Ecom Revolution
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May 2, 2015

Why Great Unboxing "Experience" Is A Big #ecommerce Blue Ocean - Amasty
Martin (Marty) Smith
Want to provide some great unboxing experience for your customers, but don't know where to start? Learn the basics on transforming a package into a gift.
Martin (Marty) Smith:

We think mobile + social makes the "unboxing experience" one of the hidden blue oceans of ecommerce. Why don't more ecom sites have galleries of videos and pictures of people sharing their "unboxing experience". Answer: most online retailers think their job is to sell stuff. Not so much these social / mobile days.

Now our jobs revolve around creating sustainable online communities and finding ways for your customers to share unboxing is like Christmas morning over and over. Why wouldn't you want to SHARE your customers' joy at their unboxing?

Oh, btw, better make sure your unboxing experience over delivers (so ASK for help from your best customers if needed to make your unboxing better).

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March 23, 2015

10 Product Page Best Practices Turn Visitors Into Buyers via @Shopify + 2 via @Scenttrail
Martin (Marty) Smith

A blog about ecommerce marketing, running an online business and updates to Shopify's ecommerce community.

Marty Note
We agree with all 7 of these "product page best practices" such as:

1. Powerful product descriptions (tell a short story and use language from reviews). 

2. Clear Call-To-Action (CTAs).

3. Size Chart (we love the Johnny Cupcakes graphic).

3. Include Stock Levels (and use Amazon's only 4 left language).

4. Great Product shots.

5. Social Share buttons (with feedback loops for # of shares, look at SumoMe.com for the best social share widget).

6. Shipping & Free Shipping info clear and easy to find.

7. Relevant to what is happening now (Holiday theme).

8. Remove background (this one was new to us, but we get it).

& The forgot 2 of our favorites:

9. Reviews - voice of the customer is the most convincing and begins to create online community.

10. TEST - we've only beaten a red "Add To Cart" button once, but we only knew we beat it because we tested.

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August 18, 2014

ECommerce's Website Design New Best Practices: What Are Today's Ecom Must Haves?
Martin (Marty) Smith

Ecom's New  Best Practices
Better have all of these if you expect to make money online these days:
* Easy To Get Free Shipping.
* Easy To Find Sale Section.
* Deal of the Day (once Woot.com only now becoming ubiquitous).
* What's New.
* Best Sellers.
* For Him, Her, Kids navigation (if applies).
* An ASK for User Generated Content.
* Clear "WE VALUE UGC" signals.
* Exciting "Magazine-like" content.

Via Tomorrow's Ecommerce: How To Design Tomorrow's Ecommerce Today on Haiku Deck http://shar.es/1nkirc


Martin (Marty) Smith:

add your insight...


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March 23, 2014

How To Plan Your Next Mobile E-Commerce Website | Smashing Mobile
Martin (Marty) Smith
In this article, we’ll walk through all of the vital steps when planning a highly converting mobile e-commerce website. The most important questions you need to ask are...
Martin (Marty) Smith:

Love the "ditch digging" specifics of this post. Mobile conversion seems mystery wrapped in enigma to me, so this post is beyond helpful.

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January 19, 2014

Reduce Cart Abandonment By "Enclosing" Checkout & Land Those Planes
Martin (Marty) Smith
Checkout abandonment continues to be a major topic in ecommerce, and one which retailers have plenty of options to deal with. (Checkout abandonment rates in Q2 2013 averaged 75.5% across all industry verticals.
Martin (Marty) Smith:

YES Enclose That Checkout
As a Director of Ecommerce I came to think of checkout as similar to a plane landing. When a plane is landing its wheels are down, flaps set and they are coming in UNLESS there is a distraction or a danger. 

Checking out should be like landing a plane - clear, well mapped and without distractions or dangers. Enclosing the checkout reduces distractions. 

You worked so hard to get your customers into a checkout process you should ENCLOSE the process by reducing or eliminating upsale, navigation and other distractions and this post shows you how.  

 

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December 7, 2013

Ecommies Holiday 2013 Report Card
Martin (Marty) Smith

Ecommies - Identifying ecommerce trends, rate and review ecom tools and hold annual awards.

Holiday 2013 Awards
First Ecommies Holiday ratings are in. William-Sonoma & REI.com top the list in November and December.  L. L. Bean gets "most improved" award from November to December and several trends emerge:

* Free Shipping out and back is trending especially in December. 
* Free shipping all orders is trending. 

* Hiding free shipping behind either codes or triggers is declining.

* Deal of the Day is trending with majors like REI.com adding DOD.

* Standard credit card based loyalty programs prevalent. 

* Still many catalog and retail merchandising tactics such as "door busters". 


Ratings report card on Google docs: http://bit.ly/1bPhwz3 


Holiday ecommerce merchandising wasn't very inspired this year. December ratings went DOWN from November. Based on this year's performance ecommerce is clearly in a rut. 

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September 12, 2013

Top Ten Online Shopping Websites
Martin (Marty) Smith
best online shopping websites, popular ecommerce stores, list of sites for online shoppers, top ten ecommerce websites, websites like flipkart, amazon, ebay
Martin (Marty) Smith:

A few "new to me" sites on this list along with the usual suspects.

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July 16, 2013

Ecom Lesson #1: Create A Checkout That ROCKS
Martin (Marty) Smith
Here are a few fundamental guidelines that can get you started in improving or designing a perfect checkout e-commerce funnel.
Martin (Marty) Smith:

Work Backwards
Most website designers work IN to the checkout. This means they are spending most of their time on pages that are important but less important than the checkout. 

Check is where ecommerce rubber meets road. If you create sense of security and ease people remember and return. If your cart is complicated, clicky-y and a pain they don't. I typically pick these "how to" posts apart because they over simplify and so kill the real issue of commerce online. 

This post is solid, shares great tips and knows what it is talking about (no nits from me, stop the presses LOL). If you are creating an ecommerce store, and everyone should have one, follow these tips to create a solid checkout experience. 

Not a bad idea to work backwards. Create the cart first and let that design set the clear and simple tone for the rest of the site. 

Read my 5 New Ecommerce Lessons for why everyone should have an ecommerce store:

http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2013/06/5-new-ecommerce-lessons.html 

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January 28, 2013

eCommerce: Powerful UPS Graphic & comScore White Paper A Must Read
Martin (Marty) Smith
The UPS new logistics can help grow your business, provide customer service solutions, improve efficiency and productivity, and increase sustainability. Put the new logistics to work for you.
Martin (Marty) Smith:

If you run an eCommerce website take a look at these great factoids on the UPS website. Love how the leading to the comScore white paper is such a rich, engaging page. The comScore study is a longer read, but well worth it since I bet your site follows trends conScore outlines.

Use the comScore study to see where your eCommerce site is out of alignment and then tune it to make more money even as you spend less. This great UPS graphic about why people abandon their carts and the comScore report will be helpful in understanding how your Ecom site compares to baselines and best practices.

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