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Quote:...online retailers are confronted with one cold, hard fact. On average, less than 5 percent of visitors to a site make a purchase.

So while interest in various search technologies remains high, a greater amount of attention going forward is being placed on converting browsers into buyers. New technologies--many of them using what's called Rich Internet Applications--to make Web sites more consumer-friendly generated much interest at this week's Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition...

... you can bring consumers to the Internet, but you can't make them place an order; they have to want to do so. "Retailers are beginning to understand that," he said.

Some forward-thinking retailers already are moving in that direction, by showing the merchandise the same way as if a customer picked it up in a store and by reducing the number of clicks needed to select and purchase items.

They are offering more views of merchandise and improved zoom functions that enable consumers to see the fabric texture on a blouse or the controls atop a digital camera. They are showing items with related accessories on the same page and letting the customer check on whether an item is in stock without leaving the page. At checkout, thumbnail images of products are shown. The newest technology also includes drag-and-drop features that make it easier to add items to a shopping cart or have goods shipped to multiple addresses without going through a laborious process and several pages...