At FutureNow, we work with clients in a variety of industries and business models: e-commerce, lead generation and catalog. Lately, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some clients who are driving traffic from their web sites to physical store locations. These clients share some basic challenges, so I’ve decided to cover things you should be focusing on if you’re an online business trying to drive traffic to a physical location.

First, decide what action you want your visitors to take. We know that you want your visitors to come off your web site and visit your physical location, but what actions do you want them to take ON your web site that demonstrate their interest in coming to your physical location? These are what we call micro conversion points.  “Micro” because they are stepping stones on the way to some sort of purchase, which we call a macro conversion.

Here are some examples of actions a site might want the visitor to take to show their interest in moving forward. The following points should be tracked as micro conversion points, and you should optimize to increase these individual conversion rates.

• A “locations” page where you feature your address and map with directions. If visitors get to this page, they are interested in where you are located, which shows strong motivation and intent.
• Some sites feature a “Find the nearest location” tool.
• Booking an appointment for a service or holding/reserving a product.
• Contact us page, phone calls and emails are demonstrating that visitors are looking for answers to questions.

Tracking these micro conversion points is important, but it’s also important to follow through and track whether visitors who take these micro conversion actions are resulting in physical store purchases. Many companies track one or the other, but they seem to have a hard time tracking micro conversion rates on their web sites or they have a hard time connecting actions on a web site to actual sales in the physical store.

Here’s a list of questions you can ask yourself in order to get the right tracking in place to start seeing how your online efforts are resulting in ‘brick and mortar’ sales.

Tracking whether a store purchaser was originally a web site visitor:

Are you tracking all in-store purchases, asking each purchaser whether they went to your web site before they came to your physical store? This will help you find out general stats on how many visited your web site prior to purchasing.

Are you collecting email addresses and sending out surveys to in-store purchasers to find out how they came to your store?

• For those who identify that they came to your web site before coming to your physical store, are you asking them if they already knew about your store and were just coming to your site to find the address/location or to call the store?
• Are you asking them whether they were actually searching for something online, and found your web site as a solution to a problem (and didn’t yet know about your store) and they only found out that you had a physical store from your web site?

Tracking phone calls from listed phone numbers on your web site:

Is the phone number listed on your web site unique from other marketing efforts so that you can track it separately?

Is the phone number you list on various pages unique from the other pages on your site? In other words, if you feature a phone number on the about us page, is it a different number than the one on your contact us page? This would help you identify what pages visitors are making a decision to call from, and will also help you identify what types of things they are asking after visiting specific pages on your site.

Are you collecting enough information from the caller on the phone, so that you can match this up if the visitor turns into a sale in the physical store location?

Purely “clicks and mortar” E-commerce sites see the importance of optimization before the Holiday Season because it directly impacts their sales online. “Bricks and mortar” companies that use their web site to drive traffic to their physical store don’t see the direct impact as strongly, but this could be because they aren’t tracking  the impact effectively. If you’re in this situation, use some of the tips above to begin tracking and optimizing. You still have time to optimize for the holiday season and beyond!

1. Schwan’s 35.2
2. Keurig 31.3
3. ProFlowers 26.0
4. Vitacost22.5
5. Blair 22.4
6. DrsFosterSmith.com 22.4
7. Woman Within 21.3
8. Amway Global 20.5
9. Roamans.com 18.7
10. Office Depot 17.9

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Benchmarks according to the FireClick Index

Increasing your conversion rate requires you to follow a continuous improvement program? If you need help improving your results let us know.

Sorry about the headline – the 80s flashbacks are getting to me.  Still, I really do “play stupid” as a Website optimizer and online copywriter.  Or at least I play ignorant.

Why?  Because all those terms and concepts you think everyone understands about your business and what you’re selling – well, you’re wrong about them!  Wrong about both the terms themselves and your potential audience.  If you think I’m mistaken, go back and watch the video again.

Or keep reading to see some real website examples. Either way, let me reassure you that way more of your website visitors just fundamentally don’t “get it” than you’d ever suspect.  Either those visitors:

1. have no idea what the industry standard terms you are using mean,
2. don’t really understand the finer distinctions the terms are supposed to represent, or
3. fail to draw the all-important conclusions and emotional implications that you may be basing your persuasive messaging upon.

