Being in a wheelchair, I’m not able to shop in every retail store. Sometimes stores have a few steps outside the door, or have levels only accessible by stairs or escalator. Others have aisles too narrow for my chair, or shelves too high to reach. But I can access any e-store without a problem. It’s not that easy for visually impaired shoppers, illiterate and those who can see but do not have full hand function…

Meghan Keane from eConsultancy reported recent findings from Webcredible’s “ecommerce persuasion poll.” Of 1300 online shoppers surveyed, the top reason shoppers purchase from one website over another is seller reputation (28%) followed by price (26%).

• Seller reputation - 28%
• Price - 26%
• Website look and feel - 16%
• Website ease of use - 15%
• Special offers - 4%
• Delivery factors - 3%
• Appearance in search listings - 2%

Retailers must realize persuasion and conversion is not all about pricing and landing page testing, but communicating trust…

A common ecommerce mistake is choosing a software provider before working out your requirements thoroughly. This applies to any software - not just ecommerce platforms but CRM software, BI tools, ERP systems etc.

If you choose your delivery method before you have a clear understanding of what your site or system needs to do at launch and 3, 5, 10 years down the road (as best you can predict) you may find yourself boxed in to a solution that can’t do what you need it to, or facing a development timeline and cost that you didn’t bargain for…

Cross-selling and upselling is a popular tactic among online retailers in hopes of increasing average order value, items per sale and improving customer service with relevant suggestions. Amazon shared that cross-sells were responsible for 35% of its sales in 2006! According to the e-tailing group’s 8th Annual Merchant Survey Report (of 190 ecommerce executives), 55% of retailers will include cross-selling and upselling in their merchandising activities this year…

The annual Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition is happening in Boston this week, and while Elastic Path is not there this year, we have a ton of video evidence of our visit last year as Jason Billingsley made his rounds of the trade show floor interviewing a wide range of ecommerce vendors.

One must-see video if you’re a manufacturer is Jason’s interview with Shopatron’s CEO Ed Stevens:

Can’t see video?

One of the biggest roadblocks for manufacturers when selling online is channel conflict…

Back in 2007, Facebook opened its API (application programming interface) to allow any developer to build an application that could extend the functionality of Facebook (and maybe make you a bit of money). Facebook understood that it couldn’t possibly create all the cool things possible with the resources it had, and that creative folks would be happy to do the job for free. Today there are over 50,000 Facebook applications…

I returned this weekend from a week’s holiday and for the first time in 2 years, I didn’t take my laptop with me on vacation. (The magic of Wordpress’ scheduled posts kept Get Elastic alive while I was gone). With 250+ blog posts chilling in my RSS reader, I couldn’t wait to catch up on what I missed in the world of retail, marketing and tech geekery.

One of the events that happened while I was away was SMX Advanced in Seattle (Search Marketing Expo)…

What’s this funny image?

If you point your mobile phone’s camera at it you’ll be directed to GetElastic.com on the mobile web, provided you have a reader on your phone capable of decoding the QR (quick response) code.

QR codes are 2D images that contain information, most often links and text. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll see QR codes on product packaging, print advertising, bus shelters — I even saw one on a picnic napkin last weekend…

I’m often asked what I think the hottest trend in ecommerce is and I believe it’s video content. So I’m excited to see more new technology emerge that can embed video right into retail email, and retailers experimenting with it. Anna Yeaman reports one retailer boasting a 20-27% click through rate without linking to video, and 51-65% with links to video. And Forrester Research reports video in email can increase click through by 2-3X…

If you’ve been trekking with Get Elastic for longer than a year, you may recall a post I submitted to the Marketing Pilgrim SEM Scholarship Contest: 8 Stupid Things Webmasters Do To Mess Up Their Analytics. I had the honor of winning the contest and scooped up a bunch of cool prizes including a trip to Search Engine Strategies in San Jose (check out our video coverage here).

