50 Best Tips of 2012

Affiliate Marketing
1. Use affiliate marketing to reach a global audience. This requires advertisers to not only create landing pages and creative that targets different audiences in different languages, but also to change strategies and distribution methods. It requires affiliates to know what works in each country or be willing to experiment with new offers and new audiences. It requires networks to be able to communicate with and appeal to a diverse group of international advertisers and clients.
Mariska Roodenrijs, sterkly, "Top Affiliate Marketing Trends to Leverage," March 1, ROI Report

B-to-B
2. Understanding how your business buyers are shopping means meeting their desire for a richer, deeper browsing experience. One area where B-to-C sites typically excel is in their ability to gather relevant data and provide recommendations tailored to each shopper. Knowing the right products or bundles of products to place in front of your business buyers opens tremendous opportunities for upselling, cross-selling and cross-promotion.
Michael Chuma, Digital River, "Breaking Down Barriers to B-to-B Online Commerce," Sept. 25, ROI Report

Catalog Marketing
3. Calculate your own cost per order (i.e., the cost to acquire a new customer) for pay per click and catalog to see if you can improve your prospecting results and return on investment by strategically increasing your catalog prospect mailings.
Susan J. McIntryre, McIntyre Direct, "The Amazing, Portable, Low-Cost, Handheld Device for Delivering Sales," September/October, Retail Online Integration

Cross-Channel Integration
4. Embrace the web in-store. More retailers are offering free Wi-Fi on premise in order to enable consumers to compare prices and product features in-store. One benefit to this transparency is added trust. The retailer is there to immediately discuss with shoppers what their online research is showing and can even offer a matching or competitive price in order to save a sale if a shopper finds a lower price elsewhere.
Jack Abraham, eBay, "Sparks Fly When Online Meets Offline," March 5, ROI Report

5. Focus on the brand first and channels second. Review people, reward people and measure brand success, not channel success. It's easy to improve sales in one channel while hurting or at least ignoring the other. This doesn't help. Remember our job is to take market share from our competitors, not other marketing channels.
Lisa Gavales, EXPRESS, "The Top Women in Cross-Channel Retail," March/April, Retail Online Integration

6. Use a bounceback. Similar to how online retailers often include promotional materials in shipments of products — e.g., Amazon.com including a discount offer on a flyer with products ordered — always have your staff put a catalog or some other marketing collateral into the bag your customers take away with them.
Jim Gilbert, Gilbert Direct, "Shop Talk," September/October, Retail Online Integration

Customer Service
7. Create direct relationships. Retailers are at war with brands over direct relationships with consumers. Brand manufacturers are increasingly looking to sell direct to consumers via e-commerce sites. They no longer need to go through retailers. Brands are seeking "cradle to grave" relationships with consumers. To combat this trend, retailers need to stop being in an arms race for "Likes" and follows. Instead, retailers should be the ones liking their customers and prospects.
Mitch Joel, Twist Image, "Predicting the Next 5 Years in Retail," Jan. 18, ROI Report

8. Hire sales associates that are like your target customers. Consumers like to buy things from people that are like them.
Kirit Sarvaiya, Guitar Center, "Video: Guitar Center's Kirit Sarvaiya Discusses Winning Web Shoppers at NRF's Big Show," Jan. 23, ROI Report

9. Provide self-service options. Your customers demand the right to serve themselves. Self-service, formerly a sketchy domain, is now seen by consumers as a must. Consumers demand the availability of self-service because it offers them 24-hour convenience.
Micah Solomon, Business author/speaker/consultant, "4 Rules for Customer Service in the New World of Social Commerce," Feb. 17, ROI Report

Database Marketing
10. Track key segmentation variables — e.g., how did a customer come to your website; did they receive a catalog; what was the first order profit; what's the expected rebuy rate; what can you afford on subsequent contacts — within your customer database. Incorporate segment knowledge such as the answers to these questions into your profile rankings, then let them be a guide for your 12-month spend forecasts.
Jennifer Kwiatkowski, Plow & Hearth, "How Plow & Hearth Uses Analytics to Determine Contact Strategies," March 20, ROI Report

