We’re looking forward to a fun and insightful time with some great people.  Hope to see you out there!

Let’s start with a little background.  Market research is usually divided into two types based on the methodological approach used: qualitative and quantitative research. Both of these approaches have their key advantages and disadvantages. As such, some types of data can be easily obtained from one type, while it may be downright impossible to identify from the other.

With quantitative research, a person can easily obtain data from a large sample group and focus their inquiries to get very objective responses. Thus, conclusions based from quantitative research have a high degree of probability and often hold true to the entire population. However, there are also several downsides to quantitative research. These can be classified into three general areas: complexity, cost, and time. Conducting quantitative research often requires a high degree of proficiency, as well as costly and time-consuming data gathering methods. Moreover, because of the objectivity of the responses required in quantitative research, the participant can often feel constricted in the answers he can give. Take a simple survey for example. In a question where a participant must check off one or more reasons why he dislikes a particular product, what if the participant’s reason is not provided in the given check list?

Open-endedness is the primary advantage of qualitative over quantitative research.  If you’ve ever been interviewed for a job, then you’ve participated in qualitative research. Moreover, this type of research is also much cheaper and can also be conducted much faster than its more rigid counterpart. However, the precision of the data gathered through qualitative research rests largely on the ability of the conductor. In a job interview for example, the interviewer will often base his conclusions on not only the interviewee’s answers, but also on how he says them, his body language, and other nonverbal cues.

The traditional focus group

A focus group is form of qualitative research that essentially functions like a group interview. The participants are often asked open-ended questions on their opinions on a product, service, marketing campaign, or any other company concern. According to Lindlof and Tylor, authors of Qualitative Communication Research Methods, one of effects of group discussions is that it produces data and insights that would be less accessible without interaction found in a group setting—listening to others’ verbalized experiences stimulates memories, ideas, and experiences in participants. This is also known as the group effect where group members engage in “a kind of ‘chaining’ or ‘cascading’ effect; talk links to, or tumbles out of, the topics and expressions preceding it.”

The online focus group

Thanks to recent advances in technology, conducting online focus groups has been a growing trend in market research.  These online group discussions work by inviting a random sample from a large group of pre-screened individuals that represent the target market to log into a web conference with a focus group moderator. Once the group has assembled, the moderator then guides the flow of discussion using a set of prepared questions and unscripted ones. Meetings usually last from around sixty to ninety minutes, and are often viewed from a virtual backroom by other company representatives acting as observers. If the market research was outsourced, the research company’s clients would act as the observers. The observers in the virtual backroom are invisible to the participants of the web conference.

The benefits

There are several benefits online focus groups have over traditional (face-to-face) ones. Here are a few:

• Cost. Online focus groups are often much cheaper since it eliminates the need to transport, lodge, and feed participants. Savings are most significant when company’s actually need to a focus group of participants from different parts of the country.
• Time and convenience. Since everything is done in front of a computer screen, the researcher and participants will no longer need to travel to the research venue. They can, therefore, avoid a lot of wasted time and inconvenience involved in travelling. Moreover, this also makes the research much faster to conduct. Time saved from research can often mean a strong competitive advantage for the client if he gets to introduce a new product or service to the market before his competitors.
• Suitable for some products and services. Conducting interviews via computer can easily help you get closer to a specific market demographic: technology-savvy individuals. If you want to conduct market research for a website or other online service, online focus groups can help you get very accurate results.  Participants are even known to answer personal questions more freely when in an online focus group. This has mainly been attributed to the anonymity participants often feel when they’re behind a computer screen.

The downside

However, because of the limited interaction of online focus groups, moderators will often find it harder to interpret nonverbal cues from the participants. This is especially true when trying to interpret body language. Unlike traditional focus groups where the moderator can easily identify cues like seating position (whether laid back or listening in) and hand gestures (whether crossed or open armed),  he is only confined to facial expressions and speech patterns.

Pro Tip: Usertesting.com

At Redstage, we have had a very high level of success with this variant of online focus grouping.  For only $49 each, you receive video and audio of a live person combing through your website and discussing any problems they face.  You can provide questions and scenarios to guide the test and even narrow down the users who will perform the tests based on demographic information.

We advise that you purchase at least 10 users for the test, which puts the entry cost for online focus grouping at a very low $500.   Visit usertesting.com here.

