1. 1
IDEAS FOR INTERNET
BASED BUSINESS, or
ECOMMERCE (E-TRADE) (*)
How to Leverage Promotion Codes
“Make sure your promotion codes require
customers to buy at least two or more items.
Then display your cross-sell offerings on the
promotions code page. This gives customers
incentive to increase their purchase amount, and
helps them find additional products with which
to do
Offer a Prize to Entice New Subscribers
“Anyone who signs up for our email newsletter is
automatically entered into a monthly drawing for
a chance to win a free toy or gift certificate from
our website. Drawings are held at the end of
each month, and all active subscribers are
eligible to win. This campaign is currently
featured on our store’s home page, and we've
seen a huge increase in the number of
Streamline Your Shopping Cart
“Each new page a shopper has to load to
complete another step in the checkout process is
a chance for them to fall out of the funnel. You
can minimize fallout by combining pages, and
Empower Employees to Offer Special Incentives
"Empower your employees to offer incentives to
help take online shoppers from simply browsing
to actually purchasing. Arm phone, email and live
chat agents with a cadre of special promotions,
discounts and other inducements only they can
offer. Consider driving communications by
advertising the offers on site, i.e., “Call now for
special discounting,” or “Chat now and get free
shipping.”
Merchandise Products Both In-Store and
Online
“Retail sites and search engines are consistently
the first or second stop in the shopping
continuum, with the end purchase location
being split fairly evenly between the online and
offline retail channel. If you buy shelf space,
eye-level kiosks or other brick-and-mortar
merchandising options and don’t merchandise
on retail websites, you’re missing almost half of
your potential customers.”
Test Placement of Anxiety-Reducing Content
“Test placement of anxiety-reducing content,
including security icons, returns policy, and
satisfaction points. It's often best to separate
emotive content from transactional
considerations.”
Product Feeds Lead to Success
“Proactively sending out product information is
a secret to success. Product feeds to locations
like Google Base, Shopzilla and Shopping.com
give customers more opportunities to find what
you have to offer. Search engines want to
provide relevant information when searchers
look for items you have described in your
feeds.”
Follow User Paths with Clickstream Tool
“Use Alexa Clickstream to learn from which
sites users come to your competitors’ sites, and
where they go afterward. You can also use it to
see where visitors come from and where they
Add a Handwritten Note to Shipped Items
“Empower your packers to add a handwritten
thank you note to the enclosed invoice or
packing slip. If possible, use the customer’s first
name, i.e., ‘Dear Helen, Thank you for your
order. We appreciate your business. Regards,
Rob.’ It doesn’t take much effort, but it

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significantly improves how the customer
perceives and feels about your company.”
Test Small Before a Full-Site Rollout
“Experiment with new ideas. There are tons of
ideas out there to try, from chat to video to
social networking. Develop small, quick, cheap
tests to see which are most effective before
investing in a full site rollout.”
Correctly Evaluate Your Conversion Rate
“The conversion rate is the ratio between the
number of visitors who are likely to perform an
action you desire and the ones that actually do.
It's not related to the whole website traffic.
Eliminate from your analysis those visitors who
don’t have the slightest intention to convert, but
can skew your reports. For instance, when
calculating your sales conversion rate, exclude all
visitors who are referred by organic search
keywords that are not related to your offer.
You’ll be able to focus conversion optimization
actions on the segments that truly matter to
your business goals.”
Deep Links Lead to Deeper Value
“Getting links to your site isn’t a new concept,
but links should point to your most relevant
pages. Home page links aren’t usually relevant
for searches. Look to gain links to specific
category or product pages. This will pass link
value deep into your site and drive rankings for
specific long-tail keywords.”
Mommy Bloggers Love to Do Reviews
“Mommy Bloggers love to write reviews about
products. Search for Mommy Bloggers and then
contact them. Tell them how much you like their
site, why your product is great, and offer to send
them a free product to review. As an added
bonus allow them to do a giveaway of your
product to their readers. This is not only good for
driving sales to your site but is great for SEO
[search engine optimization].”
Mobile: A Critical Ecommerce Channel
“Mobile is not just another customer
communications medium, it is rapidly evolving
into an effective and critical ecommerce
channel--one that creates a link between
existing commerce channels, helping to
converge them. And, consumers aren’t just
using high-end phone browsers, they are using
a wide range of phones to browse the web.
When developing mobile websites and
applications, businesses should focus on
content delivery across different types of
devices, as well as ease of navigation, design,
usability and context. For example, small
displays create usability challenges, and
cumbersome processes that can cause
customers to abandon their purchases.”
Impress Your Customers
“Impress your customers after their first order
with a shipping upgrade, a special discount or
store credit for future purchases. This
encourages them to come back for more, and
the return on investment can be much higher
than traditional advertising.”
Provide Customization and Personalization
Whenever Possible
“Online product customization is becoming an
increasingly popular feature for merchants
keen to distinguish themselves from their
competition. The magic lies in customers being
able to instantly see the customized products,
so they don't have to imagine what the watch,
for example, looks like with a blue band as
opposed to a green one, or a silver dial versus a
gold one. Letting customers personalize their
purchase provides the ultimate touch
(assuming of course, that you are actually able
to actually produce the end result).
Customization can make a huge difference in

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the customer's buying experience; however,
utilizing this power requires merchants to
expertly prepare their images.”
Two Great Conversion Tips
“Cart abandonment may not reflect a cart
problem. New info crushes momentum. Make
sure visitors can access the complete cost from
any page and your cart abandonment problem
may magically disappear. Also, test a one-page
checkout. We've seen it increase conversion
rates 'in some cases.”
Appeal to Coupon Hunters
“Make sure you regularly publish your coupon
codes and special deals on your Facebook and
Twitter accounts, using the words ‘save’ or ‘deal.’
These are often grabbed by third parties and
coupon hunters and then republished on various
coupons sites, giving you a wider distribution list
at no cost.”
Protect Your Brand’s Reputation Online
“As the online retail sales channel continues to
grow, a company's greatest challenge is
defending its brand from being devalued by
discounters. Ensure your company’s ecommerce
success by monitoring and enforcing pricing
violations to keep online retailers on a level
playing field.”
'One-Day Only' Sale Can Boost Social Presence
“We now do a "Wild Wednesdays" promotion
where we announce one product for $10 (usually
retails for $25), or $10 off a particular item. We
announce it on Tuesday via Twitter with a
coupon code that is good only on that
Wednesday. We limit the offer to one discounted
product per customer, and it could be offered
only ‘while supplies last’ for those with a big
customer list. We are currently using this
campaign to grow our social media presence.”
Create Unique Descriptions for Best Results
“Search engines want to provide the most
relevant results possible when people search.
The original content rule applies to storefronts
if they want to succeed. Best practices for
natural search engine ranking is to create your
own unique product descriptions and avoid
copying descriptions from manufacturers.”
Cut Down on Clutter
“Shoppers don’t want clutter! Ideally there
should be only 10 to15 products on a page, no
pop-ups or advertising, and a comparison
feature to view more product details.”
Consolidate Your Community
“Publish exclusive offers and discounts in the
social networks (like Twitter, Facebook or
Google Orkut). It will consolidate your
community and will keep it active.”
Increase Foot Traffic
“If you welcome customers to collect purchases
in person, or if you have a bricks-and-mortar
store, make sure you are listed on Google
Places. It will help you get found by potential
customers looking for your products in and
around your local area.”
Develop Pure Content
“Content is still king. Dedicate a portion of your
web team’s time and budget to developing
pure content that is compelling and relevant for
your users. Finding the right idea is key – it can
be informational and help your users make a
more educated choice, or it can be simply for
entertainment. Compelling content will
generate free traffic and links that your product
pages never will.”

