The 50 Best Tips of 2015

Analytics
1. Applying predictive analytics to real-time social data can identify which new products will be the most sought after by your target customer, therefore enabling you to place those items in your store windows or feature on the homepage of your website.
Greg Petro, First Insight, “Has Social Media Killed the Mall? Part 1,” Feb. 4, Total Retail Report

Attribution
2. Using one vendor for multiple channels is the modern solution to attribution. When you minimize your vendor partners and consolidate interactions across multiple touchpoints, you can simplify the complicated attribution process and achieve significant cost savings.
Chip Overstreet, MyBuys, “The Simple Answer to Solving the Attribution Equation,” April 3, Total Retail Report

Catalog Marketing
3. Obtain print and paper bids at least once a year to check the market. Don’t contract with any printer for more than one year at a time.
Stephen R. Lett, Lett Direct, “50 Best Tips for 2015,” Feb. 10, Print-Plus blog

4. Rented email prospect lists don’t work for catalog offers. A print catalog increases pay-per-click and search engine optimization performance. Every time a catalog goes into the mail, digital marketing programs benefit. That’s why it’s important to coordinate web-based marketing programs with catalog circulation plans.
Stephen R. Lett, Lett Direct, “Who Killed the Catalog,” Spring, Total Retail

Customer Service
5. Prioritize web and mobile chat. Only one-third of call centers offer live chat online for customer service, and just 22 percent offer live chat on mobile for customer service. Call centers need to embrace every channel of customer engagement.
Ross A. Haskell, LogMeIn, “5 Ways to Keep Up With New Customer Service Trends,” May 21, Total Retail Report

Database Marketing
6. To keep your data clean, consolidated and up-to-date, it’s essential to refresh your database every 30 days to 60 days or less. Your bottom line depends on it.
Mike Shanker, QuickPivot, “4 Tips for Overcoming the Omnichannel Challenge,” Feb. 3, Total Retail Report

E-Commerce
7. Place your call-to-action button close to your product image, but also at the end of the “options flow,” which includes all of the possible options visitors can choose when buying an item (e.g., size, quantity, color, etc.).
Ross Beyeler, Growth Spark, “5 Areas for Improving E-Commerce Conversion Rates,” Jan. 19, Total Retail Report

8. When running a speed test, you’ll see a breakdown of how long it takes each individual file to load. This breakdown will point out particularly slow-loading files. This is your opportunity to trim and remove “expensive" code. Some quick wins include compressing CSS/JS files, using GZIP compression for files and minimizing the number of images loaded.
Ross Beyeler, Growth Spark, “5 Areas for Improving E-Commerce Conversion Rates,” Jan. 19, Total Retail Report

9. Defer rendering “below the fold.” Ensure that the user sees the page quicker by delaying the loading and rendering of any content that’s below the initially visible area (aka, below the fold). To eliminate the need to reflow content after the remainder of the page is loaded, replace images initially with placeholder tags that specify the correct height and width of the image.
Kent Alstad, Radware, “3 Ways E-Tailers Can Make Their Sites Faster,” April 7, Total Retail Report

10. Let visitors enter information the way they enter information. Fault tolerance for things like entering credit card information is key. With spaces, without spaces, your system should be able to handle it all.
Tim Ash, SiteTuners, “3 Usability Issues That Keep Visitor Groups From Buying,” April 27, Designed to Convert blog

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

21. Take advantage of third-party marketplaces such as the extensive networks developed by e-commerce goliaths Amazon.com and eBay to easily establish an international foothold. While it may seem odd to partner with entities once seen as the enemy, it’s becoming commonplace for merchants competing with Amazon to simultaneously take advantage of its dominant position by participating in the Amazon Marketplace program.
Ken Burke, MarketLive, “Is it Time to Go International,” March 19, Total Retail Report

Inventory Management
22. Efficient fulfillment of stock is impossible without clear visibility into inventory levels. Most small to midsized retailers fulfill web orders from physical locations, and disparate e-commerce platforms can’t see store inventory levels. This increases the chances an item that cannot be fulfilled is sold, or an item that’s in stock may show up as unavailable. When platforms are integrated, inventories don’t have to be allocated to individual channels and reported availability occurs in real time.
Zeke Hamdani, Celerant Technology, “Integrated Software Satisfies Consumers’ Demand for Omnichannel Consistency,” Jan. 13, Total Retail Report

23. Don’t just ask, demand a seat at the management table. As an inventory planner, you’re responsible for your company’s largest asset. You have unique insights into which products are truly successful and, beyond that, the ability to align critical inventory ownership with customer demand. This is no time to be passive. Your input can help drive increased sales and profits for your business — but only if you’re part of the decision-making process.
Joe Palzkill, Direct Tech, “2015 Inventory Planning Wish List,” Jan. 28, Return on Inventory blog