Any one of those might be enough to kill your chances for a conversion.

And while there are some good reasons to only mention or allude to the “features” in order to hone in on the benefits, there’s also very few excuses* not to provide links, mouse-overs, and early stage content that can guide the perplexed to a better understanding of your industry and your messaging.

How an “idiot” could improve the Black Diamond Home Page

For those of you who haven’t heard of this company before, Black Diamond Equipment makes cutting edge climbing and skiing equipment.  And before we even look at one of their product pages, I suggest you just go to their website and get a feel for how user-friendly (or not) the overall design seems.  Seriously, go there right now.  I’ll wait.

Ok, now ask yourself this:

• Doesn’t it feel as if the company ONLY produces carabiners?  If you didn’t know the company produced headlamps, skis, tents, etc, would you ever think to look for those?
• Did it take you a while to figure out that the pictured carabiners could be clicked on and rotated towards you?  Or was that just intuitively obvious?  What do you think the designers felt about the “obviousness” of this design.
• If you weren’t interested in carabiners and never clicked on the “see all carabiners” link, would you ever have gotten to the pages dealing with other equipment?
• What do you think is keeping them from simply using a persistent top navigation scheme?
• Do you think “playing an idiot” for a day would help these guys out?

Idiot-Proofing Product Pages 101

Now let’s compare a product page on the Black Diamond site with one for the same product taken from backcountry.com.  We’ll start with a product page for a LED headlamp taken from the Black Diamond site:

What the heck is a “TriplePower LED”?

• Is it 3-times more powerful than a 5mm Nichia LED?
• Is it a 3-watt LED?
• Is it an LED with 3 power settings?

By using this terminology, Black Diamond has achieved the worst of both worlds, not only is the description not enough for a non-light geek to really understand, but neither is it technical enough for a light geek to feel confident in what he is buying.

How about underlining these terms and providing a mouse-over that would show comparisons of the LEDS, their real technical specs, and usage shots, so that an average user could get a sense of the light output and a techie could see the real specs?

And what about the “NRG Rechargable battery”?

• Is it a Lithium-Ion battery?
• Is it Metal Hydride?
• How much does it cost?
• Does it improve or hurt the battery life of the light?
• Can I buy the light already bundled with the battery and it’s charger, etc?

Finally, there’s the “single position switch.”  I’m guessing it’s some sort of rubberized button-looking thing and that you just have to keep clicking it to rotate through all 7 of the modes until you get the one you want.  But wouldn’t it be nice to know for sure:

• That a single position switch = clicky switch, like on a Mag-Light
• What exactly those 7 lighting modes are, and why I’d need that many modes
• Where the button is located?

From the pictures it looks like the “single position switch” might be on the bottom of the light, but assuming that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to link the term “single position switch” to a mousover of that picture along with an explanation of how the switch functions and what the 7 modes are?

As for backcountry.com’s product page for this same headlamp, the page is too long for me to snap an encompasing screenshot and place it here, but I suggest you go to that page and take a look at all of the content rich resources that are provided, including:

• customer photos of the product in-use,
• user reviews, Q&A’s, and
• some actual, non-bullet-pointed, real copy.

But since we’re focusing on the copy, I’ve cut and pasted it below.  Read it and see how many questions this copy answers that Black Diamond’s bullet points leave unclear:

“The Black Diamond Icon Headlamp uses two different types of LED bulbs to give you ultra-bright lighting when you need it and to save battery power when you don’t. The 3-watt center bulb has three settings for light up to 80 meters. Switch to the four SuperBright LED bulbs to get a 200-hour burn time when a lot of light isn’t necessary. This combination of long-distance lighting and long burn time makes the Black Diamond Icon Headlamp a stand-out choice for everything from backpacking to climbing to night skiing. In fact, it impressed Rock and Ice so much that they gave it their Best In Gear Award.

Bottom Line: The Black Diamond Icon Headlamp provides both bright lighting and long-lasting battery life for days on the trail, the rock, and the snow.”

