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E-mail marketing is underrated by its practitioners, despite its promise. Internet Retailer reports that nearly half of online retailers rate e-mail as the most effective marketing. But that means more than half of online retailers don’t think e-mail marketing works. It does.

Real or Spam?

Jacob Nielsen, the guru of usability, said “E-mail newsletters are the best customer relationship mechanism the internet offers, and every single mailing must strengthen the relationship between the company and its customers.” But he warns that more e-mail is not necessarily better e-mail. “Having your low-quality messages deleted is certainly an unfortunate fate. But the long-term impact of such clueless internet marketing is: your future messages may not even be opened. Once users are trained to expect such uselessness, they stop paying attention to your e-mail.”

Be Believable

You must convince your customers that you are a viable provider of information and savings. Only then can you pursue growth of orders and sales.

Among many factors to
the success of e-mail marketing:

• Choosing a marketing company who has established relationships with
most (if not all) e-mail providers and hosting companies

• Design effective e-mail messages

• The method of collecting an e-mail address

• Deciding how often to use e-mails

• The offers and benefits to the customer receiving e-mail

Many e-mail marketing companies provide do-it-yourself services to quickly and easily establish a marketing program. Some tie directly into your shopping cart, making it easier to capture e-mail addresses. Establish your list then decide how to best communicate with your customers.

Be Patient

Don’t get frustrated if your first few e-mails don’t have a high open rate or click through rate. Marketing is tweaking, so try different combinations of elements.

Testing, One, Two

Top e-mail marketing company Silverpop tested the following e-mail elements:

• Content of the “From” line

• Subject line content

• Location of logo

• Ratio of text to images

• Various design layouts

• Number of links

• Type of links (text vs. image)

• Presence and location of navigation

• Inclusion of lifestyle photography

• Feature offers

• Location of call-to-action

Each of these elements had a significant impact on the e-mail open rate, which hovers around 20-30%. Test these elements in different combinations to learn what your customers want to hear and which format works best.

Inside the Numbers

Surprisingly, Silverpop’s study concluded that putting your company name clearly in the “From” line did not have the impact on open rates that has long been considered best practice. Instead, they found that using a person’s name improved open rates 3 percentage points more than a business name.

The data suggests using a person’s name in the e-mail address, but beware. If they’re expecting a personal message and instead they see a sales pitch, this could be perceived as a bait-and-switch. If you use a person’s name in the “From” line, use some type of personalization in the content.

The study also found that including the company name & product name in your subject line improves open rates by 32% to 60% over a subject line without the company or product name. It was also higher when it contained either the product or company name only. Like an ad headline or the title in the search engine results, the subject line must be clear, concise and give the customer an idea of what’s inside the e-mail.

Most e-mail marketing efforts use a “postcard” format containing an image with an offer. But Silverpop found that the “newsletter” format had a higher click rate than the “postcard” format. The newsletter format included text and images to clearly communicate the message and brand.

Click through rates increase when there were more links in the e-mail, but start to decrease once there were more than ten links. Image-only and mixed format (images and text) also increased click through rates. Images drive more attention to your offer and the call-to-action even though most e-mail providers block images initially.

Successful e-mail marketing involves finding the right format and wrapping your arms around it and making a commitment to it. Now, put these things into practice and make your company some money!

Sir Arthur C. Clarke said, “Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
That quote from science fiction royalty sums up what happened when technology helped generate financial magic for—ironically—a California-based magic shop.

eBiz Insider profiled TrickShopMagic.com in December 2007. Owner Sam Blankenship was getting ready to launch his redesign. In January he went live and the results have been, well, magical.

Sales are up. Customer confidence is up. Conversions are up.
“Things are better in a number of areas,” says Sam. “The most important factor is our dollar sales are stronger than ever. Sales for the last 90 days are up 165% compared to the previous 90 days. Those are ‘before and after’ numbers, since we launched the redesigned version of The Trick Shop’s site three months ago.”

TrickShopMagic.com has over 6000 items available, so navigation has always been a challenge. The redesign improved site navigation with cascading menus, dynamic paging and other features.