Merchandising
24. Offer product recommendations like “Most Popular in (Your City)” or “Best-Sellers” or even “What Other Customers are Viewing” to new users. These recommendations give a new visitor a bearing of the best your site can offer and allows them to pick from the trending items instantly.
Rohan Ayyar, E2M, “How to Grow Customer Stickiness With Product Recommendations,” Jan. 12, Total Retail Report

25. Use creative, fun and lifestyle-branded merchandise to help reinforce the understanding in the recipient’s mind that “this company gets me,” such as Jack Link’s Beef Jerky “Beard Hat Night” at the Seattle Mariners game in recognition of the beard trend happening with their target customer base. It may be fairly obvious, but it’s worth stating: co-branding with well-known products, especially one that’s popular among target customers, is a great strategy, as the affiliation can bring both strong brand recognition and perceived value.
Michelle England, DataSource, "4 Tips for a Branded Merchandise Strategy," May 8, Total Retail Report

Mobile
26. Include features that condense tasks or offer suggestions. One useful strategy that’s rare for mobile but typical for desktop is saved searches. Typing the same phrases over and over on a tiny keyboard isn’t only a hassle, it bogs down the shopping process. Perusing product listings pages, especially for retailers with a lot of inventory, can be a huge time-suck for the consumer. Publishing more items per row diminishes scrolling time and helps the shopper find what they want faster.
Eric Feinberg, Answers.com, “4 Best Practices for Creating Winning Mobile Experiences,” March 25, Total Retail Report

27. If you have separate mobile URLs, you must redirect mobile users on each desktop URL to the appropriate mobile URL.
Ken Burke, MarketLive, “How Mobile is Changing SEO,” April 15, Total Retail Report

28. Create a specific and well-placed call-to-action (CTA) button. Mobile users need a clear, easy-to-find and easy-to-use CTA button. For example, change the color to an attention-grabbing hue or add some subtle animation. Furthermore, tweak your button copy to better communicate your value proposition. Create motivating text that drives people to take action — and be specific. Adding just one word after the word “submit” can boost conversion rates by as much as 320 percent.
Chris Lucas, Formstack, “5 Tips to Save Your Ranking Post ‘Mobilegeddon,’” May 11, Total Retail Report

29. Accept mobile payments. With the emergence of smartwatches and new payment methods, particularly Apple Watch and Apple Pay, mobile addiction is at an all-time high. Within 72 hours of its launch, 1 million payment cards were activated on Apple Pay. With a mobile payment structure that’s simple and secure, Apple Pay has created a new breed of shoppers seeking out retailers that accept this form of payment. Retailers that don’t offer Apple Pay or another form of mobile payment risk losing customers.
Jeff Trachsel, NextWorth Solutions, “3 Ways Retailers Can Capitalize on Nomophobia,” June 1, Total Retail Report

Omnichannel Integration
30. Online retailers need to be sure their e-commerce sites are synced with store and warehouse inventory, as well as promotions and advertising efforts. Only then can they highlight products that are actually in stock and available to hungry shoppers with an itch to buy. Don’t be the unfortunate retail soul that identifies $300,000 in lost opportunity on traffic from paid search keywords that are sending shoppers to items with fragmented stock.
John Squire, OrderDynamics, “The Retail Dating Game,” March 5, Total Retail Report

31. Build a world-class team focused on putting the customer first and delivering a seamless shopping experience that continues to excite and inspire the customer across all channels.
Krista Berry, Kohl’s, “The Top Women in Omnichannel Retail,” Winter, Total Retail

32. Be consumer centric, brand building and data driven. Your online experience doesn’t need to attempt to replicate the store experience. Guests often shop different channels for different reasons. Leverage the differences.
Sharon Price John, Build-A-Bear Workshop, “The Top Women in Omnichannel Retail,” Winter, Total Retail

Pricing
33. State your success metrics for the product. Looking to maximize margin? Liquidate excess inventory? Introduce a new product? The answer will dictate how you price the product, factoring in variables such as the product’s pricing history, the number of competitors for the product, who is the target buyer, etc.
John Valente, eBay, “Pricing Strategies to Capture Comparison Shoppers,” June 8, Total Retail Report

Search
34. A visitor should be no more than five clicks away from the product they first search for. Any more than that and the shopper gets frustrated.
Matt Clark, Newark element14, “The Rise of Amazon and Alibaba: 3 Ways B-to-B E-Commerce Can Prepare,” Feb. 6, Total Retail Report

35. More and more searches are being completed using Google’s autocomplete feature, which proposes possible searches based on whatever text is entered, even a single letter. It does this by searching its own database of searches, as well as a user’s own search history and profiles of Google+ users. Use this feature to see what kind of search terms and phrases are being used for products or brands, then tailor keywords accordingly.
Ken Burke, MarketLive, “Content and Context Matter for Mobile SEO,” May 15, Total Retail Report

Security
36. Implement two-factor authentication systems where possible. Two-factor authentication puts another barrier between your data and a hacker. Using two-factor authentication requires that a person have both the login information (username and password) and additional proof — e.g., a generated code, fingerprint, confirmation of a security notification. Even if a password is compromised, another step is required before someone can gain access to a system.
Joe Siegrist, LastPass, “6 Steps to Protect Against a Data Breach,” Feb. 13, Total Retail Report

