So far we’ve avoided writing a post on that seemingly ubiquitous blog topic: Pinterest. Until today.

In case you’ve landed here looking for Pinterest basics, here they are: Pinterest is a photo and video sharing social network. The site began 2011 with 10,000 users and finished the year with almost 10,000,000; good enough to make the Hitwise list of top ten social media sites, beating out LinkedIn and Google+.

The Value of Pinterest for Ecommerce Businesses

Pinterest users, or pinners, “pin” images of things they find interesting into their Pinterest account. If LinkedIn is the social site for business, and Facebook is for friends, Pinterest is viewed by many as a site for sharing your lifestyle and values, or those to which you aspire.

So what is the value for ecommerce sites of a social network where people post pictures of the things they like? Aside from the obvious, there’s a number of practical advantages to Pinterest:

• Traffic – A number of sites, including Time Inc.’s Real Simple and Hubspot, have noted a higher number of referrals from Pinterest than from other sources, including Facebook and Google+.
• Links – Every pin includes a link back to the source of the image. While the links are ‘no-follow”, they’re still valuable as users need only click on the image to get to your site.
• Social Sharing – Pinterest lets pinners login with their Twitter and Facebook accounts and all users can share posts through Facebook, Twitter or email.

What About Sales?

Traffic, links and social sharing are all wonderful and useful, but you can’t take them to the bank.

Sales, that’s what you want, and they’ve been sorely missing from most social media marketing for ecommerce sites, including storefronts on Facebook.

But some early research shows Pinterest outperforming Facebook for sales and new customers. According to a study of social media traffic by jewelry and accessory retailer Bottica.com, whose founders include former eBay execs, Pinners outspend Facebook users by a whopping $180 to $85 and Pinterest was Boticca’s biggest sales channel, driving 10% of sales versus only 7% from Facebook.

This is just a single study, not definitive, but significant.

It shows Pinterest to be a place for browsing, comparing one’s likes to others’ and tapping into the buzz, all of which are part of the ritual most shoppers go through immediately before buying something.

Posted in Business, Ecommerce, Sales & Marketing, Social media

Available only to select advertisers since September, 2011, Google recently completed the full launch of Google Adwords for Video. All advertisers now have the opportunity to launch a YouTube video ad campaign as easily as a regular Adwords campaign.

Similar to Adwords’ pay-per-click model, Google’s TruView pricing for Adwords for Video  means you only pay if your video is viewed for at least 30 seconds, regardless of how many times it’s played. With video producers now adept at delivering their message in the 15 second format that’s common for existing YouTube video ads, that’s plenty of time to get your point across – and perhaps not pay for the impression.

Staying true to their efforts to offer flexible options for advertisers, you can choose to have your video ad appear in one, all or any combination of the following places:

• YouTube searches
• As a pre- or post-roll on other videos
• Listed in the “Related Videos” column

Adwords advertisers will also be happy to see, in addition to keyword targeting, familiar options for their video campaign, including budgeting, geo-targeting and language settings.

As video continues to grow in popularity online, the advantages it offers a digital marketing campaign grow with it. At a basic level, video content enjoys a special place in search results thanks to Google’s perceptive acquisition of YouTube in 2006. On other levels, the capabilities of that video content, including product demonstrations, testimonials and viral marketing, not to mention YouTube being the second largest search engine, is more than enough reason to consider a video campaign.

But, there’s another major advantage of Adwords for Video that has nothing to do with Adwords or video.

Google’s All-in-One Privacy Policy

Yes, the new Google privacy policy that combines user information across platforms; much maligned by governments and privacy watchdogs, yet barely given a second thought by users, makes Google Video Adwords even more inviting.

Why? According to Greg Jarboe of Search Engine Watch, before the new privacy policy, only 2 to 3% of YouTube viewers had YouTube accounts, which eliminated over 97% of viewers from demographic targeting.  “Now, with the linking of Google and YouTube accounts, 5 to 10 times more people can be targeted by demographics”.

The significance of these numbers can’t be understated.

Indeed, for any advertisers with a focus on driving targeted traffic to their product pages, the numbers make Google Adwords for Video exponentially more attractive.

Posted in Ecommerce, Sales & Marketing, video

Way back in March, 2000, Business Week ran a cover story about internet privacy that included a survey of users, the vast majority of which were either “somewhat” or “very” concerned about the privacy of their personal information online.

It’s an excellent article, with suggestions for developing a universal icon to indicate privacy protection, advice on reassuring users and, in a nod to just how long ago this was, there’s a quote from “New York District Attorney Spitzer”.

Fast forward 12 years and online privacy in now entrenched in laws like the federal Child Online Protection Act (COPA) and the California Online Privacy Protection Act, which generally requires that, if you collect personal information online from residents of California, you must have a clearly visible link to a privacy policy that outlines the information you are collecting, how the information may be shared with others and how users can edit the information.

When you add to this the evolution of cloud computing, the digitizing and networking of employee information and the various efforts to integrate electronic health records online, it becomes quite clear that privacy of online information goes far beyond names, addresses and credit card numbers.