“The new menu system flies out from the left nav and the paginated item pages are within the section. Our customers can easily page through our section and really dig deep into everything we have to offer,” Sam explained. “One of the sections that flies out from the left nav is our ‘new item’ section. That is the section that we’ve heard the most feedback about. Customers can hold the mouse over the section and see if we’ve added any new items since their last visit.”

As a part of the redesign, TrickShopMagic.com opted for many of the Solid Cactus features including the log-in feature and the “wishlist” feature. “We’ve already added the Shipping Manager, which gave us the confidence to ship orders internationally for the first time,” Blankenship said.

“One other feature that has really set us apart from our competition is the item page shipping calculator. The customer can easily determine the shipping costs that will apply before they even get the item to their cart. I strongly believe that a big chunk of new conversions have come as result of that feature alone,” he said.

Along with the redesign, Blankenship also added a customer service feature, Live Chat.

“The live chat feature is getting rave reviews. Many of our products require a certain amount of technical skill and now, before they buy, customers will be able to ask in real time and not have to call our store or wait for an email response any longer.”

Blankenship says the combination of features has had a cumulative effect for driving business.

“From an owner’s perspective, my favorite parts are the little things that make the site easy to use on my end,” says Sam. “Beth Hartman, my Solid Cactus rep, understood what I wanted to accomplish on my home page. She made sure the programmers provided adequate custom variables that allow me to easily add stuff to my home page without needing to worry about knowing RTML. In my old site, it was very difficult to make any changes without being worried that I’d totally mess up the home page.”

Blankenship advises anyone weighing a redesign to consider more than price. “I looked at a la carte options from other companies that could have saved significant money,” says Sam. “I even tried add-on features from other developers. But the old saying, ‘You get what you pay for’ has never been truer than it was with re-designing my website.

“Solid Cactus committed to me, and my website would have never looked this good with out them. Since the redesign Solid Cactus is still my partner every step of the way. I feel with their technology and help, we finally feel like we can challenge our much bigger competitors when we know that we have a resource like Solid Cactus on our side.”

What’s next for TrickShopMagic.com? What else do they have up their sleeve? It’s business as usual, albeit, a lot more business.

“After seeing TrickShopMagic.com come to life, it’s tempting to run out and try to start another web retail idea, but we’re going to stay focused on this core site and budget some of the new income to pay for future design elements.”

Combat the Clutter and Debunk the Junk!

It’s been months since your New Year’s Resolutions. Are you one of millions who resolved to get more organized? Any progress? Relax: Spring Cleaning time is here!

In e-commerce lingo, Spring Cleaning means clearing the clutter from your website. We’ll review common problems and solutions. Best of all – no nasty chemicals, latex gloves or trash bags!

1. Can Users Understand Your Navigation?
Half of website visitors will use the search box to find a product. The other half will use navigation. Those who point and click while shopping could get frustrated if your navigation is difficult to follow. Examine your left hand navigation menu. Are there too many categories? When visitors click on a category page, are they taken to one subsection page and then another? If visitors have to click on more than one or two links to get to the item page they want, you risk losing them.

To Clean This Up:
Condense your main categories. For example, if you are selling computers, your menu should say “Desktop,” “Laptops,” “Accessories,” and other parent categories rather than, “Dell Laptops,” “Gateway Laptops,” “HP Laptops” in the main navigation. Keep your main categories within your menu and use features like Cascading Menus or Expanding Navigation to make finding the section pages easier. An easier shopping experience leads to better conversions, higher orders and more repeat business.

2. How Long Are Your Item Pages?
On too many websites the item pages go on and on… while this information is helpful and relevant, it can be messy. Users may get tired of scrolling to get the information they need. Big blocks of text often hide pertinent information. Big selling points could be missed and a sale could be lost. If your item pages require lots of scrolling, organize them better.

To Clean This Up:
The Tabbed Product Display can make a huge difference on your item page. With the Tabbed Product Display, you can nestle the pertinent information in an organized manner. The visitor can click on each tab to find what he or she wants and then click on the next tab for more information. Only one tab is showed at a time. This is valuable in vertical industries like electronics where there may be numerous specs, instructions, etc. Examples of tab titles could be Description, Directions, Ingredients, Care Instructions, Warranty Information, Sizing Chart, Specs, etc. You can also put downloadable specs or product reviews within a tab or sell corresponding accessories.

