In the current economy all you hear about is the decline in sales and business. eCommerce has been one of the few bright spots in this recession. Online sales have rose every year since 2000. Forrester Research has predicted growth in online sales through 2014. That would put eCommerce at 15 straight years of growth. Pretty impressive.  With all the positive outlook on eCommerce can it really be headed for a collapse?

For some eCommerce business owners this very well may be the case. Online sales will continue to climb each year, but the landscape for those of us with an eCommerce business is on the edge. There are current issues out right now that will shape eCommerce in the years to come.

State Sales Tax

Legislators continue to introduce bills that would allow states to collect sales tax for online purchases that were once exempt from state tax. These bills have yet to make it all the way through, but on July 1st, 2010 a new bill was introduced, H.R. 5660, the Main Street Fairness Act. Any of us in the world of eCommerce knows how much a bill like this could hurt business.

I have worked with two businesses that have both retail sales and online sales. I can’t tell you how many times customers come in, shop the product, then turn around and leave to go home and order it online. All to avoid sales tax. A bill like this would help keep those sales in state, but it is not worth it. You may save 1 sale in your state, but you could lose 49 other sales from the other states.

If this bill fails there will be another one right behind it. How long before it just slips through? Hopefully, the answer to that question is never. A bill like this does not help the local small retail store like it is made out to be. This bill only helps those large companies that have physical retail stores in all states and must collect state tax on online sales.

If a bill such as this does ever pass it would drastically change the landscape of eCommerce forever.

SEO

We have seen a huge shift in search engine optimization over the years. It will continue to change. It’s just the nature of the beast. There are many eCommerce businesses that are built with SEO in mind. SEO is their only traffic source. This is the quickest way to become competitive in a niche, by narrowing yourself way down to a product or products that you can SEO easily.

Google has begun focusing more on local search. You see it every day when you are searching. The local map shows up in the organic listings and it pushes results out of the way dominating most of the screen real estate. This change has cut traffic back to high ranking sites.

In the last few months posts are starting to show up about people seeing search result pages that show only local search results. You can see here: Google Testing New, More Integrated Local Search SERPs and Google Removes Organic Results in Local Tests.

This change has really helped small local businesses with physical retail locations and hurt those eCommerce businesses with no retail stores that heavily rely on SEO for their traffic.

What does it all really mean?

The sales tax issue really is a non-issue right now. I do encourage everyone to write their local law makers to voice your concern over bills like the Main Street Fairness Act. The more resistance they get the better chance that this will never be an issue.

The SEO issue is a little more concerning than the sales tax issue. I have seen this one affect search traffic and sales. We all know Google is pushing their android mobile phones, their local search results, and Google Places. The more they integrate mobile and local in their results the further down organic listings will be pushed.

If you heavily rely on organic listings for your traffic, you need to start integrating PPC campaigns into your marketing to offset lost traffic.

Is eCommerce headed for a complete collapse? No, of course not, but those that do not evolve are being left behind quickly. The more diverse you can make your store the better chance you have in surviving these shifts in the eCommerce landscape.

Product bundles are a fantastic way to increase your Average Order Value (AOV). The Michigan Bulb Company has done an excellent job of using product bundles on their site. They sell bulbs, hedges, roses, shubs, trees and much more. If you plant flowers or landscape your yard each year you will know that certain plants and flowers go well together. This type of product is set up well to offer product bundles.

The Michigan Bulb Company goes well above a normal product bundle offering. They have a category on their site, “Gardens” and it features different types of flower gardens. When you click on a particular garden it brings you to a product page that has each type of flower/grass/shrub/etc. that you need to create the garden pictured. You can see an example by looking at the image to the left.

This is a great use of product bundles and will greatly increase the sites AOV.

Are you using product bundles effectively on your site?

Yesterday Google announced they are working on a global browser based plug-in that would allow users to opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics. This has started a wave of posts and talk across the internet as to what this could mean for those of us using Google Analytics.

All we can do right now is speculate. No one knows what kind of impact this will have until we see from Google exactly how this will be implemented. I do not believe it will have an impact on our data though. If this is a true plug-in it will require the user to download it and install it on their browser. Only more technically aware people will download and install a plug-in like this. For a traditional web user they won’t seek out this feature and go through the process of opting out.

Google Analytics would be useless if the reverse ever happened. Let’s say Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer built this plugin into their browser and instead of opting out of tracking you would have to opt-in for tracking. This would cause hundreds of thousands of people to not think twice about changing the setting. The data from Google Analytics would be all over the place and you would no longer be able to use it as a viable analytics program.

I don’t ever see the above scenario taking place. Google will be signing their analytics program a death wish if that happened. Google Analytics is the most widely used analytics platform today and it helps Google’s bottom line. Google will not allow that to happen. We should all be able to rest easy as this opt-out feature will not have a big impact for all of us using Google Analytics.

What do you think about this new opt-out feature Google is working on?

Do you own an eCommerce site? Run an eCommerce site? Thinking of starting an eCommerce site?

