eTail Conversion Rates: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

[Linda Buquet]

Here is an excerpt from the latest article from one of my favorite publications - GrokDotCom - the conversion rate newsletter.

"Still Falling Short in E(xceptional)-tail?"

"When it comes to online shopping, consumer confidence is increasing. More folks are turning to the Internet for their shopping needs – this holiday season alone, online spending was up 25% over the last holiday season (according to one statistic I ran across). That’s cheery news for all of us. But don’t whoop it up too much just yet. Truth is, the mere presence of more traffic isn’t going to net you higher conversion rates.

Formulating how to interact with the nameless and faceless hordes isn’t an easy task, but that’s where your solution lies. And it’s the reason why you want to construct the persuasion architecture of your site based on personas and their buying-path scenarios."

The story ends with:

"You may have a relatively straightforward B2C sales process. Or you may have a complicated, many-tiered B2B process that actually involves multiple “sales.” Either way, the persuasion principles that encourage your site visitors to convert are fundamentally the same: build trust, provide reassurance, answer the questions they are asking and anticipate the ones they will ask.

Your goal in 2005? Think the way your visitors – specialists and neophytes alike – think, so you can sell the way they buy! Kaching!!"

Read the gems that are hidden in the rest of the article and then come back here to discuss any thoughts or questions that come up.
http://www.grokdotcom.com/Volumes/Volume01-01-05.htm