July 28, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Bi-annually, MailerMailer.com releases a thorough analysis of the email marketing space which includes important stats like average Click Through Rate (CTR), abandonment rate, best days to send an email, and much more. The latest report was released in late June and, due to its focus on email marketing in a recession, it should not be overlooked. “This report, more so than previous editions, shows how societal and economic trends are reflected in the email performance of several industries. Given the state of the economy, it may not be a surprise that Banking/Finance and Real Estate dropped from their top open and click rate positions. Yet it’s not all doom and gloom. On the other side of the spectrum, others, such as the Religious/Spiritual industry, for example, continue to see growth in their subscriber response,” the report states.

The 38 page PDF is a free resource for anyone willing to take the time to read it (View Here). The report allows merchants to compare email stats with others in their industry, as well as see what industries are expanding in the space. It provides up-to-date statistics, informative graphs, and is sprinkled with a variety of email marketing tips as well. Some key learning from this report include:

1. Mondays are the best days to send an email because of higher CTR and Open Rates

2. Deliverability continues to increase and bounces continue to decrease

3. Unique open rates have fallen slightly from H1 2008

The only downfall of this report is that the data is already 6 months old as it covers only H2 of 2008. As the recession continues, it is likely that H1 of 2009 will report slight downward trends in factors like CTR and open rates. If last year’s release dates of this report are any indication, we will not know the results of H1 2009 until November of this year.

By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

It may sound funny to think that online retailers would start to prepare now for the holiday shopping season, but it is crucial to get a head start if merchants want to be ready for the rush. If online retailers begin efforts now and have a solid plan of attack for the holidays, then they can fix and prevent potential problems with online storefronts or shopping carts before it’s too late. Web traffic has a huge spike when the fourth quarter approaches as so many people choose to do their holiday shopping online. This is why it is vital to capitalize on the influx of visitors by offering them an easy and secure shopping experience with smart marketing tactics to get them excited about purchasing from your online store.

One of the first things you need to do is make sure your online store and shopping cart can support your marketing plans. If you do not have the right capacity to quickly and accurately process large quantities of orders then you could miss out on a lot of sales. Another key thing you can do now is work on your SEO strategy which could help increase your traffic in 3-4 months when the holiday season is in full effect. The first thing most visitors see when they visit your site is the homepage so you want to prepare the promotions you want to push and graphics to go with them now so that you can have a better shot to turn those visitors into paying customers. You will also want to look into adding wish lists soon so that visitors can start to save their finds they want and buy later in the year. One last tip is to research your shipping set up and make sure you offer free shipping when possible and a variety of shipping options so you can secure more customers.

July 22, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

If you are an e-tailer, or plan on starting an online store, it’s important to utilize online marketing tools to make your eCommerce store stand out from the competition. Online marketing (SEO, SMO, PPC, etc) helps you drive traffic to your site and get more customers to your shopping cart purchase page. Because it is so important, most eCommerce shopping cart solutions stress SEO friendly URL’s and other SEO tools as top features. While these are great tools to have, you need to know how to use them to ensure you get the best bang for your buck. Because of this, Internet marketing experts host multiple conferences every year for a wide range of online marketing gurus. Consider the following events which have something for everyone, from novice to expert:

Omma Behavioral – San Francisco – July 30, 2009

OMMA stands for Online Media, Marketing, and Advertising. The conference focuses a lot on traditional advertising and brand awareness, and then takes that message and shows how to utilize traditional methods in an online space. The conference is usually for someone just getting into online marketing, with an audience that is broadly traditional print and television advertisesrs. This upcoming 1 day event will focus on behavioral targeting to increase sales.

Affiliate Summit 2009 East – New York City – August 9-11, 2009

If you use affiliate partnerships with your online store, then this conference is for you. Learn how to improve your ROI, manage your affiliate relationships, and gain new partnerships to bring your eCommerce store great success!

Search Engine Strategies – San Jose – August 11-14, 2009

SES is quite a popular conference and one of the oldest search conferences as it’s now in its 11th year. “The conference will be packed with 70+ sessions covering PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization and usability, while offering high-level strategy, keynotes, an expo floor with 100+ companies to help you grow your business, networking events and more.”

Check back soon for Part 2 which will list out even more industry events in Q3.

