Although some people may think that providing coupons can cause your company to lose business, it may actually have the opposite effect. According to information from Compete, more than half of consumers who used a coupon code during their last online purchase would not have bought that item if they did not receive that discount. Some other information found about consumers who use coupons: Consumers who use coupons spent an average of $216, while consumers without a coupon spent an average of $122. Consumer satisfaction was higher for consumers who used a coupon (92%) than those who did not (88%). Consumers who used an online ...

While money may be the highest factor for travelers when using a travel website, a lot of them will leave a website if they have difficulties navigating the website and checkout process. According to a survey of survey of US online travel bookers by PhoCusWright, site-related complaints like not wanting to register with the website, slow loading times, and general confusion caused people not to complete their online transactions. Also, more than a third of online travel bookers said that website problems like this make them less likely to shop at that website again. Business travelers, who are more likely than ...

Online research is becoming a regular part of the shopping experience. According to a study by e-tailing group and PowerReviews, 50% of online shoppers research online for at least half of their purchases, and 64% read online reviews before making product purchasing decisions. Online shoppers prefer online research because they feel it saves them more time than doing in-store research and it increases their confidence in the purchase, as opposed ot speaking to a knowledgeable salesperson. [caption id="attachment_1589" align="alignleft" width="635" caption="Source: the e-tailing group and PowerReviews"][/caption] More than half say they start their online research on a search engine, the next highest choice ...

According to a survey by the e-tailing group, 59% of businesses surveyed are planning on investing more into e-commerce in 2010. This number is up from 36% in 2009. [caption id="attachment_1565" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Data from the e-tailing group's 9th Annual Merchant Survey"][/caption] The 9th Annual Merchant Survey also reported that 92% plan on an increase in Internet revenue, with most anticipating between 6% and 15%. With more businesses anticipating an increase with e-commerce, they must also work at using marketing that entices to both current customers and possible prospects in order to succeed. The majority of respondents reported, however, that the conversion rate ...

Many small businesses are still not using basic online marketing tools to help them grow their business. According to a survey from Citibank, 37% of small businesses had not used a website for marketing or expanding their business in the last year. Also, 84% had not used ecommerce to sell products, and 62% have not used email marketing. Of those businesses that do have a website, 74% say their website has been effective at generating business. The survey also found that while many small businesses placed an importance on word-of-mouth marketing to market themselves and find new customers, they did not view social ...

One way to increase the chances of enticing a potential customer to go with your business is to offer them a coupon. However, online coupons can also be used for your business to gather information for future marketing and sales, according to an article in the New York Times. The bar codes on the coupons can hold a lot of information including information about the customer, internet address, Facebook page information, what words were searched for in order to get the coupon, and more. Coupons can also be tracked for specific people using websites like Ebates or FatWallet, and know who is ...

The vast majority of U.S. Internet users prefer to use more than one channel [computer, mobile device, in-store, etc.] to research and purchase products and services, according to a survey from ATG and MarketTools. Almost half of the people said they use two channels when shopping for products and services and 24% said they use three or more. One of the main points from this survey showed that the Internet was used as a research tool. The Internet accounts for only 7.7% of total retail sales, but online research was used in 42% of sales, according to the new study "U.S. Online ...

According to the survey "Website Design Strategies and Tactics, most e-commerce websites are planning a redesign of their website in 2010. Almost half of the e-commerce websites planning on a redesign are looking to create better organization with updated home and inner pages of their website. They are also looking for better search engine optimization and clearer navigation for the website. About one-third of the retailers are also looking to add video or streaming media as well as customer reviews and ratings. The main reason given by retailers for the redesign is to increase sales and attract new shoppers. It is important to keep ...

Improving your sales through better search engine optimization can be hard. Using repetitive product descriptions and a lack of products and content are difficult things to overcome. However, there are 5 simple ways retail websites can adjust their website to maximize their search engine optimization. Add new content to the website. While it is important to show off your products, you also need content-based pages. These will not only be informative, but it will optimize your site for search engines and help engage customers. Some possible ideas are adding customer success stories, creating a blog with relevant news, tips, and product ...

As a full service marketing agency, it’s kind of hard not to notice the marketing efforts utilized by the businesses around us. It’s great to see campaigns being launched and creativity being stretched. So we thought it would be interesting to make this a regular thing and see what companies are doing to help grow their business and increase their exposure. Today’s featured business: Express I received this ad from Express awhile back, and recently decided to check on their website to see how the promotion was going.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Express.com had updated their website to be ...

Many retail sites will find that shoppers will come to visit their site, add items to their shopping cart, but then abandon the cart. According to a report from Experian, 61% of items left in an online shopping cart are not purchased. One way to try to bring back customers to these abandoned shopping carts is through a follow-up e-mail. A follow-up email can help remind the customer of the products they were interested in and could potentially reignite their interest. You can also attempt to include an incentive to encourage people to return to their purchase. Research found that email campaigns ...

Maintaining the consumers you may have gained over the holiday season can become difficult as the new year continues. Most sign up for emails in order to gain deals and coupons for their holiday shopping. Here are a few ways to keep those shoppers interested in your business long after the holidays are over. Entice subscribers to act. Ask them to fill out a survey about your services and provide an incentive for finishing the survey. It will help remind people of your business as well as give you some feedback on your company. Thank shoppers for their purchases and create promotions ...