eCommerce blog by Groove Commerce

A Picture Says 1,000 Words, a Video Might Say 4,000

Robert Spangler — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:22:41 +0000

Great pictures are so essential for your eCommerce website. They literally sell your product, usually more than your description. We always let our clients know this because we know how much more successful they’ll be with professionally shot and edited product photos. Now, does the same go for product videos?

According to an interview with Brendon Sinclair he experienced a 300-400% increase in conversion using a video review versus a text review…and this was for a book. (more…)

Featured, Online Conversion, Online Sales Strategy

Highest Conversion Rates for March 2008

Mike Calabrese — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:59:00 +0000

According to Internet Retailer, below are the top ten converting online retailers for March, 2008, all of which had to have at least 500,000 visits during the month:

Office Depot, 20.9%
QVC, 19%
VistaPrint, 18.3%
Roamans, 18.1%
Lands’ End, 16.2%
eBay, 15.7%
1-800-Flowers.com, 15.5%
eBags.com, 15.3%
L.L. Bean, 14.6%
Pottery Barn Kids, 14.2%

What’s your conversion rate?

Google Faces Looming Threat

Mike Calabrese — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:07:37 +0000

The greatest threat to Google’s ad business may not be Microsoft, Yahoo, or Facebook, but rather the group of people they work so hard to cater their company to - their users. Here’s how: As mobile phone technology advances, more and more people are content to browse the internet through their cell phones. (more…)

Featured, Industry News, Online Marketing

eCommerce Site Analysis: SportsmansGuide.com

Mike Calabrese — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:11:18 +0000

I used to look through copies of my father’s Sportsman’s Guide magazine each time it arrived at our door. The contents were very appealing to a growing boy - fishing, camping, camouflage, and all sorts of fun outdoor and survival gear. Now that I find myself immersed in the wonderful world of eCommerce, I like to browse the outdoor retailer’s website, SportsmansGuide.com. Except instead of shopping, I’m looking to analyze the site from the perspectives of design and marketing and the overall effectiveness of the site in guiding me towards a purchase. Here’s what I’ve learned… (more…)

eCommerce, ecommerce review, ecommerce site analysis, eCommerce Web Site Design, Featured, groove commerce, sportmansguide.com

Wanted - A Good Intern!

Ethan Giffin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:39:42 +0000

It’s that time of year again and we are looking for a great intern to work with us on web marketing projects. Are you ready for the challenge?

Here are the details…
(more…)

Baltimore Web Marketing Intern Wanted, Cool Gigs, Featured, Groove News

eCommerce Site Launch: ShippingSupply.com

Ethan Giffin — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:04:33 +0000

Shipping Supply, an online retailer of shipping and packaging products based out of Sussex, WI, came to us a few months back looking to take their site to the next level. Their site was fairly well-optimized and came with a high conversion rate and top rankings in the search engines, making our job of taking it to the next level even more of a challenge. (more…)

eCommerce Web Site Design, Featured, Groove News, Uncategorized

eCommerce Site Launch: KidzMed.com

Ethan Giffin — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:54:55 +0000

We’ve taken a short break from blogging - but now were back with news on our latest launch! Kidz-Med, a multi-channel retailer specializing in children’s health care products, came to us looking for an eCommerce site to showcase their small, but highly popular product line. In conjunction with conversion rate marketing firm, Future Now, we were able to (more…)

eCommerce, Featured, Groove News, Uncategorized

I Need Your Help!

Ethan Giffin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:34:59 +0000

The Maryland General Assembly passed a 6 percent computer services sales tax during its recent special session. This new law will hurt businesses like us throughout the state. It stifles innovation, makes Maryland businesses less competitive than others, and slows job growth while pushing some jobs out of state. This tax could cripple growing companies like ours.

Please take a few minutes to visit http://www.MarylandNeedsIT.org. The site includes details about this new tax and quick and easy tools to help you contact your legislators.

I encourage you to learn more and take a few minutes to contact your state lawmakers to urge them to repeal this costly tax.

This is VERY important for Maryland’s future. Thank you for your help!

Groove News

How Does Your Conversion Rate Measure Up?