37. Retailers shouldn’t be lured into a false sense of security when they see an elite card. For example, a “black card” from American Express might project prestige, but it also comes with fraud rates that are 2.5 times higher than the rates associated with standard cards.
Alon Shemesh, Forter, “Know the Enemy: What Merchants Can Learn From Fraudulent Behavior,” April 8, Total Retail Report

38. Ensure that all of the third-party vendors that you work with comply with your company’s data security standards. In most retail data breaches, a third party is responsible for the compromised data, not the retailer itself.
Martin Einstein, Brann & Isaacson, “How to Respond to a Data Breach,” April 14, Total Retail Report

39. Consider blocking user datagram protocol (UDP) or transmission control protocol (TCP) sources. Depending on the nature of your business, it may be more accustomed to handling web traffic of either TCP or UDP format. For example, websites incorporating video streaming and gaming services likely engage in more UDP connections, while the opposite may hold true for TCP traffic.
Charles Herring, Lancope, “5 Ways to Stop a DDoS Attack,” June 12, Total Retail Report

Shipping
40. Simply put, inefficient packaging raises your cost profile. Therefore, design boxes that tightly configure to product with little fill.
Rob Martinez, Shipware, “Delivering a Profit,” Spring, Total Retail

41. Offering free shipping to your stores is a great strategy. Having multiple orders consolidated and shipped to a single location is significantly cheaper than shipping individual, lightweight packages to multiple residences.
Rob Martinez, Shipware, “Delivering a Profit,” Spring, Total Retail

Social Media Marketing/Commerce
42. Find your influencers. You can tell your followers to buy a product all you want, but the message will resonate more strongly if it comes from a third-party influencer that your audience trusts. Do the research to determine which Twitter users have the strongest pull with your various target audiences, then reach out to those influencers to engage them with your product and encourage (or pay) them to share with their followers.
John Donnelly III, Crimson Hexagon, “4 Tips for Driving Sales on Twitter,” Jan. 15, Total Retail Report

43. You need to have really high-quality catalog data. The titles, descriptions and structured attributes that are in your catalog are going to determine when and how your product content is served on a platform like Facebook.
Eric Best, CommerceHub, “How Facebook Product Ads Will Impact Retailers,” Feb. 27, Total Retail Report

44. Follow high-value hashtags in your industry. Tweet items that fit the hashtag’s target market. The other day someone who came to hear one of my lectures found me from one of those hashtags. We reconnected and are looking into ways to work together.
Jim Gilbert, Gilbert Direct Marketing, “The Immutable Law of REALationships: How to Build an Engaged Following on Twitter,” April 3, Return on Intelligence blog

45. Encourage authenticity. You want employees to positively represent your brand, but you don’t want robots. A social strategy only works if you let your employees authentically express themselves. Brief your team members on the dos and don’ts of interacting with customers online, then let them post, share and comment in ways that are comfortable and natural.
Russ Fradin, Dynamic Signal, “How to Localize Your Global Store Through Social Media,” April 28, Total Retail Report

46. Every time you get a like or share or retweet, it’s an opportunity for a contact of a more personal nature — e.g., a simple “thanks for sharing” message. Don’t automate it, however. Add a personal statement like, “Thanks Barry for sharing my 9 Immutable Laws presentation. How is your social program working?” Remember, you have the opportunity to seek out your followers and make them feel special.
Jim Gilbert, Gilbert Direct Marketing, “Social Spotlight: The Law of ‘REALationships’,” Winter, Total Retail

Startups
47. Don’t get paralyzed by not having data. Let data guide you, but go with your instincts.
Meredith Mahoney, Birch Lane, “An Online Retailer’s Journey Into Catalogs,” March 16, Total Retail Report

48. Don’t forget yourself. When launching a business, so much of your time and energy is poured into the day-to-day operations of the business that it’s easy to lose sight of yourself outside of your work — and ultimately you’ll burn out. Remind yourself to take a second away from the emails and task lists and prioritize you.
Rachel Shechtman, Story, “Game Changers,” Summer, Total Retail

Technology
49. Look externally to help increase the pace of change at your brand. We’re applying innovation to accelerate the pace of change in retail and accelerate the pace of change at our brand, with the purpose of driving growth and value for our customers.
Charlie Larkin, GameStop Technology Institute, “GameStop Leverages Technology to Transform the In-Store Experience,” Jan. 14, Total Retail Report

Video Marketing
50. Address the differences between tablets and smartphones. You can use a HTML5 player with full functionality in a tablet experience, while in a smartphone environment consumers almost always use the native player. When mobile video uses a mobile device’s native player, the functionality is often stripped out, leaving only your content. Knowing this, make sure your content is engaging to your customer and can stand on its own.
Ben Kopetti, Liveclicker, “4 Best Practices for Mobile Video Success,” March 6, Total Retail Report