Once again, there are a ton of cool prizes up for grabs, and I recommend any search marketing blogger to take the time to enter…

With tough economic times and increasing customer expectations for free shipping, how can retailers keep offering customers free (or competitive) shipping rates without sinking ship?

One way to run a tighter ship is to work with several carriers, and select the lowest priced carrier based on real-time, per parcel lookup to take advantage of fluctuating rates and competition. Rate shopping software like Anyrate or Logicor coupled with warehouse management systems can determine prices based on parcel dimension, weight, destination and delivery date…

Plenty of studies suggest customers want demand free shipping:

• 61% online shoppers prefer to shop with a retailer that offers free shipping than one that doesn’t. — Forrester Research (2007)
• 43% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts because of unexpectedly high shipping charges. — PayPal, comScore (2008)
• 60% claim free shipping is a reason they are more likely to shop online…

This is the final installment of a 4 part series on mobile commerce design and usability…

Part 1: Home Pages and Navigation
Part 2: Search and Category Pages
Part 3: Product Pages and Cart Summary
Part 4: Forms and Checkout

This series is based on a review of 10 mobile ecommerce sites: Best Buy, Target, Sephora, Moosejaw (old and new design), Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Sears2Go, Ralph Lauren and Tickets…

This is the third installment of a 4 part series on mobile commerce design and usability:

Part 1: Home Pages and Navigation
Part 2: Search and Category Pages
Part 3: Product Pages and Cart Summary
Part 4: Forms and Checkout

This series is based on a review of 10 mobile ecommerce sites: Best Buy, Target, Sephora, Moosejaw (old and new design), Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Sears2Go, Ralph Lauren and Tickets…

This is the second installment of a 4 part series on mobile commerce design and usability:

Part 1: Home Pages and Navigation
Part 2: Search and Category Pages
Part 3: Product Pages and Cart Summary
Part 4: Forms and Checkout

This series is based on a review of 10 mobile ecommerce sites: Best Buy, Target, Sephora, Moosejaw (old and new design), Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Sears2Go, Ralph Lauren and Tickets…

While most retailers have enough challenge optimizing for the Web, along comes the mobile Web with its own demands, usability challenges and opportunity. Websites designed specifically for mobile devices are not new, but are few and far between when it comes to online retail. And if serving customers wherever they are is important to your e-biz strategy, you can’t rely on smartphones to translate your Web store into a Mini-Me mobile version and expect it to be usable…

The following is a summary of Elastic Path’s webinar Multichannel 2.0: Are You Ready for the Next Generation of Commerce Channels? The webinar is also available for replay or download.

What is Multichannel 2.0?

Traditional, Multichannel 1.0 includes retail, mail order, call center and online store. Emerging technologies like mobile phones, Internet protocol TV and set-boxes, store kiosks and digital signage and consumer electronics like iPod touch, gaming consoles and portable book readers like Amazon kindle — the next generation of shopping channels is what we at Elastic Path refer to as Multichannel 2…

Not all ecommerce projects fit into a nice little box. Some industries have very complex sales and require advanced features like product configurators, bundling of products, accessories and services that need heavy customization. The telecommunications industry is a perfect example.

For telcos with mobile service offerings, an ecommerce platform must have the ability to support a complex sale where the customer selects a phone, a rate plan, a term length, additional services such as text messaging and caller ID, product accessories like a case or Bluetooth headset and even options like “I want to keep my own phone number” or “I don’t want my number to appear on caller ID…

1800flowers recently launched an interactive shopping widget with a product developed by Alvenda. The widget allows a fully functioning storefront to appear in ad units on other websites. Shoppers can browse and purchase through the unit without leaving the web page they’re looking at. You can play around with the demo here.

At first blush, I didn’t think browsing within the smaller window would be usable…

“Before you put on makeup - do this.”

This subject line from a recent Sephora email caught my attention. Not so much because I want to learn about makeup, but being a marketing fanatic I thought it was a compelling headline and wanted to see if the email creative was equally compelling.