Sell More Things, To More People, In More Places Than Ever Before

Kount helps online businesses boost sales by reducing the risk associated with fraud allowing them to accept more orders. Kount’s all-in-one, SaaS platform is designed for ecommerce retailers operating in card-not-present environments, simplifying fraud detection through an incredibly accurate, automated process dramatically improving bottom line profitability. Merchants using Kount can accept more orders from more people in more places than ever before.

For each transaction, Kount’s “decisioning” engine analyzes hundreds of relevant variables and activity across the globe in real-time providing the most accurate fraud prediction available.  Kount applies a multitude of proven and proprietary technologies based on the specific needs of each customer reducing and many cases eliminating the need for manual review of orders.

Kount provides a single, turnkey fraud solution that is easy-to-implement and easy-to-use. Kount’s proprietary technology has reviewed hundreds of millions of transactions and provides maximum protection for some of the world’s best-known brands.

Boost Sales, Beat Fraud

Here are a few results from recent case studies:

CDBaby – The world’s largest independent music store on the web

• Reduced fraud by 90% within 30 days with no reduction in sales
• Reduced Losses due to fraud from $26,000/month to $850/month
• Reduced chargebacks from 2.6% to 0.1%
• Expanded marketing & sales opportunities

BustedTees – Fun, pop culture tees

• Reduced chargebacks from 2% to under 0.25% and stopped the $5,000/month chargeback fines
• Allowed more orders to be accepted resulting in a 5% increase in sales
• Opened 30 new markets thought to be too risky before Kount was installed
• Reduced the number of manual reviews needed dramatically

Take a look at the Kount video to see how their fraud platform protects their customers.

http://www.kount.com/campaigns/boost-sales-video

For more information about Kount, please visit www.kount.com

http://www.magentocommerce.com/media/webinars/conversion-engineering-tiny-tweaks-huge-reward/

Originally Aired: Dec 5, 2012

Join Adam Morris, Co-Founder and CEO of Redstage Networks, as he dives through top site optimizations that increase sales. Adam and his team are seasoned professionals in internet marketing, and he’ll be sharing some valuable tools in their toolbox.

He’ll educate you on many of the conversion optimizations that commonly have the biggest impact, showing you areas of focus that will maximize your efforts. In the process, you’ll also get a vocabulary lesson on the proper terminology used by the pros.

Takeaways:

• See the top tweaks that increase sales
• Learn the terminology that the pros use
• Understand the next steps to increase your conversion rate

With Intelligence Events, Google Analytics allows you to quickly view and define big events in your website’s traffic. Pair this service with Custom Alerts which let you receive timely notifications whenever these events occur, and you’ve got a very efficient virtual assistant that’s on the job 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

The Google Analytics blog defined the services as:

Analytics Intelligence: We’re launching the initial phase of an algorithmic driven Intelligence engine to Google Analytics. Analytics Intelligence will provide automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly and monthly periods. For instance, Intelligence could call out a 300% surge in visits from YouTube referrals last Tuesday or let you know bounce rates of visitors from Virginia dropped by 70% two weeks ago. Instead of you having to monitor reports and comb through data, Analytics Intelligence alerts you to the most significant information to pay attention to, saving you time and surfacing traffic insights that could affect your business. Now, you can spend your time actually taking action, instead of trying to figure out what needs to be done.

Custom Alerts make it possible for you to tell Google Analytics what to watch for. You can set daily, weekly, and monthly triggers on different dimensions & metrics, and be notified by email or right in the user interface when the changes actually occur.

Intelligence Events

In other words, Intelligence Events has two very important functions: it analyzes the data for you and calls your attention to the most relevant ones. Although we haven’t found much information on how the Intelligence Events algorithm works, it’s clear that the system takes a lot of variables into consideration, which really isn’t surprising when you consider that the system was made by Google. What’s more is that the system’s design and user interface, also sticks to what Google does best: simplicity and intuitiveness.

Custom Alerts

Custom Alerts is also a very useful service. In the age of information, speed and accuracy are everything. Custom Alerts keeps you informed of anomalies in your websites traffic all day, every day. This means that you’ll be able to take quick action whenever you might experience a sharp rise or drop in traffic.

If you use Google Analytics, you should really try giving both Intelligence Events and Custom Alerts a shot!