11. When retailers buy stock for seasonal promotions (e.g., Super Bowl, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day), they have a sense of urgency as the date gets closer to get rid of the inventory. Take Halloween for example. A retailer in this space could pull a customer report of everyone that came to its site but didn't buy a costume, then send an email campaign to those visitors offering last-minute costume ideas.
Eric Tobias, iGoDigital, "How to Leverage Big Data for More Targeted and Effective Marketing," April 19, ROI Report

Email Marketing
12. Set up a welcome campaign. Develop a plan to introduce your company and its products/services to the user over a two-week to three-week period. Usually this can be done with three emails to eight emails, depending on how much you have to say. Like an initial thank-you email, this series should be an introduction to everything the user needs to know about you … and then some. Don't be afraid to be provocative, aggressive and salesy.
Amy Africa, Eight by Eight, "Shop Talk," March/April, Retail Online Integration

13. It's a rule of thumb that customers who have purchased from you recently are more likely to purchase again. You might consider creating different test groups for former buyers — e.g., no purchases within the last 60 days, no purchases in the last two months to a year and no purchases in over a year. Try sweetening your offer for inactive buyers to motivate them to purchase.
Reggie Brady, Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions, "How to Use Segmentation to Increase Email Relevance," July/August, Retail Online Integration

In-Store Marketing
14. Align your staff to traffic, not transactions. Aligning your staff resources to when prospects are in your store will help maximize the chances of converting more visitors into buyers. Pay particular attention to lunchtime, when store traffic can be way up. Staff lunch breaks can seriously drag down conversion rates. Associates need to eat, but shoppers need to be served. Matching staff schedules to traffic volume and timing will improve your chances of converting more in-store shoppers.
Mark Ryski, HeadCount, "5 Ways to Drive Customer Conversion Rates in Your Stores," Jan. 16, ROI Report

15. The best in-store marketing tool is a broom. Consumers like to shop in a clean and spotless atmosphere. Make sure that your windows sparkle and your floors shine.
Sruly Markowitz, StoreSigns.com, "How Retailers Can Optimize In-Store Marketing Efforts," March 28, ROI Report

Inventory Management
16. Have inventory planners perform in-season reforecasts. Doing so enables your business to make faster, smarter repurchase decisions when reordering inventory to fulfill projected shortages; cancel or delay purchase orders for unneeded inventory; direct consumers to the highest quality inventory to optimize sales, reduce wasteful marketing expenses and clear out excess inventory; and initiate markdowns on overstocks to maximize gross margin and dispose of unwanted inventory (quick response yields the best possible gross margin while minimizing inventory carrying costs).
Joe Palzkill, Direct Tech, "How Inventory Planning Supports Marketing Decisions," Jan. 27, Return on Inventory blog

17. Have an end-of-season clearance sale. Merchandise clearance items on your main site in separate clearance pages that are linked or in header navigation that's found on all pages.
Jim Wehmann, Digital River, "Inventory Lifecycle Management: Online Liquidation Strategies," Feb. 8, ROI Report

18. Set a minimum monthly sales threshold per product, review product sales each month and be diligent about discontinuing items that don't meet the threshold. The cost of holding that inventory and waiting for consumers to find it and respond almost always outpaces the gross margin benefit of waiting to sell at full price.
Joe Palzkill, Direct Tech, "How to Manage Nonproductive Inventory, Part 2," March 8, Return on Inventory blog

Loyalty Marketing
19. Build a loyalty program that allows customers to enroll while in-store, track purchases and redeem points — all from their mobile device. Retailers need to mobilize their rewards program now and plan for the future.
Carrie Chitsey, 3Seventy, Blinx,"What Technology Has in Store for the Retail Industry," Feb. 7, ROI Report

