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"

In the offline world, have you ever been chased by retail staff because you opted not to buy something at their store?

Never?

You mean no one has ever blocked the exit and said something like, “Hey, I saw you put that bottle of wine in your cart, why didn’t you buy it?”

It sounds funny until you realize that most online remarketing services offer to do exactly that to your website visitors.  They’ll pester them with e-mails, pop-ups, and phone calls should they…

...continue to read "Can Bad Assumptions Lead to “Gorilla Marketing”?"

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"

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"

With the shaky economy weighing on all our minds, this Holiday Season could be make-or-break for a lot of eTailers.  So, like Bryan Eisenberg mentioned in a recent blog, the time to innovate is now, and relying on the status-quo isn’t wise.

So as you ramp your sites and marketing up for the Holidays, do you have a few innovations up your sleeve?

Let’s face it. Despite the economic troubles, people are still going to want to give gifts, and find the best…

...continue to read "Redeeming Holiday Gift Card Redemptions"

I had finally tracked down that hard to find item online.  It was the right size, the right shape, the right finish, and a tolerable price…and free shipping!

I clicked the nice, big, obvious “Add to Cart” button to dive headlong into the conversion funnel.  ERROR.  Some gobbledegook that only a developer would understand.  No phone number.  I did what anyone in the mood to buy would do – I clicked the back button and tried again.  ERROR.  I clicked back…

...continue to read "Offline Reps Need to Care About the Online Experience"

I just finished Web Form Design by Luke Wroblewski, and I’m glad this useful book came out.  It’s not only a useful guide to designing better online forms, but a reminder that forms are the “bread and butter” of almost every website!

Whether it’s the Contact Us form on a B2B site, the Sign Up form on a social networking site, or the Checkout of an eCommerce site, they all have forms in common. And in every case, forms are what stands between our site…

...continue to read "Is Your Landing Page 2008…and your Action Page 1998?"

Recently, while on a Market Motive conference call with Shoplet’s founder and CEO, Tony Ellison (a fan and reader), we noticed an interesting method of presenting Point of Action assurances at the shopping cart page. Visitors simply hover over links to read more purchase assurance and website policies. No click involved, and best yet, it doesn’t remove you from the checkout process.

Shopping Made Easy

Shoplet makes it effortless for visitors to have their questions answered on the spot, when they need it…

...continue to read "Convert More Visitors with Confidence"

So, it wasn’t exactly Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (”I’ve abandoned my CAAARRRRRRT!!!”), but when Jeffrey told me today that he still hadn’t bought his nephew the Fisher Price Grow to Pro Basketball hoop after two weeks of putting it off, I assumed he was being dramatic.

Jeffrey claimed to be sticker shocked from shipping cost inflation, a common reaction while shopping online. One minute, you think you know the whole price. Then — bam — you proceed to checkout,…

...continue to read "How to Increase Shopping Cart Abandonment"