Each month we feature a partner company that has produced great results for our clients. This month we’ll be discussing the leader in transactional Sales Tax Automation and Compliance, Avalara.

States are becoming more aggressive in defining requirements for eCommerce stores to collect sales and use taxes.  California and Pennsylvania have become the latest states to not only redefine which businesses must collect, but are increasing enforcement efforts to ensure compliance.

A Simple Solution to Complex Sales Tax Compliance Challenges

Avalara’s AvaTax provides a simple solution to a very complex problem, minimizing your compliance risk in an environment where state and local governments are looking for every dollar they can find, and are even hiring more auditors for enforcement efforts as they tighten and change sales tax rules.

The rules and regulations around who needs to collect sales tax, where they need to collect it, what products, services or customers are exempt, when to report and remit payment, and how to stay current are ever-changing. States expect you to be responsible to keep up with these   changes, no matter how you may have been notified.

Avalara’s services eliminate your need to take on the management of your sales tax systems.  The AvaTax Calc service includes:

• Secure web-accessible dashboard for access to store data and settings in AvaTax system
• Accurate sales tax calculation to roof-top with address validation and reports
• Managing Updates to Rules and Regulations

Accurate and Correct Sales Tax Calculation

AvaTax uses geospatial technology to map and identify sales tax jurisdictional information, which provides a much more accurate result than zip code tables can provide.  Avalara is constantly updating their service with the latest jurisdictional and product taxability information, and is automatically up-to-date in the store shopping cart.  No more need to manage a server for sales tax, or download, update or manage monthly rate table changes. Avalara also includes as part of the service Address Validation, which ensures proper tax treatment specific to that address and a verified shipping address.

Rich Reporting Capabilities

AvaTax provides access to all of the store(s) sales tax information that has been run through it broken down by state, county, city, special taxes, product, and other different scenarios. You can even export that data to a spreadsheet or xml file.  This makes it simple to hand off the necessary information you need for filing your required tax returns or for use in an audit situation.

Webinar – October 25th

We will be doing a webinar to show you how to conquer your tax challenges with Avalara on October 25th.  Stay tuned for details.

Emailvision powers smart email, mobile and social marketing with built-in customer intelligence. The Emailvision mission is to provide excellence in software and services for online relationship marketing. With offices and client service teams in 22 countries, Emailvision delivers 500,000 marketing campaigns every month on behalf of 3,300 clients worldwide. This unprecedented quality of service is driven by 12 years of research and development and by Emailvision’s 700 passionate employees.

Emailvision offers The New Way to Automate your Relationship Marketing  – powered by Customer Intelligence:

 Campaign Commander Enterprise Edition enables marketing professionals to reach audiences with targeted messages that significantly improve campaign conversion rates and profitability. Key product features allow marketers to take control of their customer data to execute relevant marketing campaigns across email, mobile and social channels.

The new way to discover business opportunities in your customer data

Customer Intelligence

Customer Intelligence enables marketers to rapidly explore detailed profile data including purchase behavior and responsiveness to past marketing campaigns. Millions of records can be analyzed in seconds with drag and drop features that make data analysis easy-to-use and highly accessible for online marketing teams.

The new way to manage and deliver your email and mobile campaigns

Email and Mobile Campaign Management

The intuitive features in Email and Mobile Marketing move marketers from the basics of campaign execution to more advanced tactics in online relationship marketing. Now fully integrated with Customer Intelligence, campaigns can be executed with targeted ‘smart segments’ that generate higher response rates with every campaign.

The new way to generate business with social marketing

Social Campaign Management

Social Marketing in Campaign Commander allows marketers to execute synchronized marketing campaigns across all of the major social media channels. Marketers can accelerate their social activities, manage highly dynamic communities and measure the business impact from social campaigns.

For more information, see www.emailvision.com

Are Men and Women equals when it comes to shopping?  The answer, unsurprisingly, is – definintely not. While much has changed in recent years, there are still some behavioral aspects that set these two genders apart. What this article is primarily tackles though is the difference between online buying behavior between men and women.

Despite the apparent gender equality in the workplace, stereotypes are still very prevalent in the household. A lot of families still see the male as the provider, while women (although they may also work) are still tasked with shopping for the family. As such, it really is no surprise that women dominate online retail.

