10 Kickass eCommerce Retailers You Won’t Forget

Posted on April 22, 2013 by visa

When I found out that I was going to get involved with ReferralCandy to help eCommerce retailers, I decided that I was going to really get into it. Really get into it.

I started by trawling the list of retailers using our service, hitting every URL, as well as every store’s Facebook and Twitter. Over the past few weeks I’ve literally checked out over a thousand stores. It’s been an eye-opening experience. I think I’ve learnt something along the way about what makes eCommerce stores tick, and I’d like to share that with you. (Sharing is learning.)

Let me start by sharing specific stores that have caught my eye and lingered in my mind:

1: Designious sells vector art, Photoshop brushes and t-shirt designs. The team is based in Bucharest, Romania. I got mixed up over the name- I first thought it read disingenuous. Boom, the name is stuck in my head forever. (Thanks, guys.) They use a strong, bold typeface for their navigation. Their artwork is modern and severe in a positive sense. Very stylish. Also, they give away free stuff!

2: The Stiff Collar is based in Mumbai, India and they sell “Somewhat Snooty English Shirts.” I was sold, instantly. While not conventionally flashy or elegant, the whole site just oozes personality. (If you look carefully, there’s a link at the bottom right that says “Comic”, and it’s a 12 page long detective story. Why? I’m guessing the answer to that was “Why not?!”)

It’s interesting to me that I was so quickly won over by the site, because I have high standards for visual design, and am always quick to point out imperfections. The quality of the images aren’t optimal, and the colour scheme could surely be tweaked to convey maximum snootiness.

Despite those minor issues, the passion of the retailers comes through in spades. “On balance it is a good thing we all know so little about our business,” they joke. “It keeps life entertaining.” Who wouldn’t want to buy a shirt from these guys?

3: Gravity Anomaly promises to sell “the most advanced technical mountain bike riding garments on the market, manufactured in the USA”. The site is a visual treat and an absolute pleasure to navigate. These guys are very, very clear about what they’re passionate about and what they stand for. The “About Us” is used to great effect, communicating their team’s passions and convictions. The on-site blog reveals a clear passion and dedication

If you think our clothing might look like it’s more suited for a work site than a leisurely ride to the park,” they declare, “you’re starting to get us.”

I’m not a mountain biker, but if I ever befriend one, I know what I’d get them for Christmas.

Undz.org is based in Montreal, Canada and might just be my favourite site on the internet at the moment. They technically sell underwear (over 1,000,000 pieces sold!), but what they’re really selling is a point-of-view. I have landed on their site multiple times, and I burst out laughing every single. The above picture does not do it justice; you have to go there.

It’s interesting to sit back and analyze the site’s success. It breaks every ‘rule’ in the book. The navigation is unintuitive- you’ll probably take quite a while to actually get to the shop. But it’s such a fantastic journey. Undz have created an experience that’s hard to replicate. They’re like a surreal inverse-Disney, put through the lens of some sort of drug-addled 90′s kid. And yet we can’t stop staring. And feeling, oddly, like we ought to buy some underwear.

While the site looks haphazard and randomly thrown together, the effect achieved is deliberate. Undz follows others like The Best Page In The Universe and Old Spice’s Mr. Wolfdog- the chaos and poor design are intended. To avoid a lengthy discussion on the philosophy of communication (which I would enjoy, to be honest), let’s leave it at this- you can’t replicate Undz.org’s successful marketing unless you know exactly why you’re doing it.

5: Punchdrunk Panda is based in The Phillipines, and has possibly the catchiest, most memorable name I’ve ever heard of. (The mental image is absolutely hilarious, too. Just think about it for a little while. Two pandas, in a boxing ring…) They make iPhone cases, camera straps, shoes and other paraphernalia. There’s a bright, positive energy that’s cutesy, cheery and fun, and it’s something that’s very infectious.

Hey, isn’t your iPhone case getting kind of old, anyway?

6: Cocaine Cowboys are based in Berlin, Germany, and the best thing you can say about them is that they are well and truly irreverent. They clearly give a Damn about giving no damns. Their Facebook feed is saturated with pictures of attractive ladies in, um, various states of undress. Also, cigars, fast cars and other indulgences associated with the “high life”. They hold nothing back with their pedal-to-the-metal approach, which results in an unapologetically abrasive, devil-may-care brand. It’s definitely going to offend a few people, but that’s precisely what they’re going for.

I would totally wear this stuff to a Rammstein concert, or under a leather jacket while racing across the Autobahn on a BMW motorbike. Ich Will!

7:Serious Pig is based in London, England. These guys are mighty serious about their salami. Snacking salami, to be precise. Serious snacking salami. The “Our Tail” page describes the founder’s serious obsession with all things pork. Turns out that ‘charcuterie’ (a unique process of preparing meat) is in its infancy in Britain, and that the key to good salami is to have the right amount of fat. It sounds both complicated and delicious.

