3 top priorities for optimizing mobile checkout

May 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment

In previous posts, we’ve surveyed top eCommerce web sites to gauge how merchants are optimizing the shopping cart and checkout to maximize sales. But as the latest MarketLive Performance Index revealed, the desktop experience is only part of the overall shopping picture: mobile devices now account for more than a third of all traffic to merchant sites and bring in nearly 20% of online revenues.

In last week’s blog post, we revealed how a deeper dive into those numbers exposed a lost opportunity: smartphone shopping. With 22% of traffic generating just 6% of total online revenues, it’s clear that merchants must do more to win sales on the small screen.

The Performance Index numbers confirmed our findings from the survey of mobile purchase experiences we undertook for our new whitepaper, which details path-to-purchase practices for 100 top sites on both desktop and smartphones. We found that in general, mobile purchasing is reminiscent of online shopping circa 2000 – basic, sometimes un-intuitive functionality often lacking crucial supporting content or creative offers. And on the extreme end, 13% of the sites we surveyed didn’t even offer a mobile-optimized version, while the purchase process on a few of the allegedly optimized sites was longer and more complicated than on the desktop/laptop browser version!

While the mobile add-to-cart and shopping cart steps had their own highs and lows, the most glaring deficiencies came in checkout. For starts, our tally revealed that close to 40% of mobile-optimized sites required at least five pages to complete checkout, compared with just 16% of desktop sites  – a counter-intuitive finding, since we assumed that merchants would streamline the process to the utmost for small screens with finicky touch keypads.

Checkout research from MarketLive

We hoped that the higher number of steps was merely due to a desire to limit the amount of scrolling mobile shoppers had to undertake. Unfortunately, that was not the case; rather, the high number of steps was due to clunky implementations that in some cases require more typed input than on the desktop sites.

To improve the mobile checkout experience, merchants should:

Provide guest checkout. We can’t say it enough: forcing shoppers to set up usernames and passwords in order to complete purchases is an unwise move — especially on mobile sites, where streamlining is the name of the game. So we were surprised that a higher percentage of mobile sites (11%)  than desktop sites (8%) required registration to complete purchases. Even more surprisingly, the discrepancy was partly due to instances where account creation was required on a brand’s mobile site, but not its desktop site – a jaw-dropping finding which made us wonder whether the eCommerce executives in charge had ever actually tried purchasing on their own mobile sites.

Instead, most mobile sites would do well to skip the “login vs. guest checkout” step altogether or relegate it to a secondary position, as MarketLive merchant Helzberg Diamonds does in its three-step mobile checkout process.  A link labeled “Sign In” at the top right gives registered users access to their saved information, while the majority of shoppers proceed directly to entering billing information, including the email address on the first screen.

Helzberg checkout

Implement alternative payments. The popularity of alternative payments continues to soar, as shoppers seek ways to skip entry of credit card data and eliminate checkout steps. Not only were more than a quarter of all online purchases in 2012 made using something other than a credit card – but a whopping 78% of mobile transactions were completed using an alternative payment method such as PayPal, according to technology provider ShopVisible.

Given that staggering figure, the percentage of merchants in our survey who promote the availability of alternative payments on their mobile sites seems low, at 44%. In another counter-intuitive finding, we discovered that a greater percentage of desktop sites promoted alternative payments (56%), meaning that some brands did highlight alternative payments for desktop users, but not mobile shoppers — a glaring oversight.

Go back to basics for checkout form design. With the prevalence of inefficient sequencing and usability problems in mobile checkout, we recommend that merchants start with a clean slate, developing a checkout process that caters specifically to mobile users and the challenges of the small-screen format. Merchants should:

  • Use shortcuts to streamline the number of fields. Merchants should attempt to reduce the number of keystrokes needed to complete purchase by eliminating as many non-essential fields as possible. They should:
    • Set form defaults to assume that the billing and shipping address are the same, unless the shoppers indicates otherwise.
    • Use the ZIP code to trigger the city and state, rather than requiring shoppers to select their state from a long drop-down list.
    • Eliminate the prompt to select a credit card type before entering its number, since different types of credit cards use different number sequences. Once the number has been entered, merchants need only display the card type so shoppers can confirm they’ve entered the right one.
    • Eliminate every non-essential field, including email subscription signups and collection of demographic data (yes, a site in the survey actually did this in mobile checkout). If merchants can convince mobile shoppers to purchase, post-purchase transactional emails provide plenty of opportunity to promote email, social media and the like.
  • Facilitate form entry by triggering input-specific keyboard layouts. That is, when shoppers click on a field that requires numerical entry, the mobile device’s touch “keyboard” should convert to a number pad; when a field requests an email address, the keyboard should display specific options for entering online data, such as an easily-accessible “@” sign.
  • Clearly label checkout steps. This advice seems like eCommerce 101, but a number of sites we reviewed failed to give mobile shoppers any inkling of how long the checkout process might take.
  • Encourage order completion by any means necessary. At a minimum, the global footer should include click-to-call and click-to-chat prompts for reaching customer service if checkout hurdles otherwise prove insurmountable.

