The firms reached this conclusion after SmartRevenue, an independent organization, surveyed around 3,600 individuals, which makes their data hard to ignore.  The individuals were all U.S. residents at least 18 years old.

So on to the statistics.  Demandware stated in a press release, “More than 60 percent believe that being able to use their mobile phone while shopping to verify product availability at a particular store location is important to very important.”

Furthermore, “Approximately 20 percent of consumers currently use their phones to create shopping lists or baskets, and slightly more than that number would be interested in a mobile app to help with shopping list or basket management for their favorite retailers.”

Then one other interesting fact is that around 25 percent of consumers would like to receive coupons while shopping.

So companies should definitely try to accommodate shoppers who are on the move.  Even if many of the shoppers would be willing to delay purchases until they’re near a desktop PC, a few impulse buys are no doubt at risk, and organizations risk appearing less than up-to-date by not having a mobile strategy.

What makes the Gilt.com experience so irresistible? A big part of it is the sense that you are getting a great deal on products from brands that are normally much pricier, but smart marketing is just as much of a component in the success of Gilt.com. Taking some time to analyze what makes the marketing so powerful, here are 10 techniques that Gilt.com is using which might help other brands to duplicate some of this success:

1. Featuring amazing imagery.
The experience on Gilt.com starts with amazing imagery. This is clearly not a site selling average products, because everything about the imagery used on the site indicates a premium and desirable experience. More than that, the images are changing every day, which demonstrates that there is fresh content all the time and that the site will be worth visiting again and again.

2. Offering a sense of exclusivity.

Core to the Gilt.com experience is a sense of exclusivity. You need to be invited to join the site by a current member, and only once you become a member can you access all the special deals. The irony of this is that they have plenty of “sneak in” ways to become a member without getting invited through secret links – but the SENSE of exclusivity is what is most important. It doesn’t pay for them to actively prevent people from becoming members, but they work hard to make their current members feel as though they are part of an exclusive club.

3. Focusing on the backstory.

Every product sold on Gilt.com has a backstory which is almost as important as the product itself. Why? Because when it comes to many luxury products, there is an inherent need from the customers to have a shareable story that they can tell to others along with the products they purchase. It is not about buying a blender. It is about buying a blender from a Belgian company that has been making them since 1930, and that you cannot find in any retail store near you.

4. Creating an urgency to purchase without excessive pressure.

Every product that you put into your shopping cart expires after 10 minutes. This may seem like a diabolical move to pressure you into purchasing – and to some degree it does work like that. The aim, though, is to limit the amount of time you can hold onto a product that someone else may want to purchase. As a result, the sense of urgency to buy is built into the site, and when coupled with a relatively easy return policy, it means that they can focus more on converting browsers to buyers in a timespan (10 minutes) that most other ecommerce sites would envy.

5. Providing significant rewards for referrals.

Once you become a member, the reward for referring someone else to the site is a whopping $25 in credit – far more than most other sites. This adds to the exclusivity experience, but also makes it likely that people will share their referral link far and wide with others. As you probably noticed, it is working for me also since I used my own referral link in this post as well.

6. Integrating deeply with email marketing.

Every day, members of Gilt.com get an email telling them about the special deals of the day and reminding them to visit the site to purchase those products before they sell out. They have a blog and a Twitter page as well, but for the vast majority of their users, email is likely driving the largest consumption and traffic because much of their target audience are at work where emails often come with pop up notices letting you know a new one has come in.

7. Selling items that are sold out.

As items sell out or are held in member’s shopping carts, the site automatically lets you know and gives you a chance to be placed on a wait list for a product. Not only does this add to your emotional sense of wanting a product (after all, if it is “sold out” it must be good, right?), but it creates a secondary sales channel for Gilt.com where you may not have been able to purchase the product you were most interested in, but might come back to purchase it if it were available. The other benefit of this model is that it helps for projections and planning new sales if you have a good sense of the most popular products based on something active such as a consumer being asked to be put on a wait list for an item, versus something more passive such as impressions to a product or brand page.

8. Standing behind products they sell with editorial.

Not only does Gilt.com offer new products every day, they also stand behind the products they do offer. This “seal of approval” concept lets consumers know that the products they are buying are authentic but also tested for quality and will be exactly what they expect. This also allows Gilt.com on the backend to work with more and better companies to feature products because there is an inherent validation that takes place for a brand that does get featured on Gilt.com that may extend to that brand building more of a relationship or awareness among a desirable group of consumers.

9. Creating a daily ritual.

Every day at noon EST, an email comes noting that the sales for that day are open. Conveniently scheduled at the time when many office professionals are taking their lunch break, this consistently allows Gilt.com to create a ritual for their customers. Not everyone will buy a product every day, but just knowing that this format will take place every day allows consumers to plan a visit to the site as part of their day and helps to drive a big spike in traffic because you know that as soon as the deals open online there will be a frenzy to buy the most popular items before they sell out.