July 20, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

As the wedding season takes way, online identity theft is on the rise in both the US and Canada. E-commerce stores continue to tighten online security in hopes of mitigating the risk for their customers, but e-tailers most vulnerable remain to be those using open source or free shopping cart software. With closed source (paid) shopping cart solutions, merchants take comfort in knowing that their store is secure and constantly updated with new security patches by the cart provider. Free carts, on the other hand, require the merchant to make all of these updates and sometimes even code the updates on their own. This begs the question: As identity theft continues to grow online, are free shopping carts the wave of the past?

A similar question was posed to a group of eCommerce gurus on the WebProWorld Forum earlier this year. Overwhelmingly, while users agreed that open source shopping carts provide more flexibility for customization, they also agreed that what you gain in flexibility, you lose in security. In addition to this, open source platforms require an intermediate to expert level of development knowledge to truly make use of that flexibility. An X-cart spokesperson on the forum stated, “Important advantage of paid shopping carts is your confidence – confidence in the software future, in professional support. You can be sure that you will get assistance from the people who actually created the software.” So, while paid shopping carts provide a stable and secure future, there is still question in regards to the future of free shopping carts in a virtual world riddled with hackers hoping to steal the identity of the customers e-merchants are vying for.

July 17, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

The shopping cart checkout process is one of the most important elements of your eCommerce store and online retailers are reported to look to improve the experience for the remainder of 2009. As the economy has struggled, it has become extremely vital that online merchants try and convert as many visitors as possible to paying customers. The “State of Online Retailing 2009” report from Forrester Research and the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org, stated that 79% of retailers they surveyed look to enhance their checkout processes. This was the number one reason and proves how critical it is to the success of any eCommerce store. People can abandon their shopping cart for many reasons and continually testing to decrease this experience from occurring will result in more sales and happy customers

Another hot topic in the report were clearance and sale pages which many online retailers will look to implement in 2009. Calling out these sections on your site makes your store more attractive to the online shopper on a budget or the customer who always wants a deal. Many major online retailers have effectively used these sale and clearance sections for years. With their popular outlet section, REI has set a great example for eCommerce store owners to study. If a retailer is not already doing this, then they are missing out on sales and potentially customers. Not all customers are created equal therefore eCommerce stores need to utilize a variety of techniques to ensure that they effectively monetize the traffic they work so hard to generate.

July 15, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Shopping online has becoming increasingly popular over the past decade and eCommerce stores have tried a variety of tactics to attract users and make their site stand out. An emerging tactic over the past year that has shown success with a few sites is a ‘Members Only’ Shopping Experience. This technique makes the user feel like they are part of an exclusive crowd that gets special deals on products. It allows the sites a unique way to quickly sell the inventory of a certain item so that they can make a profit and move onto the next product.

Three stores that have been gaining popularity in this space are Rue La La, Ideeli, and Hautelook. All three have a focus on clothing with the majority of it catering towards a female demographic. They work by sending out emails regarding special sales that run for a limited time. This can create a panic and if you do not get your pick right away then your size may already be out of stock. It may seem like a great deal but you may not be able to easily return the item or may not be able to return the item at all, assuming it doesn’t fit or just isn’t what you had in mind. The deal you think you are getting might also be available on another site if you spend a little time looking online for it.

When it comes to your ecommerce store you may take a stab at this technique, but the majority of sites that have succeeded over the past decade have opened up their store to everyone to shop freely and purchase whenever they want. It is also much easier to operate a store that has no time limits so that you do not to constantly get new products, create new deals, and manage frequent email campaigns. Regardless if you decide to go ‘members only’ or not, make sure you provide customers with a solid shopping cart experience that will make them feel comfortable checking out of your eCommerce store.

July 14, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Owning and operating an ecommerce store has a variety of moving pieces that you need to pay attention to if you want to be successful. First you need to build a brand, storefront, and shopping cart experience. Once you are up and running you need to get the right visitors to your site that will want to make a purchase. Not all customers are created equal and therefore many of them will need a little help to make it through the buying process. Designing a “cool looking” store does not mean that it is easy to navigate or to make a purchase. If you do not have a strong and visible “Add to Cart” button, then you may be missing out on sales from the people you worked so hard on getting to your store.

