Since OnTarget debuted, we’ve been learning a lot about why certain clients succeed with optimization, and why others succeed “less.”  To use the exercise regimen metaphor we often refer to, many people start exercise programs with goals of losing weight or a better physique, but not everyone sticks with it and achieves their goals.

We thought we’d share some insights so that if you’re thinking about an optimization program, you can avoid the pitfalls and reap the rewards.

There are many, nuances of…

...continue to read "Four Steps To Optimization Success"

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” ~ Michael Altshuler

In January, I was sitting with Jack Love publisher of Internet Retailer as he was being interviewed on WebMasterRadio. Jack told my friend Jim Hedger that it didn’t take much to look good over the last 6 or 7 years in the ecommerce space while industry growth was 25% or greater year after year. A rising tide lifted all boats. Most people could just be…

...continue to read "Sully Sullenberg’s Secret to Online Success"

There are only so many ways to stand out and become a leader in any market. You can be lowest price driven, operationally excellent, channel dominant, or focused on customer intimacy. Many companies excel at two or three but it is nearly impossible to excel at all of them.

Here are 5 strategies companies use to become market leaders.

Operations that let them be more efficient than you at getting order picked, packed and delivered so that…

...continue to read "5 Reasons Competitors May Be Doing Better Than You"

This may be a sign of the times, but it’s not totally infrequent that a business will attempt to take advantage of a competitors demise – and there are classy and sleazy ways of going about it, right?

I received an email today from Staples.com. The subject line read “Will Office Depot closings affect you?” In the body of the email they lead off that “you can always count on Staples” and show what looks like the beginning of a press…

...continue to read "Sign-of-the-Times Marketing"

The experience gifting website, Cloud9Living.com, started their pre-Holiday optimization with a very simple A/B test on the Billing page of their shopping cart.  Changing a single layout element on the page was responsible for a 20.48% increase in their Funnel Conversion Rate (ratio of those who started at View Cart and made it through checkout).

While this type of increase is common with our clients, the interesting part of the story comes from a different metric.  During the duration of the test,…

...continue to read "Mini Case Study: How Testing Trumped the Holiday Slowdown"

The first set of results are in. We’re not sure that these days will be representative of the entire season as in past years but we’ll take any good news we can get.

According to Comscore Black Friday sales were flat:

For the holiday season-to-date, $10.41 billion has been spent online, marking a 4-percent decline versus the corresponding days last year, while Black Friday saw $534 million in online spending, up 1 percent. For the combination of Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday,…

...continue to read "Black Friday Results Are In, Are You Ready for CyberMonday?"

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?"

Wenda Harris Millard “Flat is the new up.” quoted at the recent EconWomen conference. She touches on some of the consumer trends this 2008 holiday season.

25 Web Form Optimization Tips – Covers most of the basics, a good reminder.

Usability of Toilet Paper – who could resist this analysis, especially as my friend David Dalka reminded me – P&G said at a search conference, no one would ever blog about toilet paper. Should it be bottom up or top down?

If you are so inclined…

...continue to read "TheGrok’s Not-To-Miss Links for the Week 10/31/08"