MarketLive merchant Sport Chalet puts it all together with a sleek mobile checkout process that clearly labels the three steps involved – addresses, payment, and order review and submission. Login for registered customers is available via a link at top right, while optional loyalty club data entry is accessible via a collapsible menu. A second collapsible menu puts order contents within easy reach, while customer service contact information is listed via the global footer. Form data is kept to a minimum and uses field-specific keyboard entry.

Sport Chalet mobile checkout

 

Download the whitepaper for more path-to-purchase insights and best practices for both desktop and mobile commerce sites. How are you optimizing the mobile experience to maximize sales?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Mobile Commerce Tagged with Alternative Payments, checkout

Social media watch: 3 tips for optimizing your new Twitter profile

May 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment

It’s been a month since Twitter began rolling out , which was made universally available a fortnight ago. Predictably, reaction has been mixed, with some lamenting the “Facebook-like” look and others lauding it. While the new design is still optional for now, merchants should make the transition soon — and not just because it’s inevitable.

In fact, the new design better showcases merchant content, while also affording more control over what profile viewers see. To optimize the new look, merchants should:

Use the new header to emphasize community. The most striking changes to the new profile are all about images — not surprising given that photo content drives the highest engagement on Twitter and the Web overall is increasingly visual. The new Twitter page features a large profile picture and anchors a link just beneath the header to photos and videos, which are presented in a large Pinterest-style format.

And while some have grumbled about the loss of the background image as an opportunity to anchor iconic images or even content such as customer service contact information, the fact of the matter is that visibility of the background image always depended on viewers’ browsers, screen resolution and window size — and the image wasn’t visible on mobile.

In any case, the new profile more than compensates with a massive new header, which at 1500×500 pixels gives merchants a vast new canvas on which to convey their brand. While single bold hero shots can be effective, the most engaging content puts the spotlight on brand community — whether by featuring user-contributed photos, featuring popular hash tags, or playing off a popular meme.  MarketLive merchant BeachBody showcases an images of hundreds of brand enthusiasts working out at twilight to emphasize the level of commitment of its active community.

Twitter example from Beachbody

Use “favorites” judiciously. With a link elevating “favorites” to an anchored position just below the header images, merchants would do well to use this tool carefully. Rather than clicking “favorite” on any tweet mentioning the brand, merchants should curate the collection to highlight testimonials, reviews and other third-party endorsements, as well as content links and retweets that demonstrate lifestyle affinity.

The tool is especially handy now that replies are by default filtered from the main profile page, which means that viewers won’t see posts beginning with the @ symbol. Since these posts are usually intended as direct conversation with another user, for example a customer service inquiry and reply, the change is generally positive. But replies also sometimes contain brand-building kudos, which merchants can now highlight with a “favorite”.

MarketLive merchant Griot’s Garage features a diverse sampling of content in its “Favorites”, including praise from customers, pictures submitted by followers, and links relevant to its target audience.

Twitter example from Griot's Garage

Monitor “best” tweets, and pin as needed. One feature of the new profile merchants can’t control is the selection of “best” tweets, which are presented in a larger font on the page. These tweets, which are based on popularity as measured by retweets, favorites and replies, can be content merchants want to highlight — or they could be controversial posts that get retweeted with negative commentary, or even a gaffe that merchants would rather forget. Merchants should monitor the action on their profile pages closely to see how the “best” tweets pan out for them.

Merchants can also “pin” tweets they’d like to spotlight to the top of the page, much as in Facebook’s current design — giving them a potential avenue for counteracting the unwanted popularity of a particular tweet.

How are you using the new Twitter format to enhance engagement?

Filed under Client Innovations, Social Commerce Tagged with Twitter

How fluid content fuels successful online/offline transactions – MarketLive Summit report, II

April 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment

In our previous post on the MarketLive Summit, we examined the importance of fluid technologies that empower merchants to deliver individualized experiences across touchpoints and adapt quickly to consumers’ changing expectations for online shopping. But there’s another benefit of adopting a flexible approach: merchants who do have the opportunity to tap their online resources to inform in-store shopping — making for a truly seamless brand experience.

As our previous post mentioned, “web-influenced sales” are forecast to represent more than half of all retail transactions as of this year, according to technology forecaster Forrester — and plenty of the online research influencing offline sales takes place onsite in a store. Google found that And, lest merchants fear losing those shoppers to the deep discounts of online mass merchants, Google also found that heavy smartphone shoppers also tend to spend 25% more in-store than those who only occasionally use their devices for research.