I did a happy dance when I opened this email from Sephora - it epitomizes what I’ve been talking about here on Get Elastic about sharing product knowledge in email and attaching value propositions to featured products:

It even uses a clever play-on-words - a “primer” can be a tool to teach basic concepts, or something that is worn under makeup to “make makeup last longer and prevent smudging all day…

JC Penney was the first retailer to explore interactive television shopping in the 1980’s. Its Telaction service was available to 30,000 home in the suburbs of Chicago.

Customers would use their touch-tone phones to navigate the screens, add products to cart, select payment and billing offers and confirm purchase.

Though Telaction showed promise with 13% making purchases of a $60 average value (actually outperforming its mail order catalog), Penney pulled the plug on the 6 year, $106 Million project after failing to find a partner after just one year in action…

Every month, Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts posts the top 10 converting ecommerce sites. If you follow the updates, you’ll see usual suspects like Schwans, Proflowers, 1800flowers, Office Depot and QVC popping up month after month. Sure, a lot of these retailers enjoy high conversion rates for no-brainer, repeat purchases but that kind of loyalty is earned — and requires a smooth checkout process to make it happen…

This is Part 3 of our PPC Myth series. Please check out Organic Search Traffic is More Qualified Than Paid and Bid Higher to Appear Higher if you missed them.

There’s a lot of PPC experts out there who will tell you to look at your PPC keyword reports and get rid of keywords that don’t convert. Sounds logical, right? Why spend money on losers when you can spend more on winners? Especially when you’re under pressure to show strong ROI (or ROAS - return on ad spend) or are working with a tighter budget in these tough economic times…

Because top positions typically receive better click through rates than lower, many people use average position as a KPI (key performance indicator) to measure campaign health, and seek to optimize it — either by trying to improve Quality Score* or raising the maximum CPC (cost per click) for the keyword. For some, raising the bid is easier than trying to figure out how to appease the Google Quality Score god…

Welcome to PPC Myth week! Today is the first installment of a 3 part series challenging common misconceptions about search marketing and analytics.

Myth #1: Organic search more qualified traffic than paid

I was surprised to see in print one of the most respected search marketing gurus state “Organic searchers who click on your pages are highly qualified visitors to your site…

This is a recap of Elastic Path Software’s April Webinar:Delivering Successful Enterprise Ecommerce Projects. (Click to view the replay or download the presentation on mp4).

Why did we choose this topic?

Economist Magazine rated the outlook of 15 industries from 1-5 based on their outlook for 2009, considering economic conditions. Only ecommerce had a sunny outlook, and it’s estimated that 1/4 of all retail transactions will occur online by 2012…

Andy King, author of Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets posted Usability Study: Men Need Speed yesterday — citing a study by Southern Illinois University on how men and women use the web. The researchers found that both men’s and women’s top priority is ease of use, with web speed men’s second choice, and easy navigation women’s…

BoldChat recently released research on The Effectiveness of Live Chat Technology which surveyed 264 US shoppers who consider themselves regular online shoppers.

One of the findings I found most interesting was the most common reason site visitors would initiate live chat is if they experience an error during the checkout process (76%). Other reasons include asking general questions about products/services/policies, sales specials or inquiring about orders already placed…

The etailing group’s 8th Annual Merchant Survey asked 190 senior executives about their e-commerce merchandising and marketing practices. Regarding email, execs were asked about what kind of content their emails use. The number one answer was “sales and specials” at 86%, with “their own branding” (83%), “seasonal messaging” (79%), and “new product introductions” (77%) following close behind…

Blogger, author and multichannel retail expert Kevin Hillstrom recently asked some deep questions about Bricks, Clicks and Multichannel Experiences.

I’m looking for feedback. Based on what I’ve read on Twitter, the 2% of America that uses the micro-blogging service that will become the greatest marketing tool of all time until everybody switches to yet another platform in 2010 have strong opinions on these topics…