Timing is Everything in Ecommerce During the Holidays

[mandy]

Interview with Shopster's CEO

ECT: In that hurried environment, what can merchants do to ensure they capture the maximum sales possible?

Samarasekera: You've got to provide the information people are looking for, and then make the trip to checkout as short as possible. It's best if it can all be on one page. If someone is buying an iPod, make sure all the accessories are right there.

Don't crowd out their main purchase with other options, though, you might actually cause them to surf somewhere else. You can actually hurt your own market by giving them too much to consider. It's easy to overload a consumer, with too much stuff on one page. There's a push to maximize real estate on Web pages, but it's a risk that you will maximize the real estate but minimize revenue. Show them how to get to checkout quickly. If you want to upsell or cross-sell them, look for ways to do it that don't slow them down.

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/8twGW46e...erce.xhtml