3. Are there too many Featured Items on Your Homepage?
The Featured Items section on some websites contains dozens of items to scroll through–on the homepage! While featuring items on the homepage are a call to action, half of internet shoppers use the search box and the other half use navigation. Few scroll through your homepage to make a purchase. A crowded homepage is not only distracting, but defeats the purpose of making certain items appear special.

To Clean This Up:
Simply limit the number of item IDs displayed on your homepage. Solid Cactus offers a simple feature called Randomly Displayed Best Sellers that will do this for you.

4. Are You TOO Animated?
In e-commerce, there are places for flash and animation, however too much of it is distracting. You want people to land on your site and know exactly where to go and what to do to get to that “add to cart” button. If the homepage is cluttered with flashing banners and graphics going down the entire right hand column (we see this a lot!), your visitors will become distracted, if not annoyed. You have less than ten seconds to make a first impression. Limit the flashy graphics.

To Clean This Up:
Consider a Randomly Displayed Graphic option. You can still show special offers such as free shipping, money back guarantee, etc. Simply reserve one spot on your site and have the messages rotate. Incorporate some of these store-wide benefits into your header to keep it top of mind and on every page.

Clear the clutter from your website and your visitors will thank you the best possible way—by becoming customers.

In the past I have written about how customer reviews can play a large part in your customer’s shopping experience, but have you considered how they can also play a part in the design and development of your website? In this day of social networks and social interaction, people are more willing to share their thoughts and ideas on a product, offering, website or company as a whole. As a website owner it’s very easy to shy away from collecting that kind of information for fear that people will say negative things about your website and your prHow oducts. Let them! It can be very valuable to you and your business.

Feedback Helps
As a business owner you are constantly looking at your shelves and watching the boxes as they leave the warehouse to see which products are selling and which ones aren’t. This type of analysis tells you which products you need to order and which items you need to clear out. This is a critical part of managing your warehouse and keeping your business growing.

These same analytics are important for your online storefront as well. Using an analytics program can be very valuable to your business and give you insight on how shoppers are browsing your store. With online analytics you can get a good sense of which categories are the most popular, which search engines drive the most visitors along with which keywords generate the most sales.

All of this information is valuable to your business, but does it tell you how your customers really feel about your website? Do you know what gets them to click the order button or what keeps them from clicking that button? You can get this information from your analytics program, but it’ll take forever to find.

Ask the Tough Questions
Take your efforts up a notch by soliciting direct feedback from your customers. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out on a limb by asking for this feedback, chances are you’ll learn a lot of valuable information that you probably didn’t know before. To do this, make the process as easy and attractive as possible for your customers. A simple e-mail link will not work. Instead, be obvious. Create a link that says “Leave feedback.” Even better, give your customers 10% on the “Thank You” page for leaving a product review or feedback. The “feedback” link could then open in a pop-up or pop-in window with some basic information. Name, E-mail and Comments could be enough, but ask for more from the customer that will better help you make a decision. You know which questions to ask. Hey, if you want your back scratched you know what needs to happen.

You can also collect indirect solicitation, also called A/B split testing, to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t work. The idea here is that you have two different versions of a promotion, version A and version B, each with a distinct message and/or discount. Once you have the test set up, a program will randomly display one of the promotions and you will get to see which test resulted in the most sales. This small sampling allows you to see which changes will result in the most sales, so after your results are in place you can roll out the most popular promo to every visitor. Google AdWords offers a great tool called Website Optimizer that does exactly this, and of course it’s FREE!

Keep up with your Customers
These are just two methods that you could explore in an effort to understand your consumers a little bit more. And don’t fall into the trap that, “Well, I’ve been doing this X amount of years and I know my customers,” or “I have a lot of experience in retail and I know what the customer wants.” Internet users are adapting to new technology on a continual basis. Never forget, an internet shopper is not the same as a retail shopper.

Customer’s have a powerful voice, don’t be afraid to listen to it and change your website to suit their needs more effectively and efficiently—and profitably!

