As customer reviews become more and more common on ecommerce sites, we can expect innovations to emerge in design, usability and quality.

It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on Amazon for usability innovations. Today we’ll look at an example of how Amazon helps customers filter product reviews when there are literally hundreds of them. Not only does Amazon help customers hone in on specific types of reviews, it also takes the opportunity to show relevant merchandising based on the customer reviews themselves. In this post I’ll also suggest something that Amazon isn’t doing yet that could help you save sales when review content actually discourages a customer to purchase the item in question.

I’m going to use the example of a book that’s going to be a top-seller on Amazon simply because it’s endorsed by perhaps the most influential television personality in the world - Oprah Winfrey. Most people will not feel the need to read reviews because they trust her opinion so much. Others will be so excited about the book they will read the reviews just to tide them over until the book arrives at their door.

Continue Reading:
Saving Sales From Negative Customer Reviews »

We just wrapped up our webinar on merchandising (cross-selling and up-selling) with Mike Svatek of Baynote.

This was an incredible session and I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of catching the Webinar replay which will be posted within the next few days. The replay will walk you through all of the screenshots used in the presentation - I’ll only be using select screenshots for this recap.

Mike chose the king of cross-selling Amazon to illustrate the concepts in the webinar, sharing an impressive statistic:

35% of Amazon Sales come from cross-sells & recommendations
Venturebeat (Dec 06)

How does Amazon do this?

Merchandising Based on Intent

First-Time Visitors - Pre-Intent

If Amazon has no information on you (your first visit, you are not logged in or your cache and cookies are cleared) you’ll see default merchandising (pre-intent) within a number of merchandising zones, what Mike refers to as a shotgun approach:

Continue Reading:
Webinar Recap: Effective Merchandising: What Sells? »

Today, we all know how important customer reviews are to retailers and customers alike. They help convert buyers by building trust and confidence in the product, they reduce returns, draw long-tail search traffic and are a simple entry into on-site communities for ecommerce websites.

But there was a time when no one had them. It makes you wonder what we’re missing today that we don’t know we’re missing.

Let’s take another effective merchandising tool: cross-selling. Currently, ecommerce marketers are banking that their personal cross-sell suggestions or algorithmic-based recommendations will be relevant and attractive to shoppers. This *can* be really hit and miss. But what if we gave customers a crack at cross-selling?

Continue Reading:
User Generated Cross-Sells? Why Is Nobody Doing It? »

Cross-selling (offering items related to the product like accessories and warranties) and up-selling (suggesting more expensive alternatives) are effective merchandising tools both online and offline. You could think of cross-selling as an etailer’s answer to “would you like fries with that?”

Cross-Selling and up-selling have a number of benefits, and can increase:

• average order value

• conversion rates by guiding customers to appropriate alternatives if a product they’re viewing isn’t right
• exposure for high margin items
• customer satisfaction by suggesting related items to enhance or augment the product and user experience
• awareness about the depth of your product offering

There are many places on your website where you can cross-sell, the most common being the product page and on the view cart page - right before checkout. You can also cross-sell on the home page (if you logged a user’s last visit or they sign in) or in a post-purchase email. Today we’ll just focus on the product pages and view cart.

Not all retailers use cross-selling in both areas, some only cross-sell on the product pages to avoid confusion, indecision and cart abandonment upon checkout. It’s important to cross-sell wisely on view cart pages as this is a valid concern - let’s look at some dos and don’ts for both product pages and view cart pages, and then dig into some real life examples from top retailers.

