How blogs, emails and social bookmarking can be used to drive conversions

To maximise visitor actions on your website - whether they go on to purchase with you or not - you first need to get them there. Then you can get them to take the actions you want them to take; be it place an order, opt-in to your email promotions or share a product or your content.

In order to build a relationship with your prospective customers (and maintain one with your existing customers), you need to communicate with them frequently. Blogs, email newsletters and social bookmarking are just a small number of the communication options you have.

Blogs

Blogging is something that every online merchant should be doing if they're not already. A blog can either sit on your domain, in a dedicated area within your website, or via any of the blogging software that's readily available on the internet. You can post blog articles about your business and the services you offer. You can talk about products, new arrivals, special offers, discounted deals, voucher codes, free reports and promotional videos.

Blogs are very powerful as part of an SEO strategy and rank extremely fast in search results. You can also synchronize your blog with your email newsletter, so that when a blog is created, newsletter subscribers are emailed alerting them of a new blog post.

Email newsletters and promotions

Generally speaking, your list will be split into two separate areas; 1) Front-end acquisition (before the sale) and 2) back-end marketing (after the sale).

1) The first email list is generated from an opt-in subscribe box on your website, be it in the template of the website or on a dedicated newsletter page. You can use basic ‘Sign up for our newsletter’ type text or you can push a free report, free 'how-to' guides or specific tips related to your products. Be creative for your specific website and products.

2) The second is a list of email addresses extracted from customer order information. Incidentally, when a customer buys from you they legally give you permission to contact them via email with additional, relevant information, products, promotions or special offers. In order to maximise your efforts to market to these people however, we would recommend that you ensure they’re still happy to hear from you.

When using the two email list model, legally you should display an ‘Unsubscribe’ link in the footer of emails you send out. If a recipient is not happy about you contacting them, they can simply click the link and they’re removed from your list.

How often should you email your customers?

The simple answer is as often as you can, but always provide information that is valuable to them. A word to the wise however; always test what works best for your business. The best performing campaigns we see are weekly or bi-weekly sends. If you bombard your customers too often with product offers, this can do more harm than good and your customers will unsubscribe from your email list and probably won’t return to your store in the future.

On-site articles

These are different to the SEO articles posted on article directories. They are of higher quality and are for your on-site visitors in addition to generating SEO traffic. Buyer’s guides, how-to and technical articles all written with persuasion to sell your products will rank well on the search engines.

Social bookmarking

Increasingly website visitors are using social bookmarking websites to communicate with one another, via websites such as Twitter and Facebook. So grab any of the free bookmark buttons available online and display it site-wide to ensure your content is as shareable as possible.

T-commerce: the next e-commerce revolution to “watch”

What is t-commerce, exactly?

If you look up t-commerce (or tcommerce) on a search engine, you’ll get results describing touch commerce (mobile), tablet commerce, Twitter commerce (we’re not joking), and television commerce.

Will the real t-commerce please stand up?

We won’t begin to argue that the other T’s aren’t valid. But on this blog, t-commerce denotes television commerce; anything to do with tablets is m-commerce (mobile commerce) and anything social is social commerce (unless it’s Facebook, which has already earned its own ‘F’).

T-commerce is exactly what you’d expect. It’s the use of television to facilitate transactions over the Internet. Research by PayPal in late 2011 found 49% of TV subscribers have an interest in purchasing goods and services through their television or other “screen” like smartphones and tablets.

From purchases or donations relevant to the programme being watched, through to coupons delivered during television ads, the likelihood is we’ll all have heard about t-commerce before too long. As new technologies emerge and more shows and television-related apps adopt in-programme shopping capabilities, we can expect even more innovation in the future.

Mobile commerce rises

Summer has finally arrived. And with the sunshine we all crawl out from under our duvets and hit the streets – and that means shopping, al fresco dining and generally enjoying everything the high street (and back gardens in some cases) has to offer.

Having all your potential online customers out enjoying the sunshine used to mean glum faces for eCommerce retailers (and some high street retailers too) as people’s minds weren’t generally on buying, but on baking (themselves).

But the growth in mobile as a commerce channel looks set to challenge this idea, as consumers are now more connected than ever (in theory, at least) and this opens up opportunities to sell to them while they sunbathe. Location-based mobile marketing, which can also take into account what your potential customers may be doing as they do it.

