Optimizing the
E-Commerce Experience
October 2009
Digital Intelligence
Copyright ©2009 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sponsored by
Overview: Well into its second decade of life,e-commerce is growing up. It is no longer an ancillary channel or strategy.
Business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) companies across a range of industries and sectors are
now making e-commerce core to the way they do business.Many are dropping the “e”altogether,as the once-rigid line
between online and offline sales becomes permanently blurred.
Not surprisingly, online purveyors are upgrading their
e-commerce platforms and making investments in next-
generation technologies to enable cross-channel selling,
segmentation and personalization, better search and
navigation, and more.While platform upgrades occur every few
years as new technology comes to market, online businesses
also recognize the importance of optimizing what they have
today with add-on services that do not require major overhauls.
A new category of online business optimization services has
emerged that can be “bolted on” to existing sites and
platforms—like rings around a planet—to boost online
revenues and performance without major investments.While
e-commerce optimization services vary in what they help
businesses achieve, they share a common trait: optimizing the
online experience for each and every consumer to maximize
potential revenues and profits.
“Over the past five years, e-commerce companies have begun
realizing it’s all about the consumer,” Brian Kalma, director of
user experience at footwear and apparel seller Zappos.com,
told eMarketer. “There is so much that can benefit the
consumer—and companies have begun listening.”
Optimizing the
E-Commerce Experience
October 2009
Digital Intelligence
Copyright ©2009 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Optimization Outlook
3
Applicable Segments for Optimization
3
Leading Optimization Applications
4
Content Targeting and Testing
4
E-Tales
5
Call Tracking
5
E-Tales
6
Personalized Ratings and Re