The 2013 holiday season (Thanksgiving to Christmas) is the shortest since 2002. Analysts had predicted slower sales than in recent years over the post
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Fascinating infographic showing how Americans ae spending their money and time online this holiday season.
According to a study from Adobe, in 2012 repeat shoppers made up just 8% of all site visitors in the US yet they accounted for nearly 41% of total online sales.So bearing in mind the fact that it’s also cheaper to keep a customer than it is to attract a new one, businesses need to be working hard to keep shoppers satisfied and give them a reason to return.With this in mind, I’ve rounded up 11 ways in which ecommerce retailers can improve customer retention....
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Easier to make more money from customers already acquired and almost no website pays much aattenton to thst idea.
Here are tips on how to improve your ecommerce website's UI to encourage repeat visits. I would ad DOD (deal of the day) which seems to be gaining momentum and macro categorization for your your personas. At this time of year havig a For Him, For Her, For Kids is good macro categorizaton.
There is a case to be made that soon; online experiences will be replaced entirely by mobile experiences. Utilizing Artificial Intelligence can grow mobile commerce through discovery and personalization.
Marty Note
This is an important post since it points out how ecommerce is ahead and behind the game:
"...we have concepts but no real, new, immersive experience in our present online shops."
We learn the same hard lesson over and over. Taking ecommerce websites and putting them on to mobile devices is like taking the motor out of a roller coaster. You can push the cars, but the thrill is gone.
"So, what does it take to really change shopping? One key is to bring the best of the offline world to the online world, and this can be summed up in the seamless way we "discover" in physical environments and the way we "learn" about new products."
"Virtual assistants are, in effect, highly intelligent recommendation systems. These recommendations systems for the future will drive sales by gathering knowledge from the organization, information and data to create intelligent solutions that differentiate businesses."
"Two other transformative ways Artificial Intelligence can grow mobile commerce are bringing the long tail to life through discovery and personalization."
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I like recommendation engines too, but think the mobile engine that emerges is going to be more social and communal than this article projects. Regardless this is an important post with solid ideas on what the "new ecommerce: will look, feel and act like on our phones and pads.
More "Mobile First" thoughts on GPlus:
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/LQFqeEowKPT
IndyWeek.com Give Guide
The linked post is the "inside baseball" story of how a local free print publication created the first Indy Give Guide (http://give.indyweek.com/ ). The "Give Guide" is way to help local nonprofits raise funds and it is content, social and ECOMMERCE gold.
I am writing almost a bog post a day about the Guide and driving social links to our Story of Cancer Page http://give.indyweek.com/Nonprofits/Health-and-Wellness/Story-of-Cancer-Foundation ). Every Ecom Director's ears just perked up (lol).
Cause marketing done right rocks social maketing and an Ecom merchants register like no other conent marketing. The IndyWeek.com give guide is cause marketing done right because:
* Low cost, Big Reward (traffic, brand awareness, SEO).
* Emotionally resonate especially at this time of year.
* Focused altruism that builds a strong network of contributors for future years.
* Helps first and figures out money later (perfect for our Thank You based economy).
If your band, company or website hasn't figured out how to create something as cool as the IndyWeek.com Give Guide steal the idea and mashup a great and related list of nonprofits in your business vertical.
If you sell HVAC you might create a guide based on your customer's favorite charities. If you are a B2B agency ask your customers who they give to and mashup a guide from those connections.
The IndyWeek.com GiveGuide is a great example of how a little creativity and the right altruistic idea can make a HUGE difference in your Website's authority and SEO AND it helps local charities feed hunger tigers and cure cancer so that is cool too :).
Story of Cancer Foundation page on GiveGuide
http://give.indyweek.com/Nonprofits/Health-and-Wellness/Story-of-Cancer-Foundation
Meshing A V8 SLAP
Had a V8 Slap today when I realized that the way Google has set up this new chess board doesn't favor the creation of new anything. When we started working on CureCancerStarter.org the chess board seemed to favor a User Generated Content (UGC) platform.
We wanted to create Kickstarter.com for cancer research. Great idea, but too late. Post Google's algorithm changes where social signals rule and trusted sources have all the high ground thinking in ways to fit YOURS into THEIRS is more productive and a better bet.
Important for ecommerce merchants to think in these terms:
* Appify.
* Widgetize. * Gamify.
Ecommerce merchants may be the most impacted by these changes. Commerce can happen anywhere so why isn't it? Our merchant minds, I ran a sizable ecom website for 7 years, still focus on CASTLE building when we should be thinking about crowd converting.