This is a significant step forward in the growth of mCommerce. Making it something that any business can do has the potential to turn mobile into a truly universal shopping and spending experience.

But while this is good news for consumers there is one big problem: connectivity.

While research from Forrester suggests that across Europe m-commerce is already netting some €1.7billion a year in 2011 and that it could hit €19billion by 2017, there is an increasingly wide disconnect (literally and metaphorically) between what consumers want to do and what they are actually able to do while out and about.

Research by eBay suggests that by 2016, the UK economy alone could gain some £4.5billion from mobile shopping, but this won’t happen until the networks are fast enough, cheap enough and available everywhere for consumers not to have to think about responding to an offer or whipping out their phone to buy something on a whim while they lick ice cream or surf on their smartphone from the comfort of their deckchair.

UK online retail market set to grow 13 per cent in 2012

A forecast by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) suggests that the UK’s online retail market looks set to grow by 13 per cent in 2012.

The prediction confirms the UK’s position as a global leader in the market, only behind the US in terms of market value.

The use of eCommerce websites, driven largely by the increased use of smartphone devices (and the availability of mobile commerce), accounted for an estimated 30 per cent of all pan-European orders being placed with UK retailers.

According to the IMRG, “British retailers export more than the rest of Europe’s e-retailers put together.” Last year, the IMRG’s research found that there were 228,000 UK online retail businesses, which is an estimated 30 per cent more than the year before. By 2015, this figure is expected to rise to 1.5 million.

We’d say that 13 per cent may be a little on the low side. We’re predicting growth of around 15-20 per cent in 2012 as more and more people embrace the latest technologies outside of the traditional desktop eCommerce website. Web visitors already know there’s great value to be found online, but now with smartphones including iPhones, Android and Blackberrys, consumers can easily purchase on the go at any time that suits them.

Third of UK internet users regularly purchase online

We reported in our enewsletter this week that a new study has found UK internet users make almost a third of all their purchases online – the highest proportion of any country in Europe.

IAB Europe, who conducted the study found that UK internet users spend 32 per cent of their total shopping budget online, followed by a quarter (25.4 per cent) of users in Germany.

The study also showed that nearly all (96 per cent) of European internet users conduct research online before purchasing, 87 per cent shop online and 19 per cent do all their shopping online.

In the six months between September 2011 and February 2012, UK shoppers spent an average of £620 (€765) which was the fourth highest in Europe across the six month period.

The study also found that 426.9m Europeans go online every week – or 65 per cent of internet users, with more than a third (37 per cent) accessing the internet using more than one device. Some 64 per cent, of 415.7m people, access the web via a computer, while 21 per cent (139.2m) do so via their mobile phone.

These figures support the view we’ve been putting forward for some time and it’s fantastic news for all online retailers. With the pervasiveness of mobile and sales coming through new online channels like Facebook, it’s no surprise that the UK internet economy is flourishing. Internet retailing in the UK currently accounts for around 13 per cent of total retail sales, a figure that continues to grow year-on-year. Looking at the current rate of growth, by 2016 we predict anywhere up to 25 per cent of UK retail sales will be made online, bringing in total revenue of £145bn.

Want to learn more?

If you would like more information on how PureNet can help your business maximise online revenue, please have a live chat with PureNet, email enquiries@purenet.co.uk or call 0845 625 2009.

Mobile sales break through 5 per cent barrier

We featured an article recently all about how transactions via smartphone (and tablet device) have broken through the 5 per cent barrier of total e-commerce sales for the first time. This is especially remarkable given that same figure was just 0.4 per cent two years ago. While it’s certainly true that the explosion in the availability and use of the likes of iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows devices accounts for this increase, the speed with which it’s happened has surprised even us. The increase in mobile sales we’ve seen for this quarter is really encouraging, particularly as it marks an acceleration in pace.

The figures come from the quarterly IMRG Capgemini Benchmarking Index, which also showed that the total number of visits to ecommerce websites experienced significant growth, reaching 11.6 per cent of total traffic, topping 10 per cent for the first time ever.

This pattern is mirrored by some of our clients, many of whom are seeing growth much higher than the reported 5.3 per cent of all online sales. Over the Christmas period, some of our clients were seeing 9-10 per cent of their total sales coming from the mobile channel. What our clients are also seeing is that the average value of transactions via mobile surpass those of their standard desktop e-commerce websites.