Simply put, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) attempts to increase the visibility of a given website in search engines and enhance its value to visitors through page design, consistent tagging and focusing content on core keywords. According to Wikipedia, “In 2007 Search Engine Marketing is stronger than ever with SEM Budgets up 750% as shown with stats dating back to 2002 vs 2006.”

There’s been a lot of talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) throughout the years. The term “Search Engine Marketing” was only coined in 2001, but already SEO has become a major component of any successful e-commerce operator. There have been many different techniques that have been used over the years, some have held fast while others have fallen far from grace (remember keywords the same color as the background?). One technique that has stood the test of time: an SEO plan.

One Page at a Time - To help with your SEO plan, here are a few things that you should consider. First, focus in on one page at a time. I’ve found many store owners who will spend the majority of their time concentrating on getting their item pages ranked for general terms. That’s not a terrible strategy and will work for some keywords and products, but it’s not a strategy that you want to use for every product on your store.

General terms are actually more effective for section pages than item pages. For instance, if you were looking for an office chair, a general term (e.g. “office chair”) would get you to the section page with office furniture. Once the shopper is on the section page, then you can be more specific to lead them to item pages. At this point the key word changes from the general “office chair” to something more specific, like “Office Max Leather Office Chair.”

Choose Your Words Carefully - After choosing which page you want to start with, spend some time trying to figure out which keyword or keyword phrase you want to optimize for. This is your landing page. It’s important that you focus in on one keyword to maximize the effectiveness of this page. When I mention effective keywords, I’m talking about keywords that convert.

Get in the habit now in using conversion rates to determine the effectiveness of your marketing, whether it’s SEO, PPC, E-Mail or other.

Let’s look at your website now. When adding your keyword to your page, you want to optimize your Title Tag, Meta Description, H1 Tag (Page Name), Links and of course the Content. You want to provide relevant, focused, and detailed information about the specific product or category, working in your keyword here or there. Don’t over-do it. Instead, use it sparingly, or more importantly, naturally.

Content is King. The phrase might seem over-used in blogs, books and seminars, and for good reason. It’s true! Content doesn’t just improve your SEO rankings; it also helps improve your conversions as well.

Once your text has been optimized with your keywords, you’ll want to determine the best call to action. If you’re driving people directly to an item page, you’ll want your content to drive people towards the call to action, or in this instance the Add to Cart button. If your driving people to a section page, then you’ll want to drive people towards your most profitable product(s) in the category.

And this is the point in which you sit back and watch the orders come streaming in. Ok, that’s enough sitting! It’s time to start working on the next page. In reality, SEO is a lot of work. But done right, you can reap some healthy rewards.

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By: Kurt Illian kurti@ebizinsider.com

Internet users are changing and e-commerce providers must be aware of those changes. A generation ago, after a generation of strip centers, malls were things of wonder for traditional shoppers. People literally went to wander the halls. Now, much of that wonder has passed and we use malls for buying, not merely the shopping adventure. The same thing is true of the Internet. Once people surfed endlessly; fascinated by the new cyber world. Today there are vastly more shoppers who are buying differently. We need to keep up.

The fact is; the design of your website will greatly effect how users use your website. If people are confused when they visit your website it means you won’t be converting visitors into customers. If they have difficulty in discerning advertising information from site information then you are not reaching your full potential. There is actually a term for this: banner blindness.

Recently, Jacob Nielsen published his theory about banner blindness. His research indicates that users will skip over anything that looks like an advertisement on your website. Nielsen is one of the world’s leading authorities on Web usability and provides a wealth of information for e-commerce operators. His studies found that users did not fixate on ads embedded within a website, but could easily distinguish an ad from the main content.

This is big news and an important lesson for e-commerce. If you put important information into a graphical banner, or use fancy formatting to change the text, users will ignore it. In a follow up study, Nielsen found that one website had a failure rate of 86% when trying to get people to perform one task. The problem was the information was presented in large red numbers (the website contained a lot of blue) and because it stood out from the rest of the website, users ignored the importance of that number. In fact, in their eye tracking studies Nielsen showed that people most often looked at the first three digits and then moved on (the number was 301,465,625 - which means they were only processing 301). He found that because of the placement and the formatting, users were unable to easily complete the task which they were assigned. If this happens on your website, it usually means lost sales.