Vancouver-based firm WiderFunnel Marketing was hired by SAP Business Objects to improve the performance of a free-trial software download page. The redesigned landing page they created used direct marketing tactics like a strong call to action and highlighted the benefits. The real game changer in the redesign was the “BOB,” otherwise known as the big orange button that boldly stated “Download Now.” In comparison to a subtle blue text link that the control group had the BOB out shined it by a mile. In the A/B split test, that was documented in a Marketing Sherpa case study, the redesign generated an amazing 32.5% more downloads than the control group. This goes to show that constant testing and designing from a user perspective can make a huge difference in your sales. So if you have not been testing different buttons on your site now is the time to give it a shot. Go with bold colors, big 3d style buttons, with a clear call to action so that customers know how to buy your product. You might not see a 32.5% increase, as was reported in the previous study, but every small gain you make will result in more revenue for your bottom line.

July 10, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

The United States has always been the leader in eCommerce stores and adoption of online shopping. Canada and the United Kingdom have also done a great job of harnessing eCommerce. However Australia has been having difficulties making progress in this area because they have much different liability laws. It is one of the key reasons why many brick and mortar retailers operate a Web site as an information source as opposed to an eCommerce storefront. This is a huge contrast from the US where there are hundreds of thousands of online stores.

In Australia the majority of the time it is the merchants’ rather than the consumers’ bank or credit-card provider that has to absorb the cost of fraud and this extends to the online shopping space. For example if a few pairs of earrings are purchased from an online jewelry retailer using a stolen credit card, it is not the credit card company or the bank who pay back the merchant it is most often the merchant who takes a hit to their bottom line. Luckily the Australian Retailers Association is fighting to help take some of the burden off of the merchants so that they can be more competitive in an online global marketplace.

Regardless of the rules in the US, you still want to make sure you have a secure shopping cart experience. Customers need to feel safe and you want to have successful legitimate sales. Taking this security precaution by picking the right eCommerce shopping cart will save you headaches and allow you to provide the type of online storefront that people will safely enjoy.

July 08, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

Jim Lenskold, author of the recent MarketingProfs ROI Study will be hosting a free webinar on July 22nd about increasing your ROI and improving your overall eCommerce performance. In this webinar, attendees will learn how to gain discipline in measuring and analyzing data to improve ROI, how to determine what long-term marketing investments are appropriate, as well as gain immediate tips to improve overall performance and ROI in the short term. The one hour long webinar starts at 11am PST and will cover ideas that can be done on a tight budget as well as some tips that may require a larger investment.

Jim Lenskold is the President of Lenskold Group, Inc., a company that has earned itself the reputation as a thought leader in the world of online marketing and ROI improvements. Founded in 1997, the company has taken multiple Fortune 500 companies under its wing including JPMorgan, MasterCard, and more to cover a diverse range of business models and industries. His book, Marketing ROI, was named one of the top 5 marketing books of 2004. This experience and research culminates into an expert opinion worth getting advice from. To attend this webinar, register for free and clear your schedule on Wednesday July, 22nd at 11am PST.

July 06, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team

A PayPal survey released last month indicated that roughly half (45%) of online shoppers have abandoned their shopping carts multiple times over a recent three week period due to high shipping costs, security concerns and lack of convenience. The average cost of abandoned goods in carts among U.S. was an average of $109. This survey was conducted for PayPal by comScore and they focused on the shoppers most recent abandoned session, regardless of the site involved, to determine the key reasons people do not complete their transaction.

The biggest reason cited by users was high shipping costs as the reason they abandoned their shopping cart. One of the best ways to get around this is to make shoppers aware of the shipping costs early on in the shopping process before they go to checkout of their shopping cart. While researching cart providers you will find that they offer varying levels of support to combat cart abandonment. Getting users to your ecommerce storefront is only the first step and you need to make sure you pick the right cart solution that will give you the tools for customers to convert.

Another big reason that users indicated as to why they abandoned their shopping cart purchase was that they wanted to look for a coupon. Coupons are a great way to help your customers get excited about making their purchases because they feel like they are getting a deal. Not all ecommerce shopping cart solutions allow coupon support but most do provide this for you. Not being able to find their preferred payment option was also reported as a reason for abandoning their cart. Shopping cart solution providers are aware of this and increasingly are offering more and more options. At least make sure you have the major players covered like Google Checkout and PayPal in addition to major credit card options.