Tom Funk's Blog, page 11
July 14, 2009
When it Comes to Add-to-Cart Buttons, Bigger Is Better
My i-merchant column this month is on the benefits of honkin' big add-to-cart and checkout buttons. Size matters, baby!
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I just finished re-reading Steve Krug's usability bible, Don't Make Me Think , which I recommend highly for anyone responsible for making their website a success. Not only is Steve's design and navigation thinking impeccable, he's also a lively and hilarious writer, and the book's snappy, well-illustrated look is a conscious example of the web best-practices he preaches.
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June 25, 2009
Ann Clark Ltd., Biggest American Maker of Cookie Cutters, Launches New Website
Back in 1989, Ann Clark started out with little more than a pig-shaped Christmas ornament and a dream. After years of painting and creating small handmade gifts for her children to give away, she set up shop in her garage and turned a hobby into a business. In 1991, armed with a small amount of start-up cash and unbridled enthusiasm, Ann tackled her first trade show, setting up a booth at the Philadelphia Gift Show with six cookie cutter designs and several other hand-made crafts. She came home</>
May 19, 2009
SEO: Mark Up Your Products Using Google's New hProduct "Microformat"
Alan Rimm Kaufman offers a good post today on how to use the new hProduct "microformat" to mark up your ecommerce website's HTML to convey product data to Google.
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hProduct markup will enable Google to capture product names, brand names, categories, descriptions, URLs and photos, each in discrete fields -- similar in fashion to the Google Product Search (formerly Froogle) . The big difference, of course is that where you have to regularly, manually push a feed up to Google Product Search, t</>
May 8, 2009
eCommerce Growth Forecast at 11% According to Forrester and Shop.org
The "2009 State of Retailing Online" report recently issued by Forrester Research and Shop.org makes a fairly rosy forecast of ecommerce revenue.
The researchers predict 11% growth in sales for online retailers. In dollars, the growth would amount to $14.8 billion, bringing the total e-retail sales to $156.1 billion.
Percentage growth would be a bit off the 2008 pace of 13%, but it sure beats a sharp stick in the eye!
April 27, 2009
See You at the ACCM Conference
[image error]We'll be at the ACCM Conference May 3 - 7 in New Orleans, and look forward to learning a lot, catching up with old friends, and making new ones.
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Timberliners Bud Reed and Tom Funk will be present. Tom Funk speaks Wednesday alongside Jay Greenberg, ecommerce director of Spencer's Gifts, with an aptly titled presentation and Q&A called "Squeeze Better Performance From Your Website In Tough Economic Times." We'll present several case studies and A/B test results from real online merchants dem</>
April 25, 2009
Online Sales Are Up, Paid Search Is Down, Malls Are Disappearing
While bricks-and-mortar retailing is still mired in recession, Forrester and eMarketer tell us that online retail is bucking the trend: On average, ecommerce revenues are up 10%, year-over-year, for the first quarter of 2009.
However, that average number masks weaker performance by a sizable chunk of online retailers surveyed. While 58% reported sales increases, 42% reported flat or declining sales.
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Meanwhile, Internet Retailer reported NetElixir findings that total paid search traffi</>