Even if it’s not perfect, that copy is still much clearer, isn’t it?  And understand this: the majority of what isn’t covered in this copy is covered in the user reviews, Q&A’s, etc.  In fact, I’m convinced that the persuasive power of user reviews has as much to do with previous buyers unintentionally answering other customers’ questions within the reviews as it has to do with the increased credibility of user reviews.

Also, understand that this unexplained-term phenomenon isn’t exclusive to technical products, either; it happens in product descriptions for almost everything.  I could have just as easily used tents and asked what the hell a double-wall tent is and why it should matter to me, and so on.

Reverse “The Curse” with Idiot Exercises

While “The Curse of Knowledge” can be hard to overcome, here are a few** sure-fire techniques to get you started on your journey to idiot-optimized copy:

• Do usability testing.  Get someone outside your industry (go ahead and specify minimum industry knowledge in your user request) and watch them move through your site while recording their questions, thoughts, etc.
• Highlight every industry term, phrase, or concept on your site, write them down on a piece of paper, and start interviewing random people on the street about them, just like the guy did in the video.
• Willfully play the part of a 5 year old and ask repeated why questions regarding your industry terms and concepts.  It’s best to team up with a partner/colleague on this one.  Force each other to come up with answers a 10-year old would understand.

After having done any one, or all, of the 3 strategies, go back and re-evaluate your copy.

P.S.  Hat tip to Seth Godin for finding the video and creating a great blog post around it

* Actually, there’s only one excuse: you’re purposely excluding a general audience in order to tightly focus on a hard-core group.  In that case, go ahead amd talk the lingo without apologies, letting anyone and everyone else catch up if they can.  Just realize that you WILL be alienating visitors and potential customers in order to appeal to that smaller, hard-core group.

** Of course, the best sure-fire method of escaping the curse of knowledge is simply to hire an outside copywriter/consultant/optimization specialist

[Editor’s note: the author of this blog is now blogging at jeffsextonwrites.com

1. ProFlowers 24.0
2. Vitacost 23.3
3. 1800Flowers 19.5
4. Roamans19.2
5. Office Depot 18.5
6. Blair 17.3
7. QVC 17.0
8. Victoria’s Secret 16.8
9. DrsFosterSmith.com 16.4
10. Amazon 16.4

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Benchmarks according to the FireClick Index

Increasing your conversion rate requires you to follow a continuous improvement program? If you need help improving your results let us know.

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 abandonment included:

• Wanted to comparison shop: 37% – Are you saving their cart for at least 30 days, so they can return to it?
• Lack of money: 36% - Can you make them an offer they can’t refuse?
• Wanted to look for a coupon: 27% – Are you prompting them to look for coupons? It could be costing you a huge percentage of sales.
• Wanted to shop offline: 26% - Are you offering them options to pick up items in store?
• Couldn’t find preferred pay option: 24% - Find a way to GTC. Get The Cash!!!
• Item unavailable at checkout: 23% – Ooooops! This has to be dealt with on the product page or it will erode your brand trust.
• Couldn’t find customer support: 22% – This could be dealt with by using POA – point of action assurances (see the video below).
• Security concerns: 21% – This is also handled with point of action assurances and establishing more trust in your website.

Do you think you may need a cart whisperer? How many of these have you tried to deal with recently? Are you testing and optimizing you shopping cart? If not, why?

Click here to view the embedded video.

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?

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:

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

Additional March Retail Benchmarks:

The online retail sector in general registered an encouraging increase in ecommerce activities in March 2009 compared to February 2009 (month over month) but down compared to March 2008 (year over year).

“Consumers who shopped online in March purchased nearly 12.0 percent more items compared to the previous month, while the average dollar value increased by more than 4.0 percent, suggesting that not only were consumers buying more items online, they were actually spending more money on average than they had just the month before.

Unsurprisingly, year-over-year retail metrics for March remain down across the board compared to March 2008. The average number of items per order, average order value and shopping cart conversion all fell significantly—8.1 percent, 6.3 percent and 3.4 percent respectively—compared to March 2008.“

Page Views Per Session 11.39
Average Time on Site (in seconds) 476.13
Average Items/Order 5.82
Average Order Value $143.93
Shopping Cart Conversion Rate 34.52%
Shopping Cart Abandonment 65.48%

* Source: Coremetrics LIVEmark Benchmarks US (PDF) – UK benchmarks PDF available.

