I caught this video via Seth who caught it via David:

As a customer these are the experiences we crave.

Hat tip to Jason Billingsley for sharing and Loren McDonald for creating.  Presentation below…

What I like about this execution is that eBags lists how many other people are looking at the 15 remaining bags– 653.

Wow, Eddie Bauer really likes Heather, or the current resident…

I’m hoping my smart readers can help me out here.  Why does Overstock.com carry Sponsored Links?  Is it a good revenue stream? Do you think this is a good strategy?

A screenshot:

Viral Loop is a new book by Adam L. Penenberg.  I’ve not read it yet but did go through the author’s guest post on TechCrunch.com (article link).  The Hotmail story is relevant to BetterRetail.  A summary:

Hotmail initially raised money through the VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.  While considering advertising Hotmail founder suggested billboards.  Draper (founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson) suggested putting PS: I love you. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail at the bottom of every email.  The Hotmail team did not like this approach and didn’t include it in launch.  Hotmail.com launched Independence Day 1996 and was adding couple of hundred users a day.  Draper still insisted on adding PS: I love you. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail.  Finally, the Hotmail team agreed; though they dropped the PS: I love you bit.

The impact was almost instantaneous.  Within hours Hotmail’s growth took on the shape of a classic hockey stick curve.  They started averaging 3,000 users a day, compounded daily.  By Labor Day they registered 750,000 users and within six months they were up to 1 million.  Five weeks after that they hit the 2 million user mark, adding more than 20,000 signups a day.

The rest is history.

There are hundreds of ecommerce best practices, and it’s hard to remember all of them.

SeaEagle.com embodies the spirit of BetterRetail.  If you are new to BetterRetail no need to read archived posts– just head over to www.seaeagle.com.  Five minutes on the site will give you new insights for your own store.

Features I like best

• “180 day trial & FREE SHIPPING ON ALL BOATS” available through 10/31/2009. Time limit on offer encourages visitors to take action.  If they don’t want to add to cart they can easily call their toll free number:

• Allows customers to self-segment:

• Fantastic use of customer testimonials (written and video) and loads of customer submitted “in use” photos:

• Video confidence builder:

• Advertisement confidence builder:

• Multiple micro-conversion opportunities:

micro-conversion 2

Micro-conversion 1

• Amazing product pages. Let’s review this page as an example: http://www.seaeagle.com/MotorMountBoats.aspx?cl=HomePage.

1. Great tittle: “Ideal for Fishermen & weekend Boaters on a budget”
2. Quick bullets for competitive shoppers:

Quick Bullets

3. Emphasis on limited time sale offer for impulsive shoppers:

Instance 1

Instance 2

4. Lots of customer submitted “in use” pictures + testimonials for humanistic shoppers:

Testimonial

5. Lots of content + downloadable PDF spec sheets for methodical shoppers.

[Note: To learn more about humanistic, methodical, impulsive and competitive shoppers head over to grokdotcom.com ]

6. Product pages have been cleverly constructed for all kinds of potential buyers:

a.) SE 9 Startup Package for first time buyers
b.) SE 9 Fisherman’s Dream Package for the serious fisher
c.) SE 9 Motor Package for premium buyers

Let’s review the first time buyer experience.  This is the product page:

Everything here is perfect but what I find particularly innovative is that Sea Eagle understands a first time buyer might be interested in a used boat.  They even show how many they have in stock (3) and give great reason to buy one:

Why buy used?

7. Final reassurance on add to cart:

Final reassurance

Other Case Study: Moosejaw.com

When people sign-up for a newsletter their biggest fear is getting too many emails.  Safetystore.com does a good job addressing this concern:

A client once said “Discounting is a slippery slope, once you give it that’s the new bottom line.”  I agree.  Every retailer has to show items have been priced fairly and giving additional discounts could send the wrong signal.  Here is a great example that illustrates the power of copy:

Taken from their site…

FetchBack is the Retargeting Company.  On average, 98% of a Web site’s visitors leave without converting. FetchBack ‘fetches’ them back to that site via the industry’s most advanced retargeting platform, FetchBack is the only company that provides retargeting analytics, enabling advertisers to see deeper into their campaigns than ever before. FetchBack Retargeting is easy to implement, and maximizes the conversions that Retargeting has to offer.

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