In 10 Costly Assumptions, point #10 touched on a topic I’d like to explore in more depth: attracting repeat traffic. First of all, why do we like repeat visitors? They convert better They spend more They’re more likely to tell others They’re free (you already paid to acquire them) Here’s 10 ideas for creating loyal [...]

“Never assume.” – These 2 words represent the greatest advice ever given to me on the topic of website optimization. Here’s a list of 10 assumptions site owners make (myself included) that could cost you a ton of business. Assumption #1: People will know how to find your website We often assume that people have [...]

For this 3 Things entry, let’s take examine creative sales boosting tips retailers are using on their product pages to squeak out more conversions. Multiple Add to Cart Buttons If there’s one thing I learned as a salesperson after working 5 years in retail, it’s that you should ask for the sale early and often. [...]

When was the last time took a look at your top exit pages? Odds are, there’s a few pages that suffer from higher than average abandonment rates. Off course, at some point, visitors will leave your site. But why not keep them there as long as possible? Below I’ve listed what I think are the [...]

The ultimate disappointment for a customer is viewing the product page of an item they really want, and finding it’s not available. Recently, I came across several sites that take a unique approach with handling out-of-stock or discontinued items. Example #1: Lancome-USA Makeup retailer Lancome offers an extremely innovative “Since you liked… Now you’ll Love” [...]

Walking out of a theater last night, I struggled to convey to my wife why I didn’t like the movie. “I can’t tell you exactly what they could’ve done better,” I said, “I just know they did it wrong.” Odds are, 99% of the internet population is clueless about good web design, just as I’m [...]

Speed kills. In the case of website usability, the lack of speed kills. Many have erroneously assumed the advent of high speed internet connections would make website performance optimization irrelevant. On the contrary, it seems as internet connection speeds increase, users simply become more impatient and demand faster browsing. Below, I’ve gathered some simple (and [...]

Just the other night, my wife wanted to buy a purse on an eCommerce site that I have done extensive work for. Just out of curiosity, I decided to stand behind her and watch her interact with the website. As I jotted down notes as she went about shopping, I began to notice things I [...]

E-tailers have a lot to learn from traditional retailers. It seems that well-known eCommerce sites get away with atrocious usability mistakes simply because the internet as a shopping medium is growing so fast. Web managers may think that because sales numbers are up they must be doing everything right. For many online stores, nothing is [...]

Hopefully, you’ve already begun to consider any necessary improvements to your site to accommodate the influx of holiday traffic.  Below I’ve compiled holiday improvement ideas for e-commerce sites. I hope you find something here useful. Offer Bounce Back Discounts: Think about how much traffic your site will receive during the holidays. How can you harness that traffic [...]