Last week, Brendan tackled how to answer the 5 unanswered questions customers face in the shopping cart (other than shipping costs). According to a recent study by PayPal and comScore, 45% of US online shoppers had abandoned shopping carts multiple times in just three weeks.

Why were shoppers abandoning their carts?

46% of online shoppers said high shipping charges were a “very important reason” for emptying carts. Is free shipping a must in this economy? Have you tested personalized shipping offers based on location?

Other reasons for…

...continue to read "Shopping Cart Abandonment Woes"

What will you do to be prepared for it?

This is not the Emergency Christmas described by John Stewart from the Daily Show. However, with the pressure of the economy people will probably be spending more time planning, considering, saving and looking for amazing deals sooner rather than later in the year. What are you going to DO NOW to make sure you get their limited attention and dollars? Will your business and website be optimized for this interesting holiday season?

...continue to read "Christmas Shopping Begins in the Next 4 Weeks…"

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:

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

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

The online retail sector in…

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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

The online retail sector…

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

Here are the top 10 converting websites for January 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 52.50 2. ProFlowers 27.30 3. Quixtar 22.40 4. Blair.com 21.80 5. Office Depot 21.10 6. Vitacost.com 20.40 7. DrsFosterSmith.com 20.30 8. FTD.com 20.20 9. Amazon 17.20 10. CDW 16.90

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

This month big surprise came from first time…

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

Here are the top 10 converting websites for December 2008*. 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. ProFlowers 31.1% 2. LL Bean 25.7% 3. Amazon 23.7% 4. VitaCost 23.0% 5. Coldwater Creek 22.4% 6. QVC 21.1% 7. Roamans 20.4% 8. Office Depot 20.2% 9. LandsEnd 19.3% 10. Victoria’s Secret 19.2%

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

According to Coremetrics…

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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?"

An interesting question that has been popping around the office from several clients and also on the Shop.org blog. It has all of us at FutureNow wondering if this is another case of predictable irrationality.

“In a recent comScore study, 72% of consumers said that if an e-commerce site eliminated free shipping, they would use another e-commerce site that did offer free shipping. Last week the LA Times reported that this year, nearly 80% of consumers said they were more likely to…

...continue to read "Is Free Shipping a Must in this Economy?"

Although I try to stay away from using personal and embarrassing topics when writing blog posts, I’m going to share this experience, because it’ll help you think about a few things you should be considering when optimizing your site.

Last night, I went for a last minute shopping expedition, looking for wax strips that are ready to use. I visited three drugstores and a Walmart just to come out empty handed. Wax strips are not something I would think of purchasing online because…

...continue to read "The Smooth Leg Approach to Conversion"