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6 CAPTCHA Alternatives to Improve Conversion

Linda Bustos — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:03:15 +0000

CAPTCHA is more than a catchy name, it’s an acronym — Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. But in practical terms, CAPTCHAs are often Consistently Annoying, and Prevent The Conversion from Happening A-Lot.

One study by Stanford University (link opens as PDF) found 3 human users agreed on the “translation” of the CAPTCHA only 71% of the time…

Mobile Games: The Economics of Freemium [Infographic]

Linda Bustos — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:03:46 +0000

Who creates a game only to give it away for free? Where’s the $$ in that?

The freemium business model is taking over — an estimated 65% of revenue generated by the 100 top grossing apps in the App Store, and an estimated 72% of total App Store revenue comes from freemium mobile games. In-game purchases like extra lives, special powers, virtual goods and personalizations are driving the revenue…

Ecommerce Links: January 2012

Linda Bustos — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:52:58 +0000

Before we dive into the links, there’s still time to register for Conversion Conference and Affiliate Management Days upcoming in March. I’ll be speaking on Remarketing and Checkout Optimization, respectively. I would love to connect!

What could be worse than SOPA and PIPA? A similar Act on a global scale. Find out why some believe ACTA ‘Is More Dangerous Than SOPA’.

Even if you didn’t take your site offline to protest SOPA, it’s important that you know How To Handle Downtime During Site Maintenance…

6 Tips for Improving Twitter Link Click Through Rate

Linda Bustos — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:52:29 +0000

When it comes to sharing links through Twitter, what makes them click?

Dan Zarella from HubSpot set out to answer that question, analyzing over 200,000 link-containing tweets, and measuring several characteristics that appear to influence click through. Dan’s findings are presented infographically (WordPress tells me this is not a word, but I don’t care), which we will here break down tip-by-tip, along with some real-world examples…

Social Networking Stats and Trends From Around the World

Linda Bustos — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:03:55 +0000

Kicking off our new weekly feature Infographic Friday are our friends at Invesp Consulting, who have compiled some interesting stats and trends on social networking from around the globe.

Why does this matter to ecommerce?

We have become a social networking culture, and this behavior is permeating every area of our lives. Even solo activities like using search engines is becoming socialized, as is shopping, travel, education and even work…

Are Your CPCs Out Of Control? 5 Ways To Rein Them In

Linda Bustos — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:03:35 +0000

It’s easy to spend too much money on pay-per-click.

The infographic below breaks down Google’s top spenders in Google Adwords, but also highlights how CPCs (cost per click) vary across industries.

While some of these click prices are not surprising, like for health insurance or wireless Internet deals (high ticket value and/or recurring revenue), others like ‘zumba dance dvd’ are considerably high relative to retail prices…

How Bounce Rate Optimization Can Improve Your Search Rankings

Linda Bustos — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:03:04 +0000

Straight from Google’s Quality Guidelines comes the mantra for the white-hat SEO community: “Build your site for users, not search engines.” And Google means it.

The search giant disclosed its latest algorithm update includes page layout as a ranking factor, with a focus on how much above-the-fold real estate is dedicated to visible content vs. advertising or other distracting, useless shiny things (like splash pages)…

How Facebook’s New Open Graph Features Impact fCommerce

Linda Bustos — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:48:40 +0000

Facebook announced yesterday regarding its developer platform — namely, new features in its Open Graph are now available to all application developers.

The new features were no secret, but we can now see them in action from 60 partner applications involved in the Open Graph Beta including Netflix, Hulu, Zynga, Spotify, Washington Post and Kobo.

So what’s the big deal?

2 New Features for Facebook Open Graph

Open Graph applications use elements of the development platform to provide ‘frictionless sharing’ to Facebookers’ Timelines and Tickers, which will also appear in friends’ News Feeds…

Why Google+ Matters to Ecommerce + 9 Things You Should Do About It

Linda Bustos — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:02:31 +0000

If you frequent tech and marketing blogs, by now you’ve heard about Google’s latest major change to search – Search Plus Your World (or SPYW, possibly pronounced as “spew”).

Google now offers a “personal results” option for logged-in Google Account users that incorporates content shared by connections within Google+ and Gmail contacts (pretty much anyone in your email history with a Gmail address)…

5 Reasons Why Your Gut Feel Stinks

Linda Bustos — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:14:00 +0000

We conversion optimization specialists are always banging the “don’t rely on your gut feel” drum, and telling you that you have to test everything or perish in a horrible pyre of mediocre KPI performance.

