E-Commerce

This week's top article of the week (as determined by our readers’ clickthroughs) addresses a basic yet critical topic: What can you do to convert more of your website visitors into customers? Jared Gerber of IMAGINE IT Web Design & SEO dishes out 10 pointers to help online retailers improve their conversion rate in 10 Tips to Maximize Your Website Conversion Rate.

eBay is trying to bring the pleasure back to online shopping with "Feed," a curated list of items that the e-commerce giant calculates might interest you. The idea behind Feed, which was announced at an event in New York on Wednesday and has a decidedly Pinterest-like aesthetic, is to combine the ease of online purchasing with the fun of window shopping, said eBay Chief Technology Officer Mark Carges, noting it moves the e-commerce browsing experience beyond a search-based one.

Ask any dedicated online shopper about the tools in his or her digital arsenal and you'll hear about Pinterest. You may also hear complaints about how difficult it is to shop on the site. Unless an image has been pinned directly from a retailer's site, useful hyperlinks and information (e.g., product name) in the description are rare. Instead, you're likely to find a description supplied by the pinner along the lines of "colorful ballet slippers" or "Flares. flares. #fall." Telepathy or Nancy Drew-level skills are required to find pinned items.

Facebook is stepping further into e-commerce with a feature that looks a whole lot like Pinterest. The company is rolling out "Collections," a feature that lets brands and e-commerce sites push out images of products among Facebook users who can then click through to make a purchase, although the buying part isn't yet taking place on Facebook. The feature is a new type of Facebook Page post.

Tracy Reese is a crazy busy designer these days: She's put out yet another collection for Anthropologie's Made in Kind capsule, just finished the Target/Neiman Marcus holiday collab-o-pocalypse and she's fielding a massive spike in sales since Michelle Obama donned her colorful fit-and-flare frock for the Democratic National Convention. So what has she learned from the whole whirlwind adventure? That e-commerce holds the secret to everything. Sort of. Reese explains it better after the jump.

There are many ways to get visitors to you website, including a search engine optimization program, pay per click, email marketing, social media programs, blog sites or just handing out your business card that has your website address on it. However, what visitors do once they get to your website is just as important as getting them there. If you finally landed that business meeting you've been trying to get for a year and showed up in shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes, what's your chance of a successful outcome?  

Online shopping should be a bright spot during the holidays this year, with sales expected to grow by 20 percent compared to 2011. But it's not what you may think. Sales are forecast to increase because there are two additional days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, giving consumers more time to shop than they had last year. That was the conclusion of a 15-page report written by analysts at Citi Research.

This week's top article of the week (as determined by our readers’ clickthroughs) focuses on one of the hottest topics in the retail industry, Google Shopping. The search engine giant's recent shift to a pay-to-play model (from free product listing ads) for its online marketplace has created plenty of discussion. How will this move affect your business, and what steps do you need to take to prepare for the change? Diane Buzzeo, founder and CEO of Ability Commerce, tackles those questions and more in What Google Shopping Means for Online Retailers and Amazon.    

Send the Trend, the e-commerce site acquired by QVC in February, has relaunched to provide a broader range of premier beauty and accessory products. According to a press release, Send the Trend leverages proprietary technology — with unique algorithms — to deliver monthly, personalized shopper recommendations filled from an expanded product assortment, including Send the Trend branded collections and selections from QVC's diverse product portfolio of prestige brands in jewelry, fashion accessories, beauty, hair care and skin care categories.

With holiday campaign implementation right around the corner (if not already begun), it's important retail brand marketers layer in retargeting as part of their digital strategy. This tactic helps engage users who have expressed interest in the brand and win them back by advertising relevant products to them. This includes consumers who visited your website and took no action, cart abandoners and customers that have made a purchase.