So rather than dreading “showrooming” activity, merchants should view pervasive online connectivity in stores as a benefit, and proactively provide ample opportunities to access brand content. Merchants thereby earn the double benefit of not only knitting together touchpoints but also boosting the reputation of brands as innovators. For example, during his keynote address at the MarketLive Summit, CEO Ken Burke demonstrated how Burberry has incorporated jaw-dropping technology into its flagship London store, with theater-sized screens livecasting fashion shows, smaller displays throughout the store enabling access to information about products nearby equipped with RFID tags, and store associates equipped with tablets for one-to-one customer assistance.

Burberry digital store

To tap the potential of fluidly transforming online content into offline sales, merchants should consider:

Broaden the concept of “conversion” on-site to drive offline activity. Merchants should use the eCommerce site to encourage on-site visits as well as drive online sales, with conversion goals tied to site activities that lead to offline brand interactions. At the Summit, Pat Duncan of Helzberg Diamonds detailed how the brand’s flagship eCommerce site encourages shoppers to continue their shopping journey at physical store locations. The Helzberg product page includes no fewer than four offline-conversion options: in-store appointment scheduling, looking up store inventory, ending an “e-hint” to a potential in-store gift buyer, and viewing financing offers, including the ability to apply for credit online.

Helzberg product page

Use e-receipts as a gateway to comprehensive customer records. Far from being the final point of contact between merchants and customers, the point-of-sale interaction in physical stores can be just the beginning of continued online engagement. By offering to send a receipt via email, merchants gain the opportunity to invite further interaction. Along with the receipt, brands can deliver an invitation to subscribe to email marketing updates, friend and follow the brand on social networks, and re-engage offline through store events. And email addresses can connect offline transactions to online behaviors, giving merchants a comprehensive view of shopping activities and boosting ROI of online initiatives.

Enable self-service in-store access to comprehensive content.  Merchants struggling to justify content investments should look no further than their own stores, where the opportunity is ripe to introduce information-starved shoppers to the rich resources available online. Google found that one in three smartphone owners use their devices in lieu of seeking help from store staff, so it’s crucial for merchants to become the go-to resource for online information about their own offerings. Linking to buyers’ guides, product demonstration videos, and reviews gives in-store shoppers the opportunity to not only inform their purchases, but also builds confidence in the brand as a comprehensive resource.

Empower store associates to guide and transact on the spot. While reduced floor staff costs is an enticing potential outcome of making self-service content available in-store, merchants may find it more lucrative to put that content into the hands of their sales associates. Staffers empowered to consult online resources can combine the information gleaned from  one-on-one interactions with the comprehensive content available via their mobile devices. By giving them access to coupons and discount offers and enabling checkout for in-store items and online order placement for out-of-stock products, merchants can help build trust and credibility with shoppers. Demonstrating on-the-ground expertise with products and pricing is a potential brand differentiator: More than half of 2013 holiday shoppers said they’re more likely to buy in stores where store associates are knowledgeable, according to consulting services firm Deloitte — but 59% of those shoppers believed themselves to be better equipped than store staff with information about pricing and product availability.

MarketLive is developing new functionality for its merchants to enable fluent in-store/online experiences — stay tuned! Meantime, how are you tapping online resources to drive offline sales?

 

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Connected Commerce Tagged with Summit 2014

Why flexibility is the key to on-site engagement – MarketLive Summit report, I

April 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

It’s been a couple of weeks since the 2014 MarketLive Summit, but we’re still abuzz over the strategies speakers and attendees discussed. While the statistics and trends were enlightening, the chief inspiration from this Summit came from the MarketLive merchants who shared their success stories — and challenges — in detail. Through them, it was possible to glimpse the real-life implications of the new commerce paradigm, where brands seek to engage always-connected consumers via a variety of touchpoints.

Just how omnipresent has the online shopping experience become? In his opening address, MarketLive CEO and Founder Ken Burke shared data from technology researcher Forrester predicting that more than 50% of all retail sales in 2014 would be influenced by the web, either through direct online sales or online research feeding offline transactions.

More dramatically, Pat Duncan of MarketLive merchant Helzberg Diamonds said that online initiatives have such a profound impact for multi-channel retailers that they account for five to seven times the amount of revenue directly attributed to sales through the web site.

Throughout the Summit, merchants demonstrated how that outsized impact plays out in the trenches of daily commerce. And while there was plenty of discussion about the perennial hot topics of social media and mobile devices, the dominant theme was more fundamental: merchants must become ever more flexible in their brand presentation, even as a strong foundational core of eCommerce content and products is more essential than ever.

Such a combination of solid substance and agile fluidity allows merchants to cater to always-connected consumers at every stage of the path to purchase via a variety of touchpoints. Among the strategies merchants discussed to achieve the right balance:

Use responsive design for the flexibility to focus on consumer needs — not devices. In his keynote address, Mark Hurst of Creative Good reminded merchants that they need to develop technology based on users’ needs, rather than by rote by device. While he did make specific recommendations for mobile platforms (develop a smartphone-friendly mobile site and a tablet-friendly desktop/browser site, and mostly eschew apps), the larger message was that merchants need to be prepared to address shoppers’ questions and unmet needs, even if they require a heretofore-unimagined combination of core functionality and content.

