions in email marketing campaigns
You don't have to limit yourself to testing a promotion within the email itself. You can also carry the promotion forward onto the website, customizing it so that only the people who received the offer will see the offer, and so that they will see only the specific offer that they received in the email.
If you plan to run a free shipping promotion in an email campaign, for example, you might test various thresholds to see which brings optimum results. Offer A might be, "Spend $100 dollars and get free shipping," while Offer B would be, "Spend $150 and get free shipping."
On the website itself, those who saw Offer A would see it reinforced on the site, while those who saw Offer B would see that offer.
7. Call-to-action
On paid search and email campaigns, test "Learn More" or "Start Now" versus "Buy." When writing your call-to-action copy, finish the "I would like to..." sentence.
8. Gift suggestions
Test whether gift suggestions affect sales in your particular environment. If so, you might begin testing what you yourself think will be a great gift idea. Is it really something people want to give? Keep back-up ideas on hand in the event that what you think they want to give turns out to be wrong.
The sooner you can move to what people actually want to buy and to give, the better.
9. Increasing trust during checkout
Test placing confidence information (return policy, privacy policy, customer service number, recent awards, etc.) and security trustmarks (TrustE, VeriSign, HackerSafe, etc.) above the fold and in combination with each other to see if you can reduce abandonment rates.
10. Radical simplification
Yes, cross-sells and other content may increase your visitors' average order value, but there may be a downside -- in some cases, superfluous content distracts customers from completing their purchase.
Lost revenue from abandoned shopping carts may exceed revenue gained from cross-selling. Test it and find out!
As the holidays approach, of course, it makes no sense to rewrite the entire holiday shopping experience by fiddling with the checkout process or offering a slew of new products. But by making certain assumptions about merchandising, categorization and promotion, and then being willing to test those assumptions with customers, you can improve revenue far beyond your expectations.
Labels: conversion-rates, tips
A new eCommerce web design with NetSuite has been added for review. This website is a great example of creating a simple, yet effective user experience for consumers looking to buy medical equipment supplies.
The site is marketed to hospitals, businesses, doctors, veterinarians and the general public for quality medical equipment. Each main category is essentially a new landing page for PPC, Natural Search and email marketing. The intent is to pull the visitors into each section and build credibility to drive conversions. The site architecture is also coded for NetSuite SEO, this includes using header (h1/h2 tags) and dynamic category and item templates.
Here are some additional highlights of Source Medical Equipment:
Homepage:
Product Page:
Let us know what you think of the design...
The site is marketed to hospitals, businesses, doctors, veterinarians and the general public for quality medical equipment. Each main category is essentially a new landing page for PPC, Natural Search and email marketing. The intent is to pull the visitors into each section and build credibility to drive conversions. The site architecture is also coded for NetSuite SEO, this includes using header (h1/h2 tags) and dynamic category and item templates.
Here are some additional highlights of Source Medical Equipment:
This site was done by AlexDesigns.
- Mixture of Custom Category/List/Item Templates
- Use of FREE Shipping as main promotion
- Custom forms for lead generation
- Custom Case Forms
- Custom Homepage Template
Homepage:
Product Page:
Let us know what you think of the design...
Labels: alexdesigns, redesign, web-design
Recently I was listening to public radio and I heard about how QVC is trying the first ad campaign in 21 years. This includes a new QVC logo and a new QVC website (released around 9/23/07).
Then I noticed another article in the NY Times online. Quote from the article:
One of the interesting things about the design is that they are using latge background images in the main panels. They are doing this so the browser can scale to all different resolutions. It is a pretty common code design, but nice to see a main stream site testing different ways to ensure all users have the best experience.
QVC is really trying to ensure this ad campaign is successful. I even saw a commercial with Sheryl Crow talking about QVC helping toward breast cancer research with a daily shoe sale for women. The commercial actually had the new QVC logo on it, even though it is not on the website yet. There is a ton of integrated PR, promotional radio content and the coordination with the breast cancer month of Octover to launch a successful campaign prior to the holiday season starting. They are using big name female stars in their ads with pastel colors and (supposedly) a focus on the customer experience.