8: Kurgo is based in Massachusetts, USA. The coolest thing about them is how you can immediately know what they’re selling just by glancing at the logo. It’s immediately apparent what sort of need their products fulfill. The “About Us” page tells a clear story about dog owners who built products to solve problems that they faced themselves. The Lifetime Warranty is a nice touch, and it’s easy to see that the products are a labour of love.

9: ANTA is based in Scotland and sells tartan products. Their designs are incredibly elegant, classy and tasteful. They’ve apparently been in the business for over 25 years now, and everything about their products are made locally in Scotland. I’m tempted to bulk order a whole bunch of things, and I’m not even really huge on home decoration. Their stoneware looks especially beautiful and Zen.

To me, ANTA is an example of a successful product that sells itself. The job of marketing is to just get out of the product’s way. The site is ultra-minimalist, drawing attention to the craftsmanship of the pieces.

10: Honizukle Press is a one-woman operation based in New Jersey, USA. She (Kimberly) sells stationery and paper goods, such as greeting cards. The site’s design was refreshingly light and clearly (to me) put together with great precision and care. The same can be said of all her products- She has impeccable taste and is clearly passionate about her work. (A visit to her on-site blog confirms this. She loves what she does.)

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What do these stores have in common? What makes them so sticky in a marketplace saturated with unmemorable, nondescript wares?

They all have strong value propositions. These stores are ruthlessly clear about what they’re delivering to their customers. It could be a promise of technical engineering (Gravity Anomaly), or a devil-may-care attitude (Cocaine Cowboys). It could be a promise of artistic quality (ANTA, Honizukle), fun (Punchdrunk Panda) or even slight snootiness (The Stiff Collar).

Whatever it is, the promise is always clear. This is of utmost importance, because a clear promise can be passed on. The customer knows what she’s getting. Even if it’s something she doesn’t want for herself, it’s something that she could share with her friends, who might just want it instead. (Sharing such information is socially advantageous and rewarding. I’m sure you can think of somebody in your social circle who’d love to receive something from each of these stores.)

I’ve also noticed that a lot of these retailers set out to resolve issues that they were personally afflicted with or passionate about. Which means that they didn’t get involved just to make money, they got involved because they give a damn about what they do. They communicate their personal conviction, and conviction inspires trust.

Above all, perhaps, all of these sites also have a lot of personality, which helps to diminish customer anxiety. We’re dealing with people who love what they do. Who doesn’t want to do that?

I’ve got a whole bunch of other retailers I’d love to share with you, if you’re interested! Let us know at @referralcandy or on our Facebook Page.

Which Golden Globe Star Represents Your Ecommerce Marketing Style?

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Christelle

The world of marketing can be an extremely diverse setting. Like Hollywood, you have everything from the quirky comedian to the polished professional. But regardless of how a marketing strategy is tackled it is important to define your approach.

Honing in on your distinct ecommerce marketing style is just as important as an actor signing on for the perfect role that will earn a Golden Globe.

For some, finding this perfect fit means going for what you know you’re good at and capitalizing on those strengths. For others it can mean stepping outside of the box to stir up curiosity. Either way, locking down a specific angle of attack will help you maintain consistency and leverage the most results from your efforts.
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10 Simple Ecommerce Website Updates to Implement Now

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Alvinl

There are hundreds of ecommerce website updates you could make. Anyone who’s managed an ecommerce company has a list of things to change on the site.

The biggest issue as a manager is determining the priority list. It’s hard to know what can be done easily and what really should be done.

We’ve got some help. The updates listed below are ones you can make right now on your website. Together they’ll make a difference in terms of user experience and conversion.

Let’s begin.

1. Make All Calls To Action A Consistent Color

Amazon uses consistent colors for its calls to action for the most part.

One of the most confusing things for website visitors is the color of the calls to action. It’s not all about being contrasting. While that’s important, it is actually more important to have a consistent call to action color.

If you look at the Amazon example above, you’ll notice that the color orange is used on nearly every call to action. When you hover over text links in the left navigation area you’ll see that they even change to orange.

Creating consistent coloring for your calls to action gets visitors programmed. When people go to Amazon and they see the color orange they automatically know that it’s something they should click.

Amazon still has a few exceptions. The Add to Cart button is yellow and the search button at the top is black. The search button could easily be changed to orange, but overall Amazon does a great job of keeping things consistent.

2. Have One Main Action For Each Page

The Overstock website is very focused with prioritized calls to action on each page.

A good way to go into design discussions for your website is to have one main action for each page. This keeps things easy for the visitor, which leads to more conversions. It also gives you more control over the pathways people take on the site.

The tendency on ecommerce sites is to put as many calls to action as possible on every page. We naturally want to give people all the possible options they can think of when they’re browsing the site. The problem with that is too many options is too confusing. It’s better to limit those choices to just a few things.

Look at the Overstock example above. There is one main action on the page that stands out – Shop The Sale. The action is in bright yellow and it’s probably the first thing you noticed on the page. Yes, there are other actions on the page, but they are secondary and in the background. Keep the focus to a single action. Make all other necessary actions secondary.