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Tips for Global Ecommerce
“Know your global audience. Americans may
want a quick and easy checkout process, but
consumers in Japan and Europe prefer to see
more details and options when shopping online.
Eighty-five percent of the local German market
uses bank transfers as the primary means of
payment, not credit cards. And, discounted
products are often perceived in Japan as being
faulty instead of simply a good deal.”
Consider Payment Provider Added Services
“Consider the cost of added services when
choosing your payment provider. For instance,
you may use PayPal to checkout customers from
your store or on a selling channel like Etsy or
eBay, but did you know PayPal can also get your
accounting done? Various added services offered
by payment providers can make it less costly and
simpler to run your business.”
Make a Better Category Tree
“Don't make product lists too long. Everything
that goes ‘beyond the fold’ is too long. Spend
more time to make a better category tree. If it's
impossible in your case, make page navigation
very obvious and easy for a visitor.”
Display In-store Promotions on Your Website
“Since the research cycle is typically much longer
for consumers considering a big ticket purchase
online, the impact of relevant and compelling
promotions can often be the driving factor in
getting them into the store or online to make
their final purchase. To make this process
seamless for the customer, use ecommerce tools
to align your site with your promotional
calendars, and display on your website your in-
store events, promotions, sales, coupons and
finance offers. When optimized, these tools will
create a better customer experience online,
extending the value of materials created for in-
store customers.”
Try Incentives to Reduce Cart Abandonment
“Online merchants typically concentrate on
attracting new customers, but research shows
that the industry has a very high rate of
shopping cart abandonment, and this has not
improved over the past years. Try offering
incentives for consumers to complete their
purchases, and reward them for doing so.
Rewarding customers creates loyalty and drives
more sales and revenue.”
Don’t Rush Your Product Listings
“When first setting up your ecommerce site it
can be tempting to just get the basics of the
products uploaded first and add details later,
but don’t rush. Take time to get the title tags
and descriptions right for each product,
including relevant key words and a USP [unique
selling proposition). Also write the description
tags to sell and include relevant keywords.”
Conversion Optimization Testing is Important
“Run controlled A/B/n tests of your site-wide
templates, and concentrate on statistically
significant results. In many cases, a 10 to 30
percent increase in sales can happen by testing
variations in design layout."
Make Use of Free Surveys
“Many shopping search engines (like Shopzilla)
have free sales confirmation surveys, and the
feedback can be invaluable. Survey your
customers regularly, and be sure to route the
feedback to the appropriate departments –
customer service, webmaster, product
development, or other.”
Up-sell Only What Makes Sense
“Whenever possible, up-sell accessories and
items that make sense and compliment a
customer’s purchase. These items will

5. 5
encourage customers to buy more and enhance
their overall experience with the core product.”
Set Workflow Rules to Automate and Innovate
“Workflow rule engines provide vital flexibility
when processing orders, shipping, segmenting
traffic, and giving discounts. Jump ahead of the
competition by setting workflow rules to
automate and innovate. For example: Set a 10
percent discount for customers coming from
'Google only' on 'orders over $50.' Then, set it to
'send them an email' and 'set a tracking code'...
the uses are endless.”
Use Free Tools to Track SEO Efforts
“Find the top searched-for terms related to your
industry with the free Google AdWords keyword
tool. Then use the free Rank Checker from
SeoBook.com to determine where your site
ranks for each term across the major search
engines. Organize all the information in a
spreadsheet and recalculate rankings often. This
is a great way to keep track of SEO efforts and to
discover keyword terms to target through link
building and on-page optimization.”
Link Your Blog to Internal Product Pages
“Create a helpful, industry-specific blog, and
make sure each of your principle team members
has access to create entries regularly. Your
corporate blog linked to internal product pages is
your single best way to obtain long tailed
keyword relevance in the search engines. “
Find Out Why the Cart Was Abandoned
“Contact those visitors who passed almost the
entire checkout in your shop but didn't pay.
There could be a technical problem that caused
the customer to abandon the cart. Send a follow
up email to find out why they didn’t complete
the sale.”
Create an Easier Order Form
“Testing confirms that simpler and easier order
forms convert better. So, make your order form
as short, and with the fewest fields, as possible.
Save information so that customers don’t have
to start from scratch if they come back later.
And, use either check boxes or radial buttons,
but not both.”
Get Shoppers Back with Retargeting
“When visitors leave your site without making a
purchase, display ad retargeting can help get
those shoppers back to your site and motivate
them to buy. Retargeted ads can promote the
products each shopper is most likely to be in-
market for next. It is always better to target
shoppers with a known affinity for your brand,
rather than prospecting for new shoppers.”
Use a Thank You Page
“An order confirmation is good, but a ‘thank
you’ is even better. More than just good
manners, a thank you page is an opportunity to
reinforce your relationship with your
customers, reward them with discounts on
future purchases, and up-sell and cross-sell
your products.”
Close More Sales Through Personalization
“Converting browsers to buyers is tough. For
most ecommerce sites, as many as 97 percent
of visitors leave without making a purchase,
and this is often attributed to shoppers just not
finding merchandise that interests them. You
can improve conversions by presenting
relevant, personalized product
recommendations on your product detail
pages, category pages, and cart page.”

6. 6
Engage Multi-channel Consumers with Relevant
Online Content
“Retailers must use their web presence to
intercept consumers online—with relevant
content—before they get their information
elsewhere or make a purchase from a
competitor. By providing more relevant online
information, retailers can successfully use the
Internet to seamlessly deliver products and
promotions to consumers in conjunction with
the store experience.”
Check Reputation Before You Deal
“If you are about to strike a deal with another
company, check its reputation before making any
decisions. Take time to Google its company name
and search for reviews.”
Shipping Can Be a Profit Center
“You can make shipping into a profit center. If
you have accounts with UPS or FedEx, ask them
to give you a discount based on your history.
(The FedEx discount can run up to 47 percent.)
Then, advertise discounted shipping rates to
customers, but only give half the discount.”
Build Virtual Relationships
“Segment your customers and re-market to them
via email, based on what they have purchased
from you in the past. Build virtual relationships
with your customers based on their buying
behavior and preferences. The stronger your
customers feel a brand affinity with your
company, the more likely they are to do repeat
business with you.”
PPC: Test Multiple Pages
“Test multiple landing pages for your pay-per-
click ads. It’s easy to run multiple creatives in
Google and point one to a category page, one to
a product listing page, and one to a product
detail page. Most websites have a few pages that
will work for a given keyword, and this is an
easy way to get more ROI out of your PPC
campaigns.”
Use Unique Content to Increase Conversions
“Original content is critical to building a
successful online business. When you regularly
update your websites and sales pages with
unique, search-relevant content, you not only
increase organic rankings, but also provide
added value to the consumer, resulting in
higher conversions and a larger number of
repeat shoppers over the long term.”
Provide a Toll-free Number
“Place a toll-free phone number in a large font
in the header of your website. You will get a
few more phone calls, and that is a good thing.
Answering your business phone is your ticket to
increasing the average revenue per sale, as the
phone is one of the best places a merchant can
up-sell.”
Basic Security Tips
"These are basic website security tips: Keep
your operating systems and installed
applications up-to-date with the latest security
patches. And, don’t run unnecessary network
services on servers and workstations."
Study Your Competitors’ SEO
“Study and learn why your direct competitors
rank above you on search engines by looking at
their code. Using your browser’s ‘View Source’
function, determine what puts them on top for
specific keywords, then you can beat them at
their own game on your website.”
Focus on Your Key Message
"Don't use lengthy product descriptions in
general lists of products, like categories or
search results. Web visitors will simply scan

