Online retailers that have historically underplayed the value of reviews are beginning to change their tune. Perhaps they’ve been more concerned about site design, improving conversions and providing an excellent customer experience – all of these are important aspects of eCommerce, but they don’t negate the need for product reviews. There is a reason Amazon and eBay have used customer reviews since the late 1990s – reviews often improve the average order value. Reviews are especially important where electronics are concerned:...
NetSphere
Abbe Miller is the marketing manager at NetSphere Strategies, located just outside Chicago. NetSphere Strategies is a boutique eCommerce company positioned to help businesses transform their online presence by providing a full complement of services that starts with our strategic consulting and creative design teams, then continues with building innovative solutions and providing ongoing post-project support.
Binging and purging: it’s not just a food-related problem. In fact, shoppers are far more likely to buy more than they intend to keep than people with eating disorders who eat more than they intend to hold down. It might seem to be a disturbing and/or unsettling analogy, but for eCommerce companies, serial returners are creating a problem that is both disturbing and unsettling to their profits.Clear Returns, a U.K.-based company dealing in return intelligence platforms, has a constantly moving ticker... 
The U.S. Supreme Court is asked to take on 5,000 or more cases every year. The number they actually hear is between 100 and 150, so whenever a decision is made, these highly prioritized cases are bound to generate interest. That was certainly the case with the eCommerce community in early March when the highest court in the land made a decision on Direct Marketing Association v. Brohl, which is more popularly known as the Colorado “Amazon tax” case. The case... 
When the winter weather breaks and spring comes into view, many eCommerce companies start looking for big projects to put them in a better position for the busy months ahead. Replatforming and redesigning are two popular springtime projects, but are they always necessary? Too often, business owners start looking around for improvements and latch on to features in a solution that they don’t even need. Before you get stuck in this rut and potentially waste time and money, ask yourself a... 
As the technological landscape changes, so too does the expectation of consumers who shop in stores and online. Mobile technology, social networking and advanced analytics have aided in changing the shopping experience. The IBM Institute for Business Value embarked on a multi-year study to get a closer look at the shifts in consumer behaviors and preferences that have taken place. Consumer preference shifting to online sales IBM’s study reveals that there is no longer a question of whether or not consumers... 
Access matters. When it comes to eCommerce, reaching out to mobile users by ensuring their apps are up to speed and running efficiently is paramount to building up a bigger mobile marketplace. Any number of issues can plague an app, but if the developers don’t know about a bug, they can’t address the problem. In some cases, it’s the elderly and/or disabled that have issues with apps that work perfectly for others. However, the elderly and the disabled represent a valuable... 
We’ve watched the retail landscape change in recent years as eCommerce growth has outpaced that of the traditional brick and mortar stores. And 2014 proved to be another successful leap forward for eCommerce companies. To get a better idea of what is driving change, RJMetrics took a closer look at the numbers in its “2015 Benchmark Report Series: eCommerce Growth.” The growth pattern has been nothing short of a windfall for some companies, like Alex and Ani, a jewelry company that... 
In the past years, the retail industry has totally transformed. While it continues to evolve from thriving on a local level, retailers are also seeking out global consumers and profits through international markets. To assist in making these global goals more attainable, retailers are looking to technology to reach consumers in faraway lands through online channels. From mobile integration to improved functionality of an organization’s website, retailers are looking for improvement at every turn. Manufacturers and wholesalers are also part of... 
Last October, Internet Retailer published its 2015 Guide to B2B eCommerce. In it, the editors heralded that U.S. B2B eCommerce companies would generate $1 trillion in sales in 2014, significantly surpassing B2C eCommerce sales. With so many sales opportunities on the line, it’s not surprising to hear that B2B businesses are upping the ante when it comes to marketing their companies. Although there can be some overlap in regard to how both B2B and B2C businesses go to market, there are... 
Approximately 150 million cards are sent out on Valentine’s Day, which has prompted the least romantic among us to scoff that the Cupid-themed day is actually a Hallmark Cards-generated “holiday.” While the origins of Valentine’s Day are fuzzy and lie somewhere between pagan and Christian traditions, the impact on consumer spending is massive: $19 billion on Valentine’s Day-related gifts. The National Retail Federation (NRF) says consumers will drop an average of $142.31 on gifts by this weekend. That’s about $19 billion...