Tips to Increase Holiday Sales Online

With Black Friday right around the corner, the holiday shopping season is rapidly shifting into full gear. According to Forrester Research, online sales for the 2011 holiday season are expected to hit $59.5 billion which would be a full 13% increase over last year. With this said, the 2011 holiday season offers online retailers significant sales growth opportunities.

The following tips will help you create an online shopping experience that’s conducive to increasing sales for the holiday season. So if you haven’t already applied all of the following recommendations, there is still time to start taking advantage of them.

Dress Up Your Online Store for the Holidays
Adding holiday themed banners and ads to your site can help increase holiday sales since they convey to your shoppers that your site is up-to-date and ready for the holiday season. Dressing your site up for the holidays also naturally encourages your site visitors to think about shopping for friends and family on their shopping list.

Enticing Holiday Promotion Offers
Actively promote your holiday promotions by email and with on-site ads that reinforce your offers. Make sure that the products you promote are popular items that will convert into sales and that they include strong offers such as free shipping or percentage off discounts, since these types of offers convert at higher rates. Also, make sure your holiday promotions have strong calls to action and that they direct shoppers to landing pages where they can immediately take action and make the purchase. Keep in mind that many holiday shoppers turn to the internet for both simplicity and savings. Make sure you’re giving them a great reason to buy from you now and make it as easy as possible!

Promote Suggested Gift Ideas
Develop a department on your site that’s focused on gift suggestions and promote it throughout your site. The reason for this is twofold. First, many of your visitors will come to your site to shop for themselves and by seeing the suggestion of gift ideas they may be further influenced to make gift purchases for their friends and family as well. Second, many visitors will land on your site who are actively gift shopping and the easier you make it for them to find gift ideas quickly, the more likely they will be to buy.

Product Images & Content that Sells
Review your product images to ensure they showcase the perceived value of your products. Consider adding additional product images as applicable that offer alternate views of the product. Lifestyle shots can also help increase your online sales. People naturally relate to products they see other people using and enjoying. Also, make sure your product descriptions are well written and address the questions your site visitors are most likely to be concerned about before making a purchase.

Up Sells & Cross Sells
Suggestive selling is a powerful marketing tool that can increase your online sales immediately. Up selling and cross selling should be applied year-round and further refined for the holidays. For example, if you offer a product and related up sell products are available, make sure to offer the up sell items as suggested items. Also, if you have products that have add-on accessories available, make sure you’re offering the add-on products as cross sells. Don’t leave these valuable sales opportunities on the table.

Work Your Social Networks
Let your social networks, such as your Facebook friends and Twitter followers see that you’re in the holiday spirit. Add holiday related content to your wall posts and tweets. Consider updating your profile pictures and backgrounds (where applicable) to incorporate holiday themes. You may be pleasantly surprised by how many people will end up connecting with your site due to creating this top of mind awareness that you’re there for them for the holidays. Also, don’t be afraid to occasionally promote offers through your social networks such as special coupon codes for your Facebook friends or Twitter followers. You might be surprised at how many of them will appreciate this and share these with others.

Dressing up your website for the holidays and providing enticing holiday promotions will generate more interest in your site during the holiday season and ultimately more sales. Make sure you’re maximizing your selling opportunities by suggesting great gift ideas, refining your product content, applying effective cross sells and up sells, and actively cultivating your social networks. Creating an effective holiday presence requires some extra planning and work, but the potential rewards are well worth it. And if you’re doing it right, it can be a lot of fun for both you and your customers.

Happy Holidays!

5 Steps to Writing Product Descriptions that Sell

When a potential customer visits a product page of your website, the page must act as a salesperson that is prepared to convert your site visitors from just looking to buying. Just like a salesperson’s presentation in a retail store, your product page must clearly answer the most important questions a customer would want to know before deciding to purchase your product. The following 5 steps will help you write product descriptions that will increase both visitor satisfaction with your site and conversion rates.

1. Determine your audience and make sure you are speaking directly to them. For example, if your site sells home décor products that are popular with adults between the ages of 40 and 60, you would want to use a different writing style than you would if your site sold skateboards to a primarily teenage boy audience.
2. Write in terms of features, advantages, and benefits. Surprisingly most eCommerce websites don’t do this, which can quickly put you ahead of your competition if you do. Remember, your customers want to know why they should buy the product from you and not a competing website. So make sure you tell your visitors what they want to know and what’s in it for them.
3. Keep your product descriptions clear and easy to understand. Avoid industry jargon unless it is relevant and important for your customers to use in making a decision to purchase the product. You want to make sure you are informative, but at the same time not confusing or boring your site visitors in the process. When in doubt, keep it simple and straightforward.
4. Do not copy and paste product descriptions provided by manufacturers. It is common for most eCommerce sites to sell products that are made by manufacturers that also sell to competing online retailers. Even though it is tempting to simply copy and paste the product descriptions provided by manufacturers – don’t do this. In order for your product descriptions to be effective, you need to rewrite manufacturer descriptions to ensure they contain all of the information you think they should and reflect the unique voice of your site. This can also benefit your search engine rankings due to having unique content in comparison with your competitors who simply copy and paste the same exact boilerplate product descriptions provided by their manufacturers.
5. Include a strong call-to-action. Just like professional salespeople, great product descriptions always ask for the sale. Make sure your calls-to-action are clear, enticing, and tell your customers what action to take.