20. Roll out a social loyalty program. By incorporating social elements into your loyalty program, you can influence not only spending behavior but also brand advocacy. Using social motivators (e.g., leaderboards, badges, public mentions) in addition to traditional financial motivators can amplify results at a low cost. Incorporating referral elements adds acquisition to traditional retention-oriented program metrics. Social loyalty programs can increase total customer value, impacting not only how much they spend on an individual basis but also how much they influence others.
Bob Tekiela, 500Friends, "Turbocharging Loyalty Programs With Social Media," March 6, ROI Report

Management
21. Empower your employees to push back. Tell them your goals then ask them how they'll help you to achieve them. Allow people to fail and learn from their mistakes. Have others talk first at board meetings. This prevents their opinions from being swayed by the boss.
Brian Devine, PETCO, "Leadership Tips From Top Retail Execs," Jan. 19, ROI Report

22. Use technology to communicate internally and externally. Social media isn't just for customers. Chances are that your employees are on social networks and have electronic devices, so communicate with them through these channels. And don't just communicate with your customers and employees. Maintain open lines of communication with your investors and suppliers as well.
Angela Ahrendts, Burberry, "Leadership Tips From Top Retail Execs," Jan. 19, ROI Report

Merchandising
23. Here are some ideas you can use to sell a "me too" product to help it stand on its own:

• Deliver it faster. Check out your competitor's shipping policy; if it promises shipping in seven days, offer shipping in five days or, better yet, three days.
• Make it easier. Does your checkout page require customers to complete multiple steps (10 or more) to place an order? If so, streamline your checkout process to three steps or less.
• Make it bigger. Does your competitor sell a single item? Find out if you can sell a three-pack or six-pack.
• Make it more expensive. This may sound counterintuitive, but it works. Some consumers want "the best" and will go for the more expensive option automatically. If you can back your higher price tag with greater value, you'll pull in people looking for the Rolls Royce.

John Lawson, 3rd Power Outlet, "Top 3 Mistakes Online Retailers Make and How to Avoid Them," May 30, ROI Report

Mobile Marketing/Commerce
24. Make your app(s) free. Most businesses think charging for an app will boost their bottom line, but making your app free is the smart move. You wouldn't charge someone to visit your website, would you?
Scott Hirsch, appsbar.com,"ROI for Apps: Return on Interesting," Jan. 13, ROI Report

25. The cross-channel impact of mobile marketing and commerce is what retailers should be concerning themselves with. Technologies such as 3-D cameras and near-field communication are great, but consumers are most frequently using their smartphones for simple tasks such as checking a store's hours, looking for the nearest retail store or looking up product information.
Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research, "What Last Year's Retail Trends Mean for 2012," Jan. 17, ROI Report

26. Rethink search and navigation elements for tablets. Small text menus (e.g., items in lists of refinements) are difficult to tap on without hitting another item by mistake. This is also true for pagination numbers and buttons that are close together. Consider making font sizes and action buttons bigger than what you'd normally use on your regular website. Drop-down menus give users full refinement capability while saving screen space by hiding options when not in use.
Thierry Costa, SLI Systems, "4 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Tablets," April 4,ROI Report

27. Move ahead and don't hesitate. Retailers that insist on total package functionality to go live will miss the boat, and retailers that wait until every piece of the puzzle appears to be in place will suffer from never being ready. Those who spend undo time and effort selecting the ideal OS are going to find themselves stuck with antiquated hardware and a nonupgradable application.
John Kenney, Stella Nova Technologies, "Tips for an Effective Mobile POS Implementation," April 20, ROI Report

28. Don't make sacrifices for tablet compatibility. Though tablets may be considered a mobile device, tablet users often expect a full browsing experience similar to using a PC. Displaying a template optimized for a mobile phone on a tablet could result in a lot of wasted space. Render your full site on tablets for the best browsing experience.
Fred Lizza, Dydacomp, "5 Tips to Drive Mobile Commerce," July 18, ROI Report

29. Set up a mobile website. Apps are certainly valuable, but to be relevant all you need is an optimized mobile web experience. Most consumers say they do research and prefer to shop using a mobile website instead of apps, as browsing and searching for products is second nature to them.
Uzair Dada, Iron Horse Interactive, "Analyzing the Impact Mobile Will Have on Holiday Shopping," Aug. 9, ROI Report

