SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it relates to the science of fine tuning a website and its content so that Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN can better analyze (or “crawl”) and rank the website in search results. Another aspect of SEO is to increase your online presence on other websites that would link back to your website - a concept called “link building”.

Having an eCommerce website is not enough. Customers must be able to find you in the galaxy of hundreds of online retailers. The better your website is ranked in search engines and referenced on other websites (such as blogs or social networks), the more traffic you will get, which will then lead to more sales conversions.

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Statistics Canada has just released its “Electronic commerce and technology” report for 2007.

In 2006, online sales in Canada reached $49.9 billion, a staggering increase of almost 40% compared to 2005 with $31.4 billion sales related to B2B and $15.1 billion related to B2C.

Here is what the report reveals for 2007:

• Online sales have increased 26% in 2007. This is the sixth consecutive year confirming a sustained two digit growth in eCommerce in Canada.

• With an estimated $62.7 billion in online revenue in 2007, private sector businesses still dominated online sales. eCommerce increased 25% to $58.2 billion for private sector firms, while public sector eCommerce rose 30% to almost $4.5 billion.

• In the private sector, business-to-business (B2B) sales accounted for 62% of online sales in 2007, down from 68% in 2006, while the proportion of online business-to-consumer (B2C) sales climbed from 32% to 38% in the same period.

• Four sectors continue to account for the majority of the value of online sales:
  - wholesale trade (17%),
  - transportation and warehousing (16%),
  - manufacturing (15%) and,
  - retail trade (10%).

Even though this confirms the two digit increase trend for eCommerce in North America, Canada’s online market penetration is still lagging behind compared to the USA.

With online sales accounting for only 2% of total sales revenue and an increase of only 1% in 5 years, Canada’s performance is far behind the USA’s. The US boasts 3.4% of total sales revenue and an increase of half a point compared to 2.9% in 2006 (read US Quaterly Retail eCommerce Sales - 4th quarter 2007 report).

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eCommerce websites of leading online retailers are usually a great example of how to empower customers and how to generate higher conversion rates (from browser to buyer) and lower shopping cart abandonment.

Here is a list of the 20 most successful Web features addressing all aspects of the eCommerce life cycle.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

11. Ratings & comments
Empower your customers by letting them rate and leave a review on products. This is a great way to collect feedback, get qualitative information, and measure this information against the merchandise sales performance. You might not want to reorder an under-performing product that your customers don’t like.

12. What other customers look at and buy
Encourage product discovery by sharing information on what other customers have bought or looked at in the context of a given product. Amazon opened the way a while ago and now even goes to the extent of giving percentage ratings on what related books were bought.

SHOPPING CART

13. Clever shopping cart
Your shopping cart should stay alive as long as your customer hasn’t checked out. Facilitate your shoppers’ experience by enabling them to save their cart and then send them a reminder later on to bring them back to your site. Throw in a discount or a promotion related to what they had in the cart and you’ll be sure to convert the abandoned shopping cart into a buy.

14. Streamlined checkout
Make it easy easy for your customer to buy! Minimize the user registration process, make it optional to have to create an account on your website. They will have to fill in their email, postal address and payment info anyway at the end of the process. If your shoppers become regular customers they will see the value of having an account on your website but if they’re random buyers you will turn a significant number of them down by forcing them to register.

15. Shipping costs and delivery to different addresses

Display shipping costs up front! Don’t you just hate it when you’re disappointed because the product is a deal but then you discover after 5 checkout steps that the shipping costs make the purchase not worth it?
Enable your customers to ship different products they purchase to different addresses. This is a feature shoppers love especially around the holiday season. Display the different shipping costs depending on the different destinations.

GIFTING

16. Gift certificates
Offer online gift certificates that shoppers can redeem on your website and in stores. This is a great way to maximize multi-channel sales and is a very popular gift product.

17. Gift & wedding registries
Gift and occasions’ registries enable your customers to create wish lists (and let you know what their purchase intentions are) and to invite other shoppers to your website. Your gift registry customers become ambassadors of your brand and of your services. They enable you to then market to their “guests” and keep them as returning customers.

18. Wish lists
Wish lists are a great tool for your customers to list merchandise they’d like to buy and give you the opportunity to tease them with promotions and product bundles. It also gives you insights on what products your customers like (by gender, age, demographic, etc.).