Find ways to EMBED and MESH your ideas into already scaled systems and your idea, startup or site might just survive long enough to matter. One you matter you can think about castle building.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
We've done a bunch of good things on the CureCancerStarter.org design, but, as with any new thing, there are areas that need improvement too, As an old ecommerce Director I like "money maps"
Money Maps
Money maps are when you detail how many steps it takes to checkout. Even if your cart is advanced enough to stay within one page Money Maps are still a very good idea. The more clear you can be graphically about where a visitor is in the process the more conversions your ecommerce (or in this case a 501c3 nonprofit seeking donations) will receive.
Trust Marks
No one ever clicks on a Trust Mark, but their absence is suspicious so I like to include them but rarely use the widget supplied by the company (because the widget can slow the page down and no one clicks on it anyway). Take a picture of the trust mark and print the words Trusted and Secure under your marks.
Trusted and Secure identifies why the marks are there and there is research that shows merely saying a power word like "trusted" helps create trust. In our case the bridge is Authorize.net, the CC processor varies so instead of getting into all of that I suggest we opt for the cancer center logo.
By using the cancer center logo next to the Authorize.net logo the context is clear and the trust extends both ways (from Auth.net to the cancer center and back again).
I will hand my rough over to our designers and UX people, but creating a money map and including trust marks wrap a NEW idea such as CureCnacerStarter.org in comfortable recognizable process. Comfort is GOOD when creating the trust needed to help visitors become buyers or donors.
Teams I've managed have made more than $30M online, but I never had to worry about our #ecommerce backend because we had a great team and it never came up. Not knowing what I don't know just cost me and http://www.curecancerstarter.org .
My mistake was in thinking Auth.net was both "payment gateway" and "credit card processor". NOPE. Auth.net is a "payment gateway" meaning they encrypt the transaction (for security reasons) and ship it over to a bank or credit card processor such as Sterling Buying Group or Elavon across a secure "bridge".
So when you put your Auth.net account into "test" mode you are really only testing if you have a valid and verified Auth.net token. You are NOT testing the entire roundtrip.
My friend and #ecom mentor Eric Garrison just let me know you can pay for a one time round trip to test (sure you aren't limited to once but each test would be a fee) to test both payment gateway and CC processor.
Setting up your Auth.net and payment gateway is a series of inter-connected forms (something I do so well anymore since it takes patience and detailed diligence). I trust Eric and his amazing wife Cynthia to help set up my accounts.
In fact I told someone from the Sterling Buying Group recently to think of Cynthia Garrison as my sister and tell her whatever they would tell me. If you have that kind of relationship with your website HOST then you may not ever need to know about how payment gateways relate to credit card processors.
And how when you are "testing" auth.net you aren't testing much, but if you don't have a "sister" like Cynthia you may want to read the linked post on GPlus. Did I just learn this lesosn the hard way? Yep, like most lessons.
A infographic featuring web design trends for 2013 created by Enfuzed. This is the original!
Martin (Marty) Smith:
If your Ecom webstie isn't responsive, doesn't have great content and isn't social....well good luck with that and be sue to send a card from where you end up in Jaunuary :).
Discover the best ecommerce platforms from our roundup of the top four ecommerce solutions in the market.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Great post about the Goodl and Bad associated with each ecommerce platofrm. Very detailed and accurate. I've used Shopify and Magento. I found Magento to be powerful but SLOW. We create Magento ecommerce websites at Atlantic BT and they must be served correclty or they too are slow.
Shopify clearly benefits Shopify, but wrestling benefit out fo their platform for yourself is a differnet challenge entirely.
Marty
I don't know this Ecommerce agency, but their video points to a BIG problem with video marketing - it seems easy. Video marketing is far from easy. This video is a classic example for burying the lead. After some loud rock music and four slides in we see they've worked on 150 Magento ecom websites.
THAT’S THE LEAD & IT'S BURIED.
Instead of the rock music I would start with a quiet single piano followed by this slide sequence:
Slide One: Magento Is The Most Dominant Ecommerce Platform.
Slide Two: Leading Retailers Using Magento Include (pick three in different verticals).
Slide Three: We've created 153 Magento Ecommerce sites.
Slide Four: Last Year Our Magento Ecommerce Sites Generated over $100M in Sales.
Slide Five: Like Hearth Surgery The More Magento You Do The Better You Get. Slide Six: Don't risk the HEART of your business.
Slide Seven: Call COMPANY NAME at PHONE
I would build the piano into a jazz piece by the end. My proposed sequence tells the Magento Story, creates a "Made To Stick" Analogy for the company's expertise and is SPECIFIC about exactly how many sites were created and how much money they've generated.
Never say things like "We've created 150+ Magento sites" because not being specific lowers your legitimacy. Even if by the time your viewer sees the video you will have created 300 Magento sties BE SPECIFIC and update later.
