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Warning: this is a rant post.
I’m starting to wonder if there’s any other kind for me.
Today’s topic of choice: the new trend of online businesses removing email support from their websites.
You read right.
Continue reading Why Removing Email Support Removes Profit Potential
When someone mentions “gift wrapping”, people usually think of the holidays.
But you’d be remiss to think that the gift wrapping option is only relevant during certain times of the year.
After all, birthdays occur every day, right? That’s a lot of gifts that could be wrapped, but never are…if yours is the type of business that doesn’t offer the option year-round.
That’s why it’s important to consider adding a permanent gift-wrapping service to your website. Besides adding to customer satisfaction, it can also add to your profits.
Cross-selling and up-selling on a digital platform is something that has only recently been taken seriously by online business owners. Eight years ago, only about 24% considered up-selling. That’s a criminally tiny percentage, considering the profit potential that cross-selling and up-selling boasted even back then.
Reading that particular percentage made me wonder if business owners truly understand the ideas behind cross-selling and up-selling. Sure, there are now those who implement some form of them on their shopping carts, but I would guess that there are more who don’t understand why they work.
Continue reading Identifying Logic and Emotion in Cross-selling and Up-selling
Yesterday, I posted some tips to help you ship green. But it occurred to me today that there are more, basic green tips that I could share with the average online business owner.
Maybe you read yesterday’s post, decided to ship green and now and think that you’re doing your part to keep the environment healthy. Heck, you might be thinking that by operating an online business, you’re already doing a lot more than your brick-and-mortar counterparts. You’d probably be right. After all, research supports that.
Continue reading Green Ecommerce: More Tips for Your Business
A few days ago, eBay’s Green Team was publically introduced to the world. A specific part of eBay’s website is now dedicated to educating buyers and sellers on how to reduce their impact on the environment.
The initiative was inspired, in part, by the record number of customers choosing to buy items that could be classified as “used”, “organic”, “refurbished”, “vintage”, “sustainable” or “remainder.” It was recognized that customers’ decisions to purchase these types of items were better for the environment, in comparison to the resources required to build new products.
This got me thinking about the environmental impact of the average online business. In particular, I began to think of simple ways that every online business could reduce carbon footprints regardless of the types of products they were selling.
Continue reading Shipping Green: Your Next Smart Business Decision
Ah, live chat. Every day, I become more convinced that it’s the king of all customer service options.
You might be wondering what makes live chat so great. How, you ask, might live chat be so different from the traditional customer service routes of email and phone support?
Well, let me counts the ways…
First, live chat has a reputation for not only decreasing shopping cart abandonment, but increasing average order value by at least 30%. It’s not too shabby as a conversion rate increaser. CompUSA, for example, boasted a ten-fold increase after implementing live chat on their website. Not bad. Not bad at all.
I know people who still wish for the uncomplicated days of the old eBay.
The days to which I’m referring are, of course, those that included a more open circuit of information between sellers, buyers and potential bidders. It was during that period when sellers, buyers and bidders enjoyed the same level of transparency- it was when bidders knew who they were bidding against and when sellers recognized potential customers even before any auctions were won.
Those days have been replaced with the present. The present now boasts privacy requirements that just sort of cramp everyone’s style. It’s been that way for about a year now.
Continue reading Auction Privacy Can Make Prospects Go Into Hiding
Most business owners know what loyalty programs are. Too few actually implement them. Even less use programs that customers aren’t tired of seeing.
I have a problem with that.
At worst, a customer confronted with a loyalty program that they’ve seen too many times before can feel burdened. It’s almost like you’re requesting them to do extra things that other businesses have asked them to do, too. And before you.
The solution? A unique loyalty program.
Continue reading Use Unique Loyalty Programs to Drive Up Sales
Merchant accounts aren’t for everyone. Sometimes, accepting credit cards directly on your website requires too much hassle and legal rope jumping. You can bypass all the registering, applications, credit approvals and other associated- and tedious- tasks you would have to perform to acquire a merchant account by choosing a third-party processor.
If you opt for a third-party option, you’ll save time, have your account up and ready in less than an hour and you won’t have to spend lots of money on monthly fees to use the service like merchant accounts may require.
First, the obvious: PayPal is a great service, but some business owners find that using the service has its drawbacks. At best, it can be a love/hate relationship like Bobette Kyle says. I say that, at worst, it can be like one of those nutty, co-dependent relationships that Lifetime movies are made out of.
Continue reading Pick Your Processor: PayPal Isn’t The Only Third-Party Option
By now, we’ve all wound down from the holiday season rush.
That doesn’t mean that we can sit back and relax, though.
This recession means that a rough road lies ahead for some business owners. For them, coming up with strategies to attract prospects is still at the top of their wish lists.
I know that there are business owners who tried bundling during the holiday season to keep up with comparable offers from competitors or competitors who just plain offered free shipping. I’m sure that profits were made. But now, those same business owners are probably back the same ol’ standard shipping option. I’d like to give them some reasons to keep bundling after the holidays. And there are more than a few.
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