Insightful articles, opinion and commentary about mobile and web.

Successful websites provide optimal user experiences and quality customer interactions they are designed to drive actions. Successful websites are also strictly aligned to business goals they are designed to deliver business results as an integral component of a marketing strategy.

Many websites do not succeed because they simply do not align to business goals and each section of the site fails to have a purpose that is clearly understood and importantly, desired by the site visitor.

HotHouse has designed an intensive two-day workshop to expose how well your website performs against your stated business goals and where it fails. The workshops identify what customer interactions need to be created and what motivational factors need to be addressed in order to align your website with your business goals.

Find out more about HotHouse Web Strategy Workshops.

As the notion of Web first becomes akin to an involuntary impulse, it’s no surprise to find that e-commerce sites are heavy users of search engine marketing. Indeed a comScore report published earlier this year revealed that e-commerce sites are the most frequent users of search engine marketing, with each of the top ten search engine marketers being either retail or comparison shopping sites.

Search is playing such a key role in driving traffic to online retailers and e-commerce sites, but the site still has to live up to expectations when the customer gets there.

An interesting insight reported on internetnews.com regarding the online retail customer experience cited ForeSee Results; the US based online satisfaction measurement and management company. The report, published in June this year, found that the users’ satisfaction with their site experience was the most important criteria for consumers rather than the lowest price. The story quoted Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results: “Meeting customers’ needs, setting expectations and living up to them [produces] the kind of satisfaction that drives decisions and customer loyalty more than anything else.”

With the user experience rather than price potentially a key driver of online retail’s success, it’s critical to get the online experience right.

Online retail is still relatively untapped in Australia. Broadband speeds in this country certainly have a lot to do with it. But you simply can’t argue with the efficiency of the online retail model. So when are Australia’s major retailers going to embrace true online retailing? Simon van Wyk discusses what’s happening in online retail with Paul Greenberg, Co-founder of DealsDirect.com.au.

Listen to the podcast: The online retail experience in Australia

Banks in Australia seem to be dragging their feet in implementing Web 2.0 technologies. Despite all the talk about building customer relationships, there’s not a lot going on whether it’s blogging or social networking, or personal financial management. Is it simply down to ROI and the banks not making the link between this sort of an investment and the all important product sale?

In this podcast, Simon van Wyk, founder of HotHouse, and Charis Palmer, editor of Online Banking Review discuss the issues and opportunities that Web 2.0 brings to the financial services industry.

Download this podcast