e-commerce
Affiliates May Be a Tax Liability! Amazon Sues New York…
The New York Times is reporting on Amazon’s lawsuit contesting the recently enacted New York state law which requires online retail outlets to collect sales tax on items sold to the state’s residents.
Slashdot sums up the new tax law:
“…based on a novel definition of what constitutes a presence in the state: It includes any Web site based in the state that earns a referral fee for sending customers to an online retailer. Amazon has hundreds of thousands of affiliates–from big publishers to tiny blogs–that feature links to its products.”
We should all support Amazon in their fight. This could affect all of us who buy online in the future — at least in the United States. Let’s all buy something from Amazon today to show our support of their fight.
P.S. - If you need a suggestion on what to buy, you can always pre-order our next book, Always Be Testing.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: March 2008
Here they are, the top 10 converting retail sites for March 2008*…
1. Office Depot - 20.9%
2. QVC - 19.0%
3. Vistaprint - 18.3%
4. Roamans - 18.1%
5. Lands End - 16.2%
6. eBay - 15.7%
7. 1800flowers.com - 15.5%
8. Ebags.com - 15.3%
9. L.L. Bean - 14.6%
10. Pottery Barn Kids - 14.2%
Last month, when Snapfish and Vistaprint found their way to February’s list (at the #1 and #2 spots respectively), Bryan wondered whether they were being tracked for the first time or if they had done something specific to move the needle. Although Vistaprint has slipped to #3 on this month’s list, their conversion rate has actually gone up. Snapfish, meanwhile, has dropped off entirely.
We also noticed on February’s list that LL Bean had dropped from the 23.6% conversion rate they had in January and December to the 14.7% conversion rate they achieved in February. This month, it seems LL Bean has held, but their position has slipped thanks to a higher overall average from the other sites.
Who do you think will make it to next month’s list?
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*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
Editor’s Note: Want to know the secrets of top-converting websites? Join Bryan Eisenberg on June 3rd in Manhattan for FutureNow’s Call to Action seminar.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
How to Increase Shopping Cart Abandonment
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, only to find that the price has shot up as much as 25%.
Was Jeff being cheap? Probably. But it’s understandable.
The truth is that online shopping has spoiled us. When Amazon ships for free — at least it feels that way if you buy into Amazon Prime — and when Zappos wants you to return those shoes (yes, really), anything less feels like a cheap plastic substitute for the real thing.
ToysRUs.com does so many things right. The product image views are clear and show multiple angles. The customer reviews are helpful and thoroughly integrated. I could go on, but the important thing — the reason they still haven’t sold Jeffrey a Fisher Price Grow to Pro Basketball hoop — is that they set a poor expectation of total cost before checkout.
Here we see Toys ‘R’ Us insisting that their price is $39.99; a price even our CEO can afford. 
Sounds like a great deal!
And look at these reviews:
Wow, that’s a popular basketball hoop! You’d think he were buying an iPhone.
But when Jeffrey proceeds to checkout…
Fifteen dollars isn’t a big deal, but it’s something you’d never be asked to pay in a toy store. It’s not as though Jeff doesn’t have fifty-five dollars to spend on his nephew. [Author’s Note: Jeff has reminded me that he was shown a $22 shipping fee, making the $40 toy cost over $70 after tax. This begs the question as to why we were shown different shipping charges since neither of us was asked to enter a postal code and we visited the website from the same office.] It’s just that, like you, me, and the millions of people who shop online, we’re turned off by hidden fees.
Is it believable that it costs the company $15 to ship this product? Of course. It looks big and bulky, if not heavy. Is it reasonable to expect them to ship it for less than that? No! In fact, it’s very unreasonable. But logic has very little to do with it. This is about setting the right expectation.
People rationalize buying decisions with logic, but we make buying decisions based on feelings.
As Sitebrand’s Carolyn Gardener points out,
. . . when shipping becomes a pain point due to lousy check-out procedures, strict delivery options and exorbitant fees, the odds of cart abandonment increase.
When you consider the abandonment literally squashes someone’s intent to buy, not to mention the e-store’s ability to make money, it’s a very serious issue.