If most internet users were concerned about the privacy of their online data 12 years ago, imagine their level of concern today. Those users are your potential customers.

So where is your privacy policy listed on your web site?

While users’ concerns and the laws of the land are very compelling reasons to create and/or raise the profile of your privacy policy, they are not the only ones.

Google,Yahoo and Bing produce web results in ever-increasing competition with each other, which makes them very sensitive to the quality of their product.  If any of the results they produce are tarnished by issues of privacy, or lack thereof, it could have a devastating effect on their market share. In an effort to ensure some quality control, search engines have enacted protocols and guidelines for privacy policies on web sites.

And we all know what’s at risk when we don’t follow a search engine’s “guidelines”.

There is the potential for your site to be suspended or lose its search engine rank if it collects personal information, but does not have an adequate privacy policy.

Your Privacy Policy & Your Conversion Rate

With the heightened concern your customers have about the privacy of their information, increasing demand for privacy policies through law and search engine guidelines, you may want to consider the following:

1. Even if you’re not an ecommerce site, you should have a privacy policy. If all you want to ask for  is an email address, make sure you have a visible privacy policy.

2. The link to your privacy policy should be more than a grey item in your footer menu.

3. Don’t just cover your ass. Make sure the wording of your privacy policy focuses on your customers’ deep, well-founded concern about their privacy in clear, comprehensive language.

4. Highlight the link to your privacy policy by placing it near “checkout”, “add to cart”, “buy” and other points of purchase.

5. Use more engaging wording than “Privacy Policy” for the link, maybe even design an icon or button.

What happens if you do these five things? You will have created a competitive advantage by making your customers’ privacy a high priority. How? Look around – do you see a lot of other sites with prominent privacy policies?  The trust and credibility you create can only boost your conversion rate.

Posted in Business, Conversion Optimization, Ecommerce

One of the most appealing truths of Conversion Rate Optimization is that it’s a game without end. Regardless of how well your ecommerce platform converts, you can always do better. Even if you reached that mythical place of 100% conversions, you can start driving more traffic and creating more web properties to continue to improve your returns.

Why is that so appealing? It means that once you get into the game, you will be focused on constantly improving the most critical point of your sales cycle.

But don’t start planning a trip to the bank just yet. The idea that it is a constant pursuit is the easiest part of CRO to understand.

Conversion is a complex balancing act that includes technical platforms, web design, value propositions and marketing. But the biggest and most important CRO variable is a human one, your target consumers, and they are the final judges of your CRO.

Consumer fickleness is well known, and on the web, your potential customers can act on fickle whims far easier than at any other point-of-purchase, even when they are about to checkout.

Want to learn more about minimizing cart abandonment and improving your CRO? Register today for “Ecommerce Checkout Optimization” another in the series of informative Invesp webinars that help online retailers generate more sales.

So overcoming consumer skittishness is at the very core of CRO. For that reason, you’ll find no shortage of advice on doing so on the web. And no end to misguided information.

Briefly, the three main areas of consumer behaviour you must consider in your CRO programme, and the ones for which you will find the most mis-information online, are:

• Personality – A quick web search will uncover lots of information about how the four main personality types: Analytical/logical, results driven, sensitive/emotional or enthusiastic/impulsive. The conventional wisdom is, if you cover those four bases, you’ve got game.In fact, we are all unique combinations of the four main personality types and, if you really get into it, we are actually combinations of the combinations. Game on again.

• Buying Cycle – If your overall CRO is focused only on those people who are ready to buy, you will miss the majority of shoppers who still shopping. Your CRO must include people at various stages of the sales funnel, including those who are developing awareness about you and your products, comparing product features and making buying decisions

• Trust & Credibility – Regardless of their personality type regardless of where they are in the buying cycle, regardless of what you sell, consumers will buy more if they trust your company, your offering and are confident that both are their best option.

Why is CRO a wicked game? Not playing any one part of it properly can mean you have little chance of winning.

Posted in Conversion Optimization, Ecommerce, Shopping Cart

Pillars work together to provide support and the success of your ecommerce depends on these three pillars:

Pillar 1 – Web Properties – Until a few years ago, a good web site alone would have done nicely to conduct an ecommerce operation, but no more. The splintering of the web means some customers may never find your site unless you maintain properties in all the places they congregate. Properties can include a Facebook page, YouTube channel, Twitter account, etc..

Posted in Ecommerce

Our “Analysis of Online Consumer Behavior” infographic not only helps you understand the behavioral characteristics of online consumers, but also to obtain answers to several important questions. Some of these questions are:

1. What are online shopper demographics?
2. Why do people prefer to buy shop online?
3. What are the most common reasons why people don’t shop online?
4. What are the various online spending trends in different retail sectors?