THE BASICS

19. Make searching and finding relevant
Search results on generic words are often overwhelming and not always relevant to the online shopper. One way to address this is to enable filtering the search results by price, by size, by rating, by colour, etc.
By analyzing your web statistics on how your customers find products on your website, find ways to improve the user experience search and navigation experience. What do your shoppers primarily use to find products? If it is through search, than your focus should be on making product search intuitive and efficient.

20. Store locator
Store location is one of the most popular content sections on a multi-channel retailer eCommerce website and offers many marketing opportunities.
Enable your shoppers to find the nearest store by asking them for their postal code and showing them the nearest store they can go to. This give you information on where you customers live and maybe where you could open your next store if the demand in that area is high.
You can also target localized promotional ads and newly available merchandise, on the Store Locator result page.

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eCommerce websites of leading online retailers are usually a great example of how to empower customers and how to generate higher conversion rates (from browser to buyer) and lower shopping cart abandonment.

Here is a list of the 20 most successful Web features addressing all aspects of the eCommerce life cycle.

MERCHANDISE PROMOTION

1. Online & offline coupons
Create buying incentives by displaying or sending coupons that can be redeemed online (through promotional codes) or in store (with flyers).

2. Promotional Newsletters
Encourage your customers to register online or subscribe in store to your newsletter and keep them engaged by sending them promotions, information about new products, invitations to participate in contests, etc.

3. Email alerts
Use email alerts to warn your customers when their purchase order has been received and shipped. Some retailers use alerts to follow-up on customers who haven’t finished checking out with their shopping carts. Each email alert is an opportunity to stay in touch with customers and offer them targeted promotions: coupons, cross-selling items related to their purchase, etc.

4. Affiliate programs
Affiliate programs enable other websites to sell your products and be rewarded to do so. It is a great way to increase product awareness, customer conversion and ultimately revenue.

ENHANCED CATALOGUE

5. Multi menu product catalogue
Make it more convenient for your customers to browse the products of your online catalogue. Many online retailers display at least 2 sets of menus. The most common menu is product categories. Another menu could be product segmentation by price range, by brand, by room in the house, etc.

6. Rich media product display
Serve your customers’ need for more product information by adding to your product description: - photos with different views or colours - photos showcasing the merchandise in a setting or on a model - ability to zoom in or out of products - 360° interactive views - video of product review or on how to use the product

7. Product comparison
Make it easy for your customers to compare 2 or more products on your website. This is of great help when comparing electronics or cars for example which have many technical specifications. When possible also display product ratings to give a qualitative satisfaction feedback on the merchandise.

8. Product bundling and add-ons
Product bundling is a very common strategy to improve sales by associating a discount to a combination of 2 or more products purchased together. Product add-ons based on relevant product combinations or on customers’ most combined purchases is another way of increasing sales.

9. Product in store availability
This is an essential feature for multi-channel retailers who want to offer convenience to their customers. By showing in store stock availability, buyers will be able to: - purchase online and pick-up in store - browse online, check stock availability and buy in store

10. Product alikeness
The browsing experience on an eCommerce website should be engaging and endless. A great way to achieve this goal is to enable shoppers to see other related merchandise related to the initial product they were interested in. This encourages product discovery and converts into more , cross-selling revenue.

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Retailers who have embraced online marketing and eCommerce are reaping the benefits of experienced consumers who use the Internet channel to search and discover products before making a purchase decision. The most noticeable outcome is that online browsing converts consumers into store buyers.

In a recent report on Multi-Channel Retailing in the US, Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst for eMarketer says that: “US consumers now routinely use various combinations of a retailer’s stores, website and catalogues, even during the course of a single transaction. One consequence of this is that online product research is driving more store sales than online sales.“

Shop.org’s “2007 eHoliday Mood Study” analyzed the distribution between sales channels where:
- 43% shopped online and in stores
- 18.3% shopped only in stores
- 17.8% shopped only online

In its report, eMarketer states that $470.7 billion of in store sales revenue has been influenced by the online channel.

A Forrester Research report on cross-channel consumer behavior reveals that buyers search for products online and then purchase them in store:
- 51% to obtain the product immediately
- 42% to see the product before buying it
- 40% to avoid paying shipping costs
- 27% find it more convenient to buy products in store

Major retailers have picked up the trend and offer more convenience to their multi-channel customers by:
- enabling them to buy online and pick up or return to store
- collect and use loyalty point across all channels
- check in store product availability

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