While it’s true that our guts often get it wrong and testing can help that, they also influence testing. Most tests are set up based on a gut feeling that changing XYZ will cause a lift…

A Psychotactic That Caused 3x More People to Buy a Discounted Coffee Mug

Linda Bustos — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:05:54 +0000

Persuasive selling is part art, part science, but 100% apart of conversion optimization. Understanding what motivates our customer is key — it’s not just about what the offer is, but how an offer is presented. Consider this little case study from the Harvard Business Review Daily Stat:

If You Say I’m Special, I’ll Buy

In an experiment that provided participants with an opportunity to buy a discounted coffee mug, those who were told they had been randomly selected to get the discount were 3 times more likely to want to buy than people who believed everyone got the discount…

Will the DECE Kill the Netflix Star?

Linda Bustos — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:04:07 +0000

If you caught last week’s post on Netflix’s dipping customer satisfaction, you may have missed a comment left by our Chief Strategy Officer, Cliff Conneighton:

There is one other factor to consider that is not widely known or discussed: A big issue in customer sat is that Netflix and other streaming providers don’t have current releases. And they can’t get them because of the studios’ clinging to their “theatrical release window” model (new releases always appear in theaters way before availability via other media) and Netflix clinging to the one-price all-you-can-eat model…

Is Netflix in Trouble for 2012?

Linda Bustos — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:05:41 +0000

It was a rough year for Netflix. The handling of its pricing and rebranding of its DVD service has landed the ‘Flix on several “worst of 2011” lists and sent 800,000 paying members packing. Perhaps its timing couldn’t be worse. With Amazon, iTunes, Redbox, Hulu, Crackle, CinemaNow and even Google holding the potential to break out as serious competition, can Netflix afford the slip up or will the damage to its brand sink the ship as early as this year?

Customer Satisfaction in Decline

Netflix 6-point drop on the annual Foresee E-Retail Customer Satisfaction Index from 85 to 79 is a troubling signal…

Ecommerce Links: December 2011

Linda Bustos — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:04:06 +0000

Well it’s the end of the month and the end of the year — so Happy New Year to you from all of us at Elastic Path, wishing you peace, joy, love and sales for 2012. To wrap up the year, here are some fab ecommerce blog posts from around the Web from December.

Before we begin, a quick heads up. I’ll be speaking in San Francisco in March at the Conversion Conference and Affiliate Management Days…

Best of Get Elastic: 2011

Linda Bustos — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:04:47 +0000

Another year has come to an end, and 2011 will surely be one to remember. From Google’s algorithm changes to the loss of some search referral data, the launch of Google Plus and the +1 button (hey, there was a lot of news from Google) to the loss of Steve Jobs. Ecommerce continues to be defined by the way consumers use technology, and no doubt, 2012 will bring further advancement and a few surprises…

Does Price Influence Cart Abandonment? You Better Believe It

Linda Bustos — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 08:03:39 +0000

Averages often shroud insights, which is why we should always apply segmentation to our data analysis. A fantastic example of this is recent findings by by Seewhy, which analyzed 264,631 abandoned carts and found a very strong relationship between the dollar value of abandoned shopping carts and abandonment rate.

Check out the 2 spikes in the chart below. Surprised by the percentage of low dollar value cart abandonment? This is reasonably explained by the shipping cost to item cost ratio…

17 Styles of Twitter Updates for Online Retailers

Linda Bustos — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:01:16 +0000

What makes a good tweet?

That’s the million-follower question. It’s tough to know exactly what your Twitter audience wants to hear from you, what will make them unfollow, what will make them retweet or @reply, and what will make them buy.

The answer is “it depends,” but you can fill in that blank by testing a variety of tweet-styles and measuring engagement. Here’s 17 to get your creative juices flowing…

Improve Your Site’s iPad Usability in 1 Simple Step

Linda Bustos — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:01:00 +0000

Tap is the gesture that replaces the click, but unlike a pointer mouse that has pretty good accuracy, our fingers can often activate the wrong thing. And when things are difficult to activate, a user can give up.

Jakob Nielsen’s research on iPad usability consistently shows that “read-tap assymetry” is a major problem. (English translation: text that is large enough to read but too small to tap)…

Are You Giving Customers First World Problems?

Linda Bustos — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 08:01:48 +0000

A dear friend of mine left the comforts of Canada a few years ago to take up life on African soil, and I enjoy following her adventures and experiences through her blog. One of her posts titled Finally Some Good Customer Service? got me thinking about how the Western customer-is-always-right business culture is not practiced everywhere.

“In Canada (and other developed countries), the salesperson or business owner depends on the customer to bring in their income…

7 Dimensions of Facebook Commerce

Linda Bustos — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:09:59 +0000

Social commerce is estimated to reach $30 Billion (yes, that’s Billion with a ‘B’) in the next 5 years. How is that possible?

Facebook Commerce is more than just Liking product pages. There are 7 dimensions driving Facebook Commerce that make up the “F-Commerce Ecosphere,” as shared by Janice Diner, founding partner of Horizon Studios, a social media consultancy at the Meshwest conference this week in Vancouver, BC…