As detailed in Part 1 of this series, merchants are now focused more than ever on their site’s all-important sales conversion rate. An extensive recent research study, “Merchant Secrets for Driving Conversion,” detailed the many tactics that e-tailers are using…
The concept of “conversion” is one that online merchants live and die by. An online store’s conversion rate, which is the percentage of site visitors who make a purchase, is the figure that determines that store’s bottom line. But for…
In the mid ’90s, entrepreneur Anne Kelly saw that larger women were having a hard time finding attractive and well-made sports clothing. To meet their needs, Kelly founded Junonia, a company that describes its apparel line as “exclusively devoted to…
When the Trek Bikes Web site switched its software platform, it made an unusual change. The well-known seller of bikes and related gear moved from a custom-built platform — usually considered the most desirable solution — to a platform made…
As a leading supplier of school uniforms, French Toast sells to a nearly innumerable array of customers. The New Jersey-based company ships to parents and schools across the country, as well as to both small and large clothing retailers. But…
When Jeff Binder chose his e-commerce platform, his chief concern was finding an integrated application with all the bells and whistles in one piece. In his view, this was important for one key reason: to enable better data tracking. “We…
It’s a challenge that confronts most online merchants sooner or later: the dreaded site redesign. This massive undertaking is usually put off for as long as possible. But for sites built several years back, it’s often necessary to keep up…
The Sport Supply Group’s e-commerce operation has enough bells and whistles to require an exceptionally robust software platform. Founded in 1972 as a catalog-based business, SSG now runs both a B2B site and a direct-to-consumer site, each of which offers…
Buying keyword search terms on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo has become an important part — perhaps the most critical part — of the marketing strategy of today’s e-tailers. This common practice, in which merchants pay search engines…
You could call Lauren Freedman a site doctor. As president of the E-Tailing Group, a Chicago-based e-commerce consultancy, a wide array of online merchants seek her advice. E-commerce executives from companies like Crate and Barrel, Circuit City, the Discovery Channel…