Here are several excerpts an informative article that appeared in Retailwire (free registration required), Creating a Unified View of the Customer:

In the world of web design, “conversion rate” is defined as the percentage of site visitors who visit a website and perform a desired action. This action can be different things to different people. In most cases, the site owner wants to make a sale or generate leads, but in most cases you will experience [...]

If you’re running an e-commerce website, improving the conversion of your product pages can have a dramatic effect on your bottom line. While many site owners focus the majority of their time on managing various advertising sources, focusing some time on optimizing your website for conversions can often yield even stronger gains.

Online retail spending in the first quarter of 2010 reached $33.9 billion, up 10 percent over a year ago, according to a new report from comScore.

Google TV was recently unveiled at the Google I/O Conference. For those of us watching online, it was truly fascinating to see what the future holds.

Depending on how well kept you are on the topic of e-commerce companies, you may or may not have heard of a Japanese online retailer called Rakuten. They’re the largest online retailer in Japan, and look to expand their business with the purchase of Buy.com. The deal was laid out all in cash, and Buy.com [...]

Although a number of factors come into play when a customer makes a buying decision on the Internet none other is more important than trust.
Ultimately customers choose to purchase from a given online retailer based on their ability to trust the transaction taking place. Therefore it should be no surprise that all successful business relationships [...]

How Does Your E-Store Compare?
Like many operators of online stores, I am constantly looking at our conversion rate.  How did our sales this week affect our conversion rate for the month?

Touchpoints serve as the point of contact between a buyer and a seller. As the race to socialize commerce escalates, these touchpoints represent the nodes that define the human network, connecting people across the social Web and uniting them around common interests, themes, and movements.

Imagine being able to shop online, and not having to directly pay for a purchase. You’ll still have to eventually pay, just not at the point-of-purchase. Instead, would you be interested in having the payment appear on your cell phone bill? Verizon is hoping you’d be interested, as they’rerolling out the option this spring.