If the above steps sound like too much work, think again… Well written product descriptions can increase online conversion rates by 100% or more. After all, if you visit a website and their product information doesn’t answer your questions you will click your mouse and look somewhere else – and so will your visitors. Make sure you’re not giving your visitors a reason to go to another site for information due to your product descriptions not answering their questions and asking for the order with strong calls-to-action.

Search Engine Optimization Marketing – SEO Page Titles

Although there are many elements that must work together for search engine optimization marketing to be effective, the SEO page title is among the most important. Effective SEO page titles tell both search engines and searchers what your web pages are about.

When writing SEO page titles, it is important to make sure you’re targeting the right keywords for the page you’re optimizing, while at the same time writing them in a way that will entice searchers to click through to your site from the search results.

Your SEO page title will ultimately determine whether or not a searcher will be enticed to click on the search result for your site. After all, when you do a search on Google, you scan the search results and click on the ones that make the most sense in relation to what you’re searching for. With this said, you need to put extra thought into writing SEO page titles that will rank high in the search engines for your most important keywords and that will convert from searches to clicks.

Keep in mind that your SEO page title acts as the synopsis of your web page to both search engines and potential visitors. Therefore, your SEO page title must be clearly focused on the topic of your web page. As easy as this sounds – most people have a hard time writing effective SEO page titles because they over think the process.

Let’s say you have a product page on your ecommerce site which offers a contemporary black leather sofa made by Natuzzi. When people are asked to write an SEO page title for a page such as this, it is common to see SEO page titles such as ‘Discount Living Room Furniture & Sofa Sets’, ‘Leather Furniture, Sofas, Chairs & Ottomans’, ‘Leather Living Room Furniture & Home Décor’, etc. If any of these examples have made you raise an eyebrow you’re doing good, since none of them will be effective for the keyword searches for ‘Contemporary Leather Sofa’, ‘Black Leather Sofa’, ‘Natuzzi Leather Sofa’, or other combinations directly related to the specific offering.

An effective SEO page title for the example of a contemporary black leather sofa by Natuzzi would simply be, ‘Leather Sofa, Contemporary Black Leather Sofa by Natuzzi’. This would be the choice for the following reasons.

1. More people search for ‘Leather Sofa’ than they do for ‘Contemporary Sofa’, ‘Black Sofa’ or ‘Natuzzi Sofa’, which is why the first words are ‘Leather Sofa’ to reinforce this most important keyword phrase.

2. The rest of the SEO page title of ‘Contemporary Black Leather Sofa by Natuzzi’ is chosen to achieve two goals. First to create an SEO page title that is meaningful to searchers so they know what the content of the page is about before clicking on the search result (which also increases conversion). And second, to tell the search engines the most important information related to the product being offered, which in this case are style, color, material, type of product and manufacturer.

SEO page titles for other topics may not be as obvious to write as in our example. However, in most cases they will be just as easy if you simply look at the core topic of the page you’re optimizing and write an SEO page title that clearly describes what the page is about. For example, if you have a web page about Napa Valley wine tours your SEO page title should include the phrase of ‘Napa Valley Wine Tours’. A web page about golf lessons at a Seattle area golf course should include the phrase of ‘Golf Lessons in Seattle’. As simple as this appears, many people get hung up on trying to brainstorm what they should be writing for their SEO page titles, when the answer is literally right in front of them on the page they are optimizing.

Keep in mind that as with our example of the contemporary black leather sofa by Natuzzi, the most important keywords of ‘Contemporary’ ‘Black’ ‘Leather’ ‘Sofa’ and ‘Natuzzi’ must also be included in the meta tags and within the text content of the web page. By writing keyword rich SEO page titles that directly relate to the topic of the web page you’re optimizing, you will be able to increase your search engine rankings and click-through rates to your site (provided that the rest of your SEO elements are properly optimized).

When was the last time your reviewed your SEO page titles in comparison with the content of your web pages?

