Responsive Customer Loyalty An Annotated Companion Guide for eCommerce For the Aberdeen Group report "Responsive Customer Loyalty – Creating Customer Commitment in Retail"
July 2008

How sound is your retention strategy? Eretailers who boost customer retention by just 5% can increase their profits from 5 to 95%. Analysts estimate that it can cost as much as 10x to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. MarketLive and Aberdeen have teamed up to look at the factors that drive customer loyalty in retail, and what can be done to increase loyalty and profits. Together, we explore important trends in creating loyalty in retail and how to apply that knowledge to eCommerce. Download this free report on the trends and tactics that affect loyalty today.

Industry Report: Essential Trends and Indicators Key Factors Driving the eCommerce Economy Aggregate MarketLive Performance Index™ Data: January 2007 — March 2008
June 2008

This first-ever yearly summary of the MarketLive Performance Index™ provides trended data for Index merchants as a whole, gathered over the past five quarters. The report focuses on five key metrics and explains tactics for improving them: Search Engine Performance, 1-and-Out (Single Page Visits), Engagement (Visits to Carts), Conversion, and Cart Abandonment. The second section of the report follows in the footsteps of our quarterly reports by narrowing in on key metrics and suggesting tactics for improving their performance. The primary tactical focus of this report is improving the engagement rate, which is the best indicator of the power of your site’s content and merchandising.

The MarketLive Performance Index Vol. 4: Building Loyalty in a Maturing Market
May 2008

In an increasingly mature eCommerce market, fostering loyalty to encourage repeat purchases is more crucial than ever. Based on the behavior of millions of online shoppers, the MarketLive Performance Index™ Volume 4 delves into key metrics and tactics that shed light on increasing sales through customer loyalty. It explores six key customer segments to consider when building an email retention strategy. It reveals the real impact improved customer loyalty can have on your business, and shows you why email is still your best loyalty tool.

Social Computing: Online Marketing in a Connected World
March 2008

Social computing has transformed the relationship between businesses and their customers. Empowered by technologies that facilitate word-of-mouth connections and amplify reach, consumers can share more easily than ever their opinions, rants and raves, directly influencing each others’ purchase decisions. Merchants must participate in this transformation or be left out of the conversation; armed with this report from MarketLive and estrategyfirst, they can build a solid social strategy that empowers customers—and boosts sales.

The MarketLive Performance Index Vol. 3: Profitable Year-Round Gifting Strategies
February 2008

The 2007 Holiday Season was good for eRetailers. This edition of our Performance Index shows how successful Q4 tactics can be strategically applied to any peak season: Valentine's Day, Mothers Day, the World Series, Halloween, and any other sales-generating holiday throughout your year. It provides a detailed day-by-day analysis of the buying behavior of millions of online consumers during their buildup to Christmas, and sheds light on how you can take proactive steps to capitalize on any calendar-related sales spike.

The MarketLive Performance Index: Holiday 2007 Benchmark Results
January 2008

The 2007 holiday season is over, the results are in – and the news is good for eCommerce. While retail sales overall showed lackluster gains of around 4 percent, merchants reported a year-over-year increase of 19 percent for online sales, according to comScore. The MarketLive Performance Index results from the fourth quarter of 2007 reflect similarly strong gains. Download this report and see tabulated metrics for key industry segments and compare your company's results with the industry's

Ten Tactics for 10% in Ten Weeks: The E-Holiday Countdown Calendar
October 2007

Prepare for your holiday sales season with new research from MarketLive and the e-tailing group. Holiday retail growth rates are slowing, and online retailers are scrambling for best practices that can help maintain healthy margins. This proprietary report examines successful holiday selling tactics in use by leading retailers. Careful and appropriate implementation of these proven methods could help you increase holiday sales by 10% in ten weeks, by giving your shoppers what they want: control, ease of shopping, and value.

The MarketLive Performance Index Volume 2: Maximizing Search Engine Marketing
October 2007

This second installment of the MarketLive Performance Index picks up where the first installment left off, revealing that online retailer performance improved in the second quarter of 2007. Conversion rates increased, the engagement rate improved, and cart abandonment dropped. Find out why these key measurements are on the upswing, and learn where online retailers still need improvement. After reviewing data from a robust range of merchants, the report focuses on an area of prime importance for most e-commerce merchants: search engine marketing and how to make it work better for you.

The MarketLive Performance Index: Key Benchmarks and the Tactics that Drive Results
June 2007

The MarketLive Performance Index represents the pulse of e-retailing. It combines data from a robust range of merchants, from those earning $2 million to $200 million in annual online sales, and includes online stores of every type, selling goods from appliances to zinnias. Using previously-undervalued performance metrics, the Index illuminates key junctures on the path to purchase, where consumers decide whether an e-commerce site and its products match their needs. Armed with this data, merchants finally have a holistic view of consumer behavior – and actionable tactics at every step along the path to purchase.

Holiday Sales Tune-up
October 2006

The Holiday 2006 online shopping season is shaping up to be bigger than any before, and online retailers are looking for ways to garner a larger slice of the online holiday pie. This report shows how to leverage existing merchandising and marketing capabilities to give you every advantage you can get during this critical period. Topics covered include best practices for seasonal online promotions, using search, email, and multi-channel promotions to boost holiday sales, building stronger customer relationships to turn last-minute shoppers into long-term customers, and more.

Building Customer Trust Online
September 2006

Discover valuable techniques for overcoming customer fears about privacy, service, and security that can impede your online sales. This report examines best practices used today by leading retailers as they successfully grow their market share. Download the report now and find out how to eliminate the fear factor that is costing the e-commerce industry $2 billion per year, communicate trustworthiness throughout the entire shopping experience, and harness outside voices to boost customer confidence and increase conversion.

Tactical Merchandising to Boost Conversion
July 2006

Conversion continues to be a hot topic among merchants in 2006. Many are using analytics to get more insight into their businesses and to learn how to increase conversion and revenue. This report is based upon the results from the e-tailing group’s 5th Annual Merchant Survey. It will help you understand and interpret industry trends, identify challenges and opportunities, and help you apply these findings to plans for multi-channel industry growth in 2006.

The Perfect Shopping Cart
April 2006

To many online merchants, the shopping cart is simply a tool for getting customers to check out. But shopping carts are much more. This report explains how the online shopping cart is critical to your effectiveness in getting customers to make purchases. It takes an in-depth look at the problem of abandoned carts and shows you how to reduce your abandoned cart rates in the short and long term. It will help build your awareness of what pushes customers away from your site, and explain proven techniques for keeping them on the path to purchase and for increasing average order size.

Five Keys to Building Customer Loyalty
February 2006

This report highlights tactics to help merchants garner more sales from their existing online customer bases. It explores what works to keep customers coming back to a website and buying more. Five key areas are examined and illustrated with best-in-class examples: branding to create the relationship, content and presentation of information, customer service, personalization and segmentation, and loyalty programs.

Merchant Secrets for Driving Conversion It’s Not the Number but the Direction that Counts
September 2005

The pressure to increase conversion rates and the profit reaped from retail websites has never been greater. This research report reveals some of the most important findings of the e-tailing group’s 2005 4th Annual Merchant Survey, and was written to spread the word about the most successful conversion techniques currently in use in the real world. you will find dozens of examples of proven conversion drivers, including promotions, page design, interactive tools, search, and many more that you can begin using today.