Annelie Näs

7 findings that should change your E-commerce business

April 30, 2012 By Annelie Näs Leave a Comment

If you knew these thing about E-commerce what would you change about your business?

It is proven that people would rather buy a product with a negative review than none at all.
The average 24 year old and younger – cannot say what is on the top or on the left side of the screen on a website beucase they have developed a resistance to banner ads.
The Wine library calls everyone whom unsubscribe to their newsletter and of the ones’ they call 40 % resubscribe and their spend increase with 70 %
Zappos refeer to their competitors websites if they do not have something in stock as they believe in the long term relationship with the customer rather than individual sales.
Banner ads have gone from an average of 15-20 % CTR to 0,7 %.
90 % of the Walmart website is user generated content.
2 out of 200 in Vaynerchuks audience did NOT skip commercials.

In 9 days it is time for this years Nordic Ecommerce Summit and I’m exited. Therefore I ended up watching a few of the clips from last year. Gary Vaynerchuk I’d seen before but a few others were new. Above are a few comments from the presentations by Zappos, Bazaarvoice and Vaynerchuk and I think they are quite remarkable. We are constanlty reminded by examples like these that Internet is changing/developing. Yet there are so few steps taken to change the current behavior. I can only hope that some of the presentations on this years’ conference are examples of how people have used the information above and done some dramatical changes.

Filed Under: E-Commerce Tagged With: bazaar voice, ecommerce, Gary vaynerchuk, zappos

16 optimization opportunities on the Spotify website

March 20, 2012 By Annelie Näs Leave a Comment

I love looking into how to optimize websites and products to twist and turn to find out what really works or not. Sometimes though I believe that it is difficult to see the optimization opportunities in pages that are already really good. Therefore I wanted to share my analysis of the Spotify webpage which is already a great site, however I believe it can become even better. I do not work for Spotify but I’ve been using there service for many years so I have some ideas on what their business goals are.

1. The landing page

The first time you visit the Spotify website you are meet with this landing page encouraging you to download the application and get started with the product. The call to action is very clear here. I would however test 3 different things on this page.

First of all I would try to change the color of the download Spotify button to draw even more attention to it.
I would also consider moving the Facebook face pile a little higher up on the page, simply because at least on my screen it is under the fold and the power of community is extreme.
I would also add a picture of a mobile version (the app) of the client as I find that many nowadays won’t start using a service if it does not have a mobile version.

Finally I would create an alternative landing page were the only option is to sign up for the 30-day free trial offered on the next page. And the put cohort tracking on people signing up on the two different landing pages to see which are the best customers. If you have slightly less conversions on this page, but more premium users it might be worth it.

2. Installation page

When you have pressed the download Spotify button you arrive to a page explaining the installation process. I would like to see the exit rate on this page because I find it quite blurry.

I would try to put the ‘Go Mobile’ suggestion higher up on the page and make that the core message. Simply because you will still have the guide in above the fold and it is really this that you want to have as a call to action.
I would also try to highlight that it is a guide by making the numbers more in focus, step 1, 2, 3.. Perhaps also put the titles above the pictures.

3. The 30-day free trial page

From the installation page and I assume a few other pages you find this ‘offering page’ where you can get at 30 day free trial. This page has all the right assets; the call to action button, the offer and the short list of the benefits. It also have easy access to the terms of the offering. I do however, think we increase conversions with a few tweaks.

I’m surprised by how the page title is blending in to the background making it difficult to read. So that is the first thing I would start testing.
I would also try putting the ‘checklist’ under a more bonus offering name like ‘benefits’ and then but in on two rows between the title and the call to action button in the hero. (Where it currently says ‘millions of tracks on your mobile phone’. Though I would make sure to keep the current background color of the check list.
I would also try changing the background color of the hero to see if the impression of it changes.

4. The front page

The ‘normal’ first page, the one you come till when it is not your first time at the site (or what measure they use for the landing page) is currently used to advertise new functionality, I do however see some alternative use for it.

Where is the call-to-action?
I have been a Spotify user for quite some time now and I’m still surprised that there is not a a ‘download’ button on the front page. I’ve changed/rebooted my computers a few times and every time I have to look for it. I think it would increase both customers satisfaction and conversion rates to have it more visual here. For example, but two call to actions to the right of the hero, one call to action ‘Try Spotify Premium for 30 days” & ‘Upgrade now’ and one which is ‘Download’.