Much like the arrival of the first transactional websites back in the mid-90s, fraud has traditionally been a major concern and barrier to wider consumer adoption of new channels. Encouragingly the growth we’re seeing in mobile seems to be going hand in hand with a general decline in fraud and growing acceptance from the buying public that shopping via mobile is safe.

F-commerce well on way to becoming billion-pound marketplace

It’s something we’ve been saying for some time, but F-commerce is alive and well, and that’s been confirmed by a recent study. While the concept of selling via Facebook stores may still be in its infancy it continues to grow fast and it’s this growth that has companies (and us!) excited at just where it could go.

The study, which was conducted by surveying more than 60 online e-commerce merchants with an existing Facebook shop, suggests that the future for F-commerce is bright.

Just over two-thirds said they were seeing a healthy return on investment via their Facebook store. Even those companies saying their overall sales were ‘slightly improved’ or ‘no change’, were planning further investment in F-commerce in the next 6-12 months.

Although doubts have been cast over the future of Facebook retail, following some high profile F-Commerce store closures recently, an increasing number of companies are seeing massive returns by selling using the social platform as an additional revenue stream.

From what we’ve seen, it’s the companies that offer something other than an extended store-front of their standard e-commerce site that really stand out and are the ones blazing a trail for all others to follow. Add to that the fact that Facebook is already responsible for billions of pounds of third-party commerce transactions via apps and social plugins and you can hopefully start to share our optimism for F-Commerce.

In our view, the future of shopping is in Facebook and other social channels, because social commerce has the ability to personalise shopping, making it easy and fun for consumers to shop and share their experience with their friends in a familiar environment.

For F-commerce to truly develop into the billion-pound market it’s capable of becoming, companies need to understand that integrating e-commerce stores into Facebook is just the first step. The next step is to provide the right engagement and promotional tools, such as fan-exclusive deals and discounts, and a personalised shopping experience, adding value to the social shopping experience.

The smartphone is becoming the driving force behind changes in consumers’ purchase habits

This article was originally posted on 22 September, 2011

It’s no longer a fact online brands can ignore: the smartphone is becoming the driving force behind changes in consumers’ purchase habits.  An interesting study we came across recently finds that more than half of consumers who’ve made at least one purchase on their smartphone have done so based on a marketing message delivered to them via mobile email.

According to the figures, 16 per cent of smartphone owners have completed at least one purchase as a direct result of a marketing message they received on their handset and of those, 55 per cent have completed a purchase directly on their smartphone, 43 per cent have completed a purchase on their computer, and 35 per cent report purchasing in-store.

With more than 45 per cent of UK consumers owning and regularly using a smartphone to browse and buy online, these findings offer a valuable insight into the correlation between rapid smartphone adoption and the subsequent interaction with brands that sell online.  We subscribe to the assertion that by next year, smartphone sales will overtake those made through a computer.  Just as we saw the web evolve from solely a means of discovery to a purchase tool, the mobile internet is developing in much the same way.

While calling, texting and emailing remain the most frequent daily activities for smartphone users, the study also found consumers are increasingly using their smartphones for more than the basics.  More than a third (35 per cent) of smartphone users check Facebook several times a day on their smartphone and just less than that (34 per cent) have checked a bank account balance on their smartphone.  Only slightly less than a third (30 per cent) of smartphone owners have used their phone at least once to check in using location-based services like Foursquare or Facebook Places and 24 per cent have scanned a QR code or barcode on their smartphone.

It has been suggested that on average, people look at their phones 150 times a day.  Whether that statistic fills your heart with glee, or horrifies you probably indicates which side of the smartphone fence you sit on.  What this study does mean is that if you’re not thinking about taking your e-commerce solution mobile yet, you certainly should be.

Shopping almost entirely social experience

This article was originally posted on 29 September, 2011

This probably won’t come as any major surprise, but it’s been reported that consumers are far more likely to trust their friends and family than retailers, when it comes to deciding what to buy, according to research we’ve read recently.  This got us thinking about how important it is therefore to ramp up reviews and the visibility of ‘social shopping’ on your e-commerce website.

While 70 per cent of shoppers rate friends’ recommendations as important, just 28 per cent value recommendations from a shop assistant.  Nearly two-thirds value consumer reviews, and 35 per cent the media, the survey of 1,200 people found.

