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Quote of the Day

"If you have to forecast, forecast often."

Edgar R. Fiedler








 




 
Featured Ecommerce Articles

Developing a Winning Ecommerce Strategy
One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world seems to be continued consumer spending and ecommerce is clearly a part of this, with sales estimated to be in excess of $9.9 Billion in the next three months according to ACNielsen. But, there is ...

eCommerce Fundamentals
"Blocking and Tackling" - A quick take a some eCommerce fundamentals eCommerce can be VERY complex. To offer a world class customer experience, retailers must incorporate technologies and functionality that exceeds rising customer expectations. On the ...

Ecommerce Marketing Plan
Concept of Service The current work deals with marketing offer of e-commerce service. It highlights the essential steps of marketing of a brand-new firm offering services of website construction, design, programming, development, and promotion. The ...




eCommerce Fundamentals
 
"Blocking and Tackling" - A quick take a some eCommerce fundamentals

eCommerce can be VERY complex. To offer a world class customer experience, retailers must incorporate technologies and functionality that exceeds rising customer expectations.

On the flip side however, site fundamentals still play a very large role in converting visitors into customers. Many retailers surprisingly lose sight of these site basics and leave significant sales on the table. This brief examines 4 quick "fundamentals" every eCommerce manager cannot afford to lose sight of.

Think Fast

Speed has become less of a problem due to the penetration of broadband, but don't forget that a significant number of people still shop by a dialup connection. When creating a site framework, designers and e-commerce teams should ensure that the site is developed with pages loading in less than 9 seconds (over a dial-up connection).

Our recommended page size is within 60-70k in bytes. At that amount, sites will likely load within the maximum wait time of 9 seconds. Online retailers should avoid flash at all costs within their transactional site. Flash's artistic aspects may help you establish a brand presence - but it will likely lose potential customers before they have even searched within your store.

Image is important

Images are a very important aspect of selling online and are often neglected. All product images should be of the highest resolution possible, be much larger than the product page original, and have

multiple views. Dynamic imaging capabilities can improve the user experience to an even higher level by increasing interactivity (zoom & rotate). At a minimum - retailers should have at least two additional views outside of the product page image to help build emotion.

Be my guest

Shoppers do not like being forced to do anything, especially when they are ready to open their wallets. Forcing a shopper to register on your site before purchasing is a sure way to drive a portion of your traffic to your competitors. Too often, shoppers do not have the time or the inclination to fill out a lengthy form explaining what types of information they desire.

Always offer the ability to checkout as a guest. You will see less customer leakage within the checkout process and can still offer the option to register when the sale is completed.

Make sure it's "above the fold"

Your homepage is the most important page within your eCommerce store. It sets the initial tone for the shopping experience and offers your best promotions and products to your visitors. Users typically visually scan a web page from top to bottom and then from left to right. All critical content and navigation options should be obvious to the shopper without having to scroll down. If you have your best promotions "below the fold" - you can bet that a large percentage of browsers are not scrolling down to see it.





About the author:

http://www.trinityinsight.com



Ecommerce News


E-Commerce: Hot Products, Online Marketing Trends
ECommerce-Guide, United States - 15 hours ago
By Michelle Megna This week in e-commerce news, we highlight Shop.org's recent study that shows what your competitors say they are doing to market their ...

Sabrix Inc. will boost the sales of e-commerce companies
Ecommerce Journal, MA - Nov 20, 2008
Sabrix Inc., a leader in transaction tax management for companies of all sizes offered its Sabrix Managed Tax Service (MTS) for multiple leading E-commerce ...

BX.COM Completes $25 Million Acquisition Strategy
MarketWatch - Nov 20, 2008
COM Incorporated, the 15 year eCommerce software veteran, is announcing its $25 million acquisition strategy. "It took us the better part of this year to ...

New iPerceptions Data Shows eCommerce Sites Fall Short For Consumers
MarketWatch - Nov 17, 2008
V:IPE), a leading provider of web-focused Voice of Customer analytics, today released new data that indicates that eCommerce and retail companies are ...
iPerceptions Achieves New Milestone for Free 4Q Survey Solution: 1 ... MarketWatch
all 19 news articles

Leading Global Online Publishing Provider Chooses Autonomy to ...
MarketWatch - Nov 20, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, California, November 20, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU. ...