Robert Blaise

According to JupiterResearch, more than 77% of online shoppers seek customer product reviews before making a purchase decision. To meet this demand, manufacturers are increasingly adding ratings and reviews to their branded eCommerce sites. For example, clients in the competitive consumer electronics vertical currently account for more than 75% of all U.S. sales.These manufacturers are highly successful at generating reviews on their branded sites, providing them with an extensive archive of user-generated content that can be used in direct and channel marketing efforts. Companies such as Amazon have leverage the power of the consumer review and translate that into a powerful confidence tool for potential buyers.

Online retail spending in October grew by only 1 percent compared to October 2007, representing the lowest monthly growth rate since 2001, according to a report from comScore who began tracking ecommerce seven years ago. The report said that the softness in online retail spending was due in part by negative spending growth in households earning less than $50,000 a year.

I found a great article on a few simple questions that you should ask yourself that might help you inporove sales on your website:

Are you thinking like your customer?

Are your prices, offers, and terms easy to understand?

Are your pictures your best salespeople, or are they duds?

Have you marketed your website today?

Is your site easy to navigate? Is it easy to buy your products online?

So, you can thank Google for raising your online customers’ search expectations through the roof. The 900-lb. gorilla of Internet search delivers such quality results — in just tenths of a second, as the results page tells you — that online shoppers won’t settle for anything less than blindingly fast search results from thee-commerce sites they visit.

1.Are the results relevant?
2.Does your company have the resources required to run and maintain the site search?
3.Does the vendor give you control over the site search?
4. Will the vendor enable you to repurpose data from search?
5. Will the search solution constantly improve?

Frequently in my conversations with our clients the question of taxes for online purchase is brought up. The most common questions are; should I collect sales tax? do I collect based on the State? Am I required to pay taxes for online sales? I am not an internet sales tax expert however in my research what I discovered was that whether you need to collect sales tax depends on where both you and your customers are located. If your customers are in the same state as the physical location of your business, they owe sales tax on items they purchase from you.

For an excellent resource for information on state tax rates and rules, check The Sales Tax Clearinghouse, www.thestc.com. Click on the link to “state tax rates and DoR Web pages” to find a link to your state’s sales tax authority. You can also click on “LOOKUP RATES” to find the sales tax — state, county, local, etc. — for any address.