If you answered yes to any of the questions here is your next one, do you know what web analytics is? Do you have an analytics program setup? If you have one setup, do you use it?

If you answered no to any of the above questions then you are in the same boat as a lot of eCommerce owners and this post is for you. Most people have an idea of what web analytics is today, but most just hear about it, so they set it up, but just let it sit there and don’t know what to do. Anyone that works on an eCommerce site needs an understanding of analytics or someone that can do it for them. Without web analytics your eCommerce site is dead! It won’t survive.

Web analytics is the brain of your eCommerce site. Just like us we need a brain to survive. Our brain holds our experiences, what we learn, how to make decisions. The list can go on forever what our brain does for us, but you get the point. The same goes for eCommerce sites. Ecommerce sites have many parts from marketing, to site work, to product fulfillment, to customer service. This list can go on forever as well. Your web analytics holds your sites experiences, how it preforms. With this data you form your decisions on how to run your eCommerce site. Analytics tell you where to put your money, what is your best preforming channel and so much more.

The more you understand analytics the more you can use it to your advantage. This will pay you back ten fold and then some. I feel this is such a core piece to eCommerce success that I am going to start a series of posts dedicated to analytics. These posts will all be geared towards analytics in the eCommerce world. With these I hope to show you how important analytics is to your endeavor and how it will improve your ROI.

I recently put a new feature on my site. It is a calendar that lists upcoming online training or webinars in the eCommerce world. This will be a great resource for anyone looking for eCommerce training or anyone looking to keep up on the latest trends in the world of eCommerce. If you know of any webinars please submit them to me for placement on the calendar.

eCommerce Online Training Calendar

My wife was online shopping for clothes the other night and she became quite frustrated with the Gap. All online clothing shops have images of models dressed up in the clothes they are selling. Several problems arise from this if you don’t sell all the pieces in the image.

Sweater for sale in various colors, but what about the undershirt?

Here is the page in question that inspired this post – GAP Sweater Page. You will see an image to the left to see what we are discussing. What you will see in the image is a product page for the Henley sweater by Gap. What you will also see is a unique undershirt that has a ruffly type design to it. Together these two pieces create a unique look.

Why would GAP not offer this undershirt as an add-on or cross-sell it on the page? Am I missing something? They are losing out on a lot of additional income here. Cross-selling the undershirt would easily increase the average order value across their site.

If someone really wants the undershirt to complete the look they will look for it on the site and search for it. Well that leads to the next problem. This undershirt does not exist any where on their site. My wife couldn’t find it and she became frustrated and left the site. How many other potential customers are leaving for the same reasons?

This is a simple fix that could result in a lot of extra income for GAP.

If you have product images on your site and it creates a unique look that people can get attached to make sure you can buy those exact things on your site. Cross-sell all the items on the product page that the image is on and watch your average order value go up.

Have you noticed this on sites your shopping on?

I came across the blog, Better Retail by way of a tweet. After reading the article that brought me in I skimmed over other posts and one caught me eye, Illinois Residents Pay No Sales Tax. The post is a quick summary about a website that personalizes a no sales tax graphic depending on what state you live in. This is a great way to add some personalization to your eCommerce site.

If someone comes into your site and they notice a graphic saying, “Your-State-Here Residents Pay No Sales Tax”, it gives the customer a sense of comfort. This allows you to connect with your visitors on a more personalized level. Adding a feature like this one can really help increase your conversion rates.

I wanted to take the above blog post a step further and show you exactly how you can do this on your site today and get those conversion rates up.

There are several ways to achieve a function of personalization like this. I wanted a way that can be used across multiple languages.  What I have found will work if your site is being run off PHP, ASP.NET, Ruby on Rails, Java and so on. It is just a simple JavaScript script that can get you this functionality.

When I searched around for a way to do this I came across this post, Find web visitor’s location automatically with javascript and Google APIs. The code here got me started in the right direction and was able to come up with code to create the personalization code. A side note to this, I found that the place I got this code from is from Brian Cray‘s blog. He is located in Columbus, OH and I am also in Columbus, OH. It’s a small world.

Code block

<div id="salestax"></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=YOUR-KEY-HERE"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
 
if(google.loader.ClientLocation)
{
  visitor_region = google.loader.ClientLocation.address.region;
 
  document.getElementById('salestax').innerHTML = '<p><img src="./images/' + visitor_region + '.gif" /></p>' + visitor_region;
}
else
{
  document.getElementById('salestax').innerHTML = '<p><img src="./images/notfound.gif" /></p>';
}
</script>

This uses the Google AJAX API script. For you to use this on your site you will need to sign up for a Google API key and place it in the code above where it says “YOUR-KEY-HERE”.

This code will look for an image in the image folder named after the visitors region. The region comes back as the states abbreviation. So for an example the code finds be in Ohio. It returns the visitor_region as OH. It will look for the image OH.gif in the images folder and display that image on the page. What you will need to do is create an image for each of the 50 states and place them in an images folder.

