For ecommerce retailers this is also shaping up to be the most profitable time of year. According to digital analytics company comScore, Cyber Monday online sales surpassed $2.038 billion, posting a 17% increase from last year.

Here are a few areas where you can supercharge your ecommerce holiday sales.

Your Customers
Today’s shopper is more than a demographic. To better understand your customer, you need to know their shopping habits

Your Products
How do your customers identify your products? Make sure the products in your online store are tagged with the relevant words to match buyer’s search terms. If people are searching for sweaters, you don’t want your products tagged only as cardigans.

Your Offers
The buying process should be easy, seamless and provide incentives to your customers.

Focus on building relationships with your ecommerce customers, and they will buy from you well beyond the holiday season.

Part of what has changed the game and fueled the explosive growth for small and medium sized online businesses is the reduction to the cost of entry into the online world. Within the past ten years, automated processes and plug and play online payment systems have brought the price to create an online presence from $100,000 and months of development time to minimal expense and a few hours. Small and medium sized ecommerce businesses are showing significant growth and at $100 million, their annual revenues will soon top those of Amazon and eBay.

What all of this means is that the small and medium sized players are poised to take business from the giants in the online game. Small and medium businesses account for 21.5% of the U.S. retail commerce market. The lack of barriers to entry allow anyone to compete, and in 2015 there is an expected 25-30% growth in this segment. Many of the big players are still using legacy systems, giving small and medium businesses the opportunity to disrupt the marketplace. If there was ever a time to jump into the ecommerce world, it is now!

Video engages online shoppers and has a direct influence on buying decisions. But don’t just take our word for it – the facts speak for themselves:

• People who watch videos are almost twice as likely to make a purchase
• Two-thirds of video watchers see at least 80% of the video
• One-third of videos are viewed on mobile devices, with mobile device viewing 24% higher than desktop viewing

When it comes to videos and their effectiveness, 78% were rated 4 or 5 stars, meaning they are effective and add value to the online shopping experience.

Businesses have taken note of the positive impact of videos, with 75% of retailers and manufacturers expecting to increase their video budget over the next few years.

Anyone who is serious about creating an online presence and generating sales must include video as part of the overall web experience. Video is now a proven way to engage your customers and increase revenue.

The good news for retailers using the Magento ecommerce platform, is the growth of SMS enabling applications.

FireText is a free extension which gives merchants the ability to send text messages throughout the order fulfillment process, along with allowing personalized messages.

SMS PRO lets online e-commerce sites send texts based on certain events which triggers messages, through the Nexmo SMS gateway.

SMS Manager notifies customers when orders ships and allows them to track shipping progress. Administrators can also be updated with new orders and the application can be configured with customized messages.

Mage SMS provides multilingual and multi-store support. Text messages can be sent based on various events set by the administrator, with advanced filtering options available as well.

Clockwork SMS sends messages when customers place an order, an order is shipped or if an order is delayed.

With a wide range of SMS applications available, there is no reason to not include this tool as part of your customer interaction experience.

1. Tourists like excitement

The longest lines at DisneyWorld is often Space Mountain. People will wait an hour or more for roller coasters and thrill rides.

Does your website offer any thrills? Granted, it does not need to be as adrenaline producing as a 100 foot vertical drop, but a video, infographic or blog post can provide an unexpected jolt of excitement.

Keep your customers engaged and entertained and they will return again and again.

2. Tourists like to learn

Vacation options range from the pyramid in Vegas (Luxor Hotel) to the Pyramids in Egypt – yet wherever people go, they want to learn. In Vegas they may learn how to play blackjack while in Egypt they may discover how the pyramids were built.

Your website visitors want to learn as well. The more value you offer your clients in the information you provide, the more they will trust you.

When someone trusts you for solid, actionable advice, they are more inclined to purchase from you as well.

3. Tourists like a good deal

Hotwire and Priceline are just the beginning of the hundreds, if not thousands, of websites that offer travel savings and last minute deals.

Your potential customers are no different, and they want to ensure they are getting the best value for their money. Value does not mean cheap. In fact, sometimes the more expensive option is the better value, because it is from a trusted source or includes extras and add-ons you will not get in a bargain basement deal.

Show your clients the real value in your price.

4. Tourists like things easy

A vacation is a break from the daily grind. If you’ve ever been on a vacation where things go wrong, (I once discovered my “all inclusive” Hawaii vacation excluded every activity I was interested in doing) than you quickly realize how much you were looking for things to be simple and easy.

Visiting your website should be simple and easy. If your clients are confused with navigating your site, you will lose them.

Your website should have a clearly defined purpose, and each page should have a specific call to action.

You can’t spend all of your time on vacation but you can learn lessons from those times you have gotten away. A well designed website that is fun, easy to navigate and provides information and offers value, will go a long way in building the like, know and trust relationship you need to get your potential clients to become actual clients.