7. 7
over long sections of text and can miss your
value proposition. Better to focus on your key
message for product lists."
Aim for Quality Backlinks
“Getting many links to your site is key when it
comes to ranking well in the search engines, but
quality counts. Aim for backlinks from related
sites, from pages that don't have a lot of other
links, and ask for anchor text that includes your
keywords rather than just your company name.”
Give Localized Delivery Information
“Give customers localized information about
delivery and shipping times for their particular
location, which can be the deciding factor in
making a sale. To make this process accurate,
inventory levels should be updated in real-time,
with localized delivery dates based on stock and
incoming purchases.”
Put Your Phone Number in the Title Tag
“If you make sales by phone, include your
telephone number in the main title tag of your
home page. This way, someone can call you
without visiting your home page, because the
phone number will also appear, in bold-face, in
Google search results. Featuring your telephone
number prominently is also a signal of honesty
and transparency.”
Good, Better, Best
“Consumers love to be told what to do. In a day
when information overload is the norm, keeping
things simple and direct is key. Telling a
customer what is a good choice, a better choice,
and finally the best choice, is a very good way to
increase conversion rate and help your
customers find what they want quickly.”
Make Web Pages Load Faster
“The faster your page loads the more Google
likes your site [and users, too]. Take a look at
implementing things like gzip compression,
which can usually be done with a few lines of
code. Suitable code can be easily found by a
quick search on the Internet.”
Warn Consumers of Scams
“Search and monitor social media networks and
other Web 2.0 platforms for new scams on a
regular basis. If you find your company is being
victimized by a scam, warn consumers through
various mediums, including the company page
on your social networks, your corporate
website, an official tweet on Twitter, and the
official company fan site.”
Have a Great Newsletter
“Make your newsletters fun and/or insightful.
The vast majority of newsletters in the world
are boring and one-sided. Use your newsletter
to show your customers what your company is
doing to help them. Give them a reason to
open it, read it, and look forward to it.”
Make User Guides Available
“Shoppers like to be able to view or print
product user guides or manuals, particularly
when looking at consumer electronics products.
User guides not only help shoppers select the
right product, but can also prevent returns.
These documents are commonly available as
PDF files included in the product content made
available by your vendors via hosted content
links.”
Drive Short-term Sales
"To drive short-term sales volumes, try these
marketing techniques: Offer 24-hour deep
discounts on selected products for one day
only. Or, offer free shipping over a limited time

8. 8
period, such as 'Place an order this weekend and
get free shipping.' Repeat at intervals to drive
traffic to your site."
Learn HTML, Save on Design Fees
"Make sure at least one of your core team
members learns and understands HTML very
well. You can potentially save a bundle in web
design fees by being able to make easy and quick
updates yourselves."
Squeeze Images to Web-friendly Size
"When looking for ways to speed up your site's
performance, be sure you have squeezed your
images down to the most web-friendly size. Free
online services, such as Smush.it from Yahoo!,
are great for compressing your images without
losing any visible detail."
Don’t Get Hung Up on Cool Tricks or Gimmickry
"There are a lot of great web tools that promise
to do big things for your online business. Look
into them if they interest you, but remember the
core values that drive your business, and find
ways to infuse those into your ecommerce site
for long-term growth and revenue."
Put Text in Bite-sized "Chunks"
"Web pages that present a wall of solid text and
information are intimidating to shoppers—it
seems like too much work to slog through. So
separate text into short, discrete paragraphs
separated by white space, and use bullets when
you can."
Make the Most of Free Shipping
“One of the most significant draws to a product
listing is free shipping. When you offer free
shipping, be sure to populate the shipping field
with a zero (0) for all eligible products in all your
data feeds on comparison sites and other
product databases (such as Google Base).”
Use Advanced Analytics to Maximize
Conversions
"Optimize your site at its full potential to
convert visits to sales by using advanced traffic
and sales analytics tools, such as Google
Analytics. By tracking patterns during visitors'
shopping experiences, you can determine
which pages should be most advertised, and
which pages need adjustments."
Return Policy
"Place your return policy link immediately
under the checkout button. You need to give
users comfort that they can return without risk.
If you can accept returns without penalties and
fees, you will find yourself in even better
shape."
Use All the Free Tools at Your Disposal
"Use all the available free tools to market and
maintain your website, such as Google Product
Search, Xenu's Link Sleuth, Twitter and Google
Webmaster Tools. And, use that other great
free tool, the Internet, to find more available
tools."
The Power Of Online Video
"Using video to promote products and services
online is one of the most underused,
ecommerce strategies today. Video is highly
viral. YouTube is now the number one search
engine behind Google, and Americans watch
double the number of videos compared to the
number of online searches conducted. This
gives video the potential to make your
ecommerce campaigns incredibly successful."
"Add to Cart" vs. "Buy"
"Use phrases like 'Add to Cart' on your buttons
rather than phrases like 'Buy.' Consumers don’t
like commitment. It is like saying 'Will you go on
a date with me?' versus 'Will you marry me?'

9. 9
You are more likely to say yes to the date
because less commitment is required."
Watch PPC Metrics Weekly
"If pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is part of your
marketing strategy, establish a set of core
performance indicators and pay attention to
those metrics on at least a weekly basis."
Free SEO Information for Beginners
"A great source of free information for beginners
can be found at SearchEngineBook.com. It will
provide you with the 'ABC’s' of SEO. Sign up for
the free beginners SEO course and you will
receive an easy to understand email once a day
for a week on the basics of search engine
marketing."
Lead the Eye to the Action
"Want people to click that 'buy' button? Design
your web pages to lead the eye to it. Take
advantage of the fact that people read from left
to right. Use arrows to point, and color your
order button to stand out."
Comparison Tool Helps Reduce Returns
"If your products are technical with many
features or detailed specifications, make sure
your ecommerce software has a comparison tool
that allows shoppers to view detailed feature
breakdown for a number of products side by side
for easy comparison. This improves usability and
can reduce returns."
Some Free Comparison Sites
"Take advantage of the free comparison
shopping sites that are out there, including
Google Product Search (a staple of any shopping
channel strategy), theFind (it has a great, free
'up-front' program to enhance merchant
visibility), Sortprice (it has a Facebook store
application for online retailers), and Oodle (for
merchants who also have a physical store)."
Basic Social Marketing Tips
"Social marketing is important and time
consuming. Make a specific plan, commit to
being regularly active on the social site, and
make your profile dynamic. If you can’t perform
social marketing well yourself, hire an expert or
delegate it to someone who can."
Success Metrics for A/B Tests
"When performing A/B tests you should make
sure especially of two things: to have
statistically significant results and to choose the
right success metric for your campaign (which
can be revenue, profit, orders, average order
value, CTR, or other important metrics)."
Ease the Pain of Tax Season with Online
Incentives
"March is the height of tax season, which
makes it the perfect time for financial services
marketers to target consumers filing their taxes
online with great deals and special promotions.
During tax season, people are looking for online
incentives that help them get over the pain of
filing their taxes."
Keep Information Consistent Across All Selling
Channels
"To ensure cross-channel consistency, SKUs,
prices and product information should be the
same online and in-store so they can be treated
exactly the same from a fulfillment and service
perspective. The result is less work, higher
customer satisfaction and a reduced need to
develop separate staff or procedures for online
sales."