Coremetrics LIVEmark leverages aggregate performance data across more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 benchmark metrics addressing performance indicators such as campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates.

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

Additional February Retail Benchmarks:

The online retail sector in general registered dramatic drops in ecommerce activities in February 2009 compared to January 2009 (month over month) and February 2008 (year over year).

“Gifts retailers and Jewelers—both traditional winners on Valentine’s Day—reported 23 percent and 15 percent increases in order sessions respectively. However, the average dollar value of those orders did not match these increases, with a modest increase of 4 percent for gifts retailers and a decrease of 14.3 percent for jewelers. These numbers illustrate that even on those occasions when consumers want to spend, they are spending in a more restrained fashion than in the past.”

Page Views Per Session 11.70
Product Page Views Per Session 3.17
Average Time on Site (in seconds) 481.05
Average Items/Order 5.21
Average Order Value $138.27
Shopping Cart Conversion Rate 34.39%
Shopping Cart Abandonment 65.61%
New Visitor Conversion Rate 2.00%
On-site Search Session 17.6%

* Source: Coremetrics LIVEmark Benchmarks US (PDF) – UK benchmarks PDF available.

Coremetrics LIVEmark leverages aggregate performance data across more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 benchmark metrics addressing performance indicators such as campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates.

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 on this list Schwan’s. Not sure if everyone should themselves compare to online grocery merchants.

Additional January Retail Benchmarks:

January was a month of casual browsing but limited buying across the online retail sector. The number of sessions in which consumers actually completed an order was down sharply by 21%.  Specialty retailers reported a 56 percent drop in order sessions, the largest decrease of any retail category tracked by Coremetrics.

Page Views Per Session 11.83
Product Page Views Per Session 3.24
Average Time on Site (in seconds) 504.59
Average Items/Order 5.95
Average Order Value $132.57
Shopping Cart Conversion Rate 33.80%
Shopping Cart Abandonment 66.20%
New Visitor Conversion Rate 2.02%
On-site Search Session 17.94%

* Source: Coremetrics LIVEmark Benchmarks US (PDF) – UK benchmarks PDF available.

Coremetrics LIVEmark leverages aggregate performance data across more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 benchmark metrics addressing performance indicators such as campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates.

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

Additional December Retail Benchmarks:

According to Coremetrics Benchmark, the percentage of website visits that ended up with product orders increased by 23% from November to December and fell by 2.4% compared to December, 2007. The average number of items per order and average order value fell by 19% and 11% compared to November and by 2% and 3% compared to last year.

Page Views Per Session 12.01
Product Page Views Per Session 2.99
Average Time on Site (in seconds) 503.01
Average Items/Order 4.76
Average Order Value $124.48
Shopping Cart Conversion Rate 38.16%
Shopping Cart Abandonment 61.84%
New Visitor Conversion Rate 2.69%
On-site Search Session 18.97%

* Source: Coremetrics LIVEmark Benchmarks US (PDF) – UK benchmarks PDF available.

Coremetrics LIVEmark leverages aggregate performance data across more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 benchmark metrics addressing performance indicators such as campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates.

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, online sales were up 2 percent relative to last year.

We told several of our retail clients that third party payment options could be an important deciding factor this holiday season because consumers were going to be extra cautious with their credit cards. PayPal saw sales rise 26 percent on Black Friday. PayPal said its sales numbers reflected 12 percent of all U.S. e-commerce.

According to CoreMetrics:

The online retail sector in general registered drops in ecommerce activities… The number of page and product views across the online retail sector in general was down 8.55 and 8.29 percent respectively compared to Black Friday 2007, suggesting that online retailers are doing a poor job of directing people to browse through their selection of products. The 18 percent drop in average session length also demonstrates that retailers are struggling to keep customers on their sites. Retailers are having difficulty in converting visitors to buyers, as evidenced by weakness in shopping cart and order sessions percentages.

How was your Black Friday?

