Black Friday - the day after thanksgiving.

In the US, thanksgiving is a big family holiday, a bit like christmas day is traditionally here in the UK. It is on the 4th Thursday of November and it falls on the 25 November this year.

In recent years the following day has been branded Black Friday and is reportedly the highest spending day of the year and marks the start of the big retail bonanza leading up to christmas.

Whether it is a good thing or not it appears to be taking a hold in the UK too with a good number of retailers starting to market the Black Friday brand and promoting sale goods and discounts.

Amazon and other big names Amazon brings Black Friday deals to the UK have been promoting it.

What other UK retailer have jumped on the bandwagon and should it adopted wholesale and applauded?

Tags: Ecommerce

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Make sure your home page is working as hard as it can!

In the lead up to probably the busiest sales period of the year it's important that, particularly if you are an online ecommerce site, you're ready for those visitors looking for gift ideas, especially when in their hand they're holding their credit card.

Tags: Landing Page | Behavioural Targeting | Promotion | Analytics | Ecommerce

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How the description tag can improve clickthrough and conversion

In a previous blog post regarding the description tag for search marketing, even although Google no longer (or ever did) use it in their search algorithm, it was suggested that it was still important enough to take time crafting it effectively.

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, did confirm that it is still used, and displayed below the page title in search page results, when relevant to the search terms entered.

So, how can it be used effectively to help increase clickthrough rates?

Tags: SEO | Web Optimisation | Copywriting | Search Engine Optimisation | Ecommerce | Landing Page

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Would you like an increase of 40% in shopping cart conversions?

Which e-commerce basket start page persuaded 40%+ more people to carry on with the checkout process during this Which Test Won test?

Shopping cart abandonment rates are a continual headache for web based shops and consistently run at about the 60% mark.

Tags: Conversion | Ecommerce | Landing Page

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Eye tracking now available for all web sites

Testing web site useability has always been a valuable exercise to undertake but in the past has always been prohibitively expensive.

As such eye tracking analysis was only really available to the larger online business owner as it involved sophisticated tracking devices and the availability of test subjects similar to those being targeted as potential customers to get a actionable set of data to implement.

Tags: Analytics | Web Optimisation | Conversion | Google Analytics | Ecommerce

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Amazon are successful! Why not just copy them?

If you're in the web design/optimisation business, how often are you asked if you can build a site just like Amazon's?

Maybe not every day but enough to have investigated how and why Amazon are as successful as they are and if there are any lessons to be learned.

To copy is the sincerest form of flattery!

Whereas that might be true to a point, it is where the point is and where it stops. And, there may not be any point at all!

Tags: Web Optimisation | Google Website Optimizer | Ecommerce

OFT is to investigate ecommerce and behavioural targeting

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the UK consumer protection watchdog, has indicated that it will investigate internet advertising techniques and online pricing tactics that mislead consumers.

As part of its brief it will also include price comparison sites and the increasing application of behavioural targeting in relation to online advertising.

An outcome of the investigation could result in an industry code of practice on advertising and pricing if the OFT finds significant evidence of misleading, unfair or unethical behaviour being employed by online retailers.

Tags: Advertising | Internet Marketing | Ecommerce | Copywriting

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Reputation not Price!

Of those surveyed only 26% said price was most important factor.

28% of more than 1,300 online users surveyed by Webcredible said that, despite the recession, reputation of the retailer was more than price when buying online mainly because of security fears.

Tags: Design | Ecommerce

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