Internet Retailers are spending a lot of money on Advertisements on  Electronic and Print media to get more and more customers. Many of them are successful in getting traffic to their websites, but eventually not turning them into buyers. Typically, Industry average for conversion is close to 1-2 % of the total traffic. Can we make it to 4-5%?  How can you convert first time visitor to your customer? What are the best practices for any online retailer to get more conversion?

Below is the check list:

1. Free shipping is a boon : Homeshop18, Yebhi and few others have zero shipping charges while firstcry, zivame, cilory etc. have a minimum purchase amount to avail free shipping. This is fascinating for the buyers who are cost-sensitive.
2. Sales and special offer: The prospective buyer should be made aware  of the any special discount or festive offer running across any product. A buyer is price sensitive. He will browse through various online portals before buying  a product. If the section for sales and offers is prominent on the site, he would surely look into it.
3. Pushing the prospective buyer from shopping cart page to payment page: At times, it happens that the buyer would add products in  his cart but that would not result into sales. This could happen due to various reasons such as price-difference on other portals, fear of returns, exchange or refunds especially for first time buyers or may be due to heavy load on the site. This could be tackled by sending emails to registered users about their incomplete order status or popping the cart contents once the user has logged into her account. Tier 1 portals such as Yebhi.com and couple of others are sending emails to users to propel them into buying.
4. Alive your shopping cart: On various portals the shopping cart contents vanish once the user has logged out from his account or remain for a period of say 15 days. If the user wants to buy the selected product after a period of time, it would be cumbersome to again collect the same items and would not thus buy it.
5. Contact Us or Talk to Us: The customer care number and mail id should be prominent on portals. Especially for a first time user, who is apprehensive of buying from a new portal, the phone no should come handy. Buyer should be able to clear his/her doubts regarding returns, cancellations etc.
6. Offer multiple payment options: It is always good to have multiple payments options such as debit card, credit card, net banking, PayPal and last but not the least Cash on Delivery. Generally, many payment gateways offers all the options but you have to negotiate with them on setup cost and commission on transaction value.
7. Unique selling point: Always communicate why you are different or what is unique about your portal. If you are selling something that nobody is selling. Highlight even in the Home page itself. It may not be a product, it can be express delivery, packaging or freebees, it is better to tell upfront. It will increase customer retention time to your portal
8. How good is Your search:  Typically, people find product while browsing through your website, but sometime people are very specific to a particular product that they might have seen to your competitor. Search button very much comes into the picture, people would like to type the item or similar items. It is always good to have an automated drop-down menu of textual results. It will give the buyer exact product without wasting much time. It can lead to a conversion.
9. Top Class Product Images: What you will show on your site, is what people will buy. Unlike in a brick and mortar store where customers get an actual feel of the product they are buying, in an online store it is very important to use good quality images of the products. Additional features such as zooming or 360 degree view of the product would be quite appealing for buyers, who in turn can get a feel of the product they intend to buy.
10. Product Description: A product image would be incomplete without any description, whether it is an electronic good or a non-branded appear. People would like know its features , specifications before they buy it. The product information should be such as to remove all doubts from the prospective buyers minds.
11. Product videos: Video of the product adds value in understanding it better. For e.g.  In case of a jewellery set, a good quality video of the model wearing the set will let the buyer know as to how the particular necklace set would look from different angles. In a still photo it would not be possible. Homeshop18 uses videos for few of its jewellery collection
12. Sub Categories for Products: If you are selling many things it is better to create sub categories . It will help buyers to navigate through your website smoothly. It is difficult sometimes when you present many choices to customers, he may lost between many clicks.
13. Show shopping cart while customers are picking more items: it is advisable to show the shopping cart items while customers are browsing and picking more items. If a customer is buying 10-12 item, typically in case of grocery item, it is better to show him what price and what all items he/she has added to the shopping cart. It will reduce the effort of the buyers to go back and forth.
14. Checkout as a guest:  Shoppers are very smart. They know once they register to your website, you may start sending promotional material to them or share their data. It is good to provide them easy options such as “Checkout as a guest” or “ Login with Facebook” etc. Don’t force people to register or even login to facebook account. However what can be done, once a shopper buys from your portal , you can send login and  auto-generated password for his further purchases.
15. Testimonials: Product Reviews or testimonials are very important. People believe in other people. It gives them the true picture about the product, their experience. Most of the buyers read the product reviews before buying any product. It helps a lot in conversion.  Get as many as testimonial to your websites.
16. Cross-sell and Upsell with a bigger discounts: People shop in In-store and end up buying more while they reach to the billing counter. Some chocolate , candy bar, mouth freshener etc. For Online Retail – the trend has not started yet, but it is good to sell certain things. More analytics is involve in online retail compare to brick and mortar store. Here you know what all item a buyer has picked up, you can offer something like if he has bought shoes, you can sell him  socks with discount.
17. Call to Action: As they say, what is visible is what gets sold. But it is good to provide that button very prominently , may be in different color and in a bigger shape and font size. It sometime coerce buyers to click on it. It is all behavioural science.
18. Return Order: it is good to show Return order button. It gives confidence to buyer if he doesn’t like the product at least he has an option to return it.
19. Out of Stock: Don’t leave your buyers with out of stock option, if you are confident that you can replenish the goods in few days’ time. Let them add to cart and you can intimate immediately by current standing and when you are going to supply it.
20. Minimum Number of clicks to complete the Sales cycle:  Every shopper would like to get things in minimum number of clicks possible. If you are showing the clear progress indicator, it would be good for a buyer to see where exactly he has reached in his cycle completion