While responsive design isn’t a silver bullet for achieving this goal, with plenty of pitfalls to avoid, it’s a strategy merchants should seriously consider adopting, as it gives them maximum flexibility to tailor the site experience according to a shopper’s situation and device. We’ll be writing a lot more about responsive design in the months to come as MarketLive rolls out new functionality to support it, but meantime the 46% of merchants planning complete site overhauls this year should be incorporating the approach into their plans.

Customize views of brand-building content and functionality. Now more than ever, merchants have the ability to tailor the site experience, presenting a different array of products, content and features according to criteria that range from the shoppers’ location to the length of their tenure as customers. In so doing, they boost convenience and relevance, and create positive associations with the brand.

For new visitors, manifesting the essence of the brand throughout the experience is essential, as merchants battle to differentiate themselves and . Lori Edmonds of Peruvian Connection urged merchants to consider the Web site their premier flagship store, a showcase for the brand’s story and the source of continuity among multi-touchpoint experiences. She detailed how brand identity can be consistently manifested — not only through text tone and voice and design elements like colors and fonts, but through technical specifications and functionality. Such consistency not only conveys a singular brand vision, but also boosts shoppers’ confidence in the site and facilitates movement along the path to purchase.For example, Peruvian’s use of consistent images on index page listings through to the product page instantly provides visual confirmation and brand reinforcement.

Image from Peruvian Connection

peruvian_productpageimage

For returning customers, these brand signifiers remain important — but merchants should also appeal to potential repeat buyers by spotlighting convenience and efficiency. For example, they could present complementary items likely to be relevant based on past purchasing history, send  timely refill or replenishment reminders, or populate content sections with advanced topics rather than introductory brand-building information. Kyle Janssens of Greatland Corp. detailed how the site experience for returning customers was streamlined to include a custom reorder page, while bypassing introductory content. The tailored reordering experience, which was promoted via an email campaign highlighting past buyers’ “personal order history,” helped Greatland achieve a 28% lift in sales.

In our next post, we’ll look at how the guiding principal of fluidity applies to online/offline interactions. Meantime, how are you maximizing flexibility of your eCommerce assets?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations Tagged with Summit 2014

6 ways to modernize customer reviews for 2014

February 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment

By now, merchants know that customer reviews are an essential component of product content. Reviews are increasingly widespread, with more than 60% of the merchants in Internet Retailer’s list of Top 500 merchants using them.

As a result, the long-standing best practices surrounding reviews, if not universally adopted, are at least well-known — from avoiding censorship of negative reviews (since negative reviews can actually drive sales) to enabling ratings of individual product attributes to using review content in merchandising and marketing.

But the ubiquity of reviews and the increasingly savvy online consumers who consult them require merchants to up their game. Shoppers’ sophistication about review content, as well as their access to mobile technologies and social sharing opportunities, all play a role in the latest best-of-breed implementations. Among the ways to freshen reviews for 2014 and beyond:

Seek reviews, not just star ratings, from those in the know. Shoppers’ disregard of star ratings was among the surprising findings from a 2013 study of more than 18,000 Amazon reviews. Higher sales were associated with products with a mix of high and low ratings, versus those with uniformly negative or positive ratings — again demonstrating the importance of negative reviews. But what shoppers paid attention to most was the review text itself; positive reviews with a more credible linguistic style had more impact than those that displayed no particular expertise about the product or the product category. So to enhance the credibility of their reviews, merchants should encourage submissions from frequent or long-time buyers who are best able to evaluate and compare products.

MarketLive merchant Peruvian Connection makes submission of a detailed review easy by providing helpful tips for content. The review display includes several indicators of a contributor’s knowledge of brand offerings, from a “First Time Customer?” attribute to badges for top contributors.

Review example from Peruvian Connection

Let shoppers “review the review”.  Allowing shoppers to vote on whether a particular contribution was helpful gives merchants a criterion for prioritizing display of reviews, while the ability to comment on reviews enables a dialogue among customers and would-be buyers. And, of course, customer service staff can use the commenting feature to respond to reviews and provide further information.

Summarize with a representative sample of the best reviews. In addition to aggregating and averaging the star ratings, merchants should provide a summary sampling of the most popular comments so that shoppers can quickly scan to get the gist of opinions. The summary should be representative of the entire body of reviews for the product, good and bad, while showcasing the reviews deemed most helpful.

MarketLive merchant Perricone MD provides a review snapshot that includes the most liked positive and negative reviews, along with a list of popular product attributes as indicated by reviewers.