How to Avoid Shipping Shock
Jeffrey insists that he still plans on buying the basketball hoop from toysrus.com — and I’m pretty sure he will — but let’s brainstorm some ways for e-tailers to reduce the emotional impact of shipping cost shock.
- Offer multiple shipping options - Why should the retailer choose the shipping method? By giving the customer their choice of delivery options, the conversation becomes more about how soon they want it and how much the parcel service will charge them, not how much you’re going to charge them. Doing this also makes it easier to provide some level of free shipping. But good luck getting anyone who’s been spoiled by Zappos’ free overnight shipping policy to get excited because you offer complimentary snail mail. Still, as long as you show the costs for each shipping option right there in the shopping cart, you should be fine.
- Include shipping in price - Why not say “all prices include shipping” upfront on the product page? Some sites allow you to enter a postal code on the product page to estimate shipping rates. Others use new e-commerce technologies to show an estimated cost to ship to the visitor’s current location. If you don’t want to do either of those, at least tell the customer that shipping is not included in the price on the product page. This is especially true for larger items that are expensive to ship.
- Offer free shipping - A lot of established retailers may consider this to be a channel conflict. (”Why should we offer free shipping online? It would kill our profit margins.”) Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but if it’s at all a viable option, it will almost certainly lead to increased volume. Jeffrey would have gladly bought the same product on Amazon, but they told him it would take 1 - 3 months to ship. The irony, of course, is that without free shipping, it might take Jeffrey 1 - 3 months to actually buy it!
What other ways are smart e-tailers reducing shipping shock? If you have examples, please do share them in the comments.
. .
Want to reduce cart abandonment without sticker-shocking your CFO? We can help.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: February 2008
Here it is, the list of February’s top 10 converting retail sites*…
1. Snapfish - 17.4%
2. Vistaprint - 16.8%
3. Lands End - 15.2%
4. ProFlowers - 15.2%
5. Lane Bryant Catalog - 14.7%
6. LL Bean - 14.7%
7. HSN.com - 14.6%
8. 1800flowers.com - 14.2%
9. ebay - 14.0%
10. Blair.com - 13.8%
Last month, I wondered if we would see any Valentine’s day influence to this month’s list. What do you think?
This is the first time we are seeing Snapfish and Vistaprint. I wonder if they are being tracked for the first time ever or did they do something to move the needle. LL Bean dropped from a 23.6% conversion rate that they had in January and December.
Which one of our readers will make it to the list next?
*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
The Demise of Borders Books: Death by Internet
The news that Borders is considering putting itself up for sale should come as no surprise.
Although the company used last week’s announcement that they’re seeking a buyout as an opportunity to blame a tight credit market and competition from discount chains like Wal-Mart, Borders‚ disappointing performance stems from a failure to take e-commerce seriously.
For Borders not to have an exclusive online presence in this day and age boggles the mind. The homepage is a drab catchall for store locations, gift cards, and company information. The coupons that Borders Rewards members receive via email are good for in-store purchases only. And if you do decide to shop Borders online, type in “Borders.com” and see where it takes you to an Amazon.com boutique, complete with “amazon.com” in the URL.
Why brand your biggest competitor (which, despite market conditions, grew by double digits last year)?
Borders does have a beta site that they’re testing and promoting on the current homepage (Bordersstores.com, not Borders.com), assuring visitors that “whole new Borders experience is coming.” The beta site is very attractive and conducive to buying — except for one minor detail. You can’t buy anything. There’s still no e-commerce attached to Borders, only the ability to “save” a book for pickup at the store nearest you.
To ignore the ways in which online shopping has permeated the lives of untold millions of customers is one of the biggest business failures of this decade.
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[About the author: Michele Miller is a guest contributor for GrokDotCom. Michele is co-author (with FutureNow’s Holly Buchanan) of The Soccer Mom Myth “Today’s Female Consumer: Who She Really Is, Why She Really Buys”. You can buy it online from Amazon.]
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Written by:Michele Miller
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: January 2008
Here it is, the list of January’s top 10 converting retail sites*…
1. LL Bean.com - 23.6%
2. J Jill - 19.8%
3. Proflowers - 17.8%
4. Office Depot - 17.8%
5. Drugstore.com - 17.3%
6. Coldwater Creek- 15.6%
7. CDW - 15.0%
8. Chadwicks.com - 15.0%
9. Bose.com - 14.9%
10. eBay - 14.9%
Several new sites made the list that we didn’t see in December, November, or October.