Online Marketing
30. Use display as a retention tool to complement your email program. Start to deliver highly personalized messages outside of the inbox. Display is quickly becoming the optimal channel for targeted and personalized advertising to identified users.
Heather Blank, Responsys, "4 Email Marketing Trends to Capitalize On," March 2, ROI Report

31. Invest in multimedia content. A retailer shouldn't just show a still image of a product in space. Rather, showcase the item "in the wild" being used, thrown, hung, worn or driven. Every product has got a function or purpose; use lifestyle images and video as a way to ignite a conversation about them.
David Sasson, overstockArt.com, "Tips for Capitalizing on Social Media Trends," May 9,ROI Report

32. Separate yourself from the millions of businesses that are hiding from their customers by posting your privacy and return policies. Be fair. For example, if something is on back order, let consumers know before they try to order it.
Jared Gerber, IMAGINE IT Web Design & SEO, "10 Tips to Maximize Your Website Conversion Rate," Oct. 5, ROI Report

Operations & Fulfillment
33. Establish hot-pick zones. Put your best-selling items in the most accessible storage areas (e.g., ends of aisles) without creating traffic jams. As much as 70 percent of a picker's time is spent walking the warehouse floor. Reduce walk distance and time and you increase productivity and reduce costs.
Curt Barry, F. Curtis Barry & Co., "Better Than Santa's Elves," July/August, Retail Online Integration

34. Give your customers deferred delivery choices. Consider adding deferred residential ground shipping alternatives to your website — e.g., UPS SurePost, FedEx SmartPost, Newgistics and EquaShip. These methods may add days in transit, but at significantly lower pricing than FedEx and UPS air and ground services.
Rob Martinez, Shipware, "A How-To Guide to Being a Successful Cross-Channel Retailer in 2012," January/February, Retail Online Integration

35. For those online sellers with a retail presence, consider offering free shipping for pickup in-store. You avoid high-cost residential delivery charges as well as maximize cross-sell and upsell opportunities. As an added benefit, this tactic lowers the cost of returns, too.
Rob Martinez, Shipware, "A How-To Guide to Being a Successful Cross-Channel Retailer in 2012," January/February, Retail Online Integration

Printing
36. The printers you're obtaining bids from need to include a "net" postage estimate, including all fees. Looking at print manufacturing and paper prices only isn't enough. It falls short of the total amount you pay to print and mail catalogs. After all co-mail fees, the net savings should range from three cents to six cents per catalog. There's a fairly wide range of savings due to the quantity mailed.
Stephen R. Lett, Lett Direct, "What Cross-Channel Retailers Need to Know When Getting Print Bids," July/ August, Retail Online Integration

Search
37. Smart suggestions. Google pioneered the autofill technology, and while it's become almost second nature to all internet search boxes, there are plenty of e-commerce retailers that still aren't affording this simple luxury to their visitors. Not only does autofill compensate for the human error of forgetting a full product name or title, it can suggest new, similar items that the consumer never considered before.
Diane Buzzeo, Ability Commerce, "5 Ways to Maximize Your On-Site Search," May 10,ROI Report

38. Enhanced categories. When in doubt, err on the side of specificity. Organizing your online inventory too broadly leaves shoppers with an unnecessary amount of legwork. If you specialize in a certain type of product but carry multiple brands, make sure that visitors can narrow their search by the same criteria. Even providing the ability to search within product categories by price range or customer review rating lends itself to a more consumer-centric experience.
Diane Buzzeo, Ability Commerce, "5 Ways to Maximize Your On-Site Search," May 10,ROI Report

Security
39. To effectively assess the impact fraud is having on their profitability, retailers must measure beyond the loss of the good and include shipping fees, restocking fees and interest — all costs associated with inefficient fraud prevention.
Jim Rice, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, "Fraud Prevention Tips to Help You Save Money and Keep the Bad Guys Away," May 22, ROI Report

