The 50 Best Tips of 2015
11. When a retailer places the price within some kind of bounding shape, higher positioning makes us think of higher price. Placement at the bottom has the opposite effect. Therefore, lower the position of the price to decrease its perceived cost.
Tim Ash, SiteTuners, “Looks Matter,” Summer, Total Retail
12. Give your checkout system a checkup. According to the Baymard Institute, more than 68 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned before the checkout process is complete. Does that represent people who change their minds about a purchase? Shoppers who are frustrated by the process itself? Don’t drive customers away with a convoluted checkout procedure. Keep each step simple and clear. Replace distracting headers and footers with a progress indicator to reassure consumers that the order process is moving forward successfully.
Don Amato, Chicago Tag & Label, “Tips for Streamlining E-Commerce Processes,” June 2, Total Retail Report
E-Commerce Platforms
13. Choose a platform with one-click migration capabilities. The ability to migrate all or most of your store’s current data in one click is a capability many merchants are often unaware of, but in the final days, choosing a platform that provides one-click migration will be your saving grace. Instant platform migration helps to significantly cut down on the manual work needed during your transition.
Uri Foox, Pixafy, “4 Tips for a Last-Minute Migration to a New E-Commerce Platform,” Feb. 11, Total Retail Report
Email Marketing
14. Be willing to concede to a scale-back. Subscribers’ needs are constantly changing, so flexibility is key. The customer who wanted your sales emails twice a day in December may not want to sustain that frequent contact now that their annual shopping binge is over for the year. However, with some savvy handling, you can maintain the contact by simply scaling back your contact strategy.
Christopher Lester, Emma, “3 Tips to Overcome Email Fatigue in the New Year,” Jan. 16, Total Retail Report
15. Contests can be fantastic tactics for acquiring new opt-in email subscribers. However, be sure that the prize is in line with your business goals and that anyone interested in winning the contest would also be part of your target audience.
Jeanne Jennings, Digital Prism Advisors, “Shop Talk: Best Practices for Using Contests for Email Acquisition,” Winter, Total Retail
16. Understand and audit the source of your emails. This includes tracking down the source of every email address you’re adding to your file and checking that they’re functioning correctly. During this process, you’ll likely discover long-forgotten and perhaps long-neglected email acquisition sources.
Jeanne Jennings, Digital Prism Advisors, “Shop Talk: Best Practices for Email Acquisition,” Winter, Total Retail
Hiring Strategy
17. When hiring, consider the “airport test,” where you gage whether that employee would be pleasant to be with if you were stuck with them at an airport for six hours. The likeability test has been important to The Honest Company’s growth.
Brian Lee, The Honest Company, “An Honest Conversation With Jessica Alba and Brian Lee of The Honest Company,” March 16, Total Retail Report
In-Store Marketing
18. Consider offering free Wi-Fi to consumers. A recent study conducted by the Wi-Fi Alliance showed that offering in-store Wi-Fi could have a big impact on sales. The study’s respondents stated that if in-store Wi-Fi were offered, they would be more likely to stay longer (28 percent), return to the store more often (29 percent) and choose the store over one that doesn’t provide Wi-Fi (27 percent). Users may check their Facebook page, and social sharing can increase exposure for you — and more time in your store means more time to catch their eye.
Greg Petro, First Insight, “Has Social Media Killed the Mall? Part 2,” Feb. 19, Total Retail Report
19. Leverage features and services that lend themselves to an in-store experience to drive foot traffic. Programs such as electronics trade-in and in-store tech support benefit from a personalized, one-on-one interaction. They also deliver a better payoff through instant gratification — the customer is immediately rewarded during their store visit. This combination of features and benefits isn’t easily replicable online, making it a key selling point to drive in-store shoppers and sales.
Jeff Trachsel, NextWorth Solutions, “Reviving the Retail Store Atmosphere,” May 18, Total Retail Report
International Commerce
20. Have a truly localized website. Many retailers think they can get away with using Google Translate to connect with prospects in other countries. However, anyone who has actually used the tool recreationally knows that depending on it for professional translation is a big risk. Translation can make or break a global marketing campaign. You can spend all the money you want on advertising, but if visitors to your website can’t understand it, they won’t go through with a purchase.
Ian Henderson, Rubric, “How Retailers Can Use Localization to Optimize Global Marketing Campaigns,” Jan. 8, Total Retail Report