• As a consumer, did you spend a lot and get great deals?
• As a merchant were your sales encouraging or depressing?

Today is CyberMonday, there is still some time to make changes to your site so that you get the most sales this holiday season. Will you wait and see how the rest of the holiday season treats you or will you take action today?

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 shop online with a retailer that offers free shipping, compared with 60% who said that last year.“

The questions we have for retailers are:

• do customers prefer to see a Free Shipping offer rather than calculate and pay a lower price that includes paid shipping?
• If you sell online, do you currently offer Free shipping? If so, are you planning to for the rest of the holiday season? Are there any limitations or restrictions on it?

The questions we have for customers are:

• Is the allure of Free Shipping that hypnotic for you as customers?
• As someone who buys online, what do you prefer?

We have asked these questions through testing in the past and found plenty of surprises. I’m sure most retailers would be surprised by the results of asking these questions correctly.

Please share your thoughts.

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 at the point that I realize I have the need, I don’t really have time to wait for shipping if you know what I mean!

This time, I had no choice. I went to Google and searched for “ready to use wax strips“. The first result was for a product sold by Veet (a brand I know) so I clicked. I was brought to the Veet web site where they don’t actually sell their products through their web. After a thorough search on their site, I finally found a “Where to buy this product” link. The Veet site referred me to an online store: homesolutionsstore.com if I was interested in buying this product online.

Unfortunately this was not a direct link to a product page on this referred site, so I had to use the site search tool. I typed in “veet ready to use wax strips“.

This is their results page:

They clearly tell me on this page that the item is in stock. The price is very obvious and the call to action “buy now” uses appropriate language, placement and stands out well.

What is missing? A clear link to “Learn More“.

I clicked “Buy Now“.

This is their product page:

They make me go through an extra step by bringing me to a product page instead of the shopping cart.

I see the price clearly listed here on the product page but what about shipping? I don’t want to have to add this item to my cart in order to find out how much this is going to cost me for shipping.

They are doing something very right here worth pointing out–> Without knowing that I could save by buying a case, I would have initially only bought a couple of the smaller boxes. Because they offer me the ability to buy the case, they increased the overall purchase value of my order. I added a full case to my cart in order to save the 10%.

This is their shopping cart page:

The shipping calculator directly on the shopping cart page is valuable to the visitor who wants to find out how much this is going to cost to ship. A downfall is that shipping costs quite a bit and if my average order value had been lower, I would be less likely to spend the amount that they are charging for shipping.

Free shipping would make me a loyal customer because I’m going to have a continuous need for these wax strips and if I can get them at a discounted price online if I buy them in bulk, and I get free shipping on top of this, why would I buy them anywhere else?

What we’ve learned today from my shopping experience:

1. State whether a product is in-stock

2. Clearly establish the price and a clear call to action that stands out very close to the price

3. On a search result page or category page, give the visitor the ability to add an item to their cart or to learn more

4. Give visitors the ability to find out shipping costs on a product page

5. Think of ways you can increase the average order value. If you can offer the visitor a discount to buy more of a product, consider the value of this

6. Consider offering free shipping on orders over a certain dollar amount. This may not only increase your average order value, but increase your overall conversion rate because you’re removing another barrier to placing the order.

• Customers will look for reasons not to buy.
• Retailers will offer incentives.
• Customers will look for value.
• Retailers will offer promotions.
• Customers will look for more information.
• Retailers will ask their customers to provide content.
• Customers will hold retailers responsible for their entire experience.
• Retailers will continue to work in silos.
• Customers will find new favorite retailers.
• Retailers will look for new traffic.
• Customers will demand more from each visit.
• Retailers will focus more intensely  on the +/- 3% they convert instead of the 97% they don’t.
• Customers have changed.
• Retailers…

Will retailers finally focus on optimizing their customer experience and improving their sales conversion rates? Many, perhaps most, won’t. It’s hard to build a culture of continuous improvement, especially under pressure. Some, a few, will. They will not only survive but they will also improve their market share and profitability.

We do work with a lot of retailers who are already devoted and several who we are helping to adopt a culture of continuous improvement. Still, it’s a relatively small sample size. Am I too pessimistic? Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong.

