Whether your customers are hunters (looking for something very specific), browsers (just poking around your site) or "howsers" (hunting for something but must browse to find the right product) - filtered navigation can be very useful to your site visitors. Filtered navigation:

The ecommerce business is partly a numbers game. And the object of the game is to increase your sales and profitability. You need to understand how your site's visitors are converted to buying customers. Not that you need to immerse yourself in the minutiae of data that many web statistics programs produce, but to reach your site's sales potential, you need to have an understanding of its key numbers and have a simple method for tracking them over time.

Are you selling your white papers short with poor merchandising? Many sites offering "free" white papers, case studies, or resources in exchange for some visitor information utterly fail to merchandise their downloads. Yet if your website doesn't treat your white paper as containing valuable information, your visitors won't either.

Online communities like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tangle allow members to join groups, post content, and respond to other's activity. While some marketers have tried to exploit the media, there are positive ways for online merchants to participate in linking networks and build stronger relationships with customers.

I spotted vente privee (private sale) e-tailer RueLaLa inviting members to add upcoming "boutiques" (private sale events) to their Outlook calendars in an email:

Perhaps one of the most sensitive calls to action (aside from asking for credit card information) is the request for customer feedback (especially when the request is made through the intrusive and long-despised pop up window.)

Back in Crimes Against Hypertext, I identified several common examples of poor hyperlinking. It generated an interesting discussion so I thought I'd write a follow-up, adding a few more examples and some solutions.

Fill in the form information and click the Generate URL button below. If you're new to tagging links or this is your first time using this tool, read How do I tag my links? If your Google Analytics account has been linked to an active AdWords account, there's no need to tag your AdWords links - auto-tagging will do it for you automatically.

In Google Analytics wil je graag al je externe campagnes keurig gerapporteerd zien. Dat doe je door deze campagnes te voorzien van Google Analytics campagne tags. Maar hoe richt je dit nou zo goed mogelijk in? In dit artikel wil ik ingaan op een goede manier van het doormeten van een nieuwsbrief. Hiermee wil ik niet zeggen dat dit de beste manier is, maar wel een manier die veelal de juiste informatie levert. Tevens geldt dit voorbeeld ook als inspiratie om andere soorten campagnes in kaart te brengen.

This post is a little different than what you might be used to. Instead of talking at you, I would like to talk with you. I would like to propose a blogging outline, not actually blog on the given subject (yet!).

While online shopkeepers are experts in their industries, they might not be expert at understanding their payment processing service or its statement, which can include adjustments, interchange charges, service charges, fees, and chargebacks.

The perception that search engine optimization is a limitless source of free traffic and sales is one reason that SEO campaigns sometimes fail to live up to expectations. Yes, SEO efforts can deliver excellent returns on investment. But how much expected return is realistic? This article will help you estimate the potential growth in traffic and sales that SEO efforts can drive to your site.

This post is a recap of today's webinar: The eCommerce Platform of the Future. The on-demand version will be available shortly. About our guest speaker As Senior Analyst for ecommerce technology at Forrester, Brian researches and reports the impact of technology advancements, operational needs, and changing consumer behaviors on online retail. His expertise spans B2B and B2C retail and online travel, with a focus on multichannel strategies, user experience design and technology. Brian holds more than 11 years of experience in eCommerce and online marketing, serving senior roles for retailers such as Amazon.com; Classmates Online, Inc.; Eddie Bauer; Expedia.com; and The Spiegel Group.

Get the most out of your Google Analytics with this collection of links to implement, configure and get insights from Google Analytics.

Every visitor comes to your site in their own personal "buying stage." The buying stage is a wide spectrum, but we generally break it into Early, Middle, and Late stages:

Yesterday, I posted the Missing Google Analytics Manual. That was relatively easy to put together since there are so many wonderful resources already written about it. However, as I tried to put together this post, I realized a real gap in the knowledge base available. I'll be posting this as an ongoing series, that I might turn into a best practices whitepaper. The "Voice of the Customer" (VOC), can be obtained in many ways: surveys, reviews, customer requests, interviews, focus groups, field reports, etc. In order to find those golden nuggets that can lead to improvement you need to start with the segment of customers that like you the least.

Yes. I noticed the slightest hint of sarcasm in the title of this post. This post covers four commonly used measurement techniques that 9 times out of 10 work against the evolution of Reporting Squirrels into Analysis Ninjas.

Personalization, done effectively, is a lot more than making product recommendations or using technology to welcome a visitor by name. Smart personalization is the process of providing more relevant content and offers to your visitors based on their preferences and behavior.

Remember how, a while back, we talked about the benefits of using active verbs in your copy (Think Active!)? You must have got some benefit from that discussion - it's one of my most popular articles ever. So I think it's time we played Fun With Grammar again (if only your 9th grade English class had been so application-oriented).