Here are the top 10 converting websites for May 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by 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. ProFlowers 38.6 2. Office Depot 28.0 3. Online Retail Total 25.6 4. Vitacost.com 25.0 5. Quixtar 23.4 6. ;Blair 23.4 7. Roamans22.6 8. 1800Flowers 20.5 9. Woman Within19.6 10. Spiegel 18.20

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Benchmarks according to the FireClick Index

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

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"

Conversion rate = The number of people who take the action you want them to take divided by the total number of potential people who could have taken that action.

When you break that sentence down, you start to understand how to optimize your conversion rate.

Step 1 – Let’s understand “number of people“

Who are these people? Are they all the same? Do they have different characteristics, needs, questions? Do all these people have the same amount of product/service knowledge that you do? Are they…

...continue to read "How to Optimize Your Conversion Rate(s)"

Here are the top 10 converting websites for April 2009*. These are based on Nielson Panel data and are calculated by 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. ProFlowers 42.8 2. Vitacost.com 28.9 3. Office Depot 25.0 4. MetroStyle 24.5 5. Woman Within 23.0 6. Schwan’s 21.1 7. CDW 20.8 8. 1800Flowers 20.8 9. Landsend 18.8 10. Drs FosterSmith 18.30

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Benchmarks according to the FireClick Index:

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

In my last post, I made use of a brick and mortar analogy to the current online behavior of some e-commerce Websites, and even recommended the use of those analogies when analyzing online persuasion strategies.

And since at least a few readers responded positively to the idea, I thought I’d share one of Get Elastic’s videos  dramatizing exactly one of those analogies, as well as sharing a link to their whole series.

So welcome to The Crazy, Messed-up World of E-commerce!

And if…

...continue to read "What Would Online Retailing Look Like in the Offline World"

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”?"

A week or so before the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in San Jose, the “company” I was supposed to analyze during my live conversion clinic – review had to cancel.  So Jim Sterne, the conference organizer, challenged me by asking if I’d be willing to “show our magic” (his words) on one of the top converting websites in the industry – a site that supposedly does over a billion dollars in sales.  And to handicap me even more, the analyst who…

...continue to read "Conversion Makeover: LandsEnd.com – Part 1"

Very simply, reviews increase conversion rates.  And several studies point to the fact that, yes, even negative reviews help.

It all boils down to credibility.  Customer reviews simply have more credibility than your sales copy, so they inspire more confidence in the buyer.  And negative reviews lend credibility to the review process itself, standing as visible proof that the reviews are not edited.

Makes sense right?  Sure it does, until you find yourself staring at the (perceived) ability of a blisteringly negative…

...continue to read "You Can’t Edit Your Way Out of Negative Reviews"

So I’m at the local Block Buster, holding a typical 3-movie stack:

a serious or respectable drama or film classic, a romance or chick-friendly movie for the wife, and some guilty pleasure action movie or low-brow comedy.

Guess which movie gets watched last or returned unwatched?

You betcha, it’s usually the drama/classic.  Oh the shame!

The thing is, unless I had added the high-brow movie to my “menu,” I’d likely have forgone the guilty pleasure of the action flick and just picked up the semi-respectable…

...continue to read "Why the Action Flick Always Gets Watched First"

How far are you willing to go to convert a sale?

Would you be willing to lie? Cheat? Steal?

I didn’t think so. Most of us wouldn’t.

How about just ever so slightly burying a fact — one that’s essential and potentially harmful to your sales — at the bottom of the page?

Now you judge.

My Little Tale

One day several weeks ago, I noticed my Apple MacBook Pro laptop battery was driving toward a slow and painful death. As so often happens with those…

...continue to read "To Be or Not to Be Transparent?"