Social commerce and the use of mobile technology play an increasingly important part of the decision-making process for shoppers, with 39 per cent making a journey to Facebook when researching a purchase decision and 38 per cent reaching for their smartphone while browsing in a high street store.

Nearly 90 per cent look at consumer reviews before making a purchase, and more than two thirds said they had more confidence in those reviews when they could see bad as well as good reviews.  The value of independent feedback becomes even more important when shoppers are considering buying from small, or lesser known online sellers.

This latest research paints a fascinating picture of the buying process that is almost entirely based on social interaction.  It’s more likely therefore that someone making a purchase will trust the opinions of those closest to them.  As established social channels become ever more sophisticated, and new channels materialise, one trend that is emerging is the importance of influencing, rather than controlling the purchase process.  It’s not uncommon to see sales increases of more than 20 per cent where social content is put into practice in a useful way.  The responsibility is very much on the retailer to offer service that we want to tell our friends about.

Overcoming the challenges of SEO in e-commerce

This article was originally posted on 15 September, 2011

If you run an eCommerce store, then you will be aware of the challenges this type of website represent for SEO.  One reason for this is copy plays such a vital role in the optimisation process.  Because e-commerce sites typically have significantly less content than many other types of websites, they can face obstacles brochureware sites, for example, do not.  Add to that the fact that the content may be supplied by the product manufacturer and used verbatim across many hundreds of websites, it's a difficult issue to overcome.

There are a few elements that can put into practice that will boost your ability to get ranked highly.  However, you’ll need to start from the ground up.  Keep in mind that words on any part of the page or coding count as content.

Compiling the right keywords
The basis of any optimised website is the keyword list, because the search terms you choose to focus on will be used in every area of development from the navigational structure all the way through to the copy itself.
As you look through your choices, think of the structure of your site.  When you create a list of terms to use on each page, start broad and work your way to the more specific keywords.  For example, if your site sells soft drinks, you’ll want phrases such as [discount soft drinks], [soft drinks online] or [buy soft drinks] for your home page.

As you move through the different sections, select search terms that reflect what’s available on those specific pages.  It might be helpful to create a chart and on it list which terms will go where.  It makes keyword usage much easier to keep up with as you move through your site.

Do not use the same exact keyphrases on every single page of your site.  Equally, it is not good practice to cram as many keyphrases as you can onto every page of your site, as your site can be penalised for doing this, as many sites have found to their cost as a result of Google’s ‘Panda’ update in April 2011.  Each page gives you a unique opportunity to rank with the engines because each page stands on its own.  Select search terms specifically for the individual pages.

Site navigation and links
As you’re setting up site navigation, keep your keyphrases in mind.  You’ll want to create category and page names using keyphrases whenever possible.  Of course, length is always a consideration for navigation names.

When possible, also use keywords in your individual URL page links.  While this practice carries little if any weight with the search engines, Google recommend using keyphrases with dashes in URLs.

Breadcrumb trail
This is a very important SEO and usability feature to add to your site.  Breadcrumb trails look like this: Home > Fizzy Drinks > Cola.

It helps visitors see where they’ve been and where they are now.  It’s also creating long-tail keyphrases of sorts, something the web crawlers as well as customers can follow easily.

Alt tags and image attributes
Another often overlooked area to include keyphrases in, is the text used in both alt tags and image attribute fields counts the same as anchor text used in your copy.  Remember that the keyword-rich descriptions you include in alt text and image attributes apply to the image they’re related to.

Compelling copy
Good copy is vital for many reasons.  Yes, it helps you with search engine rankings, but it also helps get your message across to your site visitors.

The biggest mistake ecommerce site owners often make is not using copy to engage with visitors.  They look at copy as the enemy: something they have to include for the sake of the engines.  But well-written, optimised copy can quickly convert browsers into buyers.  As you write copy for each page, include keyphrases in your headlines.  Google and other engines give particular importance to headlines and header tags (e.g. H1) so include search terms if at all possible.  In addition, work keyphrases naturally into your category page copy as well as individual product descriptions, using specific search terms.

It takes time and planning to build an ecommerce site with content that’s truly engineered to rank highly.  However, if you adhere to the steps above, you’ll find success comes much easier.

Time to believe the F-commerce hype

This article was originally posted on 6 October, 2011

We read recently that Facebook commerce, or ‘F-commerce’ could reach a value of £30bn by 2015.  We know that estimated figures should always be viewed with caution, but however you look at it, F-commerce represents a massive opportunity for organisations wanting to grasp the nettle.