Mike Calabrese — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:24:39 +0000

Pit your eCommerce site’s conversion rate against the current average and see how you stack up. According to Fireclick, conversion rates across a large number of sites are as follows:
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eCommerce, Featured, Online Conversion, Uncategorized

New Site Launch: WorldwideShelters.com

Ethan Giffin — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:12:02 +0000

After a very short time off from the holidays, we’re back at it and launching more new and great sites! Our latest: WorldwideShelters.com. Read more about what we did for them below:

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eCommerce Web Site Design, Featured, Groove News

Latest Site Launch: MainBrain.com

Ethan Giffin — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:57:17 +0000

Our latest site launch is for Maryland-based computer services company, MainBrain. They provide PC and networking services to businesses and individuals throughout most of Maryland. So what did they want from us? (more…)

eCommerce Web Site Design, Featured, Groove News, Uncategorized

Top 11 Best Practices for Email Marketing

Mike Calabrese — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:27:28 +0000

New to email marketing? Not getting the return on investment or conversion you had hoped for? Study the top 11 best practices for email marketing from Groove and increase your ROI:

(more…)

best practices for email marketing, email conversion, Email Marketing, Featured

Free Consultations at Internet Retailer’s Web Design Conference!

Ethan Giffin — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:40:10 +0000

Think your eCommerce site could perform better? Let us tell you! We’ve been chosen by Internet Retailer to participate in their Web Design ‘08 Conference coming up in January next year. We’ll be heading down to Miami, Florida to give 12 lucky eCommerce site owners free consultations and reviews on their web sites.
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eCommerce Web Site Design, Featured, Groove News

Groove Launches SpectrumGrp.com

Ethan Giffin — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:15:53 +0000

Things are moving fast these days and our new website launchings are becoming more and more frequent. We’re launching a new website just about every two weeks now! Our latest work is SpectrumGrp.com, the official website of The SPECTRUM Group.

(more…)

Featured, Groove News, Uncategorized

Creating an Accessible Checkout Progress Bar

Robert Spangler — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:11:09 +0000

All websites (from content to commerce) should be as accessible as possible. I could get into a long series of paragraphed rants about that topic, but I’ll save that for another day :). For more on web standards and accessibility you can check out Roger Johansson’s write up.

One thing that is often overlooked in regards to accessibility and usability is the Checkout Progress Bar. This article is more of a tutorial for designers and front-end developers on how to build out an accessible Checkout Progress Bar without using hotspots or a large amount of images.

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Accessibility, eCommerce Web Site Design, Featured, Uncategorized

Are You Hiring Multiple Firms to Manage Your eCommerce Web Site?

John Richardson — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:03:15 +0000

Each day I browse through blogs about eCommerce Web Design, SEO, and Pay-Per-Click advertising, and what I find most surprising is that many continue to believe the best way to maximize their traffic and conversion is to hire two separate companies! Many believe they need a Design and Development firm to build their website (more…)

eCommerce Web Site Design, Featured, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

We Just Launched Another eCommerce Site!

Ethan Giffin — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:02:53 +0000

We’re happy to announce the completion and launch of yet another eCommerce website: MrMcGroovys.com. A specialty eTailer with a fully equipped eCommerce site has now taken the place of what was once a small arts and crafts website. We took a static html site with a few products and upgraded it to our highly customized version of ASPDotNetStoreFront’s eCommerce platform. Along the way, we made quite a few changes:

(more…)

eCommerce, Featured, Groove News

Groove Partners with Scan Alert’s Hacker Safe

Ethan Giffin — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:48:33 +0000

We’re happy to announce that we’ve recently formed a partnership with website security provider, Scan Alert, known primarily for for their widely-used security platform, Hacker Safe. You can see Groove on their Premiere Partners list here…

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eCommerce, Featured, Groove News, Online Conversion

Top 5 eCommerce Internal Site Search Pages

Mike Calabrese — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:36:44 +0000

How important is having an effective internal site search? Our preliminary data shows us that approximately 5% of visitors use the search function; and that’s on sites where the search box isn’t prominently featured. Even so, 5% is a big hole…and there’s lots of money to be found in it. I’ve picked out what I see as the top 5 internal site searches on the web today You should use these as a benchmark - take what these eTailers have done right and implement it into your own site…You’ll be surprised at the results See my top picks below:

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eCommerce, Featured, Online Conversion, Uncategorized

Optimizing Internal Site Search for eCommerce

Mike Calabrese — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:59:20 +0000

Internal search on any eCommerce site is a beast all on its own. What if visitors searches return no results? Will they continue to search or did you lose your chance at a sale? With Google recently rolling out its Site Search feature, many of us are getting more of an idea as to how many visitors actually take advantage of internal site search, what keywords they use, and of course - the overall conversion rate for internal searches. Now that we have this info readily and freely available, it’s time to start optimizing your eCommerce site’s internal search! Read my top suggestions below:

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eCommerce, Featured, Online Conversion, Search Engine Optimization, Uncategorized