William Cameron | Beyond the Keyboard

Recent studies indicate that 7 out of 10 online shopping carts are exited before a sale is completed. This abandonment rate seems to be rising, as online shoppers become more comfortable comparing prices and other product or service attributes. SeeWhy , a website conversion service, reported that shopping cart abandonment rates rose from about 71 percent in mid-2010 to 75 percent by June 2011. These figures are much higher than the rates of about 46 percent that Forrester Research reported in early 2010. In the past, each cart abandoned was seen as a sure sign that a sale had been lost, but this may not necessarily be the case. “Shopping cart abandonment is an important part of the normal buying cycle for many customers and for many types of purchase,” wrote Charles Nicholls, founder and chief strategy officer for SeeWhy in a whitepaper on the topic. “This leads to the conclusion that abandonment, rather than being a rejection of the brand’s value proposition, can be a step in

An abandoned shopping cart is like a broken promise. For the merchant, there is a lost sale and unclaimed revenue. For the shopper, there is an unfulfilled need or want. Fortunately, a quick series of cart abandonment emails may renew that promise, helping both the customer and the retailer. Roughly two out of every three (67.35 percent) ecommerce shopping carts are abandoned after consumers have selected items and placed those items in the cart, according to April 2013 data from the Baymard Institute , which averaged documented online shopping cart abandonment rates from 19 separate studies conducted in the last few years. Shopping cart abandonment can happen for a number of reasons. Forrester Research, as an example, has consistently blamed shipping and handling costs. Imagine that a shopper finds the perfect $25 item, adds it to the cart, and learns that it will cost another $15 — more than half of the product’s price — just to ship. At other times, a shopper might have become

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a mode to measure and monitor the performance of an organization, business unit, department or specified activity. They are focused on activities that are critical to the success of the business. It is not to be confused with Key Result Indicators (KRIs), Result Indicators (RIs) and Performance Indicators (KIs), which serve slightly different purposes. KPIs have to be chosen carefully in order to give valuable information. On one hand, the target has to be defined clearly to choose the correct measure. Once, this has been defined, the adequate KPIs have to be chosen. These should be defined in a way that is understandable, measurable and meaningful. So, there must be a strong link between the activity measured and the input factor observed. This depends very much on the department and the specific activity in question, because a KPI should tell the manager in the end, what actions need to take place. To give an example: The number of parts reject

There are 10 mandatory KPIs used to track performance, return on investment and conversion rates for ecommerce websites. Known as eCommerce KPI - these ratios and percentages are used in addition to traditional conversion rates and return on investment calculations. These KPI need to be trended over time ideally month after month, but can be as granular as weekly measurements. Once there is a year's worth of data, seasonal fluctuations will become apparent, as well as site performance measurement indicators. When analyzing performance and overall ecommerce health, these KPI need to be compared against the same time last year. This takes seasonality out of the equation and factors for sustainability. AVERAGE ORDER VALUE (AOV) - total revenue divided by orders BUYING SESSIONS - visitor sessions with a purchase divided by total sessions NEW VS RETURNING VISITOR % - new visitors divided by all unique visitors RATIO NEW to RETURNING VISITORS - new visitors divided by returning visi

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Small brick-and-mortar retailers can find new customers, experiment with new products, and generally grow their business when they start selling online. For established retailers, the first steps toward ecommerce often begin with product preparation, software selection and integration, and learning about online marketing and customer service. Ecommerce is a fast expanding retail segment, growing 20 percent in the United States in the first quarter of 2013. Based on estimates from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the IBM Online Retail Index, total ecommerce sales excluding travel and automobiles may have been as much as $50 billion in the first quarter. Find out more at http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/4065-How-to-Sell-Online-if-You-Already-Have-a-Physical-Store

You don't have to be a bank to be worried about being hit by a Distributed-Denial-of-Service attack these days. With hackers who pull off these costly take downs getting stealthier and more vicious, security leaders across all industries need heed these tips to be prepared Security execs have never been comfortable talking about these attacks because they don't want to draw more attention to their companies. They worry that offering even the basic details of their defensive strategy will inspire attackers to find the holes. But many companies are finding themselves under attack for the first time, and their security chiefs need answers if they're going to fight back. Tight lips sink company defenses Be ready for real-time defense adjustments Don't rely only on perimeter defenses Fight application-layer attacks in-line Collaborate Have your playbook ready Watch out for secondary attacks Be worried, even if you're not a bank Why not checkout  http://www.