Facebook has more than 30 million users in the UK (that’s half the British population), and we’re already starting to see the social network turning into a mini-internet in its own right.  Your potential customer can get everything they need without ever having to leave the platform where they are spending their leisure time.

While there is a school of thought that suggests businesses should concentrate on driving interested customers to their own websites, to ignore F-commerce as merely a fad would be foolish.  As an e-commerce platform it’s far more than a distraction from selling, but rather should be seen as something that complements your standard e-commerce site.

Facebook also offers businesses the chance to get close to consumers who are passionate about their products.  After all, if a consumer “likes” your brand’s page or store, they are far more likely to buy something from you.  We’ve seen both sides of the “the value of a like” argument, but the way we see it is that you are selling to people who want what you have to offer.

F-commerce is and will continue to be a powerful tool in a retailer’s arsenal, as imperative as an e-commerce solution is today.  It is certainly important to do it for the right reasons, but F-commerce certainly isn’t just hype.

M-commerce satisfaction rates on the rise

This article was originally posted on 13 October, 2011

We’ve all heard the noise being made about mobile, more specifically, mobile commerce or m-commerce.  What’s more encouraging is that shoppers using mobile technology to make purchases are starting the see the same features as those they see on full-blown e-commerce solutions, which is all great news as it’s helping boost satisfaction rates.

The companies that are at the forefront of developments of mobile technology are the ones that are seeing the greatest returns.  We’re not saying for a moment that everyone who currently offers a mobile solution for their e-commerce business is doing it right, but satisfaction levels across the mobile journey are beginning to more closely echo those of e-retail websites, especially when it comes to site search and navigation.

Where mobile e-commerce sites are falling down is during the basket and checkout processes.  Again, this isn’t the case for every company offering a mobile optimised website (not at least for the ones we’ve used) but what this highlights is when it comes to mobile e-commerce design, companies need to start thinking about the entire buying process, from initial browsing right through to purchase.

A huge number of shoppers have flocked to mobile-optimised websites in the last year, with a range of figures between 30% – 50% of shoppers accessing retailer’s websites via their smartphones.  UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) recently suggested that UK retailer’s mobile-optimised sites lead the world in download speeds.

Coinciding with the huge uptake of smartphone handsets in recent years, we’ve seen encouraging developments in the entire end to end customer journey on mobile sites and quite rightly, shoppers are less forgiving on bad mobile experiences as a result.  They expect the same level of functionality as can be found on a retailer’s standard e-commerce website, but they want it to be optimised for their mobile handset.

Optimising articles to generate business

This article was originally published on 27 October, 2011

A single highly-linkable article can attract tens – sometimes hundreds – of links from relevant and valuable sites.  By making that article sell, you’ll potentially drive a similar number of leads that come pre-qualified and ready to talk business.  How then do you merge the practice of creating linkable content and the strategies of content marketing to maximise the value of your publishing efforts?

The core task of appealing to your market with content is to understand its needs.  Thinking about your market needs in terms of content, and not goods or services can sometimes prove difficult.  In short, your content needs to:

•    Help meet an aspect of your market’s needs through information or guidance;
•    Always remain factual and helpful and engage with your potential audience;
•    Target key stages of the buying cycle.

Relevant links from targeted sites
Addressing your market’s needs with informative content increases the likelihood that it will be “linkworthy”.  Just because a piece is informative doesn’t mean it will be highly-linkable.  It’s important that your content appeals to the most important and influential people in your market.  This means you need to determine who these individuals are, and identify what gets them linking.

Content that creates leads
Creating linkable content that meets your market’s needs is a good start, but you must be sure to sell your company.  This statement shouldn’t be taken as encouragement to pitch your products and services, but rather to write on topics that illustrate your professional competence, knowledge, or expertise along with the core values of your organisation.  You may find that in the process of communicating the values that make your organisation unique you end up with content that’s more linkable and more likely to generate leads.

Link baiting
This is the sphere in which “link bait” (any content or feature within a website, designed to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website) often misses the mark.  Especially when targeting the multitude of mass market distribution networks for attention acquisition.  Building links with content that isn’t relevant to your target market can lead to brand confusion and ineffective visits.  Though you’re unlikely to pick up links quickly, by creating and distributing content that appeals to your target market, you ensure an experience that resonates with your company’s brand, values and capacity for meeting your market’s needs.