As an e-commerce operator, you need to capitalize on each and every visitor that comes to your website. Ask yourself: How easy is it for your customers to place an order? How easy is it to search, to navigate, to checkout? These are all important factors and should work smoothly for the customer to lead to an easy sale. Any hiccup in the shopping experience will cost you money. Here are a few areas to concentrate your efforts:

Product Information Placement- make sure your product information is towards the top of the page, so those that don’t need to read a description can easily find your order button. This includes product name, code, pricing and stock availability.

Multiple Order Buttons - An order button on your item page is important, but make sure you give customers the ability to order from the section pages and the search results. Make it as quick and easy as possible for someone to make a purchase.

Checkout Process - Make your checkout as easy and clear as possible for customers, providing phone numbers and/or e-mail for those who might have some questions. One page checkouts have been known to increase conversions by making it easier and faster for people to complete their transactions.

If you are comfortable that you have the above issues in hand, examine the promotional banners, information links, and community features to make sure that they are not interfering with or confusing the ordering process. Next, examine your website and make sure that the important information doesn’t stand out and resemble a “banner.” As Jacob states, “users tend to ignore heavily formatted areas because they look like advertisements.”

You can read more from Jacob Neilson and usability by visiting http://www.useit.com. Remember, a comfortable shopper is a buying customer. A confused shopper isn’t a customer at all. Certainly not your customer…

It’s a holiday ritual as common as egg nog and mistletoe. Resolutions. But they make sense, right? New year — clean slate. I’ve made my own list for e-commerce operators. Please feel free to add one or two (or ten) of your own. Then follow them for a record year of e-commerce success!

1. Update My Look! - Around December, too many of us look in the mirror and don’t like what we see. Well, your e-commerce site is also a reflection of you. Is it crying “makeover”?

Research shows that a fresh look is good for business and leading developers recommend a site redesign every three to four years. How long has your store been online? Is it outdated? Is it user-friendly? Keep in mind that a redesign is more than updating graphics. There are many new back-end features that make shopping easier for customers and more profitable for you. A redesign can give you a competitive edge both aesthetically and functionally.

2. Save Money - Could you be saving money doing e-commerce? Pay-per-click campaigns are costly. Do you fully understand how to analyze and manage these marketing tools? Find a company or software to help you maximize your budget. Are you losing money on shipping costs? Software is available to help you streamline. Is your e-commerce site easy to modify, or do you have to pay a developer every time you need a simple change? Analyze what you are doing on your own and what it costs in time and money. Investing in tools or professional services up front can save you money down the line. Money saved is money made!

3. Spend more time with family and friends - Is your online business taking you away from your friends and family? The good news is; you’re probably successful. The bad news is; success can compromise your quality of life. Don’t let it happen. If you are still a slave to the phones or doing all the picking and packing yourself, it may be time to take your business to the next level and hire help or outsource your office duties.

When choosing a call center, be picky! Are they native English speakers? Do you participate in training the reps so they can better represent your company? Will the call center increase your revenue by up-selling and cross-selling? A call center will give you more time away from the phone—instead of bringing your Blackberry to your son’s track meet.

4. Be More Active - There are many new aspects in e-commerce which get you actively involved with your customers. Use them! Viral marketing is becoming huge. Blogging is huge. Stay active in other web communities and social networking sites to supplement any marketing you are already doing. These activities take time, but most can be done free. Blogs can also be custom-built to match your website, so branding can carry over. Not only are blogs and social networking great to share news and stay in touch with customers, but blogs specifically have another hidden advantage: they increase your search engine ranking.

5. Quit Bad Habits - Quitting cigarettes and alcohol make many New Year’s Resolution lists. When it comes to e-commerce a host of bad habits could bring you down. Are you sticking with bad people, bad products, service glitches, shipping woes? Identify your e-commerce bad habits… and kick ‘em!

