Many ecommerce sites see large volumes of abandoned carts from their online store. This is because search engines often add products to the shopping cart when indexing. Keep reading to learn more about how you can tell if you have a true abandoned cart on your hands.
Yesterday afternoon we received a very interesting question on […]
Original post by Matt
In keeping with holiday traditions Shop.Org published the results of their holiday shopping survey. This year, many retailers and industry experts were hedging their bets that the slow economy would necessitate that retailers use extensive promotional offers to bring in customers and drive sales. What they found, however, was that savings didn’t top the […]
Original post by Kate Pierce
Earlier this year eMarketer wrote an article based on MarketingSherpa’s surprising findings concerning social media effectiveness and measurability.
MarketingSherpa’s study asked US Social Media Marketing Professionals to identify the most appropriate marketing uses for social media. Here are the results (in order of effectiveness):
Influence brand reputation
Increase brand awareness
Improve search engine rankings
Increase website traffic
Generate leads
Improve internal […]
Original post by Kate
Spending on online video advertising is still small compared to total online spending and television spending, but last year it grew by 126.5%. According to recent studies, online video advertising spend is expected to continue on its upward trend- increasing by an average of 41% per year over the next five years.
With online video popularity […]
Original post by Kate
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Original post by Jordan Golson
Chances are you have heard CISP and PCI DSS thrown around in conversation or seen it referred to in forums or blog posts. But what does it all mean? Hopefully this article will answer the questions you have wondered about but were too afraid to ask.
What Is It?
In 2001 Visa created CISP (Cardholder Information Security […]
Original post by Kate
In 2007 the Canadian retail ecommerce only totaled about 12.9 billion USD, but over the next three years that number is predicted by eMarketer to grow by more than 10% annually. With Canadian business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce on the rise there is room for retailers and online store owners to get a piece of this rapidly […]
Original post by Kate
Last January we held a webinar called 12 Things Retailers Must Learn from Christmas 2007. It’s basically a webinar on event marketing year-round, not just Christmas so check it out as Valentine’s Day is just around the corner…
I will add one thing we can learn from Christmas 2008 courtesy of Google Trends. Looking back at trends for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and what we call here in Canada “Boxing Day” (December 26) we find some interesting searches that savvy retailers can plan to bid on for next year in PPC.
Christmas Eve
The keyword “stores open on Christmas eve” is perfect to geo-target local brick-and-mortar stores or promote your online store open 24/7 with overnight delivery, especially considering search volume peaked at 4pm PST!
Christmas Day
“Stores open on Christmas Day” peaked at 9am PST and was even hotter than the Christmas Eve search. This NowPublic article was the top news result so do remember to reach out to your journalists and bloggers locally and nationally if your physical locations are open next year.
After-Christmas-sale and even December-26-sale keywords also were popular on Christmas day, so consider broad or phrase matching the following (of course you can expand this list, but you get the idea):
“after christmas sale”
“after christmas sales”
“after christmas sale 2009″
“after christmas sales 2009″
“after christmas clearance”
“after christmas deals”
“after christmas discounts”
“after christmas bargains”
“after christmas markdowns”
“2008 after christmas sale”
“december 26 sale”
“post-christmas sale”
“post christmas deals”
“after xmas sale”
“after xmas sales”
“after x mas sale”
“after x mas sales”
You can let these keywords run right into January, although trend data suggests these searches die at the beginning of the New Year.
Selecting the Right Ecommerce Software in Six Weeks or Less
When: January 21st, 2009 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists:
Bill Mirabito, Founder and Principal Analyst, B2C Partners
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend…
Original post by Linda Bustos
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Original post by Robert Scoble
Just announced today, Google Analytics is rolling out new features to its free tool in Public Beta, meaning you can expect to gain access to these new goodies sometime in the next couple weeks.
Click here if you can’t view this video.
As Avinash Kaushik says: Analyzing data in aggregate is a crime against humanity. …
If you want to find actionable insights you need to segment your web analytics data. You need to separate out the various Sources, Behavior and Outcomes.
When I first watched the YouTube video tutorial I thought “man, this looks complicated.”
Avinash assures us it’s not, and reassured us his 7 year old had no problem creating 2 segments in minutes (talk about precocious!)