It’s time to say goodbye to eBay’s e-commerce platforms Magento Go and ProStores, which will be shutting down effective February 1, 2015. Approximately 10,000 merchants using these platforms will be affected by the change, and many are being advised to migrate to the Magento Community Edition or Magento Enterprise platforms.

For smaller e-retailers, Magento has partnered with Bigcommerce for clients to transition to their platform. Current Magento Go and ProStore clients will be able to migrate to Bigcommerce for free.

Magento plans to shift it’s focus to the Magento Enterprise and Community editions, designed for larger and more mature retailers.

As an invitation only platform, both vendors and shoppers must be approved before using the site. Some of the companies currently signed up for 11 Main include Sole Bicycles, Jewelry Lad, TAY Skin Care and Aegis Handcraft. The new site was created by two Alibaba US subsidiaries – Auctiva and Vendio, which Alibaba acquired to capture more of the US market.

Inviting in the right shops and providing the assistance they need to grow is important to 11 Main, according to Mike Effle, President and General Manager who states “We’re constantly introducing new shop owners who represent the diversity of Main Street and featuring their new, amazing products in a beautifully designed experience.”

11 Main joins other Alibaba overseas platforms onetouch.cn, aliexpress and tall.hk.

With improvements in three main areas – responsive theme, payment options and security, the newest versions will help ensure increased customer conversions and greater ROI.

A consistent customer experience, regardless of device, helps businesses and developers save time and reduce costs. The new mobile responsive design theme will appear the same whether accessed through a computer, tablet or smart phone. By following the best practices for mobile sites, the end result will be a better experience for the user, increased SEO for the retailer and higher customer engagement.

An update to payment options include improved integration with PayPal. If a credit card is rejected the customer will be presented with alternative payment options, allowing the transaction to complete. The Bill Me Later option will also be available, which gives the shopper the option to purchase now and pay later, increasing sales with no added costs to the merchant. The checkout process can be simplified by eliminating steps such as the order page review and order update page, making the purchasing process easier for consumers and merchants.

Through the eBay Enterprise Affiliate Extension, merchants can easily integrate with eBay’s network of 200,000 affiliates and have the tools needed to monitor and launch affiliate programs. The eBay Enterprise Display Extension will allow merchants to display personal, product specific ads targeted directly to lost buyers.

Security improvements have fixed checkout vulnerability issues eliminating the problem of showing the wrong order to the wrong customer. Changes to the security of URL’s, such as the customer billing agreements, has also been implemented. Additionally, indexing improvements will allow for faster searches and quicker administrative responsiveness.

By providing a more responsive theme, better integration and payment option enhancements, Magento is helping to create a better, faster and higher converting shopping experience. Customers will find the new system easier to use and businesses will save in both time and development costs resulting in higher ROI, which is the ultimate goal!

The omni-channel shopping method allows customers the choice of buying merchandise online or a physical store.  Not only is this method better service, but the retailer can have more inventory and provide faster delivery service options.  Fiona Dias, the chief strategy officer at ShopRunnerstates “The promise is there, the potential is there, and when it works, it’s a lovely thing”.  However at the moment, there are only a few retailers implementing this system, because the software is expensive.

Even though Amazon is dominating online shopping, Walmart, Nordstroms, and Macy’s are working on getting in on the action.  These 3 stores are using their stores to ship products from there stores.  Shipping from their stores has helped with the speed of deliveries and reduce the amount of merchandise that ends up on clearance.  U.S. Chief Executive Bill Simon expressed how Walmart is now filling 10% of their online orders from its stores.

The development of omni-channel shopping has a great deal of support, because all of the online sales increasing are confirming this is the way for retailers to go.  There are several different facets that are developing such as storage lockers in the front of stores, buy online, pickup in store, and reservations of items online, then a 24 hour period to physically get into the store.  Retailers are hoping these options will help not only increase sales, but open up more options in the future.  This information can be located at www.reuters.com.

It may seem like writing and getting paid for fake reviews is a small issue, but nineteen companies have agreed to cease their practice of writing fake online reviews for businesses and pay over $350,000 in penalties.  That is a great deal of money for these businesses in trouble.  Fake reviews were found on Yelp, Google Local, and CitySearch stated New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

“Astroturfers” are people that know how to spoof their IP address, so it’s hard to find the location the review is being written from, and these “astroturfers” are also able to remain anonymous.  The Attorney General’s office spent a year investigation these schemes, and actually going undercover to gain evidence.  Companies involved in this scheme were hiring their own employees to post fake reviews as far away as Phillippines, Bangladesh, and Eastern Europe for $1 – $10 a review.  The common ad attracting these freelance writers was posted on Craigslist.org, Freelancer.com, and oDesk.com.  Other companies were direct with their approach, and simply placed ads asking for people with established Yelp accounts to post reviews.

Unfortunately, astroturfing is not likely to go away.  Consumers are going to have a really hard time distinguishing a real review from a fake ad, because astroturfers are so good at what they do.  As a consumer it is your job to take your time before making any purchase, and read all of the websites pertaining to the merchandise you are about to buy.