6. Continue My Education - Continuing Education is a common New Year’s resolution. This is especially true in e-commerce where things change constantly. Read trade magazines that speak to your problems. Many online mailing lists and blogs pertain to marketing, web design, business and more that you can access easily. Bookstores are filled with aisles of books on all aspects of running a business. You don’t know it all- read and learn.

Learn in person as well. Don’t toss away mailers for seminars; register for some. You’ll find many nearby seminars and conventions which can help you specifically. Try to attend a few each year– they’re great for networking too. There is a wealth of knowledge out there. Learn from the pros. Make some e-commerce resolutions this year and keep them!

New Technology Makes Shopping Quicker

Shopping online is already a quicker alternative for those looking to simply get what they need and go. But as e-commerce continues to evolve, there are new technologies available to allow consumers to get to the cart even quicker.

The new “quick shopping” feature will once again change the way people buy online. Gap Inc. pioneered this technology, implementing it on Gap.com, BananaRepublic.com and OldNavy.com. Target.com was also quick to create a similar shopping experience.

Taking a cue from these major e-tailers, several web developers now offer this quick shopping feature as well. If it works for the big boxes, it makes sense for e-commerce businesses of all sizes to take a closer look.

How it Works

Although each developer coined its own name for the specific product (e.g. Snap Shop by Solid Cactus), the technology of the feature is still the same: As users mouse over an image, an icon appears inviting the shopper to take a closer look at the item. But rather than take the user on a side trip to the item page, a pop-in window appears revealing all the pertinent information on the product, with an option to add the item to the cart and even to continue to the check-out.

Online shoppers may now look at multiple items within a section without leaving the section page. Consumers get the click-to-enlarge, product details, pricing, available options and the add-to-cart button all in one spot. To top it off, multiple windows can be opened at one time, allowing for side-by-side comparison. The result is users are able to find items quickly and easily, they are never diverted from the shopping stream and this leads to higher conversions. In addition, case studies reveal that average order size naturally increased as well- an added bonus resulting from the ease of use.

Why it Works

Too often, consumers get frustrated with navigating back and forth between section and item pages. Additionally, folks may become impatient waiting for pages to load as they click from page to page. Quick shopping features eliminate those issues by reducing the number of page views and load times, thus allowing users to find products more quickly. Additionally, we know people like to try the latest technology—it’s fun. Most important, we know that if people enjoy the shopping experience, they tend to become repeat customers. Implementing this technology absolutely pays dividends in both the short and long term.

Terra Carmichael of Flying Peas, an online children’s boutique, implemented a quick shop feature and is quite pleased with the results.

“…my customers can find products faster and easier. I’ve watched my conversion rate jump, along with the size of each order,” said Carmichael.

Other Features to Make Shopping Quicker & More Convenient

Multiple Add-to-Cart - In addition to adding the main item of interest to the cart, similar items (such as accessories) are also displayed with pricing and check boxes. This reminds consumers of the cognates and allows them to automatically add additional items they may suddenly want. This works psychologically as well—users may not have wanted anything else, but since the check boxes are so conveniently located, well…

Saved Shopping Cart - This feature works great for browsers. Users add items to the cart at any point and then when they are ready to purchase, they can do so easily– the items they want are already in the cart, eliminating the need to find them again.

Recently Viewed Items - This allows users to more quickly find items they may have been comparing.

Summing Up

E-commerce is evolving with the technology. We can make the shopping experience easier, more suggestive and more attractive for our customers while making the experience more lucrative for our companies. Are you up to the minute? Ask your site developer if there are any tools out there that will improve the shopping process. Ask your customers too. You both want it easy, right? After all, the easier it is for them, the more profitable it is for you.

One of the concerns I hear most often from online merchants is the problem of Shopping Cart Abandonment. They wonder how they can lower the percentage of shoppers that leave their carts before checking out. In a study conducted by Marketing Sherpa this year, nearly 60% of online shoppers abandon the cart during the checkout process.

These are worrisome numbers and they come from a variety of causes. But this problem is important. You know how much effort is involved and money spent to get shoppers to your site in the first place. If you’ve gotten them all the way to the point where they’re in the process of buying, it is essential that you keep your customers focused and purchasing. Here are a few questions to help you examine your own site:

Is shopping your site quick and simple?

