The other day, I was comparing service providers, and one of them rejuvenated my passion for overengineering (or websites that are so fancy it hurts). The site loaded up quickly enough, but when I proceeded to scroll, it proceeded to boggle my mind by refusing my request. Turns out it was a fancy website with horizontal scrolling, which is cool—in theory. The temptation to make your website stand out is a good one, but many things are cool in theory only. I say this from an all-around user experience perspective, not just for tech novices. (And if you have horizontal scrolling, no flack to you ..read more

Is WooCommerce or Shopify right for your business? How is the experience of working with one different from the other? Maybe you’re scaling or upgrading your ecommerce platform. Maybe you’re thinking about switching from Shopify to Woo or Woo to Shopify. Or maybe you’re just ready for a redesign and want to make sure you’re on the right platform. Really, both platforms provide the features you need to build an effective online store, and both can accommodate scale. We can tell you which platform is more popular… WordPress, the application WooCommerce runs on, powers 43.1% of all websites. And ..read more

Wait…is 2023 over already?  If time has flown by so fast that 2024 is lurking around the corner, and you still have marketing budget yet to spend, don’t fret about the time machine that propelled you through a whole year. We’ve got you covered, so pause. Breathe. Now, here’s how you can level up and improve your website’s performance before the New Year.  You can add and cross them off your resolutions list if you’re feelin’ fancy. 1. Diagnose Now, Conquer Later Performing a website diagnostic helps determine the health and performance of your website. Going to the doctor once a year ..read more

‘Tis the season to save some hard-earned dollars and snag deals on website extensions to enhance your online store. Platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify rely heavily on plugins, add-ons, and apps to enhance functionality. Whether you’re looking to renew your license or implement new functionality (from product enhancements and checkouts to shipping and mitigating cache), we’ve got you covered with this round-up of active BFCM discounts—plus a few to keep tabs on. Checkouts & Payment Processing We don’t have to tell you how important the checkout and payment processes of you ..read more

Tracking ecommerce metrics helps you make data-informed decisions about your business, from your website and marketing to your inventory and overall offerings. They’re crucial to growth because they show you what’s working (what to do more of) and what’s not (what to improve or do less of). And sudden changes tell you when you need to take action, stat. Basically: Ecommerce metrics give you direction and confidence that’s further validated once you succeed. But after years of everyone telling you to collect data—always more data!—you’re likely inundated with the possibilities. Protect Against ..read more

Imagine you’re at a new theme park, looking to get from point A to B. “Start Your Journey,” a sign says with a big whimsical arrow. You walk in that direction, but another sign interrupts. “Don’t Forget a Souvenir!” it says. You follow the original arrow until more signs appear: “Satisfy Your Hunger” and “Sweet Treat, Anyone?” The next thing you know, you’ve strayed from your path. Likewise, you have to be smart about the ecommerce call-to-actions on your website. The Importance of How You Present CTAs on Your Website Calls to action influence behavior, guiding your leads to become paying cust ..read more

We recently wrote about featured snippets, but you want every opportunity to get in front of your customers’ eyes, which means your SEO should also include ecommerce schema markup. Schema markup organizes your website’s contents into structured data that helps search engines better understand your content and reward you with rich results. Rich results (once called rich snippets) are helpful information from pricing to reviews that are added to your standard search results. So, what makes schema markup and rich results valuable? And what types should be on your ecommerce website to make the mos ..read more

An improved checkout experience helps customers complete the purchase, but a poor experience can lose you the conversion. Customers want a fast and transparent ecommerce checkout process that offers support, emphasizes privacy and security, and provides detailed order information. The last thing you want is for a customer to change their mind about a purchase millimeters away from the checkout button. Consider these stats: The average cart abandonment rate is 70.19% as of 2023. The average ecommerce conversion rate is 2.04% as of August 2023. Mobile cart abandonment was 12% higher than deskto ..read more

In ecommerce, page real estate is everything. Ain’t nobody got time to tell a story. Well, one should tell a story—but your home page or collections pages aren’t the place for it. This rule might bend a bit if you’re a high-value products ecommerce shop, where romancing the product and justifying a purchase are factors. But when it comes to down-and-dirty D2C, product is KING. So, What About Above the Fold? Okay, let’s talk about it. Everyone is obsessed with the fold, so what is it? Does it matter? “Above the fold” is the first viewing window for the typical user on the typical screen. What d ..read more

Texting isn’t just for teenagers locked in a cyber romance who can’t go a few hours without talking. We can leave modern-day Romeos and Juliets out of the rest of this article, but we might be able to learn something from them. Just as teens can reach their friends and partners at the tap of a finger, ecommerce businesses can instantly reach their customers with SMS marketing. You may not be sending “i miss u :(” to your customers, but you may find that a message like, “We’ve missed you! Have you seen our deals lately?” is just as effective at engaging your audience. But SMS marketing is more ..read more