According to the October 2010 U.S. Mobile Consumer Briefing, 59 percent of mobile consumers plan to use their mobile phone for holiday shopping and planning holiday celebrations, not including making phone calls. In 2009, the number was only 25 percent. The iniquitousness of smartphones means that more people will be using apps, mobile websites, geolocation services, and more to assist them this holiday season. If your business is not present in the mobile world, then you are missing out on a prime opportunity to target holiday shoppers. “Holiday shoppers are always in a time crunch, and in this economy, they’re in a budget ...

A lot of companies do not spend their time thinking about how to make their eCommerce websites search engine optimized. The website will contain navigational pages with little content and product pages with duplicate content. However making your eCommerce SEO friendly is an important step in increasing your awareness. You want to make sure that your website comes up first when people are searching for the products you have available on your eCommerce website. Follow these 4 steps to increase your search engine optimization and create keyword-targeted pages on your eCommerce website. Write Detailed Category Descriptions - Including a description for each of ...

The holidays are the perfect time to find new customers to visit your website and find your business. According to a report from comScore, eCommerce sales for 2009 were $27 billion, up 5% from 2008. This will likely increase as more people work to avoid the holiday crowds at brick and mortar stores and find the best deals possible. Take advantage of holiday sales this year with these 4 tips to help you optimize your eCommerce website for the holidays. Optimize Blog Posts For Holiday-Specific Keywords - Blog posts can help your SEO by creating new content to help you rank for ...

Including clear navigation and links for social shopping can help improve a shopper's experience on your eCommerce website. However, the basics are often what customers focus on when visiting your website. According to the “Revolutionizing Website Design” report from digital marketing agency Oneupweb, Web users tend to focus on the fundamentals that facilitate purchasing. Clear pricing and shipping information topped the important feature list, followed by a website that looks credible and trustworthy. More advanced features like links to social media and online customer service fell to the bottom of the list. Online retailers who are worried about conversion rates, failed transactions and ...

Once you are able to bring someone to your e-commerce website and convince them to become a customer once, you will want to figure out how to make them come back. Keeping customers is one of the most effective but neglected ways to control your marketing costs. Have your e-commerce website follow these 5 steps in order to increase your customer retention rate and create loyal brand consumers for your company. Customized Content and Suggestions - Create a section of your website that will provide customized content and product suggestions for customers. Based on what the customer has previously purchased or viewed, ...

Although some people may think that providing coupons can cause your company to lose business, it may actually have the opposite effect. According to information from Compete, more than half of consumers who used a coupon code during their last online purchase would not have bought that item if they did not receive that discount. Some other information found about consumers who use coupons: Consumers who use coupons spent an average of $216, while consumers without a coupon spent an average of $122. Consumer satisfaction was higher for consumers who used a coupon (92%) than those who did not (88%). Consumers who used an online ...

While money may be the highest factor for travelers when using a travel website, a lot of them will leave a website if they have difficulties navigating the website and checkout process. According to a survey of survey of US online travel bookers by PhoCusWright, site-related complaints like not wanting to register with the website, slow loading times, and general confusion caused people not to complete their online transactions. Also, more than a third of online travel bookers said that website problems like this make them less likely to shop at that website again. Business travelers, who are more likely than ...

Online research is becoming a regular part of the shopping experience. According to a study by e-tailing group and PowerReviews, 50% of online shoppers research online for at least half of their purchases, and 64% read online reviews before making product purchasing decisions. Online shoppers prefer online research because they feel it saves them more time than doing in-store research and it increases their confidence in the purchase, as opposed ot speaking to a knowledgeable salesperson. [caption id="attachment_1589" align="alignleft" width="635" caption="Source: the e-tailing group and PowerReviews"][/caption] More than half say they start their online research on a search engine, the next highest choice ...

According to a survey by the e-tailing group, 59% of businesses surveyed are planning on investing more into e-commerce in 2010. This number is up from 36% in 2009. [caption id="attachment_1565" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Data from the e-tailing group's 9th Annual Merchant Survey"][/caption] The 9th Annual Merchant Survey also reported that 92% plan on an increase in Internet revenue, with most anticipating between 6% and 15%. With more businesses anticipating an increase with e-commerce, they must also work at using marketing that entices to both current customers and possible prospects in order to succeed. The majority of respondents reported, however, that the conversion rate ...

Many small businesses are still not using basic online marketing tools to help them grow their business. According to a survey from Citibank, 37% of small businesses had not used a website for marketing or expanding their business in the last year. Also, 84% had not used ecommerce to sell products, and 62% have not used email marketing. Of those businesses that do have a website, 74% say their website has been effective at generating business. The survey also found that while many small businesses placed an importance on word-of-mouth marketing to market themselves and find new customers, they did not view social ...

One way to increase the chances of enticing a potential customer to go with your business is to offer them a coupon. However, online coupons can also be used for your business to gather information for future marketing and sales, according to an article in the New York Times. The bar codes on the coupons can hold a lot of information including information about the customer, internet address, Facebook page information, what words were searched for in order to get the coupon, and more. Coupons can also be tracked for specific people using websites like Ebates or FatWallet, and know who is ...

The vast majority of U.S. Internet users prefer to use more than one channel [computer, mobile device, in-store, etc.] to research and purchase products and services, according to a survey from ATG and MarketTools. Almost half of the people said they use two channels when shopping for products and services and 24% said they use three or more. One of the main points from this survey showed that the Internet was used as a research tool. The Internet accounts for only 7.7% of total retail sales, but online research was used in 42% of sales, according to the new study "U.S. Online ...