More SEO advice

5 Steps To Choosing The eCommerce Provider For Your Greatest Return On Investment

The results of a recent Integrated Solutions for Retailers survey indicate that the majority of its readership intends to invest in an eCommerce or web development solution in 2010. The survey also made it clear that value and return on investment guide the search for new providers.

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eCommerce Website Upgrade Brings Dramatic Increase in Sales and Conversion

Latest EPORIA News: EPORIA eCommerce redesigns Alaska Smokehouse gourmet food website in time for the holiday shopping season, resulting in rave reviews from customers and increased site traffic, conversion and sales.
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EPORIA eCommerce Website Development Transforms Online Business

EPORIA Serves Up D’Artagnan Gourmet Food eCommerce Website with Unprecedented Results

EPORIA and leading gourmet food purveyor D’Artagnan announced that D’Artagnan’s eCommerce website, which was launched in October on the EPORIA platform, generated higher online sales for the months of December and January than the company has ever seen, with January seeing double digit sales growth over 2009.

“Launching in time for our busiest season was key for us, so we could capitalize on holiday traffic and convert visitors on the new platform,” said Katie Holler, Director of eCommerce for the 25-year-old gourmet food company. “EPORIA helped us every step of the way, from design to implementation, and met our tight timeframe with a week to spare!” The two companies collaborated closely to accomplish this feat. “As a result,” says Holler, “we had the best December online in the history of the business, and the month of January was up 17% over last year.”

Recognizing the desire for increased online sales and a richer online presence for its expanding clientele, D’Artagnan selected EPORIA for their focus on results, and for the platform’s robust feature set, which is perfectly suited to an elite gourmet food brand like D’Artagnan.

The website’s extraordinary results began immediately after launch. EPORIA’s search engine friendly platform and comprehensive SEO expertise led to rapid indexing of the new website’s pages–nearly 90% of the new pages were listed in search engines within just days after launch. “We were extremely impressed with the results,” says Holler. “Just two weeks after launch, our rankings on the first three pages of search returns increased 400%. I’ve never seen a site index so fast.”

“From the day we launched, our daily order volume and average order value have seen double digit increases and our conversion rate has already nearly tripled,” Holler reports. In the due diligence phase of researching potential eCommerce solutions and partners, Holler often told the EPORIA team that the EPORIA eCommerce solution sounded “too good to be true.” Since the launch, Holler confirms that “we can now see the results for ourselves, and it’s true—EPORIA really is that good. And on top of it, they offer a great value for your investment.”

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Cross-Selling Tips to Maximize Online Sales & Conversion

The art of effective cross-selling (offering related items) and up-selling (suggesting more expensive alternatives) on your product pages can make a significant difference in the overall sales volume and conversion ratio of your ecommerce website.

Effective Cross-selling and Up-selling can Increase:

• Average order totals
• Conversion rates
• Exposure to higher margin items and best sellers
• Awareness of the depth of your offerings
• Overall customer satisfaction by helping to find the product or service offering that best meets your visitor’s needs

Cross-Selling Dos

• Only feature highly relevant items such as accessories directly related to the product offered or as an alternative of the product
• Use personal words such as “you”, opposed to “we”. For example, “You Might Also Like”, not “May We Also Suggest”
• Choose items that sell well and have higher margins whenever possible
• Keep you cross-sells down to three suggestions. This seems to be the magic number to create interest while not overwhelming or distracting your customer from making a choice
• Whenever possible, show the most obvious choices someone would want to go along with their purchase such as a matching necklace to go along with diamond earrings
• Continually test your cross-selling tactics and work at improving them for maximum effectiveness
• Look through your order history to find proven cross-sell items. For example, previous customers often bought product “A” when they bought product “B”

 Cross-Selling Don’ts

• Never, ever, show items that are not “directly” related to the main product
• Don’t show items that are out of stock unless backorders are available – Note: During the holiday shopping season, try not to cross-sell anything that isn’t readily available
• Don’t use cross-selling to simply try unloading unwanted inventory. The goal is to maximize your overall sales totals and conversion rates. Unwanted inventory can have its own area on your site such as a Clearance or Specials section
• Don’t try cross-selling big-ticket items. As a general rule the incremental cross-sell/up-sell should be 10-25% of the price of the original item on the product page

What Do You Think?

Everyone seems to have their own ideas about what cross-selling strategies work best for their ecommerce business. What do you think about cross-selling as an online marketer or customer? Have you had success increasing sales or buying products due to cross-selling? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Holiday Season 2009 eCommerce Sales & Marketing Checklist

Your eCommerce website should be ready and rolling for the holiday season and online Christmas sales. Whether you believe your site is ready or not, review the following Holiday Season 2009 eCommerce Sales & Marketing Checklist. If you find anything below that you haven’t already addressed, now is the time to make it happen!