The words you put on a web page have no life of their own until they get read.  And those same words will not gain prominence in search engines until the words are linked to by relevant, authoritative sources.  Creating compelling content is a long-term strategy that will add value to your overall goal of converting site visits into revenue.

Fans on social media networks more likely to purchase

This article was originally published on 10 November, 2011

In our e-newsletter last week, we featured an article about how Twitter and Facebook users who follow companies are more likely to buy from those brands, and in turn more likely to recommend them to their friends.

Although it didn’t come as a shock to us that a user is more likely to make a purchase from the brands they follow, the high level of brand loyalty was surprising. The study into the habits of Twitter users found that over half of men (55 per cent) and 45 per cent of women were more likely to purchase from a company they followed. Followers on Twitter are more likely to recommend a few (42 per cent) or many (18 per cent) of the brands they follow to their friends.

The reasons why Twitter users choose to follow a brand included the fact that they were already a customer (64 per cent), to receive brand information first (61 per cent), for discounts or promotions (48 per cent) or to receive exclusive content (36 per cent). The study also found that Twitter followers tended to be younger, with 26 per cent of users under the age of 35 following brands, compared with 17 per cent of those aged 35-49 and 13 per cent of those aged 50+.

These findings were mirrored in separate research into the Facebook habits of some 1,500 consumers. The research found that respondents were more likely to recommend companies to their friends after becoming fans themselves, and that they were more likely to purchase products or services from brands after becoming fans.

With the introduction of Google+ for brands this week, which is Google’s attempt to take on the dominance of Twitter and Facebook, there’s now another major player on the social network scene offering companies a new way to connect with fans of what they do – and potentially – turn those fans into loyal customers.

Social commerce is growing rapidly – nearly half of Twitter followers and a little under a third of Facebook users have been active for less than one year. Our own research indicates that users generally are getting more active with brands on social networks, with one third interacting with companies more this year than last.

What this tells us is that web users generally don’t mind being marketed to, providing that they have agreed to the nature of contact, and perhaps most importantly with any aspect of social commerce, the content is relevant to them.

Lots of traffic, little revenue? Five tips to turn visitors into buyers

This article was originally posted on 3 November, 2011

If you’re running an e-commerce website then chances are for your business, visitors are your potential customers. Undoubtedly, driving a lot of traffic to your site is a great thing. So, how do you better convert your current, thriving web audience into qualified sales leads or actual buyers?  Five ways you can monetise your website more effectively include:

1.    Make your special deals stand out

When you first set up your business, you probably attracted traffic by offering quality content. That’s a great start, but if you’re aiming to make sales, you need to get these people to take an action. One way of achieving this goal is to signpost visitors to your special deals and promotions by giving them added prominence on your home page or landing pages.

2.    Limited offers create a sense of urgency

Reward your most frequent visitors by offering a special deal. By making these offers time, or quantity-restricted, you’re more likely to appeal to your frequent, rather than occasional visitor. Offering a series of exclusive deals is likely to get visitors excited about what’s coming next, and you can track the performance of these deals to help you run future promotions.

3.    You don’t get anything unless you ask

You may find that your most loyal visitor simply likes what you’re doing, or appreciates the expertise you offer. Since they already like what you do, you could test asking your loyal followers for referrals. Consider giving a free gift to those who refer your business via social media or an affiliate programme to incentivise referrals. In the end, this technique will likely be worth the additional cost.

4.    Offer premium content for paying subscribers

If you have a lot of subscribers, they clearly like something you’re doing.  Offer premium content or a premium newsletter that only paying subscribers can get.  Do not ask current subscribers to start paying for something you used to give away for free, but simply create something new that comes at a price.

5.    ABT (that’s Always Be Testing!)

The biggest mistake you can make as a business is not taking the time to analyse how the visitor journey through your website can be improved. Be sure to check that once your visitors get to your e-commerce website they know where to go to make a purchase or sign up for a service. Test and refine these processes (particularly basket and checkout) until you find layouts which produce greater leads or revenue.

PureNet is an award-winning provider of e-commerce solutions, digital marketing and application development. Customers choose PureNet for its ability to design, build, manage, market and integrate business-led solutions that add significant competitive value to their day-to-day activities. You can follow PureNet on Twitter @PureNet, or find out more by visiting www.purenet.co.uk.