I just wanted to post a quick thank you to Obey Giant and Sticker Robot for sending me an Occupy Movement Hope Sticker. If you’re interested in one of these stickers quantities are limited and the offer is time sensitive but you can try to send in for a free sticker here.

The sticker reads:

Mister President, We HOPE You’re On Our Side

Like any brick & mortar, your online customers ought to be able to checkout as a guest. In my opinion as the industry matures this is something shoppers have come to expect. Just imagine for a moment being required to sign up for one of those Red Cards at Target just to move through the checkout line. That wouldn’t go over too well would it? I bet they would lose a lot of business (mine for starters). So why should it be any different online?

By this point in time most of us have far too many user names and passwords to keep proper track of them all. I probably have hundreds of them, most of which I’ve only used once or twice and then forgotten. Though it’s true many customers who visit your retail website will (hopefully) come back again and place future orders, forcing these first time shoppers to register during the checkout process can make an alarming number of them abandon their carts before they ever complete their order.

Why is this?

In my experience they will abandon for 3 main reasons:

1. They don’t feel that they have time to sit through all this right now.
2. They don’t have any immediate need or desire to return.
3. *sigh* It’s just one more log in and password to keep track of.

The reasons above are why I highly recommend enabling guest checkouts. If for some reason your shopping carts software doesn’t allow for this method then either have it programmed or move to a new cart. I also suggest giving your customers a bulleted list of the benefits of registering assuming there are benefits on your website for doing so (managing addresses, tracking packages, submitting returns, etc). But keep in mind it’s important to ultimately leave the choice up to them. If you don’t, you’ll be losing out on a lot of sales and those customers you lost will be placing their first and subsequent orders elsewhere.

Reaching out to bloggers and webmasters isn’t that difficult. Generally they are happy to hear from manufacturers and retailers, and if you ask correctly, they will grant your favor. There is however a wrong way to reach out. Here’s one such example sent from a large marketing agency which apparently handles Search Engine Optimization for Macys.com:

Title: URGENT REQUEST – Incorrect link to Macys.com

Body: I’m contacting you on behalf of Macy’s, Inc. We completed a recent analysis that indicates your blog is linking to Macys.com, which we greatly appreciate. Per Macy’s guidelines, we are requesting you make updates to the hyperlink text when you link to Macy’s. Providing clearer anchor text will give your visitors a better user experience.
Please respond at your earliest convenience, so we can discuss the changes.

Thank you,

xxxxxx

Now maybe I’m overreacting, but as both an experienced Webmaster and fellow SEO Strategist I can’t help but be bothered by this email. I’m glad that they appreciate the link, and reaching out is always worth a try, but the request simply doesn’t feel genuine and use of the phrase “Per Macy’s guidelines” is something I don’t like to hear. I don’t work for Macy’s.

Merriam-Webster definition of guideline:

an indication or outline of policy or conduct

Certainly there’s a better way to word their email.

• First - Don’t come at me, a niche blogger with absolutely zero agenda within my post, pushing corporate policies.
• Second - If you want more specific anchor text for SEO purposes just come out and say it. Don’t claim that my visitors will have a “better experience” because of it. In this case they honestly wouldn’t.
• Third - Don’t be so damn robotic about the whole thing.

What was the anchor text in question? It was in a blog post from 2007 mentioning a new clothing brand. Macy’s was the anchor text (it could be much, much worse). Macy’s… consider your link removed.

/rant off

For most if not all internet retailers, Black Friday is absolutely huge. But make no mistake, getting to Black Friday can be a long, stressful road full of competitive intelligence, haggling with manufacturers, search engine optimization and pay per click. – but when done right can be extremely rewarding in several key areas:

• Increased Sales
• Customer Loyalty / Retention
• New Customers

My advice? Get caffeinated and ride the wave. Black Friday & Cyber Monday are two of the best performing retail days of the year. But don’t forget to take a time out and enjoy being with your family and buying something nice for yourself (it is Black Friday after all).

QR Codes work. Use them. Best of all they are free to generate.

The use of iPhones and Androids are on the rise. Not only that, but tech-savy mobile users are everywhere. Whether you are a new or established internet business you can absolutely benefit from the use of QR Codes in your marketing.

• Do you hand out flyers? Use a QR Code.
• Do you ship an invoice or catalog? Use a QR Code.
• Do you have a business card? Use a QR Code.

Get my drift? They’re actually really handy, and as mobile web browsing and commerce grows, they’ll become more and more important. Why not adopt the strategy now and be ahead of your competitors?

1. Stay on top of any sales, coupons, or specials they might be running. This is probably the most obvious reason. By knowing exactly when competitors are running sales, you can effectively counter them with your own.
2. Learn about new brands and products that you may have missed. If you’re like me, you receive a lot of email and unfortunately new brands and products are sometimes missed. Or perhaps you were on the fence about picking up a new brand and wanted to see how it would play out in your niche market first.
3.  Keep up to date about competitors’ new website features. It can be time consuming to surf your competitor’s sites to compare features and flow. Marketer’s love to brag so by subscribing to their lists many times you’ll also be able to stay up to date on new features and design changes.

If you haven’t installed it on your website yet, I’m happy to say that setup is a snap. Practical eCommerce just released a nice little write-up on the new service along with instructions. Here’s the official Google +1 page where you can grab the necessary code.

Whatever it is that you were working on today, I would take a break and place this snippet of code on your E-commerce site.

If you don’t know what Google +1 is, Todd Wasserman posted an excellent Q&A about Google +1 over at Mashable a few months ago. Here’s a small taste:

Google’s announcement that it’s adding a “+1” button to incorporate sentiment into its search results raised a lot of questions not addressed in the company’s official announcement.We spoke with Google rep Jim Prosser about +1. Here are some of our questions answered. What other questions do you have about the new product?

As an E-commerce webmaster, you’re going to want to include the Google +1 code onto your product pages ASAP. Will Google’s +1 feature surpass Facebook’s Like button in terms of sheer user volume? Probably not. But I suspect it will play a pretty substantial role in future niche search rankings.

Enter KnowEm. I am a HUGE fan their service, which lets you to check and see for yourself if your brand’s username is available on hundreds of social networks.

Knowem.com allows you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or username instantly on over 500 popular and emerging social media websites. Grab your name and secure your brand before someone else does.

This is a very handy tool which I have used now for numerous e-commerce websites. If you’re on a tight budget don’t worry, it comes with both free and paid options which are nearly identical.

Free: You create any new social network profiles yourself
Paid: KnowEm creates new social network profiles for you

This is something that I seriously encourage every online store owner out there to set aside the time and do. Making sure that your brand name is in the right hands on the major social networks out there is a big deal. Even if you don’t plan on using these networks, most social network profiles will offer up a nice juicy backlink so it’s a great SEO opportunity as well.

(6/2/2011) EDIT: Another useful site to check your brand’s username availability is NAMECHK. It is fast and easy to use. I recommend using both services, again 100% free.

If you answered No, why not?

This question sounds like an easy one on the surface, but it often isn’t. It’s tough to reflect on all of your hard work and give yourself the honest truth. But if you’re 100% truthful, you may be surprised to discover that you already know what you need to do to take your Ecommerce website to the next level.

So I’m encouraging you for this exercise to take the blinders off. If you answered No, sit down and make a list of reasons why. Work to resolve those issues until you’d be confident to buy from your online store. You’ll find that sales will improve, customer feedback will be more positive, and it will be easier and more enjoyable to market your site since you believe in 100%.