The ecommerce shopping cart is a great place to run tests, as simple changes (layout, copy, color, etc.) often yield fantastic results.  There are unanswered questions in the minds of our customers that we think are obviously answered on the page, but they’re not.  If you’re not sure about what those unanswered questions are, you can back up a few steps and use personas or user testing to uncover them.

Here are 5 key, unanswered questions (beyond shipping costs) of the shopping cart:

Do you…

...continue to read "The Shopping Cart: How to Answer the 5 Unanswered Customer Questions"

Here are the top 10 converting websites for March 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by toolbar user to final conversion. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.

1. Schwan’s 50.5 2. FTD 27.2 3. ProFlowers 24.3 4. Vitacost.com 23.7 5. Woman Within 22.7 6. Roaman’s 21.1 7. ColdWater Creek 20.0 8. Eddie Bauer 19.3 9. Blair.com 20.20 10. QVC 17.30

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Additional March Retail Benchmarks:

The online retail sector in…

...continue to read "Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: March 2009"

Here are the top 10 converting websites for February 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by toolbar user to final conversion. Conversion-rate data is based on visitor conversion rates, not session conversion rates: i.e., No. of unique customers/No. of unique visitors.

1. Schwan’s 42.10 2. ProFlowers 36.50 3. Quixtar 33.20 4. Vitacost.com 28.90 5. Woman Within 24.20 6. LL Bean.com 20.40 7. Office Depot 20.30 8. Tickets.com 20.20 9. 1800Flowers 17.30 10. QVC 17.10

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Additional February Retail Benchmarks:

The online retail sector…

...continue to read "Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: February 2009"

In my tenure here on GrokDotCom, I’ve done a pretty good job avoiding the snarkiness and sarcasm that permeate my whole being.  I open with that so you’ll indulge me on this one

Recently, I went to MySpace.com to look up a semi-obscure band.  Why did I go there instead of my usual search engine query?  Because every band is on MySpace.  If you are a band, and live in the Milky Way solar system, you are on MySpace, and everyone…

...continue to read "Step Right Up and Try the Latest Disruptive Advertising!"

Have you ever received great advice from a consultant but couldn’t implement it?

A recommendation is just advice, no matter how excellent, until you implement.

It’s only when you implement a recommendation that you reap the rewards.

Even when you know the advice is great you can get consulting indigestion.

You, the client, in consuming the advice can be the log jam or the hero of every consulting engagement. It’s rarely the consultant that makes the difference. If you choke or get indigestion then consulting leaves…

...continue to read "No More Consulting Indigestion"

We at FutureNow are big proponents of setting up a business culture of testing, optimization, and continuous improvement.  There are lots of advantages like improved conversion rates, bigger bottom lines, surviving tough economic times, getting past draining internal debates, and so much more.

Another advantage that we haven’t talked about as much is that an optimization culture can get you past the dangers of “best practices.” Many of our clients have implemented the “best practices” of other sites (or even other industries)…

...continue to read "Yet Another Advantage of an Optimization Culture"

Well sports fans, here we go.  Black Friday.  Soon, Cyber Monday.  (Forgive me for the brief digression, but did you know neither Black Friday nor Cyber Monday typically deliver results, in the form of conversions, er, sales, mainly just delivering traffic   Unsurprisingly, retail numbers thus far have been bleak, to say the least.

Retailers are hopeful however, and doing everything they can to jumpstart the economy and try to turn a profit this holiday season.  Amazon got my attention with…

...continue to read "Black Friday or Bleak Friday?"

Holidays or no holidays, there’s simply less money to go around.

As obvious as that statement is, many still seem to deny the equally obvious implication: you won’t keep profit margins healthy unless you actively take business away from someone else – either from direct competitors, or from businesses outside your market/category.  If the pumpkin pie gets smaller, you’ll have to cut a fatter slice in order to get the same amount of holiday pie.

But how can you do that on the…

...continue to read "Optimization Tips to Bolster Holiday Sales"

I’ve seen a few big shopping cart no-nos lately, so I just want to alert Grok readers to them–they’re pretty easy to avoid:

The Homepage Dump: You add an item to your cart and are thrown into the checkout process.  You’ve got another item on your shopping list, so you click the little link that says “Continue Shopping.”  You’re dumped on the homepage.  This is especially bad when you’ve done a lot of searching and results-filtering, and now it’s all gone.  It really…

...continue to read "Don’t Overlook These Common Cart Mistakes"

During recent casual browsing, I noticed the following magicJack ad (on the left):

Now can anyone tell what the heck the product is? (I happen to know, since I also remember a late night commercial that explains it.)*

Put yourself in the place of the site visitor who is seeing this for the first time. I mean, thanks for the Freebie and all, and congrats that PC Magazine seems to like it … but what is it?

A product? Perhaps magicJack is a…

...continue to read "Sell Me Something, Not Some Thing"