Women spend approximately 20% more time browsing through shopping sites online than men. While some key categories like sports, electronics, and outdoor goods are still predominantly controlled by men, women lead almost every other retail category.

What’s more, women don’t just spend more time shopping online. They also spend significantly more money on most categories for online purchases.

As an e-commerce retailer, it’s important to not only know who your audience will most likely be, but also the factors that will affect their purchase decisions. If you’re targeting women for example, you should know that women take coupons much more seriously than men. In fact, 68% of women shoppers (vs. 60% of male shoppers) are likely to use coupons when they want to save money while shopping online. They are also more likely to shop when there are sales (49% vs. 36%), and sign up for incentive programs (33% vs. 23%).

However, one of the advantages men hold over women when it comes to online shopping is their dominance of the m-commerce market. Although there are several factors that affect this, such as the fact that men are more likely to own a smartphone than women, the point is that e-commerce merchants who focus their efforts on the mobile market should definitely cater their services to better deal with the needs of the male audience.

The two genders also approach online shopping differently. Males tend to stick to whatever mission they assign themselves when they shop online, whereas women tend to wander among different product categories. Before deciding on a purchase, men tend to search for information on the particular product’s page, while women tend to just scan the information before moving on to the next potential product. This often leads to more impulse purchases from women than from men.

Additionally, women also depend on social media more than men when making a purchase decision. Women are also much more likely to recommend a product to friends and family on a social networking site (35% vs. 28%).

Lastly, despite the apparent differences in shopping behavior though, Shoppercentric, a UK based research firm, claims that the younger shoppers, whether male or female, display mostly identical shopping patterns.

So what do all these facts and figures mean for an e-commerce merchant?

First off, if you are providing a product or service primarily for men, it’s better if it’s within the male-dominated categories. When presenting your product, make sure to give accurate and detailed descriptions of your product. Show why you are superior to your competition and provide customer reviews and testimonials proving it.

On the other hand, if you’re product or service is for the female demographic, it might be better to make your site more interactive. Give the users a chance to communicate with one another via chat, forums, or reviews. Pay particular attention to ease of navigation, filtering, and sorting. You might even want to pay more attention to creating promotions and sales in order to give female purchasers more incentive to choose your product over your competitors.

If you are catering to younger shoppers, you might want to give them detailed product information, customer reviews, and opportunities for social interaction.

Redstage clients have seen dramatic improvement in conversion rates, especially in conversions from search, with Celebros technologies.  We’re talking an increase on search users from 2.3% to over 20%.  Yes, that kind of increase.

Who is Celebros?

Celebros, Inc. is the global leader in e-commerce site-search, merchandizing and conversion technologies for online retailers.

Founded in 2000, Celebros revolutionized e-commerce by creating intelligent, concept-based search for online stores. Since that time, Celebros has emerged as the industry leader in conversion technologies, developing a cutting edge search solution that employs the most advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology available.

Celebros customers include over 450 e-commerce retailers and merchants with over 1,200 websites in eleven countries. A number of these are among Internet Retailer’s Top 100/500 companies and represent a broad range of industry segments, revenue and catalog sizes.

The new Celebros ConversionPro V8 suite of Conversion Technologies is the ultimate solution for optimal site-search, navigation, dynamic merchandizing campaign building and management, LiveSight analytics including user action based reports, cross-sell and product finder tools, and many other action rich features specifically designed to provide e-commerce professionals the best tools for their daily conversion management.  Shattering the e-commerce industry’s status quo, Celebros’ Conversion Pro V8 includes 13 conversion enhancing tools, products and features designed for e-commerce professionals with the sole goal of dramatically increasing conversions.

Partner of the Month Webinar

This month’s webinar, currently scheduled for July 24th, will introduce you to some of the most effective technologies that Celebros has to offer.  They’re also going to throw in some advice on how to deal with the new Google Shopping changes.  See below for an overview, and look for a followup post with a full description.

Start Converting – Empower your customers with ConversionPro V8

Discussion topics

• Empower your customers to search your site using their own unique language and terms
• Is your site ready for Google shopping switch to paid service?
• Add true merhcandizing, navigation and semantic site search to your Magento store

Date: Tuesday, July 24th

Time: 2:00PM Eastern Time

The Webinar is rescheduled due to a scheduling conflict.  We will be creating a new post with further details.  Sorry for the inconvenience!