Cross-Selling Dos

• Show relevant items whether they are accessories or alternatives to the same product

• Show larger sizes or other same-product up-sells when possible (Example: Tiger Direct)
• Use personal words like “you” rather than “we” - “You Might Also Like” vs. “We Suggest”
• Use emotional words like “need” and “want” (Examples: Palm.com “Need accessories?” and McDonald’s “Do you want fries with that?”)
• Use words like “Special Offers,” “Special Offers for You” or “Great Deals” to communicate savings and value
• Create urgency with “Limited Time Offer” or “Limited Quantities” (Example: Tiger Direct)
• Do save your sale / low margin items for the view cart page. Show regular priced / high margin alternatives from the product pages.
• Make it easy to return to the product page after you add a suggested item - even better to keep shopper on the product page but clearly let the shopper know an item was added to the cart
• Offer a mix of price points when suggesting items on the view cart page
• Show “no brainers” like gift cards, warranties, batteries et cetera that are easily understood by the customer, don’t require a click away from the page and are easy sellers
• Offer discounts on one item when you buy another item on the “view cart/bag/basket” page (Examples: Blue Nile and Macy’s)
• Provide enough detail on add-ons (thumbnail, price and description) so customer is less likely to click away from cart page
• Let the customer check off add-ons from the view cart page rather than buttons for each product. Customers may think adding a product to the cart will take them away from the cart page and they’ll get lost (Example: Palm.com)
• It’s a good idea to show “top rated” suggestions along with review content to build trust and catch interest. I haven’t found an example of this, please comment if you’ve seen one

Continue Reading:
Cross-Selling Tips for Online Retailers »

All my bags are packed
I’m ready to go
But the dawn is breakin’
Its early morn
The taxis waitin’
He’s blowin’ his horn
Already I’m so lonesome
I could …

OK enough with the John Denver lyrics but suffice to say I am here in London, (UK not Ontario for you fellow Canadians) after a whirlwind trade show trip to NYC for Book Expo America and San Jose for Internet Retailer show.

Amidst the travel chaos, I managed to record several compelling interviews with PR Web, Blogads, Website Magazine, Sitebrand and the hilarious Ted Demopoulous and a few more. I’m editing as fast as i can … whew.

Anyhow, I’m now podcasting from eTail UK at a schmancy hotel and chuckling heavily at our new “Crazy Messed World of E-commerce” videos freshly baked and posted at the (appropriately named) Crazy, Messed Up World of Ecommerce page.

Here’s the gist of the video project:

What if offline shopping were as cruel and difficult as buying online? What does that world look like?

That’s the question that prompted our series of videos, ‘The Crazy, Messed Up World of Ecommerce”. Each video brings the story of a common online complaint–browser crashes, silly search results, irritating cross-selling–into the real world.

The videos were conceptualized by Jason (who was a hit at the eTail Search Day yesterday before chunnelling off to Paris with Mrs. Billingsley) and feature resident mad-cap actor (and Sales Director) Mark Williams. Three of the short films produced by Malta-based marketing geeks Capulet Communications are online for your perusal and there is even a contest for online retail bloggers.

You will laugh, you might commiserate and you could win something cool. It’s a beauty.

Cross-selling is an important tactic used to increase average cart sizes and hopefully average order values, but sometimes cross-selling goes bad.

The Sharper Image is struggling as a company. I see press release after press release citing declining revenue across the board - now I have a good idea why. I’m not sure they understand ecommerce or their customers, especially after seeing the recommended accessories for a product I was curious about.

So, I see this neat toy called the RipStik Caster Board. Not that I’d ever purchase it, I just like new fun ideas. I was curious what kind of accessories they could possibly pitch (and why in the world would you force a user to click AWAY from the product to see related accessories is beyond me).

Now, I don’t think Bose In-Ear Headphones is too far of a stretch - a skater may want nice headphones to listen to music as they mess around (maybe not the optimal cross-sell, but understandable).

Here is the fun stuff. For all you active teenage RipStik Caster Boarders out there, get your ladies’ Wet/Dry leg shaver to enjoy stubble free legs for up to four weeks! Oh I know, it is to help prevent infections if boarders get road rash. We don’t want hair in the cuts. But wait, there is more. After your big day out on the board, why don’t you sleep on a comfy pillow for 50% off.

Now I understand it takes a lot of work to create good personas and relevant and personalized merchandising offers, but this is way off. I now fully and completely understand where the root of The Sharper Image’s troubles stem. My advice is to automate the commerce platform’s merchandising with automation tools that adjust offers based on analytics, or hire better merchandisers. This is inexcusable for a Top 100 retailer. But then again, that pillow does look inviting.