Sell the apps
Currently Spotify is working to have people start using the spotify apps which is the latest feature in the application. To get more engagement I would try to put a more social or engaging ad. Perhaps, choose an app and make it featured or add the face pile to the functionality so show people that their friends are using the application. I think both would be more inviting. Currently you are informed about the functionality, not the benefits.

‘What is Spotify?’ or ‘How does it work?’

As I have no insight in the customer service situation on Spotify there might be a reason for the ‘What is spotify’ page and the content on that page. But in my mind even though it might not be the title of the page it should at least answer the question on ‘how does it work’. Because in my experience that and ‘what is the difference between spotify and x’ which I’m asked most often by non-swedes who just heard about the service.

5. The mobile page

While the Spotify service is absolutely magic to use on the phone their website is not as a rewarding experience. Basically what they have is a landing page giving you two options, download the client or go to the normal webpage. The normal page does of course scales to fit the screen but it is not mobile adapted. I believe there are many benefits by making their website mobile friendly, especially for all of those who want to read up about the service after hearing about it from a friend. (Have you ever done this while meeting someone? you hear, you google, you join or forget)

Thus an easy couple of improvements would be:

Adding the ‘arguments’ for downloading spotify on the top of the page to make it a landing page for downloads and change the button to ‘download’ instead of ‘get’.
Creating an alternative page with a trial sign up suggestion just like for the landing page.
Create a mobile adapted version with the ‘why & how’ and link it just like the other pages on the current website.
A forth idea could be to have ‘send me info/a reminder to my email’ so I remember to look at it later

Summary

Though I’ve made the suggestions for the Spotify website I believe that there are a few key components that we all should try to test and analyze on our website.

Lets get started with these today:

Placement and color of call to actions buttons
Wording on call to actions and titles
How to use lists to validate decisions

What would you add too this? Or is there some thing you do not believe in? Please share in a comment.

Filed Under: Examples, How To Tagged With: conversion, spotify, website optimization

13 tips for an even more awesome SXSWi experience

March 19, 2012 By Annelie Näs Leave a Comment

While I still have it fresh in memory I thought I would write down some learnings from SXSWi. Bare in mind though that I had read very little about the event itself before I got there and basically all I knew was that it was the heart of interactive everything in the world.

General

Plan time to stand in the badge pickup line
If the badge pick up is coordinated in the same time as this year I would plan at least 2,5h of standing in line. Meaning that don’t plan a quick pick up right before a session you really want to attend. I was in line for 1:43:46. Also there is a goodie bag to pick up after you picked up a bag, it contains a paper guide of the event with bus lines etc. Awesome if your not from around and have 3g. If so, you probably only need the app.
Don’t expect a lot of shopping opportunities
Most people, myself included, was surprised by the limited shopping opportunities in the city. As the beginning of this event was very rainy this made it almost impossible to find an umbrella. Though sun-glasses and — was probably the best give away that companies had.

Sessions

Sessions are grouped by categories and each location host a category
This was something that I was not aware of, but apparently each location host a category of session. So from what I’ve heard the intercontinental hotel hosted marketing sessions. Those who like to follow a category could there for stay in the same location for the whole conference instead of running on and off the shuttles.
Plan what sessions to attend & be on time for those you assume will be popular
Before arriving to the event I hadn’t realized just how much there is to do and how many opportunities and categories there are. Thus the planning part I had not planned for. (Irony!) However after standing in line for almost 2 hours I was quite planned out. I recommend that you pick 2-3 sessions at each start hour to know what to do if some of them fills up. I do how ever recommend to not plan all hours because there are things going on 24/7 and even geeks need sleep.
Sessions are labeled with a difficulty level
Since I only used the app I almost missed out on this completely as it was not included. But all sessions are labels beginner, intermediate or advanced which could be useful to know especially if you are choosing between a few. I believe this was info was in the printed folder.
Topic vs speaker
I also realized like many times before that it was many times more inspiring to listen to a well known speaker than it was to listen to an interesting topic. Thus if there is a speaker you don’t know before, be sure to read up on the objectives.
Try something new
One of my favorite sessions during the event was by a NewYorker cartoonist who shared his knowledge about staying creative at all times. Super inspiring but for me off topic. I will do more of that next year.