40. Frequent software updates can protect businesses from Zeus and other types of malware. Sophisticated malware attacks often gain access to systems by exploiting security vulnerabilities in common software solutions (e.g., Windows, Java, Adobe, etc.). To ensure the integrity of your system, make sure that all devices and access points have been updated with the most recent security patches.
Andreas Baumhof, ThreatMetrix, "The Zeus Trojan: How Online Retailers Can Protect Themselves from the Latest Malware Threat," Oct. 10, ROI Report

Social Media
41. Not all social posts require a response. Robust listening platforms along with strategies to prioritize posts can make social response manageable and effective.
Al Rose, TELUS International, "Measuring Your Company's Social Care Efforts," March 30, ROI Report

42. Avoid overt attempts at selling and focus on community building. Don't just transform your Facebook page into a list of product links. This turns away consumers faster than you can imagine. Social networks are communication platforms first and foremost, so maintaining a flow of communication with and between your customers is key. Build a community around your products, engage your customers, encourage fan-to-fan communication and product discussions, then simply offer a convenient way to buy.
Ruslan Fazlyev, Ecwid, "6 Ways to Succeed With Social Commerce," June 21, ROI Report

43. Rely on what's popular at the moment. Pay attention to seasons, holidays, events, trends, etc., and ride the wave of enthusiasm. Tag other pages in these kinds of posts. When you strike upon a shared passion, you may be able to expand your audience.
Carolee Sherwood, Media Logic, "5 Tips to Help Retailers Increase Fan Engagement," September/October, Retail Online Integration

Video Marketing
44. Present qualified prospects and abandoners with video pre-roll ads that are personalized and generated in real time. The ad is based on the consumer's shopping history and presents relevant products and current deals most appropriate to their browsing behavior on the site.
Yaniv Axen, SundaySky, "How to Enhance Your Brand With Personalized Video," Jan. 24, ROI Report

45. Ensure your videos are mobile compliant. Social sharing is a fundamental goal of every dynamic video initiative. To accommodate sharing on Facebook and Twitter, brand videos need to be mobile compliant and driven by HTML5 technology. During the design and development stage, make sure product videos and other dynamic content will be viewable across the widest possible spectrum of mobile device platforms.
Jason Arena, KSC Kreate, "Optimizing Product Videos to Impact Consumer Intent," Feb. 20, ROI Report

46. Use video site maps for video search engine optimization. When you submit Google video site maps, your videos become indexed by Google. This enables your video thumbnails to display in search results for video SEO purposes.
Justin Foster, LiveClicker, "A How-To Guide to Being a Successful Cross-Channel Retailer in 2012," January/February, Retail Online Integration

Web Analytics
47. Track actions (not just page views) like adding a product to a cart, clicking a sign-up button or performing a product search. Tracking these actions gives you more meaningful insight into the behavioral profiles of your customers.
Elie Khoury, Woopra, "3 Ways to Increase Sales With Real-Time Analytics," Aug. 1,ROI Report

Web Design/Creative
48. Implement design changes that make your website look less noisy. For example, change the size and color of the "Proceed to Checkout" button to make it more noticeable. Also consider taking away the side navigation menu. Consumers will become more focused on the product they want rather than other options that divert their attention to different pages of your website.
Fred Lizza, Dydacomp, "7 Tips to Fight Shopping Cart Abandonment," April 25, ROI Report

49. To understand your risk exposure, think about the number of individual changes that are made during a website redesign multiplied by the depth of change for each element on your site.
Chris Goward, WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization, "Are You Thinking of a Website Redesign Without This Critical Strategy," June 25, ROI Report

50. Prioritize your buttons. Ideally you should have a single, clear call-to-action button on your page. If you have secondary buttons, change their color or size to something visually less interesting (e.g., make those buttons duller and smaller). If you have two side-by-side buttons, remember that the one on the right is by convention considered the default one, or the one most likely to be clicked on. You may also want to consider demoting some of your secondary buttons to text links.
Tim Ash, Site Tuners, "A How-To Guide to Being a Successful Cross-Channel Retailer in 2012," January/February, Retail Online Integration