3. Add Search Suggestions

Zappos helps visitors by providing search suggestions.

Search is likely in the top three actions visitors take from your homepage. That surprises some people. Sure, visitors may look at your feature image, but they’re more likely to start searching right away. This usually means they have something in mind already, but even those people need some help refining their search.

You can see in the Zappos example above that there are search suggestions. These are subtle hints to get the visitor started. You want the search experience on your site to be as fuss-free as possible. By offering suggestions you’ll help people find the right words. They’ll be able to find what they want easier and that makes them happy.

A happy shopper is one that likely converts.

4. Add Reinforcement Messages on Product Pages

Newegg reinforces their offer with “Free Shipping”

You probably offer free shipping on occasion. Maybe you even offer 20% off or 25% off from time to time. These are great offers. Yet when a visitor gets to the product page they still have that final moment just before they hit the “Add To Cart” button when they wonder if they really need this item.

Reinforce your offer at this point. You can see in the Newegg example above that Free Shipping is reinforced. Now the shopper can see the free shipping notice and make the final commitment to make the purchase. It’s the last little push they need to make a purchase and become a happy customer.

5. Consider Adding Lightbox Forms to Interior Pages

Don’t be afraid to use lightbox forms.

More companies are using lightbox or popup forms for different reasons.

Even LL Bean, a traditionally conservative company, is using the lightbox form. You can see above that LL Bean is reinforcing their free shipping offer.

What is interesting about the LL Bean example is they have this popup occur on an interior page. A new visitor is not shown the item on the homepage, but once they get to an internal page like the Men’s Shirts page they are reminded.

You can use a lightbox on internal pages to reinforce a message like LL Bean or you could use it to get more subscribers to your email address. It’s a great way to get a little more aggressive without scaring off every new visitor that comes to your homepage.

6. Use Branding To Your Advantage

Edwin Watts knows that golf is about brands. They put a brand drop down in their top navigation.

Further down the page Edwin Watts includes logos of the brands they sell. Branding matters.

Brands are usually important in ecommerce. It depends what industry you’re in, but chances are good that people recognize the brands you sell.

Take for example the Edwin Watts site from the examples above. At the top of the page you’ll see the drop down option to shop by brand. At the bottom the site includes the actual logos of the brands.

The company realizes that brands are important in the golf industry. Amateurs see their favorite golfing pros on TV with logos plastered on their shirts and hats. They want to golf like those players so they buy the same brands.

From Edwin Watts’ perspective they know they need to show the brand logos right away so a new visitors can immediately find what they’re looking for on the site.

If your industry is influenced by brands be sure to make it evident on your site.

7. Images Trump Text

Ebay has huge images on its website.

People notice images before text when they visit a site. Just look at the Ebay example above. You looked at the image of the red mixer first. From there you noticed the blue call to action buttons (see: Call To Action Colors above).

Images trump text when it comes to shopping. People are visual and they want to be able to see every aspect of the item they’re considering for their purchase. You can include large images to make this easier for your visitors. You could also add videos to the site. More companies are doing this and finding it increases conversion.

Just because images are important, however, does not mean you should limit text. The content on the page is still very important. After someone examines the images on the page and become interested, they will dig deeper. They’ll read the content in detail. You want to make sure there is enough content on the page to satisfy any question a shopper might have. Text is also good for SEO purposes.

8. Use Reviews Everywhere

JCP takes reviews and puts them on multiple pages.

When customers visit a site they’re looking for validation. They might see something they like on your thumbnail page, but they want a little more than just something that’s interesting. People want confirmation that an item has potential.

Reviews are a great way to prove that items on the page are great. Check out the JCP example above. You can see that product reviews are pulled in and used on the thumbnail page. Not only do the reviews make the product stand out, but they also validate that these items are popular and well-liked.

Use reviews throughout your site. Add them to thumbnail pages. Add them to the feature image on your homepage. Also use them in emails and in social media.

Reviews are one of your biggest assets. They convert visitors.

9. Add a Top Line Banner

A top line banner is becoming popular.

This is an interesting trend in ecommerce. The trend dates back maybe a year or two, but it must be working because it’s everywhere.

The trend is the top line banner. Notice where it says, “Clearance 70% off top designers” at the top of the Target example. A few of the other examples above also include something similar.

This is a new trend and it’s really a good way to share a message with your visitors. The top bar really stands out from the rest of the page. If you have something interesting you want to promote, this is a great way to accomplish it with every visitor.

It will be interesting to see how long this will remain effective. For now, it seems to still be working really well, and will probably be around for a while.

10. Focus on the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Walmart knows they are all about low prices and they show that to every visitor.

When you think of Walmart, you think about low prices. The company has spent years beating customers over the head with this USP. The reason people shop at Walmart is because they know they can get just about any product at the lowest price possible. What you need to do is figure out what your USP is, and then feature it on your website.

You can easily see the prices in red on the Walmart website. Maybe the USP is nothing about your company, but something about your product. Showcase that feature or benefit next to the product image when your promote it on the homepage, or in an email campaign.