Navigation really isn’t much of a concern anymore; online shoppers have become more accustomed to the online shopping experience and are now familiar with following required steps. That said, try and spare your customer from the annoying ritual of having to fill out page after page of information. Many online merchants require customers to log in or create an account before they can even get into the checkout process. Instead of requiring your customers to create an account, offer it to them for a quicker checkout process in the future. This will give them the option of creating the account or continuing quickly through the process.

Have you shown your customers that your checkout is secure?

Place graphics prominently that will reassure your customers that their information is safe. Although your checkout URL is secure, your customers might not ever look there. Keeping a graphic or two in the design of the checkout can go a long way in making your customers comfortable with entering their information.

Do your customers know your policies?

Add links in your checkout process to pages that explain your returns, refunds, warranty and shipping policies. This will ensure that if your customers have a question they can find the answer. In addition, adding a toll free number can be a big plus. Customers can call for help, and the number can also help in other areas of the sales process, especially if you have well-trained customer service reps available to answer questions and offer advice on additional items.

Do you provide all pricing details before the checkout?

Too often, customers may not know the final cost of shipping until they are ready to complete the order and then see a charge they are unwilling to pay. This can be a very big concern. One way to eliminate this is explain your shipping charges prior to customers going into the checkout flow. Another solution is to give them the opportunity to calculate the cost on the shopping cart level prior to entering the checkout process. This could help to reduce the number of unhappy customers leaving the cart once they see how much shipping will cost. If you offer shipping promotions, make sure you advertise them throughout your site. If a customer notices a promotion for Free Shipping over a certain purchase amount, this can encourage your customer to not only add more items to the cart, but the free shipping makes them more likely to complete the order.

There is no single solution to the shopping cart abandonment problem, but simply put, the more customers know going through the shopping process, the more likely they are to complete it. These little updates can help. If you have tried something that works for you, please let me know. I would like to see how other merchants are dealing with this problem and what is working or not working for them.

The design industry has streamlined the way we create designs and acquire content. Long gone are the days of typesetting firms, photostat cameras, and wax paste-ups (though the venerable x-acto blade has its place… along side the first aid kit). Type setting and image acquisition no longer require lengthy waits for content providers or scheduled photo shoots. The Internet lets you gather resources for your projects within minutes or hours. The stock photography industry has flourished and the type industry isn’t far behind. These conveniences come at a price you can’t afford to ignore — Licensing.

Stock photography traditionally required close monitoring and has been licensed almost from the start. While often overlooked, license agreements are legally binding and with any signed contract, digital or written, you had better know what you are signing.

Fonts Font foundries and distribution sites thrive by offering online purchases. DaFont.com is a popular distribution site which allows you to quickly and effectively search for a font from several foundries at once. Once you have the font—then what? The License Agreement for Font Software on Dafont.com states that the font may be stored in one geographic location and stored on up to 5 computers. The font file may only be stored on one file server that is accessed by a limited amount of machines. The font purchased is available only to computers and geographic location and may not be shared with others. Once purchased, that font is to be used and stored by the purchasing company and no others.

For more options, you are often asked to contact the supplier for what is often known as an Extended License. These End User License Agreements (EULA) also state that the license is non-transferable. This prevents your designer from supplying the font or image to anyone outside your company. Clients often mistakenly assume they will have font usage rights after a particular project is over. This can create client and designer legal woes. In some cases, though “essentially not permitted”, some Eula’s do offer a transfer of license so that the font may be transferred to a new party. Obviously, these limitations cause great concern when dealing with embedding resources into an online document or supplying documents to a professional printer for mass reproduction. The EULA will often allow the printer limited rights (providing they agree to the EULA) where they may accept the font for reproduction and editing purposes only. They cannot be made available elsewhere after the project is completed.

Many people simply avoid the legalese and go with free fonts. Several sites on the Internet provide fonts for limited or unrestricted use, but even these have some form of license. Often you’ll see the term Freeware, Shareware or Public Domain associated with a font. These licenses can be explained as follows:

• Freeware is commonly known as software (fonts included) that is available free of charge.