Courtesy - Retailopia

Most job candidates feel interview questions can be decoded and hacked, letting them respond to those questions with "perfect" answers.

And they're right, especially if you insist on asking opinion-based job interview questions.

(Quick aside: Is there really a perfect answer to a question like, "What do you feel is your biggest weakness?" I think there is: "If that's the kind of question you typically ask, I don't want to work for you.")

Asking opinion-based questions is a complete waste of time. Every candidate comes prepared to answer general questions about teamwork, initiative, interpersonal skills, and leadership.

That's why you should ask interview questions that elicit facts instead of opinions. Why? I can never rely on what you claim you will do, but I can learn a lot from what you have already done.

Where employee behavior and attitude are concerned, the past is a fairly reliable indication of the future.

How do you get to the facts? Ask. Ask an initial question. Then follow up: Dig deeper to fully understand the situation described, determine exactly what the candidate did (and did not do), and find out how things turned out. Follow-up questions don't have to be complicated. "Really?" "Wow... so what did he do?" "What did she say?" "What happened next?" "How did that work out?"

All you have to do is keep the conversation going. At its best, an interview is really just a conversation.

Here are my four favorite behavioral interview questions:

1. "Tell me about the last time a customer or co-worker got mad at you."

Purpose: Evaluate the candidate's interpersonal skills and ability to deal with conflict.

Make sure you find out why the customer or co-worker was mad, what the interviewee did in response, and how the situation turned out both in the short- and long-term.

Warning sign: The interviewee pushes all the blame and responsibility for rectifying the situation on the other person.

Decent sign: The interviewee focuses on how they addressed and fixed the problem, not on who was to blame.

Great sign: The interviewee admits they caused the other person to be upset, took responsibility, and worked to make a bad situation better. Great employees are willing to admit when they are wrong, take responsibility for fixing their mistakes, and learn from experience.

Remember, every mistake is really just training in disguise... as long as the same mistake isn't repeated over and over again, of course.

2. "Tell me about the toughest decision you had to make in the last six months."

Purpose: Evaluate the candidate's reasoning ability, problem solving skills, judgment, and possibly even willingness to take intelligent risks.

Warning sign: No answer. Everyone makes tough decisions, regardless of their position. My daughter works part-time as a server at a local restaurant and makes difficult decisions all the time - like the best way to deal with a regular customer whose behavior constitutes borderline harassment.

Decent sign: Made a difficult analytical or reasoning-based decision. For example, wading through reams of data to determine the best solution to a problem.

Great sign: Made a difficult interpersonal decision, or better yet a difficult data-driven decision that included interpersonal considerations and ramifications.