10. 10
Identify the Source of Inquiries
"Measure your marketing effectiveness with lead
tracking software. By identifying where your
inquiries come from (e.g., online or via the
telephone), what sources are working and how
much they are costing, you can get closer to the
‘holy grail’ of marketing: $x Marketing Spend =
$y Sales Return."
Shop Payment Gateways
"Shop around to find the best deal in credit card
processing gateways. Even a penny more per
transaction will eventually add up to big bucks
over the life of your shop."
Copy Your Foreign Competitors
“When entering foreign markets for the first
time, make sure you offer customers the same
value as your foreign competition. Copy your
competitors' payment solutions, business terms
and business partners; and match their delivery
costs and delivery times. If you cannot meet or
beat your foreign competitors, then don’t enter
foreign markets.”
Use Tags to Label Images
"Label all images with alt tags and image tags to
provide another way for customers to find you.
Imagine if you were reading a description of your
product without photos. Could you visualize it
from the description? Include image tags and alt
tags that describe what’s in the image to help
visitors who are vision impaired. "
Learn to Delegate
"A business owner does not have the time to be
an expert in everything or to micro-manage
every business detail. Learn to delegate
responsibilities, hire good employees or service
providers, and allow yourself time to focus on
the big picture."
Calculate the Discount That Brings the Biggest
Profit
"It's important to double check the math
behind your online promotions. A 60 percent
discount will bring you more customers than a
40 percent discount, but keep in mind that the
40 percent discount might actually bring you
more profit and even better customer
retention."
Adjust Plans Based on Metrics
"Traffic, conversion rate, and average order
value are three numbers that significantly
impact the bottom line. With 2009 as your
baseline, create your 2010 goals, then map
your on-page and off-page tactics to positively
influence these key ecommerce metrics.
Produce monthly scorecard reports and quickly
adjust plans if you’re not seeing the results.”
Use a Favicon to Promote Your Brand
"Promote your brand with a favorite icon (or,
"Favicon"), a square 16 pixel graphic that
appears next to your website address in the
address bar, next to the web page’s title in the
web browser favorites, in tabs, and desktop
shortcuts. To implement, place the favicon.ico
graphic file in the root of your URL, and then
link to it with: <link REL="SHORTCUT ICON"
HREF="http://www.thenameofyourwebsite.co
m/favicon.ico">." Watch this tutorial for help in
creating your own favicon.
Offer Additional Payment Methods
"When you offer additional payment methods
(e.g., PayPal, Amazon and Google Checkout)
you can lock in customers that may be worried
about trusting your online store. Millions of
customers that already have accounts with
these secure payment methods know and trust
their checkout systems and buying experience."

11. 11
Take Advantage of Free Online Education
"Take advantage of free education on the
Internet. No one knows everything, so learn
more about topics you need to stay current on.
Most tech sites have sponsored seminars, and
since they are free, you have nothing to lose."
Shop First, Ask For Registration Later
“Allow shoppers to check out before asking them
to register with your website. The information
learned at check out, such as name, address and
email, can be used to create customer accounts.
Eliminating this extra step in the online shopping
process gets you one step closer to a completed
order.”
Offer a Branded DIY Gift Wrapping Kit
"Many shoppers don't use gift wrapping services
because they prefer to save the money, or they
might want to check what they bought before it
is wrapped. Try offering a DIY gift-wrapping kit
with your branded gift-wrap, ribbon, and card for
a nominal fee. You won't need to use staff
resources wrapping products, plus your
customer gets to inspect the gift before he or she
presents it. It's a win-win solution."
Never Argue, Try Persuasion
"Never argue with a customer. Even if you are
right, it's useless waste of time. You'll lose as
soon as you start arguing with the customer. Try
to persuade him or her instead."
Adjust Your Spend Caps During the Holidays
“If you have caps on your spend at various
comparison shopping engines, be sure to go in
and adjust your budgets throughout the holiday
season. Traffic and costs will rise steadily so be
ready and visible for all opportunities.”
Keep Social Media Strategy Relevant to Your
Business
"Connect to customers through social media
outlets, but develop your own strategy relevant
to your particular business. Just because Dell,
Best Buy or other large corporations are using a
particular site or a particular strategy doesn't
mean it is relevant or feasible for your
business."
The Advantage of Up-selling
"Up-sells increase average earnings per sale,
and a properly executed up-sell can even
increase your conversion rates. Compelling up-
sell offers should cost no more than 30 percent
of the price of your primary product. And, when
choosing your up-sell offers, always select
products that complement your primary
product offer."
Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
"Try not to rely too heavily on one supplier.
Although it's more difficult to manage multiple
suppliers, diversifying will help shield you if
your primary supplier should run into trouble."
Offer Telephone Sales on Your Site
"Offer telephone orders on your site as an
alternative to online orders. A message such as
'Order by telephone and speak to one of our
Product Experts' can increase sales. And,
conversions are typically higher over the
telephone."
Embed Ecommerce Into Your Overall Retail
Strategy
"Launch your ecommerce operation as a
coordinated, multi-channel selling effort,
ideally with the head of ecommerce seated at
the management table. This structure allows
ecommerce to become what it should be in