In addition to the default segments like New, Returning, Paid and Non-Paid Visitors; and Search, Direct and Referral Traffic, you can now create custom segments. A great place to start is segmenting branded search vs. non-branded search terms for organic and paid traffic. Why?
Research by Compete and Google suggests that 70% of purchases made from non-branded keyword referrals occur in later online sessions. Of that 70%, 16% of the purchases happen only after the searcher searches again with different keywords. Non-branded searchers are more likely to be Howsers (know in general what they want but not which specific product, may need more research and education) than Hunters (know exactly what they want and are close to conversion). And if you’re working on strategies to optimize your conversion for customers who are beginning or mid-way through the decision process - you’ll want to know if your conversion rates for non-branded keywords is improving after you implement your testing/strategy.
You can also create segments for non-branded category search. For example, Garmin could segment non-branded motorcylce GPS keywords by creating a segment that must include “motorcycle” but exclude “Garmin,” “zumo” “Quest” “street pilot” and “streetpilot.”
Image credit: Avinash Kaushik
Someone who uses the branded term is likely ready to buy a Garmin product. A good objective for Garmin might be to increase non-branded conversion through strong Garmin value propositions, persuasive copywriting, advanced customer support tools or other multi-media selling aids. The saved segment can produce reports after the testing period, and compare to metrics before the optimization tactics were employed.
Then you can check out which pages these visitors view and what they buy.
This is just one example of what’s possible. Please bookmark and read Avinash’s thorough post for more segmentation ideas.
According to Group Manager of Google Analytics Brett Crosby, segmentation can help you perform better through an economic downturn and “go with what works, find new ways to drive revenue, find segments working for them and invest there to increase their conversions.”
Hat tip for this quote, Marketing Pilgrim.
Expect more segmentation tips and screenshots once I get access to the tools in our Analytics account…if you haven’t subscribed to Get Elastic - sign up today, won’t you? (It’s free, or you can subscribe by email at the top of the page).
Dangerous Marketing Ahead: How to Break Bad Habits and Survive a Deep Recession December 10th, 2008 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists: Jeff Molander, CEO, Molander & Associates, Inc.
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Jonathan Salem Baskin, Entrepreneur, Consultant and Author of the controversial new book, "Branding Only Works on Cattle"
Register to Attend…
Original post by Linda Bustos
Motion Charts is a new visual tool from Google Analytics that launched today and will be rolled out across Google Analytics accounts over the next couple of weeks. Until you get access, here’s a preview:
May help in your decision which keywords to keep and to kill in pay-per-click without pouring over pages of numbers. Or show you which terms to focus on for SEO.
Excellent.
But before you pull the trigger on a PPC keyword, you might want to give this a read.
Dangerous Marketing Ahead: How to Break Bad Habits and Survive a Deep Recession December 10th, 2008 @ 9am PT/12pm ET
Panelists: Jeff Molander, CEO, Molander & Associates, Inc.
Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Jonathan Salem Baskin, Entrepreneur, Consultant and Author of the controversial new book, "Branding Only Works on Cattle"
Register to Attend…
Original post by Linda Bustos
In a move that multiplies its office space fivefold and paves the way for continued growth, Volusion, Inc. has expanded operations in both its corporate headquarters in Simi Valley, California and its Austin, Texas based office. Modern, spacious new offices in both California and Texas accommodate current and future personnel, giving Volusion the capacity to […]
Original post by Pam
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Original post by Om Malik
Just a heads up for Google Analytics users, your data may not be accurate for April 30 - May 5, 2008:
“System Message: Analytics Processing Delay from April 30th to May 5th
Google Analytics experienced a data processing error from April 30th to May 5th. Almost all of the data has been recovered and is currently being reprocessed. The recovered data will be reflected in your reports within a few days. Please note that a small percentage of data, particularly in the area of e-commerce reporting, was not recoverable from those dates.
We sincerely apologize for this processing issue and are taking every precaution to prevent such disruptions from occurring again in the future. For more information, please read through our common questions.
The Google Analytics Team”
9 Ecommerce Innovations: What’s Now & What’s Next
Free webinar: June 19th, 2008, 9am PT/12pm ET
Guest Panelist: Jason Billingsley, VP Innovation, Elastic Path Software
Register to Attend
Original post by Linda Bustos
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Original post by Stacey Higginbotham
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