Review example from Perricone MD

Enable multimedia reviews. Since consumers increasingly have a camera and video recorder — in the form of their smartphones — within easy reach, and are increasingly comfortable with posting pictures and video online, merchants should go beyond text-and-ratings reviews to take advantage of this new potential pool of user-generated content. Review submission forms should prominently invite inclusion of photos and video, and review displays should showcase multimedia content. In addition, merchants should allow shoppers to sort and filter reviews according to whether they have images or video, and even consider adding the presence of multimedia reviews as an attribute for guided search alongside star ratings.

Retro-style clothing and home decor merchant ModCloth includes photo submission on its review form, and pictures are displayed alongside review text.

Review example from ModCloth

Syndicate review content across touchpoints. Social media is an ideal platform for sharing product review content, as brand followers are hungry for recommendations from other customers. At the least, merchants should consider featuring “top-rated” products on Facebook and/or Pinterest, and quoting review text aspart of the presentation.

MarketLive merchant Figi’s prominently features a link to product reviews from its main Timeline page on Facebook. The page offers social shoppers the ability to browse featured products and customer favorites, and to submit reviews directly from within Facebook.

Review example from Figi's

Disclose collection methods up-front. Achieving “critical mass” for reviews is crucial to relevance — but so is transparency when it comes to methods of achieving it. Merchants who aggregate reviews from other sites (e.g. Amazon), or who incentivize customers to contribute reviews with contests or prize drawings, should disclose those practices as part of the review display on the product page. Sears includes a line in its review summary noting that some contributors have received benefits in exchange for their submissions — but emphasizes those benefits weren’t conditional based on review content.

Review example from Sears

How are you maximizing the efficacy of customer reviews?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Client Innovations, Connected Commerce, Social Commerce Tagged with customer reviews

How to prepare for SEO 2.0

January 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment

It’s been more than four months now since the formal announcement of Google’s latest major change to its search engine algorithm. Dubbed Hummingbird, the change has attracted minimal attention in eCommerce circles, partly because the update hasn’t appeared to affect rankings substantially.

Nonetheless, it could just be one of the most important shifts Google has made to its search engine technology — and merchants would do well to begin adapting their search marketing strategies accordingly.

To understand what Hummingbird is all about, think — the much-hyped eyepiece from Google, still in developmental release, that gives wearers a constant and hands-free connection to search, social media, video and still image recording and more. The device relies on verbal commands and queries from users, which means that search input no longer takes the form of keyword strings, but is framed in natural language — questions such as “where’s the best place to rent skis?”

Lest this technology sound too futuristic to be of immediate relevance, merchants should consider that many smartphones now accept spoken search and other commands — and those features are gaining traction. As of 2012, fully 87% of iPhone users had accessed the Siri virtual assistant in the past month, and a third of them used it “almost daily,” according to a study published in the Wall Street Journal. With a new wave of “smart watches” hitting the market that eliminate the need to pull devices from pockets before issuing commands, the numbers can only rise.

Hummingbird caters to this evolving consumer behavior by attempting to interpret the intent of the search query — not just the individual words within it. For example, rather than parsing the question above into the keywords “place,” “rent,” “skis”, Hummingbird is intended to take into account consumers’ location, correctly equate “place” to “business”, and deliver search results that are local and relevant.

In short, Hummingbird marks a major step in the evolution of search toward individual context. Google’s switch to encrypted search data, which results in a “100% (not provided)” analytics cipher for keywords, was — perhaps not coincidentally — enacted around the same time as Hummingbird, further driving home the point.  While these changes may not herald the end of natural SEO we’ve predicted, they do mean merchants need to let go of keyword-obsessed “SEO 1.0” practices and focus instead on delivering contextually relevant content — “things not strings,” as one search expert has put it.

While the jury’s still out on the impact of Hummingbird, this shift may have positive implications for small- to mid-sized sellers. Rather than competing head-to-head with mass merchants using SEO 1.0’s blunt tools of keyword density and inbound link quality,  brands can take advantage of their niche expertise and unique product offering to provide nuanced content that proactively addresses consumers’ needs. Among the strategies to consider:

Build customer service into the content experience. Merchants should consider how they can incorporate sought-after customer service information throughout the shopping experience. By collecting frequently-asked questions from the call center, live chat, email and elsewhere across the organization and then creating compelling and attractive content in response, merchants can proactively address shoppers’ concerns and provide natural-search-friendly content to boot. Content types to consider:

  • Customer-driven Q and A content. “Question and answer” functionality gives shoppers the ability to seek information not included in brand-supplied product content or customer reviews; other customers as well as staff experts can respond to posted queries.

  • In-depth buyers’ guides and research tools.  In addition to providing buying guides attuned to the target audience, merchants should consider adding rich background information such as blog posts on the provenance of products, and tools such as product comparison to help guide purchase decisions.