LL Bean tops the charts with an impressive 23.6% conversion rate. They had the same conversion rate during the holiday season. They must have had some great campaigns this month. (If you have screen shots, please let me know.)
I can’t wait to see those February results. I imagine we’ll see some influence from Valentine’s Day on retailers’ conversion rates.
. .
*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts
[Editor’s Note: Our original report on the top-converting sites for January 2007 mistakenly credited a previous year’s data. It seems a fellow blogger cited outdated numbers and we overlooked the error during fact check. Bryan stands by his analysis, however, as it was not intended to be time sensitive or bound to any particular retailers’ performance.]
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
The Fight Against Shopping Cart Abandonment
Liberty Fillmore is a man with a purpose.
He’s no hero. No, sir. Just an ordinary guy placed in extraordinary circumstances.
His mission: End the plight of abandoned shopping carts everywhere.
Fillmore has a natural talent for saving carts. He was born to do it. He is… The Cart Whisperer.
. . . everywhere I go, I see shopping carts tossed aside. Cast off. Abandoned. In super-value-store parking lots. And, more and more, on the interweb which is online. People say, “I’m all gonna fill up my shopping cart with things,” and then before they hit the BUY button, they say, “Oh, I don’t feel secure. I ain’t buying this stuff here.”
Well, boo hoo, cowards. How do you think that cart fills? Left there, full up and then abandoned before she can fulfill her cartly duties? Well, that’s why I rescue abandoned carts. And why I welcome the support of VeriSign and their EV SSL Product Thing. Join our ranks, and put your cart abandonment issues to rest.
How do you think that cart fills, indeed. Won’t somebody please think of the carts!?
Cart Awareness Starts at Home
Now, before you go door-to-door petitioning for cart awareness, you should know that — although we wish he were — The Cart Whisperer ain’t a real guy. No, ma’am. What we have here is a clever viral marketing campaign from VeriSign.
Let’s take a peek at a day in the life of Liberty….
According to VeriSign:
The … campaign is aimed at highlighting the pain companies experience as they try to understand why consumers fill online shopping carts, only to abandon them before buying. In the face of an uncertain economy, online retailers are clamoring to find ways to turn shoppers into buyers. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues lost to abandoned carts.
From a branding perspective, this works — assuming that people actually end up going to NoMoreAbandonedCarts.com (otherwise, they’d have no idea VeriSign was behind it). At the moment, though, over 1 million people have seen “The Cart Whisperer” clip.
Only time will tell whether this campaign boosts VeriSign’s bottom line, but it sure does its part to spread cart awareness.
On our mark. Get set. Trust us!
Trustmark logos are helpful, but they’re not the whole answer. If you think adding a trustmark to your e-commerce shop is enough to “end the plight of cart abandonment,” think again. (Sorry, Liberty, but ya cain’t save ‘em all by yer self.)
Trustmarks can boost conversion rates and lower cart abandonment to a degree, but there are many other ways to build trust. Here are three:
• Simplify your privacy statement Roughly 75% of consumers assume that, as long as a site has a privacy policy, it won’t share data with third parties. Not only should you have a privacy policy, it should be clear and concise (e.g., “We value your privacy,” “We will not share your personal information — ever”). Try putting a clear statement like that next to your “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” calls to action and test whether it improves conversion.
• Get a decent “About Us” page. It’s amazing how few small e-tailers make the “About Us” page a priority. If your brand’s logo isn’t trustmark enough, customers need to know more about who you are if they’re going to be comfortable giving you money.
• Optimize your shopping cart. Don’t blame Liberty Fillmore for an 80% abandonment rate. It’s possible you’re not giving would-be customers enough information. Do visitors need to click “Add to Cart” to see your pricing and shipping rates? If so, maybe your cart abandonment rate is misleading. Maybe it’s time to learn a few tricks from Amazon.
Godspeed, Liberty Fillmore. Your noble quest is our own.
. .
Shopping cart lonely? Gonna be in California on March 27th? Want to be a cart whisperer?