10. Customizing to platforms.

Soon after the iPad was launched, Gilt.com was ready with an app for iPad users that allowed them to purchase directly from the app. Today, more than 10% of overall sales come from the iPhone and iPad mobile platforms that this number is growing. By offering a customized experience for users on certain platforms, Gilt.com is making it easy to purchase no matter where you happen to be.

Not every brand will have luxury products or find this daily sales method easy to duplicate, but taking some of the marketing lessons that Gilt.com already knows could help a large number of brands who have some ecommerce component of their sites to create more engagement with their customers, and convert more of them to action as well.

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In my last article I talked about some of the things that should be considered when developing an effective promotional banner. I want to follow that up with a short post here on how you can promote more in less space using flash for banner development.

Flash banners come in all shapes and sizes. As of this writing two example sites using them are Target and BestBuy. Screenshots of the home page for each are below as a reference point. The red outlined area in each indicates the area the dynamic flash banner is composed of.

Example of Target Flash Promotional Banner

Example of BestBuy Flash Promotional Banner

In today’s internet age, you do not need a whole lot of flash design experience to get these types of banners up and running on your site. You will need a little technical know how (or get someone that can do it for you) but there really isn’t much to it if you have the right tools.

The truth is, you can do this yourself with a number of free and/or affordable commercial options.

Below I’ve listed a number of links that will start you down the right path toward adding a professional looking flash rotating banner to your ecommerce site.

Rotate a Banner With These XML Banner Rotators

Free XML Banner Rotator

Free Flash XML Banner Rotator

As you’ll see, there are a number of options available to you. Keep in mind that the functionality of the banner should fit your needs. Don’t just choose a banner because it “looks cool.” Looking cool won’t get you sales. Make sure it is functionally correct and provides the opportunity to run your promotions in a way that benefits your bottom line.

Got anymore you think should be added to the list? Leave a comment below and let me know.

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Note that these rankings can change on a monthly basis, meaning they’re not exactly set in stone.  Also, topseos.com, not some more authoritative entity in the field like Google, established the order.

Still, for what it’s worth, WebiMax, which is supposed to have a client retention rate of 98 percent, came in first place.  Then Element SEO came in second, and ATAK Interactive secured third.

Next, Search-Placement was fourth, and LotusJump SEO (which might deserve extra points for incorporating the name of a fantastic car company) was fifth.  Marketplace Earth was sixth, and Kreidman was seventh.

Finally, WebRankingSEO.com was eighth, AmeriCommerce was ninth, and Volusion finished in tenth place.

Companies that deal in ecommerce might do well to hire these organizations, or at least imitate their practices.  It seems rare for people to click through more than the first few search results for any given query, making search engine optimization very important.

According to the most recent survey of 9,578 adults used in this analysis, nearly nine out of 10 adults (87.5%) say they have a cell phone, an increase of 17.9 percent from January 2006 (74.2%).

With ecommerce expanding to m-commerce, many people want the convenience of being able to shop or browse company’s websites from their phone. The survey found 41.5 percent of adults want a cell phone with Internet access, compared to just under one-third (32.6%) who said so in July 2008. More than half (51.4%) of adults 18-34 years old say they want to be able to surf the web on their phone, compared to the 41.0 percent who said so in July 2008.

“Americans expect more from their phones than the ability to talk to family and friends,” said NRF President and CEO Matt Shay.

“Aside from sending pictures and sharing stories and experiences over social networking sites, consumers want to be able to connect with their favorite retailers in a way they never have been able to before – instantaneously. The emergence of m-commerce has created a paradigm shift that has the retail industry very excited.”

When it comes to other cell phone features or attributes, adults say email access has also increased in importance over the years. Over half (51.1%) of 18-34 year-olds say they want a cell phone with email access, up from 28.1 percent in January 2006. But young adults aren’t the only ones who favor email access: according to the survey, 42.6 percent of all adults want email on their phone, up significantly from 22.5 percent four years ago.

“The combination of new technologies coupled with consumers’ desire to adopt these new apps are redefining the cell phone into a ‘consumer communicator’,” said Phil Rist, Executive Vice President of Strategy, BIGresearch.

“Marketers and retailers should leverage shopper’s needs to stay connected by providing information and communications to assist them with their purchase decisions.”

Shoppers spent $6 billion online during the month, equal to $108 for every person in the UK. The Index shows a 3 percent increase in sales in May compared to April.

There was a 23 percent increase in alcohol sales compared to last year as shoppers stocked up ahead of the World Cup. This was driven by discounted prices being offered by many retailers. Sales of electronics also jumped 13 percent, maybe an indication of the surge in flat screen TVs being sold to coincide with the tournament.

