As winter continues to fend off spring, our topics of conversation dwelled on the need for affiliate marketers to focus their efforts on driving quality traffic, the pros and cons of implementing Bitcoin as a payment method for your online store, and how to move the needle on your email marketing campaigns. We also discussed the importance of providing great customer service and the role that timing plays in B2B buyer behavior.
On a lighter note, but one still chock full of important ecommerce lessons, we looked at Adobe’s take on measuring the right KPIs and tried to understand different ways to run an unsuccessful email campaign.
This month’s Ecommerce Digest focuses on Bitcoin and other ecommerce issues such as alternative business models, channel partners, and conversion rate optimization for checkout processes.
Bitcoin as a Payment Method
Bitcoin: A Legitimate Digital Payment Method? | eMarketer – The graph included in this blog post points to one of the main reasons we haven’t seen a huge uptake in Bitcoin adoption for ecommerce sites: most people don’t know what it is. Acknowledging the fact that several important ISVs and online retailers have implemented this new payment method, with the recent decision by the IRS to tax bitcoins like property, consumers may be more leery than ever of using it like a typical payment method or currency to trade for goods and services.
Going From Individual Products to Bundled Suites
Cisco Readies Shift In Enterprise Sales Model | CRN News – Although Cisco deals primarily in physical products for consumers and businesses, their recent decision to turn from selling individual products toward licensing bundled suites tailored to suit the various needs of their customers continues the trend of businesses seeking alternative models for creating value and revenue. Like Adobe and Microsoft last year, Cisco is trying to entice customers to submit recurring payments in exchange for broader capabilities. And like those companies, they will continue to allow customers to use the old model of buying individual products as needed.
Channel Partnerships
A Reseller’s Guide: Recipe For Channel Partnership Success | CRN Blogs – Resellers help software vendors in a number of ways. They offer access to regions where the ISV doesn’t have a credible presence yet, they function as a local support option, they help build awareness for products and also provide feedback from end-users. This post, also from CRN, serves up some useful guidance for how merchants and resellers can work together to build a mutually beneficial channel.
Conversion Rate Optimization
7 Proven Secrets of High-Converting Checkouts | Copyblogger This post starts out with the dismal statistic that most shopping carts are abandoned by visitors, and gives a number of reasons why this is so. The post then continues with seven suggestions for improving your cart conversion rate, including the ideas of making your prices less prominent, offering something free, and designing better account creation processes and form fields.
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