Equipment

I recommend tablet + extra keyboard or very light laptop
So I tend to go to the extreme with ‘equipment’ obviously this happened at this event as well. But having done this once I recommend just brining an tablet (read iPad) with what ever extra keyboard you have or a macbook air because it is annoying carrying around a heavy laptop (I have a macbook pro). Most of what you do is typing and tweeting anyway.
SLR / Digital or phone camera?
I brought by Canon 60d to the Austin but did not take it in to the city until the event was over. It was simply to heavy to be dragging around and there are not enough beauty to take GOOD pictures on anyway. People might scream when I say this but I preferred my iPhone camera for this event. However, I do know that there were a few photo sessions and meet ups so if you think you will use it, bring it. I won’t next year. If you have a bad phone camera though i recommend a smaller camera since there are a lot of moments you want to remember.
Charger & WIFI
The event locations have all WIFI and tons of places to charge your everything. Sometimes though time is limited so you could make use of a back up charger.

Stay & transport

Stay close to the area
I recommend paying that extra amount to stay close to the event. Simply because there is so much going on and many times I would have loved to go back for a quick PN or to drop of some stuff in-between night and day actives. I did one or both most days.
Don’t count on public transport and TAXI can be tricky
My host was completely chocked when he learned that I took the bus the first day. He had never done that since he moved to austin. And I understand because I think it only happened once that it was on time. Taking a cab/taxi could also be tricky if you live fairly close to the city as he drivers don’t want short trips.

Parties

I prefered the unofficial parties
Now this statement is a bit biased as I attended mostly unofficial parties, but the official once were a bit more stiff. Hang out with people and see what they are up to, or take a stroll around the city and see where it seems to be happening. I liked most areas except east 6th.
Rsvp? Maybe.
Many want you to RSVP to the events before. We did this at a few, but at least on the once we went to, we were not required to. Look it up in advanced though if there is something you don’t want to miss.

Feel free to comment with more tips and I will be sure to add them, or if you have your own list I can link to that.

Filed Under: How To, Musings Tagged With: austin, south by, sxswi, tips

Are online content as valuable as egyptian drawings?

March 14, 2012 By Annelie Näs Leave a Comment

Imagine that you post 3 tweets/facebook posts at an average of 140 char per week every week in 5 years, then you will have written 100,000 char, and you are on good way to a novel. Myself and many other post far more than that and adding to it we also share links, pictures, locations, interests, video and more. Thus I probably in post a novel worth of information every year. That is a lot of sharing.

On Sunday I listened to Amber Case compare your Facebook timeline with old egyptian drawings to illustrate the different ways of posting information new and then. This comparison got me thinking. Thought we rarely consider the two ‘channels’ similar, they have more in common than we think. I think many of us see Online more like a fast-food restaurant and egyptian drawings like a restaurant from the Michelin guide. However, what we share are much more alike than that. We share stories about our life and knowledge about things we know/learn. Just like the egyptians used to do. It is just our perception of the value of the information that differs. Perhaps also the time put into the production. You might also argue that egyptian drawings are art, which I agree with, but that was the channel and the language of that time. Facebook & twitter are the channel and language of our time.

What is scary though is how nonchalant we are to this value. We produce much more content today than every before, but without any certainty on if the content will be exist or be accessibly in a few days from now. Yesterday Gowalla throw in the towel and with that all our check in and pins were gone. (Some of us might have be collecting, and all that is gone) You will be able to go in an extract the data from the platform, but what will you do with it? How will you use it?

The big questions are: What are the information that we put out there worth? And how are you protecting that investment?

Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: amber case, content, egyptian drawings, gowalla, valuable content

Let your employees work in their creative environment

March 12, 2012 By Annelie Näs Leave a Comment

4h work week, remote working, coworking and many many more are examples for trends and almost movements where people are trying to find new ways to redesign how they make a living. Now I’m not saying that either of these are true but I do want to flag for a change here.

