Understanding Conversion

Walk into a room full of Internet retailers and everybody wants to talk conversion these days. And why shouldn't they? It's the last great battleground and foremost barrier successful online retailing.

Hot off the podium at the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago this week, Jeff Schuler of UsabilitySciences.com suggested a few considerations to which eCommerce sites should be paying attention when it comes to website conversion (at least as I understood it).

• Encourage account creation. Don't seperate what's most important to you. Your users and their money! Integrating newaccount creation within the checkout process has been shown to increase the average order value of a client over their user lifetime.
  
  
• Product images drive conversion. Buyers are seeking functionality to gain a better relationship with products and as such enhanced imaging is a key factor in driving conversion.
  

Here are a few other "Commandments of Conversion":

-- Comparisons are soooo helpful.
-- Make the add to cart button easily accessible.
-- Create an obvious path to checkout.
-- Fill their carts - must have at least one item.
-- Handling errors is imperative. Make it easy to correct.