It’s a simple concept, but it’s overlooked way too often on many sites.

Conclusion

None of these items are extremely difficult to implement! Put them high on your website revamp priority list. They’ll improve conversion and ultimately they should improve sales, which is really what matters.

Do you think anything missing from the list?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

10 Simple Ecommerce Conversion Rate Improvements to Make Right Now

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Dayne

Conversion is a matter of putting the right pieces of your website together.

E-commerce conversion is tricky.

On the one hand you know that improving conversion on your e-commerce site can be a big win for your company. The more you capitalize on your traffic, the better off you’ll be today and in the future.

On the other hand, you know that every e-commerce website is different. Each company has certain characteristics which require a unique strategy.

In this post you’ll find 10 tips you can make that can improve your conversion. These tips can convert more customers by effectively communicating the real value your company offers.

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What Powerball Mania says about People and Perks & How You Can Leverage It

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Christelle

If you live in the U.S., it was nearly impossible to miss the flurry of excitement surrounding the recent Powerball. At $550 million, the multi-state lottery was the largest jackpot in history and everyone wanted the chance to win.

According to ABC News, over 189 million tickets were sold for the final drawing and reports of people waiting in line for hours at a chance to purchase the winning numbers erupted in local reports.

Though most know that they had a higher chance of being attacked by a wild boar than winning, the idea of getting something for virtually nothing never ceases to appeal to human nature.

In ecommerce, business people would kill for the kind of power a hefty jackpot leverages. There wasn’t a Twitter stream, news publication or water cooler conversation that ignored the millions up for grabs. And regardless of economic status, throngs of consumers turned out their pockets to be a part of it.

But amazingly, you don’t have to offer people a half billion dollars to get them talking about and purchasing your product. The power of perks is completely scalable and your ecommerce business can leverage the lottery’s success by creating undeniably beneficial offerings.

Free is Free, Even When It’s Not

Getting people to pay for perks seems like an oxymoron, but it’s actually the norm. Anxious consumers spent $2, $20, $100 and more on a 1 in 175 million chance to win the Powerball. Regardless of the odds, Americans indulged because the idea of “free money” is worth the risk, even when the potential to lose is so great.

In ecommerce, you can make a free-offering, that isn’t even 100% free and gain major traction. Like with the lottery, it’s all about striking a balance and determining what perks justify which actions.

For some, spending $20 at a chance to win $550 million is completely reasonable. And many of those same people would see referring a friend for a cash bonus or “buy-one-get-one” as a perfectly balanced way to gain a reward.

You already have a leg-up on the lottery when offering your customers perks because you’ve guaranteed their return and removed the gamble. You don’t have to sell the farm to get the conversions you seek. It’s all a simple matter of determining what level of “free” inspires your customers to act.

For example, discount online retailer Ideeli tells their loyal subscribers that there is a $25 cash incentive for referring a friend that makes a purchase. This offer is anything but free because it requires the customer to talk about the site, send a personalized invite or social media share and then possibly entice the friend to buy in order to gain the reward.

Favorable as the offering may seem, it requires a bit of work on the customer’s part, making it a little less than free money. For Ideeli, $25 is the price a new customer is worth. Were the reward only $5 maybe no one would bother referring or were it $50 maybe the value of a new customer would be washed out by the referral payout.

Set your own price marker on a perk and an action so that it justifies the partnership from an ROI perspective. Then, you can start leveraging the lottery’s ability to get people to pay for something that’s “free”.

Getting People Socially Charged

One of the most astounding results of the recent Powerball jackpot was its omnipresence within social media. The Atlantic Wire reported that 600 tweets an hour contained the hashtag #powerball the day before the drawing and more than 5,000 players took to Instagram to share a photo of their tickets with the same hashtag.

Even more outrageous was the lottery hoax that got 500,000 Facebook users sharing a Photoshopped picture of a fake winning ticket.

This kind of online reach is an ecommerce businessperson’s dream come true. For many Internet-based sellers, the chance to tap into the ever-elusive social media world is a constant battle. But what business owners have to realize is that consumers see chances to hype their social status as a perk.

The best way to get your brand to boom on social media is to understand what the benefits of sharing your message are for customers.

Bragging Rights

Everyone likes the opportunity to boast a bit and what better way to do so than through Twitter?

Give your audience a reason to flaunt your business and products. As level-headed as you may like to think your customers are, everyone wants the chance to tell people they have something better than the rest.

Sense of Community

People like to feel as if they are a part of something. Engaging the world in discussion over shared wants, needs and fears can create major social buzz.

Discover the common ground that binds your customers and get them talking. A mutual emotion or circumstance can inspire conversation.

Just for Fun

Sometimes you just have to let fun happen on social media.

Let go of the business-only side of your strategy and let people enjoy something silly that has to do with your product or service.

Despite what many marketers have said, there is a way to get some ROI out of platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. According to Mik Pam, CEO of Pinagency, the social media sphere is an ideal place for perks.

“We’ve  experimented on several rewards systems and found that social sharing  rewards are the best return for our investment,” says Pam.

