Voices

• Voice of the Retailer
• Expert Know-How

The Voice of the Retailer

eCommerce Know-How spoke to Christina Callas, VP of eCommerce at Lord and Taylor

Q. What is your company’s main focus over the next 12-18 months?

A. We are looking to aggressively grow Lord and Taylor’s online business, by both acquiring new customers and by improving the online shopping experience to increase conversion.

Q. What are the three most intriguing eCommerce trends right now?

A. 1) The opening up of websites to other retailers, as Sears and Walmart are doing with their marketplaces. 2) The battle of the private sales sites.  A lot of companies have entered that space recently. 3) That, despite the difficulties in the economy, eCommerce remains a strong growth area.  It will be interesting to see how different retailers capitalize on their digital businesses.

Q. What would be the best piece of advice you could give someone looking to build an eCommerce business?

A. Focus on the basics. Make sure you have the right team in place and that your operations are working effectively before you focus on the bells and whistles. Be certain that you have met your customers’ expectations before you try to exceed them.

Q. What are some of the tips and tricks you’ve learned about
improving checkout?

A. 1) Shop your own site. I always ask my mother to shop it, too. She’s not shy about telling me what I can be doing better. 2) Clean it up. Remove unnecessary clicks and buttons that just get in your customer’s way. 3) Talk to your customer. Give her the information she needs when she needs it – such as promo codes, shipping guidelines and return policies.

Q. Can you share any lessons learned the hard way about
improving checkout?

A. You don’t have to plan a costly and intrusive overhaul of your checkout. You can make small incremental improvements that can have a big impact.

Q. What was your first job?

A. My first job was hand-monogramming in gold the matchboxes at Macchus Red Fox, a fancy restaurant in my hometown. Incidentally, it was also the restaurant where Jimmy Hoffa was last seen alive.

Expert Know-How

Eye Tracking on Checkout

Jon Queen, CEO of El Toro Interactive shares insights on how cutting-edge eye heat tracking can drive significant improvements
in checkout.

Eye Heat Tracking in a Nutshell

Eye heat tracking analyzes the user’s responses and reactions to individual aspects of a page as well as the page as a whole. By taking pictures of each test subject’s eyes as they navigate through a website, “hot spots” (attention grabbers), “blind spots” (areas the user doesn’t see), the sequence of eye movements and amount of time fixated on an area are recorded. The tool then reads the user’s reactions to each aspect of a page in order to decipher their mood (interested, curious, confused, satisfied, unsatisfied, etc.). These results give El Toro the information needed to re-design the site and
improve usability.

5 Eye Tracking Tips to Encourage Purchases:

Arrange content into lists - Big blocks of text can overwhelm the user. Organized and concise writing lets the user quickly find the information they need to make them feel comfortable completing the sale.

Put the most important information at the top of the page - Most people scan a page in an F-shaped pattern. By putting the important content at the top, you can ensure that the user is reading what you want them to read to carry on with their purchase.

Don’t let images be the focus of attention - Information is generally the main goal of users. So let the most important content be more prominent on the page. Images should clarify nearby content, helping with
purchase decisions.

Use larger images - Smaller images tend to make the page look cluttered. You want users to be able to reinforce previously read content through images in which details can be picked out.

Leave Blank Spaces - Don’t clutter pages with text and pictures. By giving their eyes a chance to breathe, users won’t feel overwhelmed. This will allow them to digest the important stuff and feel confident in their understanding of the product to make the purchase.