12. 12
retail--a force multiplier for chain-wide
initiatives, and it optimizes online results."
Keep Shoppers on the Cart Page
"When cross selling or up-selling products in the
shopping cart, make sure you allow shoppers to
easily add the recommended products to the
cart without leaving the shopping cart page."
Localize Site Content
"Your ecommerce site should be as localized as
your physical stores. Some retailers have
hundreds of localized, micro-branded sites with
content that resonates with local consumers.
You can also use IP mapping to localize prices,
offers and product selection. Make sure your
website platform embraces this complexity --
when done correctly, it's a powerful sales tool
for your online and local stores."
Keep Your Message Above the Fold
"If it is important, keep it 'above the fold' [middle
of screen]. Email or newsletter sign ups, special
offers, reviews, and navigation are better served
'above the fold' where a visitor is more likely to
engage them."
Include Expert Testimonials
"Customer testimonials and user-generated
product reviews are great to provide reassurance
for your online store. But, if you can, go one step
further and put up any 'expert' testimonials or
product reviews. An example might be, 'The
head groundsman at Wimbledon recommends
this lawn mower...' and include actual quotes
from the expert."
Help Non-Profits and They Help You
"Things are tight for everyone right now,
including non-profits. For a donation, many local
groups, especially team sports, will help you with
time-consuming projects such as taking online
inventory, washing windows, or cleaning
company vehicles. If they don’t ask, you can
suggest it. It is a great solution for both
organizations because everyone wins."
Use Ning to Target Customers
"Ning is a web service that hosts thousands of
social networks and it is a great place to target
niche customer segments. For example, if you
were selling embroidered pet collars, the best
place to promote your products would be a
Ning network for dog lovers. Find out the
networks your customers are likely to belong to
and connect with them on Ning."
Create a FAQ Page
"Create a FAQ [frequently asked questions]
page that educates customers about your
products or services in a concise matter. It
should cover a wide range of questions and
answers to help customers make more
informed decisions on purchases. Customers
will be more comfortable shopping with your
company and have a better understanding of
the way you operate, creating a foundation for
repeat customers and referrals."
Define Your Business Objectives
"Approach ecommerce as an all-encompassing
marketing discipline from the outset. Clearly
define your business objectives, make them
achievable and measurable. Once this has been
defined you can then make intelligent decisions
and select appropriate partners to assist you."
Detailed Images Appeal to Sophisticated
Shoppers
"As the Internet matures so does the
sophistication of online shoppers. Studies
indicate that today's shoppers expect retailers
to provide not only textual product
information, but also detailed, zoomable
images, videos, and alternate product views. A

13. 13
superior customer experience separates the
best-of-breed retailers from the rest of the
pack."
Use Creative Commons for SEO Value
"If you have old imagery such as model or
product shots which you are no longer using,
consider submitting them to image-sharing sites
under a Creative Commons license. Oftentimes
users will credit your company for the image and
provide SEO value by linking to your site."
Improve Your Onsite Search
“Help shoppers find the products they’re
searching for more quickly. If you sell
merchandise across a range of product
categories, consider adding a category drop-
down [menu] next to your search box to allow
shoppers to narrow their search ahead of time
(e.g., women’s apparel vs. men’s apparel vs. kid’s
apparel).”
The Power of Product Reviews
"Use the power of product reviews and motivate
your team to do their best work. Instruct your
employees to route satisfied customers to the
most important online sites for leaving feedback,
and give your people a bonus if a referred
customer writes a review about your company
there."
Only Ask For Information You Absolutely Need
"Ask your customers only for the information
you absolutely need. If you are selling digital
products, do you need the customer's full
address? What about the phone number? Most
customers dislike giving their precious personal
information away until they get to know your
company better."
Grab Your Market Share Now
"A recession is no time to reduce your
marketing and advertising budgets. Manage
expenses according to ROI, but this is a good
time to grab additional market share."
Improve Rankings With Press Releases
"Press releases provide an opportunity to
provide high-quality content within your press-
related pages. Many merchants disassociate
the importance of marketing activity from their
websites. But each press release allows the
opportunity to increase your keyword density
and improve your rankings."
Deploy Decision-making Widgets
"When selling big ticket items or products that
require research, deploy merchandising
widgets to aid in the decision-making process.
Customers who interact with online
merchandising widgets will generally view more
products per session and are more likely to add
a product to their shopping cart, increasing
conversions, repeat visits and customer
satisfaction."
Add Unique Content to Improve Product
Descriptions
"Improve your product descriptions by adding
informative and unique content. The more
descriptive and unique you are in your product
descriptions, the better the chance that
someone will buy from you. Figure out a way to
make your product descriptions unique to
differentiate you from the competition."
Hire Interns With Advanced Skills
"Utilize local high school and college student’s
talent for jobs whenever possible, including
paid internships. You will be amazed at the
talent you can find, such as advanced skills in
programming, photography, blogging etc. And

14. 14
the interns can gain necessary experience in a
practical environment."
Step Up Security Accreditation
"Go one step further than SSL or 'McAfee Hacker
Safe' certifications on your site. Try to get
industry-endorsed accreditations such as the
'Good Web Shopping Guide' or 'Governed by the
Internet Shopping Code of Practice.'"
Earn Trust By Keeping Your Promises
"Be honest with your customers and never
promise anything that cannot be accomplished.
Once you make a promise you must keep it.
Earning a customer's trust is the best way to get
a lifelong partner."
Spread the Word on Facebook
"A Facebook page is a great way to promote your
online store. Not only does it give you
customized presence and branding, it also gives
your customers a channel to interact with you.
And, it provides great SEO value, too. Set up a
Facebook page now and spread the word among
your friends and customers."
Help Customers Interact With Your Site
"Invest in features that will help customers
interact with your site or understand your
products better. This could be product reviews,
expandable interactive images, video, or chat.
Watch your competition -- what features are
they adding?"
Turn Shopping Cart Abandons Into Future
Customers
"Never underestimate the profit opportunity
that comes with undecided or 'freebies hunting'
customers. Do your prospects want your
merchandise for free? Get creative! Join forces
with advertisers and other merchants around the
world and use the 'Get it for free' model to turn
shopping cart abandons into sales."
Targeted Email Can Increase ROI
"Your customers have different purchasing
patterns and interests. Segmentation allows
you to send targeted email campaigns to
subgroups within your list based on subscribers'
behavior or demographics. Since competition
for the attention of your newsletter subscribers
is rising, sending relevant email is vital to a
successful email marketing campaign."
Use Google Alerts to Stay on Top of Your
Industry
"Use Google Alerts to stay abreast on what's
happening in your industry, you'll be surprised
how much they keep your 'finger on the pulse'
of news items that are important to you. Make
sure to include keywords like your company's
name and your line of business, as well as
important industry keywords and buzzwords."
Establish Good Inbound Links
"Links are the currency of the web. Not only do
they drive traffic in their own right, but they
also are essential to high search engine
rankings. Without good inbound links to your
web site, your search engine optimization (SEO)
efforts will be limited."
Present Your Products in the Best Possible
Way
"Image is everything and online shoppers need
to come as close to touching and feeling a
product as possible. You need to overcome the
obstacle of customers not being able to
experience your product, like they can in a
retail store. Take time to present your products
in the best possible way with clear and vibrant
images and accurate descriptions."

