Online shoppers are much less forgiving than a web store owner might like – or realize, for that matter. And you can’t necessarily blame them. The reason that consumers choose to purchase items online is, after all, for the sheer convenience of it.   So no matter the issue, if it’s not easy for a shopper to make a purchase, they’ll exit out of your site and they might not ever return. According to the editors at Mashable.com, the following seven...

No matter how well it worked for the tortoise, slow and steady doesn’t win the eCommerce race. In fact, if your site is running too slow, potential customers will pass you up for your faster, hare-like competitors. According to an article published on Mashable.com, for every 2 seconds of extra load time, your abandonment rate will increase by 8 percent.   “If you drop your load time from 8 seconds to 2 seconds, your conversion rate actually jumps up 74%,” explained the Mashable.com...

An eCommerce site is only as robust as the platform that supports it. And as any online retailer knows, the cost of ownership for the latest and greatest eCommerce software doesn’t come cheap. In addition to the initial price tag, online merchants are hit with various charges along the way, such as those required to upgrade software and purchase additional licensing.   When a website reaches a certain amount of traffic, it’s normally cause for celebration. However, according to an article...

Making the choice to re-platform an eCommerce site is not for the faint of heart. It takes a major commitment. For some, the project can span multiple years. There’s the research required in choosing an eCommerce provider and then there’s the task of determining how to customize it in a way that will deliver results. Once those items have been fleshed out, the implementation itself still has to take place.   According to research conducted by Forrester in 2011, published in...

Etailers have long benefited from the simplicity and the cost advantages that come with not having to charge state sales tax. Recently, however, state governments, desperate for revenue, are making the push for change.   In a recent article published by Reuters, sales tax from Internet commerce has arrived in California as well as in a handful of other states. Although the new law is bringing in millions of dollars of revenue, it’s not hitting the levels initially forecasted by researchers....

When a customer is experiencing difficulties when trying to make a purchase, that customer will pick up the phone and let the retailer know. The customer service representative on the other end of the line will then relay the customer complaint to the appropriate department or manager to solve the issue. It’s a fairly simple process: Hire someone to listen when customers have complaints and then work toward a solution to reduce the number of customers who call.   If only...

When a customer calls a company representative, they always have a few expectations – as they should. They expect cordial, efficient service and they expect their specific inquiries to be addressed in a fair and timely manner.   In the age of social media and big data, however, customers have also come to expect call center operators to know more about them than ever before. They assume that company representatives have a 360-degree view.   “Customers expect call centers to know...

Back in 2011 – not so very long ago – an editor at Forbes reminded readers that we the general public, at that point in time, had been spoiled with the Internet for more than 15 years. 15 years! But as of 2013, over the course of 17 years, a lot has changed. Few can hardly even fathom a time when dial-up existed. But in the shadow of nearly two decades worth of advancements, there are still a number of things...

In a recent article, published on Inc.com, a small toy store owner lamented the fact that she could not compete with the big box retailers when it came to price. When shoppers would leave her store, claiming that the same items could be bought elsewhere at significantly lower prices, her defeatist mentality would get the best of her. It seemed like she wasn’t willing to fight for shoppers’ business. She just let them furrow their brows at her prices and go....

When online shoppers head to the Tommy Hilfiger website, they are immediately confronted with an overlay capture form, inviting them to sign up for the Tommy Hilfiger newsletter. The overlay also offers 20 percent off the next purchase for those who opt in to the newsletter. If this sounds a little spammy to you, you’re probably not alone. What you might be surprised to hear, however, is that the clothing company more than tripled their e-mail list in one year’s...