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Tips from a Small E-Commerce Owner (leosternlicht.com)
45 points by lsternlicht on July 25, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 10 comments



Aside from the content, the presentation of this post deserves praise - it has to be one of the clearest presentations of data I've ever seen on the web. The text is concise and the graphs and other supporting graphics are unambiguous. Top work!


Great tips. I've built a couple e-commerce sites for clients over the years and all of these ring true to me.

I think the "Quality Photos" tip is the best. For certain products, allowing customers to submit photos is also great (think Threadless.com style) since it's both product shots and social proof.


Great short tips but I would love to hear more about structure and flow: squeeze pages, landing pages, check out pages, cancelation pages.


I am playing conversion optimization whack-a-mole today after getting inspired by a post by Aaron Wall, and have twelve things on the list. If you guys are interested I'll blog them later with before & after shots.

Its mostly meat and potatoes stuff. (Which I somehow managed to ever avoid doing in three years. Amazing what a fresh look helps you discover.)



thanks


Great post! I really liked the tips, very straightforward and simple to follow.

Have you tried chat and/or click-to-call solutions like liveperson's or eStara's? What's your opinion on these services? (even if you haven't tried them)


I have not tried chat or click-to-call solutions, but they seem interesting. Depending on the pricing of the service and difficulty of implementation it might be worth it for us.

I have found that many articles talk about analyzing and optimizing cpc and cpm campaigns which is great for bigger sites with phenomenal traffic and online exposure. However, for small boutiques like Izola, I have found that these 3 tips have the highest value (income/time) ratio.


Google Voice offers a click to call button. Implementation is free if you are willing to take calls on your cell or already have someone to take the calls.


Too bad Google Voice only works in the US. And it will probably stay that way for a long time (couple years). I guess there's a good opportunity there, replicating Grand Central for the rest of the world.




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