15. 15
Customer Testimonials Add Trust
"Customer reviews and testimonials are great
ways to help visitors to feel more confident in
their purchase, resulting in lower shopping cart
abandonment and higher overall revenue. When
contemplating a purchase, peer feedback is very
powerful and adds a new dimension of trust."
Look Further Afield for Inventory Sources
"With an unrivaled manufacturing infrastructure,
sourcing direct from Chinese suppliers can
greatly increase profit margins for small online
businesses. By using a transactional marketplace
rather than a supplier directory, buyers can
select and purchase small volumes at a high
frequency while utilizing inbuilt security systems
– mitigating risk and maximizing cost-
efficiencies."
Take Advantage of Existing SEO Services
"Before contracting for any SEO services at all, be
sure you are taking maximum advantage of SEO
services you already possess, such as those built
into your web hosting account, or those built
into your shopping cart. You should be using
them. Some are highly effective and will
continue to build page authority and page rank
for you day-by-day, every day."
Don't Wait to Promote Top-rated Sellers
"Leading retailers have recognized the value of
premium position and are offering it as part of
their top-rated program. But why wait until
October (like eBay does) to promote top-rated
sellers? Offering cost-per-click bidding now to
attain premium position helps
advertisers/suppliers improve sales while helping
you generate incremental revenue in hours."
Google Alerts Provide an Extra Set of Eyes and
Ears
"Set up Google Alerts on your company’s high-
converting keyword phrases. When these
phrases appear in a blog post, video, website
update, or news release, Google will send a
relevant email update. This instantaneous
feedback is a great information resource for
new blog posts, latest product ideas, link
exchanges and even short-term PPC
campaigns."
Seek Quality and Affordable Advertising
"It is important not to overlook paid search
engine advertising for your online business.
Many of the leading search providers, such as
Google, Yahoo! and Bing, offer paid advertising
at rates that are affordable to businesses of any
size. This is a great way to get targeted visitors
to your website which could lead to potential
sales."
Use Long Tail Phrases to Describe Products
"Most people think of keywords as individual
words. While these are important it is also
important to think about the phrases that
consumers use to describe your products.
These phrases are referred to as 'long tail
keywords.' For many websites, more than half
of traffic comes with long tail keywords than
from shorter one- or two-keyword phrases."
Fundamental Security Tips
"It's critical to become a stickler for security
when it comes to your customer's data. Some
fundamental tips are to use strong passwords
and change them frequently, become PCI
compliant, never store sensitive information in
plain-text at any point, use digital certificates,
store transaction IDs/subscription IDs over
credit card data, and above all do not store any
more customer data than is necessary."

16. 16
Work Together to Build Strong Links
"To make the most of out your SEO linking
strategy, make sure that the rest of your
marketing team understands what keywords and
pages you’re targeting. Some of the best natural
links come from work you’re already doing
elsewhere, from press releases to social media."
Diversify Online Marketing Tactics
"Online merchants should diversify tactics to
reach customers through targeted advertising on
sites like Shopzilla, Bing cashback, and Google
Product Search; timely email promotions; and
most importantly, by providing relevant, quality
site content and high-quality images that foster a
better online shopping experience."
Put Your Best Image Forward
“Compared to traditional store rent and utilities,
ecommerce has built-in advantages with already
cheap start-up costs. Resist skimping further on
aesthetics and appearance; these things strongly
represent you, your vision, and your business.
Spend the dollars in design, proper functionality,
and support to ensure your image is represented
correctly.”
Audit Search Queries Often
“Regularly audit your search queries. These are
the actual words a searcher types, not the
keywords you buy. If you buy paid search
advertising using broad match and phrase match,
you could be wasting money.”
Start Planning for Holiday Season Now
"To succeed during the holiday season, make
sure your website and its underlying technology
can support your marketing plans now. Online
retailers should be prepared to quickly and
accurately process large quantities of orders
during the holiday season. And, integrate social
media, wish lists, and page promotions now to
have a successful holiday shopping season."
Use A Site Search That Incorporates Guided
Navigation
"Shoppers often begin their search using vague
and general terms, and then abandon the
search in frustration and leave the website
altogether because too many choices are
returned in an unstructured manner. Guided
navigation helps solve this problem by allowing
the visitor to easily and rapidly narrow the
search in a highly structured fashion."
Focus on Upsell Products
"To succeed with your ecommerce solution, it is
extremely important to focus on having the
customer picking an upsell product with better
profit, or adding accessories together with the
product they are purchasing. This is no more
than a time commitment, but well worth it.
Find products that you can add as accessories,
not only to a few of your products but to all of
them."
Automation is Not a Substitute for
Outstanding Support
"It is critically important to have user friendly
automated tools, dynamic and well-designed
web pages, and clear communication
processes. But don’t forget the importance of
coupling this with easy access to an
outstanding, knowledgeable and helpful
support representative to create positive, long
lasting, impressions of your company."
Tap Location Online to Drive Offline Sales
"The consumer’s expectation of 'research
anywhere, buy anywhere' means merchants
must bring offline decision-making to online
commerce. And, location plays an integral role.
With geolocation technologies, online
enterprises can proactively drive offline sales

17. 17
by highlighting the nearest retail locations or
presenting coupons for in-store use based on
shoppers’ geographic locations."
A/B Split Testing
"Do A/B split testing of landing pages using
Google Website Optimizer. It's free and you'll be
pleasantly surprised at your conversion's
improvement."
Find Related Forums and Blogs
"Targeted marketing is the most effective way to
drive potential customers to your site. Use the
search engines to find related forums and blogs,
and sign up for as many you find. Participate by
adding useful information, comments and
advice, and be sure to include a link to your
website."
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
"Diversifying your product range is an excellent
way to expand your existing business and reach
new customers. You can add value to your online
store and increase your margins by introducing
new complementary products. This will also
allow you to test new suppliers for quality and
reliability."
Maximize Your Profit on Every Item Sold
"Setting the right price for items is key to
maximizing profit, but it can take
experimentation and may vary based on who the
actual shopper is. Understanding how your
shoppers respond to pricing and promotions and
making fine adjustments will deliver large
returns. Leveraging new vendor solutions that
are low risk will simplify this complex process."
More Trust Equals More Revenue
"With all that consumers are hearing in the
media about identity theft, hacking, and fraud,
they are understandably more concerned than
ever about transacting business online.
Merchants need to be sensitive to these
concerns and reinforce the trustworthiness of
their site wherever possible."
Add a Video Play Button
"The benefits of product video on ecommerce
is well established, but how it is triggered by
shoppers is critical. Take a cue from YouTube
and news sites - use a superimposed ‘play
button’ in the immediate vicinity of the primary
product image. Shoppers know immediately
what this means, and your conversion rates will
be maximized."
See Things From a Customer's Viewpoint
"Understanding complete customer experience
requires monitoring from the customer's
viewpoint (not an internal one) through the
entire order lifecycle. How easy is it to order
and how long does it take to receive it? It’s also
important to analyze how technology enables
or hampers the customer experience."
Set Yourself Apart with Visual Security
"Making your commitment to security known
by your customers can be the difference
between abandonment and a conversion.
Strong visual indicators, such as Extended
Validation certificates (green address bar) and
trustmarks, greatly increase shopper
confidence."
Start a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise in
China
"Hangzhou, China is the B2B [business to
business] mecca for IT. With a strong dollar,
you can leverage the force of a very tech-savvy
development team and pick up a global
presence instantly. Superior product
development is what sets apart one company

