What We’re Reading: In-Store Tech, Prime Day and Checkout Tech

This week we’re reading a variety of articles about the following topics: how in-store tech is rivaling personal staff, how checkout technology can be used as a competitive advantage, and expectations for Amazon Prime Day.  (more…)

AI to the Rescue: How to Improve your Customer Engagement by Using AI-based Tools

(This is a guest post from our friends over at Impresee, a visual API company that offers services for eCommerce, such as visual search and creative search.)

For some time now eCommerce has been around and growing, and it isn’t showing any signs of slowing either. In 2014 online stores worldwide sold around 1,300 billion US dollars and they’re expected to sell 4,800 billion US dollars in 2021!

With figures like those it’s clear that nowadays the problem eCommerce faces has nothing to do with getting people to buy online but with how much online competition has grown! Not just smaller businesses competing against each other, but industry giants squeezing out smaller online stores too.

As the owner of a small online store, there’s no way you can compete with the giants, and you shouldn’t try! But how do you manage not to compete? Well, the answer is simply customer engagement. (more…)

Customers Demand Multiple Fulfillment Options from Merchants

Do you know why your customers choose to abandon their online shopping carts?

All online retailers must deal with cart abandonment. There are many reasons why a browsing customer decides not to buy once they’re in the checkout process. Merchants should always be looking for ways to increase purchases and lower cart abandonment rates among their shoppers.

One way to increase online purchases is to offer more fulfillment options at check out. In this article, see why customers demand multiple fulfillment options and how you can provide them. (more…)

The Art (And Science) Of Reducing Cart Abandonment

(This is a guest post from our friends over at Sezzle, a payment platform that offers customers interest-free installment plans at online stores.)

Abandoned carts are missed sales for merchants. Your customer selects your products, prepares to check-out, and then, at the final step, gets cold feet and walks away.  What causes cart abandonment? It could be that the consumer gets sticker-shock when they see the total order price added up in the cart, or balks at the shipping fees, or simply changes their mind. As a merchant, understanding why cart abandonment occurs and what you can do to reduce it is the key to increasing your conversions.

If you’re struggling to get consumers to pull the trigger on a purchase, know that you’re not alone. According to recent data from SalesCycle, global cart abandonment in Q3 2017 was up 1.5% from Q2, rising to 78.4%. That means that over two thirds of items placed in carts are never actually purchased. Talk about missed opportunities!

Here are some important steps you can take to convert these opportunities into more sales: (more…)

Content First Approach Drives eCommerce Conversions

We don’t need to tell you that selling online is highly competitive. Digital marketers and designers work hard every day to find ways to increase conversions. They’re looking for ways to perfect their product pages, checkout process, upselling techniques, navigation and more.

It’s all about creating a personal journey for a shopper that takes them from searching for a product to submitting an order. While there are many ways to increase traffic and eCommerce conversions, we’re going to focus on one area that tends to get overlooked – driving sales through a content focused approach. Whether you’re new to the concept or not, see how merchants successfully use this approach to drive purchases. (more…)