• Shareware will allow use upfront with an expectation of payment after a limited amount of time.

• Public Domain often refers to items which are not copyrighted or have expired copyrights and are available to anyone.

Even sites that offer free fonts may have fine print such as: “If no author/license is indicated that’s because we don’t have information, that doesn’t mean it’s free.” This notice can be found on Dafont.com and is very clear in warning that you must never assume that a font is free even when you can’t find the license for it.

Many of the basic licensing practices applied to fonts translate to online stock photography as well.

Stock Photography Within the last 10 years, this industry has seen the bulk of its market move away from print and towards digital media. What started off as a means of selling “secondary images” or “location shoot rejects” has become a $1.8 billion dollar annual industry. The resource firms have grown in numbers and the added competition has resulted in higher quality images and competitive costs. At the same time, stock photography has opened itself up to new forms of piracy. A 2003 study by the Stock Artist’s Alliance in conjunction with PicScout concluded that 9 out of 10 online Rights Managed stock images experienced unauthorized use. Stock Photo companies realized they were experiencing a staggering loss of revenue in an online environment that was not monitored. Soon, a new industry was born. PicScout is one of many companies that monitor the web looking for misuse and blatant theft of licensed images. Collection from unauthorized image use is contributing revenue for Stock Photographers and even leads to repeat custom business. This is revenue that used to go uncollected. Stock Photo companies are keeping an eye on their photos’ uses, even if you aren’t.

The monitoring and enforcement of online Stock Photo licenses is now a growing industry. Rights Managed images are typically of higher quality and more unique in concept. The prices associated with these images are controlled by the author and usually vary based on the end use. Royalty Free means that you can use the image freely in a project without paying additional and often confusing fees. These images typically have a flat fee regardless of the type of usage. Both types of images have licenses regardless of the term “free.” That low cost image that you selected for your homepage was appropriate, affordable, and potentially on 10 other websites across the internet. Conversely, a premium image could cost hundreds of dollars for a single use on your homepage. It is probably perfect in every way… and only available on this exact location and nowhere else, not even your interior pages.

In this case, the Royalty Free images are common but attractive. Still, you are limited in what you may do with it and how often you may reproduce it. Some stock houses prevent you from reproducing their Royalty Free images on sellable items such as t-shirts or mugs. Some prevent the use of their images in magazines without special acknowledgement to the Stock Photo company and photographer. Other suppliers may allow you to display their images online but without any modifications.

These licenses, though similar to EULA for Fonts, are different enough to be required reading. Many stock houses will place the following restrictions on their images:

• You are entitled to a limit run of the image in a printed manner

• The image may not be used for resale purposes, such as on T-Shirts or web site Templates

• The licensed image may only be stored and used by the licensee. That is, the license is non-transferable.

Violating any of these restrictions will constitute an “unauthorized use.” In September 2007, news syndicate Reuter’s hired Attributor Corporation to monitor and enforce their online news content and trademarks. Maintaining the integrity of their photographers’ images and controlling where their content is published has become a top concern. Don’t think you’re too small of a target for Stock Photo companies to find. Online technology is advancing daily, watermarking technology is invisible to the naked eye and automated tracking via online “spiders” is becoming more and more common. More companies offer online monitoring and enforcement today than ever. Online licensing is a serious matter.

When dealing with a 3rd party design house or freelancers, be sure that they adhere to the license terms set forth by online resource providers. You will pay if your designer carelessly lifted the image from a Stock Photo company without securing the proper license. If you are caught using an unauthorized image, you will at least be asked to take it down immediately. More commonly, a legal injunction will be presented and the fees will be much more than the cost of the actual image(s) used.

Keep track of Stock Photo purchases as proof of ownership in the event that you are audited. Most Stock Photo companies will have an internal record of your purchase so your paper trail may not be needed.

Whenever you use digital resources like Fonts and Stock Images, review the agreements in full. Resource providers are businesses. They provide much needed services to our industry and earn their profits. This article focused primarily on Fonts and Stock Photos, but legal enforcement is not limited to these resources. Video abuse is a genuine concern for content providers. Rest assured; they’re watching you.