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Written by:Robert Gorell
70% of Online Shoppers Read Multiple Product Reviews
An e-tailing group study commissioned by PowerReviews has further revealed the necessity for customer-generated product reviews on e-commerce sites.
It seems the majority of online shoppers want to hear what people like them have to say about the product they’re researching. Almost 70% of customers looked at more than 4 reviews before making a purchase.
The study also gives a sense of how long visitors spend reading reviews before their purchase (50% spend over 10 minutes) and found that most people read reviews once they’ve narrowed down their search to 2 or 3 products.
Just having reviews isn’t going to cut it, though. E-tailers must give the would-be customer something more if they want them to come back to their sites — not just to research, but to buy. If more than 50% of customers spend over ten minutes looking at reviews, that shows they’re looking for more than just an overall “star rating.” For instance, one way of boosting your reviews’ credibility is having a “pros and a cons” field for visitors to fill out. This will show visitors that you welcome criticism and are confident in your products, while making the reviews that much more valuable to other visitors.
Here are some tips and a screencast from Bryan to help plan and optimize your review system.
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Written by:Daniel McGuigan
Is Something Wrong With Your Design?
I’m still settling in from my trip last week to the Internet Retailer Design conference. If you didn’t attend, you missed a great first-time show, so you’ll have to check it out next year.
Over 800 people showed up to hear the speakers and meet with consultants (like me) to evaluate their current websites — and some even discussed mock-ups and prototypes of new versions of their sites. My back-of-the-napkin calculation is that Internet Retailer gave away around $150,000 worth of consultations, but I’ll ask you the one common question I asked several of the companies I met with just for the price of spending a few minutes reading.
What makes you think the new design you’re working on is going to work any better than the one you have today?
I recall sitting with one of the most recognized brands on the Web and him pulling out his mock-ups. They felt that they had issues around how products were presented and how their navigation worked. They offered a complex menu with way too many options in their current navigation, and were hoping to improve it by using a top level menu with a javascript rollover.
“What research do you have that indicates that new navigation will work better than the current one?” I asked. He was honest and said, “None.”
So why don’t you test it?
Internet Retailer did a pre-conference survey and asked the top 500 retailers if they’re doing multivariate or A/B testing, and included the results in their Website Design & Usability Guide.
Amazingly, 76.7% of retailers surveyed don’t test!
Huh? Now that you can get A/B and Multivariate testing tools for free from Google, why aren’t you testing?
We’ve also found that it’s safer to roll out a redesign in stages, in order to avoid the initial drop in conversion that often results from a redesign. Why not roll this out as a series of tests?
If you need help, call us at 877-643-7244 (ext. 3316). We’d be happy to help you make more money before and after your redesign.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
The UK’s Top 50 Ecommerce Sites
Recently, Hitwise published their 2007 list of the top 50 e-commerce websites in the UK.
While many of the usual suspects are represented, it’s worth noting how consumer demand compares with the huge differences in the quality of customer experiences offered by these sites.
Of course, it’s one thing to know who the top retailers are, but it’s quite another to have qualitative data that shows how certain e-commerce sites actually engage customers. That’s why we spent months reviewing hundreds of American retailers for Future Now’s 2007 Retail Customer Experience Survey — and why we’re expanding our research to include EU retailers.
In just two weeks, I’ll be at the Search Engine Strategies conference in London, where we’ll discuss web analytics, boosting conversions, and most of all, redefining the customer (experience). In the meantime, I’d love to hear from our European friends, colleagues and readers, about whether you think this list is a good place to start:
1. Amazon UK
2. Play.com
3. Argos
4. Tesco.com
5. Apple Computer
6. Dell EMEA
7. Amazon.com
8. Marks & Spencer
9. Tesco Direct
10. Next
11. HMV.co.uk
12. Expedia.co.uk
13. Thomson Holidays
14. LastMinute.com
15. Currys
16. Ticketmaster UK
17. John Lewis
18. RyanAir
19. easyJet
20. British Airways[See the rest of The IMRG-Hitwise Hot Shops List.]
Any other European retailers you’d like us to evaluate? Let’s hear it in the comments!
P.S. If you are going to be at Search Engine Strategies in London and then a few weeks later in NY, let me know. I’d love to connect with some of our readers.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
