Bryan Eisenberg fisked my conversion rate post (which itself was spawned by a column of his) and points out what I missed – and agree with – that your conversion rate is ultimately determined by how hard you work at earning it.
I still think there are huge advantages that some have and others don’t, but [...]

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The top 10 conversion rates by online retailers in January ranged from 9.6% (Amazon.com) to 14.1% (proflowers.com), according to Nielsen/NetRating (insert huge grain of salt here).
Depending on your disposition, this is either encouraging or disheartening news.

Does it mean that 10-15% conversion rates are a goal you should work towards?
Does it mean your 2.4% conversion rate [...]

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Remember the days of Microsoft Word Version 3.11? Aldus PageMaker 4.2? There used to be no way to get a feel for if your backup utility was new or if a spreadsheet package was old. Then Adobe released Illustrator ’88 (at least they’re the first one I remember doing it) and soon after Microsoft went [...]

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If you look very closely you may notice more than a little tension between the ideas of conversation and calculation. Conversation is engaged, transparent, bi-directional, and seeks to maximize benefit for the consumer. (The debate over that word can be held for another time.) Calculation is predatory, hidden, one-sided, and seeks to maximize results for [...]

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The nice folks in the Google-Plex semi-quietly released another feature this week, the ability to have Adwords automatically adjust your bids with the aim of attaining target ‘cost per acquisition’ numbers. In other words, you tell Google that you’ll pay $10 for every diamond-covered pretzel pendant you can sell, and they’ll automatically raise and [...]

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Trade shows are a great way to focus. Immersed in a single topic for a few days, surrounded by a fairly narrow range of information and ideas, with the ability to freely graze among the presentations, booths, and brochures it is a chance to somehow organize and make sense of a market or industry. Even [...]

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What drives your success? That’s obviously a loaded question, and there are no simple answers – especially in a world as complex and rapidly changing as ecommerce. Geoffrey Moore (of Crossing the Chasm fame) suggests that all the activities of a company can be divided into two categories – core and context. Core are those [...]

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