Making decisions based on data is important, but almost every decision has an impact on people as well. The best candidates naturally weigh all sides of an issue, not just the business or human side exclusively.

3. "Tell me about a time you knew you were right but still had to follow directions or guidelines."

Purpose: Evaluate the candidate's ability to follow, and possibly to lead.

Warning sign: Found a way to circumvent guidelines "... because I know I was right," or followed the rules but allowed their performance to suffer.

Believe it or not, if you ask enough questions some candidates will tell you they were angry or felt stifled and didn't work hard as a result, especially when they think you empathize with their "plight."

Good sign: Did what needed to be done, especially in a time-critical situation, then found an appropriate time and place to raise issues and work to improve the status quo.

Great sign: Not only did what needed to be done, but also stayed motivated and helped motivate others as well.

In a peer setting, an employee who is able to say, "Hey, I'm not sure this makes sense either, but for now let's just do our best and get it done..." is priceless.

In a supervisory setting, good leaders are able to debate and argue behind closed doors and then fully support a decision in public - even if they privately disagree with that decision.

4. "Tell me about the last time your workday ended before you were able to get everything done."

Purpose: Evaluate commitment, ability to prioritize, and ability to communicate effectively.

Warning sign: "I just do what I have to do and get out. I keep telling my boss I can only do so much but he won't listen.... "

Good sign: Stayed a few minutes late to finish a critical task, or prioritized before the end of the workday to ensure critical tasks were completed.

You shouldn't expect heroic efforts every day, but some level of dedication is important.

Great sign: Stayed late and/or prioritized - but most importantly communicated early on that deadlines were in jeopardy. Good employees take care of things. Great employees take care of things and make sure others are aware of potential problems ahead of time just in case proactive decisions may help.

Obviously there are a number of good and great answers to this question. "I stayed until midnight to get it done," can sometimes be a great answer, but doing so night after night indicates there are other organizational or productivity issues the employee should raise. I may sometimes be glad you stayed late, but I will always be glad when you help me spot chronic problems and bottlenecks.

Like with any other question, always evaluate a candidate's answers to this question based on your company's culture and organizational needs.

Few candidates can bluff their way through more than one or two follow-up questions. Turning the interview into a fact-based conversations helps you identify potential disconnects between the candidate's resume and their actual experience, qualifications, and accomplishments.

And you'll have a much better chance of identifying a potentially great employee, because a great employee will almost always shine during a fact-based interview.

Courtesy - Inc.com

There is a critical and substantial difference between managing to lead and managing to supervise. Managers who lead show others the way, while managers who supervise tend to direct and control. Leaders are individuals who motivate and inspire the individuals around them, whether they are coworkers or employees.

People often believe that “leaders are born not made,” but this is far from the truth. Most people who have the desire and internal motivation can learn to incorporate effective leadership skills into their style of management. Doing this often includes making changes and alterations in mindsets and attitudes, without which many managers will never become the type of leaders others want to follow.

Individuals who fall into the category of traditional supervising managers find themselves generally directing and controlling the people under them. They tend to be rigid in their thinking, ineffective and unproductive when compared to managers who are also leaders.

Managers as leaders are excellent motivators. They are more productive because they are able to tap into individuals as key organizational resources and rely on their cooperative efforts and results to get things accomplished effectively and efficiently. They ultimately assume cheerleader roles to inspire employees to greater heights of achievement. Most managers are surprised by how much more their departments and units are able to accomplish when they are effectively led.

If managers wish to achieve higher levels of results, they must learn to delegate various responsibilities to their employees and motivate them, rather than simply use control management methods. Due to higher expectation levels, results then tend to increase.

Managers as leaders make certain that employees become empowered to accomplish more through greater levels of autonomy and responsibility. Most importantly, this change allows managers more time to concentrate on the important strategic issues affecting their entire department rather than focusing on daily tactical issues that can just as easily be delegated to individual employees.

Managers who lead are motivated by their own personal vision of what is possible to achieve. They are always focused on the accomplishment of major long-term goals. These goals provide them with deeply held convictions of what they desire to attain and how to go about achieving it.

