User Experience

Why the Cloud is the Future of Your Online Store
January 29, 2016 at 11:59 am

Everyone has already heard how important the cloud is to the future of business, but that doesn’t just apply to the Fortune 500s. E-commerce companies of all sizes can get terrific benefits — e.g., reduced costs and quicker recovery times — from moving their website and back-end to the cloud. Most important of all however is that the…

Target, PayPal Sites Report Problems on Cyber Monday
December 1, 2015 at 10:40 am

Cyber Monday, the online version of Black Friday, isn't immune to traffic jams of shoppers rushing to take advantage of post-Thanksgiving sales. Some of the most popular websites experienced an overload on Monday, similar to a crowd pushing its way into an already packed brick-and-mortar store. Shoppers were for a period of time unable to…

Preparing for the Holidays: A 101 in Web Performance Optimization
December 1, 2015 at 10:21 am

Holiday sales traditionally constitute a huge portion of retailers’ annual revenue, and there’s a lot at stake in the upcoming season. According to PwC, web sales for the overall retail sector will see a mid- to high-teens percentage increase over last year, with the leading retailers poised for a 40 percent to 50 percent increase.…

Wal-Mart Website Struggles to Handle Demand for ‘Doorbusters’
November 27, 2015 at 11:44 am

Wal-Mart’s website malfunctioned during the Thanksgiving shopping rush Thursday morning, throwing a wrench in some shoppers’ plans to avoid long lines by grabbing deals online. For the first time, the world’s biggest retailer offered most of its Black Friday “doorbusters” on its website hours before they were available inside its U.S. stores. The discounts, which were…

Which Elements of the Shopping Experience Matter Most?
November 2, 2015 at 12:16 pm

This article was originally featured on Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC), a sister organization of Total Retail. When it comes to shopping behavior, price is a key motivator. However, to sustain a customer’s loyalty over the long term, retailers often find it valuable to focus on the customer experience. But which experiences are most important…

4 Tips for Optimizing the Customer Experience to Increase Engagement and Conversions
October 27, 2015 at 12:27 pm

Website and customer experience optimization aren't new. Both have been slowly and steadily evolving over the past decade and have become a key competitive differentiator for many retailers, especially global brands that have created a “culture of optimization” throughout their organizations. Along with this evolution comes new tips, tricks and techniques based on the previous…

Jet.com CEO: We May Have the Lowest Prices, But Many Shoppers Can’t Figure That Out
September 1, 2015 at 10:23 am

Jet.com may have the lowest prices on the web, but a lot of people who visit the site still don’t realize it. That's something CEO Marc Lore acknowledged when asked about confusion among people who hear about Jet.com’s low prices but don’t see them displayed clearly when they visit a Jet.com product page. “Believe me, we have…

How to Use Competitive Benchmarking to Your Advantage
July 6, 2015 at 1:45 pm

Competition is one of the biggest motivators for online retailers, especially as e-commerce sales keep climbing. Regardless of whether another company offers the exact same products you do, there are hundreds of thousands of other companies competing for your target market’s attention and money as well as training your customers on what to expect. That’s…