Web Sites - Three Steps for Stopping Checkout Abandonment. You've gotten your customer on your site, and even to the checkout page, but (as you well know) your efforts don't end at the "Add To Basket" button. If you want to encourage your website visitors to complete their purchases, you need to double-check your checkout process. Any e-commerce site owner knows the frustration resulting from the abandonment of a full shopping basket; all online shops suffer from a certain amount of checkout abandonment. But the most likely causes of a high rate of abandonment are few, and they're relatively simple to rectify. Here are three key areas that can generate improved conversions if you pay attention to them.
I explain what steps to take in each area and why doing so will improve conversion rates. 1. You don't have to look far to find one of the main reasons for customers' abandoning their purchase at the checkout: your checkout process. Making sure you comply with the following three checkpoints will maximize completion rates: 2. 3. Less Than 1% of Online Purchases Influenced by Social Media [STUDY] Ecommerce businesses should concentrate more of their efforts on traditional online marketing tactics like search and e-mail than social media. That's the conclusion of a Forrester study released Tuesday, which examined 77,000 online transactions made between April 1 and April 14. The study found that less than 1% of them could be traced back to social networks like Facebook or Pinterest. Determining how web activity influences purchases is tricky; although many often credit the last touchpoint for a sale, Forrester found that half of repeat customers and a third of new customers touch multiple touchpoints prior to a purchase.
As such, certain funnels, like display advertising and e-mail, may be undervalued. Nevertheless, ecommerce websites still convert more highly than any other channel, accounting for 30% of transactions. Thus it's smart for retailers to promote their domain names as much as possible. Social media's potential as a shopping portal has yet to be realized. Taobao SEO: A Guide to One of the World's Largest Consumer Marketplaces. One question I get almost every week is, “why am I struggling so much with selling directly to consumers in China?” There are many different answers to this question – from fully optimizing campaigns on Baidu, Google China and the many social networks in China – but one that always catches people off guard is, “Taobao.”
Taobao isn't technically a search engine. However, since search behavior is different in China, it's often a forgotten, yet critical link in an overall Chinese search strategy – and, according to Taobao, they are a “shopping search engine”. What is Taobao and Why is it So Critical? Taobao, similar to eBay and Amazon, is one of the largest online marketplaces in the world and the largest marketplace in China with over 370 million users and more then 800 million product listings.
The Alibaba group in 2003 took the site to the public in a very successful strategy to compete against eBay who was entering the market at the time. Today, Taobao consists of: (Source) China vs. the West: Who's the Biggest Fish in E-Commerce? Aubrey Beck | June 27, 2012 | 0 Comments inShare62 As the numbers continue to mount, and China continues growing its slice of the pie, retailers will have to start the process of figuring out how to succeed in China.
It's no secret that China is huge, but have you ever stopped to consider just how huge? And what does the country's exponentially expanding population mean for e-commerce? According to an April 2012 report by The Boston Consulting Group, China is expected to account for almost 10 percent of all online retail sales by 2015, when it will become the largest online retail market in the world. In addition, the China Internet Information Center, a web portal authorized by the People's Republic of China, reports that online sales in China will reach $420 billion by 2015. That's a lot of people shopping online. By all accounts, the Internet experience in China is vastly different from the one we know and navigate here in the West. According to an article by Julia Q. International SEO Strategy: Get Trusted Quickly. Google rolled out its Trusted Stores program earlier this month, acknowledging the importance of trust to improving online shopping experiences.
Google's Trusted Stores Program Indeed, in the announcement on their official blog, Google highlighted the conversion optimisation improvements delivered by inclusion in the program: a 2.3% increase in sales for Wayfair, and a whopping 8.6% increase for Beau-coup. Before looking at the program in more detail, it’s informative to ask why such a massive increase for Beau-coup was achieved and only a modest, but still hugely significant (in terms of bottom line revenue) improvement was achieved for Wayfair with the same change? Simple: Wayfair is a well known online brand and the 50th highest revenue generating US website online according to Internet Retailer (as noted in Google’s post). In short: it’s got a lot of trust. But where is this brand trust coming from? Quite simply: start making promises and stick to them. Ecommerce in China: How the World's Biggest Market Buys Online.
China is poised to become the biggest online marketplace in the world within the next few years, according to multiple estimates. Online retail generated $121 billion in sales in China last year, up 66% from 2010, according to Barclays Capital. The size of China's ecommerce market is expected to more than triple over the next three years, with sales reaching $420 billion by 2015. That's 20% more than what the U.S.'s ecommerce market is forecast to bring in that year. China has an estimated 193 million online shoppers, more than any other country. A number of factors are driving the growth. Shipping prices and reliability have also been improved, particularly in urban coastal cities: Shipping costs Chinese corporations about a sixth of what their American counterparts pay, according to BCG. People in China shop online for three main reasons, according to an Acquity Group survey conducted among 1,000 people across roughly 150 cities last year.
What's holding them back? The Major Players. Social Media Influences Moms' Purchasing Decisions. Mothers are more present, more active, and more engaged users of social networking sites than other women, according to a study by Performics. Moreover, moms are 45% more likely than other women to say they have made a purchase as a result of a recommendation via a social networking site (42% vs. 29%). Overall, moms are more active than other women with Facebook: Moms are 16% more likely than other women to visit Facebook daily (85% vs. 73%). Moms are 26% more likely than other women to say their Facebook account is important (68% vs. 54%). Below, additional findings from the study titled "S-Net: A Study on Social Media Usage and Behavior" by Performics. Moms as Consumers The industries most affected by moms' purchasing behavior include the following: Apparel: Moms are 54% more likely than other women to make an apparel purchase.
Moreover, moms are more likely to make such purchases because of a recommendation via social networks: Moms as Brand Champions. 8 Ways to Boost Ecommerce Shopping Cart Conversions. 13 E-Commerce Trends for 2013. By Mark Simpson, Founder and President, Maxymiser 2013 is here and it's slated to be the biggest e-commerce year in history. Consumers will demand more from the digital properties they visit and businesses will race to not only provide a streamlined user experience, but also one that is personalized and intuitive. To ensure your enterprise gets its piece of the digital pie, prepare it for these 13 e-commerce trends for 2013.
Trend 1: Personalization for Everyone Personalization is nothing new, but its widespread popularity is thanks to easily available complex technology. Whether personalization is simple (based on one or two collected insights) or complex (based on multiple insights processed by detailed formulas and algorithms), consumers are going to see sites that increasingly reflect their interests,wants and needs—and have little patience for sites that don’t. Trend 2: Personalization Moves Beyond Retail Trend 3: Share More; Browse and Buy Better Trend 4: Personalization in Real Time.