I welcome your feedback.

At a time when filling the gas tank can seem like a spending spree for many consumers before they even set foot in a store, the prospect of having an item delivered to their homes free of charge holds considerable sway. Free shipping offers now abound online, and experts forecast that, as the calendar moves closer to the all-important holiday selling season, websites that don’t provide free shipping (even if it comes with a minimum-spend prerequisite) will be at a competitive disadvantage…

…Studying the list of online shoppers’ favorite retailers yields some interesting findings. Four retailers specialize in large-size apparel; considering this is a niche market, that’s an impressive showing. It’s likely that many large-size shoppers – still an underserved group despite growing numbers of people buying apparel in these size ranges – feel more relaxed purchasing online, as it provides anonymity and the chance to try clothing on at home.

I was a bit surprised to find Google on the list of retailers. Why do you think they made it?

Who is your favorite retailer? How come?

If you are a retailer, will you be offering free shipping this holiday season? What is the reasoning behind your decision?

1. ProFlowers 41.50%
2. 1800flowers.com 20.8%
3. Blair.com 20.10%
4. QVC 20.10%
5. LaneBryant Catalog 19.7%
6. LL Bean 19.7%
7. Roamans 18.80%
8. The Sportsman Guide 17.7%
9. Office Depot 17.30%
10. eBay 15.2%

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

What happened to Proflowers.com? 41.50% is just amazing. Interestingly, last month we had all three big florists, but FTD fell off the list. Most important, Children’sPlace was on the last month, but not in the month of August right before back-to-school shopping, is this a sign of early holiday shopping to come?

Additonal June Retail Benchmarks:

Page Views Per Session 11.64
Product Page Views Per Session 3.06
Average Time on Site (in seconds) 479.87
Average Items/Order 6.15
Average Order Value $154.89
Shopping Cart Conversion Rate 32.61%
Shopping Cart Abandonment 67.39%
New Visitor Conversion Rate 1.96%
On-site Search Session 16.22%
On-site Search Conversion Rate 5.85%
On-site Search Average Order Value $178.52

Marketing Summary Benchmarks:

Direct Load:
Traffic % 48.72%
Sales % 73.02%
Conversion Rate 3.19%

Natural Search:
Traffic % 13.59%
Sales % 7.83%
Conversion Rate 2.12%

Referrals:
Traffic % 6.04%
Sales % 1.81%
Referral Conversion Rate 1.77%

* Source: Coremetrics LIVEmark Benchmarks US (PDF) – UK benchmarks PDF available.

Coremetrics LIVEmark leverages aggregate performance data across more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 benchmark metrics addressing performance indicators such as campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates.

Canada’s Top Internet Retail Sites

1 eBay
2 Apple Inc.
3 Amazon
4 Shopzilla.com
5 Best Buy
6 American Greetings Properties
7 Wal-Mart
8 Sears.ca
9 Bell.ca
10 CanadianTire.caSource: comScore Media Metrix

If you need help increasing your conversion rate, let us know.

Children as young as 8 years-old are not just using the internet to chat with their friends on AIM or email grandma – they’re shopping online. According to the study:

“Four out of 10 responding young consumers said they used search to learn about products or services after seeing ads. Many said they used search engines to find places to buy, check prices or start researching purchases from scratch.”

What might be even more surprising is what they are looking at and the persuasive power they hold. Furniture, electronics, vacations and vehicles are just a few of the big ticket items that, according to Harris Interactive’s 2007 “Youth Pulse” report, 8-12 year-olds and 14-21 year olds are actually decision makers for large family purchase. This is one of the key dynamics that you must understand when you look at sales complexity and consensus.

However, this is not to say that in order to appeal to children, you must “dumb down” your website or overrun it with childish characteristics. But do consider these younger age-groups when deciding where to use your site’s advertising and marketing budget.

