Cover Story: 50 Best Tips of 2010
E-Commerce
16. Simplify checkout. "The more steps required and pages to load to complete the process of buying a product, the greater the chances for prospective customers to fall out of the purchase funnel. Go to your website and try buying some product yourself to see what buyers encounter; then look for opportunities to make the process faster, easier and painless."
Mason Wiley, Hydra
"5 Tactics to Boost Online ROI," Jan. 19, The ROI Report
17. Focus on procastinators. Early sales and promotions can be interesting, but ultimately they're not all that big of a factor.
Lauren Freedman, the e-tailing group
"Strategies to Maximize Your Online Holiay Sales," Aug. 17, The
ROI Report
18. Use the weather to your advantage. Recalling last December's blizzard that crippled much of the Northeast, Kenneth Cole identified these house-bound consumers as a captive online audience. The retailer created timely offers to capitalize on this event, generating added online revenue for those days.
Tom Davis, Kenneth Cole
"Strategies to Maximize Your Online Holiay Sales," Aug. 17, The
ROI Report
19. "Implement cross-selling on your website. Make sure you at least show shoppers 'people who bought this also bought that.' This cross-sell alone can increase average order size by nearly 10 percent. Make sure you use it in your shopping cart. A number of sites have this feature but use it only on product pages. That's a big missed opportunity — the cart is the No. 1 place shoppers click on cross-sales!"
Larry Kavanagh, D.M.insite
"Supersize Me," April, Retail
Online Integration
20. "Add a 'Recently Viewed' box. This sounds too simple to work, but it's one of the best things you can do on a shoestring budget. It gives users an easy, at-a-glance way to remember products they've seen in case they want to go back to them. It takes the pressure off your navigation, but more
important, it triggers to returning users that they've been there
and were interested in your products."
Amy Africa, Eight by Eight
"12 Ways to Spruce Up Your Website for the Holidays," July, Retail
Online Integration
