Ten Ecommerce Ideas for 2011

Happy New Year, folks! It’s 2011 and we are ready to conquer the brand new challenges in the fast paced and constantly changing world of ecommerce. To jumpstart the year, we are featuring ten ecommerce ideas from industry insiders as published in an article for the Practical Ecommerce. Read on and learn from the experts themselves.

1. Marc Galeazzi of TrainHornsDelivered.com advises ecommerce merchants to build links daily. Using analytics, find out your top three keywords everyday and build one link for each keyword daily. He emphasizes the importance of link building as a “revenue-focused activity.”
2. LeftClick’s Daniel Jones suggests checking keyword matches type in AdWords.
3. Hold your order outsourced fulfillment partner accountable. Will Schneider of WarehousingAndFulFillmen.com recommends keeping a separate inventory and ensuring that they are contractually bound to fix mistakes when they happen.
4. Audio Transcription’s Randall Davidson advises to allow customers to upload product photos. It is a visible social proof strategy that encourages potential customers to actually purchase your product.
5. Invest in your ecommerce analytics and constantly review it to see what people think about your website. According to Richard Potvin of MapleSyrupWorld, you should have relevant landing pages for popular keywords.
6. On your product pages, let the sale prices stand out through “compelling graphic treatment”, according to WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization’s Chris Goward.
7. Mobile ecommerce has made waves in 2010 and its momentum is expected to carry on into 2011. Take advantage of this technology, advises Carl Prindle of Blueport Commerce The key for mobile ecommerce is that it should be easy to use and handy for providing the right information on products.
8. Virgil Dickerson of Suburban Home Records and Vinyl Collective shares the story and the secret of his ecommerce success—offer exclusive items. In his case, his online store took off by providing exclusive limited edition records.
9. Ask for feedback from your customers. Larry Chase of Blue Dot Paper Shop and LCI Paper recommends sending out an e-mail after each purchase to solicit feedback on your ecommerce site and using that information to improve your business.
10. Finally, Jamie Salvatori of Vat19.com reminds ecommerce merchants to focus on human customers and not on search engine computer algorithms such as Googlebot. As Salvatori puts it, “nothing spreads faster than a refreshing online experience.”