MarketLive merchant Beachbody has created what are essentially microsites for its leading products, providing shoppers with a plethora of information about fitness programs. The P90X product page includes links to a FAQ about the program, answering questions on topics such as the equipment participants need and using nutritional supplements while following the program, as well as to product comparison tools and customer testimonials.

Content example from Beachbody

Develop a library of how-to videos. Product-specific customer service content, such as fit guides, installation instructions and usage ideas, make for compelling enhancements to product pages — especially in video form. As we’ve discussed previously, more than half of consumers say they consult videos on the product page, with video buying guides and product demonstration videos ranking as the most engaging, according to research from the E-Tailing Group.

Not only does practical video content increase relevance on the eCommerce site, but it can be syndicated to YouTube — which, as the Internet’s second-largest search engine, represents a significant opportunity to boost brand visibility..

Use schema markup. We’ve discussed before the benefits of using structured markup to help search engines intepret eCommerce content. While by no means a magic bullet, merchants who adopt structured markup are providing more context and specificity for their content — which is what Hummingbird aims to take into account in its search results.

Think local. Since Hummingbird is intended to factor location data into search queries, merchants with physical store outlets would do well to optimize their local listings and create location-specific content that extends far beyond a listing in the store locator. Dedicating pages to individual stores that provide local content about store events, display popular items in the region and feature local staff experts can help merchants gain visibility in local searches.

When they select a local store on the Guitar Center site, shoppers see a location-specific view that showcases in-store experts and events and enables local inventory search. More than a listing of store hours, the page is a viable entry point into the entire Guitar Center site.

Localization example from Guitar Center

How has Hummingbird affected your search visibility and/or SEO practices?

Filed under Client Innovations, Search Engine Marketing

The importance of instant gratification for mobile – and how to provide it

January 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment

The connection between mobile shopping and cross-channel buying is well-established. As we’ve written previously, mobile is now the default touchpoint for interacting with retail brands, and the vast majority of those shoppers go on to become buyers.

But the case for mobile is even more compelling — and, literally, urgent. Not only are mobile shoppers likely to make purchases, but they want to complete their transactions immediately, according to recent data from Google and Nielsen. , and 83% plan to buy products within the day.

This sense of immediacy requires merchants to do their utmost to provide the tools shoppers need to act on purchase decisions from within the mobile environment. While providing inventory lookup for local outlets might be beyond the scope of small- to mid-sized merchants, they should consider other tactics to smooth the path to purchase across touchpoints. Among them:

Integrate click-to-contact beyond the “800” number. Merchants should make it easy for mobile shoppers to get in touch with live customer service help in a variety of formats all along the path to purchase. Enabling click-to-call functionality for the “800” number in the global header is a good first step, but merchants should go further by promoting live assistance:

  • on product pages. Merchants should position live help options prominently on the mobile product page, so that researchers who locate the products they desire can act on impulse to complete their purchases, even if they don’t want to transact via their mobile devices. Helzberg Diamonds features a link to “schedule an appointment” on mobile product pages. Shoppers request email or phone help and select a store outlet, so that local representatives can facilitate sales one-on-one or, if need be, face-to-face.

Mobile appointment service from Helzberg

  • within the store locator, with local numbers. Mobile shoppers seeking hours or addresses of physical outlets are likely to want to reach staff at those locations, rather than contending with the automated customer service system at the “800” number. Merchants should enable this shortcut by activating click-to-call for the store numbers listed in the locator, as MarketLive merchant Party City does. In addition to accessing a map and store hours, shoppers can click to reach local store representatives to check local inventory and ask questions.

Store locator from Party City

Promote — and simplify — wish list creation. With 48% of mobile shoppers completing their purchases on desktop or laptop browsers, according to the Google/Nielsen data, it’s essential to provide ways for them to pick up where they left off on another device — and to promote that functionality with mobile in mind.

In our previous post, for example, we recommended cross-touchpoint functionality as a benefit of account registration. But for mobile researchers, the feature most likely to come in handy first is the wish list, which enables them to access products of interest across devices. So rather than encouraging mobile shoppers to “sign in” or “create account,” merchants should promote the wish list itself as a prominent feature of the mobile experience, as Toys “R” Us does on its mobile home page.

Toys R Us mobile page

Furthermore, when mobile shoppers click to create a wish list, the registration process itself should be streamlined to require only what’s needed for that function. While some kind of password creation is likely necessary so that shoppers can use the same login to access their lists from other devices, merchants needn’t collect billing and shipping addresses or phone numbers as part of the process; a simple email address and password should suffice — or merchants should consider tying mobile wish list creation to social login to further speed the process, as AE.com does by first offering an “add to favorites” option on the product page, then enabling social sign-in along with account registration.

