NetSphere Strategies and CoreMedia, a NetSphere Strategies partner, wrapped up their three-part webinar series last month with the third installment focusing on how to create microsites without the help of an IT team. Easy-to-Use Tools One of the goals for any company involved in eCommerce is to create an immersive experience for shoppers who search the site. With the right tools, technical proficiency isn’t even a prerequisite for improving site search and creating memorable and effective experiences. To drive conversions, retailers...

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...

In a previous blog, the team at NetSphere Strategies covered the importance of tools for analyzing website data, focusing on Tealeaf, IBM's new customer experience manager. Today, however, we'll take a deeper look at what Tealeaf has to offer in more effectively pulling down actionable data related to how users interact with a website.  Any company with an eCommerce focus needs to ensure the visitors to their website are experiencing a smooth, hiccup-free interaction. Consumers have come to expect their web...

As the digital age continues its upward and onward march, a marketer’s job becomes increasingly difficult to manage. When there are so many touch points – websites, brick-and-mortar locations, social media platforms and an ever-growing handful of devices used by customers – it can be a challenge to create meaningful interactions. Regardless of the challenge, “digital experience priorities must quickly evolve to keep up with fast-paced or fickle customer expectations. Given the frantic pace of digital, organizations invest or are left...

When the Americans with Disabilities Act was set into motion, lawmakers were making a passionate push to ensure that those with disabilities were protected against discrimination and afforded equal access to public entities and accommodations. At that same time, the Internet was still a burgeoning idea. Its future reach and significance was unknown, meaning accessibility issues for those with was disabilities hadn’t been taken into consideration.  Today, however, the U.S. Department of Justice is working diligently to create new regulations that...

Consumers are a demanding bunch. And apparently, they’re also a busy bunch. They don’t have time to twiddle their thumbs waiting for a website to load. So, when a website doesn’t render fast enough, they’ll take their business elsewhere. It’s as simple as that. Because of these time-strapped consumers, eCommerce website owners must make performance optimization a priority. Tuning a site to load quickly is a multi-faceted effort, however, seen in the fact that page load performance is often broken into...

Every element of a website can have a subconscious effect on visitors. Dotting every I and crossing every T becomes an understatement for UI/UX designers when something as seemingly insignificant as the placement of a dollar sign affects buying behavior. If a dollar sign can have a big influence on sales, imagine how important color choice can be. Because color can have such a weighty effect on purchasing habits, designers put a lot of stock into their choices, far beyond a...

When budgets are tight, do-it-yourself projects come to the rescue. In fact, a study released by Lab42, a market research firm, highlighted DIY as one of the top three searches on Pinterest during the 2013 holiday season. Of those surveyed, 15 percent said they spend less money by using Pinterest, “likely due to DIY projects.” So what do arts and crafts projects on Pinterest have to do with eCommerce page load performance? Well, they usher in the idea that slow load times can...

Optimizing an online store’s checkout process is not a new idea. It is, however, something that eCommerce business owners are still working to tackle. Some sites have found success while others can learn from their achievements.   Last year, the Baymard Institute, an independent web research institute, conducted a survey of online checkout processes and who’s doing it best. The group’s efforts were, and are, focused on discovering, documenting and sharing the best ways to improve the online user experience.  ...

Since its inception in 1994 and its web launch in 1995, Amazon has been an online retailing force to reckon with. It is, in fact, the world’s biggest online retailer. Year over year, its growth rates have been through the digital roof. But despite nearly two decades of streamlining and perfecting its operations, Amazon realizes that now is not the time to rest on its laurels.   In an article published by Internet Retailer, Amazon’s market share is slipping due to...