Keywords Search Is the Most Important Sales Initiative

Getting customers by having the right keywords is the most important merchandising initiative according to the 2013 Merchant Survey Results from The E-tailing Group. The survey had 148 respondents among senior executives with responsibility for e-commerce in the US.

Ratings and e-mails
Two other very popular initiatives are newsletters and Social Commerce. E-mail Marketing has been around forever and is very effective. A newsletter is a must on any e-commerce website. Social Commerce ie given the customers the possibility to rate, review and share these became popular about a decade ago. And it works. People trust other people.

50 Features
The executives were given 50 features which were ranked on a 5-point scale: 5 being very valuable and 1 indicating not at all valuable in driving revenue and results. This is how they rated the 50 initiatives

Merchandicing initiative	Percentage in Top 3
Keywords search	98
Product rating and review	95
E-mail Marketing	95
Free shipping	94
Seasonal promotions	93
Cross sell	93
What's new	92
Up sell	91
Top rated	91
Alternate views	91
Top sellers	90

Source: e-tail detail (April 2013)

This is what your competitors think are the most important merchandicing initiatives. If some of these are absent from your merchandicing mix, you might want to investigate if you should implement they and increase your revenue.

See the press release from E-tailing Group.

2 in 3 Leave Hard-to-Use Webshops

A staggering 65 per cent or 2 in 3 say they will leave a webshop if it doesn’t give them what they want quickly, a study by OnePoll shows based on 2,000 US consumers. They’ll shop elsewhere and you lost the transaction. This means that you must have a great search engine on your website and an easy to understand and use menu navigation. Don’t name the navigation menu what you (the company) call your products but what your customers will call them. And don’t make it too artistic, colourful or in other way confusing. It might look great but you could end up losing the sale.

Make the Transaction Easy - for Pete's sake
Half of our online customers (49 per cent) actually abandon transactions which take too long. On top of that 48 per cent of online shoppers leave the transaction if it is too complicated. So make the website easy to use and make sure your purchase flow is as simple as possible. Goes without saying, really. They rather go elsewhere than to try to figure out how to shop on your website - despite your might have a great offer.

This Annoys Our Costumers Online

• 62 per cent are annoyed when he/she has already given his/her personal information online or via phone and has to repeat them to customer service.
• 59 per cent think it’s irritating when he/she is transferred to another person in customer service and he/she has to repeat account information or issues.
• 52 per cent don’t like to wait for a credit on an account after returning a product.
• 49 per cent find it frustrating to have to deal with the hassle of returning online purchases.
• 47 per cent hate trying to buy something online, only to find it’s unavailable.

Mobile Internet Usage Continues to Rise Dramatically

It's about the last chance to make a mobile website if it isn't too late already. In a survey conducted by Accenture in 13 countries shows that it has become a part of the daily life to access the mobile Internet. Those who don’t have a mobile web-enabled device say they will buy one soon. Smartphones are the most popular mobile Internet access medium. In other words, consumers want to access you webshop with their smartphone and tablet.

Apps
Usability and mobile apps are the primary drivers of mobile Internet use, with a higher proportion of users having downloaded programs and apps on their mobile devices in the past one year. Consumers are now more willing than ever before to pay for premium services. Mobile payments are also a significant way to expand your business with growing use and awareness of these services.

Statistics from the report
22% use the internet on a tablet
37% use a netbook
45% of those above 50 has used mobile internet
46% has conducted a bank transaction on a mobile device
61% has used their smartphone to access the internet
62% has accessed a social network
70% uses their mobile device to receive and send e-mails
71% has downloaded programs and apps on their mobile device


Download the report from Accenture.

Pinterest Brings Business to Your Site

The new kid on the social media block is called Pinterest where you pin photos of things you like on your Pinboard. People can then follow eachother and be inspired by what other people pin on their different Pinboards.

The difference between Twitter and Pinterest is that we actually see what we are clicking on and what we are supposed to see before we click on it.

Pinterest means business 
A survey made by Pricegrabber shows that 21 per cent have purchased articles or products they have found on someone’s Pinboard. The most popular products are close connected to their interests which are mentioned below. This means people are buying cooking utensils, art and crafts things and, as always, clothing.

You can be a part of this new social media phenomenon. Put a “Pin” buttons on you site and get people to share/pin it. And if you are lucky and a great online businessman you might see your sales go up.

Area of interest
As indicated above the most popular area of interest is cooking followed by home decorating, crafting, fashion, entertainment and gardening. 70 per cent say that cooking and recipes are their number one interest on Pinterest.

One in ten log in every day and little more than one in three (37%) in the survey say they log in a few times a week. The most active have anywhere from 1-10 Pinboards.

Huge Increase in Android Usage in Europe

The use of the Android operating system has increased dramatically in the three largest countries in Europe during the last year. At the same time the Symbian operating system used in Nokia's mobile phones has plummeted.

Smartphone Market Share by OS in the Three Major European Countries

Operating system	UK Dec-11	UK Dec-10	France Dec-11	France Dec-10	Germany Dec-11	Germany Dec-10
Android	36.6%	18.6%	35.4%	19.3%	33.6%	11.6%
iOS	26.4%	27.4%	25.2%	30.0%	22.2%	20.7%
RIM	18.3%	17.1%	9.2%	8.1%	3.3%	4.8%
Symbian	14.5%	29.6%	17.0%	30.2%	46.4%	28.4%
Microsoft	2.5%	4.9%	4.4%	9.6%	7.9%	12.5%

Source: Comscore (February 2012)

If you are optimising your mobile site for Nokia phones it might be the time to focus on phones with Android operating system and iPhones.

See press release from Comscore.