AE mobile wishlistSocial login on mobile from AE

Streamline mobile checkout and promote it. Close to one in five mobile shoppers finish transactions on their devices, according to the MarketLive Performance Index. While that’s still a relatively small percentage, it’s growing fast, with tablet sales growing 39% and mobile phone sales growing 65% since 2012. Merchants should encourage researchers who find items that meet their needs to secure them on the spot by making the checkout process as frictionless as possible. Not only should they eliminate any unnecessary steps or fields, but they should adopt alternative payments and promote their availability before the shopping cart and checkout stage.

HSN.com promotes the availability of Paypal from product pages by including a “checkout with Paypal” link alongside “add to cart.”

Alternative payment promo on mobile from HSN

How are you enabling instant gratification for mobile shoppers?

Filed under Client Innovations, Connected Commerce, Mobile Commerce Tagged with Alternative Payments

Performance Index: Holiday season finishes strong

January 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment

The final results are in from the holiday season, and merchants in the MarketLive Performance Index fared very well indeed. Merchants achieved traffic and revenue gains of more than 15%, and average order size grew a substantial 6.1% — suggesting that deep discounting isn’t always the key to holiday sales growth.

Additionally, merchants in the Index outperformed the industry at large, which notched a 10% sales gain overall, according to measurement firm comScore. The results demonstrate that small- to mid-sized merchants held their own against the mass merchants whose revenues account for the majority of online sales overall.

Holiday sales data from MarketLive

The results also revealed potential areas of improvement for 2014. Both the add-to-cart rate and conversion rate ended the season a tenth of a percentage point lower than in 2013 after lagging in the final days before Christmas and in the first rush of post-season sales. To reverse the trend in 2014, merchants must do more to capitalize on increased traffic if they want to achieve even greater revenue growth. The 3% increase in cart abandonment further eroded the benefit of traffic gains, suggesting merchants must do more to compel shoppers to become brand customers, using whatever touchpoint they prefer.

In our upcoming 2014 trends report, we’ll examine the key initiatives that will help merchants achieve these goals. Among them:

From mobile presence to mobile competence. Our survey of eCommerce sites during the holidays revealed that many merchants have a long way to go when it comes to offering truly effective mobile touchpoints. While most brands have mobile offerings, many are rudimentary efforts that faintly echoed the marketing and merchandising campaigns of the desktop browser Web sites. Instead, regardless of the technical sophistication of their mobile offerings, merchants must customize content and products to take into account shoppers’ situational priorities and present relevant context. MarketLive merchant Armani Exchange presented mobile shoppers with a streamlined experience that included gift guides by price. Email signup was prominently integrated into the presentation so that mobile browsers could sign up to receive special holiday offers, while sharing tools enabled shoppers to post favorite items with ease.

Mobile example from Armani Exchange

Making it personal. Personalization as a concept has existed for years, but the tools now exist for merchants of all sizes to present shoppers with an experience tailored to their preferences and purchase histories and enhanced by individualized customer service. By delivering wholly unique brand interactions, merchants can set their offerings apart from mass discounters and create long-lasting customer relationships. During the holidays, brand manufacturer Carter’s followed up in-store purchases with an invitation to submit a customer review and enter to win a gift card. The message additionally gives shoppers further ways to connect with the brand via social media, and promotes gift card purchase — especially relevant for the holiday season — as well as including store information for the local outlet.

Personalized email example from Carter's

How did your holidays wrap up, and how are the results influencing your priorities for 2014?

Filed under Analytics, Client Innovations, Email Marketing, Mobile Commerce, Seasonal Selling Tagged with 2013 Holidays, MarketLive Performance Index

Riding the second wave: post-season sales

December 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

While the holiday gift-buying season is wrapping up, the next shopping frenzy is just about to begin. Post-season sales and gift card redemption purchases are poised to fuel a busy leadup to the New Year — and data suggests that consumers will start this wave of spending earlier than ever.

Measurement firm comScore reported that in 2012, online sales on Christmas Day itself rose by 36% to $288 million — not a huge sum compared with billion-dollar holiday events like Black Friday, but a significant opportunity nonetheless. Overall, online sales for the first quarter have topped $50 billion for the past two years, according to comScore, signaling that merchants mustn’t let their focus lapse after the peak fourth quarter.

To kick off the post-season, merchants should:

Balance email promotions for Christmas Day. Many merchants thank shoppers for their support in a year-end email that has no commercial strings attached. But with shoppers increasingly logging on immediately after the gifts under the tree have been opened, merchants must strike a new balance with their messaging — whether by scheduling a second message to highlight the kickoff of post-season sales, or by subtly combining the two functions, as Totes-Isotoner did last year. The MarketLive merchant positioned its 50% offer as a thank-you gift to its customers.

Christmas email example from Totes

Spotlight recent favorites and exclusives on the eCommerce site. The fresh wave of shoppers visiting merchant sites is likely to include recipients of gift cards or gifts to exchange who aren’t already familiar with the brand. That’s why, in addition to crucial customer service information, merchants should spotlight popular products and brand exclusives to tantalize them into purchasing. Showcasing top gift picks from the recent holiday season, top-rated products, or trending items on social networking sites such as Pinterest demonstrates the breadth of the brand’s offering, as well as providing endorsements from other customers.

