Comments on: When Should You Start Making More Money? (Not Ready?)

By: ben

ben — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:51:44 +0000

Money making is getting harder by the day but with posts like these, one will also be able to learn how to upgrade one's money making knowledge. Thanks for the post. start making

By: jamie watson

jamie watson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:10:29 +0000

These ecommerce sites were closed down Feb 2009. What remains are brochure sites. Not the ones the article is addressing.

By: Kantinestoelen

Kantinestoelen — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:39:31 +0000

The Sites Are very nice made,
Only I think homeoutfitters is al little bit too Slumpy, and I whould have moved the Lower Menu thing too the top thats a little bit more Overseenable.

Kind Regards

Btw, Good information / Explenation

By: Doorlopend Krediet

Doorlopend Krediet — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:35:52 +0000

It’s all about making more money, would be interesting to know what platforms they operate with. Good info too.

By: leidinggeven

leidinggeven — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:51:37 +0000

Isn’t Yahoo Merchant Solutions the best ecommerce platform? Great info btw.

By: Autoverzekering

Autoverzekering — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 05:00:27 +0000

Interesting post but on what ecommerce platform are these sites built with?

By: OnlineShopper

OnlineShopper — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:02:42 +0000

IBM Websphere Commerce
Endeca (search and guided navigation)

Overall the experience is a vast improvement when compared to the older Hbc.com platform… congrats to Jeff and team on the launch!

By: Jana

Jana — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:55:17 +0000

I agree with Mike:

“homepage – slow down the transition of the 3 main images – they (probably!) bounce from one to the next too quickly for anyone over 35″

By: Andrew Goodman

Andrew Goodman — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:06:29 +0000

Home Outfitters product page:

I would test a redesign of the page as a whole that would highlight a cross section of related items, such as 1-2 higher margin items, in the viewer’s field of vision, rather than being small photo afterthoughts below the fold. Typically this would be a higher-margin product next to the lower one, plus an even higher ticket item, such as a set of several pans.

I would test this to see if average order size rose. Behavior on this might be different at holiday time, as people are thinking in the $100 range for a gift and they are seeing a product page with a $35 item.

Also, is there a clear incentive for spending over $100 (be this shipping, points, or a discount) visible?

Finally I would globally test whether the non-standard Add to Bag is worth using (do conversion rates to the next stage go up if you revert to Add to Cart, or is it immaterial).

Andrew

By: Bryan Eisenberg

Bryan Eisenberg — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:54:48 +0000

These are some great tips and I look forward to hearing from Jeff about the results of any of these tests. Please keep them coming, I love seeing the insights given by our readers.

By: Geld

Geld — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:53:07 +0000

On the department page of thebay, I would remove the middle menu (with Accessories, Bakeware, Cookware etc.) and put it under the listing. People know that they want Bakeware, why should you give them a choice choosing something else?

By: mike

mike — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:41:21 +0000

Hi Bryan,

Some excellent suggestions already, so I’ll just add a couple:

homepage – slow down the transition of the 3 main images – they (probably!) bounce from one to the next too quickly for anyone over 35

As Eric already said – very strange not to see ‘category’ under the SHOP area

once in that shop area – make the images clickable!!!!
I’m stunned that such a smart team would overlook this
well – that was my first impression – then I realise I wasn’t smart enough
I hadn’t clicked on the dead centre of the imagee – so didn’t realise that the orange ‘quick view’ was clickable… so ok, click that… & wait for a flash pop up window
I can see how that’s useful – but then another click to close the window down – instead I’d allow the user to click away from the pop up to return to the main page by clicking anywhere on the main page underneath…
either way it’s still 3 clicks to see more info…
I would definitely test just clicking on the image to go through to the product page itself (which would be consistent with the ‘related products’ area)

better yet make the whole area around the image/descrip/price/more clickable… not just the small text itself (the view details is very small)

on the product page – I agree with Ian – higher contrast text
& probably a larger font
more product images would be nice
& removing the existing quantity when I click in the quantity field

checkout page:
test removing some of the unnecessary nav – or at least make the checkout button stand out more… because everything is yellow/orange it doesn’t jump out & I’d imagine it could well be below the fold for many (it’s also quite small & could be fiddly for some)

not sure I’d have the diagram of my credit card statement on the billing page… makes it look as if my order will get rejected if I get a character in the wrong place – adds to the worry, which I would think would reduce conversions
I doubt they even check the address with the credit card company – so why does it have to be *exactly* right?
AND wouldn’t it make sense to ask for this info on the actual payment page itself??

& maybe it’s just me being all the way down here in Melbourne, Oz… but changing between pages (esp. getting to the checkout, sorry shopping bag page)

phew! by the way – lots of nice touches in there… I’m just being picky

By: ian

ian — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:13:31 +0000

Definitely test the home page images on The Bay. Needs a much clearer call to action.

Also, try enabling the ‘add to bag’ button and having a javascript that lets you know you need to pick a color, etc., instead of leaving the button mysteriously unclickable.

Finally, I’d love to see higher-contrast text and how that performs against the gray text.

By: Rob Mills

Rob Mills — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:51:10 +0000

Bay product page – I agree with Pearce’s comment about testing ‘cart’ instead of ‘bag’. The add to bag button confused me until I realized it was referring to a shopping bag. To me a shopping bag is something I use to carry my purchases home in after checkout. I use a cart or basket while shopping. Page design wise there’s a lot of unused whitespace both above and below the fold.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:42:42 +0000

It’s a bit shocking to me that there is no mention ‘checkout’ anywhere but the ’shopping bag’ page. The very first thing I would test is adding a ‘checkout’ option any time a product has been added to the ’shopping bag’. The easiest way to do that within the existing framework of the site would be to simply add a second button to the pop-up displayed when an item is added to the customer’s bag.

By: Eric Morgan

Eric Morgan — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:42:10 +0000

[Department Page] – it is interesting he has ‘assumed’ that people shop by brand more than category since it is at the top of the left nav. Even though the categories are on the bottom left and the main area they did not stick out to me and the first place I looked was the top left area where the brand list is. I very rarely shop by brand, and even if I do I first find what I want then prefer to shop by brand. i.e. I want a ‘pot’ then once I get to the ‘pots’ page I would look to separate by brand at that point if I even care about brand. Most big electronic retailers do this on their website. It is also good to note retailers are almost always setup this way as well. You don’t have a section in the store for each brand, you have categories or product sections in the store with all brands in that section. i.e. all blenders are in one area with different brands.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:50:14 +0000

What ecommerce platform are these sites built with?

By: Pearce

Pearce — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:52:36 +0000

The Bay Home:
1) I would test moving the search bar to the top of the page so that all the content could move up slightly.
2) Adding in a short piece of copy near the logo on the top left that gave a description of what the company is, at this point I do not know.
3) The fold – test adding in copy or a image that will draw methodical and humanistic types down the page.

The Bay Product Page:
1) I would test moving the “in stock” to the product description section.
2) Test using the word cart instead of bag!!!

Zellers Home:
1) Adding in a piece of copy explaining what the company is.
Note- I like how the featured products draws the visitor down the page.

Home Outfitters Home:
1) test the search location, see if it works better on the right or top.

Home Outfitters Product Page:
1) Test moving “add to bag” call to action above the fold. Also adding one below the fold.

This is kind of fun