Infographic by- Conversion Optimization Company Invesp

To Publish this Image on your Blog or Website . Copy this code

<a href="http://www.invesp.com/online-consumer.jpg"><img src="http://www.invesp.com/online-consumer.jpg" alt="Online Consumer Behavior" width="580"></a> <p>Infographic by – <a href="http://www.invesp.com/">Conversion Optimization</a>Company Invesp

Global Online Population Is Estimated To Reach 2.32 Billion By 2014

By 2015, online sales figures are expected to increase as follows, corresponding to the increase in global population:

• US E-Retail market will reach the grand figure of $279 Billion
• Mobile commerce sales will reach $28.7 Billion
• Social Media commerce sales will touch $30 Billion
• Daily Deal revenue sites sales will touch $3.93 Billion

The Number Of Online Consumers In The USA

Online Shoppers Demographics

Online Shoppers by Gender

Of the current global online population, about 79% of women and 77% of men have done online shopping at some time or the other.

Online Shoppers by Age Group

The current statistics are: 80% of online people aged 50 to 64 and 30 to 49; 77% of online people aged 18 to 29; 68% of online people aged over 65 years.

Online Shoppers by Income levels

Reasons Why People Buy Online

Reasons Why People don’t prefer to Buy Online

Online Retail Spending Shares

Posted in Ecommerce

The e-commerce sector has continued its double-digit growth year over year. And to make it easy for you to understand the growth of e-commerce industry in US and all across the world. We’ve created an infographic “How big is E-commerce” that will cover some interesting facts about the E-commerce industry, its growth and latest trends.

Infographic by- Conversion Optimization Company Invesp

To Publish this Image on your Blog or Website . Copy this code

<a href="http://www.invesp.com/ecommerce.jpeg"><img src="http://www.invesp.com/ecommerce.jpeg" alt="How Big is E-commerce Industry" width="580" /></a>Infographic by – <a href="http://www.invesp.com/">Conversion Optimization Company</a> Invesp

Did You Know That

In 1979 – Michael Aldrich invented Online Shopping

In 1990 – Tim Berners-Lee created the first World Wide Web server and browser

In 1994 – Pizza Hut Offers online ordering on their Web Page

Netscape launchs first commercial Browser – Navigator

In 1995 – Amazon starts selling Books Online

E-bay is founded by Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.

Facts

More than 85% of online population has used internet to purchase something.

More than 50% of online population shopped online more than once.

73% of Consumer prefer Online Shopping because it is time-saving

Global E-commerce sales are growing by more than 19% a year and will be of almost $1.4 trillion by 2015

E-commerce Sales in US growing at 10% a year and will grow to $279 billion by 2015

There are more than 178.5 million consumers are in US and will grow to 201.1 million by 2015

54% of Online shoppers are of age group 18-30 Years

75% of Online shoppers use Credit/debit cards for online shopping

India is the highest growing and Portugal is the least growing E-commerce  country right now

Residents of North Dakota spend the highest percent (16.9) of their online income in online shopping whereas residents of Maine spend the least percent (1.83) of their online income

Illinois has the lowest average Shipping time of 2.55 days Whereas Hawaii has the highest average Shipping time – 4.10 days for online orders

40% of the items that sold online are Books

Mobile e-commerce market is growing year over year and will be of more than 23.8 Billion by 2015

Posted in Ecommerce

During the last two weeks we analyzed our 2009 projects to assess the average improvements in conversion rates and increases in revenue our team helped clients achieve.  Before we get to the numbers, we wanted to reiterate that 2009 was one of the most challenging years for our clients.  Our projects for clients were focused on plugging the leaky faucet of online shoppers due to the external factors of the economic recession. Promotions, pricing structures, and free shipping became huge motivators and persuaders for the online shopper throughout the year.

And here are the results:

Continue reading 2009 – How did the recession impact your company?

Posted in Ecommerce

Our experience has proven time and time again that copycats never win. Taking a design or site functionality, and slapping it on your ecommerce site; although you may share the same industry and sell the same items; is never a good idea.

A recent client of ours took the same exact PPC campaign ad of a competitor, worked for weeks on it, and was shocked with 0 conversions at launch. Worst of all is within a couple of weeks, the competitor had completely shifted to an entirely different design.

Continue reading Ecommerce Copycats

Posted in Ecommerce

Here at Invesp, we work with all sorts of ecommerce platforms, hosted, customized, free, or paid. Working with the vast variety of platforms out there has always posed a challenge for our team, which is why, in many situations, we require our clients to do the actual implementations of the recommendations we submit to them. That does poses another slew of problems since time estimates are often miscalculated and delivery dates can’t met. However, we manage to work around all of these issues by offering our clients step by step instructions and unmatched customer service.

To top the list of difficult and challenging hosted solutions to work with though, has to be Network Solutions. We are constantly challenged with limitations in the recommendations that our clients can and cannot implement. Testing? Not an option! Network Solutions is not compatible with Google Website Optimizer.

The folks at Network Solution are unresponsive as well. So a rigid platform and poor customer service, what’s keeping these clients?

Continue reading Network Solutions: A rant

Posted in Ecommerce