The other problem this video demonstrates is the NO STORY problem. We won't pay attention to o understand noise. Story creates connection and connection creates understanding. Always tell a story. My sequence tells the Magento story assuming that is the stronger story to tell.
If the firm was a branded firm I would tell the firm's story, but a low cost possible offshore provider should tell the story of the nearest brand - in this case Magento.
Checkout is where rubber meets road in ecommerce. Great infographic showing checkout design trends among top 200 online merchants around the world here.
Building an eCommerce Website: What You Need to Know Building an eCommerce Website There are few things more exciting than starting an ecommerce website and be(...) (RT @VinsDomainscom: Building an eCommerce Website: What You Need to Know
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Great post for anyone new to ecommerce. As a former Director of Ecommerce I recommend reading this article before opening a store. I made a comment about adding a paragraph about the importance of internal merchandising via cross and up sale and internal search, but the emphasis here is perfect, in the right place and in the right priority.
Everyone Is In The Viral Business Now When everyone is in the “viral business” it is harder for anyone to cut through clutter and have a small thing become a big thing.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Five tips I wrote about the other day are:
1. Process Is Product. 2. Know Your Content (not all content equally viral). 3. Who You Know, Who You Follow. 4. When To Post Where. 5. Great Titles & Share Breakout data.
Five elements creating an eCommerce store can bring to your marketing efforts. Master marketer Martin W.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Loved it when Mark made a Haiku Deck out of my blog post. His Hiaku Deck has about 3x the views as the original 1,000 word blog post so pretty good lesson there about visual marketing and the lean content movement.
Gamer Joseph Kim Rocks E-commerce These are the times we live in. Times when one of the most substantial, intelligent and interesting e-commerce and cont
Martin (Marty) Smith:
I built on Joseph Kim's amazing 12 Critical Mobile Monetization Concepts to beat a familiar drum - the sooner e-commerce merchants think like video game developers the more money they will make.
Soon there will be a dividing line between ecom websites that understand how the semantic web. Expect a growing demand for relevance and trust (in visitor intelligence and web savvy) to change website design.
Kim's article, the first of a promised three parter, is an amazing find since it makes the point of how similar video game development and ecommerce is and will become. Once Google UNDERSTANDS our content the more "game-like" it is the more visitors will become buyers.
I've often been asked how teams I've mananged made over $30M online with AOVs (Average Order Values) never higher than $62. The secret is to be five minutes ahead. Kim's post and thinking like a video game developer as you merdhandise your e-commerce website will help your team be five minutes ahead.
Oh, and this next wave, the semantic web wave, is going to be a monster, so surf if you dare :). M
Holiday Ecommerce
Good article on Holiday marketing strategies. Most Ecomerce retailers are putting finishing touches on their plans. I like the way this post organizes RETURN first. Always easier to sell MORE to people who already love you. I would add these tips for returning:
* Ask for advocacy. * Gamify something. * Curate something. * Pad or Phone something.
Find a way to take some direction from your customers. When we ran out of sale inspiration we asked our best customers what we should put on sale when I was a Director of Ecommerce. We got great suggestions and sales. One great rule to ecommerce Internet marketing is when in doubt ASK.
This year I would make it a point to ASK for advocacy, create a game (or two or three) make sure you make your holiday gig MOBILE and curate something of THEIRS to your site.
Inbound Marketing
Some of the same advice, especially the mobile part, goes for inbound B2B marketing during 4Q. Create a cool User Generated Content (UGC) contest and curate content, ideas, comments and visuals from your visitors, customers, advocates and friends.
PPC
I wouldn't buy anything NEW during 4Q despite the incorrect belief that MORE can help if numbers start to dip. PPC is a TIMED and REPUTATION activity so double down on what is working but don't buy NEW until after 1.1.14.
There’s no question that ranking higher than your competitors on Google is a must. But, what if you don’t know the SEO tips and tricks that will get your e-commerce site to the top?
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Great KISSmetrics post on SEO for Ecom.
Running a small business has never been easier with the influx of small business apps. Tried and true businesses to new startups are disrupting the where, when, and how small businesses run.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Excellent infographic showing a couple of trends:
* Ecom Customer Service Apps are breaking out all over.
* Possible to run an Ecom store from anywhere doing anything.
* Everyone should have an Ecommerce store.
Of course my favorite is the last bullet :). M
Holiday Ecommerce 20 Questions
If your Internet marketing team can answer YES to the 20 content marketing, social marketing, email marketing and cause marketing questions then wax up your board and hit the beach.