1. Office Depot 26.90%
2. 1800flowers.com 20.90%
3. FTD.com 20.30%
4. J. Jill 19.4%
5. ProFlowers 19.30%
6. QVC 18.20%
7. LL Bean 15.9%
8. Children’s Place 15.2%
9. Blair.com 14.9%
10. Zales 14.6%

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

New comers to the list include: J.Jill, Children’s Place, and Zales. Regulars to the list hat dropped off in July include: Lane Bryant Catalog, Eddie Bauer, VistaPrint and eBay. I think it is also interesting to note that FTD has done a great job staying towards the top of the list as ProFlowers seems to be dropping a bit.

Additonal June Retail Benchmarks:

Page Views Per Session 12.17
Product Page Views Per Session 3.13
Average Time on Site (in seconds) 469.83
Average Items/Order 6.56
Average Order Value $145.48
Shopping Cart Conversion Rate 31.99%
Shopping Cart Abandonment 68.01%
New Visitor Conversion Rate 1.81%
On-site Search Session 13.36%
On-site Search Conversion Rate5 .61%
On-site Search Average Order Value $144.41

Marketing Summary Benchmarks:

Direct Load:
Traffic % 51.18%
Sales % 72.94%
Conversion Rate 3.07%

Natural Search:
Traffic % 12.45%
Sales % 6.74%
Conversion Rate 2.02%

Referrals:
Traffic % 6.33%
Sales % 1.85%
Referral Conversion Rate 1.70%

* Source: Coremetrics LIVEmark Benchmarks US (PDF) – UK benchmarks PDF available.

Coremetrics LIVEmark leverages aggregate performance data across more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 benchmark metrics addressing performance indicators such as campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates.

If you need help increasing your personal benchmarks, let us know.

What: “Always Be Testing” Webinar: Landing Pages: Headlines and Calls to Action

When: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 | 12:00pm EST

Where: Online, register here to receive your invitation

How much: It’s free, but space is limited so sign-up today!

About this session:

Last month kicked off the series with a webinar on testing trust and confidence building elements on landing pages (view archive ). Our August session will continue to explore landing pages focusing on testing calls to action and headlines. register today! Space is limited.

“Always Be Testing” Webinar Series is a monthly webinar that covers specific testing ideas, how to structure tests, and how to use Google Website Optimizer. The best part is that Google has decided to participate in it first-hand, offering the lastest tips and insights straight from Tom Leung, Google’s Business Product Manager.

“Landing Pages: Headlines and Calls to Action Webinar” will be on August 27th, at 12:00pm EST and last 30 minutes.

For more details and to sign-up to attend, visit futurenowinc.com/abtwebinar.htm

We hope you’ll attend and share this with anyone you know who is looking to begin to test their marketing or to increase their testing effectiveness.

About the Series:
Whether your business has just started testing, is planning to test, or has been testing for years identifying the areas and elements that have impact is often challenging. Each month, Bryan Eisenberg starts off by taking attendees on a dive deep on a specific subject area to test in your marketing and give you ideas on variation you could test. Along with these ideas each month Tom Leung will bring you useful insider tips and tricks about using Google Website Optimizer to easily test your marketing campaigns and website. Lastly, the two will team up to answer a popular question spotted on the Google Website Optimizer forums or sent in by our readers and listeners.

1. It’s in a contrasting color (I know on our last conversation red was discussed and is used here, but if your site’s overall color-scheme is red it will not be effective at catching your customer’s attention).

2. It’s located in a place that the customer is already looking. By placing the error message where your customers last click was, there is a great chance that it will get noticed if everything else remains the same.

3. It’s outlined. By boxing-in the error message it acts as a magnifying glass, drawing attention further to the message.

4. It calls for an action. Nothing is worse than an error message that says “error” with no instruction on how to remedy the problem. You want the customer to continue on through your site, make this error moment as easy to pass as possible.

Remember: It doesn’t matter how explicit, creative or beautifully written your message is.  If no one is reading it, it might as well not exist.

1. ProFlowers 28.40%
2. Office Depot 25.60%
3. FTD.com 24.30%
4. 1800flowers.com 20.30%
5. Lane Bryant Catalog 18.7%
6. QVC 17.50%
7. Eddie Bauer 16.8%
8. Roamans 16.1%
9. Vistaprint – 15.2%
10. eBay – 14.9%

*Source: Nielsen Online / Marketing Charts

Just like last month the 3 major florists made the list; did dads get lots of flowers? I didn’t. However, I did get a nice Nikon D60 DSLR camera (thanks to my wonderful kids and wife.) As you look at the additional benchmarks below, there seems to be a negative trend from the previous month. A lot of these benchmarks have trended down. Could it be related to the economy?