So I am excited to see what the new website will look like. After all it is a great ecommerce site that we can all learn from. Especially since QVC really knows how to market to woman and not just with girly colors.
Then I noticed another article in the NY Times online. Quote from the article:
The new logo is only part of the network's face-lift. Other components are a redesigned Web site, new on-air graphics, more colorful shipping boxes and an overhaul of the monthly magazine QVC Insider.
The new logo - the fourth in the company's 21-year history, and the first new one in 14 years - shows a thick Q meant to look as if it were made of the type of ribbon used in gift-wrapping. The company is aiming to highlight the pleasant experience of the package's arrival.
One of the interesting things about the design is that they are using latge background images in the main panels. They are doing this so the browser can scale to all different resolutions. It is a pretty common code design, but nice to see a main stream site testing different ways to ensure all users have the best experience.
QVC is really trying to ensure this ad campaign is successful. I even saw a commercial with Sheryl Crow talking about QVC helping toward breast cancer research with a daily shoe sale for women. The commercial actually had the new QVC logo on it, even though it is not on the website yet. There is a ton of integrated PR, promotional radio content and the coordination with the breast cancer month of Octover to launch a successful campaign prior to the holiday season starting. They are using big name female stars in their ads with pastel colors and (supposedly) a focus on the customer experience.
So I am excited to see what the new website will look like. After all it is a great ecommerce site that we can all learn from. Especially since QVC really knows how to market to woman and not just with girly colors.
Labels: PR, web-design
Take a look at a screencast that is filled with great ways to improve your product detail pages from Bryan Eisenberg. Some of the ecommerce sites that are reviewed are Fingerhut, Best Buy and Tiger Direct.
He will discuss the importance of:
Do you have a product detail page to show off? Submit your product page design.
He will discuss the importance of:
- Formatting - Are the copy and links readable and easy-to-follow?
- Image Views - Do I get multiple, detailed views of the product?
- Calls to Action - Are these sites doing enough to push customers' buttons?
Do you have a product detail page to show off? Submit your product page design.
Labels: conversion-rates, user-experience
I am in the store helping my girl buy toys for her students. Then we see the sign for "mix and match" - buy 2 and get 1 free. Her eyes lit up and the total value of the purchase just increase by 50%. The original intent was already but now the special offer got the best of her. And my pockets got lighter.
So that had me thinking of the different strategies and promos we use to increase ecommerce conversion rates, plus improve total cart averages. This is a perfect promotion to use on old inventory or even the hot items of the season.
This can easily be done with related items on your product detail pages and discount code scenarios in email blasts. Also, it can be used in combination with free shipping - ex. Orders over $59 qualify. All of these promos are built into most ecommerce platforms including NetSuite.
Sent from my iPhone
So that had me thinking of the different strategies and promos we use to increase ecommerce conversion rates, plus improve total cart averages. This is a perfect promotion to use on old inventory or even the hot items of the season.
This can easily be done with related items on your product detail pages and discount code scenarios in email blasts. Also, it can be used in combination with free shipping - ex. Orders over $59 qualify. All of these promos are built into most ecommerce platforms including NetSuite.
Sent from my iPhone
Labels: conversion-rates, user-experience
Are you a member of Facebook? If not, you should be. It is a fun place to share your ideas and meet with people of the same interests. Yesterday I stumbled upon a NetSuite group. Its not very active yet, but gonna give it a shot.
So head over to Facebook and join, click here.
So head over to Facebook and join, click here.
Labels: netsuite
Working out the bugs, let me know what you think of the design or functions.
Labels: css, user-experience
Reading through many NetSuite Web Design Blogs, I hear that the design and creativity is limited with ecommerce web store software. That is completely false. With NetSuite, you have complete flexibility to design whatever you want. Whether you want splash pages or flash in your NetSuite web design, you can do it. It is your canvas, feel free to be innovative.
Take a look at this NetSuite Web Design. It is completely different than most ecommerce sites out there, but it caters to products that they are marketing...
Take a look at this NetSuite Web Design. It is completely different than most ecommerce sites out there, but it caters to products that they are marketing...
Labels: alexdesigns, netsuite, web-design
We seriously love ecommerce! NetSuite Web Site Design
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