If the Google location script does not return a visitor_region the else statement is there to catch that error and display a default image, notfound.gif. These geo location scripts do not always work properly, so make sure you always have a default image to display if it does not.

TRY IT OUT

There are many other applications that this type of code could be used for besides just a no tax icon. I would love to see how people use this on their sites for personalization. Let me know in the comments if you do.

Start improving your eCommerce stores conversion rate today.

I apologize that this blog has fallen off and has not had a post in quite sometime. The reason the posts just stopped is because  I switched jobs. I took a position as the eCommerce Manger for Tacom Limited.  We operate seven sites with the majority of them being related to outdoor furniture. I hope to start taking a little time on the weekends and nights to try and start keeping this blog up to date again.

[June 20th-June 26th, 2009] volume 1 – issue 9

If you have suggestions, articles, etc. please send them to me via twitter or email me at dustin[at]dustinfisher[dot]com.

Improve Your eCommerce Site Now With These Articles

Your Negative ROI (Risk Of Inaction)? (via googleretial.blogspot.com) – They give some suggestions on how to think about your negative ROI.

Product image 360 in Email (via stylecampaign.com) – If you have ever wanted to product 360 degree images of your products and even put them in an email newsletter this is a great post.

Cross-Selling’s Time Has Come (via ecommercetimes.com) – Every retialer wants to cross-sell. It increases revenue. This gives you some tips on how to make the cross-sell work.

The Shopping Cart: How to Answer the 5 Unanswered Customer Questions (via grokdotcom.com) – Here are 5 areas your site should answer that customers look for before buying.

Christmas Shopping Begins in the Next 4 Weeks… (via grokdotcom.com) – With the economy down, people are going to start shopping and planning earlier than ever. Are you ready?

Interesting eCommerce Articles of the Week

Small Business SEO: Costs, Expectations & Realities (via smallbusinesssem.com) – Does your eCommerce shop need some seo help? This talks to you about what to expect to pay for an seo.

5 Ways Negative Reviews are Good for Business (via smallbusinesssem.com) – No one wants a negative review of their business, but it is going to happen. This is a good article on why the negative review is actually good.

Ecommerce Interview: Adding Community for Maximum Return an Interview with Adam Michelson (via optaros.com) – About a 6 minute video on using social media to build a community to help your eCommerce site.

The Importance of Requirements Diligence (via getelastic.com) – Some points to look at when choosing an eCommerce platform. They will also be holding a webinar on this next week. I would check out.

Is the Customer Always Right? (via invesp.com) – Good article about the saying, “Is the customer always right?” No the customer is not always right, as some people use this saying to try and get free items and discounts.

[June 13th-June 19th, 2009] volume 1 – issue 8

This past weeks ecommerce weekly roundup is a couple days late. I had my sisters wedding this past weekend and did not have time to put it together. If you have suggestions, articles, etc. please send them to me via twitter or email me at dustin[at]dustinfisher[dot]com.

Improve Your eCommerce Site Now With These Articles

A/B split and multivariate testing: don’t forget your most important page (via econsultancy.com) – Many people run the usual split tests on their homepage and product pages. The order page gets left out a lot and it is a very important page to test.

5 Tips for Encouraging the Impulse Purchase (via blueacorn.com) – A couple good tips to get your visitors to make that extra purchase that they never planned on. This is a great way to increase your roi.

The Skinny on Recession Psychology (via googleretail.blogspot.com) – How to target customers senses and emotions in a recession to make the sale.

What Motivates A Purchase? (via entrepreneurs-journey.com) – What makes a customer buy a product from your site over another one. This has some good tips to implement into your site to make the sale.

PPC / SEM Analytics: 5 Actionable Tips To Improve ROI (via kaushik.net) – Long post, but some amazing actionable tips to improve your ROI.

3 Remedies for a Web Analytics Overdose (via palmerwebmarketing.com) – A couple tips to sort through the hundreds of web analytics reports and make them usefull to your business.

Joining the SEO and PPC dots (via econsultancy.com) – Tips on using PPC and SEO in conjuction with each other.

Measuring and Improving Cross-Sell and Upsell (via getelastic.com) – Tips on getting your average order value up by cross-selling and upselling.

Interesting eCommerce Articles of the Week

Will Google Judge You Guilty of SEO? (via grokdotcom.com) – Interesting read on how Google profiles SEO’s. Just confirms what we have always known develop your eCommerce site for the customer, not the engines.

Social media drives sales — if you know how to use it (via bazaarblog.com) – People are debating the usefulness of social media and if it drives sales.

The Next Wave of E-Tail: Considered Commerce (via ecommercetimes.com) – eCommerce sites have been dominated by the easy to ship products. Now it is going into the next phase the harder to ship items like furniture.

Word-of-mouth matters (via bazaarblog.com) – Study finds that recommendations from firends are the most trusted source of information.

IRCE 2009 at a glance (via invesp.com) – The Internet Retailer Confrence was this week. This is a little summary of some of the things that took place there.