In today’s tough economy, no business is immune to the nationwide belt-tightening efforts. Penny-pinching consumers are spending less and saving more, resulting in sagging sales for eCommerce stores, especially those that peddle non-essential goods and services.

Until things improve on the financial horizon, online sellers may need to shift their marketing focus. While it may not be the ideal time to attract new prospects, you can help to recoup revenue losses by working at boosting the average size of the orders that are still coming in. This retention strategy leverages the loyalty of your existing customers to pad their shopping carts—and your bottom line.

Boosting average order size is easier than you might think. Below are some simple strategies you can start using today: Read the rest of Tips for Boosting Average Order Size

It may not be the prettiest page of your website, but it’s an essential one. Considered the directory of your online store, a text-based site map provides both users and search engines with a structured list of all of the sub-pages contained within the main domain of your site, along with links to each page.

Benefits of a site map

There’s a reason more than 63% of eCommerce websites include a site map. Read the rest of Why You Need a Site Map

Fifteen years ago, I was one of a gaggle of teenagers whose pastime of choice was wandering up and down the corridors of the local shopping mall. The managers of the shops eyed us suspiciously, silently accusing us of loitering, shoplifting, or driving away the “real” patrons. They certainly didn’t try to sell us anything — it never occurred to them that we might actually become paying customers if we were made to feel welcome.

In today’s Internet age, the teenage shopper is no longer treated like a pariah, but rather embraced as a potential source of revenue. Gone are the days of begging for rides to the mall — today’s tech-savvy teens are booting up and browsing websites for the stuff they want and need, from clothing to Wiis to MP3s. And they’ve got money to spend, even if it’s not their own: most high-schoolers may not have credit cards in their name, but a surprisingly large number have access to their parents’ cards. Read the rest of Catering to the Teenage Market

In today’s “me-centric” marketplace, consumers are demanding customization on virtually everything, from bath towels to welcome mats to barware. Today, hundreds of thousands of U.S. businesses are offering some level of personalization on the products they’re selling, with annual sales well into the billions. And it looks like the trend isn’t fading anytime soon — each year, demand swells even higher for all things monogrammed, with a sharp peak during the holiday season.

So, what’s the appeal? In a word, ego. By adding their name, monogram, or personal message to an item, the buyer ensures that the end product will be truly unique, something the Joneses next door will never have. Personalized items are also popular choices for gifts, demonstrating the extra touch of thought and foresight to make them memorable. In the face of a hot trend, more parents are demanding customization for children’s décor items and toys to add a personal touch to nurseries and playrooms.

The industry has come a long way since the days of the pre-made, inexpensive personalized gifts that became popular in the 1950s. Back then, the options were limited to a few common names, and if you had an unusual moniker, you were out of luck. Today, the cutting-edge technology provided by online customization tools has revolutionized the art of personalization and extended it into the luxury marketplace. Read the rest of Make it Personal: Tips for Effective Customization

What’s the most important page of your website? Depends on what you’re trying to do. If your main objective is to increase branding, advertise your retail store, or drive traffic to affiliate sites, the home page should probably be your main point of focus. But if you’re like a vast majority of product-related sites, your fundamental goal is to sell, sell, and sell some more — and that can’t happen without a product page that does what it’s supposed to do.

The home page, category pages, and even your paid search placements can be considered online appetizers—they should look good, be easily digestible, and whet appetites for the more substantive stuff to come. It’s the product page that’s the real meat and potatoes of your site — it’s the place where the most important of all consumer decisions is made, the place where your product or service really needs to shine. Once the shopper clicks that crucial “Add to Cart” button, the odds of them ultimately converting the sale dramatically increase. (more…)

As a frequent eCommerce shopper, I’ve got a mental checklist of things I want to see before I go hunting for the “Add to Cart” button. Some of them are no-brainers: Price. Benefits. Pictures. Then there are the more secondary (but still important) attributes, like shipping cost, product availability, and any applicable options to configure, such as color or size.

And then, of course, there are the reviews.

Over the past few years, I have become a review snob. If I’m poised to purchase a product from a website but there are no comments from other customers who have used it, I immediately enter hesitation mode. Usually, I’ll leave my cart, open up a Google window, and search for reviews of the item elsewhere. Sometimes, I end up finding the product on a competing website with a lower retail price, a free shipping offer, or some other incentive that causes me to abandon the first site. And I’m not alone—a recent study by Forrester found that a whopping 71% of web shoppers rely on product reviews as an influential factor in their buying decisions. (more…)