Just because people don’t go straight from “liking” your posts to instant purchase doesn’t mean there isn’t value. Let the build-up seen around the Powerball inspire you to simply get people talking, then find a way to slip in rewards to bolster sales.

Avoiding the Rewards Backlash

With the exception of two very lucky winners, millions faced the disappointment of coming up empty-handed. The massive level of letdown when Powerball players realize they don’t hold the winning numbers is just as palpable as the excitement leading up.

News publications and satirical websites do their best to ease the pain of I-didn’t-win-a-titis:

How to Cope With Powerball Loss

Americans Lacking Basic Understanding of Probability Disappointed by Powerball Results

But little can soothe the crushed high-hopes of mansions and sports cars. And according to Linda Pophal of Strategic Communications, business owners have to be careful to avoid the same upset in their rewards programs.

“Offering perks is commonly used by  businesses, large and small, to attract customers. Unfortunately, this  isn’t always the best approach. There are a couple of big drawbacks of  offering perks and discounts. One is that they come to be expected  and people are reluctant to purchase anything or interact with the company  without a perk involved,” says Pophal.

Pophal goes on to say that this doesn’t mean perks aren’t beneficial and effective, but the onus is on the business to determine the best recipe for their company and customers.

Not every customer will be prepared to fully commit to the requirements that will gain them a perk, but instead of setting them up for disappointment by dangling an empty coupon code box or unattainable discount in front of them, businesses can offer something of a consolation.

The Powerball does this by giving players with a few matching numbers smaller prizes to reward them. Even a single right number can potentially double the money a participant spent on a ticket.

In the ecommerce world, Amazon shows how this balance of benefits can be accomplished. The company’s Amazon Prime program gives members the chance to earn free two-day shipping on their purchases.

This offering is the ultimate perk that can be earned on Amazon, but it requires that customers pay an annual fee of $79 to participate. For some, that barrier of entry is beyond what they are willing to commit to in order to gain the advantage of fast, free shipping. But that doesn’t mean non-members are entirely excluded from the advantages of shopping on Amazon.

An alternative option exists for those unwilling or unprepared to pay the yearly cost that serves as a benefit to both the company and the consumer.

Instead of either forcing a customer to get involved or denying them any access to perks, Amazon strikes a balance by offering free shipping on select purchases over $25. In this win-win scenario, Amazon encourages more avid buying and the shopper isn’t left empty-handed.

Perks don’t have to be “all or nothing” and they don’t require that business owners sacrifice more than they can afford to for little return. It’s all about balance, not everyone can hit the jackpot, but that doesn’t mean that playing the lottery can’t still have its benefits.

What’s your Facebook Engagement Factor?

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Alvinl

One of the great ways to reach out to your audience and position your brand is through Facebook, and our last post on the Top 10 “Most Liked” Online Retailers on Facebook got a great response.

While researching for that piece though, we stumbled upon a far more interesting phenomenon. As you may know, in addition to “likes”, there is a “people talking about this” metric on Facebook, which is basically the number of unique users commenting, liking or sharing your wall posts over the last 7 days. The metric also includes “viral shares” – whenever fans share a page’s post, any subsequent likes, comments, or re-shares will be counted towards a page’s “talking about this” number as well. (To find out more about the “talking about this” metric, check out this great explanation here.)

Introducing: Facebook Engagement Factor (F.E.F.)

After too many rounds of caffeine-fueled discussion, we decided that the ratio of the “talking about this” number to the number of “likes” was a pretty good measure of the overall level of engagement on your Facebook page. Think of it this way: the number of likes is a baseline measure of how many people have come across your Facebook page and found it useful or liked it, whereas the “talking about this” page gives you an idea of how many people are actively commenting on and liking your posts.

Hence the number of “talking about” divided by the number of “likes” is a good indicator of what proportion of your users are actively engaged on your page. After some research online, we found that variants of this metric had actually been talked about (hey great minds think alike!). For instance, it had been used to calculate the Facebook engagement levels of casinos in Las Vegas.

We called this metric the Facebook Engagement Factor, and here’s how we calculate it (Note – because this ratio of “talking about” to “likes” is usually small, we multiply it by 100 for more intuitive comparisons):

Facebook Engagement Factor (F.E.F.)

= (Number Talking About This / Number of Likes) x 100

Let’s take the example of everybody’s favourite teen singer, Justin Bieber. Justin had about 2 million screaming teenage girls and their mums talking about him over the last 7 days. Divide this by his 46.9m likes on Facebook, multiply it by 100, and you get a Facebook Engagement Factor of 4. Now this number doesn’t seem like much, but it’s still way better than his girlfriend Selena Gomez (0.9) and another teen pop sensation Miley Cyrus (0.6). (Note that this works only for pages of celebrities, companies and the like, and not your personal profile, which doesn’t have the “talking about this” metric.)