Earlier today I listened to a presentation called ‘How to Be an Idea Factory’ by Matthew Diffee. One of his main points was that the environment in which you are trying to be creative is very important for how well you will produce. Some work best at home, others in the office and some in coffee shops to give a few examples. Yet many traditional companies do not acknowledges this and thus loose creativity flow because they have all their employees work in the same way. Not knowing if this actually is what will make them most creative.

What mostly frightens me is the difference in spirit between freelancers and entrepreneurs compared to those working in bigger firms. And even the difference between those who used to work in a corporation and later moved on to being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are in almost all cases filled with hope, ideas, creativity and energy while I see almost the opposite in others.

Could it be that the environment in which we are trying to be creative is so valuable that it changes how we are?

I propose a more open, trustful and honesty discussion of how and where we do our daily job. Let people work where they do most and are most creative instead of setting up rules for the rules sake, or sticking with traditions that no longer makes sense.

Filed Under: Musings Tagged With: remote working, work environment, working

Invest in content – not ads – to drive good traffic.

March 2, 2012 By Annelie Näs Leave a Comment

Traditional retail marketing, in this case before internet marketing, mostly focused on driving people in to a store and building brand awareness. Except for the ‘display window’ in the stores, external channels were pretty much the only alternative to bring people into the stores. The options where limited to TV, radio, Newspapers, direct mail and other print media. And thus it was for these channels the ‘marketing’ budget was set.

Nowadays retails stores exist both online and offline and especially online the rules for where traffic is coming from have changed. Yet many are still working with it like they used to and so are the budgets. Money is spent on driving traffic with advertisement and little is spent on creating a platform that will generate traffic. We are stuck in an old mindset.

A website can drive it’s own traffic by have relevant and good content. This because people will link, like, share and talk about it. If you have good content people will spread the word. This will generate links into your site, which will create more ’doors’ into it. This is an option that you did not have in a traditional store, you could not open more doors to the shop and have more people entre, the entrances and the diplay window was limited. Thus other types for marketing and mentions were necessary and you could only wait and hope that they would work. No wonder people spent so much money on marketing.

Today I would say that much of the marketing budget is spent on activities that do not generate half the traffic that good content would. Yet we are terrified to change or move budgets to invest in what will generate more traffic in the long run.

Think about it yourself. What is your favorite website? Many might say facebook. Why? Because the content is interesting (the content created by your friends, about their life). Yeah, but we are not facebook you might think. Then let me ask you this, think about your favorite webshop. Why is it your favorite? Why do you keep coming back? I bet it is because the content is good and relevant for you. Now, how many times do you go back because you’ve seen an ad for it? Not that many? No, you go back because you are in the mood, you want to see if there is anything new or perhaps only to waste some time. Regardless, it is not the ads that make you come back, it is the content.

So why? Tell me why? Do we spend so much more money on advertising than we do on content?

Filed Under: Web Tagged With: content, marketing, marketing budgets

Present the options for your mobile/tablet visitors

January 29, 2012 By Annelie Näs Leave a Comment

I’ve written a few posts lately about what not to do when you do not have great support for your mobile- or tablet visitors, one about not prompting app downloads and one about what you should not to when you don’t have a tablet strategy. But what I haven’t covered is what you should do to support mobile and tablet visitors, because there are so many answers to that question and it all depends on your goals. But here is a start a suggestion on what you should do while developing a better solution or deciding on your strategy.

Develop a page for mobile and/or tablet visitors with the options they have.

A few examples could be.

Link to your full website
Link to an app download
Link to a mobile version of the site
A reminder to send themselves about visiting the site from another device later.

An example from Google:

I was inspired to the last example when visiting the chrome extensions site from an iPad. When I visited the webpage I was greeted with a message saying that I could not access the website from my operating system but I could easily send my self a reminder to try again later from a desktop. I loved this solution as it gave me an option, thus the key takeaway is – don’t leave your visitors stranded even when you don’t intend to help begin supporting a channel.

For example; IKEA recently launched a new mobile website based on html 5 which I tried to visit from a windows phone 7. Only to be met by a white screen. Why? Windows phone 7 does not support html 5. If Ikea did not want to support window phone what they could have done was redirect the visitors to their normal website or give them a page with alternatives such as the one’s above.

Do you have another view on this? Prefer another user experience or have other ideas for alternatives? Please drop a comment.