Their personal determination and perseverance are what attracts others to their vision and motivates them to not only believe in them, but also to embrace their attainment. Traditional managers, on the other hand, do not generally have these convictions or a vision for the future due to their having chosen to operate in a more reactive rather than proactive manner.

Managers as leaders inspire the active participation of individual employees by communicating their vision in a clear and convincing manner. Everything they say and do effuses passion and enthusiasm, which become contagious. Managers who lead are able to easily articulate their message and frequently “talk up” their personal vision. They work to create mental images of their vision that employees can conceptually see and feel.

Managers as leaders tend to have positive self-images. This affirmative sense of self translates into confidence and a keen awareness of their personal capabilities. These managers tend to build and develop similar characteristics in their employees by delegating and effectively sharing their power and professional knowledge. This is in direct contrast to more traditional managers who generally tend to hoard power and information, feeling that any form of delegation undermines their power base and authority.

Many managers are results-oriented with a zero-tolerance for mistakes and failure. This results in employees hiding their failures for fear of possibly severe repercussions. They tend to cover errors and misjudgments by altering information or misleading managers regarding certain results or oversights. This is one of the leading causes of managers being blindsided by unforeseen events and circumstances.

Leading managers, on the other hand, view mistakes and failures as learning experiences. They understand that they and their employees cannot grow and stretch their abilities without making mistakes and failing. They consistently encourage employees to implement new ideas, concepts and approaches and stretch their individual capabilities in order to learn from mistakes.

This often produces more results-driven atmospheres than those seen through strictly supervisory management styles and practices. It enables leaders and their departments or units to react faster to evolving conditions and even anticipate certain changes before they produce negative impacts.

Managers who lead their people build trust and rapport through various mutual learning experiences, which are generally accompanied by trial-and-error approaches and outcomes. They are quick to listen and observe throughout the process, with one of their most positive attributes being their ability to offer appropriate feedback in non-threatening ways.

Courtesy - Leaders to Leader

Lately I have observed that almost all Hindi Movie Channels are airing South Indian movies dubbed into hindi.
This is the trend seen on weekdays and well as weekends, not just in the evening but during day time as well.
The popular tv channels like SetMax, Zee Cinema, Star Gold, UTV Movies, etc, have been abusing Indian crowd by showing TOO much of south Indian movies - the question is why ? There have been many days when out of 6 movie channels, 5 are showing south Indian movies dubbed in hindi.

Have these channels taken viewers for granted? The stake holders responsible for filtration - are they sleeping. Cant they understand that these movies are being forced upon us?
South Indian movies, unlike Hindi movies are Far Far Away from reality, have pathetic story and is full of violence, anger, hatred and revenge. The taste of hindi speaking crowd is completely different from south Indians.
It isn't that the movies shown on these hindi channels are excellent and super hit movies, they are definitely those flop movies and the same genre is being followed. Above all, even these dubbed movies are being repeated multiple times.

It fine if only 1 channel shows south Indian dubbed movies, but NOT all. There should ideally be 2 channels dedicated for English dubbed movies, 2 for entire south India and rest all dedicated only for Hindi movies.
The bigger question is - Why only south Indian movies are being dubbed and shown so much, what about English movies, Bengali movies, Gujrati movies, etc.

Why are these channels airing a max of Tamil and Telugu movies only - Stakeholders - Do You Have An Answer Or Would You Guys Continue Exploiting Us ?

Please use the below link to complaint against these channels who do not keep viewers interest in mind and are abusing/forcing south Indian movies on us. Both the links given below are regulated by govt authorities.
http://ibfindia.com/onlineform.php
http://emmc.gov.in/MakingComplaint.aspx

The current airtel ad being aired on television these days focus on young India and friendship.
This is the 2nd successive ad where airtel is focusing on youth and friendship. The joy they have, the moments they share - all sounds and look so much fun. But the question is :
- Why is airtel concentrating only on college goers, why isnt airtel concentrating on larger crowd..the office goers?
- The stuff which they show on ad looks like an ideal young India or may be it looks like the last day of the college as all are enjoying together.
This ad is far from reality and ads no value for real customers.
What are your thoughts? ?