Justin Bieber’s Facebook page: high popularity, middling engagement

What the Facebook Engagement Factor Means for Your Brand

If you’re a company selling a product, the first thing you want to look at on Facebook is probably the number of likes on your Facebook page, which is a decent proxy for how popular you are overall on Facebook. However, the F.E.F. is a proxy of how (for want of a better word) fanatical your online followers are, and how much of a viral reach you have with your posts. This could translate into a stronger brand for you and more loyal paying customers, although the jury is still out on this one.

So who does well on this metric? Amongst the giant brands with more than 10m views on Facebook such as Converse (33.3m likes), Walmart (23m likes) and Victoria’s Secret (19,9m), none of them do particularly well. Converse, despite it’s massive popularity on Facebook, has a surprisingly low F.E.F. of 0.6, Walmart does slightly better than Justin at 6, and Victoria’s Secret does okay at 1.6. Bear in mind of course that the F.E.F. changes with time depending on how many users are talking about your brand in the past 7 days.

We got curious as to how our Top 10 Online Retailers on Facebook did on the Facebook Engagement Factor. Here are the results:

Facebook Engagement Factor of Top 10 Most Liked Online Retailers

10. Infibeam (942k likes, F.E.F. = 0.6)

9. Flipkart.com (1.1m likes, F.E.F. = 0.9)

8. NewEgg.com (1.1m likes, F.E.F. = 1.2)

7. Fashionandyou.com (1.1m likes, F.E.F. = 1.3)

6. Worldsoccershop.com (1.4m likes, F.E.F. = 0.8)

5. Yepme.com (1.4m likes, F.E.F. = 6)

4. Eastbay.com (1.5m likes, F.E.F. = 2)

3. Peixe Urbano (1.7m likes F.E.F. = 6)

2.Shoedazzle (2m likes, F.E.F. = 4)

1. Amazon.com (13.5m likes F.E.F. = 1)

As you can see, there is no clear correlation between what number of Facebook likes and your Facebook Engagement Factor. You might have the most number of Facebook likes, but if your engagement factor is low, it’s time to rethink whether those are truly engaged fans posting on your Facebook page.

So how do you increase the Facebook Engagement Factor?

So what affects the F.E.F. you ask? The geeks here at ReferralCandy crawled the web for the online stores with the highest F.E.F. (as well as more than 100k likes) and found out what makes them tick.

The winner? An Indian Online T-Shirt Retailer Bewakoof, which specialises in what looks like funky t-shirts with cool slogans for the Indian hipster market. Their Facebook page uses a tried and tested formula of posting once every few hours or even minutes, which leads to an incredibly high engagement factor, probably from viral shares by their loyal clientele. Their F.E.F. hovers at around 180(!), which is tremendous, given that Justin Bieber averages about a 4. This is possibly also because the nature of the posts (jokes and lolcats) lends itself easily to reposts and viral shares.

Let’s look at another online retailer, SuperheroStuff.com, with an F.E.F. of 29 (137k likes, 40k talking about). Their secret sauce? Again, lots of posts, as well as funny and cool stuff like the picture of Darth Vader below.


Funny stuff gets liked a lot!

Of course, some may ask whether an increase in the number of likes on your page will decrease your F.E.F. Theoretically, this wouldn’t happen as the number of people “talking about this” should increase proportionately. However, there is a possibility that websites with a large number of likes (think Justin Bieber with 46 million) may lower your Engagement Factor, possibly because the followers tend to be more casual, rather than deeply interested in a community (for instance thinkgeek, an online store selling geeky toys for overgrown boys).

What’s Your F.E.F.?

Whether you’re a small business or a huge celebrity with a page on Facebook, we think it’s useful to check out your F.E.F. to get a sense of your engagement levels and whether you should be posting more on your page. Of course, you should take this and any other metric with a pinch of salt and measure it along with other considerations such as how much social media actually helps your brand and your sales.

Here at ReferralCandy, we have a Justin Bieber Rule of Facebook Engagement. That is, our F.E.F. has to be higher than Justin Bieber. Thankfully, our Facebook Engagement Factor of 5 is just above that of JB at 4. Take that, Baby!

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Alvinl is the marketing guy at www.ReferralCandy.com, the refer-a-friend app that increases your sales through word of mouth. In his spare time he loves geeking out on technology, psychology and economics news.

Image Credit: Birgerking

How Many Online Stores are there in the U.S.?

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Dinesh

Here at ReferralCandy we got to wondering how many e-commerce retailers there are in the USA and how much they make. Asking Google brought us some possible answers, but nothing about how they were derived, or why they might be the right ones. So we decided to look for numbers we could crunch ourselves to get a good guesstimate.

So where do we begin? We found this June 2012 article about the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide which had this nugget:

Overall, the Top 500 retailers have a 77% share of the $198 billion U.S. e-retailing market.

The Top 500 Guide also lists each retailer’s annual sales revenue. We plotted a graph of those 500 retailers and their revenues to see if there was anything useful we could find.

