Consumers going online to shop is happening with more regularity than ever before. In fact, e-commerce sales accounted for 10 percent of total retail sales in 2012, the first time that figure has reached double-digits. As a result of this shift in consumer behavior, retailers need to optimize their websites to present the best possible experience for shoppers. Here are seven tips to help you accomplish that:
E-Commerce
Online merchants trying to get additional exposure for their listings on Amazon.com have another option these days — Sponsored Products — not to be confused with Product Ads. Amazon launched the pay-per-click Sponsored Products program in beta last year and announced this week it was opening up the program to new categories. Beginning Monday, sellers will be able to advertise their musical instruments and audio and video products with sponsored product ads.
Wanelo, the social shopping site that resembles a well-designed window display, is quickly gaining fans online, despite being largely under the mainstream radar. On Wednesday, the company revealed it had 6 million registered users through its website and application, 70 percent of them visiting the site at least once a month. In November 2012, the site had 1 million members. The service also said that it had a catalog of 5 million products, including items like printed tennis shoes and jeweled in-ear headphones, from 200,000 different online retailers and shops.
Wal-Mart plans to test the use of in-store lockers to hold goods ordered on its website until shoppers can pick them up, Reuters reported. Neil Ashe, president and CEO of the retailer's global e-commerce division, discussed the test, which which will get underway this summer in about 12 locations.
Fast-evolving technology is making it easier for retailers and other establishments to gather information about you from the moment you step into a store. Facial-recognition technology can now determine your gender and age, and — if one startup is successful — your identity. Technology can also assess how much time you spend in a store and the way you shop by tracking Wi-Fi-enabled phones.
After 13 years of selling high-end clothing and accessories, online retailer Net-a-Porter is expanding into the beauty category for the first time. The e-tailer is starting small. Only 11 brands — Chantecaille, Natura Bissé, Aesop, Le Metier de Beaute, 3 LAB, Beauty Works West, Philip B, Joya, Ilia, Sarah Chapman and James Read — are being offered at launch, with more promised on a weekly basis. The site plans to carry a "tight assortment" of "star products" in the makeup, hair, skin, nail varnish and fragrance categories, according to a statement from David Olsen, vice president of beauty at Net-a-Porter.
Third-party sellers on Amazon.com and eBay are different in many ways in terms of size, location and the types of items they sell, but they all have at least one thing in common: when they ship an item, they want to be paid quickly. After all, they must pay for the shipping outlay as well as all their other expenses. So when marketplaces place holds on payments, whether its Amazon or eBay's PayPal payments service, it puts a squeeze on sellers.
This past week there was big news from SXSW of great interest to e-tailers: First, Google's latest Panda Update will roll out in just a few days. Second, Google is further tweaking its anti-spam algorithm to prune the ranks of "unreliable" e-commerce sites. Of course, Google has been working to create an algorithmic way of determining merchant quality for some time. Much of the impetus for its initial work came from a 2010 investigative report in The New York Times recounting — in horrifying detail — the success of a shady Brooklyn sunglass merchant.
Target is buying Chefs Catalog and Cooking.com, which owns and operates online stores for the Food Network, Rachael Ray and Calphalon, for an undisclosed amount. Chefs Catalog, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., is a direct-to-consumer cookware retailer that sells bakeware, cutlery, kitchen tools and cooking utensils. Cooking.com, based in Marina Del Rey, Calif., is an e-commerce company that operates online stores. The two transactions are separate and are both expected to close within 30 days.
Converting a higher percentage of their website visitors is a goal shared by all cross-channel retailers. With the retail industry conversion rate average hovering around 3 percent, the opportunity is certainly there. In a session on the opening day of the NEMOA Spring directXchange conference in Boston, Brett Bair, senior director of strategic services at Monetate, a technology solutions provider for online retailers, offered several ways that online merchants can leverage data and testing to become more relevant to consumers, ultimately resulting in increased sales.