Filed Under: Mobile, Web Tagged With: device strategy, mobile web, tablet web

Don’t prompt app downloads for all your mobile visitors

January 14, 2012 By Annelie Näs 2 Comments

A few weeks ago I listened to a very interesting presentation/marketing session by Mattias Beijmo about strategy for the web. It was especially one example ge gavethat has been stuck on my mind since then.

If you go to a car dealer to look for new tires, you would be quite upset if you were met by a salesman who held up sign and shouted “BUY THIS NEW CAR”. You would not consider that a very pleasant experience. Still, when browsing the web this is often what happens a lot too us. Entering the front page of a website we are meet with the best deal that company have regardless if we are looking for it or not.

This changed a lot of my thinking with my current project and we will do things a lot differently from now on. And I’m finding this “behavior” in more web situations. I’ve been using my iPad a lot lately and in my last post you could read a bit about the worst user experiences you can have when companies do not have a tablet strategy. One thing that is really beginning to bother me is the pop-ups for app downloads which more and more websited have. This message pops-up when you are browsing to their site:

“Do you want to download our app? Cancel/Yes”

We get this message before we even enter a site and regardless on why we got there, adding to that most apps do not have the information that we are looking for when we arrive to a website which means that I had to go through the process of downloading an app that did not have the info I was looking for. Therefore I have to go back to the website, to once again get the same pop-up, decline it and start browsing the non-mobile adapted site for the info I was looking for. Quite an unsettling experience, especially if the app I downloaded was marketed on the iPad but not even adapted for it.

Key take-away: If you do not want to develop a mobile adapted website, only suggest app downloads in the cases you know that your app contains what the visitor is looking for.

Filed Under: Mobile, Web Tagged With: apps, apps vs mobile websites, mattias beijmo

Until you have a tablet (read ipad) strategy – here is what not to do

December 11, 2011 By Annelie Näs 3 Comments

Hopefully most companies are considering how to adapt their website to tablets during 2012, if they have not already. Common strategies today contain for example mobile first, mobile & desktops sites and complementary native apps. However, until you have your permanent solution in place. Here are a few of the most “annoying” website habits to get rid of to not annoy your iPad visitors to much.

1. No more suggestions for mobile versions

Example: Nelly.com

Nelly.com is one of the sites that allows the user to choice between the mobile and the web version of the site. So far I have never found a mobile version of the site, which I wanted to use in the iPad so I suggest they remove this choice. I would actually remove this choice in the mobile as well, because if the mobile version is good enough this is the one the user would want to visit and then it should be the predefined choice. It is how ever important to always have a choice to return to the main site.

Suggestion: From an iPad the user want to visit the desktop site which in ideal world is adapted for touch.

2. No more suggestions of iPhone apps to iPad users

Example: Volkswagen.co.uk

This is another common occurrence while surfing on the iPad is the recommendation of downloading an iPhone app to your iPad. Thought this actually work (to use iPhone apps in the iPad) it is rarely a pleasant experience.

Suggestion: Remove recommendation for iPhone app for visitors from an iPad

3. No more flash content – or create an alternative site

Example: Vagabond.com

I have really big trouble understanding websites who are completely based on flash these days, but apparently they are more common than I thought. Vagabond is one of them, who completely shuts out the iPad and iPhone visitor. If you would have a mobile site without flash this might be the only time where I would suggest you would point your iPad visitors to that.

Suggestion: Create a responsive website for iPad and iPhone users or even better remove the flash site completely.

Finally – think twice on what to use of your current solution

Example: Dinsko.se

Lastly I want to mention dinsko.se, which I honestly do not understand. When visiting their site I get the “normal” suggestion to download flash, but I also get a link to their webshop that is not built on flash. I am quite confused to why they do not only have a redirect to this site right away. Because it took me at least tree visits to “find” this link as I the first time saw the flash comment and left. So I went to my desktop and find out what is on the flashbased part of the website and as far as I can see it is a campaign site on which almost all links go to the shop. Making the flash content fairly useless.

Suggestion: Remove the flashbased campaign site and direct all traffic to the non-flash part of the website

Filed Under: Web Tagged With: flash pages, ipad strategy, iphone apps on ipads, table adaption