This is what we got:

That graph sure looked like it followed a power law. Could we figure out what the precise function was? After removing the top 10 retailers (since they were “noisy”) and asking Excel for a little help, we found a function with a pretty good fit:

That’s better. Now we’re getting close! Assuming that the power law held for retailers past the top 500, we now had a way of reasonably ascertaining the rank of any online store. Say we wanted the rank of someone running a side business making $12,000 a year. With a bit of math, we would be able to get the magic number of… 90,501. Plugging in a few more numbers would give us the following table:

Yearly sales of at least	Number of retailers
$12,000	90,501
$25,000	54,686
$50,000	33,983
$100,000	21,118

Our power law formula also gives us a way of estimating the combined revenue of all the retailers making less than $1,000 a month (spoiler: around US$1 billion!).

So if we only considered online stores making more than $12,000 in sales a year, that comes up to about 90,500 retailers with a combined revenue of $197 billion in the U.S. That’s more than the population of the Seychelles!

So there we have it. Stay tuned for more number-crunching adventures! And feel free to ask any questions.

Image Credit: bfishadow

SEO for the eCommerce Category Page

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Michael Gray

Retailers running eCommerce stores often under-utilize their category and/or department pages.

In this post we will talk about ways to maximize the contributions these pages can make to your overall SEO strategy.

Get the URL Right

Unless your eCommerce package was designed with SEO in mind, you will often find yourself with inelegant, complicated URLs that look like this:

example.com/dept.asp?dept_id=1234 example.com/dept.php?id=456&sort=price

Search engines have made tremendous strides in recent years in handling “complicated” URLs with parameters tacked onto the end. They have even come up with solution in webmaster central to let you tell them which parameters to ignore, and the rel=canonical to give Google the correct URL.

That’s no excuse for you to get sloppy though. You shouldn’t take search engines for granted, or expect them to do all the work for you. They do occasionally get things wrong, so it’s best not to have to depend on their guesswork/interpretations.

Instead, use simple category URLs like:

example.com/dept/bathroom-faucets/ example.com/kitchen-sinks/ example.com/kitchen-sinks/stainless-steel/

Use keywords instead of numbers. If it means the difference between ranking #2 instead of #4, it’s well worth the extra work. Other factors to consider:

Try to keep it between 3-5 keywords total
Use sub-folders and hierarchy where it makes sense from an information architecture standpoint, don’t do it just to add keywords
Use common characters as word delimiters whenever possible

Editorial Photos and Text

Most product and category pages use small thumbnails as links that lead directly to products.

If you want to increase your rankings, try adding an editorial “beauty shot” and some editorial text. Keep it at around a 100 words – long enough to weave a compelling narrative about your products and/or the lifestyle they promote, but short enough so that your products aren’t too far down down the page. Experiment with photos. Try using visually compelling images with some text mixed into them and see how they affect conversions.

Products and Thumbnails

You want to have editorial control so that you can control the default sorting order of your products, featuring your most important products first. Display a reasonable number of products by default – if you have more than 100 products per category, give consumers the ability to view all of the products at once.

Another nice feature is to give consumers the ability to sort by price, size, or other characteristics. When you add these shopping features you don’t want to create duplicate content with URLs like:

example.com/sinks/?view=all example.com/sinks/?sort=price

When you create this situation you create the potential for search engines to choose the “wrong” ordinal page. If you have to use URLs like that add the meta noindex tag, conditionally to those pages. A better solution is to use hashtags like this:

example.com/sinks/#viewall example.com/sinks/#sortprice

Search engines will not index URLs with the # symbol in them.

Secondly you want to make the thumbnail image a separate link from the name of the product. Both should be links, but create two HTML links, don’t wrap it in one link, it just makes things easier for the search engines to understand. Use the name of the product as the alt tag for maximum SEO value.

Internal Linking

Using breadcrumbs on all the pages in your shopping environment is a good way to increase the value of internal links, as long as you make the words links

Home: Sinks > Kitchen Sinks > Stainless Steel Sinks

However also try to create links in the editorial sections of your site as well. If you have a blog, put links in there too – but keep it natural and organic. Hard-selling blogs are a turnoff, and that’s ultimatately worse for you in the long run.

Page and File Size

Page speed and file size are currently one of the ranking factors in search algorithms. While it’s a second order factor, again it could be the difference between ranking #2 instead of ranking #4. Keep your images as small as possible, create thumbnails don’t resize using HTML, CSS or scripting. Keep JavaScript, Ajax and other scripting elements to a minimum, use asynchronous loading whenever possible, use remote files instead of inline code, and keep any inline code at the bottom of the page. Having hundreds of lines of JavaScript at the top of your pages is never a good idea. Use one remote file for each scripting type (CSS, JavaScript, etc), having multiple JavaScript files creates unnecessary calls and slows your pages down about 1 second for each file.

