There’s little research on the impact of spelling and grammar mistakes on conversion. But Charles Duncombe, CEO of JustSayPlease, a U.K.-based ecommerce and travel company, is a stickler for getting it right. He knows firsthand the impact of spelling mistakes on an ecommerce site.

Ecommerce merchants strive to increase the number of visitors to their sites that actually purchase products. Increasing those conversions frequently requires experimenting with new approaches. Merchants can test which of these experiments increase sales, and which do not. The testing can be automated, sophisticated — and it produces results.

In “Designing ‘Above the Fold’ Necessary?,” I offered my thoughts as to how the 600-pixel top "fold" should be viewed today. I also highlighted the importance of site hierarchy — regardless of whether you are designing with the fold.

Editor's Note: Each month contributor Louis Camassa — a seasoned ecommerce developer, and the author of our "Tips for Newcomers, Mostly" blog — will identify a feature from an existing ecommerce site that is well executed, and applicable to other merchants.

Web forms are the final hurdle shoppers and site visitors must traverse before registering for a newsletter or making a purchase. Even small improvements in the form can make a big difference in a business's bottom line.

No company wants to be hard to do business with. Businesses want to please shoppers and make it easy for them to buy or interact.

Many organic search marketers focus on increasing rankings and traffic to a site. What happens to that traffic once it hits the site, they assume, is someone else's problem. This is a wrong approach. Search marketing's ultimate goal isn't usually to drive more traffic; it's to convert more sales. More traffic just creates more server load, which is worthless unless it’s converting.

Landing pages are important online marketing tools and keys to conversion. So almost anything that a marketer can do to improve a landing page's performance will also improve the bottom line.

A landing page may be defined as a page on your website where visitors are sent to prompt a conversion — like selling a product or adding a subscriber.

A/B testing is a method for measuring the relative effectiveness of certain page content or marketing promotions. When properly applied, A/B testing may help marketers significantly improve conversion rates and establish a culture of improvement.

In 2009, blogger Dustin Curtis conducted an experiment on his site.

There is a very strong link between website conversions and email. A recent study by my firm showed that once traffic has gotten as far as the shopping cart email was the largest source of ecommerce conversions, ranking above a direct entry and search. This is a useful reminder that the majority of sales come from people you already know, and who already know you.

Video is one of the fastest-growing content types on the Internet. More than 172 million individual Americans watched an average of 14.9 hours of web video in April, the most recent month for which publicly available statistics have been published.

The data comes from Internet tracking firm comScore, which also said that Americans collectively engaged in 5.1 billion "viewing sessions" in April.

Feedback is essential to running a business. It tells you what’s working and what’s not. It provides you with fresh ideas on ways to improve your business. And it gives you insight into the needs of your customers.

Here is a list of customer feedback tools. Some of the tools collect feedback, others tools provide platforms to generate ideas.

It’s common practice to focus on trends, design and shopability to (hopefully) increase and maintain sales. For the most part, these topics play a major role in a site’s sell-through rate. Let’s not, however, overlook the less obvious reasons shoppers may be abandoning your online store.

Your return policy can make or break a sale all on its own.

When describing products and services, remember that consumers want to know why they need those items. Use bullet points and lists to present need-to-know information in an easy-to-read format. Furniture stores, for example, would use bullet points to display measurements, color and material.

”Ask an Expert” is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about converting online shoppers into paying customers.

The question comes from Patricia Brown, owner of LordsArt, an Ozone Park, N.Y.-based retailer of Christian art and gifts.

For the answer, we turn to Charles Nicholls.

The adoption continues of product videos on ecommerce sites, and most every merchant, seemingly, can benefit from them.

Editor's Note: Printed catalogs remain stubbornly effective for many online retailers. This week's "Conversion Tip" addresses that reality. The author is Charles Nicholls, founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy.com, a conversion and cart-abandonment recovery firm.

The problem with catalogs is that they cost a lot to produce, and it’s hard to determine whether they pay their way.

A well optimized pay-per-click advertising campaign can lead to gigantic increases in both revenue and profits.

Editor's Note: We continue our "Conversion Tip" series with Charles Nicholls, founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy.com, a conversion and cart-abandonment recovery firm.

“Go ahead… hurt my feelings.”

That was the subject of the message request by online store director Will Knott.

Converting visitors into customers is about more than just supplying great product information. It's about more than a great design, simple navigation and customer service links. The basics–such as page design and content presentation–are certainly necessary.

This is the third article in my analysis of the top 10 converting ecommerce sites. The first installment, "Debunking Myths from the Top 10 Converting Websites," discussed seemingly unconventional conversion tactics that these sites use. The second installment, "Top 10 Converting Websites: The Similarities and Differences," compared the top sites against each other and against Amazon.com.

Editor’s Note: We continue our “Conversion Tip” series from Charles Nicholls, founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy, a conversion and abandonment-recovery firm.

Editor’s Note: We continue our “Conversion Tip” series from Charles Nicholls, founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy, a conversion and abandonment-recovery firm. For this week’s installment, Nicholls addresses the timing of email campaigns to site-visitor habits.

Most marketers will be emailing customers more than ever in the run up to Black Friday.