1. Take advantage of your home page primary banner and ad spaces to present strong and attractive holiday imagery and feature your holiday season best sellers.
2. Make sure your best selling products are also featured in the top positions of your department category pages. Make it as easy as possible for your visitors to find what they want and buy from you.
3. Optimize your content for the holiday season. Make sure you’re using the right keywords on your pages for both visitors and the search engines to let them know about your holiday offers.
4. Use strong calls to action with an emphasis for your customers to buy now. Experiment with limited-time offers (“Three days only!”) and other variations (“While supplies last – order now!”).
5. Make sure product images and product page content are rich and enticing.
6. Maximize cross selling opportunities by suggesting the most relevant items related to each product right on that product’s page.
7. Ensure that your email marketing campaigns have a strong focus on your offerings and present your brand in the best light. Make sure to include “forward to a friend” links to capitalize on viral marketing.
8. Make the most of your site’s ad positions. Ensure that all ads on your site only feature your best selling holiday products or offers positioned as giftable. This is not the time to promote lower converting merchandise.
9. Don’t skimp on promotions. People are actively searching for special offers online during the holidays such as free or discounted shipping, percentage or dollar amount discounts, special offer promotion codes via email and affiliate programs, and cross promotions (buy one get one free).
10. If you have membership or club groups, create specials that are designed just for them and make sure you let them know with email marketing pieces that make it clear that these special offers are only available to them to add perceived value to their previous purchase and keep them coming back to buy more.
11. Review your site’s search engine optimization (SEO) and work at updating your most important pages for the holidays.
12. Make sure all of your pay-per-click (PPC) ads, such as Google AdWords ads, are using the best keywords for the season and that you’re also applying negative keywords to reduce wasted clicks and ad budgets.
13. Ensure affiliate ad materials for your affiliate networks are enticing and up to date with your most important and most likely to convert holiday offers. Think in terms of click-through and conversion.
14. Publish new online articles, content pages, and blog posts, optimized for the search engines, for your most important holiday product or service offerings.
15. Get social. Make sure to let those who follow your blog posts, tweets on Twitter, or other social media efforts know about your special holiday offers and give them an incentive to click through to your site and buy.

How many of the above items have you already implemented to maximize your online sales for the 2009 online holiday shopping season? It’s not too late! Optimize for the holidays and convert more with your seasonal promotions.

Most Shoppers Who Abandon Their Carts Return to Buy

In a previous post, Common Reasons for eCommerce Shopping Cart Abandonment, we pointed out that shopping cart abandonment averages as high 78 percent. However, a recent study by McAfee has found that nearly two-thirds (65%) of online shoppers who abandon their carts come back within a day or more to complete the purchase.

McAfee’s study of more than 150 million online transactions indentified the following reasons why online shoppers often delay purchases after placing items in their shopping carts:

• Brand Recognition: Well-known brands experience shorter purchase delays than lesser-known brands since shoppers will often research lesser-known brands before making a purchase.
• Competition: If items being sold are in a highly competitive market, it will take more time for shoppers to come back and complete the purchase since they want to shop around before finalizing their order. On the other hand, items that are unique or harder to find will experience quicker order completions.
• Information Gathering: Online shoppers often add items to the shopping cart so they can easily purchase them later if they want and also to find out what’s required from them in the checkout process.
• Price: Higher priced items will usually take longer to lead to a completed order since shoppers will often want to think more before committing to making an expensive online purchase.

Although the information found by McAfee is highly insightful, online retailers should study their own abandonment and conversion numbers very closely – and not simply hope shoppers that abandon their carts will come back. In other words, you should always be looking for improvements to your site’s content and offerings to reduce your cart abandonment rate.

When was the last time you analyzed your site’s cart abandonment and conversion rates? With the holiday shopping season literally around the corner, this is information you should be looking at and taking action on immediately.

Email Marketing Still Drives Results

Email marketing is one of the best ways to promote an eCommerce website. Since fans of a site and its product offerings are likely to want to receive promotional offers and news. Think about it, do you receive email marketing from companies you’ve done business with that you like to receive, such as those from your favorite specialty store or big box retailer? For most people, the answer is an overwhelming yes!

Is your company actively using email marketing to grow your brand and increase sales? If not, consider the following numbers recently published by eMarketer.

• 94% of marketing emails were delivered in Q1 2009
• 22% of these emails were opened
• 6% were clicked through

Now stop and think about these numbers for a moment (seriously). Of all marketing emails delivered in Q1 2009, 22% were opened and 6% produced clicks directly resulting in website traffic and potential sales.

There is no question that email continues to be an effective marketing tool that drives results. How effectively is your company using email marketing to grow your business?

Share your thoughts by commenting below.