Takeaways from this post:

Keep urls as simple as possible without parameters
Use keywords in the urls instead of numbers whenever possible
Try adding editorial pictures and photos to make pages more compelling
Let consumers search/sort with parameters, just make sure you don’t create duplicate content
Link to the department/category pages from the breadcrumb area, editorial areas, and blog whenever possible
Keep the file size as small as possible and consolidate scripting elements to keep the pages loading quickly

Image credit: Shutterstock/Vlad_star

How Ecommerce Sites Can Use Video Marketing

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Michael Gray

Marketing your business, brand and products through the medium of video is certainly nothing new. Many companies have been doing this for years, albeit with varying levels of success. However, video marketing still has plenty to offer to businesses, new and old, small or large. In fact, if anything, it is becoming increasingly important.

Leading video sharing site YouTube recently announced that it receives over 4 billion views each and every day. That’s 770 videos being watched simultaneously every second.

That’s a huge audience. It exists, and it’s growing. Admittedly, many of the aforementioned views will have been for the latest music videos or ‘epic fail’ viral hits, but that doesn’t mean that ecommerce businesses can’t take advantage too.

The sweeping changes in the way that search engine results pages are presented have also helped to improve the visibility and effectiveness of videos. In the past year or so, greater prominence has been given to multimedia results on the pages of Google, in some cases even helping them to appear above organic results. Therefore, a successful, keyword-targeted video can be just as visible as the top ranked search results.

So what can an ecommerce site do?

There are plenty of online stores and brands that already employ some form of video marketing. Whether this is done in a strictly promotional capacity or as a means of demonstrating products and services, the effect can be much the same. Some potential applications include:

Branded adverts
Expert advice
Informational guides
Demonstrations
Celebrity endorsements

Videos can be used to supplement text or to demonstrate things that you would struggle to communicate with the written word. This is why hosting multimedia content on your product pages can be so effective, particularly when it comes to driving sales. However, you can also enjoy the double benefit that comes with publishing your content on video hosting sites.

Real-life Examples

There are plenty of sites that already take advantage of this. For example, Amazon now features previews for a number of games, DVDs and other products. GHD, who manufacture and sell a range of specialist hair care products, most notably ceramic tongs, have also successfully developed a strong identity on-site and on YouTube.

As well as promoting the latest collections, videos also provide practical demonstrations of products in action. In the above image, you can see that as well as a large image of the product, there is also a useful text description and a video, which visitors can view to establish how effective it is in action. For any customers who are undecided, this could prove pivotal in whether or not they make a purchase.

However, it’s not just on their own domain that GHD is able to demonstrate products and help those searching for hair styling tips. Their branded YouTube channel features adverts and video guides, all of which are created and managed by the company. Having achieved over 1.8 million views in the last six years, this has clearly been an extremely effective source of traffic and sales.

ASOS, a popular online clothing store, have created a community around their brand. An integral part of this has been the creation and circulation of videos. Their site features catwalk presentations of each product, giving visitors a 360 degree view of the garments on offer. Meanwhile their YouTube channel features dozens of exclusive videos, including the latest discounts and promotions as well as a regular magazine show. Not only does this help push sales, it also creates interest in the brand, helping grow loyalty – as evidenced by the 8.1 million views that their content has received.

When you go off-site with your video marketing, it is imperative that you get your branding right, just like ASOS and GHD. After all, if you were to create what is ostensibly just an informative guide without any direct association with your site or business, you are unlikely to reap the full benefit of this – regardless of how popular it proves to be. So don’t leave viewers in any doubt, ensure you have clear branding at the beginning and end of your video to help guide them to your site.

With the introduction of Google Search Plus Your World, content that is entertaining and interesting is going to enjoy even more visibility online. Search results will be tailored for individual users, based on the activity of their wider circle of online friends. So when someone shares a video, news article, blog post or image, this will be shown prominently on the results pages of their followers for related search terms. Consequently, if you can produce excellent content and market it effectively, you can enjoy unparalleled visibility within your target market.

Both the quality and quantity of content will therefore become increasingly important for businesses online. In the competitive world of ecommerce, it is vital that you give yourself every advantage possible. Video marketing can certainly be an effective part of a comprehensive strategy.

So what do you need to do?

Set up a branded YouTube page and also sign up for other video publishing sites
Invest in some decent AV equipment
Create a strategy – what are you looking to promote and how are you going to go about it?
Start recording
Publish on-site and off-site, with clear links between the two

The most important thing to remember is that you have to be confident about what you publish. If a video isn’t up to scratch or it doesn’t represent your business as you would choose, don’t set it live. Creating multimedia content can be a little hit and miss. Some things may be exceptional, others, less so. Knowing what to publish and what to rework is part of creating a cohesive and effective video marketing strategy.

Some will fail, some will succeed and some will fade off into obscurity. But videos, as with any published content, can have long-term benefits. Whilst it may initially fail to capture the online community’s imagination, in time it could accumulate significant views and conversions for your site. From the moment it is first published searchers can find, view and share it. Newer alternatives may come along and traffic may slide, but it will remain accessible until the day you decide to remove it.

So make sure you get a slice of the surging video market. The 4 billion views that YouTube now receives could just be the very tip of the iceberg, so there really is no better time to start producing and publishing video content.

The ReferralCandy Blog

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Tag Archives: Ecommerce