18. 18
from another. This will let you focus on sales and
marketing while your offices overseas focus on
the website product management."
Speed Up Page Loads
"Optimize your site with fast-loading pages for
customers who are ready to buy. Start testing
load times during the design phase, and keep
them under two seconds for better conversions
and an improved bottom line. Otherwise, users
you just paid to attract will give up and buy from
the competition."
Help Customers Find Exactly What They Want
"Advanced filtering by product attributes, tags
and advanced searching helps customers find
exactly what they want by driving into the
product catalog in a natural, fluid way instead of
forcing the customer down a deep and rigid
hierarchical category structure."
Use Multivariate Testing On Your Shopping Site
"Use multivariate testing to enhance the on-site
shopping experience by determining which
combination of on-page variables increase your
conversion rates. A/B splits are very limited, but
with multivariate testing you can test multiple
features at once and contemplate the user's full
experience at your site."
Don't Hide Behind Your Site
"Try not to treat your ecommerce platform as a
24/7 faceless store. Interact with your customers
through images, video and live help as if they
were in the room with you. Not only will this
build empathy and trust with the shopper but
you will also increase conversions."
Self Insure USPS Shipments
"If you sell many of the same item, self insure
instead of buying USPS insurance. Charge an
insurance fee and assume the risk. USPS rarely
looses packages. If they do, your customer will
be happy when you simply and quickly replace
the item. Insurance becomes a profit center."
The Key to Free Freight Offers
"A key to free freight offers is the fact that
shipping cost per pound drops quickly as total
package weight increases. Typical UPS or FedEx
cost for zone 5 residential delivery is
approximately $7 for a one pound package, but
only $.60 per pound for a twenty pound
package--yet revenue per pound remains
unchanged."
Provide Contact Details
"Provide your customers with visible contact
details on every page of your site. Whether it’s
a visible phone number and email in your
header graphics or a live chat tool on your
website. Nothing makes a customer feel more
comfortable about buying from you than being
able to contact."
Differentiate Yourself From the Competition
"Create a niche by offering customers your
knowledge and expertise. Daily tips,
newsletters, or instructional videos on media
such as YouTube are ways to offer customers
more than just the products you sell. It’s a cost-
effective way to promote your brand and
separates you from the competition."
Optimize Comparison Shopping Engine Feeds
"Start inexpensively with Google Base. When
the feed is optimized well, the results can show
up on the first page of Google within hours
(over months with SEO) and conversions are
easier since the traffic is qualified for
‘shopping’."

19. 19
The Evolution of the Payment Provider
"With the status of the financial market, the
standard payment service provider tries to
provide innovative solutions. A preferred option
is to combine their services with affiliate,
marketing and alternative payment methods.
Today’s providers are elevating to complete
ecommerce service providers offering the
merchants what they require."
The Human Face on Your Website
"Make simple product videos, upload them to
YouTube, and then embed the video on your
product page. Just standing in front of the
camera and demonstrating your product will set
you apart from 99 percent of other online
retailers. Demonstrating on video shows that you
really know your product, and it puts a human
face behind your website."
Eliminate Guesswork
“Track, measure, and test to eliminate
guesswork. Evaluating traffic patterns reveals
ideal places for cross-sell and up-sell. Identifying
points of abandonment exposes weaknesses in
your system. Conducting A/B split tests on
everything from emails to landing pages to
checkout steps allows your customers to show
you exactly what they want.”
Manage Deliverability
“Use E-mail marketing tools to effectively
manage your deliverability and monitor the
performance of your campaigns. Focus on the
customers that are more receptive to your E-
mails to reduce the costs of campaigns and
improve your return on investment.”
Discount Coupons for Affiliates
"Especially in these tough times, the discount
coupons will be the most convincing argument
an affiliate could have. Give 'classical' coupons to
affiliates or offer them tools to make their own
coupons, from the commission they already
have."
Maximize Revenue by Offering Value Added
Services to Your Existing Clients
"By offering value added services through
strategic partners you can strengthen existing
client relationships, increase loyalty and
generate additional revenue. Solid partners
should offer recurring revenue to you, truly
competitive pricing and automated tools to
make it easy for you and as seamless as
possible for your clients to enroll in their 3rd
party service offering."
Build Rapport
"Merchants often underestimate the value of
relationship management in regards to
eCommerce. If you build great rapport with
your customers, suppliers, credit card
processor, etc., I assure you that your Internet
retail business will be better off."
Take Total Control
"Take total control of customer interactions
instead of outsourcing critical operations such
as customer service and shipping. It may be
easier and cheaper to hire a call center to
answer phones, or to have a manufacturer drop
ship orders, but customers will not feel the
personalized and expert service that can be
offered in house."
Explorers and Hunters
"Your biggest pool of prospective customers
may be people who are 'exploring' for ideas or
'hunting' for options. Anything you can do to
help them find and choose products will set you
apart from your competition and open up a
large and untapped area of revenue."

20. 20
Rich Consumer Experiences Dominate
"Focus on immersive branding and marketing
techniques that create unexpectedly fast, fun,
and easy shopping experiences. Are your budgets
caught up on technology or are you investing in
creating that visceral connection to the
consumer? What amazes us the most is that very
few e-stores provide that connection."
Segment Audiences, Then Localize Messages
"Online retailers need to better segment online
audiences. Once marketers understand an
audience’s make-up and behavior, they can
determine which online segments are useful,
viable and profitable. They can start “localizing”
their messages. Segmenting an audience into
smaller groups ensures each receives the most
relevant, personalized experience, information
and offers."
Provide Engaging Content
“You invest heavily to get shoppers to your
product page, now focus on sales conversions.
Product videos and other engaging content are
proven to increase sales, and it’s not just for
large merchants. They are available from many
of your vendors at no charge to you. Ask them
about it!”
Remove Disturbing Elements
"Remove any disturbing elements that could
make any potential customer leave your site, like
blinking banners and annoying flash-animations.
Also make sure there's not too much information
on your site. Keep in mind most people only read
the headlines."
Engage Visitors With Video
"Video engages the user by providing
demonstrations about your products or services.
Show how your product works, different views,
features and how it will benefit the user.
Providing video is fairly easy and can be a major
boost to your sales when done correctly.
Search engines also like quality video."
Create Simple and Fun Initiatives
"Great websites employ three main elements:
content, community and commerce. Site
owners need a meaningful metric for user
participation on their sites. So create simple
and fun initiatives for users and reward users
that participate. It’s a great way to develop an
audience for your site."
Try USPS For International Shipping
"The fall of the dollar against foreign currencies
is opening up a huge new export market for
U.S. ecommerce merchants. United States
Postal Service first class mail international and
priority mail international delivery are a reliable
and inexpensive way to ship export orders.
Rates and how-to information are posted
online at
http://www.usps.com/business/international/
welcome.htm."
Target International Searches
"Increase your website targeted traffic with
targeted localized search engine marketing
campaigns in both natural and paid search
efforts. Promote your product, service and
business on domestic search engines, such as
Google.fr, Google.de, Google.it, Baidu,
Rambler, and others. Localize your product
description, FAQs, tutorials, website, public
relations and advertising campaigns."
Use Your Social Smarts
"Make product pages more social. Offer prizes
to past customers who post the best reviews.
Allow "track backs" to product pages that are
linked to from blogs. Make it easy for users to
share products on Facebook and Twitter. And