Better to SURF now with solid plans in place than even think about time off once the October tsunami hits. This time of year it took 2.4 visits to make a sale when I was an Ecom Director. In October it took 1.3 visits and in November and December a little over one.
Those numbers mean NOW is the time to test and create plans so you don't have to THEN. Plan now, DO THEN :).
Whether you're building an iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Facebook or cross-platform app, this superb selection of tutorials will help you on your way...
Martin (Marty) Smith:
The Appification of Ecommerce
About a year ago I purchased a new MacBook Air. Seeing how my new laptop related to the world much like an iPad with apps and an app store was a revelation. Apps will rule the world.
This trend is why we are all app builders now and these tutorials are a must view. The trend toward apps is more than you think. A few days ago I shared a Haiku Deck about the future of web design 3.0 (http://sco.lt/7r6zkf).
I missed the appification of everything. Apps, the widget-like shrinking of code to Lego blocks, form the core of mobile programming. Since mobile is taking over the smart move is to "appify" everything.
This means thinking of websites as interconnected blocks responding to each other and our visitors in real time (as described in the deck). Best demonstration or analogy for this fluid app future is MIT's David Merrill explaining Siftable at TED http://www.ted.com/talks/david_merrill_demos_siftables_the_smart_blocks.html .
The way Siftables related to one another (they are aware other Siftables are present and have a desire to connect if code expressed as a toy can have desires) and link in order to create a sum is greater than the whole universe is a great way to think about the New Ecommerce.
The new ecom is location agnostic (capable of converting anywhere at anytime and with the merest snippet of Siftable-like code), socially self aware (capable of pulling friends and their influencers into the equation) and appified (small Lego-like blocks snapped together to meet specific needs).
Sometimes we will snap in the predictive analytics block sometimes we might now. Other times we will want the social share block other times not. Design, in this Siftables-like future, becomes a series of WHAT IF conditions and testing, always testing.
Going to be fun and why it is a GOOD idea to become an app builder.
Martin (Marty) Smith:
Common Ecom SEO Mistakes
It is easy to take one step forward and two back with your online store's SEO. Here are 5 common mistakes to avoid.
5 Common E-Commerce SEO Mistakes
1. Poor Titles. 2. Slow Pages.
3. No UNIQUE titles across all pages.
4. No use of Canonical URLS to prevent dupe content. 5. Poor keyword density in navigation.
Titles and H1s matter a lot in these post Panda and Penguin days, so research them. Always start with who is winning top positions now. Also remember you must use a tool like Mike's Keyword Checker to know the absolute position of your pages or your competitors on a keyword phrase due to the Google float.
If you have video or large graphics give some thought to a Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDNs are TRICKY, so treat them with care and try to keep your pages LIGHT in code and graphics. CDNs cache your images and so can speed up your page loads, but nothing can help dense, heavy pages with lots of code and multiple layers of Javascript.
Titles MUST be unique. You can use business rules to generate titles, but make sure those rules NEVER create the same title over and over. Remember 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your pages, so you don't have to get 1M page titles perfect. Make sure the pages that MATTER have great titles and you should be fine.
Canonical URLS identify MASTER pages, the pages you want in Google and OTHER pages that shouldn't be included. Duplicating content from outside or inside your site can cause penalties and damage so use canonical urls to stay in Google's good graces (btw it is VERY easy to duplicate content without meaning to spam, so BE CAREFUL).
If your navigation says, "Services" you are nuts. Do you want your website to rank for "services" or Internet Marketing, Email Marketing and SEO? Use keywords in your nav because your nav sits in <a href LINK> tags the most.
DON'T use keywords that aren't appropriate for the category or pages, but be sure KEYWORDS are in your nav
My very RARE Keith Haring TV Man watch made by Playboy is for sale to benefit Story of Cancer Foundation along with almost everything I own. Who will be the first to place an order on our Story of Cancer Store?
We launched on D-Day because we are storming the beaches of a new ecommerce to help cure cancer. Every purchase / donation helps cure cancer. First order receives a Story of Cancer Foundation tee (also very rare lol).
Thanks, Marty
---
Martin W. Smith
Founder, Story of Cancer Foundation
Cancer Survivor
@StoryofCancer
@ScentTrail
A McKinsey iConsumer survey spotlights key trends in e-commerce, mobile, multichannel, social media, and big data. From McKinsey via Visual.ly. Tons of excellent infographics in one place.
Europe is higher up on the evolutionary Ecom ladder than USA. Perhaps due to high gasoline prices or not having as dispersed or developed a brick and mortar environment (would be hard to duplicate Walmart's distribution prowess when so many countries are involved) England's retail is already at 15% several points ahead of America.
This infographic is instructive about the future of the world, ecommerce, mobile commerce and social media.
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