Sales of clothes online rose considerably in May, with a 32 percent increase compared to last year, in line with the warmer weather as well as the World Cup fueling sales of sportswear ahead of England’s matches.

“With online sales growing at their highest rate in almost two years, this is good news for the e-retail industry,” said Tina Spooner, Director of Information at IMRG. The fine weather in late May, together with the build up for the World Cup appears to have had a positive impact for e-retailers.”

“Year to date, the UK e-retail market has grown 14%, which is in line with our predictions for this year. With recent research suggesting that over half of consumers believe the economy is now recovering from the recession, it is evident that e-retailers have already started to benefit from an increase in consumer spending.”

Change can be good — sometimes — especially if it is meant to decreased expenses (thus directly affecting the bottom line.) However, change that has not been planned out properly or change that does not take into consideration customer needs and wants can cause trouble.

I recently worked with a store owner who thought that switching shipping companies would save them some expense over the previous shipping company (which did a great job … but had slightly higher prices.) In theory, and on paper this might have been true. However, without proper planning and without taking their current and potential customers interest into consideration, the event turned out to be a disaster … causing long time customers to leave, new customers to never return (even canceling orders), and a customer service nightmare for those working the phones.

You see, the store may have thought that looking at the sheer numbers (from a shipping rate standpoint only) that the one carrier with lower rates would have saved them money. It makes sense … if you only look at that.

But running an ecommerce business — or any business for that matter — means you must take into consideration much more than just “perceived cost”.

The customers feedback all basically said the same thing … “I’d rather pay a few dollars more to get my package on time and fast then to not get it at all or get it much later than expected.”

Considering the lifetime value of customers that will not be realized due to leaving, the new customers never returning, and the bad word that is surely to spread across the internet about them, the company has dug themselves a hole that is going to take a lot of energy to correct. Rather than saving money on shipping they ended up losing a ton of money both now and also potential future realized revenue.

So the next time you consider making changes to your shipping (or anything else to save a few bucks) operations, make sure you do your homework first, plan next, and when all the information is presented, be sure to choose the option that benefits your customers most.

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Here’s what Zappos did in relation to their 6pm.com online store:

[...] While we’re sure this was a great deal for customers, it was inadvertent, and we took a big loss (over $1.6 million – ouch) selling so many items so far under cost.  However, it was our mistake.  We will be honoring all purchases that took place on 6pm.com during our mess up.  We apologize to anyone that was confused and/or frustrated during out little hiccup and thank you all for being such great customers.  We hope you continue to Shop. Save. Smile. at 6pm.com.

An entirely different outcome springs to my mind that some companies would adopt – think of those champions of customer engagement Ryanair, for instance. Thank goodness so few are like Ryanair.

Nice one, Zappos. You’re the model. Such an apt tag line to your logo.

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Look at it this way: companies that are entirely offline won’t be clued into the existence of these features, meaning they won’t be able to take advantage of them.  And the same goes for firms that haven’t learned how to take advantage of the sorts of social media opportunities created by Facebook.

Meanwhile, ecommerce sites can perhaps become more successful than ever by simply trying to reach folks who might otherwise shop at those places.  It’s unlikely that Facebook will bar organizations without brick-and-mortar stores from using its site, after all.

So imagine that someone is wandering towards a Footlocker store, checks his iPhone, and sees a discount code for The(Imaginary)ShoeShack.com on Facebook.  That ad could quite possibly result in an ecommerce sale that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred.

Keep a close eye on how Facebook handles this geolocation issue, then.  Exactly what sort of features it’ll introduce – and when it’ll do so – remains unknown for now.

Google’s Website optimizer is a powerful tool that enables you to increase the conversion of your website using testing methods such as Multivariate and traditional A/B split testing. When setup and utilized correctly, Website Optimizer gives you the ability to discover what really works to turn visitors into sales (or just about any other action you are seeking from your audience). No more guessing.

For any of you have have already tried your hand at “manual” split testing, you know it can be tedious, time consuming, and down right tough to keep track of all the possible combination’s that are put together for any given test. That process is made much simpler with the use of Website Optimizer.

The instructions for setting up optimizer are easy to follow and do a great job for even newbies on helping them get up and running (although if your cart requires programming to integrate the code into the pages you may need the help of your technical team).

One article circulated last year and was titled 55 Google Website Optimizer Tips and Tricks.

The other surfaced February 23 of this year as a “sequel” to that original post and it is titled 25 Google Website Optimizer Tips for Better Product Pages.

Together these articles combine to provide a total of 80 different tests you should consider running on your site. I highly recommend reading them and keeping them on your bookmarked list for future reference.

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