21. 21
have a public (though moderated) comment
section for each product."
Implement a Life Cycle Email Messaging
Strategy
"Email marketing is much more effective when
managed with a marketing strategy. An email life
cycle plan will improve conversions, increase
revenue spent per customer and help discover
opportunities that are often missed due to failed
communications. There is a little cost in setting
this up and the rewards keep paying."
Determine Valuable Variables
"Doing multivariate testing used to require some
in-house programming expertise or expensive
third-party software. Thankfully, Google Website
Optimizer has provided us with a free
alternative. You don’t need to have the right
answer, your customer will."
Don’t Fail To Plan
"Having been through the personal experience of
becoming involved with a young business, and
trying to slide a foundation under the building,
after it has begun construction, has taught me
the importance of planning. Take the time to
plan your site. The end result will pay you
Don’t Filter Feedback
"Merchants cannot control their credibility —
they can only influence it. If a customer leaves a
bad, yet constructive review for one of your
products, leave it up. Prospective customers
trust other customers more than they trust you.
Filtering that feedback can tarnish your
credibility with the reviewer and the visitor."
A Toll-Free Number
"Get a toll-free number and use it in your Google
AdWords. It’s one of the last search engines to
let you show your contact information in the ad
— you’ll get calls from people just looking to
order over the phone because they are busy or
they don’t trust the web."
Persuasion Through Web Personalization
"Successful ecommerce firms understand the
correlation between sales and positive
customer experience management. Offering
easy returns and free shipping are expected.
Leveraging customer behaviors/attributes so
you can serve persuasive offers that change in
real-time goes a step further. To promote the
right product/service at the right time, think
web personalization."
Use Video
"Start creating short videos on a regular basis
that solve a problem for your target audience.
Keep the videos at two minutes or so, include
B-roll, upload to multiple sites via
Tubemogul.com, and archive uncompressed,
high quality versions of the videos for future
use. Create a Magnify.net channel, too."
Syndicate Content Via Widgets
"Adding a syndication widget enables
ecommerce sites to easily syndicate and
distribute dynamic content from a knowledge
base, such as frequently asked questions,
product specifications and warranty
information — across multiple websites."
Talk With Your Customers
"Websites, emails and forums are great for
getting out your message, but talking with your
customers about their needs and how you can
provide solutions or products is the best way to
build a long-term relationship and customer
satisfaction. Remember your customers are not
just another row in your database."

22. 22
Back To The Future
"I revolutionized my time management by
abandoning my PDA for an old-fashioned
Franklin Covey Planner. Now my mission, values,
and most important goals are in front of me
daily, and I’m getting done what really matters.
I’m more efficient and focused."
Align Consumer Strategies To Increase
Conversion
"Before spending your limited online marketing
and web development dollars on rich media
merchandising, get to know your customers.
Uncover their critical decision-making needs, and
align your online brand and user experience
strategies with them for increased purchase
conversion."
Check Your Impression Share
“Take a long, hard look at the Impression Share
of your paid search campaigns. It’s possible that
your ads are not running as often as you think,
which is deadly if the campaign is profitable.”
Widgets Can Expand Your Reach
"Push your marketing to the edge by using a
widget to display your products for purchase on
other websites. Whether implemented on social
networks or through your affiliate programs,
widgets can create natural link popularity and
help expand your reach without having to drive
users directly to your website."
Add Alternative Payment Options
"It is possible to increase revenue and sell
globally without risk. Adding new alternative
payment options such as inpay allows customers
to use their online bank to pay instantly and
worldwide. You can sell to customers with no
credit cards and get orders even when a card
transaction is rejected."
Develop Banking Relationships
“It is vital to develop banking relationships as
well as financial jurisdictions, especially in the
midst of this recession. This will provide a
merchant with the means to expand an e-
business globally, as well as improve his
customer base.”
Develop a Strong Marketplace Strategy
"Customers will always compare prices online
before making a decision. Develop a strategy to
list products on marketplaces like Amazon.com.
Your products will be presented to millions of
viewers, and you pay only when there is a sale.
Also, don't forget to list your products on
Google Base, a great source for free traffic."
Contact Customers by Phone
"Include an optional field in your "Contact Us"
form where customers can leave a phone
number and request that you call them. You
will be able to close more sales over the phone
than over email.”
Offer More Payment Methods
"Maximize closing sales by offering more
payment acceptance methods because many
people do not wish to pay via credit cards or
debit cards. With methods like PayPal and
WorldPay becoming increasingly popular it
makes good business sense to not reject the
end user based on their payment method."
Recurring Payment Plans
"One emerging and profitable trend is recurring
payment plans. The best use is to understand
the life of your product. If you sell homemade
soap that lasts about a month, enable your
customers to join a plan where you will ship
them a new product monthly. This moved you
from one sale to twelve."

23. 23
Review User Sessions
"Knowing which pages your users visit can help
you understand what people are looking for so
you can make it easier for them to get it. You can
get this information from website logs, but my
favorite new way is using Clicktale, which plays
back each user session in a video."
Build Credibility
"Regardless of increasing consumer confidence
in online retail, people buy from people they can
trust. Build credibility with security audits of your
website, and in turn include security
accreditation logos in strategic points on your
site. Client testimonials also add value.”
Implement Product Descriptions
"Use relevant and informative product
descriptions. Not only will those descriptions
help the shopper in their buying process but the
content of that description will also be indexed
by search engines, increasing the visibility of your
website."
Research And Exclude Negative Keywords
"Invest at least one hour every week to research
negative keywords for your pay-per-click
campaign. Be sure to exclude keywords such as
free, no charge, no cost, problems, trouble,
negative, bad, worst, rebate and similar
keywords that you don’t want your ads showing
up for."
Use Article Directories
"Write articles and submit them weekly to
Ezinearticles.com and other article directories.
Search Google for article directories to find a top
50 list. If you don't have time to write them, hire
someone at Elance.com, Guru.com or
Getafreelancer.com for $5 to $10 each. This will
get you traffic and backlinks."
Build An Ecommerce Facebook Application
"One of the best ways for an ecommerce site to
get into the social media game and gain lots of
new interest is though Facebook.com.
Facebook’s open source policy is designed as an
active invitation for creating applications, which
has secondarily given birth to widget platforms
like Clearspring.com."
Incorporate Regular PCI Verification
"Leverage your PCI compliance efforts every
quarter as a benchmark for your overall
security posture. When you go through
compliance exercises, compare your previous
scores and look for consistent reduction in type
and number of problems you have to resolve."
Use Simple Tools To Lower Abandonment
"More than half of online shoppers abandon
the checkout process before completing their
purchase. Counter abandonment by adding
simple tools like security certificates, progress
bars and live chat to allay customer confusion,
fears or frustrations."
Inventory Management Is Key To Success
"One database means less hassle and less
manpower required to keep track of inventory
from multiple locations. The right database can
also handle inventory from multiple locations.
With the right software to manage it, there is
no need to go beyond one program to add,
remove and track products."
Online Chat Service Can Increase Sales
"We now have two years experience using
online chat services and have just moved to our
third vendor. It does not provide the same level
of conversion to sales as prospects that phone
into our sales department, but it has increased
our sales by 10-12 percent."

24. 24
Make Trustmarks Prevalent
Place trustmarks on your home page and all
catalog pages; don’t bury them in the shopping
cart. The millions of security conscious shoppers
who respond positively to trustmarks frequently
abandon websites before they even get to the
cart."
Be Sure To Offer Flexibility
"E-tailers face a huge challenge in the
commoditization of brand-name products,
facilitated by comparison shopping sites and
other channels that sort products by price only.
To survive, smaller e-tailers must offer payment
flexibility, fast order handling, and outstanding
customer support. Focus on best sellers and
initiate quick-ship programs. Customers may pay
more if they can get it fast."
(*) The document is prepared by using various
sources including especially
http://www.practicalecommerce.com