Be prepared for a social rush. Social media users rely on that channel to interact with brands for customer service: nearly half have relied on “social care,” according to NM Incite, and 30% of consumers prefer to access customer service via social media than the phone. A positive customer service experience can lead to a boost in word-of-mouth recommendations: shoppers who use social networks for customer service are three times as likely to recommend a brand after a successful interaction, according to NM Incite. So it behooves merchants to staff up for instant response during the post-season sales rush, as shoppers flock online in search of information about returns and exchanges and gift card redemption.

Merchants should even consider proactively posting customer service information on social networks, boosting efficiency and convenience. MarketLive merchant Figi’s anchors a link to customer service information at the top of its Facebook timeline page, providing users of the social network direct access to a searchable set of frequently-asked questions, along with the ability to ask a question directly online.

Facebook customer service example from Figi's

We have a lot of great content planned in 2014 — starting with a MarketLive Performance Index wrapup of holiday season sales and a look ahead at the trends set to shape online commerce in 2014. Stay tuned, and meantime, best wishes for a prosperous holiday!

Filed under Client Innovations, Email Marketing, Seasonal Selling, Social Commerce Tagged with 2013 Holidays

Performance Index: merchants well-positioned for final holiday push

December 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The clock is ticking down on the holiday season, and the latest data from the MarketLive Performance Index indicates that merchants are beginning their final push well-positioned to see sustained growth.

In the week of December 9, which began with “Green Monday” (the last Monday in December with at least 10 days before Christmas), Performance Index merchants saw revenue gains of almost 30%, thanks in part to a traffic increase of 23%. Conversion rose by 3.4%, and the average order size outpaced last year’s by 3.5%, again suggesting that merchants are winning sales without resorting to constant bargain-basement pricing.

Combined with the record gains achieved during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the latest strong results put merchants on track to end the season with substantial sales growth. Cumulative season-to-date revenue is 30% higher than last year, despite the shortened season, and conversion is up more than 6%, while average order size is more than 2% higher than last year.

Holiday data from the MarketLive Performance Index

For many merchants, the deadline is nigh for delivery by Christmas Eve via ground shipping — so the trick for sustaining revenue gains through the end of the season will be to encourage continue spending despite this logistical hurdle. Tactics merchants can adopt include:

Highlighting in-stock items. Merchants should flag items that are in-stock, both for online purchase and for pickup or purchase in stores — enabling shoppers to zero in on the gifts that can make it under the tree in time.

Pairing a collection of in-stock gift finds with a discount on expedited shipping provides online buyers with a compelling reason to complete their purchases immediately. For merchants with physical store outlets, enabling online browsers to view items that qualify for in-store pickup before Christmas at a location near them smooths the online-offline purchase process.

MarketLive merchant Helzberg Diamonds promotes “green truck” items that are guaranteed to arrive on time if purchased by December 23. An icon and shipping estimate are provided on the product page, with a key explaining the fulfillment classification system and displaying estimated delivery dates for each.

Guaranteed delivery promotion from Helzberg

Product page example from Helzberg

Shipping cutoffs explained, from Helzberg

Easing the last-minute store rush. Merchants with physical store locations should move links to the store locator out of the customer service section and into the spotlight. They should additionally bolster standard store-locator information with promotions of relevant online content and services. Gap’s store locator for shoppers browsing the eCommerce site on their desktop or laptop displays not only location-specific hours, but promotes the ability to reserve items online for purchase in-store, along with a curated gift guide showcasing tailored gift picks. On the mobile site, Gap’s store locator — always anchored prominently on the home page — calls out holiday hours in the “Special Hours” section.

Store locator example from Gap

Mobile store locator from Gap

Boosting e-gift card visibility. As discussed in last week’s post, merchants should promote gift card options ubiquitously, in locations that go far beyond the holiday gift guide section. And in the final week, gift cards should receive pride of place on the home page, with merchants highlighting swift delivery via email and flexibility as main selling points. And on the gift card product page, merchants should ensure that options for physical versus virtual gift cards are clearly delineated, so that shoppers wishing to purchase cards for delivery by Christmas are sure to pick the right one.  MarketLive merchant dELiA*s promotes delivery timeframes along with gift card options on its home page. The gift card product page has been updated to reiterate the cutoff dates and delineates the two separate ordering processes for physical versus virtual cards.

Gift card promotion from dELiA*s

Gift card product page from dELiA*s


What last-minute tactics are you employing to keep shoppers engaged through the end of the season?

Filed under Acquire, Convert & Retain, Analytics, Client Innovations, Connected Commerce, Seasonal Selling Tagged with 2013 Holidays, Gift cards, MarketLive Performance Index

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