Additonal June Retail Benchmarks:

Page Views Per Session 12.72
Product Page Views Per Session 3.42
Average Time on Site (in seconds) 476.59
Average Items/Order 5.90
Average Order Value $120.82
Shopping Cart Conversion Rate 31.74%
Shopping Cart Abandonment 68.26%
New Visitor Conversion Rate 2.02%
On-site Search Session 15.07%
On-site Search Conversion Rate 6.64%
On-site Search Average Order Value $130.41

Marketing Summary Benchmarks:

Direct Load:
Traffic % 48.06%
Sales % 65.61%
Conversion Rate 3.49%

Natural Search:
Traffic % 13.43%
Sales % 8.41%
Conversion Rate 1.92%

Referrals:
Traffic % 7.06%
Sales % 2.40%
Referral Conversion Rate 1.40%

* Source: Coremetrics LIVEmark Benchmarks US (PDF) – UK benchmarks PDF available.

Coremetrics LIVEmark leverages aggregate performance data across more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 benchmark metrics addressing performance indicators such as campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates.

If you need help increasing your numbers, I know someone reliable and proven who can help you. Just ask me.

I can’t think of many retailers who feel that their category pages are awesome. However, retailers keep copying from each other in the hope that someone knows what they are doing here. Maybe it’s time to admit we need to rethink this issue from scratch and that most category pages are broken because they don’t do their fundamental job well.

The job of the category page is to help the visitor narrow down his selection so they can find the right product to fill their needs. This is something we have been researching with clients extensively and have come to the realization that sometimes you can’t patch up something that is completely broken; sometimes you need to re-invent it.

It’s a fairly simple process when you use Persuasion Architecture. If you want some help with your category pages in order to increase your sales, just let us know.

Hmmm, I wonder if her name triggered some sp*m filters.

Check out this Paris Hilton Celebrity Review and let me know who you think will be next

Ever get frustrated that they didn’t utilize the wish list tool? Your online shoppers may be falling into the “add and abandon” method of online shopping.

There are 3 core reasons people don’t utilize your wish list.

1.    Sites often require you to fill out loads of personal information prior to even creating the list.

Recently on shopbop.com I found an amazing pair of shoes, and rather than behaving in my traditional add and abandon method, I chose to create a wish list. Upon entering the link, I was overwhelmed by the personal information that I had to fill out.  An array of blank fields loomed in front of me, awaiting for me divulge all the information that categorizes me as an individual in the online realm.

Gathering information from your customer is great, but make sure they see the mutual value in entering their personal information. Rather than overwhelming you customer with questions simply allow them to create a list, in the same format as the “add to cart” list.

After they add their items ask them if they’d like to save their wish list by registering to save it for another visit. During this stage it is ok to ask for your customers information or create a login with password, but not before. With a call to action such as “register” or “join” there is an implied sense that personal information will be required. It prepares your customer for what is coming.

The call to action of “create a wish list” does not imply the same expectations and when presented with a page such as this, it can appear that you’ve presented something they didn’t ask for.

2.    There’s no add to cart option

Another feature of the wish list that is frustrating is that seldom is there an offer to transfer your wish list directly to your shopping cart. Some sites will offer an link from the item in the wish list that goes back to the product page where the item can then be added to their cart, but a one click process that can transfer either a few or all of the items from the wish list to the cart will help get your customer to the checkout sooner.

In other words, wish lists can act as a dead-end if you don’t create an opportunity for them to purchase. Allowing them to take action from this page is a win-win, they get an easier checkout process and you get them to spend money. Boom!

3.    You don’t get a running total

Wish lists often appear as a list of the products. Some offer pictures of the products but seldom do they include all the tax and shipping costs that might be associated with the order. Often people want a running total of their desired purchases, especially if they are operating within a budget.

Wish lists are a great tool for both you and your shoppers; just make sure yours is easy to use and appealing.